It's called Making Do With Whatcha Got.

Who says you can't make turkey crafts after Thanksgiving?

Draw and cut out a body, and use some old scrapping paper for the tail feathers
Assemble it all on a separate piece of paper using tape or glue.

And this, folks, is the candy man. I don't know about you, but we came home from trick or treating with way more candy than we could ever eat....so we decided to put it to good use:


Here's Mom's Dream house.


Presenting T's candy land: a man, a house and even a tootsie roll train.


You can see we made a gigantic mess.


If you have even more candy to sneakily get rid of, make a reindeer, using hand prints for the antlers, and candy for it's clothes. Because we all know reindeer wear clothes.



Here's a funny looking tree we made. And HEREare the instructions for it.


And follow THESE instructions to make this awesome tree topper.


Around here, 'Christmas' means 'Time to make chocolate truffles!'

The recipe is so easy.
2/3 cup whipping cream
One 12 oz pkg of semi sweet choc. chips
and 2 tsp vanilla.

Bring cream to a boil in saucepan, then remove it from heat and add the choc. chips. Stir until melted, then add vanilla.
We pour our mixture into a pie pan and stick it in the freezer (unwrapped) until it gets nice and firm. Once it's set up, spoon some out and drop it onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Put back into freezer for a couple of minutes and once stiff, form them into balls with your fingers. Roll them in crushed crackers or nuts, hot chocolate mix or sprinkles. Let them use their imaginations with the 'toppings'. Put them back into the freezer for a few minutes until firm again.


Too much fun, I tell ya what.

You've never even seen a craft like this...

Only kidding. But do read on.

This week we went to the zoo and we all agreed that our favorite part was the cool aquarium....


So then we decided to make one of our own...

And whaddya know, it turned out JUST like the ones at the zoo!!

My girls were way too excited about the final product, and made me feel like the coolest and craftiest mom ever. If you too, want to fit into the cool crafty mom category, try it out.

1: Cut out the inside of one paper plate and color the inside of another paper plate blue.

2: Use hot glue to stick a piece of plastic wrap to the inside of the plate with the hole in it.

3: Stick paper cutouts of fish and other sea animals onto the blue plate, then glue the plates together.

4: And Done!!

The coolest. The craftiest.


And here's a good one for the whole family. My husband was definitely the one most amused by this activity. All you need is a little 'Moolah'....and who doesn't have that just lying around? :)


Enjoy.

Just when you thought there was nothing left to do with a cereal box..

Cardboard Keys won't get you too far....

but they do come in handy when you're playing house and pretending like you're a janitor!


In this case, the side of the cereal box made a great platform for our cotton ball snowman.

All you need is glue, cotton balls and leftover Halloween candy.




And finally, finger puppets made from, yes, you guessed it: a cereal box.

Find an old glove and use hot glue to stick a piece of velcro onto the front of each finger. Also glue a piece of velcro to the back of each monkey or pig face. This is fun to use for fingerplays like "5 little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", "Old MacDonald", or even "B-I-N-G-O" etc.

Cheap thrills

Take a field trip to the toy store...and just hang out for a while.




The employees will love you for messing with all their toys and not spending a dime :)

Try a little blind taste testing:

Have them take a bite of different kinds of foods and identify each one.

And of course it wouldn't be fair unless the mama got to try some too.

Check out the goop! (When I left the room it was in the measuring cups, when I came back it was all over the table. Rascals.) Mix 1 cup Cornstarch with a little bit of water until you get a semi thin mixture.



Be fashion designers for the day.


And be sure not to forget the glitter.

Enlist their help in prepackaging their lunches. They're always willing to help when it involves food....am I right?




Remember this old camp skit? They'll go crazy for it.


And it never hurts to end the day with a little prank on Daddy...

(even though it may not always work out as well as you hope :)

Beans, beans....

My oldest is now in Kindergarten which means it's just me and my sidekick Tia.
We've been bonding over the following crafts:

Bean Art

Use Elmer's glue to make a design and top it with any bean or lentil you please.

Create your own puzzles


Use a picture from a magazine (or draw one of your own,) glue it to a side of a cereal box and cut like a puzzle.

Family Chain


Have your child list everyone in your immediate and extended family and write them down on strips of paper, then staple them together. You'll probably both be surprised at how big your family really is!

Paper Magnet People



Draw several different types of body parts as well as clothing items and cut them out. Stick a magnet to the back of each item and have a party on your refrigerator door!


Warning: This one can get a little messy :)

And, yet another use for a cereal box. A suitcase!


Cut and hot-glue the appropriate pieces together. Use an elastic hair thing and a bottle cap to hold the suitcase shut.

That should keep you busy for the week :)
Have fun!

All play and no work...

Here is our past week, in a nutshell:

We played:

Auto Repair Shop



Carwash



Airplane Derby




Card Towers




Sponge Stamping





Measuring Cup Math (Learned the sizes of each measuring cup and spoon and got to follow a recipe all on their own)




Paper Snowflakes



And... Homemade Air Hockey!




I would highly recommend......
all of them!
Have fun!