Amy Hudson

Egyptian Pyramids version 2

March 24, 2013 by Amy Hudson

I taught the girls a little bit about ancient Egypt last year using this lunch. My older daughter, age 4, was very interested to discover the wonder of the amazing pyramids they built using giant stones to reach the sky.

We thought of a new version that is even more interactive.

Build your own 3D Pyramid

We tried this same snack using canned pineapple, and I will say that it definitely comes out better, (not to mention being tastier and more nutritious), with fresh pineapple.

As you cut the pineapple, try to cut chunks in as perfectly square or rectangular shapes as you can. This will make “construction” easier as all of the pieces will fit together evenly.

Start with the base level. Make a square. Ours was 4×4 pineapple chunks. Once that level is complete, move up to the next level. The square on the next level up will be slightly smaller than the bottom level. Continue working upward until you have made what looks like a pyramid!

The amount of pineapple chunks you need will vary depending on how large you cut your squares, but it doesn’t have to be perfect, and the kids will love creating their own 3-D pyramid snack.

Fill in the plate with “sand”. We used krispie cereal and it was a nice color and visual contrast to the pineapple.

Before we ate, we added a little camel for effect. He completes the look and feel of the snack.

Make sure you check out our other pyramid snack in case you are looking for something a bit easier.

Additional Resources for teaching about the pyramids:

Pyramids and Tombs – Ancient Egypt for Kids

Ducksters: Ancient Egyptian Pyramids

Video – National Geographic Destination: Egypt

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

Butterfly Quesadilla + Weekly Kids Co-op

March 21, 2013 by Amy Hudson

Butterflies are a sign of new life. Spring always gets me motivated to get outside, enjoy nature, and celebrate it with our food, too! My daughter has been very in to butterflies lately, and she has even requested a rainbow butterfly birthday party! We’ve already made delicious fruit butterfly for a snack, and today’s butterfly will be a lunchtime butterfly treat.

Butterfly Quesadillas

I have two daughters. I made one quesadilla with a 8-inch tortillas, (I love to use the whole wheat or multi-grain tortilla wraps), and cut it into 4 equal portions. Place two quesadilla “wings” on your plate.

Create the body by slicing the end off of some beautiful green grapes and laying them on your plate to look like a body.

Thinly slice a baby carrot into strips to use for antennae, and place two blueberries on top of the carrots to complete the look.

If you feel so inclined, you could even use a food marker to draw a happy face on the top grape for your butterfly.

That’s it! Super easy and so fun for the kids.

If you enjoyed this, check out our other animal snacks, as well as our nature themed snacks. The kids will love them! I know mine did!

By the way, I found another blogger who has another take on the butterfly quesadillas. Check her version out here!

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

Phineas and Ferb Birthday Party Ideas

March 18, 2013 by Amy Hudson

Lori is a Facebook Fan hosting a birthday party for her son with a Phineas and Ferb theme. She is looking for creative food to go along with the Phineas and Ferb theme. There are so many cute ideas for this theme out there, which I’ll mention at the end of this post, but here were the two easiest and cutest ideas I could think of 🙂

Create these little Phineas cheese and cracker bites using the following ingredients.

Ingredients: string cheese, triangular Triscuit crackers, spreadable cheese.
Spoon a few teaspoons of spreadable cheese into a disposable plastic baggie. Snip a tiny corner off of the bag. Pipe a little cheese onto the cracker to adhere the string cheese eye. Slice string cheese into wheels. Place one wheel on each cracker, using the spreadable cheese as “glue”. Next, pipe hair on the back of the triangle, an eye on the string cheese, and a mouth. Chill for at least 15 minutes. Enjoy!

To make these Phineas S’more bites, zap a graham cracker in the microwave at full power for 15 seconds. Slice into triangles. Next, melt a bar of Hershey’s chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute in a glass bowl, stirring at 20 second intervals using a rubber spatula. Spoon melted chocolate into a plastic baggie with a tiny corner sliced off for piping. Pipe a drop of chocolate onto graham cracker where eye will be. This will serve as “glue” for the marshmallow eye. Place a mini marshmallow on the chocolate “glue”, then pipe an eyeball and a smile onto each one. Chill for at least 15 minutes. The kids will love this!

**Take these a step further by laying them on wax paper, then piping some melted white chocolate dyed red for Phineas’ hair. Chill on the wax paper for at least 30 minutes.

There are SO many adorable Phineas and Ferb food creations available out there! After creating these for your post, Lori, I saw that there lots of fun finger foods out there for you to try. Here are some of my favorites.

Phineas and Ferb Fruit from Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons

Mini Phineas and Ferb Sandwiches from Hawai’is Bento Box Cookbook

Phineas and Ferb Cookies from DisneyFamily.com

And here are the results for a Pinterest Search of Phineas and Ferb Cakes. So many cute ideas, Lori!

Have a great party!

Weekly Kid’s Co-op: Great Ideas from Real Moms

March 14, 2013 by Amy Hudson

We’ve been hosting a link party for a few weeks now here at Creative Kid Snacks, called the Weekly Kids Co-op. Moms from all around the world share fun and educational ideas for children. I’ve been loving what I’m seeing, and I hope you’ve gotten a chance to get some great ideas to do with your own child.

This week I’d thought I’d share a few great ideas that have caught my eye over the last few weeks. I’d also love to invite you to follow the Weekly Kids Co-op Pinterest board, so that you can also see the best of the best of these learning activities show up in your Pinterest newsfeed.

The titles of the posts alone will hopefully intrigue you enough – please click through to take a look at these great ideas!

Teaching Symmetry With Do a Dot Markers from Mess for Less

Reading Readiness Ideas for Preschoolers from Carrots are Orange

Outdoor Play Prepares Your Kids for School from The Golden Gleam

Turn Off Technology and Play from B-Inspired Mama

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

As moms, we are constantly on the lookout for great teaching tools and resources to use with our children. I know I always benefit from seeing the creativity of others as they share lessons, activities, crafts, food, and more in their various blogs. Mommy bloggers have become popular for a good reason: information is power. Right, ladies?

The Weekly Kids Co-op is one of my very favorite such resources. I have been linking my snacks to this link party for months now, and I am excited to be able to co-host it here at Creative Kid Snacks.

If you are a blogger, link up your kid related posts to share with all of us eager beaver mommas. If you are a mom, take some time to look through all of the great ideas for teaching and playing with our kids. Pin what you love. Like I said before, information is power!

This party will take place every Thursday at Creative Kid Snacks. You will find it hosted on several other blogs, but the days the party goes live will vary from blog to blog.

Get ready for all the great ideas! Link, share, and enjoy!

Tangled

March 11, 2013 by Amy Hudson

My kids love Disney’s Tangled. If you’ve seen our Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Lion King, Monster’s Inc, “Up” and Peter Pan snacks, you can tell that we are big Disney fans. Tangled is no exception.

To create Rapunzel, I sliced 12-14 red grapes in half lengthwise. I arranged them on the plate to look like her dress. Making the dress first helps to scale the head, feet, and arms. Next, cut a slice of white cheese (I used mozzarella) into shape for a neck, feet, arms and head. I wasn’t ambitious enough to create hands with tiny little fingers using cheese, so I hid her arms behind her hair. For her lips I used a tiny slice of a grape, two tiny currants for eyes, and a small slice of cheese for her nose.

Next, boil a small handful of thin spaghetti noodles until cooked. You can make a quick cheese sauce for it if desired, or just use a little olive oil or butter and place it right onto the plate.

Finish the scene with some celery grass and a couple orange tulips made from carrots.

I loved the scene in the movie where Rapunzel feels the grass and the earth for the first time. This lunch was pattered after that.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check out our other Disney snacks: Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Lion King, Monster’s Inc, “Up” and Peter Pan

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas

March 8, 2013 by Amy Hudson

Lori from our Facebook page has a birthday party coming up. Her little girl loves both Hello Kitty and Strawberry shortcake. She asked for some ideas for either of those themes. Perhaps seeing some inspiration will help her make that decision . . . or maybe she’ll decide to combine them!

These ideas are a mix of my own and other party planners far more talented than me! Let’s start with Strawberry Shortcake for today.

Strawberry Shortcake Party Ideas

Strawberry Shortcake Fruit Platter

Place two small bowls of balled watermelon along with one small container of green grapes in the top section of a platter for Strawberry’s hat. Garnish the top of the hat with a strawberry. Next, place a bowl of fruit dip below the hat for her face. To make Strawberry’s face, I used two blueberries as eyes, a strawberry for her mouth, a few strawberry leaves (you could also use mint) for her eyelashes, and several mini chocolate chips for her freckles. Finish by filling in the space around the face with whole strawberries as hair. This is sure to be a hit!

Individual Strawberry Shortcake Cups

Another healthy option for the party is to serve little cups of Greek yogurt (you could use vanilla or control the sugar content a bit more by swirling your own honey into plain Greek yogurt), then topping with chopped strawberries along with a few graham crackers for dipping. Greek yogurt will be a nice little source of protein for the kids to eat in the midst of the rest of the party food.

More Strawberry Shortcake Ideas

Make these mini strawberry shortcake poppers from Snappy Gourmet

Serve these gorgeous white chocolate dipped strawberries and dipped oreos from Wonderfully Made Events.

Serve a refreshing strawberry lemonade along with water bottles covered with adorable printable wrappers; by Wonderfully Made Events.

You can also have the kids make their own Strawberry Shortcakes. Jill from Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons has a super easy and adorable recipe.

Don’t these strawberry shaped cake pops by Wonderfully Made Events look fabulous?

Use bright pink, red, and green decorations to create a festive look for your (sure-to-be) amazing Strawberry Shortcake Party.

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

Build Your Own Rainbow + Weekly Kids Co-op

March 7, 2013 by Amy Hudson

Here at Creative Kid Snacks, we are all about learning to LOVE eating healthy food. Fruits and Vegetables are so important in everyone’s diet, especially children. One of the guiding forces for me as a mom is including a variety of healthy food in all of the creative snacks we make. In honor of St. Patrick’s day, but more so in honor loving healthy eating, let’s build a rainbow!

My girls loved today’s snack! It’s simple, healthy, and a way for them to express their own creativity. We also get to learn about what makes a rainbow!

Prepare a variety of fruit and vegetables in every color of the rainbow.

Below are some ideas.

RED: apples, strawberries, raspberries, red bell pepper,cranberries

ORANGE: orange slices, carrots, orange bell pepper, cheese

Yellow: pineapple, yellow bell pepper, bananas

GREEN: green grapes, avocado, celery, sugar snap peas, green peas

BLUE: blueberries

PURPLE: red grapes, purple cabbage

Teach the colors of the Rainbow

As the kids get ready to make their rainbow, start with red, and have the kids pick their red fruit and lay it on their plate. Tell them that their rainbow can be any design (an arch, a circle, a sqaure, etc.). Then say that the next color after red is orange. They will then put their orange food down next to the red. Continue with yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Try new foods

If your child says she doesn’t like avocado for a green food, for example, tell her to place at least one avocado into her green section.

Make it a contest to see who can find a new food to enjoy!

Read

Click image for source

We have an adorable book called “What Makes a Rainbow?”. This book would be great to read as a follow-up (or even before) this activity to reinforce what the kids are learning

Eat a Rainbow

I’m sure you’ve seen these awesome charts out there for kids to keep track of how many fruits and veggies they were able to eat in a day. Creating and eating this snack will be a perfect way to score tons of healthy food points for the day!

Visit TodayIAteARainbow.com

More Rainbow Learning Activities to Try

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

This party will take place every Thursday at Creative Kid Snacks. You will find it hosted on several other blogs, but the days the party goes live will vary from blog to blog.

Get ready for all the great ideas! Link, share, and enjoy!

Butterfly

March 4, 2013 by Amy Hudson

When Spring starts to peek around the corner after Winter finally ends, it’s fun to embrace the feeling of new life, warmth, brightness, and outdoor fun. Nothing says new life to me like a butterfly! The butterfly snack we have for you today is refreshing, super healthy, and beautiful for the kids to enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 piece string cheese. (You can also use just half of one, sliced lengthwise).

8-10 green grapes, sliced in half

3 strawberries

1 baby carrot

Directions:

To make this guy, simply place a piece of string cheese in the center of the plate. Next, slice your green grapes in half and lie them on the plate as the outline of the butterfly’s two wings. Slice strawberries and fill in the outline formed by the grapes. Next, slice two round slices from the end of a baby carrot. Slice two thin sticks, and slice a tiny bit off each stick. Arrange antennae as shown, place two tiny carrot bits on the string cheese for eyes. Enjoy!

Continue the Fun with a “READ.PLAY.EAT” activity

READ.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is such a classic story book! Just like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is an Eric Carle staple I’ll bet most of us have in our bookshelves (if not memorized) and read often. I know it’s been a favorite for my girls.

The story is told of a caterpillar that hatches from an egg, grows, and eats and eats and eats until he is so full that he becomes big and fat. He builds his cocoon, stays inside for more than two weeks, and becomes a beautiful butterfly. It’s the classic metamorphosis story.

PLAY.

Create a “beautiful butterfly” with your child that they can play with over and over again. Follow the simple steps shown below:

My girls love to make these, and they only take about 5 minutes. I love them because they aren’t messy, and they don’t involve too much skill on the parent’s part! We have quite a collection, and my oldest daughter Grace plays with hers often. She loves to hold the butterfly by the stick and swing him around to flap his wings.

It is also fun to make each one unique and different. One thing we have done is make a butterfly for everyone in the family. The kids have fun deciding which colors, patterns, and designs best reflect each person. So fun!

EAT.

Make a healthy caterpillar for lunch!

Very Hungry Caterpillar: Creative Kid Snacks

Take a large strawberry and slice to create his head. Next, create his eyes by using little bits of pineapple cut into circles and place sliced green jelly belly candies in front. Form his body with green grapes , carrot feet, raisin mouth, and ham antennae. He is walking on an oatmeal ground and taking in the cheddar cheese sun!

If you enjoyed this, check out our other animal snacks, as well as our nature themed snacks. The kids will love them! I know mine did!

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

Easter Snacks + Weekly Kids Co-op

February 28, 2013 by Amy Hudson

Easter is coming! Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. How about some cute snacks for this special season?

I don’t think this bunny has ever been posted on Creative Kid Snacks, we made it over a year ago. This little guy has bananas for ears, a cottage cheese face, hard boiled egg slices for eyes, an almond nose, cheese whiskers, and raisin eyes. Cute and filling for the kiddos!

This little lamb is a perfect spring time, Eater-y alternative to the bunny. It’s a fresh and fun lunch. Check out how to make it here.

My daughter actually requested to have make a Jesus on the Cross plate on Good Friday. Although it may sound strange, it was a great way to remember and celebrate what Jesus has done for us. It was her way of honoring that special day, and, just like a pendant on a necklace or an illustration in the kids Bible, this is one more way this event is portrayed. See our post about it here.

This chick is another one that has not been posted on CKS. We made our chick out of cheesy pasta, added carrot feet and a beak, a raisin eye, and some fresh celery for grass. Easy, adorable, and delicious!

Tell the true story of the meaning of Easter with this snack – the Empty Tomb. Check out our post about it here.

I highly recommend making these four special eggs this year as you color your eggs. You can tell the whole story of Easter, and each egg has its own directions and explanation. Check out all the directions here.

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

This party will take place every Thursday at Creative Kid Snacks. You will find it hosted on several other blogs, but the days the party goes live will vary from blog to blog.

Get ready for all the great ideas! Link, share, and enjoy!

Resurrection Eggs

February 27, 2013 by Amy Hudson

The following post is something originally seen on my other blog, Sugar and Spice. I started it in 2011 and it is where I first blogged about the creative snacks I had started making for my daughter. Those snacks became so popular that they morphed into their own blog, which is Creative Kid Snacks.

I decided to post this entry here today because Easter is coming up, and this idea is a great way to use Easter egg coloring to teach the real Easter story to your kids. I hope you enjoy!

Are you looking for a way to include the real story of Easter in your egg-coloring this year?

I would highly recommend making Resurrection Eggs! I had the idea last year to make them and they worked so well as a teaching tool and as a way to incorporate the real Easter story, that they are now a mainstay of our Easter festivities.

To make them you will need:

1) Regular egg-dying supplies (i.e. a kit from the grocery store)

2) Colorful tissue paper (available at the Dollar Store)

3) Glue – any kind

That’s it!

You will make 4 eggs. As shown in the picture above (from left to right), you will make (1) a passover egg, (2) a cross egg, (3) a tomb with the stone rolling away egg, and (4) a heaven egg.

Process:

1) Dye your eggs first and let them dry. Choose colors against which the tissue paper you are using will pop. This coming year I will change the first egg’s backdrop color to a pale orange, I think.

2) Cut out your tissue paper to make the shapes shown above.

– Passover egg will be a red goblet and a yellow loaf of bread.

– Cross will be a red cross shape to also represent that Jesus bled while on the cross as our sacrifice

– The tomb will be a wide square with an archway cut out of the middle. You will also need a large circle for a boulder.

– Heaven will be a long blue cloud with yellow beams coming out.

3) Glue tissue paper onto eggs as shown and let dry.

Explanation for each egg:

Passover Egg: Jesus had a final meal with his disciples called a Passover meal. He explained to his disciples God’s plan to save the world from their sins through Jesus. Jesus was going to have to die on a cross. Jesus told the disciples to eat the bread and remember his body that would be broken for them and drink from the cup and remember the blood that he would shed on the cross.

Cross Egg: Jesus was crucified on a cross. The cross is red to show that Jesus bled and died on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the price for our sins by dying in our place. Jesus never sinned. He was perfect and took the punishment for all of our sins upon himself so that we could be forgiven.

Tomb Egg: Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb and it stayed there for 3 days. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead! The stone was rolled away by angels, and when the women came looking for Jesus, the angel said, “He is not here; He has risen!”. When Jesus rose from the dead it showed that he was who he said he was because he conquered death and that he had the power to forgive us from our sins.

Heaven Egg: Because of the Easter story, we will be with God in heaven when we die. Heaven will be a beautiful place filled with joy because we will be with God and see all of his glory!

(You can use your own words, of course, but that is roughly how we explained it last year).

How to involve the kiddos:

1) Ask your child to hand you each shape as you are ready to glue it on. As you glue it on, explain its meaning. Repeat this with all 4 eggs.

2) Go over the story again once the eggs are lined up. Take out your children’s bible (here’s ours), and read the Easter story. Have the kids point to the eggs being talked about.

3) Before Easter, have your kids tell a friend or relative about the resurrection eggs they made and each of their meanings.

4) On Easter morning, hide the eggs around the house, and have the kids find them and bring them back together before breakfast is served and Easter baskets are invaded.

5) Pray together as a family and thank God for each aspect of the Easter story.

6) Ask your child which egg is their favorite and why.

7) If your child is into hard boiled eggs, allow them to eat that one on Sunday morning as part of breakfast.

Surely you will come up with even more of your own great ideas for the Resurrection Eggs. I’d love to hear what you do with them if you try them!

Happy (early) Easter to you!

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

« Previous Page

Egyptian Pyramids version 2

Build your own 3D Pyramid

Additional Resources for teaching about the pyramids:

Butterfly Quesadilla + Weekly Kids Co-op

Butterfly Quesadillas

Phineas and Ferb Birthday Party Ideas

Weekly Kid’s Co-op: Great Ideas from Real Moms

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

Tangled

Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party Ideas

Strawberry Shortcake Party Ideas

Strawberry Shortcake Fruit Platter

Individual Strawberry Shortcake Cups

More Strawberry Shortcake Ideas

Build Your Own Rainbow + Weekly Kids Co-op

Prepare a variety of fruit and vegetables in every color of the rainbow.

Teach the colors of the Rainbow

Try new foods

Read

Eat a Rainbow

More Rainbow Learning Activities to Try

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

Butterfly

Ingredients:

Directions:

Continue the Fun with a “READ.PLAY.EAT” activity

Easter Snacks + Weekly Kids Co-op

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

Resurrection Eggs

To make them you will need:

Process:

Explanation for each egg:

How to involve the kiddos:

Best of

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