Thumbprint Reindeer Ornament

Running out of time to make a homemade Christmas gift for family members?  Here's one that takes no time at all!

Michaels has some flat, paintable ceramic Christmas tree ornaments.We used them to make thumbprint reindeer and then let the kids paint the other side however they wanted with acrylic paints.

Simple Valentines Day Hat

We made these super easy heart hats for a Valentines Day get-together on Tuesday. I cut the hearts out of scrapbook paper (a little sturdier than construction paper) and the girls decorated.

If you cut them the right size and your paper is sturdy, they will fit very well, but I didn't have all the kids in front of me to check head sizes; so some slipped down and became necklaces :-)

 Thanks, Kathy for the directions on this!

Carrot Hearts

The girls helped me peel the carrots (more fun when you buy the kind with the greens on)

and we followed the directions over at Sophistimom for making little heart-shaped snacks!

Mine didn't turn out as well as hers, but they were still fun to eat!

  

Heart-Shaped Foods II

1. Melon Heart Kabobs
2. Hot Dog Hearts
3. Cinnamon Rolls
4.  Heart-shaped egg

Snowflake Pancakes

I won't say I was exactly disappointed to come home to seventy degree weather after visiting snowy New York last week, but it did put me in the mood to try some new snowflake crafts.

We started yesterday morning.  In fact, we were almost late for church because the girls and I got completely carried away making these snowflake pancakes.  (sadly, we barely had time to eat them!)

 I found a mostly-empty squirt bottle of ketchup in the back of my refrigerator (yes, I do believe I could find just about anything in there).  After pouring the remaining ketchup into another bottle and scrubbing it out, I used a funnel to fill the empty squirt bottle with pancake batter.    Now I had a writing instrument for drawing whatever I liked!

It was a little tricky to draw pretty snowflakes for two reasons:

1.  Snowflakes really only look believable if they are symmetrical- a little tricky when drawing with batter
2.  I used a recipe for crepe batter instead of the traditional pancake batter with baking powder, etc.  I thought the snowflakes might be prettier if the pancakes were flat, but crepe batter is very thin and runny.  If you're not careful, you'll end up with a simple little pool of batter instead of a snowflake.

The girls enjoyed watching the snowflakes being drawn on the griddle, but they especially enjoyed sprinkling them with powdered sugar afterward.  "Snowy" snowflakes are the prettiest and the tastiest!

Heart-Shaped Foods- Part I

Well, I don't know about you, but after almost a month after Christmas I'm finally ready to begin thinking about another holiday. Valentine's Day can be awfully cute and fun for kids.  The only problem tends to be all the candy that tend to accompany it.  One fun way around all the Dove promises and sweet tarts is to find ways to slip hearts into every day food.

1.  These cherry tomato hearts are simple and adorable.
2.  Use a squirt bottle full of pancake batter to make these lacy heart pancakes.
3.  My sister made this heart pepperoni pizza three years ago.  Isn't it cute?
4.  Heart-shaped egg and toast from Martha Stewart to serve your sweetheart or little sweeties for breakfast.

I've been collecting simple ideas for heart-shaped foods for quite a while so you can expect to see a few more posts on this theme in the next few weeks.

What other ideas has your family tried for celebrating Valentine's Day in a low-candy way?

Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows

I've never been a huge fan of marshmallows (I'd rather do a sink full of dishes than eat a Peep), but for some reason the idea of making them myself fascinated me from the first moment I heard it was possible.

Since so many imitations of processed foods are mediocre at best, and me not being the most careful of cooks, I half expected my marshmallows to turn out a puddle of white goo on the counter that I would reluctantly allow my girls to lick up and sicken themselves upon (so it wouldn't be a total waste).

I was definitely encouraged when several of you on facebook mentioned having good experiences with marshmallow recipes, and the girls and I promptly set off to make our own.
Peppermint Marshmallows
(adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients

•  cooking spray
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 4 packages (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons red food coloring
• powdered sugar for dusting

 Directions

1. Coat a cookie sheet  with cooking spray; line bottom with parchment paper. Coat the parchment with cooking spray, dust with powdered sugar and set pan aside. 
2. Put sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring; let mixture come to a boil. Raise heat to medium-high; cook until mixture registers 250 degrees on a candy thermometer.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over 3/4 cup water in a heatproof bowl; let stand 5 minutes to soften. Stir in extract and set aside.
4. Beat egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Whisk gelatin mixture into sugar mixture; with mixer running, gradually add to egg whites. Mix on high speed until   very thick, cool and glossy, 15 minutes or longer.
5. Pour mixture into lined pan. Working quickly, drop dots of red food coloring across surface of marshmallow. Using a toothpick, swirl food coloring into marshmallow to create a marbleized effect. Let marshmallow stand, uncovered, at room temperature until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Cut into squares, using a pizza cutter or sharp knife.   Roll in powdered sugar.

Thoughts:

1.  Definitely tasty.  Lighter and creamier than storebought marshmallows.

2.  The red marbling did not work out so well for me.  You can see that rather than artistic red swirls, I ended up with what looked a bit like a snowy battlefield.  

3.  Very fun process!  It was fun to watch the sugar mixture foam up when we added the gelatin, fun to watch the Kitchen Aid poof up the glossy white marshmallow fluff.  The girls also enjoyed cutting and rolling the marshmallows at the end.  

4.  Ever since we made them my mind has been racing, thinking of useful variations of this recipe.  I've heard that coconut flavored marshmallows are very delicious roasted over a campfire.  Apparently, cookie cutters can also be used to make fun shapes.  We gave out these marshmallows as a gift to some friends and family along with some homemade White Chocolate Peppermint Hot Cocoa.  

4 Fun Snowman Ideas

1.  Make a ice cream sundae snowman- from Gordon Gossip.
2. I really like this exercise in perspective from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists
3.  Melted Snowman cookies from Crazy Domestic
4.  These snowman snowflakes from Almost Unschoolers are easy and so appropriate!

Borax Crystal Snowflakes

We've got at least a couple of months of winter left with no Christmas cheeriness to brighten the gray days.  And here in Texas, we don't even have pretty snowflakes to cheer us (we DO have mild enough weather to play outside easily- for which I am very thankful!)

So...it's time to start hunting down winter snow crafts.  There really are a lot of amazing ones out there (maybe because people are indoors, trying to chase away the post-holiday blues??)

This borax crystal snowflake craft is really worth doing if you've never done it before. I had seen it around the internet on several blogs, but pictures don't really do justice to the beautiful, dramatic results.

Materials:

Mason jar
String
A pencil
Borax (in the laundry section of the grocery store)
Boiling Water
Blue pipe cleaners
Scissors

1.  Cut 2 pipe cleaners into small pieces and fashion into a snowflake shape by twisting the pieces around one another.
2.  Fill a mason jar with boiling water and dump in some borax.  (Directions I've read say 3 Tablespoons per one cup of water, but it's really not fussy at all).

3.  Stir until it stops dissolving.  (It's ok if some of the borax just settles to the bottom)
4.  Tie a string on the pipe cleaner snowflake.  On the other end of the string tie a pencil (to keep the snowflake from falling to the bottom of the jar)
5.  Dip snowflake in the mason jar, making sure it does not touch the bottom or sides of the jar.  Wait for two or three hours and pull out your pretty snowflake!

If your children are old enough you can use this craft to illustrate the science of supersaturation.  If they are little tots like mine, they'll just enjoy helping to stir the borax mixture and then admiring the way the sun shines through the crystals at the end.  (They look really nice hung on windows!)

An Easy Stained Glass Craft Technique

I'm really tickled to have found this simple stained glass craft.  I had been looking for a pretty and quick way to make all the symbols for our family's advent devotions, and after poking around on the internet for a while yesterday, I found something I was happy with.

1.  Print a black and white silhouette picture out on regular paper. (you'll notice the picture I found on google was a tattoo pattern.  Ha!)

2.  Heat a cookie sheet in the oven until its nice and hot.

3.  Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and use and towel to cover part of the sheet so little fingers are less likely to get burnt. (I told the girls to be very careful, and we didn't have any problems)
4.  Place the silhouette paper on the cookie sheet upside down and color with crayons.

5.  Frame the picture with strips of black construction paper.

That's it!

If you want it to have less of a "mottled" look then make sure not to melt the crayon on too thickly.

They look surprisingly nice on a brightly lit window or on the outside of a candle holder (we're doing it this way for advent devotions).

It's Playtime!

Christmas is coming...

We planted an amaryllis bulb today on the window sill of the playroom.  I'm hoping it will bloom by Christmas, but I may be cutting it a little close.

 At least we will have the anticipation of it's bright bloom all during advent.  I've been trying to find new ways for our family to revel in the symbolism of the anticipation of Christ's coming.  It is such a rich time, and after Christmas, I often feel as if I have not really taken the time or initiative to ponder it enough.

Do you have any simple advent traditions that you have found meaningful for your family at this time that you'd be willing to share?