Chocolate Isn't a Vegetable?

One of the treats I make each Christmas is peppermint and white chocolate bark. It is super easy to make and delicious! Here's how: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Crush 12 candy canes. Melt 8 oz of white chocolate (wafers or baking bar) in the microwave, stirring every thirty seconds until melted. Add one teaspoon of peppermint extract and the crushed candy canes and mix. Quickly spread this mixture on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet to create a layer about 1/4 of an inch thick. Refrigerate for at least half an hour, then, break into pieces and serve! You can also melt a cup of milk chocolate chips or wafers and quickly spread on top of the bark before breaking it apart. Just refrigerate for another 30 minutes after adding the chocolate. Enjoy!

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on low heat in a medium size saucepan. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of baking cocoa. Next, add 1 cup of milk and whisk until almost smooth. Add 6 oz of milk chocolate chips and stir until a smooth chocolate sauce forms. In a blender, combine chocolate sauce, 5-6 pieces of ice, and 1 cup of milk. Blend until the mixture has a frappuccino-consistency, about 20 seconds. Pour into two tall classes, add whipped cream, and enjoy!

Tile coasters are easy and fun to put together and make wonderful gifts! Best of all, they are inexpensive and functional ! Here's what you'll need: Modge Podge (available at craft stores) 12x12 scrapbooking paper (scrap paper is fine too, you'll need 4x4 squares) 4x4 tiles (13 cents and up at home improvement stores) foam brush felt pads (any size, four per tile, found at Home Depot, Lowes etc.) clear acrylic spray Cut as many 4x4 pieces of scrapbooking paper as tiles. Using the foam brush, cover each tile with a thin layer of Modge Podge. Quickly press the paper unto the tile. Let the Modge Podge/paper dry for 15 minutes. Next, apply a thin layer of Modge Podge over the entire surface of the tile and paper. Let dry, then repeat. Finally, spray each tile with a thin layer of clear acrylic to seal. Add the felt pad to four corners of each tile and...Voila -water-resistant coasters that can be customized to match any season or decor!

Rock Candy is easy to make and tastes delicious! This activity is also a great science project that teaches about crystal formation. In  a metal saucepan, heat about two cups of water and slowly add 4-6 cups of water. Keep stirring and adding sugar until the solution is saturated (no more sugar will dissolve). This will create a syrup-like mixture. Divide the mixture among 3-4 glass jars and add food coloring and flavoring as desired. Soak wooden skewers in cold water and roll them in sugar to seed the crystals. Let the sugar dry completely, then insert 1-2 skewers into each jar. Put the jars in a warm, and if possible sunny place. After about one week, gently remove the skewers and enjoy your homemade rock candy!

Here is a fun way to turn an inexpensive clipboard into a message/photo board: Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the shape of the clipboard. Cover the board with a thin layer of Modge Podge and carefully place the scrapbook paper on the clipboard. Decorate the paper with die-cuts, stickers etc. and cover everything with another layer of Modge Podge. Add a ribbon to the board's clip and place on a plate holder (available at craft stores, Walmart, etc.) to display. Now you can clip photos, shopping lists, recipe cards, and other fun things on this pretty, yet functional, clipboard. You can also cover your clipboard with chalkboard paint and then embellish it with stickers and ribbons, for an erasable message board.

Swim lessons at the Y are a wonderful idea for little ones. Swim lessons at the Y in the middle of winter - still a great idea, but getting from the building to the car - brrr! To keep Boo warm after her swim lesson, I sewed a hooded towel/cover up for her, based on tutorials I found here and here .This was super-easy to make with inexpensive towels and fabrics scraps at a fraction of the cost of commercially made, personalized hooded towels. The hooded towel above is based on the tutorial found here. A hooded towel all wrapped up - a gift to a preschool friend who loves ladybugs.  This hooded towel also served as a cover-up. I added the butterfly applique and letters for personalization.

Making marbled paper is a fun and educational activity that builds vocabulary and small motor skills! To create the marbled effect, pour liquid laundry starch into a shallow baking sheet. The liquid should cover the sheet about 1/4 inch deep. Next, mix a tablespoon of acrylic paint with two teaspoons of water, and stir well. Repeat for additional colors you would like to use. Drop as many colors as you like on the laundry starch surface. Next, use a chop stick or the wrong end of a pencil to create swirls and other paint designs. Cover the design with an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper and lift it up by the edges a few seconds later. Briefly dip the paper into a pan filled with cold water to wash off the starch. Let the paper dry on newspapers or on a thick old towel. Throughout the whole process, talk to your child about the colors and patterns she is creating. Discuss the names of the colors and point out the color names on the paint containers. After the paper dries you may have to ca...

Making homemade butter is a fun and educational activity that increases vocabulary and knowledge of science concepts, such as states of matter. Pour 2 cups of heavy cream into a plastic jar with a tight-fitting lid. Add a pinch of salt. Now, shake the jar, roll it on the floor to your child, then shake it some more. After MUCH shaking, you will see the liquid cream change into solid butter and liquid buttermilk. Pour off the buttermilk, then put the lid back on the jar and shake it some more.  Carefully, pour off more of the buttermilk. Add about 3 tablespoons of ice water to the jar and...Shake again. Pour off as much of the buttermilk/ice water mixture as you can, then place the butter into a bowl.   You can now add spices and herbs (I used organic chives, parsley, and red pepper flakes). Just add as much as you like. Here is a link to some great flavored butter recipes . Enjoy!

Today, explain to your children that you will mix milk and food coloring without stirring them! Add 1-2 cups of milk to a pie plate. Let your child add drops of food coloring to the surface of the milk. Next, take a dish-washing liquid such as Dawn, and drop a teaspoon of this liquid into the middle of the milk. The food coloring drops will swirl and begin to mix with the milk in beautiful patterns. Explain that the food coloring floats on the surface of the milk due to the fat molecules creating a flat surface, this surface tension is broken when the grease-fighting dish-washing detergent is added, sending the food coloring swirling. You can also magically move toothpicks by floating them on the milk in a star pattern before adding the soap.

One Simple Thing you can to today to increase your child's pre-reading skills is to create a photo book of his or her daily routine! Purchase an inexpensive photo album (the Dollar Store is a great source for this), or three-ring binder. Tell your child you are creating a book of him that he can use later to remember his daily routine/chores etc. Take pictures of your child making his bed, brushing his teeth, going to school, reading a bedtime story etc. Add one of these pictures to each of the pages in the photo album or three-ring binder and label it with that part of the daily routine ("Liam brushes his teeth before bed" etc.). Your child will love reading about his day and will be able to use the book to assist him in accomplishing all parts of the daily routine. Babies love photo albums too, but you may want to use page protectors for your binder pages. You can also purchase a "baby-safe" photo album here .

Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite children's books, written by one of my favorite people: My Mom! The book is called "Max and Maexchen" and each story found in the book is now available in Kindle format! Even though the stories are currently only available in German (one of her favorite daughters is helping her translate them into English ;-)), the illustrations alone are worth the purchase. For those of you who do read German, you will love the animal stories told by a loving dad to his son "Little Max." My mom did a fantastic job integrating scientific facts about each animal into each of these engaging children's stories. You can order the first story (for Kindle)   Max and Maexchen here. Happy Reading!!

Glue pictures are fun to create and make wonderful, artsy decorations for your home! Begin by encouraging your child to draw pictures using a thin stream of Elmer's glue (I always stock up on glue at back-to-school sales) on construction paper or left-over pieces of cardboard. When the glue is completely dry, use liquid tempera paint and a paint brush to paint over the glue pictures. This is a great sensory experience that also helps your child practice hand-eye coordination. You can also use this technique to create Montessori-style letter cards. Draw glue letters on cardboard rectangles and have your child trace each letter with his or her fingers. Have fun!

 You can make amazingly creative ice cream with your little one by doing the following (the original recipe can be found here ):   Whip 2 cups of chilled, heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix one can of sweetened condensed milk with any mix-ins you like. We stirred in 1/4 cup Nutella and 1 tsp espresso powder for an amazingly rich Nutella ice cream. Later, we used chocolate chips and vanilla extract to make Stracciatella ice cream (shown below).        Fold the condensed milk/mix-ins mixture into the whipped cream. Transfer this mixture to a plastic container and cover with a tight-fitting lid or aluminum foil. Freeze for 6 hours.      Voila! Perfectly creamy ice cream! No ice cream maker needed! This was such a fun and creative project for the kids! They had so much fun making pineapple ice cream (adding 1 can of crushed pineapple) and chocolate (adding a chopped up chocolate bar and chocola...

Make a volcano! For a great science experiment that will teach vocabulary and critical thinking, take a plastic cup and fill it with about ½ cup of baking soda and add a couple of drops of red food coloring. Explain to your child that volcanoes sometimes erupt, spewing lava and rocks. You can look at some great videos of volcanoes here and information about them here . Once you have looked at the volcano videos and talked about lava, rocks, and perhaps even earthquakes associated with volcanoes, begin the experiment. Tell your child that she will make the volcano erupt by pouring about ¼ cup of vinegar on the baking soda (make sure to place the cup with baking soda inside a small bowl to catch the “lava”). Explain to her that this is not real lava, which would be very hot! Next, explain that combining the baking soda and vinegar is a chemical reaction. For a simple explanation of this click here . Be prepared to make the volcano erupt again and again! Have fun!

A few weeks ago a couple of friends and I hosted a baby shower for a sweet friend, due with her first baby girl soon! We all provided food and my oldest made the beautiful, mod pink and brown cake. We also served Raspberry Sherbet pie , fruit, cookies, and delicious cheese dip. A diaper cake, several giant Onesie cupcakes ( tutorial here ), and baby sock cupcakes, served as decorations. We had a great time celebrating the Mommy-To-Be!

Today, create your own non-toxic finger paint. It is easy, inexpensive, and fun to make these! Check out a few recipes for finger paint here . Create a rainbow of colors and allow your little one to have fun creating colorful works of art! Model the letters of his first name for your child and have fun watching him create his own masterpiece!

Today, create a placemat that your little one can use to remember her morning routine. Complete instructions can be found here. Discuss with your child what items to include on the morning checklist. Then, take photographs of the actions or objects associated with the checklist item. For example, if "Make your Bed" is one of your items, show your child step-by-step how to make the bed the way you would like it to look (remembering that it will not look exactly like that when your little one does it). Place each photo on the placemat, before adding the clear contact paper. Taking photographs of what you would like your child's room to look like after he cleans his rooms is a great way to avoid the, "But I did clean my room!" battles. If the room does not look like the photograph, then it is not considered cleaned up! For babies, create a visual schedule by taking a photograph of your baby at different times of the day (breakfast, playtime, outside ...

It's never to early to teach our little ones about kindness! Today, create a card for a neighbor, friend, or relative! Fold a piece of paper in half and ask your child to tell you what message to include in the card. Write his message word for word. Allow him to "write" his own message as well, if he seems interested. Then, decorate with crayons, stickers, markers etc. until the card looks beautiful to both of you. Talk about how happy the person will be to receive your card and discuss other ways to "be a sunshine" (by baking cookies for a shut-in, providing dinner to a family with a new baby etc.). Babies can make greeting cards too - just paint those little hands and press them on the card for great handprint art!

For our Fourth of July celebration this year, we created a melon basket. You can find a great tutorial describing how to make one of these here. The basket turned out to be a beautiful and functional centerpiece!

I saw this great Cozy Car Caddy tutorial over at homemade by jill and decided to adapt it for my little Polly Pocket fan. I used the techniques described in the Car Caddy tutorial. It was so much fun designing this purse/Polly Pocket hangout! The finished purse can be opened to reveal Polly's sleeping bag, envelope for clothes, and a balloon for two friends. This is a great quiet toy to take to church!

Today, use some dry pasta ( elbow macaroni work well), paper, and glue to create letters. Draw large letters on pieces of paper and encourage your child to follow the outline of each letter by gluing the pasta on the outline. Name the letters as your child completes each picture. For babies, count out loud as you put dry pasta in a plastic container. Cover the container with a tight fitting lid. Have fun shaking your home-made pasta maraca!

One Simple Thing you can do with your preschooler or toddler today is to go grocery shopping! Create a shopping list together, explain that you use coupons to save money, ask your little one to be you big helper today! Together, walk through the aisles of your favorite grocery store and help your child compare the words written on your shopping list (make sure to print clearly) to the ones on the packages. Make sure to take your child very close to the actual item, at least at the beginning, so he can find the item without getting frustrated. This is a wonderful activity that teaches about environmental print, math, and savvy shopping! For babies, use your grocery store trips to point out letters on food labels and signs, and count aloud as you add items to your shopping cart. Have fun!

For Preschoolers: Playing with coins is an easy and fun way to practice counting and sorting! Your preschooler will learn new vocabulary when you explain to him what each of the coins is called, talk about their characteristics, and the characters represented on them. For some fun coin trivia to share with your child click here. For Babies: Today, spray about three tablespoons of whipped cream/spray topping on your child’s high chair tray, letting her explore the texture (and flavor!) of the whipped cream. Explain to her that it is sticky, white, soft etc. to build her vocabulary while she engages all five senses to explore. Add more whipped cream as needed, then draw and name basic shapes for her. Have fun!