Frightfully Fun Supper

We had a fun Halloween supper tonight:  Terrifying Twice-Baked Mummies...

and mini jack-o'-lantern pizzas, too.

The easy, low-fat recipe for the baked potatoes with Italian-style meatballs, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, olives, and dill pickle spears came from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks Halloween, October 2006 issue.

Check out some other Halloween meals...

and some muffin tin meals....

~Hope you had a fun and safe evening!

Autumn Falls

For week 3 of the Book-It! Program, we read books with a fall and/or harvest theme.

We read:

     Autumn Harvest by Alvin Tresselt
     Possum's Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter
     When Autumn Falls by Kelli Nidey
     Peepers by Eve Bunting

"Leaves on the trees fall--
 red,
 gold,
 yellow,
 brown,
 and
 orange
 come
 down."
      ~from When Autumn Falls

For week 4 (this week), we read books with a fall leaves theme.

We read:

     Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
     Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
     Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber
     Leaf Trouble by Jonathan Emmett

T loved this finger-painting activity...because he didn't have to get his hands in the paint!  (--a sensory issue for him, related to Down syndrome)

You can see how he "gets into it" more and more as the activity progresses!

I found this terrific idea for no mess finger-painting at Sandy's site, Moments of Mommyhood.

Photos of the fall leaves we made with T's artwork are forthcoming.  :)

Update - Monday, November 14, 2011:

Here are T's fall leaves...hanging in our kitchen window.  ~Fall beauty at its best!

Sloppy Joe Pizzas

Tonight for supper, we had Sloppy Jack Pizzas.  (~Sorry...couldn't resist!)

The recipe came from Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks Halloween, October 2006 issue.

Check out some other Halloween meals....

BOO'd!

This afternoon, we went to the office where T's Papa works.  T gave Halloween goodie bags to the employees who report to his Papa.

T put a fun size bag of m&m's and a couple of Rolo candies in each bag.

I attached the You Have Been BOO'd sign I came across a week or so ago.  (~Cute idea for neighborhood fun!)

...Yes, it's the same boy....He got a haircut earlier this week!  ;o)

Happy Halloween!

Jack's Big Music Show

Okay, so here is what my husband and I came up with for our Nick Jr. theme for Bento of the Week...except that I didn't get it submitted in time!  Oh well....

The faces are bread, frosted with tinted cream cheese.  Jack's hair is celery.  Mary's hair is tinted coconut.  The eyes are black sprinkles, and the noses are black jelly beans.

The bodies are graham crackers, frosted with tinted cream cheese.  Jack's shirt has Fruit Loops cereal and a jumbo star sprinkle.  Mary's shirt has Fruit Roll-ups hearts.

The names are spelled with cookies.

The drum is a peanut butter sandwich with a strip of crust wrapped around the edge.

T thought his meal was great!  He watches and loves Jack's Big Music Show.  :)

Check out some other Nick Jr. meals....

Comfort Food

Well, it definitely has been a Muffin Tin Monday kind of day at our house today!
T not only had a muffin tin meal for breakfast, he also had one for lunch.

Pinto beans and cornbread...southern comfort food for a crisp Fall day...made by my husband, no less!  (He makes the best pinto beans!)

What is that, in the back left corner, supposed to be??...you might ask?  ~Don't ask.  It's my failed attempt at decorating a cornbread muffin.  To me, it looks like an ear-less monkey...or a mane-less lion.  ~So sad.

Check out some other muffin tin meals....

Fall Breakfast

For breakfast this morning, T had:

• pumpkin-shaped toast with orange marmalade and raisins
• leaf-shaped toast with apple butter
• mini apple-shaped toast with red raspberry jam
• mini acorn-shaped toast with cinnamon-sugar
• applesauce with sprinkles in pumpkin-shaped silicone liner

I thought that if there was something T wouldn't eat, it would be the toast with the red raspberry jam.  I was wrong.  He ate everything except the toast with the orange marmalade and raisins....Actually, he came back later and ate that, too.  :)

Check out some other muffin tin meals....

Fruits and Harvest

The books we read for Book-It! last week had a fruit and/or harvest theme.

We read:

• Eating the Alphabet                                         by Lois Ehlert 
• Lily's Garden                                               by Deborah Kogan Ray 
• Pick, Pull, Snap!                                           by Lola M. Schaefer 
• Harvest                                                     by Kris Waldherr

We found Lily's Garden to be a very informative book.  The author created a calendar of the year seen through the lens of things planted, grown, and harvested.

We enjoyed the large, creative illustrations in Pick, Pull, Snap!  T had fun opening the fold-out pages to reveal the fruits grown and harvested.

We loved the watercolor illustrations in Harvest.

Fall Muffin Tin Meal

~Amazing!  We actually had a "real" muffin tin meal today...and on a Monday, no less!

Along the lines of a Fall theme, T's muffin tin meal consisted of:

back row -
     pumpkin-shaped sandwiches with Fruit Streamers "vines"...

     Cheez-It Scrabble Junior crackers, and milk in a Fall-colored cup

front row -
     ranch dip, carrot sticks, and applesauce with Colorful Leaves Mix sprinkles

This was T's first meal in a muffin tin.  He checked it out thoroughly....

Checking out the pumpkins

Oooo...cool!

What is that in my applesauce??!

~So pleased!

Happy Fall!

Check out some other muffin tin meals...

and some bento lunches.  This week's theme is pumpkins....

Buddy Walk

Last Sunday was a gorgeous day for the Buddy Walk in our area.  We donned our Buddy Walk t-shirts and walked the one mile (plus or minus) around the university campus.

Let the Walk begin!

Afterward, we enjoyed eating ice cream...

socializing with friends...

A new friend -- the Geico gecko

and listening to music....

Did I mention there was cotton candy??

T was so proud of his medal!  :)