Indian Headdress Template

A quick easy craft for kids over Thanksgiving is the Indian Headdress. To make one similar to the Indian Headress in the picture, use the following template.

It's Turkey Week

The beginning of a turkey-filled week. I saw this on Pinterest and made one for the family this morning. Ours was made with pears, apples and mandarin oranges.





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Texarkana Parent - Leapster Giveaway!

Kayla Reeves was the winner of our Leapster Explorer this past month! We appreciate her support as a subscriber of Texarkana Parent magazine.

Our next giveaway will be an Air Hog Hyper Active remote controlled car. It is super fast and fun to drive. Valued at over $75, we are happy to give it away to one subscriber between now and January 15th.

When you subscribe to Texarkana Parent magazine, you become part of our Parent Panel Survey. The parent panel survey will be going out again on December 1st. Answers to those questions will be used in our JAN/FEB issue.

Over a hundred people participated in our Parent Panel survey for the NOV/DEC issue. Many of their answers will appear in the NOV/DEC issue being mailed out this week (Nov 3rd)!

To subscribe log onto our website to pay with paypal, http://www.texarkanaparent.com/Subscribe.html or send $15 with your address, phone number and email to:

Texarkana Parent

PO Box 884

Nash, TX 75569

Witch Sandwich - Trick or Treat?

It's a week until Halloween and the perfect time to make our Witch Sandwich!

Auntie LaLa's Meatball Recipe

Auntie LaLa stopped in not long ago and helped entertain the kids and make dinner! What a treat for me :) I asked her if she would mind sharing the recipe because it turned out to be such a fun activity for the kids! They also were so proud of their cooking, they gobbled up their dinner without any fuss. As she mentions below, they also freeze well - so make extra.

Ideas for Serving Meatballs:

For the classic dish, add cooked meatballs to a heaping pile of spaghetti with your favorite sauce.
For the leftovers, put meatballs on french bread with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese.
For a New York style pizza, use mini meatballs as a topping.
Or, for a low-carb option, use a large meatball as your entree with sauteed spinach!

Ingredients:
1lb of ground beef, turkey, or chicken
1 package of Italian sausage
pepper (to taste)
one egg
1 cup of bread crumbs (Italian or plain flavor)
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt, or more to taste.

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. If using low fat meats, spray the parchment paper with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix both all ingredients together with your clean hands - remove all jewelry first!
3. Once ingredients are mixed together well, begin shaping meatballs to your desired size. The size will only impact the cooking time. Ensure that the entire tray is of similar-sized meatballs for even cooking.
4. Cook the meatballs for approximately 15 minutes, then turn them over with tongs before cooking them another 15 minutes (*time is estimated for golf ball size meatballs).


*Freezing: cover the meatballs on the cookie sheet with Saran wrap and put the entire sheet in the freezer for several hours, or overnight. Once the meatballs are thoroughly frozen, place them in a freezer bag. By freezing them individually, you will be able to take one or two, or ten, meatballs from the bag to cook, rather than the entire bag.

Hot Off The Press!

Yesterday I watched the first pages of Texarkana Parent run on the press. Here are a few pictures from the run, it is an amazing process!

And more exciting...it won't be long now before the Premier Issue of Texarkana Parent arrives!

Get Out of the Heat with the Tiger Bookmobile

Texarkana's Independent School District launched a new program this summer to help encourage reading and learning while students are out of school during the summer. The program brings reading material into numerous neighborhoods around town by traveling on a 48' mobile unit.

We stopped in today while the Bookmobile was at Hands on Texarkana on Olive Street. Much to our delight it was nice to get out of the intense heat and climb into the technology-filled unit.

The Tiger Bookmobile started traveling around town last month and will continue to different locations through mid-August. It is stocked with thousands of books, ipads, flat screen televisions, a Wii gaming system, seats and reading benches. And you can't miss it with the brightly painted mural along the outside.

My son went straight for the ipads, moved onto the Wii gaming system and then browsed the bookshelves and decided to check out two books to bring home. The ipads were loaded with learning applications and read-along books.

Typically, the Tiger Bookmobile holds a reading hour at 10am each day, but check the schedule on our home page for specific locations, times, and dates (www.texarkanaparent.com).

Kuddos to TISD for starting a great program that will hopefully continue to grow as it travels through town!