Chocolate playdough Easter Treats

The Butterballs have been in seventh heaven.

Dad bought them an extra large box of assorted Easter choccies.

Butterballs + chocolate = CHAOS

I decided to replace those sweet treats with an equally fun, delicious smelling activity... Chocolate Play dough Treats!!!

I mixed a batch of chocolate playdough using my favorite recipe:

2 cups flour

Half a cup salt

Half a cup Bourneville cocoa

2 tbl cream of Tartar

3 tbl oil

1 cup water

Measure dry ingredients into a pot. Slowly pour in wet ingredients.

Whisk until smooth.

Cook on medium heat.Stir till dough forms a ball.

Knead carefully as dough will be hot. I like adding oil as this prevents the dough from drying out and also gives it a slightly glossy appearance.

Supplies :

Chocolate play dough, fondant flowers or sprinkles (you could also use button and beads), Easter themed chocolate molds.

The Butterballs spent a few minutes just exploring the texture of the play dough.They enjoyed rolling and squeezing it.

And they totally loved the smell!!!

'Mmmm, Chocolate!!' exclaimed a happy Ethan.

At last, the Butterballs were ready to begin with their chocolate molds.

I coated the inside of each mold with a few drops of oil.

This prevented the dough from sticking to the mold.

The Butterballs carefully pressed the dough into the molds.

 Tamlyn decided to try out the bunny mold first.

All it took was a light tap to remove the bunny from the mold.

Now for the decorating...

The Butterballs simply pressed the flowers gently into the dough.

Tamlyn also tried the egg-shaped mold. 

She carefully pressed both halves together to form her egg.

Ethan preferred to make his own eggs without the mold and just rolled a few balls of dough, then covered them in candy flowers.

Surprisingly, he didn't try to eat the flowers (or the dough) even though they were edible!

Decorating is such serious business!

The Butterballs had a blast.

End result...good enough to eat!!

Easter Chocolate Spoons

We kick off our Easter Crafting with a super simple, sweet treat!

Chocolate and candy on a spoon...what could be easier!!

I melted a slab of Cadbury Bubbly chocolate in the microwave,

then called in the Butterballs.

Working quickly, they scooped spoonfuls of yummy melted chocolate 

and lined them up for decorating.

A few candy eggs later and we were all done.

Now for the really tough part...

waiting for the chocolate to set!!

I really love chocolate spoons-

they are the perfect bite-sized treat for the Butterballs

and no sticky, chocolate-coated fingers!!!

Easter Photo Shoot

In keeping with our family tradition,

 we begin our Easter count-down with an Easter-themed mini-shoot.

This year, I did a fun, mini egg-hunt with the Butterballs.

All this rain has left the grass lush and green,

perfect for a quick frolic in the sunshine!

The Butterballs totally loved rolling in the grass

 and scooping up the brightly colored eggs (which were empty)!!

Surprisingly, the lack of candy-filled eggs didn't disappoint them.

They were just so happy to be messing around outside!

Butterfly art - Symmetry Painting

Today, the Butterballs are all geared up for some serious painting!

This was our first attempt at symmetry painting so they were pretty excited!

Supplies:

Paint, paintbrushes and paper butterfly cut-outs

  We tried 2 different techniques:

Technique 1:
Tamlyn painted one side of the butterfly as normal.

After folding the butterfly over, she pressed down firmly onto the outside of the butterfly,

Then opened it carefully...not quite the results we expected.

Ethan tried out the second technique:

slapping on thick blobs of paint

After pressing both wings together,

 he excitedly pulled it apart to reveal a beautiful marbled pattern.

Technique 2 -' Blobs of Paint'

was the winner!

... what do you think?

How would you do symmetry painting with your little ones?




Butterfly sugar cookies

My little chefs love messing around in the kitchen...

especially when there's frosting to lick and sprinkles to sample ;)

Today, they got to decorate butterfly-shaped sugar cookies.

The Butterballs happily spread royal icing onto the cookie.

Then the fun began...

 First attempt...

Finally got the hang of it!!

 Ethan as usual, spent more time eating the candy than actually decorating his cookies!

Butterfly Art - Melted Crayon Butterflies

Just fell in love with this cute craft from freekidscrafts.

An awesome way to use up those pesky stubs of crayon that always lurks at the bottom of the crayon box!!

Supplies:

Grated crayon, wax paper

Fold the wax paper in half, waxed side facing inwards.

The Butterballs sprinkled the grated crayons onto one half of the wax paper.

After folding the paper over, they waited patiently for the iron to warm.

The Butterballs have never touched an iron before...they were sooo excited.

I warned them at least a hundred times that they are NOT to touch the iron with out me being there.

LOTS of supervision is needed for this activity.

Under my watchful (and anxious) gaze,

The Butterballs ironed the wax wrap gently with a warm iron.

The iron was set on the minimum heat setting.

We talked about heat and how it causes the crayon to melt, 
like ice-cream on a hot day.
They were amazed at how quickly the crayons melted.

Thankfully, there were no burnt fingers, 

just broad grins as the Butterballs proudly reported their ironing experience to Dad!

I think they were more impressed with handling the iron,

 than with the beautiful, marbled wax art they made! 

I cut butterfly silhouettes out of black cardboard.

Then carefully stuck their waxy masterpieces onto the silhouette using craft glue.

Stunning...

but I won't attempt that sort of activity again until the Butterballs are much older!!

Butterfly learning - Proboscis Power

At Butterflies for Africa, 
the Butterballs got an up-close-and-personal view of how butterflies feed.

The feeding stations were laden with fruit slices and exotic flowers.

The butterflies were so intent on feeding, 

they were not disturbed by the curious fingers that picked them up for a closer look.

'The butterflies stick out their looong tongue to lick up the orange juice,' explained Tamlyn to an equally confused Ethan.

Time for a hands-on explanation...

After showing the Butterballs pictures of the butterflies mouth, 

I explained that it is called a proboscis.

We talked about the proboscis being like a straw which the Butterflies use to suck up nectar...or orange juice.

Practical 1:

Supplies : Paper flowers (thanks Linda), drinking straws, bottle caps and OJ

I secured the bottle caps onto the center of the flower using prestick, 

then added a bit more prestick to the table 

to prevent the flowers from moving about and spilling OJ all over. 

After filling the bottle caps with OJ, I handed the Butterballs their straws and left them to it...

They loved the practical demo and quickly slurped up the OJ noisily.

Next, I explained that the butterflies keep their proboscis curled up and only unfurl it when they feed.

Practical 2 :

Supplies : party blowers and paper flowers.

I showed the Butterballs how to unfurl the blowers.

'Its curled up like the butterfly proboscis,' exclaimed Tamlyn.

Now for the tricky part, the Butterballs needed to unfurl the blower and tap the center of each flower.

Not as easy as it sounds...

but loads of fun!