Counting

Well, we spend a lot of time counting! In fact my son 19 month old son can count to 16!!!! :) Now, that is awesome!!! We did a few special counting activities one week too, and we read TONS of books on counting that week too. 

Here's our counting activities:

Number Hop Scotch

*We played a few different ways. We counted the dots in each square together, I asked Harry to count the dots in a specific square, or I would ask him to hop to a specific number and count with me.

Counting with jelly beans

*Yes, it is July, and we have left over Easter candy. Lol. We used it to count! I used a cupcake pan, labeled it 1 to 12, and we sorted jelly beans by number.

Counting with Cheerios! 

*I made number cards from 1 to 10, and we sorted and counted Cheerios. Harry also took this opportunity to have a snack. Lol!

Celery Fries

Here is an easy, healthy, and delicious snack!! I made celery fries!! :) Now, you can enjoy fries without all the extra fat and calories. Lol!

Here's what you need:

4 celery stalks

Olive oil

Sea salt

What to do:

1. Cut up the celery stalks into small pieces and place onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. 

2. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. 

3. Lightly brush olive oil on top of the celery pieces, and then sprinkle some sea salt on them. 

4. Bake for about 30 minutes.

5. Cool and enjoy! :)

Homemade Oreo Cookies

I have always loved Oreo cookies!! They can be pretty addicting... ;)

With our son's peanut and tree nuts allergy, we very rarely buy them though because they now make peanut butter filled Oreos now, and we don't want to take the chances of cross contamination.. :( I would rather be safe... He can't eat them anyway in case of cross contamination too..

I decided to make our own Oreo cookies, so we can still enjoy them!! They aren't exactly the same, but they are still pretty good. It was a lot easier than I thought too.

Below are the recipes for the cookies and frosting... :)

Chocolate "Oreo" Cookie Recipe:

Here's what you need:

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

What to do:

1. First, mix the flour, salt, and cocoa powder into a medium sized bowl.

2. Then, using a mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and applesauce in a large bowl. Once mixed, add the egg and vanilla, and mix again.

3. Combine both bowls together, and mix again.

4. Roll the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

5. On a flat, lightly floured surface, roll out the dough, and cut it into circles.

6. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

7. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet, and bake for about 25 minutes. Make the frosting (See recipe below).

8. Cool and set aside for about 30 minutes.  :)

9. Take the frosting out of the fridge, flip the cookies upside down, and put frosting on them.

10. Make "sandwiches" by putting one cookie on top of the other.
(This should make 6-10 Oreo cookies, depending on the size of the cookies.)

11. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, and enjoy!!! :)

Note: This was 12 cookies made into 6 Oreo cookies. 

Cookie Filling Recipe:

(Coconut Butter Cream Frosting)

Here's what you need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
3-4 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk

What to do:

1. First, microwave the butter and coconut oil for about 30 seconds.

2. Then, add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, and mix together.

3. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before using.

Pool Scrabble

Here is a fun way to learn letters and words! I made pool Scrabble for Harry using sponges and permanent marker. Not going to lie, I had a lot of fun with it too. :)

You can play this game in a pool, bath tub, or sink, or anywhere there is water! :)

All you need is about 7 sponges for 2 sets of letters, but don't worry because sponges are very inexpensive. I found a 12 pack at Walgreens for about $3!! I cut the sponges into 8 pieces each too. (See below) Then with permanent marker, I wrote the letters on the sponge squares. 

How we played:

(Note: You can play anyway you'd like. These are just ways we played.)

1. I called out a letter, and Harry had to find it. Once he found it, then he had to repeat the letter sound.

2. Harry threw letters out of the pool, and we spelled words together. 

3. I called out a word, and Harry had to find the letters that made up the word. (This one required a lot of help from me because he is still young.)

Homemade Saltine Crackers

Ok, to be honest I actually love Saltine Crackers. Lol. They are so simple, I thought I would try to make my own. It worked!! :) These, however, are mainly for my son because he is sick with the stomach flu today. (It has been one awful day for us.) :( I thought he would like some special crackers made by mommy to help him feel better. :)  They are also allergy friendly for his peanut and tree nuts allergies, 

They really are very very simple to make, and you don't need very many ingredients. :)

Here's what you need:

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup water 

(Note: We used breast milk to give the crackers some extra nutrients.)

2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

1/2 teaspoon of salt

A pinch of salt for the topping

What to do:

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, water, and applesauce together. 

2. Knead the dough with your hands, and then roll out onto a lightly floured surface. 

3. Cut into shapes or whatever you'd like. :)

4. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees, place the shaped dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. 

5. Brush some water over the tops of them, and sprinkle with salt.

6. Bake for about 18 minutes (or longer if you want crispy crackers).

7. Cool and enjoy! :)

Dinosaurs

We spent the week learning about dinosaurs! I loved dinosaurs as a kid, so I wanted to introduce them to Harry. Scott also loved dinosaurs,  and he was fortunate to still have his childhood books about them. We read 5 different dinosaur books, and we did some cool crafts and activities on them. ;)

Here are the books we read this week:

Crafts and activities on dinosaurs:

1. Dinosaur skeletons

Using Q-tips and my awesome (not really) drawing of a dinosaur, we made dinosaur skeletons. I cut the Q-tips in 3 different sizes, and I helped Harry match them to the different parts of the body. 

2. Painting with dinosaurs

This was very simple. All you need is some paint, paper, and some toy dinosaurs. We dipped the feet into the paint and stamped the paper. 

3. Dinosaur hop scotch! 

Dinosaurs had huge feet!! I drew dinosaur feet for Harry to show him just how big dinosaurs feet were. The goal was to jump from foot to foot and to try to fit his whole body in one foot. It was fun!

4. Find the fossil! 

Using Harry's sensory rice bin, I buried a dog bone in it to represent a dinosaur bone, and Harry had to dig it up. :)

5. Dinosaur Eggs

Using 2 paper plates, paper, googly eyes, and glue, we made dinosaur eggs with babies hatching out of the egg. How cute! 

6. Dinosaur Fossils

With Playdoh and toy dinosaurs, we made our own fossils by pressing or stamping the dinosaurs into the Playdoh.

Homemade Granola

Granola is healthy for you, and it is a good treat. :) I love eating granola, however the stuff that you buy in the store typically is not safe for my peanut and tree nuts allergy son. There is typically a cross contamination risk even if the granola doesn't have nuts in it. So, I decided to make our own granola. It is delicious, addicting, and easy to do!!

Here's what you need:

5-6 cups of oats (any)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 honey
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

What to do:

1. In a large bowl, mix the oats and chocolate chips together.

2. In a separate bowl, melt the coconut oil and honey in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Then pour into large bowl and mix.

3. Once everything is mixed together, separate it out onto a large cookie sheet.

4. Preheat the oven to 250F degrees.  Then bake the granola for 22 minutes.

5. Cool and put into containers.

6. Enjoy!! :)

Coconut Butter Cream Frosting

Coconut Butter Cream Frosting

Here's what you need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
3-4 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk

What to do:

1. First, microwave the butter and coconut oil for about 30 seconds.

2. Then, add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, and mix together.

3. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before using!

Brown Sugar Banana Cake

Every year, I make Scott a birthday cake a day before his birthday. Two years ago, it was a dark chocolate cake with raspberries. Last year, it was a Fun-fetti cake. This year I made him a brown sugar banana cake in the shape of a car with coconut butter cream frosting.. I am proud to say that this cake was the best!!! :) Well, it tasted the best. It definitely looks terribly sloppy though. :( I wish my artistic abilities were a lot better.

It was easy to make, but it took awhile because I baked it in a car shaped cake pan. I don't recommend using one, but it was a pain in the butt. Lol.

Anyways, here's my recipe. I found one online, and then I basically changed everything around and made it my own. Lol

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup salted butter (melted)

2 bananas

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. 

2. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, brown sugar, and melted butter. Set aside.

Note: You might want to melt the butter ahead of time. ;)

4. In another bowl, mash up the bananas. Then add to the wet ingredients, and mix well. 

5. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix well. 

6. Pour into a lightly greased cake pan, and bake for about 25 minutes. 

Note: If you are crazy, and you decided to use the car shaped cake pan like me, then you should bake the cake for 50 minutes!!

7. Make frosting while the cake is baking.

(See my frosting recipe below)

8. Cool cake for about 30 minutes.  

Refrigerate frosting for about 30 minutes. 

9. Frost the cake and enjoy!!!

Note: We used Oreo cookies for the car wheels on this cake, however we typically don't eat Oreo cookies anymore due to Harry's peanut and tree nuts allergy. 

Coconut Butter Cream Frosting

Here's what you need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
4 tablespoons of coconut oil
3-4 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk

What to do:

1. First, microwave the butter and coconut oil for about 30 seconds.

2. Then, add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk, and mix together.

3. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before using!

Note: For this particular cake, I dyed the frosting green by adding 6 drops of green food coloring. :)

Sunflower Butter Fudge

With my son being allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, finding a fudge that doesn't have them in it or that wasn't produced in the same facility is very rare. We decided to make our own fudge using sunflower butter and chocolate chips. It is delicious, addicting, and very easy to make! It is perfect for summer too! :)

Here's what you need:

1 cup of sunflower butter
1/2 cup of butter (or unsweetened applesauce if you choose to go dairy free)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (optional... We use the Enjoy Life dairy and nut free brand.)

What to do:

1. Line an 8 × 8 pan with wax paper and set aside.

2. Microwave the sunflower butter and butter for 2 minutes, and then stir.

3. Stir half of the chocolate chips in, and microwave for 1 minute.

4. Add the powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla, and mix well.

5. Pour into the pan, and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top.

6. Let cool, and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

7. Enjoy!!! :)

Patriotic Crafts and Food

I love being festive and going overboard for the holidays. Just check out my other posts for the holidays, and you will see! Lol.

We had a patriotic themed week for the fourth of July. Harry loved it! :)

Here's a look at what we did:

Crafts:

1. Painting with stars...
Using star shaped cookie cutters, dip them in red, white, and blue paint and stamp them onto the paper.

2. Painting fireworks...

Cut slits on one side of a toilet paper roll, bend outward, dip in red, white, and blue paint, and swirl around the paper.

3. Painting with Q-tips..

Dip in red, white, and blue paint, and swirl around the paper.

4. American Flag

Using construction paper, I cut out the pieces and helped Harry make an American flag.

5. Fireworks in a bottle...

Such a cool craft! :) We used vegetable oil, sparkling water, and food coloring. See my blog about it for more.

6. Canadian Flag

Ok, we had to do this too. Lol! It is made with construction paper and Harry's handprint.

Food:

1. Patriotic Toast

2. Red and blue pasta

All you do is add food coloring to the water when you are cooking the pasta.

3. Red and blue star shaped cookies

See my blog about it for more.

4. Patriotic pancakes

See my blog about it for more.