homemade

We did a lot of different 'from scratch' activities this winter. Here's a few:

I used all those boxes from shipped Christmas gifts to make blocks. I taped them together, covered them with the brown paper (or used wrapping paper) that came stuffed into the boxes as packaging material, and let the kids color them. There's two crates full of them and the kids like stacking them = free toys.

For Christmas I made vanilla extract to give as gifts. I mixed brandy (but you can use vodka or run too, and one other liquor I'm forgetting) with vanilla beans cut lengthwise. I filled the bottle with the liquor and let it sit for one month before being used. Each time you use it, you just top the bottle off again.
Jacob did a lot of the old-school standby: Shrinky-Dinks. We've got keychains, zipper pulls, magnets and bracelets up the wazoo.

In addition to this stuff, we did the usual baking that we always do, as well as making applesauce. This year I got a food dehydrator for Christmas and we used the homemade applesauce in their to make fruit roll-ups. Yum, Yum!