Happy Candlemas

As i didn't get around to a Our Sunday Morning post - we were to busy having fun at a monthly AGO family day and i forgot where my camera was! - i wanted to post a quick hello today. We had a snow day from work - even though i already planned to take today off to honour Candlemas with Clem! So, we made some fruit and seed bars from Vegan Cookies Take Over the Cookie Jar, played in snow, and lit a lot of candles throughout the day.
On Monday at my weekly toddler arts and craft group, we made these simple bird seed balls too, to honour today and the return of light and new life. We put them up today but i hope the birds will see them with all the snow!

As i learned most of these treats are either made with suet (yuck) or peanut butter (not wee one safe), i made a simple recipe similar to others i found on-line. Here it is:

Simple Bird Seed Snacks
1 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups seeds
1/4 cup corn syrup
ribbon
wire
orange, halved and cored

1. Wrap wire into loose ball and tie ribbon to it.
2. Make shortening into ball and start wrapping it around wire. Once ball is to your liking, roll ball into syrup and then seeds - we used a mixture of several kinds of seeds. Clem of course started to eat the seeds, shells and all - he sure loves the stuff!
2b. Put ball in orange half if desired.
3. Once done, put in freezer until you need it - needs to be firm to the touch.
4. Hang near a window and enjoy!