Friday, December 30, 2011

Making Playdough

So for fun over Christmas break, we made a big batch of playdough. This recipe does make a lot, but it was nice to have a large batch for my kiddos. So you could cut it down if you want a smaller batch. This was all from one batch:
Ingredients:
  • 5 cups water
  • 5 cups flour
  • 2 1/2 cups salt
  • 3 Tablespoons cream of tartar
  • 10 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • Food coloring
Instructions:

Mix water, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring regularly until mixture is hot. Add oil. Stir in flour a cup at a time, stirring in between each addition. Mix until playdough pulls away from pan and is no longer sticky (pinch it between your fingers to test). Dump dough on counter, let cool a bit, then knead.

We keep our playdough in a freezer bag at room temperature. This recipe makes a lot and lasts for several months!

**If you want different colors, like we did, you will want to wait to add the food coloring until the end, then knead it in.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Temple Picture

So I made this in the Fall for Super Saturday, but I got busy and didn't get it posted. It looks great above my piano.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Spreading Christmas Cheer

We tried to think of some fun ways to spread a little extra cheer this year. This was my favorite:Kyla drew pictures and made cards to delver to our local hospital. She wrote Merry Christmas in each of them. She really enjoyed making all of these.

We also made cards for the postman and left him a treat in the mailbox. The kids were super thrilled when the postman left a Christmas card for us the next day. And now we know what his name is :)

My kids also really enjoyed taking treats to friends and neighbors. I ended up making more than I had planned because they kept wanting to go. We kept the treats small and just hit more houses and made it fun. Kyla wanted to sing to everyone and Nathan was sure to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Hand Soap Gifts

This was a small gift I made for a few people.I have the printable here: (prints on an 8 by 10)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Candied Coin Rolls

I Santa used Martha Stewart's idea to make these Candy Coins for the kids stockings:
They love putting coins in their piggy banks, so this is a perfect stocking stuffer. (Ironically, they will also be getting chocolate coins in their stockings)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Merry Christmas from Your Peeps Gifts

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest just in time to make it for my Mia Maid girls:
I have the best advisor!! I showed her the idea and she did all the shopping for me, so it was super easy!! (Thanks, Nicole!)
(It would also be cute for VT) The idea comes from Bloom Designs. You can get personalized tags from her....I just made my own using her basic design 'cause I wanted to hurry and get them done and delivered :)

So I've never tried this, but I saved my file as a jpeg so it could be printed from my blog. (so if you try to print it before I do, you'll have to let me know if it works) I got 4 tags on an 8x10 and printed on cardstock:




Friday, December 16, 2011

Snowman on the Fridge...redo


So this year we did the snowman on the fridge again, but instead of using paper, I made the face out of felt and the scarf out of fabric. (Paper scarfs don't hold up too well with several little kids dribbling water down the fridge when they fill their cups)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Weekly Planner

I also decided to get our family more organized with a weekly calendar. This came as a one piece frame at Michaels. I got it on sale for around $13. Then I added the vinyl to the glass. It also has changeable papers, so here is Christmas:

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Menu Board

In an attempt to get more organized, I made this fun Menu Board. I found a tall frame at Michaels for around $5. I used vinyl on the glass and a dry erase marker to update our weekly menu. I like that I can change out the papers to match the season...here it is in Christmas:

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas Printable

I love how you can find nice printables to fill in around the home. I found this one on pinterest and printed it off ZsaZsaBellagio. I printed it on red cardstock and really liked the look.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Warm Santa Hats

I had fun making these winter Santa hats for my kids. They were super excited to wear them! I made them up as I went along....and was happy with the results:
They wore them this weekend while we went out doing some of our Christmas fun:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Felt Tree for the Kids

The kids have been having fun moving all the ornaments around on their own tree...and I don't mind a bit. It's actually fun for me to see the different changes. I might make a few more ornaments. I used some spray adhesive to stick it to the wall. The felt ornaments stick really well to the felt tree.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

This Year's Letter to Santa

I found this cute letter to Santa on family fun's website. Fun way for the kids to start off our Christmas celebrations...next year because then I found this cute one and decided to use it this year...printable on Tip Junkie. Made for some cute letters to Santa this year hanging on our wall for Santa.