Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Our Bookshelf: End of June

The past weeks have been a couple of messy ones for our bookshelf. Miss Salean has been hauling books off, throwing them, hiding them, and taking them for walks. I just finished collecting the books to swap them out, I found a few under the couch, some in her room, two in her crib, and a stack in the bathroom. So, I do not have a picture of our shelf this week. I also don't have them divided up by what was new or old. But, here is what we have been reading.


Snuggle Puppy  by Sandra Boynton
We Belong Together by Joyce Wan
Poke a Dot: 10 Little Monkeys by InnovativeKids
Horns to Toes and In Between by Sandra Boynton
That's Not my Bear by Fiona Watt
Willow Finds a Way  by Lana Button
Eeyore Has a Birthday by A.A. Milne
Crayola Little Library: Big Dog! Little Dog!
Crayola Little Library: Colors
Tickle Time by Sandra Boynton
Rock a Bye Farm by  Diane Johnston Hamm
Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
Chicka Chicka 123 by Bill Martin Jr & Michael Sampson
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin
Three Minute Tales: Puppies
Toes Ears and Nose by Marion Dane Bauer
The Cheerios Animal Play Book by Lee Wade
Just Like Mommy by Cecilia Johansson
The Night Before Father's Day by Natasha Wing
Grumpy Bird by  Jeremy Tankard
Poke a Dot: What's your Favorite Color by InnovativeKids
Disney: The Prince & The Pauper
Another Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone
Just Me and My Puppy by Mercer Mayer
You're All My Favourites  by Sam McBratney
Thump Quack Moo by Doreen Cronin
Digger & Lew by Malachy Dew
Treasure Hunt: Counting Colors by Priddy Books
Count to 10 With a Mouse by Margaret Wise Brown
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Good For Me and You by Mercer Mayer


What Mama is reading

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs (I haven't had time to read it in a couple weeks)
Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul by Jack Canfield, Jennifer Read Hawthorne & Mark Victor Hansen

That's it for this week! Our new books are out already, and aside from some library books that I plan on returning soon, they are all new out. As usual, I put out one Disney, two Mercer Mayer and 2 Sandra Boynton, the latter two are some of my favourites,

Have a good week, everyone!!

~Natasha.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Monday Morning Muffins: Apple Oat Yogurt Muffins

I had a bag of apples in the fridge last week that begged to be used up. I thought I found the perfect recipe on Pintrest, but when I went to pin it I got a message...oops! You already pinned this one. I checked here, and found that recipe posted a few weeks ago. So, the search continued. After perusing a few more recipes, I found THIS, I didn't have Greek yogurt on hand, but I had a container of plain regular, I decided to go for it anyway.



They disappeared before I got a picture of one on the plate. I found they were a little dense and wet in the centre. They didn't burn, but were just at that almost point while the tops could have used a minute or three longer. This was probably caused from a combination of the large tin and the regular yogurt, So it was my fault, not the recipes.


Once I got the apple grated, the recipe flew together. They turned out delicious and Little Miss loved them. Mr Picky missed out. The newbie got a small taste and seemed to like them. She is just starting the journey into foods, so she mostly drooled on it. 

This one is definitely a repeat, I may even buy some Greek yogurt to make them again. It's not something I would normally purchase as I find it to bitter and prefer regular. 

Another Monday has come, I am hoping this week does not have as much rain as last week. It is starting to get depressing! Two days of sun followed by three days of pouring rain, what a miserable summer so far! 

Have a good week, everyone! 

~Natasha. 

Monday, June 22, 2015

Monday Morning Muffins: 'Plain' Berry Muffins

Happy Monday! I accidentally just deleted my last post, our Mid-June bookshelf, so yeah..happy Monday. But we have some delicious muffins to enjoy!

I had some leftover blackberries and raspberries, they were on sale last week 2 pints for 5 dollars, so I got one of each. After eating a few for breakfast one day, Little Miss decided she didn't like them anymore. Typical 2 year old. So, into muffins they went. I just used THIS plain muffin recipe and added the berries, which I cut in half as they were quite large.


Guess what? She wouldn't eat the muffins, either. I on the other hand, really enjoyed them, especially hot from the oven. 


As usual, this recipe made 6 bakery sized muffins. It is an easy recipe that I will use again with different fillings. I am not crazy about raspberries and blackberries, I find the to sweet, but they made a good mix.

Yummy deliciousness!  I wish I had some blueberries so I could have made bumbleberry muffins instead, maybe next time!

Have a good week, everyone!

~Natasha.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Monday Morning Muffins: Sweet Potato Muffins

This is probably the third time I have made these muffins, they came out of a rogue sweet potato laying on my counter that I got tired of moving from place to place. Another Pintrest search found THIS recipe, Little Miss loved it (not so much with straight sweet potato) so it has made repeat appearances. 


I skip the ground flax seed because it isn't something I keep on hand, and the only store I can find it in at a decent price is 30 minutes away. Plus, I always forget to get some when I am in the area.


The recipe made 6 massive muffins, this is the first time I have used this pan with the recipe. I think next time I will use the smaller pan, it made 10-12 with that. They baked up quite dense, I think because the pan was to deep. It took quite a while to bake them off as well, thankfully, they didn't burn.


We loved them again! They taste kind of like pumpkin muffins, and would make a great Autumn treat. I will definitely be making them again and again to help the fussy one get her sweet potato in!

Happy Monday!

~Natasha,

Sunday, June 14, 2015

B, C, and D.


My experiment with The Letter A...Again worked, she got it! At the end of the week, I tested her by writing some letters on her magnetic board and she got A every time. As well, I showed her some books and she pointed out the A each time. Yay for A! So, on we went with the next letter.

We have been spending about 4 days on each letter, a week seemed to be to much. I give her the lunch bag filled with goodies and we go through it. We then watch 2 videos on the computer, I have been using Sesame Street podcasts and THESE videos. If she is still interested, we go through the bag again. All in all, our school time lasts about 15 minutes a day.


The first time we went through the B bag, we were in our back yard tent. I set it up and we played and read in it for about half an hour. A storm was blowing in, so we had to go inside because the wind got strong and scared Salean. Otherwise, she loved the tent and we will be using it again!

Our bag of B's included:

Two B puzzle pieces.
The Fridge Phonics set with the letter B.
A Blue B made from a pipe cleaner
A Blue Ball (large pom)
A Bunny
A Blue Boat
A loaf of Bread
Four First Words cards: Book, Ball, Bed and Baby.
Our Books: Ten Tiny Babies and Belly Button Book.


With the letter C, I focused on the K sound. This is only an introduction, so I didn't want to confuse her with to much. I left out anything I had that was a S sound like circle and words combined with C, for example CH like chair. 

Our Bag of C's included:

Two C puzzle pieces
The Fridge Phonics set with the letter C.
A Cat
A Cow
A Car
Four First Words cards: Car, Cat, Crayon and Cookies.
Our Books: Corduroy and ABC just for me. 


We haven't started D yet, but plan to at the beginning of the week, which is why I am including it here.

Our Bag of D's will include:

Two D puzzle pieces
The Fridge Phonics set with the letter D
A Duck
A Dinosaur
A Dog (wolf)
A Doll
A Donkey (Eeyore)
One First Words card: Dog
Our Books: Three Minute Tales: Puppies and Big Dog! Little Dog! 

So far, she is really enjoying her letters, I tested her on A, B and C this morning, she knew what each one was. While we were drawing, I drew a D and asked her what it was, she said D, but her main word is D so I do not know if she actually knew what it was or just said D by coincidence. 

If we continue on this track, we should be through all the letters before Labour Day! 

Have a good weekend, everyone!

~Natasha. 

We are linked up to:



Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Brown Sugar Cookies


As mentioned before, I have a board on Pintrest with recipes that I have found myself making several times. This recipe I made just to try a couple months ago. Mr Picky has been working away a few days at a time, so I have been baking cookies to keep him going. It isn't much for food, but it is better than nothing and cheaper than buying several meals a day.  I chose brown sugar cookies as he loves regular sugar cookies and cinnamon cookies, so I thought this might go over well. I was right. Since then, I have made them about 10 times, he constantly requests 'those ginger cookies' (even though I keep telling him there is no ginger in them, just cinnamon). I am very close to memorizing THIS RECIPE.


This is a quick and easy recipe, it whips up in just a few minutes. The hard part is rolling and dipping every cookie, but I am sure to be given a look of disappointment were I to skip that step. The only change I made to the recipe was to not refrigerate them for two hours. Usually I am making cookies at 8 or 9 at night for him to take at 4 AM, so I really do not have time to cool them for two hours before baking. They turn out just as good, anyway!


Delicious little cookies that everyone seems to enjoy. Any cookies that are left behind do not last long! I think this would make a great pot luck or bake sale recipe, they are sure to be popular!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

~Natasha

Monday, June 8, 2015

Monday Morning Muffins: Blueberry

I have made blueberry muffins twice in the last week and a half, both times because I had bought some berries and discovered a few days later they were starting to look a little off before we were able to finish them, so the quickest way to use them up is to bake them into some delicious muffins. 

I used a different recipe each time, I forgot to pin the first one but it was delicious! I couldn't find it when I went to make them again, so I used THIS recipe instead. 


I got six bakery sized muffins that were perfect served warm. I made a couple of small adjustments, though. I added a small dash of nutmeg and I used oil instead of melted butter.


 I also took a bit of the flour mixture and tossed the berries in it before stirring them in. This is supposed to prevent them from sinking to the bottom, but as you can see below, that didn't really work.


The picky ones really enjoyed them, but she seems to like just about every muffin and he only likes blueberry muffins. So, it is a winner! I will have to add this to my remake file!

Happy Monday!

~Natasha.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Monday Morning Muffins: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins.

There are so many muffin recipes out there, thousands on Pintrest alone. Maybe even millions! I stumbled on this one last week, and decided that even though it looked sweet, it also looked delicious. A little chocolate can't hurt...plus, I had all the ingredients! I found the recipe HERE, it whipped up quite easily and had the house smelling delicious in no time. 


I soon realized I had one potentially big problem. No chocolate chips! Something I usually keep on hand, and I was out. They were just about to go into the pan without chips when I remembered a bag of mini bunnies left over from Easter. They were hiding in my closet because I used them to stuff the hunting eggs, the extra bag never made it out. I poured them into the batter, then grabbed the shortening to grease up the pan...and out of the cupboard fell a small bag of chocolate chips. Just a handful, so they went in as well.


And, the masterpiece! Both Salean and I agreed these are delicious. Mr. Picky was away for work, so he missed out. Sorry (not really, hehe). I am sure he would have agreed as well. 


Another week has come and gone, the time is flying so fast! I can't believe the newbie will be six months old in a couple of weeks, yikes! As they say, time flies when you are having fun!

Happy Monday!

~Natasha.