We had a great 4th of July Weekend. We went to my cousins High School Graduation Party on Saturday and The Cove beach at Brigantine on Sunday. We had a jam packed good weekend. For my Cousin’s Party we brought cupcakes. My daughter who is 3 made them. I will say this over and over in my blogs. Cook with your kids. We do the box cakes we aren’t from scratch kind-of bakers. The thing that is great about it is she can count how many eggs she needs from the back of the box and tell me how many she needs to put in. She is also using those fine motor skills when she is cracking the eggs and fishing out the eggshells.

She adds all of the ingredients (with help from Mom on the measurements). She then spoons out all of the batter into the cupcake pan. Mommy bakes it then Baby girl gets to help decorate. This time because my Cousin is going to Temple University in the fall we decided to go with these adorable owl cupcakes we found the idea online at : www.annies-eats.com/2009/04/29/owl-cupcakes/ . She pulled them out of the Hello, Cupcake book. We also made some plain cupcakes with Temple’s – T logo out of Twizzler’s Pull apart. The best part for my candy girl was that she got to cook with Oreo’s, Junior Mints, M&M’s, Runts and licorice. She went through and sorted out what she needed counting the right amount of Banana runts for his beak, She sorted all of the M&M’s by color.

It takes time to bake with your kids and it certainly isn’t a life necessity. What is important is teaching your children to be self sufficient adults. That is the job of parents. When Candy Girl brings her treats to the party, everyone makes a fuss over her. Encouraging her, telling her she’s smart, telling her she’s special. Kids need to hear this from other people besides their parents. She gets so proud of herself.

The next day we spent the day at the beach. The thing I love about going to a bay beach is the experience of actual sea life that you don’t get as often at the ocean barrier island beaches. We swam with turtles peaking up over little ruffles of waves. We could pull sea snails right out of the water and it became a biology lesson for the kids. Boys pulled in fish with nets.

Today, we lounged in PJ’s most of the day and we had variation grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Kids wanted regular grilled cheese. Daddy preferred grilled cheese with Pepperoni. I devoured my favorite grilled cheese with sliced tomato and basil. Than we had dinner at the in-law’s house!
Favorite Tools:
Arcoa Pro Easy Reacher Tool. I have owned dozens of grabbers. I use them to pick up toys every day, to do my quick little clothes pick up, shoe straighten after the kids or to get something from Hard to reach spots. Usually, I break these after 6 months but these specific Grabbers I’ve had for over a year. I have really worked them hard and they have stayed reliable.

Free Day Out:Check out your library. They are always having free programs. Also, check out your town’s website.

Food Stuff:Today’s favorite my culinary vision for today would have to be my new favorite snack. Cherries pitted stuffed with an almond. I like that the almond mimics the cherry seed but is edible. It is even yummier dipped in chocolate.