Traditons

Thankful Turkeys

2010

As I only get time to work on this site when my kids are napping or sleeping, I have to apologize for my lack of presence here. I would like to be posting a little more regularly, but winter brings sickies and my son has concocted some weird ailment making my free time almost nonexistent!

With that said, I had grand visions of creating something really cool for a Thanksgiving display here, but I think I am going to stick to my motto as of late, “Keep it simple!” It seems to work better for me and my simple projects always seem to have more of an impact on my kiddos than my complicated ones! Last year we created Thanksgiving Turkeys and wrote on all the feather’s something we were grateful for. Then we taped the turkey to the wall above our kitchen table. It is super easy project to do and a great conversation starter. I let them do all the gluing and they had a blast. I had to stop them from putting on too many feathers because they were so excited to be able to be in charge of the glue! We will be doing this again tonight for our family night and I will update the pictures here later. So until then, here is a not so good picture from last year and the instructions below. Make sure you share you pics on the Fun On A Dime Facebook Page and any other projects you have done that have been inspired from this site. I would love to see them!

What You Need:

Empty toilet paper roll
Colorful Paper
Markers
Glue or Tape
Scissors

Directions:

Step 1: Cut the feathers out before gathering your children and starting the project. Once you get a pattern down, you can fold a piece of paper (fan style) and cut multiple feathers at once. We did about 10 feather per turkey.

Step 2: Talk about what you are thankful for and write something on each feather that your child(ren) say. I tried to keep the feathers separate for each child to put on their own turkey.

Step 3: Measure the empty toilet paper roll on a sheet of paper (your choice of color). You want to measure the height of the cardboard roll. Then put glue all over the paper in a zig-zag fashion making sure to get the edges well covered with glue (but not too much). Let your kids color a face or glue other pieces of colored paper on to create a face. Last year my kids were so young (barely 2 and 3), I let them color the sheet of paper first and then we glued it on.

Step 4: Start gluing your feathers on the back of the turkey. You will have to add a dab of glue to the feather in front and/or behind each feather to make sure they do not get too top heavy and slide down or fall off.

Step 5: Once dry, place in a prominent place in your home so you can keep up your “Thankful Talk” all month long.

ENJOY!!

Filed Under: All Ages, Fall, Indoor fun, Toilet Paper Tube Craft, Traditons Tagged With: Crafts

Cupcake Ice Cream Cones

2010

2 Comments

These cupcake ice cream cones have been a favorite of ours for birthdays and special occasions for a couple of years now. They are easy to make and all ages seem to really enjoy them. I thought this was the normal way of making them and discovered that there was another way of making them. The other way to make cupcake ice cream cones is to put the cake batter in the cones and cook them standing up in the oven. I then was told of how they tipped over or burned and as you can imagine, it was really messy. I will admit that I found the instructions for this version on the side of a cake mix box. I tried looking for it online and could not find it. So, for your enjoyment here is how you make them:

Items Needed:

Favorite box cake mix
Ice cream cone cups
Cupcake baking cups
Cupcake pan
Frosting/decorations

Directions
1. Make the cake mix as directed on the box.

2. Place cupcake wrappers in the cupcake pan

3. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full of cake batter. (If you have a metal cupcake tin, you can pound it lightly on a hard flat surface (i.e. table, counter, floor) to help get any air bubbles out. This will help the cupcake cook evenly and prevent the cones from tilting. If you do not pound it, it will not make a huge difference but your cones when completed may have a little more personality to them! )

4. Next, place the ice cream cone upside down on top of batter. You don’t need to press it down, just make sure it is touching the batter (see picture below).

(Sorry, this picture is actually of the cupcakes after baked. I forgot to take a picture prior, but wanted to give you the general idea of what they should look like prior to putting them in the oven.)

5. Then bake in the oven as directed on the box for cupcakes.

(Another fun activity…watching the transformation from dough to cake!)

6. Let the cupcakes cool

(The batter was closer to half filled with most of these cupcakes in this particular batch and so the finished product with 2/3 full will look more like the front center cupcake. Sorry for the confusion!)

7. Once the cupcakes are cool, you can remove the wrapping and stand them up on the cone. Then frost, decorate….

….and Enjoy!

Filed Under: All Ages, Cooking with Kids, Food Projects, Indoor fun, Kid Friendly Recipes, Traditons Tagged With: Recipes

Valentine’s Day Traditions

2010

5 Comments

Here are some of the fun and simple Valentines’ Day Traditions we are starting to share within our family each year:

Tradition #1

Boxes of Chocolates on Beds

Growing up on Valentine’s Day my mom always made our bed and left a box of chocolates and when I was away at college she would mail me a box. It was always a fun treat! This year I was trying to be sneaky and grab the chocolates without my kids seeing them and accidentally bought a Transformer box for my daughter instead of the girlier one I meant to get her. Oh well, it will save me on the fighting!

Tradition #2

Decorating

I had a lot of fun making these with my kids…or my kids watching me make them! They helped in the beginning, but lost interest after the first little bit. They were real simple to put together and the kids enjoy looking at them hanging now in the kitchen.

Each year I like to put hearts on the walls. This year now that the kids can help we sat down one night and had everyone write one thing they love about another person in the family. Once they are all written down we read them aloud and then put them on the wall where we can see them all month. I love to glance at them throughout the day! It is fun at any age to see what they put down, but I think it is especially fun when they are young because you get phrases like this,

and like this,

hmm, he must have liked those muffins I made!

Tradition #3

Making Valentines

My son was asked to bring Valentine’s Day cards to preschool and since he recently had a couple of days off we used the time to make some. They are not super fancy, but he is pretty proud of them. Anything to do with sparkling confetti and glue is cool, right? And since we used basic shapes and letters that he recognized we were able to talk about them while he was “designing” them.

Tradition #4

A Fun Valentine’s Dinner

I had so much fun planning this dinner and it made for a fun night together! I made Heart Shaped Calzones from my favorite pizza dough recipe and stuffed them with our favorite pizza toppings (a little cheese on bottom, toppings and a couple T. of pizza sauce). And for dessert…

Yum! I made Strawberry/Cherry Jello Jigglers cut in to squares and topped with strawberry yogurt and strawberries. I don’t know about your kids, but mine always seem to eat their food better when it is cut into smaller chunks and they gobbled this up!