Kai project: Fruit butterfly

We looked on Pintrest for our "food project". A butterfly made with apple slices, a carrot stick, raisins, and pretzel sticks caught Kai's eye. We made our own version with what we have on hand - apple slices, blackberries, raisins, and peanut butter. 

I put the peanut butter in a bag and squeezed it out on the plate to make the antenna. Kai loves peanut butter, so the proportion is wrong for the butterfly but better for getting her to eat the creation. 

Here's what we made:

We couldn't get the raisins to balance on the lowest part of the wing, so I added the last of the peanut butter directly to those apple slices instead. 

Kai Project: A Jello Play Dough Assembly Line

Kai's going to school some days now, so today was our first day together since Christmas break. Her first request? Jello play dough. We have an assembly line process to make five colors of play dough. 

We only use about a third of a box of jello, the rest goes into salt shakers we use for other projects (jello is a fun powdered paint or food coloring for just about anything, and I love the way it smells). First we mix the ingrediants in a pan:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup flour

1/3 package jello

1 T oil

1 T salt

1 T cream of tartar

It looks like this:

Kai watches me cook the first batch, but while I'm cooking later batches, she works on the previous color. Stirring over medium heat, the mixture will turn into a ball like this:

I find this part really odd. If the heat is too high, you may get clumps. You can either stir faster or turn the heat down and stir until smooth. It will still turn into a ball in your pot. I turn out the ball into a bowl with about 1/2 cup of flour:

While this is cooling, I wash the pot and Kai prepares the ingredient for the next batch. She is able to pick the next color and open the package of jello. I help measure the rest into the pot for her to mix. While I cook the next batch on the stove, she kneads the flour into the ball. Or rather, she "folds it in half, smushed it flat, and sprinkles flour on top" as I repeat these instructions... But she's learning. 

And the end result?

Five balls of delicious smelling play dough and one flour covered munchkin making crazy faces at me.