Homemade Fruit and Veggie Popsicles

I don't know where you are, but here, it's hot and muggy. So what better way to cool off than with a frozen treat.

I've been experimenting this week with a variety of homemade frozen treats. So far they've all been a hit. But I decided to amp up the healthiness factor. So I made homemade fruit and veggie popsicles. They were super easy too.

Here's what you'll need:
• your favorite summer fruit. I used three mangos.
• fruit and vegetable blend juice. Again, I used V8 Fusion (peach-mango flavor)
• three-ounce paper cups
• popsicle sticks

Directions:
Cut up your fruit and purée. Add enough juice to sweeten but not water down the fruit. (You don't want it too soupy. I added a quarter cup at a time and ended up using a half cup.) Put it in the paper cups and freeze. After an hour, put in your sticks. Let them freeze overnight. And there you go, a healthy frozen treat that your kids will love!

How was your Fourth?

It seems that raising children makes you really understand and respect Independence Day. The more they grow the more they do on their own, the more you see what they are capable of. This year's celebration brought the feat of going under water in the pool—momentous and applauded :).

Here are four momentous things you can teach your child to get them celebrating years of Independence:

1) cartwheel
2) shoe tying (never too early) ;)
3) hula hooping
4) bike riding

As always have tons of fun, all the best to you and yours!

Homemade Toaster Waffles

Everybody loves waffles. And there's nothing like homemade. But who has time anymore. Well here's a trick that combines the goodness of homemade waffles with the ease and convenience of store-bought toaster waffles.

I usually set aside some time on the weekend or in the evening for this project.

Start with your favorite waffle recipe. Here's mine from allrecipes.com:
Whole Grain Waffles

Ingredients
2 Eggs (beaten)
1 3/4 cups Milk
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup flax seed meal
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Directions
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla. Beat in whole wheat pastry flour, flax seed meal, wheat germ, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt until batter is smooth.
2. Preheat a waffle iron, and coat with cooking spray. Pour batter into waffle iron in batches, and cook until crisp and golden brown.

As the waffles come off the iron, I place them, in a single layer, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. After all the waffles are made, I stick the whole cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they're frozen, I put them in a freezer bag. To reheat, simply pop them in the toaster. And there you have it--homemade toaster waffles. Enjoy!

Magic Milk

This is an idea I found doing a kitchen science search on the web. It took very little to do but got a BIG response from the little ones.

This experiment explores the properties of soap, oil and water. It's a good introduction to the world of molecules and how different molecules interact. You don’t have to go all scientific in explanation, unless you are well able to ;). But this is a great way to explain the power of SOAP to the kiddos!

What you'll need:
• A shallow pan (I used a pyrex dish)
• Milk (any percentage)
• Dish soap
• Food coloring (it is always suggested that food coloring become a staple in a house full of kids…many awe-inspiring magic tricks to be had with them)
• A cotton swab

Pour a very shallow amount of milk into your pan. Drop a few colors in the middle of the milk. Take a minute and talk about what the colors do ( they should spread out a tiny bit but generally stay in one spot…notice that the milk does not change colors automatically).

Grab a cotton swab and try to predict what will happen once you touch the milk with it. Go ahead and touch the milk with the swab and notice that it only disturbs the colors slightly.

Dip the swab into dish soap…then just touch the swab into the milk again. Now watch the art happen ;).

They may want to do this over and over again so you may want to use the milk with the oldest yet not totally expired date on it, LOL.

It's Spring time and holiday season! Time has begun to fly as Spring break with the kiddos has rolled around. This week's entry is straight forward and simple. It is our continued goal to get us all involved in the fun with our kids. So this week's suggestion: Easter Hop-Scotch!!! Super fun, and adaptable no matter how you celebrate Easter.

First, draw the simple diagram:

Next, pick your stones (which you have the option of painting and decorating), start at  number one, jump over it, and take turns. If you wish to don a pair of bunny ears while playing… all the better!

For those who celebrate Resurrection Sunday this game is easily adaptable:

Instead of “Sky Blue”, you can replace it with “Heaven.” And to add a twist on number three place a tomb “stone” and on every turn while you are jumping over it don’t forget to pick up the stone!

As always HAVE FUN!

Just in case it rains on your game, there’s always that fun Easter Egg game on Stinkeepants.com you have yet to try ;)

Paper Bag Puppets

What you'll need:

• brown paper lunch sacks
• crayons
• yarn
• scissors
• tape/glue
• glitter, stickers, other decorative items
• construction paper

Here's a good "rainy day" craft you can do with your children. It incorporates imaginative play as well as fine motor skills. I did this with my son in snap and he loved it. He's only two, so I had to help quite a bit. But an older child can do a lot of this with your supervision.

First, we took a brown paper lunch sack. I drew a face, with the mouth on the fold of the bag (allowing the puppet to open its mouth and "speak").

Next, we decorated/colored the puppets clothes. My son enjoyed this part because he got to scribble.

Once it's clothes were complete, I took some yarn I had around the house and cut it to look like hair. Using tape, I attached her "pigtails" to the sides of here hair. Glue will work just as well. But we were in a hurry and didn't want to wait for the glue to dry.

To make things more interesting, use construction paper for cut-out shapes to create animals and other characters.

And there you have it...A paper bag puppet ready to explore the world of your child's imagination.

For older children, encourage them to work together to create a puppet show that they can present to you later.

For more fun, visit stinkeepants.com for online games.

Here's a great game for preschoolers! If you find yourself trying to teach relative position to toddlers and kindergarteners here is a great way to start.

DO you remember a game called Chinese Jump Rope? (Why it was called thisI do not know, I think because you were supposed to play with bamboo like sticks instead of a jump rope, but I will not claim to be an expert on that.) Either way, you get two jump ropes, make parallel lines, and of course YOU have to go first to show them how to play (prepare to lose your breath ;), and GO:

Jump IN (inside the two ropes)

Jump OUT (outside of the two ropes)

Jump SIDE to SIDE (outside on one side, and outside on theother side)

Jump ON (you guessed it…on top of the two ropes)

Jump IN

Jump OUT

I almost forgot, the challenge is that you raise the ropes each turn you have….have fun!

Just thought I would pass it along. And if you guys get too tired from playing, remember there are tons of great games waiting at stinkeepants.com ;).