Cooking Category
Win A Baby Activity Center During our Summer Bug Contest!
Toby Turtle – The WonderBugs' New Friend!
Many of you have met Wally WonderBug & have fallen in love with his little adventures with Wanda WonderBug & Wilbur WonderWorm. Well, they have a new friend to introduce to you – Toby Turtle! He is their newest friend and an activity center just like them! To celebrate the arrival of their new friend, the WonderBugs are throwing a Summer Bug Party complete with fun recipes and activities for you to do with your children! And what party is complete without presents? The WonderBugs are even giving away prizes during their Summer Bug Party. All the details are below!
Summer Bug Cupcakes
Summer Bug cupcakes made by our Kolcraft Kids
What you will need:
- Cupcakes
- Frosting
- Oreo cookies
- Twizzlers
- Butter knife to frost cupcakes (adult use only)
What to do:
- Bake cupcakes.
- Frost cupcakes in bug colors. Our Kolcraft Kids frosted them like the Wonderbugs, WonderWorm & Toby Turtle.
- Cut an Oreo cookie in half to use for the head.
- Frost over over cookie for the head.
- Make eyes out of frosting.
- Separate a Twizzler to make antenna and turtle’s “spots”.
- Crush the top of an Oreo cookie to fill in the spots on turtle’s shell
- Enjoy!
Summer Bug Activities
- If it’s too hot to be outside, we love these indoor crafts from DLTK
- Ranger Rick’s Geocaching is the ultimate adventure! See how many bugs you meet along the way!
- Bug nightlife – once it is dark outside, grab a white sheet & flashlight. Hang the sheet from a clothesline, fence, tree or some other tall object. Watch as bugs cover the sheet. How many different bugs can you and your kids identify?
Summer Bug Contest!
TurtleTot Activity Center
There is a lot of buzz over the WonderBug’s new friend, Toby Turtle. We know you will love him for your baby!
Some of our favorite features of the Toby TurtleTot Activity Center:
- WonderWorm sings, talks, and lights up to engage your baby
- 8 Colorful toys have different sizes, shapes, movements and sounds
- Toys have been tailored to help your babies development
- Seat spins 360 degrees for full access to all toys
- Height adjusts on seat to grow with your baby
- Easy-to-clean toy tray
- Machine-washable seat pad
The Toby TurtleTot is only available at Babies R Us, but you can win one during our Summer Bug Party! All you have to do is enter a photo of your child who is Cute As A Bug on Kolcraft’s Facebook page. For an extra entry check out the WonderBug website & include a comment along with your baby’s photo on Facebook of something you like about the WonderBugs. The baby with the most votes will win a choice of the Toby TurtleTot, Wally WonderBug or Wanda WonderBug baby Activity Center. Contest ends at midnight CST on July 25th. Voting ends at 10 am CST on July 29th.
The first 25 people to enter the Cute As A Bug Summer Bug Contest will receive a plush Wally WonderBug toy!
Wally WonderBug plush toy
Go on A Bird Picnic with Your Kids
We love that summer is the perfect time for picnics, skipping stones, going on hikes and so many other opportunities to connect with your children through nature. Even if you can’t get out to a national park, you can have nature fun in your own backyard with a Bird Picnic! It’s easy to do! Our friends at the National Wildlife Federation have put together all that you need for fun bird themed recipes and activities for your Bird Picnic.
Enjoy!
Summer Tea Party for Kids
“Mom, I’m bored…” usually starts to sneak up around this point in summer, so we thought to share with you some fun ideas for a summer kid’s tea party Alice in Wonderland style!
Tea parties can be so fun for kids because it helps unlock imagination as they dress up, eat “petite” cakes and sandwiches, get to play games and just be with friends. Several of us at Kolcraft love Alive in Wonderland and have had Alice themed tea parties. Some activities and recipes our kids loved from our summer tea party:
Decorations & Activities:
- You can find cheap light up lanterns at the dollar store or party city. They add festivity to your backyard especially if you plan on having the party a little later and you can plug them in.
- Remember the daisies who sang to Alice? These fantastical felt flowers make great decorations or you can have them as a tea party activity.
- Who can resist the cute little card suitors? This craft is not only great for Valentine’s day, but also for your tea party decor!
Recipes:
- Tea can be bitter for children so select special children’s tea or use apple juice which looks like tea. These edible teacups are a big hit!
- Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cut them out with cookie cutters into cute little shapes.
- Our absolute favorite are these Cheshire Cat cupcakes. Of course you can do any theme of cupcakes.
Have fun & don’t forget to dress up for the tea party!
4th of July Activities and Recipes for Kids of All Ages
Whether your child is a toddler or a tween, the 4th of July can be a time of family, fun and festivities. We rounded up some of our favorite picnic and party recipes, activities and crafts to make your 4th of July celebration fun for your whole family.
4th of July recipes:
- Pack a healthy, easy snack the kids will love at a picnic or BBQ. These Nut Butter-flys are sure to be a a crowd pleaser.
- Everyone will feel patriotic with this yummy fruit flag cake recipe!
- Veggies never tasted so good and healthy as they do with this grilled corn with Chilpotle-lime butter - mmmmm.
4th of July crafts & activities:
- Why wait for nightfall to see fireworks when you can make your own confetti launcher?
- Sometimes little ones can’t stay up to watch the fireworks, but you can have your own firework fun by having a picnic then going inside, closing the shades & giving the kids glow sticks to celebrate their own fireworks show.
- Patriotic Pinwheels can spruce up any 4th of July celebration!
What will you be doing to celebrate the 4th of July?
Easy To Make Fruity Treats for A Hot Summer Day
There is nothing like a yummy popsicle treat to cool off you and your children on a hot summer day. We recently came across this Frosty Tropical Pops recipe from Kraft. We love that it’s easy to make and uses real fruit!
What you need:
- 4 cups of strawberries
- 1 tsp Kool-AID Sugar Free Tropical Punch Flavor Low Calorie Soft Drink (For a healthier alternative use real fruit juice instead)
What to do:
- Blend ingredients in blender until smooth; pour into 6 paper cups or reusable popsicle molds.
- Insert wooden pop stick into center of each cup. Freeze 3 hours or until firm.
- Remove pops from cups just before serving.
- Enjoy!
What is your favorite summertime treat?
Helping Your Children To Eat Their Vegetables
Today is national Eat Your Veggies Day (we are sure a mom thought of this holiday 
) To celebrate, we have some fun ideas to help your children eat a variety of healthy vegetables.
Tips for encouraging children to eat their vegetables:
- Introduce a variety of vegetables early on and often. If your child has repeated opportunities to sample new foods, at least some of them will be accepted.
- Include vegetables in foods your children already like – make zucchini or banana muffins instead of chocolate or sugar-filled muffins.
- Switch from soda or fruit drinks to 100% fruit juice.
- Make fruit smoothies. This will give your child fruit and calcium!
- Make a healthy trail mix for a snack with raisins, nuts, and non-sugary cereal.
Fun kid-friendly vegetable recipes:
- T-Rex pizza
- Mini Technicolor Veggie Pizza
- Galloping Good Eggplant
- Creamed Dill Potatoes
- Red Pepper Walnut Dip (great to dip veggies in!)
How will you celebrate Eat Your Veggies Day?
Fruity Frog Craft for Friday Fun Day
Fresh fruit is in abundance during the summertime and this fruity frog craft makes healthy eating fun and delicious for kids!
Ingredients:
- One green apple (makes four apple frogs)
- Cream cheese
- Chocolate chips
- Grapes
- One piece of green construction paper
- Scissors (adult use or supervised use by children)
- Knife (adult use only)
- Pencil
Instructions:
1. Cut the apple into four pieces and remove the core.
2. On one piece cut a thin wedge, and remove, to create a mouth
3. To create the eyes, shape the cream cheese into two half-inch balls. If you are making four frogs you will need eight cream cheese eyes.
4. Insert a chocolate chip, either direction, into each cream cheese ball.
5. If you are making one frog, cut three grapes in half. Two halves will be the arms. Cut the other four halves to create toes.
6. Draw a lily pad on a piece of green construction paper. Cut out the shape.
7. Place the apple slice on the green lily pad. Add the eyes (cream cheese balls) on top. Place the two grape halves on both sides. Slice lines to add the toes/feet.
Serve your child their healthy, delicious, and frogalicious lunch!
Do you have nutritious tips for families? Please share in our comment section!
Thanks to FamilyFun.com for sharing this frog craft with the Kolcraft family.
For more ideas about healthy eating with children, visit these Baby Matters archives:
Nutritious Baby Finger Foods
Is your baby ready to start exploring the world of finger foods? How about starting baby out on the right little foot with healthy baby finger food? We love the site Wholesome Baby Food because it has easy-to-make recipes for baby finger foods, tips for what baby food to give at what stage and much more!
Check out the site & let us know what is your favorite baby finger food!
Memorial Day Recipes and Activities for Kids
Memorial Day – a time to remember those who have died for our country, a time to be together as family and the official kick-off to summer. We wanted to share some easy recipes and fun activities that you can do with your kids this Memorial Day weekend.
Picnic & BBQ time!
- Easy-to-make Pork BBQ, hot dog skewers and chicken nuggets!
- Fun patriotic desserts your child can help you make!
Memorial Day Activities!
Bucket Beauty – Let your child express her creativity by painting your beverage bucket!
What you will need:
- Large bucket from the dollar store or Kmart
- Non-toxic finger paint
- Smock to put over your child’s clothes (or have her wear clothes you don’t mind pain getting on)
- Let your child paint the buckets with stars, stripes, flowers – whatever she thinks will add festivity to your picnic!
Memorial Day Crafts & Activities!
- Your child will love these patriotic crafts for decorating the house or picnic area for Memorial day!
- Check out these short stories, coloring pages and more for Memorial Day.
- Take your child to visit someone in your family who has served in the military. Have your child make a card for the Vet and thank him or her for their military service.
- Check out your city’s local events for parades, festivities and more!
What will you be doing for the Memorial Day Holiday?
Share Your Breakfast & Help A Child In Need
Wally shares his breakfast to help kids in need
We truly believe in giving your child a healthy start to her day by having a nutritious breakfast. We know it’s not always easy when you have a busy morning routine so we have had several wonderful interviews with moms who have all sorts of tips for healthy eating. We also love it when companies take social responsibility seriously & help promote healthy living while helping those who are less fortunate. Kellogg’s® is one of those companies.
Kellogg’s is having a Share Your Breakfast campaign where you share a photo of your breakfast and they will share breakfast with a child in need. Kellogg’s goal is to share one million breakfasts by the start of the 2011-2012 school year. It’s really simple. All you have to do is:
- Upload or text a photo of your breakfast to Kellogg’s
- Share a simple description
- Enjoy the fact that your breakfast helped a child!
Wally shared his breakfast of yummy cereal this morning! We think this campaign is a great way to teach your child that sharing helps other people and makes them happy. Will you make a difference for a hungry child by sharing your breakfast?
