..

Pasta Noodle Recipe:

.

.

After the dough has “sat” overnight, it becomes more elastic (much less “stiff”).   Knead and play with the dough.  The more it is played with the better your noodles will be!

.

.

Form noodles by making dozens and dozens of “little worms”.  You can also roll the dough out into a sheet and cut the noodles out in thin strips.
.

.

These homemade noodles are a great staple in homemade soups or as the starch in pasta primavera!  Our kids love to eat them with caramelized onions, along with fried cabbage and ground pork.

We made both cinnamon ornaments and pipecleaner twists this week.

Love how these icicles turned out! Home Adventures made them with clear packaging destined for the recycle bin and some silver glitter.

Craft Snob, a teacher in training, made these fun I Spy ornaments - great tutorial.

The DIY Dish suggested making a flower ornament by using a whiffle ball. Brilliant idea!

The momma over at Toddler Approved is daring! Her kiddo practiced sewing with these Easy Quilted Tree Ornaments.

.

Wreaths make me smile.  This cute wreath ornament is made out of buttons and pipecleaners.

Make little pine cone people to “guard” your tree – via Home Adventures with Mom.

Who said all the ornaments need to be inside? Here are some decorations for the birds from Salt Water Kids.

Paint Cut Paste - used memento shells from their summer vacation to decorate their tree, and as gifts for family.

These paper canes were such a hit (made by The Chocolate Muffin Tree) that there are several other versions out there, including one from Happy Hooligans (who also linked up that Popsicle Stick tree).  Thanks both of you for linking up!

Here is a fun game you can play with your kids and the ornaments – I Spy!  Thanks Imagination Soup for this game idea.

Creativity My Passion added a twist to the traditional salt-dough decorations with glitter.

……………

Want more kid-made ornament ideas?  Stop by facebook the rest of the week, I’ll continue to add ornaments I discover.  Also, check out our collections on Pinterest – there are literally dozens of ornaments on there.  Too many to make!  If only I had more time!!

…….
Happy linking for another week of It’s Playtime.

.
What you need to create pillowcase skirts:

Pre-washed Pillowcases.
Elmer’s Permanent Markers
Cardboard Boxes (to protect your surfaces)
Acrylic paints
Water
Eye Droppers
Vinegar

Stuff the cardboard inside the pillowcase. This will help prevent the marker from bleeding onto your table and will help provide a sturdy surface for the girls to decorate on. We began our “party” decorating our pillowcases with the markers. Some of the girls drew flowers, others faces, others made butterflies, while the youngest scribbled on all of the masterpieces. We were blessed to have some incredibly patient and indulgent girls who tolerated my 2 year olds participation. Even the boys decided to help.

.

Once your pillowcase is adequately decorated (are they ever?? I had a hard time dragging one of the girls away from her creation), mix some acrylic paint with water and use this “paint” mixture to fill-in your drawings. The paint helps seal the permanent marker and adds color to your project.  You can use an eye-dropper instead of a paintbrush, it works like a straw or paint-pen.  Fill it with paint and write with it.  This is a less messy way to paint, well, as long as they don’t “spray” the paint everywhere.  We loved mixing our colors by painting one color then, as it is wet, brushing another color over it. The colors would bleed together to create a fun effect.
.
After your pillowcase has dried. It is time to “cure” it. Wash it in hot water with two cups of vinegar. The heat and the vinegar will help “set” the dyes. Be sure to wipe out your washer before re-using it. The colors did bleed a bit the first time, but it added to the “effect”. I did not notice any bleeding after the third wash, but you might want to wash it with mixed colored items for awhile to be sure.
.
To create your pillowcase into a dress, string elastic through the one end and straight hem the other side. You should have a simple elastic band straight skirt. My preschoolers loved personalizing their clothes!  And my youngest preschooler especially loves wearing the skirt “she made with her friends”.  Want a more detailed tutorial on how to create a pillowcase skirt, check out Snip and Snail.

Terri, and her girls at My Creative Family, explored displacement as they filled glasses of water and then added ice cubes until the water overflowed.  What a great way to bring math alive.

Cardboard boxes make some of the best toys!  In Happy Little Messes, these boys mixed their play between cardboard boxes, tape, tubs and of course ice.

This gal tie dyed her fabric with ice cubes of paint.   I bet these would make great colorful summer napkins!

I love how neat and clean this ice cube painting project looks.  They used koolaid to create their cubes of paint.  In addition to the block painting she also made flowers.

This post was my inspiration for this post.  Artful Parent froze a big block of ice, sprinkled salt on it to speed up the melting and then added food coloring to heighten the effect.  I love this colorful ice science experiment.

.

Thanks for linking up to It’s PlayTime.  Let me know by email if you are having any difficulties linking up your favorite play-based post!  We love reading and browsing all of your activities.  All of the play activities are visible from this linky on 5 blogs.  Mine and my co-hosts:

* Anna : The Imagination Tree
* Jamie : hands on : as we grow
* Rachele : Messy Kids
* Jenny : Let the Children Play
.
Please link up only play related posts (no printables, product reviews or game apps please).

Note: By linking you are giving us permission to use an image and link to you.

One of the things that says “summer” more than anything else are popscicles.  This is by far my kids favorite way to consume a banana – stuck on a stick, smothered with chocolate, and covered with sprinkles.

.

Freezer Banana Pops are also a great way to rescue those bananas that are nearing the end of their shelf life.  These homemade Popsicles will keep in the freezer for several weeks.

.

Your Banana Pop Ingredient List:

Lollipop sticks.  We cut up bamboo skewers to create our sticks.  You can also use popsicle sticks or even plastic forks.

.

Chocolate.  Melt it in a small crockpot or a double boiler on low.  Add a dab of butter to it while it melts and stir frequently so the chocolate will be smooth.

.

Sprinkles.  ‘Cause everything is better if it is rainbow

.

Egg Carton.  We plugged the sticks into the egg carton to help keep the pops upright and not touching each other so they would look pretty.  They taste just as good if you lay them down on a lined cookie sheet.

.

.
What is your favorite summer Popsicle?

To make the smoothies:

Chop up the Kale, Spinach or Collard Greens and fill your blender to the brim.   We prefer Kale as it is more nutritious than spinach with 25% more vitamin A,  higher levels of Vitamin C and Calcium – it is a true powerfood!  It also tastes better than Collard Greens which has a spicy aftertaste.

Once you have your blender full of kale, add half a cup of juice.  Blend well.

Top with 2 bananas and as many berries as you want.  I think we added about 2 cups worth.  Blend till smooth.

Serve immediately or freeze into Popsicles.  If you want to make sorbet, freeze it for 1-2hours, till it just starts getting ice crystals.  Then stir.  Re-freeze.  Wait an hour or two and then stir it again.  At this point you can re-freeze and it will stay soft.  Our Kale Sorbet is the perfect after-dinner dessert for my dairy-intolerant kiddos.  Yummy and good for them.  Who needs to eat veggies for supper when we can have them for dessert!  Don’t want to have Kale smoothies?  Check out The Local Cook for Kale Chips - they sound great!

.

What is your Genius Tip? Kenmore wants to know, and is giving away up to $3,000 in Gift Certificates and a chance to have the best Genius Tip turned into a TV Ad! Visit their Facebook page and enter today!

Share your quick genius tip with us:

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Kenmore. The opinions and text are all mine.

.

New Toys: Keep your preschoolers entertained in those early baby days.

I’d like to say I thought of this one myself, but I didn’t.  The kind souls at B.You Toys were super generous and sent us a big box of Stackadoos bristle blocks.  To say that I can not thank them enough is an understatement.  Really, my preschoolers are bored with the toys they already have and receiving something new and wondrous to play with means that I can sit and breastfeed in peace!  I love these blocks (and the kids do too!)  Once life calms down a bit more I’m sure we’ll incorporate them into learning activities.

.

Moby Wrap (or any hands-free carrier).

I prefer the moby baby styled carrier as it feels so snug, almost like I am giving my baby a big hug!  And they are super easy to make!  I have about a dozen of them (post coming with instructions on how to make one yourself sometime next week).   If you have a preschooler you are trying to chase and take care of, having a hands-free carrier is a must so you can still get “baby-cuddles”.  I use mine while cooking dinner, playing with blocks on the floor, and/or watching the kids and mediating play outside.

.

Feed your Freezer!

We can only eat macaroni and cheese and frozen pizzas so many times in a row.  I am so thankful that I spent a few weekends before Baby K arrived making meals so all I have to do is pull it out of the freezer in the morning and stick it into the microwave in the evening.  We do have several friends who have brought us meals, and I am grateful for them, but I am also thankful that I planned ahead of time with kid-friendly foods.  The last thing I want to do is fight with my preschooler about eating his dinner while trying juggle my fork and infant.

.

Snack Bags: Feed the kids and entertain them in the process.

I love giving the kids a chance to be independent.  We use snack bags for road-trips, but they are also really great if you want to lengthen a snack time, to make it into more of an event.  I made the bags in advance, then put them in reach of the kids.  When baby K is getting a mommy snack, the older kiddos can go grab their snack bags.  They enjoy the variety and digging out their favorites first.  The snacks that go into the bags vary each time we make them.

.

Cayenne Pepper (TMI warning!)

Pepper?!?  I know you are probably wondering why this is a must have, but for a recuperating momma with preschoolers it is requirement!  Lifting older siblings is unavoidable.  It seems that I have to rescue someone who climbed onto the top of the dollhouse, or who can’t get out of the crib, or separate two tasseling kiddos, you get the idea.   All of these are big no-nos for recuperating postpartum moms!  And yet, we can not not intervene!  Cayenne Pepper has been used in WWI and WWII as a clotting agent on battlefields.  It really helps speed up the recovery process.  I have used it with two of my four pregnancies and have had a much quicker recovery the two times I took Cayenne pepper (in spite of lifting heavy objects/children after delivery).  Take it in pill form daily and you will heal in record time.

.

Have you brought an infant home to a household of preschoolers?  Feel free to share your recovery and survival tips in the comments and I’ll be sure to link up to you!

.

What you need to make Jello Popsicles:

• Box of Jello – we have used cherry, lime and strawberry.  I bet all the flavors would taste great!  Note: the red colors do stain clothes!  We learned that the hard way.
• Orange Juice – 1 Cup. Love that the new Minute Maid bottle is so easy to pour!  This also adds to the health benefit – these could be great during the flu season, hydrating the kids and giving them vitamin C and other vitamins!
• Fruit – we’ve mashed bananas, added pureed peaches, strawberries, blueberries, etc.  Be creative! ETA: I was asked quantities, and it varied each time we made them. Probably a cup or two.
• Hot water – 1 Cup

.

While I boiled a cup of water, Z mashed the fruit.  Then I gave him the hot water and he dumped the jello in it stirring for a little while.  Add the Minute Maid and fruit.  Then fill the popsicle cups (we filled mini-dixie cups with the leftovers) and freeze for a few hours until frozen.  So simple!

.

Thanks to Minuet Maid for participating in this post and to Jen at Whole Foods, check out her giveaway of a popsicle maker!

Supplies to learn about colors with Saint Patrick’s Day:

• Vanilla or coconut pudding, plain yogurt, a milkshake, even applesauce.
• M&M candies (we used blue, yellow, and green)
• Small bowls
• Spoons

.
Before adding the candy, you can encourage the kids to predict what will happen. For example, you might ask, “What will happen to the color of the pudding if we put blue candies into it?” or “What do think the pudding will look like if we mix in yellow and blue candies together?
.

To tint the pudding green, add yellow and blue M&M candies to a serving of pudding (if your kids aren’t fans of pudding, you could try this color experiment with a milkshake or apple sauce). The kids can stir them in until the colored outer coating dissolves. They can add more blue and yellow, or more green M&Ms to intensify the color. There’s no rule that says you can’t try other color combinations as well. Before you know it, an entire rainbow of pudding colors may appear!
.

If you decide to do this edible activity with your kids, we would love to hear about your results!
.

Julia from Roots of Simplicity was gracious enough to share this fun learning activity with us! For more Saint Patrick’s Day activities or other fun family and home crafts, check out her blog!
.