cute cupcake: butterfly

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Here's another cupcake for my weekly cupcake post. With the beautiful Spring weather we've been having, we've seen quite a few butterflies fluttering around our yard. This butterfly cupcake was incredibly easy to make using only a few easy to find candies. I took a prepared and frosted cupcake and added a sour gummy worm for the body, 4 candy-coated almonds for the wings, black gel icing colour dotted on with a toothpick for the eyes, and 2 chocolate sprinkles for the antennae. Couldn't be easier!



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cute cupcake: snail

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Here's another cute cupcake, perfect for Spring. It was super simple to make, using regular candies you can find anywhere. The snail was made out of a sour gummy worm, a hard candy for the shell, 2 chocolate sprinkle antennae, and black gel icing dotted on with a toothpick for the eyes. I also cut 2 green leaves out of green taffy to add a little more to the cupcake. Super simple and super cute for Spring.




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cute cupcake: fly a kite

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Here's the next cute cupcake in my cute cupcake series. If you missed it last week, I'm going to be posting a new cupcake every week in a Spring/Summer theme for the next 3 months. I picked the kite cupcake today because of the beautiful Spring day we had today. Warm, gorgeous weather, perfect for flying a kite. All of my cupcakes will be simple to make. Here's how I made this cupcake:

What you'll need:

1 baked cupcake
white frosting
blue gel icing colour
4 different coloured starburst
black licorice lace

1. Take some blue gel icing colour and colour some white icing. Spread the blue icing on a baked cupcake.

2. Cut all four of your starburst candies and cut them into quarters. Use 1 quarter from each colour and arrange in a kite shape on your cupcake.

3. Cutt off a piece of your black licorice lace and place on your cupcake for the kite string.



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cute cupcakes: caterpillar

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I've recently gone a little "cupcake crazy" in my house and I have made about a million cupcakes. They aren't fancy cupcakes, just white cake mix and white icing, but the designs on top are something special. I will be sharing 1 cupcake once a week for the next 3 months. All these cupcakes will have either a Spring or Summer theme to them. They are easy to make, cute to look at, and delicious to eat. Can't beat that! With the gorgeous Spring weather we had here yesterday, I thought this cute little caterpillar would be the perfect cupcake to start off my cupcake series. Here's how I made it:

What you'll need:

1 prepared cupcake with white frosting
5 skittles
green taffy
2 chocolate sprinkles
black gel icing
toothpick
knife

1. Take your prepared cupcake and place 5 skittles on top for the caterpillar's body.
2. using your knife, cut 2 leaves out of your green taffy - you can also use your knife to make a line down the center of the leaf - don't cut through it! Place the leaves on the cupcake.
3. add 2 chocolate sprinkles for the caterpillar's antennae
4. dip your toothpick in black gel icing and dot on 2 eyes.



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fingerprint pussywillows

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This is one of two crafts I managed to salvage from my camera's memory card when my hard drive malfunctioned. I lost so many awesome crafts that I did with the kids. I'm really devastated about that. I did find this little gem on my camera's memory card though. I saw the idea of making fingerprint pussywillows in this month's issue of Disney Family Fun and knew it would be a craft we would enjoy. We love all crafts that involve handprints, footprints, fingerprints and thumbprints. This is a really simple Spring craft to make and it looks really pretty. Here's how we made it:

What you'll need:

canvas or paper
brown markers
light grey paint (I mixed white and black together)

Instructions:

1. using your brown marker, draw some pussywillow stems on your canvas

2. get your light grey paint and have your child dip their finger in the paint and stamp all along the pussywillow stems

3. allow to dry and display your masterpiece



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chickie masks

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On to the Easter crafts, and trust me, I have quite a few to post. I had some leftover yellow paper plates from one of the kids birthday parties and thought they would make adorable little chickies. They were beyond simple to make, needing only a few things. Once they dried, the kiddos had fun playing with them. They used the chicks as both masks and puppets. We made them a couple weeks ago and they're still playing with them, although a few parts have had to be re-glued in all the fun. Here is how we made them:

What you'll need:

yellow paper plates - or paint regular ones yellow
googly eyes
feathers
orange craft foam
scissors
glue
popsicle sticks

1. using your scissors, cut a small triangle nose our of your orange craft foam

2. glue 2 googly eyes and the orange nose on the front of the paper plate. Allow to dry.

3. Once the face is dry, flip your plate over and glue a popsicle stick and feathers on the back. Allow to dry.

Have fun!









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rainbow cupcakes

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How about a little rainbow cupcake for St. Patrick's Day? I won't really call this a recipe because I used a boxed cake mix and a can of frosting, but it was a super simple treat to make for the kids. I tinted the frosting blue, used jelly belly jellybeans for the rainbow and gave it a whipped cream cloud. Easy, fun and delicious.

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button rainbows

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Here's yet another craft to satisfy my button obsession. I tried to get Cam to make a button rainbow, but he really had no interest in it what so ever. He finds throwing buttons across the room much more fun! Kirsten had fun sorting all the button colours and then she glued the button on all by herself. My little girl is growing up and just loves doing things all by herself now. Here is how we made this:

What you'll need

buttons - in rainbow colours
glue
canvas

Directions

1. sort your buttons into different coloured piles
2. glue your buttons on the canvas in a rainbow pattern



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fun food friday: a simple flower lunch

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Hello! This weeks fun food friday was made after the kiddos had the stomach flu, so it was another light lunch. They're just starting to get their appetites back, poor little things. I think my kids lived on crackers for a few days. They really loved this lunch and it only took a few minutes to throw together. That's a winning combination if you ask me. Here's how I made it:

4 saltine cracker and peanut butter "sandwiches" with a slice of cucumber for a flower stem and flower kiwis with apple centre.

flower silicone cups filled with unsweetened strawberry kiwi applesauce with sprinkles and sliced kiwis.

Have a great weekend everyone!




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FREE Spring Crafts eBook

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I was beyond thrilled when Allie from No Time for Flashcards (I know you all know that site!) contacted me and asked me to submit a craft for her free Spring Crafts eBook. She worked with Mandi, from Life...Your Way , and they created this awesome eBook to share with everyone. It's a collaboration of more than 25 fabulous Spring crafts coming from 15 wonderful bloggers. I shared my thumbprint hyacinth craft. I am so excited to be able to share this with my readers. Get your FREE eBook here and have fun creating with the kiddos and checking out the other wonderful crafts and bloggers:

Click HERE to download your FREE copy

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balloon print very hungry caterpillar

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My kids love The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It's probably one of their favourite books of all time. I even did a very hungry caterpillar birthday party for Cam's first birthday. You can see his party here . When I saw these balloon print caterpillars on Moments of Mommyhood, I knew I wanted to make them with the kids. Sandy has so many amazing crafts on her blog, you really should go check it out! We had lots of fun stamping balloons. The one pictured is the best one (thanks to some help from me!). Lots of them had extra heads and body parts thanks to Cam! We won't show you those ones. They're a little scary! This was really fun and easy. Plus, I thought that caterpillars would make a great spring time craft. I think next time we do it, I'll use different colours. I didn't love the blue and green paint together. I think they would look awesome if you could mix 2 different shades of green together for the body. Here's how you make them:

What you'll need:

paper
red paint
green paint (use 2 different shades of green, or use blue like me)
blue paint (optional)
2 balloons
paper plates
sharpies or paint for the details

Directions:

1. blow up your balloons just a little bit so the bottom is a small circle. Tie them.
2. pour some red paint on one paper plate.
3. on your other paper plate pour 2 shades of green or green and blue paint - pour them right on top of each other. Don't mix them up. This will give you a cool tie-dyed effect when you stamp them.
4. dip the end of one of your balloons in the red paint and stamp it on the paper for your caterpillar's head.
5. dip your other balloon in the green paint and stamp it on the paper in a caterpillar body shape.
6. when dry, either paint or draw on the details - antennae, eyes, nose, legs



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laundry lid spring flowers

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I absolutely love crafts that use recycled materials. This is one of those crafts. We do an insane amount of laundry in this house. Seriously, I have no idea where it all comes from. With that serious amount of laundry, comes a serious amount of detergent. These little downy fabric softener lids inspired me. I just knew I could come up with a craft for them, and I did. Kirsten thought this craft was hilarious because we not only used laundry soap lids, but we used cupcake liners too. She just loved it! Here's how you can make this:

What you'll need:

paper or canvas
3 paper cupcake liners
3 downy bottle lids
green marker
green craft foam
scissors
glue

These are the downy bottles I'm talking about:



Directions:

1. flatten out your cupcake liners and glue them to the top of your paper.
2. put some glue on your downy lid and glue it to the inside of your cupcake liners.
3. using your green marker, draw some stems on your flowers.
4. using your scissors, cut some leaves out of your green craft foam. Glue these leaves on your flowers.

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fun food friday: spring flower

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This fun food friday is in honor of spring. The kids love quesadillas and they're so easy to make. I always buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store every week and I have fresh, cooked chicken to use for so many recipes. I often make their sandwiches out of this chicken and it's great for these quesadillas too. It's such a great time saver. I am one busy mom and anything that saves some of my time, is totally worth it. Here's how I made this week's lunch:

quesadilla - 2 tortillas with chopped chicken and shredded cheese in the middle - sometimes I throw in some chopped tomatoes, but nothing crazy or my kids won't eat them. Place in a skillet and lightly brown both sides over medium heat. When the cheese is melted, remove from skillet. I use a pizza cutter to cut them up into triangles. Arrange triangles in a flower formation.

Cucumber flower stem and little cup of sour cream for dipping the quesadillas in the centre. Cup of unsweetened blueberry applesauce with sprinkles and cup of sliced cucumbers.

This lunch was a hit with the kids, although neither of them ate it all because I think it was just too much food for them. That's ok though, mommy was very happy to finish their quesadilla leftovers ;-)



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thumbprint hyacinth

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Bring on the Spring and Easter crafts! Beautiful hyacinths are beginning to make their way into the stores this time of year. I always associate this flower (and of course, Easter lilies) with Easter and Spring. The thought crossed my mind a few weeks ago that I could make hyacinth flowers with our thumbs. Brilliant. Kirsten made this while Cam was napping this past weekend and I just love the way it turned out. Here's how you can make one yourself:

What you'll need:

canvas or paper
purple paint - or you could use pink, blue, etc.
green marker
green craft foam
scissors
glue
a thumb

Instructions:

1. using your green marker, draw a straight line in the middle of your paper or canvas - this will be the hyacinths stem
2. dip your child's thumb in the paint and have them stamp their thumb up one side and down the other of the green line, only doing this on the top half
3. cut two leaves out of your green craft foam and glue them on the bottom of the stem.

Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays



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rainbow shaving cream bath paint

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I decided to include this fun activity with our St. Patrick's day stuff because we made the paints in rainbow colours. This activity is beyond easy and fun. I made one for each of the kids so they wouldn't have to share and there would be no fighting over who got what colour and so on. That was brilliant. It was beautiful, quiet play time. The kids really adored this and played in the tub until the water was cold. I had to fully drain the tub and re-fill it with warm water so I could still give them a bath and get them clean after all this fun. I think they would have played for hours. If you have some foaming shaving cream and food colouring, you can make your very own rainbow bath paint. Just for the record, I have white bathroom tiles and it washed right off beautifully. Here's how to make it:

What you'll need:

foaming shaving cream - I got the stuff for sensitive skin
food colouring
container - I used a silicone muffin pan and it was beyond perfect
paint brushes



How to make it:

1. squirt some foaming shaving cream in each of the 6 compartments of your muffin tin
2. add food colouring to each one to make whatever colours you want - I did rainbow colours. Mix them up well.
3. give to your kiddo in the tub and let them have a blast!









Kirsten's rainbow:



Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays
Linking up to Kids Get Crafty
Linking up to For the Kids Friday



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rainbow xylophone

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Oh my goodness, this was so easy and so fun. It was free too because I had everything on hand. That's always a bonus. Since St. Patty's day is right around the corner, we've been doing a lot of rainbow activities. I thought the kids would love this, and they did. They were really amazed at all the music they could make and how each glass made a different sound. As long as you have food colouring, you'll probably have everything you need to make your very own rainbow water xylophone. Here's how to make it:



What you'll need:

6 glasses
water
food colouring - at least red, yellow, green and blue
xylophone mallet - I used a plastic honey dipper stick for tea and it was great

Directions:

1. line up 6 glasses in a row and fill with water, adding a little more to each glass as you go along
2. using your food colouring, colour the water like a rainbow. You may have to mix colours (red and yellow = orange and blue and red = purple). Kirsten thought this was pretty cool.
3. give your kids a mallet and let them discover the sounds and make beautiful music.













Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays
Linking up to Kids Get Crafty
Linking up to For the Kids Fridays
Linking up to Link and Learn

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will March come in like a lion or a lamb?

Pin It I am so ready for Spring. I remember the saying if March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I certainly do hope that March goes out like a lamb. I don't know how much more snow and cold weather I can handle. I decided to make some handprint crafts with the kids to go along with this saying. We made handprint lions and lambs. We all know how I love me some handprint crafts. Here's how we made them:

Kirsten's and Cam's handprint lions





What you'll need:

For the lion:

orange/yellow mixed paint
paint brush
paper
googly eyes
glue
scissors
craft foam - orange, yellow, brown, cut into strips
sharpie

Directions:

For the lion:

1. mix up some yellow and orange paint until you get a nice dark yellow colour.
2. paint your child's palm and have them stamp it on a piece of paper.
3. glue on two googly eyes.
4. using your craft foam strips, glue on a lion's mane and tail.
5. draw a face on your lion with the sharpie

Kirsten's and Cam's handprint lambs:





What you'll need:

For the lamb:

black paint
paint brush
paper
googly eyes
glue
cotton balls
sharpie

Directions:

For the lamb:

1. paint your child's palm with the black paint and have them stamp it on a piece of paper.
2. glue on two googly eyes.
3. glue some cotton balls on the lamb's body.
4. draw a face, some ears, and a tail on your lamb with the sharpie

Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays
Linking up to Kids Get Crafty
Linking up to For the Kids Fridays



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