Quicky Muffin Tin Monday

WHOOT WHOOT!! We FINALLY got back to Muffin Tin Monday!! This was NOT my best ever MTM, but after several weeks off from it, it was nice to get back to this fun Monday ritual.

I was planning to do a nice lunch for the kiddos in their Christmas muffin tins, but then planned a last minute trip to the library followed by a lake front picnic after preschool today. So, MTM was left for snack time. The kiddos shared a tin of yogurt, small pieces of candy cane, and dried papaya spears. It was a yummy snack and they were THRILLED that it was Muffin Tin Monday again!!

Advent Calendar

Last year when I first started reading blogs I came along a post on the Crafty Crow about advent calendars. After just taking down my first ever Thankful Tree, I just HAD to put something up in it's place and I LOVED the idea of an activity advent calendar.

So... I made this one. I LOVE it. It looks pretty and elegant in my kitchen and it's full of holiday charm.


The BEST part is that my kiddos LOVE it too! The day after Thanksgiving, they were begging to take down the thankful tree in order to put up the advent calendar. I did go ahead and put it up but, too bad for them that they'll have to wait until December 1st to do their first activity.


Our activities include:
~Many local events: Holiday Walkabout, the Parade, Lights of Lakeland, PALS Christmas Dance, Christmas Lane, and Ice Skating.
~Special Gifts: Christmas socks, PJ's, and a new Christmas book.
~Fun times together: having a tea party, making ornaments, watching Christmas movies, making pizza for dinner, game nights, going to the park, going on a nature hike, making Holiday crafts, and making candy and cookies.

Completed Thankful Tree

LOOK how beautiful our Thankful tree turned out!!! Just like last year this tree was such a hit. Every night as we sat down to dinner the kiddos would be jumping to tell us what they were thankful for that day. You could tell that they'd been thinking about it because we never had to wait to hear their response, they were ready right away. I am so thankful to have such grateful children!!

Aidman was thankful for things like "The Whole Wide World" and the "Lovely Fall".
Lyssy was thankful for different family members, classmates, and "Seeds".
Mama was thankful for "hugs and kisses" and "the Thankful Tree".
Daddy was thankful for "The Yankees winning the World Series".


I truly hope to and am determined to keep doing this tradition year after year!

Life Changes

You may have noticed that I haven't blooged nearly as much lately as I have in the past.... It is because I got a job! Wait till you hear my story! It's such a God thing!!

I really needed to help supplement our family income so I started looking for an evening job to work at after Daddy got home from his work, so basically I wouldn't get to see Daddy 4 to 5 nights a week. Mostly, I was applying at retail stores. After about 10 different applications with only one interview I was feeling alittle down. My friend emailed me asking me to ask some of my playgroup mamas if they were interested in a part time job. I told her that I was and 3 days later I had the job! I am an ART TEACHER at Gymboree!! I work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9-1. Daddy is able to work from home on Thurs and the kiddos have school on Friday, so I am not missing that much time with my family!!! I couldn't ask for a better situation!!!

I promise to have more fun activities posted as soon as I get into a good routine!

Thankful Tree

Last year I got this bright idea to cover my blank kitchen wall with a tree. The idea was for every member of the family to add a leaf to it everyday. The leaf was to say what we were thankful for that day. Each family member has a color leaf, that way we know who is thankful for what. It was a GIANT success!!! My children really touched my heart in so many ways and really learned about being thankful.

The day after Halloween, Aidman said to me "Mom, Halloween is over. When are we gonna get our Thankful Tree?" Well, how can I deny him??? I was actually already planning on putting it up, I just wasn't fast enough for my 5 year old boy!

So here is 2009's Thankful Tree. It's going to be beautiful by Thanksgiving!!

If you wanna see how it will look at the end of the month you can see a picture of last years tree here.

Trunk or Treat!

For the past 3 years we have been doing a Trunk or Treat with our playgroup! It was a giant event this year! There were games set up for the kiddos to play and 35 families decorated their trunks! This is the Ghost town trunk I came up with. Here are some of my favorites....

Jaws

The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

We reap what we sow

Alice in Wonderland. This one went all out (even decorated the chocolates!).

Princess tea party

PALS Pumpkins are Priceless (those are pictures of our kids sticking out of the pumpkins)

Strawberry Patch (it even smelled like strawberries)

Cute kidmade pumpkins

Supergirl Lyssy went flying!!

The kiddos had a FANTASTIC time and got TONS of candy! Our favorite part is checking out all the cool trunks!

Fall Harvest MTM

Today's Muffin Tin Monday is Fall Harvest/Halloween theme. I LOVE Fall flavors so we went with a Fall Harvest Tin. We had Pumpkin Muffins, Baked Apples, and Apple Cider.


Just for fun I let the kiddos eat outside using the hay as their table. They LOVED it!

I have been looking for a low sugar pumpkin bread/muffin recipe because it seems like every recipe out there is loaded with sugar. I tried this one out today and it was pretty good, it needed alittle something so I topped it with cream cheese and sprinkles for the kiddos and brown sugar and almonds on mine.

Pumpkin bread

4 eggs
1 cup honey
2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup yogurt or buttermilk
3 3/4 cup whole wheat flour or all purpose
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat oven to 325. Butter 2 9x5 inch loaf pans
In a large bowl beat eggs and honey together. Add pumpkin and oil.
Dissolve baking soda in yogurt or buttermilk.
Sift flour (I don't) with spices (I just mix well) and add pumpkin mixture alternately with soda mixture, blending after each addition. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes (for bread) or 30 minutes (for muffins). Remove from pans. Cool on wire rack. Makes 2 loafs. Not sure when a baby can have honey but I think it is definately a better option than refined sugar.

Open Ended Art ~ Black and White

This weeks open ended art is black and white. I gave the kiddos black paper, glue, eyes, and toliet paper that was cut in half long ways.

This is AB's, I LOVE it and think it looks like a mummy.
Here is Aidman's, he decided not to use any eyes and and broke all his tp into smaller pieces.

Lyssy surprised me. She was working beautifully and then....

decided to take all her tp OFF her paper. She got pretty ticked off everytime tp got stuck to her fingers.

And then she glued more back on, the big balls are what she took off from the first time around. I just stood back and watched her create, she must not have liked the way it was looking the first time around.

Scarecrows!

Today we had a playdate where everyone came over to make scarecrows. This is Aidman's scarecrow.

Of course the kiddos couldn't resist playing in the hay first!

My scarecrow.

I's scarecrow.

First they stuffed the heads with hay.

Then we colored on faces.

The moms had to put the clothes on bamboo sticks and the kids stuffed the scarecrows with hay.

We then read this great book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anyting.

S and S's scarecrows.

We ate yummy pretzels.

G and J's scarecrows.

Afterwards Aidman helped my clean up the leftover hay.

Isn't it too cute for words?!?!

Happiness is...

Riding in the car with the windows down, the radio up, and...

Pretending you are in a ROLLER COASTER!!!

I LOVE these kiddos!!!

Halloween Tree

Last night I went to my friend T's house to make a Halloween Tree.

She had all kinds of goodies ready for us.

Here I am getting ready to make my tree.


I LOVE it!! And my kids LOVE it! I'm pretty sure I'm gonna add alittle more stuff to it though, maybe I'll spray paint the tree black and add orange lights.

The idea of a holiday tree is fabulous to me! I think I'm gonna make a Valentines and Easter one too.

Tt Activities

Teddy Bears... I got these wooden teddy bears at the dollar tree. The kiddos color them with markers and then we add a magnet to the back.

Tissue Paper... fun and simple gluing activity.

Toothpicks... They love playdough and I thought it would be fun to add something alittle different to it this time.