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cooking with kids

Oreo Ghost Cookies

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Need a quick and easy kid-friendly Halloween treat?  These Oreo ghost cookie ghost snacks will fit the bill for preschool parties, school-aged parties, or a play date. Any Halloween party would be a little sweeter with these easy ghost cookies!

Oreo ghost cookie snack treats. These would be great for preschool or school parties and Kid-friendly Halloween parties.


Ghost Cookie Halloween Treats

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I started with a package of Oreo cookies.  Twist the tops off.  Eat them.
 
Of course.



Grab a handful of M&MS minis.  Sort out the brown ones.  Eat the rest.


I mean, mom needs a little sugar too.  To keep up with the kids. Right??!

Next is the fun part:  Assembling the ghost cuties.  I used a vegetable slicer to make a wavy bottom to the ghosts.  Press the vegie slicer onto the white cookie cream and curve it a bit.  Scrape the cookie cream off of the black cookie.  
 
Eat it.
 
Notice a theme?

Press the m&ms onto the ghost faces.  I only slightly pressed the candies and they stayed in place.  If you are going to be transporting these cookies to a party, you might want to use a bit of icing to keep them in place.  Use a large straw to press out a mouth from the cookies.  Your ghosts are done!


Let us know if you make these cookies for a fun Halloween event.  

Crockpot Slow Cooker Meal Ideas Busy Families

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This time of year, it’s about schedules.  School schedules, evening activities, weekend family time, homework, and busyness!  We pulled together a few must-make recipes from The Wonderful Wednesday blog hop that all use the slow cooker! Crock pot cooking is the way to go this time of year when the weather cools and comfort food sounds so good.  Pull out these ingredients in the morning before the kids get up, throw dinner together in the crock pot and go about your day.  Dinner is done!


Slow Cooker ideas for Busy families:

Slow Cooker meal ideas for busy families. Throw everything in the crockpot before the kids get up and dinner is done!

Crockpot Beef Shepherds Pie from Sidetracked Sarah
Slow Cooker Sausage and Pumpkin Chili from Thrifty NW Mom
Crockpot Apple Crisp from More Than a Mom of Three
Slow Cooker Spicy Egg Casserole from Homemaking Hacks
Slow Cooker Chili Dogs from Miz Helen’s Country Cottage 
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches from Recipes for Our Daily Bread

Bear Puppets We’re Going On A Bear Hunt

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We're going on a bear hunt craft

Preschool Book Club is back with another great book and activity.  This time, we’re exploring Michael Rosen’s “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”.  This book is SO much fun.  The detailed directions, the descriptive adventures, and the catchy phrases make it a hit with Toddlers and Preschoolers.  My crew can recite this book from heart after reading it over and over again.





What better way to celebrate a fun book than a cute snack??!  We made bear hunt puppets to go along with the exploring family in the book.  These edible puppets will make the story telling fun (and tasty)!

We're Going On a Bear Hunt book and snack idea for kids, this is perfect for Preschool!




 
We're Going on a Bear Hunt snack activity
 

 


We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Edible Puppets

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We're Going on a Bear Hunt snack activity

Making these bear puppet snacks is so easy.


teddy bear cookies 
pretzel dipping sticks 
peanut butter (although you could use any type of butter or even icing)

Start by putting a dab of peanut butter (or other butter) on the end of the pretzel stick.

Try not to eat it.

Stick the teddy bear grahams onto the peanut butter.  Done.  


Easy cuteness.



Show the kids how the bear goes over, under, around, and through as you read the book.  This is a great way to talk about spatial relationships while you discuss the family and bear’s journey through tall grass, mud, water, and forest.

Of course Baby Girl must do as big brother does.



We had fun making the bear puppets climb, jump, run, spin.  Even though it wasn’t exactly like the book…Little Guy had his bear doing ninja skills.


Of course.

We added a bowl of popcorn for a bit more snack time.  The popcorn became snow that the bears had to run through.
 

 



We enjoyed our bear puppet snacks.  The Preschool Book club will be back in two weeks with another great book for kids.  You can see all of the other books we’ve done here:

Back to School Lunch Ideas for Picky Eaters

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Have a picky eater? These back to school lunch ideas for picky eaters have you covered so kids can eat a healthy lunch so they can learn. Let’s explore some of the best ways to support kids with picky palates.

Back to School Lunch Ideas for Picky Eaters

Back to School means it’s time to start thinking about packing lunches.  The same old peanut butter and jelly gets old.  Old for the kids to open in the lunchroom every day and old for mama to make day after day!  We’ve started to think about healthy lunch choices for our little students so that they are eating a rainbow of foods in the cafeteria.  There are tons of links out there with super cute, themed lunches.  And that’s fine.  They are beyond adorable and will make the kids smile.  But sometimes, a mom wants to get the kids out the door and know that they have a healthy and nourishing meal for lunch.  We’ve got some easy options that you may not have thought of.

Send the kids back to school with a lunchbox full of healthy foods.

This post contains affiliate links.

Healthy Lunch Ideas for Back to School

Pack items from this list to replace the same old sandwich, apple, chips lunch that the kids get tired of day after day:

hummus
cucumber slices
berries (blue, red, black)
peanut butter (or butter substitute) and honey wraps
cheese cubes
sliced bananas tossed in a graham cracker/wheat germ combo
sliced raw veggies (peppers, carrots, celery, radishes)
sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter (Be creative if you like.  A pumpkin shaped sandwich works in May, too!)
pasta leftovers
slider sandwiches using mini rolls
applesauce
nuts (only if approved by your child’s school allergy policies)
half a banana (keep the peel on)
edamame
lunch meat/cheese wraps
frozen peas
mini bagels
lettuce wrap
cheese sticks
air popped popcorn
dried fruit
soup in a thermos
Smoothies (freeze the thermos the night before, pour smoothie into the thermos in the morning)
ham and cheese skewered onto popsicle sticks
banana and cream cheese sandwich (or wrap)
mini pizzas made on English muffins (keep warm in a thermos)
grape tomatoes
raisins
dried cranberries
cubed melons (watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew)
olives
granola and yogurt
hard boiled egg
sliced kiwi
dry cereal
sliced avocado
cucumber slices and mustard on a whole wheat pita
leftover turkey or chicken (kept in a thermos) or cold with cheese slices
corn on the cob (heated and stored in a thermos)
shredded carrots
“ants on a log” (peanut butter and raisins on celery sticks)
homemade chicken nuggets with barbeque sauce or ranch to dip
cereal bars or homemade granola bars
sandwich made with waffles instead of bread
cottage cheese with fruit
greek yogurt with fruit

What are healthy lunch ideas for back to school? This link has a bunch of tips!

Tips and Tools for Healthy Lunches for Kids:

Sometimes, a child just needs a unique presentation to encourage healthy eating and trying new foods.  We wanted to check out different tools for packing school lunches.  If you’ve got all of those healthy foods, you have to keep them arranged and edible!

Kids will love a lunch packed with these fun items.

How great are these ideas for school lunches (or stay at home lunches!):

Use fun skewers for fruits, veggies, and even meats and cheeses.
 These (Amazon affiliate links) plastic skewers would be a great (and adorable) way to arrange a lunch box variety of veggies, fruits, or even meats and cheeses.  Note- These would be great for older kids.  Use caution when sending skewers (even the plastic variety) off to school with a young child.
Staying at home for lunch?  Throw together a version of this fun dinosaur lunch from Snackpicks.
A fun plate like this food face plate set could be a great way to encourage picky eaters to try new foods.
Sick of sandwiches?  Use a muffin with all the fixin’s like Keeley McGuire.
A couple of these sectioned plastic containers make it easy to divide foods into compartments and snap a lid into place.  Throw it all in a lunch box and you’re set.

Pack veggies and dip like this lunch from Wendolonia.
 I love this Bento lunch box container.  It’s such an easy way to separate lunch items into sections and keep everything cool and ready for lunch.  The dip container is perfect for yogurt, hummus, or dressing.

Circus Preschool Toddler Theme Summer Camp at Home

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We’re joining up with the awesome bloggers in the All Things Kids community to bring your creative and fun ideas to get your summer off to a great start.  So, the kids are out of school and ready for some fun.  The running around in the sprinkler and riding bikes are perfect to start off a summer of freedom.  But, what happens when the first “I’m bored” starts?  We’ve got you covered on ideas to keep the kids moving, learning, and creating this summer.  Each of us All Things Kids bloggers are bringing you ideas for themed activities.  These would be perfect too in place of a summer camp or vacation bible school and just do an at-home summer camp with the kids.  Why not invite a few friends over and start your own backyard summer camp for the kids? 

Backyard Summer Camp

It’s that simple to create a neighborhood summer camp!  Pull up the ideas from the all things kids bloggers and you’ve got 7 weeks of themes covered for a summer of camp fun.  We’ve found the best crafts, activities, snacks, and more all based on each week’s theme.  I’m ready for a backyard summer!
Check out all of the summer camp ideas: Robots, Bugs  Around the World , Animals, Ocean and Beach, Nature, and today’s post by us…Circus!

We’re scouring the net for the best and most creative ways to make your own Circus themed Summer Camp for preschoolers and toddlers.  We’ve got circus crafts, circus snacks, circus fine motor and gross motor activities to get the summer off to great start. 


Circus Theme Crafts

The kids will love a few circus crafts.  These lion, tiger, and monkey masks (Danya Banya) will keep the kids occupied and pretending. Or try this elephant mask craft (East Coast Mommy) for more pretend play.  For more circus animal crafts, try this activity from Inspired Treehouse.  

Kids will love making a craft a day at your backyard camp.  Make this elephant mask (Mamas Like Me) and they can wear it throughout the week. Children can work on so many important developmental areas while developing their scissor skills.  If painting is more your thing, this lion craft (Sassy Dealz) is a super cute circus animal to make.   Need a few more crafts to keep the kids busy with your circus theme?  I love these circus clown costumes (KangarooBoo blog) made with party hats and paper plates.

We loved making our circus tent craft.  This trapeze artist craft (Boy Mama Teacher Mama) is equally cute! A handprint zoo (House of Burke) would be a great memento to remember your week of circus fun.


Circus Theme Snacks

A backyard summer camp or themed learning unit definitely needs snacks to keep little ones going and energy levels high.  Here’s a few circus themed ideas for snack time:
  • Goldfish in a bag (You won goldfish!)
  • animal crackers
  • popcorn
  • Sandwiches cut into fun circus shapes with circus cookie cutters (and then reuse those cookie cutters for stamp art painting later in the week!)


    • A    dd these things to a little peanut butter (or other nut butter) for some protein.


Circus Theme Gross Motor Backyard Activities

I know a few little ones who would LOVE this water gun game (Driven By Décor).  Use a few ping pong balls and a squirt gun for an easy (and summer-ific) carnival game. Inspired Treehouse put together put together three gross motor circus activities.  A ball toss game would be easy to set up with a few bins and some bean bags or balls. 


Circus Theme Sensory Activities

The kids (and moms) will get a kick out of a fun circus sensory activity.  How cool is this popcorn painting activity (Mess for Less)? We put together a few fun ideas for circus sensory bins in our circus party essentials post

 


Circus Theme Learning

Any circus unit or backyard camp needs circus books!  These are some of our favorites.

Button snack for Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

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This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
We are so excited to join a few other fabulous bloggers in a series based on preschool books.  Today’s book is one of our absolute favorites and one that we know by heart…and recite a ton!  Little Guy is a huge fan of Pete the Cat books so when I showed him what we would be doing with these button snacks, he was VERY excited! 
We don’t actually own any Pete the Cat books, but check them out from the library ALL the time.  We checked out Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
and made a fun snack to eat while we read the book (and did a little math, too!)
Kids will love these button snacks for Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons snack

Cooking with Kids. Button Snacks

I started with a piece of whole wheat bread, a spice lid for cutting, and a straw.  The spice lid was the perfect size to stamp out buttons from the piece of bread, but you could use any size circle lid or cookie cutter.  Little Guy was totally into this cooking with kids activity.  He smashed the lid down on the bread and loved popping it out.

Once the circles were cut from the bread, I used the straw to poke homes into the circles.  Voila!  Buttons were made.  To make the holes, just press the straw strait down onto the circle and twist a little.  The hole will form easily.  This is another completely fun part for the kids to do…poking that straw into the bread is very fun…Little Guy had a blast!

I was able to get four buttons from each slice of bread.  They were looking pretty cute as is, but I wanted to make little sandwiches.

A little peanut butter and the button snacks were done.

These peanut butter button sandwiches are cute and easy to make snack for kids.

Now that is what I call four groovy buttons!

We read the book together and ate the button snacks.  As each button popped off in the story, Little Guy ate one of the snacks. 

Literally, popping the button sandwiches into his mouth.

We did the math along with the story.  He was so excited to figure out the subtraction with the button snack counters.

Kids will love to eat these button sandwiches.

How cute are these little sandwiches?

This was such a fun way to read and learn…and snack!

Button Snack based on the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

Be sure to check out the other blogs to see how they are playing along with Pete the Cat!

Home Grown Friends Pete the Cat Scavenger Hunt Activity
Mama. Papa. Bubba. Pete the Cat sewing activity
Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Pete the Cat Counting Activity

We recently started a new board on Pinterest all about BOOKS for KIDS and the activities that can go along with the book.  Stop by and follow along for fun books you can add to your library queue!  We’re having a blast pinning over there!

 Note: This post contains affiliate links. 

Valentine’s Day Snacks for Kids

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We love to create fun snacks and foods for the kids.  It’s so much fun to make healthy foods look fun for holidays.  Valentine’s Day is coming up this week and we’ve got some non-candy snacks to share.  Get ready to create in the kitchen, because the kids are going to gobble up these Valentine’s Day snacks!   
 

 

 

 

 

Valentine’s Day Snacks for Kids 

Kids gobble up this Valentine's Day granola parfait snack!

 

 

 
This granola recipe is AWESOME!  We’ll be sharing soon, so stop back and see how we made this super-food granola.  Can’t. stop. eating it.  And the kids are loving it too.  I made this pretty little parfait for the kids and I to share one day.  It’s got our super-food granola, vanilla Greek yogurt, and sliced strawberries.  This is the perfect Valentine’s Day healthy dessert, breakfast, or yummy snack to hold off the sweet intake on this candy-driven holiday!  Put it in a wine glass, and it’s just right for your romantic dinner dessert.
 
Granola is the best healthy snack for kids.

 

 

 
Seriously. SO good!
 
My kids love grape tomatoes! The perfect healthy Valentine's Day snack!

 

 

 
My kids looooove grape tomatoes.  We could (and have) gone through a whole pack of them in a day.  A quick slice with a knife and you’ve got hearts.  The kids cheered when they say these.  And then gobbled them all up!
 
A cheese and pepperoni plate for Valentine's Day.
 Kids love cheese, pepperoni, and crackers at snack time.  These hearts were made with a heart shaped cookie cutter.  Hint: stack a few slices of cheese or pepperoni and then cut your hearts.  Quicker is better when the little ones are running around and starving 😉

 

Heart shaped cheese and pepperoni make the perfect non-candy Valentine's day treat for kids.
 
We hope these snack ideas will give you a few fun ideas for this Valentine’s Day.  Make it simple, meaningful, and fun. 
 
 

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Decorating Cupcakes with Kids with Less Mess

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You’ve done baking with kids before, right?  You know how messy a normal (sans-kids) baking session can be.  Crumbs, ingredients all over the counter, semi-burned crispy-ness on the cookie sheet…It’s fun 😉
Add kids to the scene, and baking can be an all-out kitchen destroyer!  You’ve got spills, fingerprints, and the inevitable, “I want a grilled cheese sandwich!” in the middle of a mixer bowl-filled, chocolate chip, broken egg shell war zone.
BUT, we are big suckers for sweets and our little sweeties love to create in the kitchen…so we get the damp wash cloths ready, pull up the kitchen stools, and brace ourselves for sure-thing messiness.  This cupcake decorating session came about one snow day recently when the weather outside was somewhere around a high of 2 degrees F and we were going no where near the outdoors.  We needed something to keep the kids occupied and having fun.  Baking cupcakes was it!
Our cupcake decorating turned out to be pretty low key and not so bad stickiness-wise with just a few easy tips.
Contain the mess when decorating cupcakes by putting different colored icings into muffin tin sections.

Tips for Decorating Cupcakes with Kids

  This post contains affiliate links. 
To make our cupcakes, Big Sister and I scrolled over our “Sweets” Pinterest board and found this yummy perfect vanilla cupcake recipe.  We made the cupcakes with our pretty cupcake liners.  (Is there anything kids love more than putting cupcake liners into the tin!!?)  We made the cupcakes with just a couple of spills, only one dropped egg, and just a few sneaks of flour.  (My kids LOVE to swipe flour…tell me yours do this too???)  It was a success, mess-wise 😉
decorating cupcakes with icing
We waited for our cupcakes to cool…and this is the haaaaaaardest part of decorating cupcakes.  It takes for-EVER for those cupcakes to cool when little fingers can not wait to get started!  The icing recipe from the same post above turned out to be pretty good, although we only made half of the recipe and it was way more than enough.  Just a note if you use that recipe:  Caster sugar=granulated sugar and icing sugar=powdered sugar.  Good to know and something new I learned!
Before decorating, I threw down a disposable tablecloth to catch all of the inevitable crumbs and icing smears.  Watch for after-holiday clearance sales on these table decorations…You can get cheap-o table cloths for cents at 90% off sales.  And a red Christmas table cloth is the perfect Valentine’s Day table décor.  Shhhhh, we won’t tell! 😉
Use a muffin tin to contain the icing when decorating cupcakes with kids.

Now comes the fun part!  Separating the icing colors  into the cups of the muffin tin
made decorating a breeze with the kids.  They used a different infant spoon
for each color of icing and that kept the kids from dropping sticky spoons all over the floor.  A few of the sections of the muffin pan held sprinkles and a couple of other decorations for our cupcakes.  We LOVE gel food coloring
for icings on cookies and cakes, and even for coloring homemade play dough.  The colors are so vivid and our cupcakes showed it!

When you mix your colors, do it right in the muffin tin.  Slap some plain icing into each section of the muffin tin, add your food coloring, and stir right there in the tin.  No extra bowls=perfection!

A great Valentine's Day playdate idea! Decorate cupcakes!

Putting the icing all into one muffin tin makes for easy(-ER…easier, not easy when the kitchen is now covered in a sugar and crumb coating) clean up.  You don’t need to wash a ton of tiny icing bowls.  Grab up that table cloth and you are mostly cleaned up. 

We had a great time with our cupcake decorating session and only a slight sugar rush.  Hopefully you’ll find some of our tips easy to use and will jump in with both feet and not stress the mess.  Hey, at least you end up with cupcakes to go with your sugar encrusted kitchen!

Valentine’s Day Snacks Treats for Kids

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Valentine’s Day is less than two weeks away.  We are loving all of the sweetheart ideas over on Pinterest these days.  The red and pink hearts and sprinkles and CHOCOLATE are just so happy!  The Share It Saturday features this week highlight some great recipes for Valentine’s day sweets for your loves.  These are perfect ways to get baking and creating in the kitchen with the kids.  OR, surprise your littles with a fun Valentine’s Day treat.  

Collage of Valentine's Day treats for kids and families

 

Cooking with and for kids with Valentine’s Day Treats

Valentine Popcorn from Crystal & Co.
Red Velvet Soup from Kiddie Foodies
White Chocolate Cupcakes from Lou Lou Girls

Nutella Cupcakes with Gooey Chocolate Center from Sugar Aunts

Valentine’s Day Chocolate Fondant Cookies from Kiddie Foodies

Delicious Valentine’s Day Treat Recipes from Three Loud Kids

Valentine’s Day Snack Mix from Sugar Aunts

Heart Butter Cookies with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting from Homegrown Friends

Valentine’s Day Ice Cream Heart Treats from All Done Monkey

Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Valentine Marshmallow Pops from Fun-A-Day

DIY Heart Shaped Chips from Sugar Aunts

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