Polar Bear Day!

How about another obscure holiday celebration, today happens to be Polar Bear Day! We have a certain love of polar bears at our house. I had a small collection as a child and Madison now has all of my stuffed polar bears and one in particular has been named and gets toted all around. I am sure I have mentioned Maddie Mae Bear before....

So we certainly couldn't let such a special day go by without a little bit of fun planned!

Madison had fun pulling about cotton balls to make her polar bear picture fuzzy.

He certainly does look fuzzy!

We had a special polar bear snack too! A powdered mini doughnut with chocolate chips, mini marshmallows and a bit of black food gel made for an adorable snack.

That was gobbled up!

We finished up our polar bear fun with my new favorite children's book Panda & Polar Bear by Matthew J Baek! I fell in love with the story the first time we read it and we have been reading it over and over again since! The story is an adorable tale of two very unlikely friends; a panda and polar bear of course!

Snowmen: The Last Installment

I think we are officially done with the snowman crafts! I just don't think I have it in me to do anymore! So with out further adieu the last two! {oh yes I can rhyme in the morning!}

Starbucks Snowman

{Starbucks Frappuccino bottle, cotton balls, sticker paper, hole punch, fleece scraps}

I had a stack of colored sticker paper that I cut the eyes, carrot, mouth and buttons from which made assembly very easy for Madison.

Madison filled the jar with cotton balls, I tied on the scarf and Madison took care of the rest! Super simple and super easy!

Toilet Paper Roll Snowman

{White paint, buttons, ribbon, two pom poms, half of a pipecleaner}

Madison took care of painting the toilet paper roll while I held it.

After a little drying break I clipped the roll to an empty cereal box to help keep it stable while Madison attached all the buttons.

I tied on a piece of ribbon for a scarf and then we glued on pom poms and the pipecleaner for earmuffs!

Here are the other snowman crafts we did this year!

Contact Paper Snowman
Marshmallow Snowman
Cutout Snowman
Paver Snowman
Shaving Cream Snowman
Snow Dough

Ice Wreath

I saw this craft in one of my mom's holiday books last year but never actually got to making it! I was prepared - sort of - this year and it came out beautifully! This is definitely a cold weather climate craft- I don't think an ice wreath would last very long in California!

You can surely use your bunt pan or any other baking dish you have but I used a foil pan from the dollar store. Madison scattered cranberries and Christmas tree clippings in the pan {from our neighbors tree!} before pouring water over everything.

You could definitely add some bird seed too but we weren't that prepared!

After the water was poured in the pan we used a paper cup filled with marbles to make sure there would be a hole in the center of the wreath.

Off to the deep freezer it went! A few hours later Madison and I were able to hang up a beautiful ice wreath! As the ice melts the birds will be able to eat the cranberries - plus it looks beautiful hanging in the back yard!

Of course Madison had to try a fresh cranberry too ~ according to her they are only for birds and not for Maddie's!

A Busy Day

Wow! Friday was busy, busy at our house! Remember the cute little penguin and snowman project I posted yesterday morning? We did those yesterday morning!

sorry I took this picture with my Blackberry so it's not great

Then I realized it was snowing! Madison's reply was "WO HO WO HO MOM IT'S SNOWING!" With nothing particularly planned for the day I loaded up the kiddo and the sled and we drove about 15 minutes away to the golf course that I used to go sledding at when I was young.

This one too! Sorry!

We were the only ones there and Madison had a BLAST!

With snow play over and our belly's growling we stopped at the local store for some yummy rolls to make sandwiches and some even yummier garlic herb ciabatta bread to go with our Irish Stew for dinner.

You MUST make this! You will not be sorry!

Yes then we got home and I made Irish Beef Stew for dinner. {like I said busy, busy!} I fell in love with this Irish Beef Stew recipe from kraftfoods.com last St. Patty's Day but I have tweaked it a bit here and there.

Here my tips! *skip the egg noodles and add an extra potato! *add a lot more carrots! *throw in some celery too! *if you have a nice hearty beer in the house add some of that! *Do to all the extras I add an extra cup of broth and an extra tablespoon of flour *Let simmer for a while! I whipped it together around 1pm and let it simmer on the stove until 5pm

Did we do enough? Nope! I saw this adorable craft at No Time For Flash Cards so I grabbed the bag of mini marshmallows and set Madison up at the table for craft time / snack time!

And we certainly couldn't have a fabulous dinner without delicious Friday night dessert right? Well Mrs. Field's Snickerdoodles to the rescue! Maddie and I made a double batch of these too!

** I was also nominated in the Top 50 Mommy Bloggers on babble.com, will you vote for me? http://www.babble.com/babble-50/mommy-bloggers/nominate-a-blogger/ **

Penguins and Snowmen

I have been a little preoccupied lately with my sewing machine {we are becoming friends, slowly} and felt a little bad that I hadn't set up a project for Maddie in a few days. Sooooo.....I grabbed a stack of construction paper, cut out a few shapes, set up two trays and let Madison loose with a bottle of glue!

Perry The Penguin

We actually did this exact project last year but Madison needed help last year and this year she was able to do the whole project all on her own!

The penguin body is made from Madison's foot print and the wings are her hands!

Meet Perry!

Sarah The Snowman

I did the same sort of system here with the snowman. I provided all of the shapes and Madison took care of the rest!

I did add the the glue for the pieces on this one so she could focus on picking out the perfect buttons!

Meet Sarah!

Winter Prints

A few months ago we did a similar painting with water colors and the letter M and I was eager to break out the contact paper again for a winter themed painting.

Materials: contact paper, white cardstock, white and blue paint or light blue paint, fine glitter, sponge

I didn't have any light blue paint in the house so the white paint came to the rescue!

After I traced the figures Madison chose on contact paper I cut them out and stuck them on white cardstock paper. Madison then took care of all of the painting. When she finished we quickly dusted them with some fine glitter and peeled away the contact paper.

I suggest not pressing the contact paper onto the cardstock paper too hard or you may peel away paper. I also suggest peeling the contact paper away as soon as possible before it sits too long.

So pretty!

I LOVE the polar bear!

I have a lots more snowy ideas for the month so our window will be rather snowy rather quickly!

Snowy Days

Most years after two three weeks of snow I am ready to call it quits and want to see the Spring but I am basking in the snow this year! We have an impending move to the South this Summer/Fall and knowing that this is my last Connecticut Winter for a few years I am enjoying every little last snow flake!

The last few years Madison hasn't been particularly thrilled with the snow but she can't seem to get enough of it this year!

Snowmen, snowladies, snow Robin Hoods and snow aliens have been all the rage in our backyard!

Yes those are rocks that my precious three year old is sledding down....right into our house. But it's all in good fun!

Daddy had to get in on the fun too!

Of course any snowy afternoon leads to hot cocoa and cookies!

6:30AM

6:30 AM

That's what time Madison ran out the door dressed from head to toe in snow gear! The little Miss was about to scream she was so excited to see the piles of snow in the yard!

Snow? Maybe!

Graphic from Weather.gov

I woke up super early this morning and was actually able to watch a bit of news and catch the local forecast. To my surprise SNOW was in the forecast! Not even little flakes, we are talking a forecast of 5-10 inches tomorrow night! I was so excited Madison and I did a snow painting at ummm...6am?!?!

You can find the complete directions here on Kraftykid.com.

Magically equal parts of glue and shaving cream make a very puffy paint medium!

I used a pencil and drew and snowman for Madison to fill in.

Before the paint dried Madison added buttons for eyes and a mouth. Then after the paint dried Madison glued on a paper hat, scarf and carrot nose!

:::Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow:::

Look Milo is even ready for the snow!