Emma's Lunch

Newly opened offering Cookie making parties :0) 

Pavlou Liasidi 8, Shop 1, Aradippu, CY.
70 000208

Fall Craft

Here's a fun fall craft to do with your little one.  Emma and I worked on it while Lia slept but you could really easily create this with a baby or a toddler.
 

What you'll need:

Paper

Red, Yellow, Gold, Green and Brown color

A hand and fingers

Paint your child's hand and arm up to the elbow brown and make an arm print on the paper.  Next have your child make leaves of different colors using her finger tips. Emma loved making the tree and said that she needs to add falling leaves because its autumn.

It's a great craft and makes a wonderful memento.

Happy creating!
Vanja
Emma's Lunch

Finger Puppet Theatre Craft

Here is a great craft which not only gives us the opportunity to be crafty, it also helps us be creative and theatrical. :)

What you'll need:

Cereal box

Paper (we used pink and purple)

Crepe paper (we used pink)

Glue 

Scissors

Pipe cleaners

Take an empty cereal box and cut out the middle for he stage. Also remove the flaps at the opening so that you have a straight bottom.  Cut out and glue colourful paper to the cereal box. We glued purple on the front and pink on all the other sides. 

Cut out some crepe paper and glue each one to the top of the opening of the stage.  Tie to the side using pipe cleaners.  For us the curtain is only attached at the top.  The rest is "flowing" freely. Let it dry and that's really all there is to it.  Emma loved her finger puppet theater.

You could also decorate the back of the stage by gluing your child's drawing to the back wall of the cereal box.  All you need now are some finger puppets and you're set!

Happy creating!

Vanja
Emma's Lunch

Fun lunchboxes and everyday snacks

Nothing says fun and cute like princess sandwich cutters and tiny containers.

Here is a sandwich snack I made for Emma. It took no extra time to do and it makes her so happy!  Its absolutely worth it.  You don’t need to add a food they don’t like for you to make a fun lunchbox. Sometimes it’s good to do fun things with food without having them try something new.  It makes them more open to tasting that string bean when you actually do offer it.

 

This box includes a cheese sandwich, carrot sticks and yoghurt.  I used the LunchPunch  www.thelunchpunch.com sandwich cutters for this sandwich.

Happy creating!

Vanja

Emma’s Lunch

Funny Finger Puppets

Emma and I came up with the cutest, funnest finger puppets... totally by accident! I was ready with my felt, thread and needle, I had already started drawing outlines, when Emma took one of the pipe cleaners, curled it all around her finger, and gave me the best idea ever! We made a piglet, a duck, and a funny looking cow :)

What you'll need

Pink, yellow, black & white pipe cleaners
Pink, yellow & white medium pompoms
4 pink tiny mini pompoms
Googly eyes
Pink, orange, white & black pieces of felt
Hot glue

Curl the pipe cleaners around your child's finger. For the cow, place the black and white pipe cleaners together and curl them at the same time. Cut out a closed U shape out of white felt and glue it to the white pompom, draw two dots for the nose and glue the googly eyes. Next cut two small triangles out of the black felt and glue to the top of the head and right next to them glue two pink mini pompoms. Then glue the head to the body.

For the pig, take the pink pompom glue mini pink pompoms as ears. Cut a small circle out of the pink felt, draw two dots for the snout and glue to the head. Next glue googly eyes or as we did, cut small circles from white felt and draw a dot to each and glue to the head. Once its done glue it to the pink body.

For the duck cut a semi circle shape out of orange felt and glue it to the yellow pompom, then glue the googly eyes to the head. Once the head is done glue it to the yellow body.

Let the fun begin! Emma loved them and played with them for hours!

Vanja

The challenge of introducing new foods to kids

Do you struggle to get your child to eat? Do you find it difficult to introduce new foods? It’s a common challenge which partly has to do with the way kids are wired. They want the familiar, tried and tested.

It’s normal and understandable, but we shouldn’t exactly let them have it their way all the time. Some kids will only eat carbs, some kids only eat food that is white, some kids eat no veggies, some kids eat no meat, some are a combination of all of the above.

Emma is the combination kind, and her desires change by the season. She loves broccoli but turns her nose up at cucumber. She will eat pitta bread but not if there’s cheese in it - she’ll only eat cheese in a regular sliced bread sandwich. But despite these idiosyncrasies she’s a pretty good eater. She will eat meat, and veggies and loves fruit, yoghurt, cheese…. But not every kind you put in front of her, she has her favourites.

I’m pretty happy with her diet and I truly believe it’s because of the way we introduce food to her. I make fun lunch boxes and try to include a new food like that. She loves the fun food picks, cute containers. Another really fun way we introduce food to Emma is by serving it in Muffin Tins.

It’s such a great way to serve and introduce new foods. You get 6 holes and a chance to fill each with a different food. And even if you don’t make cute shapes it’s already separated in child friendly compartments.

They will love the new presentation, they will love the mini sizes, and you could be sure that they will try that new food you added in one of the compartments. If they don’t, don’t despair. It could take 10 – 15 tries for your toddler to accept the new food. You just need to keep introducing the food and eating it yourself.

Now just imagine, you worked all summer to have your angel accept strawberries. You finally get her to eat them and after all that work, seasons change, strawberries go out of season; this may mean you will have to reintroduce again next summer. It’s kind of an out of site out of mind situation. Best thing I can recommend is keep introducing the food even in a different form. So get some frozen strawberries and make a strawberry yoghurt or a strawberry banana smoothie.

Good Luck with it! It takes patience and perseverance, but isn’t that what parenting in general is all about?

Vanja
Emma’s Lunch 

Spring Flower craft

I love spring! Its not too hot, or too cold. Its the time when everything comes to life again. Its a great season for spending time with the kids outdoors to explore, examine, run, plant the garden, look at the ants and other insects. A season full of educational possibilities!

Following our spring theme, here is another fun and colourful craft. This time we made a flower from felt.

What you'll need
Yellow felt
Felt of another colour for petals (we used pink and purple)
Green colour felt or paper
Glue
Thick piece of paper
Scissors

Emma chose the colours she wanted to use and of course she picked pink and purple, so here is how we did our flower.

Either let your child cut the felt into small pieces or do it yourself.

Draw a flower on a thicker piece of paper. Let your child add glue to the page, make sure its not too thick, so take off any excess glue with a brush.

Start with gluing the yellow middle and continue with the petals. If you choose two colours for your flower just let your child haphazardly add different colours to each petal.

Use glue to make a flower stalk and let your child glue the green felt or paper.

And voila! Your simple spring felt flower is finished! A fun craft done in no time to grace your spring wall!

If you'd like some more of our craft ideas visit Emma's Lunch

Vanja

Emma's Lunch

Lady Bug Collage Craft

Its spring time still and this is a great spring craft to do with your little one. Its a fun and simple lady bug collage

What you'll need:

Thick paper

Red tissue paper

Black paper or magazine cut outs

Glue

Scissors

1. Draw a lady bug with pencil on a thick piece of paper and then cut about 1cm around the shape. 
2. Rip pieces of red tissue paper and scrunch them into little balls. I had Emma help me with this part.
3. Cut 6 larger black circles for Lady Bug spots and 2 smaller ones for antennae.  We ran out of black paper, and we had no black tissue paper so we ended up using magazine pages with black print on them. 

Next is the really fun part.  Have your child put glue all over the lady bug.  She'd need to be supervised for this, or if its a small child you could put the glue yourself.

Glue the spots first.

Then glue the red tissue to the body of the Lady Bug.

Next come the rest of the black bits.

And voila! You're done! Its such a simple activity and its great to do as part of your Spring Time theme educational activities.

Emma wanted to put this on her wall immediately! We will, of course, as soon as its dry.

Take a look at other fun crafts at Emma's Lunch Crafts Corner.

Have fun crafting!

Vanja

Packing a Fun Lunch

Kids go mad about fun lunches! Its a fun, yet simple way to introduce new foods and add some entertainment to the food they're eating.

Just packing it in a small cute container does the trick!

What are the main ingredients of a cute lunch?
Fun shapes - check
Mini containers - check
Cute food picks- check

In this lunch from left to right:

• Bourgouri (bulgar wheat) shaped like a teddy bear
• Yoghurt in a small silicone container
• Cucumber sticks
• Three mini chicken kebabs (alternating cubes)
• And white seedless grapes

To shape the bourgouri I used an onigiri shaper.  These are usually used in Japanese cuisine to shape rice.  They come in many shapes and sizes even though Onigiri actually means "rice ball".  These are especially used for on the go lunches or as they're also known in Japan bento boxes.

Don't have an onigiri shaper? Use a silicone mold, tightly pack the bourgouri and then gently turn it out into the lunchbox.

Enjoy your kids' meals!

Vanja

Lady Bug Collage Craft

Its spring time still and this is a great spring craft to do with your little one. Its a fun and simple lady bug collage.

What you'll need:

Thick paper

Red tissue paper

Black paper or magazine cut outs

Glue

Scissors

1. Draw a lady bug with pencil on a thick piece of paper and then cut about 1cm around the shape. 
2. Rip pieces of red tissue paper and scrunch them into little balls. I had Emma help me with this part.
3. Cut 6 larger black circles for Lady Bug spots and 2 smaller ones for antennae.  We ran out of black paper, and we had no black tissue paper so we ended up using magazine pages with black print on them. 

Then glue the red tissue to the body of the Lady Bug.

Next come the rest of the black bits.

Next is the really fun part.  Have your child put glue all over the lady bug.  She'd need to be supervised for this, or if its a small child you could put the glue yourself.

And voila! You're done! Its such a simple activity and its great to do as part of your Spring Time theme educational activities.

Emma wanted to put this on her wall immediately! We will, of course, as soon as its dry.

Take a look at other fun crafts at Emma'sLunch Crafts Corner

Have fun crafting!

Vanja

Flower Shaped Easter Egg Holder

I am excited to share the first Emma's Lunch post here at Larnaca Parents Network.  With Easter around the corner I thought it would be perfect to start with a simple and fun Easter craft.

This is a simple craft which can be adapted for any age.  Leave it to gluing for two year olds, allow some cutting for the five year olds. Show the concept to older children and let them figure out how to make it on their own.




Materials needed:
One third of an empty toilet paper roll
Yellow paper
Green shredded paper
Glue
Scissors



Cut the yellow paper, making it long enough to go all the way around the toilet paper roll and high enough to be about twice its height. Cut one side of the paper into petals.  Glue it around the toilet paper roll and fold the petals back to form a flower.






Place some of the green shredded paper into the flower shaped egg holder and you're done! All you need is a beautifully decorated Easter Egg.
Happy Easter! 

Vanja