Halloween Jack-o'-Lantern Cake

My kids are so excited about Halloween this year; they are four and two years old.  They helped me decorate, they have asked if it is Halloween everyday for the past two weeks, and they randomly yell boo at people in public.  My mom hasn't helped the situation .... she has had candy sitting out in a bowl in her foyer since October1st, so my kids have been trick or treating at her house ever since; hence, they have spend the month in a bit of a candy/sugar high.  My son will be a pirate again for the second year and my daughter will be a lady bug.  My son just barley agreed to let her be a lady bug.  I say this because last year he wanted her to be Sneed to his Captain Hook, which she agreed to of course. This year he asked for the same combo, but she had lady bugs in the brain and wouldn't give into him and his desires.

They are both looking forward to their preschool Halloween party and at some point a few weeks ago my son started talking about having a party at his home. My son is quite the entertainer; he loves inviting people over.  This worked out perfectly this time because my girlfriend Marian, her husband, and their daughter are coming over to trick or treat on Wednesday.  Marian's daughter Alessandra is three, so I figure the three kids (4, 3, and 2) will only trick or treat for a little while in this chilly weather.  Then the plan is to bring them back to our home, play some Halloween games, have some chili, and eat cake. Sounds like a toddler style Halloween to me. 

I have already shared my crock pot chicken chili.  It is super easy and very yummy.  Key mommy words easy and yummy.

But I thought I would also share the cute cake idea  -- a Jack-o'-lantern cake -- I got from Disney Family Fun magazine.  I made it last year for the first time and the kids loved it.  How could I not make it again?  It is easy and looks so cute.  The kids can even help you decorate it.  All you do is make two bunt cakes. Place the first cake upside down (flat side up) and place the second cake on top of it flat side down -- and you have a pumpkin. I stuck an ice cream cone, minus the ice cream, upside down in the center to create the stem.  Then I frosted it dark green.  Some orange frosting on the cake and black frosting for the jack-o'-lantern parts and that is a cute cake for a Halloween party.   Thanks Disney Family Fun -- great idea -- it will part of out Halloween tradition for years to come.

Goldfish crackers on a Cream Cheese Pond -- Great Kids' Snack

I first saw this idea in my favorite kid magazine Family Fun.  And it is so cute.  It can easily be adapted into many different food arrangements.  The basic idea is cream cheese with a bit of blue food coloring -- the pond.  Then you spread the "pond" cream cheese on a small rice cake.  Lastly, place a Goldfish cracker or two on top -- cute senerio right? Goldfish on a pond.

The base they showed in the magazine was a rice cake, but you could use a small pita.  Or you could place the blue cream cheese on a small plate and place the fish on top of the water and have the kids "fish" the fish and water out with a carrot stick or celery stick "a fishing pole."  The ideas are limitless -- just be creative and let the kids have some some with their food.

To say the least, Aidan was surprised when he saw his snack.
The simple joys of life.

Toddlers and Rainy-Day Activities

It was a rainy day yesterday; I had to come up with several activities to keep the kids' attentions.  I know everyone has done this before.  This is just a journal of what the day looked like for my kids and me this time.

5:30 am
Everyone is awake.  I am not saying this with a smile on my face. It is just a fact of life; I am raising farmers for children.  They like to wake with the sun; however, I always lament that I don't have chickens for them to feed.  If I had chickens, at least my kids would have something to do that early in the morning.  Since there are bi-laws against chickens where I live, I tend to relay on the Disney channel that early in the morning.

6:15 am
Breakfast
Daddy leaves for work, and the kids get instantly hungry watching him driveway.  It always amazes me how dirty the floor gets after oatmeal, pancakes, and fruit. Crumbs and more crumbs -- and two of the three food items cannot even make crumbs.  I have determined kids are just crumb-makers; they can make crumbs out of a banana.

7:00 am
Dress-Up

Aidan wants to dress up like a pirate. Madeleiene, Zuzu, wants to do anything he wants to do.  So pirate day it is; the house is immediately filled with Arrrrrs. *mommy/teacher hint: dress-up is great for developing a child's imagination.









7:15 am 
Science Play

I set up a fun activity I saw on Pinterest.  Put baking soda in a flat container with sides.  Place a small amount of white vinegar in several small bowls and put a bit of food coloring in each of the bowls.  Place a kid's medicine dropper or a kid's medicine syringe in each bowl. Put your kids in ponchos -- and stand back and watch the fun ensue.  When the colored vinegar hits the baking soda, the chemical reaction is lots of fuzzy colored bubbles.  The kids loved it. Aidan is almost four and it kept him entertained almost an hour and half.  Zuzu is two so it kept her going for about an hour.  Anyway I call that a success.  And at this point, it is ...

*mommy/teacher hint: this activity is good for teaching cause and effect

8:45 am (Only 8:45 am)
Snack Time
This past Christmas, my mom bought me an air popcorn machine.  I thought it would be healthier for me and the kids, they would enjoy watching the popcorn pop out of the machine, and I could put olive oil and salt on it.  Another fabulous use for olive oil --- trust me you have to try it.

9:30 am 
Cooking Play
I thought....... only 9:30am..... what to do... what to do.... ? Let's make pudding.  It is easy, it will keep them on a task, and it will give them something to look forward to eating after  dinner.  They were super excited when I told them we were making pudding. They yelled,"Yeaaaaaaa!"  Then Aidan asked, "what is pudding?"  Once again I realize that my highly healthy eating standards have held the kids back a bit on the spectrum of normal American eating habits; I am not saying that is a bad thing -- but I just cannot help but notice. I explain that it was creamy, light, and yummy.  That is all the kids needed to know.  They enjoyed sticking their tiny fingers in the pudding and sampling the yumminess that they were going to endulge in after dinner.
*mommy/teacher hint: cooking helps kids learn to follow directions

10:30 am
Reading Time
We went up to the kids' rooms and read a bunch of books.  They love taking tuns to pick books out to read.  I am so happy that they have the reading bug; now I just have to keep that momentum going as they continue through their childhood. *mommy/teacher hint: this one is a no-brainer -- reading is wonderful -- teaching kids to appreciate the joy or reading is life changing.

11:30 am
Art/Letter Practice/Stamping
The kids love drawing; most kids love drawing.  They like using those big dot markers, pip-squeak markers, and stamps. I have regular stamps, letter stamps, and stamps that I have made.  I keep those big caps that are on the kid's milk jugs at most restaurants.  Then I glue two of the same foam stickers on the back.  Instant stamps. *mommy/teacher hint: art/ letter stamping inspires creativity and starts kids thinking about and using letters.

12:00 pm
Lunch Time
I put on a little good old fashion Tom and Jerry.  Nothing gets the kids attention as two animals going after each other like cat and mouse -- literally.  This wonderful show allows me enough time to make lunch.  Ahhhh it is so quiet that it is almost scary how much attention the kids give to the TV. About 12 pm Nonna stops by to visit and have lunch with me and the kids.  It is always a  treat to have Nonna come by -- the kids squeal with delight when she walks into the kitchen.  She happily sits down and eats with us.

1:00
Nap Time
Zuzu goes upstairs and after a half hour of fighting her sleepy feelings, she surrenders.  Aidan says he is a big boy now, so he wants to take his nap on the couch in the family room.  Nap time today ... it is so quiet in the house that I hate to even breath too loudly.  Most of the time the kids take naps at different times, which is good and bad.  Good because  I get alone time with each of the kids.  Bad because I don't get any down time for myself.  But soon they will be big and they will not want to spend all their time with me and I will have so much down time that I will not know what to do with it.  So for now -- I don't care about my down time.  But today -- they happen to asleep at the same time.  The quiet house and the sound of the soft falling rain is beautiful.

2:00 pm.  At this point, there is still a lot of day left.
Sorting Game
This game keeps their attention for awhile.  I bought a large divided dish at the Dollar Store, a bunch of colored pom poms, and a couple of tongs.  I give them some of their bowls.... and they are off and running having a good time.  At first I ask them to follow my directions, put all the blue pom pom here and all the yellow there .... you get the idea.  Then after awhile, they start to create their own plan.  It is amazing to watch how they think and the patterns they see. *mommy/teaching hint: sorting and creating patterns with color is the beginning of mathematical skills, literacy skills, organizational skills.

3:30 pm
Pirate Dress up (again)

4:00 pm
Mommy starts to make dinner
The rest of the day is filled with playing in the family room, basement, and mommy making dinner.

After dinner, it is bath time, reading time, snuggle time......whoooooo.... bed time.

Hope tomorrow is not rainy; cannot wait to get outside and play on the swing set.

Zucchini Bread

August 8th is National Zucchini Day (aka "sneak a zucchini on your friend's porch day"); this day was established by Tom Roy a Pennsylvanian who thought it was a good way to spread out the overwhelming amounts of squash being harvested at this time of year.  Tom Roy wanted to encourage the sharing of the overzealous vegetable crop.

"Sneak a Zucchini on your Friend's Porch Day" was a big success this year for my family.  My son is almost four and my daughter is two; they really got into it this year.  Aidan wanted to make a pirate zucchini man.  Which was not a big surprise, since he has been dressing up as a pirate at least twice a week since last September when Target starting selling Halloween costumes, and I bought his pirate costume.  He has actually gotten to the point of introducing himself as Pirate Aidan, Arrrrrr.  And it is always at that point where I happily say, "yes, my son is a pirate." And my daughter decided she wanted a Mee Mee (aka to the rest of the world as Minnie Mouse) zucchini girl. So the three of us were off to crafting a pirate and a Minnie.

We put a pirate scarf on one and Mee Mee (Minnie) ears on the other one. A sword and a couple of sets of eyes and we had accomplished our task; they turned out adorable. It was time to make the zucchini bread. This is the recipe I used; I found it on www.allrecipes.com. It had all sorts of great reviews, so I thought I would give it a try. The only tweek I made was adding some nutmeg. I cannot make a recipe without adding something. Nutmeg was an easy no-brainer to add. I have to say the zuuchini bread turned out moist and yummy; I would make it again.


Zucchini Bread 

3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg (this is what I added)
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups of graded zucchini (I chopped it finely)
1 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and nuts.  Mix all wet ingredients: zucchini, eggs, oil, and vanilla.  Mix wet and dry just until combined.  Place batter into greased and floured pans.  This will either make 2 loaf pans or 4 mini loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 40 - 60  minutes.  I made 4 mini loaf pans and it took 55 minutes.  They turned out perfect.

Back to the Zucchini Day...

My kids were so cute as they creeped up our neighbor's driveway to leave Pirate Zucchini, Ms. Minnie Zucchini, and the mini zucchini bread.  They were very proud of themselves as they ran back to the car.  The only glich in our plan was my daughter; she started to run back to the car with her beloved Minnie Zucchini still in her tight little grasp.  I had to pry it out of her hot little hands.  A few hours later, our neighbor, my kids call her Ms. Dawn, called to say she knew only two little kids who would leave a little pirate and Minnie zucchini on her front porch.  The kids laughed with delight as she teased them and told them how much she appreciated the squash people and the zucchini bread.

Another successful year celebrating August 8th, Zucchini Day.  But it's not about the silly "National Holiday;" that is just my excuse today.  It is about creating traditions and memories with my children who have stolen my heart and soul and filled them with love.  I adore spending time with them; and on that note, I'm closing the laptop so I can go and play with them.

Sneak a Zucchini on your Friend's Porch Day is ALMOST HERE!

It is almost here --- August 8th.

Wednesday, August 8th is National Zucchini Day -- otherwise known as Sneak a Zucchini on your friend's pouch day.  My kids and I had a ton of fun celebrating last year and making our zucchini people. We left our zucchini people on the Weihe's, our dear friends, porch.  We loved making the zucchini people, and our friend's loved receiving them.

To read the whole story and see the zucchini people we made see my entry from September 3th 2011  or look under my Craft Tab and find "Sneak a Zucchini on your Friend's Porch."  I will be posting our cute zucchini people from this year later this week.  If you are a close friend of mine, be on the look out --- you may be the lucky recipient this year.   We are also making zucchini bread this year to go along with the people -- yummy.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Whose porch will you be putting your zucchini people on?

National Ice Cream Day

Sunday, July 15 was National Ice Cream Day. Did you miss it this year? No worries, July is ice cream month. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and specifically the third Sunday of July as National Ice Cream Day. So if you missed celebrating ice cream on the 15th, you still have the rest of the month to make sure you get at least one family celebration in.

This year I decided to make an ice cream cake with my kids. Picture this, Sunday morning about 9 am I say to my kids, "Who wants to help mommy make an ice cream cake? Do you feel like eating some ice cream?" The screaming and "yum yumming" that ensued after those two questions was loud enough that I was sure that the neighbors were wondering what was going on at my house. It was at that point that our family's celebration of one of our Nation's treasured days began.

I explained to my kids and my husband that it was National Ice Cream Day. My son wanted to know if we were going to eat ice cream all day long. I said that is not exactly the approach our family was going to take when celebrating this year, but we were going to start the day with making an ice cream cake and eating some along the way. Then that evening we were going to a neighbor's house and we were going to share our ice cream cake with our friends.  

Family recipe for Ice Cream Cake and Family Fun

1 package of Oreos (use one row for each of your three layers: bottom, middle, and top)
1 half gallon of _______ (ice cream of your choice) 
1 half gallon of _______ (ice cream of your choice)
Spring form pan (I used 9 inch)
Tin foil
Ziplock bags
Toy hammers for your kids
Bowl of warm water to place spatula in (helps spread ice cream)

This is where the fun begins. I gave each of my kids a hammer and a Ziplock baggie filled with Oreos and told them to smashing the cookies. You can picture how that went -- they loved every minute. Prior to the announcement of this holiday, I put the two half gallons of ice cream out on the counter so they would start to get soft. Don't leave the ice cream out long enough that it melts completely -- you want it soft not back to a liquid state.

Once the cookies are smashed, it is time to start to layer your ice cream cake.  I used a spring form pan so that it would be easier to serve.  I placed some tin foil under the pan in case there was any leakage, which there was not.  Start by putting some smashed cookies on the bottom of a spring form pan to form the crust of the cake.  Then I put one of the ice cream flavors (we used mint chocolate chip)

on top of the cookie crust. I used a spatula to spread ice cream out evenly.  Use a bowl of warm water to dip your spatula in to help spread the ice cream.  Top again with smashed cookie crumbs (middle layer).  Add your second flavor of ice cream and spread again. Lastly, top with remaining cookies.

Place some tin foil on top of your cake and refreeze for a few hours before serving.  If you used a spring form pan, it is super easy to serve.  Take spring form off --- dip your knife in warm water, slice, and serve.  Lastly, look around the room at all the happy faces.  Maybe President Reagan was right -- our Country needed a National way to honor ice cream.

Make sure you put National Ice Cream Day on your calendar for next year -- remember it is the third Sunday in July.

Pasta, Potatoes, and Yogurt for Babies

Here is an excellent question I recently received:

Dear Mommy Plus Two- I hope you don't mind me asking you a few more questions... So, my little guy is now 8 months and the baby food recipes are getting a little bit more substantial (but enjoyable). Many of the recipes call for yogurt, potatoes and/or pasta. So, for yogurt and pasta (stars), do I just buy the general "people" kinds? Are there certain baby yogurts to mix in? I know my pediatrician said he could have food with milk products, but just not actual milk... Also, I have seen potatoes on the "dirty dozen", so I am assuming I should go organic for those. So far, I have only found organic sweet potatoes, but I will check the farmer's market tomorrow. If you have used organic potatoes, where have you found them?
Thanks again for your time, Cate

 My answer is based on my research, my personal opinions and my personal experiences. I do not represent any company or product.

Cate,
I don't mind you emailing, calling, texting -- I love talking about little ones -- I am glad my research can help another mommy out. Really -- anytime. As far as pasta, I would use any tiny pasta you want. The stars are good for you to feed the baby. If you want your son to practice feeding himself, I would buy a bit larger pasta –penne or small farfalle (bowties) -- the stars are too hard to pick up, and he will not be able to use a spoon at first. I would put some butter and Parmesan cheese on the noodles -- he'll love it.

As for the potatoes -- If you are just doing potatoes as a side, I would stick with organic sweet potatoes like you have been doing. They have more vitamins -- and he'll move on to white potatoes as he gets older -- everywhere you go out to eat, there are white potatoes. If he is still eating pureed food, this is how I would make the sweet potatoes. Wash them, stick a few holes into them, place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (until fork tender). Once cool enough for you to handle, peel skin off, and puree (might have to add a touch of water if it is too thick). Then you can serve some to your little one and freeze the rest in ice cube trays. Once it is frozen, pop them out and store in a freezer Ziplock bag.

But when you want to move on to pieces of potato for him to feed himself (I am not sure if he is there yet), I would roast the potatoes. My kids are 3 1/ 2 and 2 and they still love these. I even make them for family dinners – adults love it too. Wash the potatoes, peal them, wash them again, cube into bite sized pieces, place some tin foil on a baking sheet (for easy clean up), place potatoes on foil/ baking pan, drizzle with olive oil, dash of salt, dash of cinnamon spice, and maybe even a bit of maple syrup (organic grade B Trader Joe's house brand—it’s the best). Mix potatoes with your hands to season fully. If you are not sure you want to try cinnamon and maple syrup, you should know they are both good for you and help to make the potatoes super tasty. Maple syrup contains manganese - good for antioxidant defense. Roast potatoes in a 400 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes, until fork tender. He will be able to feed himself these super yummy potatoes.

One last note about potatoes. If you are using potatoes in a recipe and not as a side, the recipe is probably calling for a non-sweet potato -- a white potato. I would buy organic white potatoes. I have found them at Whole Foods. If you are looking for a great recipe for lentils and potatoes, I can share that with you -- just let me know. I would also say – look at my blog entry that highlights the chicken soup recipe. This was a staple for my children. I always had ice cubes of chicken soup on hand. I would toss 4 cubes in a bowl and microwave them – instant homemade soup for dinner. I made my regular recipe – but for the kids I would really dice up the chicken, potatoes, and carrots.

As far as yogurt, I would not buy baby yogurt; there is usually too much sugar. I would buy organic, plain yogurt. I love Brown Cow yogurt (you can find it at Whole Foods). Little guys can eat the full fat version. Another brand that is a bit easier to find is Stonyfield. I would go with plain yogurt. There is plenty of time in your little one's life to eat fruit sweetened yogurt. I figure you cannot go backwards; after you eat fruit yogurt or vanilla yogurt, you cannot teach someone to eat plain. Both of my kids loved plain -- they don't know the difference when they are young. Now they eat flavored yogurt, but I still feed them plain because I don't want them to lose the taste for it and you can always add some fresh or frozen blueberries. Yogurt is such a good source of dairy and protein. My daughter has never been a big cow milk drinker -- so yogurt has always been a source of dairy for her.

Hope that helps – once I get to talking about feeding the little ones it is hard for me to stop. If you have any other questions, let me know – I love sharing. Happy Eating Baby Guy.