Gnome Village Advent Calendar

I'm so super-excited about our GNOME VILLAGE ADVENT CALENDAR this year! Starting on the 1st of December the kids will lift up a gnome home each day...the house numbers will correspond with the day. Underneath each house will be a little surprise: a hershey kiss, a candy cane, a miniature ornament for the tree, or a special message. The "special messages" may include, 

• "Make cookies for a neighbor." 
• "Make Christmas cards for friends and family." 
• "Leave little notes written in chalk around the neighborhood." 
• "Make a Gingerbread House today!" 

Making the GNOME VILLAGE was a little time consuming, but very easy to make. You could always make your gnome houses very simply with a standard door, windows and house number and they'd look just as cute! Just mix up the colors for some variations!

Materials needed:

-mulit-colored card stock (or you could use toilet paper rolls)

-doilies 

-markers and/or paint

-glitter

-Elmer's glue

-hot glue gun

-sequins, stickers, etc (optional)

First, cut the card stock in half horizontally, then take about 3 inches off the end. I like using card stock instead of regular construction paper because it doesn't fade as easily and it's sturdier. I'm hoping to use our GNOME VILLAGE year after year!

After your paper is cut, it's time to decorate! We decorated some of our gnome houses with markers, some with paint and embellished them with sequins, jewels and glitter. Have fun and be creative! They certainly don't all have to be Christmas-y, just colorful!

Once the houses have been colored and painted, shape the paper into little tubes and use a hot glue gun to secure them in place. 

To make the gnome house roofs, make a cut to the center of a doily. (I actually used two doilies stacked for a sturdier roof.) Overlap the ends and glue into place...should make a little rooftop-cone.

To add snow to the roofs, very gently roll each roof in Elmer's glue and then sprinkle with glitter. This was definitely L's favorite part!

Using the hot glue gun again, attach each rooftop to a house. All done! Pretty easy, huh? 

We plan to display our GNOME VILLAGE ADVENT CALENDAR on one of our mantels this year...with a little snow, mini-pine trees, and a few gnomes it will surely become one of our favorite Christmas decorations for years to come! So. Much. Fun! Enjoy! 

Scavenger Hunt

SCAVENGER HUNTS are lots of fun for kids (and adults) of all ages! They only take a couple minutes to throw together and can be done just about anywhere...outside on a beautiful day, inside on a rainy day, in your backyard, on a walk around town, at an art museum or the grocery store. At times when kids may become impatient or get the wiggles, a scavenger hunt can be a great way to keep them entertained!

Basically all you need is a list of things to look for and a small bag to collect your finds. It's that easy!

Our  "around town" scavenger hunt last weekend included the following: an orange leaf, a yellow leaf, a rock, a stick, a feather, a button, a flag, an acorn, a pumpkin, a scarecrow, books, a man wearing a hat, a dog, a flower, and berries. We put the small items that we found in our little bag, while the things that were too big (like a man wearing a hat) were just checked off the list. 

You can make a scavenger hunt for long car rides too! Obviously you won't be filling a bag with things, but your kids can check items they see off a list...or, even better, put it into a "BINGO" type format and you have a car game! See who fills their card first! 

Another variation: Leave a trail of clues, leading your kids to a surprise in the end! We like to do this one around the house, sending L upstairs, then downstairs, into cabinets, and under pillows, all to find a hershey kiss tucked into one of her shoes at the end. It takes a little more prep time, but is oh so fun!!! 

Where will your SCAVENGER HUNT take you? 

Homemade Granola (Gluten Free)

Is there anything better this time of year than HOMEMADE GRANOLA, fresh out of the oven? It's warm, a little chewy, and crunchy too. This granola is sweet and a bit salty, with a just a hint of cinnamon. Oh, how I love homemade granola! 

I came up with this granola recipe years ago (a combination of Alton Brown's, my mom's, plus a few of my own additions) and I'll warn you, it's highly-addictive. The great thing about granola is that you can add or substitute some ingredients to make it your own. You could switch out some of the nuts with walnuts or peanuts, add a pinch of nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice. I like to use Pure Maple Syrup with this recipe, but if I have Apple Syrup from the farmer's market on hand, it's a delicious substitution! Granola is a wonderful gift for family and friends and this recipe makes plenty enough for two families. After it's cooled completely just put half of the granola in a large mason jar with a ribbon tied around the lid and it's ready to share! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

6 cups of oats (I use Bob's Red Mill, Gluten-Free, Rolled Oats)

1 cup almonds, sliced

1 cup pecan pieces

1 cup cashews, raw

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cups coconut

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

cinnamon

honey

1 cup raisins

1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. 

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, almonds, pecans, cashews, sunflower seeds, coconut, and brown sugar.

In a smaller bowl (or in a measuring cup!) mix together the maple syrup, vegetable oil and salt. If you have kids in the kitchen, they'll enjoy seeing how the syrup and oil separate in the glass measuring cup before you mix it all up!

Pour the syrup-oil-salt mixture overtop the oats and nuts. Mix until everything is evenly and thorough coated. Spread the granola out into a large baking pan, or what I prefer...a large, non-stick roasting pan used usually for cooking turkeys or hams. Place in the oven. The total cooking time will be about 2.5 hours for such a large amount of granola, mixing every 15-30 minutes with a large spoon or spatula. Here is the schedule I tend to follow:

Cook 30 min. Mix.

Cook 30 min. Mix again.

Cook 30 min. Mix. Add HONEY in a zigzag, all over pattern.

Cook 15 min. Mix. Add more HONEY and sprinkle CINNAMON on top too. 

Cook 15 min. Mix.

Cook 15 min. Mix. 

Cook 15 min. Mix. Enjoy some hot and fresh! 

Allow to cool for 15 min. Mix in RAISINS and DRIED CRANBERRIES. 

Enjoy!!! And share!!! 

DIY Floppy Newspaper Hats

Oh, we had so much fun making these FLOPPY NEWSPAPER HATS today! I thought I'd write up this tutorial this weekend, but I just couldn't wait...they're just so much fun! If you have little boys in your messy house, please don't think you can't make these with them...a hat's a hat! A floppy hat's a floppy hat! I'm sure they'll love them just as much as any girls will! Do it! There will be lots of giggling for sure. 

Materials needed:

-newspaper

-acrylic paint

-painters tape

-tissue paper, poof balls, feathers, etc.

-white glue

First, prepare your painting area. I taped some trash bags to the floor to protect it from paint...not usually necessary for painting, but the newspaper sheets are just so large. 

Next, paint, paint, paint! Paint an entire sheet of newspaper, just one side though. Don't worry if some  of the newspaper can be seen through the paint, nobody will notice when the hat is finished! Allow the paint to dry completely.

After the paint is dry, lay the paper overtop of another sheet of newspaper...two sheets will make the hat a little more durable. Fold the papers twice, once in each direction, and cut the paper so when you open them back up, you have a circle. The circle really doesn't have to be perfect, it'll look great when you're done! 

Next is the tricky part because kids tend to wiggle...lay the paper over your child's head and scrunch fold it into shape. As you go around, use painters tape to hold the the folds in place. The great thing about painter's tape is that you can fix any little mistakes and it won't tear up the paint or paper. 

In making WB's orange hat, I just shaped it around my knee and it worked just fine. I also experimented and used a stapler instead of the painters tape. Stapling worked great and looks fantastic, but it is a little trickier to do. The paper tears a little easier with staples in it too. 

Now to decorate your hat! You can cut flowers out of tissue paper or just cut squares and scrunch them up. If you layer the tissue paper a bit, the flowers are a little fluffier and prettier. You can also glue on poof balls, jewels, feathers, anything you can think of and find around your house! 

Super cute, huh!? Forget Easter bonnets, we'll be wearing these to Thanksgiving dinner!!! That is if they survive a month's worth of tea parties... 

Wouldn't these be adorable for a birthday party? You could make the hats beforehand and let the kids decorate them at the party...so many fun possibilities! Enjoy!