Wordless Wednesday: Kiddie Table

Pancake Sunday 11.27

Zesty Lemon

Pancakes

I love the taste of lemon pancakes. It's a nice fresh taste, light and citrus-y. I've made lemon pancakes before but these pancakes are a simplified version. All I did was use the basic "Instant" Pancake Mix recipe I've had around the house and add the zest of one lemon to the dry ingredients. Then I added the juice of one lemon to the wet ingredients. Mix the two together and you have a delicious lemon pancake!

In my opinion, syrup is too heavy to top lemon pancakes with so I always top mine with powdered sugar. It's melt in your mouth good. MMMMMMMMMMM!

Thanksgiving Treats

Every Thanksgiving it's my duty to bring the sweet potatoes, I also like to bring desserts. They're my favoritest thing in the world to make! I search for weeks, WEEKS before deciding on what desserts to bring. This year I chose two Martha Stewart recipes (I just love her), an apple cranberry pie and a chocolate caramel cake. They were both a hit! If you ever have the chance to make one of these, definitely give them a try!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pancake Sunday 11.20

Instant Oatmeal Apple 
Pancakes

These were an "on a whim" pancake and they were so tasty! I used the "Instant" pancakes and added some apple cinnamon instant oatmeal packs, then, I added a few cut up apples. I also cut the milk in the recipe down to 1.5 cups, the batter was a lot better and the pancakes were fluffier. The kids and my pancake-hating husband gobbled them up. I think I'm converting him into a pancake lover!!

Running Update

Remember this post about running? And this post about my most recent run on the sidebar? Well, I haven't given you an update on running, so here's one!

I started running in July, then I ran quite a bit in August, I steadily declined in September and Travis and I started a workout called Insanity (have you heard of it?) we did Insanity for September and October before I decided to call it quits. I was actually gaining weight, Travis thinks because I wasn't eating as much as I was burning.

So now I'm back to running! It feels great too. I'm not sure why I stopped but now I'm kind of addicted to it and I'm finding my stride. My stamina is definitely a lot better (due to Insanity) and I'm running faster and farther than I've ever ran.

I've reached two goals:

• Ran 3 miles straight
• Reached Orange Level on Nike+ (log a total of 30 miles)

Now, I guess my goals are to run for 4 miles and work on reaching the next level (at 154 logged miles). I'll be sure to keep you updated! And don't forget to keep track of my miles ran by checking the sidebar ever so often!

------------------------------------------------------------------->

30 Day Challenge: Playing With Junk

Check out this post to read all about the 30 Day to Hands on Play Challenge.

Day 15:

Playing With Junk

Did you read my post about Day 14's Challenge? It was to act out a story (we did shadow puppets) we had so much fun that I promised the girls we'd make a shadow puppet theater. I had no idea that Day 15 would be playing with junk! It's a two for one! The idea for the shadow puppet theater came from a fabulous blog called Red Ted Art, if you haven't taken the time to check out Red Ted Art, you are seriously missing out!

The main component of the theater is a cereal box, luckily we had just finished a box of cereal that morning!

 While the glue on the cereal box was drying I brought out all the "junk" so we could start making the puppets.

 We decided we would make puppets for two stories

The Billy Goats Gruff

and

and underwater theme

 The girls had a blast telling stories with it

 Daddy even got in on the story telling

(not his strong suit)

and was able to relax and enjoy it

more so than reading out of a book

What have you made out of junk? 

Are you following along with the challenge? It's not too late!

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

My sweet Charlotte is four today. I am so proud, she is growing up to be such a smart, sweet, and funny girl. She started off her day as a mermaid with a bath that was orange (with drops of food coloring). She painted some beads that we made out of air-dry clay, ran at the park (it was in the 70s!), ate hamburgers for lunch and grilled cheese for dinner and then had delicious Chocolate Wasted Cupcakes for dessert (her choice!) It was a perfect day!

Look at my little chocolate gremlin!

30 Day Challenge: Act Out A Story

Read this post to learn all about this amazing challenge!

We took a small break with the challenge but I'm planning on catching up at the end with these activities:

Mixing Concoctions

Outside Adventure

Field Trip

Sticky Art

Day 14:

Act Out A Story

Day 14 was Charlotte's birthday so we spent most of the day doing whatever her little heart desired. We did spend about an hour before bedtime telling our favorite stories from memory and acting them out as shadow puppets with our hands. Most of our favorite stories to tell orally are fairytales/folktales, for example: The Little Red Hen, The Billy Goats Gruff, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Little Red Riding Hood, Chicken Little, The Gingerbread Man, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and many others, they're just so easy to remember! We then started to tell made up stories with the toys around us. Charlotte had so much fun turning pretty much every story she told into a birthday story. We had so much fun with shadow puppets I promised the girls we could do them the next day too.

Have you joined in on the challenge? It's not to late to start!!

30 Day Challenge: Sensory Tub Play

Read all about the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge I'm participating in here!!

Today's challenge is brought to us from Anna at The Imagination Tree

Day 9:

Sensory Tub Play

I've never really made a sensory bin for the girls, I don't have many tubs that I could use for a sensory bin. The one I do have happens to have cloud dough in it that I didn't want to take out. So, I kinda improvised, after all it's about the sensory aspect of the play right!? 

For our sensory play, I wanted to try something new, so I decided to try water beads. Have you heard of them? They are teeny tiny little beads that you add to water and they plump up into wet squishy bouncy fun!

(they take at least 3 hours to plump up with water)

I drained out the excess water and poured them into a tray

and we all stuck our hands in

I was surprised by the texture, I thought they'd have a hard outer shell

but they are completely squishy

and feel wet all the time

I set out measuring cups and spoons, a bowl and a colander 

along with the tray of water beads for the girls 

Charlotte brought out a toy that is used for balls

like a gumball machine

drop them in the top and they pop out the bottom

I found a bottle for the girls and they had a lot of fun putting the beads in and blowing on the top to try and make music 

and then pouring the beads out into the bowl, they bounced all over the place!

 We did a lot of pouring, scooping, squishing, bouncing, and even sorting.

In the end we put all our sorted colors into the glass bottle and now we are marking the bottle every few  hours as the beads shrink back down to put away for next time

and next time,

I'll probably only bring them out for Charlotte to play with.

Alexis (she's two) was squishing the dickens out of the poor beads

 and there were quite a few casualties

 What kind of sensory bins have you made? Have you joined the challenge?

It's not too late!

30 Day Challenge: Water Play

Read this post to learn all about the amazing play ideas that Jamie from hands on : as we grow and Anna from The Imagination Tree have challenged us with.

Day 8:

Water Play

Oh man, when I woke up this morning and saw water play, my heart sank. This was a challenge I did NOT want to do. It sounded messy and I really did not want to clean up a huge watery mess. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous outside so, I brought the water outside and the girls had a blast.

I brought out one huge bowl of water, one big empty bowl and a few little empty bowls

We mixed some food coloring but that lasted only a few seconds

The girls were having more fun just pouring the water from bowl to bowl

and 

pouring it all over the table

All the water on top of the table made a little waterfall!

Some sidewalk chalk was thrown into the mix

and

suddenly, we were art-eests!

If you soak the chalk in the water

then rub it on the ground

it will make a nice paste that's perfect for painting with

We poured water all over our chalk paintings

and

started all over again!

Thank goodness I put play clothes on them

they were soaked

and

 I guess I wasn't wet enough

when I was bending over to draw on the ground

Alexis slapped me on the back with a super soaked washcloth

then she laughed and laughed and laughed

(stinker)

Did you play with water today!? Join the challenge, it's not too late!