Day One
Claire has a two week break from school. Starting this morning. While it is nice not to have to worry about running around to get her there in the morning and to pick her up at lunch time, I am sort of struggling to figure out what will fill our days.
Playdates!
Craft projects!
Cooking projects!
And then there is Baby Benjamin, who spent a lot of the morning grinching about wanting to be held mama, but not like that. And Claire is tolerant, but only up to a point. She's actually taken to covering her ears when he starts screaming in earnest.
Today, I came up with a cooking project (scrambled eggs!) followed by a craft project. She was very helpful with the eggs, in as much as a 2 1/2 year old can be helpful. She let me hold her hand while we broke the eggs, and then I let her mix away for a bit. It's not like she's going to over mix them or something. The craft project was something I'd been thinking about for a while. Recycled Crayon Cakes.
We had a whole tub full of little broken crayon nubbins, that no one wanted to play with, so I checked out the Intar-webs and found a "recipe."
Preheat oven to 150,
1. Peel all those annoying little crayon nubbins. Attempt to get the toddler to help. She will peel half of one, and decide it's too hard. Find clean paper and the remaining whole crayons and get her coloring while you peel.
2. Chop crayons into smaller pieces (depending on whether you use mini-muffin tins or regular ones, this might not be necessary) Even though you have told her multiple times she can't, the toddler will want to help you use the knife.
3. Sort nubbins by color. Toddler is very good at this. Pile into muffin tins, either by color, or by making rainbow cups.
4. Bake for 25 minutes or so until melted. Cool in the freezer and remove from cups. Marvel that it actually worked! And your brand new mini-muffin tin (a gift from your mom-in-law) isn't ruined!
5. Show your husband - who will think they are edible.
Now you've got something cute to share with playgroup, or your playdates this week. You can even wrap some up to give to the big sister of the family you will be bringing dinner to later this afternoon.
**Note - regular crayons work best, Crayola, or those cheapie ones you get with kids meals at a lot of restaurants. The Melissa and Doug crayons don't melt at the same temprature and result in lumpy cakes.
Playdates!
Craft projects!
Cooking projects!
And then there is Baby Benjamin, who spent a lot of the morning grinching about wanting to be held mama, but not like that. And Claire is tolerant, but only up to a point. She's actually taken to covering her ears when he starts screaming in earnest.
Today, I came up with a cooking project (scrambled eggs!) followed by a craft project. She was very helpful with the eggs, in as much as a 2 1/2 year old can be helpful. She let me hold her hand while we broke the eggs, and then I let her mix away for a bit. It's not like she's going to over mix them or something. The craft project was something I'd been thinking about for a while. Recycled Crayon Cakes.
We had a whole tub full of little broken crayon nubbins, that no one wanted to play with, so I checked out the Intar-webs and found a "recipe."
Preheat oven to 150,
1. Peel all those annoying little crayon nubbins. Attempt to get the toddler to help. She will peel half of one, and decide it's too hard. Find clean paper and the remaining whole crayons and get her coloring while you peel.
2. Chop crayons into smaller pieces (depending on whether you use mini-muffin tins or regular ones, this might not be necessary) Even though you have told her multiple times she can't, the toddler will want to help you use the knife.
3. Sort nubbins by color. Toddler is very good at this. Pile into muffin tins, either by color, or by making rainbow cups.
4. Bake for 25 minutes or so until melted. Cool in the freezer and remove from cups. Marvel that it actually worked! And your brand new mini-muffin tin (a gift from your mom-in-law) isn't ruined!
5. Show your husband - who will think they are edible.
Now you've got something cute to share with playgroup, or your playdates this week. You can even wrap some up to give to the big sister of the family you will be bringing dinner to later this afternoon.
**Note - regular crayons work best, Crayola, or those cheapie ones you get with kids meals at a lot of restaurants. The Melissa and Doug crayons don't melt at the same temprature and result in lumpy cakes.
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