You're So Crafty!

Ever since Munch was little, she's liked doing projects. While play-doh and drawing are relatively new interests, she's been hooked on stickers and those adhesive foam shapes for a while. She loves gluing shapes I cut out and it's been interesting to see how she arranges things. Lately, I've been teaching her to cut with scissors and she's finally mastered writing her name.

All her artwork gets displayed on the wall next to our dining table.

But I recently picked up a great idea on Oprah where they suggested photographing the art and using an online photo printing service to bind it into a book. It's a great way to keep the art on our wall fresh, but still "keep" the older things. Here's a few of my favorites-
This is one of her first- Munch made it at a Gymboree art class when she was about 2. I like it because it reminds me of a field of flowers (or kites).

This is our crab picture. I love using paper plates for projects. We also tried out those Crayola Colorslicks- they're kind of like an oil pastel.

A piece from her "feather" phase! Also, she just got her first set of rubber stamps.

More paper plate art- but this time, we brought out the watercolors too!

This came home from preschool a couple of months ago. It's your basic apple print, but I find it funny because she took one look at those apple halves and assumed it was snacktime!

More food art- can you tell she's my kid? When we started working on cutting skills, she wanted to make a hot dog!

Newest of all- a portrait of us!

Have A Heart

I'm not one to go all out for Valentine's Day in general. Between the parties at school and being bombarded with ads during the weeks prior, I'm usually over it by the time I dismiss the kids. But having the Munchkin to share in the fun has renewed the holiday for me just a bit. Since today was a Staff Development Day, I was able to get home a little earlier and we made these yummy red velvet cupcakes-


The recipe came from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite blogs. These cupcakes had a great cocoa flavor. Although I find the overtly red versions pretty off-putting, I probably didn't put in enough food color in my batter because once they were baked, you really couldn't see even the slightest hint of red. We had a great time decorating them with heart shaped sprinkles and we even made a Valentine's Day craft for the grandparents-


I got the idea from one a student made me. The tissue paper squares are actually glued onto a piece of plastic film (I just set it against the purple background for contrast) and Munch got good use out of her new dot markers and her favorite sticky foam shapes. My initial impression with her careful use of paintbrush and glue (she would lightly dip, carefully brush a bit onto the tissue paper square, then add a dab onto the plastic before attaching the two) went out the window after I stepped a few feet away to get dinner going. She was happily working when I suddenly heard, "I'm stuck!" Turns out she decided to paint her face, hands, and arms with glue in squiggly and happy face designs!

You Can't Go Wrong With Chocolate...

The Munchkin has really been something else these last few days. She's just been so chatty, bubbly, and will not stop dancing and singing EVERYWHERE she goes. Truth be told, it's driving me a little bonkers. Her most recent performance took place in the produce department. So when she woke up this morning and insisted on a chocolate breakfast, I gave her the "you're really pushing it" look. But when she responded brightly with, "But mom, you can't go wrong with chocolate", what could I say? I mean, the girl IS right (even though I have no idea where she comes up with this stuff...) so, after I whisked up a batch of hot chocolate on the stove, I popped a batch of our favorite chocolate chip scones into the oven-


After a few sips and nibbles, she danced off to start her day-


Chocolate Chip Scones
2 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. chocolate chips
1 1/4 c. heavy whipping cream

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar into a bowl. Add the chocolate chips and toss to combine. Add the cream all at once and mix until you have a "shaggy" dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead gently a few turns until dough is smooth. Pat dough into a rectangle and cut into 12 pieces. Bake at 425 degrees for about 16 minutes until golden brown. Plan to enjoy these all the day they are baked- they get stale quickly.

More Birthday Fun!

With all of the excitement over the pony party, I forgot I'd taken these photos on Munch's actual birthday. She's been really into imaginative play with her dolls lately- especially playing preschool, so when I found this playset, I just couldn't resist! That, and I realized our plan to get her a new, "big kid", twin bed for her birthday left Munch with nothing to open on her special day!


Thank goodness I have a little girl, because these Calico Critters playsets are absolutely adorable! The teeny-tiny figures are just amazing- check out the miniature drum set- and those itty bitty drumsticks? They are separate from the drum, not attached!


At our house, the birthday celebrant gets their favorite meal for dinner. AudioDad always gets meatloaf and usually, an apple pie instead of cake. Munch chose mac and cheese with peas.


For dessert, I picked up an adorable little princess cake with pink marzipan instead of green-



if you're not familiar with the princess cake, it's basically a light cake layered with whipped cream and jam, covered in marzipan. It's light, sweet, and just delicious!

It's Party Time!

After weeks of planning, preparation, and hearing Munch ask, "Is my pony party today?" I could finally tell her "Yes! Today's your pony party day!" We were blessed with gorgeous weather- warm sun and temps in the 60s-70s. I spent the morning getting all the snacks made- fruit salad, tiny "pigs in a blanket" made with Little Smokies, cream cheese and jam sandwiches cut into triangles with the crusts removed, and mini sweet potato biscuits spread with apple butter or mustard and stuffed with thinly sliced ham.
Once we got to the farm, we set up the table of snacks. We put out the goodie bags that Munch helped to stuff and decorate and we set out the sprinkles and icing for cookie-decorating. Munch was thrilled once the bounce house was inflated! The ponies arrived and the kids took turns getting a ride-



while they waited their turn, they went in the jumpy-



played on the play structure-



and decorated pony cookies-



After a snack, we headed to the petting zoo-



then opened presents



and had cake


It was a wonderful, happy day!