Top Five Friday - These are a few of our favorite things

Yesterday we were surprised with our first snowfall. I came out of Wal Mart singing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas..." This made me realize that I need to start thinking of Christmas gifts, so I was so happy to see that this weeks Top Five Friday over at Superheroes and Princesses was all about favorite toys. Here are a few of our favorite things:
1.) Rose Petal Cottage - My mom got this for Bekah last Christmas. Bekah plays in this cottage every day. It's really cute and white it is kinda big you can fit the one side into the other when done playing. We don't do this, however. We leave it set up all the time since she plays with it constantly.
Here she is two days after last Christmas playing with Daddy in her Rose Petal Cottage.

2.) Melissa and Doug puzzles. Bekah loves puzzles and these are made so nice. Bekah even still plays with her chunky piece puzzle. She plays veterinarian with the animal pieces. It's cute she takes their blood pressure and gives them their shots. This leads me to our next item...
3.) Doctors kit. This isn't the same one we have, but it's similar. I've had so many check ups by Dr. Bekah this year that I should be very healthy!
4.) Books. Her favorite books are Bob and Otto, The Poky Little Puppy, and anything by Eric Carle.
5.) Webkinz jr. She got the kitty for her birthday and loves him. Now she's asking for the purple monkey. I think they are adorable and love that the website is educational. It also only lets them play for a short time before the pet needs a nap. So cute!
Honorable Mention - Playschools Cool School for the computer. This is another of Bekah's favorite things, so it had to be mentioned. She likes the to do art center on here the best.

On her Christmas list for this year:
Jump Start for the wii. If anyone has this and has any opinions on it, I'd love to hear them. I'm looking for a game for the wii that Bekah could play.
Tools. Since we've bought our house and have been making improvements to it Bekah has loved "working" with Daddy. She wants her own tools so she can help him more.
Games. I'm not sure which ones. I'm thinking of Pictureka, Gator Golf, and I'm still thinking of others.
You can find out what others list as their favorite things at Superheroes and Princesses.

Muffin Tin Monday - Kabobs - kinda!

Last night at 10:00 PM I suddenly remembered Muffin Tin Monday was today. I hadn't planned at all...whoops! So, this is what happens when mommy doesn't plan. I just threw whatever we had in some cute muffin liners and put together a fruit kabob (to go with the theme), and voila - Muffin tin Monday! You know what I found? Bekah loved it anyway! She has really come to look forward to Muffin Tin Monday. You can learn more about Muffin Tin Monday and what others are doing over at Her Cup Overfloweth. Here's what Bekah had today:

Fruit kabob with strawberries, grapes, and bananas, marshmallow fruit dip (this was yummy!), and chicken nuggets with ketchup.

I have to say, Bekah loved the football picks. I found these at our Christmas Tree Shop cheap! I'm finding that it's smart to always keep your eyes open for good deals on muffin tin "accessories".

Happy Monday.

Owl Babies - stART project

Since we're learning about owls this week I decided to do the book Owl Babies by Mark Waddell for our stART project. Bekah has really enjoyed this book since we got it at the library last week. It's an adorable book about three baby owls who are waiting for their mommy owl to come home.

First, we took a piece of black construction paper and glued on a strip of brown construction paper for the tree branch. Then I drizzled on the glue while Bekah added the cotton balls for the owls body. Bekah would tell me which owl she was making from the book. The three owls are Sarah, Percy, and Bill. We also got to talk about how the baby owls were white and fluffy while the mommy owl was brown.

Then we added the baby owls feet. These basically looked like upside down orange hearts.

We then added orange beaks and googly eyes to our owl babies.

I used colored pencils to add a moon and stars and our owl babies were finished.

Owl Cookies

Bekah and I have had so much fun learning about owls. After our owl mask craft we got to make owl cookies. I found this recipe here, but there were many other recipes and ideas when you google owl cookies. We also changed the recipe a bit since I didn't have any cashews. Some of the almond owl ears fell off after baking, but they still were yummy!

Bekah used to run away and cry whenever I used the mixer. Now, she's starting to want to use it....it's great!

This was a fun cooking project for us to do together. She loved helping out with putting the m&m's on for eyes. She kept trying to eat them and when I told her not to she said, "Oh, but I just can't help myself when mommy's baking!" How funny!

I Spy Owl Mask and Owl Song

This week we've been learning all about owls. Today we made an owl mask. This was a very simple project that even younger kids can make.
We had a template from a Mailbox magazine that I had copied, but it would be simple to draw out one of your own.
Bekah colored the owl mask. You could also add feathers if you would like.

I cut it out and glued it to the back of a cereal box (to make it more sturdy).

Then I let it dry a bit and cut it out from the cereal box. Next I taped on two popcicle sticks for the handle. Here's Pooh Bear playing with the owl mask. He liked it!

We played I spy with this mask. Whoever was holding the mask would be the one to spy things. We had a lot of fun with this.

We also sang a really fun song to the tune of Are You Sleeping.

Are you sleeping? (put hand out the side like asking a question)
Are you sleeping?
Mr. Owl, Mr. Owl,(put your thumb and index finger together and up to eyes-like an owl)
You sleep in the daytime, (pretend to be sleeping)
And fly in the nighttime, (pretend to fly)
When you see, perfectly. (make owl eyes again with index finger and thumb together)

Muffin Tin Monday - All About Me

Todays Muffin Tin theme is All About Me. I included some of Bekah's favorite foods in this muffin tin and she is really enjoying it as I type!
In Bekah's tin:
grilled cheese violin (she loves playing on Daddy's violin), grilled cheese snowflakes (her favorite holiday is Christmas), Dora yogurt (she loves yogurt), mandarin oranges (her favorite fruit and her favorite color is orange - well, that changes on occasion, but for now it's orange), milk (Bekah is never far from her milk cup!), and 3 m&m's (she's 3 years old and LOVES m&m's).

You can check out what others are doing today at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Top Five Friday (on Saturday)

So, I just ran across this post on Superheroes and Princesses and wanted to join in the fun (even though it's Saturday!)
Our Five Favorite things for this week are:
1) Poky Little Puppy (book and movie)

2) Dinosaur Train - the new PBS show (Bekah is so excited when I put this on)

3) Hot/Warm Cocoa (I use the recipe from here)

4) Coloring.

5) Pumpkins....(our big pumpkin got a boo boo from her carrying it around and bumping it into things....it's now living outside on the porch!)