Muffin Tin Monday - Magic School Bus Gets Caught in a Web

Since we had no other plans for the day, I decided we could make a Muffin Tin Meal! Yay! It's been soooo long!
We got a new book in our last Scholastic order, and even though it's aimed at a slightly older crowd, it was one of their monthly $1 selections, so I decided to go ahead and snag one for later. And somehow it got mixed in with her bedtime stories, so she chose it last night. And when I went in to kiss her goodnight, and asked if she'd like a 'beautiful lunch' for the next day, before I could start suggesting themes *I* wanted to do, my husband suggested The Magic School Bus Gets Caught in a Web.
Thanks, honey. A flying school bus and spider webs. No problem on short notice. Sheesh.

PBHoney 'bus,' cheese 'web,' edamame 'spider eggs,' yogurt w/frosting web,
apple slices

Since we missed our regular Little Gym class the day before, we decided to do a make-up class this day, and then make our 'beautiful lunch' after. On the way there she helped me brainstorm what we'd include in the lunch.
Magic School Bus-Moth - I figured I could fake a bus using one of the Vrrrrm! Lunch Punches on a PBHoney sandwich, but wasn't sure how I'd do wings. (In the story, the bus becomes a bus-moth.) I ended up forgetting the wings until the last-minute, and dug out one of my wing picks (eBay.) I used a frosting tube to reinforce the wheel and front window outlines, and added back windows to make it more-bus-like. Z chose the green-colored frosting.
Spiders - I used my silicone spider muffin cups and put frozen edamame (I ran it under some water to wash off all the frost first) and organic apple slices in them. We're kind of low on veggie selection right now, so when I asked her if she wanted carrots, edamame beans or edamame in the pods, she chose the beans and said they could be spider egg pouches "where the baby spiders come out." Just like in the book! That made the apple slices "cradles for the baby spiders." Awww!
Webs - I used my green frosting tube to draw a sloppy web on some Greek honey yogurt. She wanted pudding, but I told her I wasn't putting sugar on her sugar, so she could have a frosting web on yogurt or nothing on pudding (I probably would have figured out some way to get a web on there though...) And I pulled apart some string cheese to make web strands, and included her safety scissors to cut them. In the story, the kids use scissors to cut the bus free from one of the webs.

Since she's still got her cold (it's been a few weeks!) she still isn't eating a lot, so I wasn't hoping for too much here either. She ate the top off her yogurt, about half her sandwich, chopped up all the string cheese with the scissors, and cut up some edamame and bread with them as well. As far as I can tell she didn't actually EAT any beans or apples, but she had some olives, feta cheese and a few leaves from my husband's Greek salad, along with the slice of plain bread my husband gave her while I was making lunch.

In the story, the class goes on a field trip to learn about spiders, and they visit a spider museum. But no one's there, so the bus shrinks and turns into a bus-moth and flies around the yard and sees spiders, egg sacs, and webs up close, and the kids and teacher share spider facts along the way. Then they get caught in a web, but the spider isn't interested in eating them. So they use scissors to cut themselves free. The bus returns to normal size just as the museum lady gets back, so they get to go in and see more spiders. It actually turned out not to be as far above her level as I had originally thought. I don't like that it has information all over the place - there's the story text, speech bubbles, and kids 'reports' on little lined papers throughout the book. But the factoids weren't too long or boring or anything. Just the right amount, for this age (3-and-a-half.)