G Week- Guitar Lunch

 
One of the highlights of G week was definitely the guitar I made for lunch one day.

I started by using a glass to cut a circle out of a piece of bread. I then used a slightly smaller glass to cut out a crescent from the rest of the bread.

 

After cutting out a rectangle, I fit in half of a hot dog with the ends trimmed.

A piece of pepperoni made a nice "hole." 

A few raisins and noodles finished it off nicely.

Trip was quite excited about this lunch and was disappointed when there wasn't another guitar for him the next day. He briefly pretended to play the instrument,

then gobbled up the noodles and hot dog.

G Week- Glowstick Bath

I had seen the idea of putting glowsticks in the bathtub several months ago on Pinterest and have been eagerly waiting for G week to give it a try. In preparation, I found a tube of fifteen glow bracelets for a dollar at both Michael's and Target.

The first attempt was a total flop. Trip was okay playing with a couple of glowsticks, but did not want the light off. The second time, I had the glowsticks in the bath and the lights off before Trip even set foot in the bathroom. This time, he was so excited to get in the tub that he almost jumped in before he was completely undressed. Once he was in the water, he even wanted me to close the door to keep out the extra light.

 

He had a great time gathering up the sticks, waving them around, throwing them, and talking about the colors.

 

Once bath time was over, we took the glowsticks to Trip's dark room and played for at least another half an hour. He discovered that he could throw them in the air and watch them scatter. He also realized that the handful of them made a good flashlight to find toys. Finally, he started pushing them under his door so that Daddy could see them in the living room.

This is definitely an activity that we will have to repeat. It kept us busy and entertained for well over an hour. I think kids of any age would love to be surprised with a glowing bath!

G Week- Gingerbread Cookies

One of our housemates had requested gingerbread moose cookies for Christmas. This prompted me to find a good recipe for them. My family has discovered that America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated often has the best recipe for baked goods. We are crazy about their chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, and several of their cakes. An online search revealed the Cook's Illustrated gingerbread cookie recipe, found here.

The dough came together quickly and easily. I was quite happy to discover that this recipe doesn't contain eggs, so I could let Trip taste the dough without worrying about the risk of him getting sick. Plus, you have the option of making thick and chewy cookies for eating (which I did) or thin and crispy cookies for ornaments or decorating. The directions have you roll out the dough between parchment paper (I used wax paper), then place it in the freezer or fridge for a while. Taking the time to chill the dough definitely makes for easy cookie cutting and the cookies retain their shape well.

We made some moose as well as a few hedgehogs and squirrels with our cool woodland creatures cookie cutters from Ikea.

 

A few gingerbread men made their way into the mix too.

Next year, maybe we'll try the thin and crispy version and make some ornaments for our tree.

G Week- Gingerbread Playdough

Gingerbread playdough (made with this recipe) was a hit! We had some friends over the day I made it, and it was so popular that I had to make more because the older kids wanted to play with the little ones.

Of course, Trip had to taste the dough.

Then, he had fun pushing cookie cutters into it.

I got out some googly eyes and buttons to use as decorations. Although Trip wasn't too interested in them, his friends loved cutting out shapes and embellishing them.

G Week- The List

We managed to fit in one letter during the Christmas season. I chose the letter G as there were several seasonal activities that fit nicely with it.

We enjoyed

• gingerbread playdough
• gingerbread cookies (made with no eggs, so no worrying about little ones eating raw dough!)
• a glowstick bath
• a guitar lunch.

Find my brainstorming and vocabulary list here.