We’ve recently had friends of ours move to a new home, fortunately for us it was just down the road a bit. We also have some new neighbors moving in down the street soon. The idea of new neighbors and moving is both exciting and confusing to our children, 4 & 6. While, my daughter knows that she has moved twice she really doesn’t remember it. And, to my son the whole idea is pretty unreal.
But the exciting parts of meeting new people and exploring our friends new home eases the confusion a bit. Of course, bringing along a little homemade housewarming gift helps too. Getting kids involved in welcoming new neighbors or making something to bring along as a gift to a new home gets them excited about the changes and can help to ease any worry that they might have. Of course, it’s just fun too! Kids love making and giving gifts!
Inside this basket…hand painted tea towels, homemade bread, butter and jam, and a stamped knife. All easy enough for kids to help make.
To start, make bread…Bread is one of the “traditional” gifts given as a housewarming…
We used this no-knead bread recipe which is super simple and tastes great! Plus, it makes two loaves, one to give and one to keep!
Next make jam… Strawberry jam seems a daunting task, but it isn’t actually that difficult and the results are delicious! I usually follow the recipe inside my box of pectin, but this is also an excellent resource with loads of helpful information!
Next, make butter… 1) Start with heavy cream, a marble, and a jar with a lid. 2) Fill jar about 1/3 of the way with cream and drop in marble. 3) Shake! 4) Shake some more and more and more! You have to shake through the whipped cream stage. 5) When you shake through the whipped cream stage you will eventually get butter & buttermilk! 6) Pour off the buttermilk. 7) Separate buttermilk and butter. 8) The fresh buttermilk is tasty! And of course, so is the butter!
Paint tea towels…
We used a variety of implements around the house to “stamp” our tea towel designs with fabric paint such as a honey dripper, a chopstick and foam squares.
Make labels for your goodies…
Stamp labels for your jam and butter. Download this Home Sweet Home printable to label your gift. Fill in your names at the bottom and add in the year established. The quote “Bread…that this house may never know hunger.” is from “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
Wrap your bread up in one of your tea towels and tuck everything into a basket and it’s all ready to deliver… A nice way to welcome new neighbors and pretty great way to make new friends too!
Oh, and you’ll want to be sure to keep some for yourselves too, because you’ll likely have some hungry helpers afterward…
