Minion Cupcakes

Minion Cupcakes are a sure hit to any children's party. 

They are quite easy to put together.

These are so cuuuuute! It's almost a shame that they have to be eaten

What you need:

baked cupcakes -- any flavor, any recipe-- maybe a good idea to make it banana flavored?

blue frosting - I used the tube ones that are ready with a decorating tip!

brown sprinkles and candy eyes -- you can get them at Walmart or  Michael's

a small tube of brown or black decorating icing or gel -- I used Wilton brand

Twinkies - the most important add-on is another layer of cake!

Enjoy!

PEEE-DO-PEEE-DO-PEEE-DO!

Apple Art - Paper Tearing

Apples are a popular theme to begin the school year. 

In class, we talked about apples, i.e., how they grow, how an apple tree changes throughout the year, what we can make with apples, etc. 

A fun and easy art project I did with my students with this theme, is a paper tearing project. 

All you need is a plain tree template/background, glue and some colored paper. 

More than just keeping my students busy this activity also works on fine motor skills. 

I loved seeing how my students are so quiet and and focused during art projects. They would even say things like 'This makes me feel happy", or "My brain feels so relaxed". -- this coming from my students! I truly believe that there is a great benefit to continue to teach or have art in our schools! 

Colors

Colors are always a regular theme that we do in class at the beginning of the year. 

I tell my students stories such as
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle or I Went Walking by Sue Williams

To get into the concept of primary and secondary colors we read books such as
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh or White Rabbits Color Book by Allan Baker

With colors as a theme, there is a wealth of art activities that follows, such as

• We make recycled crayons and color pictures with them, click here.

• We mix 2 primary paints with our fingers and have some sensory fun

• We put together 2 different primary colors of play dough and work on dexterity as we watch how the colors change.

• We can also paint with colored popsicles, click here

• We talk about the rainbow and the colors, and then I ask them why the colors of the rainbow follow the sequence ROYGBV -- we skip the indigo

• We also sort Froot-Loops according to color and make a fruity rainbow art project. 

Chika-Chika Boom Boom

We had read Chika-Chika Boom Boom in class and my students love the rhythmic rhymes in the story. They don't get tired of it that we read it every school year.

Some activities we would do with it are...

• An easy cut and paste option is to make a 2-dimensional coconut tree and pasting it on a large piece of orange construction paper. Then my students would either use rubber stamp letters or paste foam alphabet stickers. 

• We also do a paint, cut and paste activity. We would make a coconut tree using a kitchen towel roll that we would paint brown, and then we use green foam sheets for  leaves. We then paste some alphabet crackers on the trunk.   -- sorry no photo, but will update this post when we make another one 

• At the beginning of the week we start our paper mache maracas project so that when we read the story on Friday, we can shake away as we all say "Chika-Chika Boom Boom will there be enough room" -- again no photo, will update when I have one

• Although the maracas project is prettier since we can paint it and then decorate it, sometimes we just don't have enough time so we make egg shakers the day before by using plastic eggs (from easter) with some beans inside, and then we glue cut up tissue paper around it. This can dry overnight and are ready the next day. -- still, no photo

The students love the story, but they enjoy it even more when we watch a Scholastic Video version of it, after the art activities. The video plays this funky 80's music that the kids enjoy. 

Apple and Pear Pie

I had a surplus of apples and pears and had nothing else better to do, soooooo I decided to bake a semi-homemade pie. 

What You Need:

5 cups chopped apples and pears - I used green apples and golden pears
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2/3 cups sugar
5 teaspoons flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg (1/8 of a teaspoon)
a pinch of sea salt - regular salt will do too (1/8 teaspoon)
pie dough- thawed from frozen, 2 rolls/sheets

What to Do: 

Preheat your oven to 425F.

In a bowl, toss the chopped apples and pears, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, flour, nutmeg and salt. 

Unroll one dough at the bottom of a pie plate. 

Pour the apple-pear mixture over the dough.

Unroll the second pie dough on top to cover the apples and pears. 

Pinch the corners to seal the pie. 

Make slits with a knife on top of the dough to make a vent. 

Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes. 

About 20 minutes into the baking, put foil at the edges of the pie plate, just to cover the edges and prevent it from burning.

Serve warm and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you wish.
Enjoy. 

Summer DIY Projects

Here are a couple of DIY projects I did this summer.

After

This old buffet table was updated by sanding and staining it with brown and blue wood stain and changing the hardware with ceramic drawer pulls I found at Pier One Imports. I also did some distressing of the wood prior to staining.

Before

          Updated our outdoor patio furniture by stripping, sanding and repainting it with bright red!

 Before

After

An old wooden crate that used to just sit in storage +  some sanding, staining and TLC = a decorative holder of our indoor plants!

 Before

After

Maple Cinnamon Glazed Banana-Filled Cronuts

                              When you merge a croissant with a donut, you get a cronut! 

I heard about the cronut craze,  but somehow live in an area where it has not quite caught on yet. BUT I am curious about the cronut so I decided to jump into the bandwagon and do my own spin on the cronut. 

For the Cronut:

2 tubes crescent dough (such as Pillsbury) 

oil for deep frying

• Unroll the each crescent dough tube and separate into 4 rectangles. Press the perforations to seal. Stack the two unrolled tubes on top of each other. Then fold in half to make a stack of 4 layers.
• Cut the dough using a doughnut cutter. I got mine from Williams-Sonoma 
• Put together by kneading, rolling, and layering the extra dough to make more.
• Deep fry and drain. 

                                                         

For the Filling

¼ + 1/8 Cups Evaporated milk

¼ + 1/8 cups sugar

1 egg yolk

1.5 tablespoons butter

half a banana, mashed

½ tsp vanilla

• Whisk together the evaporated milk, sugar, egg and butter in a saucepan over medium low heat, until the mixture is thick. When the mixture is thick, add the banana and vanilla, and remove from heat. Let it cool and place in a piping back with a filler attachment.
• Inject the filling onto the different sides and into the layers of the cronuts.

For the Glaze

½ cup powdered sugar

1/8 tsp cinnamon

½ tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons evaporated milk

¼ teaspoons vanilla

1/8 cup maple syrup.

• Whisk all the ingredients together and drizzle over your filled Cronuts.

All it took was one bite, and everyone in our home went Cronut-Crazy! I barely turned my back and this was what was left on the plate!!!

Found this FoodNetwork youtube video that might help you in making your own cronuts.