Toddler Santa Advent Calendar

A repost from Dec 1, 2010

This is from my son's school but my daughter insisted on having one of her own.

First we played with the cotton balls. It was fun to feel them on our faces and eyes and throw them and just get our hands on them. I put the left overs in the sensory tub for winter. :)

 Once we were done playing we colored Santa faces.

Then we glued a basic hat on and I explained how the advent calendar works.

Every day (today is the 1st) you add a cotton ball to Santa's beard. Once the beard is filled its Christmas!

Everyone was so excited by this.  If you want the beard chart leave a comment HERE with your email address and I will send you the doc right away!

Easy Toddler Christmas idea... voile!

White Mud

Here is what you need:

A bar of soap

A grater

A tub/pan

Loose toilet paper

Start by grating 1/2 a bar of soap.

Then tear the toilet paper up

Then add soap.

Then add water.

Let the kids squeeze, manipulate, and play with their mud as long as they like.

The more they play with it, the better it will be.

Good Clean Fun!

Mummy Wrap!

Toilet Paper fun for toddlers!

This week I am making the most of our frigid temps and doing fun random stuff inside!

Toilet Paper, Imagination, and giggles, check!

I saved the remnants for tomorrow's activity.

So fun, and easy clean up!

Snow Man Pancakes!

Found originally here

We had pancakes for lunch because I needed a break up in the lunch routine.

It was snowing, and seemed like a perfect, "You're the coolest mommy EVER" moment, so...we went with it!

Pancakes are my friend Hilary's recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup oats

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

1 cup water.

1/4 cup batter yields 16-18 pancakes

After I made them, I added a bacon scarf, chocolate chip eyes, nose and buttons and marshmallow snowballs. I saved the extras for breakfast tomorrow. I'll just pop them in the toaster and we will be good to go!

In the words of MY favorite show YGG

"Try it! You'll like it!"

Winter Break Activity #4 - Book Making!

Print THIS from Playing with Words 365.

And let the kids go to town. Each kid can cut, glue and put the book together all by themselves. It is a perfect activity for those winter days when you can't go outside!

Another option for older kids is to draw in the pictures. 

The instructions for this book are on page 10.

This is so cute, you won't be disappointed. 

You decide. This is a great activity that takes 30 minutes! :)

Winter Break Activity #3 - ART - Torn Candy Canes

We had some friends over and decided to do our art project with them.  Each kid tore red and white paper and then glued them into candy cane shapes. We did this while my husband was making lunch (it was a snow day)

aaaaaand here they are!

Just something simple and fun and stress free to break up the break.  Another option would be to do finger prints in lieu of torn paper. We had 6 kids here so I stayed away from the paint, but you totally could use paint!

Winter Break Activity #2 - SCIENCE - Borax Snowflakes

mason jar

pencil

pipe cleaners 

string/yarn

borax

boiling hot water

Directions

1. Form your pipe cleaners into a snowflake shape or whatever shape you desire, while you boil water.

2. Add water to your mason jars.

3. Mix in borax. Stir it but don't worry if it isn't completely dissolved.

4. Attach your pipe cleaner shape to the string and hang it from the pen/pencil while submerging it in your jar.

5. Let it sit overnight, or do this at breakfast and check on it obsessively all day and right before bed pull them out. (that is what my 5 year old did.) We made a bunch of these - I had about 15 different mason jars lined up they looked like this...

but imagine my whole table lined up!

Here are the finished products....

Hang them on your tree or pick them apart to see how it happened, again my 5 year old did this. :)


PS - If you do it with white pipe cleaners here is the result:

Both are cool. :P

Winter Break Activity #1 - COOKING - Cracked Snowballs

• 
  
• 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 pound cream cheese
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Confectioner’s sugar for rolling and dusting

Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  
In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the cream cheese, butter, and sugar together until fluffy.  
Add the eggs and vanilla extract.

Incorporate the flour mixture.  
Chill for at least 30 minutes.  
Scoop roughly 1-ounce balls and toss in the confectioner’s sugar.  
Place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment, a couple of inches apart.  
Bake at 325° F until they spread and puff slightly, about 12-16 minutes.  
They will be really soft in the center.  If they start to brown, they’ve gone too far.  Cool to room temperature.

From this point, we usually refrigerate them on the tray because as the cream cheese and butter get cold, they’re easier to pick up. It is a good tip. (matthew rice suggests this)  Dust with more confectioner’s sugar before serving.  


Our family usually serves these cookies straight from the fridge. They taste different warm. Store these in the fridge and you can serve them cold/cool.

These will keep for up to a week in the fridge. We are sending them out in the morning with Daddy. :)


They are gooey inside almost under baked but so rich and good!

Printable Christmas Tags!

My kids love to color, so the gifts that they exchange for each other gets "original" coloring artwork with the package!  Sure it gets tossed with the wrap, but it is a perfect quiet activity while you are counting down the days till present time! :)

HERE is the TAGS

HERE is a fun Christmas Coloring Book

Have fun!

Snow Day Activity - Balloon Butt Pop!

My daughter had a mermaid party for her 4th birthday.  One of the activities was popping bubbles with your butt!  They had a fantastic time and thought - hey lets do this again when it's snowy and we can't go out!

You don't have to be dressed like a mermaid to do this activity.

Haha.

Some other variations I would do with this particular game is play music and when they heard the chorus try and pop it.

Play the ABC's on repeat and they have to try and pop it on their letter.

The possibilities are endless AND the giggles are contagious.

So fun!

Holiday Tradtitions - Elf on the Shelf

I am sure you have heard of this book -

This is our 3rd year of doing Elf on the Shelf.  I started when my oldest was 3 and understood the concept.

We usually start this after Thanksgiving.  Zeke is our Elf's name and where the kids need a little boost of encouragement in the behavior department is where Zeke usually shows up the next day.  For instance - if they had a rough night during bathtime...Zeke is there in the morning. Haha.

We do Santa a little differently in my house.  Santa only brings items we need (socks, etc) and one special toy in the stocking. Partly because my husband wants credit for the big under the tree items and partly because we aren't heavy Santa believers.  Sure we partake in the fun but we make sure our kids know the real reason for the season.

Here are some places Zeke has shown up...

Sometimes he is in boring places like on a shelf and sometimes he is a bit of a rascal.

Have fun with it!

Edible Snowmen

Mini Powdered Donuts, Pretzel Sticks, Candy Corn, Mini Chocolate Chips, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Pull and Peel Twizzlers. Whew!

We had a bunch of friends over for dinner and dessert and embraced the different age groups by doing a project/edible craft.

Peel the Pull and Peel Twizzlers

Then pass out 2 pretzel sticks, 1 candy corn, several mini choco chips, and 1 PB cup.

Peel the PB cups, but save the dark wrapper.

This is my 21 month old using her fine motor skills! 

Pass out the donuts (3 a person) and add eyes, nose and buttons

Wrap the licorice around the neck and add the hat.

then eat everything but the wrapper!

This took a good 30 minutes, but I had 6 kids so it might take less if you have a smaller group.

Ages 6, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1