Bathtub Painting

It has been very hot here lately so it has been harder to get my kids to play outside.  After a couple hours of playing inside I start hearing, "I'm bored."  To help cure the boredom I made some bathtub paint.  My 4 year old loved it and played in the tub for about 45 minutes.  It took a bit to get it ready but it was worth it to see him play and be creative.

 

You will need:

muffin pans or something to hold the paint

shaving cream (I used Barbasol)

food coloring

paint brush

 Fill each muffin tin with shaving cream.  Take a toothpick and mix a different color food coloring into each tin.

 

Fill a bath for you kids and let them play.

 

The water did turn color but my son came out the same color as when he went in.

Yarn Money Ornament

We have reached the stage where the cousins are getting old enough to want money for Christmas.  I don't mind giving money but I wanted to make it a little more special and take a little longer to open.  I have seen a lot of ideas for making monitary gifts more special but none seemed quite right.  While looking at my tree I decided to make a yarn ornament.  I had the yarn so it wouldn't require another trip to the store and is something I could do while watching TV. 

 

I started by folding a bunch of dollar bills.  I folded some in squares and some in rectangles.  I took one of the bills and started wrapping the yarn around it.  Once it was completely covered I added another bill and started wrapping yarn.  I did this until all the bills were covered and it made a big circle.

 To finish it off I added some ribbon and a note so he will know what to do and who it is from.

I decided not to wrap the gift.  Just had my sister in law hang it on the tree and it is ready for Christmas morning.

More Adventures with Jingle the Elf

We have had a great December with our mischievous little elf.  The boys still get up every morning and look for Jingle first thing.  We all love seeing the funny things he does while we are asleep.  Here are a few pictures of some of his adventures.

 

Changing the family photos

 Having a late night meal

 Hot Air Ballooning

 Wrapping presents

 Leaving notes

 Going for a ride

 Packing school lunch

 Eating Cookies

 Having Pancakes

 Hang Gliding

 Rock em' Sock em'

 Campfire Smore's

 Under the Weather

 Getting a drink

 4 Days til Christmas

 Booby Trap

Jingle will leave tomorrow to go home to the North Pole.  I know the boys will be very excited to see him again next year.

Has your elf done anything sneaky this year?

Quick and Easy Christmas Card Holder

The other night I attended my MOPS leadership Christmas party.  We had a fun night of eating and crafting from things that were found on Pinterest.  One of my friends brought this fun and simple Christmas Card Holder for us to make.  I love that you can add extra holders depending on how many cards you receive.

 You will need:

thick ribbon

clothes pins

various buttons including a large one

thinner ribbon

hot glue gun

 Start by cutting the thick ribbon to the length you want.  The more cards you receive the longer you will want it to be.  Hot glue the buttons to the clothes pins.  Use as many as you think you may need.

 Glue the big button to the top of the ribbon.  I also added a smaller button to the middle to add more color.  Attach the thinner ribbon to the back with glue to make a loop to hang it with.

Now it is ready to hang and add your cards.

We made ours so they hang vertical but it would also be cute hung horizontal.  You can add big buttons and loops to each end.

 

I can't wait to display my cards on this super cute holder.

Grinch Dinner

For this weeks family fun night we declared a Grinch Day.  We started the day by waking up to our elf holding a sign that said, "Don't be a Grinch!"  Finding our elf every morning is one of my boys favorite things so we had to have him join in on the fun.

 After lunch the boys and I made Grinch Cookies.  I found the recipe here.  They were easy to make with the boys and were very yummy.

 For dinner we had Who Pudding, Who Hash, Roast Beast and Grinch Punch.  I wasn't sure about the recipes but they all turned out great and were well received in my house.

 

I had never had pudding made this way but I was pleasantly surprised.  It smelled and tasted great.

I found this recipe for Who Pudding.

 I got the recipe for Who Hash from here.  I realized I purchased a wrong ingredient so had to wing it.  It turned out great and everyone gobbled it right down.

 I am not sure what kind of animal the actual roast beast is from the movie but I just made a chicken.  I used my standard chicken recipe that I have been using for years.

 Grinch Punch was a huge hit.  My youngest son couldn't get enough.  We finally had to move it off the table so he would eat dinner.  It is just a combination of lime sherbet and lemon-lime soda (we used Sprite).

 Here is our table set for the feast.  It was fun to sit around as a family and talk about the silly foods.

Thank you to KT's Cooking for this fun idea.

This was so much fun I think we will add it to our yearly Christmas traditions.

Have you added any fun new traditions this year?

Christmas Mantle 2012

My favorite place in my house to decorate is the mantle.  It is in the center of my living room so I look at it often.  I try to change it up a bit each year so it doesn't get boring and always look the same.  In fact, I usually move things around even after I decorate it.

The majority of the items on my mantle this year either came from yard sales or were bought on clearance after the holiday.

 I got these mice on clearance from a gift shop in a casino.  I never thought of a mouse as being all that cute until I saw these in their little scarves and hats.  They just make me smile.

 I got the little ice skating birds at the same store.  They look very wintry so I might even leave them up after I take down the Christmas decorations.

The trees and reindeer are from a yard sale.  I got them two summers ago for super cheap.

 Here is my full mantle.  I have really enjoyed it this year.  It is fun to look at and gets me in the Christmas spirit.

Linking up to this linky party!

Family Fun Night- Cookie Cutter Pizza

My little guy and I were wandering through the grocery store and I spotted some mini pepporonis.  My first thought was, "Wow it would take forever to put those on a pizza."  Then I thought of the idea to make mini pizzas.  We love to make special shaped pizzas so I knew these would be a big hit.  We decided to have rootbeer floats for dessert.

Usually I make my own pizza sauce and dough but decided to make it easy on myself and got the jarred pizza sauce and canned dough.  They were easy and fun to make and taste really good.  You could use these for any holiday that you have a cookie cutter for.  We used Christmas cookie cutters and watched a movie afterwards.

 Once the shapes are cut out just put them on a greased cookie sheet.  I let my boys "paint" on the sauce with a sauce brush.  Then they put on the pepporoni and cheese.

 These turned out really yummy.  They were small so it was easier for my boys to pick them up and eat them.

This was a great way to get everyone involved in the making of dinner.  I think we will add it to our regular menu rotation.