Sweetest School Support

Can you believe "back-to-school" time is here already? Now that I am no longer a teacher, I can join the other moms and dads and be ecstatic for this wonderful time of year!!

 As a little back to school treat I am making these candy bars for my daughter. They are encouraging and so sweet (hehe excuse the pun!). I found them over at Sugar to Designs and the printable is free.

Go ahead,sweeten up your little scholar's day. :) 

 Love and lots more free time, Kerry, the Momster 

Mad Magnets

For a recent road trip to Daytona beach I went a little nuts making goodie bags to keep the kids entertained. This little magnet toy was such a hit with my daughter that I thought I would share. I used a cd tin and drew the background ocean scene on paper. Then I found 2 small pictures of the kiddies, cut them out and glued to a magnet sheet (you can also print directly onto magnet sheets, but I use recycled calendar magnets that we get from realtors and such like-read:free!). After that I used beach themed stickers stuck ont magnet sheets and cutout. Voila! Beach magnet scene toy ready and waiting. All the pieces fit nicely in the tin, and it is small enough to put in any purse for entertainment-on-the-go boring errand days.

Love and games,
Kerry, the momster.

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Summer Fun

My kiddies are a handful to entertain in the summer but this recipe for sidewalk paint was so easy, cheap and had them entertained for ages! Right after I plonked them in the bath and they were delighted by how the water turned colors too!

Recipe: 1 cup corstarch to 1 cup water, mixed with food colorings of your choice. Seperate into muffin tins.

Love and color,
Kerry
The momster

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These, as our love, will last forever.

Nothing says love like handmade flowers.If you are like me, and despise roses, then whip up your own bunch of colorful carnations for Valentines Day. They are very, very easy. So easy, that I had time to write "easy" twice. :)

Start with tissue paper, folded in half until there is a stack. You can use multiple colors for the same flower, or single colors. These are yours, so there are no rules. (Well except that there is no crying in baseball, that rule applies everywhere)

Cut a stack into dog bone shapes. You can make a template or free-cut. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Using a pipe cleaner push up through the layers of paper. Then fan the "bones" around until they are evenly distributed. After that push the pipe cleaner back through the papers and wind around the base of the stem.

Pink Flower done :)

Smells good too! (No, not really)

Now, go make some!
Love and blooms,
Kerry, the Momster

Soft as petals.

Felt flowers are fun!

A cute little felt flower tutorial, for your tiniest valentines. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy, and so cute, you might become a felt flower addict.

Start with a square (I divided one piece of felt into 6 squares)

Draw a spiral. As you do more, you may not need to draw them anymore, and just cut blindly.

Cut some petals too, if you like.

My favorite weapon in my craft box: glue gun! (but you can use liquid glue)

Cut the spiral...

Now roll and glue from the middle, round and round ( like rolling a sleeping bag)

More of the rolling...

When finished, glue the end. Now glue on some petals, and use to decorate your children. :) I glued a safety pin onto one, and a hair clip onto another. You can use them to embellish gifts, shoes, hairbands, tacoss... ok, maybe not tacos.

Pro Felt flower model.

Love and little flowers, Kerry the Momster

Keep Kids Koloring (Kaylee's title)

MY daughter sits near me hovering over my shoulder as I type. So I will be setting her up with a drawing activity at the close of this post. It's a short post, because I find it rather difficult to type when a 6 yr old is reading everything aloud as I write. Like a munchkin feedback. I came across this fantastic little site, which teaches kids how to draw cartoons. Every kind, from SpongeBob to Star Wars. My favorite is the dragon. It has varying levels of difficulties, so is great for many age groups. Better yet, it's FREE!!!

 Keep them busy for at least a day on this VERY long winter break.So grab pencils, paper and crayons and get those kids writing comic strips, or drawing cards for the coming year. Just get them busy! How to Draw Cartoons

Love and industrious little ones,
Kerry the Momster

A Reindeers got to munch!

We made this awfully fun, terribly delicious (as in I couldn't stop eating it!) little treat called Reindeer Munch. Even though it looks like a gooey, dirty mess- well, it is- it is music to your mouth!
I used this recipe from We Got to Eat.

Reindeer Munch

 Active Cooking Time: 20 min. Total Time: 50 min.

INGREDIENTS

2 c. bite-size square-shaped rice cereal, such as Chex

2 c. thin pretzel sticks

1 c. salted cocktail peanuts (or use soy nuts)

1 c. dried cranberries

1 c. candy-coated milk-chocolate pieces, such as M&M's

12 oz. vanilla-flavored candy coating or white candy melts

 

DIRECTIONS

1. In a very large bowl combine the cereal, pretzels, peanuts, cranberries and candy pieces; set aside.

2. Chop candy coating; in a medium microwave-safe bowl melt it according to package directions. Pour over cereal mixture; toss to coat.

3. Spread mixture on a large piece of foil. Let stand until set (about 30 minutes). Break into bite-size pieces. Makes 12 cups (24 1/2-cup servings).

Dry Ingredients 

Pouring in M&Ms

Myfavorite Part:melted candy!

Messy Goodness, The candy drying.. 

Paper cone lined with wax paper.

Finished cone, sealed with a sticker 

Reindeer Munch Paper Bags, ready for the kids on Christmas Eve.

Kaylee and I then made little signs and two different packaging types. Make sure to line whatever packaging you prefer (the paper cones, or paper bags) with wax paper, as this can get messy and leave wet marks on the paper. Or if you prefer to eat most of it, whilst watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, you may join my couch potato club and do just that.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Love and little snacks,

Kerry the Momster.

Festival of Lights

Hannukah starts this evening! We decided to make a homemade Menorrah that has removable (and no chance of burning) candles . It was pretty simple...

Supplies:
Blue Cardboard Cut into 8 equal parts and one longer piece
Orange tissue paper ( cut into flames)
Silver ribbon
Glue
Tape
Styrofoam Tray
Toothpicks (broken in half)
Decorating items (optional)

How to:

1. Roll the cardboard into cylinders and tape
2. Glue silver ribbon pieces into cutout paper flames
3. tape flames into cylinders
4. Tape toothpick halves to bottom inside of cylinders
5. Decorate candles
6. Stick in styrofoam (one for each day!)

Love and little hugs,
Kerry the Momster

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, me up!

Gobble Gobble!

My love for cake-pops knows no seasonal boundaries. I wish I could say these were the lovechild of my own creativeness, but they are in fact inspired by the beautiful Bakerella(search for turkey cakepops on her site).

The turkey making station.

Mine were made with the left over cake from my son's first birthday, which I had frozen. Then crumbled the chocolate-deliciousness into chocolate frosting and froze into little balls. The I experimented with various candies to come up with a turkey face I was happy with. I settled on rolled fondant icing for the heads, cracked orange circle sprinkles for the beaks, pink starbursts for the wattles, and tiny rolled up pieces of tootsie rolls for the eyes. The tail feathers are candy corns pushed into the cakes after dipping in the candy coating.

It was a fun little project that my daughter and niece are going to love at their place settings at dinner.

     I am thankful for so much this year, the usual stuff:family, friends, my health- but I REALLY feel it this year. Straight through the heart. As my good buddy Bjork says (okay we are not buddies in the real sense, only in the creepy I hang on to every note she sings sense), "All is full of love."

Happy Thanksgiving Momsters!
Love and grateful hearts,
Kerry, the Momster

Bento Box

My little girl's lunch today. Trust me its not an everyday affair, but once in a while I love to make cute lunches for her. I just make do with things I already have and present them in different ways. Here we have boiled egg faces, with black olive eyes, resting on angel hair spaghetti with sauce, skewers with hotdogs, cheese and black olives (my daughter loves olives even though I cant stand them), carrots and mini hummus, and two mini snickers. Bon' appetit!

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Bread and bones

Family fun has this awesome edible craft which we tried today. I jazzed it up with bit of olive oil and dusted with sesame seeds before cooking. Bones for dinner anyone? Happpy Halloween!

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hearts for pappap

A little craft we turned into a card for our beloved PapPaps birthday. Made from one of those pixos heart shapes and then glued onto cardstock. The rest is pretty self explanatory ;-). But we like how it turned out. Hope everyone is havinga wonderfully relaxing long weekend!

Love and craftiness,
Kerry the Momster

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Quick Kebabs

One of my favorite and oh-so-easy weeknight dinners. Pick some veggies ( I like bell peppers,onions and mushrooms- I never quite know if the latter is considered a veggie or not) , some pineapple- for distinctly carribean flavor, and some chicken smothered in barbecue sauce. Stick them in a pallet pleasing rainbow through skewers, season with salt and grill about 10 minutes... serve with rice and some guacomole for extra taste. Crack open a light beer and...
Voila! Backyard Bahamas.

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