Valentines Day is just around the Corner

I am helping out in 2 of my kiddos classes for their parties so I have been searching for some fun ideas.
I have collected quite a large list of crafts so I am sharing some of them with you-

Valentine Heart Pencils, these are what Miss B is giving out in her class this year.And another pencil card.


These Hershey Kiss Flowers are so cute.

Here are some cute Lollipop Mice 4KraftyKidz.com has a ton of great ideas

These little chocolate gnomes are awesome.This hugs and kisses pot would make a wonderful gift for someone special.

I think Miss K is going to make some of these button hearts to give out to her class.

These little Chocolate Kiss Mice are one of the crafts I am planning to help them make in Miss K's class. Here is a link to a video of another version of them.

These little bag and clothespin valentines are adorable, I am making a few of these for some ladies I visit.

Here are some cute printable Owl Valentine Cards-CraftyChic has a lot of fun Valentine Projects as well.

I know we are going to play Valentine Bingo and the kids are going to decorate their own cupcakes, so I need to come up with 1 more game and I am all set :)

Happy Happy Happy

I am so happy to have received this sweet award from The Mommyologist
She has such a great Blog, if you haven't been over there, you should, it rocks.

With this award I get to list 10 things that make me happy-

1- When my children stick up for, comfort or freely offer help to each other, that really makes me get the warm fuzzies inside.

2- Reading new Blog posts from my Bloggy Buddies, I am so Happy I got into blogging, it is Awesome.

3- Coming home to a clean house, this is big on my Happy list, with 4 kids and 2 dogs and a Hubby who likes to spread the love, my house staying clean long enough for me to enjoy it doesn't happen very often. So very very very rarely when I come home and it's clean, sigh, very nice.

4- My Family, I have the best Siblings and Parents ever. They are always there for me to support me 100%. I am one lucky lady.

5-Crafting, sitting down and making something that turns out always brings a smile to my face.

6- Playing games with my kiddos, we love to play board games. Even sitting with Miss M and playing games online makes me happy.

7- Cooking, I cook when I am frustrated, sad, mad and glad. But by the time I am finished cooking my mood is always the same Happy. I love being able to create yummy things, it definitely makes me happy.

8- A good book, reading has been something that has brought me joy for many many years. There is nothing like finishing a good book.

9- Driving in the car with my Kiddos, we sing, play games, and are pretty goofy. We enjoy road trippin together.

10- Music, I love all kinds of music. There is music for every feeling in the world, and there are some that I like to play when I am needing a Happy boost.

I am passing this on to-

Katherine's (a.k.a Katie's) Corner

52 weeks of Preschool

Speaking from the Crib

Stir-Fry Awesomeness

Muddy Runner

Who has the Thyme?

The Mommyologist

Bashful Toast

Thanks for making me a happy Blogger guys!!! :)

Bookmark Cleanout #3

Here we go again- more kids crafts or crafts to make for kids, these are some great sites for science projects -

Kids Science Concoctions

Kids Craft Zone

Kids Create

Disney's Family Fun

DLTK

Activities in English & French Kids-R-Crafty

Making learning Fun

KidZone

Family Education

Garden and Patio Craft Projects

Family Fun Cereal Tote box/bag

Cute cover-up

The Science of Cooking

Pumpkin Carving patterns

Halloween Crafts at Kaboose Here and Here

The Pumpkin Farm

Everything Preschool

Homemade Bubbles

Bookmark cleanout #2 online kids sites

I have a bookmark folder full of fun site for kids to go online and play games, a few of them we use regularly. But they all have some great stuff on them, so I thought I would share-

nick jr preschool games

Playhouse Disney

PBS kids

Disney kids

American Girl Fun for Girls

This site is great for kids 8 and up, there is a lot of great learning games and stuff- FunBrain

Snowdays, where your kids can create their own snowflake.

My 10 year old likes this site FreeRice

The Cupcakes Club

Kids Web Japan

Funschool

Kidz

Discovery Kids

National Geographic Kid

For bigger girls 10 and up there is-

UbiWorld

gamesforgirls

So there ya go, games galore :)

Have I mentioned I have a bookmark problem???

I bookmark EVERYTHING.
So on this the first day of 2010 I am cleaning out my kids krafts bookmarks, hee hee, by posting all the links on here. :) :) :)
Aren't I a clever nellie :)

First off we have a ruffled skirt tutorial HERE

Martha Stewart Easter Crafts for kids HERE

Chocolate Playdough HERE

Homemade sidewalk Chalk HERE

Adorable girls skirt from mens shirt pattern HERE

Womans skirt to childs sundress HERE

Make your own Milk Carton container HERE

Make your own cake stand from terra cotta pots HERE

Fabric Applique instructions HERE

Make a light up sign HERE

Girls Purse Tutorial HERE

Fleece blanket ideas HERE

Crepe paper party streamers HERE

Girls skirt pattern HERE

Girls skirt tutorial HERE

Strawberry Body Butter recipe HERE

Dog fleece sweater instructions HERE

Sumo's Sweet Stuff tutorials HERE

Chalkboard paint message board tutorial HERE

I have emptied 1 bookmark category 3 more to go!

Snowman Soup links

My little Sister J was asking what Snowman Soup was so I did some looking so that I could send her some info.I haven't made this for a couple years so I don't have any pictures of my own but I did find some great links.


Snowman Soup1
Snowman Soup 2
Snowman Soup 3
Snowman Soup 4

Great Winter Holiday Crafts for Kids

I have been so bad about posting on here, there are a few projects the kiddos and I are going to be making in the next couple weeks so I thought I would go ahead and post the links here. And hopefully I will get some pictures when we make them and then get those on here.
First one is this-

I found them on this BLOG , and I have all the stuff for these and will be making them this weekend.

Also this-

Wreath picture frame ornament

And this-
Hand Print Wreath
Ginger Bread People Garland

I am also struggling to figure out what to do for teacher gifts this year, so after searching for ideas I am trying to decide which one of these would be best, or all of them?-

Snowman Soup
Pumpkin Latte Mix
Potato Soup Mix in a jar
Cinnamon Pancake mix
A Sweet Bookmark

I think I will pick one or two of those and make up a little basket.

Also if you want a fun place to look around with your kids go to The Northpole.com
The kids can write, send and receive a letter from Santa, there is also lots of other fun stuff there.

Jack o Lantern Smoothies

This was a fun treat that the kiddos helped me make for a snack the other day, we have a magic bullet that we love to use for this kind of thing but I bet a blender would work just as well :)

In your blender place-
1/4c. orange yogurt
1/2c. vanilla ice cream
1/2c. OJ

Blend on high, while that is blending melt 1/4c. chocolate chips in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Use this to make the face on the inside of your glass, set glasses in the freezer. Let set for a few minutes then pour the smoothie into your decorated glasses.

Mummy Dogs

These are very easy, Miss B and Miss K made these by themselves- which shows you how easy they are :)
The directions we got for them was a Pillsbury recipe, But once again their wording was a little confusing so we just went our own way because we couldn't decide which one of these ways-

They meant for us to cut the dough so we tried both, and settled on the long strips.

Mummy dogs
Ingred;
1 pkg hot dogs
1 pkg Pillsbury bread stick dough
ketchup

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam, open up your bread sticks and divide into the 12 pieces.

Cut each piece into 4 long strips.
Starting at the bottom of the hot dog wrap the dough around- using 4-6 strips for each dog.

Place on the cookie sheet, bake at 375 until the biscuits are golden brown- dot on your ketchup- or mustard eyes and enjoy :)

Tootsie Pop Spiders

You need-
Tootsie Pop Suckers- I used a small one here, but have used both sizes.
Black pipe cleaners
Googly eyes
hot glue gun

Cut 2 pipe cleaners in half so that you have 4 pieces, twist them one by one around the sucker stick and then bend them at the ends to form the spiders legs. Glue on the googly eyes using a hot glue gun.

We have handed these out at Halloween as treats and also have used these as a Halloween craft at school parties for the kids to make.

Creepy Spider Bread Sticks

My kiddos love this fun recipe from Pillsbury, it's something we have to make every year around Halloween. The instructions are a little confusing so bear with me here, or you can jump over to that link I gave you and read their confusing instructions :)
You need a package of Pillsbury bread stick dough. Unwrap and unroll ALL the bread sticks there are suppose to be 12. Take 4 of those and cut them in half so you have 8 short bread sticks. Roll those up to make your spider head/body (think simple 6 legged spiders here). Now cut the rest of the bread sticks in half and you will have 16 short bread sticks. Here is where is got me confused, cause I am easily confused :)
Cut each of those 16 LENGTHWISE into 3 strips. Now you have 48 spider legs, see how good my math is? Miss B only had to correct me once (note to parents it's only easy to impress children under 6 with such tricky math skills, doesn't work when they are older, and can correct you :)

Take 2 pieces of tinfoil and roll into 2 long sticks, you can see mine in the picture. Attach 3 legs together on one end and drape over the tin foil, spray tin foil before you put your legs on it, repeat 7 more times, then do the same on the other tinfoil roll. Scoot the two together so the legs are almost touching and place in the middle the Spider bodies/heads.

When you have all 8 done, if I have my math all right :) bake at 375 until spiders are light golden brown, let cool a few minutes before removing from the tinfoil. Serve with soup, or chili, or as a after school snack.

Fun with Jello

There are LOTS of fun Jello recipes on the Kraft.com site. My girls had a blast making this pretty layered dessert, it was quick and easy and I bet it would look beautiful in a trifle dish. I used peach jello, I bet orange would have been a better Halloween choice because the peach wasn't dark enough, or maybe grape?

Halloween Layered Jello Mousse

Ingred;
6 oz jello mix
3c. boiling water
16 oz cool whip

Pour the boiling water over the jello and stir until dissolved,
gently stir in the cool whip and pour into your serving bowl/dish.
We filled 8 serving sized bowls with this.
Let chill in the fridge for a few hours.

October 1st is Homemade Cookie Day!

Which is too cool, like we needed any more things to celebrate in October right?
But Homemade cookie day, I can get on that train :)
I am trying to post a Fall recipe or Craft everyday of October,
either on here (crafts) or on my other blog- One Step at a Time (cooking).
So since it's Homemade Cookie Day I found a October appropriate recipe of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Sandwiches and posted about them
-> Here <- Enjoy! :) :) :)

Knifty Knitter

My girls love these tools, they are perfect for children, or for the knitting challenged like me.
Miss K age 7 and Miss B age 9 have both gotten really good at this, Miss M age 4 needs a little help but she loves doing it.

This is Miss K's second project, a scarf for her baby doll-

Her first project was a hat for her baby cousin.

Here is Miss B working on a scarf for a friend-

These little handy tools are called Knifty Knitter Looms, they are made by Provo Craft. Here is a link to Joann Fabric, that's where I got all mine so that I could use a 40% off coupon on them :)
And here a few links to sites with patterns for these wonderful tools-
#1
#2
#3
#4

I have made some scarfs for gifts using this, and there are so many fun patterns I would love to try...... if only I could get them away from the girls long enough to make one! Maybe I just need to go pick up a couple more ;)

Fairy Princess Bath Dust

This is a fun project that you can make for your kids, or if you have older ones they could make this them selves. This would make a great simple gift for a friend.


Fairy Princess Bath Dust
Ingred;
1/2c. baking soda
1/4c. epsom salts
5-10 drops vanilla, raspberry or any smell you like extract.

Place all ingred. in order listed into the bowl of a food processor, pulse until finely ground. Put into a container with a lid that it can be sprinkled out of, I found these at the Dollar Store. Then decorate your container.

Painting, Painting all day long-

Finger Paints
1/2c. cornstarch
3T. sugar
2c. water
food coloring
a few drops of dish soap

Put water & sugar into a saucepan. Add the water & dish soap slowly. Cook on med until barely thickening. Divide into small containers and stir in food coloring. Let it cool then get painting!

Silly Silly Putty

Silly Putty Recipe
1/2c. Elmers glue
1/2c. liquid starch

Mix together by hand, if it's to thick add more glue, too thin add more starch, until its combined.

Uncooked Playdough

Uncooked Playdough
2-1/2c. flour
1/2c. salt
1t. alum
2c. boiling water
3T. oil

Mix together the flour, salt & alum. Combine water and oil, now is the time to add food color, to the water, if you'd like. Combine with the flour mixture and knead until combined.

Favorite Playdough

This is my favorite homemade playdough recipe, it is nice & soft and if you keep it in an airtight container it lasts well for a long time.

Cooked Playdough
Ingred;
1c. cold water
1/2c. salt
1c. flour
2t. cream of tartar
1/2T. oil
food coloring or 1/2 a pkt Koolaid

Put water, oil and food color/Koolaid, in a med. saucepan. Stir together,add salt. Stir, slowly add in the flour & cream of tartar, whisking together. Heat on med heat, stirring until it comes together in a ball. Cool, knead it together. Do not store until it's completely cooled. Store in airtight container.

Rubba Dubba Dub, I was playin in the Tub

Soap Crayon Recipe
30-40 drops food coloring
1c. mild, like Dreft, powder laundry detergent
water
plastic molds

Fill a measuring cup with the 1c. detergent, add in the coloring & stir. Add water by the t. until mixture is a liquid. Stir well, pour into plastic molds, ice cube trays work well. Set in a warm dry place for up to 2 days until hard. Great for drawing in the tub at bath time.