Zodiac Sign Fun with the Kids!

As we are getting close to finishing up our week on the Chinese New Year I thought it would be fun to talk with the kids about all the different Zodiac Signs and find out which sign each of them are.

To get started I found this awesome Zodiac Sign printable at Spoonful.  It has each of the zodiac signs with the years that are attributed to that Zodiac.  It also has some strengths of each zodiac and shows what other signs you are compatible with.  Go HERE to print one out for yourself!

Once you discover what animal represents each of your children you can give them a Printable Mask of their animal to cut out while you read about their strengths ( and possibly wipe away some tears when one of your sweet little ones finds out her Zodiac sign is a pig and not the bunny she had hoped for ;)

After we looked at all the different signs we opened up our fortune cookies that we had made earlier in the day.  I had the kids guess what they thought the Zodiac sign was for 2014, and when we opened up all the cookies we took out the slips of paper and put all the letters together to find out the sign for this year...2014 is the year of the HORSE!

 

Tomorrow we are finishing off our week with some fun paper crafts so make sure you stop by!  Have a fantastic day!!

Homemade Fortune Cookies...with a secret message inside! {Chinese New Year Theme}

Today we are sharing the Homemade Fortune Cookies we made, with a fun little twist!

Now, I attempted these cookies last night.  Honestly, after 3 batches...I had a whopping 8 fortune cookies that turned out ;)  They are quite simple to make, but not necessarily easy.  I found a fantastic blog that had beautiful pictures and great step-by-step instructions, so if you want to try these out make sure you stop by The Jew and the Carrot.

I changed the recipe up JUST a bit to use things I had or didn't have on hand.  Here is all that you need:

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 egg whites

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

That's it!

Now, I'm sure you are supposed to mix the dry ingredients and then the wet ingredients and then mix them all together...does anyone do that?!  I never do...there is NO chance I am dirtying another bowl if I don't have too ;)  I bet that is just one of many reasons I am not a wonderful baker!!

Anyways, once I dumped everything in ONE bowl and mixed it up, I prepared my cookie sheet.  The first time I tried parchment paper, and that did not work at all for me.  I had much better luck when I sprayed a cookie sheet really well and put the mixture right on that.  It also took me quite a few tries to get the size right...a 3 inch circle is really what you are going for.  Anything else will taste fine but not look too authentic.

Bake these in the oven at 375 degrees for 5-7 minutes.  Mine actually took 8-9, you just need to watch really closely and take them out when they have browned nicely around the edges.

 

To make our fortune cookies a little more fun we put a secret message inside.  After school today we are learning about all of the different Chinese Zodiac signs, and what sign each of my kids are.  I thought it would be fun to put in each cookie a letter that when put with the others will make up the Chinese Zodiac for 2014!  

Ok, so once your cookies are done you need to flip them over with a spatula.  Then place a strip of paper in the middle and fold them in half.  Once you have done that place them over the rim of a cup or jar to give it that awesome fortune cookie shape.  You are going to want to do this pretty quickly to make sure they don't harden before you can shape them.

Once you have them shaped you can put them in a muffin tin to hold their shape until they harden. 

I gotta tell you...these fortune cookies are delicious!!  They are soft and a little chewy (probably because we can never wait long enough to let them harden!;) and have a yummy almond flavor.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, make sure to come back tomorrow to see some fun Zodiac activities for kids!!

Chinese Dragon Masks {Chinese New Year Week}

We are so excited to be kicking off a new theme this week, we are learning and exploring all things about the Chinese New Year!  I have been especially excited because we have never done this theme before so its given me a chance to learn some new things too :)

I've mentioned before that Monday is usually our LEAST crafty day of the week.  It seems like I usually spend the day getting the house back into some kind of order after we trashed it all weekend long ;)  Today, though, I really wanted to get my kids away from the electronice, but also knew I didn't have much time.  This activity was quick, cheap and the kids had an absolute blast!  Check out our Chinese Dragon Masks!

To get started you want to print out your very own Dragon Masks.  I found this great template HERE at Spoonful.

Then let your little ones go to town coloring their dragons. 

Oh...and if you happen to have a little man that's not quite up to coloring, you can just stick him in the high chair and enjoy his cuteness ;)

 

While the kids were coloring I got out some crepe paper we had from past birthday celebrations and some fantastic Sparkle Elastic Cords we received from CraftProjectIdeas.com.  We use these cords several times a week for jewelry, but they were perfect for these masks as well!

All you need to do now is cut out your masks and the eye holes, tape some streamers onto the back and then tie the elastic cord around the mask so it stays up on your little dragon.

The best thing about crafts like these are they provide hours of creative play once you are done!  My kids were running around playing dragons and trying to scare each other for quite a while ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and come back tomorrow!  We have more fun crafts and activities, and a yummy treat we are really excited to try out.