I found a fun Friday meme over at Fun, Crafts and Recipes.  Each Friday there are four questions about food.  And since I love food I thought I should play along! 

Here are this week’s four questions.  

#1. What is your favorite food that is cooked on the barbeque?
Definitley steak. I love steak!

#2. What veggies, if any, do you cook on the barbeque?
One time I thought about trying to grill corn on the cob. Does that count?  Thinking about it?

#3. Tell us a little about your barbeque habits. Who grills, how often, what months, etc.
99% of the time Rich does the grilling. We usually grill as soon as the snow is gone until it comes back again. At least once a week but usually several times.

#4. Share a barbeque recipe.

Country-Style BBQ Sauce

1 cup water
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Dash pepper

Combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This sauce can be used for anything.  I use it all of the time for chicken and it is so delicious!! 

If you’d like to play along join the fun here.

I have done several finger painting projects with Hailey and I decided it was time to try something different.  So we did some sponge painting.  Sponge painting is a great activitiy to try with a toddler.  Sponge painting can be done with all sorts of different materials but I picked a regular old sponge.  Since we are working on learning shapes I cut the sponge in half to make two squares.

A very easy set up:

• Paper plate
• Paint
• Sponge(s)
• Painting paper

Then I put Hailey at the table and just let her explore the paint and the sponges.

The sponges have an interesting texture and leave an interesting print on the paper.  Hailey enjoyed painting for quite a long time. 

Then she started finger painting on the plate that I had put the paint on.  Hailey was drawing lines on the plate in the paint.  So, I started writing letters for her since I am working on letter recognition with her.

Then Hailey wanted me to write her name and Brooke’s name.

Then we used the sponge as an eraser and wrote more names and letters.  She loved it!  When she was done we let the plate dry with Brooke’s name on it and it turned out great.

From this project I thought of a new project to do- we are going to finger paint on paper plates.  When Hailey is done experimenting I will write a letter on the plate and leave it to dry.  Eventually we will have the entire alphabet.

I have been using Entrecard for two of my blogs for a few weeks and have been loving it.  So, I decided to add this blog as well.  I’m already getting more traffic and new visitors to my site!  One thing I love is that I can visit blogs that are related to cooking and crafts, so I can meet other bloggers who have interests similar to mine. 

Entrecard recently did some updates and there is an amazing new feature that I love.  Since I use Entrecard for three of my blogs now the new “add a blog” feature they added is perfect for me.  Rather than having to sign in and out and back in with my other blogs, now I can just switch by simply hitting “switch.”  So much easier!

If you are looking to meet some new bloggy friends and want more traffic to your site be sure to check out the new Entrecard E-Book, it is packed full of information and tells you how to do everything.  Hurry and sign up, you’re going to love it!

Every other week I introduce a new letter to Hailey.  I use a variety of ideas to help her learn the letter such as:

• Make the letter out of toys (or clothes- as in the picture on the right).
• Color a large D paper.
• Draw D’s while playing in the dirt or sand.
• Add D to our alphabet book.
• Draw D’s with sidewalk chalk.
• Play find the “D” with felt letters.
• Here are several more ideas for the letter D from ChildFun.

I’ve been a very bad crafty lady lately.  I haven’t been doing many any crafts with Hailey.  This is part of the reason for my Mommy Guilt post I did the other day on my Livin’ With Me blog.

I had plans to do planting activities and zoo animal activities this month with Hailey.  But it hasn’t happened because the days go by so quickly and I run out of time.  There is still a week and a half left so I am going to try to do some zoo animal activities with her.  And I’m also going to work on some basic shape and color activities.  And of course, I’ll take pictures to post.