Law and Order/ Tasty Thursday

Wouldn't you know it?! I get to have two parties this week at work!

But just remember, I get to play at work ;)

Here's a peek at our party yesterday.

To start, we had a Cops & Robbers party for Sawyer.

He is four Today, but we celebrated yesterday so Happy Birthday Sawyer!!

We made some homemade journals with wallpaper samples and drew bad guys inside.

Here is Sawyer's REally Bad Guy!

Our beanbags were labeled with Really Bad Guys and were tossed into jail! They were interested in what the names meant, like 'what's vandal and bandit mean?"

Great vocabulary opportunity.

Another homemade game was Pin the Badge on the cop.

Using more of the wallpaper samples, we connected the less interesting pieces into a large poster-sized one to draw our own officer. The badges were drawn on blank stickers donated by a friend who works at a local photo plant. Lucky us!!

This is our connection to Tasty Thursday.

Everyone knows how much cops love 

donuts!!

We had them instead of cupcakes.

With sprinkles of course!

Humpty Dumpty/ Tasty Thursday

 We had a little bout of cold weather this week in Central Missouri.


So to keep from getting cabin fever (Cabin being a C word),

We proceeded to avoid this listlessness by keeping busy with various activities.

There was Art for Letter A.

Bead Stringing and Balance Beams made from masking tape since we have all ages and stages in my home.

Our Feat of the Week was

"C"ooking Cabbage soup.

What on earth would possess someone to make Cabbage soup with a group of very young children you may ask?

It began with reciting a nursery rhyme,

"Humpty Dumpty".

During the course of our conversation,

Ben, age 3 tells me that Humpty Dumpty ate Cabbage Soup.

I don't know where that came from but I went with his information and ran with it.

We got out my trusty phone and looked up images of cabbage soup online.

I asked him if he would like to make some soup and he insisted that it needed to be this

Cabbage variety.

And so it began.

Ben is the Sprinkler kind.

Macoy mastered the Scoop.

Lindley must cook a lot as she is peeking into the pot and arranging it :)

Signs of a future chef I'm absolutely sure!

My favorite picture is of Hudson who is unable to wait for my help.

I really didn't have much spillage believe it or not.

And the question everyone is asking.

Did they eat it?

Here are the results:

Macoy, age 4,  ate 2 bowls.

Ben of the Humpty Dumpty statement drank his broth.....two bowls full. He's 3 1/2 respectively.

Lindley and Hudson, both age 2, ate some but the jury is still out on their opinions.

They really liked the polish sausage addition the most.

After all, you can dip them in ketchup.

And, yes, we served ketchup on the side.

That is a topic to be saved for another Tasty Thursday though.

Hopscotch Quilting and Missing Lane

My lastest Etsy creation on Katy Trail Creations

Special thanks to the girls, Morgan (who loves my cookin!) and my youngest daughter Kirsten.

 Yes there's a great meal in the works for their help :)

 

Speaking of Meals,

Pardon my absence from the Tasty Thursday posts. We had a tragic loss in our lives and I just didn't feel like cooking from the stash of recipes.

In short, just because the hurt is still deep, we had an 11 year old tragically killed in a tractor accident. He had been one of our daycare 'kids' and his younger brother just left for Kindergarten last month. The family was like our own.

Please say some prayers for them. There is nothing more needed when there's a loss of a child.

This was our Lane one Fall weekend back in 2011 in Florence, Missouri. He came to greet us while we were having Rachel's Senior pics taken. He had just been out with his dad deer hunting. His home is just down the road in this picture and I know his home now is in Heaven and our forever in our hearts.

 

 

 

 

 

Te"X"as Tea

The object of the song The Ballad of Jed Clampett, is the oil they find, the Texas Tea, that made them millionaires. And so the tv show went on for several seasons in their mansion in Beverly Hills.

But what is your Texas Tea? To children it's "sugar". Make no bones about it, sugar makes the world go round when you are a child. Think fairs and bazaars. Snow cones, cotton candy, ice cream, funnel cakes, taffy, and much more.

My Child Care Food Program is regulated by the USDA and they are updating their regs for meals and snacks. One of their biggies is "sugar". We will be limited, once approved, on the kinds of sweets available to children. There are many pros and cons about this and I am sure I could make a major debate on the topic. But I prefer to find solutions for myself and my little precious charges because the changes are most definitely coming. Here are some options I will be putting "On the Table" instead of "cake-type sweet items" as their laws will Xclaim.

Instead of Donuts, I will be topping off my biscuits with some fresh berries and a dab of Cool Whip.

No Poptarts anymore. Instead we'll be making some toast and strawberry preserve sammies in my Panini press. YUmmO!

Can't have Cookies? How about Graham Crackers topped with Pineapple Cream Cheese? We can use raisins, craisins, banana slices or grapes to decorate.

For partytime, I'm going to let them make their own Yogurt parfaits. Each layer will have different colored fruits and we'll use some of my Auction finds, ice cream glasses.

Brownies eliminated? No problem. We're serving up Muddy Buddies. Chocolate Chex mix has "Whole Grain Rice" as its first ingredient. So There!!

I need to make sure I note that the changes on sweet items is not yet in effect. But where the children are concerned, I will find ways to 'sweeten' their day:)

Check out some other A to Z blogs Here

 

What Child is This?

What child wants.......

• to Share---Set a timer so that when it beeps the toy can go to someone new for awhile and then back again.
• to Wash hands---I buy foamy soap to "smash" it.
• to Go Potty----especially in the middle of play. I am guilty. I bribe with stickers that have "special powers stuck to them". It keeps with the dramatic play they're involved in.
• to Eat their vegies---Puree them an add to the spaghetti sauce. It's ok to be sly.
• or tell them it makes their hair grow fast if they like getting hair cuts :)
• to Be Quiet just because the baby is asleep---Pretend to be quiet so the bear can't hear you in his cave
• to Take a Nap---Whe we wake up, it's time to do a "special" activity. And keep that promise.
• To Sit Still--- During storytime, involve them with asking them to find and touch an item on each page, like "I Spy".

Any helpful hints for children? I'm all ears!

Check out some other A to Z blogs Here

Irish Washerwoman

Bet the Irish Washerwoman was just searching for a pot of gold. How many times, Mom, do you find change in pockets when doing laundry?

So switchin gears now to my picture topic in the slideshow......
Imagination.
We decided to spend some time Inventing stories this morning and I thought it was way more interesting to read than googling some top ten ways to get rich like that Irish Washerwoman. So hope you enjoy the Imaginations of my In-home daycare boys.

Weston: age 4 (fish photo)
Once upon a time he gets that down at the pond. He carried it back up to his house and he's going to cook it and eat it

Macoy: age 3  (boat/dog/pumpkin photo)
That's in the water. That boat drive in the water and that dog sat and eat.
and pumpkins in the basket and the end. (on 2nd thought Not)
and that phone called somebody
and bird pecked and that bird pecked too and the end.

Hadley: age 3 (hat lady/watch photo)
Once upon a time there was a girl in the field. The clock says time to go to bed.
They're standing by a block.
The train was coming for the lady . The End

Ben: age 3 (man and girl/ cliff photo)
Once upon a time they went to a wedding and now they want to go home.
How about this one? They went to a doctor. They was sad. Now they was scared.
They want to go home.
Can I be done?

Love those boys!!

Bulgar (Jewish Dance)

What makes you Dance?
Go ahead. Turn up the volume on your favorite song. Find a private space if you must. And dance.

My dad tried to teach me the 2-step. No matter how many beers he had, he knew I was doomed to failure. A disappointment for us both. I really, really wanted to learn.

But that didn't stop me from my sole personal moments of bursting out in dance.

On your worst days, there's nothing like blaring song and a dance around the room.

 

There's something therapeutic about Dance. It has many benefits.

 

 

I tell my daycare kids that it makes you Smart :)

 

 

 

It's linked to:

• Boosting memory
• Improved flexibility
• Stress reduction
• Diminishing depression
• Heart health
• Weight loss
• Improved balance
• Increased energy
• Healing
• Creating friendships

Well......I make friends with 2,3 & 4 year olds at least.

 





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About my Day Job

Just sharing a post from my day job blog. Hope you'll take a peek. FIY Easy Reading :)
Honeysuckle Road

Reconsidering

Upon careful reflections, I have decided to use this blog again. I hope Blogger won't disappoint me but I'm hoping to give it a whirl. Now what will I talk about??????

Making up for lots of lost time.

You're welcome :)