Valentine's day Cinnamon rolls

We made these this morning for breakfast. I had intentions to make these super cute cinnamon rolls. Problem the Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls I bought didn't unroll so I improvised. We added a drop of neon pink food coloring to the frosting and a couple Valentines colored sprinkles. Over all they still tasted the same and H had fun decorating them so it was a win. We made lemonade from our sour lemons:)

My new love thirty one

I love my new thirty one mini organizer!!! If you haven't heard of thirty one it is a Christian organization that sells bags or all kinds they are amazing! I use this one to keep all the little things I need for the car in one place. I have sunscreen, brush, body spray, wet ones, sanitizer, first aid kit, and snacks. I keep this in the car and I can easily grab what ever I need or just grab the whole thing and more it to another car or to the house ect. it is much fun. If you are interested in see more here is the link to the site.

Valentines playdough

I am a huge fan of play dough!! it is such great sensory play and it is open ended creativity. You can make anything with play dough the possibilities for imagination is endless. I like to give some special toys to add interest and fun for holidays. I added several heart cookie cutters to this one for Valentines day and added glitter to it to make if sparkle. She has a small cookie sheet and decided to bring it over to pretend to make cookies and have a cookie shop. Then she made a snowman and a snake I love how open it can be. I love making my own play dough cause it is cheap, easy and I can make it whatever I want. This one is a kool-aid recipe, I used pink lemonade kool-aid for smell and color. However, the pink was not quite pink enough for me so I added a couple drops of neon pink food coloring. I didn't want it to pink because you wouldn't be able to see the pretty red glitter. I make it for the first time in my kitchen aide mixer with the kneading tool wow so much easier than by hand. My daughter measured and poured everything in the recipe except the water. I really think it is important to let kids explore the kitchen with you at a young age. there is so much to learn from math to following directions and the most important thing bonding and have that special one on one time.

Kool aid play dough recipe
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 pk kool aid any flavor
glitter I used red
3 tbs oil
1 cup boiling water

mix dry add, add wet, knead till all comes together will be hot don't let kids help with this part. if you don't have a mixer with kneading attachments knead by hand on wax paper or cool surface. Store in a air tight container. keeps for a long time.

Homemade games for kids

I love making fun stuff for cheap for kids to do. These are both games that can be played inside on a rainy day, outside enjoying some sun or for kids birthday parties. Plus you can have any age group play with the first one from toddlers to mommies and daddies. Anyway you look at it they are going to have a ton of fun. Me and a friend made these for our MOPS group for the MOPPETS program. If you don't know about MOPS it is a Christian based group for Mothers of Preschoolers. (really age 0-5) it is amazing. here is a link to the MOPS site so you can get more information on it.

I got buckets from the dollar store and H is trying to toss a bean bag in it. You can make this game a lot cheaper by using large aluminum coffee cans. and you don't have to use a bean bag you could use a ball, a pair of socks as your folding laundry, a small stuffed animal anything really. We have the buckets numbered so that way when she makes the bean bag in the bucket she can tell me the number she made it in to help with number recognition.
This is just a simple ring toss from paper plates and a wrapping paper roll left over from Christmas wrapping paper. just take the paper plates and cut the center out and paint them different colors for fun. Then stack a couple plates to make sturdy and glue together for base. take the wrapping paper tub and cut slots at bottom to flip out and glue down. and the game is ready to begin. This is a little challenging for the toddlers to get the motion of the frisbee but not impossible.

Muffin Tin Monday: Snow

We have been talking about winter and snow this week. So for Muffin Tin Monday I pulled out the snowflake muffin tin. Unforchantly, I was out of everything I wanted to use for today's lunch. So we just had kinda a plain lunch but just know I had a cute snow themed idea maybe I will use it next week. For lunch today we had yogurt covered raisins (snowballs), carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, apple slices and turkey and cheese on thin buns. I forgot to put the hot chocolate with marshmellow in picture (snowman soup)

Before lunch we had a snowball fight with cotton balls. H loved this we have been doing this all week and she keeps asking me to do it all day. lots of fun cheap entertainment.
Then we used some of the cotton balls to make a snowman and then glued some glitter to make snow.

December Activities

Here are some more things we did in December, that I never got around to posting.
We made our first gingerbread house. This was an experience! I did not expect it to be that challenging or messy did I mention sticky. LOL. it was really fun but I just want not prepared for the mess and I assumed it would just come out amazing. It was a lot of work. We really enjoyed making it and H did more licking her fingers than anything but all in all I think I found a new family tradition.

I am prepared for next year and am so excited to see the difference as the years go by and we learn more about this each year.
Christmas tree pancakes! This was a lot of fun, I made pancake batter and added green food coloring and peppermint extract and put it in a squeeze bottle I got at Walmart for 97cents by the kitchen gadgets. I learned how to do this here! This blog has some of the most amazing pancakes.


Then I used it to make an outline on the pan that was like a Christmas tree. Make sure you pan is on low heat or you will not see the green.
Then filled in the outline with the pancake mix.

Here is how it turned out. I added blackberries to make it look like ornaments on the tree.

Reindeer breakfast: This was made with two pancakes one smaller than the other, two chocolate chips, ham cut like antlers and a red candy for nose.

SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENTS
So this is one of the coolest projects I think I have ever done. I love it and it was so simple. All it is is Borax laundry soap found in the laundry detergent isle. Hot water and pipe cleaner. First you make a shape with pipe cleaners I made a snowflake. Then add a string to hold it and attach to a pencil to hang. Heat water to almost a boil mix in 1/3 cup of Borax and stir in a glass jar till mostly dissolved and hang ornament in water high enough to cover completely. (like this)

Then just wait we did it at night and then checked it in the morning. and this is how it turned out.
completely amazing!!

And we made a Christmas tree from a sugar ice cream cone, left over icing from cupcakes and left over candies from gingerbread house. H painted and decorated the ice cream cone all by herself. Again she did a lot of licking of her fingers lol.