L is for Lemon

Lemons- sour yet yummy when added to other foods and drinks. What better way to she the kiddos how small changes to one food can make so many different variations? To prepare for the activities, I made some lemonade cookie dough (go HERE for the recipe from Parents magazine) that would need to be chilled for about 3 hours before we could actually make the cookies. Jocie and Mew with me when I started the mix, but as soon as I had to turn on the hand mixer, Jocie ran to the living room and refused to return until I was finished with the entire mixture. Mew stuck around but would only watch from across the room. I got the dough finished and into the fridge for later and we got started on the rest of the activities.

As always, we did the usual finding of the letter magnets and practicing our writing and letter sounds. Then we moved on to the foods of the day. To begin this part, I gave Jocie and Mew each half of a lemon and half of a lime. I was not sure that they would even taste them, so I told them to go ahead and smell each one and see which one had a stronger scent and let me know which they thought would have a stronger taste. Before I could grab the camera, Mew licked the lime, the face he made was a classic SOUR one(so sorry I missed capturing it ) and as soon as he tasted, Jocie followed suit, but she actually licked BOTH of them. Mew would not lick the lemon after getting a taste of the lime. Jocie had predicted that the lemon would have a stronger flavor because it's smell was stronger(which is great, she can still smell!! YEA! we didn't have that sense for a long time!) and she let me know that she had guessed properly because it was stronger, and sooo sour(but she didn't make much of a face at all!) 

Next we took the same lemonade mix we used for the cookie dough to make glasses of lemonade. I let them add their own powder slowly and taste, deciding on their own when there was enough. Mew did not want much. Jocie liked hers with a little more flavor. Mew did not drink much, but Jocie LOVED it and had a few small glasses as we worked on other things.

We then got out the lemon pudding. They really LOVE to make pudding now. I just wish they loved to eat it as much as they love to stir it! Mew added the powdered mix and Jocie added the milk. The both took turns stirring it with the whisk. After it was soft set, we put some in bowls and added some sprinkles to the top. I tried to get them to 'paint' with some of it, but neither one wanted anything to do with that today so I didn't push. They did both take a taste of the pudding. Jocie didn't like it much. Mew took such a huge bite I think the cold stunned him. He yelled and spit some back out and said he was "not eating that cold stuff". 

After a little break, we came back to finish the lemonade cookies. My log was a bit lop-sided so the cookies were not quite round, but they didn't seem to mind. The idea  was not only making the dough(which I ended up mainly doing) but also cutting and decorating the cookies. To decorate, we were to brush on light corn syrup and roll them into pink sugar- I thought this would be a great thing for them both to get into- BUT they did NOT want anything to do with making them at this point. So I was left to do it on my own, although Mew did come to watch after a little while. I think he spent more time getting into the water in the sink than anything else. When the cookies were done baking, we piped on the icing and they each took one to try. Jocie said they were 'too sweet' and Mew, well he took a bite and said it was yummy until he swallowed, then he threw the rest into the garage making it known he was NOT happy with it! I also thought they were a little 'strong' with the lemonade flavor but their Dad liked them(they are ALL his now ha ha)