For this rainy fall weather I created this beautiful drawing for coloring fun with my toddler. I would like to share this lovely printable with my readers. A great project for all ages. Download FallColoring here.
I colored mine using water colors and crayons and I had great fun making it.
If you are in need of some winter time mommy inspiration, here you will find more kid’s fun.
In case you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet: Pinterest is a great website/app that lets you create you own “pin boards” of pictures that inspire you! Millions of creative people share and organize their pictures on this site. If you create an account you will be able to organize your own finds, but most importantly be inspired by others as well!
What I have discovered is that Pinterest gives you new ideas for cooking, crafts and activities with your kids. I often take elements of the idea of a creative mommy on the other side of the globe, tweak it for my own toddler and make it my own.
These are some of my latest (p)insired creations:
Top tip! Get inspired for Christmas and Halloween and get an early start this year!
I created these personalized coaster for my sister yesterday, inspired by Pinterest. They are made with the coark coasters by IKEA (HEAT). I used coasters for pans which I created with the suitable texts: flavour, good food and togetherness.
I used a permanent marker and it was surprisingly easy to make them into something special. I will definately try this again with smaller coasters. My toddler might want to join in next time. I can also see this being a great mothersday present. Or you could make placeholders for your christmasdinner or wedding by writing names on smaller coasters.
We love having cream tea on a rainy sunday afternoon. Nothing tastes better than home made scones! I recently discovered a great secret making scones an even more attractive recipe. The scones puff up more when you rest the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours.
This means you can make the dough an evening in advance, take it out of the fridge, make scone shapes and place them in your oven. Now just enjoy those lovely scents filling your house as you make tea and take out your favorite jams and fresh fruit!
Scones (8 – 10)
Let your scones cool for at least ten minutes before digging in. This may be the hardest part of the recipe!
I love looking for inspiration on Pinterest. This time I ran into a 3 ingredient cookie recipe. This inspired me as it also contained no sugar and they looked delicious, find my inspiration here.
The cookies were easy to make. They are best eaten right away, or within 24 hours. This would not be a problem in my home! It is a great way to make use of that overripe banana. The riper your banana gets, the sweeter your cookies will be.
These cookies make a great healthy snack for the entire family. They could even be used as a breakfast cookie along with a smoothy or a tall glass of milk. I tested my cookies on my toddler and my colleagues. They were all amazed at how delicious they were without added sugar.
This simple recipe would also be a great recipe for children to make with very little help from you!
3 ingredient cookies
Mash up your banana and mix your ingredients. Spoon your cookies on a baking sheet. I made 6 smaller cookies, but you could make 3 larger cookies as well.
Bake your cookies in a preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees C and enjoy!
Find more tips for cooking with toddlers.
I am in the blessed age of my life where many friends are pregnant and busy with babies. This means I have all the more reason to create fun felt figures. I have an entire pinterest board dedicated to fuzzy felty figures!
The other day I already made a bunny for Easter, which ended up in the crib of my friends little girl. Now I created Funny Bunny for another sweet baby.
Looking for more felt ideas? You can download my patterns for Plane baby rattle and cute Cloudette.
In the Netherlands, June 14th will be fathersday this year. Obviously I would like to state that me and my toddler are daddy’s favorites. However, these cookies also go down well. They are a dutch classic: speculaasjes. The dough should be made beforehand, so the spice mix can flavor the entire dough. I recommend making the dough 2 days before fathersday, then making the cookies with your toddlers 1 day before fathersday.
I have this recipe from a dutch classic cooking book aptly named; “Het nieuwe kookboek“. This is a great book for beginners, let’s call it the “silver spoon” of the Netherlands. My toddler and I tested this recipe for valentine’s day and it was a huge hit!
Getting your hands on some real speculaas might be difficult for you, I do promiss you that this festive spice mix will put a smile on your face, it is like cinnamon for grown-ups (although your kids will love it too). For the UK, check out this site, or make your own blend.
Father’s favorite cookies (40 to 50 cookies)
Mix all the ingredients and combine into a ball of dough. Wrap the dough in cling film. Let it rest in the fridge for 1 to 4 days. This will allow for the spices to flavor your dough.
Take the dough out of your fridge 1 hour before rolling it out.
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm. Use flower to prevent your dough from sticking. Cut out any shape you like. Place your cookies on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper. Sprinkle your decorations, sugar and/or almonds on the cookies and lightly press them in.
Bake your cookies for 20 minutes, take them out to cool on the sheet.
Once cooled, the cookies keep for about a week in an air tight container. My son even decorated his own container for daddy.
I recently received such a well wrapped present from on of my friends! It inspired me to share with your my favorite ways of upcycling pages from a magazine.
The lovely gift from my friend
My toddler is always exploring the world and bursting with energy. From the moment he was born he has been observing me in the kitchen. From the moment he could, he has been my most eager little helper. I always indulge him and find a way for him to help me. I find it important he understands what he eats and he learns to appreciate how much work goes into making his dinner.
My toddler surprised me with his cooking. He loves to help create something, and he loves eating his creations. However grown-up I thought the recipes were, my son knows what he likes.
If you are wondering what your toddler can do in the kitchen here’s some things my toddler can do:
A last and final warning for all young parents: lower your expectations. With their short attention span, toddlers help you for 5 minutes and leave a mess that might take you 10 minutes to clean up. Ironically, they will tell everyone they made this food (with no help what so ever, haha). With time, this will improve, and I promise you the pride on their faces when they get to eat their creations makes it all worth while!
These are our favorites recipes:
1. Pizza – my toddler gets to pick his own toppings. When his creation is done, he can’t wait till the pizza has finished baking. Find the recipe for pizza dough or our favorite topping.
2. Cookies – I make the dough beforehand (without my busy toddler slowing me down). The dough rests in the fridge until my son and I have a moment to make cookies together. We still want to make funfetti cookies together some day!
3. Pancakes – my toddler loves helping me mix the batter and we break eggs together, doesn’t any toddler love breaking stuff? He is in charge of ladling the batter in the pan, I am in charge of frying and flipping the pancakes in the air. Find my pancake recipe here.
4. Sushi – making simple sushi is perfect toddler fun. My toddler eats the (healthy) ingredients before they are even made into sushi! Molding the rice and placing the ingredients in the roll is his task and mommy rolls the sushi and we eat them together.
5. Bread – my toddler loves kneading dough with me. He gets to mold his own rolls, brush them and sprinkle them with his favorite seeds. You could also let your toddler make bread sticks.
I firmly believe in celebrating all the milestones in your life. Baby showers are not yet a common tradition in the Netherlands. Among my friends they are very popular at the moment…or it might be because my friends are all entering a certain phase in their lives…
Wherever you are, here’s some ideas to give your baby shower a personal touch:
Check out my pinterest board for more inspiration.