.

What you need to make Jello Popsicles:

• Box of Jello – we have used cherry, lime and strawberry.  I bet all the flavors would taste great!  Note: the red colors do stain clothes!  We learned that the hard way.
• Orange Juice – 1 Cup. Love that the new Minute Maid bottle is so easy to pour!  This also adds to the health benefit – these could be great during the flu season, hydrating the kids and giving them vitamin C and other vitamins!
• Fruit – we’ve mashed bananas, added pureed peaches, strawberries, blueberries, etc.  Be creative! ETA: I was asked quantities, and it varied each time we made them. Probably a cup or two.
• Hot water – 1 Cup

.

While I boiled a cup of water, Z mashed the fruit.  Then I gave him the hot water and he dumped the jello in it stirring for a little while.  Add the Minute Maid and fruit.  Then fill the popsicle cups (we filled mini-dixie cups with the leftovers) and freeze for a few hours until frozen.  So simple!

.

Thanks to Minuet Maid for participating in this post and to Jen at Whole Foods, check out her giveaway of a popsicle maker!

.

.

.

.
What were our edible paints? Random dips from our fridge (including French’s Honey Mustard, Ranch dressing and ketchup). I hoped that the dips would mix together, that ranch salad dressing and ketchup would make “pink”, or that ketchup and French’s Honey Mustard would make “orange”, but that was not the case. Although they did not blend well,  the kids still had a great time!  We cut up a mixture of veggies for our “paint brushes” and had fun stamping different textures and playing with our food.

.

As the pictures show, my youngest was ecstatic to be included in her siblings “craft” time and I was thrilled she devoured her “trees”.  Not only was this a great toddler/early preschooler craft, it was also a great way to encourage her to eat her veggies. Want more edible painting fun with your toddler?  Check out our painting your pancakes post.

.

What you need for rainbow cupcakes:

• White cake mix
• Food Dye (we used the gel kind)
• Lots of little bowls and spoons
• Cupcake liners and baking sheet
• Icing and sprinkles

.

How we made our colorful rainbow cupcakes:

We mixed our batter (of course the Birthday girl had to be the one to make her own cake). Then we separated the batter into different bowls and added dye to each bowl. My daughter chose the colors pink, blue purple, green and yellow. If we ever do this again, we would probably eliminate the color purple, it came out a funny almost gray/brown color once baked. Once our bowls of color were created we dropped spoonfuls of the dyed batter into our cupcake cups. With the leftovers we made a marbled mini-cake. Then into the oven to bake!They were a huge hit! Thanks again Shannon for the cupcake inspiration!

.

Happy Birthday E!

.

I picked up these paint chips at my local Lowe’s store. I love that they have a window you can use to see an object behind the paint chip and see if it matches. The little window made it a great tool to take to the grocery store and look for green foods. JDaniel loves to have something to do while sitting in the cart. This activity was a lot of fun and a great way to both entertain and teach at the same time.

.

.

We looked like we were having so much fun another mother of a two year old mentioned she would like to try this activity with her child.

.

.

For decorations we grabbed some sheets of shaving cream finger painted papers that we had lying about.  If you don’t have time to make them and wait for the paint to dry, consider coloring with crayons or markers, you can even print a collage of pictures of the kids on computer paper.  As the cupcakes were baking, we cut the triangles out of our pages and then stapled them to a long strip of paper (you could also use a ribbon).   We now had one-of a-kind decorations and the kids had the joy of “making something” for their friend!

.

.

We then grabbed some Cornstarch, school glue and Borax and mixed together a quick batch of goop = Instant gift!  Check out our recipe for homemade goop for more detailed instructions.

.

.

While our fella was mashing the baggie of goop, my gal began to help make the icing for the cupcakes.  We mixed some powdered sugar and some milk together in a bag, added a few drops of food coloring and let the kids smash the bags to mix the cupcake icing.  Clip a corner off of the ziplock baggie and now you have a terrific, mess-free piping system.
.

.

.

The cupcakes were done!  Our honored guest arrived!   The girls had fun decorating their cupcakes as the “activity” and while the goop wasn’t quite mixed all the way, it was fun for them to take turns mashing it some more and our neighbor liked the decorations so much she asked if she could take them home!   It was a smashing success – a great half hour of work and an hour of fun fellowship!

.

.

.

.

.

.

The kids get to pick their own packet – Better Oats has quite the variety of flavors – and dump the oats and water into their own bowls.

.

.

.

Sometimes, they talk me into stenciling their initial onto their bowls:

Other times we just decorate our oatmeal with faces or globs of applesauce. Either way, our kids enjoy their oatmeal and I enjoy a cooking activity my preschoolers can for the most part do by themselves!

.

.

This post was sponsored by Better Oats Oatmeal – I can attest to the Blueberry Muffin Flavor. It was yummy!

.

.

Ingredients needed to make Alphabet Soft Pretzels:

1 Tablespoon of Yeast
1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
1 1/4 Cup of Warm Water
– Let it sit for a few min to activate the yeast.
5 Cups of Flour (we used half white, half whole wheat)
1/2 Cup of Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
2 Tablespoons of Oil
– Knead together well. The dough will be very stiff for a bread dough. After it has been kneaded and is semi-elastic, let the dough sit for an hour to an hour and a half.
1/2 Cup of Baking Soda
4 Cups of Hot Water

.

To make the alphabet soft pretzels:

Grab a portion of the dough. The dough is pretty stiff so roll the portions into thick thumb width logs. Once you have rolled a dozen or so logs, go back to the first and make re-roll the logs so they are thin finger width. Rolling twice allowed the dough to settle and be easier to work with. Once you have the finger width “snakes” as my son liked to call them, form them into the various letters of the alphabet. Dip the letters into the hot baking soda water, set them on a baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 min at 375 degrees.
.
Enjoy making and eating your letters!

Ingredients needed for fudge:

• 5 bags of chocolate chips – we used Dark chocolate for the rich flavor and antioxidants!
• 2 Cans sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 Can evaporated Milk
• 2 tablespoons of butter

Get your big crockpot out, put the chocolate in, turn heat on high. Add the cans of sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and butter. Stir till all the chips are wet, then watch the chocolate and butter melt. It should take a few hours, and you’ll have to stir the fudge occasionally so it doesn’t burn. If your fudge looks too thick (making peaks) add a bit of milk to it and stir out the clumps.  When the fudge has a thick syrupy consistency, boil your jars and lids to sanitize them, fill the hot jars with the hot fudge. Put the lids on the jars, as the jars of fudge cool the lids will seal – you should hear a ping sound. The fudge lasts forever, assuming you don’t eat it all!
…
The best part of making the fudge is cleaning out the bowl afterward!
…

Fudge Variations:

• Add 5 peppermint candy sticks to the batch for Chocolate-Peppermint Fudge.
• Add 1 1/2 cup of maraschino cherry juice and half a cup of dry in place of the evaporated milk. If you are really industrious, you can dry the cherries from your marachino cherry jar in your oven (on its lowest setting, turning them occasionally). Dried cherries and this cherry fudge make a great icecream toppings.
• Use milk chocolate and substitute one of the bags of chocolate for toffee bits. Chocolate-toffee topping is delish!
• Add 2 tablespoons of almond extract. It’s a nice Italian variation, great in coffee!

Supplies to learn about colors with Saint Patrick’s Day:

• Vanilla or coconut pudding, plain yogurt, a milkshake, even applesauce.
• M&M candies (we used blue, yellow, and green)
• Small bowls
• Spoons

.
Before adding the candy, you can encourage the kids to predict what will happen. For example, you might ask, “What will happen to the color of the pudding if we put blue candies into it?” or “What do think the pudding will look like if we mix in yellow and blue candies together?
.

To tint the pudding green, add yellow and blue M&M candies to a serving of pudding (if your kids aren’t fans of pudding, you could try this color experiment with a milkshake or apple sauce). The kids can stir them in until the colored outer coating dissolves. They can add more blue and yellow, or more green M&Ms to intensify the color. There’s no rule that says you can’t try other color combinations as well. Before you know it, an entire rainbow of pudding colors may appear!
.

If you decide to do this edible activity with your kids, we would love to hear about your results!
.

Julia from Roots of Simplicity was gracious enough to share this fun learning activity with us! For more Saint Patrick’s Day activities or other fun family and home crafts, check out her blog!
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

For other painting fun, check out our bathtub paint recipe or finger painting with shaving cream!