Thank You, Michele & Matt!

Thank you, Michele, Matt, Grace, Owen, Pierson, and Clara for my very cool birthday gifts! I was so excited when I saw all of it! I wore my new bathing suit for a whole day around the house. Thanks, again!

Muffin Tin Monday: Birds and Nests, recipes

This week's Muffin Tin theme was BIRDS & NESTS. To see more bird/nest meals, visit Muffin Tin Mom.

NEST: lettuce drizzled with olive oil and salt, grated carrots, and grape "eggs"
NEST: shredded wheat nest and cream cheese "eggs" (I used Tofutti soy cream cheese.)



Directions for NEST (this is close to the recipe I used - I sort of guessed and added to taste):

Crumbled 3 Barbara's Bakery brand shredded wheat biscuits in a bowl

Added 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes AND 1 1/2 TBS. brown sugar

Stirred in between 1/4-1/2 cup melted Earth Balance (margarine)...just poured it in until it seemed moistened just enough

Pressed the mixture into muffin cup and baked at 350 for about 8 minutes (or until just starting to brown and get crispy).

This was my favorite part - they were SO tasty, and I loved the way they came out of the pan all formed. (These that I took out of the pan I let sit for a bit because if you take them out too soon they will fall apart.) I'm going to make them again sometime - fill them with pudding or fruit, etc. mini fruit kebobs because...well, fruit just seems spring-y...on a "nest' of almonds and walnuts

TWIGS

In food processor, finely grind 1/2 cup plain cashews and 1/2 cup walnuts. I also added 2 TBS. ground flax seed. I added 3/4 cup dates, about 1 TBS cocoa powder, and a little squirt of agave nectar.

(This mixture does not have to be cooked; we usually just eat it raw at this point...Dash made me leave him some raw to eat. It actually tastes better that way, but I wanted the sticks to stand up so I baked them.)

I put them in the oven at about 250 until they were just starting to feel baked then let them sit on the pan until they were firm before I tried to remove them.

I had to make several refills on the kebobs.

It was a hit.

Tot School Officially Begins

There were some changes and challenges to my life this year - nothing large or worth complaining about...but a bit overwhelming for me, nonetheless. (For example, we put my son in public school after 4 years of homeschooling because of special issues he has...we wanted to make sure we were doing everything possible to make his future the best it could possibly be.) I had to shift my way of doing things and living life, and I think I started losing my creativity and focus. I'm someone who needs to be focused and creative or else I'm...just lost. I'm getting back into the swing of things, though, with homeschooling again. I have followed along with the fun world of Tot School over at 1 + 1 + 1=1 for a long time, and I figured it was time we joined in.
I have a lot of pictures but nothing original this week. I just needed to jump in somewhere. Sissy (her blog name) enjoyed playing with Play-Doh in peace and quiet while her brothers were not home. One of my favorite things about Sissy is the way she gasps with excitement over so many things in life. She gasped when she pulled out the placemat given to her by her friend M at Live, Learn, Love in a blog swap. "My friend made it for me!"
And imagine her excitement when she found 2 unopened Easter egg-type containers of PINK and PURPLE Play-Doh. It was as if they was calling her name.
Big brother had a playdate at the park with one of his friends, and she got to run around with Mommy. There was a lot of, "Look! I can do it myself!"
During a trip to the teacher supply store to get oldest brother a journal, we picked up another set of Hot Dots. Tornado plays with his different phonics sets, and the other kids always want to play with them. They're too advanced for the younger ones, though, so we picked out two sets of Hot Dots, Jr.: Colors and Beginning Phonics.

She likes them because they come in a little carrying case, and she is all about anything that resembles a bag or purse to put things in. The Hot Dots, Jr. set can also be purchased with a cuter dog pen, but we didn't spend the extra since we already had the regular one at home. You press down on the correct answer, and the pen lights up and says one of many positive responses like, "Yes!" or "Good job!" If you get it wrong, it lights up red and says something like, "Sorry!" or "Try again!"
We did many PEA activities after reading Little Pea. You can read about those here.
I worked with her (until her 9 year old brother insisted on taking over the role as teacher) on putting her letters in order. She likes these School Zone magic picture cards (the kind that moves from letter to picture as you move it).
The 3 kids worked together on a spring collage. I just set out crayons, markers, glue, colored pasta, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, scrapbook die-cuts, and stickers and let 'em loose.
This is the final product. Sissy's section is first, then Dash's, and then Tornado's. Sissy found some nativity scene stickers in the sticker drawer and put them on her part.

When I saw what she had done, I said, "You wanted to have Jesus in the spring picture?"

"Yes."

"How come?"

"Because I wuv it."

"painting" the front porch columns with water
We read through this book that has a lot of questions to answer and things to pick out and sort.

Then, we did some sorting and pattern activities.

And she enjoyed seeing how fast she could get the blocks in each time.

practicing her stacking and order skills

They helped me cut strips of paper for our muffin tin activity.

We got out the flower press, and I showed her how to use it. We worked on pressing the flowers Daddy had brought home for "us" last week. (Because when Daddy brings home flowers to Mommy, she thinks they are of course for both of us.)

I had lots of helping hands who loved twisting the screws tight.

It is challenging to do activities with Sissy alone. Her big brothers always want to participate, which is GREAT-ish. We like for them, too, BUT then they always want to answer the questions, etc. That's actually why I feel like I need to do a more formal "Tot School" with her. Not only can you share good ideas with other moms, but it's accountability, as well - a good reminder not to get so caught up in housework and being on the move that you forget to take time to be an involved, effective parent. She's my little shadow buddy, and she's always content to do whatever older activities we are doing or just sit on my lap and listen. That's good, on one hand, because she's definitely picking up things from her older brothers. But I want to make sure I'm not skipping out on things she needs, too. Visit Tot School for amazingly creative ideas from other moms.

stART - Little Pea

Sis finished her Mother's Day Out program for the year, and we have officially begun preschool at home. Since literature-based activities are one of my favorite things to do with my kids, I thought it would be fun to join the moms doing stART at A Mommy's Adventures.

Our first story we picked was Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. It's about a regular little pea... who must eat candy every night for dinner. "If you don't finish your candy, you can't have your dessert." Little Pea hates having to eat his candy...but he chokes it down with "yuck" and "blech," etc. He is THRILLED when he finally gets to eat his dessert - a big bowl of spinach!
My kids love and appreciate the irony. We own this book, but we hadn't read it aloud in awhile so Dash had this big smile on his face the entire time I was reading it. He's the pickiest eater out of three so he could particularly relate to Little Pea. (And he's not a big pea lover, but when he saw his brother and sister popping them into their mouths, he ate a few, too, just to show us he could eat them, too!) I love the funny story and the cute, simple illustrations.
Our first activity: I just gave the kids bowls of thawed frozen peas and toothpicks and told them to be creative. Sissy's style of choice was sticking a pea on each end of the toothpick, and then she made a long chain of them.

Here is Dash working on his "house."
I didn't get a good picture of Tornado's creative version of "Noah's Ark," but he was hard at work.
Of course, Tornado and Sissy couldn't keep the peas out of their mouths. (And guess what we also had for supper that night?) Sissy made (a leery) Daddy eat the peas off her toothpicks when he got home. (What a Daddy!)
Tornado also decided on his own to make letters in his bowl.
I also drew 9 numbered pea pods on green construction paper. Sissy had to put peas on the peas on the paper. She said, "This is really hard," I think because the peas are so small to manipulate. It was a good challenge for her to place them in the small spaces.

We counted them out together when she was finished.
I challenged her to find all of the different shades of green crayons from the basket.

She colored the pea pod I printed off online, and then she cut it out. When I told her she was going to cut it out, she said, "But I can't do that." She is not close to mastering cutting (I had to hold both sides of the paper as she cut; she had to work the scissors.), but she did great! She glued the pieces to construction paper.

She added some of her own peas with her green dot marker!

Beholden

Continuing my list of big things and little things for which I am thankful (my goal is to make it to 1,000!)...

#127: Fun with the microphone...of course, I can't tell you who this is...I have to protect the privacy of my house guests...but I'll give you a couple of hints:

He likes to sing, and he's as big of a ham as I am.

And he looks a lot like this girl.

#128: I'm thankful that Sissy can so quickly go from this...
"Don't take my picture!"
to this...in 30 seconds flat.
#129 I'm thankful that a girl has the prerogative to change her mind.
Because the kids are, then I am also thankful (#130) for a little rain because although sand is fun, a hole of wet sand looks even more inviting.

#131: remote control cars in the park

#132: family picnics

#133-134: hands to hold onto you and the joy that comes from twirly slides

#135: big cousin looking out for little cousin

Rush was not amused.

#136: cousins as friends

#137: little girl giggles

#138: Ryan bringing flowers home to me one day for no particular occasion

#139: the love of Googie...

All on her own, Sissy was singing this song she made up, "I love Gooooogie. I love Gooooogie!" as she looked at my Mom's (realtor) business card. And then she kept kissing her picture.

#140: COACHES...especially volunteer coaches

#141: the tunnel

#142-143: a Mother's Day card from my kids and the names carefully spelled out in their own handwritings

That pretty much sums it up.

#144: and one from my true love

#145-146: I'm grateful that Ryan spent the whole day helping me clean and organize the house. And then he gave me a massage right before I fell asleep. Awww.
#147 my present from Dash (painted onto a ceramic tile)

Also #148-154: a positive parent-teacher conference with Tornado's teachers, fun field trip to see a kids' concert with Dash's class and Sissy, watching (I really love it.) Dash play soccer and t-ball this weekend, another great day of soccer for Tornado (Ryan had to take him because we were double-booked.), and a nice little field trip with Dash and his class plus Sissy to the library this morning - grateful for the fun little experiences his school sets up (You wouldn't believe how EXCITED the kids were to see the other side of the outside book drop-off. The librarian went outside and dropped the books in to demonstrate, and it was like magic to them.) and loved his excitement over getting his own library card.

Last, #155: the nap of which I am about to take on this fine, rainy day...