Thursday, May 11, 2023
Welcome back, friends! We hope you are having a GRAND week!
😉
On Monday we shared our post, Color Me a RAINBOW,
filled with crafts, activities and resources to share with ALL your Littles!
If you are looking for additional activities, be sure to check us out
as we’re sharing more rainbow fun there!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
And, just because, here’s one more pic of Little L
with a new learning toy that Laura couldn’t resist picking up for her!
This rainbow stacking/nesting toy is a bit of a challenge for her now…
we can’t wait to see how she chooses to play with it!
We know that many of our readers
often provide childcare for their grandkids (aka their Littles)...
often during the summer months!
We suggested at the end of Monday’s post
that hosting a RAINBOW Day with your Littles during the summer
would be a wonderful way to create lasting memories together!
Today, we are piggybacking on the rainbow theme
with some yummy meal ideas and food experiences
that you and your Littles can enjoy together!
Providing experiences with food allows your Littles to use all their senses!
As we’ve mentioned before, sensory play helps our Littles grow
in a variety of ways…
It helps increase language development, concentration and self control,
problem solving skills, and, as a side benefit,
comfort in trying new things!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
🌈 A Rainbow Fruit Platter!
Your Littles would have such fun building this fruit platter…. It would be perfect for a picnic lunch, an afternoon snack or as part of a family meal you are preparing together! Simply choose one fruit to represent each color of the rainbow, cut each into edible pieces and then get busy creating your rainbow!
Here are some possibilities for you to consider…
Red - strawberries, watermelon, cherries, raspberries, apples, grapes
Orange - oranges, mandarins, tangerines, cantaloupe, mango, peaches
Yellow - pineapple, bananas, pears, lemons
Green - grapes, kiwi, honeydew, pears, star fruit
Blue - blueberries 🙂
Purple - grapes, blackberries, plums
🌈 Fruit Kabobs with Rainbow Dip!
This experience is similar to the one above… however you will be creating individual servings of rainbow fruit by building fruit kabobs! You will need skewers and fruits, one to represent each of the six rainbow colors.
Use the list above when choosing your fruits and then cut each into chunks. Thread one piece of fruit onto the skewer at a time - in rainbow order, beginning with your purple fruit and ending with your red one! (NOTE: We added 2 or 3 pieces of the same fruit if the pieces were smaller!)
Your Littles will love helping with this!
If you’d like, add a bowl of fruit dip (either vanilla yogurt or a cream cheese based fruit dip) to the platter. To make it even more festive, top with rainbow sprinkles! 😋
🌈 Froot Loops Edible Crafts!
Laurie shared a fun activity using Froot Loops in Monday’s post, Rainbow Match! Her Little D loved it!
In addition, you may remember using cereal to create edible jewelry with your own kids! In fact, lacing activities like this were very popular in both of our kindergarten classrooms! Use a piece of string or yarn and Froot Loops to make a necklace OR use a pipe cleaner to make a Froot Loop bracelet! These activities provide an excellent opportunity to develop fine motor skills, too! Of course, always provide a few extras to nibble on (just be sure to okay this with mom and dad ahead of time, especially for our toddler Littles)!
Finally, here’s one more idea to try, especially if you have older Littles! These would make fun table favors/decor if you are having a special dinner to culminate your RAINBOW Day activities!
INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES
large marshmallows
Froot Loops
pipe cleaners
scissors
DIRECTIONS
1. Take a pipe cleaner and have your Little thread three red Froot Loops onto it.
2. Repeat this process with orange, yellow, green, blue and purple Froot Loops until you have all the colors of the rainbow in order.
3. Stick one end of the pipe cleaner into a large marshmallow and the other end into the second marshmallow (to make the clouds on both sides of the rainbow). If the pipe cleaner is too long, you can trim it by cutting it off.
NOTE: Your older Littles can create a rainbow pattern, threading a red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple Froot Loop onto the pipe cleaner and then repeating the pattern two more times!
🌈 Rainbow Charcuterie for Your Littles!
For your Littles’ lunch on RAINBOW Day (or any day), use a muffin tin or ice cube tray to serve them a variety of food, representing the different colors of the rainbow!
In addition to the fruits suggested earlier in this post (see above),
here are some other colorful options!
Red - tomatoes, peppers, pepperoni, beet chips, radishes
Orange - carrots, peppers, goldfish crackers, cheese, dried apricots
Yellow - corn, peppers, tortilla chips, eggs, zucchini, cheese
Green - cucumbers, celery, peas, broccoli, avocado, olives, pea pods, pickles
Blue - again… blueberries 😊
Purple - eggplant, purple cauliflower, purple carrots, salami
Just look through your cupboards and fridge
and add color as you fill your Littles’ "plates"!
Toddler Tip! When preparing a charcuterie for these Littles, watch them carefully and/or only put one or two of each food item in each section. Our toddler Littles tend to put a lot in their mouths at once before chewing and swallowing... we speak from experience!
We are always looking for more ideas.. especially for those blue and purple foods!
If you have any suggestions for us,
please share in the comments at the end of this post! Thank you!
🌈 Rainbow Toast!
Have you ever eaten milk toast? Apparently, it’s known as a comfort food, dating back to the 19th century! This recipe is basically that, with a colorful twist!
In school, our kindergartners would often celebrate colors and one of Laura’s favorite treats to make with her students was Rainbow Toast! The kindergartners would paint their bread, we’d toast it and butter it and… YUM!
Here’s how to do it!
INGREDIENTS
bread (white works best, but any will do - we used whole grain)
milk (any kind)
food coloring (a small amount of several colors)
DIRECTIONS
1. Fill 6 small cups with milk (we used small custard cups).
2. Add a drop or two of food coloring to each and mix.
3. Set out the cups of colored milk, paintbrushes and plain bread for your Littles.
4. Let your Littles paint a rainbow (or colorful design) on their bread. Encourage them to use a little milk at a time - you don’t want to have soggy toast!
5. When your Littles are done painting, take the bread and pop it in the toaster. We toasted ours at a medium setting. When it was done, we turned the bread over and toasted for a bit more!
6. When your rainbow toast is done, let it cool or add butter if you’d like! ENJOY!
We hope you and your Littles enjoy these treats!
And, of course, you can never go wrong with RAINBOW popsicles…
especially if you’ll be celebrating a
RAINBOW Day
on a hot summer day with your Littles!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Don’t forget that this Sunday is Mother’s Day!
If you are still looking for some last minute gift giving activities,
check out our post,
We were thrilled to have this post featured this week on the blog, A Pinch of Joy!
THANK YOU!
We’ll be back next week with a brand new post...
look for our next edition of our Household Happies!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Last week, Laura shared her birthday wishes
for Daughter J, her oldest,
who turned 30 last weekend!
It was a special weekend, filled with friends and fun!
Daughter J made me a mom three days before Mother’s Day, 1993.
Five years later, her sister, our Daughter A, arrived
two days after Mother’s Day, 1998!
Mother's Day, understandably, holds a special place in my heart! 💗
We had hoped for and prayed for Daughter A for so long
and, yet, she made her appearance in God’s perfect time!
He knew that Daughter A was the one
our family longed for to make us whole in every way!
We can’t wait to celebrate Daughter A and all she means to us tomorrow!
Happy 25th, Sweetness! We 💗 you!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
We wish all the mamas and grands out there
a blessed Mother’s Day weekend ahead!
May it be filled with joy, giggles, snuggles and love!
❤️ We are delighted to join these link up parties and blog hops this week:
We love a fruit platter and this is so pretty! And the rainbow toast looks super fun too.
Thanks so much for sharing with #MMBC. :)
What a wonderful post! So many great ideas here. I'll be featuring this post today at the Thursday Favorite Things link party (starting at 10:00 Central Time.) Thanks so much for sharing this great post with us. :)
Pam - anartfulmom.com
We often have rainbow fruit platters as my children love them but I've never thought of trying rainbow toast before. Will definitely have to give that one a try. #MMBC