Healthy Snacking Tips with Orchard Valley Harvest PLUS Giveaway

A big thank you to Orchard Valley Harvest for sponsoring today's post. I tend to have a serious sweet tooth! That combined with the every day busyness of being a Mom sometimes makes for a really hard time sticking to healthy snacking. Can you relate? It's so easy to grab for chips or sweet treats and on top of eating the wrong foods, it's too easy to eat way too much of them. This past month my entire family has been on a mission to snack smarter and healthier. With the help of Orchard Valley Harvest snacks and a few important changes, we have made some great strides in our quest for healthy snacking. 

Halloween Bat Snack for Kids with Hershey's Pudding

This shop has been compensated by Collective, Bias Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. I am super excited to share this Halloween Bat Snack for Kids with Hershey's Pudding today and I hope it inspires you to make snack time fun at your house. #ReadySetSnack #CollectiveBias

One of my favorite things in the whole world is making after school snack time extra fun for my kids. I feel like it's in those first few minutes when my kids walk in the door after school that they are open and excited to talk to me about their day. Everything is fresh on their mind and before the unpleasantness of homework begins, I love to sit with them and surround myself in their cuteness while enjoying an after school snack.            

Tips for Smart Summer Snacking with Yoplait

A big thank you to Yoplait® for sponsoring today's post. When I was a kid, every Friday evening my parents would do the grocery shopping for the next week and when they got home we always had a quick and easy "cold dinner" as we called it. The dinner consisted of various things, crackers, peanuts, cheese, fruit and there was always yogurt. I loved how nontraditional it was. It was one of my favorite dinners. Yoplait® Yogurt is more typically considered a breakfast food to some people, but even as a child I loved it throughout the entire day, especially at snack time. My kids love it too.

Piggy Snack to go with "Piggies" Story time

As promised, and to go along with the "Piggies" Story time and Craft, I introduce to you my Piggy Snack...

If you didn't catch the "Piggies" Story time and craft, you can find it HERE. My kids had a hoot and holler about this little creation. They loved it! Since it's pretty self-explanatory, I didn't feel a tutorial was necessary.

I used one-half of a bagel and spread strawberry cream cheese on it to make the pig face. I like the cinnamon raisen bagels, but you choose whatever is to your liking. I sliced a banana slice for the nose which also conveniently covered up the hole in the middle of the bagel, a couple chocolate chips for the eyes, 2 strawberry slices for the ears, and about 3/4 of one Twizzlers for the mouth.

YUM! YUM! I hope you have a fun-filled week full of Piggy-related awesomeness!!!  :o)

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Storytime Tuesday (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) & the Ultimate Preschool Activity

This week I'm going to feature one of my ultimate favorite children's books. It is definitely in the top 3 in my house with my boys too and it is used soooo much that it shows it's wear. Luckly the library had a copy that looked more decent so I was able to snap a couple pictures. It is called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

If you have a preschooler you've probably heard of this book, or even have a copy of your own. If you don't have your own copy, this is one book I would definitely invest in. This is a book which helps your children become familiar with and learn their abc's in a very creative way using rhyming and a coconut tree.

I saw this genius idea in "The Mailbox" Magazine where you make your own coconut tree, attach it to a baking sheet, and use magnetic lowercase letters to reinact the story with your child.

Materials you will need:
-Metal baking sheet (the tree isn't permanently attached so will have your pan back for baking, I promise!)
-green sheet of card stock paper
-brown sheet of card stock paper
-pencil
-scissors
-tape
-magnetic lowercase letters (I had a hard time finding these in my local stores so I ended up purchasing them on ebay for cheap)

Directions:
1. Take the green sheet of card stock paper and use your pencil to sketch the top of a coconut tree. If you have a difficult time with this, you could always do a google search for "coconut tree clip art", print one out and trace it on your paper.

2. Cut out your sketch of the top of the coconut tree.

3. Use your brown sheet of card stock paper and cut out a rectangle piece to be used as the trunk of the tree.

4. Glue the brown trunk to the bottom of the green tree to finish making your coconut tree.

5. Next, attach the coconut tree to your metal baking sheet with tape. I used double-sided tape because it's what I had, but any kind will do.

6. My boys thought there should be ground underneath the tree, so I cut another rectangle from the brown sheet of card stock paper and taped it to the bottom of my tree.

7. Now you are ready to grab your lowercase letter magnets and start playing! Open up your copy of "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and as you read the story, have your child find the corresponding letter magnet to the letter you read in the book, and place that magnet on the coconut tree.

8. As you continue reading the story you will soon have every letter on the coconut tree.

9. And then UH-OH....All the letters fall off the tree...(this is my kids favorite part when they get to push all the magnets off the tree)

The story continues with the alphabet one more time so your child will gets lots of practice finding all their lowercase letters.

My kids love this activity so much that they've pretty much taken over my baking sheet and it's found it's permanent place in their bedroom. Since I have more than one I don't mind.

And since I love this book so much we didn't stop there.....For snack time we re-created our very own coconut tree to eat. YUM! YUM!

What you will Need:
-1 Graham Cracker per coconut tree
-peanut butter (I am a FAN of the Adams Brand, but any kind will do)
-1 Apple (each apple will make 2 coconut trees)
-Raisinets

Directions:

1. Take your apple and slice it into 8 sections. I have an apple cutter which takes all the work out of this process. I don't peel my apples (and my kids don't mind) but if you want to peel them, go for it. Set aside your apple slices.

2. Take your graham cracker and break it into 4 sections. You'd think with the little lines on the cracker it would break where it's supposed to, but it NEVER does for me. Oh well!

3. Spread some peanut butter on one of the graham cracker sections, then place another cracker section on top to make a sandwich. Do this one more time with the remaining 2 sections.

3. Place the two sections on your plate to make the tree trunk.

4. Take four of your apple slices and place them above your tree trunk to form the top of the coconut tree.

5. Take a small handful of raisinets, put a dab of peanut butter on each and place them in random places all over your apple slices (the peanut butter acts as glue).

You are finished! Now watch your child devour the masterpiece...

PS-I totally made one of these for myself also and ate it with my kids. SOOOOO Yummy! You know you want one too!! :)