The Wild Things Kitchen: Our Weekend's Christmas Activity

   So with Christmas creeping up pretty fast I'd like to think, we have been in the Christmas spirit early this year, but this weekend I decided to do a little Christmas Craft with the boys. This year we are a little tight with money so we cant go all out for everyone like we normally do. My husband just picked up extra work hours just so we could give the boys each 1 good gift and maybe some small things on the side, its not going to be much but were doing what we can.
   This year I thought what if the boys did some home made ornaments for like the grandparents and godparents. I know my mom appreciates things like that, and I think its sentimental especially for the younger ones to get involved. Friday night we made some salt dough ornaments that you have to bake for like an hour, but it made a ton, so Saturday we spend all day painting on them, it was just the most fun we've had in a long time. My oldest son is always asking to help me paint when I'm in my little studio and being as I have always been a stay at home mom, he doesn't quit get the whole working at home bit, I always have to tell him that I'm not painting just for me I'm doing it for other people. So let me tell you when he got to paint his very own ornaments, oh the joy in his face was something that just melts my heart. Now my two year old, well he had a blast, he was just excited momma let him get dirty IN the house, and he was so pumped to be doing something that his brother was doing.
   I got the recipe and directions for the salt dough on Kids in Cow Town. Comes with pictures and everything, such a simple recipe I was so pleased with everything. But here it is:

You'll need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Step 1:
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the water a bit at a time until your mix starts to look like cookie dough. Turn out onto your work surface, knead it a few times and roll it out to approximately ¼ inch thickness.

Step 2:
After that, use cookie cutters to make your shapes, and place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Before you put them in the oven, poke a hole in the top of each one with a drinking straw (this hole is for a hanging ribbon). Bake at 300-degrees for 1 to 1 ½ hours. ( I took them out before the 1 1/2 hours was up. Just keep checking on them frequently right after 1 hour)

This was our end result after a full day of painting Saturday, and I mean a whole day worth of painting, of course we had to take breaks so they could dry and then we could turn them over and do the other sides. And then we made sure to keep going back and forth once they were dried to add more paint to make them extra special!