This blog is filled with ideas to turn everyday moments into Jewish moments, especially for families with young children.
We’ve officially welcomed a new Jewish month - Tammuz, and with it the official start of summer! On the Jewish calendar, the summer season includes the months Tammuz, Av and Elul. Join us in celebrating summer with yummy foods, summer crafts and some special family outings.
Happy summer!
~Jennifer
We’re getting ready for Valentine’s Day and Shabbat by making love bug challah rolls. These cuties are extra simple to make too by using frozen bread dough rolls, and their adorable shape comes from baking them in a muffin tin! You’re invited to make them too with your own little love bugs!
We’re sharing our fall harvest with family and friends at a Sukkot dessert. The sukkah is meant to be an open tent, and extending hospitality and sharing something delicious with people you love is what makes this holiday and the fall season so special. Come take a look!
We’re “painting” rainbow challah to celebrate the first Shabbat of the New Jewish Year! We made edible paint from natural food colors, and used challah as our canvas. This is such a fun food craft for all the little artists in your life, or anytime you want to add a little extra color and happiness to your Shabbat! So come “paint” some challah with us!
There’s something about picnics that make us so happy. We’re having a sit down picnic dinner for Rosh Hashanah this year, and we’ve saved you a seat with our apple basket place cards. They’re so adorable and make sweet party favors too. We share a full tutorial on how to make them.
For this Rosh Hashanah, we are full speed ahead with a picnic theme, which I think is lovely for grown-ups and children alike. Our picnic has an abundance of apples, honey bees, white plates, and baskets filled with flowers and lots of handmade touches. Come take a look!
On Rosh Hashanah evening, right as the sun sets, we begin our holiday by lighting candles. This year we made special festival candles by drawing doodles on tissue paper and then melting the paper into the candle wax. This is a fun project for all ages. So let’s go bring some warmth, love and light into our New Year by making Rosh Hashanah candles!
Teeny tiny pinecones are made into honey bees for our Rosh Hashanah honey pot! This is a very simple craft but oh so very cute! You only need a few supplies, so come make a sweet honey bee and honey pot with us!
Here’s the cutest way to have apples and honey for a sweet new year - with our apple buns stuffed with pie filling! As of of right now this is my most favorite recipe for Rosh Hashanah. They’re so sweet and adorable, come bake some with us!
These adorable unicorn challahs are the perfect summer-pick-me-up! They’re extra fun for Shabbat or even getting through a long day. The shape also reminds us of the round challah we eat on Rosh Hashanah! The prep is super simple with frozen bread rolls (Shhh! It’s a secret! I’ll never tell). So grab a little, and let’s go make some magical fun!
Have you ever heard the Yiddish word Shluffy? It’s a loving word that tells your child, “It’s time to go to sleep.” Whether you have a little that easily goes to bed, or one that needs some extra encouragement, making a little Shluffy baby together is a sweet and loving activity that guarantees sweet dreams.
To get ready for Tu B’ Av (the Jewish Day of Love), we’re thinking of all the Jewish things we love, and one thing that makes our heart flutter is Challah on Shabbat! We love baking challah and making challah baby necklaces too - especially when they’re all wrapped up in a dainty challah cover. Come make one with us!
Baby succulents are especially wonderful to grow in summer with children who love tiny things! We’re growing ours in an adorable “Gina Ktana” (Hebrew for mini garden), complete with a tiny animal friend. This is a wonderfully adaptable project for children and grown-ups alike. So let’s go make a mini garden!
Celebrate summer with Malabi, a delicately sweet Israeli milk pudding perfumed with rosewater. We topped ours with with diced peaches, peanuts and golden honey - a delicious fusion of Israeli street food and the classic American dessert of peaches and cream. Served in small glass jars, it looks like a happy burst of sunshine.
We’re getting ready for a new season and extra sunny days by making favorite summer-time yarn crafts, but with a new twist - like this sun wheel! We made it as a wand to wave high at the sun for the upcoming summer solstice. You’re invited to make one too! We show you all the details in our DIY tutorial!
To welcome the sunniest day of the year, we made summer solstice pom-pom wands. The circle shape of the pom-pom reminds us of the sun, and we selected yarn colors to represent sunny days. You only need a few materials to make your own. So let’s go make a pom-pom wand!
With so much love in the air this month, we wanted to celebrate the love of family and friends this Shabbat with heart-shaped challah-pops! Little cakes on a stick are just so cute, and they’re so easy too! So let’s go make some Challah Heart-Pops!
A keepsake box for all your beautiful things, inspired by the Jewish storybook, The World Needs Beautiful Things
To celebrate our puppy, we wanted to share an easy project - a no-sew sock puppy! Today is also an extra special day to make one since it’s the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, which in Judaism is the New Year of the Animals.
Today the sun is shining after several days of rain, so it’s a perfect (and much needed) day to check on some newly bloomed spring flowers in our backyard, and maybe even make a flower arrangement for Shabbat. Come explore with us!
What I love most about the Jewish New Year is the opportunity to have a fresh start. Growing up, my mom explained that Rosh Hashanah was a time when you were given a clean slate.
