Snowman Felt Board

If you haven't tried making felt board pieces, a snowman scene is an easy first project.  Just trace three circles--use different sized cups, inside of tape rolls, etc and freehand the rest.   The hat, nose, arms and snow are all very forgiving shapes.

I am hoping to come up with a cute story to go with this guy, but for now we are just taking him apart and putting him back together. 

Dance Like Snowflakes

Dance Like Snowflakes

(sing to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Dance like snowflakes

Dance like snowflakes

In the air

In the air.

Whirling, twirling, snowflakes

Whirling, twirling, snowflakes

Here and there

Here and there.

Ice Cube Fun

We added a tray of ice cubes to the Noodle's water table playscape this week.  A fun addition! 

Simple Cork Boats

I needed to fill some rainy day time and these simple cork boats were a good distraction.  They started out without sails.  Just shapes cut from a few cork tiles that used to hang on my office wall.  Adrien floated them around in the morning.  Then we decided to make sails.  I cut triangles of fabric, coated them with glue and folded them around toothpicks.  Ahoy!

Marshmallow Snowmen

 

 We bought an extra bag of marshmallows when we were doing the holiday baking.  One bag made a large extended family of marshmallow snowmen. 

Pine Bough Painting

Yesterday we tried painting with a bough from our Christmas tree.  It ended up a mixed media piece with oil pastels taking center stage.  A great craft to close to the Christmas season!

Three Kings Day Cake

This was my first shot at making an Epiphany cake.  I looked around for traditional recipes, but couldn't decide which traditional option to go with.  The most common recipes I found were for Rosca de Reyes, Dreikönigskuchen, and Galette des Rois.  All of them looked interesting, but were more labor intensive than I could swing with my two helpers.   After a lot of looking I decided the type of cake wasn't really important, it was more the idea of the cake. 

For awhile we have been wanting to make Blueberry Boy Bait, a simple coffee cake that won the1954 Pillsbury Grand Prize National Baking Contest.  This seemed the perfect opportunity.   It was delicious!

The New Year

Welcome 2012!  May you be filled with good things.