The Grouchy Ladybug Snack

Today during circle time, we read one of the boys' favorite books, The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.  

Shortly after reading the book, it was time for me to make morning snack for the kiddos and The Grouchy Ladybug was still on my mind.  Mostly because the boys kept repeating, "Hey you!  You wanna fight!?"  So, I used this page from the book as the inspiration for today's food art.

Here is MY version:

The sun is pineapple, the praying mantis is cucumber with tomato eyes, the ladybug is black beans and a cherry tomato and carrots for the ground.  I used a toothpick and some black food coloring to "paint" the dots on the wings and the pupils on the mantis eyes.  I realized later that I probably should have put the carrots at an angle to better imitate the brush strokes in the book and maybe added a few red and yellow  bell pepper strips.  Next time.

Making grain-free and dairy-free food art is a lot more complicated than when I could just cut a "sammy" and some cheese into a fun shape, but I think it turned out pretty good.  Most importantly the boys loved the theme and they devoured this healthy snack!  

My First "20 Chore Tuesday"

I love lists!  I am way more productive and organized if I have a visual of what I need done, so when my friend Emily over at Joyful Abode started doing "20 Chore Tuesday" a couple weeks ago, I knew I needed to join in the fun.

This is today's 20 chores:

Ok, so maybe not all of the things on the list are "chores" in the traditional sense, but they are things that I need to make sure get done. When I made the list, I figured quite a few of the items wouldn't get crossed off, but I was pleasantly surprised with my results.



I got about 18 things from the list finished, plus some things that weren't on the list.  So, all-in-all, I'd say this was a successful Tuesday.  Thanks to Emily for helping provide some motivation!