Hand in Hand Program @ The Children's Museum

The Children's Museum at the Museum of Nature and Science has wonderful early childhood programming. The link is:
http://www.natureandscience.org/dcm/default.asp

Be sure to check out the Mommy and Me "Hand in Hand" Programs. They take place Wednesdays 10-11:30am. Hand-in-Hand is a literacy based drop-in program for adults and their preschoolers to imagine, explore, and discover together. Each week hear a story, get your wiggles out to music, create theme-related crafts and enjoy fun activities!

February:
Shape of the Month: Heart
Color of the Month: Red & Pink
Alphabet Hand sign: H – Heart

February 4 “Little Buckaroos”
Put on your favorite cowboy boots to hit the dusty trail for our Texas Rodeo Round-up story time! Come dressed in your favorite cowboy/cowgirl attire. Create a printed bandana and a Texas painted pony craft!

February 11 “Have a Heart”
Enjoy a heart warming morning creating valentine crafts for your special loved one. Hear how to keep your heart healthy and create your own Dr. Kit to take home! Stay for your special valentine cookie treat!

February 18 “Wags to Whiskers”
Celebrate “love your pet.” Meet our Friends from Operation Kindness to hear a special pet story and meet their very special “pet friend.” Learn all about pets, and pet safety. Bring along your favorite stuffed pet for us to meet.

February 25 “Dinosaur Rumpus”
Stomp along as you listen to the story, “Dinosaur Rumpus” by Tony Mitton. Create fossils and dinosaur crafts for a morning of DINO-mite fun!

Cool Kids

Thanks to Brad Schwall for a great meeting today and for a copy of "Blueprints" for each of us. Be sure to check out his website.
http://www.coolkidschannel.com/

Strawberry Pretzel Parfait

Nancy McWilliams

2 cups crushed pretzels
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. melted real butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix pretzels, sugar, and melted butter. Press into a 9x13 pyrex dish. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. cool whip, thawed

Blend softened cream cheese and sugar with a mixer. By hand, fold in the cool whip. Spread over room-temperature crust. Set aside. (I put into refrigerator.)

6 oz. strawberry jello (large package)
2 c. pineapple juice
20 oz. frozen strawberries, thawed and cut up if they are whole. If you get whole frozen, unsweetened strawberries, I cut them up and add sugar.

Heat pineapple juice. Add jello. Do not add any water. Add strawberries. Refrigerate until mixture is soft set. Watch carefully so jello does not set up. It should just be barely set. Pour strawberry mixture over cream cheese layer. Spread carefully. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. Can be made the day before serving. Keeps well for 3-4 days. After that, it still tastes good, but the pretzel crust becomes soggy.

This salad works well for those who need to use Splenda instead of sugar. Use sugarfree jello. Substitute Splenda for regular sugar except in the crust. Splenda can be used in the crust, but it makes the crust very hard. Unsweetened pineapple juice can also be substituted for the sweetened kind.

This salad works well with many menus. Sometimes people have chosen another serving of it rather that the dessert choices I had planned!

Grape Ambrosia

Nancy McWilliams

3 lbs. sweet (if possible!) red or purple seedless grapes

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

8 oz. sour cream

3/4 c. powdered sugar

De-stem grapes, wash and pat dry. (Very important step to dry the grapes completely so the salad won't be runny.) In a mixing bowl, use an  electric mixer to blend together the softened cream cheese, sour cream and powdered sugar till smooth.  Add grapes to cream mister and refrigerate overnight.

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. chopped toasted pecans

To toast pecans, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put chopped pecans on a cookie sheet. Turn oven off and place pecans in the oven for 5 minutes.

JUST BEFORE SERVING, sprinkle salad with brown sugar and toasted pecans.

This salad keeps well for only 2-3 days in the refrigerator. After that, the grapes tend to get soft and lose that nice "pop" that tastes good. Also, the salad just gets a little watery. Can still be eaten but is not quite as good!

Vickery Mops

Our Vickery Mops group is in need of our help in (re) furnishing the community center where we meet. If you have items to donate, desks, tables, chairs, bookcases, children's books, etc.  OR if you would like to get involved please contact Sindy Smith asap!!!  sindy@sindy4health.com or 214-363-2124