25 days of Christmas. Advent Calendar.

It is the first of December people! It is time to put up the Christmas tree and fix those fairy lights. What are you going to be doing today and the days that lead up to Christmas?

Sara and I have our plan ready for today and the next 24 days. We'd love you to join us by downloading this advent calendar (right click, save and cut). You can mix and match the dates and the activities according to your schedule and convenience.

So who is joining us?

Images: If you like any of the pictures on the blog and would like to use those please write to me. I put in hours of work behind each post and would love to share it with you but it would hurt me if  use those without my permission.Just ask!  Also this calendar is only for personal use.

Playing with food: Solar System

The Solar system has been on Sara's mind ever since all her friends at Kindergarten put up a spectacular show called what else, the Solar System.

She was part of Team Neptune and thee children looked so cute dancing to "Neptune, Neptune that's the place to be". In their shimmery black costumes with a big blue circular patch that represented Neptune complete with a glowing antenna they won our hearts.

During the months that led up to the performance the children were exposed to the names of different planets, the characteristics  of each planet and ofcourse nothing is complete without music so they sung planet songs.
Night sky on the screen, sparkling costumes, dazzling smiles, twinkling eyes and great confidence. A morning to remember.

It was a beautiful performance for which I am sure the teachers must have slaved over and spent many sleepless nights. It was also the day when they graduated from Kindergarten to Primary. Many silly mums like me had teary eyeswhen they saw their not-so-little-anymore babies walk up to the stage to receive the graduation prize. It is perfectly normal to feel like that, right? Please agree:)

Anyhow, coming back to the Solar System and its eight planets (There was a really funny Pluto in the show who wanted to come back to the Solar System family but was kicked out each time:)) Sara wanted to live in her Neptune pants and it had been a while that we kept going back to her show and how much fun they had. Her dad, aunt, uncle and ofcourse her mum were also taught the dance steps. 

So, the other day when she asked me for some snack I gave her this. 

And I don't need to tell you her reaction or do I? She screamed with joy. The Solar System, Mamma! On my plate!

She was really amused for she was "eating planets". we talked about how Jupiter was so big and Mars was so tiny. And how Neptune was so cold since it was at a distance from the sun and Mercury was hot because it was right there kissing Mr.Sun:) 
We talked about how the planets were going "round and round" the sun singing Ring-around-the-roses. It made her a little sad that they were doing it alone and not holding hands which is why they will never meet.

I didn't have a black plate larger than this on hand else I would have preferred to have the orbits drawn to scale. Having said that, all the planets were in her tummy so why complain. I used cream cheese in a regular icing bag to pipe out the orbits and just for fun used a cloth that had stars on it as her place mat. If your little one is into planets, do try this out and I can guarantee you lots of happy giggles.

Food is such a great medium when it comes to learning new things. Isn't it?

Solar System Fruit Platter

Serves one little crazy planet fan

Ingredients
A slice from a boiled egg for the sun
A blueberry for Mercury
A sliced raspberry for Venus
A dry apricot for Earth
A sliced strawberry for Mars
A slice of apple for Jupiter
A slice of kiwi for Saturn
A slice of plum for Uranus
A banana slice for Neptune

1 tbsp of cream cheese (yogurt, cream;anything will do)

(Any fruits that you have on hand would do. I just made sure that the sizes were more or less to scale when I assigned them each a planet)

Black platter (or any plate of your choice) to represent the night sky and any fabric/ paper with stars for a place mat (Optional)

Let's just assume that you didn't see the grubby finger marks on the platter, OK? 

We agree?

Instructions:
1. Start with sun right at the center.
2. Fill up the cream cheese in an icing bag and pipe out 8 concentric circles around the sun for the 8 orbits.
3. Place the fruit slices to represent the planets.
4. Surprise your little one!

Images : Personal Album. While you enjoy reading this post with visuals.Please do not use them without asking. They belong to Orange Kitchens unless otherwise stated.