Chanukah

Monday nights are Dinner and TALK in our home, and while I usually just focus on preparing food, once in a while my inner creativity breaks through. If I had lots of time I would plan themes and color schemes every week, but there are so many other things in my life vying for my time and mental space. So I don't. But when a special occasion comes around I can't resist having fun with it. Two weeks ago was our golf themed birthday party, and last week was Chanukah. I did a "fire" color scheme, much more fun and bright than the classic blue and silver look!

 

The kids helped me prepare these dreidel-strawberries. It was actually funny, because my husband took a small poll and not a single male around the table had noticed that they were supposed to look like dreidels, while every female thought it was obvious.

both brothers trying to spin the dreidels!

And here is the menorah challah I made for Shabbos.

Parshas Vayeishev: Yosef in the Pit With Snakes

I know this is very simple, but it's a parshah dessert nonetheless! Big Brother Sr. tie-died a T-shirt in school as a ketonet passim; I thought that was really clever.

Birthday PAR-TEE

centerpiece

For my husband's birthday I wanted to make a cake that reflects something he enjoys. Golf is one of his hobbies, and I've been thinking about this golf course cake for a little while. Put it together with our Monday night class in our home, and bang, you have a golf themed birthday party! There were lots of golf related foods and play on words.

"woods and irons" and "chip it in"

Full view of the dessert table and dinner table (delicious BBQ on our new grill!)

We had a cute little game- guess how many tees.

I saved the best for last. Presenting the birthday cake!

I learned more about golf preparing for this party than I ever thought I would. It was so much fun to plan. Now on to Chanukah!

Birthday Time

It's birthday season in our family, so get ready for a few fun cakes. Here's one to start with, made for a student. I love doing flower cakes!

Garden Party

Last week was our Big Move, so I apologise for not writing a any posts. I also missed last week's parsha, unfortunately, but as you can imagine it's been very very hectic. Besides that, I hosted a melave malka (yes, 3 days after our move!). The party was beautifully set up and arranged, so I'd like to share it with you. I had so much fun planning it, it's such a pretty, sweet theme.

 

 

Salad bar buffet: Everything, from the dressing to the veggies to the croutons, was in various sizes flower pots and planters.

It's very monumental; our first party in our new home. We hope to be able to host many more happy occasions, and to use our home for reaching, teaching, and giving.

Parshas Lech Lecha: Like the Stars and the Sand

For this week's parshah we made star cookies, and we sprinkled them with "sand". Even Big Brother Jr. understands why: there are so many stars that we can't even count them!

Here he is rolling out the cookie dough. His older brother was at a friend's house, so he got the be the "star" of the show, without fighting. He really, really likes to eat raw cookie dough and cake batter though, ugh.

I tried out this sugar cookie recipe. It came out excellent- very easy to roll, baked nicely, and tastes good too.  The sand is brown sugar and cinnamon.

Any ideas for next week's parshah dessert? Post in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you.

Rosh Hashana Cards

This is a little out of order but it can't hurt to show what we did for Rosh Hashana. Originally I planned on buying plain cards and sending them out, but I realized that I could make it into an activity. Stamping with apples is not a new idea - I think every preschooler has done it at least once in school for Rosh Hashana! - but we still had a lot of fun. It was nice to send people a personalized card, but most of all I was so happy to have a way to entertain the boys for a few hours!

Paint is a child's dream, and my nightmare. For some reason I am very hesitant to use paint. I once did finger painting, a while ago, and in less than 5 minutes it was one big mess of colored mushed together, all over the place. I tried so hard to be clean- I taped down a plastic tablecloth, covered their clothing, and just gave them a little of each color on plastic plates. But somehow they needed complete baths afterwards - there was paint covering their hands and arms, on their sleeves, in their hair... and the whole thing took 10 minutes! Maybe that's where my fear of paint came from.

Now the boys are a little older, and  it wasn't "finger painting", so this time was more of a success. They did mush the colors together at the end, but at least we got some nice card.

A few tips: The apples need to be sliced perfectly smooth, otherwise you won't get complete prints (ours weren't perfect). Also, I used a plastic knife instead of a popsicle stick, because I didn't have any. The apples were too big and slippery for my boys' little hands to grasp.

Parshas Noach: Rain and Rainbows

We've had a rainy week down here, both outdoors and in the house as well! For Parshas Noach and Chodesh Cheshvan I put together a lot of water related foods.

There are so many rainbow ideas floating around Pinterest and Facebook for Parshas Noach, and they're all beautiful. I chose to do something different for a cake, since we had all these other fun rainbow foods. (Honestly, I'm a little scared to try a rainbow cake. I'm just not ready for it yet, maybe one day!) These are what I call Puddle Cupcakes:

I know, I know, the animals aren't supposed to go in the water. But I just could not think of a way to make a teivah out of food, so this was the next choice. The kids helped me with these, and they got a real kick out of it.

BB Sr.'s "pair of giraffes" ("Pair means two, Mommy")

Now you're still wondering where the puddle is. Well....

It's hard to tell in the picture, but there are blue sprinkles in the white batter that make it look like raindrops splashing into a puddle. I also made blue jello with gummy fish, sorry no picture.

I will try to post what I make for the parshah each week. Keep checking!

Fun with Foam

Who ever thought that such a simple thing as foam could have so much potential? When foam gets wet it sticks to the wall. One of those "I knew that" ideas, but I never would have thought of it on my own. Here I cut up shapes so the kids could make faces on the windows, but this could be done with any shape. We actually did this activity in the bath a whole bunch of times, using the plain rectangles from the package that I bought. The boys had so much fun even with that. In a way it might have even been better, because they got really creative with decorating the bathtub walls. I think this is great - a cheap way for the kids to be entertained, be creative, and have fun with water, and to top it off, the mess is minimal!

Marshmallow Structures

Here's a great activity we did one day, using marshmallows and toothpicks.

I gave them each a pile of marshmallows to use, and I was prepared for them to eat them all before even starting. (It's always best to expect the worst!) But they actually worked hard and made some really creative things! They had a great time doing it, and I got a few minutes without refereeing their fights!

My demonstration:

What they added:

Getting more complex:

At the end they ate their fill of course! But that's all part of the fun. I like giving my kids things to play with that they are not usually allowed to touch, or that they think are special or interesting, and toothpicks and marshmallows fit into that category. I think it's even good for their sensory skills, because soft marshmallows are fun to touch and play with, and fine motor skills as well.

Note: This can also be done with grapes for a healthier version, but it might become very messy.

Really Messy Play

Cornstarch and water... Need I say more? Plain messy mush that we're allowed to stick our hands into! Squeeze it and it turns hard, let go and it gets runny again. Dries into dust so no worries about getting it off clothing or hands. This was by far their favorite activity ever, and the kids were asking me to do it again for days afterwards. It didn't last so long- they spilled it out after about 15 or 20 minutes, but I would definitely give it another try some other time.

We've "Bean" Busy

My boys are very sensory, as I think most kids are. When we're baking they love touching the flour, play dough is a real favorite, and they'd enjoy nothing more than playing in the dirt all day. They'll run to anything that they can stick their hands into and dig with, without thinking of the consequences or what Mommy will say! I try to give them opportunities to have sensory experiences. There are so many ways to do that. I remember a long time ago when Big Brother Jr. was a baby, and I poured a kilo of flour into a bowl and let them play with it. I had flour all over my house for days, but they had so much fun! It lasted for a long time- I just kept sweeping it up into a pile so they could dig into it again. These activities inevitably end up all over, despite my warnings and precautions to keep it in the bin/bowl/pan/box. There are endless themed sensory bins that you can create, encouraging imagination as well as addressing the sensory aspect.

Here we have a simple sensory bin made of black beans, popcorn kernels, and a few kidney beans for color. It's what I had in the house at that time, and since then we've enjoyed many afternoons with these beans. I give them different equipment to use- cups and spoons, pots and pans, trucks, or an assortment. I have to be constantly alert to make sure to sweep it up when it gets out of hand, otherwise I'll have a serious mess to deal with, instead of just a major mess. I have to admit, it is a challenge for me to remain calm while they play with the beans because they do end up scattered from one corner to the other. But I take them out every so often anyway, because the entertainment it provides for them is still worth it.