Museum Time!!!

A couple weeks ago before school I took the kiddos to the Arizona Museum for Youth. The pictures below show you all the fun things we did. Enjoy!

Waiting for story time.

Playing Music.

Peek-a-Boo!!!

Cheese!!!!

Being Shy.

Interactive Wall.

Dressing Up!

The museum had a Japanese cartoon display when we were there. The kiddos had a lot of fun learning and exploring the Japanese culture and the way they create cartoons.






Lastly I just wanted to share one more thing, the museum had all kinds of quotes throughout it and one just really spoke to me while we were there. The quote said, "Children have more need of models than of critics". Let that sit with you for a few minutes and then think of how you interact and act with your own kids, grandkids, or other children you may know.

1st Day of Preschool!

Preschool has started again and today was the 1st day! The day started amazingly I woke up my little preschooler and fixed her favorite breakfast (pancakes and bacon) and then we got dressed for a busy, busy morning. I had blown up balloons this morning and placed them throughout the entry to our house and in various places throughout the classroom. It was fun to watch Emma be excited about her first day of school. I try really hard to make school events a surprise for her as well as the other preschoolers, so many times I work on preschool things when she is asleep. At about 9am all our friends started to arrive and it was so fun to watch them all come downstairs with there backpacks and smiles. They all were so excited to start the day. Below are a few pictures from the morning...

Our Preschool Beauty!

Superhero Logan (he was still in his jamies) had to get in the pic.

Looking at the decorations...

...WELCOME PRESCHOOLERS...

Just being silly with her girlfriends.

Busy Working.

Recipe of the MONTH - BLUEBERRY STREUSEL MUFFINS

I recently found this recipe on Weight Watchers website. Justin and I have been trying the Weight Watchers diet out for the past few weeks. Now I'm not going to go on and on about trying to loose weight and how important it is to get healthy and how I'm on this new journey in life "trying to lead a healthy lifestyle" or whatever else anyone who is trying to loose weight might says. Honestly I don't like to talk about it too much because we are just doing the best we can each day. I will say that it has been fun researching new, healthy, and yummy recipes for our family and I have enjoyed the kitchen time. So I do want to give credit to the Weight Watchers website for the yummy recipe. This is definitely not a diet tasting muffin!!!



Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour, divided (I used Organic Unbleached all-purpose flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 large egg
1 cup sugar, divided
3/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup fat-free skim milk, divided
2 cups blueberries, washed
2 tbs butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Place muffin liners in a 12 hole muffn tin. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg with 3/4 cup of sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add sour cream and beat until thoroughly combined; bleand in vanilla extract. Add half of flour mixture and half of milt to sugar mixture; beat until just combined. Add remaining flour mixture and milk; beat until smooth.

Fold in blueberries and fill each muffin liner about 3/4 full; set aside. (Batter is pretty thick in consistance)

To make the streusel topping, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup each of sugar and flour. Pour in melted butter and combine with fingertips. Divide crumb mixture over muffins; gently press into top of muffin batter with fingertips. Bake until slightly golden and a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pans for about 10 - 15 min. and then transfer muffins onto racks to cool completely.

Yields 1 muffin per serving. Makes 12 muffins. For Weight Watcher Fans: 4 points each

When I made these I froze groupings of them so that we could have them at a later date. They are super yummy, ENJOY!!!!

Sweet Beginnings 2010-2011

This year Sweet Beginnings has had a makeover. We moved the preschool into the basement and I came up with a town theme that I thought the kids would love. My goal was to create the feeling of a small town complete with a house, diner, grocery store, hardware store, park, etc. By moving the preschool downstairs we were able to create a bigger learning space for my 6 preschoolers. It was a lot of work, but the finished product is so fun and cute.

WELCOME TO SWEETVILLE















Below are a few goodies that my preschoolers and parents get when they come to Meet the Teacher. Just some fun touches that I hope my preschool parents enjoy!