Painted Flower Cookies For Mother's Day

These Painted Flower Cookies are so lovely for Mother's Day and Kids will love painting them.

Have you ever tried painting on food with your kids, it is a fun art medium. Painting cookies is becoming one of our favorite food to paint on. We had some painted cookies for Putti's 3rd ART themed birthday, then made some flag cookies for memorial day and then again made some painted Easter Cookies which all have been big hit so far. 
I used my favorite short bread cookie recipe as they are eggless and I always use it for all my decorated cookies. I cut out some flower shapes using cookie cutters. I iced them with royal icing and left the cookies to dry over night. I had recently purchased these edible food markers which I let Putti apply the coloring like paint on the cookies. 

She loved coloring the cookies with some bright colors. I had to remind her to be gentle while coloring so as to not break the cookies.

We used Wilton Gel Food Colors for yellow, as we did not have that colored marker. Regular liquid food coloring works well too. Just add a little bit of water to the food coloring and you are good to go. You could use cotton swabs like us or use new paint brushes to apply the food color.

She went on drawing and coloring the flower cookies how ever she liked.

Here's a bunch of flower cookies she colored. I love how they turned out.

I thought they would make a lovely bouquet for Mother's Day, so using some royal icing I glued kabab sticks to the back of the cookies and here we have a lovely painted flower cookies!!
These would be perfect for Mother's Day and also for spring and flower themed party :)

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Octonauts Toys Review

We recently received for review some fun Octonauts toys that I want to share with you. The toys were sent to me for free, all opinions are my own and are unbiased.

Until my niece who lives in Wales, UK told Putti about her favorite TV show Octonauts, we were completely unaware of the team of creatures that lives underwater and enjoys lots of fun adventures together in the quest to explore, rescue and protect. We watched some octonauts videos online.We have now become fans! The main characters are Captain Barnacles Bear, Kwazii Kitten, Peso Penguin and Shellington Sea Otter. 

The Octonauts Gup C Playset includes Shellington figure and whale. You can use the towline to light the whale to safety and the whale squirts water and changes color in warm water. One of Putti's favorite features is the fact that you can look through the Gup C to the “ocean” floor and check out what is below. Very fun!!! If you have an adventure-loving child, then Octonauts might be a perfect fit for imaginary play.

All of the toys are wonderful bathtub toys. Although she is 5 she still loves to play in the bathtub and it was so nice for her to have some new toys, especially toys that are based on underwater adventures. Putti’s imagination goes wild when she plays with her new Octonauts toys. It is so fun to just sit back and watch her.

They are Fisher-Price toys, so they are very well made. Ours have been in the bathtub every day and are doing fine. 

Follow Octonauts on facebook for more updates on their shows and toys!

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20 Household Things For Kids To Stack And Build

Here are 20 Household things Kids love to stack, build and knock over for fun!! Apart from the various building blocks that are store bought, Putti loves to stack random things from around the house. She enjoyed stacking Styrofoam bowls, cups, cardboard boxes,  empty pots and more. Don't you love that kids find 'toys' in household things? Click on the images to visit the individual post:

Stacking is so much fun, for both boys and girls. This is favorite family game too, where we challenge each other as who gets to build the tallest and then knocking them over is great fun too! What do your kids love to stack? 

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Recycled Tree Craft For Arbor's Day

Who wouldn’t love this Recycled Tree Craft For Arbor's Day that’s perfect for a variety of ages?

I love to recycle/upcycle things from around the house and use them in our crafts. This was done at a local Green Arts Festival, organised by our reusable resource center that collects and redistributes reusable materials to the community. The wonderful thing is all that you need is available in your recycle box! Here's what you will need -

• Newspaper
• Brown paper scraps or brown colored clippings from magazines
• Empty Cereal box
• Glue
• Green Paint and brush

The idea is similar to our Magazine Tree. The craft can be made to fit a wide age range – little kids will LOVE the painting and glueing aspect and older kids will LOVE the cutting. First paint the newspapers with green paint, use a sponge brush and remind the kids more paints will make the paper soggy and it will rip. Let it dry. Once dry cut, a tree shape and some leaves out of it. Also cut a stem and branches from the brown paper. Toddlers may need help with cutting the the trunk, branches and leaves, but older kids will enjoy creating the whole thing on their own. Next let the kids glue the cuttings onto cereal box to complete their tree.

Love the story that Putti kept telling as she made her tree. It was a very windy day it seems, so many leaves were falling off. To make grass, cut a long strip of painted newspaper, then make thin slits on its long side, to resemble blades of grass. Glue this to the bottom of the picture. Here is her finished Recycled Tree Craft For Arbor's Day!!

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Xtreme Customz by Ridemakerz Party from MommyParties #XtremeCustomzParty

This weekend, we gathered the kids together for an Xtreme Customz by Ridemakerz Party.  This is a review post of the toys sent to me for free to share with my friends.

The boys picked out their cars and got right to work in building them and playing!

The cars were fairly easy to put together. The only thing kids needed help was to make sure that the chassis went on in the right direction. Once all the pieces were taken out of the package, most of the cars only took about 5 minutes to put together.

Here's the assembled Batman car that was my daughter's favorite too. 

The Xtreme Customz  cars are 1:48 scale size.  The car parts are interchangeable and they have a 4-mode adjustable chassis so you can customize the way you cruise (race, lifted, jacked and off-road - with just the push of a button). Isn't that so cool !!!

I had a couple 10 year olds who too  enjoyed putting together and playing with the cars. Also, the girls at the party loved the cool cars. The 5 year olds really enjoyed playing with their new cars.

All the kids left with wish lists for their upcoming birthdays etc. I think all the kids and their moms had a GREAT time with their cool cars today. The spider man car was a favorite amongst many boys as it shoots a white stick like thing and everyone thought that was so cool!

We had some fun games, car race and yummy snacks including these car cookies!

These cars were fun, engaging and overall cool.  The kids loved the different designs and the fact that the parts interchange.  I would definitely recommend them.  They are available for purchase at Target and Toys R Us.  Thank you for this fantastic opportunity!!
Disclosure: I was sent toys for review purpose, all opinions are my own and unbiased.

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Bubble Wrap Play

Today, I share with you a very simple play idea - Bubble Wrap Play!

 As you all know, when it comes to any activities with kids keeping it simple is the key for more fun. And sure is a known fact that kids do love to play with simple things like cardboard box, leaves, packing material etc. Another such play is with bubble wrap. Just tape down a big piece of bubble wrap- the big bubble kind, salvaged from our new table package. My little girl ran, danced, and jumped on it!

 We have tried it outdoors too, with friends and they loved it too. We tried it with the bubble wrap with little bubbles too, it does not pop as easily and you have to push down quite hard and deliberately to pop them. But the kids (3-5 years old) didn't seem to notice that not many bubbles were popping and they had a blast with it. 

I have tried it too, and I have to say that it does feel great on your feet, a bit like a massage, actually. So, you may want to join your kids in the fun too! Do try it and let me know. Here's a video of Putti playing with bubble wrap and she did not even wait for me to tape it down for her!

This post is my contribution to "100 Days of Play" challenge.  The play challenge is about simple play ideas that you can do on a daily basis. Setting aside at least 30 uninterrupted minutes of play per day for the kids is great for them. You will find ideas for simple play that will let you connect with your kids without fancy play set ups or even fancier toys. New ideas are shared each day from 4/1 – 7/20 on various blogs. 100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers:

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails . Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas . Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots . Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators’ Spin On It . Blog Me Mom . Life At The Zoo . Putti’s World . Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal’s Tiny Treasures . Rainy Day Mum . Momma’s Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day . MumCentral . Artchoo! . Little Artists . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4′s Mom . NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning . Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Mama Miss . Making Boys Men .Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque . Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo . Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum . B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life . Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma . Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma’s Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs. Blue Bear Wood . Growing Together . KC EDventures . Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide . Learn with Play at Home . Mummy… Mummy… MUM! . Science Sparks . Toddler Approved .Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom . Love, Play, Learn . Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers . The Pleasantest Thing . Teach Beside Me 

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DIY Personalized Kids Name Plaque

This Personalized Name Plaque is a fun idea for Kids room doors. Putti really loves hers.

 Ever since we moved to a new apartment couple of months ago, Putti is very excited to have her own playroom. We are slowly getting her room ready. And  I thought her room door could use a little personalization and wanted to make her very own name plaques. She loved the idea too and when I was sent some Apple Barrel Paint and Mod Podge Washout, I knew just what to do with them. 

 I picked an oval wooden plaque from Michaels and let Putti choose how she wanted to paint it. She chose pink Apple Barrel paint to cover the whole plaque. I love their all-purpose craft paint for our projects because it cleans up easily with soap and water (while wet) and comes in so many pretty colors. 

Next, she wanted to add some dotted border to it. She used cotton swabs to add the purple and yellow  dots all around.

We left the paint to dry and it dried quickly - a plus when you're working with kids who can't wait and want to move on to the next step. I did suggest using the stencils for her name initial, but she had other idea. So, I cut letters to spell her name, some flowers and hearts as she suggested from wrapping paper scraps that I had. And then applied them to the painted wooden plaque with Mod Podge Washout. 

This is the same formula as "regular" Mod Podge but it washes out of clothing and furniture with soap and water, even when it's dry. Isn't this great for mothers and teachers. This will be my "go-to" Mod Podge for all my kid's projects from now on.  
Next stapled a loop of ribbon to the back and hung it on her room door!. To avoid any banging against the door I added a little adhesive strip to the back and adhered to the door.

I love how this turned it and it is so easy to make. Kids can add pictures of thing they like - butterflies, cars, balls, animals etc. A special thank you to Plaid Enterprises for sharing such fun art supplies with us. Be sure to Like Plaid Crafts on Facebook, Follow on Twitter and on Pinterest for all the latest product information.

Disclosure: This post was written as part of a campaign with The Blueprint Social. All opinions are my own and unbiased.

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Take Part - Stop Bullying Now

TakePart is sponsoring post on bullying as a way to put it to a stop. Please take a minute to sign a pledge. 

Bullying - A parental nightmare, is one of the things I have been dreading the most. I have been worrying that this will happen somewhere along the line. But never imagined it would start even before my girl enters the school.
After we moved to a new apartment a couple of months ago, Putti was really happy to have a lovely open space right next to our house and also found a couple neighboring kids to play with. But her happiness did not last for long, she came home crying. One of the kid had called her 'scared-y cat' for not petting her dog and kept teasing her inspite of being asked to stopped by other kids. I have talked to Putti in detail about this and did discuss with the other girl and her parents too. But the damage has been done, Putti now does not go out to play if the bully girl is in the ground. This incident has made read a lot about bullying and here are some things I have learnt.

• If your child is being bullied they need to know that it is NOT OK, that they don’t have to put up with it and that they need to tell someone.
• Make sure the child knows that being bullied is not their fault. They DO NOT deserve it!
• Coax the child to tell you about their experience. Listen! Do not judge! Remind them they are very brave for sharing this situation.
•  If your child sees someone being bullied, they need to know that it is their job to step up and take some responsibility, to step in and stop it or at the very least, tell someone(parent/teacher).
• If your child is the one doing the bullying, they need to understand the amount of damage they are doing, that it is not OK and that the physical scars may heal but the person they have bullied will be damaged for a long time, if not forever. 
• Pragmatic mom has a list of 10 picture books for dealing with bullying.
• Here is a video of the popular crumpled paper anti-bullying message. Share it your kids.

Today I want you to sign the 'Take Part' pledge. By signing the pledge, you are helping to make a difference and standing up for this horrible behavior.  Share the post with anyone you know who has kids.

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Easter Egg Hunt Party

Putti had a fun Easter Egg Hunt Party at her friend's house this evening. They were all excited to go find the eggs scattered hidden in the backyard.

 All the girls were excited to find so many eggs around!

 

 Here are the proud egg hunters with their eggs!

 There were a couple toddlers too and this little man was really excited. He would pick up each egg, shake it to make sure it has something in and put it in the bag. It sure was a fun thing to watch him :)

Wishing you all a very Happy and blessed Easter!!!!

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Easter Cookies

These Easter Cookies are filled with candy treats and is sure to surprise your kids!

 I  have been wanting to try the pinata cookies, for a long time now. So, finally got to make it for Putti's friends for an Easter Party. And, it sure was a hit with all the kids. The first kid that started eating the cookies was so surprised to find the candies hidden in them and soon all the kids wanted to eat  a cookie too, to find the hidden treasure in theirs :)
I used my own eggless cookie recipe. I divided the dough into 3 and added food colors to each. To make the cookie marbeled, press the 3 colored balls of dough together until you have your desired marbled effect. Roll and cut using a egg shaped cookie cutter. You may want to check the Marvelous Marbled Cookies on The Chocolate Muffin Tree for more detailed step by step photos.

 After the cookies are baked, I assembled them with royal icing and filled it with mini m&ms. The post on She Knows has detailed step by step pictures for you.

I also made a 'Hidden Egg Cake' following the instructions at Peekaboo Pumpkin Cake. It did not turn out great, but sure did surprise the kids when the cake was cut :)

Did you see the Painted Easter Cookies that we made?

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Easy Easter Egg Decorating For Kids

I have an Easy Easter Egg Decorating For Kids. This idea are perfect for crafty little hands, so grab the kids and re-create these trendy eggs in your own home.

Easter is a couple of days away, and we are on an Easter egg decorating binge this year and we both are loving the experience. I hadn’t dyed eggs in all my life and did it for the first time with Putti this year.  We also decorated eggs some using dot stickers. But, these don’t require any dye — just get some eggs, paper tape/patterned tape /washi tape, and scissors, and let your kids go to town. 

There hardly is any direction required -  just cut the tape anyway you want and apply to the eggs.  Putti preferred to just tear the tape with her fingers, I love the ragged edges of the tape when torn. These patterned tape are from Target and much cheaper than the Washi Tape. She found that the eggs sit nice and snug inside the tape rolls and that made it easier for her.

She chose to cover the whole egg with the tape and infact overlapped at many places too. For the other egg she used colored masking tape.

Here are the two eggs she finished decorating. The tape rolls make a perfect stand for these!

While, she was decorating the above two eggs, i couldn't resist myself so started cutting the tape into thin strips and was decorating an egg. Putti loved it too, but found it hard to cut thin strips, so I had to do it for her, while she continued decorating the rest of the eggs. Older kids can cut the tape in various other shapes like triangles or thinner stripes too. Hardboiled, blown out, plastic or styrofoam eggs any kind should work for this.

What do you all think?  Isn't it an easy idea for kids? 

Is this something that you’d try with your kids?

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