Halloween Countdown for Toddlers & Spiced Pear Muffins

So Hazel has been getting excited for Halloween. Last year, she had a teeth breaking through and was miserable. She also refused to wear her lion costume that I made her. You can see in the picture when I forced her to try it on, she was not happy. For a Halloween Party at the library I got away with putting her in a dress and saying she was a princess. It was all she was willing to wear or should I say unable to take off herself. On Halloween, she literally refused to dress up. She was feeling miserable. So we did not go trick-or-treating. So I'm excited that she getting into it this year. She has changed her mind a couple of times (with some influence from her grandmother), but she has decided to be the dish and carry the spoon from Hey, Diddle, Diddle. If you have been following me, you will know this is one of her favorite nursery rhymes.

So to help keep the excitement going, I made her a way to countdown the days until Halloween. I was going to make something more formal and have things to do or stories to read each day, but didn't get my act together (or should I say the plan together) soon enough and also thought this would be perfect for her age. I made her an October calendar with the correct dates and the number of days until Halloween. At the bottom I included pictures of kids trick-or-treating. On our's I also included a picture of the dish and spoon. However, I removed this before I saved it as a pdf. Here it is in case you want one. Halloween Countdown Each morning Hazel will put a sticker on that day. This way she will have a sense of when Halloween is. She has been asking to go trick-or-treating every day, so I have been trying to give her a sense of the time.


Since we did not bake yesterday, I baked today. I had five very ripe pears to use, so I combined some recipes to make spiced pear muffins. The verdict is good. All three of us liked them!

Spiced Pear Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6.5 ounces Greek non-fat yogurt
5 pears, cored and pureed in food processor (I did not peel them)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices and set aside.

In mixer bowl cream butter, granulated sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Beat until fluffy (if butter was not at room temperature it will take slightly longer but the mixer will do the work). Add the egg and mix well. Add yogurt and pear puree. Mix and stop to scrape bowl at least once.

Add flour mixture to mixer and mix well. Remembering to scrape bottom and sides of bowl.

Put batter into muffin cups. Divide and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top of each muffin.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 and then turn the oven down to 400 and bake for another 10 minutes. The muffins are moist, so it takes a bit to bake them. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!!

Library Book Review and More Books

Today we went to our local library for the Move 'n Groove program. Hazel loves it. It gets her listening to music, singing, playing with instruments (maracas, rhythm sticks) and scarves, dancing, jumping and marching with other kids and their parents. While there we also usually update our Summer Reading Program, check out books and visit our library friends. (I use to volunteer at the library so just about everyone knows us there.)

One book we have been enjoying reading lately is The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. The only words the book has are the sounds of animals. The pictures are amazing. It is a new twist on the old story and I really enjoy making the story up with the pictures.

Hazel is also beginning to enjoy some of the classic tales. Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears are the first two we have been reading. We read The Gingerbread Man awhile ago and she liked it (however Steve does not so I haven't taken it out again). Today we tried Little Red Riding Hood, but she did not like the beginning of the version we had. We did however buy The Ugly Duckling at the used book store and she liked that story.

After the library we went to the used book store at the mall. I had an idea for Hazel's birthday party (I know, I'm planning way too far ahead, but I like to do these things) and wanted to look for some books to use for decorations. I found them and more and discovered that they were having an anniversary sale of 50% off all used books (they do sell some new books there as well). I spent under $6 on children's books (around 60 cents each) and a little more getting the newest from my favorite authors that I haven't read since having Hazel. Now I can start reading for pleasure again. And we found Hey Diddle, Diddle by Kin Eagle for Hazel since we returned it to the library and a Caillou book (she loves Caillou from when we let her watch tv).

On a very positive note, today was a good day in potty training. We only had 2 accidents. One at the mall (not sure when it happened but when she told me she needed to go she then told me her pants were already wet from prior) and once at home with Daddy. I think we are getting close to being trained at least while awake. Nap and Nighttime are a very different story, but that will come with time, I'm sure.

Have any good toddler books to share?

How to ride out a hurricane...

Well Hurricane Irene came and went. We spent the day home trying to keep busy. The only time the tv was on was to check the weather and when Hazel was sleeping.

And the dish ran away with the spoon

One of our first activities was to make Hey, diddle diddle mobiles. We got the print out from Free Kid Crafts. You need to print out 2 for each mobile, but one needs to be the mirror image. I did this by saving it as an image and putting it into Word and flipping the picture with the rotate tool. Then we colored and cut out. We added in the arms and legs to the dish and spoon and gave them extra long strings to run away on.

The little dog laughed to see such sport

The cat and the fiddle...the Cow jumped over the moon

Next we danced. Hazel finally wore her Beatrix Potter twirly skirt (and wore it today to nonni's house).

Where the pattens came from

And during nap time I finished a new outfit for her. I made the pants Saturday night. And finished the top yesterday. Unfortunately we had a potty training accident before we went out today in it. These patterns came from Little Girls, Big Style by Mary Abreu. Very cute clothes to make for girls sizes 2-6. Definitely recommend this book if you like these styles.

Our final craft of the day was to make flower fairies. We got the instructions from Family Fun. Hazel loved doing this though she needed a lot of help. We made three each and she took them with her today to show Nonni. I'm thinking she can use them in her fairy garden to play. Plus it used up some of the extra supplies we had from the fairy garden.

Flower Fairies

Now the hard part of the hurricane (or any storm) is on me. I have to entertain Hazel and keep her quiet while her poor father sleeps since he worked overnight. The one draw back of working for the power company is when the storms hit he is called in. Oh, well. Today she is with Nonni (his mother) and tomorrow I'll make some playdates or something. The weather is beautiful now, so I'm off for a walk. Enjoy!

Quilt Top

So I posted a few days ago a preview of the quilt top that I won the pattern and fabric for from Sew Happy Geek for her blogiversary and Fat Quarter Shop. I have finished piecing the quilt as it is written. I've ordered more fabric to enlarge it to fit our bed so now I wait. But I wanted to share the "finished" top with you thus far.

Steve and I need a winter quilt. We currently have a quilt I made very lightweight for the summer, so this will be our winter quilt. I think the bright, cheerful colors are perfect for the long New England winter, don't you?

In the meantime I'm going to make a similar quilt for Hazel's bed using a Hey Diddle Diddle panel for the middle square and some new and mostly old nursery/children/novelty fabric I have (and some my mom wants to get rid of). In this one I'm going to use the other option of the pattern where the last four corners are from one fabric (usually the middle fabric, but I'm using a book panel of nursery rhyme pictures I found). Plus I want to sew a new fall outfit for Hazel--possibly for her first day of school which is Thursday!! I better getting sewing!

Center Panel

For corner blocks

Nursery Rhyme Birthday Party Preparation Under Way

This week we have been busy getting things ready for Hazel's 3rd birthday. I shared the invitation I made with you previously. Now I'll show you some of the crafts we have been working on. I need to do the last part of Hazel's dress, but I made her a dress from some Hey Diddle, Diddle fabric which I used in her quilt. I am making a pinafore for it as well. I also need to finish sewing the cloth napkins. I bought Three Blind Mice and Humpty Dumpty fabrics on clearance for napkins and am serging the edges since I couldn't find any nursery rhyme themed paper products. I figure I'll make a quilt out of them after the party.

 

Hazel and I spent a bit of time this week on favors. I had found 18 Strawberry Buttercream wax tarts on clearance earlier this year and bought them. Unfortunately we need  more than 18 adult favors, so we made some of the cinnamon apple ornaments in hearts and stamped them with a Thanks stamp.

I figured I could use the same rhyme for both. We also included a couple of pretty magnets in each bag.

Adult Favor Tag

For the children we made homemade play dough. We made orange and blue both with glitter and scented clove orange (using ground cloves and orange extract).  And we made a lavender play dough with dried lavender flowers and glitter in it and scented also with lemon extract. I bought little plastic snack cups at the dollar store to put them in and then we will put one in each gift bag. On this one we put a tag with Pat-a-cake type rhyme on it.

Play dough tag

 We also made some Jack and Jill hats. After finishing two, I decided that was enough of these. I changed the idea a bit but had gotten it from a craft book I found in the library.

We also are working on the Mary, Mary Quite Contrary centerpiece. Again an idea from the same book. The homemade flowers include ones that have silver bells, and shells and pictures of pretty maids as well as ones that are just pretty.

What we still have to do is make a wreath from old nursery rhyme books, make more paper hats from old books, finish our banners, make some play dough for the pat-a-cake station, make some different level "candles" from cardboard for the Jack Be Nimble contest and if I have time finish the cross stitched towel for the bathroom (with the cat and fiddle on it). Plus of course the cooking and baking. My parents arrive tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some help. Well I'm off to sew...hopefully I can finish the sewing today so I can move onto other things.

Hope you are having a great day!