Flashback Favorites: Alphabet Activities, Letter M

Revisiting some of my favorite posts and projects...

Alphabet Activities: Letter M
I feel terrible about posting so infrequently lately. Munch has kept us on the move with her busy social calendar every weekend. It's been a lot of fun getting to meet her new friends and their families have been really nice. I was relieved to have a day off for the holiday, even though AudioDad had to work. Munch and I decided to get back to our letter activities, so we tackled M,m today. We started off making the letter M with wood pieces and Munch was delighted to discover she had made the word "moo". Of course, I got sound effects to accompany the word making:Next, we moved on to her alphabet workbook. Munch found the stickers with M words and practiced writing the letter-before beginning her letter collage onto which she glued some dry macaroni-We had a puppet to assemble- and Munch loved making her monkey-
I was really excited about our super cute, super easy food project after getting the idea off the web. I melted some pink candy melts while Munch stuck marshmallows onto lollipop sticks. The marshmallow pops got a dip in the pink candy then sprinkled with decorations The only tricky thing was where to put them while they cooled and the coating dried- they were too top heavy to stand in a tumbler. In the end, I propped a cooling rack on a few cans which worked perfectly!Munch got to enjoy one as part of, what else? A muffin tin meal! I filled it with bunny mac & cheese (Munch's favorite), meatballs, macadamia nuts, mandarin orange segments, and a marshmallow pop- all washed down with a glass of milk-After naptime, which gave me a chance to clean up, Munch and I finished up her mermaid craft. Earlier in the day, she painted some tissue paper (a la Eric Carle) with green, teal, and blue dot markers
After it dried, she glued squares of her painted tissue paper onto a mermaid shape and decorated it with sequinsI cut it out for her and we glued it onto a water-scene background done in glitter glue-Last activities for the day were a batch of "hide and seek" muffins to go with dinner (the cherries she pushed into the center of the batter sink into the center of the muffin during baking)and some exploration with magnets.

Alphabet Activities: Letter M

I feel terrible about posting so infrequently lately. Munch has kept us on the move with her busy social calendar every weekend. It's been a lot of fun getting to meet her new friends and their families have been really nice. I was relieved to have a day off for the holiday, even though AudioDad had to work. Munch and I decided to get back to our letter activities, so we tackled M,m today. We started off making the letter M with wood pieces and Munch was delighted to discover she had made the word "moo". Of course, I got sound effects to accompany the word making:Next, we moved on to her alphabet workbook. Munch found the stickers with M words and practiced writing the letter-before beginning her letter collage onto which she glued some dry macaroni-We had a puppet to assemble- and Munch loved making her monkey-
I was really excited about our super cute, super easy food project after getting the idea off the web. I melted some pink candy melts while Munch stuck marshmallows onto lollipop sticks. The marshmallow pops got a dip in the pink candy then sprinkled with decorations The only tricky thing was where to put them while they cooled and the coating dried- they were too top heavy to stand in a tumbler. In the end, I propped a cooling rack on a few cans which worked perfectly!Munch got to enjoy one as part of, what else? A muffin tin meal! I filled it with bunny mac & cheese (Munch's favorite), meatballs, macadamia nuts, mandarin orange segments, and a marshmallow pop- all washed down with a glass of milk-After naptime, which gave me a chance to clean up, Munch and I finished up her mermaid craft. Earlier in the day, she painted some tissue paper (a la Eric Carle) with green, teal, and blue dot markers
After it dried, she glued squares of her painted tissue paper onto a mermaid shape and decorated it with sequinsI cut it out for her and we glued it onto a water-scene background done in glitter glue-Last activities for the day were a batch of "hide and seek" muffins to go with dinner (the cherries she pushed into the center of the batter sink into the center of the muffin during baking)and some exploration with magnets.

Another Muffin Tin Meal

This MTM (muffin tin meal) is filled with green beans, mac & cheese, watermelon chunks, and rolled deli turkey slices- with a peanut butter blossom for dessert! Check out more MTMs at Her Cup Overfloweth, home of Muffin Tin Mondays!

Muffin Tin Monday

I've been on the lookout for muffin tins that are an appropriate size for Munch. I was glad to find this one because it's so happy looking.Lunch was orzo with shrimp and feta, some carrot sticks, a few slices of turkey, the blackberries we picked
with some whipped cream for dipping, and a peanut butter cookie.

A Muffin "Tin" Meal

Between Munch's habit of stretching out mealtimes to intolerable lengths (she chews and chews and chews, but takes forever to swallow her food) and her recent lack of appetite because of her cold, I was desperate to change up the dinner table vibe. Last week, we had a picnic at her play table. Everyone used animal chopsticks and I put her campanelle pasta in a parfait glass.
This week I discovered Muffin Tin Meals on the blog, Her Cup Overfloweth. It's a cute idea- we know how kids love having their food in separate compartments. And I just finished reading Bento Box in the Heartland by Linda Furiya, whose columns I enjoyed in the food section of the SF Chronicle, so I'm already inspired by the whole bento idea- thank goodness we're headed to the Pacific East Mall again so I can find some cute mealtime accessories (particularly some safer food picks!). And, for her birthday, Munch received an adorable cupcake making set which just happens to have a mini-muffin pan- the perfect size for her lunch. It just was meant to be...
So without further ado, my first muffin tin meal-

I repeated several components just because the portions were so tiny. Basically it's matchstick-cut carrots, raspberry yogurt, cubed apples, green peas, and rolled turkey slices.

I'm pleased to say, the Munchkin loved it. It also helped that I filled several compartments with her beloved green peas-those were the first to get gobbled up, with requests for more! Gotta love that girl!