It's officially Fall and the acorns are starting to hit the ground. Time for some new acorn crafts! Today we're making acorn owls. To make these cute little birds, you'll need: a few acorns without the top construction paper a black marker glue toothpick (optional) a stick hot glue These acorn owls are pretty easy to make if you just follow the photos. 1) Cut round eyes out of white paper and use the black marker to make dots on the eyes 2) Cut a small beak out of orange paper 3) Cut wings out of what ever color you want 4) A toothpick works perfect to spread the glue over the tiny eyes, wings, and beak 5) Once assembled and dry, glue the owls onto a twig for display The girls had lot of fun making these acorn owls and can't wait to see what I've got up my sleeve for next week's acorn project! … [Read more...]
10 Fall Treats, Activities, and Crafts for Kids
Toys In The Dryer turned 3 at the beginning of the month. This got me thinking that there a ton of posts that have been forgotten as new posts have taken their place over the years. It's time to bring back some of my favorite fall treats, activities, and crafts for kids that we have posted over the last 3 years. Fall Leaf Fairies - Make cute fairy pictures from fallen leaves and twigs. These hung in our kitchen for weeks! Candy Corn Pudding Treats - There's nothing special about the flavor per se, it's more so the idea that it looks like candy corn. Acorn Races - Since Lindsi introduced this fun, easy activity to my family three years ago, we've been doing it every fall! Each year gets a little more crazy! Leaf Drawing - I did this all the time as a kid. Now my kids do it! Crock Pot Applesauce - Perfect for all those apples you've picked at the apple orchard! Leaf Animals - Similar to the leaf fairies, my girls had a ton of fun making … [Read more...]
Homemade Turkey Noodle Soup
With Thanksgiving around the corner (in the US) I thought I'd share a family favorite with you. This goes back farther than I can remember. My grandma used to make this every year right after Thanksgiving. I will be honest and tell you that I looked forward to her Turkey Noodle Soup even more than the actual Thanksgiving dinner! It's easy to do but does take a bit of time. It is perfect for a Saturday afternoon job and makes a great "get well" gift for neighbors. I always make enough to freeze and have throughout the year. Start by saving the bones and left over meat from the turkey. Place all the left overs into a large stock pot and fill with water to the top of the bones. Add 1-2 bay leaves, some salt and pepper to taste, 1 small diced onion, 1 large sliced carrot and two stalks of sliced celery. Allow all of this to boil for three hours. Once it has boiled for three hours pour the liquid through a strainer into another large pot (don't lose the liquid this is your soup!) and … [Read more...]
Apple Cupcakes- Pinned it, Did it
I've seen some pretty cute apple cupcakes floating around on Pinterest lately and my son has a fall birthday so I thought what would be better? Lucky me he even requested his birthday party be at the local apple orchard! Whoot woot! These were really easy to accomplish and I love the way they turned out! Here's what you do: Start off with some freshly made cupcakes. My kids are split even down the middle for taste so I have to make "just chocolate" ones and "just vanilla" ones. Let your cupcakes completely cool and prepare your frosting. I attempted to follow someone elses pin by adding a sliced doughnut on top to add the "apple" shape but in all honesty it was incredibly messy, didn't turn out that well, and they didn't stick...so being the perfectionist that I am I started over with just regular cupcakes and frosting!Once you have your adorable cupcake ready to frost (oh one more thing...to add to the over all appeal try and use red paper liners!) slab on a bunch of red frosting (I … [Read more...]
Fall Leaf Fairies
The leaves are falling in full force around here and now is the perfect time to do some crafts with them. Last year we showed you how to make leaf animals and a few weeks ago we showed you how to make flower fairies. Today we combine those two concepts to make fall leaf fairies. These are super easy to make and require very little supplies: Leaves of various shapes and sizes Small twigs Paper Glue Marker and scissors optional Yup, that's it! To make the fairies simply choose leaves to make a body, face, and wings. Hair, crowns, and other things are optional. Use the twigs to make arms and legs. Glue everything in place on your paper and you're done! Even super little kids can make these fairies. The most fun part is finding leaves that you think will work. What types of things have you made with leaves? … [Read more...]
Mini Caramel Apple Bites – Pinned it, Did it!
I hosted book club at my house last evening. I decided to do fall themed food as the weather was cool. On top of caramel cashew pretzels; meat, cheese and crackers; and baked brie bites (another Pinned it, Did it for later) I chose to try making mini caramel apple bites. I found them on Pinterest but it was only a photo, it did not link to a website. How hard could they be to make based on the photo?? Um, yeah, don't let the photo above fool you...I'm bad at making regular caramel apples, let alone mini caramel apples! I got out my melon ball scoop and began to scoop out the apple. This part wasn't so bad and was actually kinda fun. Tottie tried to do one but it was too hard for her. The caramel part is where I had problems and thus have no photos. I thought you simply melted the caramel and then dipped the apple pieces in. Well, I tried that and the caramel was too think so I had to mold the caramel over each piece of apple (the above photo … [Read more...]
