stART ~ If You Were a Penguin

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too! The linky will be open all week.

This week we read If You Were a Penguin, by Wendell and Florence Minor. Emily received a penguin stamp for Christmas an has been interested in penguins so this week while we made a very quick trip to the library (Juliette was not such a happy camper so we had to pick books and run) we found this cute penguin book. It tells about all of the things that penguins do with a fun rhyming text and beautiful illustrations.

After reading the book, a few times, Emily made a paper plate penguin to go with the book. Now our little penguin friend can read the book with us too!

Emily’s Paper Plate Penguin

I cut out the bottom of a paper plate to make the body of the penguin. I cut that piece into two small feet.

Emily painted the outside edge of the paper plate with black paint. I drew a line to help her know where to paint.

Next, Emily painted the two feet with orange paint.

After all of the pieces dried Emily glued on two wiggly eyes a construction paper beak and the feet.

Emily’s finished penguin

Yummy Coconut Bars

We LOVE these yummy coconut bars and they were so nice and easy for Emily to help me with!

Daddy was having fun playing with the zoom on our new camera, I loved this picture of Emily spooning the coconut into the pan!

Chewy Chocolate Coconut Bars

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 and 2/3 cups shortbread cookie crumbs (about 24 cookies)
1 ¾ cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Melt the butter and pour it into a 9- x 13-inch baking pan, tilting the pan so the butter covers the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the cookie crumbs evenly over the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle ¾ cup coconut evenly over the crumbs. Scatter the chocolate over the coconut, then scatter the remaining coconut over the chocolate. Drizzle the condensed milk evenly over the top.

3. Bake the bars for 22 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is golden brown in spots and the condensed milk is bubbling. Let the bars cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate briefly for easier cutting. Using a large sharp knife, cut into 30 bars. Serve at room temperature or chilled

Makes 2 ½ dozen bars

ENJOY

Check out Kids in the Kitchen for some other great kid friendly recipes!!

Muffin Tin Monday

I am trying so hard to get back into a routine since Christmas, we have been so busy I have missed so many Muffin Tin Mondays.  But, we were able to participate this week (it helped that there was no theme!!!  Emily was excited about her bear muffin tin, my mom was over and she told her all about the Teddy Bear Picnic we had a few months ago with this tin.  It was so cool to see that she remembered it!!

Emily’s Muffin Tin Lunch

Top Row: Yogurt, Shredded cheddar cheese, Goldfish Crackers

Bottom Row:  Peanut butter and Jelly roll-ups, Broccoli, Animal crackers

I am really looking forward to the upcoming color theme!!!

Happy Muffin Tin Monday :0)

TOTSchool

 

Our Week in TOTSchool

**This is actually the last few weeks, I am still trying to catch up with my blogging, but we did a lot of fun activities so I didn’t want to miss posting them.  This week should be up soon, I hope :0)

Emily is 34 months old

Emily had fun helping me make coconut bars.  She enjoyed spooning the cookie crumbs into the dish.

*These are amazing and I will be posting the recipe really soon, I promise :0)

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Emily had a great time celebrating New Years!!  She played rock band with Daddy and Uncle Jonathan.  She actually stayed up until midnight to watch the ball drop, Juliette did not :0)

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Emily had a great time at her friend’s 3rd birthday party at Build-A-Bear Workshop.  She named her bear Care Bear and picked out a really cute love outfit for her.  Her favorite part was pretending to give Care Bear a bath!

Emily and Daddy had a great time playing Don’t Spill the Beans.  Emily thought it was very funny to make the beans spill, she hasn’t quite gotten the concept of the game DON’T spill the beans.  This was great fine motor skills practice!

 

At Sarah’s house we baked Pumpkin Muffins.  The girls had fun scooping, mixing and pouring and of course tasting their delicious pumpkin muffins.

Sarah also did a really cool science experiment with the girls.  She put a ice cube in a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water and they watched to see which one melted faster.  Emily was talking about this all day!

 

We used Tri Beads (beads with three bumps on the sides of them) for fine motor skills practice.  The girls love making bracelets with the beads and pipe cleaners

 

For our stART project Emily made contact paper and tissue paper mittens.

Emily was so excited to wear her new green froggy back pack to Mommy and Me this week.  I absolutely LOVE this back pack.  A green back pack was the only thing that Emily asked for this Christmas and when I found this cute green and pink one I new she had to have it (She also LOVES frogs). 

 

The girls had fun at Art Group, we made ice cube paintings and salt paint snowmen.

 

Emily helped me make a cross cake for church to celebrate Juliette’s Baptism.  She loved helping grease the pan!

Our favorite books from this week:

• Just A Snowy Day ~ Mercer Mayer
• Snowballs ~ Lois Ehlert

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking the buttons on the top of this page!!

Friday Art Group

Color Wheel Project ~ Red and Red Packing Peanut Prints

This week we began with play dough. Before we clean up the play dough we always sing “On Top of Spaghetti,” we did this in Gymboree and I always though it was so cute and a great way to begin transitioning into the next activity.

Here is how it goes:

Leader: Make a ball, make a ball, make a ball, ball, ball

Make a ball, make a ball, make a tiny little ball

(Children roll the play dough into a ball in their hands)

Put the ball onto the table and roll it on the table while singing:

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese,

I lost my pour meatball when somebody sneezed (aaachhooo ~ pretend to sneeze)

It rolled off the table and onto the floor

and then my poor meatball rolled right out the door.

It rolled on the sidewalk and under a bush,

and then my poor meatball, hands up, was nothing but mush. (Smoosh the ball of play dough)

Color Wheel Project ~Red

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Shannon at Mommies Little Artists is hosting a color wheel series and I was so excited to participate with our Art Group. The girls are very excited about colors and many of them even have favorite colors. Before the kids came over I cut out 11 inch circles (I traced my largest pot lid) and then divided them into 6 pieces. Each week we are going to collage a different color in each of the pieces.

The girls colored one of the pieces of the circle with red markers, and then glued on red pipe cleaners, tissue paper, ribbon, stickers and sequins.

Red Packing Peanut Prints

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I received a package that was filled with bio-degradable packing peanuts (I have been waiting for these for so long!!) and thought they would be fun to paint with. It was interesting to see how each of the girls used them, one rolled the paint onto the paper with it, one stamped and the other smeared it around. It was also interesting to see how the packing peanuts melted as they were painting with them. It left a neat texture to the paint!

stART ~ It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too! The linky will be open all week.

This week we read It Looked Like Spilt Milk, by Charles G. Shaw. This is a fun book that shows a different white picture blob on each blue page. We have to guess what it really is all the way till the end.

When I read this book with my first graders I had them draw a shape and then fill it in with cotton balls. Since Emily is not at the stage where she could draw a shape and have it closly resemble something I thought it would be more fun to do blob paintings.

Emily’s Blob Paintings

Emily used a dropper to drop white paint onto a blue piece of construction paper. I watered the paint down so that is would work with the dropper. When she felt like it was the right amount of paint she folded the paper over and smoothed it out. When she opened it…

…she said “It looks like a butterfly.”

And it really did!!!

Juliette’s Special Day

We celebrated Juliette’s Baptism on Sunday January 10, 2010.   The ceremony was at our church and then we had a party for our family and friends afterwards.  It was such a wonderful day.  Juliette was amazing the whole day, she didn’t even cry when our Pastor took her from me!  She is such an amazing blessing and I am so thankful for her.

Juliette wore the Baptism Gown that my Godmother, Auntie Doris crochet for me.  It was so special to me that Juliette was able to wear this.  Although Auntie Doris is not here with us anymore, she was such an important part of my life, and she was remembered every time someone commented on how beautiful Juliette’s gown was.

 

Juliette’s Godparents, Uncle Scott (my brother) and Aunt Christina (my future sister-in-law) getting Juliette dressed on the morning of her Baptism.

 

Our Church’s Bulletin

One of my favorite pictures from the day.  Our Family in church on the morning of Juliette’s Baptism.

Our Family gathered on the alter

Four Generations

My Sister Jennifer, Me, Juliette, My mom, My Grandma and Emily

   Our family and Juliette’s Godparents