Christmas: Marshmallow Snowman Tutorial

The order of our advent calendar has officially been wrecked. We've gone rogue and are doing activities on whatever day we feel like! Yesterday we were supposed to go to Winter Wonderland at Petco Park but the event has been getting such bad reviews that we stayed home and made these marshmallow snowmen instead. What started as such a simple project ended up being very messy and our supplies were quickly drained...mostly because the kids could not control themselves around M&Ms. They were having so much fun that I could not even be mad at them. Thanks to Luynh & Eden for playing with food with us!

Marshmallow Snowman Tutorial

Materials Needed

-Large marshmallows

-Mini oreos

-Pretzels

-M&Ms

-Food markers

-White frosting

-Popsicle sticks

Instructions

1. Insert popsicle stick into three marshmallows

2. Use white frosting as "glue" to add M&M buttons and an Orea cookie hat 

3. Draw on a face using food markers

4. Insert two pretzels as arms

Your snowman would be the perfect accompaniment to a hot cup of cocoa or can be eaten right off the stick. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving: DIY Spoon Turkey Puppets

Gobble gobble! Get your little one excited for Thanksgiving by making these festive and fun Turkey Spoon Puppets. These puppets are simple, inexpensive and fool proof. Kids can play with it as a toy or you can add it to your Thanksgiving tablescape. Ready to get started?

Turkey Spoon Puppets

Materials

Wiggle eyes

Wooden spoons

Feathers

Felt scraps in red and orange

Craft glue

DecoArt 8 Pot Set Dazzling Metallics

Paintbrush

Scissors

Masking Tape

Instructions

1. Cut masking tape into varying widths and wrap around the handle of the spoon.

2. Paint the spoon. Let dry for 1 hour. Remove tape once paint is dry.

3. Cut out beak and tattler shapes from felt. Glue beak, tattler and wiggly eyes to the head of the spoon.

4. Glue feathers to the back of the spoon. Let dry for 4+ hours so glue can completely set before playing with the puppets.

[All my supplies were purchased at Michaels except the wooden spoons. Not pictured: scissors and masking tape. Don't forget to use your 40% off coupon!]

[I saran wrapped Parker's high chair tray before I let him paint. The paint is easily removed with warm water and soap. He didn't want to wear the cute apron I bought him so I put him in a throw away shirt. I knew there was a purpose for those tacky souvenir shop tshirts!]

[Parker and Kaden's spoons after painting. All of the colors from the paint set mixed so well together. I love how they turned out. The slight shimmer is fantastic.]

[I placed two glue spots on the spoons and let him add the eyes]

[Waiting for our glue to dry]

Halloween: Monster Pops Tutorial

Since (almost) all the kids are under 3 and we don't know how trick-or-treating will go this year, we have asked everyone to bring a spooky treat to share at the "BOOs and Booze" Halloween party. Over the weekend, Parker and I put together these cute Monster Pops as our sweet contribution. The pops were really easy to make and Parker loved the wiggly eyes. However, five minutes into the project, his attention quickly turned from helping me to eating lollipops. It's a good thing the dum dums are small. This is a fun, inexpensive and un-gory craft to work on with your little one. 

Materials Needed

Tissue paper in coordinating colors

Wiggly eyes in assorted sizes 

Curling ribbon

Dum Dum lollipops

Rotary cutter or scissors

Ruler

Cutting mat

Zots in size medium (available at Michaels)

A helpful sister in law (Optional but highly recommended. Thanks Loan!)

Instructions

1. Cut tissue paper into 4x4 inch squares using your rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat. Using a rotary cutter is the easiest way to go but you can do this with scissors as well.

2. Cut curling ribbon into 5 inch pieces.

3. Place wiggly eyes on Zots and press down to secure adhesive. I love how the medium size Zots were the perfect size to cover the entire back of the smaller wiggly eyes. Those suckers are sticky too.

4. Wrap lollipop in tissue paper and secure with curling ribbon. Repeat as many times as desired. 

5. Remove Zot and wiggly eye from sheet and place as many or as few as you want on each lollipop.

[One dramatic pop.]

That's it! Easy right? Parker ended up sticking wiggly eyes on his face and hands and running around the house. The pops are also fun for little ones to shake so they can watch the eyes move. Enjoy!

Boredom Buster: Sandwich Bag Puppet

Another boredom busting project from the Creatology Mega Box of Projects: sandwich bag dog puppet. We worked on this while Grandpa made dinner. So easy. So entertaining. All you need is a glue stick and it's included in the box.

Boredom Buster: Creatology Mega Box of Projects

On Sunday, Tuan went to North Park for the big World Cup viewing party with the guys (yay Germany!) and Parker and I stayed home and had a lot of quality time. The first thing we did was head to Michaels to pick up some projects to work on. It was just our luck that all the Creatology products are currently 50% off and there is a coupon for an additional 25% off all purchases (including sale items). I picked up this Creatology Mega Box of Projects for $12. The first project we worked on was "life on the farm" and I basically handed Parker stickers to arrange on the farm template. I tried to explain where each of the animals likes to play but he had his own ideas about it. This held his attention for about 15 minutes which is about an hour in toddler time.

One project down and 29 more to go. It's a relief to know that I will always have something on hand to do with Parker when we have down time. No play dough making required.

[Gigante]

[He did this when I told him to hold up his artwork]

[Enjoying his art and snacking on pretzels]

[This is now proudly displayed on our refrigerator. A goat in the trees. A horse with a missing head. A chicken on the barn. A mouse in the river.]