It has been cold raining on and off the last few days, amazingly the kids have tired of playing in the mud in the yard, so I’ve had to search the internet for things to help keep them occupied.

It is nearing Christmas and Oliver has preschool teachers who would prefer gifts that are “simple and inexpensive, small things from the heart or homemade” so for the last few days O has been working diligently on gifts and simple crafts to help pass the time.

Salt dough ornaments decorated with homemade finger paints – nontoxic, so if/when P tastes them he’ll be OK. I made the paint once the boys had gone to bed so I didn’t have to keep an eye on two children and a hot pot of cornstarch and water.

Non-Edible Cinnamon ornaments, P is convinced these are edible cookies, until he tries to bite into them and then he looks at me with disgust.

Wax paper leaves – inspired by wax paper place mats and taken one step further. Oliver picked some pretty leaves from our yard, we pressed them in the garage between a 4×4 and a 2×4 over night. We ironed the wax paper and leaves between brown paper bags and it left an awesome pattern on the bags, so those are going to become note cards or bookmarks (not sure yet).

Oliver is now hooked on painting things, he seems to prefer the brush method over finger-painting, we now have a collection of heavily gobbed paintings that need to dry, and I should probably search the internet for more simple kid-friendly craft projects to help pass the rainy afternoons.