Sunday, October 27, 2013

Heathy Halloween Treats


Ok everyone, let me just tell you I LOVE to bake. It's an obsession really. So needless to say whenever a holiday comes around I itching to make breads, cake, cookies, muffins, all kinds of yummy but not so healthy treats. So this year my goal is to get creative with some keyword HEALTHY treats to share with my kiddos this year.


Banana Ghosts and Orange Pumpkins 

I just love these Banana Ghosts and Orange Pumpkins and I think my kiddos will do. The best part, they get a serving of fruit!




Ingredients


Bananas
Chocolate Chips (regular and mini)
Oranges or Clementines
Celery









Apple Bites

Again I love the ingredients for these as opposed to candy, cookies, etc. 




Ingredients 

Apples
Almond Slices 

If you are not serving right away you can baste the apple slices with orange or lemon juice to keep them from browning. 













Pumpkin Veggie Tray

The one veggie my kids will eat without hesitation is carrots so I'm sure they will love this pumpkin shaped veggie tray!



Ingredients 
1 Large baby of baby carrots
1 Cucumber
1 Head of broccoli
Your favorite Veggie Dip
Small dipping containers

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Letter Learning Fun

Hello all!


I love love love turning learning into games. I believe its important that kids are having fun when they learn. If they are not having fun while learning it can make the child apprehensive in any future learning experiences. I know parents want the very best for their children, that is a given. We want them to be ahead of the curve. But we have to realize as parents that they are just kids! The most important thing for children to do is have fun. If your kiddo isn't digging a certain learning activity it's ok! Whatever you do don't try to push them into it. Try finding a different activity they relates the same information in a different way that your child will enjoy. Or you could try setting out a couple of different activities and let your little one choose which one they would like to do.

Children are always learning, they are little sponges absorbing everything around them. You don't necessarily need planned activities either. Everyday experiences can be learning experiences. Take you kids to the grocery store (make sure you have ample time and are not in a rush). I have always had Ayden get things off the shelf for me. I will say, "Ok I need 3 red apples and 3 green apples. Can you get them for me? How many apples do we have all together?". I even let Ay pump gas every now that he is big enough (under close supervision). I have him enter our zip code at the pump and watch the numbers as the gas is being pumped, "Ok we need to stop when the numbers get to $30.00".

But I do love printables. Especially one's we can use our bingo daubers on.

This week we have been working on letter recognition, formation, and sounds. Ay is pretty good with his uppercase letters so our main focus was on matching lower case with upper case and formation. I found these amazing printables from 1+1+1=1. I'm addicted to her blog and she has a huge collection of printables that are FREE. Anyways, we used the letter maze printables. I printed one for every letter, once Ay got the hang of it he was off and running doing them on his own. We used our bingo daubers and regular markers to follow the letters on the maze.



These are just great. They incorporate upper and lower case matching and have a picture of  something that begins with that letter. For example, the letter Aa has apples on the top left corner and a basket on the bottom right. You follow the maze to get the apples into the basket. You can use the corresponding pictures to practice stretching words out to hear each letters individual sound and give more examples of words that start with that particular letter.

SO, these have been a huge hit with Ay. He keeps asking to do them over and over again. So enjoy!

image

Friday, March 22, 2013

Photographer

I want to give a shout out to the photographer that took the pictures in my banner. +Monica Weingate from Butterfly Kissed photography did our engagement pictures and wedding pictures which all turned out fabulous. I highly recommend her if you are looking for a photographer in the area!

You can visit her webiste HERE

Fun at the Air Zoo

I hope everyone is having a happy Friday! Good news...I have a little girl starting soon yay! Right now I am completely outnumbered by boys. My husband, our dog, my son Ayden, and my three current daycare kids are all BOYS. So needless to say I cannot wait for my little girl to start. More good news I have officially filled all my open spots for daycare.  :) 

Anyways, somehow I have Friday's off since all my daycare kids are off on Fridays. So I decided to dedicate Fridays to Ayden and Mommy days since the rest of the week we have a house full of children. Today we went to one of our favorite spots in the area, the Air Zoo. If you live in the Kalamazoo area this is one spot you absolutely must check out. They have something for everyone. Our favorite part is the rides in the kids section. Even my husband loves it because of all the planes and historical exhibits. Oh and the airplane simulator which I refuse to ride with him because he just spins it upside down for the entire three minutes. Best part? Its so cheap! Admission is only $8 and kids 4 and under are FREE. I finally wised up and bought a membership for the year, only $35! So now we can go as much as we want and we don't have to pay a dime. Here is their website if you want to check it out.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

More Easter Printables

I've found quite a few prtinables I'm in love with so here they are!

 
 
 

Easter Fun cont.

I just found these ADORABLE Easter printables that are perfect for sending home treats with my kiddos. The best part? They are free, free, free! I will post pictures of the final product when I put my treat bags together :)

Find them HERE
 

Easter Fun

As we all know Easter is right around the corner so, I am putting together some fun decorating ideas and projects for the kiddo's and I thought I would share what we find. Enjoy!

Easter Egg Yarn Garland
 
 
I absolutely love these Easter Egg Garlands made out of yard. The best part? They are super easy and inexpensive to make. All you need are some balloons, yarn, and mod podge. We will be doing these this weekend, I will post pictures of the finished product :)

View Tutorial Here