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I am thrilled to welcome a fabulous guest! Shannon from Mommyapolis is here, sharing a wonderful idea that would be perfect for back to school time!

Hi!

My name is Shannon, and I feel so honored to be a guest on Oopsey Daisy today! I blog over at Mommyapolis, a site geared towards all of us extremely busy mom's who need some quick ideas to keep our little ones busy!

I am the mommy of 3 little boys we call the "S" brothers ages 5, 4, and 8 months. I have been a teacher for the past 12 years teaching everything from first grade to elementary reading and most recently, morning Kindergarten. Teaching half-day Kindergarten allows me the opportunity to be a little bit professional and a little bit stay-at-home Mom! This year I'm going to try out being 100% stay-at-home Mom. I'll let you know how it goes!

Today I thought I'd show you a quick and easy craft you can do with your kids that has a bit of a fall or back to school theme. I call them "Apple Lolli's."

Where we live school doesn't start until after Labor Day, but I have plenty of friends that are starting back in the next couple of weeks. You could maybe make these for your child's teacher and bring them to open house night... They are super quick, easy, and low on the messy scale!

Apple Lolli's

What You'll Need:

Red and Green Jolly Ranchers (I used 4 reds and 1 green for ONE sucker)

Craft Stick/Popsicle Stick/Lollipop Stick

Tin Foil

Gallon Size Bag

Cookie Sheet

Oven

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to 250F and sort through all those colorful Jolly Ranchers.

2. Put your red jolly ranchers in a plastic baggie and crush them with a hammer to form smaller pieces (don't crush too much because you don't want super small pieces). Repeat this process with your green jolly ranchers. I'll be honest, I had my kids do this and they LOVED it.... I thought maybe we should do it outside, but after experimenting myself I found it doesn't take much to smoosh the jolly's so we did it inside!

3. Place a lollipop stick on your baking sheet lined with tinfoil.

4. Arrange all your broken red pieces in a circle at the top of your lollipop stick making an apple shape. Make sure all pieces are touching so it melts properly. I sprinkled any "dust" my kids made over the entire apple shape just to make sure it would all stick. Add the green pieces to the top of the red to form a "stem"...

5. Slide your cookie sheet in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until completely melted... At the end, it melts quickly so it's fun to watch!

6. Remove your apple from the oven and allow it to cool before peeling it off the foil. One thing to note is that these are "free formed" lollipops. If you prefer your lollipops to be perfect you could use an apple shaped metal cookie cutter to help you out. This suggestion was made by my very professional pastry chef of a sister-in-law, and I think it's a fantastic idea!

7. Wrap it up for your favorite teacher OR eat it yourself! YUM...