Muffin Tin Monday...Circus

Today's Muffin Tin Muffin theme is circus. I have been really excited about this one! We have started doing our Muffin Tin meal for Dinner & it must be on MONDAY!!! Their dinner was served in a BIG TOP circus tent. I even sang a circus diddy for them while I served their dinner. They were really excited about dinner & then it got even better when I pulled out the party hat & clown nose. We laughed so hard! I think that this is going down as one of our FAVORITES!!!

Here is what they ate. It isn't a healthy dinner in anyway, but what healthy foods do they have at a circus?

homemade corn dogs nuggets (do you want the recipe?)
ketchup
peanuts
cotton candy
popcorn

Here are my cute boys wearing their clown attire...

Stick Puppets

This morning I came across THIS fun craft. I wanted to put my new "organization" to the test. *sigh* I worked PERFECTLY!!! I cut out the shapes (because we have a TON to do today) & set them out for the boys. You will need:



3 small circles (for the heads)
3 pieces of hair (any color..we did black)
1 triangle
1 rectangle
1 oval
3 craft sticks
glue
markers

Before we started, we talked about the shapes & the colors that were in front of them.

Take your 3 circles & glue the hair on..we did that first so that it wouldn't end up covering the eyes later. Then set the little ones loose drawing faces on the circles.






Once the faces are finished, have your kiddos decorate the triangle, rectangle, & oval bodies.

Then, put glue on the top 2/3 of your craft stick & have the kiddos put the body on the stick leaving just enough space at the top for the head. Then put the head on the top of the stick. Allow to dry & PLAY!!!

Here are our finished products:

KADEN'S



PRESTON'S

**Our puppets are dry now. The boys are sitting at the end of the couch doing puppet shows over the arm. I love listening to the stories that they come up with!!!

Getting Organized

I love to collect craft supplies for the boys. After I buy the supplies, I put them on my "kids craft shelf" still in the plastic bag. Sometimes...they don't even make it that far. Lately, my "kids craft shelf" has spread into my food storage area, my craft area, & pretty much anywhere else. I have started to get frustrated because I can NEVER find what I am looking for.

Today when I was at Ross, I found an over the door shoe holder for $4.00 that gave me an idea. I took it home & started getting organized!!!



I put the things that the boys can use without a lot of supervision towards the bottom. Towards the top...I put the paint, ink, & other things that they need me for. I am so excited to show them this!!! Now everything is at our fingertips & EASY to find!!!!

**TIP: The shoe holder has UGLY metal hooks that hang over the door, but if you use the 3m mini hooks it works perfect...just wait 24 hours before you hang the shoe holder on the hooks!

Teddy Bear Craft

A bit ago I signed up for KIDS CRAFT WEEKLY. I got my email this week & loved this craft. I already have everything for it at home. It is pretty basic & easy for the kiddos to do without too much interference. The best part is...it went great with our Teddy Bear Picnic (the post below). Here is what you need:



a paper plate
3 cupcake liners
markers
glue/tape

First we smashed two of the cupcake liners & glued them onto the back of the paper plate. This will be your ears.



Then have your little one draw a nose & mouth on the remaining cupcake liner. The directions taped cupcake liner onto the front of the paper plate...we smashed & glue ours on. Then, draw the eyes onto the front of the paper plate. My guys also drew headphones & glasses.

Kaden's bear has glasses (like his) & headphones:



Here is Preston's bear wearing sunglasses:

Teddy Bear Picnic

My boys ♥ teddy bears. They both choose teddy bears over any other stuffed animal. I thought that it would be fun to have a Teddy Bear Picnic with them. Plus it would be a GREAT excuse to use one of my NEW TEA SETS. We went to the library & I picked up some bear related stories. For lunch we had:

bear shaped pb&j sandwiches
chips
raisins
bear shaped cookies (I used THIS recipe & pre-cut a bear head out of the sheet of cookie dough...then I put the chocolate chips on for the inside ears, eyes, & nose. I also cut a little smile out. Once they were cooked, I just had to re-cut the bear head shape out.)
apple raspberry juice



The boys had no clue what their "lunch surprise" was. I invited them to grab a very special teddy bear & come outside to the picnic blanket. They were excited to have a picnic & use one of our new tea sets. While they ate their lunch with their "friends", I read them the stories that we got from the library.



Kaden held his teddy bear on his lap the whole time...it was so cute.



Preston named his bear cookie "Mr. Preston Polar Bear".



Tomorrow we are going to do a bear craft...stay tuned!!!

Muffin Tin Monday...Faces & People

Today marks a new chapter for Muffin Tin Monday. Next Monday Kaden starts all day Kindergarten. We have decided to move MTM to dinner from now on. I don't think that the boys would ALLOW me to move it to any day but MONDAY. It is Muffin Tin MONDAY after all. For MTM we decided to make pizza faces. We put all of the ingredients into their Muffin Tins & set them loose. I love to see the boys get creative. Here is what they had to work with (I ♥ their little pans that we got last year..they are so handy!):

Here they are making their pizzas. They thought it was pretty cool that they got to do their own sauce.

THE FINISHED PRODUCTS:

Kaden used olives for the eyes (& nose...but it got covered by pepperoni). He put pepperoni cheeks & pepperoni eyes. Last but not least....pineapple for hair!

Preston has a face somewhere under there, but then ended up dumping all of his toppings onto his pizza.

Reward Time!!

I wanted to give you an update on how our smiley rewards went this week. The boys loved getting smileys & were on their best behavior (for the most part). To redeem their smileys & make it more of a learning activity too...we brought all of the smiles that they earned to the table & lined them up in groups of 5. (All of our rewards were 5 smile increments.) As they chose their reward, they had to give us the smileys to "buy" it. They both opted to spend most of their smiles this time. Kaden had 3 left over & Preston had 2 left over. We will see how week 2 goes!