Quality Time With My 2 1/2 Year Old

I have really been trying hard to spend quality time with my 2 1/2 year old son, Jax.  When I say "Quality", I mean actively doing something with him.  I scoured the internet for ideas and found some really neat things I want to try.

Over at Play At Home Mom LLC, she has a great post here for making Busy Boxes.
(All of these images belong to the site.)  Here are a few of the boxes:

Glue Box

Play-Doh Box

Cutting Box

Sticker Box

Another site for fun toddler activities is Toddler Toddler.  Here are some samples of what you can find there:

This game is SO simple, but my son loves it.

Send a hug in the mail.

I printed out some cute coloring pages over at NickJr.com just for toddlers.

Click on the above to go to the toddler page.

How about a scavenger hunt?

Alphabet scavenger hunt over at
I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar

I found a huge list of activities and projects on the blog Play Create Explore.  Here are a few (all images belong to Play Create Explore):

Colored Shaving Cream

Fly Swatter Painting!

Pretend cooking with real ingredients.

Googly eyes and magazines.

So, what are some of your favorite activities to do with your toddler?  Where do you get your ideas?  I would love for you to tell me in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by,

Natosha

 

Quick and Easy Apple Crisp

So, I had a bag of apples in my crisper drawer.  They had been in there for over a month and we kept forgetting they were in there.  I decided to get them out, cut them open and see if they had gone soft.  They hadn't!  Yay!  I pulled out my Kindle Fire (love that gadget!) and Googled low-fat apple crisp recipe.  After sifting through TONS of recipes, I decided to make up my own.  Yeah, dangerous, I know.  Here's what I came up with:

Filling
7 cups peeled apples, thinly sliced (if you want more fiber, by all means, leave the peeling on)
2 Tbs whole wheat flour
2 Tsp cinnamon (you can use allspice, clove, nutmeg, whatever you like)
1/3 cup sugar (or your favorite substitute)

Topping
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar (or your favorite substitute)
1 Tbs whole wheat flour
1/4 cup butter (or substitute), cut into small peices
1 Tsp cinnamon

For filling, mix flour, cinnamon and sugar; then toss with apple slices.  Put filling into a 2-quart baking dish.

For topping, mix dry ingredients; then cut butter into dry ingredients using a pastry blender, fork or two knives.

Sprinkle topping over apples and bake for 55 minutes at 350 degrees.

This makes approximately 6 servings with 350 calories and 8.5 grams of fat.

It smelled SO good while it was cooking and was yummy.  I upped the fat content by making fresh whip cream using heavy cream, vanilla and a little bit of sugar.

Before topping is added.

With topping (forgot to get picture after it browned).

So, do you have a favorite apple crisp recipe?  Share it in the comments or if you make this recipe, let me know how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Six Things I Love {Late Spring Edition}

It is late Spring here in Arkansas (and we are actually having a Spring this year) and if all goes as planned I plan, it will not get mega-hot until the middle of Summer {read: July}.  As we are enjoying the beautiful weather and lack of mosquitos, I present 6 things I love inspired by our late Spring.


1.  The garden really showing off.

2.  Strappy cotton sundresses.

3.  Fireflies!

4. Tiger lilies in the ditches.

5.  Watching my son ride on the 4-wheeler with his Pop.

6.  Longer days with beautiful pink light.

What do you enjoy most about this time of year?  Is it specific to where you live?  Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by,
~Natosha~