Snowman Soup or Snowman Poop!

Hi all we wanted to share two holiday treats that the kids and I made for friends, family, kindergarten classmates, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) friends, our favorite Post Office Staff Ladies and Nugget Grocery staff... well you get the idea.  I help co-coordinate crafts for my churches MOPS group and for our last week for fall session, we made the Snowman Soup bags.  They were quick to create and the moms seemed to enjoy them.  And the Snowman Poop, well that was a little something that we discovered on the Internet.  They made me laugh and who doesn't need a little more laughter in their lives, so I had to make them too.  (You can also make Reindeer Poop with raisins, Leprechaun Poop with green jellybeans and well I am sure the ideas are plenty).  The fun part starts with making these little guys with your kids.  The hard part is keeping them from eating them all.  The best part is watching the gift receivers face when you've handed them the Snowman Poop!  They are inexpensive to make, fun, quick to assemble (the labels take the longest time and make sure you check your spelling before you print them, cut them out and corner round them.... ugh!  I misspelled Cane... I wrote stir it with a can!  OOPS!) and great to give.  Have fun and Merry "Christ"mas everyone!  

Snowman Soup Assembly Recipe

Step 1: Measure 3Tbls. Chocolate Mix into small plastic bag and close with twisty tie (Small and larger bags and ribbon were bought at Joannes Fabric)

Step 2: Insert into large bag: Chocolate Mix, 5 marshmallows, 2 kisses, 1 candy cane

Step 3: Tie with ribbon and attach Snowman Soup Recipe Tag (Our Tags were made on a Windows Doc. and Clip Art, then we cut card stock with paper trimmer and rounded corners, whole punch and tied with holiday ribbon and raffia). 

Step 4: Keep for yourself or give to someone special. Merry Christmas and enjoy!

Snowman Poop

Just plain mini-marshmallows in a bag!

Our family also made this:

It is a metal star cookie cutter places in an organza bag and inside is a card with a Christmas note wishing a Merry Christmas, along with the recipe for our favorite homemade play dough and the idea of making the play dough with your kids and while it cools, cuddling together and reading the Christmas Story about Jesus' birth.  Taking time to talk with your children about what Christmas is really all about and why we celebrate it.  And telling them about the Wise Men and how they followed the Star to Bethlehem to meet the King, our Savior, Baby Jesus.  And that we too can choose to follow Jesus.  Then after your done sharing the story, go back into the kitchen and cut out stars with the star cookie cutter from yellow colored play dough.  It is a great preschool and school age activity to focus on Jesus this Christmas season. 

Here's our recipe and what our cards said:  the recipe was passed along several years ago by a friend from church(Thank you Staci for sharing this awesome recipe with us, we miss Puggles, Avery still talks about it!).  Best recipe ever! And feel free to use my wording.  

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas Season take some time to slow down and spend time with your kiddos.

Make some of this play dough and color it yellow. While the play dough cools from cooking, cuddle up

with your kiddos and read the Christmas Story to them. Talk to them about how

the Wise Men followed the Star to Bethlehem to baby Jesus and how we too can choose to

follow. Then go back to the kitchen and have fun with your star cookie cutter, cutting out

yellow play dough stars. We love each of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Love Heather, Aren, Avery and Ben

(we tied on alphabet ornaments for their 1st names)

Cooked Play dough
3 Cups of Flour
½ Cup Salt
2 Tbsp. Cream of Tarter (we buy ours in bulk at Winco)
3 Cups Water
6 Tbsp. Salad Oil
Food Coloring(I like to use Wilton's Icing Color concentrated paste-sold at Michael's or Joannes in cake supplies)

First add dry ingredients to a large stew pot.  Then add wet ingredients.  Stir and heat on medium until mixture becomes stiff and pliable and begins to come away from the sides of the pot. Remove from pot and cool until workable then knead until smooth in texture and color.
Store in a plastic Ziploc. *** It seems like you are stirring forever, then all of a sudden it
comes together into play dough consistency very quickly.  Once you are stirring, be careful not to leave the pot or it will burn!! Enjoy!
Here's some more holiday pictures of my family. 

 Each holiday or season of the year, we keep a basket of books in our kitchen with the theme of the holiday or season that we are in.  We love cuddling on the couch and reading them.  It seems I have passed my book addiction on to not only Avery, but Ben too!  It is a rare moment he is seen hands-free of a book.  I'm a proud momma! 

 While our home smells nice from the live Christmas Tree, I like to burn scented oils from Bath & Body Works 

Sadly this year our annual trip to Snowy Peaks Christmas Tree Farm was cancelled due to the weather, so we were forced to visit a tree lot at a local nursery.  While the experience was not the same... we must say it was much more simple and fast! 

 The trees were all so beautiful and perfectly shaped, so it wasn't hard to pick one out quickly. 

Ben decorating/playing with his box of ornaments.

Our little Avery Mae posing in front of the tree.

Every year we get together with our old playgroup friends and do a book exchange with the kids.  Here are all the kiddos! Ben was not having it! 

Here are all the mommas!   

 And the papas!

Oh and we do a cookie exchange.  Our family made and exchanged Gingerbread Whoopie Pies! 

Then I made boxes for my neighbors with all my exchanged cookies!  It is the way to go! 

Then the kids helped me pass them out.  And shake them up!  Ugh!



Creative Kiddo Cookin' in the Kitchen

What do you do when it is cold and gloomy outside and your kids are climbing the walls and swinging from the curtains to the chandeliers? Create something in the kitchen! When Avery gets her creative juices flowing there is no stopping that girl! She is quite the little chef and would single-handedly cut up everything in my kitchen if I let her. Her and her cute little "knife". (It's a lime green, plastic butter knife). She orders me around the kitchen, as the "Head Chef" requesting ingredients. Some that I cringe at the near future prospect of taste testing. But she is in 7th heaven! She is quite the sweetheart while cooking in the kitchen with me. She repeatedly tells me "your the best mommy ever" and how much she loves me...smacking her lips for another kiss. What can a momma not love about that!? Deal with the mess or being slathered with praise and love from your darling preschooler. Either way....it's mostly a wonderful moment we share together. Not that there are not moments of chaos and huge messes. But I have learned boundaries: the when’s, how, and what’s of cooking with her. The biggest one....don't cook when your tired. As I want it to be an enjoyable moment, where we are building joyful memories, not a moment of impatience and frustration. So under the right circumstances, we usually end up with a "tasty" treat to serve daddy when he gets home from work (LOL), a creative activity to erase away the boredom blues and some fun memories. And usually the only real big mess we end up with is....an adorable 15 month old terrorizing my kitchen cabinets...cause you know...he wants to cook too! Today we actually made something I think daddy might enjoy. Mommy made the stuffed mushrooms and Avery made mushroom bowls (extremely tiny pieces of mushrooms, with little pats of butter, topped with a garlic butter breadcrumb mixture and parmesan cheese). Yummo!

Avery's "Concoction"...it was actually quite tasty!

BAKED STUFFED MUSHROOMS

(I don't drink much...so I left out the Vermouth due to not having any and used fresh garlic instead of garlic powder).  This is simple and a tasty little appetizer! 

1 stick butter
1 small onion, minced
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup sweet Vermouth
1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1 lb. mushrooms (remove stems and finely chop)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano

Melt butter in skillet. Cook onion until translucent. Add chopped stems. Stir in bread crumbs, seasonings, and cheese. Brown lightly. Add sweet Vermouth last. Toss lightly to combine well. Stuff mushroom caps with mixture. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Resource: Cooks.com

I call her my "little chef". And she giggles with great pride and says, "Like Ratatouille!"

Of course Ben had his own "recipe" working too... stinky boy!