This was the latest theme day that we did. I had the older kids in mind for this one, as it was mostly a cooking day but the younger ones enjoyed it as well. The idea for this day came from the big kids this summer, who suggested this theme day for "a snow day or Christmas break or something like that." Soup Day also aligned perfectly with the opening of the new Easy Bake Oven (a Christmas present for the minis and daycare).
The idea for Soup Day was to have the kids help make each soup and everyone try them out. I chose easy soups/recipes that the kids would be able to make themselves (with direction and supervision obviously). Our soup menu was:
- Fruit soup (breakfast)
- Chocolate soup (morning snack)
- Taco soup (lunch)
- Veggie soup (afternoon snack)
The fruit soup was simple: vanilla yogurt, a bit of orange juice (so it wasn't so thick and more soup-like), and frozen berries.
The chocolate soup was our favorite hot chocolate, topped with a lot of marshmallows, white chocolate chips, and milk chocolate chips. I served it in mugs with a spoon. The kids loved this and appropriately re-named the soup Hot Chocolate Soup.
The taco soup was on of our favorites (8 Can Taco Soup) served with tortilla chips, green beans, and a banana.
* A little trick I've learned when serving kids soup, don't give them the runny stuff and don't put it in a bowl. If I had served the taco soup in a bowl, hardly any of the kids would have eaten it. I add this up to kid logic.
The veggie soup was the simplest of all: 1 bag of frozen mixed veggies, 1 can of vegetable broth, and 1 can of water.
For the most part, the kids helped pour and dump ingredients in. I did most of the measuring (no one was interested in it). Wanting to stir everything seemed to be the most popular task assigned while we cooked.
While we waited for the soups to cook in the morning and afternoon, the kids played with the Easy Bake Oven. They made cookies in the morning and pretzels with dip in the afternoon.
I loved that this was something for the big kids to do that made them feel independent yet the younger ones still got to participate.