Peanut Butter heart

We recently tried this Peanut Butter Play Dough recipe and I think we ended with only half as much as when we started. Apparently this is as tasty as dessert! Even if you have older children, don’t discount the idea of homemade playdough. My two children are older but still looked forward to this snow day activity.

Peanut Butter "Lego"

Peanut Butter Play Dough

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup powdered milk (plus enough to keep from sticking)

1 cup honey

1 cup oatmeal

Simply mix ingredients, adding a little more milk if needed to make dough firmer. It will appear a little stickier when mixing than it will when being used.

Have fun!

(If you enjoyed this idea, you might also like the post I wrote about our other snow day activities.)

Below are links to posts I have written about our favorite winter activities:

• Fort Building My children would do this for hours and hours.

• Make Snow Cream My pre-teen still requests this.

• A miscellaneous assortment of free winter activities

• Snow Paint – This was a favorite!

• Homemade play dough – This is a no-cook recipe that uses basic ingredients. No cream of tarter or powdered milk here.

• Peanut Butter Play Dough – This one does require powdered milk, but still no cooking. It is quite tasty!

• This is not necessarily an activity, but consider collecting some snow into a freezer safe bowl. Bring out in the heat of the summer and have a snowball fight! (Watch out, sometimes it freezes a little too hard for throwing at people.)

Most of all, be creative and enjoy!

When my children were much younger, they delighted in making gifts for my husband and myself. Christmas was no different until they started noticing people talking about shopping for just the right gift. They wanted to be a part of it. They still loved making treasures for us but they wanted to give more. While I loved their workmanship, I could understand their request. Being on a budget though, I was the one who now needed to be creative.

I had an idea and packed up the children to go shopping. They were so excited and feeling very grown up. When we arrived at the store, I instructed them that they could pick out anything in the store for their dad. Yes, anything. They eyes lit up and they started their hunt. Giving them complete freedom to pick out anything meant I could see my child’s heart. They carefully considered what their dad needed and what he already had. They talked about how he could use various items and both of the children took their purchase very seriously.

There were lots of interesting gifts that came from The Dollar Tree when my children were very young, but the memory of watching my them, unrestricted and thinking of others was priceless.

Now that my children are older, the Dollar Tree no longer holds the same fascination. How do you help your children shop for others?

We do not watch or rent videos often, but when we do, it’s a special occasion. Whenever we have a household project we need to tackle or want to reward the children, I go either to our local library or Blockbuster for a bargain.

Because we rarely bring new videos home, they are extra special and the provide necessary time my guy and I need for either our own downtime or to occupy the children so we can focus on a project. Yes, read that as a using “videos as a babysitter” but since they are so rare, the children consider it special.

The library provides the movies for free and our local Blockbuster offers a free family rental with the rental of a new release. Check with your local Blockbuster to see if they have the same offer. Though not as predictable, sometimes you can find a code for a free movie with Red Box. A quick search in Swagbucks (you are earning gift cards with Swagbucks, right??) or a search on your favorite deals blog should yield a code, if there is one.

Do you have any money saving secrets for movie rentals?

You will need:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup salt
Food coloring

In a bowl, combine flour and salt. Add hot water and food color to the flour mixture and combine thoroughly. This will make a small amount so you may want to make a batch for each child. (The picture above shows two batches.)  The playdough will keep in the fridge about a week.

Have fun and consider creating alongside your child!

This post has been linked to:

Ultimate Recipe Swap hosted by Life As Mom

• Simply slice the apple in half. If the apple will not be served immediately, brush or spray lemon juice on the cut sides to prevent browning.
• Attach the raisins using peanut butter as the “glue.”
• Push the pretzel sticks carefully into the top of the apple and top with another dab of peanut butter glue and a raisin on each pretzel.
• A bed of lettuce leaves (I should have used a few more) tops off the presentation.

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I also recently made Celery Broomsticks by slicing the ends of a celery stick and placing in ice water for several minutes.

I love finding new ways to make fruit and vegetables fun.  Do you have any special ways of preparing fun veggies?

Have you heard of the rare Magical Sliced Banana from South America? My children had not, so I presented them with the special unpeeled banana for an afternoon snack. When my daughter peeled it, she noticed it was already sliced. With wide eyes, she examined the banana and looked for clarification that I had not pre-peeled the banana. I had not.

The gig went on for a few minutes until she found my print-out from Enchanted Learning that listed the magical instructions. I was caught.

Simply insert a toothpick into a ripened banana and wiggle from side to side to score the fruit. Do this a few places on the banana and then present it, unpeeled, to your children.

Have fun!

If you are trying to fit in a last road trip before school starts or need a creative way to keep children quiet and occupied while outside the home, chenille stems are perfect. They involve no mess, no noise and lots of imagination.

Fill a zippered gallon bag with chenille stems of various colors and sizes and watch what your children create. Young children can make simple shapes and practice forming the alphabet while older children or pre-teens can create 3-dimensional figures and words.

This is one of our favorite travel activities. What quiet activities do your children enjoy?

If you are a mother of young children and have even once tried to cook a meal, you know the two do not work well together. When my children were small enough for a high chair, but big enough to get into trouble when left on their own, I let them paint while I cooked.

Squirt a small amount of ketchup and mustard onto a plate on the highchair tray and let your children fingerpaint with the condiments. If they accidentally eat some, no biggie. If they are old enough, you can give them a popsicle stick to use as a paintbrush.

A few squirts of condiments will allow creativity for the children and homecooked meals for the family.

Have fun!