yoo hoo??

anyone there?

really -- is anyone reading this?

So, I have three blogs. This is one of them, and then I have another "side" one and then I have my main family blog that I keep up with.  This past year has been a busy one for me -- we moved into a new home, completely renovated it and I had a baby.  I decided that my side blogs would have to take a back seat for a while.

I do love this blog and have lots of pictures and posts stuck up in my head but I wanted to take some inventory first before the upcoming year. Is anyone still interested in this blog? I just want to make sure it is worth my time.  Do you still want me to dump my brain here?  I blog mostly for myself, but I do get some satisfaction in knowing that others are able to use these ideas.

Thanks friends.

Pantry Hotwheel Obstacle Course

on your mark.

get set.

go.

1. hop the canned food one at a time

2. grind along the oven handle.

3.through the fridge door

4. over to the cling wrap

5. Ride one and jump

6. land and ride the gallon zip locs

7. Fly and land in the big yellow mixing bowl.

8. the end.

Cost: FREE

VARIATIONS: Mix it up and change the course.  Look around your kitchen/pantry and see what else you could use in your obstacle course. Have them make up the steps.  If they are old enough have them write them out like instructions to a game.  You could time each other.  You could race action figures instead of cars.  

Following Directions

A friend of mine recently posted something I thought was perfect for Likely Classroom:

A Brilliant Following Directions Activity

Enjoy!

When I dip, you dip, we dip.

Do your kids like to dip as much as mine?  

I decided on a slow Monday to do something fun for lunch for the boys.  I was completely out of bread, milk, eggs, cheese so I had to get creative.  I had hummous and Baba Ganouj in our fridge from Wegman's and I wanted to give it to them for lunch but I didn't know how well just a scoop of those and some pita bread would go over.  So I thought I would make it interesting.  

I put eight different dips down the middle of a mini muffin tin.  I just used what I had.  I don't always have hummous and baba ganouj type stuff at my house but all of the others were things I had on hand.  

Dips from top left to right:

1. spicy mustard

2. baba ganouj

3. hummous

4. salsa

Bottom left to right

5. ketchup

6. bbq sauce

7. blue Cheese dressing

8. sour cream

On each side I put items to dip with for each child.

I would have done more if I had them, but I didn't so I just used what I had.  

They had mini pita pockets cut in half, baby carrots quartered, thick julienned cucumbers, strips of flour tortillas.

They totally ate it all up.  Max got really into mixing flavor combinations  and would dip one item into three things.  I didn't care because they didn't care.  Let them experiment.  I think mustard & bbq sauce was his favorite combination.  

After the savory tin I brought out the sweet tin, a large muffin pan with sweeter items.

Dips from left to right: peanut buter, fruit dip, homemade peach freezer jam

Items: apples, clementines, whole grain coco pops  (I also got these from Wegman's -- have you tried them?  They are awesome and only 16 calories a piece! They come in a circle, I quartered them for dipping and they are incredible to watch being made --- look at that link)

Remember, this is just what I had on hand.  I know that clementines don't go with peanut butter, but they don't know that.

The main thing is that you are just using up what you have.  At first I didn't think I could pull it off, but I kept looking around and kept finding things that would work.

COST:  Whatever your food costs --- you shouldn't have to go out an buy anything unless you want to make it special

Variations:  


SAVORY DIPS:  hummous, mustard, ketchup, ranch, blue cheese, spaghetti sauce, balsamic vinegar,  sour cream , chip dips (like onion or dill), guacamole, salsa, spinach dip, artichoke dip, bean dip, bbq sauce, sweet and sour sauce, curry sauces, pesto sauce, honey musard, etc..........


SAVORY DIPPERS:  carrots, cucumber, green/red/yellow peppers, broccoli, green beans, snap peas, crackers, tortilla strips, chips, pita bread, cubed or sliced bread, pretzel sticks, you could cube up some cheese or deli meat and put it on toothpicks.....


SWEET DIPS: peanut butter, fruit dip (recipe below), jam, pudding, chocolate sauce, yogurt, nutella,  caramel, butterscotch, whipped cream........


SWEET DIPPERS: Apples, bananas, clementines, strawberries, pear, mini rice cakes, pretzels, graham crackers, grapes or berries on toothpicks,  sliced pancake or waffle pieces or even toast, 

Fruit Dip recipe:  

16 oz of sour cream or plain yogurt (or a mixture)

a small package of dry vanilla pudding

1/4 to 1/2 cup frozen OJ concentrate

If you are just going to do a small batch (to do a little dip) just mix a few heaping tablespoons of sour cream or plain yogurt with a tablespoon of dry vanilla pudding and a couple teaspoons of OJ concentrate. 

Please add to my list if you can think of anything.  I would love to double the size of these lists!

This is a lot of fun to make and serve and eat!  You will be pleasantly surprised at how many vegetables your child will eat doing this.  With my two year old I sat and watched and reminded him to bite and not just dip and lick off the dip and then dip again.  This may need some supervision until they get the hang of it.

Have fun!!!!!

winter busy-ness

"Boys, please put all of these oranges in this other box for mommy"
"Okay now put them in this box" (conveniently located in a completely different room.)

They were busy for an hour sorting and re-boxing oranges.  
I kid you not.
Well, they might have also pretended they were bowling.

More Play out of the Dough

my sister getting crazy with the play-do over christmas break.

When we were visiting my sister in law Sarah during the fall,  Max and his Cousin Benson sat down with some play-do.  I over heard Sarah telling them to make little beds for the animals.  I thought it was a great idea.  You could use any plastic toy really, little people, animals, army guys.  You could make beds, nests, a pool, a cave.

Max ended up burying mounds of animals into a giant blob of play-do.  That was a fun idea too.  He had just as much fun pulling the play-do apart looking for the animals.  You could do it with a sibling or a friend and each have a wad and bury little trinkets and let the other one "dig" them out -- like they were archeologists or something.

I love stretching what I already have.