Homemade Bubble Wands

Here's a fun and easy activity I stumbled upon while wasting hours of my precious life on Pinterest. Really, Pinterest is like crack for me. I'm just going to scroll through and pin a few more ideas, and then a few more, and then before I know it I've forgotten how to blink and it's two days later. AAAHH! Anyway, we used some of my old beads and cheap wire to make our own fancy bubble wands yesterday afternoon. Why would you make your own bubble wand when bubbles always come with a free, fully-functional wand you might ask? Good question. I don't know, but these are cute and it kept my little cherubs busy for a little while.

I cut a wire for each wand and let the girls choose and string their beads on. Okay- I made Retta's for her, but she had fun playing with the finished product! Then, leaving some wire at the top, I twisted it into either a circle or heart shapes. They don't work quite as well as the plastic wand included in the bubble stuff, but they are capable of making bubbles. It seems like maybe a thicker wire would have worked better. At the very least, they make fun fairy wands too!

** Disclaimer: Sometimes these projects aren't all fun and games for us. The girls look happy-ish in these pictures, but make no mistake, they were actually grumpy as all get out. Retta dumped the bubble stuff out of the dish several times, Rowan cried because she got a fuzzy caterpillar on her foot while she was engrossed in bead sorting, and then Retta smashed the plate on a rock...anyway, there was broken glass and tears and my pants were covered in bubble solution, but I'm sure someone somewhere might have fun making these. Just keepin' it real here on Wonder Parenting...you know, it's not all unicorns and rainbows here :)

Superstar Breakfast

This is one of our favorite breakfasts lately, and with fall days ahead, we'll definitely be having this comfort food more often. We call this breakfast Toad-in-the-Hole, but I think it's known by many names. Today it was a superstar breakfast though, because we have a star cookie cutter, not a toad.

First, use 1 piece of bread per person. We used Ezekial Sesame sprouted bread. It is organic, flourless, low glycemic, and preservative-free, but does contain gluten for those of you who are gluten-free. 

Use the cookie cutter to cut out your desired shape in each piece of bread, and save the cut-out too. Heat up a pan on the stovetop and melt a little bit of butter. When the pan is hot, place as many pieces of the bread you can fit and let it toast for a minute or so. Scramble one egg per person in a bowl and sprinkle in some sea salt and pepper, and a little pour of milk (we use almond milk).

 Once the eggs are ready to go, use one hand to press the piece of bread down into the pan and the other to pour the egg mixture in the cut-out space. Pour the egg in until it is level with the top of the piece of bread. Let cook in the pan for a few more minutes until the bottom is cooked. Use a spatula to flip and cook the other side until the egg is cooked through and the bread is toasted.

Serve with the cut-out shape placed on top of the egg or on the side. Eggs packed with protein, and sprouted whole-grain bread- a healthy breakfast and the kids LOVE it!