Santa's Workshop

Today our craft wasn't completed at home. We got super lucky. The fire house near us was hosting a "Santa's Workshop", and it was free. Hailey and Hannah both got to make their choice of many projects, I believe they were donated by Lowes. Hailey made a Shrek onion carriage, a race car, and Dragon from Shrek. I was really impressed with how she just knew what to do when I handed her the hammer! It was a great time.

Just for fun, I wanted to add this picture that Hailey drew today. She told me that she drew "bananas". A "mean one" and a "baby one".

Night number 8, check!

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake!

So I know it's not really a "craft", but my kid loves baking with me. Last night, we tried a new pumpkin recipe. In this house, we love just about pumpkin anything. We made Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. It's said to be so good, that it will replace pumpkin pie. It IS really good. VERY rich. But I think this is in addition to pumpkin pie (maybe not on the same day) but definitely not a replacement. Here's the recipe- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-gooey-butter-cakes-recipe/index.html

Night number 7, check!

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Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees

Tonight we made these ice cream cone Christmas trees. These were our ingredients. 

And Hailey decorating her's.

            

All done

Time to eat!

She really did like it, but she could only handle a few bites. I'm sure it was super sweet. (I didn't taste it.) This morning we also finished our ornaments. She had a blast painting it, and maybe went a little overboard with the glue for her glitter. I tried to spread it out, and it helped some. She was happy with it, regardless.

These two were a lot of fun. The Christmas tree takes hardly any ingredients or time, but you could totally jazz it up with fancier candy and sprinkles. 

Night number 6, check!

Salt Dough Ornaments

Tonight we made salt dough ornaments. Hailey was super excited. In honor of (finally!) getting our keys to our house, I used an idea I found on Pinterest. Hailey made a hand print ornament. (I really like hand print crafts). 

When I went to put Hailey's on the cookie sheet, she decided to make her own key ornament. 

Here they are, fresh out of the oven. We will be painting them tomorrow. 

Check back tomorrow for our finished products!

Night number 5, check!

Hand print wreath!

Tonight we decided to make a hand print wreath. I found the instructions here-

Hand Print Wreath Instructions

It took me two pieces of construction paper to make 10 hand prints.

I glued the hands together at the thumb, just overlapping them. And then we decorated with glue, glitter and a big red bow.

I love it! It was very easy and came out super cute. A little too much cutting for a toddler, though. I'm thinking tomorrow will be a baking craft. Super excited, those are her favorite kind. :)

Night number 4, check!

Reindeer Hands and Feet!

For today's craft, we redid a craft we had done last year. We made a reindeer out of her hands and feet. She was super excited about getting her hands and foot painted. She giggled the whole time that it tickled. Here's her finished product-

It came out much messier than last year's, I think because she did so much more on her own then she did last year. She's gotten much more independent. Also, when it was finished, she stuck her hand back into the wet paint to make more hand prints. She wasn't ready to be finished. When we finished this one, she asked if we could do another. She is really loving all of these crafts!

Here's a comparison from last year-

I think this is one we will do every year. I love being able to see her growth like this. We finished our night with homemade peach crisp and watched Elf. We are loving the Christmas season. 

Night number 3, check!

Christmas Craft Countdown, night number 2! (Plus Hailey's birthday party)

Today was Hailey's third birthday party. We had a very small turnout, but she had a great time, anyway. I'm very lucky that my kid is easy to please. She loved her decorations and food, and had fun opening her presents.

I still can't believe my baby is 3! Seeing as we had a busy day, ( and I'm very pregnant) we took the easy route with our craft tonight. I simply drew the outline of a gingerbread man, and let her decorate it. She was actually really excited about it, and sat and colored it in my bed with me while watching The Lorax.





Her finished product-

Here soon, I'm hoping to get to bigger, all-day-when-we-have-time crafts. Right now we have so much going on, but I don't want to miss the Christmas season because of it. This countdown is helping keep us in the Christmas spirit.





Night number 2, check!

Christmas Craft Countdown, December 1.

Today was a busy day for us! Tomorrow we are having Hailey's third birthday party. We got most of the food made and most of the decorations up. I got 3/4's of the way done icing her cake when I ran out of frosting, but luckily I will have time to pick some up tomorrow. During the chaos of cleaning our house (we have to show it tomorrow, since we will be moving any day now), I printed this craft-


(found here-
http://en.islcollective.com/worksheets/worksheet_page?id=8901)

for Hailey to work on. I let her color it, then I cut out the shapes for her. Once she colored it, it was a little hard to see where the shapes go, so I traced the dotted lines for her, and then gave her a glue stick and let her put them in place. She really enjoyed it, and I think it's an adorable idea.

Her finished product-

Annnnddd, night number one, check!

Santa Beard Countdown

So because we are starting our Christmas craft countdown tomorrow, I figured I would make something for Hailey to help her keep track of the days, too. I saw this Santa beard countdown craft on Pinterest and couldn't help myself. Every night, starting tomorrow, she gets to glue a cotton ball to his beard. I'm sure that once she sees it, she will love it! I just printed the Santa (link below) colored and cut him out. Then I glued him to green card stock to add a little weight, cut around that, and glued it to red construction paper. Check back tomorrow for our first toddler craft!

(the Santa printable can be found here- 

http://playtimewithmommy.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-countdowns.html)

Introduction

Please forgive me, I'm very new to the world of blogging. I created this blog a few weeks ago and have gone over and over in my head what to say, at least on my first post. I'm still figuring it out, but I suppose an introduction is in order.

My name is Mandy. I am married to Ben. We have one gorgeous daughter, her name is Hailey. She just turned three. I am currently 33 weeks pregnant with our second baby, a boy! He, on the other hand, remains nameless. Right now, I affectionately refer to him as Roo. We also have guardianship of my husband's 13 year old sister, Hannah. She has lived with us for 2 years now (on December 1). We are currently buying our first house. Things are a little crazy right now, but amazing, none the less. I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom to our daughter. We love doing things like crafts, baking, going to the playground (when it's not freezing), playing in the backyard, and having tea parties.

Well, I guess that's all for right now. I'm planning on doing a Christmas Craft Countdown in my upcoming posts. I am looking for ideas on Pinterest (and trying to come up with some of my own!) for crafts to do with Hailey from December 1-25. You can follow me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/middletonmama, and feel free to comment with craft ideas of your own.