Tuesday Treat Day - Cupcake Cones

Ok, we did this like a month ago and I'm just getting around to posting it! The weather in Arizona has finally been SO perfect the last couple of months... finally! So we've been spending a lot of time at the parks, going on walks, at the zoo, and just venturing out and exploring! 

That means I haven't spent as much time keeping up my blog. But we still have been working on stuff! I just have to get it all posted :) Someday that will happen... maybe if my kids will ever nap at the same time. :)

Anyway...... now for the cupcake cones recipe!

These were definitely fun to make but they didn't turn out exactly how I was imagining. I imagined a poofy mixture of cake rising up perfectly out of the cone, covered in frosting, actually resembling an ice cream cone, but with cake....

That was most definitely not the case. But it was still fun for my toddler to help decorate the the cupcake cones and she for sure loved eating them! I guess as long as they taste good, toddlers could care less what it looks like, right? Haha :)

Here is what you need:

Ice cream cones

Cake mix

Frosting

Sprinkles and any other stuff to decorate

What you do:

- Prepare a cake mix according to directions on the package.

- Spoon cake batter into flat-bottom ice-cream cones until they are not quite full.

- Set the cones in a cake pan and bake according to the package directions for cupcakes.

- When the cupcake cones are cooled off, frost and decorate them and enjoy!

See what I mean??? In the pictures they look like super flat ice cream cones... maybe if you used a light, fluffy, whipped frosting it would look a little bit better. Who knows?!

But it was sure delicious! K got it all over her face, shirt, hands... everything. But it was fun and yummy. That's all that matters, right?  :)

Have fun!

Weekly Learning - Basic Shapes

I know I haven't posted in a while. We have been potty training our little toddler.... so I'll just use that as my excuse for not posting anything for a while. Haha :)

We actually did our Weekly Learning: Shapes, a couple of weeks ago but then things got crazy and I didn't have time to post about what we did. So here ya go!

Day 1: Songs

My daughter loved these 2 YouTube songs. The "I'm a Square" one was stuck in my head all week long!!

I'm a Square..."

Shape Song

Day 2: Activity

I used paper and cut out all the basic shapes.

We just spread them all out on the floor and and practiced them. I would point to one and ask her, "What shape?" and we just kept reviewing them each day and she picked it up really quickly!

Day 3: Get Out

We didn't really do a "Get Out" activity during our week about shapes but we did look for different shapes on objects around our house.

 For example, I pointed out how how her cereal bowl had a circle and how the mirror on our wall was a square, etc... Your toddler will start to pick up on how basic shapes are everywhere and even start to point them out to you!

Day 4: Activity

We made Jello Jigglers and cut them into different shapes and used it to practice reviewing the shapes my toddler learned that week. Then after you practice your toddler can eat and play with the Jello!

Day 5: Library Day

Shapes - Magnetic Book: Magnetic Play & Learn - I want this book!

Away We Go by Chieu Anh Urban - I want this book too!! Maybe we'll get them for our kids for Christmas :)

We also did shape puzzles because we had some already. It was really fun for K to say the shape as she put each piece into the puzzle. Have fun with shapes these week!

Tuesday Treat Day- Homemade Cheddar Crackers

We did actually do this on Tuesday but I haven't found the time to post about it until now :) We've been busy! 

I found the recipe for these Homemade Cheddar Crackers HERE.

They are delicious! 

But as a fair word of warning, they aren't the best thing to make with the help of a toddler. I tried to have my little girl help pour ingredients in and all but the rolling and cutting out part wasn't super fantastic to have toddler help with. I would suggest doing that part by yourself.

I definitely want to try these again when I have more time... like maybe if I ever get both of my kids to take naps at the same time. Haha :)

What you need:

- 2 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 

- 4 T. cold butter, cubed

- 1 c. flour

- 3/4 t. salt

- 2T cold water

What you do:

- Pulse everything (except water) together in the food processor until the dough becomes crumbly

- Then add the water, one tablespoon at a time and pulse

- Remove dough from the processor, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 20 minutes.

- Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes. 

Roll it pretty thin. The recipe didn't say how thin but I can tell you I didn't get mine thin enough and they turned out a little on the chewy side... but still yummy! And I really want to find mini cookie cutters now... :)

- Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until crispy

- Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Tuesday Treat Day - Rainbow Jello

I got this idea from my amazing sister-in-law, Stacie. She is the best! And she has 3 of the cutest little kids ever!! When we were visiting them out in Nebraska about 1.5 years ago, she made Rainbow Jello with her little girl.  I thought it was the funnest idea and wanted to try it this week with my little girl! :)

So it's really simple but it takes time. 

You'll need to buy a box of Jello for each color of the rainbow. 

Get a dish of some sort. 

 Make the first box of RED Jello. Pour it into the pan and let it thicken in the fridge.

When it's thickened all the way, make the next box of ORANGE Jello. Pour it over the red layer and put it back in the fridge to thicken.

And then repeat the process with each box of Jello!

YELLOW.

GREEN.

BLUE.

PURPLE 

(for purple I used Black raspberry)

 Like I said, it takes time but is so fun how it turns out! Here is my first layer:



And here is a picture of after all the layers are done:



Also, since I'd never done this before I was wondering if it was even working, since it looked totally black except around the very edges... but don't worry, it works! You just have to cut it to see the colors.

The yellow didn't really show up much but it still looks cool!

Then we cut the Jello into shapes since that's what our "Weekly Learning" topic is for the week. 

I quizzed my toddler on the names of each shape :)  And then she had a ton of fun playing with the Jello with her hands. Yes, after all that work making cool, fun "Rainbow Jello", she spit it out as soon as she tried it. Haha! Oh well, it was still fun.

Weekly Learning - Textures

Day 1: Songs

- Sing the song, "If You're Happy and You Know it".

- Substitute lines that include touching things with different textures like, "Rub the carpet", "Touch the walls", or "Feel your hair", etc. . .

Day 2: Activity

- Paint with Veggies and Fruit!

- Cut different fruits or vegetables in half, dip them in paint and press them onto paper to see what kind of textures each fruit or veggie makes.

Day 3: Get Out

It is finally starting to cool off  a little bit here in Arizona! Which means walks to the park will become so much more pleasant!

Go on a walk or drive to a park and let your toddler FEEL what is all around them.

Day 4: Activity

-Get some crayons and various small objects from around the house such as a safety pin, coins, a paper clip, etc...

-Place the small objects on a table. Then place the piece of paper over the objects. Use your crayons to rub over the top of the paper to reveal the texture onto the paper. Hopefully that made sense. Here's a picture to hopefully help.

(Left: coins. Top: rubberband. Bottom: safety pin.
Right: the side of a textured vase)

Day 5: Library Day

Any touch and feel books - there are SO many! We have some called the "Touch and Feel Box Set" with books called Wild Animals, Cats & Kittens, At the Farm, and Dogs & Puppies.

We also like the DK Baby Touch and Feel books.

Just head over to the library and search for any kind of books with textures! Even pop up books would work (ex: All the Ways I Love You by Julie Downing)

Toddler Activities - Melted Crayons

My mom did activities like this with us kids when we were little. I thought I'd do it with Kimbri using a bunch of old crayons my mom gave me.  

And hey! It could be a fun activity to do when you want to review colors or shapes with your toddler!

What You'll Need:

- Wax paper

- Crayons

- Iron

- Cheese grater (or some other way to shred the crayons)

- Scissors

What You Do:

- Shred your crayons with a cheese grater. 

This takes some time and isn't super exciting for your toddler, but one way I had K help me out was by helping pick out the colors from the bin that we wanted to use.

- Place the crayon bits in between 2 pieces of wax paper 

- And then simply press the iron onto the wax paper to melt the crayons! 

(It only takes a split second for it to melt so be careful not to hold the iron on for too long)

- Then you can cut the melted-crayon-wax-paper into shapes. 

You can tape a string onto them and hang them from the ceiling or tape them to some paper to create a fun picture, etc...

And just as a side thought... this might be fun to do around Christmas time. You can use Christmas colors and help your toddler make their own Christmas ornament to put on the tree by taping a ribbon or string onto the cut-outs.

Toddler Activities - Balloon Experiment

What You Need:

- Baking Soda

- Vinegar

- An empty bottle

- Balloon

What You Do:

- Pour about 1 inch of vinegar into the BOTTLE

- Put 2 teaspoons of baking soda inside the BALLOON

- Stretch the balloon over the top of the bottle.

- When the baking soda in the balloon falls into the vinegar, the gas that forms blows the balloon up.

It's a pretty simple experiment but one that your toddlers will think is pretty neat!  

Vacation Time!

 Sooooo........ I don't know if anyone actually reads this but if so, I just wanted to say that I'm on a long family vacation which is why I haven't posted anything lately! But we'll be back in Arizona by the first part of October!! So we will start updating this blog again then :)

Toddler Activities - Finger Paint

This activity was SO fun!

And wait... there's only 4 ingredients? Yes. Which makes for another fun AND easy activity that I found in Gold Medal's Alpha-Bakery Cookbook.

What you need:

- Cornstarch (1/3 cup)

- Sugar (3 tablespoons)

- Water (2 cups)

- Food Coloring

What you do:

- Mix cornstarch, sugar and water in 1 quart saucepan.

- Cook and stir over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until thickened; remove from heat.

- Divide the mixture into separate cups or containers (I just saved a few baby food containers - then you can just chuck them when you're done)

- Tint mixture in each container with a different food color. Stir several times until cool.

Then let your toddler go for it!! 

It might be a good idea to lay down some newspaper to make it easier to clean up. And I took K's clothes off just to make sure the food color wouldn't stain her clothes.

She loved it! And it was seriously so easy that we definitely will be doing this again! 

Tuesday Treat Day - Turkey Stars & Cheese Hearts

My daughter LOVES turkey and cheese! I thought it might be fun to use cookie cutters and cut the turkey and cheese into fun shapes!

And for those of you who may have toddlers who are picky eaters...maybe this would be something fun for them to try! Maybe if they get to cut their food into fun star and heart shapes, they would eat it. Who knows?! But we sure had fun with it.

Weekly Learning - The Body

Day 1: Songs

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Hinges

The Hokey Pokey!! - There probably is a YouTube video of this song but I think it's more fun to actually do it with your toddler! You can keep repeating the song as many times as you want, practicing all the body parts... we even did "tongue" and K thought that was funny :) So have fun with it!

Day 2: Activity

So it seems like most toddlers love stickers! This past week we got out the stickers and put different stickers on different parts of Kimbri's body. She's pretty good at the main ones like arms, legs, head, hair, feet, etc... so we used the stickers to practice new ones she didn't already know.

I put a sticker on her elbow and helped her learn the word and then I would take it off and let her put it back on her elbow, and had her say the word again. It was a simple and fun activity that helped her learn something new!

Day 3: Get Out

Go to the park or an indoor play place and let your toddler use their body to run around and have fun! After all, the theme this week is in fact, "The Body". So Kimbri and I met some friends at a nearby park last week and the girls had a blast playing on the playground! (And then, since we live in Arizona, it got SOOOO HOT so we had to leave and get out of the heat. But it was fun while it lasted!)

Day 4: Activity

Handprints & Footprints - get out some paint and go to town letting your toddler squirt paint on their hands and then helping them make a handprint on paper. Try doing footprints too!

I also saw THIS way cute idea on a website called CafeMom that is super adorable and I want to try it out sometime!  We didn't have time last week but I'll for sure have to try it out soon :)

Day 5: Library Day

We didn't do a library day last week because my kids picked up a runny nose from somewhere :(  So we just stayed home most of the week.

However, I did pick up a five dollar "Magic School Bus" DVD a couple weeks ago from Walmart that has several episodes on it about the human body (it totally took me back to when I was a kid... I used to love watching The Magic School Bus!)

So anyway,  it was kind of fun to just snuggle up and watch a movie this week :)

Tuesday Treat Day - Fruit 'n Pudding

Ok all you toddlers out there... this is a way easy treat for mommy to prepare and way fun for you to eat! 

What you will need:

- Pudding

- Fruit

- Pie pan (or any other dish, cookies sheet, etc...)

What you do:

- Put small pieces of fruit in some sort of dish 

- Add the pudding

- Let your toddler go to work! 

It's really fun for toddlers to explore different textures with their hands, so why not let them explore and eat at the same time? Then you don't have to worry about what they put in their mouth since it's edible! ;)

They'll get messy! That's why I stripped K down to a diaper. Just let them have fun with it!

Enjoy! 

Weekly Learning - Numbers 1-10

Day 1: Songs

Numbers 1-10 & 10-1

Bird Number Song

Numbers with Planes (I paused the video at the end so we could review the numbers)

Counting Objects Song

Day 2: Activity

Counting in a cup! You'll need a cup and then find ten small items that will all fit in the cup.

Toddlers love putting things in containers. Have them count as they put the items in. If they are still working on learning numbers, have them repeat the number after you and then allow them to put the item in.

Ideas for things to use: pencils, dry macaroni noodles, pebbles, M&M's, etc. . . You can use whatever you have lying around the house, yet it makes for an easy fun activity for your toddler!

Day 3: Get Out

Go on a walk around your neighborhood or go to a park. Count 10 trees, pick up 10 rocks, or count 10 cars you see passing by. You can count anything. Just start counting whatever you see!
 

Day 4: Activity

Get a piece of string, yarn or ribbon and some Fruit Loops cereal (or you can use Cheerio if you have a skinny piece of string). Have your toddler count out 10 pieces of cereal and then help them learn to put the pieces of cereal on the string, counting each time you put one on!

Then they can eat the cereal after they are done if they want, counting as they eat each one :)

Day 5: Library Day

Here are the books about numbers we checked out from the library this week:

Number One Number Fun by Kay Chorao

1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker

Ten Little Caterpillars by Bill Martin Jr

Count by Denise Fleming

Toddler Activities - Soapy Jars

Kimbri and I did this quick and easy activity this morning and she's had fun with it today! 

I saw a similar idea here where she used empty peanut butter jars so her toddler could stack them. I love that idea! But we didn't have multiple empty peanut butter jars on hand so we just used an empty 2 liter RootBeer bottle.

What you will need:

- Dish soap

- Food coloring

- An empty container

-Water

What you do:

- Fill up your container halfway with water.

-Add whatever color of food coloring that you want

- Put the lid on tightly and you're done! 

- Hand it over to you toddler and let them have fun shaking it up, making bubbles appear!!

Kimbri has rolled it all around and had tons of fun with it.

 So go on! Grab an empty container, add soap, food coloring and water and have some fun! 

Tuesday Treat Day - Peanut Butter Banana Slices

Bananas are a favorite around our house. So is peanut butter. And who doesn't love a little bit of sweetness on top of it all? 

Our fun, toddler-friendly treat for today is. . . Peanut Butter Banana Slices!

(idea found here)

What you will need:

- Bananas

- Peanut Butter

- Chocolate chips 

(You can really use anything you want - the original recipe calls for coconut but we didn't have any, so we used chocolate chips instead!)

What you do:

- Cut the banana into round slices

- Dab a little bit of peanut butter on the tops of the slices

- Top it off with some chocolate chips for a little bit of sweetness!

And of course let your toddler help out. Kimbri had fun putting the chocolate chips on top (and eating them as she did so, of course!)

There ya have it! Another easy, fun, and yummy snack to do with your "Toddler in Training"! 

Toddler Activities - "I Spy" Jar

This is something that I loved as a kid. I remember doing one at a friends house when I was little and have always thought it was such a fun and clever idea! 

And it's another one of those activities that you can just use what you have on hand! Which is nice, convenient, and inexpensive.

So this morning, I decided to search our house for all the little random things we already had that go in the jar. It can be anything: buttons, rubberbands, a bobby pin, a feather, coins, an old key, safety pin, nail, etc...  We had just finished up a jar of pickles so I washed the jar and pealed the label off and I got out the big bag of rice to use as the filler.

What you will need:

- A jar

- Tiny objects

- Rice

Before putting all the things in the jar I would suggest writing them down so you can remember everything that's in it. Then tape the list to the bottom or top of the jar so you can refer back to it and try to find all the things on your list!

What to do:

- Have your toddler help you put all the items in the jar. 

- Then fill the jar up half-way with rice, put the lid on, and shake it around to kind of mix the items in.

- Continue filling up the jar with more rice until almost full and put the lid on.

- Give it several more shakes to get all the objects really mixed in well.

- Make sure the lid it on tight so you don't end up with rice all over your floor!

Now you can have your toddler shake or roll the jar around, trying to find all the different objects you put inside the jar! This is even fun for older kids too :)

Have fun!

Weekly Learning - Bugs

Day 1: Songs

Bugs

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

I Love Bugs - (This song reviews the following bugs: butterfly, ladybug, spider, ant)

Bug Flashcards

Day 2: Activity

Have a bug-themed lunch! I found the idea here and thought it was just too cute! Plus, it's made of things that toddlers love to eat anyway, so chances are you already have everything you need to make it!

You can seriously make this as simple as you want, using what you have in your pantry. For example, I didn't have pretzel sticks so we used leftover fries... probably not as healthy but it works! Here are a couple of our photos:

Day 3: Get Out

A lot of universities have bug collections you can go look at. So if you have one nearby, go there! If not, maybe go to a museum or go on a walk, looking for bugs along the way.

For our "Get Out" activity we were going to go visit the bug collection at Arizona State University. It's free! And that's always good :) But it didn't happen because my little boy came down with some sort of tummy virus and was throwing up. We decided we'd better stay home. . .

So the bugs decided to come to us. . . it wasn't so great. Actually, it was terrible. I found a scorpion in our house! I woke my husband up (it was 4am) and had him come kill it. Gross. So we had our fair share of bugs this past week!

Day 4: Activity

Get a notebook and practice drawing bugs. You can help your toddler learn to draw circles (for the bug bodies) and then draw straight lines (for their legs). Easy and simple and it helps them learn! You could even cut out paper circles and glue them together to make a colorful caterpillar. Just create any bug you want on paper! 

Day 5: Library Day

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (Kimbri loves pointing to the ladybug on each page and says "Ladybug!". This book is a favorite around our house!)

The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle

Tuesday Treat Day - Homemade Popsicles

As a little girl I remember my mom making homemade popsicles with us and I loved it! What little kid doesn't love popsicles?

Toddlers love helping make things! Especially the dumping-ingredients-into-a-bowl part.

So today, why not try making homemade popsicles with your little one? Smoothie style!

You really can use whatever you want to make homemade popsicles. You can even just use Koolaid. Or try making a yogurt popsicle? That might be fun. . . Use whatever you want!

But here is what you will need for homemade Banana-berry Smoothie popsicles.

What you'll need:

Popsicle containers

Milk

Bananas

Strawberries

Triple berry blend 

(I buy the bags of frozen berries at Sam's Club. It's often cheaper buying frozen berries than fresh berries. Plus, frozen berries make great smoothies!)

What you do:

Really you can just do this on a how-you-like-it basis. 

So, add however many bananas and berries you want and just add milk until you get the consistency you want. Probably any consistency would work, really.

Again, have your toddler help do the work. They'll love it! 

Kimbri helped by putting the banana pieces into the blender (however I think she ate more than she actually put in. Haha!) 

Here's a picture showing about how much
milk I add to the banana-berry mix.

Now fill your popsicle containers on up and stick them in the freezer.

And now you'll have a tasty - and healthy! - treat for your toddler when they wake up from their afternoon nap. Yay!

I hope you have loads of fun doing this ;-)