Salt dough ornaments

My very least favorite part of winter is how early it gets dark outside!! Gone are our evening walks to the park and hello to more time in the house. It can really make a person feel cooped up and it's easy for a toddler to get bored and antsy.  So I decided it would help to have a few activities. As I was thinking of things to include doing with our advent calendar ornaments seemed perfect. Enter ... salt dough ornaments.

I used the recipe from Mommypotamus which simply consists of flour, salt and water. It comes together quickly and easily and is fun for the little ones in your life. 

I ended up giving Emersyn her own bowl with flour and water in it to stir and play with and she happily made a giant mess :)  We made the dough and baked them one day and then completed them the next day with glittery paint. Emy's favorite part!

Happy toddler Christmas crafting!! 

Toddler friendly advent calendar

'Tis the Christmas season!

Emy is finally old enough to get excited about a Christmas tree, opening presents, etc. Last year was fun but at 2 years old this year she definitely gets it a little bit more this year. I was always so excited for holidays with kids, it's just that much more enjoyable when you can see them having so much fun and I have such good memories growing up that I couldn't wait to partake in all the merriment with my own kids. I just never clicked when we first had Emersyn that it would be a few years before they can actually participate, ha. So this year ... I wanted to do something she could find fun in an thus, a hunt for a toddler friendly advent calendar. 

I wracked my brain and looked on Pinterest (of course) and I found one where someone had used paper lunch bags to open each day and I knew it would be perfect for Emy. First, I numbered them all and she got to decorate them:

My plan originally was to fill them all with something and then hang them up by the tree but it turns out I wasn't nearly organized enough to have them all pre filled. So I'm not gonna lie, they are all hanging up empty and I simply fill the bag for the day that day. She doesn't know any different ;)

I also write down some simple Bible verses for each day of advent. She doesn't quite get yet what we're reading but we're doing it anyways!

The next step was to think of a months worth of simple toddler friendly activities/treats, etc. For the first half of the month we've had:

1. Decorate the tree
2. Christmas stickers to play with
3. Watch the Caillou holiday movie
4. Drink hot apple cider
5. Make salt dough ornaments
6. Paint the salt dough ornaments
7. New Christmas jammies
8. Make Christmas cookies
9. Read Christmas books
10. A $1 reindeer headband I found at Target with candy
11. Played with some red and green balloons
12. Watched Arthur Christmas

Basically ... I tried to think of simple and cheap ideas that she would have fun with that wouldn't be too much work for mom because mom is busy with a 3 month old as well :) If the particular activity doesn't fit in the bag I put in a "clue" such as a cookie cutter for the cookies or some kind of candy/treat that she opens

More to come!