starting seeds in egg cartons

It's that time of year again! Time to play in the dirt! I'm not quite sure what it is, but there's something that I absolutely love about gardening - squishing the soil between my fingers (no, I don't wear gloves), watching for the tiny little seedlings to emerge, the leaves and flowers grow, then the tiny fruits and vegetables start to form... Plus, then you get delicious fresh fruits and vegetables from your own yard! Maybe it's just the magic of watching life change and grow. Whatever it is, I have been so excited this week about getting things ready for my garden!

This year, most of my gardening will have to be container gardening. So we bought a few planters, and I'm planning to steal borrow a few from my mom that she doesn't use.

Since it's still too cold to plant anything outside yet (stupid snow predicted next week), we started some seeds inside. Last year, I wrote a post about starting seeds in strawberry containers. Well this year, we decided to use egg cartons.

They've already sprouted! I'm so excited! And so is Jack. We read Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed in preschool, and then planted our seeds. He loooooved filling the cartons with the soil once he realized it was okay that he was getting all dirty! He also helps me water them every day and gets so excited when he sees a new one coming up. And he keeps insisting that they're going to grow giant flowers which he will give to his grandmas. Too cute.

So why egg cartons instead of strawberry containers? A few reasons:

1. We had egg cartons and didn't have strawberry containers

2. The strawberry containers work well as little greenhouses for seeds that need to stay warm, but we weren't worried about that this year with the seeds we were planting

3. The egg cartons are biodegradable so we could theoretically just cut them apart and plant them. Although if we do that, I'll be sure to score them first so the roots can get out more easily.

What you'll need:

Cardboard egg cartons

Seed starting soil (I used Black Gold seedling mix)

Seeds

Marker and/or pen

Scissors

1. Use the scissors to cut the lids off the egg cartons and to poke holes in the bottom of each well. (We actually used a pen to poke the holes so Jack could do it himself.)

2. Use the marker or pen to write on the outside of each what type of seed you'll be planting (unless it's just one kind). I just wrote the first letter - Z for zucchini, L for lettuce, etc.

3. Fill each well with the soil.

4. Follow the directions on the seed packets for planting depth, and plant your seeds! Water, place in a sunny location, and wait for the magic! And of course, continue watering as the soil dries out.

5. When the weather is warm enough (or your garden is ready) transplant the little seedlings to your garden! You'll want to make sure they've spent some time outdoors before transplanting so they've started acclimating. Then either gently squeeze the dirt and plant up and out of the carton; or cut the carton apart, slice some stripes vertically to allow the roots to grow more easily, and plant in the garden!

Happy gardening!

Preschool activity - learning shapes and making monsters

Sorry I've been seriously slacking on posting anything lately - we've been busy and sick and enjoying the brief moments of spring sunshine we've had around here! In fact, we even took a week of "Spring Break" from preschool a couple weeks ago when we had a whole week of nice weather! We spent every day at the park or in our backyard soaking up as much sunshine as we could, knowing that winter wasn't really over for us just yet.

I've also been seriously slacking in the crafting department. I just haven't been motivated to actually dig out all my sewing stuff and make anything lately! Some day, I'm sure. I've still got lots of ideas bubbling around in my brain, just haven't found the time/energy to actually make any of them.

So instead I've been focusing more of my energy on preschool time! We finished the whole alphabet (doing a letter a day) and now we're just kind of winging it for now. I think we'll start on numbers soon.

The other day we did a Monster theme day, working on learning (practicing) shapes. And it was a lot of fun!

I helped him with the writing, but he chose the names. Silly kid!

First we read a story about monsters. There are so many to choose from! Here's a few of my favorites:

• The Monster at the End of this Book (Sesame Street Golden Book
• Where the Wild Things Are
• That's Not My Monster (touchy-feely book)
• Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
• A Very Hairy Little Monster (it's a free iBook!)

We read A Very Hairy Little Monster 1) because we actually had it and 2) because the illustrations are very geometric and kind of silhouette style, so we could talk about the shapes.

Then we cut out a bunch of different shapes in different colors from construction paper.

I did most of the cutting since he's not very good with scissors yet, and his shapes would have pretty much all been blobs... but he picked which colors for which shapes and such!

Then I told him to make a monster with his shapes! He just glued the shapes onto a piece of paper. I guided him along by saying things like "Which shape do you want to use for his tummy?" or "He needs arms! What shape should his arms be?" or "Where should we put this square?" And then basically just let him go. We would name the color and shape of each piece as he glued it on. He ended up making two monsters and a monster pet with the shapes we'd cut out.

Then, since he said his monsters were holding hands, and they were friends, we decided to write "Monster Friends" on the page. He's getting really good at identifying letters, but still can't really write any of them. So I held his hand as we wrote on his paper, and he would tell me each letter after we wrote it.

And yes, their names are Brownie, Kevin, and Snail. The one named Snail is, according to him, a monster dog. Not a snail. That's just his name. I don't know where he comes up with these things. 

Some things I really liked about this activity:

- It was a theme he enjoys

- It was a very hands-on, self-guided activity

- It allowed him to be creative

- It reinforced a several of the concepts we've been working on lately, showing how they work together, and allowing him to show his understanding of them

- And most of all: he had a lot of fun learning!

We both really enjoyed this, and I think I want to do it again. I picked monsters because I felt like no matter how he put the shapes together it would work. What other themes could you do with this activity instead of monsters?

preschool activities - learning letters

I've been seriously slacking in the creating department lately... I haven't made or listed anything new in my etsy shop since Christmas! Part of that was moving (my sewing machine's been in the garage since we moved...), part of it was being burnt out from Christmas orders, but I think the biggest part is that my creative energy has mostly turned elsewhere - to preschool! I've been having lots of fun planning activities, themes, games, crafts, etc. I think it's the teacher in me resurfacing. Maybe it makes me a huge nerd, but I love designing curriculum!

Some day I'll get organized and actually post more details on all of our activities, but for now how's a little sampling of some of the fun we've been having.

We're learning a letter a day! So I've been coming up with a theme based on each letter, and we read stories that go with that theme, and then do some type of craft or activity to go along with it. My goal with this is primarily letter recognition - we're still a ways away from reading I think. But it seems to really be helping with knowing what each letter looks like.

We try to do projects/crafts with things we already have around the house - so we did apple stamping for the letter A (which didn't turn out very well... but you just cut the apple in half horizontally so you can see the star in the middle, then use it as a stamp); cotton ball clouds for the letter C; a paper hat for the letter H; an egg carton caterpillar for the letter I, for insects; pipe cleaner, googley eye, and pom-pom monsters for the letter M; and a toilet paper roll owl for the letter O.

Holding his egg carton caterpillar - so easy to make! Just cut an egg carton in half, poke a pipe cleaner through for antennae, and let them color it with markers. We also glued on googley eyes, but he has since pulled them off of course. He also named his caterpillar Plau. No idea where he came up with that one. (The owl's name is Bert. They're friends now.)

  

We did hat sorting and counting for the letter H. I got out about 10 hats belonging to different family members, and we sorted them by size - smallest to biggest. He's wearing baby brother's hat in this picture. It's his favorite because it has a dinosaur.

Now lest you think I live in some perfect world where my two-year-old magically goes along with all of the preschool activities, I had to bribe him to take the hat picture. He threw a huge tantrum when I tried to put the paper hat on his head. The playdoh was 1) supposed to be 4 distinct colors and 2) not be in his train car (which he now calls his playdoh car). And there are many days where he informs me he doesn't want to do preschool (once we get started he's usually happier about it). But one day we were running a bit later than usual, and it was past the time we normally start, and he looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I want to do preschool!" Makes it all worth it. Plus, he actually knows most of the alphabet now!

A few other ideas for learning letters - check out the website starfall.com. It's got lots of great games and activities! We've been doing the ABC activities each day for the letter we worked on that day. 

We also found this iphone app called Endless Alphabet, and it's great! (and free!) Jack calls it monster letters because they have these cute monster animations, and when you touch the letters they get little monster faces and make the sound of their letter. So it teaches what the letters look like and sound like, and new words and how to spell them.

Well, if I ever get organized enough I'll do a series of posts with some of the ideas/activities for each letter. In the meantime, I'd love to hear any great ideas or activities you've come up with!

chocolate covered strawberry cream pie

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope it was filled with lots of love (and chocolate!)

Here's what I made for our Valentine's treat:

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cream Pie

I love making pies. I make lots of pies for Thanksgiving (have since I was in junior high) and I have a little dream to one day open up a little pie shop. So I often invent pie recipes in my head. I rarely actually make them... but I'm working on ways to make that happen more often (without consuming mass quantities of pie.)

Therefore I give you: Valentine's Pie!

For this pie I actually broke one of my cardinal rules of pie making - I used a store-bought crust! But I knew I didn't have time to experiment with making my own chocolate crust, and I needed a disposable pie tin (I took one of the pies to a neighbor) so I caved. It wasn't terrible... but I definitely want to come up with my own crust for this pie next time.

This recipe makes two pies - perfect for sharing the love!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cream Pie Recipe

2 chocolate cookie pie crusts (like Oreo or Keebler)

Chocolate custard:

5 Tbsp cornstarch

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)

3/4 cup half-and-half

3 egg yolks

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet would work too)

Strawberry cream:

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

3/4 cup strawberry puree 

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

Mix cornstarch, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Add milk and half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thick. (This takes a long time - be patient!)

With the egg yolks in a small bowl, slowly stir in at least 1/2 cup of the cream mixture (this keeps the eggs from scrambling in the hot custard). Slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the cream, stirring well. Cook 2-3 minutes more, stirring. 

While this finishes cooking, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, about 30 seconds. (They don't have to be completely melted) 

Remove pan from heat and add butter, vanilla, and melted chocolate chips. Stir well to make sure chocolate is completely melted and mixed.

Pour half of the custard into each pie shell and put them in the refrigerator. 

While the chocolate custard is setting, make the strawberry cream.

Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth. (It takes about 1 1/2 cups of berries to make 3/4 cup puree). 

Whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Slowly fold in the strawberry puree and sweetened condensed milk. You can add a little more of the sweetened condensed milk if the strawberries are really tart - but don't add too much or it will overpower the strawberry flavor and make the cream runnier.

The strawberry cream will be about the consistency of yogurt (and feel free to eat it by the spoonful like yogurt! It's pretty tasty!)

Pour (or spoon) half of the strawberry cream on top of the chocolate layer in each pie. Put them back in the refrigerator to set up for at least 4 hours, or even overnight. The strawberry layer may be a bit runny - the longer it stays in the fridge the better!

Top with a chocolate covered strawberry and chocolate shavings, and serve!

Doesn't it look so scrumptious with that strawberry next to it? You can see though that the strawberry layer is starting to run a little bit... still delicious though!

So now here's my question: What should I do with the other half of a can of sweetened condensed milk?

Note: the chocolate custard layer is adapted from the Lion House Cream Pie recipe.

Update: I recently decided to start a separate blog for recipes and food/cooking tips. You can see this pie recipe and a whole lot more over at Modern Mommy's Kitchen!

the dot preschool activities - learning colors

We started doing preschool at home a few weeks ago, and so far it's going really well! I get some protestation now and then (he is still a two-year-old!) but mostly he really likes it. Some days I have very planned activities, and other days I let him take the lead, choosing which books we read, and whether he wants to color or paint, etc. But we always follow our preschool schedule, which really helps curb some of the protesting and whining to do other things. He knows the routine now.

One of my favorite preschool days so far was one of the days that we worked on colors. (Now I have to admit, Jack already knows his colors pretty well, so some of these activities may have to be adapted or more guided for kids who don't know their colors at all yet. But it's good practice and reinforcement, plus great for counting/sorting by color.)

First we read The Dot by Peter Reynolds. If you haven't read it, you should! I love this book! It's a cute, fun story about how we all have the ability to create. I think the message was a little over his head, but he liked the idea of painting dots in lots of different colors!

So that's what we did next. And by painting dots, I mean he got paint on his paintbrush and rather aggressively jabbed his paper with it, which left more splats than dots. But every time, we would practice saying which color paint he was using, and he would yell "dot!" when he hit the paper.

Then I got out Twister! I had basket with a bunch of small toys and other objects that matched the colors on the game (toy cars, legos, cookie cutters, pipe cleaners, paint chips, etc), and told him to put all the green toys on the green circles, the yellow toys on the yellow circles, and so forth. He actually caught on faster than I thought he would, and loved this new "game!" And of course, being the somewhat OCD child that he is, he lined up all the hot wheels cars in a row, all the pipe cleaners in a row, etc. He cracks me up.

We played another more active game on the Twister board too - he would stand at one end, and I would tell him things like "jump on all the blue circles" or "run on the red circles." Not surprisingly, he loved this game even more! And very quickly insisted that "Mommy run too!" So we ran and jumped and raced on the different colors for a while. We would also count the circles as we stepped on each one (except when we were running of course!)

And to finish it off, for part of his snack he got m&m's - little colored dots! So we sorted and counted them by color as he ate them.

There are so many other activities you could do with this theme! Learning, sorting, and finding colors is so much fun for kids this age - just look around your house and see what you have. Anything from crayons to paint chips to fabric scraps will work. Be creative, and most of all, make it hands-on for the kids!

zoo animals finger puppets

I think I burned myself out with the craziness of this past Christmas. I've had absolutely no motivation to make anything the last few weeks, or even to catch up on blogging the things I'd already made! But in an effort to get out of this slump, I'm at least going to post one of the other Christmas presents I made. And honestly, I loved making this, and loved the way it turned out. So I'm excited to share it with you, I just had to make myself sit down and actually type out a blog post.

This was a present for my nieces, one of whom absolutely LOVES penguins, and both love animals in general. So I thought a set of zoo animals finger puppets would be perfect for them!

So here's their little zoo: a bear, crocodile (or alligator?), tiger, lion, penguin, elephant, monkey, giraffe, polar bear, and peacock finger puppets.

I'm pretty bummed that I didn't get any more or better pictures of this, but I guess that means I'll just have to make another set.

This was a lot of fun and a bit of challenge to make because half of these were new designs (ok I guess I kind of cheated - the polar bear's not a new design, just a new color!) Also, some animals are just easier to 2-dimensionalize than others. Giraffes are less easy, turns out. But after a bit of trial and error, I  was pretty proud of the way that little guy turned out. My two-year-old could identify all of the animals (except the peacock, which he just doesn't know what those are yet) which is pretty much my gauge for whether or not the design works. If he knows what animal it is, it must look at least mostly like that animal! :)

Maybe some day I'll actually drag my sewing machine back out and make another set, and then I'll get some better pictures and list it in the shop. But for today, I'm going to be lazy and not sew or cut a single piece of felt!

missionary puppets

Before Christmas I had the wonderful opportunity of selling some of the items from my etsy shop at a local boutique. It was great to get to know some of the other local vendors, see their work, and share mine on a more local level.  So I decided to make some puppets that would have more local appeal: Missionaries!

LDS missionary finger puppets, complete with little name tags and all! (Ok, the name tags are just black rectangles - they're too small to actually put any writing on, but it completes the look.)

I have to give a huge thanks to my sister, who actually did most of the work on these puppets! I did the original design, but she did almost everything on these adorable little guys! I recruited her to help me build up my inventory for the boutique and Christmas sales, and she was a fabulous assistant. She's incredibly creative and artistic, and did a fabulous job, even if finger puppet making is new to her.

 Sister missionaries! With the new age requirements for LDS sister missionaries, there are so many more sisters going! So we had to make lots of sister missionary finger puppets, of course.

And the Elders, complete with little ties of course!

I actually have a few of these missionary sets left. I have to check which colors, and then I'll be listing them in my shop if you're interested.

Now I'm trying to convince my sister to help me design and make a Harry Potter set! We were going to work on it over her Christmas break, but you know how those things always go...