Lorax Cake

Since seeing the movie the kids have been talking about The Lorax a lot. Suddenly I had a cake idea for the Tumbleweed and her cousin's birthdays --- Lorax cakes! After thinking about it for a week and collecting supplies this is what I came up with...


The brightly colored Truffula Trees --- Peep chicks on a lollipop stick (I drew stripes on)

The Brown Barbaloots --- Chocolate Teddy Grahams made into sandwiches with leftover frosting, and toothpicks to help them stand up

The Lorax himself --- Three mini-marshmallows on a toothpick covered in orange frosting with frosting eyes and facial hair.

The base is just a green buttercream frosting. Finish it off with a mini-marshmallow border, drizzled with frosting and sprinkles and you have a Lorax cake. Or Two.

Sock Mixer

The Dandelion's teacher said to me when I picked him up today, "I love that he doesn't care what color socks he wears."


Nope. He doesn't care whether he has a matched pair, or even his own socks. Today at school he was wearing one inside out sock of his own and one of his sister's socks right side out. When we got home he took those socks off and put on two different Lightning McQueen socks.

Most of the time he just picks two socks out of our "lonely sock bin" just as we are about to head out the door. But sometimes he will take one sock from two matched pairs. With all of the mis-matching, combined with his need to remove his socks whenever possible, our single sock pile seems to be growing.

The Messiest Messy Fingers

We have a great program at the Millbury Library called Messy Fingers. It is science for preschoolers, with a parent. Each week has a theme geared to preschoolers to get them interested in a variety of topics. The kids do hands on activities for about an hour and families can take home a sheet with other related activities and/or check out library books on the topic.

When she was 3 & 4, the Tumbleweed went to these classes and this year it is the Dandelion's turn. There is a big difference in the kids' personalities that makes Messy Fingers a wildly different experience with the second kid. The Dandelion often has his own agenda, which can make it difficult to get him to follow the class. This is particularly frustrating to me because I know he follows along at school without causing a lot of trouble.

This week was the "Messiest Messy Fingers of the Year" on Solids, Liquids, and Gases. The Dandelion did better than most weeks, behavior-wise. He really got into trying to melt an ice cube and the got especially messy with Oobleck:

The Lorax

Friday was Dr. Seuss' birthday and both kids had little celebrations at school. As a surprise I gave the kids the book "The Lorax" at bedtime that night, since I knew the movie had just opened and I figured the kids would be excited to hear the story. That was certainly the case, as the Dandelion requested an encore after the first reading and didn't want to give the book up to his sister to read.

After two days of reading the Lorax, we had the opportunity to head to the movie as a family. The time that worked best for us just so happened to be the 3D showing, so the kids got their first chance at wearing 3D glasses. Both did remarkably well at keeping them on, and I will say that they absolutely loved the movie. The Dandelion requested we go to Target to buy it upon walking out of the theater and was less than thrilled to hear my estimate of "Christmas-time" for its availability.

(Side note: I did not feel the previews were suitable for my kids, although they didn't comment on them and seemed to forget quickly. I would recommend a bathroom trip during the previews for younger viewers because they could be a little too scary.)

When we got back we pulled out some craft supplies to make a truffula tree craft. The Tumbleweed had a blast.

The Tumbleweed's Truffula Trees and Lorax

After she finished hers she added onto the one I helped the Dandelion with (he got side-tracked midway):