Halloween Craft and Recipe Ideas

Halloween is a wonderful time to make crafts and to cook with your children.

Here are a few links to some of my favorite holiday crafts and recipes!

Grocery Bag Pumpkins

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Pasta Skeleton

Monster Light Jug

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Family Fun

A great resource for crafts, recipes, and other fun family stuff!

Fall is Finally Here!

Autumn is my favorite season. In honor of this beautiful Autumn weekend I made caramel apples! Yum!

Here is a How-to video that I found on Youtube so you can make some at home!

Enjoy!

Creepy Crawly :D

This week's theme at Kids-R-Kids has to do with things that are Creepy Crawly!

So check out these activities that you can do at home!

Wiggle Worm Craft.

You can find the directions here!

You can find more Creepy Crawly Crafts here

and here

Bug Snacks

Make snack time extra fun and tasting with creepy, crawly snacks. For this tasty sensory activity you can make "bugs on a log" with a celery stick, peanut butter and raisins. Make some spider cookies with oreo cookies, black licorice for the legs, and red hots for the eyes. Use a bit of frosting to hold the eyes and legs in place. You can even make a caterpillar with slices of bananas, peanut butter, small pretzel sticks and raisins. Simply spread peanut butter on the banana slices and squish together to form the body. Place the pretzel sticks to create legs and plop on the raisins for the eyes.

Dirt Sundae

Ingredients

Oreo Cookies

Instant Chocolate Pudding

Milk

Gummy Worm Candy

Directions

1. We poured the package of chocolate pudding into a gallon size ziploc bag

2. We poured in milk according to the pudding package directions

3. We let the kids shake the bag for a few minutes

4. We placed the oreo cookies in another gallon size ziploc bag.

5. We let the kids crush the cookies using a small hammer. (This was a lot of fun)

6. We poured the pudding into bowls and topped the pudding with the crushed oreo cookies and gummy worms!

Just a little funny and a Great Recipe to make with your kids!

Traveling between each Kids-R-Kids center is so much fun! One day at the Mason center, a little boy asked me why I was not looking at the words when I read the book. I told him that I had memoriezed the book and that I know all the words. He then asked me if I really knew all the words and was I just making them up! Too cute!!!!

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

A Cake to Celebrate Colors!

This weeks theme is Colors! So here is a recipe to make a COLORFUL cake! This was my favorite cake when I was little!

When you think of a Jello cake recipe, there’s only one cake that is so popular that it immediately pops into your head: the classic Jello poke cake. This cake is famous for being extremely flexible in its use of gelatin flavors. When it’s sliced into, you’ll see the colorful stripes inside. Whatever flavor you use it’s sure to be a hit.

1 package white or yellow cake mix (for two layers)

1 small package flavored gelatin, any flavor

4 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 cup water (for the cake mix)

1 (12 oz.) container Cool Whip1 cup water (for gelatin)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare cake, according to package directions, using eggs, oil and water.

Bake cake in a 13x9-inch pan for 40 to 45 minutes.

Let cake cool in pan for at least 15 minutes.
Poke holes across the entire surface of cake with a fork.

Dissolve the gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water.

Pour the warm gelatin slowly over the surface of the cake (gelatin will soak into the cake).

Place cake in the refrigerator and chill for about 4 hours.
Spread whipped topping on top of cake before serving.

Refrigerate leftover cake.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

I hope all of you are enjoying the last few weeks of Summer! Here is an excellent book to share and a recipe for yummy chocolate chip cookies!!

See you soon!

Auntie Em

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Chocolate chip cookies represent half of the cookies baked in American homes each year. This chocolate chip cookie recipe will produce a treat that is sure to please everyone in your house!
For some additional tips on baking cookies, see our article on tips for baking cookies.
Ingredients
• 3/4 cup sugar•

3/4 cup packed brown sugar•

1 cup butter•

1 large egg•

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda•

1/2 teaspoon salt•

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips•

if desired, 1 cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix sugar, brown sugar, butter and egg in a large bowl by hand. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. The dough will be very stiff. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown. The centers will be soft. Let cool for one minute then remove from cookie sheet and place on wire rack to finish cooling

Vacation,Books, and Crafts!!!

Mr. Wiggins and myself have been very busy that past month. We had a wonderful extended vacation in Florida. We really enjoyed ourselves and got plenty of reading done on the beach!!! We have some really wonderful books to share with you in the upcoming weeks!!

Enjoy a Great Snack while reading "THE TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS

by John Scieszka

Pigs in a Blanket

You will each need a biscuit from a can of biscuits and one hot dog. Take the biscuit and flatten it with your hands. Try to make it into a rectangle so that it is bigger than your hot dog. After it is big enough, wrap your hot dog in the biscuit.
Place the pig in the blanket on a baking sheet. Carefully put the sheet into the oven. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Using the hot pads, take the sheet out of the oven. Carefully, using a spatula, remove the pig in the blanket and when it has cooled a little, eat your pig.

Paper Bag Hats
Last week we read "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Paper bags, standard grocery size or slightly smaller
Tape (double-sided and clear)
Pom-poms, googly eyes, feathers, pipe cleaners, and other craft supplies
Construction paper
Scissors
Hole punch
Green curling ribbon
Time needed: About 1 to 2 Hours
1. Help each child gently roll down the top of a bag until it reaches the hat size she wants to wear. Have her try it on for size, pinch the brim to adjust the fit, then tape it in place.

2. Now set out craft materials for decorating the hats. Kids can make them as simple or as elaborate as they like using double-sided tape to attach pom-poms, googly eyes, and feathers.

3. For antennae, coil a pipe cleaner around a pencil, then tape on a large pom-pom. Poke the end of the pipe cleaner through the hat and secure it on the inside with tape.

4. Cut a flower shape out of construction paper. Punch 2 holes in its center and thread green curling ribbon through the holes. Use scissors to curl the ribbon, then stick the flower to the hat with double-sided tape.

MR.WIGGIN'S HONEY BEE COOKIES

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. honey

1 egg

1 1/2 c. Gold Medal all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat butter, brown sugar, honey and egg in a medium bowl on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly, until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.
3. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake until set and light brown around edges (surfaces of cookies will appear shiny), 7 to 9 minutes. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then remove from cookie sheet with metal spatula onto a wire rack. Makes 36 cookies.