Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sunday Photo Round-Up: March 31, 2013

It's time for me to share my photo challenge photos from this week (and last week).

First, let's get going with this week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday:

Water, Empty, Fresh, Weathered, Ordinary

Water

My daughter showed me the back way to get her to her dad's house and we just happen to go over this bridge which I was going to use for weathered until I found a better subject. However, I thought it worked well for water.

Empty

There are a lot of empty egg cartons around this house lately. With me eating 2 egg whites a day and hubby eating a 3-egg breakfast sandwich everyday, in addition to any recipes that call for eggs, we go through a lot. And, to hubby's dismay, I like to keep them for crafts and activities.

Fresh

I have been enjoying fresh salads with a wide variety of veggies for lunch as I try to get healthier. I just thought this one looked so pretty, I had to take a picture. Then I realized it would work quite well for this prompt.

Weathered

While taking Krystal back to her dad's last weekend (yes, I actually didn't wait until the last minute to start looking for my Scavenger Hunt items this time) I kept my eyes pealed for this prompt specifically. The road I go on is quite new to me, so I was extremely excited for new photo ops. I though this barn fit the bill really well. Come to think of it, I believe it would work very nicely for last week's prompt, textured.

Ordinary

I figured a house with a yard and a swing in it was quite an ordinary sight.

I failed to link up last week for Scavenger Hunt Sunday as I hadn't found all the pictures. I still don't have all of them, but here are the ones I found.

Asian

I found out last week that I can buy fortune cookies at my local Tops market. Cool.

Wavy

Tabitha's hair after I unbraided it for her bath.

Then I thought it would be fun to have the girls make some waves.

Draw
The girls all love to draw. So, I am sharing 1 recent picture from all of them.

Tabitha

We were working on our dinosaur unit and she drew this lovely scene. All the plant eating dinosaurs found some food and are on the way home. The T-Rex is also on his way home because he is full (or something like that. She usually has a story to go along with her pictures).

Amelia

This was some art she created at homeschool co-op. Her people have always slanted over a bit (should have had a V-8?)

Hannah

I think Hannah would sit all day and draw/color if I let her. She is starting to try to tell me what her pictures are, though I can't remember what this one was.

Soft

This was dug out of my archives. I couldn't think of what to take a picture of and I knew I had this picture of the girls' Pillow Pets from when they were almost brand new and looking so soft (they were actually set up like this for another Scavenger Hunt a little over a year ago). However, this time I brightened it up a bit using picmonkey (love that site).

Textured

I completely failed on the Photo a Day challenge this month. So, I will be starting back up in April.

And I'm continuing on with

over at Mom vs. The Boys

ABC Friday gives you a chance to share a random photo with a challenge!
Each week is a new letter theme, starting with A of course, we will work our way through the alphabet.

All you have to do is post a picture with the letter theme for that week…. A is for Auto, B is for Beach, C is for Cake….I think you get it.
This is not Wordless Wednesday, feel free to share in words what the photo is all about! or not, it’s up to you!

K is for Kiwi

Saw a nice basket of kiwis sitting on the shelf in the store.

L is for Legs

The girls were helping Harold walk.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

B is for Beans

Here it is the end of the week again and I finally have time to sit down and concentrate on writing this post.

B is for Beans

I really wasn't sure what to do for B at first. Then I remembered the Bean activities I created for the girls. When we were at co-op a couple of weeks ago the one mom brought a bean game for the preschool class to play. She set out dry beans on the floor and the children had to count out the beans to go into their egg cartons that she had written the numbers 1-12 on.

This reminded me so much of an activity I had created for the girls 2 years ago to go with our B unit.

I filled a small tub with small beans (probably navy beans or great northern beans) and added 12 kidney beans.

The girls had to hunt for the beans (I was going for the sensory tub effect) and place them in the egg carton.

The girls were only to count one to one for this activity. However, when we got home from co-op the other day I had the girls find the correct number of beans for each compartment. It was definitely harder to hide all those beans rather than just the 12.

Another activity that I came up with later that year was the Great Phonics Hunt. I used the same tub, but switched to an 18 count egg carton. I placed 6 letters we had already worked on in the top row. Then I placed two objects that started with each letter in the bean tub. They had to match the object to the sound and place it in the holes in the rows beneath the letters.

Beans are one of my favorite sensory box materials. I've also started eating more of them as I strive to be healthier, but...that's a different story for another time (probably on my other blog.).

If you would like to try blogging through the alphabet, don't forget to link up with Marcy from Ben and Me.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops: March 29-31, 2013

Welcome to Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hops with your co-hosts:

Karen from Tots and Me, Maria from Adventures of the Mommy Homemaker and Rena from An Ordinary Housewife.

Thank you to every one who has stopped by, whether this is your first visit or you have been a faithful ongoing participant!

We would love for you to stop by each of the co-hosts and follow us, then feel free to add your links to any or all of the following linkies.

We also randomly choose a Featured host each week from the Lovin' The Readers linky. This week we are featuring Sherryl from Simply Sherryl.

Here's what she has to say:

"I’ve always been a writer at heart. Started with journals, letters, articles. So when the online blogging wagon came around I jumped on. This site, Simply Sherryl is fairly new and the focus is more on home, homeschooling, faith and family. [Prior to blogging, I] trained as an Accountant, my past work history is in this field. With seven children, it’s hard to remember doing anything before being a mom! We have seven [wild and crazy] children. Brian, Katrina, Wendy, Derek, Elizabeth, Rebekah and Meagan. The older five are all married with wonderful spouses and delightful children that I get to spoil as the granma! Rebekah and Meagan are in high school and are starting the college search this year.

[Surprisingly, blogging] often feels like WORK! What started out as a pastime quickly became a chore… for a while I lost that loving feeling… I decided to attend Bloggy Conference 2012 last year because it was local to me and it made all the difference in my attitude and outlook. This year I can’t wait for Titus 2:1 Conference in April and Bloggy Conference 2013 in September."

Don't forget to link up to the Lovin' the Readers Hop if you would like a chance to be a Featured host next week. Please comment with a way to contact you, especially if there is not an obvious way mentioned on your blog. We would love to include a little write up about you and your blog in the next week's Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hop post, including a link to your blog. And you will get to include the linky codes on your blog. Sound fun? We're looking forward to getting to know our readers better.

Here's how this blog hop works. We would appreciate it if you would follow Tots and Me, Adventures of a Mommy Homemaker and An Ordinary Housewife then please head on over to our Featured Host and follow as well. If you no longer have GFC please follow in some other way. After that there are three different linkies you can link to. Whichever one you choose to link to, please grab that button and share it on your blog (the codes are on Tot's and Me's sidebar). We'd love it if you could tweet or in some other way share about this blog hop, the more people who know about it, the more potential visitors and new followers of your blog. We'd love to meet some new friends this weekend.

Some people are more interested in just increasing their numbers, while others really want people who appreciate their blog and want to keep up with their posts. So, there are two separate blog hop linkies.

The third linky is for you to link up your giveaways.

If you are interested in increasing the number of followers to your blog via GFC, Linky Followers, email, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ link up here. We will follow you back if you follow us (just note which one you are linking to):

If you are interested in gaining followers to your blog who will read and comment and truly find an interest in your blog, link up here:

If you have family friendly giveaways to link up, here's your spot. Please make sure to include an end date for your giveaway.

We are so glad you stopped by. Please leave a comment if you link up and we will be sure to stop by and follow back.

Don't forget to check out my "Blog Hops" page for other great blog hops!!

Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #40:Peanut Butter Sandwich Bread

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

(A weekly linky where you can share your special time in the kitchen, such a great place for learning. You can also link up Kid-Friendly Recipes)

The linky is at the bottom.

As I have been trying to eat healthier these days I have decided I can't keep sharing sugar-laden snacks on Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen. It is just going to take me some time to find some good recipes. I'm sure we will still be sharing some, as hubby still craves those sweet treats and the girls love them too. But I am going to try to share healthier recipes occasionally.

This week I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Sandwich Bread (someone shared it on Facebook). This was posted over at Satisfying Eats. There is no flour in this bread, which intrigued me. Here is the ingredient list:

Easy Almond/Peanut Butter Bread

1 cup natural almond/peanut butter, smooth (boy does it take some muscles to stir that peanut butter)
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 servings Stevia (to taste, more if you want sweeter bread)

Now I have never used Stevia before, and hubby found Stevia in the Raw, I am not sure if it can be substituted for the Pure Stevia Extract that I saw in the picture over at Satisfying Eats, but, I did substitute it as it was all I had.

Very simple directions.

Blend all the ingredients together.

The children of course enjoyed the reaction of the vinegar and the baking soda. These ingredients are supposed to help the bread rise.

Line loaf pan with foil.

Pour batter into pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes.

As you can see, my bread didn't really rise well. I am not sure what happened. The taste was kind of bland and the texture was a bit dry, but it was pretty good toasted with jelly. I know, there goes the sugar free benefit.