Reindeers & Snickerdoodles

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I've finally figured out all about reindeers (not rain dears) and that silly Rednosed Reindeer song. So I was excited to hear about this toddler craft idea from Zander's Mom! Seeing as it's getting real close to Christmas, if you're looking for some quick and easy Christmas ideas, this one is perfect.

And of course Snickerdoodle recipes are wonderful anytime of day or or year...

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It's holly jolly Christmas time again. I haven’t decorated a lot the past couple of years because Zander was so small. Last year he was just walking and was getting into everything and I thought the decorations might be more temptation than I was willing to deal with. But, this year, I went ahead and put up our fake tree and some other decorations. So far he’s only done minor damage….

I remember when I was little and made some homemade decorations. I don’t think any have survived. But it did make me want to make something for Zander. I found a reindeer ornament that I thought was absolutely adorable….and oh so simple.

Items you will need are:

Dark brown cardstock paper
Light brown or tan cardstock paper
Some red and black cardstock paper or similar
Glue
Ribbon or string

1. First I traced Zander’s foot on a piece of the dark brown paper. Then I cut that out.
2. Second, I traced Zander’s hand on a piece of the light brown paper. I folded it over so when I cut it out I had 2 handprints.
3. Then, I glued the hand prints onto the top of the footprint….like antlers.
4. Then I cut out 2 black eyes and a red nose and glued those on the footprint.

VOILA! I have a reindeer.

I punched a little hole in the top to add string and hung it on our tree. Or, you could glue a magnet on the back to hang on your fridge.

I also wrote his name and the year on the back so I could remember how old he was when his hands and feet were this size.

He didn’t have a lot of participation in making this….but he liked having me trace his hands and feet - especially his feet…..although it tickled him so he kept moving them.

From Zander and Me

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I love baking this time of year and it seems my favorite cookie for Christmas is the Snickerdoodle. These are super easy to make and soooo delicious.

Here is my all time favorite recipe:

You will need the following:

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon


1. Mix thoroughly butter, oil, sugar and eggs.

2. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt.

3. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls.

4. Mix the 2 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl; roll rounded dough balls in this mixture.

5. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.
(Do not overbake, even if you think they aren't done, they will harden as they cool.)

From Home On The Range

Enjoy!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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About Zander's Mom: I'm a single mom to Zander, my 2 year old son. We also have Anakin, our dog, and Demitra & Gideon, our cats. I'm having fun living my second childhood since having Zander....rediscovering how to have fun....most of the time anyway. ;) Our blog link is: http://zanderandme.blogspot.com/

WFMW - "C" Crafts

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Give me a "C" for "cheerleader"! Yep, it's that time again - the weekly edition of what crafts work for this 15-month-old bebe! And this week would be "C" crafts. There are SO MANY things you can do with "C"!

Cactus. We made a cactus by painting a potato green and then sticking green toothpicks into it. The moment I saw the toothpicks I started poking them into the potato. I stirred the toothpicks around in a dish of green paint and helped Mommy paint the potato, too. Some of the toothpicks broke, so Mommy helped me get them all in.


Caterpillar. This fuzzy yarn just screams "caterpillar," doesn't it? Here is a craft stick caterpillar Mommy made for me. But we had more fun wrapping the yarn around our fingers and acting like our fingers were caterpillars!


Cards. I created this exquisite set of 4 unique notecards all by myself! Mommy set out the blank cards, markers, glitter glue, and a page of glitter heart stickers and I went to work! She had to help me squeeze the glue out and get some of the stickers off the page, but other than that, this is ALL my creation. Should I open up an Etsy shop or what?!

Clouds. Stretch and glue some cotton puffs on a black sheet of paper, and there you go! We wanted a silver lining on them, too, so Mommy helped me squeeze some glitter glue to drizzle on the clouds. We didn't have silver, but blue glitter worked just fine in my opinion . . .


Candy Cane. We made a candy cane by twisting red, pink, and white pipe cleaners together. I had a hard time with this, even with Mommy's help, but a girl's gotta start with pipe cleaners sometime, right?


Car Tracks. I sprinkled baby powder into a pan and drove my cars through the powder to create car tracks in the snow. In the end we moved the snow to my red table, since the tracks showed up better there. I LOVE sprinkling powder! This was so MUCH fun!


Cabbage & Carrots. We've been feeding the bunnies cabbage and carrots all week, so we decided to do some art about them, too. I painted a paper orange and Mommy shaped it into a cone for a carrot, and then we taped green produce packaging material to the top for carrot leaves. And we made a cabbage suncatcher with green tissue paper and contact paper.


Colors. I helped Mommy go through her gift wrap box and find ribbons in different colors, which she pasted to a piece of paper. She also made a Color Counting Caterpillar with a little help from me. We used these to count and go over colors during the week.


Chalk. Chalk is always fun, though Mommy doesn't let me use it much because I think it tastes good or something.


Cherry Blossom Blizzard. Remember that Apple Blossom Blizzard we did in "A" week? It was so much fun we pretended we had a cherry blossom blizzard this week. Just tear up a bunch of tissue paper and throw it up in the air over and over. You can do it over a sheet and reuse the tissue again and again.


Coloring. I practiced my super duper coloring skills with markers again this week, many times. I have this new trick where I put my eyes right up against where I'm coloring. I'm sure you can see a difference in the results with this new strategy!


Curtains. No, I didn't sew up any fancy curtains or anything. This is just me playing peekaboo in the curtains . . .


Cookies. Mommy was actually trying to avoid this one, but after watching Cookie Monster singing "C is for Cookie" all week, we just HAD to make a batch. So Mommy threw the ingredients into the Bosch mixer for thumbprint cookies. I wasn't too helpful rolling the balls, but I did my best to make thumbprints (though I mainly pinched right through the dough and Mommy had to do some repair work). Then came the filling part! I was very helpful! Some cookies had more jam than cookie to them! Finally Mommy just let me eat jam straight out of my bowl while she finished them up - she was tired of keeping me from eating raw egg cookie dough and decided the jam was better for me. The cookies were yummy! (Mommy's Note: The most chaotic cookie making experience I have ever had, but the most fun, too! There is something just so right about making cookies with your daughter . . .)

Castle. We finished off our "C" week with a trip to the beach to make a sand castle. I had fun jumping on it afterwards! And a bonus "C" was there, too. Crabs! Lots and lots of crabs! I didn't want to touch them, but when I saw one that fell into the sand castle, I pointed it out to Mommy so she could put it back on wet sand. I'm helpful like that!


So that's what worked for me last week. And now we are working on "D"s. Mommy is fresh out of ideas, though, so if you have any, please let her know. She was going to powder my doll's head for dandruff, but decided against it.
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**I know I should be giving people credit for most of these ideas, but I've picked them up all over the place so can't remember or figure out who. So if you feel you deserve the credit, let me know and I'll give it to you. Some key sites I've used:
www.everythingpreschool.com
www.softschools.com
www.first-school.ws
The Artful Parent blog
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If you have a post or link related to "C" Activities for toddlers, link up here!