Muffin Tin Monday Memorial Day

Today we honored our fallen soldiers with a Memorial Day MTM. My husband served in the US. Navy for 6 years and so grateful that he is still with us and respect the soldiers who did not make it home and pray for their families.
So it is not a "muffin tin" but it is a cut red white and blue divider lol. we had hot dogs on the grill, star shaped apples and fruit leather, and a cupcake with red white and blue sprinkles.

Muffin Tin Monday

This week for muffin tin Monday we had chocolate milk, pineapple, edamame, humus, pita chips, and quesadilla. I had a busy day yesterday and today so I am late posting this weeks lunch.

Practing with scissors

H can cut all day long but I am trying to work with her on control. I do not expect her to get it right. I encourage her to stay in the lines, however, I want to make it fun and just introduce the idea to her. I do not believe in forcing learning on children at a small age so this is just for fun.

Muffin tin Monday

Hi everyone. I have not been able to post as much as I would like to lately I am working on catching up. Here is what we had for lunch today. Cutie orange, black olives, cheese its, peanut butter and jelly, a gummy worm, and watermelon. H eat it all which is a really big deal cause lately she has been going through little phases of not wanting to eat. happy Monday!

The Letter A

H told me and my husband last night that she did not want to wait till she was 5 to go to school. She wants to go now maybe they will take her at 3 lol. I told her we can play "school" at home and she got really excited about it and told me she wants to learn to read and write. So I set up the chalk board and a list of items that start with the letter A. We talked about the letter, its sound and things that started with A, and practiced writing. She loved the concept and even started to draw things that started with the letter. I am going to have her looking for the letter A all throughout the town. She has recognized all her letters and the sounds they make and words that start with it since she was 26 months. She has been writing her name for about 6 months also. so it is not like we don't do this already but she wants it to have a title I guess. lol if she is interested I am going to take more advantage of it.

Painting rocks for Earth Day

Today we went on a rock walk and my daughter found her "perfect rock" to paint the Earth. She took so much pride in washing it so it was clean and ready to paint she was so sweet as if she was taking care of a small baby. Then we painted it with blue and green for the earth with tempera paint. I think she did pretty good what do you think?

Soup can crayon holders

My daughter had a pencil case that was overflowing with crayons, markers, and color pencils. So I decided to reuse some soup cans ( the ones that have the pile off lid so that she doesn't cut her finger on a jagged edge) to put her drawing supplies in she has 3 cans so she can sort them in the right place and it looks a lot cleaner on the desk. I want to add cute paper and decorate them some time.

My little gardener:)

Because it is earth day this week and H got some gardening tools and seeds for her birthday we decided to plant flowers. She loved helping and is so proud of her seeds. We are learning the different stages of a seed and how it grows and changes. She is so mindful of the seeds and wants to check on them often it is a good thing cause I would forget lol

Bird feeder from milk jug

In honor of earth day this week we reused a milk carton to make a bird feeder. I cut windows and a door out of the carton with a box cutter or razor and gave it a light coat of spray paint. Then I had H glue nature sequins on the jug to decorate it.
We hung it in the tree in the back yard. Excuse the yard color we just sprayed for weeds.

H looked at it and it was blowing in the wind and she asked me how the birds would hang on. So we had to come up with a better plan

so we tied it up on both sides and now it can't go anywhere. this made H feel much better about the birds eating the food.

Earth Day cookies

In honor of Earth Day this week me and H made Earth cookies we made a regular batch of sugar cookies and then split the ball in half and dyed on half blue and one half green. Then we took a little of each and rolled them together and made a swirl and put them on cookie sheet and baked they came out so cute! then we put one in H's muffin tin monday

Muffin Tin Monday: Earth day (week)

This week is Earth Day week. So have been planting flowers, recycling (like always, just talking about it more), and reusing things in new ways. In our tin we had
~ Dirt cake with worm H helped me make
~ Earth sugar cookies H helped me make
~flower fruit leather
~ broccoli trees
~hot lava spagetti
~meatball rocks.

Kitchen tool art

We have been experimenting with textures and shapes. so we used some different items from the kitchen to paint with.

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.