STORY & ACTIVITY TIME: Clara the Cookie Fairy

My daughter got this book as a gift. And both of my girls LOVE it!

Its concept is pretty simple, the main characters are a part of a fairy girl scout type troop who sells cookies to go camping. They make their cookies using magic wands. One girl tosses her wand because she got a new shinier one... well, it breaks and she is so sad she can't find her old one. The fairies end up starting a swap/recycling center and (spoiler alert) she gets her old wand back. Its not very long and its cute and rhymes. I loved the cute and fun way of introducing the importance of recycling!

CRAFT TIME:

The craft was very simple and went directly with the spirit of the book itself. We made wands using only items we could find in our craft boxes. We ended up using some paper straws for the handle, each girl picked out some paper and I cut their favorite shape, we had left over ribbons, stickers, glitter, etc from other projects that we used to decorate.

STORY & ACTIVITY TIME: How Many Stars in the Sky

STORY & ACTIVITY TIME : Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM

This one was fun to do!

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" is a favorite in our house.

Such a simple craft idea too that cost next to nothing!

Supplies:
- alphabet stickers (we got ours from the dollar section at target)
- paper towel roll
- green scrapbook/construction paper
- scotch tape
- markers

(since my minis are still little, I started the craft by cutting palm leaves for the top of the tree, my oldest (3 at the time) helped me place the palm leaves at the top of the tree)

After reading the book we went back through page by page and used our alphabet stickers to stick all over our "palm tree". It was that simple!

Lenten Cross: Candles for Lent

So, by now we know from my post about a kid friendly advent wreath (found here) that I'm pretty much obsessed with salt dough.

I came across Lenten Crosses on an Online Catholic Bookstore and further google-ing led me to more examples from Catholic Icing's pinterest.

Its like an advent wreath...but for lent.

So, we made up some salt dough (recipe found here) and added a red candle this time, and here is our final result:

(order to light the candles here:)

King Cake!

Peppermint Hot Chocolate at Home & on a budget!

I don't know about many of y'all, but being a single income family, on a sole first responder income, we are definitely on a budget.

This was a huge adjustment (first world problems, I know!) going from being able to do much of anything I cared to do to not being able to (& I was never a big spender).

One of my favorite treats in the winter months are hot chocolates from either Panera (because of their chocolate chip marshmallows!) or Starbucks. But, at upwards of $3-4 dollars for a cup, that just wasn't happening anymore!

I've been experimenting with new recipes at home.

 My favorite so far:

- 2 packets of Swiss Miss ($1.04 for a box of 10 packets at Target!)
- 10 kraft jet puffed french vanilla snowman marshmallows
- 3 mini peppermind candycanes
- hot water

(I want to get some hot fudge to mix in with it!)

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Seeds

So, I'm not a fan of much spice but am big on SWEET... and while I love the pumpkin spice smell, I'm not big on how it tastes.

BUT, I wanted to do SOMETHING with the pumpkin seeds from our pumpkins this year. I googled a few different recipes and combined a few for these salted caramel pumpkin seeds!

(cooking times may vary depending on your oven/stove!)

~pre-heat oven to 300 degrees

line baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with a little no stick cooking spray

Then:
~2 cups pumpkin seeds (rinsed & patted dry)
~4 TBSP granulated sugar

Mix the pumpkin seeds and sugar
- Pour spread out on the parchment paper covered baking sheets,

Bake for ~20-30 minutes (I'd start checking on them at 20 minutes, and if they aren't done keep a close eye out every 2 minutes or so!)