Egg Carton Tulips

In the past we've had fun using egg cartons for projects, we've made caterpillars and love bugs. So we were looking for a spring themed project and decided to make egg carton tulips!

Kids Cook: Banana Bread

We love getting kids into the kitchen, and this easy banana bread recipe means that everyone can get involved in the making of this treat.

If you've been reading our blog for a while now you know we love making muffins on a regular basis, but banana bread is also a staple in our household. The tips below really can be used with any banana bread recipe, but this just happens to be our favorite. 

1st Birthday Construction Party

Last week we celebrated Little Brother's first birthday. It's hard to believe how fast this year has gone, or how quickly my little guy is turning into a big guy.

I had a lot of fun getting ready for his first birthday party, and I have to thank Pinterest for most of my inspiration. The danger in perusing Pinterest is sometimes the parties are just so well put together and so well planned, that you forget they are not always the real party but something put together for show. As I looked my favorite parties were the ones that are real family parties, like the one we threw for Little Brother. The best part was, we had so much of this stuff, we didn't need to buy too much.

Crock Pot Chicken Sausage Tortellini Soup

When I started blogging I envisioned posting more family friendly meals than I have so far. While crafting and learning has become our primary focus here, I'm always on the look out for meals and recipes that the whole family will enjoy and that are convenient too. The crock pot is definitely a huge help in creating a little sanity in our family. So as I promised on facebook last week, here's the first of some of our favorite crock pot recipes.

I've been making this recipe for a couple of years now, and modified it a few times. It's mild enough to be enjoyed by both boys while still being flavorful enough for the grown-ups too.

Painting Snow- Inside!

We put this together on a whim this evening and we had so much fun with it I had to share it tonight. Dinner was taking a little longer than expected, and after a funny weather afternoon it was suddenly nice out. As it was too late to get everyone into their snow gear to go out, I decided to bring it inside!

We've painted snow outside before, we've used it to add color to snowmen and snow forts. We've also played with snow inside before, but we've never combined them. It was a hit!

Mud Season Monster Truck Bin

Everywhere I look there are reminders that spring is coming: Facebook, all the stores, Pinterest . . . that is everywhere I look that is not outside our windows. Last week's storm dumped another 18 inches on us, which has settled on top of what we already had to place us back in a Winter Wonderland. And these weeks cold temps are not helping.

Of course, in our part of New England before we get to spring we need to get through Mud Season. It's the fourth season here in Vermont. At this point I'd love to see that bare, brown time of year with just a hint of green; but you can remind me of that in a few weeks when I'm groaning at how the mud keeps getting tracked into the house.

To have a little fun with that idea I set up a Monster Truck Mud Season Bin for Big Brother. It's already gotten him excited about the idea that spring may actually be coming.

Grocery Store Alphabet Search

Like most families we go grocery shopping weekly, often just me and the boys. While we love our double race car cart, sometimes we need something different to perk up our trip. This was a fun, easy way to keep our bigger guy entertained as we shopped.

It's also a great way to practice learning the alphabet in a meaningful and authentic way. 

Happy Hedgehog No Bake Cookies

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Marcus Pfister. For our monthly read we enjoyed The Happy Hedgehog. We liked the story of the little hedgehog who tries to figure out what he can accomplish in order to make himself happy, and discovers it's really just being himself that brings the greatest happiness.

We decided to follow up our reading by creating Happy Hedgehog cookies!

I wanted to make sure Big Brother could be involved as much as possible, so we made a "no bake" recipe. 

Leprechaun "traps" for St. Patrick's Day

There are some very cheery posts out there for celebrating and crafting St. Patrick's Day. Although this one isn't as fancy, it is one of my favorite new traditions we started as a family.

Squeeze Paint Pots

We made a couple of these last summer and had a lot of fun with them but never posted about it. This week we wanted to create a housewarming present for some good friends, and decided this would be a fun hands on craft for Big Brother to create for them.

What's neat about them is you never know exactly how they are going to turn out. 

Sticky Rainbow Collage

This is definitely the time of year when we need a little color in our world. It feels like it will be forever until spring arrives. As we were in search of a little color, and I was feeling inspired by all the St. Patrick's Day rainbows I see popping up online, I decided to set up a Sticky Rainbow Collage.

In January we discovered the fun of sticky collages, and now we've tried both a used wrapping paper collage and an arctic collage. But this was the first time I've drawn on lines for our work.

Pom Pom Fun for Older Babies

Little Brother has definitely entered a phase where he needs some more purposeful play, otherwise I find myself trailing around behind a little cyclone of curious chaos.

A few weeks ago on a whim I pulled out a bunch of larger pom poms and created a pom pom can drop for him. This has lead to creating some other invitations to play with pom poms in all sorts of different ways. 

Wocket Creatures

So although we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday, we like to celebrate him all month long by reading his books and crafting Seuss themed projects.

Last week Big Cousin came for the day and we had a lot of fun reading Dr. Seuss' There's A Wocket in My Pocket and creating our own creatures inspired by the unusual ones found in the book.

Wocket Creatures (Inspired by Dr. Seuss)

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