Father's Day

This year the children made small dry erase board style note cards for their dad (and some for grandpa too!). We layered some photos and shout-out bubbles over original crayon art work. Laminate and add a thin magnet strip. Dad can scribble a to-do at work or home and erase over and over or children can write a little love note.

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

Our neighbor's Meyer lemon tree is full of ripe fruit. Thank goodness I never have trouble finding helpers in the kitchen. The original recipe, from allrecipies.com, is delicious. I made a few minor changes:

1 3/4 C flour (I use half unbleached white and half whole wheat)

3/4 C sugar

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 C lemon or plain yogurt

6 tablespoons butter or oil

1+ tablespoon(s) lemon juice

For mini muffins, preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray lightly with oil or use papers. For standard muffins, the original recipe recommends 400 degrees.

In a large bowl combine first list of ingredients. In a separate bowl mixing wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry until moistened. Pour into muffin wells and cook until lightly browned edges and middles are set, about 13 minutes.

Turtle Pool

This relic has been around since I was a wee one. It is just big enough for floating little boats or putting feet in and perfect to pull out on our first warm afternoon.

Bugs Week

I found these bug masks at the craft store for $1. As tempted as I was to break out the glitter again I am glad I did not. I would have been finding it in every nook and cranny- the children had a great time flying around the house.

The lady bug art was a big hit, and relatively easy to get together. The children were able to personalize theirs with any number of small black hearts- great for practicing counting.

Books we read:

Slow Snail

Noisy Grasshopper

Frances Firefly

the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Songs we sang:

Shoo Fly

Baby Bumblebee

The Ants Go Marching

Ocean Creatures

Simple crafts can be fun for children- just add glitter. It is my nemesis: I love it, but it is soooo messy. Pop-up seaweed adds a little texture to an otherwise plain ocean scene.

Father's Day

Head over to One Pretty Thing for lots of cute Father's Day gift and card ideas. Use her "category" tab to find all the posts about one particular subject (plan a few hours- there are so many good projects!).

Apple Cinnamon Quick Oat Muffins

I purchased the assorted box of organic instant oatmeal from Costco a few months ago. Both of my kids love warm, slow cooked oatmeal in the winter but it seemed out of place when summer came. They love picking a packet and eating it cold with milk. Neither would tolerate the green apple cinnamon flavor and I felt compelled to find something to do with those sad, unchosen packets.

So I adapted the "seminary muffin" recipe from allrecipies.com. It turned out great. Thumbs up from everyone. I hope you enjoy it too.

Apple Cinnamon Quick Oat Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin pans with papers or with cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine and mix :

1 large or 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed

1 egg

1/3-1/2 C unsweetened applesauce

1/2 C brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add the dry ingredients then stir until incorporated:

1 C whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 C quick oats (or about three little packets)

I used a (24) mini muffin pan with spray. It took a short 14 minutes for these to brown lightly on the top.