Making Snow

Here in Texas, snow doesn’t fall often. My kids always want to play with snow so I decided to try my hand at homemade snow.



In the past, I have purchased a snow mix on Amazon. It was great but kind of pricey and didn’t make much. I like the homemade so much better!

I made a video you can watch to see my process (you can also hear how much my daughter wants to help! lol) but I will also tell you how to make it below!



First, grab some baking soda and cheap hair conditioner. If you are an Amazon Prime person, you can grab these from my link. Of course, any grocery store has them too!



For every 3 cups of baking soda, it takes 1/2 cup of conditioner. Make sure you get WHITE conditioner!

Add as much baking soda as your bag holds (measuring it out in cups.) Mine has 7.5 cups (approximately) so I used 1.25 cups of conditioner. However, after mixing...I added about another 1/4 of a cup of conditioner.

Mix it all together. If it is too powdery...you can add more conditioner!



The snow is wet and cold feeling! It is also very moldable.



Kids can mold it, build with it, or you can use it as a sensory bin! It smells wonderful too!



It is a tad messy but dusts and washes right off! I would suggest putting a towel under your bucket though for any excess the kids dump out! :)



We certainly enjoyed doing this! I am glad to give them a little experience with snow, even if it is homemade!

Cooking with my Kids

Tonight was a blast! We have been doing Hello Fresh for a few months now and love it! (This is not a sales pitch!) lol. 

Tonight I had my kids help me with pork tacos! I only order from Hello Fresh when they offer meals I know my kids will eat also! Pork tacos are always accepted in this house! 

Now, hang with me...my pictures aren’t perfect. :)

I ordered this apron and chef hat from Amazon! 

I also ordered these kid friendly knives. Much to my surprise...they really do cut but are totally safe for kids! 

I had Olivia (age 2) cutting cilantro! She loved helping (and it really did help me out!) 

Rex (age 6) was a huge help! He cut all of the lettuce then cut the peppers! He also helped sauté the meat and onions!

His technique was a bit forced at first. Lol. But he got the hang of it! 

The great thing about Hello Fresh is it comes with a recipe card and all of the ingredients. I also feel like I’m modeling healthy eating. Because let’s face it...I’m not showing them the prep of the pizza lunchables or pop tarts they have at least twice a week! Lol.

Livi also helped me pickle the onions (that were later sautéed with the meat!)

I did not get a picture of the finished product...but it was amazing! Paper plates and all! :) 

More than anything...I hope these kids remember their memories in the kitchen with me as fondly as I will!

If you want to get money off your first order, use PROMO CODE: HILKIS (on Hello Fresh)

Affiliate Links to my Amazon Shop are linked above! 

Have a great weekend!!

Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little more.

Tonight we will be watching The Grinch! I have always loved watching The Grinch and to my surprise...my son (age 6) has never seen it. I’m fairly certain we watched it when he was a baby...but otherwise...I have CLEARLY dropped the ball. Lol. 

In honor of our movie night, I decided to try my hand at some Grinch Cookies I saw online. It was much easier than I expected and the kids loved helping! 

First, I used the sugar cookie recipe from Katrina’s Kitchen! It is THE BEST! 

I made the dough according to her instructions. 

Then I added 20 drops of green food coloring and prepared my parchament paper to roll the dough! 

Next, we rolled the dough and cut out big hearts!

After all of the big hearts were cut out, we cut out small hearts in the middle of the big hearts. 

Finally, we added cherry Jolly Ranchers to the center.

Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes! 

Allow them to cool completely before moving them! We also baked the small hearts from the center of the cookie. Yum! 

We are all ready for our Grinch night! 

Fall is Keeping Us Busy

It has been a wonderful fall season so far! We have stayed pretty busy with football season, pumpkin patch trips, and roasting marshmallows. Yep, 70 degree temperatures here don't stop us from pretending it is 40 degrees.

I have not done much Tot School in the last week or so, well not organized curriculum anyway. We have done some blog-worthy crafts though!

Olivia enjoyed making her own version of pumpkin pie! I did most of the prep work on this. She is still working on her cutting skills, so I knew it would go much more smoothly if I prepared it!

I showed the steps below to prep the activity! Very simple, very few materials!

After it was prepped, I let her take over. I gave her an orange Kwik Stix. If you do not have these, I would suggest buying them! When you do not have the time for a painting mess, these are perfect!

She enjoyed "coloring" (painting) the piece of pie! 

After she was done painting, we glued the crust on the piece of pie. 

Add a cotton ball for whipped topping, and your craft is complete!

Next, we did an acorn hunt...followed by acorn painting!

Getting outdoors is so much fun for Olivia! I do it any chance we get! She found 6 acorns (there are not very many around our neighborhood.) We played for a while outside after that, then came in to do our acorn painting. 

We used a foil pan. I taped some paper in the pan and grabbed some paint.

I let Olivia squirt the paint in the pan. She loved it! 

Then just add in your acorns.

PLACE THE LID ON :) Then SHAKE!

Now, the end result isn't anything super "beautiful" but the process was so fun!

The last two activities we did were an absolute blast! Livi had the best time and we both laughed so hard. 

First up, Turkey Haircuts! Yep! You read that right!

I hot glued some feathers to a plate and drew a turkey face! Then Livi gave him a haircut!

Last, Feeding the Turkey! Pardon our feather remains on the table. :)

When doing this activity, YOU MUST talk for the turkey. :) Olivia laughed so hard when I talked for the turkey. Pure joy. 

Anyway, that's a wrap, folks! I will be taking a break through the Thanksgiving holidays on all things work related! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!