A Wintry Valentine's Celebration

To kick off Valentine's week, 

we celebrated the holiday of love with sweet friends, 

sweet treats, and a sweet book and craft.

Penguin in Love by Salina Yoon is a charming story and one of our 

favorite books this season.  Penguin is loveable, and the girls enjoyed

having him at our Valentine's celebration.  After a chatty lunch, 

we read the book and each made our own Penguin.

How adorable are these back-pack clips?  The kids did a great job!

I love playing with Crayola Model Magic.

It air dries nicely and is easy for the kids to work with.  

To make Penguin, you need:

Black Model Magic for the body.

Orange Model Magic for the scarf.

White Model Magic for the belly and nose.

Two black beads for the eyes

Yellow pipe cleaners for the feet.

Back pack clips

After molding Penguin with model magic, fold a six inch pipe cleaner 

in half and string it through the ring of a back-pack clip, with the folded

part centered in the ring.  Pierce both ends of the pipe cleaner through the top 

of Penguin's head and out the bottom.  There will be two ends sticking out.

Bend each end in half to form the feet; this will secure Penguin to the clip.

 While our Penguins were left to dry, we celebrated with wintry treats.

I'm still practicing my chocolate piping skills.  

The girls were tickled with the Penguin and bill cozy cupcakes. 

You'll have to read the book to learn what a bill cozy is. :)

 The iceberg jigglers were a big hit.  Kids love these silly, jiggly treats.

To make the blue icy water layer, combine two 6 oz boxes of blue jello with

two and a half cups of boiling water.  Stir until dissolved and pour 

into a greased 9 x 13 dish.  I sprayed the dish with a light layer of PAM oil.

Place the jello in the refrigerator until it sets, about 20 minutes.

To make the creamy snow layer, dissolve two envelopes of unflavored gelatin 

with a quarter cup of boiling water.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, mix

a can of condensed milk with a cup of boiling water.  Add the gelatin mixture 

into the creamy mixture, and stir in another half a cup of boiling water.  

Pour the white jello mixture onto the set blue layer, 

and allow the jello to completely chill in the refrigerator before cutting.

These snow ball goodies are powdered donut holes.

The girls enjoyed drinking milk from the frosted icicle glasses.

Okay, sugar sprinkles. :)

Author/Illustrator Salina Yoon offers these wonderful free 

Valentine's printables on Penguin's Face Book page.

The children were happy to take home Penguin in Love Valentines.

I'm so happy the kids got a chance to get together this weekend.

They had a lot of fun hanging out and celebrating Valentine's.

Before bedtime, I helped my daughter clip her new friend

onto her back-pack.  She is all set for school.  Happy Valentine's week!

More parties: Despicable Me Party, Mermaid Surprise Party, 

Book Launch Celebration

Snowmen Smores

It's so cold outside, and I'm ready to start thinking about Valentine's crafts.

Although, last week we had three snow days off from school, 

so in the spirit of winter, the snowmen will stick around a bit longer.

 

When my kids come in from the cold, they crave hot chocolate and smores.

These snowmen smores are really fun and simple to make. 

You need:

Marshmallows for the head

Fruit roll-ups for the scarf

White chocolate wafers for the melted snow

Assorted candies and chocolate chips for the eyes and buttons.

Hershey chocolate bars

Graham crackers

Assembling the smores is easy.  Start with a graham cracker square 

and place some chocolate bars on top of it.  

Melt the white chocolate and spoon some over the milk chocolate.

Quickly attach the marshmallow on top of the white chocolate 

before it cools.  Dip the eyes, nose, and buttons in some melted white 

chocolate and decorate the snowmen.

The melted chocolate will harden and keep the candies in place.

Add the scarf to the base of the marshmallow and

 you have the cutest smores ever.  Enjoy!

Snowmen Winter Craft

Our first week in the new year and we are welcoming snow and

wintery weather.  Here's a warm and fun snowmen building activity the 

girls and I enjoyed, and it does not require any glue.  We used Model Magic, 

which air dries the same day and the results are adorable!

You will need:

White Crayola Model Magic to build the snowmen

Orange Crayola Model Magic for the nose

Color felt for the scarf

Pipe cleaners and matching color pom poms to make earmuffs 
(roll the ends of pipe cleaner around pom poms to form the ear pieces)
Twigs for the arms

Black beans for the eyes and buttons

It's as easy as it looks. Have fun making snowmen!

Happy Holidays with a Magic Greeting!

Season's greetings friends!  Do you make your own holiday card?

Every year, I make a special card for the children's publishing editors.

It's great fun, but a lot of work hand crafting twenty cards.

For now, I'm keeping this year's card under wrap, 

but here's my "magic" card from last year.

After creating my preschool shapes book, Away We Go!, 

I was inspired to design letters using shapes.

When you pull the insert, a special greeting appears.

Here it is!  Each image represents the letter.

Try to guess what they are before reading the answers below.

Warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

W - Winter

A - Angel

R - Reindeer

M - Mouse

E - Elf

S - Snowman

T - Tree

W - Wreath

I - Icicle

S - Star

H - House

E - Egg Nog

S - Santa

Chocolate Pretzel Turkeys!

Gobble Gobble!

Every holiday, I try to make a fun food craft with the kids. 

What do you think of my silly chocolate pretzel turkey? 

This treat is easy to make and a nice mini-sized sweet and salty snack.

You'll need orange, yellow, and red Wilton's chocolate candy melts,

mini pretzels, malted Whopper balls cut in half, and chocolate chips.

Melt the colored chocolates and fill in the pretzel spaces. 

Use a halved Whopper for the body and a chocolate chip for the head.

Place them on the melted chocolate, adding a drop to attach the head.

With a toothpick, decorate the eyes, feet, and wattle

using the remaining melted chocolates.

Enjoy making the chocolate pretzel turkeys!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family.

Happy Halloween!

Costumes are made and the desserts are done.

All I have left to do is carve the jack-o-lantern and let the fun begin.

Have a safe and wonderful Halloween!

Books and Smiles for Haiti #2

The books are coming in!  Thank you to our generous children's book

community for sending the amazing books for Books and Smiles for Haiti.

Please drop me an email if you would like to join us in sharing 

your wonderful stories with the children of Haiti.

Thank you author/illustrator Salina Yoon for sending thirty 

of your plushie, sparkly, novelty titles for the youngest readers.

Thank you author Danna Smith for the wonderful picture books.

Thank you author Uma Krishnaswami for your beautiful stories.

Thank you Ronnie Ann Herman of Herman Agency 

for this great collection of titles.

Thank you author Alison Formento for sending your fun counting books.

Thank you Nanci Moklak for the wonderful selection of books.

More books are on the way, and we are thankful for the generous donations.

Join our Facebook group page to stay updated.

You may also like: Books and Smiles for Haiti!