Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Creative Family Fun Nights: Frosty the Snowman

By

One of our favorite Christmas movies is Frosty the Snowman, so I thought it would be fun to create a family night based around Frosty. You can fill your night with crafts, books, movies, and a special treat all based on that lovable Snowman.

Today I’m sharing microwave puff paint snowmen, snowman hot chocolate, and a few snowman book suggestions. I hope this will help you have your own Frosty the Snowman family night.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Microwave Puff Paint Snowmen

White and black puff paint (I used the recipe found on Teach Preschool)
Paint brushes
Card stock or cardboard
Microwave

I made up a batch of the puff paint that I found on Teach Preschool. Deborah’s recipe makes a lot, so if you’re doing this for your family, you will want to halve the recipe.

I only made white and black, but you can make any color you want by using food coloring.

I also cut my card stock in half so it would go in the microwave easier.

Our plan was to paint a few snowman masterpieces.

The girls loved playing with the goopy paint. It was fun to paint a little sloppy and to experiment with dripping the paint (the paint is really thick!).

Once we were done, we popped the pictures in the microwave one by one. It was fun to watch the paint harden and puff while in the microwave.

Our pictures only took about 20 seconds each in our high-powered microwave. Watch your pictures carefully, you can tell it’s done when your card stock starts curling up on the end.

You can see the fun three-dimensional effect you can get once they’re done!

Oh, and one other tip, make sure and wash out your paint brushes immediately after painting. At that point, they’re very easy to clean. But, if you wait, the paint will harden on the brushes making it terribly hard to clean.

Snowman Books:

We read one of my old Little Golden Books, Frosty the Snowman. I know this book is not available unless you happen across one in a thrift store. You can try this updated version. I haven’t read it to know if the two books are the same. But, don’t worry, if you don’t have a book about Frosty, any book about snowmen would work. Here are a few suggestions:

In addition to the books, watching the original Frosty the Snowman would be a great way to end the evening.

Snowman Hot Chocolate
We couldn’t have a Frosty the Snowman night without a special treat, so I whipped up these simple mugs of snowman hot chocolate. I simply used instant hot chocolate with plenty of whipped cream squirted on the top. To make the face, I used miniature chocolate chips. It was that easy and everyone loved them!

If you want another special treat, check out these snowman pancakes that Glittering Muffins made.

Now it’s time to plan a fun family night to celebrate the season. What snowman activities would you add?

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 19

By

DIY Scratch Art Christmas Ornaments

By

Every year, we make tons of homemade ornaments for our Christmas tree.

One of the projects we made this year were these fun scratch art ornaments.

I had to do a lot more prep ahead of time for this project, but the results were worthwhile.

The girls loved making their own designs to hang on the tree.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

To begin, I cut a selection of circles from white card stock.

I used a couple of different sized circle punches to make life easier on me. (This is one of the circle punches I used)

If you don’t have punches, just use some drinking glasses as a stencil.

Next, I used our oil pastels to make colorful designs on the circles.

You can also use crayons, though you will want to color darkly.

I prefer using the oil pastels because they go on so much thicker than crayons.

Finally, you’ll want to color over your designs with a thick coat of black.

When you’re done, it’s time to scratch!

We used a toothpick to gently scratch our designs on the ornaments.

Some were well planned out and others were random and fun.

When all were done, we punched a hole in the top, strung some string through the hole and hung them on our tree.

Scratch art is fun and you don’t have to buy a specialized kit to experience it.

Not only were these a fun afternoon project, but they would also be an easy and inexpensive stocking stuffer. Just bundle a few pre-made ornaments with a couple of toothpicks for scratching in a pretty package.

What a fun thing to find in a Christmas stocking!

If you’re looking for more kids Christmas crafts, please follow my Kid’s Christmas Ideas Pinterest board:

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Morocco

By

When Around the World in 12 Dishes whisked us away to Morocco this month, the girls and I decided to spend out time in the markets of Marrakech.

We watched a short video on National Geographic Kids and looked at their slideshow. We talked about all the different things you could find at the markets, such as clothing, leather, olives, tea, dried fruits & nuts, and carpets.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I was very fortunate to have found a book at our local public library that was set in the markets of Marrakech, My Father’s Shop by Satomi Ichikawa.

In this book, Mustafa, who always admired the beautiful carpets in his father’s shop, asked his father if he could have the rug with the hole in it. His father agrees to give Mustafa the carpet only if he agrees to learn some of the foreign languages that were important to their trade. We learned, along with Mustafa, of the importance of being able to communicate with people from all over the world.

To go along with the book, we created out own rugs similar to the ones we imagined Mustafa’s father sold in his shop.

We used construction paper and our markers to create the designs on the rug. I joined along this time instead of just observing the process.

After we had our designs, we used our scissors to cut a fringe along the two short sides of our “rugs.”

By now, I’m sure you’re wondering about the food. Well, this month, we skipped the food and went for the craft instead.

While browsing recipes, I couldn’t find anything that I thought the family would like, let alone try. We love some of the individual ingredients, but when combined together, I knew I would be hard pressed to get anyone to try a bite.

Since this is supposed to be a fun project, I didn’t want to add that kind of stress to it. If you have any suggestions for a kid-friendly Moroccan meal, let me know. I’m still willing to give it a try!

Even minus the food, we still had a great experience imagining ourselves as rug sellers deep in the markets of Marrakech.

 

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.
 
The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.
 
Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?
 

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and now are arriving in Rabat, capital of Morocco!

  • March 4 – First country was the UK
  • April 1 – The second country was Sweden
  • May 6 – The third country was Russia
  • June 3 – The fourth country was India
  • July 7 – The fifth country was Japan
  • August 5 – The sixth country was Australia
  • September 2 – The seventh country was French Polynesia
  • October 7 – The eighth country was Mexico
  • November 4 – The ninth country was Brazil
  • December 2 – The tenth country is Morocco!

How to join the fun!

  • The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
  • Cook a dish from Morocco: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
  • Typical dishes: Tajine, Briouat, Kefta, Merguez or Ma’amoul.
  • Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
  • Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
  • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
    • Fun fact: Even though the official language is Arabic, Moroccan Arabic is so different that someone from, for example, Saudi-Arabia will hardly be able to understand.

10 Kid-Made Christmas Cards

By

 

This year, we paring down our Christmas card list and sending out some handmade fun. I’m planning on letting the girls get in on the fun and make the cards themselves.

While searching for ideas, I found these 10 fabulous kid-made card ideas.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Use your kid’s fingerprints to make wreaths like these adorable cards shared on Hands On: As We Grow.

You can also turn those cute little fingerprints into Rudolph. Make and Takes show you how.

Blog Me Mom used salt and glitter to make some sparkly hand print holiday cards.

Mudpies & Sunshine shows you how use paper strips and cork stamps to make beautiful Christmas trees.

Last year, we turned tissue paper collages into Christmas trees for some special holiday greetings.

Mermaids’ Makings shows you how to use corrugated cardboard as Christmas tree stamps. They turned out so beautiful!

You’ve got two choices to check out at CraftoArt Creativity My Passion, folded Christmas tree cards and folded Santa Hat cards.

Red Ted Art turned photos of the kids into adorable Rudolph cards. You have to check these out!

At Home with Ali created beautiful cards with paper snowflakes and watercolors. They are stunning.

Finally, Dilly-Dali Art shares 6 ideas for homemade Christmas cards. Yep, I said six! You’ll find paper strip ornaments, glue yarn snowflakes, and 4 more fantastic ideas. She even shows you how to make your own envelopes to put all of those cards in.

So, you tell me, which cards should we make and send out for family and friends?