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Cracker Crafts

This is a shot of our kiddos carefully putting out Santa’s cookies – lest anyone be left out they are each holding the plate that holds one cookie each child selected as the perfect cookie for Santa. Love.

This Christmas Eve was the first time in a long time that I got to host the family dinner (finally have enough space).  I thought I’d get the kids in on the action by making our own Christmas crackers.  We used the left over paper tubes from Matt’s birthday party arm cuffs and added little treasures we’d picked up on Main street at Urban Source including tiny horses, parachute men, mini slinkis, and small airplanes.  The girls were in charge of the tape and of making a picture for each cracker.  Matt helped me roll them in tissue, add the treats and tie the ends.  It was super fun, fast, and a great addition to our table games on Christmas eve.  In the last photo below you can see our mini-Santa Kate guarding the finished crackers non-nonchalantly while she played – this went on for a whole day until we set the table 😉

Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Catch up

It’s that time of year.  It’s magical.  Especially with three kids who search diligently for “snow red” (our elf) each morning, who chant “santa santa santa” every time they see him on a show, in a decoration, or even just a look alike on the street, and who do not yet know to troll the newspaper for ads to demand gifts from or pull our tired arms for one more look at a doll or dino they really want.  This is not to say our kids our saints – the number of times I hear “uppy!” or “no way!” in a day is often inversely proportional to the number of veggies eaten at a meal, and the screaming matches over staked territory at the kitchen island while we cook dinner or over crayons as they create masterpieces is enough to drive anyone nuts momentarily… but I am grateful that -so far- our kids are more excited to see what our faces look like when they wrap up pretend gifts in blankets and tea towels then to rip the paper off the presents that already wait under the tree.

One of my very favorite moments so far was the preschool play Matthew was just in – he was the angel Gabriel – and he melted my heart.

We made melted snowmen cookies for treats for all the kids after the play (super easy – recipe below)

We also had our Christmas party again this year, planned more last minute than ever before because of crazy work schedules and time flying.  All of this meant no special invites to mark the date just after Halloween, and through email misses, crossed wires and prior plans we missed some dear friends at the party, but it was still a blast to pull together and a surprisingly stress free evening with 19 adults and 14 kids – the oldest of which was 5.  One year in the not too distant future we’ll revert back to actual evening parties with martinis and taxi cards waiting in the early morning – but for now the 5pm start time remains – and the finger foods included some less delicate options like homemade pizza in many varieties, snowmen cups with popcorn treats, fancy cheeses but also fishy crackers in reindeer bags, and 8 different Christmas desserts that little fingers were all too eager to grab instead of the healthier fruit salsa and cinnamon crisp offerings (recipe below).  The bar area was replaced by a craft station to make your own snowman, and the media room was turned into a viewing party for ‘late night’ (8pm) Christmas movies for kids.

A blog I particularly love – Cate’s creative space – shared an awesome idea for reindeer food which I happily made my own and completed with a special note from Mrs Claus about the magic food which was to go home with each child to be spread on the lawn on Christmas eve for the flying reindeer.

I hope you’re starting to feel the magic of Christmas in your home.  I’m most excited for the two weeks that lies ahead: from Christmas meals with family to Christmas day in our own cozy home, hearing the reindeer on the roof and seeing what santa brought in the morning, to the week long rest afterwards doing lots of baking, local catching up, and hanging out with our little family – never feels like we get enough time to just hang out – I’m so glad this year we’ve carved the time to just be together, enjoying the crazy of our little miracle kids.

Promised Recipes:

Melted Snowmen Cookies:

• bake sugar cookies in round circles – your usual recipe
• make fondant icing (4 egg whites whipped to foamy, add 2 cups of icing sugar or more, ad 1 tsp vanilla)
• spread icing on cooled cookies
• melt 12 large marshmellows for 10-15 seconds in the microwave – then squish each one on a cookie so it ‘melts’ slightly into the icing
• with edible beads or icing make a snowman face, add scarf, hat if you like – voila! melted snowmen

fruit salsa and cinnamon crisps (the sort of healthy kid snack for parties):

• preheat oven to 250
• cut up two tortillas into small wedges
• melt 3 TBSP of butter completely
• mix 5 TBSP of sugar with 2 tsp cinnamon
• spread butter on tortillas lightly – both sides and sprinkle sugar mixed over both sides
• cook for 5 min then flip for 3 more min and let cool on a rack
• meanwhile cut up strawberries, kiwi, raspberries and apples into small pieces and place in a bowl for ‘dipping’ the crisps into

Our kid the Super Hero

It is no secret that this is my favorite time of year.  This year, I’ve found that it’s my favorite time not just because of Christmas and all the festive fun that the season brings but also because of our son Matty’s birthday.  Next post I’ll focus on the Christmas fun – but this one it’s all Superman, my hero.  I’ve been a little worried the last 3 birthdays that he would feel a little pre-empted by the Christmas magic going up on (or even before) his big day.  He’s assured me otherwise, and in fact loves decorating on his bday  This year he also loved his superman themed birthday party.  I’ve included pics of it below – got lots of inspiration from the creative incredibles at pinterest, mom blogs and some awesome craft sites – but the biggest ideas came from Matthew and watching him play superman.

We decided to have Matt’s whole preschool over (20 4 year olds and a few younger siblings).  This was our first party in our new house (moved in late August).  I’ve never (ever) been stressed about a party working out before.  But for this one I stressed.  How would it work to have 20 4-year olds that I barely know? How to keep them entertained? What food will the majority of them like and eat? How to keep our house in one piece? How to impress and entertain the moms – most of which I’d never met?  …and for me – I always want people to chat afterwards about a small detail, food, or event that surprised them.. in my opinion that’s the real secret to a great party – the little things that make people smile hours or days later…

Here’s what we did (and I say “we” because I had huge help from my amazing husband and mother in law in art construction and design and cape making, from my mom in day of hosting and from our wonderful nannies in super hero activities):

We took apart some of our moving boxes that the kids have loved playing with – and painted the city on them – then cut them out in city scape shapes.  We painted some black with lights in the buildings for the entry ways and some all red and all blue – the colours of the party – for the activity rooms:

Then we made a telephone booth out of one of the hanging boxes (gratuitous photo of super dad included) :

And made a photo booth (got this idea from pinterest!) using a simple blue sheet, white clouds that I cut from felt and some of the buildings we made:

I planned to order pizza for the lunch time party and I ordered cupcakes and cookies from a local baker the cake and the giraffe  – so that meant I could focus on healthy snacks for the kids, cheeses, veggies and homemade cookies for the adults and a few treats like home made lolipops (super easy – recipe below) and popcorn cones wrapped in superman comic pages:

Finally we planned to make super hero cuffs and masks with the kids as a craft activity when they came in and then had a super hero challenge for them of aim (throwing bean bags through a homemade target with “BAM!” “POW!” and “BONK!” on it) speed (crawling through a kids tunnel) and strength (smashing through Styrofoam blocks with bare hands – see aftermath below).  Everyone got a personalized super hero pin when they completed the feat, and went home with a super-hero in a box kit that we made … all in all a super fun day!

Lollipops:

place jolly ranchers in sets of two on parchment paper on a pan with space around each set for spreading – you can fit about 8 sets per pan

cook at 250 degrees for 5 min

stick sticks in the lollipop and turn them to ensure candy coats all side of the stick

wait for them to cool – voila!