Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, Dear Daddy, Happy Birthday to you!

The girls baked Dad a cake today, made homemade cards, and then we are off to surprise him at work. The photo above is the result of his older sisters torturing their baby brother. Poor kid! I'll post b-day photos of the girls' cake, etc. later.

We are very excited to be celebrating Daddy's birthday in the Creative and Curious Kids household! (Oh and we can't forget Uncle Denny.(Dad's identical twin)
Happy Birthday, Uncle Denny!

Enjoy your Friday!

Jen

Yummy Christmas Trees!

The girls loved making these edible Christmas Trees!




I found the idea on the blogosphere and can kick myself for not writing down where. I'd like to give the blog some recognition- so Thank you, mystery blogger!


This was a simple activity to organize.
Here's what you need:


frosting, green food coloring, mini-mnm's, and sugar cones

They liked putting in their own food coloring and mixing up the frosting. We used butter knives to put the frosting on the cone. Also, I put a little frosting on the bottom of the cone and stuck it to wax paper on a small plate.









Merry Christmas!

Jen

Chocolate Meets Playdough!

Recently, I came across a recipe for natural clay in the latest issue of Family Fun Magazine. They suggested using Cocoa for Brown clay, beet juice for Fuscia clay, Paprika for Orange clay, etc. My girls and I decided that being we are chocolate lovers, we would make some chocolate smelling clay. Warning: It doesn't taste as good as it smells. We had to try it!

To make your very own batch of chocolate clay/play dough, here's what you will need:


1 cup flour
3/8 cup salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
natural chocolate dye (3/8 cup hot water and 4 tbsp cocoa powder)

Combine your flour and salt. Next add oil and your chocolate dye. Stir well. Now you are ready to knead your dough. Add more dye or more flour depending on consistency. Get out some cookie cutters and other toys and have fun playing with your very own chocolate play dough. Safe for little ones! Be sure to store your dough in a Ziploc bag or container in the refrigerator!

Another tip- be sure to move the chocolate dye away from the table before your little one spills it all over your new yellow table cloth! He, He! (Luckily, it came out!)

Wallah! Here's our final product:





Peanut making her dough! I think that there is more flour on her than in the bowl.


Sunshine girl- growing up, but not too old for chocolate play dough!

This was a fun and easy activity, even though it was a little bit messy. For kids, the messier the better.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Jen

Resource: Family Fun Magazine, October 2009: All-Natural Play Clay

Snack time Fun!

Here's a simple tip for making snack time fun for your kiddos! When I serve my girls bananas, I draw a silly face on the front and then pull back the top to make hair. Even at 5 and 7 years old, they still love it and it always puts a smile on their faces.


Other ideas:
Create a funny face with a variety of fruits and veges.
Cut out toast or pancakes with heart shaped or other fun shaped cookie cutters. Also great for mini-sandwiches.

For lots of great snack time ideas, visit Snack time: Snacks and Treats for Kids

Also, be sure to check out
Michele's Muffin Tin Mondays

Enjoy your Day!

Jen

Chocolate and Books!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of my childhood favorite films! My eldest recently checked the book by Roald Dahl out from the library. Only 7 years old and a little over a 1st grade reading level,Sunshine is unable to read it independently. It is about a 5th grade reading level. Therefore, it has now become our nighttime read-aloud.

Well, it has been such a joy reading a couple chapters each evening before bed. They beg me to read more and to peek ahead.

"Who gets the next golden ticket, Mommy?"

"Please read one more chapter!

Okay, I have lots and lots of fun activities to share that relate to this story.(appropriate for Pre-K with assistance and up)

Activity #1: Invent a new candy bar
Invent a new candy bar for Mr. Wonka. Create an advertisement or write a letter to Mr. Wonka persuading him to market your new candy bar. Create a wrapper for your new bar. (Wrap it around a Hershey bar for fun!)


Activity #2: Create Chocolate Balls
Here's a recipe that you can use to make about 5 dozen chocolate balls! YUM!

Ingredients:

3 cups of semi-sweet or white chocolate chips or white chocolate chips
1 can (300ml) of sweetened condensed milk
finely chopped nuts
cocoa powder

Directions:

Melt chocolate chips and remove from heat.

Next, stir in the milk.

Chill 3 hours or until firm.

Shape into 1 - inch balls.
Place on wax paper-lined trays and chill until firm.
Roll in nuts, cocoa, or dip into melted chocolate chips of a different color.
Chill.
Have fun eating your homemade chocolate balls with your kiddos!
Resource: Can Teach

Activity #3: The Chocolate Room
Read over chapt. 15 and discuss the chocolate room.
Ask your kids if they can think of any of the other rooms in the factory.

Now ask the children to make up a new room for the chocolate factory, making sure that they are as descriptive as possible.

Resource: Teaching Ideas
Extension- have your child illustrate and color or paint a picture of their new room and have them share their creation with the family. Another idea is to use a box and have your child create a model of their room.


Ideas for Intermediate kids: Teacher Vision

And last but not least, I found this really neat game that I'd like to purchase for my girls.



Time to go and eat some chocolate!

Jen

Wordless Wednesday: My Little Chefs

I'm learning to enjoy cooking more with my girls!! We even made homemade tortillas last week. Please don't ask how they turned out! Ha, Ha!!!



Check out Go Graham Go , Punky Monkey's and 5 Minutes for Mom for more Wordless Wednesday!!





Angry Chef?? Oh my!!






Happy Wordless Wednesday!!
Jen

Cooking with Kids!

I have a confession to make- cooking with my kids hasn't always been one of my most favorite things to do as a parent. This time in the kitchen has been my "mommy alone" time. I enjoy cooking while my husband spends a little bit of time with the kids. But the teacher in me whispers in my ears- "You know that they are missing out on so many learning experiences right now." (learning to cook, measuring, science of food, and building relationships-just to name a few.) So last night, the selfish side of me almost ran into the kitchen to be alone, when I thought why don't I include my older daughter this evening. Her face was lit up as I taught her how to make lasagna. It wasn't overwhelming just having one child in the kitchen, because there wasn't the fighting over who was going to do what or spilling my ingredients all over my kitchen floor. Over dinner, Sunshine proudly shared with her sister and Daddy how she helped to make the lasagna. Peanut was actually cool with the fact that she didn't get a chance to help this time. I reassured her that she would be able to help with the next recipe. I'll still make some cooking times for me, but I'm going to include my girls more in the future! Seeing my daughter smile as she cooked was so well worth it! I even put one of my cooking aprons on her and she told me that I was just "the best Mom ever!"

For more cooking fun, check out the following websites and cookbooks:

Nick Jr. Cooking with Kids
Family Fun- kid's recipes
Kids Aprons, Kids Chef Hats, Cooking Party Kits & Kids Cooking Supplies
Children's Recipes
Kid's Health- (good article on cooking with kids!)
Usborne Books at Home: Cooking

I actually have over a dozen different cookbooks for kids over at my Usborne book store, but I haven't had a chance to review all of the them yet. I can recommend the following- being I just purchased it for my daughter:

Christmas Fairy Cooking by Leonie Pratt and Catherine Atkinson I'm giving this to my youngest for Christmas- she adores fairies!! She is just going to love it and I can't wait to try a few of the recipes with her. Christmas Fairy Cooking is eye-appealing and kid friendly(step-by-step instructions with illustrations). See, I'm starting to like cooking with my kids already!! Here's a sneak peak of some of the recipes in this book:

Chritmas Castle Cake
Iced fairy crowns
Fairy fruit crispies
Snowball truffles
I was totally trying to hide this cookbook and the little stinker just found it. She is so excited and is now telling me everything that we are going to be cooking! She's too funny! Looks like I'm going to be in the kitchen with her sooner than expected. Oh well, so much for that being a Christmas present!

Have fun cooking with your kids! Be sure to share a favorite recipe that you enjoy making with your children.

Jen

Creative Pancakes!

Brownie Pancakes? This was a first for my daughters this morning! I usually use fruit in my pancakes, so they were thrilled to try pancakes with one of their favorite sweets in them. When we walked in the door for church this morning, their little faces lit up when they saw what they were going to eat for breakfast club (they feed the kids at the earlier service- cool, huh?). Anyways, the point of my post today is to see if anyone out there has any other interesting pancake recipes that they would like to share! I usually just cook blueberry, so please send some creative ideas my way!! Comment with your favorite pancake and I'll have a pancake day with the girls and let you know what we think!! Who knows, maybe a new recipe will come your way that you'd like to try, also!