With the new year fast approaching I thought it would be fun to showcase your favorite stART project from 2010!
The rules are simple, just link up your favorite stART project from 2010, then have fun checking out everyone else's.
Here are a few that I remember and enjoyed from this year. Believe me picking just a handful was not an easy task. I truly enjoy seeing all of the wonderful books and projects that are shared each week and can not wait to see what 2011 brings!
May you have the gift of faith,
the blessing of hope
and the peace of His love
at Christmas and always.
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
…almost good enough to eat!
This is the second year that we participated in the Kids Craft Weekly Christmas Card Swap. Emily enjoyed it so much last year I couldn’t wait for this years. And while I was flipping through the latest issue of our Family Fun Magazine (December/January 2011) I saw these adorable gingerbread house cards and knew they were the perfect cards for Emily to make for the swap.
I printed the template from the Family Fun Website. I traced the template onto brown construction paper and cut them out.
She also used a name badge label cut in half for the door and foam Christmas Stickers (gingerbread men, bows, and candy canes) for decorations inside the card too. I printed a message on paper and cut it out with a decorative edge scissor to glue on the inside.
This week we continued with the Christmas Theme for Muffin Tin Monday. Both Emily and Juliette were able to enjoy some Christmas shaped Blue Berry Pancakes with Fruit and Syrup for Breakfast.
Juliette had a Christmas Tree Pancake. She dipped the whole thing into the syrup let it soak in and then ate it all up.
We were fortunate enough to participate in A Night in Bethlehem a truly amazing Christmas event that was held at a local church. Our family was able to experience Bethlehem. I was amazed at how much of an impression this made on Emily. She talked about it for days telling everyone that she went to Bethlehem and saw Baby Jesus!
When we entered we told the census takers who we were, where we came from, how we travelled to Bethlehem (we did by donkey!) and how many camels and donkeys we owned.
Our names were written on scrolls with quills.
Emily helped make rope.
Emily and Juliette had sandals made.
They ground spices…
…and made mosaics.
There were tax collectors, beggars and even a real donkey.
You can find out more about this program and how you could create A Night in Bethlehem at your church by visiting their website
**I was not compensated by this company in any way, I just wanted to share this amazing outreach program with others so they could experience the same thing that we did!
Emily and I had the opportunity to test out Time4Learning an online home education program and we both really enjoyed using it.
Emily loves using Daddy’s laptop to play games (even though that does not really happen that often) and I always try to make sure that the time she does spend at the computer is useful as well as fun. This program was just that.
We used the preschool level and the lessons were perfect for us. The lessons were broken into themes, such as Alphabet, colors, shapes, Weather, Space, on the farm and many more. I liked how each theme began with a story or show which introduced the major concepts. After, that the activities built on the concepts that were introduced.
Emily liked doing the memory games and coloring activities. I was impressed with how well she worked with the laptop mouse and how simple the site was for her to find her way around. However some of the activities did require her to hold down the mouse button and move the mouse which was difficult for her to do.
Overall we enjoyed the time we spent exploring Time4Learning together.
Disclosure: I was provided with a 1 month Time4Learning membership at no cost in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.
Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!
Check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.
This week we have been enjoying The Gingerbread Man, retold by Jim Aylesworth. After the first reading Emily had many of the parts memorized and chants them along with us as we read it. On the back cover is a recipe for Gingerbread Men so of course we had to give them a try. When I told Emily that we could make our own she was so excited and then she looked at me a little worried and said “But Mommy, I hope ours does not run away” and then “I know we can lock the door so it can’t get out!” So that is just what we did.
Emily helped me make the Gingerbread Dough. She liked sifting the dry ingredients even though she needed my help.
We all rolled the dough and cut out the gingerbread men. We were very excited to have Aunt Christina help us too!
Finally we got to decorate them! We used all different yummy sweets, like sprinkles, M&M’s, good and plenty, gumdrops, snowcaps and raisins.
Emily’s Gingerbread Man
He has a blue good and plenty hat, two snow cap eyes, an M&M nose and a good and plenty mouth. His buttons are made of a green and red M&M and a green gumdrop.
Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!
Check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.
To go along with this book we decorated our own paper trees. Even Juliette got in on the fun with the help of Daddy!
I drew a Christmas Tree shape on a piece of paper then gave Emily and Juliette oil pastels, Do-a-Dot Markers, Glitter Glue' target=_blank>glitter glue, sequins and pom-poms to decorate with. 
These easy to prepare decadent treats are like nothing you have ever tasted before and are sure to be the hit of any holiday party!
Emily helped me make these for a Christmas Party this past weekend.
All you need is:
A bag of Oreo Sandwich Cookies, a package of cream cheese, semi-sweet chocolate chips and some shortening.
First, crush the Oreo Cookies. This is the perfect job for your child, I brought out our play hammers and let Emily bang away. My pampered chef chopper also did a great job and really quickly too!
In a large bowl blend the crushed Oreo Cookies and softened cream cheese until well combined.
Form into balls and chill for about an hour. Finally cover in melted chocolate and wait for it to harden.
Since this is a no bake, no egg recipe your helpers can help you clean the beaters…and believe me they will enjoy that!!
Oreo Balls
Mix cream cheese with electric mixer until fluffy. Add the crushed Oreos and beat on high until well mixed. Then roll Oreo cookie mix into one inch Oreo Balls. Chill for about 1 hour or until firm.
Next, melt the chocolate chips and shortening with a double boiler or in the microwave.
Dip the Oreo balls completely into the melted chocolate. I use two spoons to roll them around the scoop them out. Put on wax paper (do not skip the wax paper!! They will stick to the baking sheet…I know from experience). After the Oreo balls harden, keep them in the refrigerator.
For festive holiday treats melt colored white chocolate and drizzle over the tops. I put it in a Ziploc baggie and snip a small hole in the corner.
Makes about 3 or 4 dozen Oreo Balls, depending on the size
This weeks theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Christmas and I figured that we would focus on Christmas Trees since this weekend we cut down our Christmas Tree and I also had a really great silicone muffin tin that I wanted to use.
Top Row: Clementine Segments and Oreo Ball
Middle Row: Yogurt with Christmas Tree Sprinkles and more Clementine Segments
Bottom Row: Penne Pasta with Butter and Cheese
Emily was so excited to eat lunch in our new Muffin Tins, she especially enjoyed the Oreo Ball and sprinkles on her yogurt!
Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!
Check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.
This week I took our large collection of Christmas books out and we have been enjoying reading them together. Both Emily and Juliette liked lifting the flaps in Peek-a-Boo Christmas!, by Marie Torres Cimarusti. This is the same author as Peek-a-Moo! one of our favorite story time lift the flap books. In this fun Christmas book you have to guess which Christmas character is hiding behind each flap. At the end Emily asked where the angle was. I said there was not one in this book but we could make our own Peek-a-boo Angel. So that is what we did for our project.
Emily said she wanted a pink Angel so I cut one large triangle and 2 smaller ones out of pink construction paper for the body and 2 arms. Then I cut a large circle and 2 smaller ones out of white for the head and hands and finally a yellow oval for the halo.
Emily glued the Angel together leaving the ends of the arms un-glued.
She added a face with a marker. When she was all finished she decided that her Angel needed legs too.
She folded the arms up over the face…
… to play Peek-a-Boo with her Angel.
Emily’s Peek-a-Boo Angel
There was no theme this week for Muffin Tin Monday so we finished up some leftovers. 
Emily enjoyed the Butternut Squash soup we made for Thanksgiving.
Bottom Row: Artichoke dip on crackers and Butternut Squash soup
Butternut Squash Soup
In a large pot over medium high heat, simmer all ingredients except the cream, covered for 45 minutes. Puree in a blender or food processor, 2 cups at a time. Return puree to pot. Stir in cream and heat to just below boiling.
You can make ahead and freeze without adding cream.
Emily and I baking Pumpkin Gobs, while Butternut Squash Soup simmers on the stove!!
I LOVE Caramel popcorn and decided to try making it for the first time with Emily. This is also the first time that Emily has had popcorn so she was really excited to help make it and enjoyed trying it. She liked watching it pop, but said the plain popcorn was to dry. Caramel coated popcorn on the other hand was delicious and she probably would have eaten it all if we let her!
I changed the recipe a little so here is how we made ours:
Caramel Popcorn
First, I preheated the oven to 250 degrees. Then we made the popcorn.
I turned it on and Juliette and Daddy came in to watch!
Next, Emily and I made the caramel. First we melted 1/4 of a cup of butter (half a stick) in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Then we stirred in 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of corn syrup and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. We brought it to a boil, stirring constantly.
Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Emily liked this part because it got all bubbly. I always get nervous that I am going to burn it so I can’t wait for this part to be over!
Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 of a teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
Finally, place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.
Enjoy!!
We really enjoyed this popcorn, what is your favorite way to eat fresh popped popcorn?
