Dr. Seuss Inspired Recipes – Your Kids Will Love These
September 25, 2008
By Susanne Myers
Potty Training Tips
Potty Training Advice and Tips From Moms & Dads Like You.
What child doesn’t grow up with Dr. Seuss books? We have quite a few of them lying around the house. The kids love the silly characters and the rhymes. The Dr. Seuss inspired recipes that I’m about to share with you have been a great hit in my house. Of course the famous green eggs and ham are included, but there are also quite a few other snack and meal ideas. Create a fun Dr. Seuss inspired afternoon with some of these recipes and of course don’t forget to read a few of the books with your kids. (If you don’t own any, enjoy a trip to your local library.)
Green Eggs and Ham
This has to be the most famous Dr. Seuss inspired dish. Scramble a few eggs, add a couple of drops of blue food coloring to the mixture and cook as usual. You can serve a warmed up slice of ham with it, and if you want to go all out, brush the ham with a little green food coloring.
My kids love either biscuits, or mashed potatoes with this dish. Add a little food coloring (either green, or a complimentary color like red) to the biscuit dough or the finished mashed potatoes for even more fun.
Cat in The Hat Snack
Make the Cat’s Hat for a fun snack. All you need is a few Ritz crackers, gummy lifesavers (preferably in white/clear and red) and a little vanilla frosting. Put the Ritz cracker on a plate. Use a little bit of vanilla frosting to glue the first lifesaver on the cracker. “Glue” more lifesavers on top of the first one alternating between red and white.
These snacks are so cute; you may want to take a picture of your child’s creation before it is devoured.
Wiggly Fish
This snack was inspired by “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. Prepare several different colors of Jello according to package directions and pour each flavor into a shallow pan. Use a fish shaped cookie cutter to cut the Jello into fish shapes. (If you don’t have a fish shaped cookie cutter you could also just cut fish shapes with a knife.) You can also add small pieces of fruit to the Jello mixture before it cools. This is a great way to sneak an extra serving of fruit into your child’s diet.
Pink Ink for The Yink
The Yink in “One Fish, Two Fish” love to drink pink ink. Make your own version by combining a few strawberries (either fresh, or frozen and thawed) and some milk in a blender. Add a few drops of red food coloring if the “ink” isn’t pink enough.
A Fruity Hat For The Cat
How about this for a fun Sunday breakfast? Whip up a batch of silver dollar pancakes and cut up some fresh strawberries. Grab some whipped cream and let the kids assemble the Cat’s hat by stacking pancakes, and strawberries on top of each other using the whipped cream as “glue”.
Enjoy a few of these Dr. Seuss inspired snacks and meals with your family, or invite a few neighbor kids over for a Dr. Seuss party. Either way they are a lot of fun and a great way to bring some of the Seuss stories to life.
Want more family friendly recipes and crafts ideas? Visit www.dinewithoutwhine.com/info for a sample weekly menu plan your entire family will love and www.kinderinfo.com for tons of craft and activity ideas that are sure to keep your little ones entertained.
Additional Resource:
The Definitive Kid Party Craft Book!
Discover How To Create A Memory That Will Last A Lifetime!
Learn how to create party crafts that also double as Party
Favors and Save a Bundle on Your Child’s Birthday Party!
Don’t forget to take lots of picture and have them developed through Snapfish. Sign-up and get your first roll of film developed for FREE! Plus, your photos are placed online for FREE to share with family & friends.
It’s Take A Child Outside Week
September 24, 2008
Today starts “Take A Child Outside Week“, an initiative by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. I have to thank my friend Carrie Lauth from Natural Mom Talk Radio for bringing this to my attention.
This event runs from September 24th through September 30th and is designed to remind us how important it is to get our kids outside to explore nature.
The website includes some great tips and ideas for outdoor activities as well as a list of partnering organizations in your area. Feel free to glance through those for ideas.
Here are some of the things we do around here to play outside:
- Go on a nature walk. Walk through a field or forest and talk about what types of plants and animals you see.
- Go outside to collect leaves, sticks and various seeds and nuts. Then come inside and make a collage.
- Build a fort or tree house.
- Plant something.
- Just go outside to play catch or ball.
How to Make a Child’s Handprint on a Ceramic Tile
September 22, 2008
Potty Training Tips
Potty Training Advice and Tips From Moms & Dads Like You.
This is a fun craft to do with a group of moms and their kids, one child per adult works the best. Each mom will need:
-One soft brush, any size but 1/2″ works the best
-One jar of “One-Stroke Ceramic underglaze”, either Duncan E-Z Stroke or Gare One-Stroke. (Of course they can share these, but it’s best if they have at least 3 colors to choose from. The best are a dark green, a dark blue or a dark brown. One jar of each color will do 50 hands altogether)
-One pint jar of “clear gloss glaze”, which all can use.
-A sponge
-Paper towels and a washcloth
-One blank Unglazed ceramic tile, 4-1/4″ (for kids 2 or 3 yrs. old or so) or 6″ (for kids over 3) Unless you know someone who does hand-painted tile as a career, these would have to be ordered in cases of 100 or so. The best thing is to call the hobby ceramic stores, where you will get the under-glaze and clear glaze, and ask if they have a “molded greenware or bisque tile they sell”, and order the quantity you need. Tell them you would like them “fired to bisque.”
The most important thing is that the childrens’ hands are scrubbed with soap and water, then dried well. Salt, sugar or oils on the hands will prevent the glaze from bonding with the tile. Make sure to wipe the tile well with a clean sponge in plain water. Allow to dry a few minutes.
Tell the kids that it is like hand-painting only without wiggling their fingers. Make it fun, some get scared. Hold their clean hand gently over a tile to make sure their hand will fit, fingers spread out a little. Pick the right size tile and paint one wet coat of glaze across the flat of their open palm, not too runny but not too dry, following the instructions for mixing on the bottle. Try to keep their fingers from touching, the more still they keep their hand, the better the clarity. A good print will show fingerprints! But if it smears, it usually does, it’s all for fun anyway. If it starts to become a battle with the child, let him go, when he sees the other kids having a good time he will offer his hand to be painted. (I say “he” because it is usually the boys that wimp out, the girls are more adventurous.)
Make sure the paint goes all the way to the ends of the fingers and thumb and press the hand straight down onto the surface of the tile, quickly but gently and firmly, rolling the fingers slightly so the print doesn’t look like skeleton fingers. Lift the hand straight up and see how cool! Wash their hands with soap, the paint is water soluble and non-staining, but don’t let them lick it. With a fine brush, write the child’s name and date or birthday or age right on the tile. Set it in a safe place to dry well.
If you are nervous about smearing the dry glaze, have them fired at “cone 04″ before painting the clear gloss on top. This is the proper way, but if the under-glaze is good and dry and you are very careful, it is ok to put the clear glaze on unfired underglaze and fire the tile once at “cone 06″ and the results will be the same. Either way, get the large floppy brush again and paint 3 thin coats of clear gloss on the tile and fire to “cone 06″.
You can buy frames from most ceramic stores that sell the tiles. They will last forever. Have fun!
Dy Witt used to display and sell at street fairs, and painting kids handprints was always a fun thing. Her 21 years experience painting with ceramic glaze is obvious when you view her murals and tiles here on her website. http://www.dyztilz.com
