Muffin Tin Monday: Apples

This week was an Apple theme. There were so many different angles you could have taken with this, but I liked the idea of just going "everything apple". So here it is...

Apple flavored yogos, and in all three colors of apples might I add. Apples and peanut butter for dipping. Applesauce. Apple Cinnamon cherrios and Apple oatmeal! Oh and apple juice. :)

Little Bear munched away while Mama read a few Apple books!


We even found a recipe in one of the books to use for this weeks "Kids in the Kitchen". It also had a cute apple song and several apple sayings. Very interactive book, we loved it.

We followed lunch with a bit of Apple stamping.

We actually ended up using a little fork, stabbed into the apples, so that Little Bear had a better grip when stamping. Worked pretty well...
and he insisted on dipping his little finger in the brown paint cap and using it to put stems on all the apples

We finished it off with a classic "apple tree arm" with bingo stampers used to put apples in the tree.



For more info on Muffin Tin Mondays visit Her Cup Overfloweth here.

Tot School: Behind Schedule

My first "Tot School" post and behind schedule in more ways then one. I was not able to get the activities cranked out this week, but I was able to do some brainstorming. I gathered up a few resources that I have been wanting to use. Since Little Bear just started preschool, I intend to follow along with their curriculum including the letter of the week. I'll be using a letter of the week book and an alphabet puppets book that I saved back from my daycare days. Between the two of them, we will have worksheets for handwriting, decorating, matching, a puppet, and more, all corresponding to the letter of the week.

I have a few other resources I intend on using to fill in the gaps or when we get bored with everything "A", for instance! ;) The first is a flip-chart calendar, with a preschool activity for every day of the week, that I got at the thrift store for ten cents . We will most likely not get to all of the activities, but I'll be trying not to let my perfectionism sour my efforts!

One last resource we will be using and possibly my favorite, is a Kindergarten readiness calendar. I found this at a neighboring library and though it's intended for the previous year, we can still follow along. There are weekly projects and activities to do with your preschooler, in order to ensure that they will be fully prepared for Kindergarten. It's pretty awesome and interactive. I'll be posting more pictures of each month, if you're interested in following along. But for now...


Mostly planning with a little bit of fun mixed in. I did manage to have some reading time with the Little Bear. We got out "My First LeapPad" that we purchased at a garage sale for one dollar, complete with four books! He loved it! It may be getting a bit young for him, but you can't beat a dollar. Baby Bear will use it one day and now I know for sure that he will love getting the new TAG reading system from Santa!



For more info on Tot School Sundays, visit 1+1+1=1 HERE. Looking forward to many more to follow. I've been wanting to pull together my creative ideas into some form of at-home fun, but was never organized enough to pull it off. I think this is just what I needed to get the ball rolling!

Kids in the Kitchen Thursday: Banana Milkshake

My first "Kids in the Kitchen" post, I decided to go with something simple. Initially I searched cooks.com for "kids recipes". When I came up with precisely 349 results, (which by the way, may be a great reference for future posts), I realized I needed to narrow it down. We had some overripe bananas laying around, so I tried "kids recipes bananas" and eventually narrowed it down still to "kids banana milkshakes". Oy! I finally came up with this recipe for a simple Banana Milkshake.

Nothing more than a banana or two, two cups of milk, a dash of vanilla, and a blender to smooth it all together! Little Bear used his new orange liquid measuring cup, to measure and poor the milk.

Toss in a few bananas (we actually decided to use two, since we have so many laying around), a dash of vanilla, and you're ready to blend.


Just about as easy as it gets, a few ingredients with some simple measuring and pouring. He loved it! Especially since he could do it all by himself! Next time we do a banana milkshake, we'll try spicing it up a bit. I saw a few twists with chocolate and peanut butter! Mmmm. But for now, he loved his creation! We tossed it in the freezer for a few minutes to chill, so adding a few ice cubes may be helpful for next time.



For more info on "Kids in the Kitchen Thursday" visit A Little Fun With Me and Lu. Looking forward to many more "Kids in the Kitchen" to come. Hopefully next week, we will dig through some of our kids cookbooks and see what we can come up with!

Wordless Wednesday

Found him passed out in the middle of the night on the couch, in his bathrobe and surrounded by all his goodies :)

First Day of Preschool!

Friday was the first day of preschool around here, at least for us anyway. Little Wonders actually began last Monday, but we visited on Wednesday and started on Friday. Usually my perfectionism would have been rearing it's ugly head, having missed a few days of school, but it was out of my control. We had planned on attending another preschool, but it was only two days a week for an hour and a half at a time.

When I realized that the bilingual program we plan on participating in, has a mandatory all-day Kindergarten policy, I realized our plans needed to change. It's almost as if this year needs to be his Kindergarten. Next year he will be getting on the bus, probably shorty after seven and returning by four if we are lucky. We live in a neighboring town and I'm assuming bus rides will be long. Add a super long day, to a super long bus ride, and packing a lunch, this little guy needs preschool like he needs air to breath.


We had also been on a waiting list for free preschool, through our public school district. This was the hold up and what caused us to miss the first few days of school. I wanted to be sure he was not getting into the public school. It's a great program, four days a week, riding the bus, almost like Kindergarten. I thought it was just what he needed to be prepared for all-day next year. I played phone tag with the director for days and after finally cornering her at the school (literally), I realized we had to go another way. She said there may be an opening in the next few weeks, but by that time we would have missed a few weeks at his other school. So it had to be done, we went the other way. Sigh...did I mention it was FREE???? Big sigh. Oh well. I may have a breakdown if she calls me with an opening though...

I do think it ended up being the best option for him though. He absolutely LOVED it...even though he ran kicking and screaming when I told him we were going to visit on Wednesday! He gave me a play-by-play of what must have been every minute of the morning. He was thrilled that they let him do "as many projects as I wanted!". Hmmm, does that mean Mama is lacking in that department? I have my reasons people, this little guy is obsessed with recyclables and will not let me throw anything away, because it's a "project". But that's a whole other story, for a whole different day. His favorite part was the gym. This preschool is also actually a gymnastics studeo, so they have access to the equipment and time with the instructor during their playtime. BONUS... free gymnastic lessons!!! He loved it!

He has asked me every morning, afternoon, and night if tomorrow is a school day. Poor guy had to wait a whole weekend and a holiday. He finally gets to go back tomorrow. He loved it so much...this Mama is slightly worried he's never gonna want to stay home with her anymore! :( I'll be looking forward to all those "Muffin Tin Mondays", "Kids in the Kitchen", and "Tot School" posts to keep this little guy entertained!!!

Muffin Tin Monday

Here it is...my very first "Muffin Tin Monday". Thankfully, there was not a theme this week. I was able to "get my feet wet" so to speak before attempting to get creative. I did pretty well, with odds and ends I had laying around. From left to right and top to bottom we have...baby carrots, ranch, yellow bell pepper, and milk, rasberries, green jello dessert, strawberries, and bananas, PB&J cut into triangles, goldfish, more PB&J, and a bit of candy. My little man loved it, even though he was a bit taken aback at first! I LOVE this idea and can't believe I had not heard of it before. I'm looking forward to building a muffin tin collection and many "Muffin Tin Mondays" to come!!!

For more info on what exactly "Muffin Tin Monday" is, visit Her Cup Overfloweth HERE.