Top 9 Posts Of 2010

According to my Blogger stats, here are posts that were visited the most in 2010:

Number 9: 4Th of July Activities-

Number 8: SparkleBox Shocker-
(important news about the Sparklebox website)

Number 7: Tot School: Oceans/Beaches-

Number 6: Apple Activities-

Number 5: Color Swirling Milk Experiment-

Number 4: Autumn Sensory Bin-

Number 3: Edible Ocean-

Number 2: What I'm Using For The 2010-2011 School Year-

And the number 1, most visited post of 2o10 was....

Ice Cream Shop Sensory Bin!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Im Dreaming Of A White… Muffin Tin Monday

To go along with the winter season, i did a WHITE/SNOW themed muffin tin lunch. In their cute new snowflake and snowman tins of course :)

• White cheddar mac and chs
• bananas
• crackers
• white cheddar cheese puffs
• mini marshmallows

Happy winter!

Homemade Gift To Give A Child: Christmas Tree Crayons

Recently i bought one of those silicone muffin tins from Targets dollar spot. The ones that are so popular in bloggy land right now. I bought all 3 tins but specifically bought the Christmas tree shaped one to make homemade crayons as gifts for my friends with children.

• First we took the wrappers off a whole bunch of crayons (broken old ones).

• Then i broke the crayons into pieces or halves. And after spraying the silicone tin with cooking spray (just to be sure the crayons would come out easily), i placed similar colored crayons in the same spot. (like different shades or red etc)

• I put the tin in a 200 degree oven until the crayons were completely melted, about 20 min.

• Then i let them cool down and harden for awhile, a few hours at least. And i popped them out of the tray! I gave them away in stacks with some coloring books.

Hopefully my friends kids will enjoy them!

** New note: I forgot to mention before that you will not be able to use this pan with food after this craft. some of the colors from the wax stay on the tin even if you soak it right away. (Thanks Ludicrous Mama!)

Activities With Peppermint Extract

We did 2 activities with peppermint extract recently:

First we made peppermint-scented play-doh!

This week i grabbed our red and white play-doh we had made for the 4th of July and added peppermint extract to the balls of dough, to make them smell festive of course ;)

The play-doh already had glitter in it so it was perfect. And i gave them some Christmas cookie cutters and let them play.

For the first time, we accidently left our play-doh out in the open for too long and had to throw it away a few days after this. At least we got to enjoy it for 2 holidays! Ha!

We also made peppermint-scented paper candy canes. Using the idea i saw on Frugal Family Fun, i taped off some candy canes i had drawn,

and added peppermint extract to some red paint to make it smell like a real candy cane. Then they painted.

Once they were dry i removed the tape and cut them out.

They smell so good!

More Advent Activities

Ok, so we haven't been able to do something every day, but we’ve tried! It has been crazy busy over here! Anyway, here’s what we did get to:

Family game night:

Family movie night with popcorn:

Read every one of our Christmas books at bedtime:

Bake Christmas cookies:

Here are the activities we did that i don’t have pictures for:

• Praying daily at dinnertime for the families we get Christmas cards from each day.
• Talk about how we are supposed to be like Jesus and how we can do that. (both kids answered “Be good!” so we talked about how we can be good)
• Drive around town looking at Christmas lights. (we didn't’ make a special trip of this because the night i wanted to we had a huge snowstorm! So we did it the couple of times we were out driving at night to go somewhere anyways)

 

Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

A few days ago we made sugar cone trees for the first time. The kids loved this.

First they covered their sugar cones with vanilla frosting i had made green with food coloring.

Then they added ‘decorations’ to their trees. They used M&M’s, crushed mint chocolates and a few different kinds of sprinkles.

These trees didn't last long because the kids begged to start eating them as soon as they were done. 

Did you make any fun Christmas treats this month?

Advent Activities Days 1-7

Day 1: We went through and filled a box and a garbage bag with toys to donate. And we talked about how these toys will get to go to other kids, some of which can’t afford brand new toys. To help this along i reminded the kids that if we don’t get rid of some of our old toys, how will we have room for the new ones they will get for Christmas?

Day 2: I tried to have the kids say nice things to people they came in contact with. They would get shy almost every single time though. So we practiced saying nice things to eachother. We will continue to practice doing this.

Day 3: We danced to Christmas music! We did this twice actually, once at home (no pics though) and at a family Christmas party.

Day 4: We filled a bag with food to donate to a food cupboard.

Day 5: The kids had a candlelit bubble bath!

Day 6: Hot chocolate with marshmallows :)

Day 7: Drop the food we collected, off at the food shelter. (OK, im not going to lie, we have yet to do this. But it will probably get done tomorrow or friday.)

Ill keep you posted as we continue!

MTM~ Christmas

We haven't done a Muffin Tin Monday in a long time! The other day i was making lunch and i thought it was a good idea to get out my Christmas cookie cutters and use them to make a MTM. Here’s what i came up with:

• Peanut butter and banana sandwiches on whole wheat tortillas, cut into Christmas shapes.
• Cherry ‘ornaments’
• Applesauce with Christmas sprinkles
• Star shaped cheese

The kids shared this tin. They were so excited i made them a fun lunch :)

Advent Ideas 2010

Ok so every year i have the intention to do advent activities with the kids, but i never end up doing it. This year im feeling motivated because of some great ideas ive seen on blogs. So im going to give it a try. I dont have a fancy craft made to go along with it and im not sure if i will even make one. Here are the ideas im going to strive to do each day:

Day 1: Go through our toys to donate to children in need.
Day 2: Look for nice things to say to everyone we come in contact with.
Day 3: Dance to some Christmas music.
Day 4: Call our local food bank and ask what is needed.
Day 5: Deliver items to the food bank.
Day 6: Have hot chocolate with marshmallows.
Day 7: Candlelit bubble bath.
Day 8: Family game night.
Day 9: Start praying daily at dinnertime for the families we get christmas cards from each day.
Day 10: Talk about how we are supposed to be like Jesus and how we can do that.
Day 11: Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn.
Day 12: Cuddle on the couch before bed and read all of our Christmas books.
Day 13: Drive around town looking at christmas lights.
Day 14: Decorate sugar cookies and enjoy some that night.
Day 15: Have the kids go to the dollar store and buy a gift for eachother.
Day 16: Play hide and seek (but pretend to be the wise men looking for baby Jesus)
Day 17: Make homemade thank you cards to send to whomever they feel thankful for today.
Day 18: Make cookies.
Day 19: Deliver cookies to neighbors and the mailman.
Day 20: Play in the snow.
Day 21: Make a meal for someone in need.
Day 22: Make a list of things we are thankful for this Christmas.
Day 23: Pray for those in need this season.
Day 24 and 25: Read the Christmas story from the Bible as a family and talk it over. Celebrtate with family!

Unfortunately, my husbands schedule is always changing so i am not going to be able to do these activities in this exact order. But im hoping to be close! I will be posting about these activities every few days hopefully.