Planting seeds

Planting... and hopefully growing! My daughter was recently given this little Sesame Street-themed planting activity. It came with everything needed for some afternoon fun!


You will need:

• A planting kit (ours came from Lowe's and included seeds, pots, soil pellets, and little garden tools), or you can certainly just use your own seeds and pots!
• Water
• A bowl for mixing up the dirt
• A tray or something else to catch water that drips through the pots
  

I assembled everything needed on the counter (but this would be a WONDERFUL outdoor activity!) and then called my daughter to come help do some planting. Begin by putting your soil pellets (or potting soil is just fine) in a bowl.


Add water. The directions on our kit called for two cups, and it was definitely wet enough.


Mix. Guess who LOVED this part??


Arrange your small pots on the tray.


Fill each pot halfway with soil.


This part of the activity was a hit as well!


Drop seeds in. We had bell pepper seeds. They are so tiny... I'm really hoping they grow because I love bell peppers!


It's a little messy (which is why this would be a great outdoor activity!), but not nearly as bad as you might imagine.


Finish filling the pots with the remainder of the soil to cover the seeds.


Find a sunny location to let them grow, and don't forget to water them. And since we did this activity several days ago, I can now speak from experience by telling you... watch out for wind! Unfortunately, I didn't think so much about this when I put the pots out on our sunny (and unshielded from the elements) patio table. I realized they'd blown over about two days later... boo. I'm really hoping I recovered at least some of the seeds to put into a more sturdy container!

Muffin Tin Monday: Rainbow

It's been a couple weeks since we've had a "muffin tin Monday" around here, but I wanted to join in for the rainbow theme. How fun! I actually had come up with a few other ideas prior to today, but we played outside for most of the morning, and lunchtime needed to be quick. :)


On my girl's plate today:

• strawberries
• baby carrot w/ dip
• banana (okay, so the peel is really the "yellow" part!)
• green salad mix
• blueberries
• pretzels w/ grape jelly for dipping

I had planned to make grape jelly "roll up" type sandwiches, but she wanted to pretzels... so this was how it ended up! :)

Check out Muffin Tin Mom for more fun ideas!

Resurrection rolls

I've heard about resurrection rolls for years, but never made them myself. My mother-in-law used to make these with her kids when they were little, and it was always one of those neat traditions I figured I'd do with my children someday. I decided that, even though my daughter is still too young to "get it," we'd go ahead and make these treats this year just for the fun of it. :)


You will need:

• Marshmallows - all the recipes I've seen call for the large ones, but all we had were minis. We adapted the recipe by just using 3-4 mini marshmallows rather than one big one, and it worked just fine. (The marshmallow[s] represents Jesus' body.)
• Melted butter (represents the oil they used to anoint His body)
• "Spices" - we used a mixture of white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon (represents the spices they used on His body)
  
• Packaged crescent rolls (represents the linen that was used to wrap Jesus' body)
• Cookie sheet and oven (represents the tomb)
  

Dip your marshmallows into the melted butter.


Then roll them around in the "spices." This was my daughter's favorite part. She could have done this all day.


Place your marshmallow(s) on a crescent dough triangle and roll up. Place on cookie sheet.


We made a little assembly line. I was amazed at how quiet this activity was. My girl loves to help me "cook," and she loves making delicious treats for us to "eat" in her little play kitchen. She'll beg me to stir whatever I'm preparing whenever she can. But I guess I didn't realize just how much she would LOVE to "cook" on her own! She was so focused on this... it was just so sweet to watch. :)


Pop them in the oven and bake according to the package.


They come out golden brown and oozing all that sugary goodness that's inside. :)


When they're cool, let your child open one up and try to find the marshmallow. It's gone, just like Jesus' body is gone from the tomb!

She remembered that there had been marshmallows inside, and she knew they weren't there anymore. I know she isn't yet at an age that she can understand the Easter story, but what a privilege to be able to teach my child these things... even from before she can remember!

Easter egg science: loud and quiet

Science for two-year-olds? Well, sort of! :)


You will need:

• Plastic Easter eggs
• Various objects to hide inside
• A container to hold them in
  

The objects you choose don't necessarily matter, but you're looking for things that will product a variety of sounds. As you see from the labels in the picture, we did:

• Quarters
• Pom-poms (which my daughter calls "puffies")
• Dried beans
  
• Play food (a strawberry)
• Buttons
• Yarn
• Jelly beans
• Bouncy ball
• Kleenex

Some other ideas might include:

• Marshmallows
• M&M's or other small candies
• Small rocks
• Cotton balls
• Q-tips
• Leaves or blades of grass
• Paper
• Paper clips
• A small votive candle or tea light (not in glass)
• Raisins or other dried fruit
• Sequins
• Magnets

If you're working with a young child (as I am), it's of course always important to remember that small items are choking hazards. DO NOT leave your child unattended with this activity for any length of time.


Close all the eggs up and allow your child to inspect them.


Shake each one and discuss if it is "loud" or "quiet." Older children can use more descriptive words, such as "more quiet than," "louder than," "softer than," etc. They can also pick out eggs that have similar sounds to compare and contrast them.


Again, depending on the age of your child, see if they can guess what's inside!


At two, we didn't so much "guess" as much as we just opened them to check them all out! :)

She loved this activity! It's one that can take as much or as little time as they want it to take, and when they're done, they're done. :) If they don't get to all the eggs, who cares?

And how fun would this activity be if it were done with all foods?! What loud and quiet SNACKS can you put together? Baby carrots, bunny crackers, and lettuce leaves would all make a fun springy snack and produce different sounds. :)

Green smoothies

Last summer, I got into making green smoothies for my finicky daughter, as a means of sneaking a few vegetables in her. When I first heard about this idea, I thought it sounded DISGUSTING. And, it honestly does sound that way! But if you can overcome how it sounds, they really are very good! There's truly no hint of "veggie" taste, since the fruit flavors are much stronger. (I'm guessing this is why V8 V-Fusion is so popular.)

What makes this "recipe" easy is that there really is no exact recipe. I've learned a few basics, though... so learn from my mistakes without wasting your own produce. :)


Step one: Throw a handful of greens in your blender. I've used spinach, collard greens, broccoli, and cabbage. Do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- use celery. No amount of sweetness will hide that flavor, and you'll end up wasting the entire contents of your produce drawer on it.


Step two: Splash a little bit of milk and/or add a spoonful of yogurt (plain, vanilla, fruit-flavored... doesn't matter) in with the greens and blend. Add however much milk/yogurt to allow the greens to blend smoothly. The amount of liquid you add will also depend on the consistency you want your smoothie to be (thick or watery).


It will look like this. Not appetizing, I know. It doesn't smell great either, but don't give up at this point!


Step three: Start adding your fruit. I almost always toss in a banana. It makes it sweet without being too sweet. It also makes it creamier.


I had some sliced strawberries that I pulled out of the freezer, so I threw those in as well.


It may look like a lot, but this will make a good size smoothie for both you and your child. Or at least it does for us! :)


I threw in a few cherries. I had them on hand because they'd been on sale that week.


Another mistake of mine to learn from -- remember to pit fresh cherries before adding them to the blender. Otherwise, you'll end up fishing cherry pits out of your smoothie for ten hours.


Step four: Pour into a cup and enjoy! :)

A few more helpful hints:

• I often dilute my daughter's smoothies a bit more at this point with a little more milk. This just makes it easier for her to drink from a straw. If your child is old enough, you can serve this with a spoon.
• Add additional veggies for more nutrients! Besides greens, you can add sweet potatoes, carrots, bell peppers (I always add these in small amounts), asparagus... really most any vegetable you have on hand. (Stay away from the celery, though!)
• Play around with the combination of fruits for different flavors! I personally love bananas and cherries, but blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mango, papaya, peaches, and more are all great! Keep in mind that the darker the fruit, the darker your "green" smoothie will be.
• Fresh or frozen... doesn't matter! I like to keep an assortment of frozen fruits on hand, but if a particular fruit is in season, we use fresh.
• If you make too much, just pop the rest of it in the fridge for a later time. They will keep for a day or so without a problem.
• Smoothies are refreshing, but they are also FILLING! Think about how much food you're really putting in there, so plan ahead if you're making this for a pre-meal snacktime. :)
  

I'm so looking forward to consistently warm weather, but we might just enjoy a green smoothie tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day! :)

Muffin Tin Monday: Yellow

It's Muffin Tin Monday! This week's theme was yellow. We went to the grocery store this morning, and my two-year-old was excited when I told her I had a "special lunch" for her at home! (This was great, too, because she would have rather done ANYTHING else but go home!)


Today's lunch consisted of:

• grilled cheese (okay, that's a bit of a stretch... but the inside was yellow!)
• pear yogurt (with a little yellow food coloring)
• mango
• macaroni and cheese
• corn
• dried pineapple and mango

The "trial" food today was the fresh mango. She used to like it when she was a baby, but not since then. She tried a couple pieces, but spit them back out. I think I'm going to try mango in a smoothie when the weather warms up a bit to see if it's a texture thing or if she sincerely just doesn't like the flavor of it.

She LOVED her yogurt and dried fruit! Those were definitely her favorites. :)

Next week's theme is green, which might be a challenge based on what foods she frequently refuses. :) I'm going to have to start thinking about that one!

Pudding painting

I mentioned that up until this week, we'd used edible finger paints. I thought I'd post a picture of what we used to do!


This is the cute, chubby little hand of my daughter when she was eight months old. And this was also her first "painting" experience! We did pudding paintings for some special people in our family, and it worked wonderfully. Mix up a batch of instant vanilla pudding and add food coloring... then, just use as you would finger paints! The pudding is a little "wetter" than paint, but it dries just fine. It also seems to take a little longer to dry fully, but WILL dry! :)

We've done this project a few times, and I can say that it does seem to hold up better on cardstock rather than regular paper. Last year (when she was one year old), we did pink and purple pudding paintings, and I cut hearts out of them to send as her "valentines" to our friends and family. Cute, simple, and something that even a baby can do! :)

Muffin Tin Monday

We participated in Muffin Tin Monday for the first time today! Since there was no "theme" today, I just did what we had on hand and what my daughter was asking for (i.e., banana bread). I wish I'd thought ahead though, because how cute would it have been to have a Dr. Seuss themed meal?! Green eggs (scrambled eggs with a little food coloring), ham, and Goldfish crackers ("One Fish, Two Fish") are all I came up with so far. Maybe later in the month! :)

The whole reason for muffin tin meals (to me, anyway) is pretty much the same reason why you use cookie cutters to make fun shapes in your child's sandwich or pancakes, or why you make "ants on a log" instead of just plopping some celery and raisins on their plate next to a spoonful of peanut butter. It's just going that little extra mile to do something fun and special for your child... and, of course, the hope is that they might also eat something they wouldn't have eaten otherwise. :)


Lunch today consisted of (top, clockwise):

• grapes
• carrot and red pepper sticks
• ranch dressing for dipping
• chicken noodle soup (of the Dora variety :)
• cheese
• banana bread

The only item in her meal today that she doesn't commonly eat is the red pepper sticks. I often give her a baby carrot or two at lunch with some "dip" (Ranch) and have done this for months... and she's started to actually eat the carrot! Because the carrots I have right now are massive and hardly qualify for "baby carrots," and also to keep with the theme of everything being little and cute, I cut one enormous baby carrot up into matchsticks. I decided to throw a little red pepper in there, too.

The veggies were the only thing left on her plate. *sigh* BUT, she did eat a few of them! This mom-of-a-picky-eater counts that as a success. :)

I stumbled across these adorable silicone muffin cups in the Target dollar section this weekend. If you're wanting to participate in Muffin Tin Monday, but are like me in that you only have one, fairly cruddy looking muffin tin, check your local Target! They had packs of six for $1, so I grabbed one. I really wanted the butterfly-shaped ones (they were oh-so-cute!), but the only remaining package had been opened, and the contents strewn about in the bin. I could have pieced them all back together, but a couple cups had little tears in them... so we went for just the plain round cups. Coincidentally, my girl LOVED the round muffin cups and kept telling me they were circles. A fun meal and a shapes lesson all in one!