Happy National Pancake Day!!!!

I hope that you and your family get to go to IHOP for your free stack of pancakes today! We celebrated this fun day with the kids in many different ways.

The kids in rooms 1 and 2 read the book Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paola....actually they didn't read it they told the story. You see this is a picture book about a woman who wakes up and wants pancakes for breakfast. She finds that she doesn't have all of the ingredients so she goes to get them. We asked the kids to tell us the story after looking at the pictures.

The rest of the kiddos read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff.
They all made a fabulous breakfast magnet for your fridge complete with eggs, bacon and PANCAKES!!! We hope that it will make you smile when you see it.

Today I thought I would talk to you about cooking with the kids. Yes, I know that it is sometimes more hassle than fun but there are so many skills that they gain by spending time helping you in the kitchen.

Math skills, confidence, spacial recognition, and an increased desire to try different foods are all good things that come from cooking with kids. The biggest drawbacks are safety issues and an increase in clean-up-- but these are minor when you look at all they get out of it!

I have several cookbooks for little ones that I love!

Paula Deen's My First Cookbook is colorful, easy to read and simple to follow. The only problem is that all of the pictures are hand drawn, so yours won't look quite like the pictures.

For those Sesame Street fans out there we have Big Block Party. It is a storybook with recipes in the end. The best thing about this book is that you can prepare the food then read the book and eat along with the story! I don't know of any kid who wouldn't want to eat Oscar's Delicious Cups of Dirt!

The Toddler Cookbook is designed just for 3 and 4 year olds. They have pictures for each step of the recipe with real-life kid chefs cooking the recipes. The recipes are simple with very few ingredients and many of them are very healthful. It is written by Annabel Karmel and she has an amazing website with videos and other kid/food information.

My last reccomendation is Kid Favorites Made Healthy. This is a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with over 150 recipes that kids love. Libi and I recently made the banana bread and it was gone in a flash-- very yummy! Many of the recipes have pictures, but the best feature of this book is the nutritional information for every recipe-- great if you are doing Weight Watchers or counting calories!

I hope these ideas have inspired you to get in the kitchen with the kids. I know you will make yummy recipes and lasting memories together!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today the children will get some love from our workers in the form of a fun craft, great story, and Valentine's sugar cookies.

The Very Special Valentine by Christine Tagg pictures by Maggie Kneen was our story.
The kids made fabulous sunglasses and cases for their Valentine's wardrobe.I know that Joie and others are looking for some easy and inexpensive Valentine's ideas-- so here are some I found. Enjoy!

Start the day with heart shaped muffins and pink milk. When you bake your muffins use cupcake papers and put a marble between the paper and the baking tray to make them heart shaped. Add red food coloring to your milk to make it pink-- very festive!

Play some Valentine's dominoes at home. This is a great game for all ages... very easy to play!

For lunch, cut everything into heart shapes-- your sandwiches, fruit, jello, cookies-- just use a cookie cutter.

Who doesn't like Bingo... especially a Valentine's themed one? You can use conversation hearts as place makers and then eat them for dessert!

I found a cute site with Valentine's on a dime ideas. My favorite was take your hubby to a bookstore-- browse and enjoy the silence. This sounds way better to me than getting dressed up and going to a crowded restaurant!

I know that our group is all about Moms, but I found a great article for Dads. Send your husband to this site and help him get some really fun Valentine's ideas for you and the kids!

After the kids are in bed and you are snuggling in for the night, pull out this silly Mad Lib. Ask your hubby for his words then read your silly love letter.

Whatever you do, I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy Inauguration Day!!!

Hello MOPS families! Today we celebrate an important day for America-- the peaceful transition of power from one leader to another. It only happens every four years, so we are celebrating in the Moppet rooms!

Today the kids heard the story "If I Were President" by Catherine Stier. She has some really great activities that go along with this story in addition to other works she's had published!The kids made a patriotic craft for your home today. You can either display it now, wait until 4th of July, or keep it up all year long!

If you have a little artist in your family, you might want to visit this site that has printable coloring pages for President Obama's Inaguration.

If that wasn't enough crafting I found another site that has a biography of our new president in addition to a paper plate craft idea (not the one we did in class), and some more pages to print.

For the history buffs out there, Our White House offers some great things to read for kids to explain about inaugurations in general and Obama's specifically.

Finally for those of you who want to go really over the top-- try hosting your own Inaugural Ball tonight for dinner. Serve your meal on your best china, dress up in your fanciest clothes, and then dance the night away. It would be a fun memory for all of you :)

Happy Holidays Part 2...

Well it's hard to believe that our first semester of Moppets is over. We have had a great time with the kids this fall and we're super excited to welcome them back in January!

Today the kids read the book God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa T. Bergren.


Lisa Tawn Bergren writes amazing spiritual books for both adults and kids. Be sure to check out her latest book How Big is God, it will help you answer some of your little ones questions about God.

The children finished up their gifts for you as well today. They wrapped them up and made cards-- but no peeking until Christmas morning :)

Due to the rain, the children were not on the soggy yard today. During the time they would have normally been on the yard they were watching Christmas cartoons. Their snack was holiday cookies, we apologize in advance for their sugar high.

As promised in the last installment this week I'll give you some New Year's traditions that your family might want to try. Enjoy!

1. Have the kids record an end-of-the year talk show. Interview them to ask about their accomplishments from the past year.

2. Check out how they celebrate New Years in other locations around the world. Try out one of their traditions-- who knows, it might be one you keep from year to year.

3. Forecast the future. Ask each person in the family to write down a question they have about the coming year (What will be the top news story of the year? How many goals will Hayden make this year? etc.) Then have each person in the family write down an answer to the question. Seal these away until New Years 2010-- break them open and see who was closest!

4. Make January 1 a "Day of Firsts". Try a new food, style your hair a new way, go to a new park you've never been to. See how many firsts you can cram into one day!

5. Make a memory jar for 2009. Take an empty jar or box, a pad of paper, and pens and put them in a place that your family can easily access. During the course of 2009 write down any nice thing that happens (a new puppy, a good grade on a report card, Grandma coming to town) and the date. On New Year's Eve 2010 you can review all the nice things that happened during the year.

6. If you have little ones who can't wait up until midnight, why not celebrate at noon? Do the whole countdown and drop your own ball--- maybe a basketball or football! Then there's no pressure to stay up and everyone can stick to their bedtime schedule!

7. Make pancakes in the number shapes for the new year. How fun would it be to wake up on January 1st to 2009 pancakes?

8. On New Year's Eve have the family decorate a box and place it in a central place in your home. Throughout the year as you go to the movies, school programs, Disneyland etc. place a small memento from the occasion in your box. At the end of the year you will be able to relive all of the wonderful adventures your family has had.

No matter what you do, I hope you have a wonderfully safe holiday!!!!

Happy Holidays Part 1....

Today we begin part one of our two part holiday series. The children were read the story A Small One about the donkey who helps Mary and Joseph get to the inn to have baby Jesus. I can't tell you about the craft because it's a surprise-- you'll find out on Christmas day.



There is also a video that tells this story-- you can find it on many DVD compilations like Classic Cartoon Favorites, Vol. 9 - Classic Holiday Stories sold at Target or Amazon.com.

Holiday crafts are a dime a dozen, so instead of giving you links to craft sites I thought I might share with you some traditions that might be fun for your family.

Try sleeping one night under the Christmas tree or having a picnic under the tree if you can't be away from a cozy bed.

Wrap up holiday books and have the kids unwrap one every night as their bedtime story.

Bake cookies then take them to neighbors houses or a retirement home.

Choose a family and secretly give them gifts representing the 12 Days of Christmas (e.g. For 4 Calling Birds give the family a telephone calling card, for 6 Geese a-laying give the family eggs.)

Have a Birthday party for Jesus-- complete with birthday cake and balloons.

Join together with a few other families and have a progressive dinner. Have appetizers at one house, entree at another and dessert at yet another. You'll get to see how everyones house is decorated and you'll only have to cook one portion of the meal.

Next meeting I will have lots of ideas for New Years celebrations, so be sure to come back!

Thanksgiving Activities....

Hello MOPS Mommies!



It is the time of year to be thankful for all the blessings we have and I have lots to be thankful for. I would like to express my thanks to my amazing MOPPET team of Laura, Amy and Julia who make my life so much easier. My Moppet workers never get enough credit and they do so much for me and our children. I would also like to thank you and your adorable children-- we do this for you and we are truly blessed!

Now on to our activities for this week. We read Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland and made hand-print turkeys.
The author also wrote Valentines are for Saying I Love You-- so grab that book in February.

If you are looking for some fun activities to keep little ones busy while you're in the kitchen, check out this site. They have Thanksgiving Bingo cards, coloring pages, word searches for older kids, and lots more!

If you're more into crafty things check out this site where they give you craft ideas appropriate for 2 year olds and up. I love this site because they have crafts into not only age categories but thematic categories as well.

For some recipes to make with little hands try these ideas. My favorite is having them make butter for the dinner rolls-- how fun is that?

Our very own Christine Davis has a friend who has a wonderful newsletter/website with ideas for pre-school aged kids. Be sure to check it out-- you can subscribe for monthly ideas. Thanks Christine for bringing this to my attention!

I hope you and your families have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Happy Halloween!

Today we took a break from our traditional stories and we watched a story on DVD. Our story was about Spookley the Square Pumpkin.



We did a square pumpkin craft for the kids to bring home.


Spookley has an official site with lots of things for kids to do. There are coloring pages, activity sheets, and music videos to watch.

There are lots and lots of Halloween games to be found at the Family Fun website. If you want a really great parenting magazine, by the way, this is one of the best!

I found a new site with games for young and older children-- lots of really fun graphics and word games on this one.

One of our Moms made these cute finger cookies for the Lombardi bake sale. You can make them at home for yourself with this recipe.

If you are enjoying this blog, please send a quick note to hippolito@gmail.com

Have a wonderful, safe Halloween!