I've Been Working on the Railroad...

Choo Chooooo.  The first union station opened on this day way back in 1853!  Just so happens that union station is in our home city of Indianapolis!  In case you were wanting to celebrate this fun fact today, here are a few terrific train activities to do with your little ones.

Fingerprint Freight Train

Fingerprint Freight Train from Craftoart.com

One of our favorite train books is "Freight Train" by Donald Crews.  It's really neat to see all the different types of cars and different colors.  The story is very short, but still fun to read with the little ones.

This thumbprint/fingerprint activity from Craftoart.com is inspired by the book and is oh so cute!  I love these types of crafts that can become keepsakes!

3D Train with Tracks Craft

Train with Tracks from Parents.com

For a more three dimensional craft this adorable train and track craft from Parents.com should be tons of fun!  Who knew you could make such a cute train with a few wooden blocks, an empty spool, and wagon wheel pasta!  I think at the very least we will be making some craft stick train tracks!

Hand/Arm Tracing Train Craft

Train Craft from TheBestKidsBookSite.com

And lastly here's a fun craft where your child can trace their entire arm and hand and turn it into a train!

Since we are doing a dinosaur unit right now, we're going to get out our Dinosaur Train talking dinosaurs and have come fun!  There are also some great games and videos over at the PBS kids website for Dinosaur Train to check out!

Jalapeno Corn Muffins

This is the time of year for those warm comfort foods that are so yummy we can't remember why we wait till fall to have them!  For me, corn muffins are one of those foods.  I have a chicken and vegetable soup cooking in the crock-pot today, and I wanted just the perfect food to go along with it.  Just a hint of sweetness and kick from the jalapenos make these muffins a great accompaniment!

The muffin batter I use is the corn bread recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.  I have a well used 11th edition as well as an incredibly well used 4th edition that was passed down from my great-grandmother.  Although the recipes are very similar I used the recipe from the 11th edition here.

 

I always make corn muffins when I use this cornbread recipe, and as written it's wonderful.  But the soup were having for dinner is pretty simple so I wanted to kick these muffins up a notch with a little something extra.  Corn and jalapenos did the trick!  I used a whole can of yellow corn and about a tablespoon of diced jalapenos.  They turned out great, but next time I don't think I'll use the whole can of corn and I will definitely add more jalapeno!  

I do make one specific change to the cornbread recipe though even when I don't add anything to the muffins.  I prefer to use buttermilk or sour milk if I don't have buttermilk on hand.  I'm not a scientist or a chef so I don't know why it makes them taste better, but it just does!  To make the sour milk all you need to do is add a couple teaspoons of lemon juice (yes I know real lemon juice would be better but it's just so much easier to keep one of these little guys in the fridge) or vinegar to a measuring cup, and then add enough milk to make 1 cup.  Give it a quick stir, and then let it sit for at least 10 minutes before using.

Jalapeno Corn Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow corn meal
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup milk or sour milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 - 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
• 2-3 tablespoons jalapenos, minced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with non stick spray and set aside.  In a large bowl, stir together flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and then add milk and oil.  Whisk to combine.  Pour wet ingredients into the large bowl and stir just till all is moistened.  Stir in corn and jalepenos.  Spoon batter into muffin cups (they will be very full).  Bake for 12-13 minutes.

*Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 11 ed.

I used a 12 muffin pan here (a very old well used muffin pan!), but a mini muffin pan will also work; you will probably have more batter than you can use in one mini muffin pan though.  When you remove the pan from the oven you may also need to run a knife around the edge of the muffin to loosen (another sign of my very old well used muffin pan!).  

Carefully remove muffins from the pan and allow to cool slightly before eating.  These are delicious served with a bit of butter.  These pair wonderfully with a good soup, stew, beans or chili.  Break apart and put in the bowl or serve on the side!

Dinosaur Themed Sensory Tub

The items from our Back to School themed sensory tub and our Space themed sensory tub have been put away and replaced with our newest themes.  Last week I shared our Peter Rabbit tub, and today I'm going to share with you our Dinosaur themed tub.  This one was another that was a must make.  Dinosaurs are always a favorite in this house (probably a close second to monkeys).  The first animal sound my daughter learned was "Rawr" for dinosaur!

We plan on spending the next few weeks learning about dinosaurs before we dive into Halloween, Fall, and then Thanksgiving themes!  Oh how I love this time of year!  Our Peter Rabbit tub will stick around for a while though.  We are still having fun reading the book and going through the tub to find all the items as they are mentioned in the story.

I'm happy to have more of a mix of natural or recycled objects in this tub.  There are still lots of plastic pieces, but I'd say our tubs are improving.  With each one I create for the kids, I'm trying to incorporate more materials and textures.  The rocks and plants we collected from our own yard, and the plastic toys we already had.  The wooden dinosaur and the paper eggs I picked up at the craft store.

I also had to include a tiny but cute and recognizable dinosaur in this tub.  This is one of the characters from the PBS kid's show Dinosaur Train, and he fits perfectly into a leftover Easter egg to help show how dinosaurs hatch from eggs.

Object included in our Dinosaur tub:

• Recycled brown paper filler
• Recycled paper eggs
• Wooden Wiggly Dinosaur
• Dried plants
• Rocks
• Plastic plants and flowers - for the herbivores
• Assortment of tiny plastic dinosaurs
• Bone (to represent the dinosaur skeleton)

Check out my dinosaur board on Pinterest to get an idea of some of the projects we'll be doing as part of our Dinosaur unit.  I'm really looking forward to making dinosaur skeletons out of pasta, and making fossils out of Play-doh.  We'll also be making dinosaur feet out of old tissue boxes, and so much more.

We've already picked up two new dinosaur themed chapter books and a few other books to learn about dinosaurs from the library, and we've also got our Dinosaur Train talking dinosaurs for even more fun!  Bring on the "Rawwwwwwwwrrrr"s!