Bake/Cook/Make Day Saturday!

Bake/Cook/Make Day Saturday!

Bunny Cupcakes

• 1 16.5 oz roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 Tbsp.  egg-white powder (such as Just Whites)
• Red and green food coloring
• 1/2 cup each light and dark pink decorating sugars
• Large flower decors
• 2 cups chopped sweetened flaked, coconut
• 1 16 oz. can vanilla frosting
• 24 cupcakes, any flavor

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Knead dough and flour together until smooth.  Roll out to 1/4-inch thickness.  Cut out bunny shapes using 3-inch cookie cutter. Transfer to baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.  Re-roll scraps; continue cutting to get 24 bunnies.
3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Make cookie frosting; Stir confectioners' sugar, egg-white powder and 3 Tbsp. warm water until smooth.  (If frosting is too thick, stir in more water, 1 tsp. at a time.) Spoon 2 Tbsp.  frosting into a ziplock bag.  Tint remaining frosting light pink with a drop of red food coloring.  Keep frosting covered to prevent drying.
4. Working on 1 cookie at a time, spread a thin layer of pink frosting on top.  Sprinkle top of frosted cookie with light or dark pink decorating sugar to coat, shaking off excess.  Snip a small corner from bag with white frosting.  Pipe a few dots of white frosting on cookie; attach decors.  Repeat with remaining cookies.  Allow cookies to dry, 1 hour.
5. Placed chopped coconut in a ziplock bag.  Add a few drops of green food coloring; massage to tint coconut evenly.  Put coconut in a shallow bowl, spread vanilla frosting on cupcakes.  Roll edges in green coconut.  Press a cookie on top of each cupcake.  

Recipe can be found in the all you magazine: March Issue. Can also be found on the all you website

They also have Sweet Lil Bunny Cupcakes and Bunny Face Cupcakes Recipes too.

Bake/Cook/Make Day Saturday!

Funny Fridays!!!!!

Funny Fridays!!!

What Really Goes On At Track Meets!

My son Andrew, who is 17, is involved in track.  Him and his friends get bored at the meets, while waiting for their turn or they are already done.  So, this year, they decided to try out experiments on people and how they react to different things.

The first thing they did was line up a bunch of quarters in a row with 2 pennies on the ground and watch what people do.  The first person started walking by the quarters and turned around and said what are these quarters doing here and continued walking and grabbed the last quarter in the row and continued walking.  They are started laughing because they wondered why he didn't pick them all up.

Other people continued to walk by and did nothing.  

Finally a lady was walking up to the coins and got all excited.  She stopped and picked up every quarter and left the two pennies.  She turned to her husband and said,  "I am now $1.50 richer, can you believe it.  This is the best day ever!"  

And of course the quarter game was done.  And then the decided to try something new. So, one of his friends had a wallet and took everything out but $1.  He would walk by people and drop his wallet.  People right away would stop him and tell him he dropped his wallet.  

But there was one person who was walking behind him, saw him drop his wallet, picked it up and brought it to the food counter and told the person up there that someone dropped their wallet.  Of course,  his friend went up there to get his wallet back, but why didn't that guy tell him that he dropped his wallet.  Everyone saw that this person saw him drop it.  

And of course, they are still thinking of things to do, the track season just started!  Anyone have any fun suggestions?  

Funny Fridays!!!!!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: Friday!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick

Friday!

Crafts:

• Candy Bags: Yellow paper, scissors: zigzag and ordinary, glass, sticky tape, stapler, glue, yellow pom pom for head, felt or paper for eyes and beak, chocolate eggs or small gift, net, ribbon

1. Take a square of yellow paper and cut along one edge with zigzag scissors.  Form the basket shape by wrapping the zigzag edge of the paper around the bottom half of a glass placed upside-down on the table.  Tape the seam together and fold the free section of the paper over the bottom of the glass to make the base of the basket. Secure with tape.
2. Cut a small strip of paper to be used for the handle using zigzag scissors and staple into position on each side of the basket.
3. Using ordinary scissors, cut a small fan-shaped piece of paper for a tail (don't forget to cut in the feathers) and two small wings.  Glue the tail to the back of the basket, and the wings to either side, just beneath the handle.
4. Make eyes, a beak, and a tuft of head feathers out of felt or paper and glue them onto the pompom head.  When they are dry, glue the head onto the front of the basket.
5. Buy chocolate-covered eggs or other small gifts.  Wrap them in a small piece of net, tie with bow and place inside your basket.

• Hanging Chickens: Polystyrene egg, wooden skewer, paint, brush, scissors, colored pipe cleaners, glue, elastic, bead

1. Push a wooden skewer into the base of the egg, then paint the egg bright yellow, holding onto the skewer.  Anchor the skewer until the paint has dried.
2. When dry, cut up colored pipe cleaners: two blue bits for the eyes, orange for the beak and comb,  brown and black stripes for the legs and tail.  Push the eyes, beak and comb into position.
3. Thread a bead onto a length of elastic or string, securing it with a knot.  Make a hole in the top center of the egg wit a skewer and glue the bad into it.
4. Push in pipe cleaners for the legs and tail.  

• Milk Carton Basket: School-sized milk carton, construction paper, pipe cleaners, decorations

1. Cut off the top from a school-sized milk carton.  
2. Cover the box with construction paper.
3. Attach a paper or pipe cleaner handle and decorate the basket.

• Eggshell Artwork: Eggshells, glue, paper plates or box lids or egg carton lids or other objects, paint, fine brushes or cotton swabs

1. Crush eggshells with your hands.
2. Use glue to apply the eggshells to paper plates, box lids, egg carton lids, or other objects.
3. Paint the shells lightly, using very fine brushes or cotton swabs.

Activities:

• Eggs-tra Bounce: What Did You Eggs-pect?: 2 whole raw eggs(in shell), glass of water, glass of vinegar

1. Put one egg in a glass of water and let it stand for a full 24 hours.  Place the other egg in the vinegar and let it stand for the same length of time.
2. The egg in the water remains the same, while the egg in the vinegar compound now feels and looks like a rubber ball, and no longer has a shell!  If you drop it a short distance into the sink, it will actually bounce.  Now you know how this experiment got its name.
3. In the vinegar, a chemical change took place in the egg.  The acetic acid(vinegar) reacted with the calcium carbonate of the eggshell.  The change caused the shell to soften and disappear, while the egg in the glass of water did not chemically change.  Chemists would say that the shell of the egg in the vinegar becomes "decalcified." 

• No Bones About It!: Large wide-mouth jar, 1 1/2 cups of vinegar, some clean chicken bones(leg bones work best)

1. Place the vinegar in the jar and put the clean bones in it.  Make certain the bones are completely covered by the vinegar.  Leave the bones to set for two days.
2. The chicken bones are no longer hard, but soft.
3. Bones are chiefly made up of the minerals calcium and phosphorus.  When you soak the chicken bones in vinegar (acetic acid), a chemical change takes place and the mineral (stiffening) matter in them dissolves.  

• The Egg In The Bottle Trick: Boiling water, small-necked bottle like a ketchup bottle or a baby's bottle, pot holder, hard-boiled egg, peeled

1. Pour the boiling water into the bottle.  Hole the bottle with a pot holder and shake the water around in it and then pour it out.  Quickly place the egg over the mouth of the bottle.
2. Although the egg is larger than the opening, the egg drops into the bottle.
3. The hot water steam in the bottle, which forces out some of the air.  As the steam in the bottle cools, it changes into droplets of water and requires less space.  This reduces the amount of air pressure in the bottle, and so the pressure of the outside air pushes the egg inside the bottle.  
4. To remove the egg, hole the bottle upside down, place your mouth on the opening of the bottle, and blow into it for 30 seconds.  The pressure inside will be greater than the pressure outside--and the egg will be forced out.

Snacks:

• Chicken or Chicken Nuggets
• Peeps

Music/Rhymes:

Five Little Carrots:

Five little carrots in a veggie garden

A gopher ate one, I beg your pardon.

Four little carrots in the ground

A gopher came along, took it to his mound.

Three little carrots left in the dirt

Its top was nibbled on, but didn't hurt.

Two little carrots left in the sun

A groundhog came along and left just one.

One lonely carrot all alone

'Till a farmer came along and took it home.  

Education: 

Letters/Words

• Word of the day: 

1. Review words of the week
2. Make sentences with these words
3. How many sentences did your child make.

Numbers

• Playdoh Fun: Playdoh

1. Have your child make numbers with the playdoh.
2. They can also make little balls and then count them and use them as math too.  Like 2 red balls and 3 blue balls = 5 balls

Books:

• The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
• Home For A Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
• An Eggs-traordinary Adventure (Backyardigans) by Golden Books
• Where's The Golden Egg by Dawn Bentley 
• Extra Special Eggs by Golden Books
• Peter Cottontail Is On His Way by Andrea Posner

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: Friday!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: Thursday!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: 

Thursday!

Crafts:

• Cottage Cheese Carton Basket: Cottage Cheese Carton, tissue paper, paper fasteners, construction paper, pipe cleaners, green crepe paper grass

1. Cover an empty cottage cheese carton with tissue paper, finger-painted paper, or ruffled crepe paper.
2. Use paper fasteners to hook on a paper handle, or make a handle from pipe cleaners.
3. Fill with green paper grass.

• Fluffy Chick: Cotton balls, yellow powdered tempera paint, construction paper, crayons

1. Drop some cotton balls into a bag with some yellow powdered tempera paint.  Shake well to turn the cotton yellow.
2. Then, draw an outline of a chick on paper.
3. Glue the cotton balls inside the outline to from a cute, fluffy chick.

• Pom Pom Bunny Frame: Pom poms(white-1" two 1/2", two 10mm; Orange- 3/4, 1/2", 10mm; Pink 5mm), Pipe cleaners(hot pink 6mm, pink 6mm, green 6mm, White bump), two 5mm gogglie eyes, pink and yellow fun foam, white paper, black marker, magnet strip, 1/4" hole punch

1. Make a square frame from the pink fun foam (3 x 3)  Cut out a (1 x 1) inch square hole out of the center of the frame.
2. Take pink pipe cleaner and glue it around the square to form a frame.
3. Glue orange pom poms to bottom right frame to form a carrot.  Use small pom pom at bottom and then go up in size.  Curve carrot a little.  Use green pipe cleaners for the stems of carrot.  Make 3 small loops for carrot tops.
4. Glue the biggest pom pom above small frame and in the middle.  Then on each side of bunny's head glue a white pom pom for the hands of bunny.
5. On the face of bunny glue eyes, smallest pink pom pom for the nose and the two small pom poms for the cheeks.
6. Make a loop with the white pipe cleaner  for the ears and place a pink pipe cleaner in the middle of the ear.  Make a second ear.  Glue them onto the back of the bunny's head.  
7. Take a hole puncher and punch out 10 yellow holes. Keep dots for frame and glue them around the frame.
8. Write "Some Bunny Loves You" on paper , glue behind opening.  
9. Glue magnet on back.

Activities:

• Hop-Along Game: Roll of 2" -wide painter's tape (or masking tape), playground ball (or soft, medium-size ball with a little "give".  1 for each child.

1. Mark a starting and finish line on the lawn by laying a 6-foot-long strip of tape along the ground.  Roll out the tape, sticky side down, in 12-inch sections, pressing it down with your feet as you go.
2. Have the children line up.  Give each child a soft playground ball to put between with it in place.  
3. When you announce "Ready, set, go!" all the children hop down the lawn, trying not to let their balls go.
4. When a child drops his ball, he simply places it back between his knees on hopping.
5. Allow all the children ample time to hop down to the finish line and back one or more times.
6. When everyone is tired, call for a rest.  ("Looks like we're tiring out those balls! Time to give them a rest.")

• Bouncing Bazooka Bull's Eye: Laundry basket, large unbreakable mixing bowl,  masking tape, plastic eggs or ping pong balls

1. This game should be played against a wall clear of furniture.  
2. Position the laundry basket snugly up against the wall.  
3. Place the large mixing bowl on the floor, 3 feet in front of the laundry basket.
4. Use the masking tape to create a pitching line 6 to 8  feet away from the wall.
5. Tape masking tape around the eggs so that they don't fall apart.
6. Your child stands behind the pitching line and tosses the egg or ball against any area of the wall, trying to get the ball to land either inside the basket or bowl for a bull's-eye.
7. Each ball must bounce against the wall before dropping inside the basket or bowl in order to score a point.  
8. Score 5 points for each egg or ball in the basket and 10 points for each ball in the bowl. If a ball bounces inside the bowl and bounces out again, score 7 points.

• How To Make Ana Egg Float? Egg, 2 drinking glasses, water, salt

1. Pour water into one glass until it to half full.  Put the egg into the water.  Notice what happens.
2. Now add 3 tablespoons of salt, stir gently, and observe what happens.
3. Pour water into the second glass until it is half full.  Stir in 10 tablespoons of salt.  Slowly add fresh water until the glass is full.  Do not stir.  Gently lower in the egg.
4. In the fresh water the egg sinks.  As you add salt, it floats higher and higher.  When you add fresh water to the very salty water, the egg is suspended in the middle.
5. The denser the liquid the greater its upward life, or buoyancy.  Salt makes the water denser.
6. When you add fresh water to the salty water, it remains on top.  The egg sinks through it and floats on the lower, denser salty water. 

Snacks:

• Marshmallows (all sizes and colors) and peanut butter:  To make bunnies just put peanut butter on the marshmallows and they will stick together.  Your child can eat away the marshmallows to make bunny ears.  

Music/Rhymes:

• Little Bunny Foo Foo: Words are found on the traditional music website

• Bunny Pokey Sung to: "Hokey Pokey"

You put your bunny ears in
(Place hands on head to make ears)
You put your bunny ears out.
You put your bunny ears in.
And you shake them all about.
You do the Bunny Pokey
And hop yourself around,
That's what it's all about!
Additional verses: "You put your bunny nose in, You put your bunny tail in,
You put your bunny paws in"

My daughter loves this song, they taught it to her at her school and she is always singing it.

• Very Cute Bunny and Easter songs for the kids at Child Fun Website

Education:

Letters/Words

• Word of the day: Index card, pen

1. Word
2. Look at the whole word carefully
3. Say the word aloud 
4. Spell the word. Say each letter aloud.
5. Write the word from memory.  Cover the word and write it.
6. Check your written word against the correct spelling.
7. Circle errors, and repeat steps 4 and 5.  

Numbers

• Play a game of chutes and ladders with your child and have them count out each step.

• Number play:

1. One person does something like clap hands 3 times and everyone must match them.
2. Then, the next person does something like hop on one foot, for 5 hops.
3. Then, the next person picks something to do like touch their toes 8 times.  
4. Keep this up until someone runs out of things.  You can do things like: touch your nose, flap your wings, spin around, stick out your tongue, etc.

Books:

• Max's Easter Surprise(Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells
• Max's Worm Cake (Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells
• In Elmo's Easter Parade by Naomi Kleinburg 
• Happy Easter Biscuit by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: Thursday!