Teacher Appreciation Treat Ideas

 Yeah, yeah...I know, I'm a little late with these Teacher Appreciation Treat Ideas.  But I'm all about keeping it real on this old blog...and I did not make these bad boys until 11 last night :)  So if any of you are procrastinators (like me), or maybe just plain forgot (possibly me as well) here are two quick ideas for you!!

Our room moms this year are AWESOME, and sent out great, detailed emails telling us the theme for each day of appreciation and some of the teachers favorites.  Today the theme is the teachers favorite treats, and this is what we came up!

Skylars teacher loves Diet Mountain Dew, so we just came up with a cute tag, wrapped it around the soda and attached with washi tape.  Then topped it off with a little bit of Bakers Twine and it was ready to go.  You can click, save and print on the tag below :)

Kendalls teacher is pretty easy to please...this wonderful lady LOVES chocolate!  We just grabbed a few candy bars, stuck them in a cute fry box from Pick Your Plum, added a strip of washi tape, and topped it off with our fun printable tag.

Again, feel free to print off the tag below! :)

I have spent some time helping out at the schools musical they are putting on this week and it has been SUCH an eye opener to the truly amazing people we have working with our children!  I hope these teeny little gestures help them to know who grateful we are for them and put a smile on their faces :)

Fit Friday...Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Muffins!

 

Happy Friday everyone!!  A LONG time ago, before I got pregnant with my 5th baby and was trying to lose weight after my 4th baby, I started doing Fit Friday posts.  I tried to pick one area to focus on each Friday that I was striving for in my quest to yes, lose weight, but mostly...to get FIT!  Beyond losing that baby weight I wanted to really achieve some serious fitness goals, for me that ended up with me running two half-marathons before getting pregnant with baby #5 :)

Well here we are, 2 years later and I am in the same boat again!  Baby Cohen is 5 weeks old, and I am ready to get FIT again!  Yes, I really want to be able to fit into my skinny jeans again, but mostly I want to be able to do the things I had pushed my body to do before that I never thought were possible. I miss feeling that strength and endurance, so I am going to get it back darn it! ;)

Is anybody else with me??  Maybe you are like me, just had a baby, and need to lose that 15-20 pounds?  Because, we all gain 50 lbs when we're pregnant, right?!  Humor me people! ;)

Maybe you feel great at the weight you are at, but you want to push your body to limits you never have before, whether its running, biking, or just trying something new!

Maybe while you were pregnant you let ALL of your families healthy eating habits go, and you are determined to get back on track!  Again...humor me people, thats what happened at our house!

If you can relate to ANY of these things at all, Fit Friday is for YOU!!

Today I am tackling BREAKFAST!!  You know...the most important meal of the day?  I am SO not a breakfast lover.  I pretty much have to force myself to eat, but one thing I do love is a good muffin!  I mean, obviously, a HUGE Costco muffin would be my first choice, but since this is called Fit Friday I knew I needed to come up with some other options ;)  My kids love muffins too, so I hoped I could find a recipe that was pretty healthy that we could all enjoy.  

I found a great recipe HERE that sounded really yummy, and with a few changes we created something we really loved that we have already made twice this week...

Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Muffins

The original recipe doesn't call for strawberries, but I figured if I threw a bunch in I could cut some of the sugar...and who doesn't love the strawberry banana combo?! ;)

Here is the recipe:

2.5 C Old Fashioned Oats (not cooked)

1 C lowfat vanilla yogurt

2 eggs

1/2 C brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 ripe bananas

6-8 large strawberries

First up, throw everything in your blender besides your strawberries.  You are going to want to chop those up and set them aside.

Once your mix is all blended up, pour into greased muffin tins (or use some super cute cupcake liners you have laying around ;)

Then grab those chopped strawberries and sprinkle them generously on top of each muffin.  Doesn't that just look awesome?

Then you bake these bad boys at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, watching closely and checking with a toothpick to see if they are done.  Mine cooked for exactly 15 minutes and came out perfect.

I'm telling you...these were GOOD!  Plus, you have to love that they have NO flour, butter, or oil.  The original recipe said they freeze great too...we ate all of ours so I haven't tried that yet :)  I calculated these muffins to be a little under 130 calories each, and with the oats they are filling enough to get you through the morning!

Thanks for checking out Fit Friday today!  I would love to know...what is your favorite quick, healthy go-to breakfast that you and your family love?!

Fantastic Thursday Link Party with Five Little Chef!

 Hello friends!!

I am so excited today to be co-hosting the Fantastic Thursday Link Party with Five Little Chefs!

If you haven't checked out this blog before...you need to now!  So many great recipes and crafts...and the best part of all?! These gals are passionate about allowing and teaching their kids to do all their own creating, in and out of the kitchen.

But enough about us...this party is all about YOU!!  We want to see what you have created this week, and we are ready to be inspired!  

To play along all you need to do is make sure you follow along here at Blue Skies Ahead and of course with Five Little Chefs.  Then link up your latest and greatest and check back next week to see if you and your fabulous project have been featured :)

Are you ready?  Let's see what Fantastic things you are doing this week! :)

Birthday Breakfast...Angry Birds Battle for Breakfast!

THIS little guy turned 4 last week!

How cute is he?!

As per family tradition I planned a fun birthday breakfast for him.  One of Brittons favorite things to do is play Angry Birds on my phone, so picking out the theme of his breakfast was pretty simple ;)

Of course, we had to have a fun activity to go with it, so we came up with the Angry Birds Battle for Breakfast!

This was what Britton woke up to on the morning of his birthday.  I always have the table set and all the yummy breakfast food out.  I bought lanterns at our local party store and then printed of the birds face templates HERE to make our very own Angry Birds.  Britton really loved them...in fact they are still hanging up today ;)

This time though, when Britton came down to eat....there was NO FOOD!!  

 

After closer inspection, we found this note from the Pigs!

So to get his yummy Birthday Breakfast, Britton was going to have to use his Angry Birds to Battle for Breakfast!

Over in the corner King Pig had all of our breakfast hostage, and Britton was going to have to battle to get them back.

I found these pig paper plates and on the back of each I wrote one breakfast item like muffins, chocolate milk, cereal, yogurt, etc.

Then I taped them up on the sliding glass door, gave Britton his favorite Angry Bird and sling, and let him go at it!  Every time he hit a pig we would take it off the window, and he could choose that item from the basket to eat.

By the time he was done he and his Angry Bird had won the Battle for Breakfast!!

Not only did my guy get a yummy breakfast, but he had a LOT of fun getting it too :)

I love my sweet little guy, and I hope he loved his Angry Birds Breakfast too :)  If you want some more  Birthday Breakfast inspiration check out our Build-Your-Own Breakfast Sundaes and stay tuned for more fun ideas...its birthday month at our house!!

Plant and Flower Week at the Tulip Festival

 Every year our family treks out to Thanksgiving Point and goes to the Tulip Festival at the end of April.  I always try to plan it so we go the week we are learning about plants and flowers...it is a great way for the kids to see up close and enjoy all the things we have been learning about all week long.    

We went last night and had a fantastic time!  You never know what kind of weather you will have in April, so we were thrilled we just needed warm jackets and that SO many beautiful flowers were in bloom.

The first thing we do when we get there?  I always make my kids take a picture at the top of this beautiful hill :)

I bet you can guess what they always do next....;)

Then comes the fun of walking back UP the huge hill :)

Once we are done with the hill we are off to explore all the beautiful flowers and gardens.

Isn't it such a gorgeous place??

These two cuties were there too...they just were lucky enough to have daddy push them around the whole time!

We had a great time enjoying the beauty of Thanksgiving Point, and picking out which were our FAVORITE tulips!  These pretty pink ones were mine...

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!

Power of Prayer Family Home Evening {The Prophet Enos}

Tonight's Family Home Evening was short and sweet...but so important!  

Tonight we talked with our children about the power and importance of prayer, teaching them the story of the Prophet Enos and what he teaches us about prayer.  We read about him from the Book of Mormon Stories and then discussed one of my favorite newly-discovered quotes (you know I had to make a printable!;)

This quote from Corrie Ten Boom has really impacted me lately, and the way I pray.  I explained to my kids what a steering wheel is for, and what a spare tire is for.  I asked them whether we pray to our Heavenly Father ALL the time, so we can have his guidance in our lives, when things are good AND bad...or do we only pray to Him when we need something, like when we would use a spare tire.  That thought has hit me lately as well...am I trusting Heavenly Father to lead and guide my life...or do I forget about Him and praying to Him until I am in a moment of need?

We talked about how important it is to remember to pray not only when things are tough...but also when things are GOOD!!  We also talked about how our prayers need to be meaningful...not just the same repeated prayers over and over.  To help with that I thought it would be fun to have the kids list a few things that they want to thank Heavenly Father for, or things that they feel they need to ask Him for.

 

I found these buckets I had in my basement and filled them with rice.  Then I got out some chalk and these fun little chalkboards on sticks and we took turns listing things we want to be better about including in our prayers.

Once we came up with our items we put our buckets up on our mantle so we can remember throughout the week to try and make our prayers more meaningful and more full of gratitude.

We closed by each sharing an experience where we KNEW and FELT that Heavenly Father had heard our prayers and answered them.  It was so wonderful to hear my children's sweet and tender experiences with prayer already, and it encouraged me to be more vigilant and genuine in my own personal prayers.  I say it often, but I feel like these kids are teaching me so much more than I could ever teach them!

Painted Bread Flowers

 Happy Monday friends!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend :)  We are kicking off our Spring and Plant Week today, and we are excited!  I didn't actually have anything planned for today, but when the kids started whining about being bored I threw this together.  They loved it, and I actually had a lot of fun too ;)

Painted Bread Flowers!

I had pinned this awesome idea forever ago from Share and Remember, and have been waiting for the perfect day to use it...today was that day!

All you need to make your own Painted Bread Flowers are slices of bread, milk, food coloring and a flower cookie cutter.

I used the Neon Food Coloring and just did 2-3 drops in each cup of milk and had the kids stir them up.

Once you have your "paint" ready to go, hand your kids a paintbrush and let them paint away.  We only eat wheat bread so that was what we used, but the colors would be even brighter if you had white bread on hand!

The kids thought it was SO silly that we were painting bread...with MILK!  They loved seeing the different colors show up on the bread and see what designs they could make.

And this little one?  I just gave her a cup of water to paint her bread and she was none the wiser ;)

I even got in on the fun too ;)

Britton was especially proud of his creation. 

After they were all done painting we just toasted the slices for a few minutes to make one side crisp enough to use a cookie cutter on.

 Not only was this a fun activity, but the kids loved eating their Painted Bread Flowers too!

This is a GREAT last minute activity, especially because you usually have all this stuff on hand!

Thanks so much for coming by today, we'll see you tomorrow with a new FHE and lots more plant and flower fun this week :)