More Ideas for Kids Fun–Cooking with Mom
Kids fun ideas, especially at an early age, have a lot to do with home and hearth. Baking cookies, making decorations, or just reading with Mom were such special times. I try to include my kids somehow in whatever activity I am doing around the house. I bought special slip on socks that they can skate down the hallway wearing to help dust the hardwood floors. I have step stools so they can help me cook, and, of course, I keep a book of fairy tales by my own bedside in case they want to cuddle up with me on a rainy day. One of the best kids activities that I’ve found is simply cooking. Kids enjoy being a part of food preparation—and who can blame them? It’s relaxing, tasty, and the smells stay with you for a lifetime. As fall approaches there are limitless ideas for what can be made together in the kitchen. One idea that I recently found online is making “apple” lollipops that they can take to school to give to their teachers and classmates.
This will require a tiny bit of prep shopping at a store that sells candy making supplies. Believe it or not, I’ve found everything I need for this at Wal-Mart and Target so you don’t need to trek to a bakery shop for supplies. Unless you really want to, of course.
Kids Fun: Apple Lollypops
You will need:
- Lollipop sticks, dipsticks, or thin straws
- Red candy coating (this can be red melt-able candy wafers or you can use almond bark and red food coloring)
- Chocolate cake mix
- Chocolate icing
- Green fruit rollups
- Pretzel sticks
The first step is just to make and bake the cake according to the package directions. Once the cake has been cooled break it up in a large bowl and mix in the chocolate frosting. Bring the kids in at this point to help you “shape” the apples. This is the epitome of kids fun! They get to put their hands into a gooey chocolate mixture and form tiny apples from it. Have them place the “apples” on a sheet of wax paper while you heat up the red candy coating in a bowl using your microwave.
Step two is just taking the lollipop sticks and sticking them into the “apples” and then dipping the apples in the red candy coating. When you place them on the wax paper to dry the tops will flatten slightly like a Macintosh apple.
When the candy coating is almost dry, allow your children to break off bits of the green fruit rollups to make leaves to place on the top and use a pretzel stick for the stem.
I promise you, not only is this one of those easy kids activities to do with the kids, but they will enjoy both sharing and eating them with their classmates. It’s a tasty alternative to the apple on the desk routine we used to do.
I’d love to hear your idea for cake pops—I’m sure a Halloween pumpkin could be done the same way. Till next time, I hope you enjoyed this tiny example of simple kids fun.
Baby Shower Ideas
Baby Shower Ideas: And the Retail Price of that Rattle is….
Whenever people come to me for baby shower ideas they usually want help with baby shower games. We’ve all been to showers where we got the mixed up words like: “prseaid” and were asked to figure out that it really was “diapers” for a prize. I’m certainly not going to down a game I still play in bed when I can’t sleep, but I think that most of the people who want some help with ideas are looking for something a bit beyond the usual.
For the record my favorite baby shower game ever played at a friend’s shower (and this actually went along with a whole game show baby shower idea) was a version of The Price is Right. This is such an easy game to set up and depend how far you take it (and they took it the whole way) can be a super fun game for a shower or party. For other fun Baby Shower Ideas read a fun article about throwing a Disney Baby Shower.
Baby Shower Ideas
Baby Shower Ideas
To do it right you may want to download the Price is Right theme music to play in the background like my friend’s did—it makes it that much more fun to play. Set up a table that is long enough to have 3-4 people behind it. Hand everyone large sized postcards and a sharpie. The rules are just like the television show. They must guess the price of a baby item without going over it. The closest price wins. Eventually, you can weed down the “contestants” for the big prize. My friends skipped the whole wheel and went straight to the showcase showdown for the final 2-4 participants. By the time we were finished with the game everyone was smiling and laughing, it was an unusual but fun baby shower game.
This is just one (great) idea for baby shower games, but it does give you a starting point to get creative. For example, what game show or board game do you enjoy the most? Take that game and figure out how to apply it to baby shower ideas that will work for your shower.
As always, we’d love if you’d share those baby shower ideas here with the rest of us.
Baby Shower Ideas: Nursery Rhyme Shower
Are you having a hard time coming up with good baby shower ideas? Why not throw a nursery rhyme themed baby shower. Grab a well-loved book of nursery rhymes and start planning. You’ll soon find yourself with plenty of ideas for a great baby shower.
Play games such as Finish the Baby Rhyme, found on this great list of baby shower games. You could also play Nursery Rhyme Charades. Have each guest draw a name of a nursery rhyme out of a bag and act it out. This is sure to bring lots of laughter! Another fun idea would be to fill a jar with cotton balls and have the guest guess how many bags of wool “Baa Baa Black Sheep” has. The person who guesses the closest to the correct number would win a prize.
There are many great baby shower ideas you could use for decorations. Use pages from old nursery rhyme books. You could make a garland, a table runner, wall decorations or small framed table decorations with these pages. Borrow stuffed animals that are related to nursery rhymes, such as lambs, ducks or geese. Moons, stars, and flowers would also all complement the theme. Use an old nursery rhyme book as a guest book. Have each guest sign a different page and present it to the guest of honor. This will be a special memento of her baby shower.
More baby shower ideas for your Nursery Rhyme Shower:
You can easily serve food that relates to nursery rhymes. Serve “Humpty Dumpty” deviled eggs, “The Muffin Man’s” muffins, or cheese chunks for “Little Miss Muffet’s curds and whey”. You could serve star-shaped cookies to represent “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and moon-shaped cookies to represent “Hey Diddle, Diddle”. For a drink, serve hot tea to represent “Polly Put the Kettle On”.
As favors, send your guest home with flower seeds or small potted flowers. Attach a tag with “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” printed on it. Another option for favors or prizes would be tapered candles with tag that has “Jack Be Nimble” printed on it.
Please share your baby shower ideas for a nursery rhyme shower in the comment section.
