Easy Shamrock Stamps

The boys have been wanting to make a craft and since St. Patrick's Day is coming up, we made some shamrock cards. We had already made shamrock fingerprint cards, so we tried making shamrock stamp cards this year! The best part is that we made the stamps from things we already had in the house. I had run out of potatoes, so we couldn't make the potato stamp. However, I did have corks that I had saved from Christmas for a craft that I never got around to making. I also had empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls that I grabbed out of the recycling bin. You could also make stamps out of an apple or green pepper slice!

Dr. Seuss Celebration Ideas

Dr. Seuss' birthday is on March 2! If you want to celebrate, I have a few ideas.

FOOD:

• Layered Jello. Use red jello to create a red and white striped "hat"of jello.
• Green Eggs (Candy). Melt green Candy Melts and create a fried egg shape on a piece of wax paper. Place a yellow M&M on the candy before it hardens. Let set. (This works great for April Fool's Day too.)
• Green Eggs inspired Yogurt. Tint vanilla yogurt green with a few drops of food coloring (or use a key lime yogurt). Spread around a plate or bowl and place a yellow Candy Melt on for the yolk. For a healthier option, place a slice of banana as the yolk.
• Make Egg Topped Cupcakes, but make the white icing green to make a green egg topped cupcake!
• Create a lunch that links back to Seuss books, or have little snacks for each book you read. For example:
• Pink lemonade like in If I Ran The Circus or call it 'pink ink' like in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
• Make schlopps with a cherry on top like in Oh The Thinks You Can Think!. It looks like an ice cream sundae to me!
• Hot dogs. It looks like they are eating hot dogs with the Zable in There's a Wocket in my Pocket!.
• Green candy eggs or green yogurt eggs (see above) for Green Eggs and Ham.
• Donuts, egg, jelly/jam, lollipop for Dr. Seuss' ABC.
• Cotton candy on a stick to look like the Truffula trees in The Lorax.

CRAFTS/ACTIVITIES:

• Read your favorite Dr. Seuss books.
• Create your own Dr. Seuss type of book!
• Have everyone wear their silliest or craziest hat to dinner.
• Go fishing in the living room! Only catch the red, blue, green fish.
• Make a Cat In The Hat with construction paper.
• Read Oh, the Thinks you Can Think! and have everyone write down all their ideas.
• Check in with your local library and bookstores for Dr. Seuss themed events.
• Dr. Seuss Themed Word Find

LINKS:
Read Across America, 3/3/14
Printables, Seussville.com

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I bake a lot of desserts, but haven't really ventured into muffins very much. I decided to make some for breakfast for the boys and after some recipe experimenting they turned out to be a big hit!

Makes 12. Total time: 40-45 minutes

You will need:

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup peeled and chopped apple, about 1 medium sized apple*
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon         
• Misc.: muffin pan, muffin/cupcake wrappers or non-stick spray

Streusel Topping:  

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with wrappers or spray with a nonstick spray.

2. Make the streusel topping and set aside.

     2a. Mix cinnamon, sugar and flour together. Cut in the butter using a pastry tool or cut crisscross with two knives to combine until crumbly. DM Tip: I usually end up using my hands to combine the dry ingredients with the butter.

3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
4. Beat together oil, egg, and milk. Add in apple pieces.
5. Pour all of flour mixture into into milk mixture.
6. Stir together until flour is moistened. It will still be a little lumpy and that's ok.
7. Place batter evenly among the muffin tins.
8. Top with streusel.
9. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

*DM Notes: The first time I made these, I used a nice sweet red apple and left the peel on. The apples had a nice flavor, but they were pretty mild. I then tried the recipe with a Granny Smith apple, which had a slightly stronger apple flavor. The boys of course could not agree which one they liked the most: Higgins loved the red apple muffins and Bernardo loved the Granny Smith apple muffins.

Cherry Pie Day

I love a piece a cherry pie, especially when it is warm and with a scoop of ice cream on the side. I really like them when pies are in individual servings, like in my Pie Jars post. In case you are in the mood to celebrate Cherry Pie Day today by making cherry pie, here is my cherry pie in a jar recipe!

You will need:

• Small Mason or Ball jars, 4 oz size. My local stores only had the wide mouth Half Pint size, but Amazon also has cute 4 oz jars in a quilted design.
• Pie crusts (I used refrigerated pie crusts). I found that a box of 2 pie crusts made 4-5 small pies.
• Cherry Pie filling. It can be as simple as a canned pie filling.
• Aluminum foil or silicone baking mat
• Large baking dish or cookie sheet

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Use the lid of the mason jar to cut a circle out of the pie dough for each pie jar. This will be the pie's top crust. I used a store bought refrigerated dough; however since I like a thinner crust, I rolled out the dough.
3. Use the rest of the crust to fill the jar for the bottom crust. Make sure to bring the dough to the top of the jar so there is enough dough to crimp the top crust to the bottom crust.
4. Fill the jar with about 3-4 tablespoons of filling. DM Tip: Don't overfill! My filling rose quite a bit while baking and then settled back down while it cooled.
5. If desired, cut out shapes from the top crust and set aside. 
6. Place the top crust on the pie and crimp the edges together.
7. Place the cut outs on top of the crust.
8. Place mat on cookie sheet or inside baking pan.
9. Place pie jars on sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes.
10. Allow jars to cool before serving.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Ideas

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! If you need any last minute ideas, here are a few:

CRAFTS:

• Homemade Valentine Ideas
• Love Monsters and Bugs
• Heart Magnet and Bookmark Crafts
• Footprint Hearts
• Stained Glass Valentine
• Play-Doh Hearts
• Heart Crayon Valentine's
• Valentine's Day Coloring Page

ACTIVITIES:

• Valentine's Day BINGO
• The Sky Is Falling, using heart shapes

FOOD:

• Valentine's Day Cake Pops
• Valentine's Day Parfaits
• Easy Valentine's Day Lunch
• Candied Popcorn. Place in little Valentine's Day themed bags and they make a great Valentine's Day treat!
• Pie Jars
• Layered Jello
• Ice Cream Sandwiches, rolled in red/pink/purple, heart sprinkles
• Fondue

GIFTS:

• Valentine's Day Gifts For Kids
• Unique Valentine's Day Gifts
• Last Minute Valentine's Day Gifts

Love Monsters and Love Bugs

The boys of course wanted to make monsters, not love bugs, but if they only had two eyes they could be turned into cute little love bugs.

You will need:

• Large red pom poms
• Craft glue
• Small googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners or other items for antennae
• Heart shaped foam craft sheet cut-outs. You can find heart shapes already cut or you can buy foam craft sheets in the color you want and cut out the heart shape.

Directions:

1. Glue the eyes to the pom pom and let set.

2. Glue the pom pom onto the heart shape (the feet).

3. Cut the pipe cleaners to the length you want and glue onto the top of the pom pom. Sometimes you can push the wire from the pipe cleaner into the ball to help it stay on. Let dry.

DM Tip: For older kids who won't be playing with the love monster/bug, there are lots of cute shaped push pins or map tacks/pins that could work as antennae. Just be careful of the sharp point!

Homemade Valentine Ideas

We alternate between making Valentine's and using store bought ones. It really depends on how crafty and/or motivated I'm feeling. :) Below are some of my ideas for our homemade Valentines. (Click on links for directions.)

• Heart Crayons
• Candied Popcorn Bags, "I'm popping with happiness that you're my Valentine". Last year I attached a Valentine themed bag full of candied popcorn to a store bought Valentine.
• Use potato stamps to make a hearts on a homemade card. (Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out the shape.)
• Play-Doh Heart ornaments/necklaces
• Make Heart Shaped Chalk
• Hot Air Balloon, it could even have a picture of your child in the basket. "Your friendship lifts me up."
• Butterfly Pencil
• Bubbles with a Valentine's Day themed note like "Your friendship makes me bubbly".
• S'more Kit (marshmallow, graham cracker squares, piece of chocolate), "Your friendship makes me feel mushy inside".
• Goldfish or gummy fish in a fishbowl shaped baggie with a "school" type of message. The bags can be hard to find and a little time consuming to make (click for directions), so you can cut a bowl shape piece of paper, write the message and place behind the fish.
• Other non-candy ideas: clementines, cars, glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces ("Your friendship brightens my day"). The dollar store or dollar bins at Target/Michael's are great to find little treasures in.
• Hanging Stained Glass Card with "stained glass" made from wax paper and crayons.
• Easy Stained Glass Heart with contact paper and tissue paper.
• "I know I'll go far/succeed with you as my friend" type of message with a goodie bag of school gear: pencils, erasers, goldfish bag, ruler, markers, stickers, etc. The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find themed pencils and erasers.

What are some of your favorite homemade Valentines? Please post in Comments :)

I Heart My Pencil

These are a cute Valentine that the kids can really get into. You can use a full sized pencil or even mini pencils or markers for the body.

You will need:

• Red, white, pink or Valentine's Day card stock paper
• Valentine's Day themed stickers
• Red, pink, or Valentine's Day themed pencils (You can find these on Amazon, local dollar stores, or even the dollar bins at Target!)
• Red or pink pipe cleaners

Directions:

1. Cut out a butterfly shape from the paper. I find it easiest to do if I fold the paper in half so the wings are even.

2. Cut two slits in the middle of the paper. This is where the pencil will slide in.

3. Slide pencil through slits.

4. Decorate the wings with the stickers. You could also draw messages or a "Happy Valentine's Day! From...." note.

5. Wrap a piece of pipe cleaner around the top of the pencil near the eraser to form the antenna and you're done!

Fish Valentine Bags

I cannot remember eating Swedish Fish before I married into my husband's family, but I now love them (especially the red). The boys of course love them too. These are a really cute way to have a Valentine's Day bag that is a little different. At one time I remember seeing bags in a fish bowl shape, but I can't find them now. If you have the patience, you can make your own fishbowl shaped bags!

You will need:

• Swedish Fish (they come in red or multi-colored). You can also find generic versions in the candy aisle of the grocery store. Goldfish would work really well too.
• Plastic Ziploc sandwich bags
• Parchment paper
• An iron
• Cardstock
• Blue Sharpie, optional

Directions:

1. Cut out a fishbowl shape on the cardstock. I have a stencil below.

2. Preheat iron to a low setting.

3. Place a piece of parchment paper down, then the sandwich bag, then template (make sure zipper part of bag is at the top of the fishbowl), and then another piece of parchment paper.

4. Iron around the edge of the cardstock template. Make sure to keep the iron moving around the edge of the template. The heat is to seal the plastic together.

5. Trim around just outside of where the template ends to form the bag bowl shape. Make sure you don't trim too close though! If you do, just stick under parchment paper and melt the edges with the iron.

6. Fill with fish! Attach a message with something along the lines of being in the same "school".

7. Optional, draw blue lines on the bag before filling to make it look more like a fish bowl with water.

Valentine's Day Bookmark/Magnet Craft

Valentine's Day seems like it's fast approaching. The boys wanted to make a craft, so we made a Valentine's Day magnet and bookmark. The bookmarks could even make a cute Valentine!

Left: Magnet, Right: Bookmark

You will need:

• Foam craft sheets
• Scissors
• Craft glue or hot glue
• Magnet Craft: Popsicle sticks, magnets
• Bookmark: Ribbon

Directions:

1. Cut out heart shapes from the foam sheets.

Magnet Craft:

1. Glue hearts onto the popsicle stick and let set.

2. Attach the magnet to the back of the popsicle stick.

3. Enjoy!

Bookmark:

1. Cut the desired length of ribbon. (You could probably use a piece of cardstock or foam craft sheet too.) DM Tip: I rubbed glue onto the ends of the ribbon so it wouldn't fray. Clear nail polish works great too.

2. Glue on the hearts and let set.

3. Enjoy! Bernardo wanted his plain, but you could add glitter, stickers, or even write on words/sayings.