the book..."If You Give A Moose A Muffin"

by Laura Joffe Numeroff

"If you gave a moose a muffin, he'll want some jam to go with it. So you'll bring out some of your mother's homemade blackberry jam....

This is Francesca's favorite book! We read it at least two times a day and she has gotten to the point (because she knows the whole book by heart) of being able to quote lines from it throughout the day to just about anyone who will listen. This morning, after brushing her teeth, she asked me, "Mom can we make some muffins today like in the book and can you make some homemade blackberry jam?" Of course, my answer to this was "yes" so after her school today, we went to the store to get the muffin mix (as in the book) and the ingredients for the homemade blackberry jam. (thank God making homemade jam is one of things I do best...) As soon as we got home, she insisted we make the jam...which we did...and we got most of the muffins ready for baking before her quiet time down. I started baking the muffins about 10 minutes before she started waking up and as the smell of the muffins filled the house, Francesca came running down the stairs so excited...and couldn't wait to see the muffins. In her own words, she told me, "I smell those muffins and they smell so good, Mommy!". Anyway, after some time with them cooling on the baking rack and cheating a-little on the jam (it was supposed to sit for 24 hours before using), she and I had an afternoon snack of muffins with some homemade blackberry jam. She just loved it...as I did too...and she can't wait until she wakes up tomorrow morning to have another....

(the muffins)

"They sure smell good!"

(the homemade blackberry jam)

"Can I have one, please Mommy?"

"And chances are...if you give him the jam, he'll want a muffin to go with it."