We are taking a little mini break from our crafts.  Hailey is very sick right now, so we are not doing anything other than lying around on the couch resting and playing quietly.  You can read about what is going on with Hailey on my Livin’ With Me blog.

We’ll be back soon.

I had meant to get this posted a little earlier so that you would have time to do it if you want to.  But I have been so sick that I just haven’t been able to get sit at my computer for more than a couple of minutes at a time.  I feel a little better today so I’m going to post this, hoping it all makes sense (I feel like I’m in a fog right now).

Anyhoo- it doesn’t really take all that long to do, it’s just that you have to allow time for the paint to dry.  This is what Hailey made for her grandparents for a Christmas present this year (so no peeking Gramma and Nana!)

Here is what you’ll need: an old gift box, construction paper, red and white paint, something to paint with, a fine tip marker, sequence, glue and a pipe cleaner.

Paint your child’s hand white.

Press onto the paper.

Whenever we do a project that involves a hand print I always have extra paper there for Hailey to make hand prints on once I am done with her- so here she is having fun stamping her hand prints all over the paper.

From the box- cut 2 squares.  Cut the center out of one of the squares- this will be your frame.

Paint the frame.

Once the frame is dry, add some sequence or any kind of decoration you want.

Sorry for the blurriness of this picture- too much cough medicine I guess.  Anyhoo- write your poem on construction paper.  Or if you have messy handwriting like I do, just print it out.  This is the poem we are using:

This is the hand
you used to hold
when I was only
2 years old

Of course you can use any poem you want.

Put everything together.

Once I actually have enough strength, I will cut the excess off the sides and come back and post a picture of the final product.  Also- when I first thought of this, in my mind it was going to be an ornament for the Christmas tree.  Now that it’s done I see it is too big for that.  So I’m not exactly sure what it is going to be.  A magnet for the fridge?  Just a frame?  I don’t know yet.  Any ideas?

I haven’t played Four Foods on Friday in several weeks.  I guess I have just been so busy getting everything ready for Christmas that I haven’t had time.  Anyhoo, every Friday Val from Fun, Crafts and Recipes gives us four questions to answer.

Here are this week’s four questions.

#1. What’s your favorite crunchy food?
For some reason the only crunchy food I can think of is Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I love the crunchy ones.

#2. How often do you try new recipes?
I try to do it a couple of times each month- to keep things from getting boring.  That doesn’t always happen, but it is my goal.

#3. Name a food that you almost always have in the house.
Definitely cereal.  We love cereal so we always have some of it.

#4. What kind of food do you leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve?
We leave decorated sugar cookies with eggnog if we have it, or milk.  This year Santa told Hailey to leave some carrots for the reindeer- and she’s insisting that we need to do that too.

Stop by Fun, Crafts and Recipes if you’d like to play along.

Here is another very simple and fun Christmas craft you can do with your toddler (or preschooler).

Here’s what you’ll need: paper plate with the center cut out, red pom poms, green paint, something to paint with, 2 red pipe cleaners and glue.

Paint the paper plate green.

Do your best to make a bow out of one of the pipe cleaners.  As you can see mine did not turn out very well but it worked just fine anyways.

Once the paint is dry- glue the red pom poms on and then add your bow.

Thread the other pipe cleaner through the top of the wreath- and hang it up.  Ours is haning next to our front door and Hailey is so proud to see it there.

Since Hailey talks about Santa Claus non-stop I thought it would be fun to make a cute little Santa Claus craft with her.

Here’s what you’ll need: construction paper- 2 white and 1 red, cotton, wiggly eyes and glue.

Make a circle from the white paper.  Cut out a hat, mouth and nose from the red.  With the other white piece of paper cut out a piece of paper that will be used to glue Santa’s beard onto.  Sort of a U shape.

Glue everything together.

The finished Santa Claus.