Take that, money hungry marketers

1 October - 8-10 AM

This year the Elementary school decided that instead of doing wrapping paper, cookie dough, or candy sales they would have a fund raiser where 100% of the proceeds went directly to the schools PTA; their fund raiser, a fun walk. Kids were challenged to find monetary “sponsors” - family, friends, neighbors, co-workers – and then come with their families Saturday morning and walk on a trail behind the school.

It was a great idea and families loved the fact that all the money was going to the school and not lining the pockets of fund raising companies. And although less than half the students participated, they still exceeded their goal.

I’m trying to get involved with the PTA and volunteered to help the morning of the walk at the refreshment tables… after (key word that some people had a hard time with) their walk the PTA provided snacks granola bars, muffins, bananas, apple dippers, water and juice for everyone.

Rebecca decided she wasn’t interested in walking, so she helped me at the refreshment table while GR took Emily and Sam on an errand.

For every $10 in sponsorships the kids earned, they were able to put tickets in for different prize drawings. Rebecca won a little purse/mini-satchel donated by the local humane society. It’s a great little bag that looks small but carries a ton of stuff!

Johnny Apple Seed

30 September 2005

Today Rebecca’s class had an apple party, during the last 30 minutes of class. Earlier in the week, her teacher sent home a list of apple themed foods for parents/kids to contribute to the celebration, and asked for parent helpers. I volunteered to be a parent helper and bring plates and apple chips – aka dehydrated apple slices – since I have a great dehydrator and apple slicer that makes the process really fast, easy and inexpensive.

Long story short, Thursday morning after the dehydrator ran all night, we discovered that the dehydrator wasn’t working and I need to order a new fuse for it. So instead of apple chips, I took applesauce mini-muffins, a recipe I found in one of Diane’s cookbooks.

The kids loved the applesauce muffins! I wasn’t all that impressed with them, but my kids each had 2 large muffins, and the kindergartners couldn’t get enough of them. To start I gave each child 2 mini-muffins, and 4 or 5 of them asked to have more “cupcakes.” I discovered they are definitely better as mini-muffins than they are regular muffins.

Here are pictures from Rebecca’s party:

Applesauce Muffins

30 September 2005

Friday morning Sam helped me make the applesauce muffins that were such a hit at the kindergarten Apple Celebration. He’s gotten to be quite a good little helper. Whenever you’re in the kitchen, he’ll find the nearest stool and bring it into the kitchen and insist on helping with whatever you’re doing.

For this recipe I had him stir the dry ingredients with a wisk, and I think he decided to blow into the bowl, which of course caused flour and spices to go everywhere.

I thought some of you might like this recipe – and trust me, these are better as mini-muffins than regular muffins.

Applesauce Muffins

Makes 2 dozen large muffins, or ~5 dozen mini-muffins

4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon allspice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup butter softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups applesauce
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Combine flour, cinnamon, allspice and baking soda together; set aside. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl; blend in eggs applesauce and vanilla.Mix in flour mixture; fill lightly greased muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. For mini-muffins, bake for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe from the Autumn Gooseberry Patch Cookbook.

Musical Toddlers

The local Arts Center (where we saw the VodVil Klown performance) has lots of great programs for kids. When Rebecca was 2-1/2 I signed her up for "Coloring Outside the Lines" and she LOVED it. They have other excellent programs for kids and adults of all ages using every possible medium.

Sam loves to sing, and they have a parent/child Music and Movement class Diane showed me that we both thought he would enjoy. It's at 9:15 - 10:15 on Tuesday mornings - definitely not an easy time for us given our Kindergarten schedule. It means that if I find someone to watch Rebecca and Emily, they must live in our neighborhood, or come to my house, otherwise we get home to late to get Rebecca fed and do all the little last minute preps before school without a lot of stress and tension. Definitely not the way I want to send her off to school.

Of his three classes, Grandma was in town for one, and Grandpa watched them for one, but I new I needed another solution, because they can't always come to the house and watch them. And unfortunately my friends in the neighborhood aren't able to watch the girls on Tuesday mornings either, so it was either cancel the class, or figure out a way to take them with me. I really, really debated about this one. Sam really loves the other kids he's with and the teacher is wonderful. So I packed the preschool totes with drawing materials in one and books in the other, and had long talks with both girls about sitting quietly and reading/drawing. To my amazement and delight, they were perfect! They were quiet they didn't whine, or talk - they were perfect little angels on the wall.

Becca was so cute. About 40 minutes into the class, I went over and checked on her (which I did pretty frequently throughout the class) and she said, "Sam gets to do really fun things. I want to do fun things too." I told her we could do just about all of what Sam was doing in class at home.

The class does lots of activities involving music and movement. They do rhythm sticks to songs on a CD, singing songs, free form dancing, circle dances, follow the leader stuff, and more. For a good 20 minutes of the class they pull out lots of different things the kids can use their large muscles with - large balls, ladders and slides, stairs to climb, tubes to crawl through, etc. - all the while music is playing in the background. Connie Dover seems to be a favorite musician of the teacher. For the last 5 minutes of class, they pull out a large parachute and do a good-bye routine. When I took the girls with me two weeks ago, I had them help the other parents maneuver the parachute and I think that helped Rebecca with her "I wanna have fun too!" pains. And when it was all over the girls said they wanted to come with us again. So that's encouraging, since they'll be going with me again tomorrow morning!

In January I'm going to sign Sam and Emily both up for "Coloring Outside the Lines." It's for kids 2-3, again it's a parent/child class and is only offered on Tuesday afternoons. But I asked if Emily could come being 4, and if I could be the only adult, and the instructor said it was okay! So I'm excited, I think both kids will enjoy that class - they both have very different approaches to art, so the end product will be different and unique.