Muffin Tin Monday- Fun Snack for Kids

I love it when I take the time to make these muffin tin meals because while they are fun for the kids.....I enjoy making them, and more importantly, the food that they eat from them tends to be on the healthier side.

This weeks snack: strawberries, pretzels, cheese its (not so healthy), cantaloupe, watermelon, and marshmellows (also not healthy, but fun).

I made 1 for each girl.

And remember watching them eat it....asking myself, "why don't I do this more?"  They get excited, and honestly- ate more fruit in the day because of it.

She thought she was so cute turning away from the camera.

Parker wasn't very hungry on this day and only ate her strawberries and a few cheese its.  But what I have to remember, that I don't always do, is that I have to keep offering her the 'healthy' choices and hopefully one day it will click.  If I never offer it, then she will surely never eat it (at least while in my house).

And Grace at her marshmellows (first) and then the watermelon and strawberries.  At first I thought, maybe I should not have put those marshmellows in there since she went for them first, but honestly- there weren't that many and it just kind of caught her attention.  Then she went on to eat more fruit.

This was sort of a lot of food for them for a snack, but I think we were maybe going to have a late dinner?  I don't know.  Sometimes I get carried away.  ;)


For many many other muffin tin meal ideas....visit Muffin Tin Mom.  Some of the fun lunches over there are just so creative!

Muffin Tin Monday

Today is my first day to participate in an actual "Muffin Tin Monday." I have used the muffin tin idea before...mostly for snacks. But I am excited to be joining in today, and hoping to get some more ideas of healthy and fun things to feed my girls!

Last night- Geoff and I ate leftovers from the weekend, but I made the girls 'muffin tins' of some of their favorite foods.

Parkers: sliced apples, a pancake (It's actually frozen because when we make them- we make extra to freeze. Parker now only likes to eat them frozen?), Skittles (For after she ate her apples and chicken, which she minded SO well and I was so proud of her. Not one argument!), chicken nuggets, and ketchup.


For Grace: I didn't have another actual tin, so I just used the square muffin silicone cups and then placed them in a square tupperware container. Her cups are filled with: mixed vegetable medley (instead of boiling the vegetables in one cup of water, I added a chicken bouillon cube for flavoring, and although she did not eat them....I tasted them and they are much better this way!), a few crackers, cut up apple slices, and yogurt.


This little one ate really well....almost all of her apples and chicken....and a few bites of the pancake. All of her Skittles, of course. But she would never sit still for me to snap a photo....so this is as good as it gets!



Grace was actually my 'not-so-good' eater! She was excited to eat and hold the cracker all by herself. She ate all of the yogurt.....a few bites of her apples......and I think one bite of the veggies! My 'good eater' has not been so 'good' these past few days. I knew it would happen sooner or later. I was just hoping for a little bit later!

Our first Letter of the Week: P is for Parker!!

This was our first week to do a "Letter of the Week"......and to be honest.....I had been wanting to do one for a while, but felt somewhat overwhelmed by it, thinking that it would be hard to come up with fun ideas. But it wasn't too bad after all! In fact....I had so much fun planning this week (maybe even more than Parker!). And most of the activities we did...I already had the materials.

For some reason...I didn't want to start with A....so I thought I'd start with P for Parker since that letter would have a little more meaning to her!


For a long time now...we have talked to her about how P is for Parker....and identifying P's (which she has mastered). However....we had not talked to her about the /p/ sound for P. So that's what we really focused on this week as we did all of our "P" activities.

And now....at the week's end.....when I ask her what sound the letter P makes....she will say /p/ /p/ /p/ about 80% of the time (the other 20% she says, /s/ /s/ /s/.....and I haven't figured out why, yet).

Here we go....

We started the week with this activity from No Time For Flash Cards.

She colored her letter P, Purple.

Her Piggy bank was full a while back and we emptied it into a bigger container. So now there is not that much money in there. So we emptied her Piggy bank to Pick out all of the Pennies. And there were 10.

She separated the Pennies from the other coins (with my assistance).

Then we went into the kitchen to glue the Pennies on her P.








After it dried....I cut it out and displayed her craft.



I have been wanting to do this next thing for a while. I have seen it on several blogs...and they are called Muffin Tin Munchies! So in honor of the letter P....her tins were filled with all things starting with P. Starting at the top and going left to right clockwise....Pickles, Peanuts, Popcorn, Pretzels, Pringles, and Pineapple.

She ate some of the food....but this was definitely one of those things that I was more excited about it than she was! :)



We also made our Popcicles!! I have kind of changed my recipe.....now I use about a cup of fruit.....a cup of vanilla yogurt......and about 1/3 cup of powdered sugar. She loves them, and I do, too!

I lined everything up for her....

Then let her dump it all in by herself!


Loving her face here....




This recipe fills up all 4 of our molds.



Aunt Sis brought over her new green blow-up Pool for the girls to play in.

She practiced Pouring in the Pool!!




She also did a Pasta sensory activity. I poured three different shape Pastas into these bowls/measuring cup. For this activity, I thought she might enjoy it a little more with my utensils rather than hers. And I was right! She enjoyed this activity for about 45 minutes!

I let her Pour it into the big bowl by herself.

And she immediately Plunged her hands into the Pasta!




She also shared her Pasta with Lovey.



And we also added in a little fine motor activity of Picking the Pasta up with her Play tweezers from her 'doctor' bag. She did really well with this!



And here is Pretty Princess Parker!! She's really starting to get into dressing-up.

And don't forget her Princess shoes, too!


And she Played the Piano.

Grace even joined in on her little Fisher Price Piano!



We also talked about how Lovey is Pink. Then she said...."Mommy....Lovey's brown." I laughed out loud and said, "You're right, honey. She is kind of brown now."


We also made Pudding.





She Painted her toes with Pink Polish all by herself. She loved this!











Aunt Sis came over later and brought us Powdered donuts.




That afternoon....we had a Pancake Picnic in our living room floor.



Payton was Posing for the camera. She would look at me to make sure I was looking at her...then she'd give Grace some loving.



After our Pancake Picnic.....we Painted with our Pudding. She first did this last summer at Kelli's house with her boys. I also found this idea in the Toddler's Busy Book.







We also made homemade Purple Playdough (she helped me add in the red and blue food coloring drops to make the purple). This is another thing that I was really excited about because I remember my mom making Playdough for us when we were younger and I loved it. The smell of making the Playdough brought back fond memories. However....my sweet Parker was not quite as enthused.....and after helping with mixing the ingredients together....her involvement with the Playdough was over. She's just not a fan of any Playdough these days!






(As I was typing this up, Parker opened the playdough container on her own accord and proceeded to make food for Lovey. Then, later, I found this bottle full of playdough in the refrigerator. Ha!)


And on Sunday afternoon....we made Popcorn to eat while we watched The Little Mermaid (her favorite right now).



We (or at least I) had such a great time doing our Letter of the Week this week. And I am looking forward to future themed weeks. I haven't quite decided about this coming week. I better get to planning!!

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I am linking up with 1+1+1=1 today. Visit this site for great ideas and tons of free printables.

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