I made these last year at my moms house, I wasn’t used to her oven and as you can see, I browned the edges of some of these cakies, however, they were a huge hit with kiddo. We even made some icing and sandwiched the cakies for fun. 

These would be a simple and adorable Easter treat for a baker of average skill, you don’t need to be fancy, the secret here is Wilton’s icing colours in your favourite shades.

All you need to do is take a basic white cake recipe, such as the Betty Crocker recipe that follows and divide the batter into little containers, one for each colour you want to do.

Drop the cake mix by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, spacing them 1-2 inches. Bake for 6-8 minutes, adjust the timing as necessary (AKA- keep an eye on your first batch so the edges don’t brown like mine did!)

I debated putting this picture and recipe up because it wasn’t ‘pinterest perfect’ but decided I would throw it out there anyways because your kids will love it and it’s pretty easy. If your baking skills are limited just go grab a box of cake mix, I won’t tell on you! I do recommend Wilton colours though because they don’t change the consistency of your recipe, unlike those dropper kinds. Plus they create absolute perfection!

Here’s a link to a recipe that’s pretty close to the one I used:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/basic-white-cake/e5a2d8f9-8922-4ec6-9e57-c9521ec14afd 

Hi cyber buddies,

I’m dealing with some illness around here, it’s a little more serious than I initially suspected and will be back up and crafting soon, but in the meantime I have a lot of loving and nurturing to do around here :)

Take care and keep crafting!

Homemade Crayons

I first saw this idea on Pinterest and being a Crafty Impostor who loves all things fun, functional and rainbow I had to try it and you should too! 

First I found some people who were willing to part with old, broken crayons. 

Then you peel those crayons, I recommend either carefully using an exacto, not good if you’re accident prone or simply soaking them in warm water for a while. You will know when to stop soaking because the crayon jacket will pop open.

Then break them up, you can either do this monochromatic style or mix all the colours together, either way is fun.

Then put them in a mold, or muffin tin (use an old muffin tin)

Pop them in the oven at 225F for 15 minutes, you may wish to crack a window while they bake.

Allow to harden and cool, pop out of molds and they are ready to go!

I made these for the kiddos JK class for Valentines day, it’s great to be able to offer a non-food item for kid celebrations! 




Original Pinterest post can be checked out here: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61951289@N08/5672821563/sizes/l/in/photostream/

We were expecting something along the lines of snowmageddon or snowpocalypse today but instead it rained. I’m okay with rain, it’s much easier to navigate as long as it doesn’t freeze.

Sometimes though, rain can suck the ambition right out of you but your children need something fun to do… so what do you do? Here are a few things we do:

Draw on the windows. Yep, we draw on the windows! After seeing a friend had purchased these nifty window crayons from that giant store that has everything that I refuse to shop at I realized a dry-erase marker would give the same results! So I gave kiddo some markers and let her go crazy, she LOVED this! I feel obligated to say that she is 4 and can handle drawing on windows without thinking the house is her canvas! 

Window clings. We picked up a few sheets of princess window clings and kiddo has them play and talk and dance, this is out of the way of baby girls reach too! It is amazing how long she will happily play and sing with these things…err, clings!

Dance Party! Turn on some music and boogie down! We like using our cable providers dance music station, 70’s disco or kids tunes. Then we do freeze dances and tell each other to freeze at random moments. We also have a silly moves contest and a copycat dance! So much fun!

Paper towel art. Draw spots and designs with markers on a piece of paper towel then use a rock to secure them outside in the rain. Gather around at the screen door and watch the colours spread, it only takes a few seconds. Be sure not to leave it out for long, especially if it’s raining hard or you will have an icky rainbow mess to clean up!

Blocks. Our latest family favourite has been playing blocks, whether it is rainy or not! Little and Big can play together and Daddy and I get in on the fun too. We like to play how many blocks can you stack before baby knocks them down, how many short stacks can you make before baby gets them, make a pyramid and try to remove middle blocks without collapsing the pyramid, use the drawings to make words (i.e. - bumble bee = B, apple= A, etc.) I catch myself trying to make intricate little structures before realizing everyone has moved on and I’m playing alone! Are you ever really too old to play blocks? I think not.

I’d love to know what you do to chase away rainy day blues! 

I like to bake, do you? There is something about the predictability of an old favourite being baked up that makes me feel so warm and wonderful. I sometimes see baking as edible chemistry, I love trying a new recipe where I measure everything exactly to ensure the result is what it should be but by the time I’ve done it 5 times I catch myself replacing ingredients and using my palm to measure out the dry ingredients.

I love my Kitchen-Aid mix master and the expression on the wee girls faces when I turn it on and it perfectly mixes up the latest creation. When I feel sick or stressed or annoyed, I’m in my kitchen making an enormous mess and a tasty treat. Somehow taking those feelings and putting them into something productive with an end result that satisfies my stomach is heavenly. Is that where the phrase ‘eating your emotions’ comes from? 

Regardless, baking is a great way to get through winter blahs, rainy days, sadness, anger, worry, stress and frustration. Some people are cringing to think that anything to do with the kitchen could be considered therapeutic but seriously, even if you have to buy a package mix of cake, go follow the directions and set a timer and see if you aren’t excited when the timer dings. Then after the aroma of fresh-baked whatever you made fills the house, dig into your creation and tell me that doesn’t feel amazing!

I have done everything I can not to allow my baking adventures join in on this blog as there are so many foodie blogs out there, I didn’t want to be awash in a sea of more spectacular goodies but… I have to share a simple and delicious recipe that everyone I know loves, often people have a special memory attached to this treat too, I know I do and it takes me back about 25 years everytime I eat one.

The recipe is for peanut butter marshmallow squares, but my big princess is allergic to peanuts so I have lovingly adapted it so that she can have a bite of marshmallowy heaven too. I’ve heard that many people do not give soy or golden pea butter to their children as they don’t want to confuse them about the PB rule. I do not follow that path, I want her to taste all the amazing treats I got to have as a kid and soy or pea butter are perfect impostors. Being 4 she understands the no nut rules and is very inteligent about her special circumstance. If you have a nut allergic child, you do what works for your family and disregard this recipe altogether if it doesn’t feel right for you! Serious stuff being said, let’s explore this easy recipe!

Despite my love of baking, this is an oven-free recipe!

soybutter/peabutter/nutbutter marshmallow squares

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup soy/pea or nut butter
1.5 cups butterscotch chips
3 cups rainbow miniature marshmallows

Grease an 8x8 9x9 or loaf pan. Alternatively, line with parchment paper.

Place marshmallows in pan.

mix first 3 ingredients in a double boiler or on very low heat in a saucepan until smooth.

Pour over marshmallows and if you wish you can gently toss the marshmallows to evenly coat.

Stick in freezer for an hour and then cut in to squares, or if you used the loaf pan, fudge-style slices.

For tastiest results, keep the squares in the fridge. 

Let me know if you find a way to make these last for more than 2 days in your house.

Paint Racer

Yesterday my Big princess was hoping for a painting craft. She’s been unwell for a few days and was finally getting really energetic again, it seems with sick children that energy that’s lacking when sick gets stored somewhere inside of them and comes springing out in some sort of overload that is sure to leave a Mama exhausted trying to keep up to their ‘sickie.’ Or that’s how it is around here.

Anyhow, with this craft I decided we would work on fine-motor skills and colour combinations. 

I took an old baking pan and lined it with 2 sheets of paper, adhering one to the other with double-sided craft tape. You could just use one sheet of paper and line the pan with newspaper instead. If you’d like an extra chalenge for kiddo, draw a figure 8 or a racetrack on the paper. We found a bouncy ball to be our racer as it required less searching than a marble would have.

We put paint in a craft cup and gently swirled the ball in the paint. Big then gently (if you use a ball instead of a marble be sure they do this gently or painty-ball will bounce all over the place- ask me how I know) plunked the ball onto the pan and immediately started giggling with excitement.

I told the biggie to hold the pan and try to roll the ball along the track. She tried it once and then got too excited about the pretty paint lines and began making her masterpiece. You can’t blame a mom for trying. I think older kids might appreciate the challenge a little more, it definitely isn’t easy!

After one colour my daughter insisted on more, so we mixed some colours together, which looks amazing getting slowly swirled together by the ball. Just to make sure my Big girl was still up to speed on her colours, we guessed what colour the paint would turn when 2 colours were mixed and she looked very satisfied with the results each time.

You may wish to use cardstock as I found the paper was done before my Big girl was so we had to stop short. This was great fun and she loved getting to see the ball rolling around, if you had a little one who might not be able to keep the ball contained you could always place saran wrap over top and tape it down to prevent that pesky ball from taking off and say, making your kitchen counter orange.

All you need:

A deep baking pan

A sheet of paper- and a marker if you are going to make a race-track or figure 8

favourite paint colours 

a cup for paint

A ball or marble

All you do:

Line pan with paper and draw race-track or 8 if you wish

put paint in cup, put ball in cup, swirl to coat

Let kiddo plop the ball onto the page and start rolling!

Saran wrap the top and tape to secure if you have a little one or an especially mischevious one ;)

The Handy Butterfly

Today Little Princess was a grumpy baby, with a surplus of drool, as has been the case for the last week or so and our family is all cheering for a tooth to pop through and give the tiny one some relief. She is the loudest member of our family at only 9 months old and when she suffers we all suffer!

Big Princess and I were truly hoping to get in some crafty time but Little insisted she be in arms for all of her awake time and I was scrambling around cooking, cleaning and attending to all the rest of the domestic Debbie joy. So with hubby teaching hockey after his regular job we had a limited amount of time to get our craft on today.

I put Little to bed with less than an hour until Big’s bedtime and hurried downstairs to do a butterfly craft with my lovely Big princess. I grabbed a piece of cardstock in favourite colour #2, I pulled out paint and told Big to roll up her sleeves. She pulled them up and then I told her to pick some paint colours. When she had them picked out I pulled out a paintbrush and painted each hand with the first colour, she giggled at the tickly brush and my heart melted as it always does when the wee ones laugh, there’s no better sound in the world.

I then instructed her to pake a v shape with her hands and open her fingers (she didn’t make the v-shape so if your little one follows the instructions more closely your butterfly will look different) and then press them onto the paper and pretend her hands are making snow angels. Then we did it again with the second colour, just for fun and to make it prettier!

I then turned the paper upside down for the lower portion of butterfly wings, I told her to make a v but keep her fingers together and smush the paint around. We then brought the page right side up and I painted the body and antennae for her, as per her request.

When we were finished I asked her, as I usually do ‘what else does it need?’ and sometimes she will say it’s done and others she will have another great idea. Tonight she felt that ‘he’ needed eyes and a smile, so she picked out some pink googly eyes and a we used a pink Sharpie for a smile.

Afterwards I asked her if she would like to write butterfly at the bottom as we have been doing a lot of writing lately and she did. You might notice she is still transitioning from capitals to lower case with her writing but as it stands I love the little imperfections in her writing, this is such a short phase in her life and I love having these crooked-lettered keepsakes! 

So there you have it, a craft that can be done in 10 minutes or less! This craft can be done with almost any age, you just need to adjust your guidance level based on their skills. I love these types of projects as they are time stamps in a way, you’ll look back and marvel at those tiny hands someday or you can do one every year and see how much they change!

All you need:

cardstock, poster board or canvas.

paint, we used craft but tempra would be a great idea.

extra details: a marker, sparkles, pom-poms, googly eyes whatever you/they like.

All You Do:

paint childs hands, have them press them into paper with fingers apart, wave hands around to spread paint.

turn page upside down, keep kiddos fingers closed and spread paint around

Return page to upright position, paint a body and then add special touches from this point.

Special touches: paint circles as details on wings, create a pom-pom body or pom-pom antenna tips, put glitter on wings, make a happy face or add googly eyes!

I have seen an idea like this classic hand craft on pinterest before using feet, if you have a bit more time you might enjoy giving that a try! I couldn’t find a pin that led to any instructions but I’m pretty sure you can manage this one just by looking: http://projectbalancingact.smugmug.com/Children/Project-Balancing-Act-on/13273663_9TThng#!i=970442751&k=FGzr6&lb=1&s=A

Have fun, get messy and create smiles!

A couple weeks ago Big was looking restless and I decided it would be a good day to teach her about the planetary system. I’ve been aching to do this forever but wanted to wait until she could potentially absorb more of the information she would receive.

Today was that day and my inner nerd was more than just a little delighted! First I talked a little bit about Earth, the Sun and the Moon. Then we touched on stars. I didn’t linger on anything for too long, giving a description, putting into perspective as much as is applicable and then answering the questions that follow.

Once Big felt well-oriented with some new information she was still ready for more we started to talk about the rocky planets and then moved on to the gas giants, say the words ‘gas giant’ to your preschooler, I can almost guarantee this will result in an ‘ooooh’ expression and at least one raised eyebrow! I skipped the dry information and stuck with exciting facts. For some reason, the asteroid belt did not interest her one bit.

What big was most interested in learning was how many moons each planet had, their size in proportion to the earth, their colour and any fascinating tidbits. We hopped on the computer to give a visual, we found this site for kids: http://kids.nineplanets.org/intro.htm and it was perfect for her curious little mind and my increasingly rusty old mind.

To follow up with making some playdoh planets really helps make this information concrete and accessible. I also found a dollar store book on planets that came with 3D glasses for viewing the pages! Suddenly the asteroid belt became much cooler.

After our first day spent chatting planets and finding out various tidbits I heard Big tell DH ‘Daddy, if we went to Jupiter we would have to plug our ears because it is SO LOUD there!’ I pondered for a moment before remembering telling her that the high winds (360 km/h!) from all of the storms would be deafening! I think Jupiter and Saturn- or as she calls it, Sadrin, must be her favourites and she rattles off little factoids about them constantly!

I know some of you might be thinking I’m insane for introducing such an intense topic to a 4 year old but my theory is to do my best never to underestimate her intelligence, I would rather have to explain her through learning something too complicated than not try at all.

Next time the playdoh is on the table why not try having a space chat while rolling up some planets? They just might be fascinated!

Other fun space ideas:

Poke holes in the side a very large cardboard box, tip the box over and lay with your heads or bodies inside looking up at the stars! Serve starfruit as a snack afterwards!

Get glow in the dark star stickers to decorate kiddos bedroom roof and stargaze while cuddling in bed.

Make a planet mobile.

Go to a planetarium if there’s one in the area.

Use appropriately coloured markers for each planet to colour coffee filters, sprinkle with water for a cool effect! Fact: Earth is the prettiest planet from space and makes the best looking filter craft too, in case you don’t want to make 9!

Have a space adventure together, make a pretend rocket ship and blast off into space, talk about what you see and encourage kiddo to do the same thing!

I was playing indoors with my Little Princess while Big and DH had a snow adventure this afternoon and realized that I had to share this very cute and simple rattle I made for Little.

I had two empty Tetley tea cans and decided to see what Little thought of them. One I left empty and one I put a TBSP of lentils into and she loved them both, she clapped them together excitedly and bashed them on to everything in sight. 

One day after Christmas a large jingle bell fell off Bigs cute Christmas jingling headband and I was worried about Little getting a hold of it so I went to toss it but being the pack-rat that I am I couldn’t drop it in the garbage. I turned around to take it to the craft bins and just about did a face plant tripping over that delightful little tea can, the one that was empty. An all too obvious ‘ah ha’ moment occurred and I stuck the jingle bell in the tea can, potentially saving me from future face plants and increasing the entertainment value tenfold!

Little one freaks out when she plays with this toy, squeals and giggles and makes a very impressive rhythm for a 9 month old baby. She claps the lentil can and the jingle can together, sometimes one rolls away and she giggles all the way across the floor to get it again, we roll it back and forth, she smashes it into the ground. These two toys are endlessly entertaining for Little and I love that they’re simple and have a lot of play value to them, I have some other great ideas for these cans listed below.

What you need:

1 Tetley tea can, tea removed

1 TBSP dried lentils, beans, coffee grinds a jingle bell etc.

All you do:

Glue for the lid if your little one might be inclined to pulling the top off

Paint if your little one is old enough not to mouth the can and mod podge to seal it.

fill can, seal if needed, decorate if you like.

More great repurposing ideas for these cans:

Use several cans and encourage your toddler to stack them and then roll a ball to knock them down

number the cans and fill them with different materials, talk with your little one about what each numbered can sounds like. Do the same thing with colours, letters or shapes.

Using as many cans as there are letters in your childs name and teach them how to spell their name with the cans.

Fill with heavier materials, decorate to coordinate childs bedroom and use as bookends.

This week was busy and I really meant to have more posts up and tonight is the first quiet evening so excuse me while I post again and maybe once more after this if I don’t fall asleep on the laptop!

On Monday Big wanted to do a craft, something for Valentine’s day and since we’re working on writing at school I decided we would try making a love booklet.

It’s pretty easy and can be modified for younger kids too.

Big tried her hand at using the stapler and I’m not the sort to go for perfection when we craft, just to make sure it’s always fun for her.

Mama made the title for her and she wrote the names of people she loved inside, what’s really adorable is that I was thinking she might write about toys, treats and such but when she thinks of love she thinks of people so that’s what she filled her booklet with! Proud Mama.

What you need:

1 sheet of construction paper in colour of their choice

5 sheets (or less if you fold them) of white paper

a stapler

I also cheated and used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make the heart outline, another reason why I’m a crafty imposter, I also didn’t have the good sense to put the tracing remnants to the inside.

What to do:

Fold construction paper in half and draw a heart along the fold so that when you cut it there will be two hearts attached. Cut out. 

Do as above with the white paper and cover with the construction paper, making sure all hearts are lined up. Staple. There will be 10 hearts in the booklet so you actually have 20 pages.

Pick a title for the cover. If your child is old enough they can fill in the booklet themselves. If not this is a great way to talk about love. They can tell you what to write on each page and then they can colour a picture on each oage to repre