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3 Springtime Activities to Enjoy With Your Kids

3/26/2018

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When kids are on Spring Break, it is nice to have some activities handy to keep them engaged in life. Since our Spring Break was this last week, I was ready and armed with simple activities for my grandchildren to do together. They were thrilled! While these all have an Easter flair to them, I think that bunnies and cupcake baskets can actually be enjoyed all Spring, even after the Easter holiday.

Bunnies on a Nest Cookies

This is one of those ideas that evolved because of 3 things. First, I had some leftover almond bark in my double boiler. Then, I went to the store and found 2 things, store brand peanut butter sandwich cookies, (much cheaper than the name brand), and Annie's Organic Friends, which are little rabbit shaped grahams, on sale right now on Target. Finally, all I needed were some little jelly beans to make a bunny sitting on a nest. I thought of this idea before all of the Easter candy was available, so we used Mike & Ikes. I just dipped half of the peanut butter cookie in the almond bark, stuck on the jelly beans and bunny before it hardened. The kids loved them! They enjoyed helping to stick on the jelly beans and bunnies.

Ding Dong Baskets

When I found these White Ding Dongs, I thought, these will make cute baskets! So my grandkids and I picked up some coconut for the grass and Twizzlers for the handles and Robin's Eggs for the basket filling. Here is how we did it:

Bunny Kisses

These may look like regular washcloth bunnies to you, but they have a little something extra.

There is a little treat in the back! I thought that these would be a great little gift from the kids to their friends, or if you are the grandmother to nearly 10 grandchildren like I am, this is a fun way to give them each a little something without breaking the bank! And, they are quick and easy to make. I found all of my supplies at Dollar Tree!

These microfiber washcloths are currently on back order online, but I found these two colors in my store.

This is rafia ribbon that comes in 30 foot rolls.

I also used colorful wiggly eyes (here is a link to black ones), and little plastic containers.

I can't find these on the website, but they are in our Dollar Tree Store.

Here is how we put them together:

Lay the washcloths on the diagonal, and roll them up into a snake starting at one point.

It will look like this.

Fold the washcloth in half.

Take the two points and fold them back towards the fold...

In half like this.

Wrap a rubber band around the middle, forming a face and ears.

In the back, you will be left with an opening to slip the little snack container in.

I used little butterfly stickers on the lid of the container to look like a butterfly landed on the rabbits back. Dollar Tree has a wide assortment of stickers to choose from.

Tie the rafia ribbon around the rubber band to hide it. Glue eyes on the face.

I think that they came out so cute!

The perfect little treat. You could also use a Hershey Kiss. That is why I called these Bunny Kisses!

I love making memories with my grandchildren. We just had a scare in our family where we could have lost one of my sweet granddaughters. It has brought home to me very clearly how precious every moment with these sweet kids are. I hope that we can capitalize on these moments and have quality time together as often as possible.

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Friday Faves #57: Kids and Rainy Days

3/23/2018

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Living in the desert, we cherish every rainy day! We have been happy to get some rain lately in our area. Alicia lives in the Bay Area in California, so she often gets a lot of rain. The trouble with rainy days, when you have children, is figuring out how to keep them entertained during the storm and through the muddy times afterwards. Today's Friday Faves is featuring our favorite ways to have fun with kids during rainy days.

I can't believe that this summer downpour happened 6 years ago! 3 of my grandkids had so much fun playing in that rain.

Because Alicia faces more rainy days than we do here in Phoenix, she likes to find ways to still allow her son to play outside without always being soaked to the skin, (like the kids were above) and also to play outside after the rain stops without getting muddy! She has found a rain suit for him to wear that she absolutely loves.

She loves this Tuffo Unisex Muddy Buddy Coverall that makes puddle jumping all kinds of fun! It has a generous fit so you can put it over the child's normal clothing and it comes with a handy little bag to store it in. In this suit, Adriancito can go out right after a rainstorm and stay perfectly dry. He can even go down the slide and the little puddle at the bottom doesn't phase him.

It also comes in camo, pInk, red and yellow. It is very waterproof and has 4.5 stars on Amazon!
And, don't forget the rain boots! LIttle Adrian has a cute pair on as you can see in the picture. There are a ton of them available on Amazon! Here are some of our favorites, just click on the pictures to order them:

I almost wish that these were more useful in Phoenix! I love them. Since some of my grandchildren are moving to Wyoming, so these might be good gifts for them! I can see them being very useful there.
And, I'm sure that Lindsey can hardly wait until her baby Emily is old enough for a pair, even though she lives in Phoenix, because they are so adorable and Lindsey loves to go out in the rain when it is coming down. Bonus-kids can learn to put them on all by themselves!

Madalynn suggests that after being outside and getting wet and possibly chilled, the best thing to do on a rainy day is to snuggle up in a blanket and watch a movie with a cup of Hot Cocoa Bomb! I asked her what movie she would suggest and she decided that the Harry Potter Series would be perfect. I think all 4 of us would agree with that! It makes me want to do that right now!

Whenever I think of what to do on a rainy day, I think of reading! When my children were young, we used to watch Reading Rainbow and there was one of the first episodes that was about rainy days. I always think of the book that was read on that show, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain.

It is a beautiful, rhythmic story with awesome artwork. And guess what! All of the episodes of Reading Rainbow, season 1 are available on Amazon Prime for free! I am so excited to show these to my grandchildren!

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I also love to listen to storms with my grandchildren and talk about what is happening. My husband always likes to go out on the covered patio with the kids and watch the lightening storms. Then, he opens all of the windows in the house and lets in the fresh, rain smelling air! Lindsey says that she loves to do the same thing.

Here are a few other activities that are fun for rainy days:

Bake Cookies! My DIL says that is when she likes to bake. Eating those cookies while watching a movie or reading a book sounds awesome to me! We have a lot of different recipes on the blog. Click here for the cookie category.
Break out the Legos! Not that you need a rain storm to do this, but I found this great idea on Dollar Store Mom to make a Lego marble run. It looks like so much fun.
Build a fort with blankets and the furniture! This used to keep my kids happy for hours!
Do a jigsaw puzzle together. The Dollar Tree is a great resource for puzzles to fit all age levels.
Teach your kids a skill like sewing or crocheting, painting or playing the piano, or any other talent you may have to pass on.
Play board games! Our family loves them. We have recommended some of our favorites here, here and here.

April showers should be on their way soon! I hope that you will be enjoying them like we will!
What do you like to do with your kids on rainy days?

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Renny's Recipes: Easy and Delicious Deviled Eggs

3/22/2018

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I asked my mom if I could be the one to share the Deviled Eggs recipe with you to help you get ready for your Easter dinner and she said yes. Growing up, every time we had a family gathering that included a meal, my aunt Karen brought the deviled eggs. It sort of became mandatory for her to do so because everyone wanted them. They were (and are!) always so delicious, and you'd want to make sure you got to them first before they ran out. So, thanks to my aunt Karen I've grown up loving deviled eggs, and I really wanted to share this recipe with you.

HOW TO HARD BOIL AN EGG

First things first, you really need to know how to hard boil eggs. If you do it right they'll be easy to peel. Did you know that fresher eggs are harder to peel? As eggs get older the egg white shrinks. Well, since you don't want to use old eggs, here is how to hard boil them.

1. Place the eggs in water with baking soda.

2. Put on the stove on high heat and bring to a boil.

3. Boil the eggs for one minute (use a timer).

4. Cover the eggs, turn the heat off and let the eggs sit covered on the hot burner for another 10 minutes. (Time it again.)

5. After ten minutes put the eggs in ice cold water and leave for five minutes.

If you follow those steps your shells will peel beautifully and easily and you'll have lovely deviled eggs.

Having a beautiful little helper improves the deviled egg making experience. If no beautiful little helpers are available you can still make your deviled eggs without them.

Now normally I'd probably use a hand blender to mix all the ingredients together because it gets them really smooth. However, this time around my little helper had worn herself out making deviled eggs, so I just had to use a fork. Either method works just fine. I also used a ziplock bag and a piping tip to fill the eggs to give them that pretty design. You can use a piping bag and tip, or just scoop with a spoon.

Finally, my aunt Karen puts bacon bits in her deviled eggs. I didn't have any bacon bits when I made this batch, but I still included them in the recipe because... bacon bits are good.