Angry Birds for Dinner

I try to be a cool/fun Mom, I really do.

Last night for dinner I thought I’d make my kiddos’ dinner look like a face on the plate instead of just dinner on a plate. Kids like this, I’ve heard.

So I arranged the apple ears, banana eyes, cheese nose, chicken-nugget mouth and fried potato hair all onto the plate. Then I gave myself some Mom-points cause the chicken nuggets were homemade, baby! Then I subtracted some Mom-points cause I served them something fried. Then I gave myself more Mom-points cause I had, after all, made dinner look pretty darn cool. Then I…

Oh, nevermind with the Mom-points, those things aren’t real anyway.

But then I stepped back to admire my work and wondered… does this look like an angry bird? In fact, I think it does! Maybe it’s the fried potato hair that actually looks more like plumage? I don’t know people. I’m just trying to make food look like a face so that my kids will think that I’m cool/fun. Food face or food bird… it doesn’t really matter cause both are cool/fun, right! Right.

But there is something else. Do you notice an item that is missing from this dinner-bird? A condiment perhaps?

Ketchup. Right. Five (non-existent) points for you. Chicken nuggets demand ketchup. Duh.

I knew this necessary condiment needed to be included, but the problem was that I had already used up all possible face parts. I suppose I could have given the banana eyes ketchup pupils or something but frankly that’s just disgusting.

So I just gave it a squirt.

And then my angry bird then looked like he’d suffered a blunt trauma to the head.

Maybe the kids would just think it’s a hair accessory?

Oh my.

Playmate Today

H had a playmate this morning. We did many fun things together (and Mama still got some of her own stuff done too!)



Stickers masterpieces. Nice.



Followed by an outing to feed the tortoise at the Guest House.



A trip to the ducaan (store) to buy snacks. This was followed by much running, jumping and skipping up and down this brick ramp. Who knew the ducaan could be SO much fun?

(not me)

(until now)

(and now I know)



Scratch 'n sniff painting! Big hit. Got that idea here.



Sandbox. Always fun.



Play-dough creations.



And a lunch little boys dream of...

Homemade Play-Dough

You might be surprised (or not) that we can't buy Play-Doh here. Or maybe I could, if I wanted to pay with my arm and my leg.

But we can MAKE it!

And I have to say that I actually like the homemade kind way better than the real kind. The real kind gets crumbly really easily, doesn't it? And every time you (and your kids... ha!) are done playing you always grab a wad of it, thump thump thumping it all over the chair and table and floor to pick up all the crumbs that got everywhere, don't you?

Uh huh. I know you do. I did too.

Until my life changed...

I knew my Mother-in-Law (hi, Mom!) had some homemade once... so I asked for the recipe. The ingredients are so simple and can all be bought locally, except for the Kool-Aid packets, which I always bring with us anyway.

So H had a fun surprise when he woke up from his nap!!



We spent quite awhile baking that afternoon.



(patented baking technique)















Mmmn. Cookies!



Would you like one?



(oven)





(not sure)





I'd set the timer for H for 1 minute, but he was too excited to 'check his cookies in the oven' that he couldn't' even bring himself to wait until it beeped! It was super cute.

Can I also take this opportunity to say that this timer you see above is also from my Mother-in-Law... and it is my FAVORITE timer ever. Oh, except maybe for the green pepper timer that I had for a long time in college and loved so much. It broke, Mikey tried to buy me another on eBay, that one never worked, and that was the last I've had a green pepper timer in my life. The Pyrex timer is my favorite for functionally, for sure. The green pepper timer was never so functional... just cute! Wow... what am I talking so much about timers? How can a lady get so excited about timers, you wonder? When a woman spends so much time it the kitchen, timing things. That's how.

Aaaaanway...

Here's the booket the recipe came out of.







(click on photo to enlarge it if you want to follow the recipe)

This is so easy! One batch makes plenty for multiple little peeps to share, it's edible (salty, but true) and it will have the scent of whatever Kool-Aid packets you chose. And the best part? It's doesn't dry out quickly and there will be much less 'thump thump thumping' going on...

Apple Smile

Today's snack:



Get it? See it?



apple lips + marshmallow teeth + peanut butter gums (?) = apple smile

Creepy or fun?



Fun!



H is showing us his teeth.

Cute.



Here's my version.

If I were a foodie, I would call it: Apple Smile, deconstructed.



Got that idea from this book.



I love books that do creative thinking for me and give me detailed instructions and demonstrative photos on how to do fun things with wee ones.

I just love them.



And I love this guy.

He ate the marshmallows first (no big surprise) but had serious issues with the peanut butter on the apple. He didn't intend to eat it cause "It makes my hands all sticky Mama!"

What? A kid who doesn't like peanut butter cause it makes his hands STICKY?

Who is this child?

Oh yeah. He's his Daddy's son.

;)



He ate it though. If I would pick it up off the plate and hand it to him.



Lord have mercy. This boy has stolen my heart.

Colors of the Rainbow

My boy has been learning colors at school. Well, I don't know if I can can say that he's been learning them if he already knew them. Ach... doesn't matter...

He has to wear certain colors on certain days (except we had no pink or purple.. oops!) and they have stuck to the theme with their craft projects too.

Here's a host of his latest. All colors of the rainbow! Except blue. We must have missed that day.

(Don't worry, I'm sure that the novelty of my son's artwork with wear off someday and I will no longer post pictures of it online for all of you readers to roll their eyes at. At least maybe it will wear off. Maybe it won't. I actually can't say. But you can hope, huh? Ha!)



Such diversity here in red... finger-painted balloon picture, a glitter star, and a red rice strawberry!



Wondering what that white puffy thing is? Cotton candy, silly! And it tasted delicious the 14,000 times I took a bite on demand. (Please note the use of glitter.)



H loved his pink glitter lollipop. I had to throw it away when he wasn't looking. I feared for his health and the health of his baby sister. How do you make a kid understand that not all things are to be shared with baby sisters?



Here they glued grass onto the carrot tops. Cute, huh?



Paper plate sunflower and glittery lemon.



More glittery fruit. Give me a break.



Wow! This was a very multimedia day. Feathers, another paper plate craft, and purple GLITTER painted cotton balls. Those grapes are quite impressive, if you ask me. Maybe too impressive, but more on that later...

For now let's talk about glitter.

This glitter is everywhere by now folks. We are literally living in a rainbow of glitter. I am finding it on my body, on my baby girl, on our counters, all over the car and in my boy's ears.

Okay, so I never actually saw glitter in H's ears, but I'm certain it got in there. How could it not? It was everywhere.

I tried to isolate and quarantine these projects the moment they entered my home. The sirens would sound, I would run to the folder as I put my rubber gloves on, gently lift the delicate artwork out of it's folder and slowly transport it to the kitchen, being careful not to breathe.

But it was all in vain.

;)

Aaaaaanyway...



Onto black. The pirate hat and the spider were a big hit. I never did figure out what the black square is a painting of. Any ideas?



White. The lamb is nice. I wasn't so happy about the ghost. But whatever.



And brown was interpreted as gold. Gold glitter. LOTS of gold glitter. Lord help us all.



The unit was finished off with some rainbow days! I love the hat and rainbow.



And a rainbow sun and two coloring pages. A glitterless two days. Wow!

But may I draw your attention to something?



Do you notice anything funny about this? I mean it's a super cute picture, but does it look like a small boy colored it?

Puh-lease! I know my boy is gifted and all (he he), but I know better than to think he can color a frog and umbrella so well.



Or these crayons?

Each crayon with it's own color? Colored in almost entirely inside the lines?

What?!

I tried to get H to admit that his teachers had colored his pictures. He alluded to it, but I never did get a straight answer.



Oh well. He doesn't seem to mind!

I love you H! You are so fun and so bright!