Muffin Tin Monday- Valentine's Day Party Treats

Before I share my Muffin Tin Monday Meal, I want to let you know I have a guest review up at The Book Chook today. I reviewed the book the Alaska's Three Pigs. If you get a chance, please stop by and check it out.

To celebrate the second day of the Virtual Valentine's Day Party I am sharing a muffin tin of yummy lunch treats.  We both enjoyed the foods in this tin.

This week JDaniel had a heart shaped empanada ( I will share the recipe for them tomorrow.), homemade tomato soup, grape tomatoes, a heart shaped crouton to dip in the soup, red grapes, and strawberry heart shaped marshmallows.

Here is the recipe for the tomato soup:

Tomato Soup

3 large cans of stewed tomatoes

3 large garlic cloves

2 cups of chopped onion

1/4 cup of minced basil

1 can of chicken broth

1/2 cup of half and half cream

Salt and pepper to taste

2 slices of whole grain bread

Directions:

• In a large saucepan, sauté onion, garlic, and olive oil. Add tomatoes and basil; cook for 5 minutes.
• Add broth; bring to a boil.
•  Puree in a blender until large chunks are removed and return the mixture to the saucepan.
•  Warm half and half in a small saucepan over medium heat.
•  Stir half and half, salt and pepper into soup.
•  Enjoy with croutons cut out of bread with a cookie cutter and sautéed in a pan with olive oil.

This post is linked to the Muffin Tin Mom's Muffin Tin Monday meme.

What is you favorite Valentine's Day treat? 

Do you have a post on a Valentine's Day treat you would like to link up to the Virtual Valentine's Day Party?

 

Welcome Virtual Valentine's Day Party Guests!

I have been so excited about this Virtual Valentine’s Day Party. Can’t believe it is finally starting today. The last few weeks I have been creating crafts with JDaniel and testing out new recipes to share with you. It has been hard to not share them with you as we did them. Many of you have been anxious to share your ideas with other party guests too. I heard from one of you that you were so excited about one of your projects you couldn’t wait until the party to share it.

The Purpose

This Valentine’s Day gathering is a time  to share your party ideas, enter giveaways planned just for the party, and to mingle with other guests. I hope you take the time to share your posts and visit other party guests.


Party Idea Link Up

There is a link below for you to post your Valentine’s Day Party related posts. Each family friendly or child related post linked up will need to have a Virtual Valentine’s Day Party badge or a link at the bottom of it pointing back to the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Link Up. One of the people that links up a post that contains a badge or link back will be randomly selected to receive a $10 Visa Gift Card. You may link up to four posts during the party.

Here is the badge:
                                                               


                                                             <a border="0" href="http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab13/jacquiblogger/JDaniel4sMomVdaysbutton400x600-WP.jpg" /> </a>


What party is any fun without guests mingling and getting to know each other?


I am also going to randomly pick a comment stating the two link up posts a commenter has visited to receive a prize too. You will be able to leave as many comments as you like making the above statement. I will check to make sure that you have really visited the two posts you have said you have. The prize is a $15 Visa Gift Card.

 

Reminder:

In order to be eligible for the $15 Visa Gift Card, you have to visit two of the links above, leave comments on the posts you select, and leave me a comment telling me which two you visited. You can enter as many times as you like. You will need to visit two posts for each entry.

Examples:

Entry One: I visited link 1 and 35. Each post has a comment from me.

Entry Two: I am still visiting. This time I visited link 25 and 43. Each post has a comment from me.

Entry Nine: I am having such a great time visiting. This time I visited link 50 and 3. Each post has a comment from me.

Just leaving a comment is wonderful, but doesn't count as an entry.

   

Tiger Tales Five Valentine's Day Book Giveaway

I love the people over at Tiger Tales Books. I contacted them and asked if they would donate some Valetine's Day related books for a giveaway to take place during the Virtual Valentine's Day Party. They so generously have donated five books to giveaway. They donated not just five books, but five wonderful books.

One of you will receive the collection of books shown below. They are amazing books about finding love and enjoying the people you love in your life.  They will be wonderful additions any family library or classroom.

Do You Want a Hug, Honey Bunny (padded picture book)

A sweet little bunny has hugs for everyone in this book.

I Love You All Year Long (padded board book)
A mother and daughter share what you can do during the year with someone you love.

                                                        

I'll Always Love You (padded board book)
A little bear learns that his mom will still love him even after he breaks her favorite bowl.

Love Is a Handful of Honey (hardcover)
This little bear learns that his world is filled with love.

                                                                Mole's in Love (hardcover)

After several mishaps in finding love, this mole get a pair of glasses someone to love.

How to win?

*Go to the Tiger Tales Books website and tell me a book in their collection you would love to read. (1 entry)

For additional entries you can do any or all of the following:

* Like Tiger Tales on Facebook. (2 entries)

*Follow Tiger Tales on Twitter. (2 entries)

*Leave a comment on the Tiger Tales Book blog. ( 3 entries)

*Follow me on Facebook or Networked Blogs (3 entries for each)

*Write a blog post about this giveaway. (3 entries)

*Enter another giveaway I am hosting. ( 1 entry for each giveaway)

*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site.(3 entries)

*Add me to your blogroll. Please leave a link to your site. ( 3 entries)

*Leave comment on non-giveaway blog post. (1 entry per day)

*Tweet about this giveaway. (Up to three times a day)

This giveaway begins February 5th and ends February 14th.That is 11 ways to win. The winner will be selected randomly using Random.org.


Disclaimer: Although I don't own any of the above titles, I am a reveiwer for Tiger Tales Books and do receive books to review twice a year.

 

Guylian Chocolate Gift Bag Giveaway and Review

 

Guylian Belgian Chocolate is wonderful all year round, but one of you will get the chance to enjoy it this winter. I have had the sheer pleasure of taste testing a number of their wonderful products this week. They are truly amazing and they look so elegant. Their ocean inspired shapes are so unique. They  remind you that you are eating something in a class of their own

Have your tried Guylian Belgian Chocolates before?

I have seen them beautifully displayed in the stores, but until I was sent a box loaded with samples I hadn't ever savored their products before. The wonderful lady I worked with to put this giveaway together decided I needed to fully experience their product line. (I am forever grateful to Corrine.)

Corrine sent GuylianTemptations, a No Sugar Added Milk Chocolate Bar, a No Sugar Added Dark Chocolate Bar, a box of Guylian Extra Dark Shells, and a box of Guylian Milk Chocolate Shells.

To taste test this amazing array of chocolates I gathered a few different judges.

My husband helped me taste test the Guylian Extra Dark Shells and Guylian Milk Chocolate Shells. I am not a big fan of dark chocolate, but I would eat it all the time if it was Guylian Extra Dark. It is creamy and rich without the strong flavor of dark chocolate. My husband and I both loved the Milk Chocolate Shells. They melt in your mouth and leave a slight creamy taste behind. We both found that we didn't need to eat more than one or two shells to feel like we had enjoyed wonderful chocolate.

Some of the ladies in my playgroup gathered at a local bouncy place on Friday and I brought the No Sugar Added Milk Chocolate Bar and No Sugar Added Dark Chocolate Bar to have them sample. They were a little concerned about the aftertaste that some sugar substitutes can leave in your mouth. We all thought these chocolate were great! One commented on the texture. Kathleen loved that the chocolate didn't have a grainy feel to it as she nibbled on it. Everyone agreed that it tasted as good as chocolate with sugar. It would be perfect to give to loved one who was limiting sugar in their diet. We also gave small taste to our sons. They all loved it and JDaniel asked for more.

The final taste test was done by just me. JDaniel and I had had a rough morning on Thursday as soon as he went down for a nap I pulled out Guylian Temptations. These quickly became my favorite. The supple flavor of praline with the chocolate is really wonderful. I love the smooth silky taste of the chocolate too. After only a few bites, day suddenly felt a whole lot better.

I have a gift bag for you filled with a box of Guylian Originals Seashells, 4.4 oz and a bag of Guylian Praline Original Temptations, 4.4 oz. The bag is valued at $14.

How can you win it?

* Go to the Guylian website and tell me something that you learn. (1 entry)

For additional entries you can do any of the following:

*Tell me which Guylian ways to savor chocolate is your favorite. ( 2 entries)

*Follow me on Facebook or Networked Blogs (3 entries for each)

*Write a blog post about this giveaway. (3 entries)

*Enter another giveaway I am hosting. ( 1 entry for each giveaway)

*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site.(3 entries)

*Add me to your blogroll. Please leave a link to your site. ( 3 entries)

*Leave comment on non-giveaway blog post. (1 entry per day)

*Tweet about this giveaway. (Up to five times a day)



This giveaway begins February 5th and ends February 15th.That is 9 ways to win. The winner will be selected randomly using Random.org.

 

Red Ted Art: Time on your hands?! Review

 

 

I really enjoy reading the Red Ted Art Blog every week and am super grateful that she often links to Read.Explore.Learn on this blog. The craft ideas she comes up with and the book tie-ins she frequently creates to crafts keeps me hunting for great books and ways to share the ideas with JDaniel.


I was recently asked to review her new e-book Time on your hands?! 14 Fab ideas to keep you and your little ones busy throughout the whole year….. This book shows fun and creative ways to reuse cardboard tubes. She has selected crafts that would be perfect for key holidays and summer fun.


Each craft page has an overview of the holiday or season that craft was designed to celebrate along with fun tidbits about it. There is also material list, step by step directions on constructing the craft along with color photos that demonstrate how to construct it.


This book is filled with cute crafts. I love cute crafts that have an ahh factor. I don’t often come up with them on my own. This well done book will leave you excited about crafting and comfortable about creating crafts. The step by step directions helped me to feel more confident that I could successfully complete them and the picture helped me make sure I was on the right track.

The fact that many of the materials used in the crafts are things that are recycled is another plus for me. I love being able to craft with things we already have at home. Being able to reuse in crafts is a great way for me to show JDaniel how to save things and use them again and again.

Here is a link to the e-book section of Red Ted's Art Blog if you are interested in purchasing the book.

   

Read.Explore.Learn.- Chinese New Year

Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

• Link your activity below.

• Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
  
  
                                                        
  
  
  <center><a href="http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/"><img alt="Shibley Smiles" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wYnCaxCjpQ/TIbl9KccMVI/AAAAAAAAB98/vjalStjjb-I/s1600/ReadExploreLearn.jpg" alt="jdaniel4smom" width="150" height="150" /></a></center>

• Please try to visit at  least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

• If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:    

 

In honor of Chinese New Year we read Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman. This  is such a cute book. A box arrives containing seven fortune cookies. The main character opens one cookie a day hoping her wishes will be answered by the prediction found in it.  This books will keep you guessing. Each wish is answered but in an unexpected way.

Each fortune cookie has  pull tab to expose the prediction or answer to the little girl's wishes. It was such fun to pull out the tabs and see what it would say.

I read this book to JDaniel at Barnes and Noble. A little boy stopped to listen as I read. When I finished, he asked me to show his mom where to find the book. He wanted a copy to take home.

What did we do? 

Create a Dragon

I printed out a dragon head off the internet and we attached it to a paper bag. JDaniel decorated both with watercolors.

After awhile, JDaniel started fingerpainting with watercolors.

 He also painted the inside of the paper bag.

Once the bag and dragon's head were dry we placed the dragon costume on one of JDaniel's cars and had a Chinese New Year parade.



 This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday.  

Queries and Questions for Hibernating Mama Quadrapeds

I know there are many of you have sleep issues with your children. I have read your blog posts about them.

Lately I have been wondering if hibernating animal mothers have the same issues with their little ones that we do.

If I could talk with a groundhog, here are some of the questions I would ask:

Do you children call out “Is it spring yet?”

JDaniel asks if it is morning yet through the monitor at least once a week.

Do your little ones sleepwalk through your tunnel? If so, do you find them in odd places underground when spring comes?

I have a friend whose daughter walks up and downstairs at night.

Do they need to get up in the middle of the hibernation cycle to use the bathroom or to get water?

One of my sister’s children does this a lot.

Do they have trouble settling in at the beginning of hibernation?

There are many moms in my playgroup that have children hopping in and out of bed each night.

Do they complain that they aren’t tired yet or that other moms let their children stay out later than you do?

JDaniel has just started commenting he isn’t ready for bed yet. I have let him know while that may be true the bed is ready for him.

Do they need to gather fifty million loveys around them to go to sleep?

JDaniel only gets five loveys to sleep with. He would love every stuffed animal he owns in bed with him at night.

How does your husband get up to check his shadow without waking up your little ones?

If JDaniel is close to waking up and my husband turns on the microwave to make coffee in the morning, it totally wakes him up.

Finally I would want to know this:

Do you hope and pray your husband will see his shadow so you can sleep for six more weeks?

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe Thursday.

   



God Gave Us the World Review

In God Gave Us the World Mama Polar bear explains to her little cub that there are lots of ways the bears in the world that are different. She starts by pointing out that the place they live in gets lots of snow. Each time they get a snow fall it isn’t always the same kind of snow that falls. “Sometimes the snow is slushy, and sometimes dry,” Mama Bear points out. She also points out that even though she and little cub have pink tongues his tongue is a little bit pinker.


Mama Bear takes Little Cub to a Bears of the World Museum to learn more how bears around in the world can be different from each other. When Little Bear asks her why God did that, she answers that God is really creative.

Little Bear is amazed that other bears would want to live in a different habitat than he does and many each different foods. Little Bear is further amazed that some bears eat horrible foods like bugs. He thinks this is odd. Mama reminds him that God make all bears and all the foods they eat.

This wonderful book does a great job of explaining that we are not all the same and each was made to be special just as we are. Each has been given a special place in God’s creation.

Little Bear wonders about why God created him and all the other animals in the world. His mom explains that God is the creator of all things because it is his nature and we need to care for it.

There is a lot for a little one to wrap their brains around when they have this book read to them. I am not sure that JDaniel understood all the messages it contains even though we discussed many of them. We will need to read and reread it to learn all the lessons it contains.

The wonderful illustrations by Laura J. Bryant help to bring Lisa Tawn Bergren words to life. They entertain as well as help illustrate the points made in the text. The bears are so cute.

JDaniel enjoyed this book. I am going to enjoy reading it and discuss its lessons with him again and again.
This children's book is  a part of the God Gave Us Series. I will look for other like it.

Disclaimer: This is a MamaBuzz review. The product was provided by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group;for this review

Fortune Cookie Predictions and Groundhog Dreams

If you were a groundhog would you want to have to wake up from a long winter’s nap to check out your shadow?

While Phil has loved to wake up and take part in the spectacle in Punxsutaney, PA for many years. Last summer he started making plans to do something different this year. It took him a little bit of soul searching before ultimately made his decision. He really struggled with whether it would be letting down the people of Punxsutaney if he didn’t show up. He was also concerned about the effect his plan might have on the local economy. Would people return to Punxsutaney if they weren’t sure he would make an appearance?

He continued to wrestle with his decision most of the fall. The other animals in his neighborhood noticed that he was a little distant with them. Phil would walk past them and barely notice they were there. Even when his friends stopped by his burrow to visit he appeared to be distracted.


Phil really wanted to share his plans with his friends. Maybe they could help him work on the clinks in his plan, but if he told anyone what he was thinking of doing would they understand. Some of the traditionalist would say it was important to keep things the same, but they never liked change. A few of his more radical animal pals would cheer him on, but might try to put their two cents in on how the plans should be carried out.


Despite his misgiving in sharing his idea, Phil was dying to tell someone. One afternoon he scurried to his friend porcupine’s house to ask him what he thought about his decision after all it was while flipping through one of porcupine’s old calendars that the he had first noticed that there was a second holiday celebrated during the week on Groundhog’s Day. When he arrived he noticed a small sign hanging from porcupine’s door knob. The sign read Gone to Visit Mom!


Phil took this as sign that he should keep his plans to himself and returned home.


Just before tucking himself in for the winter Phil made the phone call he had been planning to make all fall. He placed his order and let the person on the other end know that he would be placing the money he owed in his mailbox.


When February 2nd arrived, a crowd gathered just outside Phil’s home. Some in the front row closest to the door noticed a note tacked on to the door and a small bag from the local Chinese restaurant.


Dear Groundhog’s Day Followers,

I know that each year you look forward to my telling you whether winter will be ending soon or continuing for a few more weeks. I have decided to enjoy a complete winter’s nap without a break this year.

While I have enjoyed seeing you in the winter year after year, this past summer and fall were extreme exhausting for me. This spring will be super busy too. More rest will be needed so I can gain the strength and stamina I will need to work on all the tasks I will need to complete.

I hope you will find the predictions you seek in the fortune cookies contained in the bag by my door. Happy Groundhog’s Day !


See you next year!
Phil