F is for Fish - Finding Nemo

This week we got to watch one of our favorite movies... FINDING NEMO

We are working on the letter F, so Finding Nemo was the perfect choice for the movie this week. Not only does the movie start with the letter F, but it's about fish. Which, might I add, also starts with the letter F.

I know, I know... "Fish are friends, not food".

But as you can see I couldn't resist basing lunch on fish.

Our muffin tin meal consisted of 'fish eggs' (pomegranate), goldfish crackers, mandarin oranges (since clownfish are orange), a peanut butter & jelly'fish' sandwich, blue jello (from the "ocean" of course), & a tuna fish sandwich. Fish sticks are another option for food if you need another idea, and I saw these cute apricot clownfish afterwards that I think I'll make next time! Oh, I also bought swedish fish to put "in" the jello last second (they get all slimy & turn into mush if you put them in too early, which I discovered a couple years ago when I made my watermelon shark for YW), but I completely spaced doing so. Silly me.

THIS WEEK...
Church Theme: Families are Forever

Primary/Church Song: 'Families Can Be Together Forever'

Preschool Song: 'Row Row Row Your Boat'

Book: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Tumbling Tuesday:
I would LOVE to go swimming and just keep swimming, just keep swimming! Luckily we live in the desert and I know of some pools that are still open. However, I can't take two kids under the age of 3 swimming all by myself. It just isn't logical or safe...
So instead, I taught little dudeman how to crabwalk
and we jumped across our living room floor on the jellies.
It so totally rocked!

Word Wednesday was kinda hectic, but we did:
Family letter sheets

(Oh, and I had a dentist's appointment... I'm so glad P Sherman isn't my dentist!)

Think About It Thursday:

Family math sheets
We turned Go Fish into a matching game
(I also saw this awesome jellyfish in a bottle activity that I think I'll try out next time!)

Field Trip Friday:
We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific a few weeks ago on a Saturday, so I'm just gonna count that since it goes with the theme and I have to get our house ready to host a Young Women's sleepover tonight. Yep... That means somewhere between 9-14 teenage girls between the ages of 12 & 17 will be "sleeping" here this evening.
We're gonna partay while my hubby spends the evening in his man-cave with his Xbox. Don't worry... He has a headset so he won't even know that we have a house full of girls. He is such a trooper helping me clean and get the house ready! Where would I be without him? I really appreciate all that he does for me and the kids!
He's the bestest (:

xoxo

E is for Elephant - Dumbo

E is for Elephant.
So I based last week on one of the most well-known & lovable elephants around... DUMBO

Church Theme: Enoch

Primary/Church Song: 'When I Am Baptized'

Preschool Song: '10 Little Elephants'

Book: Elmer by David McKee

For Monday's muffin tin & a movie, we watched Dumbo and ate a circus/elephant themed muffin tin meal consisting of orange circus peanuts, an elephant biscuit, nutter butters, popcorn, grapes (kind of like the bubbles Dumbo blows), & cheese for Timothy the mouse. Oh, and we couldn't forget the pink elephants on parade (animal crackers).

Tumbling Tuesday:
At our pretend circus...
 we balanced on the tightrope (tape on the floor),
stepped through a hoop,
& we were VERY silly clowns!

My kids got sick & were absolutely miserable all day Wednesday and Thursday so we had a cuddlefest.
Here's what I wanted to do, but never got around to:

Enoch letter sheets
Elephant E

Enoch math sheets
"Elephant Toothpaste" science experiment

They were starting to feel better Friday, but at that point I was pretty miserable from cuddling with my two sick kidlets' germs. Yep, didn't feel like doing anything other than taking care of them and myself. Nothing wrong with that, right?

xoxo

Oh, there you are Perry!

We LOVE watching Phineas and Ferb at our house...

In fact, we never seem to be able to get anything done while it's on.

This is why we decided to have a Phineas and Ferb themed Halloween last year!

Halloween 2011

Phineas, Perry the Platypus, & Isabella

Click here to vote for our costumes over at the Dating Divas website!!!

PLEASE do it! Just click on the link, find our picture, & VOTE!!! It will take maybe 5 seconds of your time, it will make me very happy, & you get a chance to explore one of my favorite sites if you still have some time!

We had actually planned these costumes for Halloween 2010, but couldn't get all of our outfits together in time...

Perry was ready. My mom & I had made the main part of the Perry costume by altering a pattern for a lion costume. I made my own pattern for the eyes, bill, tail, & feet and then hand-stitched them onto the main part.
It was actually a lot of fun to make!

It was pretty big on him even after the alterations, but it ended up working out fine. He got to wear it for Halloween two years in a row & on Platypus day at Disneyland!

Platypus Day 2011

We had Phineas's shorts which I had found at Goodwill, but were still missing his shirt & shoes. We bought some blue Shaun White shoes only to find some even more perfect blue Converse shoes after he had worn the others all over the place. Oh well... We ended up getting his shirt on ebay but the one we got still isn't our ideal Phineas shirt. Ya see, Phineas doesn't wear a polo, & his stripes are larger. I'll find one someday. Oh, and just fyi... Spraying red color on your hair is something that should be done outside if you don't want your socks & feet to turn red. At least we were smart enough to use a towel so that he wouldn't get it on his clothes.

We also needed Isabella's bow, belt & shoes. I had found a dress at Goodwill, and already had a white shirt to go underneath it. Her socks weren't too hard to find, but I never did find a belt {Le sigh}. I ended up making the bow out of blanket binding (which I think turned out rather cute for not knowing what I was doing), & spraying some shoes with fabric spray that was the completely wrong pink.

Now... what to do THIS year?

Just in case you decided to finish reading about our fun costumes & forgot to click on the link to vote for them. Here's another link...
Click here to vote for our costumes!!!

D is for Dog - 101 Dalmatians

D is for Dog. Dalmatians are dogs. Dalmatian also starts with D.
This is why this week's theme was... 101 DALMATIANS

photo credit: dibblyfresh1.blogspot.com

We ate string cheese bones, mini corn dogs, puppy chow, frozen 'pup'peas, a 'pup'peroni pawprint, dog bone crackers (Keebler's Scooby Doo crackers), & mini oreo spots.

THIS WEEK...
Church Theme: Daniel

Primary/Church Song: 'Dare to do Right'

Preschool Song: 'How Much is That Doggie in the Window'

Book: Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman

Tumbling Tuesday:
Pretended to be dogs

Word Wednesday:

Daniel Letter sheets

Think About It Thursday:

Daniel math sheets
Sorted m&m "spots" (10 groups of 10 + 1 = 101)

Field Trip Friday:
Visited a pet store

We had a pretty crazy week, so I kept everything fairly simple...

Green Bay Chicken

This dinner is sooo yummy & it is super easy! Maybe that's why the original recipe that I found over at allrecipes.com is called Easy Company Chicken...

Well, my husband thought Easy Company Chicken wasn't catchy enough for him to remember. We found it tastes great with green grapes & peas, and the sauce is gold. Green & gold make him think of the Green Bay Packers, hence the name Green Bay Chicken. Funny though, since neither of us are Packers fans...

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked & diced)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1/4 cup mayo

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1-2 cups of shredded cheddar

Cook & dice the chicken breasts. Combine the diced chicken, soup, mayo, curry powder, & parmesan cheese in a medium bowl. Mix well & pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle desired amount of grated cheddar over the top. Cover dish and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Remove cover for last 10 minutes of baking to lightly brown the top.

Note: You can leave the chicken breasts whole and just pour the soup mixture on top, but I usually use diced chicken.

Banana Bread Brownies topped w/ Chocolate Peanut Butter

I saw these on Six Sisters' Stuff last month & knew EXACTLY what I was going to do with my leftover bananas next time I had them. With our banana loving little dudeman this doesn't happen often.

I followed the link at the bottom of their post to Cookies and Cups to see the original post where they found the recipe. They looked even more delicious and it just confirmed that I needed to try these out. Plus, I had just discovered another site with great recipes for sweet stuff. Definitely a win. I'm so glad I checked it out!

So I tried it out and of course it didn't look NEARLY as appetizing as either of the other two. I kind of expected that though since I am terrible at taking pictures of food and nothing I make ever looks like it does in the pictures. I must have mushed the bananas into too much of a paste and stirred it too much since I saw no banana chunks. It tasted wonderful but was incredibly dense.

I also felt like it was missing something...

I've been on a chocolate peanut butter kick lately, so I thought I'd try making a chocolate peanut butter sauce to pour on top of it.

It was exactly what was needed! They now looked more appetizing than the funky thing that came out of the oven AND my taste-buds were satisfied. My only complaint is that I wish they weren't so dense...

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup chocolate chips

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Topping:

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350. 

- Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray, set aside. 

- Combine butter and chocolate chips in a medium saucepan. Melt together over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When melted, set aside to cool.

- Combine the mashed bananas, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir in beaten eggs until evenly incorporated.

- Stir in flour and salt until just combined.

- Pour all but 1/4 cup melted chocolate into the banana mixture and stir.

- Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Drizzle remaining 1/4 cup melted chocolate on top, and swirl it into the batter.

- Bake 25-30 minutes until the center is set and a toothpick comes out clean.

- Once cooled, melt 1/4 cup chocolate chips & 1/4 cup peanut butter together, then spread on top of the brownies. 

- Cool completely and cut into squares.

Notes:

- Brownies will be very dense

- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

I guessed the amounts for the topping since I had eyeballed the amount that I put on top. I had already had a few pieces before I spread it on, so I wouldn't have been able to give an accurate amount anyway. Hopefully my estimates will be right...

C is for Cowboy - Toy Story 2

C is for Cowboy so when deciding on Monday's movie my mind naturally chose... TOY STORY 2

photo credit: hometheaterforum.com

Sure, the charismatic cowboy named Woody is in ALL the Toy Story movies...

but Toy Story 2 has much more of a cowboy theme to it.

Our muffin tin meal consisted of...

Cheese curls (just like the ones Al eats in Toy Story 2), mini pizza bagel (from Pizza Planet of course), green alien grapes, sheriff star shaped cheese & mini star crackers, Hamm, Cowboy Crunchies (granola clusters), topped with Jessie's hat (gum drop on top of a gummy fruit slice cut in half then stuck together, embellished with melted white chocolate)

THIS WEEK...
Church Theme: Creation

Primary/Church Song: 'My Heavenly Father Loves Me'

Preschool Song: 'Home on the Range'

Book: Little Red Cowboy Hat by Susan Lowell

Tumbling Tuesday:
We had a living room hoedown & danced to some awesome country music

Rode around like a cowboy on my old stick horse (it's actually a unicorn)
Jumped over the rattlesnake (rope on the floor)

Word Wednesday:

Creation Letter sheets
Branded some paper cows with the letter C

Think About It Thursday was on Friday this week:

Creation math sheets

Field Trip Friday was on Thursday this week:
We went to Disneyland & hung out in Frontierland so we could spot some cowboys.

We got to meet the rootinest, tootinest cowboy in the wild, wild west... WOODY!

Hey, howdy, hey! Have a great day!