Christmas Treats

These are in no particular order, but all month we have been making Christmassy treats.

We made Cookie Bars.

They were amazing!

Ingredients: 1 box yellow cake mix, 1 small box of instant vanilla pudding, 1/4 Cup of water,  3/4 Cup of vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 1/2 Cup of M&M's, and 1/2 Cup of chocolate chips

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything in a large bowl. Pour it a 10x 13 greased pan. Bake 20-30 minutes

Whoville Cookies

Ingredients: Rolled cookie mix, sprinkles

Directions: Make the rolled cookie mix according to directions. Split the dough in half. Color one green and the other red. Roll both colors out flat. Place one on top of the other and roll them into a log to make the spiral. Roll your log of dough in sprinkles. Slice and bake according to the package.

Edible Christmas Trees!

Ingredients: Sugar cones, sprinkles, icing

Directions: Frost a sugar cone with some green icing. Sprinkle until your little heart is content. 

Helpful hint: Use a cookie sheet to help control the sprinkles 

Dipped Pretzels

Ingredients: Pretzel logs, chocolate melts, sprinkles

Directions: Melt the chocolate. I used a coffee cup so that it would be deep. Dip the logs in and kinda roll them to get an even coat. Lay on parchment paper and sprinkle. Once again a cookie sheet is a good idea to help control sprinkles.

Sugar Cookies

Make some drop or rolled cookies according the the instructions on the package. Then frost and sprinkle until they look delicious.

Gingerbread men and girls

Ingredients: 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, 1/3 cup molasses, 1 large egg, 3 cups flour, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoons ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using a mixer, beat butter and brown sugar on medium low until fully mixed. Stir in the molasses. Scrap the side and add in the egg. When mixed up, add 2 cups of flour and all the other dry ingredients. When the dough is all moist, add the rest of the flour 1/4 a cup at time. Roll it out on some parchment and cut out your shapes. Bake for 10-14 minutes.

Sugar cookie sticks

Ingredients: Sugar cookie dough, chocolate melts, sprinkles

Directions: We used drop dough, but rolled would have worked better. Make the dough. Cut it into strips. Bake according to the package or maybe a little longer to make them crunchy. Once cooled, melt the chocolate. I used a coffee cup here too to help make it deeper. Dip the cookies into melted chocolate and sprinkle.

Edible Snowflakes

Ingredients: Tortillas, cooking spray, cinnamon sugar

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fold the tortilla in half and cut it like you would a paper snowflake. For younger ones they can just tear out pieces. Lay them out flat on a pan and spray with cooking spray. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown. 

We are Thankful

So I didn't have the kiddos very much in November, but that didn't stop us from having some fun.

This was Bo's box. The base is beans, but I added in some fake leaves and gords for fun. Our characters were from the Jamestown Toob.

This was Amelia's box. The base is rolled oats. Gus did wind up eating it all because it got left in the floor. Lol

We watched Thanksgiving Charlie Brown.

We had playdough scented with nutmeg.

Along with the playdough our bags also had Thanksgiving pictures to color.

On the last Thursday before Thanksgiving we made a handprint apron. Bo's are the Indian and the boy pilgrim. Amelia's are therefore the girl pilgrim and the turkey. I wore the apron while serving a Thanksgiving meal at church. After I borrowed his hands he borrowed mine and made a turkey on a paper. It was very cute. He painted my hand and pressed each finger down and told me to lift it straight up. Then I was instructed not to touch anything and go wash my hand. So sweet.

Spooktacular

October was a pretty good month full of lots of after school activities.

This was Bo's box. It's orange and black rice with a pack of Halloween stuff from the Dollar Tree.

Amelia's is the same just with a different package of stuff.

I took a few of the toys and some of the rice to make an I-Spy bottle.

I put it in their activity bags.

We also had pumpkin spice play dough.

Bo requested file folder games.

I made the pumpkins using a 2" paper punch. Then I taped the math problems down and drew in the vines.

The solutions were just laminated and put in a ziplock on the back.

I found another one for Halloween.

I taped down all the pots and filled the bag with google eyes. Each pot has to have X number of eyes.

One night I was there late. We roasted hot dogs and s'mores over a fire.

After a bath we watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

One the nice days we headed outside to burn off some energy.

On the last day of the month we made haunted house brownies.

Bo's

Amelia's

We basically hang out at the kitchen table. I do homework, while the kids do their boxes and bags. I change the box each month. I switch out the stuff they played with from their bags each time.

BAM Camp-School

BAM Camp school week was probably the most fun I've ever had particularly the last day. 

Monday we painted our olympic medals from last week.

Amelia made a maraca. She put bead in a plastic bottle and colored a toilet paper tube. I taped it together and voila a maraca. 

Bo and I made a bus. He painted and I glued and cut. Paint 3 fat and 5 regular popsicle sticks. Cut an inch off of 4 of the regular ones. Glue them evenly spaced on the full one. Glue the fat ones on the bottom. I like the one on top of the others, but it's up to you. I cut out black paper wheels and his pictures and glued/taped them on. I put 2 button magnets on the back. I thought it was too cute.

  

Bo's box was shredded paper, magnetic letters, a Lincoln Log school, a Lego bus and clothes pin students and a teacher.

It was a hit, even though I had doubt going in.

Amelia's box was water beads, scoops, and bowls. I kept a close eye on her, but she never actually put any in her mouth despite my assumption.

So grown up.

Tuesday they had family in town, but Wednesday we played with the boxes again.

We also made cake batter dip. Take a pack of Funfetti cake mix, 1 1/2 Cups of vanilla yogurt, and 2 Cups of whipped cream and mix. It's good with animal crackers, graham crackers, or fruit.

Thursday we went all out. Bo had earned beads all summer for doing various things. He got orange for doing his journal page. It was a worksheet with his Spanish words on it. It was matching, coloring, tracing or just like a dictionary with pictures. He got blue for eating without a fight. He got yellow for FOB without a fight. He's "too big" for naps so he had to lay Flat On Bed for 30 minutes. If he was still up I would let him get up and play. He got green for cleaning his room. He got red for knowing his 5 Spanish words. He got black for good behavior. Each Thursday I awarded the beads. He had to have 5 of a color to get the associated reward. He did for everything except orange.

Red was for spray painted hair.

Green was ice cream/popsicles for breakfast.

Blue was shaving cream on the trampoline.

Yellow was a trip to the Dollar Tree to pick out any toy they wanted.

Black was a water balloon fight.

We had a food fight too.

Then we went swimming. That's Amelia going off the diving board!

Pool selfie

Bo's selfie

Here's our video.

Bo's Spanish Words:

Escuela- School

Maestra- Teacher

Estudiante- Student

Tarea- Homework

Mochila- Backpack