Channel Jim Henson!

My ultimate fantasy career was working as a puppeteer with the Jim Henson Workshop. Whether it was creating puppets behind the scenes or bringing them to life with movement and voice, nothing seemed more thrilling than being a part of some of my most favorite stories and creatures.

Mama's most favorite movie ever, The Dark Crystal.

And Mama's most favorite television show ever, Fraggle Rock.

So the kids and I decided to put together a little puppet production. Zoe wanted to do a city backdrop. We used our table on its side as the theater and pulled out some of our puppets.

Someday we'll post a project about making puppets. Like Jim Henson, himself, teaches here:

 

*gush*

 

Constellations

I love this project because of its freeing simplicity and how creative children can get. And mama.

Random dots.

Connect them in whatever way you like.

Turn it into whatever you see! Like a chicken!

Or a puppy!

 

Or another chicken!

Or an angry frogman!

The Weekend

We all know how limited weekends are and this is why our family is rarely home on the weekends. We feel like the more we do and the more we get out together the longer our weekend will last. You'll usually find us wandering around some beautiful spot in sunny California. The other thing our family loves doing together is cooking. I've seen my children become incredible helpers when we cook and bake. Meals that I thought they wouldn't like I've seen them gobble up and I really think a lot of that may be due to the fact that they helped create it. So weekend posts on The Happy Phamily Project will be reserved for outing ideas with your family and cooking. And onward with today's post: Banana Bread!

No other bread besides Zuchinni Bread, I think, is more commonly baked with kids. There's always plenty of zuchinni growing in the garden (how else are you going to get your babes to eat the stuff) and often enough there's bananas turning to mush.

In the busy mess that is my brain I forgot to take a shot of the finished product, so here's one of the nearly finished product.

 And now for the recipe.

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 salt

1/4 ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

1/2 cooking oil

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bread pan. In large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

In a medium bowl combine eggs, banana, sugar, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan. 

Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool in pan. Chow down! 

 

Create a Maze

Defy Physics!

My husband, Erich, and I went nuts over this when we discovered it years ago when Zoe was a baby. This stuff is from another planet. It's a simple little concoction that is sure to create great results with your kids. I call it Moon Goo. What's so incredible about this stuff is that it's not quite a solid and it's not quite a liquid. I won't ruin the surprise for you. You'll just have to see for yourself when you make it. Or you can scroll down and watch the video my husband and I made when we first came across it. ;)

You don't need much. Just cornstarch (a 16 oz. box), water, and food coloring.

Dump in the whole box of cornstarch. You can also halve like we did and dump in one cup.

Add 1 1/2 cups water or 3/4 if you're halving it.

Pick yer colors.

And swirl and squish.

Fish in Love

Well, it is nearly Valentine's.

There are lots of variations on this project. You can cut out just about any animal or shape you want and fill it with whatever colors you want. The little scraps of paper can vary in size and be cut or torn. Children can practice making patterns with the scraps as well. This project is easily adaptable for younger children. It can also be tied in with a mini lesson on mosaics for older children.

Interior Decorating

I spent hours of my youth drawing my dream homes. I still love filling the outlines of a house with furniture, books, and color and setting it all up exactly how I like. So this is the project today. Set up your dream home.

This is how the two year old sets up his house.

Zoe concentrating.