Spring into Passover and Easter with your children

Spring has always been a fun time in our home. It's a time of celebrating the new and remembering the traditions of our families.


photo credit: martha stewart dot com

This adorable candy decoration is perfect for your families Easter holiday celebration.

Tools and Materials

• One 12-inch round Styrofoam wreath form
• Five 6-inch round Styrofoam wreath forms
• 28-inch dowel, 1/2-inch diameter
• Sharpened pencil
• 1/2-inch-wide green ribbon, seam binding and twill tape
• Glue
• Flathead pins
• Floral pins
• About 25 Marshmallow Peeps of one color for flower center
• About 60 Marshmallow Peeps of one color for flower petals
• Royal Icing
• Toothpicks
• Clear vessel filled with jelly beans or other candy

Directions

1. Using a sharpened pencil, bore a hole through one side of a 12-inch round Styrofoam wreath form.

2. Insert a 28-inch dowel, piercing through to the opposite side.

3. Wrap the Styrofoam wreath form and dowel in green ribbon, securing every few inches with a dab of glue.

4. Attach a 1/2-inch-wide piece of ribbon around the outer rim of a 6-inch Styrofoam "petal" form and secure with a flathead pin. Repeat to make five petal bases.

5. Secure petals to 12-inch Styrofoam base with 2 floral pins each, creating a flower shape.

6. Decorate petals with Marshmallow Peeps, using a combination of royal icing and toothpicks to secure.

7. "Plant" finished flower creation in a clear vessel filled with candy.


photo credit: Dylan's Candy Bar

Colorful Tower of Peeps

You can't have Easter without Peeps! This colorful tower of everyone's favorite marshmallow candy is perfect for sharing on Easter morning. You can make your own or hop over to Dylan's Candy Bar and order one for your favorite little bunny!


photo credit: family fun magazine

This bee won’t sting

Tools and Materials:

• eggs
• newsprint
• egg dye
• paper towels
• birthday candles or crayons
• red and black acrylic or tempera paint
• brushes
• white tissue
• glue

Instructions

1. Blow the Egg: Wash and dry the raw egg. Cover your table with newsprint and set out bowls, pushpins, and paper towels. Shake the egg to break the yolk. Next, pierce the top and bottom with a pushpin, making the hole on the wider end a bit larger. Position the egg over the bowl and blow through the small hole, allowing the inside of the egg to seep into the bowl. Set the empty egg, with the large hole down, in an egg carton to dry. Be sure children wash their hands after handling raw egg.

2. Degg-orate the Egg: Let the kids paint half of the egg, stand it atop a bottle cap to dry (use a hair dryer to speed things up), then paint the other half. Centering the face on either hole, paint on features with contrasting colors. Paint your bee bright yellow, then paint on a red smile, black eyes, and black stripes. Glue on white tissue paper wings.

3. Take Flight: Tape a long length of fishing line to the end of an unfolded paper clip. Starting at the small hole, thread the line through the decorated egg and out the large hole. To keep your flying critter upright, tape the fishing line just above the hole in the critter's back. Hang it from the ceiling or an egg tree.


photo credit: family fun

Jelly Bean Carrots: I used to make these every spring for my girls and our company, I know your children will love them!

Tools and Materials:

• Orange jelly beans
• Scissors
• Green tissue paper
• Twist ties

Instructions

1. Fill an icing bag with orange jelly beans, leaving at least 3 inches unfilled at the top.

2. Cut out two 8-inch squares of green tissue paper and lay one atop the other. Pick up the squares from the center and give them a little twist so you have a cone-shaped carrot top.

3. Place the tissue, twisted end down, into the bag. Gather the bag at the top of the jelly beans and secure with a twist tie.


photo credit: a taste of home

Italian Easter Bread

Ingredients

• 3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup warm milk (120° to 130°)
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 7 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped mixed candied fruit
• 1/4 cup chopped blanched almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon aniseed
• Canola oil

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add milk and butter; beat 2minutes on medium. Add 2 eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat 2 minutes on high. Stir in fruit, nuts and aniseed; mix well. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

2. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. If desired, dye remaining eggs (leave them uncooked); lightly rub with oil. Punch dough down. Divide in half; roll each piece into a 24-in. rope. Loosely twist ropes and tuck eggs into openings. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack. Yield: 1 bread.


photo credit: Martha Stewart

The Tastiest Matzo House for your Seder table

Tools and Materials

• 6-by-6-by-6-inch cube cardboard box
• Scissors or utility knife
• Tape
• Matzo
• Melted chocolate
• Kosher foods for decoration

Directions

1. Begin by folding the cardboard box into the form of a house: trim 2 of the top flaps into triangles and tape the 2 uncut flaps onto it along the cut angles to create a support for the pitched roof.

2. Squeeze melted chocolate onto form. Tip: Keep melted chocolate liquefied by resting a container of it in warm water.

3. Attach pieces of matzo to chocolate-covered house form.

4. Decorate the matzo house with kosher food items of your choice, using the melted chocolate to attach the decorations to the house.


photo credit: kaboose dot com

Child Designed Passover Seder Place Mat

Tools and Materials:

• White poster board or craft foam, big enough for a place mat
• Construction paper: green, white, brown, red
• White paper
• Pencil
• Markers: yellow, orange, red and blue
• Black thin tipped marker
• Clear self-adhesive paper (recommended: Con-Tact paper)
• Scissors
• White craft glue

Directions:

1. You will need something round to trace to create the Seder plate. Trace it with a pencil in the center of the place mat.

2. Use a smaller cylindrical item (can, cup, etc) to trace circles for each place on the Seder plate. One in the center, and five going around the center circle.

3. Cut the Seder items from the construction paper. Use brown to cut out a chicken leg (shank bone), white and green for the horseradish (bitter herb), green for the romaine lettuce (bitter vegetable), green for the parsley (green vegetable), red and white for apple and nut salad (charoset) and use plain white paper for the egg(roasted egg).

4. Trace the penciled circles with black marker.

5. Glue the construction paper food items to the plate, horseradish in the center, chicken leg in the upper right, then clockwise from there the charoset, lettuce, parsley and egg.

6. Draw an outline around the plate. Decorate the inside of this outline with yellow and orange markers.

7. Decorate the other circles by dotting around their outlines with orange marker.

8. Use a red marker to write the word “Passover” on the left side of the placemat and the blue marker to write “Pesach” (the Jewish term for the Passover festival) on the right side.

9. Cover both sides of the place mat with clear adhesive paper.

The Seder Plate Background:

The Seder plate is a plate of specific foods that tell the story of the Israelites suffering and deliverance. On your plate, which is in the centre of the table you will need:

1. Haroseth – a mixture of chopped nuts, wine, cinnamon and apples to represent the mortar that the Israelites used to make bricks in slavery in Egypt.

2. Parsley (dipped in salt water) – Symbolizing spring but dipped in salt water to remember the tears shed in slavery.
3. Roasted egg – another symbol of spring

4. Shank Bone – The lamb was offered as a sacrifice and then eaten on the night of Passover before the Israelites left Egypt.

5. Bitter herbs – Horseradish to reflect the bitterness of slavery

At the table there are also 4 glasses of wine . 4 of the glasses are shared by all at different stages in the meal. Each cup also represents an aspect of the walk from Slavery to Freedom:

1st cup – Freedom
2nd cup – Deliverance
3rd cup – Redemption
4th cup – Release
5th cup – Elijah’s cup – set side for the prophet Elijah


photo credit: family fun

Matzo Haystacks

Instructions

1. Coconut-Almond Haystacks: Melt the chocolate chips according to the directions on the package, and stir until smooth.

2. Combine the crushed matzos, the coconut, and the almonds in a large mixing bowl. Pour the melted chocolate over the dry mixture and stir until all of the pieces are coated.

3. Use a teaspoon to dollop haystacks onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, or into paper muffin cups. Allow the treats to cool (about 10 minutes). Makes about 60 pieces.

4. Variations:

Dried Fruit Haystacks: Follow the recipe above but reduce the amount of chocolate chips to 2 cups and substitute 1 cup of dried fruit for the coconut and almonds. We used a mix of chopped apricots and sweetened cranberries.

Enjoy your families holidays! What kinds of crafts to you do with your children for Easter or Passover?

Holiday Gifts even the smallest of kids can make.

photo credit: family fun

Each year I try and find gifts that come from the heart. Those that I know myself, my husband and family members will treasure for years, they are those that are made by my kids.

Here are a few idea's that perhaps you can use to share with your family members too! I promise they will cherish them more than anything you can buy!

1. Framed Museum pieces

a. first look for your children's most colorful artwork that they have done either at home or school and take it to Kinko's and have it reduced and color copied to either 4" x 6", 5" x 7" or 8" x 10".



photo credit: pottery barn

b. look at your local craft stores for matted frames or another great place to look is pottery barn.

c. open the frame, take your child's artwork center it and glue it to the back cardboard, place the glass on top and secure. This makes a wonderful gift for years to come!


photo credit: Martha Stewart Living

2. Button Wreaths

Being the avid scrapbooker that I am I have tons of stock in buttons and my daughter used to spend hours playing with the buttons and one year she came up with a button wreath.

These directions come from our friends at Martha Stewart:
Tools and Materials
Needle-nose pliers or wire cutters
16-gauge copper wire, or 22-gauge green floral wire, cut to 9-inch lengths
72 buttons for each wreath
Scissors
Satin ribbon, 1/8 inch wide and 6 inches long
Seam binding for decorative bow

Button Wreath Ornament How-To
a. Using pliers, make a small loop at one end of the wire.

b. Thread buttons onto the wire until you have enough to form the size of the wreath you want. Our wreaths are 2 1/2 inches in diameter.

c. Using pliers, bend the plain end of the wire around the looped end. This will form the wreath.

d. Use the satin ribbon to make a loop for hanging the wreath; tie the ribbon in a knot about 3 inches above the wreath.

e. Tie a bow of seam binding to decorate the wreath.

Sources
16-gauge copper wire
22-gauge silver-plate wire
Available at local craft and hardware-supply stores

22-gauge green floral wire
Available at local floral-supply stores


photo credit: the container store

3. The gifts for the tummy!

My kids always love "playing" around in the kitchen and a few years we came up with this delicious recipe they made up which makes up nice batches to share with loved ones.

Ingredients
4 bags of white chocolate
3 cups crispy rice cereal squares
3 cups crispy golden graham cereal
2 cups of craisins
2 cups thin pretzel sticks
2 cups cashews

a. place the white chocolate and heat it in a double boiler.
b. place all of the rest of the ingredients in a bowl
c. when the white chocolate has all melted mix it with the ingredients in the bowl
d. spread out on a cookie sheet with parchment and put in refrigerator.
e. break apart and put in a cool storage bag or sealed container.

No matter what you make this holiday season, I hope it is a happy and healthy one shared with your loved ones; even the smallest of children whose gifts can be the best and most cherished for years to come!

Ghoulish delights for your little monsters

Halloween is a fun time for kids big and small, so I thought I would do a little research and put together a few ideas for you and your little monsters to have the best “spooktacular” holiday.

photo credit: Southern Living, Loved it since i'm all about playing and the outdoors!

I hosted several Halloween parties when my kids were small and I always loved getting everything ready for these parties, and to start the party with a spooky or fun feeling I think the invitations should start your party off with the right feeling. Paper and Cake has created a cute collection that is perfect for a night of Trick-or-Treating with friends, a Pumpkin Carving Party all you need to do is print and cut. How easy is that?



This Collection Includes:
* Invitations
* Front Door Welcome Sign
* Cupcake Picks (can also be used as stickers)
* Mini Treat Bags
* Mini Candy Bar labels
* Snack Cones
* Menus
* Placemats
* Finger Puppets with Play Background
* jpeg artwork for you to use on canvas trick-or-treat bags
* full sheet patterned paper (can also be used as napkin rings or candle wrappers)
* cup wrappers

Food is an important and can be fun, especially for Halloween. I think these recipes will work great for your party.


photo credit: Mrs. Prindables

Magic Wands
Ingredients:
• 48 pretzel rods
• 1/2 pound sweetened bakers dark or white chocolate
• Edible colored sprinkles

Instructions:
1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or sauce pan. When melted, pour in a glass bowl.

2. Dip and coat each pretzel stick with melted chocolate; about half the length of each stick.

3. Roll chocolate coated pretzel sticks in colored sprinkles. Let "magic wands" stand and set before serving.




Mummy Dogs
Ingredients:
• 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 2 1/2 slices American cheese, quartered (2.5 oz)
• 10 large hot dogs
• Cooking spray
• Mustard or ketchup, if desired

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Unroll dough; separate at perforations, creating 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal.

2. Slice cheese slices into quarters (1/2 slice cheese, cut in half).


3. Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to look like "bandages," stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog.

4. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for "face."


5. On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down); spray dough lightly with cooking spray.

6. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, draw features on "face."

photo credit: Woman's Day

Spider Web Pizza
Ingredients:
• 1 pkg (10 oz) prebaked mini 8-in pizza crusts (we used Boboli)
• 1/3 cup pizza sauce
• 2 (1 oz each) mozzarella string cheese
• 3 large pitted black olives

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 450°F. Place crusts on a baking sheet; top with sauce. Pull cheese into thin strips; place on pizzas in the shape of a web.

2. Bake pizza for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese melts. Cool 3 minutes.

3. Cut off one end of 2 olives for spider heads. Halve remaining olives lengthwise. Use one half for body; cut remaining pieces into strips for legs. Assemble spider on each pizza.


photo credit: William Sonoma

Halloween Sugar Cookies
It’s easy to transform basic sugar cookie dough into delightful Halloween treats. Using cutters shaped like ghosts and black cats, you can create spooky sweets that will cast a magic spell over holiday gatherings.

Ingredients:
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 piece of vanilla bean 2” long
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• Colored sugars and decorating pens

Instructions:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and, using a small, sharp knife, scrape the seeds into the butter mixture. Mix well.

2. In a sifter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sift the flour mixture directly onto the butter mixture. Reduce the speed to low and beat until well mixed.

3. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball, and then flatten the balls into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (The dough can be prepared up to 3 days ahead.) Let it soften slightly at room temperature before continuing.

4. Position a rack in the upper third of an oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter 2 large baking sheets.

5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out a dough disk 1/4 inch thick. Using cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes. Transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheets. Gather up and reroll the scraps and cut out more cookies. Repeat with the remaining dough disks.

6. Bake until the cookies are golden on the edges, about 8 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let cool completely. Decorate the cookies as desired with colored sugars and decorating pens. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. Makes 24 to 30 cookies, depending on cutter size.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library Series, Holiday Baking, by Jeanne Thiel Kelley (Time-Life Books, 1995).

Of course it wouldn’t be a Halloween party without costumes. These are a few of my favorites for the little one and even for your furry monsters!



Check out this adorable “western cowgirl.” The set comes with a red tutu, red bandana, white hat with star, and stick horse. It is available in size 12m, 18m, 24m, 2t, and 3t.




Mytouchofaloha has a Cupcake Cutie Costume that they created much like the Pottery Barn Kids Costume! Made of soft felt this one piece costume will make your little one the most delicious thing this Halloween! Comes with its own strawberry cream topper! Now available in a 12m - 5T.



These little bloomers were just so darn cute I had to include them, they come from Sugarlocks.



Petiecat makes some beautiful costumes and this little kitty is no exception! The costume is a 5 pc stretch velvet set. Top and pants, arm warmers trimmed with maribu, satin bow on headband and a pull on hand tied tutu over skirt. Available in all sizes 12 month up to size 10. They can also make this in long sleeves.

For your little treaters to collect all of their goodies in style you can have wonderful handmade bags made like these by Tedecco and plain jane and company created this cheery pumpkin Halloween trick or treat bags are darling for your child's Halloween!



Bags are sewn from a cheery mix of orange fabrics and are accented with green "leaves." They are quilted to a soft cotton batting. Patterned black bias and handle top the bag while a cheery blanket-stitched face complete the charm.

Bag dimensions are a perfect size for children. The bag body is approximately 6" tall and 9" wide. This chubby pumpkin would hold all the candy you'd like your child to have!



Let your little ones trick or treat in style this year with a fun appliquéd canvas bag created by plainjaneandcompany! The great thing about these bags is that they are reusable and personalized!

And to cherish your Halloween memories you can get this adorable frame and put in your favorite photo of your little ghoul. This frame was handmade. It holds a 5x5 photo. It has a Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving theme with the brown hand painted paint and the red, orange and gold ribbon. Holes were drilled around the frame and the ribbon was looped through to create this look.



If you have a little furry critter let them join in the fun and check out these adorable little costumes which can be found at Center Pet Pharmacy. Just give them a call 888-260-0801. And our friends at Center Pet Pharmacy are hosting a costume contest where the winner will win $150.00, so send your photo over today to customerservice@centerpetpharmacy.com




Hope it’s a spooktacular holiday for you all!