After being out and about so much I am torn between really just wanting (and needing) to stay home and wanting to do a few things with the kids before the baby comes. Today we were home, mostly. So, to ring in the holidays - in a moment of weakness - I bought a small packet of peanut m&m's, I also happened to have some left over regular sized m&m's as well as some mini ones on hand. I placed them out with some colored pencils and notebooks and after Bayan had identified all the colors
the kids tried to guess which color occurred the most in each group. They were each responsible for sorting one group of m&m's. Once they were all separated (the m&m's not the children) they looked at the different sizes and colors, estimated which color had more and then recorded their hypothesises. We did some counting to double check. 
As it turned out each of them guessed correctly at least once. They each got to sample one of the color of their choice. We packed up the mini and regular sized m&m's - these will be put to future use to make candied garden creatures - and headed to the kitchen with the peanut ones. I had a bit of a craving for peanut butter cookies and thought why not add a little something extra?
The kids weren't complaining and they had a great time adding the ingredients and putting the cookies on the cookie sheets. They didn't mind eating them either. 
We took a plate over to the neighbours to share and I thought we might bring a few to Persian classes as well, but we ultimately decided not to (allergies) and set about making some chocolate muffins to take instead.For anyone interested in the recipe here goes:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar (either brown or white I use organic)
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda or baking powder
chocolate chips or (peanut) m&m's (optional)
Cream together the butter, sugar and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again. Add the flour and baking soda and mix again. Stir in the peanut m&m's and drop by the spoonful onto baking trays. Bake in a preheated oven 160 degrees C (fan forced) for approximately 12 minutes, or until cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges.
Enjoy.
