JDaniel4's Mom

Memorial Day Lunch for Kids- Split Hot Dog Sundae

2012-05-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hot dogs are a symbol of Memorial Day for me. I loved having them at cookouts on Memorial Day when I was little. I thought a split hot dog sundae would be a great way to celebrate a memory and enjoy summer foods at the same time.

The turkey frank or hot dog in this post was split and filled with three summer salads. There are potato salad, coleslaw, and a cinnamon apple and raisin salad instead of scoops of ice cream.

Most sundaes have cherries on top. This sundae has a cherry tomato on the top.

I know this is kind of a silly meal, but it is also kind of fun! If you wanted to, you could have an ice cream sundae for dessert. That would make it a double dose of fun.

What are your favorite Memorial Day foods?

Read.Explore.Learn.- That's Not Fair, Hare!

2012-05-25T04:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

This super clever tale of the turtle and the hare by Julie Sykes and Tim Warnes is really fun. In this versions the hare think he has totally outsmarted the turtle only to find the turtle has put one over on him.

The turtle wants to share the cabbages in the farmer's field and the hare does not. He challenge the turtle to a race. A race he thinks he can win.

Along the way the turtle's friends try to cheer him on and they need rescuing. The turtle is sure she will lose when she has to stop and help them.

In the end the turtle tricks the hare into to giving them all to her. You will have to read to see how.

What did we do with the book?

Ribbon Spool Race

We placed pictures of a hare on one ribbon spool and a turtle on another spool and raced them.

Animal Name Letter Search

JDaniel had to search in magazines for the letters needed to spell out the words turtle and hare. When we had found all of the letters we glued them over the letters on this page.

I created this activity by pasting clip art of a turtle and a hare into a Word document and then typing the type of animals under each picture.

Memorial Day Recipe- Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars

2012-05-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day is right around the corner and many of you will be celebrating with picnics and family gatherings. During those gatherings you may want to have a cool refreshing treat for the younger members of your family or your friends family. Flavored watermelon stars are both cool and refreshing.

You simply cut stars out of the slices of watermelon using a star shaped cookie cutter. Slices that are about one to one and half inches thick are the easiest to cut through.

We tested out five varieties of Kool-Aid and one type of green ice tea mix in our flavored water melon stars. The flavors we used were peach-mango, cherry, strawberry, pink lemonade, and orange. The peach-mango green tea was our local grocery store brand. You could select any flavor you or your family enjoys best or you could randomly select packets as I did.

Each star was dipped in a mixture of a teaspoon of the liquid and a 1/3 a cup of water. The star remained in its muffin cup for about ten minutes. If you leave the watermelon stars in flavored water to long they become very mushy.

When the watermelon had absorbed some of the drink flavor ,we did a taste test. Actually JDaniel did a test taste. He loved all the flavors, but the strawberry water melon star was his favorite.

If you decide to try this at home, you may choose to only dip our watermelon stars into one flavor. With just one flavor you may decide to place them all into one bowl instead of a muffin tin. When they have absorbed the fruit flavor, you can set them on a platter for your guests.

You may decide you want to have a star dipping food area at your event for children to try dipping star into the flavor of your choice. If decide to do a dipping area, you may want to have forks or tongs available for lifting the stars out. The flavor dipping cups will probably not stay free of germs if little fingers are repeatedly reaching into the bowl or muffin tin to retrieve their stars.

What is your favorite powdered drink?

Accidentally Creating a Star?

2012-05-23T03:41:00.001-07:00

More and more often JDaniel leaves me awestruck at the thoughts that he is thinking as he creates. Last week we decided to craft and instead of planning the craft for him I asked him to tell me what items he wanted me to take of the craft shelf.

He wanted glitter glue, construction paper and star shaped cookie cutters so, I grabbed each item and headed to the kitchen table. After the items were set out, he took his seat. I didn’t know that he had a plan, but apparently he did.

It took no time for him to place a cookie cutter on the paper and start trace the inside of it with glitter glue. The glitter glue didn’t appear to be working so, I was asked to loosen the top. The top really didn’t need to be loosened. He discovered that fact when the glue oozed all of the inside of the paper.

Spreading the glitter glue

“Help!” he said. “This is not working the way it is supposed to,” he announced.

After screwing the top back on and spreading the blog around the star with a plastic fork, he started the project again with a new piece of paper.

The cap still didn’t seem to be working so, I pried the dried glue off the top. I had noticed the dried glue and had mentioned it, but it had been declared not a problem by JDaniel.

Now when he tried to trace the inside of the star with the glue it flowed easily. He traced the inside of the star loosely. There didn’t seem to be a focus on dragging the glue closely along each edge and each corner of the cookie on some of the stars he made. Other stars were made with close attention paid to their creation.

Tracing around the cookie cutter.

“Can you tell me about what you are creating?” I asked as unjudgementaly as possible. There had to be a reason for the two techniques being used that I just wasn’t wrapping my brain around.

“Mama, some of these are stars and others are constellations!” JDaniel declared. He clarified further by telling me that constellations are not closed up and you have to look carefully to see the picture.

“That makes a lot of sense,” I replied.

“What should be do with them now?” I asked Jdaniel.

“At least one should go in my room,” he announced, “ I want to see if it will glow in the dark like a real star.”

I wonder if that was his plan all along or was it just a creative plan that accidentally created a star or constellation.

I guess only he really knows.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday!

Pause Life for a Moment-Mama Mash

2012-05-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am excited about having Mama Mash sharing here today. Her honest writing style and gift of weaving words lead me back to her blog over and over again. After reading her post below, I know you will too. Please stop by after reading her post and take in more of her words.

Thanks, JDaniel4’s Mom for having me. I never pass a silicon muffin tin at Bed Bath & Beyond without thinking of you. Ever.

I’m always thinking months in advance. I have no idea why I do this, because life has taught me over and over again that my plans do not matter. Someone else is flying this plane, and He’s got a much better view of the future than I do.

This spring I was determined to find a teaching job for next year. Not just any job though, I wanted my job back. The job I left in Texas, at the school I attended as a child. The job where all my friends still worked. The job that was the last one I held that made me happy.

It was all set. There was a math opening and the principal would even interview me via Skype since I was so far away. I began decorating my classroom in my head. I started panicking about childcare, schedules, the possibility of living apart from my husband for awhile.

Everything else in my life faded to a dull roar, a blur in the background. All I could think about was getting out of this city, getting away from bad memories, getting home to my family and friends.

And then I woke up one morning and opened an email that changed it all. As I read the words, “filled in-district,” I could hear brakes screaming in my head as all my plans ground to a halt.

Oh, how I moped. I was the mopiest mope you ever saw. And in the midst of my moping marathon, as I sat on the couch in the same yoga pants and t-shirt I’d worn the day before, my son climbed up in my lap with his nursery rhyme book.

“Read,” he demanded. So read we did, about the weasel that goes pop and the Sprats with their different dietary needs and that guy who is freaking out because he can’t find the Muffin Man.

Then we had cookies and lemonade and we sat on the porch and watched cars drive by, identifying them by their color and getting way too excited when a motorcycle would roar past.

I realized that the more I tried to make things happen, the more I had missed out on what was really happening.

I’m blessed to get to be a stay-at-home mom, especially in this economy. I’m lucky to live in a city that offers so much for its residents to enjoy – one of the biggest reasons we had for moving here in the first place.

And even though I no longer have family in this area, I’ve been blessed over and over again with beautiful friendships, both online and in real life here in Kansas City.

Today I turn 33. I’m not where I thought I’d be, but thanks to one small, sticky-fingered blonde boy, I know how wonderful it is to be where I am.

A Road Trip Muffin Tin Meal and Road Trip Travel Items

2012-05-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

For today’s muffin tin lunch I am featuring a road trip tin. The Nutella covered bread car body has blueberry tires, but the tires could easily we replaced by any of the spare tires in the tin.

JDaniel has cucumber, carrot, tomato, franks, and sandwich cookie tire replacements available to him if the blueberries can't make the whole trip.

Why am I featuring a car trip tin?

　

JDaniel and I are joining my mom, my sister from Atlanta and her kids on a road trip to see my sister in New York. It will be loads of fun when stop in Hershey, PA to explore the amusement park. My sister from New York and her kids are meeting us there and then will continue north to NY to my sister‘s house, but I am worried about something.

I worry about length of time we will be in the car. It is a the long car ride. JDaniel has been on long trips before, but was much younger and slept most of the way. I can just hear him asking if we are there yet when we have only been in the car for a short time. He asked over and over again on the trip to Augusta, GA last weekend when we went to see his Nana.

He will be able to use the iPad. I just downloaded two new apps for him to explore on the trip. JDaniel has brand new headphones to listen to the apps through. He and I searched all over Greenville for headphones that weren’t 100% plastic that had volume control. He loves them. JDaniel loves to use the iPad so, I am hoping he will be able to play with apps for awhile and we won’t all here what he is listening too.

During the trip, he will get to trade the iPad with his nine year old cousin for his DVD player. That will be fun too. He loves to watch movies or as he calls them shows.

I really don’t want him to be plugged in the whole trip though so, I am bringing along a few other things to do. We are bringing some of the things you suggested to me when I asked you on Facebook about travel items.

What is in our road trip bag?

A cookie sheet with magnets to play with as mentioned by Lisa of Two Bears Farm. Craft to Art.com thought magnets were a great idea too and thought a cookie tin would be a great place to store and display magnets.

Window markers and a pack of Windex wipes as well a pack of post it notes to write on and stick on the windows as suggested by Holly of Holly's Hobbie and Darbee Days

Surprise toys as recommended by Denice Castillo. I found a couple at the dollar store.

A DVD player and Leapster were Sara DeNike of The Will to See ideas. We have the DVD coming from Atlanta.

Here are other things I came up with:

Stickers

JDaniel’s favorite book First Encyclopedia of Animals and a few other books

I Spy Travel windows ( I have post coming up on them.)

Snacks

Pipe cleaners

With all these things to do I am hoping I really don’t have to worry this road trip.

What other things do you think I should bring on the road trip?

Pinterest for Dummies Review and Giveaway

2012-05-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Did you ever read a book to learn get a better understanding of how to do something and feel like there were light bulbs going off in your head the whole time? When I was reading Pinterest for Dummies by Kelby Carr, I felt that way.

I have been using Pinterest for about a year and thought I knew what I was doing. I set up boards that fit the types of things I blog about. I pinned ideas onto those boards that I thought you would love to see. I even try to pin from the original source when I have time so the original blog is linked to the idea.

After reading Kelby’s book there are several things I need to do to use Pinterest effectively as well as some things I thought you might want to know. I can only share a few. It would take a whole book to share all that I learned and you can read her wonderful book instead.

Wait! Before I go on I want to check on something! Has everyone heard of Pinterest?

If not, here is what Pinterest is:
Pinterest is a visual collection of bookmarks that you organize into virtual pinboards. If you see something on a blog, your favorite retailer's website, or even something that you take a picture of with your smartphone, you can pin it to one of your Pinterest boards for future reference.

It is a social network. You can follow other users and be followed by others. You can repin something another user has pinned, or you can like it or comment on it.

Here are some things I learned about Pinterest from the book:

You can change your profile name, but if you do the links to your profile will no longer work. It is so important to decide carefully what you want your profile to be. Do you want your name, your blog name or something else to be your profile name?

Avoid using more than seven words in the title of your board. The title can be cut short causing the title to become a little odd.

You can change the name of your board, but it also changes the boards url. The old link will now lead anyone that has linked to the old board name to an error message.

You can move your most popular or most well pinned boards to the top

If you follow only certain boards of a member instead of all of them, you don’t count in their follower count or on their follower list.

Just like the many other books in the Dummies series this book highlights special tips, points to remember, warnings and technical stuff tips. I loved being able to hone in on these icons as I read through the book. Each contained a nugget I could and probably needed to work on.

There is so many more things I could list that I learned from this amazing resource. If you are currently using Pinterest or interested in starting to this really needs to be in your home.

I am thrilled! Guess why!

Now that I have you wanting a copy of your own guess what!? I get to give one of you a copy of Pinterest for Dummies by Kelby Carr.

Below you will find ways to enter the giveaway. I truly am excited about giving one of you a copy of this book. Kelby is the founder and CEO of Type A Parent. I have been blessed to be able to actually meet her at her annual Type A Conference in North Carolina. She is an truly brilliant lady who knows the ins and outs of Pinterest and is a active user of it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of the book Pinterest for Dummies to review. All opinions about this book are my own. The definition of Pinterest used in this post came in an e-mail I received about this book.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Boris and the Wrong Shadow

2012-05-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Boris wakes up to find that his shadow has been taken and the shadow of a mouse has been left behind in the book Boris and the Wrong Shadow by Leigh Hodgkinson.
It is totally embarrassing for him to walk around with a mouse shadow. The other neighbors tease him. It has to find his shadow.

When he does, he finds mouse with his shadow the mouse isn't sure he wants to give it back. There is a certain confidence a mouse can have when he has a cat shadow.

The mouse ultimately realize the new shadow won't fit in his house and he returns it. Whew! The cat is relieved to get it back.

What did we do with the concepts in the book?

Fingerpainting a Shadow with Pudding

I slipped the silohouette of a cat into the wax paper bag that came from inside a cereal box. JDaniel was given a tub of chocolate pudding to fingerpaint the inside of the cat with.

Exploring the Shadow of Tools

JDaniel and I made shadows with the tools in his plastic tool box. It was fun to set them up and see what the shadows would look like.

Then JDaniel wanted to see if he sprayed water onto the driveway if you could still see the tool's shadow. He was surprised to see that the shadow was still visible in the light layer of water.

What did you do with books this week?

Disclaimer: I was sent Boris and the Wrong Shadow by Tiger Tales to review. All thoughts on the book are my own.

Zillions of Reasons To Thank His Teachers

2012-05-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

Last fall JDaniel went to preschool for the very first time. He was excited about getting to go to school. Selecting a backpack and getting new sneakers had him anticipating how wonderful school would be.

The reality of actually getting in the car and going to the school was hard. Walking into the classroom unassisted was a challenge somedays. Making the change from being home with me to being with others for a few hours was not in his plans he would tell me. He in fact told me that he wanted quit preschool more than once this year.

Making new friends was hard too. Thankfully he had best friend in his class! Unfortunately he didn't think he needed to have any other friends. One was plenty he thought.

We talked through his fears and challenges to change. We prayed before school about how things would go at school. We read books about people that had learned to like school.

Despite everything I did, it was the teachers that JDaniel had this year that made this change from home to school really work for him.

So, I want to take a moment to thank Mrs. D and Mrs. G for all they did for my guy this year.

Ladies-

I brought to you a little lamb who was afraid to join your flock. You shepherded him into your classroom each day with love and welcoming words.

Lamb Handprint

When he needed to face the fact that he couldn't always sit beside his best friend, you helped him find new friends to sit with. It was hard to have his best friend want to make new friends and sit somewhere else during snack and work time, but you helped him overcome the challenge.

Face Collage

You encouraged him to explore new concepts and express himself in new ways. JDaniel isn't very big on coloring but he did make wonderful drawings of sea creatures and other things with you.

Drawing of an Octopus, a Squid and a Cuttlefish

Going from two days to three next year may be a challenge for us just as starting school was this year, but ladies you have helped him learn how to leave the nest. JDaniel will have the experiences he had this year at school to look back on and remember. We will be able to talk about how he overcame his shyness and made new friends. He will be able to tell me about how he learned to share his thoughts at circle time after months of your patient encouragement.

Three Eggs in a Nest

My husband, son and I will always be thankful for all you have done for us!

Thanksgiving Placemat

Love,

JDaniel4's Mom

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday , Memories Captured and Pour Your Heart Out!

We Get It: Self Centered Children

2012-05-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

I am very excited about being a part of the We Get It series on Golden Gleam. Moms are sharing a variety of difficult childhood behaviors that they are struggling with in their homes. My topic in the series is self centered children.

Before you read my post below know that JDaniel was probably born with some of the traits I talk about below and some he has probably learned from my husband and I. Yes, I too struggle with being self centered and self foucused.

It is so hard to not get what you want what you want when you want it. I think everyone would love it if things just magically went our way, but they don’t always.

Children learn very early on to be self centered. When they are babies they cry out for food, diaper changes, snuggles and help. The people in their lives run to meet the need that they have cried out for, and the little one feels peace. This is the way it was at our house. I would add a little something about how it is suggested by current experts that babies are met their needs right away, if that's something you believe too.

As children grow older, their demands don't need to be answered as quickly. Mom and dad tell them, "Wait or Not, right now." This can be infuriating to a child that perceives their want or need as a priority. Yet as children age they need to learn to be less self focused and learn to focus on others and how they interact with others. This doesn’t mean that they always put others first and themselves second or third, but that they think of others and how they talk, play, and live with them.

Tantrums and trouble with behavior can ensue when children don‘t feel that their needs are being met as they feel they should be. Parents are really only given two ways to respond to their children’s self- centered demands. They can give in to the demand and gain momentary peace or they can help guide their children away from being self focused.

My son is an only child. Much of our time at home is focused on doing things together, but there are times when I tell him that he will have to wait for something or that it isn’t the right time for candy or his adding of an option C to two choices I have given him isn’t going to work.

Early on his toddler years, he started balling up his fists and stomping one of his feet to let me know that he felt strongly about his demand. As he grew older, he starting sharing his demands loudly and throwing tantrums.

I have to admit there were times I decided it wasn’t worth the battle, and I gave in. Those times were such mistakes. I set bad precedents, and he learned that arguing with me could loosen my resolve, and he could try to get away with listening to my directions.

Something had to be done to help him learn to focus on others and not just himself. His self centered comments and episodes were going to make him difficult to be around and keep him for making and keeping friends. Who wants to be around a child that could explode at any moment?

JDaniel hasn’t reached the point of friends not wanting to play with him and, thankfully, tantrums are not everyday or every week. He was and is still having trouble with sharing toys and a few other things .

There are times that he is loud and unruly in public, and we have to leave the store or park, because of bad reactions to his demands. I try refocusing him on something else and trying to help find something else to do. Sometimes nothing seems to work. When those times come up, we leave our grocery cart at the front of the store and head home or pack up our park things and leave. I believe that allowing JDaniel to continue to interfere with other people’s outings isn’t fair to them and I am left feeling foolish repeatedly trying to refocus him or settle him down. Yes, it means I may have to go back to the store later or we don’t get a long time at the park, but the consequences of not leaving are just not worth it.

So what are we doing about it?

One of the keys to becoming less self centered is to learn to focus on others.

Talk about how to share with friends prior attending a get together or having them in your home.

Put away toys that could cause conflicts until friends leave.

Practice ways to communicate frustration without screaming with puppets or stuffed animals. Role playing is a great way for children to work through choices without seeing themselves as the one working on the issue.

You can read books with characters that struggle with being self centered like the troll in the Three Billy Goats Gruff and talk about the right way to ask for things or handle challenging situations.

You can give your child responsibilities like chores or saying the dinnertime prayer. This will give them an opportunity shine and have the focus on them.

Another key is working on self centered behaviors is to be consistent as a parent.

Your “yes” responses need to be “yes” with a time qualifier, if necessary. I might say that we can do something in a few minutes because dinner is on the stove, and if I don’t stir, it will burn. There are times when you agree with your child and find “yes” is the right answer. It might be because it is not a battle you choose to fight or it is an issue you don’t feel like starting a battle about at that moment. In my family that tone and volume the request is delivered in can greatly impact my willingness to say “yes”.

　
Your “no” responses need to be “no” responses consistently. When I break with a precedent, Jdaniel actually calls me on it. He points out that that is just not the way things have been done, and we talk about why I am making the change. When he is in a tantrum, I really try to be consistent.

We have been reading Love and Logic at our house. It strongly recommends not joining verbal battles. Instead, it advocates letting children know that they are being heard by repeating their request.

JDaniel is not enjoying the lessons I am learning from Love and Logic. He doesn’t seem like being removed from situations in which he is making bad choices. He really doesn’t like my not engaging in a verbal battle that he is probably sure he can win. JDaniel sure doesn’t like the fact that things are not turning out as he had planned.

What I like is that he is having to think about the ramifications of his choices on himself and others. Helping him logically become less self centered is working on not only the heart of his self centeredness, but his self centered heart. While JDaniel doesn’t like Love and Logic, he is learning from it.
This is a wonderul series. Please take a moment to visit the Golden Gleam and learn more about the topics in the series. Next week's topic is perfectionism.

Muffin Tin Monday- Mama Duck's Nesting

2012-05-14T00:30:00.000-07:00

I hope each of you had a wonderful Mother's Day! Today's muffin tin meal is a celebration of mamas. Mama ducks that is.

JDaniel got a delicious breakfast style lunch to celebrate Mother's Day.

A mother scrambled egg duck is sitting on her sausage eggs that are nestled in whole grain egg noodles dipped in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

The cinnamon and sugar noodles were so easy to make and were delicious. All you have to do is dip cooked egg noodles into a mixture of melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar. They aren't a traditional breakfast food, but JDaniel really enjoyed them.

A peach slice sun shines over the mother duck and helps keep her warm as she await the birth of her little ducklings.

Happy Mother's Day: JDaniel's Flowers and Quote

2012-05-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

JDaniel and his dad bought me the lovely flowers in the glass and vase. They arranged them together on Saturday morning.

Later on Saturday afternoon I ran to answer the door bell and found the sweetest little boy standing on the front porch holding a dandelion to add to his arrangement in the drinking glass.

The flower pot displayed was created by JDaniel's preschool teachers and was sitting at my place on at the Mother's Day brunch. I love it! It has a picture of him from the beginning of the year and the end of the year along with a message from JDaniel.

As I was working on this post JDaniel walked through the dining room where we house our computer and declared, "I know I am important to you." He spoke the truth. He is important to me and I am so glad that he knows that he is. It is because of him that Mother's Day has a special place in my heart.

For years I celebrated my mom and her importance. She 100% deserved to be remembered and still does. We took her flowers on Saturday night and had dinner with her.

Today I am counting myself blessed that JDaniel. He truly is a blessing from God! Being his mom is very important to me. As I said I am so glad he knows it.

Read.Explore.Learn.- A Present for Mom

2012-05-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

A Present for Mom by Vivian French is a sweet story about a little boy named Stanley. Stanley can't figure out what to give his mom for Mother's Day.

Stanley's siblings have all figured out what to do and when Stanley tries to replicate what they are doing his version of the idea falls flat.

After tossing and turning the night before Mother's Day, he wakes up with the perfect idea. It really is perfect. Stanley gives his mom a box filled with his kisses. His siblings think the box is empty, but his mom knows it is filled with love.

This is such a wonderful book. We enjoyed seeing Stanley try to find a gift for his mom. JDaniel loves Stanley's idea. I think I have a box of kisses arriving soon.

What did we do with the book?

Let me start by saying this has been a crazy week at our house. We did a few crafts and activities that I have mentioned on the blog already or on Quirky Momma ( I have become a weekly contributer there.) . We did a few things that I haven't shared too.

Mother's Day Breakfast Sundae

JDaniel and I did a trial run of the breakfast sundae I want him to create with my husband on Sunday. This Mother's Day Breakfast Sundae is really delicious and simple. Yogurt and toppings in a waffle cone bowl will be delicious!

Mother's Day Pillow

JDaniel and I made this simple Mother's Day pillow using shelf liner. It is going to be given to the lady across the street. She lost her one and only child a few years ago and I thought it would be great to give her a Mother's Day gift.

Mother's Day Poem and Fingerprint Mat

A simple $3 frame with mat from a big box store were the perfect canvas for JDaniel to place his fingerprints on. A wonderful poem placed in the frame created a wonderful Mother's Day gift for my mother in-law.

Handprint Magnet

Two handprints glued to a clothes pin with magnets on the back is the gift my mom will be receiving from JDaniel. We had fun selecting the paper for the handprints.

What have you been working on this week?

Yes, My Son is Wearing Red Boots and a Construction Hat!

2012-05-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, the little boy on the stepstool with the construction hat and red boots is my son! He picked out his outfit all by himself.

The red boots are his go to footwear! He loves them! Summer, fall, winter, spring are all perfect seasons to wear them. He wears them to school, playgrounds, and special events like visiting train exhibits. Thankfully his feet don’t grow that quickly. Thankfully he wears them on the wrong feet which he says helps them fit better.!

Everywhere we go people comment on them. He has been told that he is a trendsetter and all boy! He just shrugs his shoulder at the comments almost to say that he knew that already.

The construction hat had a purpose too. You see the men that set up the trains had to reconstruct the setup just the way it was in their clubhouse in North Carolina. The hat honors the hard work that it took to build it.

The stepstool is a visit the train display necessity. When you are not tall enough to see the display on your own, you have to bring a stepstool. The lady at the welcome counter commented that Jdaniel remembers to bring it every year.

This is our third year going to the train display when it is set up a in May in a local community center. This is the second year that the complete outfit and stepstool have appeared there.

Some people might have done a double take as they watch my son walking across the parking lot with his boots and hat carrying his stepstool. As his mom I know this is just what is needed to truly enjoy the exhibit.

During our tour of the exhibit I might have needed to hold the hat, because it fell over his eyes when he leaned down to push one of the red buttons that made one of the buildings light up or one of the machines move. By the time we got ready to leave it was back on his head though. You have leave the exhibit dressed the way you came.

If you are the mom or dad or grandparent, you have probably taken a little girl dressed in a princess gown to the grocery store or a boy dressed in a fireman’s suit to school. You may have even taken a child dressed as Buzz Lightyear to the nursery at church.

As you entered each of those places, you may have gotten a few double takes as I did at the train exhibit, but I bet you also got a lot of knowing smiles from people who have done the same thing.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe Thursday.

Pause Life for a Moment- His Fingerprints Are Everywhere

2012-05-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

His fingerprints are everywhere. When you look at the television screen or computer monitor, you will find JDaniel's fingerprints. They were all over the walls until they were painted last week. I try to keep up with them, but as soon as I wash them away they return.

I can track his fingerprints around the house. They leave tell tale signs of his travels during the day. His hands are out touching everything as he walks along the hall and climbs the stairs.

There are fingerprint smudges on inside the passenger side window in the back of the car. They have been left behind after pointing out something exciting he has seen that he needed to put his finger on while he was telling me about it.

Despite putting down newspaper before doing a craft there are fingerprints made of glue, paint or glitter are left when his project is done all over the kitchen table.

For some reason there are yogurt and other food smudges that appear on the kitchen table too. Could it be that he still tries to eat with his fingers?

I know that I can’t leave these fingerprints where they are. As I mentioned above they are quickly replaced with new ones as soon as I clean them. Without cleaning them up and wiping them away they would quickly cover every surface of our house. The walls would no longer be antique white. Table would have mountains of crafting materials and food developing in the placeS that JDaniel sits beside. The doors crusted with finger carried substances and the windows would become opaque.

There is a small part of me that realizes that down the line there will be no small fingerprints left behind. . He will reach a stage where is eats more neatly and crafts more carefully. (Maybe?) I hope he will still have things he want to point out from windows, but he may stop pointing his finger at them through the window.

JDaniel decorated the mat in the frame below with his fingerprints. The mat surrounds a wonderful poem about fingerprints. The poem was a wonderful reminder to me to pause to enjoy the messy fingerprints I keep finding around the house while I can.

These four year old fingerprints are a reminder of the joy he finds in eating, creating, touching his environment and pointing out wonderful things he sees.

What does the poem say?

My dirty little fingerprint I've left on every wall

And on the drawers and tabletops, I've really marked them all

But here are some that won't rub off, I'm giving them to you

Because I'm thankful to have a nana that just like you!

Getting Ready for Mother's Day with a Breakfast Sundae

2012-05-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Next Sunday is Mother's Day and I am hoping that by doing a practice run with JDaniel on how to create a breakfast sundae a week early he will be able to help my husband create one for me.

I plan to have muffin tins filled with the same ingredients we used in the dry run in the fridge ready to go.

The green tin contains coconut flakes, raisin bran like cereal, honey nut loops, dried fruit, chocolate chips, and almonds.

The brown tin contains kiwi slices, baked apples, slice grapes, blueberries, sliced strawberries, and cantaloupe.

JDaniel tried using chopsticks to move the ingredients into his waffle cone bowl filled with vanilla yogurt to build his breakfast sundae. They were difficult to use with the little pieces of food he tried to pick up.

A large spoon did a much better job. JDaniel was able to use it to scrap the cup that contained the baked apples with it easily.

I will have to let you know next week how the guys do on Mother's Day. I am looking forward to ths simple and tasty treat.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday !

What are you hoping to get for Mother's Day?

Read.Explore.Learn.- Tweak Tweak (An Elephant with Many Questions)

2012-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

The little elephant in the book Tweak Tweak by Eve Bunting reminds me of JDaniel. His mama tells her to tweak her tail when she has a question and just like my guy she is filled with questions.

She wants to know about what the frog is doing? She is jumping says his mom. The little elephant wants to know if she can jump. Her mom tells her that she can't but, she can stomp.

As she goes on her walk with her mom she wants to know if she can do the same things monkey and many other animals can do. Each time her mom points out that he can't do what they can, but she can do special things that elephants can do.

Her mom also tells her she can walk with her mom, ask questions and learn. Oh! and remember the way home.

What did we do to extend concepts from the book?

Elephant Puppet for Retelling

A old cd with felt ears and wiggling eyes makes a perfect elephant puppet. After reading Tweak Tweak, JDaniel stuck his finger through the hole in the center of the cd to add a trunk to the puppet.

It was a lot of fun to watch the elephant's nose wiggle up and down while he retold the story. I like pretending to be the elephant too.

Elephant Foot Letter Searching

JDaniel used this elephant's foot to search for letters in his favorite book.

The toilet paper tube was really too large for isolating letters. I will need to think of a smaller tube for this activity.

Sandpaper and Yarn Letter Practice

JDaniel had fun trying to place pieces of yarn onto sandpaper with the letters on the alphbet written on them.

Here is the E for elephant he used.

Cooking with Kids: Simple Cinco de Mayo Apple Enchilada Dessert

2012-05-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today many of you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo! We love celebrate

JDaniel and I had the best time putting this apple enchilada dessert together. It was really delicious and took no time to cook. That is our favorite kind of recipe!

What could be easier than putting canned apple pie filling into a flour tortilla with a preschooler's version of a dash of cinnamon. We were able to fill six flour tortillas with the apple pie filling that came in a 21 ounce can.

After folding each tortilla, it was placed into a lightly greased baking pan. Then we poured a mixture of 1/2 cup of the following: margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar that had been heated on the stove over top of it.

The apple enchiladas baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

We then topped them with vanilla ice cream and strawberries.

They were delicious! If you are looking for a quick and delicious dessert for your Cinco de Mayo feast, these apple enchiladas would be perfect.

Examining His Learning Choices

2012-05-02T03:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Nicole of By Word of Mouth Musing shared how she made change in the way her children were learning and where they were learning. As a mom I think it is really hard to know sometimes what way or place is the right one for your children.

If you were taught in a certain way, you may lean toward that way for your children. If you really didn’t like that way of learning you may not.

I am not at the stage where I have to make the choice of what school to send JDaniel to for elementary school, but I have always assumed that he would go to our neighborhood public school. Both my husband and I went to public school. I taught in public schools for twenty years. It is still probably where he will be, but it doesn’t have to be.

There are lots of other options for him. He can go to a Christian school or generic private one. There is always the option of home schooling although I think home schooling moms have a special gift that I don’t think I have.

This year he has been attending a neighborhood preschool that meets in a church near our house. He has only gone two days a week. It was hard to him at first. He knew only one other child in his class. JDaniel clung to this child claiming he didn’t need to make any new friends if he had Jake. Finally just this spring he has opened up to making new friends and talking to his teachers. He hadn’t been interested in sharing with them either.

He has fabulously loving teachers that have encouraged him to meet other children in the class and open up and share. It just wasn’t something that interested him.

Yes, he is one of those children. If he is interested, he dives in with both feet and wants to know everything about what he is interested in. I know there are a lot of four years olds that are just like him. If he isn’t interested he doesn’t always want to learn it.

The teachers have provided him with a lot of opportunity to learn or refine his knowledge of colors, numbers, and letters. He knows most of them. He has known them for a couple of years. Colors like orange, gray, and pink don’t interest him or am guessing that is what is going on. Some of the numbers aren’t interesting to him so he skips them or maybe I just thought he knew them.

He is only four and he has lots of time to learn all of his numbers, letters, and colors.

This year I backed off working on teaching him a lot at home. We covered skills as they came up in our everyday life and concepts we found in stories. I knew his teachers were covering them at school too.

After hearing from them recently that he has some things to work on, I have decided to do some home schooling with him this summer.

He is not the type child that wants to play school with me even if gets to be the teacher so, we will be learning things as they tie to books that he likes and as things come up. I will pull out a few workbooks I have gathered and he will get explore concepts on the iPad. He loves getting to use the iPad.

As for next year JDaniel will be going back to the same preschool next year for three days a week and on the rest of the days we will be learning at home through fun and everyday life.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday and Pour Your Heart Out!

Pause Life for a Moment- By Word of Mouth Musing

2012-05-01T00:00:00.001-07:00

I am thrilled to have Nicole of By Word of Mouth Musing sharing her thoughts with us today. Her blog is one I love to visit. Her writing is honest and truthful. She loves her family and she shares the joys and challenges that come for being a mom. After reading her guest post below, I know you will want to visit her at By Word of Mouth Musing. While you are there you will want to explore both of her blogs. Yes, she has two blogs! Her welcome page will guide you both of them.

Pausing Life For A Moment ...

In this world, there are never enough hours in my day.

Always being pulled this way and that.

Second guessing myself every day on my decision making.

Tomorrow I will make a change, slow down, take a moment ...

always tomorrow.

BUT ...

One day, I sat back, and I thought - if not now, then when?

And I made a change, I slowed things down and worked on the moment ...

And how did I 'create' this life changing moment? First, I need to revisit my past ...

I was one of the Moms who crossed off the dates in her planner for how many days were left in the school year until my kids didn't race out of the door in the morning.

Lamented the end of Summer since my kids would once again be gone for hours and hours on end.

And the volunteering ... room mom, PTA, fundraising, auctions, fashion shows, crafts, parties, even teaching Sunday school. Volunteering at their school did not bring more joy to my children, they just saw a cranky Mom who was overwhelmed with commitments.

I spent many days wondering how to make a change. Many nights awake, wanting a better fit for my family. With a husband who traveled, a life that seemed to be consuming me, and children who I was sure were just in diapers last week - I had a lot of pause for thought.

Then one day - we just didn't go back to school. I faxed a letter to the school board, withdrew my then six and ten year old's, ordered curriculum and fudged our way thro the Summer. In the Fall, the first day back at our local schools, we put our family on a plane to Panama and had the best field trip evah. All this with never having met a home schooler, and still convinced they lived in the Australian outback with long braids and pinafore dresses, raising chickens and grinding wheat.

It worked out that it wasn't so easy to pause life, but I could definitely be more present in my life - and in the lives of my kids. And since I couldn't turn back time or stop the clock, I decided I would be there for as many moments as time would allow.

Now believe me, there are days, many of them, where life still is crazed. (and cocktail hour arrives sooner rather than later) For the most part, life is filled with plans and activities of our own choosing.

The girls take some classes out and about, they have social lives, and we travel as often as we can. For example; If Dad is hosting a meeting at the Newark airport, it is not on our wishlist. A beach resort in Mexico on the other hand, has our names on it. My time, is also busy with My Blog and its deadlines, guest posts, writing commitments, and conferences ... but this busy is rather self imposed. After all, the world would hardly notice if I stepped off this somewhat indulgent 'treadmill'.

But I feel present. I feel in touch.

I am slowing it down because I cannot stop it moving forward.

And I cannot go back.

I am always thrilled to write a guest post.

Being asked to write for someone else's bloghome, lets me know that someone is listening.

Someone else is reading alongside of me and wants to share my words with their readers.

It makes me feel I am making a difference and that I matter.

So thank you for having me here.

It means a great deal too me ...

and as always

Three Child Friendly Spring Salads

2012-04-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

Spring is a wonderful time of year to create simple salad meals for lunch or dinner. In the first muffin cup JDaniel was served a tomato and strawberry salad. The second cup contains a sweet and sour slaw. The third cup contains a carrot and raisin salad.

Each of the salads is super easy to make. JDaniel helped me grate the cucumber for the slaw and the carrots for the carrot raisin salad.

I think I mentioned before that JDaniel is not a super huge fan of celery. I decided to serve it with a spinach dip thinking that he would spread the dip on the celery and then eat it. He really loves spinach dip. Well, he tried it on the celery and decided that he like it served on his finger instead.

The salads were a big hit with him. He inhaled them and asked for more.

How can you make the salads featured in this post?

Here are the recipes:

Strawberry and Tomato Salad

2 cups of strawberries

2 cups of grape tomatoes

2 tablespoons of honey

Directions:

1. Cut the tomatoes and strawberries into small pieces.

2. Drizzle honey on the tomato and strawberry mixture.

3. Serve.

Sweet and Sour Cucumber Slaw

2 large cucumber, finely grated

2 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Toss all the ingredients listed above.

Carrot and Raisin Salad

4 large carrots, finely grated

2 tablespoons of mayo

3/4 cup of raisins

1. Toss all the ingredients listed above.

These salads were made to be served to JDaniel and I for lunch. You would have to double or triple the ingredients to serve these spring salad to your family.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Earth Day Craft for Kids- Wearing a Newspaper Hat

2012-04-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

We just celebrated Earth Day on Sunday and so I thought I would share with you wonderful hat JDaniel and I made of newspaper and some odds and ends.

JDaniel wasn’t interested in wearing it for the picture so, I placed it on a rocking horse we keep in the guest room. I think he looks very dapper in it.

This hat is so easy to put together and it only has three supplies needed.

You need two sheets of newspaper, masking or duct tape, and odd and ends (feathers, ribbon, paint, cloth bugs, etc..)

How do you put it together your newspaper hat:

Place the pieces of newspaper on top of each other with the top piece at an angle.

Place the newspaper on your child’s head and smooth it down around their head.

While the newspaper is molded down to the crown of their head, wrap tape around the newpaper where the brim should be.

Take the newspaper off their head and roll the outside edges of the newspaper toward the tape band.

The hat should look like a bowler hat now.

Decorate the hat with odd and ends.

Read.Explore.Learn.- The Big Wish and Tissue Box Challenge Winners

2012-04-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the winners of the Tissue Box Challenge:

The first place winner and the winner of a $20 GC to Amazon.com is the puppet theater created by The Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom.

The second place winner and the winner of A Plastic Bag Monster Kit is the musical instrument created by Teach Beside Me.

Both these ladies projects were truly amazing. Actually all of the projects were amazing. Maggie of Red Ted's Art Blog had a really hard time picking a winner. Lisa of Two Bears Farm and I were very lucky we didn't have to choose the winner.

_ _ _ _

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Molly the main character of The Big Wish by Carolyn Conahan has a big dream. She wants to set the world record for the biggest wish ever. To do that Molly lets dandelions for wishing take over her yard. Her neighbors don't understand at first that the dandelions are wish makers. They see them as weeds.

Although Molly has written the World Record people to let them know about the wish, she can't have them come until the dandelion are wish ready.

Everyone in Molly's town has an idea of what the wish should be. They share their ideas all the time with her. Finally it is decided that all the wish ideas should be written down and Molly will pick the winning idea.

When the dandelions finally change to wish puffs, a big storm comes that threatens to blow the wish puff away. The whole town has to come to help cover the field.

In the end the whole town gets to make their own individual wishes!

What did we do to extend The Big Wish?

Egg Carton and Tissue Paper Dandelions

We made dandelions for wishing out of tissue paper and placed them in a section of egg carton painted green.

Then I had JDaniel dictate to me some of his wishes for the world and I wrote them on dandelion leaves.

Letter Recognition Using a Cotton Balls and an Egg Carton

I created a letter matching game in a egg carton. JDaniel had to lift up the wish puffs with chopsticks and try to find the matching uppercase letters.

When God Needs Bubbles, JDaniel Will Send Them!

2012-04-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

“What do you want for Easter?” JDaniel’s Nana asked him when we were visiting her right before Easter

“I want a bubble machine!” JDaniel replied.

“I am going to give your mom the money for it and you can shop for one when you get home,” Nana answered. My mother in-law doesn’t drive anymore so, she tends to get her grandchildren’s moms to shop for her.

A few days later we went to the bubble maker section at Target. Yes, they have a bubble maker section. It is filled with bubble guns, wands, along with machines.

I placed all of the options out on a low shelf for JDaniel to look over. There were eight different options. That was probably too many to look through. The decision took awhile.

Finally he decided on a bubble laser gun. The gun required batteries so I guess it counted as a bubble machine.

JDaniel was so excited that he couldn't wait to hold it in his arms. He held it all the way home in its packaging.

When we got home we unpackaged the laser gun and began a search for the right size batteries. We found one in the spot we keep batteries and had to “borrow” one from an unused toy.

Once the laser gun was loaded and ready to go, we took it outside for a test drive. It produced a plethora of the most beautiful bubbles. They had hues of yellow, red, and blue that you could see as the bubbles floated around the yard.

There is was a small dilemma for JDaniel. Do you put down your bubble gun before you run after the bubbles or just carry it with you?

Some of the bubbles quickly floated to the ground and popped. Others drifted across the yard and seemed to disappear in mid air. Some of the bubbles floated up into the air and seemed to float on forever.

JDaniel decided that those bubbles were going to God. “God, must need to see bubbles today!” he announced.

Later when the little boy next door came out he and JDaniel had the best time taking turns chasing bubbles and running the bubble laser gun.

When some of the bubbles started floating up again, JDaniel told him about how God needed to see bubbles today. The boy next door told JDaniel that the bubbles were just popping as they floated up in the air due to pressure.

JDaniel didn’t buy his explanation and continued to announce to the bubbles floating up into the sky, “You are heading to Heaven!”

Guess what little science expert from next door started doing after a short time? He started making the same announcement.

I loved sitting on the driveway manning the bubble tray filled with bubble liquid hearing two little boys shouting, “Your are heading to Heaven!” to bunches of bubbles as they ran all over the yard.

It was a truly special afternoon! I bet God loved hearing there words and seeing the beautiful bubbles too.

　

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday!

Pausing Life for a Moment- Saturday Morning at Home

2012-04-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

JDaniel and I usually run errands or attend an enrichment event on Saturday mornings. It gives my husband some down time after a busy week at work and Jdaniel loves to go places and explore new things.

This past Saturday he wanted to stay home, ride his bike, and collect sticks. The pollen count as been down lately and Saturday continued the downward trend. I thought it was a great day to stay home.

What wonderful morning we had just being outside! JDaniel tore down the streets on his bike with training wheels. He gathered sticks that had fallen in a big rain and hail storm earlier in the week. I loved getting to walk down the street behind him and trim the hedges in the backyard as he gathered. My husband got out the house too and worked on his push mower.

When it was time for lunch, JDaniel declared that it was the perfect day for a picnic lunch on the deck. While he dug out a blanket to spread on the deck with my husband, I boiled hot dogs and assembled lunch plates of red grapes, hot dogs, and potato chips.

The overcast sky created a cool and refreshing time to be outside and eat together. It was a great time to chat and gnash and chat some more. It was heavenly! No one rushed off after lunch we all just sat together for awhile.

It was a wonderful morning of pausing the Saturday routine and enjoying just being home together.

Since JDaniel was a baby, I have treated almost every Saturday morning like it was a weekday morning. I keep busy in the building his experiential background and/ or running errands leaving my husband home to read the Bible, catch up on mail, or do house stuff.

Saturday was a wonderful change in that routine. I am so glad we paused and handled the day differently.

Next week JDaniel has a birthday party on Saturday and the following week I have a blogging event to attend. We will be busy on Saturday morning once again.

I have to admit that in three weeks we are supposed to go to science event at a local science center. Right now it is on the schedule, but after the wonderful morning we just had I am thinking we may just stay home.