Things to do with kids for ages 2-6

Life is Good: and full of ideas

It's official. I have fostered children who want to make the most of every minute. They want to live life to the fullest. They want to move their bodies, use their voices, and create, create, create! And.I.am.my.own.worst.enemy.

Hahaha. But, seriously. I have two little boys who want to "do something" all of the time. Sure, they are able to play on their own. Sure, we love love love to read. But to be sure, they often ask, "what special project are we going to do now?" Most of the time, they are delighted with anything I suggest, but on occasion, the big kid will protest that he wants "a different fun idea".

Recently, I decided to write some project ideas on strips of paper and put them in an envelope for them to pick out. This prevents any "I don't want to do that" or "I want to do something different" objections. So far, it works great!

So much so, that I decided to make an "idea jar" to have all year round. Whenever someone (the big kid) is bored or wants something to do, just take a strip out of the idea jar! (DUH! Why didn't I think of this sooner?) Warning, though! One of the ideas might be to help your mom clean something! (Fortunately, my kids love to clean...at least I know that I have been somewhat of a good influence on them. Wink!)

And to be clear, I am sure this is not a novel idea. I probably scrolled past this on Pinterest. I am sure that many moms before me have made idea jars. They probably decorated theirs with glitter or an elaborate monogram, bedazzled it, decoupaged it, and made theirs look enormously more grand than ours. Ours...is a jar. Just...a jar. Filled with strips of paper. The end. 

Here are some of our "idea envelope/jar" creations...

Above, the clay creation by our 2 1/2 year old. He said it was "a guy". (I think it looks like a bunny!) I love the Crayola Air-Dry Clay. No baking required and it dries hard within a few hours to a day. You can leave it grayish white or paint it once it is dry. Very fun.

And below, we practiced drawing cars. Here are our 5 1/2 year old's versions...

And then, our 2 1/2 year old's creation...

Then, it was time to practice writing to 100 (the big kid is obsessed with "bubble letters")...

And write some thank you notes...

And then, making houses using squares, triangles and rectangles. This is what I love about kids. I would have expected one like this example I showed our little one...

But instead, he did this...

And the big kid did this...

If you want to make your own "Idea Jar", don't stress. They can be very simple ideas. It took me about five minutes (maybe less?) to come up with ours.

Here are some of the ideas in our jar:
1. Play "Simon Says"
2. Make a collage with black and white paper
3. Create your own "obstacle course" using pillows, boxes, stairs, blocks, etc
4. Use white crayon or chalk on black paper
5. Build a city out of things from the kitchen cupboards
6. Make an "invention" out of paper towel or toilet tissue tubes
7. Have a dance party
8. Draw a picture of our family
9. Play with a bowl or container of flour, rice, or beans and measuring cups, spoons, etc
10. Practice writing your name
11. Get a big piece of paper (or wrapping paper or recycled brown grocery bags, etc) and draw out your child's body, then let them decorate it
12. Make an "invention" out of an extra box (any size...shoe box, jewelry box, shipping box, etc)
13. Clean your room!
14. Paint a picture of fish swimming in the ocean
15. Practice writing to a certain number (like 100)
16. Play dress up and make it a game with ideas like "silliest outfit" or "dress like mommy" or "dress like daddy", etc
17. Make up a story, then draw a picture of a scene from the story
18. Make a collage of your favorite animals at the zoo
19. Play "Red Light, Green Light"
20. Read a book
21. Make a piece of art using food (like carrots, celery, red pepper sticks, raisins, blueberries, banana slices, etc)
22. Help fold laundry or put it away
23. Practice drawing lions and tigers
24. Play with playdough
25. Stack something (cups, containers, blocks, etc) as high as you can
26. Make a card and decorate the envelope so that we can mail it to a relative or a friend
27. Build something with blocks or legos
28. Play "The Alphabet Game" with stuff inside of your house. Extra fun if you take pics of it all.
29. Bake some muffins
30. Blow up a balloon and try to keep it from falling on the floor
31. Make a self portrait
32. Practice drawing animals from the savannah
33. Do 20 jumping jacks
34. Bake some bread, cookies, or muffins
35. Make a drawing to leave in a neighbor's mailbox
36. Make something out of clay
37. Count as high as you can
38. Sing a song
39. Play "Mother May I?"
40. Tell a story
41. Bake some bread
42. Act like a bunny or a frog or an elephant
43. Thread pasta onto a string to make necklaces or bracelets.
44. Practice drawing cars
45. Pretend you are on vacation. Where are you going? What do you need to pack? What will you do there?
46. Practice drawing fish, sharks and dolphins
47. Make a lava lamp
48. Build a fort out of a blanket and other things around the house
49. Play a pretend game of "basketball", "football", "soccer" or any other sport. Announce your moves and shots as you go along.
50. Eat your lunch or snack in character. Flip roles---the kids get to be the parents and the parents have to act like the kids. OR everybody eats and talks/makes noises like a particular animal (dog, horse, cow, etc) OR everybody eats and talks like a favorite person, movie character, etc. 

Homemade Gummy Candy for Kids with Egg & Nut Allergies

Life is Good: and gummy!

Remember my post yesterday about our egg-free strawberry cupcake decorating party? Well, some of you wanted my homemade gummy recipe, so here it is!

Homemade Gummy Candy:
Directions:
1. Bring 1/3 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan.
2. Sprinkle flavored gelatin into the boiling water, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
3. Sprinkle unflavored gelatin into the flavored Jello & water, stirring constantly.
4. Bring your heat down to low as you continue to stir. Stir until all of the gelatin has dissolved.
5. Remove from heat and fill molds quickly before the Jello/gelatin mixture sets. If it does set, it will not look like jello, but rather like fruit roll ups.

6. Allow your molds to harden (or pop into the refrigerator to speed the setting up process).
7. When the gummy candy has set (allow at least 8 hours), gently peel the gummy candy out of the mold.

NOTE: I got the initial recipe from here. I tried it out several times before I felt confident about each batch of gummies. I ended up adjusting my recipe slightly. Timing seems to be everything with this recipe. After a try or two, it is super easy. However, you cannot be distracted. Hang up your multi-tasking hat before you start this recipe! You can use lots of things for molds...I used a sports candy mold, heart-shaped mini muffin pan, and a mustache lollipop mold. But you could pour it into a pan and then cut them with cookie cutters or use mint molds, too. This rose mold was one of my Grandma's favorites.

Egg-free Eggless Strawberry Muffin Cupcake Recipe

Life is Good: berry, berry good!

What a fun time we had with our 7-year old Goddaughter recently. We invited her, along with her 4-year old sister, mom & dad for a "cupcake decorating party". I always wanted Godparents when I was a kid. I think I just wanted two more people to shower love and attention on me. Not much has changed!

Whitney's favorite color is pink, so I made Strawberry cupcakes (they are muffins without frosting!). We decorated them with cream cheese frosting, Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, marshmallows, sparkling sugars, and homemade gummy candy.

It was a lovely time spent together. Such a simple thing to do, but we did it together. I discover more and more that it is not about what you do, but who you spend the time with that matters.

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. I am never one to use another's recipe and then try to pass it off as my own. (Gosh, that bugs me when people do that!) I have been using this vegan strawberry cupcake recipe since I found out our 5-year old had an egg allergy. I have adjusted it slightly. I am so grateful for the cooks and chefs before me who shared their recipes and made the transition to eggless baking easier for me.

Eggless Strawberry Cupcakes & Muffins 

Ingredients: 
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

8oz frozen strawberries including juice, thawed and mashed with a fork (I use organic)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use Madagascar)

1/2 cup canola oil 

1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar (I use plain old multi-purpose Heinz)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and sugar.

3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar, and vanilla together. 

4. Add the strawberries (and any juice from the container) to the oil mixture, mashing the strawberries with a fork, and stir to combine.

5. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients and stir together being careful not to over mix.

6. Using a soup spoon, put one heaping spoonful into each muffin wrapper/liner.

7. Bake for 22-28 minutes (depends on your oven, the weather, and where you live...start checking them at 22 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When cool, you can frost the cupcakes or leave them plain as muffins.

NOTES: The brilliance of this recipe is that the oil and vinegar combination replace the eggs. Eggs aren't for taste, but rather consistency. The vinegar reacts in the batter to make them soft. The vinegar does not make them taste sour like you might think, though the batter does taste a little tart. I have made these many times and everyone really enjoys them. I have adapted this recipe into a blueberry muffin cupcake recipe, too The original recipe says that you can make this into a loaf, like a strawberry bread, but I have never tried it.

You can find my cream cheese frosting recipe here. (Scroll down halfway through the post. This post also includes my go-to egg-free carrot cake recipe.)

Best Easy Brussels Sprouts Recipe Ever

Life is Good: our bellies are full

I love Brussels sprouts. I mean, I lovvvvvvvvvvee them. I love them enough to wake up in the middle of the night, creep down the stairs, open up the refrigerator door, pull out leftover Brussels sprouts, and heat them up just so that I can sneak them before my husband does! And this is the recipe that wakes me up at night...enjoy!

Susie's Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients:
20+ Brussels sprouts
1/4 c. water
4-6 slices of turkey bacon
balsamic vinegar, optional
goat cheese crumbles, optional
dried cranberries, optional

Directions:
1. Chop up your turkey bacon and cook in a large pan. (I use this one.) Be careful not to burn it.
2. When cooked completely, remove turkey bacon and reserve in a bowl nearby.
3. In the same pan (keep "drippings"), pour in water and toss in Brussels sprouts. Cover with a lid and cook on low.
4. When sprouts are tender, remove lid and cut each in half. Continue to cook.
5. When there is no trace of water, add turkey bacon and continue to cook. Flip sprouts around infrequently.
6. When sprouts have a nice patina or "grilled" look to them, remove from pan.
7. Now your sprouts are ready to serve. Or you can give them a couple of dashes of balsamic vinegar to add another flavor level to the side dish. I like this one. For an even more decadent side dish, crumble some goat cheese and toss in some dried cranberries.

Oh...my mouth is watering!

Best Easy Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Life is Good: and comforting!

To say that it is freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing in Minnesota is an understatement. This has been the worst winter that I have experienced here. It seems like they are getting worse and worse. It's a good thing that the other three seasons are so incredible or Minnie and I might have to break up. (Prayers for spring to arrive SOON are appreciated!)

As I walked to the bus stop in the cold and worse, wind (sigh) yesterday afternoon, I decided that comfort food was on the agenda for dinner. And what is more comforting on a cold winter's night than homemade chicken pot pie? It is super easy.

Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts
2 1/2 cups water
1 T. dried basil
1 t. dried thyme
1 T garlic
1 t. Pink Himalayan sea salt
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 pkg. frozen green beans (I use organic)
1/2 pkg. frozen sweet green peas (I use organic)
flour
pie crust (use your favorite recipe or store-bought will do, too!)

Directions:
1. Make your pie crust (or if you are using store-bought, take it out of the fridge or freezer). I use my grandma's recipe which makes enough for the bottom and top of a traditional pie. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a large saute pan (here's the one I use), heat water to a boil and add chicken, herbs, carrots, and salt. When chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the pan and once cool(ish), cute into chunks, cubes, or shred. (Your choice---I cut into chunks).

3. Remove half of the water, which is now a delicious, homemade chicken broth (also known as stock) and reserve in the refrigerator for another recipe (or if you are like me, give it to your children to slurp up like it is a fine delicacy! They love it!).

4. Add chicken back to the pan, along with the green beans and peas (or any vegetables that you and your family love) and cook for 5 minutes (so that the vegetables stay crisp).

5. Turn down heat to very low and one at a time, sprinkle a tablespoon of flour to the mixture, being sure to avoid lumps. The amount of flour you add depends on how your chicken cooks. This time, I added 10 tablespoons.

6. When your broth mixture turns opaque, turn off the heat on the pan.

7. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray (you can also use butter). Place pie crust in the bottom of a muffin tin. Make sure that there are not holes or other openings on the bottom or sides.

8. Fill the crusts with your chicken/vegetable mixture all the way to the top.

9. Cover each "pie" with pie crust. Seal the edges. Gently, cut an "X" through the top of the pie crust (this allows for steam to escape the pie).

10. Bake for 17-22 minutes. The time all depends on your oven, so start watching your pies at about 15 minutes. I used a giant, "Texas-sized" muffin tin this time. You can use a regular-sized one or even a traditional pie plate. The vessel you use will affect how long your pot pie needs to bake. This recipe made enough for 8 large muffin-sized pot pies.

11. Use a knife to carefully pop the pies out of the tin, allow a minute or two to cool and serve. We had ours with a spinach salad. And then we chased the kids around the house to work off the pie crust carbs! ; )

School Rules

Life is Good: and entertaining

The big kid and I have a little ritual each day when he comes home from school. We unpeel our numerous layers (oh, can this winter be over yet???) and then we sit down at the dining room table. While he eats a snack, I go through his take home folder and we talk about school. I love the way he describes some of the work he does. And he never misses a detail in reflecting on his classmates. "So and so said the "s word"." (The "s word" is "stupid", I discovered with relief! Relief that the "s word" is not a four-letter word and relief that he still knows that "stupid" is not a word to say aloud. What an awful word.) He goes on to tell me that "so and so likes to talk about 'Pokemans' a lot", etc.

Our chats can be informative, enlightening, heartwarming and even a bit hysterical.  Today, he mentioned someone who just can't follow the class or school rules so I asked him to tell me about the rules at school. I had the laptop within reach, so I typed away and this is what he said:

SCHOOL RULES:

No head bombs, face bashes, head dives, or going so fast like a skateboard crashing into people

No hitting or kicking or pushing or chest pushing

Say please and thank you

Raise your hand

Ask permission to ring the bell to say "it's the end of play time" or "it's the end of Science class"

We eat lunch at 6:45, I think. Or maybe 7:09

No screeching, no yelping, no yapping

No talking in the halls. Other classrooms might be learning something, so you need to be quiet.

If you bring a dog, don't poke it with a fork

Hmmmm

No bringing hammers and nails and nailing things in the wall

I agree

No talking around lunch

No goofing around at lunch

Having boyfriends and girlfriends is not allowed. (A girl in his class said so. Her dad must have told her this!)

Raise your hand. Hands and feet to yourself. Sit up nice and tall.

And finally...

You should never keep butter in your hat.

Oh, this kid! He keeps us smiling. The "butter in your hat" line was all for my entertainment. He said it with a grin that showed off his dimple. I love how silly our children are. It makes me feel so blessed. I pray that they will never take themselves too seriously and always stop to giggle. These qualities can serve a person well in life.

Today, I opened his lunch box to see that he had eaten everything in it. I was so surprised. I pack a lot into his lunch bag each day, so he usually has leftovers. I asked him if he was especially hungry or if I just happened to pack all of his favorite foods? Nope. "I usually don't have time to eat everything because I have to talk to my friends. Today, I decided I didn't have to make them laugh so much or tell them about things, so I had more time to eat."

You can't make this stuff up folks. And you can't blame it on his daddy either. Feeling the need to chat your friends up is all on mama. Oh, sheesh!

And after I wrote this, I felt this graphic was appropos...

Happy Wednesday!

Parenting a Two-Year Old

Life is Good: remember that

Our little one recently officially turned two and a half and boy, the last couple of weeks, he has been giving us a run for our money! He isn't falling asleep until an hour or more after we put him to bed, he isn't napping, he isn't eating much, he doesn't want to leave the house (I know kid, I'm over the coat-mitten-hat-polar vortex thing, too), he just plain doesn't want to do whatever we ask of him. "NO!" is an automatic response, though it is sometimes substituted with, "no".

And it is exhausting.

But I must disclose that these bouts of rebellion and frustration are not continuous. They come in spurts that seemingly last for hours but when actually checking the clock, last about 3-5 minutes. Okay, sometimes less than that, even. And to be fair, these momentous moments are sandwiched by absolute adorableness. We continue to be amazed and amused by the many new words and thoughts that are oozing out of our little one. He makes up his own jokes and then laughs uproariously at them. He plays pretend with dogs and pandas and Playmobil people who refer to each other as "honey" and always say, "please", "thank you", and "be careful". He says "shutdown!" instead of "touchdown" and can't go anywhere--I mean, anywhere--without a hat, helmet, glasses, or goggles or some combination of that. It is a fun time in the development of his personality.

Ah, development.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that is the culprit for this not enough sleep-not enough eating-no-no-NO intermittent storm we are in right now. And to be clear, I am aware that we are fortunate. I understand that our kids are pretty good in terms of personality and behavior. We've never gone through tantrums or public displays or revolt or some of the perfectly normal growing up issues that other friends of mine have faced. And I say that because I think it is always important to acknowledge your blessings and remember that it can always be worse. But I think because our kids have not gone through these kinds of growing pains, it makes the little interruptions of disorder and unrest feel that much more intense and foreign.

Whenever our kids go through these kinds of spurts, though, I try to look at what life has been like and search for the guilty party. Are they eating enough protein? Have they had too much sugar? Are they sleeping enough? Has our schedule been to full? And yes, could they be going through a growth spurt or a developmental phase? We forget that these small little people are accomplishing great feats and moving giant mountains every day. They don't come into this world fully functioning with an instruction manual. They are growing and changing and absorbing. They are delving and developing and adjusting. And we are their guides through it all. Through the excitement and awe of discovery and through the torture discomfort that sometimes comes with the process of growth and progression.

So I'm doing a lot of deep breathing these days. I continue to look for cues as to how to help our little one through these rough patches---eye contact & explanation, quiet, calm hugs, acknowledgment of feelings, respect. And I'm reminding myself that this is exactly where I want to be. That this is a sunny little life. Sure, the occasional "Tropical Storm Two-Year Old" will hit, but not for long. This is just a phase. Everything is just a phase. And this time we have together is ticking by. So I'll take a deep breath, count to ten, and remember that these bumps in the road are all a natural part of the path. And I'll remind myself that, really, they are tiny little bumps at that. And life is good, so I'll remember that, too.

(image from http://thrivingwithneurofibromatosis.blogspot.com)