Autumn craft

I did this craft last night with my kids for FHE and it turned out really cute : )  They actually did most of the work themselves, I just traced the circles they needed to cut out and they did all the cutting (not Gage of course, he just did his own thing).

Here is the link if you want to see how to do it.
Give a Hoot owl craft

Summer Camp Activities

I am part of neighborhood summer camp group that Mason attends. It's great, I just teach 4 times and he gets to go all summer, 2x a week. Any way, I though I would post some of the crafts that I do in case you might want to do them with your kids : ) Yesterday we did dinosaurs, so I printed out a dinosaur skeleton, pasted it on to a section of poster board and the kids glued pasta on top. This is Mason's that he made.

We used rigatoni for the big bones, fettuccine for the ribs, elbow macaroni for the spine, and a large shell (for the skull). Mason decided to use rigatoni for his spine.  Dinosaur skeleton

I also did a lesson on frogs and we played frog bingo. If you want to play too, you can print out these boards and let you kids color their own. There are 5 separate boards, so make sure to print out a different one for each child, otherwise everyone gets the same bingos.  Frog bingo boards

Ruler Height Board

So, for those who have received the vinyl for the height boards (Deon, yours is on coming) here is what I envisioned. But you can do it however you want. I changed the font for my name because the other one seemed too small, so if you want new font for your name let me know and I will send it to you.

I promised myself that if I was spending time on Pintrest, I had to finish at least one thing a week that I pinned. So this is one of my projects. I have also made multiple meals from pintrest too. Also, I cleaned my stove pans with a tip I learned there. Do I sound like I am trying to justify spending so much time on Pintrest, cause I am. :) Sorry these pictures aren't the best. Which brings me to my next tip of the day. I hate doing post on blogger, as I have done here. I started using Windows Live Writer and it is amazing the difference in ease of posting. Check it out. It's free to download. Here.

Christmas toilet paper roll crafts

I know toilet paper rolls aren't the fanciest of all craft supplies, but with the amount of traffic our bathrooms get, they pile up pretty quick. I found this website that has templates for almost any character you can think of, so you just go the website and click on "snowman" for example, then you can print out the template and make your craft.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/tp_roll.htm

As a side note, when I made this, I actually just copied the template, then pasted it into a drawing document, then I cropped it down to just the snowman image. I was able to fit 6 snowmen on one page so I didn't have to use a lot of paper.

When I have the kids in my preschool playgroup do this activity, I am going to use craft foam instead of construction paper. The paper circles are small and difficult to pick up, so for little fingers, the bulkier the better.

Banana Chocolate Cholate chip muffins, YUMMY!

So if you haven't heard I am doing weight watchers so I am constantly looking for delicious healthy recipes. Here is one of my favorites so far.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp confectioners sugar (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°. Line a muffin tin with 12 liners.

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, vanilla, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk.
Add flour mixture to bananas, then blend at low speed until combined; do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips.

Bake on the center rack for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
If making the glaze, combine confectioner's sugar and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp water to make a glaze. Drizzle over each muffin

This recipe is courtesy of Skinnytaste.com Check out her website it is fabulous.

Manicotti

Manicotti Shells
8 eggs beaten
2 c. flour
2 c. water
1 tsp salt
beat in blender
cook like you would crepes.
you can freeze them if you put wax paper in between each individual one.

Manicotti Filling
3 lbs. ricotta cheese
1 lb. mozzarella cheese
6 eggs beaten
1/2 cup parm cheese
1/4 cup parsley


put a large spoonful of filling in each shell and roll burrito style. pour sauce over Manicotti. sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese. Cook 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes.

enjoy

Card Board Kitchen

 I saw this on family fun and although I haven't done it yet, I wanted to share the idea because it can be a great project for your kids to help with and then play with.  Click on the link below to get started!

How to make a cardboard kitchen