New Years Eve Idea for kids

An hour, by hour countdown for the kiddo's. So much fun! I think we will be doing this. We were planning on renting some movies and hanging at home, but I think this would be so much fun for my kids. The idea came from The Dating Diva's. You can see this post, by clicking here.

This is a super cute idea!  Make a banner and party hat's that the kids can decorate and make themselves.  Super cute!  Gives them something to do on New Years Day! I found this at Toads Treasures. I already downloaded mine and we are going to start working on them a little later this week. This was a post from last year, but I am still making it, you just neet to trace an extra 1 to add on.

And if your visiting, Toads Treasures, take the time to look around.  She has some great ideas!! I spent quite a bit of time on her blog today and now she's in my favorites . Talented lady!!

J is for...

Sorry to have disappeared.  It's been crazy busy with Christmas and break.

Jack-in-the-box. This took me a while to figure out and I am still not completely hap;y with it, but it works. 

Magic Reindeer Food

I made a cute Magic Reindeer Food Tag, that I put on scribd. I can't get a picture to post, but it's cute.  It's a different poem than all that I have seen floating around the blog world.  My friend had it from years ago when her oldest was in preschool in Washington state.

Magic Reindeer Food


1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red or green sugar crystals (for cake decorating)

A lot of recipes call for glitter.  That depends on how you feel about it.  You can make colored sugar  by just take some sugar and drop a few drops of food coloring in the sugar. Then take a fork and stir it until the sugar is colored evenly and there are no lumps.

Owl Freebie

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I've been a bit under the weather and still don't feel great.  Why don't mom's get sick days?   I have some posts I could do, but the ambition is lacking this morning.

However, I wanted to share this cute owl with you.  I am an owl lover!!!  You can create and download your very own owl calendar, all for free!!!  It's the perfect gift for the owl lover in your life.  I'm making a couple of them.  You can customize each calendar for each giftee! Click on that little cutie to be directed to this fun little project.

Okay, my energy is gone.  See you tomorrow.  I hope.....

Paperbag Rudolph

Aren't they cute?  These were no small feat with 15 kids, but they all have one ready to go home next week!  Whew, what a project.  for full instructions, go here.

12 Day's of Service

I love doing the 12 day's of Christmas. It's a fun tradition. For family home evening this week, we talked about service and how it can brighten the lives of the people we serve and also how it can brighten our lives. We talked about the people in our lives, who might need some kindness this holiday season. We came up with lots of names and I told the kids to think about it.

Well, I have to be honest, I have been stressing about how to pull this tradition off this year. Things are super tight, they always are in December (my husband works on commission), but this year seems extra tight. So I have been trying to think of alternative ideas for the 12 day's. One of the things that has been bothering me is the fact that we know so many people who could use the service and kindness this holiday season.
I came across this post, at I Can Teach My Child and I loved it! 12 day's of random service! Is there a better way to teach service, other than my doing service? I think my kids will love this. I know that I am way excited. We can bless lot's of lives in a short time.
Some of my ideas are:
Take a warm loaf of bread to a neighbor.
Do some cleaning for a friend (vacuum, mop, dust)
Make cookies for the bishops family
Take dinner to a someone who really needs it
Leave a "dinner in a bag" on someones doorstep
Visit an elderly neighbor
Take a friend their favorite candy bar and attach an uplifting quote
Go caroling
Babysit for a friend
Invite friends over for dinner
Have a neighborhood Christmas movie party (for the kids) give the moms a break!
Make an ornament and take it to someone

These are just a few of the ideas going around in my head. We may or may not do some of these. I have to discuss it with my kids in the morning. I am excited to hear what ideas they come up with. I think this will be a great way to teach my kids about service.

Therapy Sacks (aka Wheat Sacks)

I have made these in mass production this year.  I've used these for as long as I can remember.  My hubby loves them, so I figured, they would make great Christmas gifts for the men in my life.  My kids also love them, because it's a great way to keep toes warm at night.

For those of you have never seen them, they are wheat sacks.  You throw them in the microwave for a few minutes, it heats the wheat up and you have a hot pad.  If you throw it in the freezer for awhile, you have a cold compress. 

They are pretty easy to make.  I could go into detail, but you can follow this tutorial and she can guide you.  You don't necessarily need to use flannel, but it is much softer on those sore spots.

I for ice cream...

So cute!!

Got the idea here.

We also made homemade ice cream,

There were no pictures, because it was crazy!

It's a lot of work for 14 kids!

But they loved it.

You can get an easy recipe here.

I made it at home with my kids and we put it in a #10 can.

Then they can just roll the can back and forth.

Letters to Santa

Letters to Santa!  I love them.  I love to keep them stashed away and see how much my kids grow and change every year.  There are some cute ones available out in the blog world.  Cute and Free! Two of my favorite words, they go so well together.  Check these out and see if you find something you love!

Have you ever heard of The TomKat Studio?  Love this super crafted lady!

You can pick up her free printable at Hostess With The Mostess.

You can find this gem at Living Locurto.

Another of my favorite blogs!

Here is another link to some cute, fill-in-the-blank notes.
This note is darling!  She has some cute cookie tags and some tags for reindeer food!  I can't get the picture to upload, but it's defiently cute!

Rolled Flower Headbands

For the tutorial, go to this post.

 These are a few that I have made for gifts. I've come along way since I first started making these.  I use all sorts of flowers and embellishments now. Feathers and tulle are my favorites! This is one of my favorites.  I have made about 20 in the last few weeks and each is really different.

 You can make them very simple. Just use the flowers.  The headbands come from here.  Walgreen's also has some that are a bit nicer.  You get 4 for $5.00.  This is the better option if you are just going to make a few.
I also bought some of their Kuffi hats, but beware, they are tiny!  The small size is for newborns and the large, for maybe a toddler.  They fit my 3-year-old, but won't for very long.

I also have made a bunch of these on clips for my littler nieces.  You can get a big box of clips for $5.00 at Sally's or a hair supply company.

Have fun!

Tin Can Bow Holder

These are so easy to make! And chances are, that if your a crafter, you have everything you need at home to make it.  I used an empty #10 can.  I have a nifty can opener, that takes the tops off, so there is no sharp edges.

Simply adhere cute scrapbook paper around the can with modge podge.  Use a hot glue gun to add ribbon running down the sides of the can.  I glued the ribbon just inside the lip of the can and under the bottom. Embellish the top of the can as desired and wala, you have this:

 A cute bow holder that can be kept anywhere.

Inside the can  you put headbands, ponytails, anything that doesn't have a clip.

Homemade Recipe Books

**This week I want to revisit some of our homemade Christmas gifts of the past.  I also have a few new ones to throw in.  It's not to late to make gifts!  Homemade gifts are the best!! This fun little projects was from 2008.**

Mandee and I made these fun recipe books as Christmas gifts for my sister-in-laws. They turned out so nice and were a lot of fun to make. They were also a ton of work. If you were interested in doing this as a gift, start now!!!! You will type and type. And then type some more. That was the most time consuming part of the whole project was typing the recipes. We figure that there was somewhere around 200 recipe's in each book!!

We made 6 of these. I only got pictures of the last three. To make them we got plain 1 inch binders from the dollar store. We used modge podge to make the covers. I love the way modge podge looks!

I messed up when I did the measurements for the inserts. Each insert was made with 8 x 10 dimensions. Now, being the ditsy person that I am, I didn't even think about a regular sheet of paper being 8 & 1/2 by 11. So each page had to be cut down to 8x10 size and so did each page protector. Hence, they took us oodles of time to make. Had I had the dimensions right it would have been much easier. We used 2-sided, coordinating paper for each insert. That way we could get 1 insert out of each page. On the back of each insert we made a pocket by attaching another sheet of card stock that was 8x5. I should have gotten a picture of that, so you could see how cute they were.

I think that they were well received and that everyone liked them. Homemade gifts are always the best gifts. I have already started on next years gift. It's another big one, but I can't share because too many eye's see this blog if you know what I mean!!!!

Who wants one?

ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!!!!!!  The silhouette is at the very top of my Christmas wish list!!!  Will I be getting it from Santa? Sadly no, other priorities have to come first right now, but that doesn't stop me from wishing!  Oh, the things I would do with a silhouette!!!  I can't even articulate it, because it gets me so excited!

I entered for a chance to win one over at Tatertots and Jello.  Go enter and let's cross our fingers that one of us wins!!!  It would be a Christmas miracle ;). 

As a side note, I am taking a little Thanksgiving day break!  My little boy has surgery on Wednesday and I will have family here all week.  So have a Happy Thanksgiving!!  Make lots of memories and eat lots of yummy food!  See you next week!

Paper Plate Turkey

I have to share this little guy before Thanksgiving is over.  We are making these at school next week.  Simply cut a paper plate in half.  Let the kiddo's use white glue to spread over the plate.  Sprinkle the plate with pieces of tissue paper.  I used a 3 inch punch to cut out the brown cirlce.  Attatch the beak and feet!  So cute and so easy!

H is for House

Somehow, I skipped our H is for House.  Super cute, got this idea from Totally Tots.  We also talked about ,hats, hippo's and horses. 

Alot of the curriculum that we have been using comes from scholastic and random websites on the web.  There is so many home school mom's who so graciously share their printables and curriculum.  We also do some of ours from past years. 

I'll have to share some of these amazing websites in my next post.  Look for it in the next few days.

Igloo's

These are so much fun to make! The kids had a blast.

(I know she's eating it, but she's cute! 

She's mine and she's the baby of the class this year.)

Basically, you take an apple and split it in half.  We used Marshmallow creme to spread over the top of the apple and then you put mini-marshmallows on top.  We've done this before but with peanut butter.  Which in all honesty, works much better.  The creme kinda melted, but the kids who were really meticulous and put marshmallows all over the igloo, didn't have any problems.

It's a sticky project, but well worth doing. 

Here are some great Igloo worksheets to use with this project.

Easy Puff Paint

This is a lot of fun.  Mix 3/4 cup shaving cream with 1/4 cup white glue.  Add some food coloring and you have a fun paint that puffs up when it dries.  It feels like foam.  It does take a while to dry.  We usually let our set overnight.  Do this on Halloween and use it to make a ghost on black construction paper.  For another puff paint recipe, check out this post from years past.  It's fun, but does require a microwave.

G is for.....

I thought this one was way cute!  Super easy compared to the flags and some of our other projects.  I don't have anything else for G week.  It fell during the week of Halloween and I just didn't get any other G projects done.  We were to busy doing Halloween crafts.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nothing says fall like pumpkin cookies!!  These have become a staple at our house the past few weeks.  It's good and bad.  Good as in they are my favorite cookie, bad on the diet!!!  I have posted this before, but it's been a few years, thought I would share it again.  This is my recipe I have used for years and it's by far the best that I have found!


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp milk
2 cups chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

1) Pre-heat oven to 375
2) Combine sugar and shortening. Add egg and beat well. Add pumpkin and vanilla.
3) Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and mix by hand until combine
4) Dissolve baking soda in milk and add to above.
5) Add chocolate chips. Mix well
6) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

F is for.....

We painted fall leaves.  This is a way fun project.  You mix corn syrup with a little bit of food coloring and let the kids paint.  It's ooey, gooey fun!  It takes a long time for these to dry.

5 Green and Speckled Frogs, sitting on a speckled log eating the most delicious bugs, yum, yum!

Flags!  This one was a bit intense.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I can't remember where I saw this idea.  I wasn't fond of the Fox and fish letters I had seen and went looking for something different.  I wish I knew who to give credit to.  Making these letters is going to change a bit.  I am trying to think outside the box for them, because I am not necessarily fond of the one's I have seen.  We'll see what I can come up with.



Teepe's

 Another cute idea from Family Fun.  Frost sugar cones with white icing.  Stick some toothpicks in the top.  decorate with brown frosting for your door and any designs you may want.  Add some candy if you want to and wala!

If I let go of the notion that everything has to be perfect, I think the preschoolers can do this :).  In fact, I think we will do it for our Thanksgiving day party!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

 You can make these yummy cookies like this, as a frosted cookie.  I used toffee sprinkles on top.

Or you can make them into whoopie pies!  They are so good.  The recipe came from Family Fun.

Pumpkin Cookies:

2 eggs
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
t tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Filling/Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tsps. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk ( I added this, it was way to thick the other way)
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat the eggs, brown sugar, oil and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth.  Add pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture a 1/2 cup at a time, blending each time until smooth.  (It will be a very sticky dough)

Drop heaping tbsps. of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  bake the cookies for 12 minutes.  Cool completely.  Fill the middle with cream cheese frosting or frost the top of the cookies.

Emergency Car Care Kit Tutorial

These are stinkin' cute! 

I got one for Christmas last year and I love mine.

I decided to reproduce something similar.

I love the big chunky buttons and the cute potholders.

These cost me $3.50 a piece to make.

First thing will be to find some cute potholders.  The one that I got was a larger sized pot holder, but a standard size will work just as well.  These came Dollar Tree

Take 6 plastic, zipper seal Ziploc and place them inside the potholder.  You will want 3 going out each way.  I hope you can see what I mean in the picture.  Measure your potholder across to find the center.  I used a dry erase marker to draw a line down the center for a sewing guide.

You are going to stitch a zigzag stick right down the center of the bags.  This is kinda hard and I messed up the first one, because the bags are slippery to sew on. 

Go back and trim the excess off of the bottom of each bag.  Trim it as close to the stitching as possible.  Be careful not to cut into the stitching.

Sew a cute chunky button on the outside and now fill it with goodies!  I put in antibacterial wipes from Walgreen's,a couple of Tylenol packets, band aids, tissue, dental picks, safety pins, nail clippers and a file.  You can fill it with whatever you want.  Mine had all of these things plus an emergency sewing kit.  You can also save a slot to put in some cash.  Mine came with a $5.00 bill.

I whipped out 15 of these in 2 hours.  All of the filler came from the dollar store and Walgreen's.  This is an easy present to mass produce if you want to do them for Christmas.Happy sewing

Silly Jack-o-Lanterns

These would be a great craft for preschool.  In fact, we may do these for our party!  We took paper plates and painted them orange with tempera paint.  I printed the silly faces from Family Fun. They had a great idea, to print these on sticker paper and let the kids use these to decorate pumpkins, rather than carve pumpkins, but where's the fun in that?  I let each of the kids pick out their own face and glue them on.  This is what we came up with.  They were so easy to make and are so cute!

Spiders

I got this idea, from here.  It's one of my very favorite sights! These were originally Christmas ornaments from the dollar store.  They came in packages of 8.  They are styrofoam, but whatever is on top of them (glittery paint), stopped the spray paint from melting the styrofoam.  They started out white and we spray painted them gray, because well, it was what we had :).  You could also paint them with acrylic or tempra paint.  We cut pipe cleaners and stuffed them into the styrofoam to make the legs.  Add some googly eye's and  you've got a cute collection of spiders. 

This is a craft that is doable for preschool, but in small groups.  I had to really help the two girls, who are both 3.  My 6-year-old did great.  This would be a great craft for a school party.

We cut pipe cleaners up and pushed them into the styrofoam to make the legs.  Add some googly eye's and you've got some nifty spiders!

E is for Elmo and Egg

 Agian, these are for our ABC book.  The idea came from here.

This was a last minute time filler.  We had done the Cookie Monster faces, and so I thought, "Why not do an Elmo plate?"  These were much simpler.  Used 2 inch punches for the eyes and nose, a bingo dobber for the black in the eye's and I cute 3 inch circles in half for the mouth.

I have quite a few more E things for you!!  Mostly experiments that we did.  I will post more of those, possibly next week.  I want to make sure to get all the Halloween projects we've been doing posted before the big day.  Most of them we have been doing at home to try them out, prior to preschool, just to make sure they are doable.  See you tomorrow with some fun stuff!

Mock Halloween Canvas

I love making these canvases.  I've posted about them before.  This was a big, nice canvas that I got at DI for $1.50. I painted it black, because believe it or not, it was pink!!!  I printed out this fun sign, ripped the edges, and modge podged it to the canvas.  It didn't turn out the way I had envisioned, but I think it looks alright.  I put it on the top of my mantle, kinda of back in the back.  It bubbled a bit, but from a few feet away, you can't tell!  That's the perfectionist in me!

There are lots of these kind of signs floating around the web right now.  Lot's of fun subway art and great Halloween printables!  Good luck deciding which one to make.

Gak

E is for Experiment!

Gak

1 lb. box of cornstarch
1 & 1/2 cups water

Mix all the constarch and water together in a bowl.  If the mixture is really thick, add some more water.  The mixture should be slightly runny.

Here is waht is really cool about Gak.  When you poke the gak quicky, putting pressure on it, the Gak particles lock together and it acts like a solid.  But when you poke at it slowly, this doesn't happen and the Gak still acts like a liquid.

Easy Halloween Costumes

Haven't figured out a costume for your kiddo yet?  Parenting has a great article for you!  35 Easy Homemade costumes, all you need is scissors, glue and paint!  I love homemade costumes.  I wish I could get my kids to stray away from the commercialized costume business.  They are expensive and usually don't last long. This year I only had to buy 1 costume, thank heavens!  We borrowed and came up with one for my little girl, but maybe next year I can convince them to make their own.

Today we are doing our traditional Haunted Gingerbread houses!  Can't wait!  It's a sticky and sweet mess!  Have a good Monday!

E is for Listening Ears!

This was a really fun craft.  The kids all looked so cute!  I got the ear images from Dltk kids.  I printed one out normal and then mirror imaged the second one to get the other ear.  Have the kids cut out the ears, while you cut a paper plate in half. You will also want to take a hole punch and make 2 punches in each half, close to the top of the ear.  You will thread pipe cleaner through each set and twist them in the back to make the headband.  Glue on your ears and color!  This is something I have seen done before, I just wasn't sure where to get the ear images.