Last week I on was on staff room duty at work. That means you not only help to keep the staff room tidy, but are also expected to bring a snack in for the staff. I had found a recipe that I really wanted to try as it sounded delicious, but was also nutritious. Unfortunately, I had a few obstacles and didn’t end up making the snack after all, instead I took in a batch of Aunty Myrna’s Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies.
Homemade Beet Chips and Dip:
This is the plan that is yet to happen. I carefully picked out the recipes and then encountered one problem after another, with the result being “NO CHIPS FOR YOU!” (can you hear the accent of the Soup Nazi when you read that?) The first issue stemmed back to the thumb injury I sustained while cutting carrots on my mandolin slicer the Sunday before last. After having cut the tip off my thumb, I must admit I was a little “mandolin” shy, but there was no way I was slicing beets for chips without my slicer. I decided to bite the bullet and make the chips on Tuesday evening (with extreme caution). When I got home from work, I discovered that our street had suffered a water main break and that we had no water. Some how I could not see myself attempting anything that involved beets, with no water in the house! The last straw was when my search for Crème Fraîche (an ingredient called for in the dip recipe) became so ridiculous that I felt like I was on a mission in “search of the Holy Grail”. I went to not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six stores before giving up. It was then that I googled how to make my own. I found a very simple recipe on-line, but the mixture had to sit on the counter for 24 hours and then be refrigerated for another day. If you are following my tale at all here, you would realize that my week on staff room duty is now long gone. However, I woke up this morning to what I deemed to be pretty awesome Crème Fraîche. So, I now have Crème Fraîche, but am not sure what to do with it. I had already purchased the other ingredients for the dip, so I think I’ll just go ahead and make the chips and dip for us to try. That way, I can test the recipe before forcing it on others.
My homemade crème fraîche.
What is Crème Fraîche?
I had never used it before and wasn’t even sure what I was looking for, but here is what I have learned…Crème Fraîche is thick and creamy and would fall somewhere between sour cream and yogurt. It is also generally much higher in fat. It can be used on top of fresh fruit, in crêpes, on waffles or pancakes, in dips, salad dressings or even added to a pasta recipe. Basically it can be used in lieu of sour cream or yogurt and can even replace the mayo in most recipes. It is not sweet, but less tart than sour cream.
Homemade Crème Fraîche:
This is the recipe I followed for making my own homemade Crème Fraîche. The instructions were simple and easy to follow. The only issue I had was that the recipe called for “cultured” buttermilk. I tried to research before going shopping, but wasn’t getting a clear answer on whether the buttermilk at Safeway is “cultured” or not. In the end, I bought both the whipping cream and the buttermilk at my local Safeway. It did not say “cultured” and although I really have nothing to base my opinion on, I think mine turned out fine. It definitely thickened and is all that they say it is….creamy and delicious.
I am hoping to make the dip and beet chips this week, so I will keep you posted and share the recipe if it’s a keeper. The moral of this story is….if you need Crème Fraîche, plan ahead and make your own. (In the end, I did find a small local store that claims they always carry it…. except of course on the day I was there to purchase it!)
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I have been eyeing these babies up for months and finally decided to give them a try. I have to start by saying that I make pancakes for the kids often, but despite my interest in trying new recipes, my kid’s will always opt for Grandma Ruth’s Pancakes when given the choice. My mom’s recipe is for basic fluffy homemade pancakes without any extras ~ no berries, no bananas, no special sauces, just plain old pancakes with fake syrup. I think my kids must be the only humans on the face of the earth who get mad when I try to trick them by placing Pure Maple Syrup in the Aunt Jemima bottle. They both prefer the fake stuff, hands-down…go figure?
Cinnamon Swirl/Roll Pancakes:
I contemplated not posting this at all, but then thought I would share my experience with Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes. Fortunately, these pancakes tasted a lot better than they looked. They were delicious and even got a thumbs up from my kids. However, I am not sure I would make this exact recipe again. It is probably much more me than the recipe, but I have still opted not to share the recipe. I don’t want to knock someone else’s recipe, especially if it is more me than the recipe itself. There really was no way to make this pancake look good. To be honest, this was the best of the bunch.
Here is a photo of one of the pancakes that looked somewhat better than the rest. I wouldn’t call it a total failure as they were really good, but my presentation got a minus 1. Not too pretty!
The recipe I used called for sour cream in the pancake batter. I thought this was interesting and was keen to try it, but the batter was super thick. When I poured the batter on the griddle, they didn’t even really flow into a nice circle shape. I also found that the cooked pancakes seemed more inclined to fall apart, almost like they didn’t bind or something. Not sure, but I prefer my Mom’s recipe. I think that the batter that you use is probably irrelevant to the final results, next time I will use our tried and true favourite….Grandma Ruth’s Pancake Recipe!
The cinnamon mixture that was used for the filling was very runny. I followed the instructions, but know from making cinnamon buns that this mixture is usually much thicker. The recipe I followed called for equal amounts of brown sugar and butter and I found it very difficult to pipe the sugar “into” the pancake batter as it was a big runny mess.. You need more sugar than butter. Recipe Girl suggests 1/4 butter to 1/4 cup + 2 T. of brown sugar + 1/2 T. cinnamon ~ this sounds better, I will follow her recipe and suggestions next time. And, oh yes, there will be a next time. Despite the less than successful attempt at creating a visually appealing pancake with a cute little swirl, they were delicious!
You can see the brown sugar mixture is quite runny.
I basically did everything they said not to do….got too close to the edges and found it too runny to pipe “into” the batter as suggested. What a mess!
On top of the mess with the swirls, the cooked pancakes seemed fall apart really easily. The Maple Coffee Glaze was also delicious, but almost too sweet for me.
Cinnamon Swirl/Roll Pancake recipes are all over the internet. If you love pancakes or even if you don’t, these are worth the extra effort and I suggest giving them a try. I wouldn’t plan to serve them for company until you’ve tried them out first as they are a bit finicky. Follow Recipe Girl’s tips and I think the results will be great. I can’t wait to try her cream cheese glaze. Having said that, I think these fall into the category of a rarely treat ~ they are simply sinful and would rank pretty low on the nutrients scale!
Here is a shot of the stack made by Recipe Girl. I put this in to inspire you! This was the look I was going for, but missed by a mile. Good luck!
I thought I would share my mom’s tried and true recipe for regular fluffy pancakes. I love this recipe and find that it is a great basic recipe to play with. I have had great success using whole wheat flour entirely or even just using it in conjunction with the white flour. I have also had some success using coconut flour although I am not going to even try to suggest that it is the same. You can also use this basic recipe and add your favourite fruit directly into the batter. I love to add blueberries, pumpkin, bananas or peaches. Yummy!
Grandma Ruth’s Pancakes
1 1/2 cups of flour
1-2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 1/4 cups of milk
2 Tablespoons oil or melted butter
Sift dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix well either by hand or with an electric mixer. Cook on a preheated griddle or in a non-stick pan. Flip the pancakes when bubbles start to form on the surface of the batter.
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Eden’s 12th birthday is in just a few weeks and I haven’t even got the invitations out! I set aside today to get the job done. I really didn’t have a plan, but thought I would do a winter/snowflake invitation because she wants to go sledding. She is only inviting 4 girls, so the job isn’t as overwhelming as some years. I had lots of paper on hand and decided to have her pick colours from what I had. I picked up this package at Target for $1.30 on Christmas clearance. It is wintry, but not really very festive. Eden loved the colours and picked out the paper she wanted and then I just created the invitation by using the paper she picked as my starting point.
This package contained 8 sheets of 12″ X 12″ paper, a sheet of stickers and a foam “Let it Snow” border. Not bad for under $2.
Printing the Invitations:
I began by making the actual invitation on the computer. I downloaded a free font called Gingersnaps from www.dafont.com. I love this site and often search for specialized fonts for my projects. I changed the address for the screen shot, but otherwise this is what it looks like.
I added a text box in the background, printed her age and then changed the opacity of the teal to 70%. I created the invitation as a full-page document. I then displayed the “page thumbnails” of the page I had created and duplicated the page 3 times, so that I had a total of 4 copies of the invitation.
When I went to print the document, I found “Layout” in the drop down menu on the printing page. I then select “4” under pages per sheet. It takes all four of my pages and scales them all down to fit perfectly on one page of card stock. I then cut the page into 1/4’s and proceed to make my invitations, postcard style, by decorating the opposite side of the card.
Decorating the Birthday Invitation:
I started by covering the backs of the printed invitations with the paper Eden had chosen. I then gently sanded the edges to reveal some of the white below the dyed surface. I then used a turquoise/teal ink on all of the edges. This is nothing more than dabbing the ink pad along the edges. I used a make-up style brush to get into the grooves that the pad wouldn’t reach. I then cut a strip of coordinating paper (one side with a scalloped edge) and adhered it to the right side of the card with double-sided tape. I also happened to have ribbon on hand that I ran down the straight edge of the paper strip. This became my base card. From here, I began to play with embellishments to see what I could come up with for a finished look. I ended up using a combination of a few items I had on hand. First, I took a handful of these cheap dollar store snowflakes and tried to kick them up a notch.
Cheap white snowflakes approximately 1″ in size.
On some, I added blue gel pen topped the blue with a clear glitter glue. (Those on the envelopes only have glitter glue.) I also added a little silver dot to the center of the snowflakes I mounted on the card. These are the smallest snowflakes on the invitations, located closest to the bottom of the card. The second snowflake is a made of plain white felt. I found these snowflakes at Target in the same bin as the paper package. The snowflake at the top was made by mounting a snowflake sticker onto teal circles and hand cutting around the outside edge.
Clear snowflake stickers.
Left over circles from another project.
I simply staggered the snowflakes when I mounted them and used 3D foam mounting dots to add extra dimension when mounting the smallest snowflake at the bottom. Finally, I stamped “Save the Date!” on that adorable polka dot paper and then stuck it on a white “tag” that I had cut out on my Cricut. I added a little line/dot pattern around the outside edge with a black Sharpie and used red ink on edges of the tag. I curled blue wire around the shaft of pen and then twisted it to create a bit of a whimsical look. Finally, I added a bit of embellishment to the envelopes so they would coordinate with the invitation and then added the girl’s names.
Here is the finished invitation.
Here you can see the decorated invitation as well as the printing on the other side.
The invitation and envelope.
Here are all four, ready to be stuffed and delivered.
I am so glad to have the invitations done. We will let them dry over night and then deliver them tomorrow. Hopefully all of the girls can make it!
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I am still working on a few items for the Boston Pizza Restaurant in my kindergarten classroom, but it is already up and running. I will add the extra items as I find and finish them. I really tried to make this fun and a great learning opportunity as well. Play is such an important part of learning and should never be considered meaningless or a waste of time. Here are just a few of the concepts I tried to incorporate to make the play area not only fun, but educational as well:
size comparison (small, medium and large ~ pizzas and drinks)
play money (opportunities to use play money for the exchange of goods and begin to learn the monetary value of the coins and bills as well as their names)
writing (orders can be taken or for those not yet ready, I created a “write and wipe” order sheet that is laminated)
reading (the signs in and around the restaurant as well as the menus)
math (number recognition, simple addition for those that pursue it, money concepts and even fractions)
how to set the table properly (use the placemats to properly set the table for customers)
learn about the different roles of the people who work in the restaurant (Chef, server, dish washer, host, etc)
fractions ~ we talked about how if one person likes a topping and the other doesn’t, you could order your pizza with a topping on only 1/2 of the pizza
manners and customer service
phone etiquette
taking turns (only 5 children allowed in the center at one time and deciding who will work in the restaurant and who the customers will be)
vocabulary development
the opportunities for learning really are endless and something that is so engaging also makes a great springboard for other learning activities in the classroom
*Be sure to click on the first image. It will take you to the enlarged slide show and reveal the captions.
Welcome to Boston Pizza!
This bucket is on the floor beside the “Daily Special” sign. It contains two purses and two wallets with play money and credit cards for our customers.
Another shot of our “hostess” area complete with a white board for the kids to write down the “daily specials”.
Behind the hostess desk and welcome sign are our cash register, phone, cups, salt and pepper and cheese shaker.
You can see that I kept most of my house center appliances for the restaurant. There is a pocket chart on the back wall with applicable vocabulary.
Here is a shot of the restaurant from another angle. The long prep counter is actually a closet from my house center that I flipped on its side. The red tubs below contain the serving trays, placemats, aprons, pizza boxes, menus and order clip boards.
I made these menus specifically for our restaurant. They are laminated, so that they’ll be more durable.
Here is an inside shot of the menu. You can see that it is quite simple for the kids to read. The dessert menu is on the back.
Here are shots of both types of our order forms.
The placemats are out and the table is ready to be set.
The pizza crusts and sauce sit on the end of the prep counter.
The toppings sit along the back of the prep counter.
Here is a shot of our three pizza boxes.
A small pizza ready to be served.
The parmesan cheese was made with shredded yellow paper and the inside of the lid was taped off so nothing will actually shake out.
Some of these concepts are definitely more applicable to a classroom or day care setting, but setting up a similar play area for your little ones can foster the same great learning opportunities at home. Let me know if this sparks some creative play ideas in your home, classroom or day care!
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I have been working on transforming my play kitchen at school into a pizza restaurant. I will share the entire center, but wanted to start by sharing the pretend pizza. My goal was to create pretend pizza that I could use over and over again, year after year. I wanted to put big effort into the creation of the center, so that I could simply store the items away when it is not in use and pull them out the following year. I didn’t want to have to re-collect and re-make items for the restaurant. I came up with this idea for the pizza and they turned out great. I am still on the look-out for a 12″ wooden base, but otherwise the pizzas are done. This would be great for any classroom, day care or child that loves to engage in dramatic play. What a great DIY gift for that special little one who loves pretend play.
Thrift Shop finds were used to create a nice solid wood base for the pizzas.
The pizza crusts and sauce sit on the end of the prep counter.
The felt “sauce” clings to the felt crust of the pizza.
Felt toppings were cut out and labeled: olives, green pepper and ham.
There’s also pepperoni, pineapple, mushrooms and cheese.
A small pizza ready to be served.
Any child that likes to play house would love this as a gift or play center at school or day care. The bases were not easy to find, but the felt pieces were super easy to make. You might be able to opt for plastic or metal plates/trays if you are finding the wood bases too hard to find. I really had/have my heart set on wood, so I will continue to look for a piece that will work for our “large” pizza.
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Lately, I have been spending more time than usual checking out the local thrift shops because I have been on the look out for something very specific. I recently converted my “house center” into a “Boston Pizza” restaurant in my Kindergarten classroom. I have been working on this project for several weeks and it has all come together quite nicely, but there are a few things I have not yet completed. I will share an entire post on the center because I do think this could be really great for early years teachers, child care workers or mom’s of little ones. It has only been up and running a few days, but it is a big hit! However, one of the projects I have yet to complete is the “large” size pizza. I really wanted to create a center that would be durable and so I wanted to create the pretend pizzas out of wood. I found both “small” and “medium” circular pieces of wood, but am still in need of a finished piece of wood that is 12″ in diameter. Here is a picture of the wood pieces that I purchased on a previous thrift shop trip. You can see that the larger was some kind of a “lazy-Susan” or something and the second is the base of the little stand in the background. I am looking for any kind of circular wooden piece that is light in colour and has no splinters or rough edges. Both of the ones I previously found work great.
I have looked at cutting boards, lamp bases, stands, serving platters, stool tops, etc, but still can’t seem to find exactly what I am looking for. At this point, I would even consider buying something new if it met my specifications. Anyways, my search continues to bring me into thrift shops on a pretty regular basis.
I was so excited about my last two trips to the thrift store, that I just had to share. This shopping trip took place near the end of our Christmas vacation. I generally don’t buy clothes, but found a few goodies that I just couldn’t resist. Check out how far $17 can go!
Forever 21 sweater dress.
A sweater and a blouse. I love the stitching on this top!
Pretty summer tank style blouse for myself.
A very solid wood frame, 2 old embroidery rings, sunflower embellishments, piping, rick-rack, a fastner and a few zippers.
A cool chain for Shay.
A hooded sweater for Eden.
Now, I have to admit that I thought this trip was fabulous…what great deals! That was of course until my most recent shopping trip. Do you want to know what you can buy at a thrift store for $12.20? You won’t believe it…..
A large glass bottle with a cork stopper….will you look at the little star etched on the side?
2 unopened wooden coffee mug stands and a pair of leather garbage mitts.
and 6 beautiful scarves!
Remember, I entered the store for one purpose….one 12″ round wooden tray/circle. I don’t go to this particular store very often, so I was pretty much doing a quick once over to check it out. The scarves were neatly hanging at the end of an aisle and one of them caught my eye, so I decided to look through the large assortment and came up with 6 great scarves. My daughter is into scarves too, so we often share and I knew she would love the colours as much as I did. Just one wash away from some great new looks! I honestly don’t know why I bought the mug stands, but I thought I might be able to use them for storage at school or my scrapbooking room. They are brand new and were only 30 cents each. I figure they’re cheaper than the logs in my firewood pile, so technically I could burn them and still feel like I came out ahead. I could not believe my luck when I found the black leather garbage mitts that were not only in great condition, but also only one dollar. I managed to squeeze my non-injured hand in the left mitten and figured they would fit Shay perfectly. He loved them at first as well, but was a bit troubled when he couldn’t get his thumb in the hole of the right mitten.
Leather garbage mitts…what a buy! Not really.
Oh well, you win some and you lose some. I don’t suppose I should re-donate them, I don’t think there are too many people out there with two left hands! Even with my one little oversight, can you believe all the stuff I nabbed up for under $30 in total? In fact, when I gave Shay the chain, he told me that the chain and the sock monkey I made him were his two favourite gifts even though he didn’t get them for Christmas. He kept saying how spoiled he was and that I shouldn’t spoil him so much. Funny, he was much more excited and appreciative of the two gifts with a combined dollar value of less than 3 bucks. I wish I would have known that before we blew a wad of cash on him for Christmas. I’ll keep that in mind for next year. Sentiment goes along way with that boy!
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These cookies are like shortbread and matrimonial cake (date squares) all in one. Yummy! I don’t make these very often because the batter is dangerously delicious. I can’t honestly say how many cookies this makes because I ate far too much cookie dough and made two different sized cookies. Being “sandwich” cookies, you need two cookies for each one. I ended up with 30 1 1/2″ cookies and 40 1″ cookies . The cookies do not “rise”, so the size you cut is what you end up with and they can be placed quite close on the baking sheet.
Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies:
Ingredients:
1 lb. softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups of flour
4 cups of oatmeal
Instructions:
Use your hands to mix the ingredients in a large bowl. Flour your counter well and knead the dough until it is rollable. (I sandwich a lump of dough between two sheets of parchment paper and use the rolling-pin on top of the parchment paper. This really helps to avoid the dough/cookies getting stuck on the counter or gooping up the rolling-pin.) Use a cookie cutter to cut the cookies into about 1 1/2″ circles and cook at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes. (I like mine slightly under-cooked so I baked mine for 8 minutes.)
Date Filling:
1/2 lb. dates
3/4 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Boil and stir until thick with most of the lumps gone. Cool the mixture a little and fill the cookies.
As an alternative, you can fill the cookies with butter icing or jam. I have never used jam, but icing is always a hit!
Okay, I have to start this post by confessing that my husband is always getting after me for my inappropriate use of tools around the house. It is like I have my very own Work Place Health and Safety Officer ~ lucky for me, that he has not yet fired me. My motto is not so much “Safety 1st!”, but more so “Get ‘r done!”. For the most part, I have been seemingly unscathed other than the hidden effects of self-inflicted lead poisoning over the years. (I am much more cautious now and always wear a mask, but not so much in the past. Yikes!!) So, my husband was not surprised when I cut my thumb on Sunday evening preparing supper. Just so you know, those handy little “mandolin” slicers do thumbs as well as carrots! Yep! Took the end of my thumb right off. I wouldn’t really describe his response as sympathetic, more of an “u-hu…”, you know kind of like “I told you so” without using the actual words. He did help me bandage it up and attempted to reassure me by telling me not to bother going to emergency as they wouldn’t be able to do anything and that there was really no need to keep the tip I had so carefully dug out of the carrot bowl. Ugh!
He had to leave for work shortly after it happened and I was supposed to get my son to hockey practise, but thought I would phone Health Links to see what kind of pain killers might help. In the end, I had to lie to the nurse and tell her I would find someone to drive me to emergency. She said they would stitch it or glue it, but I knew that wasn’t happening because the end of my thumb was already in the garbage by that time. I did take her advice and continue to apply pressure in an attempt to stop the bleeding and tried to keep it elevated. The bleeding had slowed, so I packed Shay up and got in the van for hockey, but as soon as I began to move and stopped applying pressure the bleeding started all over again. We came back in and Shay texted the coach to say we wouldn’t be able to make it. I called my cousin, a nurse practitioner and my own personal medical consulted, and she agreed that there was no point in going to the ER. She gave me some suggestions and it seems better today.
Luckily, it is my day off, so I am able to sit around and not do much. I am even able to type using the side of my thumb without too much pain. However, I was in desperate need of a shower and feeling a bit worried about breaking it open again when the wound is still so fresh. Suddenly, I had a wave of brilliance and thought of a possible solution. My first thought was a balloon of a more personal nature, but we don’t have any of those, so I opted for the bag of dollar store balloons I still have from the snow lanterns. It worked! No wet soggy band-aid falling off and I didn’t re-open the wound. Yay! You might just want to add a balloon to your first-aid kit. Although you could use latex gloves, I was really not wanting to wear a whole glove and the elasticity of the balloon neck really helped to seal it off.
My Balloon-aid:
S
Great for taking a shower or washing dishes!
Warning: Although this is a great way to protect your bandaged wounds from getting weight, it also means that you may be back on dish duty!
I am not claiming to be the inventor of this idea, but thought it up all by myself and thus have no one to offer credit to. So, to those like-minded individuals that may have had the same brain wave, prior to mine, I apologize if I have stolen your thunder. You know what they say “Great minds think alike”!
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I got this great idea from a fellow hockey mom. She has 3 boys and her strategy for staying on top of laundry is simple and yet brilliant. She designates a day of the week for each of her boys and does their laundry on that specific day. She said her boys really don’t have anything white and if there is the odd article, she saves it for the one load of whites she does each week. Otherwise, she throws all of their laundry in the washer in one load. No sorting of colors or separating one kid’s clothes from the other. Everything goes in all at once. Wash. Dry. Fold. Put away. Done. Having a daughter, I know that you would probably have at least two loads with all those pinks and a variety of other pastel colours, but still a great idea.
Typically, we have done all of the laundry on the weekends and this was often up to 8 loads. It seemed like the whole weekend was spent doing laundry. What drove me the most crazy was that Eden would “try-on” a medley of outfits during the week, trying to decide on the perfect look for any given day and then toss all the rejects into her laundry basket without having ever worn them. This was an on-going battle at our house and so we came to an agreement ~ I wouldn’t hassle her about her laundry, if she took over the task of doing it. So, she now does her own laundry and it dropped from about 8 loads a week to 4 (for me to do). It is amazing how much less laundry there is without her entire wardrobe in the mix!
Doing Shay’s separately, makes this job even easier. I would never normally do laundry on a work day, but one load is super manageable and prevents that big pile up at the end of the week. Although Shay is only 9, I can see how this can easily progress into him washing and drying his own clothes. He already puts his basket of clean clothes away, but has not yet been washer/dryer trained. However, if the task is as easy as removing the few pairs of white socks from the pile and then tossing everything else into the washer, I know he could easily manage that. I guess that will be next on the “training” list.
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Well, it’s January and with it brings Eden’s 12th birthday. I can’t believe it….she is already booked for her first babysitting job. Now that the kids are getting older, they aren’t very interested in the “over-the-top” theme parties that I used to do. I still like to make a nice invitation and cake, but the theme related games, decorations and activities seem like they are becoming nothing more than a distant memory. How sad! I used to love pulling those parties together ~ maybe I’ll be a Party Planner in my next stage of life? We hope to finalize some plans and pull things together for finalizing her plans for this year, but I know that my role is progressively becoming less significant as the girls are quite happy just to hang-out and amuse themselves, but in honour of her January birthday I thought I would share some ideas from one of her past parties.
Snowman Birthday Party
I need to begin by saying that this was early on in my birthday party planning craze and I was not yet adept at making sure every single detail was taken care of. She didn’t have a birthday party with friends until she started pre-school. Because the party was primarily adults, there weren’t any games, activities or loot bags. I have included some of the ideas I used for Eden’s party, but have also included several others that I either thought of or found on the web. This party was back in the “olden days”, pre-digital camera and I couldn’t find the negatives anywhere. I am embarrassed to say that the pictures I am sharing are photos of photos. How tacky! Anyway, no other choice. I was also quite surprised to learn that I don’t even have a full picture of the birthday banner. I think I got better at taking photos of everything, as I did more parties.
cake(s) ~ plan, design and bake a cake/cupcakes (or save the hassle and order one)
loot bags
Snowman Party Invitations:
There really is nothing fabulous about the invitations I did for Eden’s party. I was not yet into card making and thought I was brilliant because I scanned the napkin so that the invitations matched the napkins. They were fine, but nothing special. I would do something totally different now that I am into scrapbooking and card making. If you simply google “snowman birthday invitations” under images, you will see hundreds of great ideas. You can also refine your search to “homemade snowman birthday invitations” for even more ideas. I often search the web for ideas before coming up with my own.
Snowman Party Decorations:
Again, I don’t seem to have great pictures from the party, but below are a few of my favourite party ideas from her snowman themed party. I always make a huge hand-painted birthday banner that is theme related. This might have been the first year I started this tradition! I don’t have a picture of the whole banner, but I remember it was on black with both light blue and white paint. My favourite part was the snowman family in the bottom left corner. Each member of our family made a footprint and then I added the details to make them into snowmen for the banner. Of course, there were snowflakes painted on the banner as well. After the party, I cut-out Eden’s footprint and included it in the scrapbook layout from her 3rd birthday party. The foot print is a great memory in itself. I did something similar for Shay’s pirate birthday with a hand print parrot on his banner.
For this party, I wanted to have an indoor snowman for photo opps. I purchased a large white Christmas tree bag over the holidays and then we stuffed it with shredded paper. It worked fine, but it was quite a bit of work collecting enough paper and you really had to have white or it showed through. If I were doing it again, I would use some of the other great ideas I found on Pinterest for making indoor snowmen. When I think back to the planning of her party 9 years ago, I realize how much has changed in terms of technology. I did find some ideas on line back then, but the ideas (especially the images) were quite limited. Social media sites like Pinterest have made it so much easier to share great ideas.
For the centrepiece on the table, I made a snowman ice sculpture. I froze water in balloons (with varying amounts of water in each) and then melted the flat side slightly so that the balls would adhere to one another. This worked perfectly. I added the embellishments the same way…..I slightly melted the area I wanted to adhere the eyes and then attached them. I did prepare the snowman ahead and re-froze him on my steps. Very cute!
I really don’t have a picture of them, but I had also used plain white balloons that I decorated with a face and hat so that they all looked like snowmen. They also turned out well.
Here are a few pictures from Eden’s Snowman Party.
You can see Eden’s birthday banner in the background of this picture.
Footprint snowman
Snowman Ice Sculpture
Stuffed snowman
This “handprint” parrot was on a Pirate Party Birthday Banner that I made for Shay. Click the image to see the Pirate Party post.
When preparing for this post, I found so many other great ideas. If I were doing another Snowman party, I might consider including some of these great ideas.
As mentioned earlier in the post, I didn’t plan anything for our party as Eden was only 3 and it consisted primarily of adults and older kids. However, being a teacher, I can tell you that there are many great ideas based on a winter/snow/snowman theme. Pinterest is always a great source, but here are a few that I came up with quite quickly. Of course, you would need to pick activities that are age appropriate.
pin the carrot on the snowman (you could even use the refrigerator for this as shown in the pictures above)
in a perfect world you could actually go outside and build a snowman with the freshly fallen sticky snow (Ha! Ha!)
marshmallow snowman (lick and stick the marshmallows on paper to make a snowman picture)
Snowman Bowling
Make your own snowman.
Snow globes.
There are so many fabulous ideas for this theme, I could go on forever, but I am becoming deeply saddened that I will probably never get to plan another snowman party again. Rats! I would do it SOOOO much better if I had another chance.
Snowman Party Foods:
Snowman Marshmallow Pops
Snowman Milk Bottles
Snowman Popcorn Cups
Snowman Cheese Strings
Snowman Cake and Cupcakes:
For Eden’s party, I opted for a 3D snowman cake. I wanted a really bright white icing and so I used my mom’s recipe for 7-Minute Frosting. I find it a bit sweet now, but it was my favourite when I was a kid. Again, you can search for all kinds of great cake and cupcake ideas, but here is a picture of Eden’s cake. I actually can’t totally remember what I made the hat out of, but I want to say a “wagon wheel” with chocolate cookies stacked on top?? The hat is very dark in all of the pictures and I made this cake 9 years ago, so I don’t exactly remember. I still have the print out of the recipe and directions, but I know I did a bit of my own thing as well. I tried to find the link, but the page is no longer there. Sorry! Again, this is certainly not one of my better cakes, but I guess it illustrates my growth and development….let’s celebrate that! What drives me the most crazy is that I actually left the finished snowman displayed on a messy plate. I can’t believe I wouldn’t have cleaned-up the icing drips and crumbs ~ what was I thinking?
Eden’s Snowman Cake
Eden’s Snowman Cake
Loot Bags:
I didn’t hand-out any loot bags at the family party we had, but here are a few ideas:
a snowman cookie in a cellophane bag (I have made those melted snowman cookies before and they are so cute!)
snowman kit (I’ve included the link to mine, but you could make a much simpler version if you had lots to make.)
crazy carpet
snowman or winter book
snowman soup (hot chocolate, marshmallows, candy stick (candy cane), chocolate kisses). There is a little poem to go with this, but it is a bit more geared to Christmas. I am sure it could be modified. I have sometimes made these as little Christmas gifts.
the crafts the kids make at the party will be taken home as well (example – a snow globe)
you could even put all of the loot in a “snowman’s” hat in lieu of a bag
This is theme is so much fun and the ideas are literally endless. So, if you have a winter birthday party to plan why not plan your own snowman party?
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