Edible Snow

Our snow is long gone but before yours goes away as well I thought I would share how we had fun eating our snow!  After our first blizzard we scooped up some fresh snow for the boys and used some of our leftover snow cone syrup from the summer on top.  The boys thought it was awesome to have a real "snow cone"!

 

Later on we made some snow ice cream.  I have seen recipes all over the internet but didn't see this one (or have the chance to make it!) until after our fresh snow was gone.  Guess we'll just have to hope that it snows next winter!  One addition that we made was to sprinkle some Nesquik powder on top.  The boys thought it tasted even better with chocolate!

So those of you with a little bit of winter left go out and eat some snow! 

Don't Forget . . .

One week from today

Wednesday, March 2nd
is

Dr. Seuss Birthday!

What a great excuse to do something fun, cuddle up, and read some good books with your kids.

Check out my post from last year to see how we celebrated.

You can also head over Seussville for some Dr. Seuss fun and games.

Here are some great ideas I've found at various blogs as well.
They might inspire you to do something great.

Dr. Seuss Birthday Party at Annie's Eats

Thing 1 and thing 2 pencil toppers at Skip to My Lou

You're never too old,

To wacky, to wild,

To pick up a book,

And read to a child.

Dr. Seuss Printable at Are they Twins?

Green Eggs and Ham cookies at My Paper Crane

Cat in the Hat finger puppet at Craft Jr.

Dr. Seuss Activity Blocks at Sugar Bee

Dr. Seuss Quick and Easy Celebration Ideas at Roots and Wings Co.

And there are also a lot of great ideas at Not Just Cute for celebrating Dr. Seuss.

Have fun celebrating!

Games for Kids

At our house we love games.  Amy and I grew up in a home where we played games at least weekly.  Even now, when we visit our parents it's just not right if we don't play several games.  When my husband and I were first married we would often pop in a movie, grab some treats, and play a game of Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, or Dominoes.  And now my boys love games.  Nearly every night before bed we sit by the fire and play a round or two of a game.  Occasionally during the day my nearly-4-year-old and I will sit down for a game while the youngest is napping.  Since the Easter Bunny brings a new game nearly every year we have collected quite a few.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Phase 10 for Kids: There are two different versions that are included... one is perfect for my preschooler while the "more advanced" version is great for my Kindergartner.

War: I started playing this with my oldest before he started pre-K.  It's great because you can teach number recognition as well as greater than and less than.  This game can take forever though... so make sure you have some time to spare :)

Old Maid: Fun for all ages.  Easy enough for our preschooler to pick up on the first time he played.  Great for matching.

Go Fish: This has been our favorite for the last several months.  Another great one for matching.

Yahtzee Jr.: Very simple, very fun. 

Candy Land: Classic board game.  Great for recognizing colors.

Chutes and Ladders: Another classic board game.  I love to point out the pictures and help the boys recognize good and bad decisions when they go up the ladders or down the chutes.

Garanimals Fun at the Zoo: We don't own this one. . .but we might need to get it!  We checked it out from our library recently and the boys loved it!  It's similar to Candy Land but very interactive (when you pull the "invitation to kangaroo's party" then everyone gets to move to the space and then hop around the room like a kangaroo.  Fun!)

Playing games is such a fun way to spend time with your children and teaches so many great things: taking turns, being a good winner/loser, following directions, etc. 

What are some of the favorite games at your house?

Relief Society Cupcake Toppers

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and belong to the woman's organization in our church called the Relief Society.

Every year in March the women of our church celebrate the founding of the Relief Society in 1842.

This year I get to help plan the Relief Society birthday celebration for our congregation. It's always so much fun to get together with friends and celebrate. We are going to have dinner and a program.

I was hoping to find some printable cupcake toppers for Relief Society online, but there where none to be found, so I created this:

(You can download a sheet of twelve HERE. Or yellow and turquoise ones HERE.)


Using my two inch scalloped punch I was able to create these:



They can be used as cupcake toppers, to attach to party favors, or to make a napkin ring like I'm going to be doing.






I thought I'd post them in case anyone else out there is looking for something like this.

A little party for the girls

Happy Valentines Day!

I grew up in a house full of girls.  Three sisters, and I love them all.  They're my best friends.  My mom is super fun and creative and as little girls we threw a lot of  little parties.  I was looking through my photo albums from when I was a girl not too long ago and found pictures of a birthday party we threw for our dolls.  My mom was always very good at letting us take a big part in the planning.  We sent our friends invitations inviting them to bring their baby and come dressed up like a mom along with a present for their doll. We made macaroni necklaces for our dolls, helped them open their present, and had cake and ice cream.  How fun is that?  It makes me wish my daughter liked dolls so we could do the same thing.


Little Mommy's with their baby dolls

Another time we had a Valentines day party where we invited our friends to come in their pretties dresses.  We did crafts, decorated cupcakes and exchanged valentines.


Valentine Party from 1989

Now this is something I knew my daughter would love to do.  I suggested the idea last month and she hopped right on board.  We've been getting our party ready over the last few weeks and have had so much fun planning it together.

Here our some simple invitations we made to send to her friends.

We also made a few simple decorations.  This banner was inspired by the one over at A Little Great.



I love the look of pink, white, and red together.  It's just so, well, Valentines!



Each girl came wearing her prettiest pink.  When they arrived they got to make a valentine for someone special. 



We then played a few simple games (bean bag toss, freeze dance, and a valentine version of Simon says).


We finished off the morning decorating heart shaped cookies and reading a few valentine stories.

Such a fun morning.  Just for the girls . . .

And when it was time to go they got to take a few treats home.



There are so many great ideas out there for Valentines day.

Each goody bag contained:

Tic-tac-toe game from It's always a party at the Parker's

Heart Breaker heart full of candy from Made

A bookmark from Living Locurto

Valentine hair bow

Chocolate!

Hope you're having a great Valentines Day with the ones you love!

Valentine's Gifts for Boys

I LOVE Valentine's Day. I try to make it fun and not to girl-y since I have a house full of boys! This year I have come up with these ideas:

I found these little paddle games in the seasonal section at WalMart. They came in packs of 4 for $1. Heart shaped . . . but still fun.

Again from WalMart (and for the same price 4/$1) I found these little mini recorders. I know I'm going to regret this one . . . but the boys will love it.

Stickers are always a hit at our house . . . if the boys don't use them (or put them all over themselves like my 1-year-old is apt to do) then I put them on the sandwich bags of my Kindergartners lunch. I found these on clearance for 50 cents a pack.

I was at the Dollar Tree one day and ran across these super hero taffies. I'll probably give them just one each and save the rest for another day . . . but I think these will be the biggest hit of all.

And again at the dollar store I found these little cute notebooks. . . 3 for $1. My boys like to draw so these are perfect. (Sometimes I'll pop a little thing like this in my purse just in case we ever get stuck somewhere and I need to keep them busy). I'll probably cover them in scrapbook paper (not too girl-y of course) and add their initial to the cover.

Of course, after I got all of these I found this idea about giving books on Valentine's Day. I may save that away for next year.

Do you give your children anything on Valentine's Day?

Hide & Seek

I found this little scavenger hunt a while ago on All Kids Network but just haven't gotten around to doing it.  We got snowed in and I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to pull it out (so that we all wouldn't go crazy!)  I had previously printed and cut the pieces up . . . so all I had to do was place them around the house.

The first time we did it my 6-year-old told me that it was too easy . . . so I let him have a turn at hiding the clues.  This turned out to be the most fun part about it!  The two older boys had a blast taking turns being the one to hide the puppy and the clues leading to it.

Really, I think this is geared toward the younger set but letting my boys do the hiding turned this into a perfect game for a snowy day.

Little Red Mailbox

I found the cutest little red mailbox in the dollar spot at Target (hurry! there may be some still left!).  I wanted to use it for my boys for Valentine's Day but I wasn't quite sure how.  

We've had several snow days here so I pulled it out and announced that we would be writing letters (or drawing pictures) for our family.  We would put them in the little mailbox and open it up every night at dinner.  My Kindergartner has really caught the vision of this this project!  He sits at the table forever drawing picture after picture for his brothers (and occasionally Dad), folding them up, and stuffing them in the mailbox.  In fact, for his game last night he chose to draw some more pictures!  Sounds great to me!  I'm sure that his excitement will wane as the month goes on but for now it is such a fun way to show love to one another.  

I may even use our little mailbox for some small gifts for the boys on Valentine's Day.  Who knows what fun this could bring?!

Link Party Highlights

Thanks to everyone who participated in our year in review link party.  It was so much fun to see all the wonderful projects and activities you've been doing with your children.  I loved them all. 

These are a few of my favorites that I wanted to highlight:

Apple Skirt

Isn't this just darling!  I am so in love with this fabric.  I think it would make a darling back to school outfit for the fall.  Visit Jessica from Mommy Creations to find her amazing skirt tutorial.

 Re-purposed Dress

Laurie from Small and Simple took an old night gown and turned it into this adorable dress.  Isn't it pretty?  I'm amazed at her vision to turn something old into something new and beautiful.

Kit Kat Cake

 Emily in the Dessert shares her fabulous cake.  I loved Emily's idea to use white chocolate Kit Kats along with red and blue M&M's for the Fourth of July.  How fun would that be?

 Matryoshka Puppets

 You can find these sweet little matryoshka dolls over at Let's Go Fly a Kite.  These puppets stack inside each other just like the real things.  Very creative.

Pebble Puzzle

 I love this idea from Strasilo.  Go on a nice walk, collect some pebbles, and then see what you can turn them into with a little paint and some imagination. 
I think we'll save this one for the spring though . . .

Cardboard Box Fun

And isn't the box always more fun than the toy that comes in it?  This reminds me of The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli. I definitely recommend reading it with your little ones.  Such a cute book.  Visit Cassi at Time to Play Mom for lots of cute simple ideas to do with your kids.

Thanks agian to everyone who shared their ideas and inspired me.  There is so much creativity out there!