Gingerbread Playdough Friend Gift

My girls love playing with playdough. This year they decided to make playdough for a few friends in the neighborhood. Gingerbread Playdough smells delicious and my girls love using our gingerbread cookie cutters to make little gingerbread families. 

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cinnamon 

1/2 cup salt

2 Tbs cream of tarter

2 Tbs oil

2 cups water

Mix dry ingredients then add wet ingredients. Stir and cook over medium heat until dough sticks together in a ball. Store in an airtight container. 

We bought plastic tupperware with the red tops to store the playdough in,  printed the "Wishing you a very merry Christmas" printable we created, that you are welcome to use, added a cute little gingerbread cookie cutter bought at Michaels Craft Store and some red tulle and we have a cute little gift my girls cannot wait to deliver!

Food your kids will gobble up!

Breakfast 

 What a cute, simple and healthy way to start Thanksgiving Day or any day leading up to Thanksgiving. I know my two little girls would love this and it's not anything that will add to the mess and business of dinner prep. Check out the source here.

Cinnamon Roll Turkeys by Pillsbury 

Lunch

"Tommy the Turkey" 

Snack

Turkey Snack Bags 

Juice Box via Rusy and Rosy 

Treat

Simple and darling via Clean and Scentsible. Can be filled with candy corn or other chocolates.

Thanksgiving Kids Table Inspiration

Create a fun Kids Table for your little turkeys! 

Isn't this a cute placemat? Go to Whatever Dee-Dee Wants to find out how to print it! 

Alpha Mom has some cute free printables. Let your children color their way to a festive Thanksgiving table. Grab some crayons and colored pencils, print off the downloads and your kids can decorate their own table.

Check out this darling Thanksgiving play set by How Does She. 

I love the idea of brown butcher paper as a table cloth on the kids table. They can color it and it makes for an easy clean up as well. You can find butcher paper at your local teacher supply store or even some party stores. If you are local, Zurchers carries butcher paper that you may for by the foot. 

Such a cute turkey crayon holder. Find the pattern here.

This is such a fun idea! Visit the Caravan  Shoppe to purchase this kit. You will receive an email with the download that you can then take to your local Staples or Office Max to have it printed for a reasonable price. 

Love this table setting! Order this Owl Theme "Whooo's Thankful?" printable party collection on Etsy for $5. Follow this link to check it out. 

And one of my favorite! Check out these free printables. This includes everything from centerpiece signs, a banner, favor tags, food tent cards, activity sheets, drink flags, candy wrappers, napkin wraps and more. 

Displaying Kids Art Work

Are you ready for the endless pile of artwork now that school is starting or maybe you have a toddler like me that loves to color and already have a pile? Here are a few solutions for artwork! 

Magnetic Fridge Art Frames from Positively Splendid

Frames with cork make it easy to rotate artwork

Clothesline and clothespins 

Fun Frame Display

Frames for a more permanent display.

Visit  A Little of This, A Little of That blog for this DIY display.

Love this idea from A Bowl Full of Lemons. Each child has a binder with sheet protectors to keep all their artwork. 

End of the Year Teacher Gifts!

Here are 5 of my favorite ideas for end of the year teacher gifts! 

Thanks for BEE-lieving in me!

Thanks for keeping me "on target" this school year!

Thanks for quenching my thirst for knowledge!

Teachers Come In N Out of our lives but stay in our hearts forever!

Thanks a latte!

Valentine's Breakfast

Valentine's Day is coming up! Here are a few cute breakfast ideas! 

Make easy heart shaped pancakes by putting the batter into a squeeze bottle. Add some chocolate chips for a little extra love! 

Last year we made berry smoothies to go with our breakfast. My little one loved helping. To make it more festive we decorated mason jars with heart stickers to drink from. Let's not even talk about how little my girl was! 

Heart Shaped Cinnamon Rolls are a must in my book! I go the easy route and buy pillsburry rolls to bake. Last year however I bought the wrong kind that didn't open to shape! Don't make my mistake!

Heart ka bobs? So cute! 

heart shape bacon? Why not! My hubby would love this!

And heart shaped eggs are sure to be a hit! 

Don't forget some cute Valentine's plates and napkins! You can find those even at your local dollar store, but it would make things even more festive! 

8 DIY ideas for moms to simplify their lives and make it more fun!

Can you believe we are at the end of January?! January is usually a very long month for me. January almost always brings the winter blues. One of my new year goals is to simplify. Simplify in just about every aspect and find things and ways to make my life a little easier. Coupons.com Blog has posted 8 New DIY ideas that are blogger tested and kid approved!

I especially love the shopping passport. I have an almost 3 year old and an almost 1 year old and I try to avoid taking them both to the store at all costs, but sometimes I have to. This idea of a shopping passport almost makes me want to take my girls shopping. I'm excited to try this out. I think it would also be fun to take pictures of staple items you buy to make a list that you can then laminate and have them check off with a white erase marker. Let me know if you try it! 

I also have a few tips for grocery shopping with kids of my own. 

1. Make a list

2. Eat before you go and still bring the kids a snack.

3. Talk about it. Talk to your kids about what you are buying, what you are going to make, talk about the colors and have them help you count the number of apples as you put them in the bag, etc. 

4. Hope for the best, but plan for the worse! 

DIY Saturday: Dress Up Rack

My little one is turning 3 in March and is just starting to get into princesses and dressing up, so for Christmas we got her several dress up outfits. I knew we needed to have something to store them in, but I didn't like the idea of them being a dress up box because I knew they would get wrinkled and everything would have to come out of the box each time to find what she was looking for. My awesome husband put together his hanging rack in minutes. One trip to Home Depot for PVC pipe and 2 minute assembly and viola! Home Depot will cut the PVC pipe for you for no fee so be sure to bring the measurements and make this simple DIY even easier! The total cost was about $14

• 2 36-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 2 30-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 4 12-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 2 6-inch lengths of 1-inch PVC pipe
• 6 90-degree elbow joints for 1-inch PVC pipe
• 4 tee connectors for 1-inch PVC pipe
• optional: All-purpose cement for PVC (We didn't find this necessary)

I found this blog that had the following step by step instructions if needed. We were able to visualize and just put it together.

1. Join two 12-inch lengths of pipe horizontally with a tee connector. Place an elbow joint on each end to create your first foot. Repeat for the other foot.
2. Join a 6-inch and 30-inch length of pipe with a tee connector. Put the other end of the 6-inch piece into the top of one foot, with remaining tee opening positioned perpendicular to the foot, to create one leg. Place an elbow joint on the other end of the 30-inch piece, facing the same direction as the tee opening, to finish your first leg. Repeat steps with the other foot to create the other leg.
3. Now place each length of 36-inch pipe into the elbow joint at the top of one leg and the remaining tee opening toward the bottom of that leg. Connect the legs by placing the other ends of the 36-inch pipes into the elbow joint and tee connector on the other leg. 
4. Once you've dry-fitted the rack, take apart and reassemble using all-purpose cement to glue the pieces together. When the glue is dry, hang your clothes on the rack. 

DIY Saturday: Christmas Advent Calendar

Can you believe tomorrow is December 1st!? We are super excited! Our Christmas shopping is just about done. Now I am just waiting for a quite night with my husband to put some Christmas music on, drink some hot chocolate or egg nog and get wrapping! Our tradition is to decorate the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so that is what we will be doing tomorrow! Last year we also did an activity advent calendar and had so much fun with it that we decided to put it on our lists of traditions. I finalized our activity list the other night. Some things are special to Utah, but I thought I would share it with you! I cut my envelopes out from my Silhouette Cameo and then print out each activity to put in each envelope, clothes pin them to a ribbon and viola! (I will add a picture tomorrow once it is hanging) I realize not everyone has a cutting machine... any craft store or scrapbook carries cute envelopes or you can pick up some cute scrapbook paper and make your own... here is a link to a tutorial for handmade envelopes:

http://whoopsiedaisiesdays.blogspot.com/2008/08/free-handmade-envelope-tutorial.html

or these may be other good options as well...

Advent Activities: 

Lights on Temple Square

Decorate edible Christmas Trees

Candy Cane Hunt

Deliver Neighbor Gifts

Sing Christmas Songs around the Christmas Tree

Grand America Window Displays

Live Nativity

Make paper crowns and talk about the 

wise men and the gifts they brought Jesus.

String a popcorn garland for the tree.

drive around to look at the Christmas lights- don’t forget the hot chocolate

dance party to Christmas Music

drink hot chocolate and stir with candy canes

Make a snow globe

Elves at Gardner Village 

Santa Train at Heber Valley Railway 

Live Reindeer at Thanksgiving Point

Christmas Carol Sing Along Energy Solutions Arena

picture with Santa at Trolley Square

perform a random act of kindness

tell the christmas story using the toy nativity

wrap a christmas gift 

Make a birthday cake for Jesus

Christmas Party with the cousins 

Make gingerbread playdough 

bake cookies for Santa & read The Night Before Christmas 

Other Christmas activities:

Check out and read Christmas Stories

“Paint” the snow

have a snowball fight

make a snowman

watch a Christmas movie

hand & footprint reindeer

make an ornament 

paint wrapping paper (butcher paper to be used to wrap)

paint the snow

DIY Saturday: Get Organized by 2014!

'Ring in the New Year right with an organized home! There are 39 days left (counting today) until the New Year! Yesterday I began my own 40 day challenge. I should have posted about this sooner, but it wasn't until I was cleaning out my children's closets and was in a pile of mess (it always gets worse before it gets better, right?!) that I decided it would be fun to share this with all of you and maybe get some of your tips & tricks and motivate each other!  If you search 40 day organizing challenge there are several sites that come up. This is one of the sites I enjoyed the most. The goal is to tackle one area a day as to not overwhelm yourself.

1. Make a list of 40 areas that need attention/ that you would like to tackle. They can seriously be very bite size. For example our bedroom closet is broken into several days. 1 day is our shoe rack, another day is our clothes, and the third day is our shelves. 

2. Deep Clean, Dejunk and Organize- Some areas may only take a few minutes but some days that will be all that I have. With that being said I am not tackling my list of 40 in order, but taking it one day at a time and doing one thing on my list that is realistic for that particular day. 

By the start of the New Year I am hoping to be organized! I love the New Year! I always feel like September and January are always a fresh start!  Remember don't get overwhelmed, just take it one day and one area at a time. If you feel overwhelmed take a step back and break it into an even smaller task... bite sizes! 

Home Storage Solutions has a lot of really good tips. For more information on the 5 rules for reducing clutter visit their site! 

Once your home is organized they also have a weekly challenge to keep up with it! Link here!

Please follow us on instagram! Take before & after pics and tag @MajorLeagueMoms!  

DIY Saturday: Thanksgiving Ideas

I love holidays! I love any reason to celebrate really. We are getting excited for Thanksgiving around here. I am always looking for ways to make the holidays extra special. Here are a few DIY ideas. You bet your bottom dollar we will be doing a few of these ideas around here. I also have a few other things  up my sleeve! Make sure you are following "Motherhood in the Major Leagues" on Facebook to stay up to date and get all the latest ideas! For the ideas below I tried to link the original source if it was something that may need some instruction. Otherwise check the watermark on the photos for the source!

fun printable banner

Love this fun gobble banner too.

Cute favors: Turkey Toes, M&M Turkey Favors

7

Thanksgiving Table Setting

Another cute table setting

Bell Pepper Turkey Craft

Edible Craft- Could not find a link... just an image. I think these are darling.

Love this idea. 

super cute printable

Turkey Bowl-ing

Toddler Approved

This looks so much fun