Friday, December 4, 2009

Another Christmas Fun Box

In today's Christmas Fun Box, the kids found red and green food coloring, salt and mint extract. Strange combination? Not if you're making red and green playdough, which is what we were going to do!
They each took turns measuring the ingredients for their playdough -- Lael made red with orange extract mixed in and Jaden made the minty green. Then they had to stir . . . and stir . . . and stir . . .
. . . until the playdough was "the consistency of mashed potatoes" -- of course, that didn't mean as much to the kids as it did to me. After all, they usually eat mashed potatoes without contemplating the consistency of the dish.
Then Mommy kneaded the playdough to get it nice and smooth -- it was still really hot so the kids couldn't really touch it. Then they had to wait for it to cool so they could play with it. Doesn't it look pretty, and so festive? I predict that we'll enjoy this playdough a whole bunch this Christmas season!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Fun school in December

I love Christmas time . . . and everything that goes along with it -- the baking, shopping, decorating, and extra-special family times like snuggling up on the couch to read a book or watch a favorite Christmas movie.

This year I wanted to be purposeful about incorporating fun into our days, so I came up with the Christmas Fun Box. Each day I put something into the box to give a clue about the fun activity that our day will hold! I have some FUN things planned!

Today, when the kids came downstairs, this is what they found on the dining room table:

Inside the box were all different kinds of buttons and bells. Add some pipe cleaners and look what we made . . . (photo courtesy of Jaden)

I love adding some fun and whimsy to our day!