Car Track, and Other Things We Do

Today I let my kids do something that I don't think many other parents would allow. It was a nice day, after a few cold and rainy weeks. The ground in our small strip of a backyard was still muddy, but I gave the boys some trucks and cups and spoons to have some old fashioned fun playing in the dirt. It actually was a lot better than I thought it would be. The only mess I'm left with is two pairs of very muddy shoes. Other than that, things stayed pretty clean. So for all those of you thinking of doing something as crazy as this, it may not be as bad as you expect! We plan on fixing up the backyard, but maybe I should leave a patch of earth for future digging adventures... you never know! On second thought, I'll probably just buy a sandbox!

On a different note, we spent one afternoon driving cars around the living room with this fun activity. The kids helped me make a track with masking tape, and they came up with lots of different things to add, like tunnels, traffic lights, and a parking lot. Notice the cool ramp going on to the couch!

Parshas Bo: Plague of Darkness

Black and white cookies this week. Simple but delicious!

Parshas Vaeira: the First Seven Makkos

I know I'm a little behind, so let me show you what we've been doing the past few weeks. Two weeks ago we made makkos cupcakes (or makkot, as they say here). It was really cute and the kids absolutely loved doing it. The cupcakes were tie-dye, just to make it more fun.

Here's what we used:

Blood: decorating gel
Frog eyes: marshmallow and chocolate chips
Lice: sprinkles
Wild animals and dying animals: animal crackers, gummy bears
Boils: red jelly beans
Hail: white jelly beans

Anyone for a kinim cupcake?

Underwater Sensory Bin

I like themed sensory bins, in theory, but it takes a lot of work to prepare them if you want them to really be good. I don't have that much time and foresight to plan a theme and have everything on hand for it, and besides, I don't really think the kids appreciate it. This time I happened to have some ocean things and I put them together to make this sensory bin. It kept them busy for about 10 minutes, till they started dumping out the water! I used plastic fish, watering cans, a toy boat, glass marbles, leaves, and a blue sponge (just because I felt like it needed something else to make it fun). Blue water made it so cool!

Parshas Shemos: Basket on the River

This was real hands-on for the kids, and of course lots of fun for me.

The box is made of tea biscuits coated in chocolate, the water is decorating gel tinted blue, and the trees are pretzel rods with buttercream frosting. Jelly bean "rocks" and fruit roll up "blankie". The kids were ecstatic! The sand was put on to cover some holes made by eager fingers.

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.