As room mom for The Littlest Apple’s Mother’s Day Out class, my other big project for their Fall Party was making the party favors.  I decided against any food (especially candy), but had trouble thinking of an appropriate and inexpensive party favor for a class of two year olds.  It seems that so many party favors are just cheap-o junk or candy, and I wanted to do something different.  I turned to some of my favorite blog resources for ideas, and found the perfect party favor!

Pumpkin Spice Scented Playdough, using this basic recipe on My Montessori Journey, as seen on Counting Coconuts.  I love the idea of making seasonal/themed playdough with scents and colors, so I may do this again soon.  This came together SO easily.  I was really amazed that I could throw a few basic pantry staples in a pan and come up with playdough!  I added about 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice, and I used Wilton Orange Icing Color for that vivid orange color.  (So much easier than trying to mix red and yellow food coloring drops to get the perfect orange!)

For the party favor, I used some great little Tupperware-esque containers I found at Hobby Lobby that were the perfect size.  I picked the ones with the green lid for a pumpkin-y look.  The original plan was to pair the playdough with a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter, but I found some great leaf and acorn shapes, and went with those instead!

This playdough has been a big hit at our house over the last few days.  The Littlest Apple LOVES it, and he doesn’t usually spend much time with playdough.  He’s had fun using the cookie cutters and a little child-friendly knife to cut the playdough.

If you haven’t ever tried making your own playdough, you MUST try this!

I brought these cute little fruit cups to The Littlest Apple’s Fall Party at school.  (The party he had to miss because he’s sick.)  I saw the idea in Family Fun magazine, and thought they were absolutely adorable!  You just cut off the top of an orange, hollow it out, carve a jack-o-lantern face, and fill with fruit!  I’d like the give a big THANK YOU to my mom who did ALL of the work on these while I was making some Pumpkin Spice Scented Playdough.  My mom did an amazing job, and The Littlest Apple’s teachers were very impressed (and so was I)!

Well, my week is imploding, and as you can see, posting has been a little slow.  The Littlest Apple is still sick and will be missing his Fall Party tomorrow, and now it seems The Picky Apple and I might be getting sick too.  I’m REALLY hoping we can make it to The Littlest Apple’s GI appointment on Friday.

For now, here’s something that makes me smile.

Can you tell what The Littlest Apple is looking at?  It’s the Pottery Barn Catalog!  He asked Daddy to read it to him.  Daddy reluctantly obliged.  The Littlest Apple loved it….lots of “oohing” and “aahing” over the candles, Christmas decorations, and all things Pottery Barn.  See his little “ooooh” lips below?  Love it!

I’ve got a busy week this week, but it looks like The Littlest Apple is getting sick and everything may come to a screeching halt.  Today we’re just going to hang out at home and listen to the rain!  I’m hoping he’s better soon.  I have so many errands to run tomorrow while he’s in Mother’s Day Out, so I hope that happens.  Also we’re hosting Art Playgroup at our house Wednesday, his Fall Party at school Thursday (I’m room mom, so I need to be there!), and his GI appointment on Friday (which was already canceled once due to illness).

I was a little slow getting the menu together for this week, so I’m just covering dinners here!  There should be lots of leftovers!

Monday: Buffalo Chicken Salad using leftover Buffalo Chicken Nuggets

Tuesday: Brisket (new recipe), Baked Potatoes, Oven Baked Kale Chips (new recipe)

Wednesday: Chimichangas using leftover Brisket, Salad

Thursday: Steak Bites (new recipe), Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes (didn’t get to this last week), Salad

Friday: Fish Tacos (requested by The Picky Apple…amazing!)

Saturday: sandwiches or dine out

Sunday: Spaghetti and Meatballs with Homemade Red Sauce, Garlic Bread, Salad

For more menu planning inspiration, visit Menu Plan Monday at I’m An Organizing Junkie

The Littlest Apple is 26 months old.

I haven’t been keeping my camera handy lately, nor have we been doing as many planned activities as normal.  So here is a recap of some of our activities from the last couple of weeks (in addition to Art Playgroup, The Little Gym class, and Mother’s Day Out!).  For this upcoming week, I’m planning on getting back to The Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum which I absolutely love, and taking more pictures!

We went to a small airport after lunch with Grandma and Grandpa.  The Littlest Apple got to see some small airplanes up close, we saw airplanes land and takeoff, and a helicopter take off too!

image from Grandma...thanks for taking great pictures!

We played with some truck stamps.  The Littlest Apple is finally starting to understand what to do with his stamps (though it isn’t obvious from this photo, where he’s holding the stamp side up!).  It is still very messy, and I don’t think my ink pad is washable.  It took forever to get all that ink off of his hands!

Last weekend, we visited Dewberry Farms, where The Littlest Apple rode on a corn barrel train, got to see pigs, chickens, roosters, geese, horses, donkeys, goats, bunnies.  We didn’t stay long this year because it was REALLY crowded (they had just been featured on Good Morning America the day before), and The Littlest Apple was getting cranky.

I probably shouldn’t be encouraging running in the house, but we have a straight shot from the front door to the back door.  This week we did lots of racing with running, walking backwards, hopping, and galloping from door to door.  He LOVED this!

The Littlest Apple is showing more interest in stickers, which is great because I’ve got tons!  This week he played with his construction trucks sticker book.  I walked off for one second to check on dinner, and came back to this:

His sticker creation reminds me so much of THIS page in Richard Scarry’s Cars, Trucks, and Things That Go:

The Littlest Apple has really come a long way with his gluing skills.  He loves to glue now, so we’ve been making lots of collages.  I do all the cutting, but he helps me select the pictures and does all the gluing and picture placement.  It will be great when he can help with the cutting too!  In the last week, we made a pumpkin collage, a baking collage, and a Halloween collage.  I’m amazed at how good he does at placing the pictures on the glue…he always manages to get them right side up!

I can’t remember which blog featured this torn paper candy corn activity (if you know, let me know so I can give proper credit!), but I knew I wanted to try it with The Littlest Apple.  He got a little frustrated tearing the paper, so I wound up helping lots.  We still need to work on tearing skills.  (Or do we??!)  He also got lots of help from mom with placing the paper on the glue because he was way more interested in throwing all the bits of paper up in the air!

I’m expanding our vegetable horizons by trying a new vegetable each week.  First it was acorn squash, now kale.  I keep reading about how great it is, a superfood, and all that, but I’ve never had it.  (By the way, if you want lots of useful info on superfoods, be sure to check out Kitchen Stewardship!)  Kale contains calcium, tons of Vitamin A, K and C.  It is great for your heart and can prevent cancer, among other things.

This recipe was a great introduction to kale.  To me, kale tastes like a cross between broccoli and spinach.  The Picky Apple didn’t care for it, but we’re getting another bunch from our organic co-op this week, so it will definitely be making another appearance at dinner sometime soon!  Kale is one of those vegetables that gets bitter the longer you let it sit in your fridge, so ours may have been a little on the bitter side.  I’ll cook it sooner next time!

For this recipe, I kept the full amount of sauce, but halved the rest of the ingredients.  I like my stir fry saucy!  Also, the title of the recipe would imply that this is a spicy dish, but ours didn’t seem spicy at all.  Not enough serrano, perhaps?  I enjoyed the stir fry nonetheless, served over Basmati rice.

Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts

from Bon Appetit, April 2008

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
• 2 tablespoons dry Sherry, divided
• 3 tablespoons Asian sesame oil, divided
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar, divided
• 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch wide strips
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
• 4 green onions, white parts and green parts chopped separately
• 2 teaspoons chopped seeded serrano chiles
• 1 large bunch greens (such as spinach, mustard greens, kale, or broccoli rabe; about 1 pound, thick stems removed, spinach left whole, other greens cut into 1-inch strips (about 10 cups packed)
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts

Whisk 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in medium bowl.  Add chicken; marinate 20 to 30 minutes.

Whisk remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Sherry, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in small bowl and reserve.

Heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat.  Add white parts of onions and chiles; stir 30 seconds.  Add chicken; stir-fry just until cooked through, about 3 minutes.  Transfer chicken mixture to bowl.  Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to same skillet; heat over high heat.  Add greens by large handfuls; stir just until beginning to wilt before adding more.  Saute just until tender, 1 to 6 minutes, depending on type of greens.  Return chicken to skillet.  Add reserved soy sauce mixture; stir until heated through, about 1 minute.  Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to serving bowl; sprinkle with green parts of onions and peanuts.

I’m big on list making.  Especially “to do” lists.  The actual DOING of the “to dos” is another story entirely.  I’ve been reading the Top Five Friday at Superheros and Princesses for the last couple weeks, but haven’t participated yet.  This week I’m in.  Here are the top 5 things on my wish list right now:

1.  A weekend getaway to Austin with The Picky Apple (sans Littlest Apple) to see some of our favorite spots, eat at some of our favorite restaurants, walk on campus (University of Texas) together, sleep in at a fancy hotel, and reminisce about college days when we first started dating.

2.  A new featherbed for our mattress.  The one I ordered almost 2 years ago is too big (I thought it was the right size, but clearly not), making it nearly impossible to get sheets on properly.  I get frustrated every single time I change the sheets, and always say I’m just going to go take care of it, but I’ve yet to do so.  2 years I’ve been saying this….that’s a lot of needless frustration, folks.

3.  A new necklace chain to replace my 2(!) broken ones for my favorite pendants that I used to wear almost every day, until The Littlest Apple got a hold of them:

4.  An ant free home.  Is that too much to ask for?!  I think not.  The exterminator came on Tuesday, and I’m seeing less of them, so I think the ants may have finally gotten the hint that they aren’t welcome here.

5.  More shelving.  For books, toys, and clothing.  Especially for our closets.

The Littlest Apple is definitely a challenge in the clothing department, and it is getting worse as he continues to get taller without gaining much weight.  As I’ve mentioned before, at almost 27 months, he’s around 20% for height (33 inches) and still not on the charts for weight (21 pounds).  In the summer, it’s easy to buy shirts the right size (12-18 months) and shorts that fit his tiny little waist (6-12 months…sad, I know).  Now that pants season is finally hitting Texas (at least for a few days), things start to get tricky because his length becomes a factor.  We’ve moved up to 12-18 month pants, even though he’s actually a bit too long for these according to the tag.  Since he’s skinny, they tend to hang longer on him.  The next size up would completely swallow him up, weight wise.  But even the 12-18 month pants are way too large around the waist (even if the waist is elastic).  In the past, I’ve solved this problem by using safety pins or doing a quick stitch on the sides to take them in, but last month, I ran across the answer to my problems.

Adjustable waist pants from Baby Gap!  They are just what we need, and the first pants I’ve seen like this for kids.  (Most of the pants I’ve seen that have drawstrings aren’t actually functional drawstrings).

Check out how they work:  There is a piece of elastic inside the waistband that has button holes in it.  If you want the pants tighter, you just pull on the elastic and fasten the hidden buttons farther down.  Brilliant!

We have the Slub Cargo Pants ($29.99), like these:

I didn’t see any other styles at the store here (2 months ago), but according to the website there are lots of other options, including five pocket corduroy (in 5 colors), twill cargo pants, rugged cargo jeans, stripe lined jeans, micro fleece lined jeans, among others.

There are lots of styles for little girls too!

Baby Gap isn’t the cheapest, that’s for sure, but I love their stuff, and I’m so relieved to find a product like this that I’m willing to pay a pretty penny for them.  And as much as I hate that The Littlest Apple isn’t gaining weight, he is staying in the same size for a while.  We get more use out of his clothes (last year’s coat and some pants), and don’t have to buy new ones as often.

Have any of you seen anything similar elsewhere?  How do you get pants to fit your skinny kids?

I am not being asked to review any of these items, nor being paid for this review.  I am simply passing on some things that make my world a happier place.  Sometimes when you find something great, you just want to shout it from the rooftops!

For Art Playgroup this week, I wanted to make something simple and delicious for the mommies.  I put this off until about 8:45 last night, so I wanted something really easy that wouldn’t make a big mess.  I ran across this recipe for One Bowl Apple Cake at maya*made recently, and decided that sounded perfect!  It was a big hit with the Art Playgroup mommies this morning.  This cake would be great for breakfast, dessert or snacktime.  I pulled mine out of the oven after 30 minutes because I thought it was burning, but I think it could have cooked for about 5 more minutes.  Just keep an eye on it!

I’m SO not a food stylist….

After my initial post about the beginning of our Art Playgroup, I haven’t written anything about it!  It is still going really well, and I’m tempted to invite a few more kids from The Littlest Apple’s Mother’s Day Out class, but I’m worried that then there might be too many kids and not enough space for painting.  We’ll see.  Today we had 6 kids painting.

Last week, our activity was Tire Track Painting.  My truck-loving son loves this activity.  You simply roll trucks/cars/trains through paint and then roll it over the paper.  The cooler the tire treads, the better!  Here’s an assortment of trucks we used:

Here are The Littlest Apple’s paintings.  I forgot to take a picture of all the kids in action…

Today was our third art playgroup, and I think this was the best one so far!  The activity this morning was Watercolor Initials.  Each child was given a piece of paper with their initial taped on with painter’s tape. (Note: the straight line letters like “F”, “T”, “E” “A” are so much easier to tape down than curvies like “B”, “C,” “S”!  My son was the only one in our group with a straight line initial!)  The idea was to paint over the page, then peel off the tape when the paint dries, revealing the child’s initial.  We tried out some new liquid watercolors I ordered online.  The colors were so vivid!  I loved them, and the kids all seemed captivated too.  They stayed at the table painting for the longest yet, painting freestyle, after their initial art was done!  Because these paints are runny, it did get a little messy today. (The kids have all been surprisingly neat so far).  I think The Littlest Apple was the messiest of all.

I really love that shirt.  I hope I can get the paint out!

Again, I forgot to take a picture of the kids in action, but here are some of the masterpieces from the day.

We started to run out of room.  I think I might need to get a drying rack…

And here is The Littlest Apple’s painting after the paint dried and the tape was removed:

The kids also seemed to enjoy all the toys downstairs today.  We have a playroom upstairs, but the kids seemed so interested in the downstairs toys that we didn’t even make it to the playroom!  (Also a sign that we have too many toys! )

Next week we’re doing Cookie Cutter Painting.  My plan is to use Halloween themed cookie cutters and black, orange, and purple paint.  Hope I can dig out those cookie cutters!