Insting Blogs

Our "Lunchables at Home" Tin: Ritz crackers, sliced cheese, applesauce, organic fruit snacks, shredded turkey, watermelon, sliced mangos, chocolate chip cookie, more watermelon, birdie and bunny shaped bread (more fun courtesy of my trip to Daiso).

Muffin Tin Monday will be postponed until Tuesday. Michelle's son fell off the monkey bars Sunday afternoon and broke his elbow. It requires surgery, which has been scheduled for Monday at 6:30 PST. Michelle plans on being back online by Tuesday.

Well wishes to her son!

Kayce
On A Whimm

I found these food cups at a Japanese store here in San Diego called Daiso. The link is to their online store. It's like the American dollar store, only everything cost about $1.89. These items are traditionally used for bento box meals and lunches, but I think they work perfect for muffin tin meals too!

I think I may have found a great way to get myself going on the desire to use %100 cloth resuable bags. And I have the lovely ladies at Moms Going Green to thank for sharing it with me!

The link list that has you ditching the doom and gloom of the weekly paper for inspiring, practical, crafty, or even fun and frivolous posts, blogs and sites from around the web.

Here they are:

What is it about Legos? They are tiny little building blocks that stir the imagination and enable grown-ups children all over the world to create, build, and imagine. I have been looking forward to the day when my son would discover the simple joy of these timeless manipulatives. It was always a battle between oh-my-goodness-my-son-will-choke-on-these-tiny-pieces and  waiting for him to truly discover them. And while my daughter did not initially gravitate to legos, she is discovering them right along with my son. She's beilding building a "house" in the photo below.



*Disclosure: I hate that I even have to write this. This is not a paid or sponsored post, I didn't receive any free product, my family and I just love Legos. And I wanted to write about it. Period.

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! Muffin Tin Mom is the "Official Home/Blog of Muffin Tin Monday" and the Muffin Tin Meal. To read more about this creative idea for mealtime with kids, be sure to check out the always evolving MTM FAQ page. The idea t is pretty simple, serve a meal, snack, or dessert to your kids in a muffin tin. The small individual cups are perfect for kid sized portions! And we call it Muffin Tin Monday, because, well, we serve them on mondays! Still not sure? Try it and see how your kids respond. That's what I did, and we have never looked back.

Looking for more inspiration? Be sure to check out the Muffin Tin Meal Flickr Page, many of our muffin tin mamas post photos there.

This week's theme: Rainbow! We are finishing up our color series with all the colors of the rainbow, as one reader put it "Think Roy G. Biv".


In this week's tin: red fruit loops, orange clementines, yellow mac n' cheese, green apples, a grain (bagel) for good measure and blue and green cups full of apple juice.

There's really no need for the paper, when you can browse through these wonderful links. C'mon. Be inspired. Add a little creativity and sunshine to your day!

Here you go:

For the creative types and those that secretly long to be one (or the ones that just like to look at really pretty stuff):

Amanda Sarver: Amanda is a family friend and a super talented scrapbooker and card maker. She has a blog where she features the layouts, cards and paper crafting she does. One of my absolute favorite posts, is the Charger's Themed Birthday. Check it out! She made Jersey invitations.

Modern Crush: This charming blog features the talents of an uber-talented paper crown maker. She is much more than that however and you will see (via her stellar photography) once you visit her inpsiring site. Be sure to check out her incredible modern crush etsy shop where she sells her one of a kind handmade crowns that are every bit work of art as they are crown.

Creativity Prompt: All it took for me to discover this wonderful site was a tweet by miss Amy of Mod Podge Rocks. She tweeted yesterday about a free retro romantic printable and I knew I had to check it out. It's designed for scrapbooking, but I definitely can see this for organizing my crafting supplies and much more. Not only did I love that printable, but I also fell in love with her blog. Her mission? A blog designed to boost your creativty. Um, hello! That is so right up my alley.

Giver's Log: It was the week of free printables and new blogs for me this week. What I love about this blog is she combines her creativity with her generosity. Her blog is all about giving: Hence, the title. I could pour over her free printables for gifts all. day. long.

For Kids:

The Idea Room: Her kids rewards system based on points and a "home store" is so clever. I love that she rewards good behavior and choices with items she regularly purchases. You'll have to check it out to see what I mean.

We saw "How To Train Your Dragon" for Muffin Tin Boy's birthday and it is definitely worth seeing in the theater. So cute and funny for both kids and grown-ups alike.

*photo by jfgornet



I feel like I have been constantly repeating Ephesians 4:32 this week to my children. In a good way, whenever I hear the start of an argument or a tattling moment, I remind them to "be kind to one another". Kindness appears in the bible countless times and it is a character trait I hope to instill in my children to the Nth degree.

Still have a ton of those little plastic Easter eggs lying around?  Why not upcycle them into musical egg shakers using rice, ribbon and a little hot glue. They are perfect for little hands and plastic easter eggs come in a wide variety of bright and cheerful colors.

Here's what you'll need:


* This is a craft for Grown-ups and older children, due to the presence of the glue gun. Always use extreme caution when operating a glue gun and keep away from little hands.

We love Crayola Triangular Crayons. Two summers ago, we went on a family vacation. We were going to be Airplane bound for several hours and I knew we needed to have crayons on board. But I knew that one preschooler + a box of crayons + cramped space + tray tables = potential disaster. I knew I needed crayons that wouldn't roll all over the place. When I found the Triangular Crayons made by Crayola, I knew they would work for me! We left with 16 crayons and came home with 16 crayons. They are perfect for traveling, dining out, long (or short) airplane rides, or coloring at home.

This post part of Works For Me Wednesdays hosted at We Are THAT Family.

There is no theme this week. I switched it up a little because of Easter, so feel free to do what ever theme you want or no theme at all. After a full weekend, I was getting ready last night for bed when it dawned on me: "I haven't done Muffin Tin Monday yet!" I almost cried because it had been a veeeery long weekend. And I don't like posting it last becaue I know a lot of you are in a different (and earlier) time zone!