Looking For Signs of Spring

It’s that time of year again! 🙂 It’s time to take a walk and see what signs you can find that Spring is on the way! Now if you live in a place that has a lot of snow right now, I’m sorry! We are in Ohio and we might still get some snow, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we are done with snow for now!

We live in the country and I love taking walks around to see what new signs of Spring I can find. It gives me hope that one day soon it will be warm outside again! So what do you think you might find? Look for new flowers peeking up through the ground. Like our mini daffodils…which actually have a few flowers blooming now!

I even spotted this lone little dandelion. 🙂

Our trees are getting buds on them.

Our Daylilies are peeking through the ground and last year’s foliage.

And so is another type of lilies.

The ice cream store in a little town close to us is open again! 🙂 Watch for birds that are gone in the winter, but show up again in the Spring. We’ve seen Robins, Bluebirds and a Red-Winged Blackbird! Every time I see one, I get excited!

You will know that it’s almost Spring when the greenhouses open up again and this happens:

Haha! That has been me a few times in the past! 😉

The daylight hours are getting longer and this Sunday we will set our clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Savings time. (If you live in most states in the United States, it’s probably not your favorite thing to do.)

Do you love Spring? What are your favorite things to look for that tell you Spring is not far away? The sun is shining today, but the temperature and the wind are making it feel cold yet. But Spring is on the way, so keep your chin up and have fun looking for signs of Spring! 🙂

Fun Crayola Felt Flowers Kit

Welcome back to The Kids Niche! So glad you’re here! 🙂

Today I want to share a super fun felt flowers craft kit that I found at the Dollar Tree store. I thought it was a nicely done kit, especially for $1.25!

You can make 4 felt flowers from each kit. Here is what is included in the kit:

To get started, a few of the parts need to be punched out. They came apart easily for me.

I would like to suggest that before you go any farther that you take a couple of minutes to trace around all the flower parts on a piece of paper so you will have patterns to make your own flowers later.

Now for the fun part! 🙂 Each flower needs a set of matching flower pieces. 1 plain solid color piece and 1 plain solid color piece that has adhesive on the back side with a piece of white paper covering it.

Sort the pieces into 4 groups so you know which pieces you want to put together into 1 flower.

I started by putting the smaller flower piece with the face on it onto the front of a larger flower piece that has the white paper backing on it. Remove the paper backing from the face piece and press the piece onto the bigger flower piece.

Take the other matching big flower piece (the one without the paper backing) and lay it down on the table. Take 1 pipe cleaner and lay it on top of the flower piece for the stem of the flower.

Carefully remove the paper backing from the large flower piece that has the face on it, line the 2 big flower pieces up and press together. Once the adhesive touches something else, it doesn’t come back off very easily.

Last step is to remove the paper backing from one leaf and fold it in half around the stem to form a leaf.

That’s all that goes into making 1 flower. 🙂 Repeat the process for the other 3 flowers and you’ve finished the kit!

Aren’t they so cute?! I just love them! Find a small vase or glass to display them in around your house. 🙂 These would be cute flowers to help the kids make for mom or grandma, etc.

I hope these kits are available at your local Dollar Tree store! Happy flower making! 🙂

Flower Candy Pretzel Bites

Happy Good Friday to you! In today’s post, I’ll be sharing a fun food craft that would be really great to share for your Easter celebration! These little “flowers” are so cute and taste so yummy with the combination of sweet and salty.

You need only 3 ingredients…square mini pretzels, white candy melts and a bag of spring colored M&M’s candy.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. Place some pretzels on the cookie sheet. (I started out with a lot of pretzels at one time, but now I think it’s better to do a few at a time so you can keep up with the decorating while the candy is soft.)

The directions I read suggested laying 1 candy melt wafer on each pretzel.

I think it works better if you put 1 1/2 candy wafers on each pretzel.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F. While you wait for the oven to heat up, you can sort your M&M’s into like color piles. This will make it easier to find the same color faster.

Once the oven is warm enough, place the cookie sheet in the oven for about 3 minutes. The candy just needs to soften so you can put the M&M’s on the pretzels. I found it helpful to use a small spatula to spread the warm candy on the pretzel.

When the candy is softened, place 1 yellow M&M in the center of the pretzel. Then apply 6 more of the same color M&M’s around the yellow one, pressing down into the candy.

That’s all there is to it! Continue making as many flowers as you’d like to make.

Aren’t they so cute?! Spring flower candy bites are bound to bring a smile to everyone that sees them. Especially to those who TASTE them! Haha!

Maybe set a few out on a plate for the Easter Bunny! 😉 Happy Easter, everyone! 🙂

Looking For Hints of Spring!

It’s only 10 more days until the official first day of Spring!! Are you getting excited? Whoohoo, I am! It’s going to feel like winter and it’s supposed to snow this weekend, but Spring is really just around the corner! It’s time to take our annual walk around outside (bundle up if it’s cold where you are!) and look for hints of Spring. Here’s a few that I found today!

Look at the trees. Are they starting to get buds on them?

Violas are some pretty dainty, but really tough flowers and I found one blooming today!

The daffodil flowers are pushing their way up through the ground.

I can’t remember which flower this is at the moment, but, hey, it’s green and it’s growing! 🙂

This may look like a pile of old dried up leaves but look closely and you can see some green leaves growing down inside there! Can you spot any?

Some of our favorite birds are showing up at the bird feeders again! I counted 15 different kinds of birds here the other day. 🙂

Our dog, Rusty, found this chipmunk hole today. He’s on the lookout now for the occupants of that hole. 😉

Now it’s your turn! What signs of Spring can you find outside close to where you live? If you get some snow this week or weekend, don’t get discouraged because Spring is almost here!! 🙂