Baking Through the Alphabet: The Start of Our Alphabet Challenge and the letter A

When my kids were very little, and I also tended my young nieces, I would focus on one letter of the alphabet each week with them.  And one day in that week all of our activities and food had to start with that letter also.  My son and nieces remember it well, but my daughter, because she was the youngest, and who is now eleven, doesn't remember it at all.  She asked me last fall if we could focus on the letters again - just for fun, only she wanted to learn how to bake one thing for each letter of the alphabet.

To add some culture to the fun alphabet idea, I proposed that we also watch one musical that starts with each letter of the alphabet as well.  

So for the next 13 weeks, I'll share with you the our meal, our baked good, and our movie musical that correlates each letter of the alphabet.

Of course, we are starting with the letter "A".

For our meal we had: 

• Asparagus
• Apples
• Angel-hair pasta in Asiago Sauce
• Apple Juice to drink

My daughter chose to bake apple muffins (she added a blackberry to add extra sweetness to each muffin).  We used a friend's recipe but you can find a great recipe here: Dutch Apple Muffins

Letter "A" Musicals (* = ones that are , in my opinion, decent or fun to watch; ** = kid friendly; *** = the one we watched for our alphabet musical)

• Annie ***
• Aladdin **
• Anastasia  **
• American in Paris *
• Anchors Away *
• Annie Get Your Gun *

Annie was my all time favorite show for about three years when I was a kid. I even dressed up as Annie for Halloween all three of those years and my brother was Sandy for two of them!  So, this was a must for my kids to see.  It does have some cuss words, and I would say is rated PG because of it, so you may want to stick with Aladdin if you're tailoring to younger children.

Anastasia is pretty alarming at some parts too, for really young children.

I've only seen Annie Get Your Gun on stage, so I hope to watch the movie soon.

But can I be honest about Gene Kelly movies for a moment?  I get  so embarrassed watching him, well more like, embarrassed for him!  His parts are usually so over-the-top; and his goofy grin while he's singing?  The only movie I really like him in is Singing in the Rain...oh, and my sister and I used to laugh and laugh about him falling down the hill in Brigadoon, but other than that, it's a little bit humiliating.

Take Anchors Aweigh for instance, my favorite part of that movie is when he goes to a boy's school and tells the kids the story of how he got his medal, and how he brought happiness to a lonesome king and joy to the forest animals of the kingdom.  It's really fun because the lonesome king is played by Jerry from Tom and Jerry.  It's really a great part to watch...until Jerry is tossed up in the air after Gene Kelly flexes his biceps again and again.  *sigh*.  Even with that being said, for my tween and teen, I hope to show them all three of those musicals some time in the near future.

 
Update:  I can't believe I forgot the Aristocrats!  That was my kids's favorite cartoon movie musical for such a long, long time!!