Foolhardy 101

So we made the cookie tree. By hand. With peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate filling. Yep. M and I. Just having a little fun. You're waiting for the disaster shot, right? Here you go:



That's right: no disaster! One level, stacking, tree shaped cookie tower that tastes sinfully awesome! Okay, the frosting is a bit haphazard, but that's what happens when you let go things enough to let a 2 and 4 year old go to town. Hooray for foolhardiness! I believe a new holiday tradition has been born.

More frosting, stat!

I have a lot of fun Christmas crafts in mind for the kids. I even have all the supplies. They will promote dexterity, create fun memories, and preserve their little skills as they are. But what do I see as I'm walking out of M's preschool today? One of those Christmas trees made out of layers of cookies. I do not have the supplies for one of those. It will not accomplish much other than add to the already overblown sugar content of our household*. But I think that's what we'll be making this weekend. Except I'm going to make it out of peanut butter cookies, with chocolate in the middle to hold it altogether. I don't have recipes for that either, but what's a challenge without, well, more challenge?

*How overblown? Check these out:

Would believe I made not three but ten of these beauties, and they're all still standing? On my first try at gingerbread houses! We didn't keep all ten, of course, nor are we actually eating much of them. But they do make the air seem all too sweet.

Thankful Tree

One afternoon last week, the kids made Thankful Trees. I thought it was such a sweet idea that I'd post it here. I cut out leaves in fall-ish colors and gave the kids a big sheet of white paper. They made a trunk with brown marker, then told me, one at a time, things for which they were thankful. After I'd write down the idea, we'd put a little glue on the back and add the leaf to their tree. Turns out they had a lot of things to be thankful for, and I had to cut extra leaves (twice). But it was great to see their big and little thankful thoughts. It's only Monday--certainly not too late for you to make your own thankful trees. Yes, neighbor across the street, we're all still on Thanksgiving around here, so keep your lights to a minimum. Sheesh.

A few notes: About half of M's leaves are face down. Although I was, selfishly, wanting to be able to see every one of his ideas and therefore resistant at first, I realized that it was his tree and his thoughts. So some of them are face down, but maybe all the more thoughtful for not being shared. Also, some of the leaves are blue, which is not, to my knowledge, a fall-ish color of leaf. I don't actually think it's a leaf color at all. But the kids were sure that their trees needed blue leaves on one of the extra cuts, and I figured why not. And by the time that M said he was now making a Christmas Thankful tree--which is exactly what it ended up looking like--I'd all but let go of the project. There are worse things than being independent.

Pattern Giveaway!

Have you checked out Grosgrain lately? They've got these fantastic little girl dresses up for grabs right now. Now, let's be clear: my sewing skills are seriously limited. But I'd consider expanding their horizons if I got my hands on these beauties.

Gum-tastic

You mean you're not dying of curiosity to see how the little gum paste people came out? Well, you're gonna see it anyway. Because I didn't spend three solid days making them to have them forgotten that easily.

Remember, this was accomplished with only toothpicks, fingers, and a whole lot of gum-ption.

(From left to right: Baby, Wendy, Dora, K, Elmo, and Cat)

I think it turned out fantastic, and so did K. Who, by the way, does have a name that was once nicely pronounced on the cake. Turns out that I can also edit pictures, too. Imagine my shock! Not that revealing K's name would be disastrous, but talk about spoiling all my mysterious fun.

By gum, I think I'll do it

K's birthday arrives in five days. Between now and then, I will finish making a handful of small gum paste people for her birthday cake. I know this because every time she sees the various people parts, she begins calling them by name: "Wendy! Elmo! Baby! Dora! Bob work." (That's right, everyone, Bob's at work. Because I had to draw the line somewhere.) Her excitement is enough to keep me going.

However, it doesn't really do anything about the fact that I know nothing about gum paste, have never worked with gum paste (or anything like it) before, and that my only tools are an exactoknife (stolen from my scrapbooking kit) and a box of toothpicks. But I didn't know how to sew when I made Baby, and now she's on a cake. What do they say about lightning striking twice? Wait, I don't think I want to know...

Who needs nine months?

All it took was a couple days and a sewing machine. And a can-do-attitude like "I've just got to embroider her face" and "This looks like a dart". And low standards. Very low standards. Hey, I'm just teaching K that we're not all perfect, but lovable anyway. And she will love her. Oh yes, after all this, she will love her. See, it's all in the attitude.

Craft: Felt Houses

Per Melissa's wise suggestion, today's blog post brings you the felt houses.



It's a great project to cut out six squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles, then assemble them into six houses. Even greater if you have children who are old enough to use scissors with some level of accuracy. Mom will still get to cut out the mouse, and if you think cutting a mouse freehand out of white felt is easy, I'm ready to hire you for future projects.

Then you put the houses on the felt board with the mouse hidden underneath one lucky house. Eyes open, everybody sings: "Little mouse, little mouse, come out to play! In which little house are you hiding today?" (No, three-year-olds hardly ever get that grammatically correct. Mom's working on letting it go).

As a side note, Elmer's glue will not hold felt pieces together. You will keep adding more glue, only to find your toddler running around with errant roofs while your preschooler screams. Hot glue works like a charm. And you can make your own felt board from a cheap frame (like this one from IKEA, only $4.99) and duct tape. Really. Just don't look too close at the finished product.