Crafts and Fun

Ornaments:
Today we woke up and decided to spend the day celebrating the Advent season by making some Christmas-y things. At 6:15 am we prepared some salt dough (3 cups flour, 1cup salt, 1 cup water, 2 tbsp oil). I had intentions of doing it last night so the boring part would be done with before the kids woke up, but I somehow was distracted by the TV and before I knew it, it was past my bedtime. We started and while I kneaded the dough, I sent the boys on a search through the play dough supplies to find Christmas cookie cutters. We rolled out our dough and cut out about a dozen and a half trees, candy canes, stars, stockings, gingerbread men, and bells. Then we stuck them in the oven at 7 am for 2 1/2 hours at 150 degrees. All the moisture has to be out or else they will break and make people cry...yes, I know this from previous experience.

Florida kids' "Snow":
While we waited for the ornaments to dry/cook/harden we decided to try out some "fluffy stuff" I saw on Pinterest. It's 1 can of shaving cream (I used the 99 cent foam stuff) and 2 boxes of cornstarch. The result is a soft, moldable substance. Judging from the delighted squeals coming from the children it was a (messy) success. I couldn't get photos of the whole ordeal because I was too busy having fun and covered in white powdery mess. This turned out well; I intend to do it again for a rainy day. Did I mention it was a bit messy..?

Craft:
Finally the ornaments were satisfactorily dried out and we brought all of our supplies out to the driveway. Paints, glitter, brushes, water, and many paper towels. I did not help them decorate their ornaments so that they are genuinely the kids' own; they have finished painting their ornaments, sprinkling them with glitter, and mod podging them, and are waiting for them to dry. Now we are hopefully going to bake some giant chocolate chip cookies to bag up in cute reindeer and Santa gift bags. I printed a template last year from the FamilyFun website. They will be our gifts to our sweet neighbors whom care for our kitties when we are gone throughout the year, and a few other friends.
I will post pics later with the finished product. :)

Today may also be a day we are trying to see how many baths kids can take in one day. Oh, it's not even noon yet! ;)