Bat Pancakes and Bat Math

When C and R got home from school today, I had some batty fun planned for them.

We began with a snack of bat pancakes, a scoop of ice cream in a pumpkin silicone cup, a little whipped cream, and some bat and pumpkin sprinkles.  YUM!  I made the bats out of chocolate pancakes.  This is the recipe I used (SO good!!):

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Directions:
• 1.  In a small bowl, combine milk, egg and butter; whisk until blended.
• 2.  In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt; mix well.
• 3.  Add milk mixture; whisk just until dry ingredients are moistened.
• 4.  Heat griddle over medium heat until hot.
• 5.  For each pancake, pour scant 1/4 cup batter into griddle.
• 6.  Cook 1-2 minutes or until batter is set around edges.

7.  Carefully turn over pancake; cook 1-2 minutes or until pancakes are cooked through.

I cut the pancakes with a bat shaped cookie cutter.

After the snack, we played a game of bat roll and color addition.

C and R each had a page with bats and a bat cave numbered from two to twelve.  They took turns rolling the dice and would color in the bat or cave with the corresponding number.

The first person to color in all of the numbered spots was the winner.  They had a lot of fun with this game!  You can find the printable bat page to play this game by clicking here.

Monster Doodles For Kids

I have written many posts about C's love of drawing.  Lately, R has been drawing quite a bit too.  They spend a lot of their spare time drawing at the kitchen table.  They both enjoy doodle books that encourage them to complete pictures according to directions, so they were thrilled to review Monster Doodles For Kids by Chris Sabatino.

I love the size of this book because it is big enough to draw in, but small enough to carry in a purse or backpack.  C and R love the pages.  Some of the fun drawing directions are:  "Create a candy bar only a dinosaur would like,"  "What do ogres have for breakfast?," "Design the scariest Halloween costume ever," and "Draw the guts of this mechanical monster".  This book offers over two hundred pages of creative drawing prompts that will be great fun for monster lovers.

This book is recommended for ages eight and up.  C is seven and R is five and a half (that half is important to her!), and they both enjoy the book.  C (the biggest monster lover in the house) is definitely hooked on this book, and has already completed about half of the pages.  Even T (the fourteen year old in the house) has been spotted thumbing through the book and expressing interest in drawing his own monster details.

Chris Sabatino, the author/artist, was kind enough to send us two books (one for C and one for R) in exchange for an honest review.  I have to say that my children are having a lot of fun with it and they both recommend the book.  They also agree that this book is fun any time of year, not just for Halloween!!

Click here to purchase Monster Doodles For Kids by Chris Sabatino!  Click here to visit Chris Sabatino's blog where you can learn more about him, his art, and his books!

Rapumpkin, Rapumpkin, let down your hair

R had to decorate a pumpkin for homework this week, and she decided to make a Rapunzel pumpkin.  Do you remember the braid I made for her Rapunzel birthday party?  I'm so happy we saved it because it was perfect for her Rapumpkin!

Crustless Mini Pumpkin Pies and a Good Book

I love pumpkin pie.  With the exception of T, everyone in the house loves pumpkin pie.  Usually, I just make a regular pumpkin pie; I hate to mess with a good thing, but this is delicious so I am happy that I tried it!

Ingredients:

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup Original Bisquick mix

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup whole milk

1 T. melted butter

1-1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

1 t. vanilla

2 eggs

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Stir all ingredients together and pour into a greased muffin pan.

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate to store.

After eating this delicious treat, we read Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman.  In this story, a witch plants a pumpkin seed with the intention of baking a pie for Halloween.  When she is unable to move the pumpkin herself, passersby (a ghost, vampire, mummy, and bat) offer to help.  They work together, and in the end, share the pie.  There are some great lessons in this book - helping others, accepting help, teamwork, size doesn't always matter, sharing, etc., which make the book one of my favorites for Halloween.                                                 

*This recipe is from In Between Laundry.

Squirrels

Monster Mouth Snack

A friend of mine from college posted these cute treats on Facebook, and I could not resist making them!

First I baked chocolate chip cookies.  Once they were cool, I cut them in half.

I used red icing along the front part of the cookie; the original recipe has red frosting.  The frosting will look cleaner, but the icing is fun for a gory look.

Then, I placed the mini marshmallows on the icing and used white icing to attach almond slivers or candy corn for fangs.

Finally, I put more red icing on the other half of the cookie and placed it on top.

The original recipe can be found at Very Best Baking.

Six Weeks

K is smiling quite a bit now.  I love to see her smile at her siblings.

Ghost Toast and More Ghostly Fun

We had an afternoon of ghostly fun that began with a snack - ghost toast.  To make it, I used a knife to cut the bread in ghost shapes.  Then I toasted it and spread the toast with a tiny bit of peanut butter covered by marshmallow Fluff.  The eyes and mouth are chocolate chips.

C and R also enjoyed cocoa with ghost poop!!

Mini marshmallows = ghost poop
Click here to print a Ghost Poop label

Whipped cream and chocolate chips make fun ghosts too!

White Model Magic was transformed into ghosts.

C made this ghost

R colored her ghost with Sharpies.  She calls it her rock and roll ghost!!

We mixed up a batch of puffy paint to make puffy ghosts.  The puffy paint recipe is 3/4 cup shaving cream mixed with 1/4 cup white glue.

C and R loved mixing it with their hands and then using it to paint ghosts (no brush needed) on paper bags.

We concluded our ghostly fun with a few games of Ghost Bingo. 

Click here to download the Ghost Bingo Game!

Weekend Snapshots

C and R attended a costume party at their school Friday night.

On Saturday morning, they had fun with a Halloween Sand Art kit (from Target).

C filled the bat and R filled the pumpkin.

Later in the day, we went to Newport, Rhode Island for some Halloween fun!  

The bumper boats were a big hit!

Digging for pirate treasure!

You may have noticed that R had different costumes in the photos - she likes to mix it up!

What did you do this weekend?  Check out more Weekend Snapshots at What Do We Do All Day.