Kids Crafts | Getting Crafty for Valentine's Day

Girls wanted to make homemade valentines this year so after quick search on the internet - we came up with two great ones.  Felt Fortune Cookies for Zoe's friends and Clothespin Love Bugs for Lila.  

 

 

Felt Fortune Cookies

• Materials needed
• Felt sheets
• Hot glue gun
• Paper for fortune

• Find something circular about 4 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter
• Trace your circle onto some felt (we used felt sheets)
• Cut the circles out
• Add in your fortune - have the fortune longer so it sticks out on the sides
• Using a hot glue gun, glue center of the tops together.  Leave about an inch of each edge open
• Then bend it in half - the two edges touching and voila, felt fortune cookie

Once all the fortune cookies were made, we put the felt cookie and some chocolate kisses into mini take out boxes.

Caterpillar Love Bug

• Materials needed
• pom poms
• googly eyes
• pipe cleaners
• wooden clothes pin
• hot glue
• Glue a strip of glue on the back of clothes pin, leaving about 1/2 inch free on the end
• Place 4 pom poms onto the strip of glue
• Place some glue on the back of the googly eyes and stick them onto the first pom pom
• Cut 1/2 strips of pipe cleaner, bend in half and glue them on top of the first pom pom 
• Write your valentines note onto a notecard
• Clip the caterpillar onto the card and you're done

Both were pretty easy to make and did not take up too much time.  The girls loved making them and they were a hit with their class.

Family Traditions | Holiday Baking

I can't believe Christmas is just twelve days away!!  I just had a mild panic attack as I typed those words : )   It's been slightly hectic and crazy at work but I am trying to carve out time to do things with the girls.  One of the activities on our Advent Calendar was to Bake a Holiday Treat and the holiday treat we decided on was the Peppermint Pretzel Marshmallow Fudge from Joy the Baker.

The girls love peppermint, marshmallows, and chocolate.  Having all of it in one treat was a dream come true for them.  They had a blast crushing the pretzels and the peppermint candy and spreading all the treats in the pan.  I'm sure a bunch of it was gobbled when I wasn't looking.

peppermint, marshmallows, pretzels

then the chocolate mixture poured over it all

finishing touch - add more pretzels, marshmallows and peppermint

They had so much fun making this.  I think the hard part is always the wait for it to cool and set.  Since we made it at night, I just popped it into the fridge to set overnight.  Of course, the next morning, the first questions out of their mouths was "is it ready?" and "can we have one for a treat for lunch?" : )

What are your favorite holiday baking recipes?  Do you have one that your family makes every year or do you try to find a new family fave each time?

Family Fun | Creative Holiday Wraps

Pom Pom Presents:  Foxs Lane

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, it's time to get wrapping.  I am always on the lookout for different yet easy ways to give our wrapping a special touch.  Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing ...

Reindeer Prints from Splash of Something

The House That Lars Built

I love using simple brown craft paper as the base and then getting creative from there.  Click on the links for detailed instructions.  Check out ZoLi Wraps  our Pinterest board for even more ideas.