Monday, April 30, 2012

Kitchen Love Event

I'm teaming up with great bloggers to bring you some Kitchen Love!

Amy from Couponing and Reviewing In Texas absolutely LOVES her kitchen and is so excited to bring you a few of her favorite things: from her kitchen to yours.

The giveaway is open to U. S. residents and below are the prizes:

1.  Flirty Apron

2.  Eat Smart Digital Scale

3.  3 Pack Freeze & Lock Containers

4.  Fun Bites pack

I don't know about you, but these products sound great and I hope you will love these products as much as Amy does!!  To enter and win, please complete the Rafflecopter form below.  You must be 18 years of age or older to enter and win and live in the U. S.

Thanks for entering and Good Luck!!


Muffin Tin Monday: April Showers Bring May Flowers (2012)

Muffin Tin Monday at Muffintinmom.com

Last year I made a muffin tin and a special dessert tray called "April Showers Bring May Flowers." I wanted to do it again this year, but not completely duplicating it. Some originality is always good.
So, I give you this year's "April Showers Bring May Flowers" tin

Cottage cheese cloud
Flower shaped cheese
Green Bean Stems
Peanut butter and Apple butter flower sandwich
Mandarin Orange Flower
Cool whip and marshmallow dessert cloud
Jello Jiggler Raindrops

Tabitha does not like the American cheese so I made her a flower shaped English Muffin with shredded Cheddar Cheese on top.


Yes, she had the oranges just about gone before I could snap the picture.


Raindrops are falling down:



Gotta catch one on the tongue of course.


Baby Shower Celebration: Sponsor Spotlight: Miracle Blanket


I discovered another unique and innovative way to swaddle a baby. It is called miracle blanket.


I realize it doesn't quite look like a blanket when you first glance at it does it. And yet, when you see the result, it looks like a baby wrapped in a swaddle blanket (which it is of course). 

The creator of Miracle Blanket is Mike Gatten and he came to develop this blanket out of desperation. He and his wife were looking for a solution to calm their colicky baby. This is what they discovered in their research:
  1. Swaddling is the most helpful ingredient in every effective calming method,
  2. Holding your baby on your forearm, face-down (or face-forward) while rocking or jiggling him (gently) seems to enhance the calming effect, and
  3. Using a pacifier and making a loud shushing sound in his ear further adds to the effectiveness.
He then discovered he needed to find a way to keep a baby swaddled to prevent twitching and flailing that didn't involve complex folds, arm pockets, adjustments for different size babies, buttons, Velcro or straps.

So the Miracle Blanket was born.

Here are the instructions from the Miracle Blanket website showing how easy it appears it is to use the blanket:
Step One:
Lay the blanket on a flat surface with the foot pouch at the bottom and lay baby between armflaps with tops of shoulders slightly above top of blanket.
Step One
Step Two:
Fold the armflaps over the outside of your baby's arms and tuck them snugly under her back on each side. IMPORTANT: You should lift the baby's bottom to be sure the armflaps are flat and snug under baby's back.
Step Two
Step Three:Pull the footpocket up over the feet. NOTE: Some babies' feet may not reach the foot pocket yet. This is okay: It will be there for them as they grow.
Step Three
Step Four:
Fold the right side of the blanket over your baby's belly and tuck it under the left arm pit (her right). This flap should wrap all the way under the baby's back.
Step Four
Step Five:
Wrap the left side of the blanket over the top of her belly and all the way around her until you run out of blanket. This is where it is important to pull the blanket snug. THE BLANKET MUST BE PULLED SNUG.
Step Five

If you would like to see this in action, here is the link to the Miracle Blanket site where they share a video of a baby being swaddled in it.

Head on over to there site and check it out.

Right now you can take advantage of their special- $5 off the regular price and buy any two Miracle Blankets and get an additional 15% discount on all the Miracle Blankets in your order.
What are you waiting for, head on over and check it out.


You can check them out at their website: www.miracleblanket.com
And on Facebook and Twitter.

Don't forget to stop back during the Baby Shower Celebration for an opportunity to enter a giveaway for your own Miracle Blanket.

Photobucket

The Baby Shower Celebration has been extended so please ignore the dates on the image (I just don't have time to make a new one) It was extended because of several unforeseen circumstances. So stay tuned for more great Sponsor Spotlights, Reviews and Giveaways.

School Time: Rainbows Concluded

This past week we finished up our Rainbow unit. This is the unit I wanted to start right after St. Patrick's Day. That didn't happen because of the baby being in the hospital and then we concentrated on Resurrection Sunday. The girls have really been enjoying our Rainbow unit. And I have been amazed at all the foods I have been able to serve them focused on rainbows. Last week I shared about our Rainbow Muffin Tin and Rainbow Pancakes. Then for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen we made Rainbow Fruit Pizza. This week we had:
Rainbow Spaghetti
(I found this on Pinterest. It was shared on Growing a Jeweled Rose)

Just cook your spaghetti, drain and rinse, and toss with some olive oil to prevent sticking. I completely missed that last step. Could be a reason why mine didn't turn out as nice as hers. Then separate into 6 bowls, put several drops of food coloring in each bowl, stir. Form rainbow. The one problem I noticed was by the time I had it all set up it had gotten cold. Oh, yeah, I added shredded mozzarella cheese for a cloud. The Texas toast is just because we wanted it.

Then I came up with this brilliant idea of making a Rainbow Salad. 
First I placed a bed of romaine lettuce leaves.
Then I made the rainbow:
Red grape tomato slices
Orange mini carrot slivers
Yellow raw corn off the cob
Green sliced avocado
Blue blueberries 
I couldn't think of anything for purple. Today my son suggested beets or pickled eggs.
And I used cauliflower for a cloud and ranch dressing for the other cloud.


Then I added a 1/4 of a bagel (I did a 1/4 so it would be an arc shape) 
and chicken to round out the meal.


And, yes, I even made myself a plate:

It was actually pretty well received. 

And then we made rainbow stew. No, this is not edible. I found this idea on about.com under Family Crafts.

Materials Needed:
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 cup corn starch
  • 4 cups water
  • Food Coloring
Instructions:
Mix together all of the ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir constantly and heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool.


(for anyone who was around for Wordless Wednesday you may remember the above picture.)

Divide the mixture into three bowls. Add a different color of food coloring to each bowl. Put approximately three tablespoon of each color into a zip-lock bag. Seal the bag and tape the top closed.








Knead the baggie to mix colors just enough to look like a rainbow. Lay bag down on a hard surface and gently press to flatten it. You can hang it in your window when finished. You can also just play with it and see wht happens to all of the colors!



One small note. If you want to have all the colors of the rainbow you need to put some of the red next to the blue or you only end up with 5 colors. 

Oh, my, I almost forgot to mention the other activity we did. We used food coloring to color ice cubes the three primary colors.




We then set the timer to see how solid they would be in one hour. Unfortunately, they were more solid than I expected after that short time. I was going to put toothpicks in them to help hold them for a later project, but after just one hour the top was completely solid. I could still stick my finger in if I pushed hard enough and the children could see it was still liquid inside, but it was too hard for a toothpick.

So, fast forward a couple of days...we decided to have fun mixing colors.
I put about 1/2 inch of hot tap water in the tub.



Then they chose two different color ice cubes to place in the water. First choice was blue and red.


Yes, blue and red makes purple. Of course, they already know that, but it was fun nonetheless.


We did this for each color combination. I just dumped the water and added fresh each time, along with rinsing the spoons.  I asked what color they wanted to make and which two colors we needed. 

And the baby sat by watching. 


I thought it would be cute for baby Harold to take a turn stirring.  What did he have the audacity to do??
He spit up in the water!!

The girls didn't like that very much. Of course, Hannah thought she would try to play with it. Fortunately we were done.

 And isn't it convenient, that the only time I got to take the girls to Story Time this year (because of the baby we haven't gone) they were playing with the colorful parachute.


We read some more great Rainbow books. I love the Rookie Read-About Science books. This one by Allan Fowler is a great introduction to rainbows.
All the Colors of the Rainbow (Rookie Read-About Science)
It did a great job explaining how sunlight looks white and yet is made up of colors. And Tabitha is able to read them!

Then we read a fun picture book by Don Freeman (he is the author of Corduroy).
A Rainbow of My Own(4 Paperback and 1 CD) (Picture Puffins)
When a little boy sees a rainbow and tries to catch it, it suddenly isn't there. He then imagines a rainbow of his very own following him and playing with him. When the sun comes out his imaginary rainbow disappears as well, but he has a surprise at home. His very own real rainbow in his room. You have to read the book to find out how.

And we also reread Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry that I shared about last week.
While Tabitha, Amelia, Harold and I read the above books, Hannah sat on the floor "reading" 
A Rainbow All Around Me
and

Planting a Rainbow

I am linking up to


Tot School

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