Fall Leaf Art

Way back when my big kids were little, we made these "Leaf Art" hangings. I had forgotten about them until a few days ago, when my kids started collecting and admiring leaves. It's an easy way to display their favorite ones and in my opinion, it looks very pretty.

All you need to make them are leaves, 2 sheets of wax paper, an iron and a towel. Place one sheet of wax paper (about 12" square, but really, it can be any size) on your ironing board and arrange the leaves on it (taking care to leave space around each leaf). Lay the other (same size) sheet of wax paper on top of the leaves, cover it with a towel, and iron it with a hot iron until the wax has melted and "sealed" the leaves into place. Voila! Your kids will be impressed. If you hang them on the window, the light shines through the paper and looks nice & fall-like.

You can also melt little bits of crayons in between the wax paper to give it more color, but I didn't tell my kids that or they'd be chopping up every crayon in the house.

These are some pictures I took yesterday and had fun editing.

Play dough

It has been a long time since I've made homemade playdough. I had forgotten just how much the little (and big) people love playing with it. They've spent hours at a time rolling, shaping, mashing, cutting & molding the dough. It is definitely a good rainy (or snowy) day activity.

Here's the recipe:

3-4 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of salt
1 Tbs oil
1 Tbs cream of tartar
3 cups of water
food coloring

Combine all (starting with only 3 cups of flour) except food coloring in a large pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and adding food coloring until it has reached the desired shade (prepare to use some muscle!) until it becomes too thick to stir. Remove from heat and when it's cool enough to handle, knead in more flour until it's smooth & no longer sticky.

Store in an air-tight container & it will last for a long time.

Not just for rainy days...

It has been raining pretty steadily here for the past couple of days. The ducklings have resorted to playing with the couch cushions again. We've had these couches for about 9 years and we have really gotten our money's worth out of them. Not only are they for sitting on, but they're also used for building forts, caves, mountains, horses, slides and springboards.


I remember not being allowed to sit on certain family member's couches when I was a child, for fear that they'd get dirty or worn. Or if we did get to sit on them, they had to be covered with towels or sheets first. I guess those memories are why I'm so lenient about couch treatment today. Or maybe it's because the ducklings would be doing stuff like this on my kitchen table instead.For cushion mountains, the general consensus is the higher the better. Danger is fun. Rain, rain, go away... the ducklings must go out to play!

Rainy Day Activity: Candy Making

We have this wonderful book called 365 Things to Make and Do. I highly recommend it for rainy days. The cover is nearly falling off from being looked at so much. Sugar Baby found a candy recipe in it that she wanted to try today. The recipe was great, because the only "cooking" it required was to melt chocolate. Basically, it is about a cup or so of powdered sugar mixed with an egg white, peppermint flavoring & green food coloring. Mix it to dough like consistency (adding more powdered sugar if necessary), roll it into balls, and dip the balls into the melted chocolate chips. Allow to harden & voila!




Before we got started, we decided to invite a few friends over to help. After all, the more the merrier!

These guys were in the area, so we asked them. They began by reading the recipe. Turns out, they weren't much help at all. They just kind of sat there, staring. This guy was afraid he'd get his sweater dirty.This guy was too busy showing off how flexible he was. He must be double jointed or something.This guy would not be quiet. He kept making rude comments about how candy making was for girls and how the other guy's sweater made him look like a sissy. We ended up having to gag him.Despite how unhelpful our friends were, Sugar Baby was able to make a delicious final product: cute little mints that tasted like extra sweet peppermint patties. Next time, we'll have to be a little more selective about who we invite over to help us.

Rainy Day Activity: Straw & Pipe Cleaner Construction

I came across this idea recently and decided to use it as a Rainy Day Activity.



All you need are straws and pipe cleaners, or as they are politically correctly known: "chenille stems". Whatever...

Snip the pipe cleaners into 4" pieces and snip the straws in half. Now you are ready to build. The ducklings made crowns, teepees, castles, microphones and even a drink with a straw. When we were done, we pulled everything apart and put the pieces in a large ziplock bag to save for another rainy day.