Snow Ice Cream

Snow ice cream is a simple but fun treat that Daddy reminded me we should make for Trip. I gathered some fresh snow, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and some vanilla extract, then we were ready to get mixing. The proportions aren't exact. Just add enough sweetened condensed milk to sweeten the snow and just a splash of vanilla to enhance the flavor.

Trip was already tasting our concoction before we mixed it.

After a few turns of the bowl with the spoon, he was ready for a bigger taste.

He then enjoyed dipping graham cookies in the snow.

"Deeeee-wishous!" And cold!

Making snow ice cream made me think about "Little House in the Big Woods" and reading about the Ingalls family making candy by pouring hot maple syrup onto beds of clean snow. I found a recipe for Maple Snow Taffy, but didn't end up trying it before our snow was gone. Maybe it will be a fun treat for our next snowy days.

Do you have any snow recipes to share? I would love to hear about them!

Snow Week!

We took a break from having a letter of the week to enjoy some snow fun. Just a snow day wasn't enough so even though our snow didn't last more than a few days, we had a whole week of snow fun. Living in the mountains of southern Oregon, we generally have a very snowy winter. This year has been a little different, though and we have seen very little of the white stuff. I'm sure we'll get plenty of it between now and June (yes, June!), but for the time being, I took the opportunity to do some activities I've been waiting to try with Trip.

Click on the links below to see the full post about each activity.

We enjoyed snow ice cream.

Trip loved spraying the snow with blue water!

We had some sensory fun indoors driving cars in shaving cream "snow."

We used the leftover shaving cream to make "snow" paint.

Trip liked taking cotton ball "snowballs" out of an ice cube tray with these little tongs. He enjoyed putting them back in the tray too. This was a fun activity that allowed him to practice his fine motor skills.

 Finally, I made a penguins in the snow sensory tub as a gift for a little friend of ours.

Check back next week to see our V week fun!





I'm linking up with:

J Week- Jellyfish Craft

I've had this pin for some super cute jellyfish made out of disposable bowls for quite some time now in anticipation of J week.

Trip was excited to start painting the bowl, but then he wanted me to make a slide, a boy, a house, a football field, and several other things on it, so I ended up doing a lot of the painting. Fortunately he's not too picky about how I paint, so I was able to make the designs he wanted and then cover them up with squiggles. 

 

 Once the bowl was painted and dry, I hot glued some ribbons to the underside.

Some cardstock eyes finished it off nicely.

Our jellyfish now hangs in Trip's window.

J Week- Jersey Matching Game

Anyone who knows Trip knows that he LOVES sports! Currently, he is especially fond of football, but he also likes baseball and enjoys shooting hoops with his friends. He loves to see people wear sports jerseys and has gotten quite good at recognizing different teams and sports. For J week, I made him some jersey matching cards.

I found images online of jerseys from some of our favorite teams from various sports. I pasted them in a document and printed out the cards. Then, it was just a matter of some cutting and laminating and they were ready. If you'd like to make your own, you can print mine here (for personal use only, please).

I usually just put out all of the cards and let Trip find matches. Sometimes I'll choose a card and ask him to pick up its match.

As he gets a little older, these cards will be great as a memory game. We had some elementary-age friends over the other day and they had lots of fun playing memory with them.

If jerseys aren't your child's thing, you can also check out our Thomas the Train and football team matching games.

J Week- Js in Jell-O

Last summer, I came upon a few boxes of Jell-O that were way past their expiration dates. I didn't want to eat them, but didn't want to throw them out either. After a little research online, I found a recipe for Jell-O playdough, which I've made a few times. J week presented another good opportunity to use up another box.

My friend Laura has been making a weekly activity plan for her 18 month old son and has come up with lots of great things to do with him. She shared the link to "snakes in jelly" from The Imagination Tree, which looked like lots of fun. I had a box of outdated peach Jell-O (the eight-serving size), so I mixed up half of it and poured it in an old disposable angel food cake pan. I then added some foam Js and a plastic J magnet. Once that half solidified in the fridge, I made the rest of the box and poured it on top with a couple of J cookie cutters and some more foam letters. I refrigerated the whole thing overnight, although a few hours would have been enough. I followed the original recipe, which makes fairly soft gelatin. That consistency was just fine for playing and squished nicely. If you want it to hold its shape better, add some plain gelatin powder or make the Jigglers recipe on the box.

When Trip was ready to play, I placed the mold in a sink of warm water for a few minutes and then inverted it onto a cookie sheet. He was thrilled to dig in!

He got right to work getting out the Js, both with his hands and with the plastic utensils I gave him.

Once most of the letters were out, he had fun squishing the Jell-O!

This was a very entertaining activity that was just messy enough to be super fun, but without being too much to do inside. We will definitely have to do this again sometime. It could be a good activity for weeks when we don't have much to do with our chosen letter. I have a feeling I'll be making some gelatin with X, Y, or Z in it!

J Week- Jumping Over J

Trip likes the Jack Be Nimble nursery rhyme after seeing it on Sesame Street, so we had some fun with it and learned about the letter J. I collected a few LED candles, a J cookie cutter (really a candy cane), a jar, and some jam.

I then made sort of an obstacle course out of them and Trip enjoyed jumping over each item.

I didn't get any good action shots of him until I collected all the items to photograph them together. I think he may have liked jumping over everything at the same time as much as jumping over them separately.

J Week- Jellyfish Lunch

This jellyfish lunch is super simple to make. The jellyfish are basically the same as the octopus Trip enjoyed during O week, just noodles poked in hot dog pieces and boiled. I also made some Jell-O Js to go with the jellyfish.

J Week- The List

Although there aren't that many words that start with J, we still had lots of fun during J week! Please click on the links to see the full post about each project.

Trip enjoyed a jellyfish lunch.

He played "Jack be nimble" and jumped over some LED candles and J items.

He loved getting Js out of Jell-O.

We played a sports jersey matching game.

We made a Jacksonville Jaguars J in honor of Daddy's favorite football team.

Finally, we made a paper bowl jellyfish. 

I'm linking up with

                    

A Week- Angry Birds Fun

Trip LOVES to play Angry Birds on our phones and enjoys seeing them in commercials and on people's clothing, so they had to be part of our A week activities.

I saw this Angry Birds pizza on Pinterest and made Trip one of his own. He was thrilled when he woke up from his nap on Sunday to find it at his spot on the table. 

He went for the mandarin orange mouth right away,

and soon the whole face was gone.

Then, it was on to making the Angry Bird fly around the plate saying "Hi-yah!"

His Auntie Rachel found him some Angry Birds gummies too, which he absolutely loved.

A Week- Aquarium Lunch and Craft

I made Trip this aquarium on a plate for lunch one day. It was easy to put together and nutritious too. I used mezzaluna ravioli and apricot oatmeal bar pieces as rocks. Some leftover oven-roasted broccoli made great water plants. I cut fish out of cheese and pepperoni. Slices of a small baby carrot made nice bubbles.

Later, Trip used fish stickers to make a paper aquarium.