Candy Activities

I bought a candy cane filled with Christmas star candy for us to use for various activities. We used them for a couple of days before I let O in on the secret that the stars were actually candy (she was calling them beads). She was amazed and thrilled!

She's gotten quite good at using the chopsticks. She likes to create a pattern when transferring the stars.

For this activity, she counted out the correct number of stars to match the numbers. I was surprised by how much she enjoyed this activity. I only had the numbers out to 5, but she insisted on doing the numbers up to 9. (Hopefully, her early interest in numbers indicates that she'll be better at math than I am!)

Christmas Card Puzzles

O loves to do these Christmas card puzzles! To make the puzzles, I cut 1 or 2 rectangles out of each card (using an x-acto knife). I put the rectangles in a bowl and the cards in a stack and gave them to O. She had fun matching the pictures to complete the puzzles. The idea for this activity came from Let's Explore. (Please excuse O's dirty table...it's covered with paint and glittery glue :)

Handprint & Paper Plate Reindeer

When I saw this reindeer craft at my school on Wednesday, I knew that O would love making it, and I would love having it as a keepsake (since I love to make things with O and E's handprints).

To make the reindeer, O colored a paper plate with a crayon rock (our favorite crayons!). She went a little crazy with a glue stick and covered almost the whole plate before placing the eyes and nose on the plate. I traced her hands onto stiff brown felt and then cut them out. I hot glued her felt hands to the back of the plate, punched a hole in the top, and looped a ribbon through the hole.

O was excited and proud to hang the reindeer on our tree. He's a little big for our 4 ft tree, but we don't mind a bit! This activity went along perfectly with our advent book, Snappy Little Christmas. (Somehow, I keep getting lucky and our activities and books are fitting together nicely without any planning :)

Snowball Surprise Soap

O and I made Snowball Surprise Soap to go along with the book, Dream Snow, which was our advent book on Friday. To make Snowball Surprise Soap, you need a bar of white soap (we used Dove), a grater, a small toy (we used a plastic penguin), and a bowl of warm water.

First, we took turns grating the soap.

Then we wet our hands in the bowl of warm water, picked up handfuls of the grated soap, and pressed it onto the penguin.

As we pressed the soap onto the penguin, we rolled the ball in our hands to make a snowball shape.

This was a fun and easy activity, and this soap would make a great handmade gift for kids. I think we'll definitely add this to our list of handmade gifts to make for next Christmas!

(The idea for this activity came from a magazine...probably Family Fun, but possibly Parents.)

E's Handmade Christmas Stocking

O was VERY upset to see that E did not have a stocking when we decorated for Christmas last week. She said "she doesn't even have a nail!!!" O was very sweet and concerned for her sister's stocking. She said she wanted E's stocking to be next to hers with my stocking on one end and Elliott's on the other end, so their stockings (O and E's) would be safe.

I used patterns from Wee Wonderfuls for both girls' stockings. (E's stocking has the Peppermint Fairy on it, which you can buy in the store. The actual pattern was much smaller. Since I wanted the stockings to match, I enlarged the pattern to the same size as the elf girl pattern). Here is O's stocking.


I'd cut and embroidered E's stocking before she was born, but we didn't finish it until last Thursday. Thank you a million times over to Guh-guh who finished E's stocking for us. There's no way I could have done it without you!!!

Chocolate Striped Pretzels with Sprinkles

O and I made chocolate striped pretzels with sprinkles for her Christmas party for her dance class. I spread out the mini pretzels in a single layer on a sheet of waxed paper, melted the Wilton's chocolate in the microwave, and used a fork to spread the melted chocolate over the pretzels. O helped spread the chocolate on the pretzels, but she especially enjoyed shaking the sprinkles onto the pretzels. She went a little overboard with the sprinkles, but it was easy enough to just pour the leftover sprinkles off the waxed paper and into a bowl to use for the next batch.

Painted Glass Ornaments

O and I had fun making painted glass ornaments again this year.

To make these ornaments you need clear glass ornaments with removable tops and craft paint. I removed the tops, and O squeezed the paint into the ornament. She twirled the ornament around to let the paint spread. After a few minutes, we added another color. We used lime green and hot pink paint in these ornaments since they are gifts for her dance teachers, and the dance studio's colors are pink and green. This was fun, easy, and quick, and the ornaments look great!

A Felt Gingerbread Boy Activity

Another repost...

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For O's 10th day advent activity, we did this felt gingerbread boy activity. This activity is identical to the snowman and turkey felt activities, just with a gingerbread boy :)

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I showed O how to dress the gingerbread boy to make him match the picture. However, she was not interested in copying the picture AT ALL. She wanted to dress him her own way, which was fine, of course :) (Just in case you happen to notice...O is wearing a leotard because she was a "baby balla-eena" and I was the "mama balla-eena." She really wants me to get a leotard!)

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She asked for the snowman after we played with the gingerbread boy for a while. She insisted that he have legs!

A Gingerbread Cottage Felt Board Scene

Here's another oldie, but goodie (originally posted in December 2008).


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I admit it...I'm obsessed with making things out of felt :) Sadly, I was much more impressed with the felt gingerbread village than O was, so I decided to make a 2d gingerbread scene for her felt board.
I love making felt board scenes. They come together so quickly and easily, and it's nice to finish a project in one sitting :) I admit that I'm still using cheap felt, and I've realized that ecospun felt (made from recycled plastic bottles) is MUCH better quality that typical cheap felt. It's thicker and it doesn't shed (so far). I'd like to make the switch to wool blend felt, but I just haven't done it yet :)

Felt Gingerbread Cookie Activity

I've decided to repost a few posts from last Christmas. O is enjoying this cookie set again this year, and I'm hoping to make a few more felt Christmas cookies for her for Christmas (although I may not finish them until Christmas Eve!).

For O's 12th advent activity, we had a treasure hunt to find a special handmade gift :) The 1st note sent her to the ottoman where she found another note (Elliott read the notes to her). That note sent her to the sliding glass door by the stairs. She pulled the curtain back to find the note on the door. Then she headed to her seat at the table. There was a note stuck to the bottom of her seat which directed her to the pots and pans cabinet. When she opened the cabinet door, she found her special prize! O didn't really understand the treasure hunt at 1st, but once she understood what we were doing she LOVED it. I plan on having a couple of more treasure hunts for her to find handmade gifts for advent.

O's special prize is a felt gingerbread cookie making kit! I've seen sugar cookie kits similar to this on etsy and at various online shops, and I couldn't wait to make one for O. It was easy to make, but it did take a while. I did all of the sewing by hand, which I really enjoyed (I'm still a little intimidated by the sewing machine!).

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Here are the freshly baked and decorated gingerbread girl and boy. I'd planned to embroider the details, but then I realized that it would be MUCH easier, faster, and would look more like icing if I painted the details with puff, fabric paint! O immediately took these cookies to her play kitchen :)

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Guh-guh quickly made a coordinate gingerbread man drawstring bag for storing the gingerbread making kit before she left our house this morning. Thanks, Guh-guh!

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"Thing Finder" Necklaces

I love the Bug Catcher necklaces made by Whimsy Love, and I decided these necklaces would be great gifts for O and I to make for her cousins and friends for Christmas.

We decided to call our necklaces "Thing Finder" necklaces since we recently read Pippi Longstocking and have enjoyed being "Thing Finders" when we go on walks. To make these necklaces you need stretchy elastic cord, plastic toy capsule, beads, and a thumbtack. I adapted the necklace a little (from Whimsy Love's tutorial) to make it a little safer...I'm paranoid about the possible strangulation hazard of O having things around her neck. I decided to use thin, stretchy elastic cord instead of beading cord. It's not as durable, but I think it will break easily if it gets caught on anything. Therefore, eliminating the risk of strangulation. To make the necklace, I started by puncturing holes in the lid of the plastic capsule with a thumbtack. I made 2 of the holes bigger than the rest and threaded the elastic cord through these holes (this was the most difficult part of the process) making the elastic cord equally long on each side. We then started putting the beads on the elastic cord. Once each side was full, I tied the two sides together, and it was done!

These necklaces were so easy and so much fun to make. O lost interest fairly quickly, but she did help enough to have a little ownership in the process which was my goal. O and my niece both LOVE their necklaces, and I hope the other little girls and boys will love theirs, too.

Paint Your Own Dollhouse

I've put together a "Paint Your Own Dollhouse" kit for a couple of little girls on our list this year. Included in the kit are an unfinished dollhouse (it's marketed as a cd holder and sold in the unfinished wood section at Michael's), a family of unfinished peg dolls, and craft paint. I hope the little girls who receive this gift will have lots of creative fun with it!

Gumdrop Tree

O was very excited about making our gumdrop tree last week! To make a gumdrop tree you need a bag of gumdrops, toothpicks (broken in half), and a styrofoam tree form. We used the styrofoam tree form that we used last year. One of the first things she asked was "can I taste the gumdrops like I did when I was 2?" I'll have to remind her that last year she thought the gumdrops were "ucky." (I'd forgotten that until I just read last year's post...I'm so glad I have our blogs to help us remember these simple moments). O was much more interested in "tasting" the gumdrops than decorating the tree. She's developed quite a sweet tooth. However, we don't allow her to have candy very often.

It was fun to have E sit with us and participate in this activity. In order to involve her, we decided to teach her the colors of the gumdrops (in English and Spanish) as we put the gumdrops on the tree. O thought it was great to show E the gumdrops while telling her the colors, and it was a good review for all of us to practice the colors in Spanish.

This was a fun and easy activity, and I'm looking forward to disassembling the gumdrop tree in a few weeks :)

Peppermint Bark

O and I made peppermint bark for her dance teachers Friday afternoon. We had a lot of fun, and it was very yummy!

We started off with trying to break the peppermints into bits. I planned on hammering them, but I couldn't find a hammer. We put them under a kitchen towel and beat them with a Kleen Kanteen, but that didn't work. Next, we took them out of the wrappers and chopped them in the chopper. It worked perfectly!

We used Wilton's meltable white chocolate, and I melted it in the microwave. I poured the chocolate on a sheet of waxed paper (that was really an unfolded and washed cereal bag). We spread the chocolate out with a spoon and sprinkled the peppermint pieces on top. After we finished, we enjoyed licking the spoon and bowl (that chocolate is expensive, so we couldn't waste a drop!).

After the chocolate hardened, I broke it into pieces and put it in gift bags for O's dance teachers. This was a fun, easy, and delicious homemade gift!

And the Winner Is...

Maddy in Vermont!!!