Hey Grant Life friends! It’s Michaela from Covered in Mod Podge here to share a great Halloween treat! Puppy Chow is delicious to start with. Add Reese’s Pieces for some fun Halloween flair and this puppy chow is to die for! I’m planning on wrapping these up in plastic treat bags with a fun Halloween ribbon and sending them to school with my toddler.

Want to make your own? Here’s the recipe:

Measure out the Chex into a large mixing bowl.

Melt peanut butter, chocolate chips, and butter in small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir frequently to make sure you don’t burn the chocolate. Once everything has melted and is smooth, remove from heat and mix in vanilla.

Pour meted chocolate mixture over Chex and stir to evenly coat.

Pour half of the coated Chex into a gallon size Ziploc bag. Add half of the powdered sugar. Then, add the rest of the Chex and powdered sugar. Seal bag (and triple check so you don’t end up with the world’s largest mess on your hands…not that it happened to me or anything!) and shake until the Chex is coated in the powdered sugar. Add Reese’s Pieces and shake again.

Pour your Puppy Chow onto waxed paper paper to cool.

Store in an airtight container. Or, you and your family can go to town and eat it all before the day is done. Just saying….

Do you have any go to treats that you send to school with your kiddo’s for special occasions?
 

Check out Easy Halloween Ideas for more spooky inspiration!  

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Baked Italian Chicken Meatballs

Print

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground chicken
• 1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 1 tbsp. basil
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes {or more to taste}
• 1 egg

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together.

Shape into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake in an oven for about 25 minutes. You can either split one open to make sure its cooked through or use a meat thermometer to check that its at an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees.

Add to your favorite pasta or dish and enjoy!

Notes

To freeze for later - allow to cool on the counter. Wrap in tin foil and place in a plastic bag in the freezer.
To reheat - allow to thaw on the counter and then heat up on the stove, in the microwave or a slow cooker.

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Oh, and they were super easy to make too!  All you need is:

• Pectin or Unflavored Gelatin
• Cookie Cutters
• Twine
• Straw or Stick
• Cooking Spray
• Foil

We made a big batch of them and used a bunch of different shapes.  [Yes, that is a skull shaped cookie cutter!  When they are on sale for 25 cents you just buy it.]

• Combine your gelatin with boiling water according to the package you use.
• Then add your birdseed.
• Wait until it starts to clump together.
• Spray your cookie cutters with cooking spray.
• Put your cookie cutters on a piece of foil.
• Smush your birdseed mixture into the cutter.
• Add a straw or stick to the center to create a hole.
• Wait until it hardens.  [We added ours to the freezer to speed up the process.]
• Add your string and hang it outside.

Enjoy your new bird feeder and the birds that come by to check it out!

A fun and easy craft that will make even the birds happy!

You may have noticed the Summer Fun button on the side of the blog.  I am a camp counselor over at Summer Fun Camp 2013!  Its a group a bloggers that share crafty ideas to help keep your kids entertained and active during the summer.  Cool, right?  Kirsten from One Tough Mother put it all together and I was privileged to be part of the fun!  Plus, there is a fun giveaway from the Hair Bow Company this week!  [Its a win win, folks!]
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Essentially, this tutorial is sewing a bunch of squares and rectangles. While it may look advanced, this is a project most any sewer can take on!

Want to make your own? You’ll need:
1/2 yard quilters cotton
1/2 yard PLU
1/2 yard batting/fleece or 1 yard flannel
5 inches sew on velcro
Basic sewing supplies

Alright, let’s getting cutting….

From the quilting cotton, cut:
Main body: 24 inches by 17 inches
Closure rectangle: 4 inches by 3 inches
Strap: 17 inches by 2 inches
Pocket: 17 inches by 8.5 inches

From the PLU, cut:
24 inches by 17 inches

Fleece/batting/ flannel, cut:
24 inches by 17 inches
*If using flannel, cut two

Now, to sewing…

{All seam allowances are presser foot unless otherwise noted.}

Start out by ironing all your quilting cotton. You want a nice, neat surface to work with.

Take you closure rectangle and iron it in half, hot dog style, right sides facing. Sew like shown. Make sure you leave a gap along the long side for turning.

Carefully clip your corners, turn right side out, and press. Then, top stitch as close to the edge as you can.

Take one piece of your five inch strips of velcro and pin it to your closure rectangle. You’ll want it to be about 1/2 inch down and then centered. Sew it down.

Take the strap piece and press in half, hot dog style, right sides together. Sew along the length of the strap.

Turn your tube and then press. No need to top stitch.

Take the pocket piece and fold top edge {long side} down 1/4 inch towards wrong side and then 1/2 inch again. Press and pin. Sew.

And now you have your pocket piece!

Now its time for lot’s of measuring and pinning.

Start out by pining your closure rectangle to your quilting cotton. Center the rectangle on the short, right side of the fabric. You’ll want the velcro facing up and like 1/2 inch of the rectangle sticking up. Stitch that sucker down, going back and forth several times.

Now for the other side of the velcro. Center your strip along the short side and then 7 inches up. You’ll place the top of the velcro strip at the 7 inch mark. Make sure you are measuring from the opposite side of the quilting cotton from where you put the closure strip.

Let’s work on final assembly. Start by finding a clean, smooth work space to assemble all your layers. Lay down your batting/fleece/flannel. Then, lay your PLU down right side up. Smooth like crazy. Now, add you pocket piece at the bottom of the PLU, right side up.

On top of your pocket piece, add your handle folded in half. This will create your loop. Make sure the loop is facing inward and the raw edges are on the outside.

Lay your quilting cotton on top of the other layers. Smooth everything out and pin well. Sew, leaving a 4 inch gap for turning on one of the long sides. When you go over the handle and the closure, back stitch a couple of times to reinforce.

Clip the corners, turn, and press well. Press on the quilting cotton side. Make sure you tuck in the opening where you turned and pin. Then top stitch all the way around.

Sewing on top of PLU is a bear. It sticks. I don’t know where I first heard this trick, but tape the bottom of your presser foot {being sure to leave an opening for your needle}. This will help everything move more smoothly.

Then, add a stitch down the middle of the pocket to create a nice divide. Add in a couple of diapers, a diaper rash cream tube, and some travel wipes and you’re set.

You end up with everything you need for a diaper change on the go. You can use this clutch for quick trips to the store or so daddy doesn’t have to carry around the uber-girly diaper bag.

And here’s how it fold up…

Cutting all the pieces takes longer than the actual sewing. Two hours, tops, and you have a wonderful baby shower gift {or a great little treat for yourself}.

It seems like my friends just keep having more kiddos. I’m always going to a shower. What’s your go-to shower gift?

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After college, I wasn’t very sure what I wanted to do. However, I knew I was good with kids. That led me to a job working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Man oh man did I LOVE working with that population of kiddos! One valuable lesson I took away from my time in the field was the importance of understanding how sensory experiences effect us all differently.

Even without sensory processing issue, most of us have textures we just hate. For me, I can’t stand avocado  I’m fine with it in guac, but I sure don’t want a big old slice of it on a sandwich. We learn, develop, and grow through experiencing a wide variety of sensory inputs.

Over time, many of us learn which kinds of inputs we enjoy (warm water in the form of a bubble bath) and which we want to avoid (loud noises). Its important to expose our kiddos to a wide variety of sensory inputs from an early age. You’ll quickly learn which your kids like, which they hate, and which can have calming or overstimulating effects on them. This information can be used in a variety of ways, including helping create a calm environment when you’re kiddos are overstimulated.

One of my favorite things to play with back in the day were water beads. They are round, marble sized squishy beads that are often used in centerpieces and as vase fillers. They feel wet, cold, and squishy all at the same time. They even bounce. You can get them from a variety of places on line as well as Michael’s and Joann’s. I got a big old container from Michael’s for around $5 with a 40% off coupon.

The great thing about water beads is you can use them purely for sensory input or as medium to explore other topics. I filled a large tuperware box with the entire container of water beads. I then added shapes from our shape sorter. This let us explore both the texture of the beads as well as talk about shapes.

Emma was very timid at first. She loves all things involving being wet, so I was hoping she’d get on board. With a little coaxing from Dad she dove right in. Emma played for a good thirty minutes before we had to clean up for nap time.

During the play, we talked about all the sensations she was experiencing  We also talked about the different shapes and used the shapes as cups to scoop up the beads. She’s only 22 months old so our shape talk was secondary to letting her play. But you could easily adjust this activity with age to have the kiddo receptively or expressively identify the shapes.

The possibilities with water beads are really endless. You can put in different animals and have your kiddo find them and make animal noises. You could have your kiddo guess how far a water bead will bounce and then evaluate their predictions. The sky is really the limit when it comes to different ways to use these beads!

You should be watching your kiddos at all times when playing with water beads. These suckers can easily be mistaken for candy. They defiantly shouldn’t be eaten! Also, keep track of where the beads roll off to during play. I know our cats were pretty interested in what we were up to. I doubt they would be good for pets to eat. When you’re done playing, throw them back in the container and top it off with a little water. They last forever!

I think providing your kiddos with different sensory experiences is both fun and rewarding. There are so many creative ways to use so many different materials. We recently busted out the shaving cream. Emma was not a fan. I’d love to hear what your favorite sensory play materials are!

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