Apple Spiced Playdough

It was definitely time to make up a new batch of playdough, and with the new season arriving I was inspired to create a play experience that reminded us of fall.

One of my favorite parts of autumn is all the great scents that come along with the season. In the past we've used some of those same great scents to create Pumpkin Spice Playdough and Fall Spice Playdough. But this time I wanted to create something that reminded us of apples - we're in the mood for apple picking and all sorts of yummy apple treats - but we just haven't had a free weekend lately. The trick was how could I make the playdough smell fruity and spicy at the time?

A "Bad Apple" Craft & Snack

I love when we find great new books at the library! "Bad Apple" by Edward Hemingway is one of our new family favorites.

This sweet tale of friendship tells about an apple "Mac" who wakes up one day with a worm "Will." The two become fast friends, but other apples can't accept the friendship and Mac begins to doubt it. Eventually Mac decides he'd rather be a "bad apple" with his friend than a sad apple without him.

Not only do we love this friendship tale, but it inspired us to both create and snack!

Apple Nutella Blossom Snack

Now that Big Brother is an official kindergartner, it means I need to start thinking about real after school snacks. His busy and long day mean that he arrives home pretty hungry. On the first day of school I treated all of us to this yummy snack: Apple Nutella Blossoms.

For quite a while now this has been an easy weekday dessert, 

but it also makes a great afternoon snack!

Crab Apple Print Making

It's hard to believe that autumn is around the corner, but you can sense it in the air. 

School starts next week and I've already spotted a few colorful leaves on the ground! So it's not hard to believe we're getting in the mood for a few fall crafts.

The crab apple tree in our yard is very abundant in our yard this year, and although we never do much with these apples, this year we're feeling a little more inspired to use them in some way. To start with we used them for some crab apple print making.