hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

Here it is, as promised, Grace's Mud Pie recipe! She did all the work, I helped explain terms and measurements, stirred at the very end to make sure everything was evenly coated (at her request), and helped hold the pot. She let one of her friends spread the Nutella and add the "dirt" to one of the pies while she did the other.  This is a very kid friendly recipe, I highly recommend it for ages 8 and up! The original recipe is in the book The Cooking Book, by Jane Bull. But we modified it just a bit. Here are our supplies: 3/4 c butter 1 tbsp cocoa powder 1/2 c sugar 1 c graham cracker crumbs 1/2 c dried fruit 1 chocolate bar (we used Nutella spread instead) We added: Heath chocolate and toffee bits Black Sixletts (found in the party aisle) These are the original measurements, we doubled the recipe though. Step 1: Crush graham crackers. We used a gallon size zipper bag and a coffee mug (I don't own

We are still buzzing with excitement from this weekend. Our house was transformed Saturday afternoon into a dazzling venue for our Mid-Summer Indoor Garden Tea Party in November.  Confused?  No worries. I'll explain. First, allow me introduce an amazing book: A Year in the Secret Garden by Valarie Budayr & Marilyn Scott-Waters I recieved a beautiful paperback copy for review, but otherwise I have recieved no compensation. All thoughts and opinions of the book are entirely my own. Inspired by and written as sort of a companion and activity guide for The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this book is divided into twelve month sections. Each month highlights traditional activities, recipes, life in that era, and a character study. It is a wonderful, hands on, practical way to take kids on a journey back in time and see how children and families lived in another era. The illustrations are colorful and whimsical. The photographs

Welcome to Fresh Brewed! Each week I will write about a topic that relates to families. Then, at the bottom of the post is a Linky Tool so that you can link up your posts related to the topic for the week. It doesn't have to be a new post from the past week, if you have written about it in a previous post, link it! The topics will be broad enough to encompass many avenues of thought, but do please only post related posts. Opinion posts are welcome, but not bashing ones please. Please keep it respectful. There may be posts with vastly different viewpoints, or addressing points on vastly different areas of the topic. That's fantastic as every family is different and struggles with different circumstances. If you are not a blogger, but you have an interesting article to share, or read something another blogger posted, please feel free to leave a link in the comments section of the weekly post and a short description of how it relates to the topic.  Fresh Brewed Weekly Li

Keeping Kit busy while the big kids are working on certain school projects can sometimes be a challenge. She loves to be involved in whatever they are doing, but she also loves to wreck it. They are not her biggest fans in those moments.  So Thursday, while Grace was building her aqueduct, I devised a way to keep Kit fully engaged and happy. We played Twister! Preschool Style. We spread out the mat, and then I had her go find her three favorite stuffed animals. While she brought them out one by one from her bed, I wrote their names on sticky notes and stuck them over the hands/feet on the spinner, including a sticky note for her. Then we were ready! Jeffrey the Pug, Thunder the Wonder Cat, and Sylvia - dutifully manning their posts. :) By modifying the game, she was able to follow the simple directions seeing as she doesn't understand the whole right/left concept yet. And she was moving her whole body moving her friends from one spot to the next

The last several weeks have been short school weeks here. But productive ones. Zak sculpted a volcanic landscape out of Kinetic Sand. He said it was "from before any animals and humans, back when there was just tons of volcanoes everywhere." Despite the lack of scientific vocabulary, it was a very cool rendering. He even explained which ones were active, which were dormant, and which were still forming. I found a great idea on Pinterest for helping with handwriting skills. While the original idea was for younger children closer to preschool and kindergarten age, I immediately saw how it could be a great aid to Grace and her dysgraphia. We put salt in an upside-down lid, chosen because of it's shallow sides. I wrote the words she needed to practice in big letters on line-less paper. First, she was to use her finger or the eraser side of a pencil to trace the words in the salt, checking them off on the sheet as she went. By using the eraser side o