Car shaped sandwich

To make Harry's dinner more exciting, I made him a soy nut butter and jelly sandwich, BUT I made it in the shape of a car. How cool!!!

Here's what you need:
Soy nut butter (or peanut butter if your child isn't allergic)
Grape jelly
2 grapes
1 goldfish cracker
Brown sugar

Here's how I did it:

1. First, cut off the crust on the bread.

2. Then, on one side of the bread, spread some soy nut butter on it..

3. Put the two halves together, and sprinkle some brown sugar on the bottom of the plate for the road.

4. Then roll two pieces of crust into balls. (Sorry for the bad lighting on the picture.)

5. Spread some jelly on the balls, and place at the bottom of the sandwich to represent wheels. Add a little bit of jelly on top of the sandwich to represent windows, and put a goldfish cracker as the driver in the first window.

6. Cut two grapes in half and put them on top of the balls for wheels.

7. Enjoy!!

Edible banana car!

Harry is getting 6 teeth at the SAME time right now, so needless to say eating has not been fun or easy. To help cheer him up this morning, I made him a banana car because he loves bananas and cars! Success!!

Here is how you make it:

1. First you unpeel a banana and cut off 4 small pieces.


2. Using a toothpick, poke the banana pieces through one side. Then cut 2 grapes in half and place them on the toothpick after the banana piece. Add sprinkles if you'd like!

3. Line a plate with blue tortilla chips to represent the road.

4. Place banana onto the plate, and add some sprinkles if you'd like!

5. Poke the toothpicks through, and add the other banana piece and grape. Now you have a banana car!!

6. Enjoy!!!

Sensory Road

Sensory play is extremely important and crucial for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers because of the experience and ways it lets them LEARN. It gives children the opportunity to simultaneously use several of their senses while letting them control and manipulate the objects, toys, environment, etc... Sensory play can done through so many different types of things such as paint (both edible and non edible), rice, beans, water, etc. It's fun. It's messy. It's explorative! Most importantly, children are learning AND having fun at the same time!

This brings me to the idea of creating a "sensory road" for Harry. Since Harry loves sensory play and cars, I thought that this would be perfect for him. It was perfect!

To create your own sensory road, you need the following items:
Roasting pan (small tote or tub)
3 bags of black beans
15-20 penne noodles
Red, green, and yellow foam circle (blocks or pom pom balls)
Cars


It is very simple to make too! Here's how you do it:
1. First, you fill the pan with black beans.

2. Then create roads by adding penne noodles.

3. Lastly, add traffic lights and cars!


There you have it!! A sensory road!! Harry loves it!!

Note: ALWAYS supervise children during sensory play, and do NOT let them eat anything. Dry beans could be a choking hazard.

Snow Week!

Since March is reading month, we dedicated two weeks to two new books and did several activities to incorporate the book. To wrap up winter this week, we spent the week reading the book Snow Day. (It has excellent illustrations and even won a Caldecott Medal.) We spent the week doing several activities, crafts, projects, and lessons centered around snow and winter.



Day 1- Monday
We read the book in the morning, and then we played outside and went to the park. The swings are Harry's favorite. In the afternoon, we read the book again, and brought in snow from outside and played with it. We also made the snow "disappear" by turning it into liquid. We put snow in a glass, placed it by a vent, and watched it melt.




Day 2- Tuesday
We read the book, and then we painted with hot chocolate. Because you often drink hot chocolate in the winter, I thought that it would be fun to paint with it. All you need is hot chocolate mix and milk or water. Mix together, heat in the microwave for about 15 seconds, and enjoy!! This was an excellent activity!!



Day 3- Wednesday
We read the book and then we did two crafts. First, we made a snowman using cotton balls. Then we made a snow flake using cotton balls.




Day 4- Thursday
To start the day, we read the book. Then we made a "book cave" to read books in because some animals sleep in caves in the winter. We pretended that we were bears. It was a fun game!


Day 5- Friday
To start, we read the book again. Then we made a bar graph and graphed the total amount of snow we had for Harry's first and second winter! What a difference!!! Note: I searched Google to get the snow fall totals. Then, we made handprint mittens to represent Harry's hands for the winter 2013-2014.



What a fun week wrapping up winter!! We hope to have a nice warm spring and summer now!! Don't forget to read, read, read!!!!

Green Fun!!

Green is my favorite color, therefore I love St. Patrick's Day!! Between a green breakfast, rainbow sugar cookies, edible green paint, a shamrock art project, and green clothes, we had a very busy and fun day!

As Harry is getting older, our holidays and activities become more elaborate because he is able to understand and do more! I love it!! It's fun being super festive on holidays too! Why not??!! He will definitely remember these moments.



Here is what we did for St. Patrick's Day:

To start the day, we read this cool sensory book about St. Patrick's Day. Harry kept giving the leprechauns kisses. Lol.


Now for breakfast time!! I dyed our milks green and dyed our pancakes green. We enjoyed homemade green chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and bananas! Yum!



Then we made rainbow sugar cookies from scratch! They were quite amazing too!! You can find the recipe on my blog too.


Next, we had green edible paint and had a lot of fun with it. The recipe is also on my blog too, and it is very simple to make! Just mix together corn starch, powdered sugar, milk, and green food coloring! Boom! Edible paint!


Then we did another shamrock art project to add to our collection. You tape three wine corks together, dip it in green paint, and stamp the paper to make shamrocks.


Your kids will forever remember these fun special moments together! Time is a precious gift, and I try not to waste it.

Chocolate Paint

Yummy!! This is so easy!! All you need is hot chocolate mix and water or milk.

We used this hot chocolate mix:


Add just enough water or milk (4-6oz.) so the mixture is still a little thick.


Heat in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds, and enjoy!!

Rainbow cookies!

Yes. Rainbow cookies. It was a little challenging but totally worth it!!


Here is what you need:
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 3/4 cup flour
Food coloring



How to make these awesome cookies:
1. First, using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. (Note: If the butter is softer, it works better.)
2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together.
3. Add the egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture..
4. Slowly pour in the dry mixture while blending each time until completely mixed.
5. Roll the dough into 6 balls having them decrease in size large to small.
6. Place one ball of dough in a mixing bowl at a time, add 8-10 drops of food coloring, and blend with a mixer. (Note: To avoid dying your hair several colors, wear rubber gloves.)

Note: You should end up with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. To make orange, use 10 drops of yellow and 8 drops of red. To make purple, use 8 drops of blue and 10 drops of red.
7. Roll each color dough back into a ball, wrap with saran wrap, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours to let color absorb into the dough.
8. After 2-3 hours, take the dough out, and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

9. Put a little bit of flour on the counter, and using a rolling pin, roll out and flatten the dough.
10. Roll the purple dough into a "hot dog" or "snake", and place in a separate spot.

11. Next, fold each color layer over another until all 6 are on top of another.

12. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
13. Using a knife, slice the dough, and place onto a greased cookie sheet.

14. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the texture you want.
15. Cool and enjoy!!!



Note: Depending on how thick you want the cookies, this recipe should make anywhere from 15-25 cookies.