Photo Friday

Here's a throwback of the precious Hebert Family from our costume week. Big Sister and Big Brother are both Kindermusik veterans! Have a safe and fun weekend!

Introducing: Emily Espinoza!

We are very pleased to announce the newest music educator to our team: Emily Espinoza!

Miss Emily grew up in a family of musicians and was involved in choirs and musical performance from an early age. As an adult, she developed a love for early childhood education and graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with two degrees in 2008: a BS in Child Learning and Development, and a BA in Psychology. Currently Miss Emily enjoys teaching music at a local preschool. She also likes to spend free time at home practicing her guitar and singing and dancing with her two year old son.

In Kindermusik class, Miss Emily likes to give every child and parent a chance to explore their own creativity and express themselves through music and movement. She strives to help everyone in class unlock their "inner musician" in an environment that is comfortable and fun!

Miss Emily will begin teaching next week. Look for her at our Garland and McKinney locations. So glad to have you on our team, Emily!

Ms. Susan Critiques the Cliburn Competition

Courtesy: www.TheCliburn.org

The very prestigious Cliburn competition is well underway. Here is a snippet about the competition from the Cliburn website:

"Cliburn President and CEO Jacques Marquis says: "We are looking for a true artist who can connect with audiences and touch their hearts. We give the competitors multiple platforms to present us with their artistic personality and communicative power. The winners will be offered an unparalleled opportunity to build a meaningful concert career, and we are honored to be a part of launching them onto the world stage and celebrating classical music.""

This year, Ms. Susan has been included in a list of critics invited to the June 6-9 finals. This is an exceptional honor. To read Ms. Susan's critiques and keep up-to-date on the Cliburn competition, visit the Ms. Susan's blogs here for the Clavier Companion. 

Congratulations to Ms. Susan for her inclusion with this year's critics!

Community Highlight: Fiddle on the Roof

Courtesy: McKinney Summer Musicals

This summer, McKinney Summer Musicals is featuring a performance of Fiddler on the Roof. Musicals are a perfect way to incorporate family time and music with older children! Buy Local McKinney is currently running a BOGO special on tickets. Here is info to get your free ticket from their Facebook:

Click on any of the Buy Tickets Links on their site, then look for the "Enter a Password or Discount Code" text (in light blue), click it then enter "Buy Local" (Capital 'B' and 'L' with a space between the words) and you're all good. 

Photo Friday

Kindermusik is a Family Affair! We hope you have a great weekend with your friends and family!

Recipe: Casey's 10 Minute Enchiladas

Today, Kindermusik mom Casey, is going to share her recipe for "10 Minute Enchiladas." You can email us your favorite recipe for inclusion on our site.

Hi, Friends! Today I am going to share my recipe for the world's quickest enchiladas. I timed myself, and these took a mere ten minutes to prepare! Since I have a toddler, I need my recipes to be delicious but easy.

The ingredients are:

• Fajita-size tortillas (I used 2 ten packs and saved the leftover tortillas in the freezer)
• 1 12-oz Jar of Cowboy Caviar (I like Trader Joe's but if you don't have a location nearby you could use any jar of dense, not watery salsa, like black bean, etc.)
• 4 cups of shredded cheese
• 2 Large cans of enchilada sauce 
• 4 shredded chicken breasts (Once a month I cook some chicken breasts in the crock pot and shred them up, then I freeze them for inclusion in other meals. Such a time saver!

No need to waste money on name brand tortillas!

Any salsa will do but the black beans and corn add depth!

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Dump the jar of Cowboy caviar and the chicken, into a bowl. Mix it up. 
3. Put a generous portion of the chicken mixture in a line across the tortilla. 
4. Roll the tortilla as tight as you can!
5. Place the rolled tortilla in your pan seam-side down. I used 2 8X8 pans and was able to comfortably fit 6 enchiladas in each pan. I cooked one for dinner and froze the other pan for a night when I don't have even ten minutes to spare. 
6. Pour one can of sauce over each pan. 
7. Sprinkle the cheese on top. Ladies, you need to be very religious with the cheese. Skimping on cheese when making enchiladas is a crime!
8. Bake for 45-60 minutes. 

Yes, those are food safety gloves-haha!

Be generous with the filling!

Almost there!

You can make this dish spicier with a medium or hot enchilada sauce!

Mmmmn, cheeeeeese!

Drown those bad boys in sauce!

The more cheese, the better!

Perfection!

Sorting Seashells, Sorting Seashells, Sorting Seashells!

We have been having a ton of fun in the Our Time class with the Going to the Ocean curriculum! Here is an activity for you to do at home with your child:

Seashell Sorting

If you have seashells available to you, you may wish to play a sorting game. Although seashells come in many shapes, sizes and colors and have many descriptive names, to your child a seashell may just be a seashell. Help him learn to sort and find commonalities by looking closely at individual shells. Decide on ways to group them: color, shape, size. Also, allow your child to discover his own groupings, thus enriching the experience by making it more personal to him. 

There's Still Time to Register!

Summer classes are in full swing and we're very excited with the curriculum! If you miss the fun Kindermusik brings to your week, or if you're thinking of trying it for the first time, you can still register in Allen, McKinney and Garland. Visit our website for class information, pricing and more. And of course, you can always contact us here with any questions.