Our First Memory Maker Moments

Happy Fall!!! Well, almost. Our weather, while still a bit warm in the afternoons, has begun to cool off overnight and in the mornings. It is absolutely beautiful, and it has me thirsting for when full days begin to get cooler, and the colors of the leaves begin to change to the vibrant oranges, reds and yellows.

Today, we started a new family project, and I am hoping this will become a tradition. It is called, "Memory Maker Moments." The hustle and bustle of our school weeks end up leaving us very little time to sit down and really enjoy our time together. We do homework immediately after Big Sister and Big Brother walk in the door. Sometimes, it takes almost the full hour before I start dinner to complete homework. Once dinner is done...well, you get the picture. We  hardly have a moment to breathe during the week. Family time is incredibly important to me, and I want to make sure we make the time to spend with each other. The kids will not be kids forever, and eventually, they will want to have their own lives, and they won't be interested as much in family time.

So, I'm sure you are beginning to wonder what this "Memory Maker Moments" is all about. Well, I have selected two project categories. We have a cooking/baking category, and an activity/outing category. I have picked a total of 5 projects for each of the two categories, with a total of 10 projects. We got a late start for the month, otherwise, I probably would have had 12 projects to choose from. To get started, I had Big Sister and Big Brother choose a number 1-20, and whoever was closer to my number, got to draw their choice of project to do on Saturday. Our winner was Big Sister, and she chose to do a food project for Saturday, and of course, that left Big Brother with an activity. Since I associate September with apples, our food themes center around apples for this month. Next month will most likely be pumpkin recipes, and I am not sure about November yet. I have our projects printed out, and folded, and each category has a little bucket we use to choose from.

Big Sister drew "Make Caramel Apples" I scoured the internet for a recipe that looked simple enough, and one that had good reviews. I came across a recipe on Tasty Kitchen for Grandma Betty's Caramel Apples recipe. I don't know who Grandma Betty is, but I do know her recipe was a huge hit for EVERYONE in our family! You can check the recipe out here http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/grandma-bettye28099s-caramel-apples/

I used Jazz apples, which are a blend of Braeburn and Gala apples. I also made one small tweak, and used double the vanilla in the recipe.

 

I filled the sink with water, and added approximately 1 cup of vinegar, and let the apples soak for a while. This helped get rid of the grocery store wax.

 

Our apples all ready to get their caramel bath going.

 We all took turns stirring our caramel. We stirred, and stirred some more. Then, we stirred a little bit more, and then a bit more. Don't quit stirring, unless you want crunchy burned bits in your caramel!

 Once the caramel arrived at soft ball stage, and we got our vanilla in, and the mixture cooled for a few minutes, the actual coating time flew by. You want to work as quickly as possible, otherwise, the caramel starts to thicken up, and it is a tad more difficult to get a good smooth coating on. Once I had the apples covered, I blew on them a little bit, to help set the caramel a little. Then, Big Sister and Big Brother rolled the apples in the different coatings.

If you are interesting in starting this project for your family, here is my layout for our project labels.

Cloud Dough

It is officially summer break here in our little part of the south! In the beginning of May, I began scouring the web for project ideas to keep my little ones minds busy during the summer.

Over the weekend, I decided to try out a project I had actually pinned a while back. I have seen it referred to as "Cloud Dough" and "Moon Dough."

http://pinterest.com/pin/277534395756957641/

Cloud Dough

Ingredients/Materials:

1/2 cup Baby Oil
4 cups Flour

1. Mix baby oil and flour together until combined.

2. Play!

Since I only had a small bottle of baby oil gel on hand, that is what I used. It came out perfectly. Next time, I will try regular baby oil out instead of the gel and see how that works. The "dough" itself is not really doughy, but it is rather soft. It can be molded into shapes and it seems to hold its shape rather nicely.

We started off with both older kids playing in it. 

Then, little brother decided he was more interested in playing spy. He went off on his own, reading himself a book and pretending to be a spy.

It kind of looks like sand.

Big sister is working hard on her doughman.

 

Oobleck! {Project and Recipe}

Long time, no see! It has been a bit crazy around here lately. But, at any rate, I have a new project! This is an easy, great, hands-on project which provides at least a couple hours of simple, messy fun around here! This isn't the first time I've made Oobleck for the kids. Girly girl came home from school one day talking about something she made in class. It sounded intriguing, so I had to look it up. I found a simple recipe. It calls for 2 mandatory ingredients, and one optional.

Oobleck

Ingredients/Materials

• 2 cups cornstarch
• 1 cup water
• Optional: Food coloring
• Large bowl

Instructions

Pour the cornstarch into a large bowl.

Thoroughly mix water and food coloring (if you are using food coloring)

This picture looked neat, so I had to include it. :) This color was purple and our boys did blue.

Don't panic if the color seems dark! It will most likely lighten up considerably once mixed with the cornstarch! :)

Add water mixture to cornstarch and mix until the water is completely incorporated into the cornstarch.

You might want to use your hands.

Have fun! It seems like a solid if you use force to dig it out, but then it seems like a liquid if you try to gently scoop it out. We discussed how cool it was and the kids experimented with different pressures and techniques to get the Oobleck out of their bowls.

Once you are finished, you might notice your hands are dyed from playing in the Oobleck. It will wash out after a a few washes with soap and warm water. Clean up is pretty simple. Our kids make a mess on the table. Simply take a wet washcloth to the table. If any has gotten on the floor, I suggest letting it dry and then you can easily sweep it up! :)

Valentine's Day Printable {Freebie}

Valentine’s Day Hugs Treat Baggie

For personal use only

Materials:

8.5” x 11”~110# White Cardstock
Sandwich Baggie Fold Over Card Template (2 cards per sheet)
Zip Top Snack Sized Baggies
Hershey Hugs
Scissors or Paper cutting tool
Stapler

Instructions:

Print and cut out as many fold-over cards as you need. I chose to use cardstock since it is sturdy, but I’m sure regular paper will work as well.

Place a handful of hugs into each baggie and seal.

Take your baggie cards and fold in half along using the light gray guide.

Take one completed baggie and center inside one of the folded cards. Staple twice along the top, make sure not to stable below the zippered part of the baggie. Staple again one each side of the cards.

Repeat with each of the baggies you have left.

Your Valentine’s Day treat baggies are all done! 

I don't have an example of this set, as I am actually using smaller baggies this go around. I will most likely share the template for the new version, once I am finished putting it together. To get an idea of how they look once completed, here are my Snowman Soup baggies. :)

Snowman Soup

Good morning! I recently posted pictures on my personal Facebook page of a project my two oldest kids and I put together for their classmates. I received several requests for instructions on how to make our "Snowman Soup." 

Individual baggie

First, let me start by telling you how we came about putting this project together. As we are drawing closer to Winter break, festivities are being planned for most classrooms across the U.S. Our school is no different. My son's teacher sent a note home letting parents know each child would have a stocking and the parents and kids were welcome to send a little treat in to share. 


The wheels in my brain immediately started turning and I set out on an internet search to find something easy and cheap to make. Between the older two kids classes, there are 40 students. I found several good ideas, but I fell in love with the Snowman Soup idea. It is simple enough to put together, yet, I still feel like it is just enough to put a smile on any child's face.

19 completed bags

I bet you are antsy to get started! Here we go!

Materials needed:

8.5” x 11”~110# White Cardstock
Sandwich Baggie Fold Over Card Template (2 cards per sheet)  For personal use only
Zip Top Sandwich Baggies
Candy Canes
Hershey Kisses
Marshmallows
Individual Hot Cocoa Mix Packets
Scissors or Paper cutting tool
Stapler

For 40 students, I used 4 boxes of 12-count candy canes with 8 canes left over, 2 bags of the green, red, silver Hershey kisses combo, 1 bag of marshmallows (we used approx 1/2 a bag), and 4 boxes of 10 count Swiss Miss cocoa packets. 

Preview of the baggie card. You can download it through the link in the materials list above.

Instructions:

Print and cut out as many fold-over cards as you need. I chose to use cardstock since it is sturdy, but I’m sure regular paper will work as well. 

Place in each bag- one candy cane, a few kisses (I did 3), a few marshmallows (I did 6) and a packet of hot cocoa mix.

Take your baggie cards and fold in half along using the light gray guide.

Take one completed baggie and center inside one of the folded cards. Staple twice along the top, make sure not to stable below the zippered part of the baggie. Staple again one each side of the cards.

Repeat with each of the baggies you have left.

Voila! You now have a cute treat for your child’s class.\

A quick breakdown of what I paid.

		Individual
8.5” x 11”~110# White Cardstock		$0.06
Sandwich Baggie Fold Over Card Template (2 cards per sheet)		$0
100 count Zip Top Sandwich Baggies		$0.01
Candy Canes		$0.08
Hershey Kisses		$0.05
Marshmallows		$0.003
Individual Hot Cocoa Mix Packets		$0.128
		$0.33

Each bag cost roughly $0.33 cents to make and the total 40 bags cost around $13.24 with supplies left over.