Leaping Into Spring!...with lunch

We did two awesome St. Patrick's Day projects/activities this morning then it was time to make lunch. I told myself I was not going to blog lunch today, that I needed to post a craft but I have just found myself so excited about making, presenting Alexis with, and blogging these "special lunches" that I couldn't help myself. I promise I will post our two St. Patty's projects tomorrow and Friday, but in honor of leap day...we had a lunch that leaps!

I've seen a lot of frog things done for leap year and I wanted to do something different. "What else leaps? jumps? hops?....A rabbit!" So not only was this lunch conducive to some leap year conversations, but also perfect for celebrating spring :)

So here it is...

The bunny is a turkey and cheese sandwich (wrap). His head is made from a bunny-shaped cookie cutter, his body is an egg-shaped cookie cutter and his legs (and arms!) are from my trusty ol' small-heart-shaped cutter (I've found so many uses for a heart shape lately, unbelievable. PS: his arms are each half a heart).

The bunny's eyes are sliced bananas and half blueberries, his nose is a pink candy melt cut into a triangle, and his teeth are a white chocolate chip with the sides chopped off (for, you guessed it!, "dessert").

His belly is sliced bananas, as is the ground he's standing on.

The carrot is a turkey and cheese wrap with the cheese on the outside. When I cut it out, I left off the top portion because the sprouts on top of this carrot are broccoli.

All the black you see (bunny's paws and toes, lines on the carrot) are made with edible food markers.

And of course, the pretty blue sky is blueberries :)

"Hoppy" Leap Day!!!

Emily

Lunch for Little Lads & Lassies

I promised I wouldn't leave you hanging with St. Patrick's Day ideas before the holiday - I brainstormed this lunch while I was making yesterday's lunch and I was SO excited to make it and post it! We've been talking about the upcoming holiday and all it's about, so for lunch today we ate only things that are green (I love this one!)

The Shamrocks are turkey and cheese on green (spinach) wraps. I cut out the leaves with a small heart-shaped cookie cutter and then I used the same cookie cutter to snip off a piece for each stem as well.

There is green yogurt with green flower sprinkles.

Green grapes of course that are being wrangled in by a green cookie cutter (I didn't have a Shamrock shape, so the flower was a stand in).

The little green-dot garnishes on the wrap and the plate are mini green M&Ms.

(I am such a stickler about how much sugar and "junk" my kids eat, but Alexis really loves chocolate so as long as she's eating her good food too, I let her have juuuust a little bit)

She was so excited about this one, too! In fact, she gets excited every day when I make her "special lunches." She's now even giving me "suggestions" when she hears me mention it's time to make lunch. Every day she has a "special lunch" she just about cleans the entire plate, all with a smile on her face. So awesome!

Eat (Green) Food!

Emily

Buggy for Spring!

Spring is coming and I'm ready for it! We haven't had any snow this winter which is a huge disappointment to me, so if it's not going to snow, bring on the flowers and butterflies and pastel colors. The spring bug definitely bit me this morning while deciding what to make for lunch.


The topic of conversation between Alexis and I this morning was bugs...all types of bugs, what they do, what they eat and her favorite question about everything lately, "Does it bite?" So with spring in mind and Alexis interested in bugs, I made her this lunch:

The butterfly is a cheese sandwich cut out with some spring-shape cookie cutters I picked up at the store the other day (I grab as I see, Carpe Craft-items!)

I used the end of a straw to punch out some more cheese dots to decorate the butterfly's wings and antennae. The body is another piece of cheese I hand cut and laid on top. He also has some flower sprinkles to decorate his wings.

The caterpillar is made of sliced bananas, icing eye and mouth, and pastel colored sprinkles for his antennae.

She had pink and blue yogurt in a small bowl, garnished with flower sprinkles and more bananas.

Now my personal favorite part, the lady bugs are red candy melts (white chocolate) which I decorated to look like lady bugs with a little black icing. That was her "dessert" and she really did eat those last :)

She was so excited when I presented her the lunch plate, her excitement was priceless!

And of course, she made the connection and our bug conversation continued all through lunch.

A little learning lunch.

Happy (early) Spring!

Emily

Diet Coke Cake (with mini Coke can cake) - An Adventure

So this cake is made with Diet Coke...really. And so I've read, if you make it with just the cake mix, Coke and use a light Cool Whip for icing, it's only 1 point on Weight Watchers...but I'm not on Weight Watchers so nothing about my version is "diet" except the actual Diet Coke and I attempted to use sugar-free icing...we'll talk about that later :/


So for my step-dad's birthday, of course, I wanted to make the cake. He loves Diet Coke, really really loves it and I didn't feel like messing with fondant to make some techy-gadget cake, so I decided on a Diet Coke cake. Now let me be honest, I set out to make a couple dozen mini-Diet Coke Cake Pops...we had a mishap along the way and that's not exactly how it turned out...but I was pretty pleased with the result and it was DELICIOUS nonetheless. I mean decadently delicious ;)


So first, get your ingredients for your cake...

Yes, seriously, this is all you need for the cake. No eggs, no oil, just1 box of chocolate cake mix and 12-14 ounces of Diet Coke (or regular Coke) until you get a good consistency. Preheat oven to the temp the mix box says, grease your pan and bake according to the box as well. The batter, I found, is slightly thicker and lumpier and the cake mix box calls for 2- 9" pans; I poured all my batter into one 9" pan and it baked for the same time as 2 - 9" pans would.

I ended up making three cakes, one for my pops and two for a two-layer base cake.

I never was a big sweet eater until I had my girls and suddenly chocolate became my best friend BUT I am a total germaphobe and wash my hands constantly during food prep. Consequently, to my family's disappointment, I don't allow people to "lick the bowl/spoon" while I am baking because of the raw egg. I swear it will make them sick and it's just not right. One excellent perk I found while making this cake is there is no raw egg so go ahead and clean that bowl before you wash it! ;)

Mmmmm...

Bake your cake (mine took about 34 minutes at 350 degrees but it will vary by mix, oven, and the consistency you get your batter too)

Once done, let them cool in the pans for about 10 minutes then turn them over onto cooling racks to cool completely.

The original Cake Pop recipe is not, in fact, made in a "bake pop" pan where you simply bake your batter into ball shapes but rather it calls for baking a regular cake then mashing it up in a bowl with a tub of icing, forming a sort-of "cake Play Doh," then hand rolling yours balls.

So, when the cakes were completely cool, I dumped one of them...

("It's not you cake, it's me...I have to smash you now...")

Right into a big bowl.

Crumble your cake really well, then add a tub of icing.

Here's where I encountered the first problem with sugar-free icing. It is super duper thick and much stickier and heavier than regular icing. Imagine wet Play Doh, and since here is not the point where we wanted the Play Doh consistency, it made this messy part extra messy!

Mix thoroughly. I'd recommend taking off your rings and using your hands. You need this nice and mixed in order for it to roll well and then set well.

When you have a nice doughy texture, rolls small chunks of your cake into balls. This was super sticky so instead of flouring my hands and making the outside yucky, I used cocoa powder on my hands. It serves the same purpose as flour but well, tastes better :)

My plan was to make mini-Coke cans, so I actually didn't roll balls, I made can shapes.

Perfect.

Now pop those in the refrigerator or even the freezer while you get your chocolate/candy nice and melty to dip them.

Wilton's white Candy Melts and Wilton's black dye (icing dye, yes, you technically aren't supposed to use icing dye for candy because it's not oil based like candy dye, but I remedied that problem, don't worry)

Melt your candies the way the bag says. There are several different methods, I used the microwave and it worked just fine. This was my first time making cake pops so I played with a few to get the feel of it before I made the "real" ones. I couldn't get my chocolate smooth no matter how melted I got the candy, so I did a quick search online and found if you add a little bit of vegetable oil and mix it (almost whip it) very well after your candy is melted it will be easier to get a nice smooth covering. This also helped my non-oil-based dye blend a little better.

If you plan on using pop sticks and not just dipping the cake balls with a spoon, it helps to dip your pop stick in some melted candy first, then insert it into the cake ball (or in my case, cake cans) and then dip it into the candy. I got a nifty little Cake Pop stand at Walmart for fairly cheap to stand them to dry in but I actually wanted to dry mine flat on their tops to make the lip of the soda can.

Okay, quick preschool science/art quiz...

If you want to make the color GRAY, what colors do you mix????

...

If you answered black and white...you'd be wrong.

When it comes to the art of mixing candy colors, if you mix white candy with black dye, you may in fact end up with a nice shade of...

Lavender?????

Yes, as in purple.

This here is the reason I didn't end up with several dozen cake pop soda cans.

At this point it was almost 2am and I panicked. I tried silver confectioner's paint but it wouldn't hold to the candy coating. So I slept on it and in the morning went back to my supply store and got more white chocolate to try again.

This time I mixed only a teeeeny tiny bit of black into the melted candies, you could hardly tell it was colored at all. It darkened when it hardened so it turned out okay for the color of a Diet Coke can. However, I was not about to re-dip 20 of these babies, so I did one as a cake topper. The rest tasted amazing, they just looked a little sad :(

In the meantime, my two layer cake needed some attention.

On a whim, when I realized the sugar-free icing was too thick to spread without ripping apart the cake, I decided to fill my two layers with white chocolate, so while the two cakes were still WARM, I put some of the candy melts on one, and stuck the other on top to melt them.

Yummy. Worked perfectly. (At least one of my plans did!)

I used the sugar-free icing to ice the two layers together, but I popped in the microwave for a little first to make it smoother and more workable.

I finished my ONE Diet Coke can with some hand drawn details (yes, all the details are hand done in melted chocolate, not icing)

And here it is...The final product...

(Those are my first attempt, chunky, not-smooth-chocolate pops I used for "garnish," drizzled with red white chocolate)

Why yes, that is a hand-made "tab" on the top of the soda can ;)

So, it's definitely not what I was planning on making. And it's not what I expected. But I learned some very valuable lessons for the next time I decide to make pops or play with melted candy. Too bad I learned the lessons after I finished this cake :/ but it was delicious. Super rich and gooey, you'd never know it was a "low fat" cake with sugar-free icing. It tasted like 15 pounds but except for the candy-coating, it was pretty low cal!

Happy Baking!

Emily

Alexis on the Importance of Customer Satisfaction

We recently got a new rug for the living room and despite being vacuumed several times, it's still shedding its new carpet fuzz. Well, we have black furniture so I have to dust every day just about thanks to the fuzz. I was complaining about this to my husband...


Me: Ugh! This carpet fuzz is driving me crazy, I'm tired of constantly dusting!
Alexis: (so matter-of-factly, looking at me through her eye brows) Well......we can just take it back to the store then.


*long pause. we're both a little shocked at her quick, and so-obviously-right comment*


Me: Did you really just tell me to take it back to the store????
Alexis: Well, if you don't like it, Mommy...........

Yep. Guess she's right!

I also thought I'd share a little picture of our dear, sweet-like-sugar Alexis. This was her beautiful flower girl pose...

:)

I think she was seriously considering karate chopping the photographer.

She really is a sweet girl and she adds so much excitement to our lives, we would not be the same without her. But you can clearly see that attitude here...my babyyy!

Emily

An Irish Blessing...and a Sweet Little Project

"May your troubles be less and your blessings be more,

and nothing but happiness come through your door."

So, I left you all hanging on Valentine's Day by not posting any projects or recipes until just before the day. Well I got a little green blood running through my veins and I get excited for just about every holiday, so I decided to get a jump on my St. Patty's Day crafts and recipes so you'll have time to do some of them, you know, BEFORE the holiday...or at least on it.

First up, something (you guessed it) Simple!! But cute...like I'd probably mount and frame and use it as some of my holiday decor, cute.

Hand-stamped Shamrocks:

    Green Paint (preferably washable)

    Thick paper (preferably white)

    A brush to apply paint or a plate/tray to dip hands in paint

    A child willing to get their hands a little messy!

These are the "stamps" we used:

(for the leaves of the Shamrock)

(for the stem of the Shamrock)

Then mash them on the paper like this (you may have to reapply paint in the process)

2 closed-hand stamps per Shamrock leaf then one long open-hand stamp to make the stem.

They look a little strange at this point, we thought "Octopus prints" (*idea for summer project*)

But when you cut them out, they take shape a little more but most importantly, it was a good learning experience.

We talked about Ireland and the color green, we talked about leprechauns and the fact that we have some Irish in us. We also talked about what it means to be "lucky," a project I did with my actual preschool class last St. Patrick's Day - stay tuned for a post on that coming soon!

"May flowers always line your path, and sunshine light your day,

May [2 Little Birds] serenade you every step along your way!"

Emily

Puffy, Gooey, Fruity Heaven

(Just wait, it gets even better)

So I was standing in the kitchen this morning and trying to think of a way to be more creative for breakfast than the usual toast, fruit, yogurt, or cereal. I looked in the refrigerator to see what we had and literally, came up with this recipe off the top of my head using only the things I saw in our refrigerator. It ended up SO much better than I thought it would, I'm fairly impressed myself ;) and it was so quick, you could literally make it before work one morning. It took me about 5 minutes to prep and baked for about 15 minutes. (If you haven't figured this out about me yet, I'll tell you. I come from a family who enjoys good food...and so do I. But I also can't stand anything that has 100 steps and takes 4 hours to make...so other than those fancy cakes I attempt to make, "Simple, Quick, and Delicious" is my motto).


What You'll Need;
                 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (yes, in a can. See, I told you...Simple!)
                 Preheat oven to 375, just like the can says :)
                 1 banana
                 about 1-1.5 cups fresh blueberries
                 a few Tablespoons cream cheese (exact measurements are
                     not necessary for this recipe)
                 a few sprinkles of cinnamon, sugar, and brown sugar

Unroll the crescents on an ungreased cookie sheet. The can I used had 8, but I separated them only into 4 by keeping 2 crescents per pastry I was making, which created a rectangle rather than triangle.

Mash up the cream cheese a little with a spoon to make it more spreadable and spread a thin layer onto one side of the crescent (you actually could just smear it in the middle too, you'll see why it doesn't matter in a minute. Maybe because these are so simple?)

Sprinkle blueberries and cream cheese with some cinnamon and sugar. Excellent.

Quarter your banana by cutting it length-wise then width wise. A quarter banana goes on each of your four crescent squares. I cut each of my banana quarters in half length-wise again, it fit a little better.

Sprinkle some more cinnamon and sugar AND some brown sugar on top of that. Even more excellent.

Now, I'd love to tell you to now fold that into some cute little, twisty shape but 1. That's not simple,

and 2. Well...

Obviously origami is not my greatest skill. I literally just folded up the sides and mashed them together like a cute little pastry puff ball (this is why it also doesn't matter if you spread your cream cheese and fruit on one side or in the middle of your crescent rectangle).

Sprinkle a little more cinnamon and sugar on top of that.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes.

I think the Pillsbury can says 11-12 minutes but I added a few to get the bananas nice and soft and glazy.

The crust turned out perfectly soft and flaky, the bananas a blueberries meshed great as well.

These. Were. Delicious.

Eat with a fork or your hands, they weren't too messy either! Alexis ate one and didn't get goo everywhere so I was a happy Mommy.

Breakfast is served!

Eat good food,

Emily

Make-over

New Look, Same great blog ;)
Don't be alarmed, you are definitely in the right place! 2LB just got a little makeover that's all!
Enjoy


Emily

Fun Fine-Motor Finger Food

Lunch is served...Now play with it!!

Today we made Alexis a playful little lunch just for fun and I was rather pleased with the results, both how it turned out and how she interacted with..err..ate it!  It was SO easy, no over-thinking or prep work and we used things that most people already have at home.

Now isn't this just ADORABLE!? And so easy...

It's a peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat bread (for allergies, you could do cream cheese, banana, and honey..yummm...or really any sandwich. I liked how 1/3 of the banana went to the sandwich and the rest worked perfectly as a garnish. I told my husband "I love when things work out perfectly like this, it's like it was meant to be!" yes, I know, it's just lunch, but I enjoy the little things). I picked up a puzzle-shaped sandwich cutter at a local grocery store and used it to make our sandwich more fun.

I sprinkled the plate with blueberries then thin sliced the rest of the banana from the sandwich to make a pretty border around the plate.

Voila!

Alexis had a lot of fun playing with her puzzle before she ate it (the whole thing). I like to incorporate learning whenever I can, so this was some good fine-motor practice as she put together the pieces, as well as a little problem-solving skills.

She ate almost every bite of this lunch ;)

Emily

Did It With Daddy - Birdhouses

It was Daddy's turn to craft with the princess so he decided on birdhouses. I was pleased since we are still talking a lot about birds and these go along great with the bird feeders we made a while back. We also have some left over bird seed so it was just meant to be, I think.
Now, Daddy's day- job involves engineering and building so the birdhouses started to get a little complicated ;) I reminded him we were preschool crafting so he took off the working drawbridge and made a little simpler design.

This is what you'll need. Small and Large popsicle sticks (48 large and 25 small should be plenty, even if you need a few re-dos). Glue and paint/paint brushes. Simple = Great!

Make your first wall with six large popsicle sticks, crossed by a layer of three or four running horiztonal on top, about 3/4inch in from end of bottom sticks. Make two of these for two of the outer walls. Attach with glue. Younger kids should use school-glue as it is safer but it does take a while to dry. I would try hot glue with (much) older children.

Next add your tops and bottoms (roof and floor) by standing your two sides up and gluing another row of six large sticks along your four layered popsicle sticks of each side-wall. Do flip and do the same on the other side. You may have to wait a few moments for the glue to set some.

You should now have a hollow cube that you could stick your arm through. Next, glue a row of six or seven large sticks over one open side to create the back wall of your bird house.

Now this next part is a little tricky, but nothing impossible! Making the front with opening and a little perch for birdie to land on...

This is our finished product! As you can see, we added two large sticks running verticle on either side on the final side left open. Then, on top of those, we attached four large sticks running horizontal. This made the front wall with a little opening to fill with bird seed. Make a perch that extends a few inches by gluing several small popsicle sticks inside the birdhouse, perpendicular to the "floor boards" and leaving them extending past the "door" some.

Then comes my (and Alexis') favorite part...decorating! We gave her paint and brushes and let her at it. She had so much fun and painted for quite some time.

When it dries, we will fill it with birdseed and set it outside and watch who comes to visit!

Happy bird watching!

Emily

Tech-Tot

Alexis: I want to watch Caillou...
Me: Where do you watch Caillou in the car?
Alexis: on the Kindle, but I put it on my Facebook.


Good, she's got all bases covered!

Emily

Fun with (Healthy) Food

So I'm ashamed AND proud to admit that this weekend I whipped out one of my two baby food makers for the first time...and I've had them since my eldest daughter was a baby. At the advice of our pediatrician, I wanted to feed my little one some avocado because of the richness of good fats among the other health benefits. This was music to my ears because I LOVE avocado, any where, any time.
I was fairly certain, knowing her, the unique texture and taste wouldn't go over too well, at least not at first, so I wanted to make it more appetizing. I decided to mix it with banana after hearing recommendations of others who have done the baby-avocado thing.

Pitted and peeled an avocado then diced up half of it in small pieces. Half of that went into my baby food maker and the other half went onto my preschooler's dinner plate.

Then I diced up about 1/3 of a banana and added that to the baby food maker as well.

Snap the top on and grind away.

I used Munchkin's Baby Food Grinder and it was so quick, so simple, and most importantly...easy clean up!

It made a nice little Avocado-Banana puree. I stirred it a little and it was perfect. My little one is still super picky, especially with texture and it was a little thick. Next time, I think I might add some breast milk or formula to thin it out a bit. She ate a few bites but would much rather do this with it...

So our healthy dinner turned into a little healthy sensory learning instead, which is fine with me! I ended up putting it in a mesh feeding bag because she chewed on it and probably ate more...but there was avocado-banana puree head to toe so the amount is disputable. 

Though it's messy, playing with and feeling food helps babies to learn about the world around them.

Watching her have fun was priceless and she (and the high chair cover) went straight to the bath after this!

What quick & easy foods do you whip up for your babies??

Happy Pureeing!

Emily

Old Mac'Lexis

Alexis: Mommy, I want a snack when we get home


Me: Nooo, baby you had a lot to eat at MawMaw's house. Your dinner, a yogurt, Dora snacks, cupcakes, a popsicle AND cheese!


Alexis: And I ate a horse too!


Me: You ate a horse? Where did you eat a horse?


Alexis: Uh, on the farm....................EIEIO...




Emily

"Happy Happy Birthday to you!"

For any of you parents of little ones who watch the Sprout channel, you might get a kick out of this "caking" project. For my niece's first birthday, I made her a cake that looked like Chica. Characters can be tricky but luckily for me, this one turned out and the kids all recognized her.

I'm not as proficient in crafty cakes as I'd like to be yet, so her head is not edible but I did make it myself. For her head I used an orange ball, and craft foam sheets which I cut to be her beak, eye lashes, crest, and the top part of her yellow "feather" collar. Big googly eyes of course, too.
The cake however, I did make and shaped to be her body then using decorator bags, iced it with self-dyed icing so I got just the right colors.


Her "nest" is edible too - I used a chocolate icing base, and chow mein noodles for the twigs and such. 

I served her up with chocolate birds nest cupcakes with Peanut M&M eggs (the cupcake in the back is a peanut free one).

If you don't know Sprout, it's a great educational channel for kids. Most of their shows kids can actually learn from, it's one thing I don't feel guilty about letting my little ones watch too much ;)


Emily

New Subject

So I've been thinking, my oldest baby bird, Alexis is quite the precocious one, shall I say? She's amazingly smart,  witty, feisty, slightly rambunctious and has an attitude at times. There are days she really makes me crazy, but every day she makes me smile (even if I have to turn my head so she doesn't see me laugh at her naughty behavior). "Kids say the darndest things" and Alexis may top them all. I've been thinking for a while I need to start keeping track of the things she says in a baby book or something so she can look over later in life just why her Mama is crazy, but I'm terrible at keeping up with baby books...I'm much better at blogging. With that, I think I'm going to start a new topic/page on this blog, "The World According to Alexis" to give my readers a little chuckle every now and then when she says something that just leaves you...speechless.


So allow me to catch you up on a few that I can remember that have happened recently. I'll post new ones as I remember them or as she says them...


- Alexis was being particularly naughty one day. Her Pop Pop said "Alexis is going to get in trouble..." to which she promptly responded:
"No I not, I'm cute!"


- Lately, she's been refusing to eat all of her dinner and wanting to skip right to dessert. I tell her "If you don't eat your dinner, you won't grow big and strong." Last night she didn't want to eat.
Me: Alexis, you need to finish your dinner.
Alexis: BUT I WANT TO BE SMALL!
    
...weeell, I mean, okay?


- I bumped into the door and knocked the thing hanging on it down...
Alexis: "why you have a big butt, Mommy?"


-Alexis: (fake cough cough) Mommy (pitiful), I sick too, I have a headache too. I just need to snuggle with you in your bed and play the Kindle

       Did I mention she's also an actress? She had sympathy illness from my ailments, you see. Such an empathetic three year old.


-We went to a store where you make your own teddy bears for her birthday and she was extra grumpy that day. She made a bear and named it "Sprinkles" and I told her she could have any outfit she wanted to put on the bear...
Alexis: No, I want my bear NAKED!


-Speaking of Sprinkles, I made a bear for her baby sister while we were there and he remained nameless as I couldn't decide on a name. The next day I asked her to name Vivi's bear...
Alexis: How about Sprinkles too?
Me: No, your bear is Sprinkles already.
Alexis: Okay, weeeeell, how about "Cupcake Spots."


      Oh in other words, 'Sprinkles' the roundabout way?

When I imagine her future, I usually envision a lawyer or a comedian. Will update with new chuckles as she gives them to me!

Emily

Heart Pancakes

Sooo...as you read in my earlier post, I wasn't able to post these earlier. So think of this as your jump on early ideas for next Valentine's Day! Or since kids usually love anything that has an air of novelty, you can make these any time just to show your little ones you love them :)

(This one, I made a smiley face out of extra white chocolate chips for my daughter. She loved it.)

Heart Pancakes:
Pancake Mix (make it as the box tells you)
Red food coloring
A teaspoon or so of cocoa (optional. Add if you want a red velvet-esque pancake)
White chocolate chips (again, optional, any morsel type item will work like diced bananas, blueberries, etc.)
Cooking spray or butter
Large METAL heart cookie cutter


Grease your pan and the cookie cutter very well. Add red food coloring to your pancake batter to desired color (it doesn't take too much to get a nice pink or red color). Put cookie cutter down on hot pan or griddle. Pour your pancake batter into the cookie cutter. Don't add too much or the pancake will be super thick and won't cook well. You can wiggle the cookie cutter a little to help spread the batter evenly. BE CAREFUL though, it will be hot, I use tongs to touch it when I make these. When you start to see bubbles on the top side of the pancake (but before it's ready to flip) drop your chocolate chips (or whatever add-in) down onto the pancake. Wait a few more moments and use a large spatula to flip the pancake and let it finish cooking. You can remove the cookie cutter before you flip it as long as the pancake is almost cooked all the way through (it will look more dry on top) or you can flip the cake with the cookie cutter still on it and if it's greased well, it should pop off pretty easily when the pancake is done. I've made them both ways, they work equally as well.

I garnished this one with some extra white chocolate chips. I love anything polka dot and the red and white was adorable for Valentine's Day.

The good (or yummy) thing about white chocolate is the melting temperature is pretty low so if you drop them on the pancake while it's still hot, they'll get nice and gooey so you can spread it like icing all over pancake. YUMMM!

These refrigerated well, too...So we ate the leftovers this morning for breakfast. Just popped them in the microwave and they were just as good on day 2 and it was nice not having to cook since I was up a lot last night with my poor sick little one.

Always eat delicious food!

Emily

Sorry...

Mommy duty calls and unfortunately, I have a sick baby :( First time she's ever been sick in her almost 7 months and she's miserable. I made an adorable and SUPER easy Valentine's Day breakfast for my preschooler yesterday and will share by the end of day today. Consider it an early idea for next Valentine's :)


Post soon!
Emily

Baby Can Learn, Too!

While big sister is busy learning about birds and nature and Valentine's Day, baby wants to get hands on too!

Puzzles like this are great for fine motor and cognitive development, and even a little emotional development as well! You can't see because here hand is on it, but there are little pegs atop each of these animals to grasp to list the piece out of it's spot. It took her a few tries, but she got it. Working that 'pincer grasp!' Milestone!

It works a baby's brain (cognitive) too because they have to work those problem solving skills in order to figure out how to remove and then replace the pieces in the right spot. We talked about what the animals' names are too.

We had a little emotional development work going on too. At some point, she was in need of a snooze and was getting frustrated that she couldn't quite grasp the piece so I helped her to calm down, showed her again and helped her to do it right.

Amazing how much you can get from a little puzzle! ;)

Emily

Tie Dye Hearts

Tomorrow, or rather today I suppose based on the time is Valentine's Day and it is my second favorite, maybe third, or fourth?? Okay, I love all holidays so I try to get in the spirit and show my kids what's fun about them as well. I love the pink and red combo that comes along with V-Day and the hearts and cupcakes and Xs and Os. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. We've actually been doing a lot of Valentine's crafts here at our house but I'm still trying to get a jump on blogging them, so I will do my best to catch up. Here's a simple one that Alexis ended up loving and talking about for days. We actually did two variations of the same activity...


Materials:
Coffee filters cut into hearts (do ahead of time for younger kids, let older kids do themselves)
Spray bottles
Water
Food coloring
Washable markers
A big  tray or work surface that will hold water
A place to put wet hearts to dry

 I had her color the hearts however she wanted with washable markers.

 Then, on the tray, spray them with water. Voila! Simple as pie. She sprayed them A LOT so the colors bled a lot and ended up looking more like stained glass but adorable nonetheless. You can definitely try pattern and amount of water variations to get other results.

 Round 2. This time we added food coloring to water. We did red and purple for Valentine's Day. *You have to add a lot of food coloring or else the colors look very watered down.

 Spray the hearts with the colored water however you please :)

 Lay all the hearts flat to dry.

I used wax paper. I'm not sure why but probably just because it was there but we ended up with a surprise result when the hearts were dry. The picture below is just the wax paper, no heart coffee filters. The colors bled and absorbed into the wax paper so we ended up with an exact replica of each heart we made to cut out and use. I sense another project idea coming on ;)

Tomorrow, we are going to use the hearts we made to make another project.

Emily