Zoe's Purple Pants

As I stated last week, we were in the middle of our stART project for the week so I decided to wait to post about it.  I had planned on writing about it sooner, but never got a chance to completely finish the project.

So now it is time to show you what we did with these materials:

The girls sewed the pocket fronts to the pocket backs:

Then we glued the pockets to the pants.

The bottom pants were stapled on and then the girls

glued on polka dots.

With everything else we were doing this week, it took me until

today to do 2 simple steps.

1- finish stapling on Amelia's pockets

2- cut out the extra p pictures to put in the pockets

(I had so wanted to come up with a rhyme for them,

but my imagination is still on vacation)

Tabitha's Purple Pants:

Amelia's Purple Pants:



Words of Wisdom Wednesday: October 6th, 2010

Where does the rain come from?

I only got an answer out of Tabitha this week:

Tabitha: The sky.

Mom: How does it get there?

Tabitha: By falling and pouring.  Just like my verse of it...Raining, raining, pouring.  The rain falls hard.

If there's fire it will get us hot and dry stuff.

What about your children.  What would they say if you asked them where the rain comes from?  If you decide to ask them, don't forget to post about it and link back up here in the linky below with your Words of Wisdom Wednesday link URL.  Please link back here in your post too, please.  You could even grab my Words of Wisdom Wednesday button over at the left.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I love Tiny Talk Tuesday, hosted by Mary at Not Before 7.  I love listening to what the girls come up with.  I also love that it is the girls now and not just Tabitha.  The only problem is, I still miss a lot because I forget it before I have a chance to write it down.

Krystal shares a room with Tabitha and Tabitha is to look at her clock to tell whether she is able to get up in the morning (right now it has to say 8).  The clock was unplugged last week and I hadn't had a chance to plug it in yet. Tabitha said, "I have to plug up Krystal's clock so I can see which time it is today."

Then the other day while I was getting dressed she said, "Why is there another baby in your uterus?"
Umm, mom, "Um, that's not a baby, that's just fat.
Tabitha, "You are fat cause you're growing."

Tonight at dinner Tabitha was playing with her cheese (we don't usually encourage this but I had shaped it into a mouse for our M meal) and I realized she was chanting something.  I listened carefully and this is what I heard
"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll bite your roof off."
Then a few minutes later
"Little pig little pig where is your roof."

This morning I told the girls at breakfast, "Hurry up so we can get ready to go to playgroup."
Tabitha: It's Tuesday!?! We're done with Monday!?!
Amelia: Yay!!

And now for a side note.  I am once again going to be posting a Words of Wisdom Wednesday post tomorrow.  For anyone who hasn't seen this before I ask my girls a question and then I post their answers on Wednesday with the opportunity for you to join in with your children's cool and insightful answers.  The linky will be open for a week.

This week's question is: Where does the rain come from?

Can't wait to see your children's answers.

The Day of the M meals

I know I posted my Muffin Tin Monday post earlier. I realized I had taken pictures of the girls helping with the macaroni and cheese, so I wanted to share them.  However, we also had an M dinner, so I decided I would share that now as well, along with a couple of recipes from today. 

Here are the girls "shredding" up the cheese for the macaroni and cheese.

On the left we have the cheese sauce

On the right is the macaroni.

The finished product was part of our M muffin tin.

Then I decided to do an M supper as well.

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes were planned.

But then I found a cute idea for a mouse over at parenting.com.

It was an article about Bento lunches.

I followed the link provided at JDaniel4's Mom. 

Anyhow, the mouse is made out of cheddar cheese, with carrot features and a muenster cheese tail.

And of course he is after a wedge of cheese.

The carrots are just there because we needed a veggie.

I made a mouse for everyone but me.  Even hubby got a mouse.

Then we made Blueberry Muffins to go with the story

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff.

I found the recipe a while ago over at allrecipes.com,

(my favorite site for recipes)

Actually it is a recipe for Strawberry Muffins, but we substituted.

Hannah was watching Tabitha in each picture I tried to take of them helping.

Unfortunately the girls weren't cooperating well and this is the best I have.

You could say they enjoyed the muffins.

Here is the recipe for Macaroni and cheese, from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook book (which isn't very new as I had it when Steven was a baby and he is 18 now, but I have a few favorite recipes from this poor beat up book that is now in 5 pieces).  We really enjoy this mac and cheese.  We use the top of the stove version.

1 cup elbow macaroni (we used shell this time)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 Tbs margarine or butter

1 Tbs flour

dash pepper

1 1/4 cups milk

2 cups shredded American cheese (8 oz) (we use the singles processed cheese because it was what we have)

1 medium tomato, sliced (optional, we never use it)

Cook macaroni according to directions, drain well.

Meanwhile, for cheese sauce, in a saucepan cook onion in margarine or butter till tender but not brown.  Stir in flour and pepper.  And milk all at once.  Cook and stir till slightly thickened and bubbly.  Add shredded cheese; stir till melted.

Stir macaroni into cheese sauce.  Transfer to a 1-quart casserole.  Bake, uncovered, in a 350 oven for 25-30 minutes, or till bubbly.  During the last 5 minutes of baking arrange tomato slices atop macaroni, if desired.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Makes 4 servings.

We use the shortcut method.  The cheese sauce is poured over the drained macaroni, which has been returned to the pan.  It is cooked over low heat for 3-5 minutes.  Also let stand 10 minutes.

One of these days I will try the baked version, but for now, the shortcut version works and is delicious.



Muffin Tin Monday: Mm

This week's theme for Muffin Tin Monday was Under the Big Top/Circus.  For the life of me I couldn't think of how to accomplish this.  I thought it would have been cool to make it M and circus themed but couldn't think of anything at all for that. And everything I was thinking of for circus ended up being junk food. So I chickened out and made our Muffin Tin Meal M themed.

Hot dog cut into an M shape

Homemade macaroni and cheese

marshmallows and M&Ms 

Mandarin oranges

Muenster cheese

Mushrooms

Meat roll ups

Both girls ate their mandarin oranges and M&Ms first.  Amelia didn't like the marshmallows, so Tabitha ate them for her.  I ate her mushrooms for her.  But she had 2 servings of mac and cheese.  The rest of the selections were eaten pretty well.

 Tabitha was refusing to eat the macaroni and cheese, but I insisted she eat it.  She wouldn't even try it.  She finally ate some of it.  I ate her muenster cheese for her.

Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom's blog to see some other creative meals.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: October 4th 2010

It is time once again for Scavenger Hunt Sunday hosted by Ashley Sisk over at Ramblings and Photos

Golden

We have so much golden rod in the fields and along side the road, so I was going to take a picture of that.  However, then I found this single plant in my yard, in front of the bird bath.

This is a craft one of the children made years ago. Here is what the poem says:

This is a very special gift

That you can never see

The reason it's so special is

It's just for you, from me.

Whenever you are lonely 

Or even feeling blue

You only have to hold this gift

And know I think of you.

You never can unwrap it

Please leave the ribbon on 

Just hold the box close to your heart

It's filled with love inside.

 Smell

I asked Tabitha to smell this flower from our yard.  I thought her expression was perfect.

Amelia, on the other hand, was undecided.

 Fruit

I didn't have that much fruit in the house.  Then I thought I would get a picture of the concord grapes we had just purchased.  Ummm, I hadn't realized so many were already gone. Goes to show how much we, especially my son, likes them.  Amelia, on the other hand, peels them and eats the skin, so she is left with a slimy sphere of green.

Simple

I wasn't sure what to do for simple.  Then I decided to try out some different shots of the simple love of the family.  Thought this was cute.

Sports

This one is from my archives.  I was so excited that sports was a category because we were going to the Buffalo Bills game yesterday and I had a few ideas of what I wanted to take pictures of.  Then I forgot my camera!  So I decided to use this picture from the preseason game. 

What are sports without the mascots?

If you are interested in joining in, here are the rules:

The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate. 
2. You're encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge. 
3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I'm not too strict about it - I do my best to take fresh shots). 
4. Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) - you can use the button above. 
5. Have fun!

What We're Reading September 20 - October 1

 

Well we started off our Pp lessons with 3 books on our reading list.

Books recommended by letteroftheweek.com:


The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey


In this story 5 naughty little puppies dig their way out of the yard by going under the fence.  This happens, not once, but three times. One of the puppies doesn't keep up with the others and when they realize this they stop to look for him.  The child is introduced to down and up and to several different animals as the puppies look for the poky one, but can't find him on the hill.  When they find him they want to know what he is doing and each time he is using a different sense to see what is for dessert.  


Will the Poky little puppy get dessert?  Will the other puppies get dessert?


I thought this was a very cute book, though I kept wishing the Poky Puppy would have consequences for his bad behavior sooner.  And when he finally did get punished I was then frustrated that the other puppies, who had also been naughty all along, get some dessert just because they filled in the hole.  I also liked the little signs on the fence that kept changing to warn them not to dig under the fence.  The illustrations were simple and the text repeated.  


Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper


In this story three animal friends live in a cabin in the woods.  They each have their part to play in the cooking of Pumpkin Soup and when they all work together harmoniously they make the best pumpkin soup.  Unfortunately, one member of their group becomes discontent with his role and wants to take over for another.  This leads to a fight and the leaving of the duck.  His friends realize they can't live with out him and miss him.  


Where is the duck?  Is he gone forever?  Will they get their friend back?


I like that each animal has his own part to play and they realize they each have a special talent and should not be envious or jealous of the others.  I could have done with out the fighting scene and I wish the ending had been different.  Did they learn their lesson or not?  The ending makes me think the other animals only wanted the duck back to make the soup,not because they realized his worth and were sorry they refused to let him help out in a different task.  The illustrations make me think of fall because of the coloring.  There is also a recipe for pumpkin soup on the last page.  I do have my own recipe though that uses canned not whole, raw pumpkin.  We haven't had a chance to make it yet. But I know daddy is looking forward to it.


Our Sesame Street Alphabet Book


Zoe's Purple Pants by Susan Hood.


Zoe gets special purple pants with lots of pockets.  The book is filled with rhyming, rhythmic text in which Zoe is telling Prairie Dawn all the special treasures that fit in her many pockets.  Prairie Dawn looks on in surprise, trying to figure out how Zoe is able to pull out so many things.  


I love this story, it has always been one of my favorites in this series.  Not only are there P objects being pulled from Zoe's pant's pockets.  But if you are observant you will notice many other P objects lying around her house.  Love this book, if you can get your hands on this one I would recommend it.  


We started week #2 of our P lessons by adding a new book to our list.  


If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. To check out what I had to say about this book and to see our pig craft, head on over here where I linked up to stART and   Read Explore Learn


And I have been reading Prairie Dog Town by Janette Oke to Tabitha.  This is another one of her Animal Friends books. We are introduced to Flick and his family as they are getting ready to go above ground for the first time.  These stories are always told from the point of view of the main animal character.  We get to feel Flick's impatience with having to deal with the rules, having to be so careful before leaving the tunnel, not being able to go out at night.  Along the way we see that, through his disobedience, he learns the importance and value of listening to his parents.  On one of his adventures he makes a new friend, a friend who is able to come to their rescue when trouble occurs.


I wasn't crazy about this book when I first started reading it, and Tabitha wasn't paying as close of attention as she did with The Impatient Turtle.  There seemed to be more telling what was going on than the action we read about in the previous book.  However, we started it over and she did pay more attention.  Flick really learned some good lessons.  There was some more action finally and some suspenseful moments.  The importance of friendship and obedience shines though.