Muffin Tin Monday: Weather themed

We have been talking about weather this week so for Muffin Tin Monday I chose to do a weather theme. It is not often that you see rain in the desert so when it was rainy this past week I used it as a good time to talk about rain, rainbows, clouds, snow, the sun, ect.
We had: Sunny cheesy eggs, yogurt with rainbow sprinkles, a rain cloud and rain drop tortilla, muddy sausage, an apple umbrella and banana, chocolate chip and sprinkles snowman. H was more than excited to eat and talk about the weather today.

Kids in the kitchen

My daughter LOVES to help in the kitchen and she is always wanting to help me chop onions and bell peppers, ect. I have let her use butter knives in the past until I found this knife for kids. It is from Pampered Chef and it is only $4.00! It is similar to a pumpkin carving knife. A safe, stainless steel cutter with a rounded point, just sharp enough for kids to cut apples, cheese, pancakes and more.

Rain cloud art

We are currently talking about weather. Last night it started to rain so I thought it would be a perfect time to talk about rain and clouds ect. I let her finger paint with shaving cream on a piece of paper to make a "cloud". Then using an eye dropper with slightly watered down tempera paint to make rain drops.

Practicing writing letters

I used shaving cream on the table for finger paint to help H practice writing her letters. It is a great sensory project.

Muffin tin Monday

We had our Muffin Tin Monday today for dinner. H had carrots sticks, ranch veggie dip, pita chips,blueberry cereal bar, and pasta salad. I kinda felt bad there was no protein in the tin but she had chicken for lunch. H loved helping me make pasta salad. She adds all the veggies and the salad dressing.

Mickey and Minnie 3rd birthday party

Chicken Chilli

This recipe is sooooo yummy. My friend made it and past it on to me and it is one of our family favorites now.

Chicken chili
Serves about 8 people
In a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker combine:
1 cup chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 cans (15 1/2 oz size) Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 4-ounce cans diced green chile peppers
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups chopped COOKED chicken
Cover and cook on low heat for 7 to 8 hours or on high heat for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Then, stir in 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese until melted.
Optional garnishments: sour cream, canned diced green chile peppers and cheese

Homemade pizza on a tortilla

this week we made a homemade pizza on a tortilla and baked it. it was really good little thin crust pizza. just sauce cheese and olives yummm H made it herself and gobbled it up

Rainbow pudding pops

today we made a fun snack with rainbow colors. It was so simple it is just a package of vanilla pudding made as directed (3cups of milk) I scooped out even amounts of pudding once made and put it in muffin pan to separate them and added colors. (H actually did all the work lol) then we scooped the different colors in layers into dixie cups and when all the layers was in added a Popsicle stick. We froze them and then a great after dinner snack.
1 pack of vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
food coloring
muffin tin or something to separate colors
TIP: to get the popsicle out of the cup heat up tap water and let water run on it for a few seconds then peel the paper off.

rainbow fading art

I did this project with H last year to but on paper towels. I did it this year on coffee filters and I have to say I liked the paper towels better (it just spread better.) I gave her a coffee filter, markers in all the colors of the rainbow, and a spray bottle. She loved it!!!

Rainbow french toast/ Rainbow Milk art

This morning for breakfast we made rainbow french toast. I did this with H last year and wanted to do it again but add something to it and make it a little more fun. First I took an ice cube tray and filled up 6 spots with milk. Then I let H put in a drop of the food coloring. when we only had red, yellow, green and blue she noticed we didn't have orange or purple. Perfect opportunity to talk about mixing colors to get new colors and made orange and purple. Then I gave her a spoon cause I didn't have any unused paint brushes and let her add the colored milk to her bread to make a rainbow. After she finished making her bread I started to make the batter for french toast and when I poured the milk into the pie dish she asked it she could add the colors to the milk. I couldn't resist a great opportunity, so I added food coloring to the milk and let her mix it up it turned out beautiful! In the end the french toast looked really weird but the experience was so much fun and H ate 2 pieces and 1/2 an egg which is a lot for her:)

Rainbow sensory tubs

We are talking about rainbows this week. So I made a rainbow sensory tub. I colored rice in snack size Ziploc bags with a few drops of food coloring and one pump of hand sanitizer. You can use rubbing alcohol as well but I find the other is easier and dries faster. Then I added rainbow colored sequins, and scoops.

Muffin Tin Monday: Rainbow snack

We ended St.Patrick's Day with talking about rainbows. This week theme will be rainbows. I have a lot of fun things planed. Today we had red Jello, oranges, yellow pineapples, green pickles, blueberries, and purple yogurt. She eat it ALL! which is saying a lot for H. only thing is she was dipping her pickle in the yogurt GROSS lol.

St. Patrick's day

Here are some of the activities that we did for St. Patrick's Day
our St. Patrick's Day sensory green tub. I filled it with split peas, lentils, rice I colored green, green pom poms, gold coins and scoops from baby formula and a green lid

this is a puzzle I made a long time ago when I was a preschool teacher for Math. each number is a different shape cut so the kids that are not sure of the answer can get a little help and then start to associate the number of items with written number.
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working on numbers again I just took shamrock shapes and drew the numbers on them then made small dots of the the number as well and gave her some gold coins. she had to put the correct number of coins under the shamrock.

I colored her food green this is our mac n cheese I put a few drops of food coloring in water and then in cheese mix. I also did this to pancakes it was a lot of fun


We made green goop. Cornstarch and water I added green food coloring too. I gave H the water bottle and let her create and get as messy as she wanting too.

What we did in February

I have not been posting activities lately so here is a the things I forgot to post in February.



We had fun with bean bags and practicing taking turns by throwing bean bags into different size boxes. We talked about who's turn it was, waiting and being patient and compared the boxes on difficultly of making them in the box.

simple Montessori activity of transferring small heart shaped jewels from the table to a heart shaped muffin tin using only tongs.

Muffin Tin Monday: Green

Muffin Tin Monday: theme green

Today for muffin tin Monday we had a green theme. H had green grapes, kiwi, chocolate cupcake with green sprinkles, bell pepper and celery, hot dogs and a biscuit.

working on letters

I used garage sale stickers on a paper and a Ziploc bag and gave her fruit loops to match the circles to make the letter. She has been so interested in writing and letters so I have been trying to think of ways to foster that interest and make it fun too. what is not fun about playing with food lol.

Muffin tin monday

In attempt to stay caught up I am doing muffin tin Monday for breakfast today. we had grapes, strawberries, strawberry yogurt with sprinkles, blueberry waffle cut into two hearts cap 'n' crunch with crasins, and syrup.

Muffin Tin monday last 2 weeks

I have been so busy I have not been blogging about what I have been up to or post muffin tin mondays so here they are for the last two weeks
here is Valentine's Day muffin tin

2-21-11 muffin tin

Post office pretend play

I go to the post office a lot mailing orders for my tutu business and my daughter is fascinated with it. She always ask lots of questions and thought it would be fun to play that at home. So I set up a post office for her with a cash register, stamps, envelopes, a Mail box and lots to draw with. I also put her address, a list of family and friends names and common post office words on the wall.I also set up a couple more stations throughout the down stairs for her to deliver the mail, using her bike and a large reusable tote bag to carry the mail. she loved it and delivers things to daddy and her stuff animals and babies. I got the idea for the mail box here.

To make the MAIL box I used and old cereal box and cut a hole in it then spray painted it black cause I didn't have blue and cut out the letters and glued it on. another way to reuse

Valentine's candy hearts graph

I made a Valentine's candy hearts graph to introduce graphing. This also focus on sort and count the colors of hearts in the box of candy. I made this out on construction paper using a ruler and pen very simply made. I wrote all the colors in the bottom and then colored the box that color. When I was a kid there was white ones in the box to, H was surprise and very curious on why she didn't find them in the box.