Preschool: Forest Life Discovery Box

Little boys are hard to shop for. And it does not get much easier as they turn into men. I never know what to buy my husband. I usually end up getting him socks and t-shirts. Yeah, I am so fun. :( But this year I hit it out of the park. It was kinda a make-up-for-all-the-crappy-gifts kind of present. He got a iPad. It is awesome. And I am officially the best wife ever! So that should cover me for the next few years of birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases right?

Back to gifts for little boys...
 Kristy and Kaleb are some of our best friends. Their little boy turned 4. I met him a few days after he was born. Perfect, he was, of course. ( Wow, that sounded like Yoda.) We celebrated his birthday this weekend. He had a special magic show from Uncle Bean. It was awesome. A huge Balloon octopus, balloon hats, tricks and laughs! You should click his name and check out his website. If you live in the PA, MD WV,VA area... book him! He even has a family variety show that he and his buddy, Jon do. Check out the link to Haywire on his site. Seriously! And I am not just saying all this because he is MY uncle. Or because I gave him the name Uncle Bean. ( He is my uncle and I did give him the name... but I would totally say all that stuff even if I didn't know him!) Funny and family friendly! :) So click the link people. Ok, plug over.

So food, fun, magic, family and presents! But what to get this kid? Well I made him a discovery box/Sensory box. Kids LOVE these. It borders the concept of a rice table. I promise you, at school, these are always a hit!

Here is how I made it:

I purchased A Safari North American Wildlife Toob of tiny toys from Michaels with a 40% off coupon. I also bought there Tree toob. With the coupon, it made them less than 5 bucks a toob! You can also purchase them from Amazon, but they are more pricey there.

I then bought 4 bags of dried green split peas at walmart for .78 a bag!!!

I grabbed a small bag of decorative rocks for about $2.00 at Michael's as well as a packet of water beads. These are awesome! They are super tiny. You put them in water and in a few hours they grow! They are the blue "lake" in my discovery box. They were also $2.00 and I got TONS! 

Lastly, I got a green storage bin with a lid at walmart for about 5 bucks.

The big smooth rocks are from around my pool and deck. :) I stole two! :) 

Then, just put it together! 

The kids love playing in the peas, feeling them, scooping them, occasionally dumping them on the floor.  *Messy kids are happy kids* :) 

I put the enlarged water beads (or water gems) in a small Ziploc container that has a lid. You can snap the lid on after playing is done to keep them from spilling or drying out. 

 I just love that little river otter! 

My bear caught a fish!

 Some stickers and a bow finish it up! 

The possibilities are endless! :) 

Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry Buttercream

I was inspired by this post at My Baking Addiction. She gives you a great recipe for a from scratch lemon cake with lemon curd. I took some short cuts though for the cake.  Here is what went down:

Makes 24 cupcakes and extra icing! :) 

~For the cake~

Grab:

1 box of lemon cake mix (prepared per package directions)

1/2 box vanilla pudding mix

Go:

Prepare the cake per package directions, with the addition of half a package of vanilla pudding mix. This adds moistness and deliciousness. 

Line cupcake pan with liners and fill 2/3 of the way full with the cake batter. 

Bake according to package directions. (Mine were done at 18 minutes)

~For the icing~

Grab:

4 sticks of butter, softened ( I used salted)

2 lbs of powdered sugar

1 cup of fresh blueberries pureed with 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice

Zest of one lemon

2 tsp vanilla

(1-3 Tbsp cold milk if needed. I did not need any.)

Go:

Cream butter until fluffy. Slowly add sugar. ( I had keep cleaning off my beaters and scraping the sides of my bowl down.) When nice and combined, add other ingredients. Beat until well mixed and fluffy. (about 1-2 minutes) Add milk if needed to reach spreadable consistency. 

Frost after cupcakes are cooled. 

Enjoy. :)

Preschool: Making Butter

Shake, shake, shake, shake some more. When we made our butter in preschool... that is all there was to it. We filled a large size baby food jar halfway with heavy whipping cream. Each child shook the jar while the rest of the class counted to 20. Here is the cool part. We have 18 kids in that class. That is 18 times counting to 20 in a few minutes. It kept their attention. Towards the end, we even jumped while we counted. We can work on math, gross motor and science all in one little project. The kids really enjoyed this and I recommend it! 

If you have not done this before, it takes about 5 or so minutes of good shaking to turn that cream into butter. I gave it a few vigorous shakes to help it along. Drain the buttermilk, and you have butter. I recommend salting it. If not it is really unappealing.  Serve on crackers for a little taste!

Chuck Wagon Chili

Is it a chili? Is it a steamer? Is it Chuck Norris? None of the above. And All of the above. 

It has beans and ground beef like a chili. So it is a chili. But its not really because...

It is more like a steamer (In south central PA, that is what we call a sloppy joe), because it is meaty, not so much soupy like a chili can be. It is the texture of a thick, meaty sloppy joe.  It is like Chuck Norris cause it is just that AWESOME!  :)  Whatever you call it, whatever you classify it as... it is good and you should make it!

Click Here for free printable recipe!

Grab:

1/2 pound bacon cut into pieces

3 pounds ground beef (I used 93/7)

2 finely chopped onions (I used 1 small and one large)

1 cup finely chopped celery

2 beef bullion cubes (I didn't have bullion so I used omitted the water and used 2/3 cup beef stock)

2/3 cups boiling water

1.5 cups of ketchup

3 TBSP Mustard

1.5 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 -29oz can molasses style Baked Beans

3 TBSP Brown Sugar

Go:

Preheat oven to 375.

In a Dutch oven (or large, heavy oven safe pot) fry bacon until crisp, set aside.

Drain most of the fat.

Cook and stir beef, onion, celery until brown and tender (over medium heat).

Dissolve bullion in boiling water.

Add to meat mixture along with all other ingredients including bacon.

bake one hour and 15 minutes with lid off. 

I served mine with a lettuce bed and yellow pepper, sour cream, tortilla chips and Homestyle Grands biscuits. It was divine. And it makes a ton.  

 See the spoon in the corner where I stole a bite. Yeah, that's how I roll.

So good! 

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Need I say it again? 

Green is my favorite color. 

I will eat anything Green. 

Except for Jello. 

( I don't know what to do with it. Chew? Liquify? Swallow whole?)

And I don't really do pudding. 

So no pistachio pudding for me.

But Green veggies? 

I am in!

My favorites? 

Brussel Sprouts and Asparagus. 

Here are some yummy brussel sprouts! Enjoy!

I usually just boil the heck out of my brussel sprouts with a chicken bullion cube. I love them like that. I don't even care if I over boil and they are mushy. I just love those little baby cabbages. (Well, that is what they look like at least.) 

Once in a while, I will roast the sprouts. If I feel like cutting them up and waiting for them to roast. It totally changes the flavor. It gives it a nutty flavor. Really good and not mushy :)

Grab:

Some FRESH brussel sprouts

Some oil (EVOO or canola)

Salt and Pepper

onion- (optional)

-or-

slivered almonds (optional)

Go:

Cut brussel sprouts in half lengthwise. (I also cut the bottom off, but you don't have to)

Throw on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. 

Sprinkle with S&P

You can add thick slices of onions if you want. 

Place in preheated oven at 400 degrees. Give the sprouts a stir every 8 minutes. So they roast evenly. 

Add almonds if you desire halfway through ( about the 12 minute mark)

My sprouts are done after about 25 minutes. 

Green and good for you! Happy me! :) 

Preschool: Decorated Names

When learning to write our names in preschool, I think it is important to take into consideration that you can learn how to write it with more than just a crayon or pencil. So when I begin to teach the kiddos how to write their name, I do this project with them. Now if you have 27 students like me, then this can take a good bit of prep time. To figure out how many of each letter I needed, I typed each child's name into a Word (or in my case, Pages) document. I type all names in CAPS, one name per line. Like this:
SARAH
KRISTY
JUSTIN
GRACE
BENJAMIN
etc.  Then I start going through the alphabet and deleting each letter as I counted them. So after counting the As, it would look like this.
S R H
KRISTY
JUSTIN
GR C E
BENJAMIN
Note how many of each letter you need. Cut them out on a die cutter in various colors, glue them onto sheets of paper. I had to use masking tape to make my sheets long enough.

Provide the kids with glue and a tray of glitter, tissue paper, colored sand, colored rice, pasta, etc and let them decorate their names.

Touch, Feely Names! :)

Preschool: DIY Snow Globes

We make snow globes every year in preschool during our weather unit. I have always wanted to put the kiddos photos inside the globe. So I decided to give it a whirl. ( Get it whirl, like snow globes whirl around... haha... ok not that funny) 

Remember these cute snow photos we did? Well, I made doubles and had my parent helpers cut them out as well. :) Then I laminated the pictures with my Scotch laminator. It does a "hard" finish. Not flimsy. I kinda love it. You should check out Amazon and get one. I cut out around the photos, leaving a bit of an edge, so the pictures are well sealed. I collected large jars, mostly spaghetti sauce size, then I jammed the laminated photos inside. No need to secure them with any type of glue, mine kinda stayed put. Even if they didn't, they would look cute whirling around in there. 

We are working on name recognition and writing in preschool too! So I had these great letter beads from Discount School Supply. 

I had the kids look at their name tag and find the letters of their first name. Then put them in the jar. 

Then they added glitter and sequins! 

Now, you fill the jar with water. You can add a few drops of glycerin to the water to help the glitter float a little more slowly through the jar. I did not bother with that part this time. 

Make sure you have filled the jar to the brim with water so when it is turned upside down, the whole picture is underwater. 

NOTE: You could also put the picture in the jar right side up, so when you put the lid on, you would not have to turn it upside down to see everything correctly. Does that make sense? I could not do this with most of my jars, because they had this funky little bubbled glass around the top that distorted the picture. 

Dry the lids and rims of the jar well, add a bead of glue (either hot glue or a super glue) Screw the lids on being careful to get them threaded correctly. Let dry a few minutes, then Shake away! 

The pictures just don't do it justice! :)

We used these during closing circle while reading the book "Snow Dance". Every time we read the word "Snow" the kiddos would make it snow in their globes! 

Inspiration for laminating the photos came from this great site! Our Best Bites!