Freebies: Talk Like a Pirate Day!

September 19th is INTERNATIONAL TALK-LIKE-A-PIRATE DAY!  To learn more click here. Here are some fun idea for Pirate adventures you can have on that day.  Easy ways to make your kids think you're the coolest Mom on earth.

1. Check out library books
We went with...

Pirate Pete's Talk Like a Pirate
Shiver Me Timbers!: Pirate Poems & Paintings
Backbeard and the Birthday Suit


2. Listen to cool pirate music
Over dinner we listened to this clip from YouTube of a medley of Pirate Songs from the kid's Disney TV show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates". It's perfect because it's around 16 minutes long so you won't have to change songs often.



3. Find out your pirate name

4. Make a pirate dinner/dessert. 
This year I went with our family's favorite Southwest Stuffed Green Peppers.  They look like a boat and my kids were beyond thrilled!

You could also stick these into hoagie sandwiches, mini meatloaves, jumbo muffins/cupcakes or stuffed peppers (like we did).

Here's the printable I whipped up!

Printed pirate sails long wooden skewers

1. Print sails onto standard printer paper and cut out flags and trim around edges. 2. Use skewer to pierce top center of flag, pushing from right side to wrong side. 3. Push skewer from wrong side to right side in the bottom center. 4. Trim top of skewer to desired height with scissors. 5. Stick into boat shaped food and enjoy.

fun food: mini veggie pizzas

Looking for a way to get your kids to eat more veggies (read: shove veggies down your kid's throats if you have to)? I have a clever trick. Mini Veggie Pizzas. My kids love them and I do too. They are addictive and it's a good thing because you can load these up to high heaven with as many fresh veggies as you want.

6 english muffins (or 12 halves)

1/2 brick cream cheese

1/4 c. mayonnaise

2 tsp. dry ranch dressing mix

assorted vegetables, chopped finely
(we use tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, peppers, green onions & cauliflower)

* you may choose to use low or non-fat cream cheese and
use lowfat mayo or omit the mayo for a healthier version.

- Toast english muffins and set aside to cool.

- Use an electric mixer to combine cream cheese, mayo and ranch powder.

- Chop an assortment of veggies into small pieces. Make sure as you chop you have a variety of shapes...some small squares, half circles, long strips, etc.

- Spread 1-2 Tbsp of cream cheese spread onto each english muffin half.

- Have kids decorate their muffin with veggies to create a face with an emotion.  This can be one they choose or assigned (since most will automatically choose a happy face). 

Ella made this one and it is surprised!

- Eat up and love that your kids ate their veggies.

 As you can see, Ella loves them.Evangeline makes the face with a variety of veggies, picks off the broccoli to eat and then rejects the rest...muffin and all. I would LOVE to know if this recipe works for you.  Did your veggie-hater reform? 

[ emilie ]