This is part 2 of JJ and the Princess Girls. To see more activities, crafts, and princess girls visit part 1.

JJ and the Princess Girls

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Growing Candy Canes

The girls grew candy canes!

They had a cup with sugar and then mixed in some (or all in Ariel's case) red or green sprinkles.  They stirred it up and set it aside.
Arianna just hung out!
In the morning they had candy canes in their cups.
Annabelle wasn't convinced that they gres because there was plastic on them.  She enjoyed them though!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Bulletin Board Repurposed

A long time ago I was given this gem

Its one of those gross old school bulletin boards.
I had always planned to just pull the green off and cover with something else.

I started by trying to get it off the frame.  Well, the frame broke.
I ended up just covering it and not having a frame.
I had some fancy trim that I was going to put around the edges.  Turns out that I only had enough for 2 edges, so I just did one edge.

Even though this didn't go as I had planned, I think the final product is pretty sweet.  It is more of a picture than a bulletin board.




A Dream Come True

A few years ago, Annabelle fell in love with the Barbie and the Nutcracker movie.
She has wanted her very own nutcracker for a long time. 
Every year I would pick up a nutcracker and then I would put it back.
I'm not sure why I never got one, I guess I didn't want to spend the money on one since she was so young.
This year her dream came true.  I picked her up from school and this guy was sitting on her seat.
 
She loves him so much.  She wants to keep him out all year to play with, but we are going to carefully pack him away.  I think it will be more exciting to pull out at Christmas time if she kind of forgets about him.
 

Sweet Hand Print

Ariel did some painting a few weeks ago.  Whenever we do painting the girls always end up looking like this

It cleans up really easily so I don't mind.
While she was in the tubby, I was cleaning up and found this on the chair
It is my sweet little girl's handprint with a heart in the middle.

Sometimes she is something else and I am not as sweet to her as I want to be.
Then I see this and I am reminded of this verse
Psalm 127:3
Children are a gift from the LORD;
they are a reward from him.
 


Name Signs

About a year ago I went to a Ladies Night Out at church to make signs.

I ordered some signs with the girls' names to make at home.

I finally got around to making them.  I had the wood, letters, paint, and brush so I'm not sure why I never made them.

Anyway, they turned out really cute.  I am hoping to put them in the girls' room above their beds. 


Saturday, December 22, 2012

NInjago Time

A month or so ago I told my nephew that I would make him Ninjago cookies for his birthday treat.

I looked around pinterest for some inspiration and found these

 
I decided I wanted to do the yellow face and the not so flat white part.
I found this recipe for the yellow icing.  I like how it went on and stayed where I put it.
I was planning on doing the eyes with just melted chocolate, but then I remembered that I had these!!
Candy Eyes!  (Doesn't everyone have these on hand?)
 
I was a little worried that they would make the ninjago guys look too sweet and not mean, so I played around a bit.
 
I used these Meijer brand sugar cookies (the chocolate chip ones are super yummy!)
 

I used the frosting I made and tinted it yellow (Arianna tinted her hand yellow).  I put it in my pampered chef frosting squeezy things with a small hole top.  I made sort of a rounded rectangle shape for the face.  While it was still wet I put the eyes on.


 
 I let that harden for a little while.  It didn't really take that long.  I then used just whipped frosting from a container.  I put it in the pampered chef thing and used a slanty hole topper.  I bought this topper (not sure what you really call those things) especially for these cookies because I thought it would look like cloth.
Right now he still looks pretty friendly.  Almost like Gerbert covered up :)

For the eyebrows, I melted chocoalte chips (because I always have tons on hand, right colleen?).  I put them in the pampered chef thing with the little hole top.
 

I ran out of candy eyes.  I really like the look of the candy eyes better,.

 
 
I thought it would be nice to  make some girl ninjagos for the girls in Caden's class, so I added a little bow.


I think the bow turned out really cute.
What wasn't cute was when I tried to add a smile.  She looked a little creepy, so I took it off.

 
 
I put the cookies in little baggies and brought them to Caden for his birthday.

These cookies took a lot of time to make, but it was totally worth it for him. 
 
Happy Birthday Caden!!


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Gingerbread Nativity

We made gingerbread nativities.
I saw this on pinterest (because I would never think of this on my own)
I thought it would be easier than a house and more meaningful.
I also liked it because I felt I didn't need as much candy to decorate it.  And since Karen H. is no longer teaching kindergarten and I am not at Lakeshore I am not getting bags of free candy :)

I took regular graham crackers and just glued them together.  I didn't want to mess around with frosting for a couple reasons:
1.  I didn't really want to make it
2.  I didn't think it would actually hold the stable together

I glued some cardboard (inside out cereal boxes) to the back.
The only candy I bought was:  Tootsie rolls, gummy fruity pieces, and mini milky way bars

I did this part by myself before we started.  I figured it didn't have to look perfect (which is a bit hard for me) because it was a stable and I'm sure it wasn't built perfectly all those years ago.
 
Before we started I did read the Christmas Story to everyone (had to get that anticipatory set in there, although I'm sure the piles of candy would have worked too)
 




 
(my sister in law brought her nephew)
 
Everyone enjoyed figuring how they wanted to make their characters.  We made a donky out of the candy bar, tootsie rolls, and toothpicks.  We made Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.  I glued some crackers on an angle to make a manger.  We used big marshmallows and tootsie rolls for the sheep.
Oh, yeah, I forgot, I also made hay.  I had some coconut left over from when I tried to make the Girl Scout Samoa cookies (not that great).  I just toasted it in the oven so it was hay colored.  We used elmer's glue to glue that to the manger, stable, and ground.
We also made a star on top of the stable.


Tucker's, Annabelle and Ariel's, Caden's


The girls were really proud of their nativity.  They did a great job thinking about all the parts of the nativity.  If you are wondering about that thing on the top - it is a spider.  Ariel said the stable would probably have spiders, and she is probably right.

I love making gingerbread houses with the girls, but I like that this is more meaningful.  I hope this becomes something we do every year.


Luke 2:12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

Isaiah 9:6  For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I love the verse from Isaiah.  Such a great reminder that Jesus was born in such a humble way.  And not only that he was born, but that he was born to die for our sins. 

I want my girls to know that Christmas is so great because it gave us the greatest gift ever.  Because Jesus was born, we get to live in heaven with Him forever.