Celebrating Babies Cookie Style

I went to a surprise baby shower for 2 friends this weekend (same party, 2 surprises!!) It was a blast, and they were both very surprised.  We did it potluck style, and I decided to make cookies.  My inspiration came from the party store.  I saw  little "Bun in the Oven" favors that had a cinnamon bun candle inside.  They were so cute! I drew out my design on the way home from Huntington Beach and went for it.  I did check online to see if anyone else made bun in the oven cookies and I found a very cute one on Bake at 350.  I really liked Bridget's the idea of doing the buns ahead of time and I knew that I could practice a little more and get the buns to look exactly the way I wanted them to. 

The Bun... made with royal icing a few days ahead of time on wax paper

They peeled right off and when I was ready to use them I attached them to the cookie with a little dab of royal icing.

I made my own marshmallow fondant... the little white square is for the oven window.

Outlining...

More outlining...

Adding dimension to my oven...

Swirlling on the stove coils and adding buttons...

Finally, put the bun in the oven!

I added a little bit of cinnamon to the dark brown royal icing to give it that yummy cinnamon bun smell and taste. 

These are the extra little buns to accent the plate.

Over all I was really pleased with the way they turned out even with some of them looking a little wonky!

Yay for baby showers!!

Library Mondays

"The love of reading is caught, not taught. " Jim Trelease

For the last month we have made our Monday our day to visit the library.  Instead of just grabbing some books and heading home, we set up shop and school right there.  It has been a lot of fun as well as a training process.  After all we have at least seen, if not been, the mom at the library, feeling crazy, with the kids running around pulling books off the shelves and being entirely too loud!  At least I have! 

The first weeks have been about practicing using our library whispers and staying at out table while we are doing our school work.  We are still working on keeping Josiah off the computers when we are looking for books... he insists that he is "working!"  One of the things the kids enjoy is picking out one movie from the kids section each week.  They are also enjoying finding books about the topic that we are studying... there are SO many books!!  I LOVE it!!

I love watching how the kids are maturing... seeing Josiah walk across the library to use the little potty-without mommy coming in with him (watching the door like a hawk), and teaching Charity how to find books on the library shelves after we look them up on the computer.  This is such a fun adventure!  I feel so blessed to be on this journey!

Here are some great books that we have recently read:

• The Read-Aloud Handbook By Jim Trelease: Great book for mom's and dad's to dig into on how to have a reader friendly home (and how to lure kids away from the T.V.), also includes a section with suggested read-alouds for all ages.
• What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs by John Morris and Ken Ham: Giving your kids a Biblical world view, beginning with creation.
• Whistle For Willie by Ezra Jack Keats: A cute story about perseverance
• Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett: A confused armadillo follows a red cowboy boot on a great adventure.
• Bedtime in the Southwest by Mona Hodgson:  Great illustrations and encourages obedience at bedtime.
• Love You Forever by Robert Munsch: I love this story... but I cannot read this book without crying.  Even when I taught I cried reading it to my class... despite that, the kids think it is so silly that the mom comes and rocks her grown up son!
• Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood:  Tells about all the wonderful qualities and things that we can do that make us so special.
• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner: A Siamese cat who pretends to be a Chihuahua... need I say more?  Kids love it if you do the accent too!
• Skippyjon Jones Lost is Spice by Judy Schachner: Another fun Skippy Adventure! They are as much fun to read as they are to listen to.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: We just finished listening the the audio version of this book... the kids really enjoyed it and car rides were so quiet!  I loved it because I have seen the movies and was constantly comparing to see how true Hollywood was to the book.

A Pre-schooler in Kindergarten: Shapes and Colors

Our kindergarten curriculum is SO much fun!  I am having a blast learning with the kids and seeing how much we can do with out "schooling!"  One of the biggest challenges is keeping Josiah engaged and excited.  So, the month of July was our normal kindergarten stuff, littered with colors and shapes, and pre-school concepts.  Charity really enjoyed it (she LOVES learning) and Josiah was so excited to have special things to do as well.  Here are some of the fun things that we did with colors and shapes during the month...

• Each day was a different color (first 2 weeks) or shape (second 2 weeks)
• Each day we tried to wear something that color or something with the shape on it.
• Everywhere we went, even in our house, we searched for things in the color or shape of the day.
• Sing songs about the colors
• Made a healthy food color rainbow with pictures from the weekly ads and magazines
• Colored whatever food was on our menu the color of the day (see picture- purple oatmeal for breakfast)
• Make Shape pancakes or cookies
• Make play-doh
• Color Snacks:
• Red: ladybugs on a leaf snack- strawberries fastened by toothpick to a honeydew or celery
• Orange: orange lollipops or fruit
• Yellow: make fresh squeezed lemonade
• Green: Green sugar cookies (we made leaves, our topic from that week)
• Blue: Stopped at Sonic and got Ocean Water
• Purple: Jello
• Black: Jelly Beans
• Pink: pink juice (fruit punch)
• Brown: chocolate pudding
• White: white chocolate
• Shape Snacks/Activities
• Circle: grapes
• Oval: hard boiled eggs
• Triangles: cut-up quesadilla
• Star: Campbell's Chicken and Stars soup
• Heart: Heart shaped rice krispy treats
• Square: Chex cereal
• Rectangle: toast with cinnamon and sugar cut in half to make rectangles
• Semi-circle: english muffin pizzas, cut in half

Continuing on into August I am continuing to keep Josiah engaged by modifying activities to his level, and letting him go off and play when he is done.  He is surprising me all the time with the things that he is picking up on and listening to when I am not realizing it.  Just today in the car he sang the "Month-erena" all by himself!  Love it!