Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Sweet Treats Baking Theme and All Things Wonderful Link Up 8/31

My girls and I had a lot of fun playing with play-doh, doing crafts, reading books, baking, and playing games that centered around a "Sweet Treats" baking theme. I wanted to share a few of the things we did together on this blog post. I would love to hear if you use any of the FREE printables I am sharing with you today. I even have a new printable card for you. Also, don't forget to link up to my "All Things Wonderful" link party at the end of the post.

My girls love playing with Play-Doh. Yes it can be kind of messy, but it is worth the fun and excellent fine motor practice. I always put a plastic table cloth on the table where they are playing as well as a plastic table cloth (the ones that are like $1.00) underneath their chairs as well. It might seem like a lot of effort, but it makes clean up quick and pretty much mess free.


Little Blonde, and Little Red had fun making all of the yummy treats shown in the pictures. They put a lot of thought into each treat they made. They also made a lot of ice cream cones made with their Play-Doh Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe. It is such a fun play-doh set, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of their ice cream cones. They were darling! If I can find some pictures of the actual set I will try to add them to this post. In the meantime, just click where it says "Play-Doh Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe" above to see and learn more about this product. Kids just love it. For some other really fun ideas of how to use play-doh, as well as tips on using play-doh, go to Play-Doh's official site by CLICKING HERE. They have so many fun ideas. They even give you step by step tutorials on how to sculpt different objects out of play-doh. CLICK HERE to be taken to the instructions on how to make lots of yummy sweet treats, like ice cream cones, out of play-doh. The girls had so much fun playing with this Play-Doh mat I made. CLICK HERE to save and print your own copy. There is a place to build your own ice cream cone, design hair for a smiley face, and make snakes hiding in the grass. You could just do a quick print and use it as is, or you could print the Play-Doh Mat and laminate it for repeated use. In keeping with the "Sweet Treats" theme, my girls had fun playing this "Breakfast Shadow Match File Folder Game". It is a fun game where you match up breakfast foods to their corresponding shadows. CLICK HERE to find out how to get your own copy of this game. I was thinking that I don't do very many FREE downloads for the adults reading my blog. Most of my downloads are geared towards children. So, I decided to make this fun "Thanks for being so SWEET!" card using beautiful vintage graphics from: graphicsfairy.blogspot.com. I really LOVE how it turned out. I have already printed copies of the card. I plan on giving one to each of my little girls as a surprise, as well as a thank-you card to a neighbor who helped us move into our new home. I promise, this small snapshot doesn't do the card justice. CLICK HERE to print and save your own copy.
This is such a fun book the girls and I like to use when baking together. Who wouldn't want to bake magical food like a fairy? Click on the image above to find out more details the book, "Fairy Cooking".


Here are some darling books we read together to go along with our "Sweet Treats" theme. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know how much we love reading books together.






Speaking of "Sweet Treats", the girls and I had fun browsing through pictures I have saved of my sister Jyl's cakes. Boy are the amazing! You could look through the cakes with your children and then have them tell you which cake they would make if they were a baker. After they have browsed through the cakes with you, they could design their own cake on paper or by using clay, or play-doh. My girls love to draw and design. You could also bake your own cake together.


It was hard choosing just a few of Jyl's cakes to show you. These cakes plus many more including cupcakes, can all be found at my sister's website, cakesforjyl.blogspot.com. Just CLICK HERE to be taken there. I know she has a lot of recent cakes she hasn't had a chance to post about yet.

Everything you see on Jyl's cakes are edible. Yes, the basket above and the corn are part of the cake. And, the cupcake cake is not just a single cupcake, but one huge cake.
All Things Wonderful Link Party


Don't forget to grab my new party button if you have the old one. Now it is time for you to link up a "wonderful" post from your blog or website. It could be a wonderful tutorial, something you have done with your children, a favorite recipe, DIY craft project, decorating ideas, wonderful things you have found in blog land, etc.

Come join the fun every Wednesday. Link up to this post, and let us know what is going on over at your blog. This link list will be active until Tuesday evening. Thanks for all of those that stopped by last week.

Link up Rules (short and sweet):
1. Please type in the direct link to the post you are sharing, not your blogs home page.
2. Use a short title describing your post you are sharing. ie. Kids Snack Idea @myshaenoe
3.All links shared must be family friendly, and not contain anything offensive or inappropriate as far as pictures, language, and content, etc.
4. If you want to make my day, you could always follow my blog and/or include my "All Things Wonderful Link Up Button" to your post or somewhere on your blog. Thanks a million!






The views expressed in this post are all my own. I am not being endorsed by anyone or was I given products to review. I just love sharing with you the things we love as a family!

6 comments :

Unknown said...

Thanks for inviting me to link up to your party. I added your button to my list and will make sure to stop by every week. I'm so happy to be a new follower. I can already tell from looking around that I could be up way past bedtime flipping through the history of your blog looking at all your ideas! :)

Love your idea of using the Play-doh for your baking theme. We just finished up a cookie/baking theme and that definitely would have been a hit with my kids!

PS-Those cakes are AMAZING!!

Jenn Erickson said...

Hi Shauna, looks like there are some succesful pastry chefs in your family's future!

Thank you so much for hosting and for all the great ideas and printables!

Jenn

Esther said...

Thanks for the invite shauna!

Linked up the pencils post

SnoopyGirl said...

What a lovely post! I so love pairing good books to any activity from crafts to meals to role play. Thanks for sharing and for the Playdoh mat too!

Unknown said...

Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.

I love all the "cooking" you did. The Playdoh mat looks like hours of fun.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

It looks like a lot of baking, pretend and real, and a lot of sweet books to go with it. Thanks for joining WMCIR!