Zebra Zoo Cookies

Posted in activities for kids, alphabet activities, food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Aren’t these CUTE???

I didn’t come up with the idea all on my own – I have my daughter’s last years preschool teachers to thank for it! At the end of the school year, they sent home a “cookbook” of all the recipes they’d made. My daughter was excited to flip through it and I let her pick out which recipe she’d like to remake first.

She picked the Zebra Zoos.

Now, they actually did theirs a little differently, so this is my version.

Below are all our store-bought ingredients that make this super simple to set up. It’s the type of project where you can buy everything ahead of time and stick all the stuff in the back of the pantry until a rainy day.

You’ll need:

Graham Crackers

Vanilla Cake Icing

Animal Cracker Cookies

Black Candy Melts OR Chocolate Chips

The first step is to spread the icing over the graham crackers.

You don’t need a lot. And you don’t need your Little Ones overdosing on sugar, so you may need to gently offer to help them smooth it out a bit. :)

Melt the candy melts in the microwave according to the package directions within a small baggy (preferably freezer weight), then snip the corner off to drizzle the candy back and forth over the white icing.

This will make the appearance of the zebra stripes, which is where the treat gets its name.

Why did I use candy melts instead of chocolate chips?

First of all: the black candy melts are darker than the chocolate chips. Black instead of brown, so more zebra-like. Also, I wanted the flavor of them to match the icing. The candy melts have a vanilla flavor, like white chocolate.

[hint: you can usually buy the candy melts at Michaels with a coupon.]

Then attach a few cookies by pressing them into the black candy melt stripes before the stripes have a chance to set. (So, right after you draw on the stripes.)

Then enjoy!

Oh….. and it would behoove you to remember to coat your workspace with waxed or parchment paper first. Just sayin’.

21May2015

Roaming Rosie Reads “Monsters Aren’t Real” by Kerstin Schoene {book review}

Posted in books & book reviews, roaming rosie reads, usborne by Rosemary Lynn

Monsters Aren’t Real by Kerstin Schoene is an enchanting picture book that my kids are absolutely in love with.

It’s 44 pages long, but many of the pages have no words at all, or only a few. Wordless picture books are great for Little Ones. Plus, the story is packed full of laughs, which always makes reading fun.

The book is about a monster who’s keeps hearing “monster’s aren’t real,” which leads him to wonder, “then what am I?” He’s as big as a monster… as strong as a monster… so monsters MUST be real. Right??

Our gentle monster tries to prove that he’s real by attempting to scare people. He says “boo” and he juggles cows, but nobody is scared. He tried to spread propaganda via helium balloons and posters {my girls always giggle about the poster that’s upside down}, but nobody’s paying attention.

He gets sad and concludes that monsters aren’t, in fact, real. But then another crazy-looking monster shows up {this one’s my 3yo’s favorite} and insists that they ARE real.

I often have to reread and reread and reread those last two pages. My girls read them along with me, bursting into laughter every single time.

When the book is over, I always ask, “are monsters real?” and they shout, “NO!”

And then they laugh some more.

You can watch me reading the book in the video below:

And you can purchase the book from Usborne Books & More:

Monsters Aren’t Real

If you’re Little One is a big monster fan, they may also enjoy:

Happy Reading!

Roaming Rosie Signature

18Feb2015

Book Review: Flippy Floppy Lift a Flap Jungle Animals

Posted in books & book reviews, usborne by Rosemary Lynn

Flippy Floppy Jungle Animal Board Book

This Flippy Floppy Jungle Book is one of my kid’s newest fascinations. They’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

It’s a great lift-the-flap board book from Usborne/Kane Miller that offers a lot of interaction for kids.

The purpose of the book is to lift four flaps in order to slowly reveal a hidden animal. As you go, the animal you’re looking for appears as bits and pieces of other animals. For example, the tail of the tiger is also the beak of a toucan and the body of a snake.

There are cut-outs to look through and a little bird to find on all of the pages. The last page challenges kids to find all the animals again, and it’s sturdy enough for little hands to get excited about with thick pages and rounded corners.

I go into some more detail in my video review, where you can also see how it works:

And, yes… I’m aware that I have a strange expression on my face in the video thumbnail. TRUST me – it was the best one!

I’m also aware that I keep calling it “Flippity Floppity Jungle Animals” on the video. I don’t know why, but “Flippy Floppy” seems to be difficult for me to say…

Anyway, to see the book, or add it to your online wishlist, click:

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Jungle Animal Book

And if you like this book, you’ll also love:

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Farm Animals

Flippy Floppy Lift-the-Flap Ocean Animals

Happy Reading!

Roaming Rosie Signature

3Feb2015

“Chalkboard” Valentine’s Day Hearts

Posted in activities for kids, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

"Chalkboard" Valentine's Day Hearts Activity for Kids

This is a fun little activity I did with my girls to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

I cut some hearts out of black construction paper and drew on them with white and silver colored pencils to show my girls how it looked.

The fun mini hearts look like little chalkboards and my girls were delighted with how the light colors looked so vibrant on the dark hearts.

They spent quite a while drawing on the hearts and experimenting with different colors {though mostly after I took the photograph}.

The picture shows just a few of the hearts, but one of the things I also made sure to do was to cut out hearts in varying sizes.

And next time I’ll probably let them help me cut them out, but this time they were too busy coloring. :)

Roaming Rosie Signature

31Jan2015

Valentine’s Day Lunch Snack Ideas for Kids

Posted in food & flavor & recipes, holidays by Rosemary Lynn

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve already started adding fun Valentines-themed snacks to my kid’s lunches.

The top picture is of heart-shaped strawberries.

Okay, okay… they’re not obviously hearts upon first glance, so I did mention to my girls ahead of time that they were getting strawberry hearts in their lunch bags. Just in case my artfulness didn’t shine through right away.

Anyway, to make quick strawberry treats that vaguely resemble hearts, follow these steps:

Wash strawberry.
Cut top off of strawberry.
Cut berry in half.
Cut a triangle out of the top center of the berry.
Cut off the edges of the top at an angle.
Ensure children they’re getting lovingly carved hearts and not mangled fruit pieces.

You can also toss those extra strawberry pieces into a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, by the way.

And onto the next photo…. I used a tiny {about 1-inch} cookie cutter to cut hearts out of American cheese slices and flour tortillas.

I cut out about twice as many tortilla hearts as cheese ones because my oldest likes to assemble her own cheese sandwiches out of the pieces.

The last photo doesn’t have anything heart-shaped, but instead includes something red.

I tossed a few red M&Ms {leftover from Christmas} into a container of nuts. Cashews, specifically, since I think they taste better than peanuts, and there are kids in my daughters’ classes with peanut allergies.

My girls will eat the nuts without any extra incentive, but I felt the dash of red color just added a little fun.

And if you’re wondering about the containers I had the cashews in, these are the ones I use:

My girls love getting snacks in these little triangle containers. They’re technically condiment containers, but they’re easy to open {even for my 2yo} and they hold plenty of food.

Not a LOT of food, mind you, but a handful of nuts or raisins or goldfish or about 5 or 6 grapes. Enough for a snack.

Oh, and I also cut apple slices and used the same heart shaped cookie cutter to remove the seeds, thus putting a heart in the middle of the circle slice. But I forgot to photograph those. I’ll try to remember next time. :)

Please share any fun Valentine’s snacks you’ve made for your own kiddos!

**********EDIT: Aug 2015**********

Aaaaaand….. now that I’ve been making heart strawberries in a way that’s SO much easier for a while now, I should probably update this post! ;)

Anyway, after I wrote this, I discovered that it was way easier to just cut the strawberry in half and use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the heart. Takes two seconds and looks amazing! Plus – the cuteness factor means my kids eat more fruit! (Even at school!!!)

Check it out:

And you can see that I used one of the larger heart-shaped cutters for the sandwiches. Since peanut butter and (strawberry) jelly can get a little messy, I sometimes cut out the bread first and then fill them instead of making the sandwich ahead of time and then cutting out the heart.

Happy Eating! (Or happy school-lunch making!)

17Jan2015

Book Review: My First Keyboard Book

Posted in books & book reviews, toys & games & gifts, usborne by Rosemary Lynn

Usborne’s My First Keyboard Book is a lot of fun to play with … and not just for the kiddos.

I enjoy it, too, and so do a lot of adults that come in contact with it.

Part of the reason for this, I think, is the wonderful feel of smooth keys and the beautiful tone of the notes, which isn’t overly electronic. It sounds like you’re playing a piano or a high-quality keyboard.

The book itself teaches you recognizable songs {like Twinkle, Twinkle and Row, Row, Row your Boat} with color coordinated keys. There are dots of color on each key that correspond with patterns of dots that produce the song if you play them in that order.

It’s easier to show you than to tell you, so here’s my video review:

It is an internet linked book, so you can see a video of someone playing one of the songs, read some more reviews, and see pictures of the inside of the book on the Usborne site.

Other things I like about this book are that all of the keys work – even the black flat/sharp keys, and I especially like that there’s an on/off switch on the back. It’s nice to know I can shut it off when we’re not using it and it’s stored on the bookshelf.

It’s easy to play, too. My girls are 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 years old, and while the 2yo isn’t really interested in following the colored patterns, she does enjoy making her own music. The 4yo is able to play the songs by following the patterns, although her rhythm needs some work.

My point is, this book is great for younger kids as well as older ones. Little Ones might need much more practice before getting the hang of it, but older kids will pick it up right away and, like I mentioned above when I pointed out that adults seems to love it, it’s somewhat addicting.

Plus, there are actually a bunch of interactive books that get kids involved with and learning about music, many of which are illustrated in this graphic:

Happy Reading!

Roaming Rosie Signature

8Jan2015

10 Things I Never Expected to Say {Or: A Typical Day in the Life of a Mom}

Posted in momisms, musings by Rosemary Lynn

Motherhood has brought with it many unexpected surprises.

Most of them are phenomenally, euphorically amazing. The rest are…

Messy.

{That’s putting it mildly.}

And these are some of the unexpected words that have crossed my lips in the first 5 years of my daughters’ lives.

Things I hope I won’t have to say again {but know that I probably will}.

10 Things I Never Expected to Say

1. I ran out of tissues; just use my shirt.

2. Why are you naked?

3. I didn’t know diarrhea could shoot that far – you almost hit Grandma!

4. No, no: throw up on me, not the couch!

5. Did I just step in syrup?

6. No, I don’t need a tampon, and I certainly don’t need a handful of them … where are all the wrappers?

7. Don’t stick your fingers in the dog’s butt!

8. I don’t care how cold you are, you’re not getting back in the bathtub until I clean all of the poop out of it.

9. Get your hands out of the toilet!

10. Did you just put my ChapStick in your butt?

Please share some of the unexpectedness you’ve experienced in the comment section!

{Top Photo Copyright Rebecca Abell | Dreamstime Stock Photos}

2Jan2015

How to Make “Snowy” Floridian Reindeer Footprints

Posted in holidays by Rosemary Lynn

How to Make Snowy Floridian Reindeer Footprints from RoamingRosie.com

These fun “Snowy” Floridian Reindeer Footprints were inspired by a conversation with a friend.

He was telling me about how they used to make reindeer footprints in the snow on Christmas Eve when they lived up north, which reminded me of when one of my other friends made Easter Bunny footprints with flour across her living room floor last year, and I realized………

Whoa.

I could totally make reindeer footprints with flour!

And glitter!!!

And my kids were even more excited then I was once they saw them.

You see, I’d had quite a few conversations with my 4yo about Santa. One of her main concerns was how he was going to get into the house without a chimney. Which was clumsily explained away with some mutterings about him climbing through windows or something.

That led to her insisting that we not only cover the lawn with the “reindeer food” that she got in school {a combination of oatmeal and green glitter meant to attract the attention of the flying reindeer}, but that we also leave open the window and glass door blinds to make sure that Santa could see inside.

And after all of her worrying, I thought it would be nice to leave some “proof” behind that Santa – and his reindeer – DID, in fact, make it to our house on Christmas Eve.

I used flour to represent the snow that stuck to the reindeer feet when they were up north where it’s cold, and the glitter was because the reindeer are magical.

How to Make Snowy Floridian Reindeer Footprints from RoamingRosie.com

What I did was mix together some flour and glitter, and then sprinkle it over the front walk with a small mesh colander.

To Make the Reindeer Footprints, you’ll need:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup fine silver glitter
small mesh colander
cardboard cutout of reindeer feet

And I would totally upload a reindeer foot template if I had one, but as you can see in the photos, I simply took a thin piece of cardboard, drew a couple of circles on them, drew a triangle in the tops of those circles, and used a box cutter to very carefully cut out the shapes.

Grandmas wasn’t fully convinced that that’s what reindeer footprints would actually look like, but I thought it was pretty spiffy.

Anyway, mix together the flour and glitter, and cut out your cardboard template ahead of time. If it’s not going to rain, you could make the footprints late Christmas Eve – especially if you think your children will awake before you on Christmas morning.

To transfer the footprints to a sidewalk/patio/balcony/etc., scoop the flour mixture out of the bowl with the small colander and shake it gently over the template until the cutout hole is covered. Lift template and there’s your footprint!

Ours lasted for about 4 days. And there’s still a bit of glitter floating around. :)

Roaming Rosie Signature

28Dec2014

Do You Wanna Build an Olaf Doughnut Snowman?

Posted in food & flavor & recipes by Rosemary Lynn

Do You Wanna Build an Olaf Doughnut Snowman?

For a little winter fun, I made some snowmen doughnuts for my girls that mildly resembled Olaf. Vaguely.

Anyway, these little guys were made by placing 3 small white powdered doughnuts on a plate, smooshing some broken pretzel pieces into the sides of the middle doughnut for arms, placing some milk chocolate chips upside down inside the bottom two doughnuts for buttons, and an orange peanut M&M inside the top doughnut for a carrot nose.

I then added mini chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth. Since they don’t stick, what I did was make a hole with a toothpick where I wanted the eyes and mouth pieces to go, and then I could gently push the miniature chocolate chips into the doughnut where the holes were, with their pointy tips facing down.

It may not be my finest piece of artwork, but the smiles on my girls’ faces were enormous. :)

Roaming Rosie Signature

25Dec2014

When I Love You At Christmas {a book review}

Posted in books & book reviews, usborne by Rosemary Lynn

When I Love You At Christmas: a book review at RoamingRosie.com

Really, to be perfectly honest, I could talk about books every day. But today I wanted to share with you a Christmas book that we’ve been reading quite a bit, because, you know … it’s Christmas! :)

The picture book When I Love You At Christmas, written by David Bedford and illustrated by Tamsin Ainslie, with its brief but charming text and adorable paintings is a delightful read for young children.

It’s a cute story narrated by a stuffed lamb telling us about how much he loves his little girl. He goes through all of the activities that the little girl engages in around Christmastime, such as when she is wrapping presents, baking cookies, writing out Christmas cards, acting in a nativity play, and getting excited about Christmas day.

The double-page spreads are decorated with bright watercolor artwork and the text itself if very simple, but also very sweet.

One of the aspects I love about the story is how the girl gets so excited about Christmas, but she’s always thinking of others. The book demonstrates things that are sharing activities, like wrapping presents, baking cookies, and sending out Christmas cards. Things that emphasize a spirit of love and giving.

Even though the girl has trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve because she’s anticipating the big day, and even though she rushes quickly to find her own presents on Christmas morning, she takes the time to share a present with her stuffed lamb, too.

The lyrical text is short enough to hold the attention of toddlers and preschoolers, the illustrations are detailed enough to give their eyes plenty to explore, and the underlying message is subtle but lovely.

My girls, who are about 2-1/2 and 4-1/2-years-old, love it … but so do I! This is definitely going to be a regular for us around Christmas, but is still worth a read throughout the rest of the year, too.

*Update: I know the picture says you can get the book from my Usborne site, but it has been discontinued. There are, however, sometimes copies available on Amazon.

Merry Christmas!!!

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