Tots and Me... Growing Up Together

Monday, July 22, 2013

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- July 23, 2013

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me and Emily @ Emily Reviews

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups.

Our co-hosts this week are Ashley from Forgetful Momma and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would like to follow the hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaways

Win a Gift From Your MyPerfectGift.com Wishlist {up to $150} Open to US Ends 8/9

$100 eGift Code from Educational Toys Planet Open to US Ends 8/5

$75 Comfy Joey Gift Card Sling Baby Carriers Open Worldwide Ends 7/25

$25 Scarlet's Naturals Gift Card-Natural Personal Care Items Open to US/Canada Ends 7/26

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me & Emily @ Emily Reviews along with Ashley from Forgetful Momma and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

R is for Rice and Rainbow Sensory Fun

In the past we have had some fun with rice in our sensory tub. One day I decided to make Rainbow Rice. I followed the instructions for dyeing noodles. I took 6 bowls and poured 1 cup of rice into each one.

Next I found it was easier to mix 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol with 5-6 drops of the desired food coloring, then mix it into the rice. Then we stirred.

We set it outside on cookie sheets covered with wax paper until it dried.

One of the first things we made was a rainbow rice "r." All I did was trace the r with white glue and the girls sprinkled some rice, one color at a time in the order of the rainbow, onto the glue.

Then we poured our rainbow of rice into the white rice in our sensory tub.

The girls swirled it around and mixed it in.

Then they played in it.

(Yes, this was a while ago.)

They love playing with their construction vehicles in the rice.

Another fun sensory experience was making Rainbow Stew (no, it 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.

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!

For more color mixing rainbow fun we played with colored ice cubes.

We used only the primary colors to dye the water in each compartment of the ice cube tray.

After it was frozen, I put about an inch of hot water in our tub.

We used two colors at a time to see them mix and make the secondary colors as we swirled them around. This would be a great activity for a hot day, come to think of it.

After the ice cubes were melted and the color was mixed I dumped the water and we started again.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops: July 19-21, 2013

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

Karen from Tots and Me, Rena from An Ordinary Housewife and Angie from Snack Cups and Smiles.

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 Kathy from LilyRoseBee.

Here's what she has to say:
"My name is Kathy and I am a mommy blogger of www.lilyrosebee.com. I started blogging after the recent birth of my baby boy Hunter, aka Poppyseed. My blog is tailored to new and clueless mothers, such as myself, who are looking for guidance and cool savings in their new and special journey in life. I really enjoy doing a lot of researches on baby stuff and sharing my honest opinions with friends and fans, many who are new or expectant moms, hence my Lilyrosebee blog was created for this common interest where we can all help one another"

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, An Ordinary Housewife and Snack Cups and Smiles. And please don't forget to visit our Featured Host. 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!!

Win a Gift from Your Wishlist Giveaway

Here is a new giveaway for you to enter!

Welcome to the Win a Gift from Your Wishlist Giveaway!

MyPerfectGift.com helps you give (or get) the perfect gift

How to be Eligible to Win

Create a registry with at least 3 gifts or add to an existing registry. {you can sign-up with one click using your Facebook info}

When you sign up please use “Wishlist” in the “Referred By” box.
(This is NOT an affiliate code of any kind. It is simply a way for the sponsor to track how many new sign-ups are sent her way)

One lucky winner will receive an item from their wishlist (up to $150)!!

Organized by: Branch Pro Promotions, LLC

I am thrilled to be able to join in with this giveaway hosted by: Baby Costcutters, Giveaway Booster, FYI by Tina, and Savory Savings

Giveaway ends August 9th at 11:59pm
Open to US residents, ages 18+.
To enter please use the Rafflecopter form below.
Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: To be eligible to win this giveaway you must create an account and add at least three items in your registry. If you have an existing account add three new items to your registry.

I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Tots and Me is not responsible for sponsor prize shipment. This event was organized by Branch Pro Promotions, LLC please contact Tina at branchpropromotions@gmail.com with questions or to see your business or blog featured on the next big event!

Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #51: Mama Panya's Pancakes

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.

We have been learning about Africa for the past few weeks creating works of art found in the book by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Jean Potter called "Global Art" that I am reviewing for the TOS Review Crew. When I started reviewing it I knew I wanted to make at least one recipe with the girls from the cultures we would be learning about. There have been many foods mentioned in the books we have been reading, but no recipes. I was thrilled when I found a recipe in the book "Mama Panya's Pancakes" by Mary and Rich Chamberlin.

You will need:

1 1/4 cups flour

2 cups cold water

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cardamom (or nutmeg, which is what we used)

1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, crushed (we did not use these as I don't have them anymore. I gave them to my son because I can't stand spicy things.)

The instructions are quite simple. You just mix all the ingredients together. The book said to use a fork, we used our whisk. At first I thought I had done something wrong as the batter was so thin. I actually Googled Mama Panya's Pancakes recipe and found someone had made these and shared them on her blog. I was relieved to discover that the batter was meant to be thin, or at least it was for her too. She said it was thinner than crepe batter, which I have never made, so this was news to me.

The children all took turns stirring it.

We preheated a nonstick pan at medium setting. The book said to use a medium to low setting. No oil is needed. We were a little skeptical at first, but with all the oil in the recipe, there really was no need for additional oil.

We then poured 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan. We were supposed to tilt the pan to spread the batter to the size of a grapefruit. It was so thin, there was no need to tilt the pan. Which makes me think it shouldn't have been so thin.

We cooked them until we saw tiny bubbles in the pancake, then we flipped them over.

There was so much oil we needed to pour it out after a couple of pancakes.

The instructions say that "when the second side begins to pop up from the heat, the pancake is ready." The problem was, the center was never done and the edges were too crisp. I tried a higher heat, I tried a lower heat, but I could not get these to fully cook in the center. The one pancake I left on longer was over done and too crisp to eat.

It was suggested that we could fill these with just about anything. Two suggestions were jam and tuna fish. As we were doing Breakfast for Dinner we made eggs to go inside.

Unfortunately, they were so crisp we could not roll them up to eat them as suggested. They look more like egg tacos. I have to say, this was not a well-received recipe. The children ate their eggs, but they didn't eat the "pancakes." We ended up making bagels for something to eat. Hubby and I could only eat a little, as they were so greasy. I had doubled the batch as the book said the recipe would make 6 pancakes. I am not sure how many we would have made with our double batch, but it was much more than 12.

I am going to look for further reviews. I just feel maybe there was a typo in the recipe or something. If you try this recipe, please share how they turn out for you. Maybe I was doing something wrong after all.

Do you have your children help you in the kitchen? What lessons do they learn? Do you have any kid friendly recipes to share?

I'd love to see your posts, whether you have done something this week or some time in the past. Just link up below. This is a weekly linky.

I am linking up to: