Archive for » March, 2010 «

P/P Project: Chicken Fried Steak
31
March
admin

Some of my readers and I are cooking our way through Ree Drummond’s (aka The Pioneer Woman) cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  We’d love to have you join us as we mess up our kitchens and put on the pounds!  Join us any time!  The next assignment is at the end of this post.

Wow…this was a yummy, albeit fattening, experience!

Overall, this recipe went pretty well for me.  I decided to go with PW’s advice and set up an assembly line for dipping and dredging the cube steak.  I liked the fact that I had all of the simple ingredients on-hand, except for the meat.

So far, so good…

My only complaint so far is that I think the recipe called for waaaaay too much flour.  I bought just under 3 lbs. of cube steak (which was six steaks, by the way), and even after dredging them twice, I threw probably a good cup and half away.

In frying up the steaks, the crust seemed done, if not a little overly done on the second side, after about three minutes.  I put the steaks in a 9×13 pan and kept them in a warm oven while I made the gravy.  For the gravy, I didn’t have nearly as much grease as she did pictured in the book, but I had the 1/4 c. needed, so I started the process.  I found it much too thick with just two cups of milk, so I ended up adding a good bit more.  How much more?  I have no idea, since I was just pouring straight from the jug, but I’d say at least a cup.

I opted to not do mashed potatoes, as was strongly suggested in the book, mainly because I was out of potatoes.  I went with rice and a salad…

It tasted amazing, I thought.  Dirty Harry was the only one of our bunch who didn’t really care for it.  The only downside was that the middles of almost all the steaks were not done enough.  Next time I will heat the pan to only medium and let them fry a little longer.  I think this will also help with the lack of grease issue that I had earlier on.

While this isn’t something I would fix often, so as to not raise our cholesterol to dangerous levels, I will fix this again.  It reminds me of something my grandma would have made.  Mmmmm-mmmmm!

So, did you make a batch of chicken fried steak?  How did it go for you?  Like?  Dislike?  Raise your blood pressure?  Clog your arteries?  Make any variations?  Tell all!  Enquiring minds want to know!

For our next assignment, I’m going a little out of order.  (Yes, I have an order.  I’ve been mostly going through the various sections…Starters, Breakfast, Dinner, etc….in order and picking a recipe.)  I’m going back to the Dinner (read:  lunch) section to try her Macaroni and Cheese.  I usually make a version of mac and cheese for Easter, so this was a good fit for me.  But I’ll still give you a couple of weeks to get this on your tables.  I’ll post about this recipe on April 12.  You can find it on pp. 96-97.  This is a recipe she also has on her site here, so maybe some of you who do not own the cookbook can join us this time.

Happy cookin’!

Category: Grub, Pioneer/Pirate Project  Tags: , , ,  7 Comments
Pride Cometh Before the Apple Falleth Far From the Tree
30
March
admin

The other day I gave Dirty Harry a spelling test.  I’m a homeschooling mom.  We do that.  He missed one word:  apples.  It’s not that big of a deal really.  With the spelling curriculum we use, your child only studies the words they miss on a given week.  So studying one word takes less than five minutes a day.  No sweat, right?  Wrong.

Dirty Harry was mad.  He launched into a hot tirade, proclaiming that he knew how to spell the word apples, that he just made a little mistake, that he wanted a do-over.  I agreed with him on the point that he knew how to spell it.  He was probably just rushing through, but that’s the consequence of rushing, and I told him so.  He fumed and complained some more.  I told him to get over himself and move on.  He misspelled the word apples on his test, so he would have to study it throughout the week and be tested again on Friday.  Period.  End of discussion.

On Wednesday our spelling curriculum dictates that the student do some sort of fun activity to study their words.  Dirty Harry likes to use the site www.spellingcity.com to play games and take little tests on this day.  But apparently he was still a little sore about the whole apples ordeal.

Dirty Harry:  Mom, I can’t think of any fun activities to do with apples.

Me:  Just go use the Spelling City site for a while.  With only one word, it should only take a few minutes.

Dirty Harry:  It doesn’t work well with one word.  This is stupid!  I know how to spell apples!  Can’t we just forget this whole thing and move on???  Blah, blah, blah, blah….

Me:  No, we can’t.  You missed the word on your test.  If you knew how to spell it, then you shouldn’t have been in such a hurry and made a careless mistake.  Why don’t you just take a piece of chalk and write apples on the chalkboard five times for your activity?  That should be extremely simple for you since you know how to spell it and all.

Dirty Harry grumbles and sulks but finally picks up the piece of chalk and writes the word five times.

“That was too easy,” he says, “so I’m going to just go ahead and write the whole alphabet for extra cursive practice, okay?”

“Ummm-hmmmm,” I answer.  I was busy in the kitchen, so I wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing.  Later, however, I went to check his work, and this is what I saw….

Bwahhhhaaaahaaaaaahaaa!!!!

I’m sorry.  Please excuse my maniacal laughter, but something in me always finds great humor in my kids’ failures when they’ve persisted in giving me such a hard time about something.  It’s a character flaw, and I’m working on it.

He has since taken his spelling post-test and earned a hundred.  I don’t think he’ll ever spell the word apples incorrectly again in his life. 

But if he does, I hope I’m there to laugh my head off and remind him of this story.

Category: Dirty Harry, homeschooling  Tags: , , , , ,  10 Comments
Jumpstart.com Winner!
29
March
admin

We have a winner!  Drumroll, please….

So there you have it!  My long-time blogging buddy, Jenn4him is the deserving winner!  Congratulations!

Thanks to all for playing!  Jumpstart….it’s good stuff!

Category: Contests, The Pirate Mom Speaks  Tags: ,  One Comment
FBF: Generational Look-Alikes
26
March
admin

Welcome to Flashback Friday!

I love old pictures.  My grandmother had a large stash of old sepia prints, and I remember as a child begging her to get them out and let me look through them.  She wouldn’t comply that often, and that would frustrate me a bit.  Now, though, I understand her hesitation.  For one, the pictures were mostly of people in her life who had passed on, some in tragic and sudden ways.  Looking at the pictures was an emotional roller coaster for her.  Secondly, it was sort of a hassle to lug all those books and boxes out of their storage places.  And, finally, they were fragile.  The last thing she wanted was for my grubby little hands to damage a one-of-a-kind heirloom picture.  I totally get it now.

Now, my mom, Indiana Mimi, has most of those pictures, and she’s been bringing me some of the old pictures as she’s been sifting through them.  After all, my hands are decidedly less grubby these days.

One thing that I’ve realized as she’s brought me some of these photographs is that Jack Henry definitely looks like me.  See…

Jack Henry…

Me…

Very, very similar.  Right down to how our hair lays down on our foreheads.

But do you know who he really looks like?  Who could have been his twin?  My Uncle Larry, Indiana Mimi’s younger brother, who died in his early twenties.  I’ve always been told that Dirty Harry looks a lot like him too.  Most of the pictures I’ve seen of him were taken when he was a school boy or a teenager, and Dirty Harry definitely favors him.  But my mom recently brought me a picture of him when he was a toddler that made me gasp.  Check this out…

My uncle…

And Jack Henry…

Isn’t that amazing?  Even the curls are in the same places!  And the foreheads….I wish I had this picture when we went to see the neurologist last fall.

Yes, Grandma….I do understand now why you felt bittersweet over your photos because this whole trip down memory lane has made me wish so much that you could see and know Jack Henry.  I think you’d be quite proud that he looks so much like your own precious little boy.

Do you have any look-alikes in your family?  If you’re not sure, take some time to paw through those old trunks in your attic or those dusty shoeboxes in your closet.  I think you’ll find a fascinating exercise in genetics.

Category: Cap'n Jack Henry, Flashback Fridays  Tags: , , ,  5 Comments
Jumpstart.com, A Review and a Giveaway
25
March
admin

Chances are, if you are a parent of preschool to elementary school kids, then you have probably heard of Jump Start.  They are the makers of high quality, educational computer software for children.  Their software is colorful, engaging and easy to use.  My kids have used the software a lot over the years.  They thought they were just playing computer games, but I knew, because it was JumpStart, they were actually learning something too. (Insert evil laugh here.)

So, when I was contacted by a JumpStart representative, to use and review the new virtual website they had developed, I jumped at the chance (pun intended).  Jumpstart.com is a colorful world of games, adventures, and quests geared for preschool and elementary school kids.  Of my children, Dirty Harry was the right age, so I signed him up and let him loose on the site.

First, your child will create a Jumpee, a virtual character that will represent them on the screen.  They can make it look like themselves or be as creative with their look as they see fit.  When their character is dressed and named, they can then set out on their educational adventure.  Right now, the site has four different worlds that paid members can enjoy, according to their ages.  Inside the worlds, there are almost limitless games and activities for your child to experience.  And trust me…he will think he is just sitting down to play some video games, but JumpStart has made sure that almost every activity has an educational twist that will enhance their language or math skills in some way.

As your child plays, they will earn coins to spend.  They can use these to buy more stuff for their Jumpee, decorate a virtual room, or adopt a virtual pet.  They can also interact with other Jumpee characters, but in a very limited and safe way.  Jumpstart has made sure that none of your or your child’s personal information can be shared.

Anyone can try Jumpstart for free.  They have a few activities set up that can be tried out, just by creating a free account.  When you become a paid member, however, you and all the children in your family have access to all the worlds and benefits of the site.  You also get a bonus of four complete downloadable computer software packages as well as access to all the parent areas on the site.

I also enjoyed the associated blog:  http://blog.jumpstart.com/  It gives even more detailed information about the site, as well as informing you about any new features that your family can enjoy.

***Giveaway Information***

Jumpstart is kind enough to offer one of my readers a complimentary three-month membership, which is about a $25 value!  All you have to do is leave a comment for me on this post, and tell me that you’re interested in being entered in the drawing.  If you’d like to spread the word about the contest, I’ll give you an extra entry for every time you do that.  You can post on facebook, stumble, twitter, your blog…whatever…just let me know, so I can stick your name in the hat the correct number of times.  I will close the contest and announce the winner on Monday, March 29.

Now, have fun by going to check out that site…. http://www.jumpstart.com!  And tell them The Pirate Mom sent ya’!

Category: Contests, The Pirate Mom Speaks  Tags: , , ,  9 Comments
The Pirate’s Plunder, February 2010
23
March
admin

Yes, I know that it is March 23, and that I’m just now posting about my savings adventures of a month ago.  Sorry.  Trying to find the time to blog lately has been an Olympic event…one in which I’m not medaling.

Okay, so February.  For the month of February I spent a grand total of $391.07 at the grocery stores.  This includes almost everything:  food, snacks, dog food, toiletries, paper and plastics, diapers, etc.  Big D does occasionally stop by the store for me to pick up staple items like milk and bread, and that total doesn’t include his expenditures, so I guess our total is probably about $20 or so dollars more.  Still…not bad for a family of five.  My savings for the month of February totals $312.20.  I achieve this by buying mostly sales items and using coupons.  I’m finding that I’ve been able to save at least about $100 a paycheck…sometimes even more! 

Recently I set up a savings account and have been transferring some of my savings there towards the end of the pay period.  I’ve decided to save up for a new refrigerator, and I think, if I continue to work hard and be careful, that I’ll be able to purchase it sometime during the summer. 

My favorite deal of the month?  Well, it has nothing to do with groceries…

I’ve had a Cricut machine (an electric die cut machine used for paper crafting) for a few years now, but I rarely buy the cartridges because they generally range from about $80-$90!  But for a couple of weeks in February JoAnn’s craft store was selling them for the special price of $35!  It showed great restraint on my part not to buy two.  Or three.  Or four. New refrigerator?  Who needs a new refrigerator?  Just remember…if you are trying to cut corners in your budget, it’s important to not completely cut out the fun.  You can even find cheap(er) ways to splurge now and then.

I decided originally to post about my monthly savings to sort of boost my own morale and encourage me in my coupon clipping.  But I also thought some of you might be encouraged on your own paths of savings.  So, in that spirit, I’m going to post a plundering tip every month.  This month I want to tell you about coupon stacking.

Coupon stacking is when you use two coupons for the same product,  a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon.  Most stores will allow you to do this, but you might want to check at customer service first just to avoid confusion at the check-out.  By stacking coupons, you can enjoy a really deep savings.  I’ve done this before for sale items and gotten things for free or almost-free!

Manufacturer coupons are plentiful, but store coupons are a little trickier to come by.  First of all, make sure you are on your stores’ mailing lists.  Kroger, for instance, has their Plus Card system.  If you are in this system, then you should be receiving coupons from them in the mail every month or so.  Some are manufacturer coupons, but many will be store coupons.  Publix has some various clubs you can sign up for and receive store coupons.  I’m a member of the baby club and receive several store coupons every couple of months.  I’ve found that Target and Food Lion have several store coupons that can be printed out on-line.  It’s all a matter of investigating the different options that your various stores may have.  (Also, of note, Publix will accept competitor coupons, so you can stack another store’s coupons with a manufacturer coupon there, but they are the only store in my area that allows this.)

If you are unsure how to tell what kind of coupon you have, check by the expiration date.  Usually it is labeled there if it is store or manufacturer in nature.  Be careful about assuming it is a store coupon just because it might have the store’s label printed on it.  Some maufacturer coupon’s will collaborate with a certain store and allow this, but if it is labeled as a manufacturer coupon, then usually it cannot be stacked.

Let me know how you’re doing with your own plundering!

Category: coupons  Tags: , , , , ,  2 Comments
The Captain’s Quarters
17
March
admin

It dawned on me recently that I never posted pictures of Cap’n Jack Henry’s nursery and that a few people had asked me to do just that.  But then it also dawned on me that we never quite finished decorating his nursery either.  I’m blaming that on having my third child in my mid-thirties when my other two children already had created quite a busy schedule for me. 

But seriously there were a couple of minor projects that I had in mind for Jack Henry’s room that just needed to get accomplished.  I worked on those over the last several weeks and nagged Big D about a couple of them, and then just last week we finally put it all together.

Best of all, the walls in his room are a light sea green, so this can also count as a legitimate St. Patrick’s Day post.  Erin go braugh!

Here we go on the official tour of the almost sixteen month-old Jack Henry’s nursery…

Above is a shot of his changing table/dresser combo which has been up and functioning since he was born.  Recently we added the black valance to dress up the window and the shabby chic star on the wall.  I didn’t really intend to have a lot of blue in his room, but the basket and ceramic truck were gifts, and I actually ended up liking the splash of bright color they give.  In the basket I keep books and small toys that Jack Henry can play with while being changed in efforts to keep him from throwing himself off the table and keep his hands out of his waste material.  Both seem to be immediate goals of his.  The wicker basket is his clothes hamper.

We had the wrought iron stand for a while.  I think we used to keep CDs in it.  It has worked great as a diaper stacker thingy.

I found these wrought iron hooks at Hobby Lobby and got them half price.  They are hung just to the right of his doorway, so it will be a great place for jackets and hats and such.

This little cart is located right below the hooks, and while it isn’t that attractive has been handy for holding a CD player for his bedtime music, his shoes and extra blankets.

This room has kind of a funky shape, and I thought this little nook would be the perfect place to create a little reading corner.  We got the miniature wingback for him for his birthday.

Above is a close-up of the picture in his reading corner.  It is some framed artwork from Big D’s elementary school days.  It was a piece that had been chosen to be framed to decorate the school cafeteria.  I just love that we have this and that the colors were so complemetary to the room.  I also love that it has a nautical theme because I thought we might transition this room into a pirate theme in a couple of years.  I also love that Big D wrote his name with lightning bolts.  That is so creative…and hot!  And, finally, I’m sorry my reflection is in this picture.  It was unavoidable.

We bought some inexpensive bookcases to house his books, toys and stuffed animals.  The shelf we’ve had for years, and Big D recently painted it black.  I decorated the cardboard letters with some scrapbook paper.  I don’t think the “It’s a Boy” announcement is going to be a permanent part of the decorating scheme, but for now, I just don’t know what else to do with it.

Finally, we have by far, the most important part of the room:  Jack Henry’s crib.  This is one of the models that will convert to a toddler bed and then a frame for a full size bed.  I hope he likes black.  The rocking cow was a toy that my mom and grandma got for Bonny Annie’s first birthday, and I’m so glad we held onto it.

I just love his bedding!  I really wanted to use toile, but Big D thought most of it was too girly, but when I found this in black, he gave his blessing.

Well, that’s it….Cap’n Jack Henry’s nursery!  I apologize to the inquiring minds who wanted to see it about twelve months ago.  I hope it was worth the wait!

Category: Cap'n Jack Henry, Decorating, The Pirate Mom Speaks  Tags: , , ,  5 Comments
P/P Project: Simple, Perfect Chili
16
March
admin

A few of my readers and I are cooking our way through Ree Drummond’s book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, one recipe at a time.  Feel free to join us!  The next assignment will be at the end of this post.

Yum….chili!  The perfect comfort food.

I made this for a weeknight meal about a week or so ago, and it turned it just fine.  It was fairly simple to pull together, so I guess it was aptly named.  It had a mild flavor that makes it suitable for kids…even Cap’n Jack Henry ate some!  And it is customizable in that you can throw in or omit ingredients according to your family’s personal preferences.

All in all, this recipe is fairly similar flavor-wise to my old standby.  Mine is a tad more practical for me though because I make it in the crock pot.  I usually throw it together a little before lunch time, and then it’s ready for us to eat by about 6:00.  I also missed the presence of the fresh vegetables that I use in mine.  I always include chopped onion, green bell pepper and celery.  One addition I liked of the Pioneer Woman’s that I will probably add to mine from now on was the use of mesa flour.  If I had one complaint about my recipe, it was that it was a tad on the runny side sometimes.  The mesa does a good, flavorful job of thickening the texture.  I think, even in the crock pot, if added towards the end of the cooking cycle, it would make my concoction thicker and heartier.  I also added some canned beans.  I chose one can of pinto and one can of black since Big D doesn’t care for kidney.  I also added a can of fire roasted tomatoes.

Here’s a shot of the Pirate Family enjoying our chili dinner…

Please excuse Bonny Annie’s tank top.  She was leaving for her TaeKwonDo class and didn’t want to eat in her uniform jacket.

So, did you all make a pot of chili?  What did you think?  How did it compare to your usual recipe?  You can still send some pictures or links to your blog of your chili experience.

Our next assignment is from the Supper section:  Chicken Fried Steak on pages 142-145.  This is not something I have ever cooked or would even normally order at restaurant, so this should be interesting…  Have fun!

Update:  Oops!  I forgot to put a due date.  Please have your chicken fried steak prepared by Tuesday, Mar.30….that’s when I’ll post about this dish!

Category: Grub, Pioneer/Pirate Project  Tags: , ,  5 Comments
Movie of the Week: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
11
March
admin

This week I got to see a  movie in the theater.  I saw it with Dirty Harry and a friend of his, and despite having to break up a disagreement at one point about a box of Nerds candy and having to sit on the very top row of a large theater (meaning long walks to the bathroom), it was a totally enjoyable experience.

This movie is the first based on the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan.  Dirty Harry just started to read the first one when we started seeing the movie trailers appear on TV about a month or so ago.  He loved the book and was excited to see the film version.  I had not read the book and was not overly excited about seeing the movie, but the excursion gave me a three-hour Captain Jack Henry break, and I was in need of one,  so I was game.

I was inordinately surprised at how much I ended up enjoying the movie!  The premise is that Percy Jackson is a demigod (half mythological god, half human), but has been living the life of a normal angst-filled teenager, unaware of who his real “divine” father is.  The action gets rolling rather quickly, and through a fantastic and a bit alarming change of events, discovers that his dad is Poseidon, his best friend is a satyr and his protector, and his wheel-chair bound history teacher is Charon and director of Camp Half-Blood, a training ground for demigod children.  The action of the film centers around the theft of Zeus’ master lightening bolt.  For reasons that I found somewhat vague, everyone thinks that Percy has taken it, so Hades, who would greatly like to have the bolt for himself, kidnaps Percy’s mother to the Underworld, in hopes of luring him there.  Percy, with the help of Grover (best friend/protector/satyr) and Annabeth (romantic interest/fellow demigod/daughter of Athena), go on an adventure-filled quest to rescue Percy’s mother and solve the mystery of the missing bolt.

Highlights:

  • This movie is just plain entertaining.  I thought I was in for a pre-teen snooze fest and was completely surprised at how taken in I was by the plot and action.
  • The acting is decent.  The teens are pretty much a bunch of unknowns (although I thought for half the movie that the main kid was Zac Effron…no, just a look-alike), but they hold their own amongst the big guns of Pierce Brosnan playing Charon, Uma Thurman playing a convincing and creepy Medusa, and Sean Bean as Zeus.
  • While it is certainly not a replacement for reading the real Greek myths, it might be a good springboard if your kids are uninterested in this type of literature.

Low points:

Overall I was a little disappointed and surprised that this was given a PG rating because it felt more like a PG-13 in some parts. 

  • First of all, at many points, this film is a bit intense.  The violence isn’t bloody, but young or sensitive kids would definitely be scared of Hades or the hydra or Medusa.  In two of the scenes, creatures are beheaded.  If you’re familiar with Greek mythology, then hopefully that’s not a spoiler.  Again, the scenes are not bloody, but are too intense for a PG rating, in my opinion. 
  • Secondly, the….ummmm, how do I say this?…well…the sexual tension was a bit much for a kids’ movie.  I realize when you’re dealing with Greek myths and the whole demigod situation, that there are some understood situations that have occurred, and the movie does a fairly good job of glossing over those facts.  However, by making Percy and his friends older than they are in the books (he’s about 12 in the books and about 17 in the film), they have introduced some unnecessary romantic situations.  Grover is girl-crazy and this comes up in about three different brief scenes during the film and involves a distant scene of bikini-clad girls (apparently the daughters of Aphrodite), a group of girls dressed in short, tight dresses in a Vegas casino, and Perspehone (played by Rosario Dawson), the companion of Hades, who makes semi-aggressive overtures towards him in a cleavage-showing outfit.
  • There is some language in the film…not a lot, but still unnecessary for a kid movie.

All in all, I rank this as a good movie-going experience with my almost ten year-old son who has seen movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, so wasn’t bothered by the intensity of the scary scenes.  We actually had a good discussion about the other issues I brought up above and why the movie makers alter books when they bring them to the screens.  While I wish they hadn’t added those parts, I don’t think Harrison was greatly affected by them either as altogether they probably took up less than ten minutes of a two hour film.

If you get a chance, see it on the “Big Screen” while it’s still out.  Some of the scenes are worth it.  Enjoy and let me know what you think!

 

Category: Movie Reviews, Movie of the Week  Tags: , ,  5 Comments
A Star-Studded Meltdown
08
March
admin

No, I’m not about to blog about last night’s Oscars.  I’m blogging about crayons.

My two older kids are coloring snobs and will no longer color with crayons.  They have moved onto bigger and better instruments like twist-up colored pencils and fine-tip markers.  So, we were left with an entire drawer full of beautiful Crayolas.

When I found this…

…while shopping this past weekend, I knew that I wanted to make Cap’n Jack Henry his first set of crayons, using all of those old, forgotten, discarded wretches pictured above.

Here’s how I did it…

First, remove the paper from the crayons.

This would be a good job to enlist some older kids to help, but unfortunately mine were busy.  Bonny Annie was making soap, and Dirty Harry was playing baseball with his dad, so I was on my own for all of the crayon peeling.  I thought the pile of crayon paper shavings was very attractive and tried to think of some creative craft project for them, but I couldn’t get beyond hair for one of those Fandango paper bag puppets, so I just threw them away.

Then you will need to break up your crayons in 4-5 pieces each and place then in the muffin cups.

As you can see, I went with  more monochromatic tones for Jack Henry’s since he doesn’t even know his colors yet, but one could get wildly creative with all kinds of combinations, depending on what colors of crayons you have on hand.

Then you just pop them into a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  Obviously, oven temperatures vary from household to household, so just start keeping an eye on them at about 15 minutes in.  The crayon pieces need to be completely melted.  Also, since I was using a silicon muffin pan, I placed a cookie sheet underneath to prevent spilling the hot wax.

When they are melted, you will then need to let them cool completely.  This took about an hour.  With the silicon trays, they came out rather easily, but I think you could have success with a regular muffin tin as well.

I loved how they turned out!  So bright, so swirly!  (But I was a little bothered by this picture where the orange one is not point-to-point with the others.  I didn’t realize that until I was uploading the pictures.  I apologize for the imperfection of this site and its author.)

Jack Henry, at fifteen months old, is probably a little young yet for crayons, but we tried them with him anyway.

I found the star shape to be perfect for his little fingers.  He liked holding and feeling them just as much as coloring with them.  These types of muffin tins are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  I’ve even spotted some seasonal ones in the Target dollar section from time to time.  Wouldn’t egg shapes be the perfect thing for an Easter basket?  When I find some more, I’ll definitely be experimenting because I think a set of these would also be a great birthday gift, tied with some pretty ribbon and accompanied by a thick pad of drawing paper or a fun coloring book.

You had to know this was coming, but the Cap’n did think they were edible.  But then he thinks everything is edible these days.

Aren’t we all glad that crayons are non-toxic?

He did make some scribbles on some paper and giggled at their effects.

I gave him two of the stars, and he enjoyed clapping them together.

And then, of course, he did a little more taste-testing.

They turned out so well and were so easy that I made six more colors this morning:  teal, pink, brown, white, black and gray.  I’m going to look around for a nice little tin to keep them in, and I’ll have one more activity in my arsenal to keep Jack Henry busy while we try to do our lessons.

I was originally inspired for this craft by the website www.dollarstorecrafts.com .  When you have a minute, you should browse around this site.  They have a lot of handy ideas for things to make and do using very inexpensive materials.

Now, go forth and have a meltdown.  (I’ll bet you won’t hear that again!)

Category: Cap'n Jack Henry, crafts  Tags: , , ,  14 Comments
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