Edible Magic Wands

It all started when we went camping and Eli wanted to hear a story. I told him Cinderella and got really dramatic with the magic wand "bibbity, bobbity, boo" part. Here is my version of the Fairy Godmother's Magic Wand.

Ingredients:
* pretzel rods
* colored candy melts (found in the baker's aisle at the craft store)
* sprinkles

1. Melt the candy melts according to instructions on the package.2. Pour the melted candy into one side of a shallow pan. Make sure the pan is long enough to lay the pretzel down flat without covering the entire pretzel with the cany coating.

3. Roll 3/4 of the pretzel in the candy, coating it well.

4. While candy coating is still wet, add the sprinkles.

5. Lay the completed magic wands on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Place them into the refrigerator to harden.

6. Think long and hard about the magic spell you're about to cast.

6. Enjoy!

Argh!

I'm so far behind on this blogging thing. Sorry for being lame and not posting much lately. I promise things will be changing soon. Dennis will be starting his pharmacy rotations this week so our lives will be more scheduled and there won't be any last-minute camping trips coming up any time soon.

We are in the midst of planning for Eli's big, bug-themed birthday party that will be coming in a couple of weeks. I was really hoping for a laid-back party at a park with a couple of friends, but it turns out that Eli wants to invite every single person in the neighborhood so we're just going to have another big backyard barbecue with about 50 people or so. Last year I swore I was not going to have another big huge party again, but here I am doing it again. Oh, well. It's good to get the neighbors together every once in awhile even if I have a big huge panic attack while it's happening. My goal this week is to get the invitations made.

My sister-in-law is having her baby shower on Saturday so I've been busy making swaddling blankets, burp cloths and bibs. The shower is in Minnesota so I won't be able to make it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog so I'm not worried that she's going to see these pictures. The bib pattern is from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing. The burp cloth directions come from here. The swaddling blankets are just squared flannel pieces with the edges hemmed.A friend of mine told me of this genius idea to keep the kids occupied in the backyard: give the kid a pair of scissors and let them trim the grass. I love this idea. No wasting paper and it helps build up hand strength for all those fine motor skills. By the way, I got these child safety scissors in the back-t0-school section at Target. All plastic scissors with no metal blades are really hard to find, so I snatched up a couple of pairs. No more worries about Sadie cutting her finger off.

I'm starting a yoga class this week. I've never done yoga ever in my whole entire life. I'm really excited and am looking forward to devoting an hour to my health every week!

Coming up later this week: cloud painting and edible magic wands!

Tips For Camping With Pre-Schoolers Or Toddlers

Long gone are the days when Dennis and I could throw our camping gear in the back of the pick-up, drive until dark, pull over onto some random gravel road, and sleep in the bed of the truck. Long gone are the days of 15 mile hikes that took all day, but led you to the most awesome viewpoints. Long gone are packpacking trips into the wilderness where you don't see anther soul for several days. We've entered a new phase of our outdoor lives. It's the "camping with young children" phase and it's been exciting and exhausting all at the same time.

We haven't attempted anything too rugged yet only car camping in state parks, which has given the kids a good feel for tent camping. I think we might be ready to do some backwoods primitive camping, but we're no where near doing any backpack camping with the kids and probably won't be until Eli is old enough to carry his own stuff!

On the car ride home from our last camping excursion, Dennis and I compiled this list of tips for camping with your pre-schooler and/or toddler:

1. Have a practice campout in your backyard (or someone else's backyard) before you go-- camping comes with all sorts of noises: rustling of sleeping bags, tents unzipping, owls, crickets, footsteps, nuts dropping as well as sleeping with family members on the hard ground that your kid may or may not be used to. It's good to see how your child will handle this situation. It's better to try when you are at home and can escape by going inside instead of when you are at a campground and it's 3am and you're worried about your toddler screaming her head off and waking other campers.

2. Pick a park that has activities that the whole family will enjoy-- Entertaining your wee ones won't be so challenging if they have things to do that they enjoy. We try to pick locations that have good hiking for us and swimming for the kids. Playgrounds at the campgrounds are also a plus and so are fishing, canoe rentals, and ranger talks/activities.

3. Pick your campsite wisely-- Is it close to the bathrooms? Near water? Away from other campers so it's more quiet? Also, make sure that it is safe for your children: no steep drop offs, large pools of water, too close to a busy road.

4. Expect all schedules to be off-- As with all vacations, your child's schedule will be different than usual. Plan for an afternoon drive and plan to stay up late as it's really hard to go to sleep at 8pm in a tent when the sun is still beating down on you and other campers are having a good time. Even if you go to bed late, your toddler may still do laps inside the tent before she finally falls asleep.

5. Have kids help with camp chores -- It's never too early to teach your children how to set up camp. There are plenty of jobs around the camp site that your kids can help with: gathering kindling for the fire, unloading the car and washing dishes are good ways for the little ones to help. Our rule when we camp is to leave the camp site cleaner than we found it so everyone must pick up at least 5 pieces of trash before we leave.

6. Bring a complete first-aid kit-- Make sure that it includes extra band-aids, allergy medicine, ibuprofen, and anti-itch ointment as well as sunscreen and bugspray. It's amazing how many tumbles little ones take when there are random rocks and tree roots thrown into their path.

7. Dress your kids in layers-- It can get kind of cold some mornings when you're sleeping in your tent even in the middle of July. Bring long pants, long-sleeve shirts, sweatshirts and even hats and mittens (if it's early or late in the season) for unpredicatable weather. Also, bring several extra items of clothing to prepare for accidents (potty-training toddler, leaky diapers, falling in mud, etc.).

8. Encourage your kids to look for little details-- One of the things that Dennis and I love about hiking with our kids is their ability to see things that we would have hurriedly walked right past. We love that it takes an hour to walk 1/3 of a mile and delight in their excitement over gigantic mushrooms, blackberries, big black bugs, croaking bullfrogs, and "crazy" water.

9. When it comes to packing toys, less is more-- I strongly encourage you to leave the children's toys at home. There is so much to do out in the wilderness if you give them the opportunity to discover all that there is to do. We usually bring a soccer ball and that's it (though we always kick ourselves for forgetting sand toys). Teach your kids new games or songs or make up new ones. On our last camping trip, the sun was at the perfect angle the we could see perfect shadows of ourselves. We had an impromtu dance off complete with head stomping and everything. And my husband always jumps at the chance for a rousing game of "shoe kick".

10. Teach your kids to pee and poop in the woods-- This just makes camping a whole lot easier.

**If you want tips on camping with a baby, I am not the one to ask. We took Eli camping once when he was a baby, but I was 7 months pregnant with Sadie and peeing every 2 hours and it was almost impossible to sneak out of the tent without waking Eli. And we didn't go camping at all when Sadie was a baby because she was a really hard baby and the thought of camping with her just made me sick with anxiety. The thought of going anywhere when Sadie was a baby made me sick with anxiety!

And the Winner Is...

#4 Artistmama!! Congrats, you are the winner of a handy little dinner planning notepad and a handful of recipes. Drop me an email with your address and I'll get it out to you sometime this week. Thanks everyone else for entering. If you are really interested in one of these notebooks, drop me an email and I can send you the document.

Just in case you're interested: Last week's grain was wild rice and we had this wild rice salad from Simply Recipes. This week's bean are lentils and we're going to make Rhubarb Lentil Soup from Cooking Light. I have put a couple more books on reserve on the library. It seems that whole grain and bean cookbooks are a hot item as there are pretty lengthy waits for both of them. One is 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans and Grains and another is The New Book of Whole Grains.

What have you been cooking?

Mushrooms

I think mushrooms are one of the coolest things on earth. Fungus, in general, fascinates me unless it's growing in my shower or the back of my refrigerator. I have never taken a class in collecting mushrooms though I'd love to. While camping, Eli and I (and Dennis and Sadie, though they weren't as into it as Eli and I were) went for a mushroom walk. We found some good ones and took a lot of pictures. It turns out that Mushrooms love southern Ohio because we didn't have to look very hard or walk very far.

Cute Dress Alert

Isn't this a cute dress? No, I didn't make it, but I wish I did. You could win it. Just visit Play Is the Thing and enter the giveaway here. It's so easy.

Speaking of giveaways, I know I said that I was going to close my little notepad/recipe giveaway this Wednesday. But, we've decided to go camping so I'll be away. I'll close it on Sunday, June 20 and announce the winner on Monday.

Melty Goop

I'm pretty sure every adult has made "Melty Goop" at least once in their lifetime probably in their Junior High science class. If you have never made melty goop then you are in for a treat because this stuff is so much fun to play with. You see, melty goop is a non-Newtonian substance which means that a liquids viscosity changes by the force that is applied. (I normally would not know this, but I have a husband who used to teach HS science. Kindergarten teachers can call it "melty goop" and not really care a whole lot about it's physical properties.) Melty goop is a mixture of cornstarch and water. When you squeeze this mixture it forms into a ball, but as soon as you release the ball it melts in your hand. You really should try it, it's about the coolest thing ever. It's fun for all ages; I promise that you will have just as much fun as your child.Instructions:
Put 1/2 cup corn starch into a mixing bowl. Slowly start to add water stirring as you go, you'll need between 1/4 and 1/2 cup. Your mixture is ready when it feels sort of stiff as you stir it, but if you touch it, it hardens up. You should be able to form it into a ball and it should melt as soon as you stop rolling it, so add more cornstarch or more water as needed.

For clean up: just add more water and wipe up!You can learn more about non-Newtonian fluids and why this happens here.