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Today's lunch theme was 'space' and it wouldn't be a space themed lunch without aliens now would it? ;) 

These cute little creatures, very well known from Toy Story, are a piece of cake to make, are extremely tasty AND are 100% healthy! Just follow the easy tutorial below & you will be on your way to creating a healthy snack that kidlets of all ages will love.


 
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Bubbles, everyone loves them regardless of age, gender or religion. They are a magical thing that can keep kids occupied for hours, but have you ever tried mixing it up a little bit? Adding a bit of colour, doing a little DIY bubble making, maybe even some art & craft with bubbles? I like to get the kids hands on & covered in soap when playing with bubbles, it's one of the joys of being a kid! So here is one of my way of putting a twist on traditional bubbles.

For this you will need:
1 long piece of wool
2 straws
Scissors
Bubble mix

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If you have bendy straws you will need to cut the bendy part of the straw off first.

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Thread your string straight through both straws then tie a knot at the end of the strings to hold them together.

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Put the string so that the knot slips into one of the straws & you're all set!

Now you can go play with your big bubble makers! :) 



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These little bite sized burgers are easier than they look & taste amazing! The full tutorial with clearer images is available in my book 'Funky, Fresh Food!' which can be purchased online in our eStore for as low as $9.95! But for now here is a quick, short 'how-to' for my take on these perfect party treats.

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First you will need to have a batch of baked then cooled vanilla cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes. Cut your vanilla cupcakes in half, these will be the buns. Now cut your chocolate cupcakes into thirds, these will be your patties. You can use any portion of the cupcake for the patty but I prefer to use the middle or base of the cupcake as they are flat sided portions.
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Next you will need red frosting. You can either pipe on the icing or spread it with a spoon, it is entirely up to you. Place the red frosting on the base of the cupcake for the tomato sauce/ketchup.
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Now place a section of the chocolate cupcake on top, this is the patty.
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Now the cheese is optional of course so the extra effort isn't required, but for the cheese I made some yellow fondant rolled out to 3mm thick and cut it into squares. The mustard is orange/yellow tinted frosting. Place the mustard and/or cheese on top of the 'patty'.
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Now add the lettuce. In a ziplock bag place 1/2 cup of shredded coconut & 4-6 drops of green food dye. Zip the bag shut then shake the bag until the dye is spread evenly. Sprinkle the 'lettuce' on top of the mustard.
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Now add the tops on. To make the burgers look more realistic I like to brush some melted butter (or orange juice if I have any available) on the tops then sprinkle on some sesame seeds. The seeds don't add any extra taste, they are more so for appearance so no need to worry about the cupcakes tasting funny. :)
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Ham flowers are a fun, quick way to snazz up an everyday lunch. Whether it's in a lunchbox or on a plate, there's never a bad time for a ham flower to appear! These adorable little snacks are assembled in 4 simple steps, making them an easy fix to a boring meal in a matter of minutes! 

This ham flower tutorial is one of many step-by-step tutorials in my new book 'Funky, Fresh Food - Your Step-By-Step Guide To Making Healthy Food Fun!' which is available for pre-order here. The book is due to be released July 1st 2013 & contains 48 illustrated pages to help you work your way through 26 fun, healthy snacks suited to both the lunchbox & the plate, as well as some handy tips & tricks including 6 ways to stop fruits from browning in your kidlets lunchbox & how to make rockmelon roses - a Creative Kidlets 101 exclusive tutorial!

It's as easy as punch!

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Start with a piece of ham; you can use round or square and a small knife. This technique can also work with turkey or a thin-cooked egg omelette.

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Cut lines in the middle of ham, but not all the way. The lines don’t need to be the exact same distance apart & depending on how thick or thin you want the ‘petals’ to be is how thick or thin of a gap you want between each slice. Be sure not to cut the lines too close to the edge of the ham otherwise your flower will split when you roll it up.


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Fold the ham in half in the same direction that you made the slices. Roll up the folded ham but make sure to keep a fairly tight roll to keep the "stem" of the flower together & sturdy.


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Fan out the petals of the ham flower & cut the base of the stem to make it flat if you prefer then tuck into the lunchbox or place it where you like on the plate.



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Up until recently I had assumed that everyone knew how to make rainbow rice until I was asked by quite a few how to make it and where I had purchased it from. I shocked a few people when I said I had made it myself at home and because of this I came to the conclusion that it would be far easier and of more value to share this simple trick with the world for those who were unaware that you can make rainbow rice with 3 simple ingredients that everyone has in their home!

To make rainbow rice you will need: 2 cups of long grain rice for each colour you would like to make, 1/4 cup of vinegar for each colour you would like to make, ordinary food dye & a ziplock bag for each colour.

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First, place 2 cups of rice in each bag (measurements don't need to be precise, just a rough measure is fine - just get as close as possible or you may end up with a soggy lump of rice). One bag at a time add 1/4 cup of vinegar then the drops of food dye to the mix. Ziplock shut the bag and give it a good shake. Repeat this step for each colour you would like. To dry out the rice you may leave it in the bag with the ziplock open overnight, lay it flat for 4 hours on a piece of baking paper or you can place it on a lined baking tray in the oven at 100c for 10-15 minutes to quick dry it (be sure to let it cool before allowing the kids to play with it!) 

You can mix whatever colours you want and add as many dye drops as you like to get the vibrancy that you are after. It is completely safe for children to eat (if you have those little ones that believe EVERYTHING belongs in their mouth!) & it's much easier to clean than playdough!

That's all there is to it! Remember - rainbow rice is not just for schools & daycares, it is awesome for sensory play and motor skills, even art & craft if you wanted. 
 
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We have all seen those crafts on Pinterest and been guilty for creating one of those well known 'Pinstrosities'. Melted crayon art used to be one of my biggest, most common Pinterest fails because I always wanted to let the kidlets help with the actvity and it would never turn out quite right. So I have gone to the drawing board and come up with a list of new twists on the old trick and am here to share them with you week by week I will count down my favorite ways to do crayon melting that is kid friendly and far less likely to result in another 'Pinstrosity'. Today I am sharing a 'splattered' version of melted crayon art.

So to start off with you will need an old fork, a hairdryer/blowdryer, crayons and a canvas. Pick crayons that have contrasting colours, you can go for vibrant rainbow colours or you can go for a boy or girsl themed colour scheme or maybe even the colours of your favourite sports team or the colours of your countries flag - the options are endless, if you choose colours that you are happy with then there will be no possible way to end up with a canvas you aren't happy with.
You will need to break the crayons into different sized pieces, the smaller the pieces the better the end result in my opinion but for this tutorial I did one with bigger pieces to show you a little better how to hold and melt the crayons effectively. Not many people are aware that there is a thin clear wax coat on all wax crayons regardless of the quality or brand name behind them. To get the best melting effect with the crayons you can slightly melt them with the hairdryer then roll them on a piece of scrap paper or an old rag to remove the clear wax from the crayon. This eliminates that yuck watery dribble of clear wax that tends to ruin a lot of potentially great melted crayon artworks.
Grab your fork and stab it slightly into a piece of crayon ready to be melted. The fork helps hold the crayon in place on the flat lying canvas so that the force of the hot air does not blow it all about the canvas. I find that going from the top left corner and working down to the bottom right corner of the canvas looks the mst effective with this kind of crayon melting but you can place the crayons where ever you like and still have an equally awesome outcome. Hold the hair dryer directly above the crayon and fork until you see a residue form, then move the angle of the hair dryer so that it sprays out the melted crayon to create a 'splat' effect. Do this with as many colours as you like in whatever places you like on the canvas until you are happy with the end result.
That is pretty much it, with larger crayon pieces you will have something that looks like the picture below to the left, but with smaller pieces you can create something like the picture to the right. The possibilities of colour scemes and end results is limitless. Completely kid-safe, let them help and make a family art piece today!
 
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Easter is a colourful exciting time of year for a child - and parents aside from the expenses. Every year I try to find age appropriate Easter themed craft for the kids to help them understand the basic 'hallmark' of the Easter holidays and eveyr year colouring Easter eggs always makes it to the list.

There are loads of ways you can colour an egg, the internet is full of methods, some use vinegar, some don't, some use food colouring, others use clothing dye - it all depends on how vibrant you want the colour to be on the egg. When colouring our eggs, we leave them raw and intact - can get messy with clumsy kidlets but it means that the eggs aren't wasted by being drained and avoids them going smelly if we were to boil then colour them, it also means we can use them for things like scrambled eggs or baking which is great!

Before dying our eggs we draw patterns on it with white wax crayons. The wax crayon creates a resistance to the dye so that when the egg is submerged in the dye, where the wax is, the egg remains it's natural colour. You can also use sticky tape or rubber bands to create patterns as well, even create a marbled effect by dripping hot wax over the egg before submerging it in the dye. The dye mix we use is 1/2 cup of water to 2 teaspoons of food dye - this is a pastel kind of dye that is kid friendly, if you want a more vibrant colour to the egg add a teaspoon of vinegar to the dye mix. To get the best results we usually try to leave the eggs submerged in the dye for at least 4 minutes.
              

Video Tutorial - How To Colour Easter Eggs.

Happy Easter Everybody!