A Trio of PBJ Sandwiches

Here are three little peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches I made for my son in the past few weeks.  

First we have a slightly crazy looking bunny rabbit.  I used a cookie cutter from Easter to make the bunny shape.  My bread wasn't quite big enough, so I took my rolling pin to flatten it just enough for the cutter to fit.  You can still see a little bit of the crust on his chin.  The crazy look comes from two Wilton's candy eyes that didn't quite match.  A heart sprinkle for a nose and a few teeth carved from a few white chocolate candy melts complete the face.  I drew a mouth on using an edible food marker.

Next we blast off with a rocket ship. I made the sandwich and just started cutting away pieces with a knife to get the body of the ship.  I used left over sandwich pieces to lengthen the "fins" and add "wings" (I guess) to the sides.  It looked a little messy, but my son still loved it.  I used cheese and my tiny star cutter to set the scene and added some "cheese fire" to make the rocket blast off.  I added some candy coated sunflower seeds for decoration.

 Finally, a little Toy Story Alien.  Ever since we returned from Walt Disney World, little man has been almost constantly playing with his Bucket O' Aliens and Bucket O' Army men.  I decided to surprise him with a little alien lunch tomorrow.  The head, mouth, and ears were cut using some strategic slicing with an oval cutter.  The antenna is a piece of bread just sorta twisted up on the end.  An Alien needed (of course) three eyes and a light dusting of green sugar sprinkles.  Healthy? Well... no... not really.... so I'll make sure he gets some carrots and celery in his lunch as well.

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Thanks!

--Mandy--

Keep 'em Busy! Dino Lingo - Influenster Review

I have watched Dora the Explorer so many times that I thought my head might explode... I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm THE MAP!  I think that despite the annoyances of the program, it is awesome that my 3-year-old can count to ten in Spanish and occasionally yells, "Ayudame, mama!" when he tumbles off the bed he was bouncing on.  I took many years of Spanish in high school and college and it has been very useful to me in my job as a school teacher.

When Influenster provided a link to try out a kids language learning program called Dino Lingo, I was very excited.  I received this sample FREE from Influenster for testing and review.  Although the program is available in MANY languages, I chose to preview the Spanish one since that would be the one I would most likely buy.  This program is marketed to children ages 2 to 7 years old and is available through www.dinolingo.com .  The cost is $99.95 + SH with a 30 day money-back guarantee.  To see what's actually included for that price click here.

My first reaction to this program was a little negative due to the quality of the animation (this is not Pixar), but I soon got over it.  You and your child are guided through the program by cute little animated dinosaurs.  Real video footage is alternated with digital & traditional animation to provide "in context" ways to observe the vocabulary and phrases.  Also, the program uses just the right amount of repetition to really help you "get" what they are saying.  For example, you are shown several pictures/animated birds.  Each time you see the bird, the Spanish word for bird pops up on the screen and it is said aloud.  This is repeated several times.  Then you see two birds.... then many birds which are counted in Spanish: FOUR birds: 1, 2, 3, 4... then a blue bird... and finally an in context sentence:  There are seven birds!


In the first disk, animals, numbers, and colors were intertwined.  The program was about 22 minutes long.  In between "learning" parts there are mixed interludes with dinosaurs and other characters dancing, counting, playing and more.  There were lots of silly parts that your child will laugh at, I think.

So, would I buy this entire program?  Someday, maybe, when I have an extra $100 to spend.  This is a reasonable price for this program and less than I have paid for other educational videos purchased via infomercials.  (You know the ones! I want my baby to read, too!)  I think that if you are serious about your child learning a language, this program could be very successful and fun for children and their parents.  In the meantime, we will still be watching a lot of Dora.  I think this would be a great gift to buy and provide your child's daycare provider or for your family video library.  It would give you a "non-junk" TV alternative while you are cooking dinner or folding laundry and your kiddo will learn so much.

DenTek Floss Pics - Influenster Review

Ladies and Gentlemen, line up your pearly whites and let's talk flossers.  You may recall from my previous post that I recently received a box of items for free from influenster to test and review.  The products were complimentary, but the opinions are my own.

I received two sample packs of DenTek brand flossers.  One for adults, the Comfort Clean Floss Picks, and one for kiddos, the DenTek Fun Flossers.  You can read all about DenTek's flossing products here if you wish.

I have never purchased kid's flossers, but we buy this type of product frequently.  My husband and I keep floss picks in our vehicles because you just never know when you are going to need to battle something stuck in your teeth at the red light.  We are not very brand loyal and usually pick up whatever is cheapest.  Here is a picture of the DenTek flosser on the left and the store brand flosser (from the package in my glove box).

My husband was a willing volunteer.  He flossed one side of his mouth with DenTek and one side with the store brand.  One major difference in the product was that the store brand only lasted for three teeth beofre the floss broke.  He was able to use the Dentek flosser for all of his remaining teeth and the floss was still tight on the plastic.  As far as flavor, both are "mint" but my husband preferred the store brand taste over the DenTek, but that the DenTek "wasn't bad."  Finally, the pointy pick part at the end of the DenTek brand is a thinner plastic than the store brand.  My husband said that he thought the DenTek was more effective as a toothpick.

The DenTek flosser is high quality for its purpose and I would definitely buy them for my family to use.

Influenster also send a sample of the kid's Fun Flossers.  What struck me a fabulous about this product as soon as I took it out of the package was that there was no pointy toothpick end.

No Pointy End! Brilliant!

If you have a little boy, you know good and well that anything with a sharp point immediately becomes a science experiment or a sword. (Where can I stick this? Who can I poke with this?)  I gave these to little man to use at bedtime and I can say it was a success.  If the point of a "Fun Flosser" is to make it fun for kids to floss, then this is a win for sure.  And with that, I leave you with some pictures...

Happy Flossing!

--Mandy--

Quaker Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookies (Raisins) - Influenster Review

Recently I joined Influenster , an exciting product testing group.  They sent me a box of products.  It's my job to test them and let you all know what I think.  I received these free products from Influenster for product testing. The items were complementary, but the opinions are all my own. 

QUAKER SOFT BAKED COOKIES - RAISIN

The first product I decided to test was the Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookie from Quaker... mostly because I was hungry.  I was a little concerned about the raisins.  I hate raisins... it's a texture thing.  The first thing I noticed when I took the cookie out of the package is that it seemed really moist and was a really big cookie.  This was no tiny, crunchy cookie, people.  Quaker was serious about this.  I broke the cookie into three pieces.  My husband, my three-year-old, and I all tasted the cookie.

Reactions:

Husband:  "Pretty good... Flavor is kind of like an Archway cookie... I'd definitely eat more."

Son: "Mmmm...."  Do you like it? "Yes."  Tell me about it. "It's... weird... like a cookie, but a muffin... yeah... a muffin... can I have this for breakfast tomorrow, too?"

Me:  Soft. Chewy. Hardly noticed the raisins except in flavor (a good thing for me)

Result:  I would buy these for my family.  I order my groceries online through www.peapod.com and they run $2.69 or $2.79 for a package of 6.  These have 170 calories per serving.  I can see this as a nice little afternoon snack and it does seem like a "healthier" cookie option for my little kiddo than chips or some of the other cookie options on the market.  This was super yummy and the other flavors look tasty as well:  Chocolate & Almond, Cranberry & Yogurt, and Banana Nut are available from my grocer. 

After eating the cookie, I thought maybe I should have taken a picture of it... too late!  

Here is the image from the Quaker website:

#nourishwhatcounts

No Clowning Around...

Little Man requested "A clown sandwich with hot dogs too" for lunch today.

I used a plastic cup to cut the bread into two circles.  Mr. Clown needed a pair of candy eyes and some popcorn hair.  I used a "Captain Crunch crunchberry" for the nose and trimmed up a mouth from a fruit roll-up.  A little line with a Wilton's food marker completed his smile.

Do you know why cannibals won't eat clowns?

Because they taste funny!

(Ba-dump-ching!)

--Mandy--

Keep 'em Busy: DIY Flannel Board

Wanna make a flannel board?

Remember how great those were growing up?

Remember how the pieces just "magically" stuck up there?

OK, then!  Here's what you need:

     1.  Artist Canvas (whatever size you want)

     2.  Flannel fabric, about 4 inches longer and wider than your canvas

     3.  Staple gun

     4.  Pellon sew-in interfacing (NOT THE FUSIBLE kind!)

Place your canvas on the flannel.  I really wish now that I had ironed my flannel first.  You may want to go do that.  Fold up the edge on one side and staple into the wood frame of your canvas.  Stretch and staple the opposite side.  Repeat on the remaining two sides.

I had some extra fabric hanging over.  I debated gluing the edge or stapling.  I chose to staple it down on the inside.  Flannel board = done!  Wasn't that easy?  OK, ready for some pieces?  You can order flannel board pieces online so if you really want a professional set of Jesus and the Disciples, go ahead and get your credit card out and zoom over to Amazon.  I'm cheap, so I decided to make my own pieces.

I made pieces in two ways.  First, using the Pellon interfacing, I drew and colored some letters using a sharpie and then cut them out.  You can see through the facing, so you could trace coloring book pages or use stencils and let your kiddos color them as well.  Secondly, I took some pictures I printed and had them laminated.  I used rubber cement to paste the pictures to the interfacing and let them dry.  Once they were dry, I trimmed around them.  They looked really nice when they were done!  I don't think you would even need to laminate them.  Maybe you could cut out coloring book pages or comic book pages and use them as well.

Now wasn't that fun?  And look how nice!  Happy crafting!

--Mandy--

Cars! It's a Tow-Mater Sandwich.

Little man has been on a "Cars" kick for a week or so now.  We've watched both movies several times while playing racing and spies with every "Cars" and "Hot Wheels" car we own.  So when he specifically requested, "A Peanut Butter and Jelly Mater," I went on a little web search for ideas.

If you Google:  "mater sandwich" you actually get several hits.  This is not an original idea by any means.  Several are very professionally and artistically done.  Several are not.  Next I searched for a picture of Mater to keep beside me as I constructed the sandwich.  

OK:  So to make a "Mater Sandwich", start by making your actual sandwich and setting aside.  Next, take the heel of the loaf of bread.  Roll it as flat as you can with your rolling pin.  Trim "design contrast" pieces and paste on with peanut butter.  I used a piece at the top, two small on the sides, a piece across the middle, and a piece along the "bumper." Next trim a piece for his "nose" and his mirrors.  I took two toothpicks, broke them in half, and pushed them through the mirror pieces.  Then I stuck the ends into the sandwich crust to make them stick out.

Next, I added Wilton's candy eyes and two chocolate teddy grahams turned upside down for wheels.  The headlights I'm particularly proud of (although no one seemed to notice but me) that one is a yellow fruit loop and one is a cheerio.  The cheerio is his missing headlight!  The teeth were the most challenging thing to figure out.  I was out of white cheese and couldn't think of anything else that would work.  Finally, I happened upon some white chocolate candy melts in the cabinet.  A little trimming with a sharp knife and we have buck-teeth, people!  A few lines drawn on with an edible food marker finished him off.  

Little man was super excited and demanded I take a picture of him with the sandwich.

First he gave me this weird little smile.  Then I told him to act natural and he gave me the second photo... which is actually pretty accurate for "natural." 

I really think I could do better a second time, but my first attempt at Mater turned out pretty good, I think!

Happy lunching!

--- Mandy ---

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