R- is for- RRRRRRRice!

Back to work! Skipped Q- we had to start with R so we could do some FUN things. I admit, Q was hard to think of foods for that I even THOUGHT then MIGHT try!

We did R over two separate days.
Day one we started with Dry rice and Rotini pasta. Jocie loved playing with the dried foods! She dove right in, mixing it with her hands while she giggled away! Mew wanted to play with his cars in his. He, of course, had to line them up on the edge and then fill each one with rice, one grain at a time. He was so serious, and so cute to watch.


While they played I got the cooked rice and Rotini ready.

We took the dried rice and rotinit and added it to our "beans, pasta and rice' bin. (they play with this often!) and cleaned off the trays

It was then time for the cooked foods! As soon as Jocie saw them, she ran and hid in the other room under my computer desk. She wanted NO part of anything wet or sticky! Mew on the other hand was ready to play. I filled his tray with Rontini. He dove right in a grabbed a piece and ATE IT! He then asked if I could put some sauce on it for him. (I think he forgot we were playing with food, or maybe he was just hungry haha) I was more than happy to heat a little sauce up and put it on his pasta. He gobbled some more down, then asked if I could warm it up for him, since I had cooled it off before hand so that they could PLAY with it. So I put some in a bowl and we took a lunch break! HE was loving the rotini!

While he ate, I cleaned off his tray again and got the rice ready. Jocie peeked around the corner and told me she had a note for me. She comes in holding up a note telling me she did NOT want to play this! I told her that was OK, but she was welcome to rejoin us at any time. She had already changed her clothes so she wouldn't get 'dirty' but decided it was just too much today,

After Mew finished eating, We made some 'snowballs' out of the cooked rice. Again, he set to lining things up- all the balls lined along the edge of his tray. He even was eating pieces that stuck to his hand. (wow he must have been hungry haha) Not sure why I hadn't thought of it before, I asked Mew if he would like to break the balls apart and color them BLUE! Of course he wanted to! so I added some food coloring to the rice, mixed it up, and made new BLUE 'snowballs'. He thought they were the coolest thing. Jocie peeked around the corner again and saw what we were doing and asked if she could make some PINK 'snowballs'. Since I had colored all of the rice blue, we decided that maybe we could make them purple instead by adding red food coloring. they were sort of tri-colored but she was happy. I had to make the balls for her, but she at least watched and participated in her own way:)

 

By this time, both kiddos were ready to go OUTSIDE and play- so we cleaned up and decided to finish another day!

Day two of R.
Rice Crispy Treats. But we did not want to make 'boring' square treats, so we decided to make animals and snowmen.

First we melted the butter and marshmallows in the microwave(so much easier than doing it on the stove!! and FASTER!) Jocie hid again because the butter made a 'pop' sound! But she returned when it was time to add the rice Crispys. Mew helped stir in the Rice Crispys and Jocie watched. I think mixing is always one of Mew's favorite parts!

Then we started making our animals. Mew wanted to make a puppy dog and Jocie wanted a squirrel. Jocie pretty much just watched, but she at least stayed at the table and helped with ideas on how to make things look just right. Mew tried to help the best he could, but did more smashing than anything. One trick to making the 'balls' with the mixture, LOTS of butter on your hands so it doesn't stick! After we made the animals, we added eyes and other features with green icing that we had on hand.

 

There was a lot of mix left so we decided it would be fun to make some snowmen too. We did those the same way, but they got facial features and buttons as well as some sprinkles for green and white snow:) Mew then wanted to use the glob that was left to coat the bottom of part of his tray to make snow to stand his snowman in. They had a good time. Neither will try to eat them, but Dad and I will! haha