Magnet Fun

I'm not sure if it's a 2 year old thing, or just a quirk that Tot has, but she LOVES stickers. However, she doesn't love sticking them somewhere and leaving them there. She wants to stick, peel, stick elsewhere, peel again, stick again, etc etc etc...
Magnets seem a great solution to this, but there's not always a convenient spot, nor is there a great variety to be had like there are stickers.
Hence the magnetic paper solution!

You can find magnetic paper from Avery products in most any office supply store, I got mine at OfficeMax, but Walmart may carry it too. Once you have the magnetic paper, you can print directly on it from your color printer and simply cut the shapes out and enjoy.
However, Tot got these wonderful Christmas stickers in her Santa goodie bag and I wanted her to be able to play with them, so I tried out our first magnet game by using the stickers on the magnetic paper and then cutting them out.

It worked GREAT! Plus, there's very little waste on the magnetic paper, so I only used a little over half a sheet for this one toy.

She LOVES IT. It is the best of both worlds, and even though the little pieces do stick to the large background piece (also stuck to magnetic paper) I got her a dollar store cookie sheet, because the magnet is sort of weak and sticks much better to the metal.

It is a big hit with her, and she spent about a half hour of quiet concetrated play time right away so that is a hit for me as well!

Next is to figure out convenient and efficient storage for them. I'm thinking maybe just putting them in envelopes for now. Any suggestions?

Now I'm going to do Paper Dolls on magnetic paper so that she can play with and dress them! I can create a dollhouse for the background they could move around in, too. (I can even make her a play family by printing out pictures of us!) This should be great for church if I can find something besides the cookie sheet, a flat metal piece that would be more conveient to carry in my bag.

Christmas cookies

Christmas means baking and baking means cookies!
I sometimes go all out, but knowing that the season is getting on, and not feeling very creative in the kitchen, I was happy to take some shortcuts this year. However, I still wanted some nice festive cookies for giving to neighbors and friends, and to fancy up the table after dinner.

So...here are a couple tips to keep it simple.

By using colored sugars, candies and dough, you can have a nice variety of festive cookies without as much effort as making and decorating with frosting.
I used red and green MnMs in my chocolate chip cookies.
I put green food coloring to color one batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, this made the cookies green (my grinch cookies) and they look and taste good.
Using red and green colored sugar to top the peanut butter cookies gives them a nice holiday touch.
Not wanting the trouble of cutting out shapes, I added bits of peppermint (broken up candy canes) to the sugar cookie dough and simply baked them round. They smell and taste deliciously pepperminty, and have a nice Christmas feel to them.
Add in some colored candies and a bow, and you're all set for the holiday gift giving with only half the work and stress!

Fun With Family and Frugal Gifting

I admit I don't like winter. A BIG part of that is the cold. I hate being cold, and I hate being wet. So, snowball fighting is pretty much never on the fun scale for my want to do activities. However, the whole idea of just chucking things at each other for fun seems good. So I was ecstatic to come across the idea of using something besides SNOW to have a snowball fight.

The BEST suggestion was: ROLLED UP SOCKS. (Plus they're white, so it's almost authentic)
They're soft so no owies that icey snow could inflict, they're light so even misfires won't do too much damage, and they're readily available, especially on laundry day (and they would be nice and warm straight from the dryer mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm). Other suggestions were newspaper, styrofoam, or tinfoil.

I'm really excited to try this out, and I'm sure my family will be amenable, so I'll either update or post again when it really happens.

Topic 2: Most people are trying to frugal up their Christmas this year, and I've found a few ideas that sounded like something really fun to recieve that I wanted to share with everyone searching for that great idea of their own.

In a card, include a sheet of origami paper and directions to make a simple project. The ideas for these can be printed out online through various sites that teach origami, or you can check out a library book and copy a page for your recipients to enjoy. You can make almost anything with origami, so it's simply a matter of finding a subject you like and sending it on!
How cute is this bear: from Origami-club.com which is simple enough for kids and beginners to fold!

Or if you want to be more challenging:  a rose from Origami.com



Speaking of libraries...need a gift for someone who has it all? Why not broaden their horizons with some suggestions of books to read from their local library? It would be more meaningful if you have read and enjoyed the book, but would hold interest for the recipient as well. If you're unsure what their local library carries, you can usually find the catalog online, or through Worldcat.org  If it's a younger person you're sending the gift to, include an application for their own library card (usually found on the library website)

Let's face it, everyone likes getting letters instead of bills and junk. Give yourself the gift of return for only the cost of a stamp. Include in your letter/card and self addressed stamped envelope in order to encourage their reply. All they'll have to do then is respond and drop it in a mailbox, eliminating several things that could delay or stop a return letter, like finding addresses, envelopes or postage. You could even include some stationary with prewritten questions if the person REALLY needed a nudge. Who knows, a friendship going stale could be just waiting to blossom!

Fun for little hands

Christmas is so fun for little ones. What could be MORE stimulating to them than all the bright lights, colorful decor, and oh so playable knick knacks that come out. They really don't understand why all these fun things are not to be touched! I wanted to involve Tot as much as possible so in order to keep me sane and her happy we are having a toddler christmas this year. That means, only knick knacks that can be placed up high are gotten out (many left in storage) and no ornaments on the tree, just lights and garland.
It also means lots of play with soft dolls, christmas coloring books, christmas plastic toys (old stocking stuffers and fun games with christmas theme that are stored away until the season starts). AND it means that she gets to play with her own nativity. She spent hours playing with the magnetic one that her Great Grandma got her already

But she mostly liked turning the figures on their sides and then saying: "He's falling! He's falling!" This decidedly irreverant behavior towards the Savior's birth was grating on my nerves after the 20th time she dragged me over to see all the nativity turned on it's side. So my solution was to buy her a set of figures that she could move around and play with. Perhaps the "falling" would run it's course and she would actually listen to the story.

I found an old wooden hand carved set that used to be sold in the Lillian Vernon catalog at a second hand store and purchased it. We got all the nativity pieces, and some wooden blocks were thrown in as well.
She LOVES them, and has been moving them all around and playing with them. This time if they fall over she gets upset and cries instead of laughing and showing me. She is so happy to have one of her own that she can handle. She still isn't that interested in the story, but that will come with time and repetition. The important thing is that she is associating fun and Christmas and gets to have lots of fun with her nativity while Mommy's stays safe.

Christmas tree chain

Another idea stolen from Pinterest was this simple Christmas countdown.
I knew that this would be simple enough for Tot to try and super simple and cheap so we did it!

She was so pleased with it that she carried it around until one of the strips tore in half. We simply glued it back together, but she decided to go ahead and leave it hanging up from then on (at least until naptime, who knows what fate awaits it next!)

You simply need paper of differing colors (or not!) We used construction paper, because I had it on hand. I cut 1"strips from one and a half sheets of green (11 1/2 X 8 1/2 regular letter size) simply lengthwise across the paper. If you used shorter strips, you would have a smaller tree, longer the larger the tree.

We needed 1Yellow 6Red and 18Green for this project. (A perfect 25 to count down to Christmas).
I decided that since we already had ample advent calendars that we would simply put it all together at once (although you could start with it together and take it apart as well).

Tot enjoyed gluing even though she always wanted to shut it instead of opening it. However, my couch and carpet loved that. Yes, we are gluing on top of a library book instead of at our table. Never fear, we were neat enough to NOT glue on the book, however the laminated cover would have been simple to wipe off should any glue have overflowed onto it. Nevertheless, I do not recommend crafting on books, especially ones that aren't yours.

After gluing, I put them in place and then she squeezed it together to hold until the glue stayed tacky enough to hold it. This was her favorite part.

She had lots of fun. I let her make the circles, but she didn't quite grasp that she had to turn the paper and kept making a bunch of teardrops instead. But, I simply quietly and discreetly fixed them when she was busy with the next piece. Plenty of time for that later, the important part here was to encourage her to have fun, follow simple directions, and to MAKE something!