An American Girl Tea Party

My older girl s received these sweet American Girl cookbooks in their Easter baskets this year (found on the bargain shelf at Borders for $5.00!)

As soon as they flipped through them, they wanted to host a tea party.  Their Grandma and Grandpa are visiting us this week, so this became a wonderful activity for them from the cooking to the decorating to the cleaning up!

We made chicken salad tea sandwiches:

We also made walnut and cream cheese tea sandwiches, cucumber and cream cheese tea sandwiches, fruited iced tea, and fresh strawberries with a Devonshire cream:

The girls set the table with table talkers and made the place cards:

They did a wonderful job and many great memories were made!

 

This post is linked to Making Memories Monday at Adventures in McQuill-land and Snoring Scholar's Family Fun Friday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The corned beef and cabbage have been cooking in the crock pot all day . . . I wish you could smell it . . . sooooo good! We took a break this afternoon and enjoyed a St. Patrick's fruit tray (I found this cute idea in Family Fun Magazine) filled with strawberries, clementines, green grapes, pineapple, blueberries, red grapes, and a pot of golden bananas:And a marshmallow cloud:
It did not last very long!

Family Fun Night : UP

One of my goals for the long winter ahead was to plan weekly Family Fun Nights. This past weekend, we were looking forward to watching the movie UP that the girls received as a gift for Christmas. We started the night by making homemade pizza. This is a huge hit in our house! The girls each made their own individual pizza. Apparently, they made Carl and Russell shaped pizzas.
There were almost no leftovers!
After dinner, we watched UP. We laughed and cried. This was definitely one of Pixar's best movies. The highlight of the night were the UPcakes we made. I made a dozen cupcakes and some icing:

I found this idea in the November 2009 issue of Family Fun. I downloaded this template and made Carl's house:
I added some ribbons and . . . .
We had lots of fun! My little sister is staying with us for a few weeks so she got in on the fun, too.
The UPcakes were super yummy!

We are looking forward to this weekend's Family Fun Night . . . Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs!

This post is linked to Snoring Scholar's Family Fun Fridays.

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough Recipe

I have been trying to put together a few holiday crafts and activities for my girls since they will be home for 5 days and it looks weather is going to turn a little ugly this week.

We love to make our own play dough. It is not messy like the stuff you buy in the store. I found this recipe at this lovely blog. I am sure I will have to remind my little ones that this is not really edible!

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

5 1/2 cups flour
2 cups salt
8 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 oz. pumpkin pie spice
orange food coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)
4 cups water

Mix all ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until all lumps disappear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Store in airtight container.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

It has been a very busy week with school parties, Halloween activities, and our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Like almost every other holiday, Halloween has become a week long event. Lots of fun for the little ones but often tiring for moms! I may be exhausted, but here are some images of the fun we had at the pumpkin patch. We were blessed with 70 degree weather, too!

I love this yearly picture, and it shows a little bit about each of my girls' personalities.


We enjoyed fresh apples and apple cider:


We picked a huge pumpkin to carve.

We decorated little pumpkins:

Erin grew a mustache:
We played in the corn crib:

And the hay jump:

We had a wonderful day! Happy Halloween!


Just a reminder that Christmas is right around the corner. I have been busy getting organized so I can have a relaxing holiday season. Does anybody else have an organization plan for the upcoming holidays?

Easy Halloween Craft for Kids: Pumpkin Planter

My kids bring home a lot of crafts from school, the library, and pretty much everything else they do. And they love it. I obviously cannot keep everything. I have a folder for each of my girls with projects that are special to me. I also save some art for family members. Everything else ends up in the recycling bin or garbage. Every so often they do an activity or create a craft that it . . well, a little useful.

My three year old made this Pumpkin Planter at Harvest Class:
She really enjoyed cleaning out the pumpkin, decorating it, and planting the little plant. We also brought the pumpkin seeds home to bake. By the way, we put the plant in a yogurt container so it is easier to water. It is a nice addition to my autumn decor!