Photos of the Day: {daycare} Selfies

I like to take photos of the children while they are crafting to keep a log here on the blog. Today the children wanted to take photos, too. "Where is the play camera, Mrs. Jessica?" But I don't have one! Maybe Santa will bring one to the playroom this year. I took a few photos of the children- they love to look at the view finder. "Take another one!" and "Don't forget the baby!" were cheered. Kinda like a daycare selfie?

Reunion! Ms. H

Ms. H visited for a daycare reunion! The girls made their own pizzas, made up a few new imaginative games, made crowns,  and uttered the word princess about a trillion times. So cute!

Fall Crafts

We used food coloring and water with cut straw pipettes to make our own apples. "Where do apples come from?" I asked. My favorite answer, "The apple store!"

We talked about acorns this fall. The children see tons of them falling near our park. They are always tempted to take pocketfuls home but I encourage them to leave them there for the squirrels. I cut out tops and bottoms and they matched upper and lower case. 

Then, after hiding some paper

acorns around the playroom, the children glued them into the tree-hide-out for their squirrel to save for the winter.

We talked about pumpkins growing on vines. The kids drew their own crazy vine and glued pumpkins to it. We practiced upper and lower case Pps.

We made these fingerprint turkey prints (thanks for the inspiration, pinterest). And the sort of token thanksgiving gratitude paper turkey.

Sacramento Zoo

Thank you, groupon, for the zoo tickets. I haven't been in so long and it was a great morning. The weather was perfect, the animals were active (except for the 2 exhibits closed for maintenance) and everyone was well behaved. The train ride and carousel were new since the last time I have visited as were the otter and redesigned giraffe exhibits. 

Super serious map reader! He was on a mission to find those lions. Too bad the exhibit had a burst pipe or something- a bunch of zoo workers digging a hole in the ground isn't very exciting.

Super serious train rider!

The gorillas were so close!

The giraffes were so active this early morning.

Lens cap fail, uhg. Bottom of the giraffe exhibit.

On our way out the docents were out with animals to touch. I was so surprised that the children were eager to touch the snakes. This python was very slow moving and meek so I wasn't too worried.

Chocolate Zucchini Apple Sauce Muffins

I modified this (Chocolate Zucchini Muffins) recipe from allrecipies.com this week and it was a favorite. I don't usually like adding applesauce to recipes; I think it makes it taste sort of fake and weird. But the flavor wasn't over powering- it was approved by even my picky taste buds.

Here is what we did...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have your little helpers fill 24 standard sized muffin tins with papers.

In a large bowl combine, then stir with a fork:

3 cups of flour (I used half hand ground white wheat and half standard white)
1/3 cup cocoa powder - I used a heaping measuring cup full
1.5 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

(I skipped all of the cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves from the original recipe- I just don't like that competing with the chocolate flavor)

Add wet ingredients on top:

3 eggs
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened organic
2 tsps honey (give or take, it was a large squeeze)
2 cups grated zucchini (pressed down but not packed firmly)
1-1.5 cups semi sweet chocolate chips


Mix well and scoop about 1/4 cup into each muffin compartment. Bake for about 20 minutes until set and centers some out clean. Over baking makes them dry. We froze half for later in the month.

Wet Chalk Art

We dipped chalk in water and made vibrant pictures on black construction paper. Watching the water evaporate and set the chalk was fun. Making dusty powedery chalk fingerprints on the table was even more fun!

Pointillism Weather Art

Our fickle valley weather went from gloomy winter to beautiful bloom-filled spring. The rain came back for a few days and then the sun again.  We mixed colors and used q-tips and tried to be thankful for the weather no matter what it was doing.

Valentine's Week

Chocolate covered strawberries and heart shaped watermelon from our favorite Mr. C.

Heart "blooms" on our spring trees.

Practicing letter Vv with hearts and crayons.