"Hands on" Fun

Besides the kids learning about measuring out recipes and feeling new textures, these things keep them busy for hours!

1. Cloud Dough
We filled up an empty toy bucket, laid out a towel on the floor and broke out some of our smaller beach toys. This is by far Vans favorite of them all.
Cloud Dough is easy to vacuum up and leaves a fresh smell to the room!

Mix together 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil.

2. Rice Tank
Carolina rice, I find to only be tasty in rice pudding. So when the big bag was on sale at the supermarket I bought it strictly for play.
Dumping half of the bag into a large jar with a few drops of rubbing alcohol and food coloring I shook it a ton and left it laid out on a towel overnight to dry.

We went with a grassy green.
Van sat, wrist deep at the counter with an aluminum pan full of rice and little dump trucks every afternoon for about a week!

I warn, this isn't as fun to clean up.

3. Oobleck
This was NOT Vans favorite, but by far mine! One late night we whipped up a batch with friends and couldn't keep our fingers out of it!
Mix together 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 cups of cornstarch in a bowl.
Then, just dig in. Scooping it up as an almost solid and watching it drip through your fingers as a liquid is wild. If you've got a speaker available place your bowl of oobleck atop and watch it dance!

4. Goo
Van quit this before it was even done being made. I didn't push it with hopes that he'll be intrigued about it when he sees us playing in it later.
This goo makes a slimy and cold feel that their little hands are really not used to.
Mix together 1 teaspoon of borax in 1/2 cup of warm water. Pour into a bowl with 8oz of school glue. This will instantly become stringy.

5. Bored Bags

Ok, so we only did this once. But maybe my ONE idea could get your ball rolling!

I had three kids for the day and they were getting bored with everything offered to them. While they watched a movie I whipped up some cupcakes.. Felt cupcakes.

I grabbed every color of wool felt I owned and started cutting. Cupcake shapes, frosting shapes, stripes, polka dots, sprinkles, hearts and other shapes that they can get creative with. I laid out the pieces for them and let them get to building and my, were they some interesting looking cupcakes! When they were done "baking" we cleaned up the pieces into a ziploc.

Two other ideas I had were decorating a big felt Christmas tree with cut-out ornaments, and decorating a big felt face. Cutting out shapes for your template is easier than you may think.

Everything doesn't have to be perfect, just obvious. If I kid doesn't know that those are eyes for their cut-out face they will be easily confused.

Wool felt is cheap! Michaels sells small sheets and Jo-Ann's sells it by the yard.

Have fun! It's easy!

Children's Book of the Week

Any book that motivates an impromptu booty dance is getting a plug on this blog!

This book was real fun to read, and isn't going back to the library just yet. We'll keep it out a few more days for a few more laughs.

But on a serious note, another great book we read a few weeks ago was 'Can we save the Tiger'. It may have been a lot to read but kept Van's attention. The book is about the extinction of animals he has never met and the possibility of losing some of his favorites.

We had fun talking about future trips to see the bison in Yosemite and the moose in Utah.

Crystallized Easter Eggs

Hooray I finally bought Borax! I had an afternoon filled with craft ideas and when I got home, realized I forgot to buy extra glue. So we just did one craft, but it's a good one!
Line up big mason jars or some recycled tin cans in a safe place where they'll be untouched and will not be moved.
Grab some pipe cleaners and shape them into Easter eggs, twisting and bending to create your own. Of course skipping the theme and just shaping them into letters and shapes is totally cool too.

I think a cute little welcome sign is in order for my front door next!

Use some cotton string to attach your shape to a pencil, this will suspend your shape into the water. I used cans and the size eggs I made fit from top to bottom- it worked just as well as if I had the extra space.
Mix together in your jar or can 3 1/2 cups of boiling water with 1/2 cup of borax and an optional few drops of food coloring.
Put your eggs in and leave overnight. We made ours at 3pm and they were super crystallized at 11am the next morning.
It's a fun craft, the kids can be a part of each step!

Happy Easter y'all.

Margaritas!

Guys sister learned from working at an amazingly delicious Spanish restaurant; a simple and delicious Margarita recipe. What better way to celebrate warm but breezy nights than with a delicious drink in hand?
I'm ready for you, Summer!

I do not own a shaker so we used a mason jar to mix our drinks- works just as well!
Mix together 4oz. of tequila and the juice of a lime, some crushed ice and shake. Squirt some agave nectar in your mixer; about a tablespoon? until you've reached your desired sweetness. I put this as an afterthought incase you don't like sweets!

2011 was the year of sangria in this house, 2012 welcomes with open mouth the summer of the margarita! We just got started a little early...

Grammy's Hummus Recipe

Guys Mom is in town and shared her tasty and easy to make Hummus!

So, with her permission here is the recipe!

In the blender, combine all of the ingredients..

16oz. Can of uncooked Chickpeas

1/3 Cup of the reserved Chickpea liquid

(But save it all to the side, this way you can control the consistency)

4 Tablespoons of Tahini

2-3 Cloves of minced garlic

2-3 Tablespoons of lemon juice

1 Teaspoon of cumin

1/4 Teaspoon of Paprika

And some optional ingredients are a dash of salt & pepper, and some drizzled olive oil on top once the hummus is in a bowl.

Serve it up with some cut up pita bread and veggies! Enjoy!

Hiking we will go!

We love Hiking!

Staten Island doesn't have as much to offer but we make the best of it!

Normally we'd just head out, pick a trail and go until we've made a giant circle leading us up a mountain, over streams and far away from the traffic. Some other times we just go for the small adventures like scavenger hunts, hiking songs and the trail mix.

When Dad gets a minute and we get our scanner up and running again I will post a hand drawn list that we have planned out for Vans hike. In the meantime, we go to www.ScavengerHunts.com and get some of their fantastic lists. They give your little one things to watch for, listen and feel for, even smell!

We find our family hikes the best time to load up Vans brain with knowledge. So little distractions in the middle of the forest opens up a perfect opportunity for him to ask questions.

In our backpacks is a compass and binoculars, some water bottles, a map. We also bring along some trail mix! After a visit to Trader Joe's we made a big jar of it..

With about a handful of each, we loaded our mix with

Dried Apricots

Dried, Pitted Cherries

Banana Chips

Dark Chocolate Chips

Shelled Walnuts

Roasted, Unsalted Sunflower Seeds

Raw, Whole Cashews

Organic Raw Almonds

..and sometimes some Pretzel Goldfish!

Another great part of our hike is making up songs!

Get out there and enjoy a hike with your family.

A small ode to Red Peppers

Seriously, who doesn't love red peppers?

Three ways that I eat them pretty often are surrounded by egg, stuffed, or mixed in a salad.

Recipe for Stuffed Peppers

2 lbs of ground chicken or turkey meat

1 medium onion, chopped

Mix those two ingredients in a pan until meat is browned. While this cooks, prepare your rice (optional). Set your oven to 350.

2 cups of white or brown rice

Once your meat is browned, add to the pan..

1 Tablespoon of Chili Powder

1 Tablespoon of Cumin

4 cloves of garlic, minced

Cook these ingredients in with your meat and onion for a minute or two.

Pour your mix into a nice, big bowl where you'll add..

1 16oz jar of salsa (Or a cup of homemade salsa!)

1 16oz can of fat free refried beans

16oz of grated cheddar cheese (Sure, low fat cheese will do)

..And then add your rice. For Dad, I mixed him up a rice-free pepper.

Cut the tops off of your red (Or really, any color!) pepper, rinse out the seeds and stuff away!

Place them in a dish or pan that will keep them upright, cover up nice and tight with tinfoil and bake for 30 minutes.

My suggestion is to check the peppers before serving, just cut a little piece out of the pepper to be sure it's nice and soft. Enjoy with some guacamole and sour cream!

This mix will stuff about 6 big peppers, Enjoy!

As for my salad that I throw together almost daily, I cut up a three pack of organic romaine, rinse and toss in a bag lined with a paper towel for the (near) future. This'll make about 4 salads.

In a medium bowl I grab 2 handfuls of chopped romaine lettuce, toss in about 1/4 cup of diced red pepper and add 1/8-1/4 cup of fat free raspberry vinaigrette.

On top of this salad I put in 1/8 cup of sliced and diced pepperoni, 1/8 cup of tiny cubes of parmesan, a small handful of walnuts and Trader Joe's dried cherries.

That't it. So delicious.

But I'll be honest, I've never actually used a measuring cup for this! I know the dressing can be used very sparingly and there is never enough walnuts!