Storybook Party

Muffin Recipe

2010-03-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

You obviously need some muffins if you're going to celebrate If You Give a Moose a Muffin.

And for your munching pleasure, I have here, one of the most delicious muffin recipes ever. And it's super easy. And healthy. At least, I can pretend it's healthy because they're 100% whole wheat. Just don't look at how much sugar you have to put in them. (Unless you're making the muffins. Then you can look. But promptly forget afterwards and just remember the 100% whole wheat.)

This recipe comes from my friend Annie and not only are they super good, but they are also super yummy. And easy. (Did I mention how good they are?)

Cream together:

1/3 c. oil

1 c. brown sugar

Add:

1 c. applesauce

1 tsp baking soda

Add:

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

Bake at 375 degrees in muffin cups for 20 minutes.

She also had this to say about the recipe:

"It is a recipe from my Dad's side of the family who are known for not measuring and changing recipes. I actually have 2 copies of the recipe. One copy is the one I used tonight and is what I typed above. The other copy says only 1/2 c. brown sugar and an extra 1/4 c. applesauce. I didn't realize I had 2 copies until I got home. I'm not sure which one tastes better. So take your pick!"

I've only tried the recipe up above. It was so good, I didn't want to try changing it and risk it not tasting as good. Besides, when did things ever taste as good with less sugar?

And if I haven't mentioned, these are good. So good that my little two-year-old kept asking for more cake please.

Also, I know that in the book the moose eats these with jam, but Annie brought some honey butter with hers and it was super yummy.

You can make honey butter. (I never thought about this before.) It's easy. Cream together softened butter and honey. I'd tell you the quantities, but you can do it to your tastes. I personally prefer copious amounts of honey in my honey butter, but I kinda like sugar. A lot. I still sneak clumps of brown sugar when my kids aren't looking

Horse, Indoor Moose Style

2010-03-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Ever played the basketball game Horse? This is a similar version, adapted for If You Give a Moose a Muffin and also for indoor play. You'll need a basket of some sort--laundry basket, garbage can, etc., and a "ball" of some sort. It can be an actual ball or a rolled-up sock or wadded-up piece of paper.

Player #1 takes the "ball" and shoots from where ever they would like around the room. If they make it, then the players after them must make the shot or else they get the first letter of the word "moose." Then the next player gets to pick where to take a shot from.

Anytime some one misses, they get the next letter in the word "moose." (Each player has their own word and has to keep track of where they are in spelling it.) The first person to spell "moose" looses. If you are playing with smaller children, then you might want to either write down the letters as they receive them or else make letter cards for them to turn over. That way it will be easier for them to keep track of where they are.

And for really small children, you may want to play the game opposite--anytime they make a basket they get to turn over a letter. That way you are rewarding them instead of penalizing them.

This is very easy to adapt for any book you read--just pick something from the book and spell it out!

(Do these directions make sense? I am assuming most of you are familiar with the game Horse, so I'm not too worried about explaining it in great detail. Let me know if I'm wrong and I'll try to do a better job of explaining it.)

Hot and Cold, Moose Style

2010-03-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Pick an object to hide that has something to do with the book you are reading. We had a picture of a muffin to hide for If you Give a Moose a Muffin.

One person is the finder. Have them leave the room. Then have one person hide the muffin. Bring the finder back into the room and help them find the object by singing a song. (Preferably one related to the book.) This song works well for If you Give a Moose a Muffin. When the finder is far away from the object, sing the song very softly. The closer they get, the louder you sing the song. When they find the object, switch finders.

Fun and easy!

Moose Songs

2010-03-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Let's start off our celebration of If You Give a Moose a Muffin with some music!

You can always sing "Do you know the Muffin Man?" with this book.

Or else, you could sing that song with some rewritten words:

If you give a moose a muffin

a moose a muffin

If you give a moose a muffin

He'll want some jam as well

If you give a moose some jam

a moose some jam

If you give a moose some jam

He'll want one more muffin.

If you give him one more muffin

one more muffin

If you give him one more muffin

He'll still want one more.

Repeat the third verse indefinitely. For some added fun, each time you sing the verse, sing it faster and faster. If these are younger children, you could spin around ring-around-the-rosies style, circling faster with each verse. When you're tired of that verse, sing this one to end it:

If you give him one more muffin

one more muffin

If you give him one more muffin

Then they'll be all gone!

And if you're spinning around, be sure to fall down with this verse.

If you want to shorten the song, instead of singing "He'll want some jam as well" with the first verse, end that verse with "He'll want one more muffin" and skip the second verse, and possibly the third verse as well.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

2010-03-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

This is a summary, and a quick reference, of all the fun ways we've celebrated If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.

You could start by making mouse ears for everyone, then wear them as you read the book and do the other mouse activities. And of course every mouse needs some cookies. You could sing some mouse songs. Here is a more friendly version of Three Blind Mice. Also, a song specifically for the book.

Two fun games that we played were Mouse Tail Chase and Mouse Bingo.

And if you want some coloring pages or a dot-to-dot, well, there you go.

If you have any more fun and games you'd like to share, please let me know.

Mouse Tail Chase

2010-03-13T09:43:00.000-08:00

This was a very fun, very easy game to play.

Cut a long strip of fabric for each child. (Yarn or string might work as well.) The strip needs to be long enough that a small portion of it touches the floor when you tuck it into your child's pants.

Then, tuck the fabric into your child's pants.* The object of the game is to step on the other mice's tails. If a mouse looses his/her tail, he/she is out. Or, if your children are like mine and tend to get upset when they loose and you don't want to deal with crying mice, then you can just let them step on each other's tails and when they loose a tail they can just put it back in and keep playing.

*If you want to do this at a place where you can't control what all the children will be wearing, you may want a few belts or strips of cloth to tie around girls who may be wearing dresses. Then just tuck the tail into the belt instead of into their pants.

Mouse Bingo

2010-03-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

I was surprised at how much fun my kids had with this. Even my two-year old (almost three) had fun finding the pictures and putting a cheerio on them.

To start, print out one of the following pictures* for each child who will be playing. (And maybe one more. See instructions.)

Allow them to color the pictures if they'd like. Then take another sheet of paper. Fold it in half hamburger way, then fold it in half the same way again. Unfold it and fold it hotdog style and then fold it that way again. What you're going for is a sheet of paper divided into twenty even squares.

Cut out the pictures and help your child glue one picture to one square. There are more pictures than there are squares. If your children are really small, they may be upset if you call out a picture that isn't on their board, so you may want to remove four of the pictures so that won't happen. If your child is older, they can just set their pictures on the squares and then each time you play, they can mix up their pictures and choose new ones.

Here is a finished board:

There are two ways you can call out what spaces to cover. You can either print out another sheet of pictures, cut them out, and draw them out of a container. Or you could read the book and as you come across the object in the book, your child can mark it. That was pretty fun, although it will probably only work once. All the objects are in the book although a few, like the dustpan, are only in the pictures and not mentioned in the words.

*I'm not sure why, but when I click on the picture for my computer and then try and print it, it doesn't print as a full size page. Even though when I created it, that's how big it was. The pictures might be a bit small if you print it as is, so on my computer, if I scale it to 120% when I print it, it comes out the right size. If anyone knows how I can fix this, or if it's not a problem on your computer, let me know.

Mouse Songs

2010-03-12T23:26:00.000-08:00

Every party needs some music! Here are a few songs you can sing to celebrate If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

This one is sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."

We think mice are nice.

Oh, we think mice are nice.

Mice have [noses that twitch and sniff].

We think mice are nice.

Repeat the song using "feet that hurry and scurry" and "ears that wiggle and jiggle."

And this one is to the tune of "Bingo."

There was a book about a mouse

who ate a yummy cookie.

M-O-U-S-E

(repeat as appropriate)

The mouse who ate a cookie.

And you can always sing "Old McDonald had a Farm."

Three Blind Mice

2010-03-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

Now I'm sure that some of you have probably noticed that "Three Blind Mice" is not very PC. Think of all the poor blind mice out there who have been insulted over the years as children have thoughtlessly sung this nursery rhyme. Also, the song is quite violent. I know my son, for one, does not need any extra encouragement to chase anything around the house with a knife.

So in order to address these two terrible issues, I have this non-violent, PC, kid-friendly song of "Three Nice Mice."

Three nice mice

See how they run

They all ran after the farmers wife

Who cut them some cheese with a carving knife

Did you ever see such a site in your life

As three nice mice

Three nice mice

Now some of you may still be worried about the knife in that version, so if you don't like that, then here is this one:

Three white mice

See how they dance

They danced and danced for the farmer's wife

Who played for them on a silver fife

Did you ever see such a sight in your life

As three white mice

Now of course, there is still the problem of the fact that this song doesn't teach anything. I know that there are some parents out there who don't believe in having fun just for the sake of having fun. So if you need a song with better morals, this one is for you.

Three nice mice

See how they play

They're always polite

when they nibble their cheese

They always say "thank you"

and always say "please"

They cover their noses
whenever they sneeze

Three nice mice

Now that is a song any loving guardian can feel good about.

And nope, I can't take credit for any of these. I pulled them from here and here. (The last one even uses sign language so you can feel REALLY good.)

And if you just want to use the original version I promise not to comment on your parenting (teaching?) style.

Mouse Ears

2010-03-12T23:08:00.000-08:00

To be more fashionably dressed, we made some mouse ears to wear while we sang mouse songs and played mouse games and read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

These are very easy to make. All you need is some construction paper and glue and an optional stapler.

First, pick you mouse-ear color. Our paper didn't come with either brown or gray so we went with black. I suppose we could have gone with white. My oldest went with purple.

Fold the sheet of paper in half and cut out a mouse-shaped shape.

If you start cutting from the right end, you'll end up with two separate mouse ears. If not, cut them apart.

Ta-da!

Next, do the same thing with a pink piece of paper. (Or which ever color you choose for your inside-mouse-ear color.)

Glue the pink paper to the black paper. (Sorry, no pic for this. You can reference the top picture if you like.)

Make a head band for your child. If you don't have any larger paper, cut two strips of construction paper and glue/staple them together at one end. Measure your child's head and staple them together at the other end.

Make a small fold on the flat side of your mouse ear:

Then glue/staple that to your headband.

And ta-da! Mouse ears!!

My oldest made his own ROCK-N-ROLL mouse ears. (That's what he called 'em.)

Mouse Cookies

2010-03-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

Today I will post one and a half cookie recipes. We'll start with the half:

Don't those look yummy?

These are:

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

I like 'em 'cause they're easy prep for the mommy and hands on for the kids. Here is the "recipe."

One package peanut butter cookie dough

About 40 Hershey's Kisses.

Sugar--enough to cover the bottom of a bowl.

The tricky part about this recipe is that I can't give you the exact measurements because a lot depends on how much cookie dough you eat and how many kisses you eat and if you eat more of one or the other before the cookies are finished.

Start by unwrapping the kisses. You might want to save the wrappers because I have a super-cool craft planned that will use them.

Take the cookie dough and roll it into small balls--maybe tablespoonish size. (I know, the exactness demanded by this "recipe" is daunting.)

Then roll those balls in sugar, place them on a greased cookie sheet and stick them in an oven. We cooked ours at 375 degrees for about ten minutes.

The fun part was that the kids could roll the cookie dough into balls and roll it in the sugar. My two-year old and I worked together. I rolled the balls, she rolled them in the sugar.

As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, press a chocolate kiss into them. Unless your kids are older, the responsible adult should do this. If one of those isn't available, an irresponsible adult may stand in.

Let them cool, then enjoy your cookies.

Here is the other recipe. Not quite as easy, but it does use a cake mix, so still pretty easy. I don't have pictures right now. But they are super yummy, and I'd recommend trying them.

This comes from my Remedies for the "I Don't Cook" Syndrome recipe book.

Chocolate Rolo Cookies

by Stephanie Santiago

1 (18.25-ounce) chocolate cake mix, any variety

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

1 (13-ounce) package Rolo candies

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, butter, and egg. It will seem dry but keep mixing. Form dough around a Rolo (unwrapped!) and make into a ball that just covers the Rolo. Place on a greased or sprayed cookie sheet and bake 9 to 10 minutes. Do not over-bake.

Makes 41/2 to 5 dozen cookies.

And they are very yummy! You can also roll these in sugar before cookie them, if you like. And the best way to eat these is warm--so stick them in the microwave if you need to.

Also, save the wrappers for a very cool upcoming craft.

So, anybody have a great cookie recipe? What's your favorite?