The BEST Play Dough Recipe

I got this recipe from our one and only, Judy a few years ago. My kids absolutely LOVE it! It's the best play dough recipe out there and lasts for such a long time. We always have some on hand.

KOOL-AID PLAY DOUGH

2 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 (4g) packages of unsweetened kool-aid powder drink mix (for color)
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons of oil


DIRECTIONS: is flour, salt, and kool-aid in a large bowl until it's well blended.
Boil your water on the stove top and then add the oil into it. Dump the oil/water mixture into the large bowl filled with dry ingredients. Mix with a spoon until it cools down enough to touch it. Continue mixing with your hands until it's all the same consistency.

 It makes a ton of each color. I have stored it in the fridge or in a sealed plastic container. It lasts a long time and smells super yummy.

Have a wonderful day- Nicole

Top 10 Posts of 2015

In case you missed any of the most read and popular posts on The Savvy Stoker Sisters blog, here are the top ten:

10. Easiest Cheese Enchiladas Ever was a delicious and simple to make recipe that your kids will love!

9, Want.Need.Wear.Read. was a great post about how to make shopping easier for your family members whether it's for Christmas or their birthdays.

8. 5 Little Pumpkins Activity was a fun activity to do with your preschooler or young children around Halloween time. Pin it for next Halloween!

7. How to Prepare Your Child for a New Sibling is a great post if you are expecting another little one to be added to your family soon. 

6. Happy Shipping! is a very savvy post on how you can save money when sending packages to your missionaries or anyone!

5. Egg Rolls is a delicious tutorial and recipe of how to prepare the most tasty egg rolls. They are a must have at our Stoker New Year's Eve parties!

4. Best EVER Sugar Cookies is a post on how to have the softest, most divine sugar cookies with the yummiest cream cheese frosting ever. These are a MUST try! With Valentine's Day around the corner, you should definitely pin this recipe!

3. Zuppa Toscana Soup (in a crock pot) with Mom's Parmesan Rolls is one of the tastiest soups you will ever have! And the rolls are so simple to make, but are mouthwatering.

2. Re-doing Your Kitchen Cupboards is a post with some great tips and techniques on how to update your kitchen cupboards as economically as possible while still getting awesome results.

And last but not least, the number one post on the Savvy Stoker Sisters blog last year was:

1. How to Have Your House Smelling Like Pottery Barn in 15 Minutes. This ingenious and savvy post gives you some easy tips on how to have your home smelling amazing without using waxy candles or plug ins.

Thank you so much for reading and supporting our blog! 

Love,
The Savvy Stoker Sisters

Blanket Making for Dummies

I did not get blessed with my sisters skills in the sewing department.  However, I love to do it, sometimes, and have attempted many times to make stockings, quilts, and blankets.  When it comes to sewing on patches for my boys scouts shirts, I usually hand that task off to my mom and mother in law.

Two of my friends recently had babies.  So I thought I would pull out my sewing machine and make a few blankets.  One of my friends had a girl, so of course I had a blast picking out girl fabric!  (I only have 5 boys).  So here is a step by step way to make an EASY blanket.  And I mean, REALLY EASY!  For this blanket, I got 2 different fabrics that were 1 yard each.  Perfect for a little baby to be bundled in.

 First lay the fabric out with the RIGHT sides together.  Pin all around.  I only pinned about 3 pins on each side.

Sew with a straight line around the fabric.  I am sewing about a half an inch in.

Sew all the way around leaving about 3-4 inches open.  This way you can pull the blanket out and turn it the right way.

 I don't know if this is necessary, but before I pulled the fabric out, I went around the whole blanket, especially the corners, and cut slits in.  This way it just lays flat and has a nice clean corner when it's all finished.

 Once you pull the fabric out and get the blanket to how you want it, take that 3-4 inches of fabric that you didn't sew yet and sew together.

Here is the finished product.  This blanket only took me about 15 minutes to make!  It turned out so cute and is really easy to make.  Roll it up and wrap it with some tulle and give away to someone!

5 Little Pumpkins Activity

For my daughter's preschool class I had the opportunity today to do a read aloud with the kids. I was so excited to do this since read aloud time was my favorite time of day with my 3rd grade students and I love reading to Lily. I should be a librarian or something. Just so I can do story time :)

I debated what book to read. Since they are only 3 I decided simple was best. I wanted to read Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini to them so badly since I can do that one really well with awesome expression. Lily loves it, but I decided maybe next year I can sign up and do that story then when the kids are 4 and 5 and have longer attention spans. This year I decided to do Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino.

Lily and I prepared for the story time together.  We had a lot of fun together doing it. This is something you can easily do with your children at home too!

You will need the book  Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino., a permanent black marker, and 5 small pumpkins (I got mine at Walmart for like $2 for a bag of 5 pumpkins). The bag of pumpkin marshmallows was going the treat to share with her class. Lily was so excited to eat them!

First we read the book a couple times together singing the song together while we read it. We would hold up our fingers for which number of pumpkin we were talking about. Then we got the pumpkins out and put their ordinal numbers on them: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th.

Next we went through the pictures one at a time and drew a face on the pumpkin matching the picture. It shows all the pumpkins at the front but they aren't in order so you have to figure out which face is which. It might be easier to draw the faces first and then put the ordinal number on the back after. But Lily was really good at matching the face with the number. We talked about emotions (Is he worried? Scared? Excited? Happy?) and shapes (Oh this one has triangle eyes, this one has circle eyes, this one has diamond eyes, etc.) to help match the correct pumpkin with the ordinal number. I am no artist but Lily could still tell which faces matched.

Our 5 Little Pumpkins Sitting On A Gate :)

Here I am right before going in to read and sing with a bunch of 3 year olds!

Today with the preschool class I first talked to the students about how they were going to get to go to the pumpkin patch for their field trip next week and choose their very own pumpkin. I lined up all the little pumpkins on this table next to me and with Lily by my side we read the book and sang the song with some actions we made up with the kids. Then I had students come up to help hold the pumpkins and we sang it a few more times making sure all the students got at least 1 turn. Then Lily passed out her treats of the pumpkin marshmallows. We also brought the pumpkin shaped Reese's and the teachers were happy to have one of those too! It turned out really fun!

Here is a link to a video of the book with the music/song here!

My little helper :)

For more fun Halloween and Fall books to read to your kids baby to 3rd grade read this post here.

Thanks for reading!

How To Prepare Your Child For A New Sibling

When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I was thrilled! I had been able to conceive so much faster with my second than with my first so I was also a little shocked. Then I became worried. How could I do this to my little girl? She would no longer be the center of our universe! She wouldn't get my undivided attention!

As you can see, she wasn't exactly thrilled ;)

But then I remembered how wonderful it is to have brothers and sisters. I don't know what I'd do without them! Giving your child a sibling is the greatest gift you can ever give them. They have a best friend for life. Someone to rely on after you are gone.

I was still scared. How was she going to handle this? How could I prepare her? My daughter still seemed like a baby to me. How was she going to be a big sister?

So of course I started researching. I turned to the internet and read oodles of articles and blog posts like this one. I went to my library and checked out every  book they had about being a big sister or having a new baby. My favorite books are: I'm a Big Sister by Joanna Cole (They also have I'm a Big Brother), Waiting for Baby and My New Baby by Rachel Fuller, The Berenstain Bears New Baby by Stan Berenstain,  The New Baby by Mercer Mayer, The Baby is Here!(Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Julius, and  The Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes (the girl in that is even named Lily!).

She took her research seriously.

      

We constantly talked about how there was a baby inside mommy's tummy and that Lily gets to be a big sister. We would have her kiss my tummy and give the baby hugs and gentle pats. We would say we were thankful for the new baby in mommy's tummy during prayers and ask that it would be healthy and safe and pretty soon she was saying the same thing in her prayers.

The baby's ultrasound pictures hung on our fridge and Lily would always blow kisses at them. We showed her old ultrasound pictures of her when she was in mommy's tummy too.

We watched every show there was about being a big brother or sister.Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Season 2 is the best. My little girl still watches it all the time and sings some of the songs to herself when she is frustrated, "When a baby makes things different, find a way to make things fun!" or "There's time for you, and baby too," or my favorite "I really love our baby".

A couple months before the baby was due we bought Lily a "big girl bed" and moved her crib into the baby's room. She loved it and it helped her feel more grown up.

We showed her pictures and videos of when she was in Mommy's tummy and when she was born and just a  little, tiny baby and how soon we would have a baby just like that to love, hold, kiss and snuggle.

We constantly reassured her that we loved her so much and that we were excited for her to be a big helper and how exciting it was that she was "growing up on the inside and outside." (thanks Daniel Tiger ha ha)

We got her her own baby doll to take care of. I bought a little toy doctor's kit on Amazon along with a few other little treats and wrapped it in a present and put it in my hospital bag to take with me. When Lily visited us at the hospital we gave the gift to her and told her it was from the baby because she loved her big sister so much. Then when the nurses came into take my blood pressure she could do the same thing to her daddy with her kit.

When we got home from the hospital we tried to make sure that my husband and I each spent some one-on-one time with her every day and gave her some personal attention and extra love. I think that prevented a lot of behavior problems. Luckily my husband had a couple weeks before he had to go back to work that he could really be our older daughter's best friend and give her lots of extra attention. We let her hold the baby (with our help) as much as she wanted to. We gave her little tasks to make her feel like she was helping like "go get a diaper, or a wipe, or a burp cloth or blanket, go get her binky. throw this diaper away, go get a baby toy"  etc. Her other job still to this day is to turn on and off the little sound machine in the baby's room and the big box fan in the hall.

My daughter did have some regression. She started wanting binkies all the time when she hadn't taken them since she was 3 months old. She wanted bottles. She wanted to be a baby too. So we just got rid of all the binkies when my baby no longer wanted them at 3 months as well. Then we got rid of all the bottles when my baby turned 1. I didn't think those things were the end of the world. I'm sure I could have been more strict and gotten rid of the bottles or binkies sooner. I decided to pick my battles :).

It has been so fun and amazing to see the sweet relationship between my daughters develop. They love each other so much and as my older daughter is always saying "are best friends" and then she tries to sit back to back with Lucy. She says she is Elsa, and Lucy is Anna, and they are best sisters and best friends forever! Lily has been really patient and sweet with her even when Lucy pulls her hair.I'm so glad my girls have each other and I hope their sweet relationship continues to grow

I hope this helps! How did you guys prepare your kids for a new baby?

Fun Fall and Halloween Books to Read With Your Kids!

When I was teaching 3rd grade, one of my favorite parts of the day was read aloud time and I know it was a favorite time for my students as well, I always did it for 20 minutes right after lunch. The students would gather on the carpet by my rocking chair. I usually read a chapter or two from a chapter book I was reading but occasionally we'd read picture books as well between chapter books. This has carried over into motherhood. One of the favorite parts of my day is reading to my little girls and they love it too! Lily would let me read books to her all day if my voice would last that long.

Here are some suggestions of some of my favorite Halloween books. I do not own all these books! We get some from the library or just go to the Halloween section of the store at Walmart or Target and read the books they have there :).

I'll start with younger kids and work my way up to what I would read to my 3rd graders:

Some books specific to Fall for little kids are I Love Fall by /Alison Inches, We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger, Peppa's Windy Fall Day, Fall by Roger Pridy, Leaf Man by Lois Elhert, Fall Mixed Up by  Bob Raczka.

     

5 Little Pumpkins is another fun read. This books is great because its from a song so you can sing it while you read it but you don't have to. My piano students play this song so I know the tune well haha. I like how it teaches ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) and counting.  If you click on the Pete the Cat one there is a video with it on Amazon with the music and the words.We like Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean since the cat looks like our kitty and just this normal Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino.



Some other good counting Halloween books are One, Two. . . Boo!, Ten Timid Ghosts, 10 Trick-or-Treaters, Seven Orange Pumpkins, Too Many Monsters!

    

Some other books you can sing to that are great are this Halloween version of Wheels on the Bus  called The Spooky Wheels on the Bus and then my little girl loves this Fall one called There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves that goes to the tune of "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and also the Halloween one of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat. She has these for every holiday and some other themes too. They are pretty cute.

  

Some ABC Halloween Books to read to your littles are Halloween ABC, A,B,C's Halloween, Halloween Alphabet ZYX, H Is For Haunted House.

   

Some other fun picture books to read to your preschool and up aged kids are:  Happy Halloween, Little Critter and Trick-or-Treat Little Critter by Mercer Mayer, Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin-Picking Plan and Splat the Cat What Was That? by Rob Scotton, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing, Spookie Pookie by Sandra Boynton, The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan Berenstain.

   '

My little girl loves Curious George, Daniel Tiger, Clifford,  and Micky Mouse Clubhouse so its fun to read books with her favorite characters in them:

   
Margie Palatini is one of my favorite picture book authors. She has 3 books about Gritch the Witch that are hilarious. Piggie Pie is the first one and then there is Broom Mates and Zoom Broom. None of them are about Halloween, but the main character is a witch so we'll count it :). I read these to my preschooler all the time but I also read them to my 3rd graders and they loved them and understood a lot of the references better.

  

For my 3rd Graders I would also read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margarate Mcnamara and 2 x 2 = Boo! by Loreen Leedy to them during math.

 

And we would read these Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark by Alvin Schwartz I used to read as a kid. The scarecrow one still gives me nightmares! We would turn the light off and use flashlights. It was pretty spooky! I guess they have new updated covers and its cheaper!



My favorite chapter book to read at Halloween time to my students was called Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe. We would be studying mysteries during Halloween time so it went along great with that and the book is hilarious.



 I also loved reading The Witches by Roald Dahl. It was always fun to come dressed as the kind of witch he described during the chapter where the boys Grandma tells him what witches looked like. I would keep scratching my head as if wearing a wig, eat a blue sucker before hand so it looks like you have blue spit. Refuse to take off your shoes so they don't see that you have no toes, wear gloves, and keep wrinkling your nose and saying, "Does it smell like Dog's Droppings in here?". If you've read the book you'll get it ;)


They also loved the book called Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville. Its not really Halloween themed, but there are goblins in it :). It is hilarious too and has some spooky parts.



And of course my students and I always loved reading the first book in the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. BEST BOOKS EVER! I can't wait to read them with my girls! Its something I dream about :).


Now go to the library, the store, or just buy some of these books online and get reading with your kids! HAPPY READING!