Color Finder

There are so very many ideas floating around the blog world for using paint chips from your local paint store. I came across one I had to try, and it's been a huge hit. I just grabbed a rainbow assortment of paint chips, hole-punched one corner for a ring binder clip, and hole-punched the opposite corner of each to use as a see-through hole for color matching. I tossed it into our library book bucket, and the kids have used it to match colors in their library books, magazines and catalogs, and even their toys. It's provided hours of fun and learning in one simple, free project. I'd highly recommend this for your little ones.

Kids' Table

We always pull our card table out for the kids when we have people over for dinner. I have an inexpensive (and pretty ugly) tablecloth that I usually throw on top, but last time we had dinner guests I grabbed my daughter's roll of butcher paper to cover the surface. I had fun doodling pictures for the kids to color, and it was a hit. We ended up keeping it up overnight, and my daughter did some more coloring the next morning. Simple, inexpensive, and interactive - win-win-win.

Rainbow Ice

We've been HOT in Texas this summer and have had to keep most of our activities indoors. One afternoon my 3-year-old and I made a tray of rainbow ice cubes, and they were a huge hit! I just filled up a small plastic tea pot with water for her to fill each cube, then we squeezed one small drop of food coloring into each one. We stuck to mainly primary colors. She used a toothpick to stir each cube.

Once these were frozen, the possibilities are absolutely endless. My daughter had so much fun mixing a couple of cubes into a Sprite to see what color it would turn. I always cool her oatmeal with 2 ice cubes after it's cooked, so I used a blue and a red one. As she stirred and her oatmeal turned purple, she was thrilled. You can also stick a toothpick in these as they're freezing to use as a handle. Then, when they're frozen, the kids can use the toothpick to hold it to paint on paper outside. They could also use the colored cubes as a sensory activity floating in water in the sink.

Hope you have as much fun with these as we did!

Buried Treasure

I've shared that we have a sand table and a big tub of uncooked rice that we play in often. Well, the other day my daughter was doing one of those packaged art projects from Hobby Lobby, and she had a handful of sequins left over. I tossed them into the rice tub and let her dig for her buried treasure. She had a blast, and my mind started spinning with all of the things you could bury. You could definitely suit this to skill level burying larger items for smaller kids and smaller items for larger kids. If you're looking for a good 30-minutes of sensory fun, throw a handful of something into a tub of rice. Cheap and easy!

[Ideas: rhinestones, Matchbox cars, marker caps, bouncy balls, marbles, sequins, rocks, paper clips...]

Cut Spaghetti

via

Both of my kids love pasta. I'm always looking for new and interesting shapes and styles. Tom Thumb has a line of organic whole wheat pasta in TONS of fun shapes that they'll gobble up. And there are a lot of really small options - ones that require no cutting for my 1-year-old. The last time I was searching Tom Thumb's pasta aisle, I saw that Barilla makes cut spaghetti. Spaghetti is a staple in our house - it's my go-to recipe when I have nothing else planned. And I always scoop a portion out to chop up for the kids. But Barilla sells it already cut.

Not one to pay for someone else to do work that I am perfectly capable of, I decided to just use the idea and to break regular spaghetti myself. Then, on the way home, I had an even better idea. I'd have my 3-year-old do the grunt work for me. And she LOVED it! So we now have a canister of broken spaghetti courtesy of my 3-year-old daughter. When I'm making pasta dishes using spaghetti noodles, I just boil a small pot of water for the kids and throw in a handful of the broken noodles. Then there's no cutting at all. I just mix it with the sauce, and it's ready to serve.
If you're looking for a way to keep your child busy for awhile, sit them at a table with a handful of uncooked spaghetti noodles and an empty canister for storage.

Fun for a rainy day

We have this set of mini Caterpillar construction equipment that both of my kids adore. We put it to good use a few days ago when it was raining outside. I filled a cookie sheet with 1-inch sides with dry rice, added the front loaders, steamrollers, dump trucks, etc. and my 3-year-old daughter went crazy. She played for over an hour dumping and digging. In fact, we left it on the table, and she's played with it every day since. Quick, easy, inexpensive, and hours of entertainment? Yes, please!

*By the way, I've gotten lots of comments recently about the amount of mess that things like this create. Yes, they absolutely can be a disaster. And I think some kids handle these types of things way more calmly than others. But we include clean-up as part of our process (my 3-year-old has a set of brooms, dust pans, etc.), and we go over the rules beforehand. We don't ever intentionally spill the rice/sand/beans, etc., and we always clean up our messes. If anything is ever thrown, dumped intentionally, or mistreated in any way, it is put away immediately, no questions asked. And, if there is resistance during clean-up, it goes in time-out, and we don't get it back out that day at all. But, just a little note, I make sure it's put in an area out of reach but not out of sight. I want the action to pack a punch. So, definitely use your judgment with your little ones. You may need to wait until they're older to tackle this. But I definitely wanted to dispell any assumption that I don't have a giant mess to clean up after these types of things. I've just accepted that as part of the fun. Proceed at your own risk! =)

Easter Scavenger Hunt

This little guy (who my daughter insists is a girl) showed up in our yard this Spring and has made himself...I mean 'herself' at home. Just in time for Easter.

Growing up my parents always did the neatest thing for Easter, and this year will be the first year we have a child old enough to understand and participate. Instead of just having our Easter baskets laying out for when we woke up on Easter morning, they would send us on a scavenger hunt. We'd find the first clue in a basket of candy on the kitchen table. It would lead us around the house finding little treasures at the end of each clue. It was always so fun and exciting and something we really looked forward to. The last clue led us to our Easter baskets.

We decided to do the same thing at our house, but with a little twist. We're going to have the kids' empty Easter baskets on the table with their first clue. Then they can carry their baskets around on the scavenger hunt to collect their goodies. I made a little rhyme for each clue, and they are super simple. As they get older, we can make it more challenging.

As I mentioned in my last post, we're all super sick around here, so we aren't going to be able to get out to get all of the goodies in time for Easter. But, since my kids are 3 and 1, they have no clue Easter is April 24th. So we're just going to move the festivities to the following Sunday, and they'll be none-the-wiser. Also, this way I can bank on the after-Easter sales! Win-win. =)

If you're interested in this idea too, I found a really cute printable that you can use here. Happy hunting!

Ginormous Birthday Party Post

All of my energy lately has gone into planning a super-fun and super-sized birthday party for both of my kids. Their birthdays are a day apart (one turning 3 and one turning one), so we combined them for a huge backyard bash. We did a gender-neutral carnival theme, and everything was big and bright.

Invitations

I love planning out fun invitations to kind-of set the stage for the party. I found a post online awhile back with links to really cute circus fonts. Using Circus, Big Top, and Cast Iron, I created several inserts for the party. One held all of the specifics, one asked guests to consider donating to one of our favorite charities in lieu of gifts, one was an admission ticket, and one was a bag topper. I also included a film strip with pictures of the birthday kids and a red balloon. I packaged them in cellophane bags, stapled the bag topper on, and sent them in red envelopes.

The Attire

Using my Cricut, I made t-shirts for the kids to wear with their age on the front. This was a simple, inexpensive, and precious project. My daughter is already talking about her number 4 shirt she wants me to make for next year. =)

The Party

Activities:

My favorite part was the photo booth. I set up a colorful sheet on a section of our fence and filled a bucket with accessories for people to choose from for a super-silly photo op. We're using these pictures in our thank-you's.

We also rented a bounce house and set up a handful of very simple carnival games. When I throw a party, a big part of my plans include trying to make everything self-serve so no one has to man anything the entire time. I want everyone (myself included!) to be able to relax and enjoy the party and not have to work.

Games:

Ping Pong Ball Toss:

I filled an old metal wagon with empty babyfood jars filled with water. Guests had to toss ping pong balls into the wagon trying to land them in the jars. The water helped people to grab the ball out of the top without having to pull each jar out every time.

Lid Launcher:

I used a snack jar on a table as a target, and guests threw babyfood jar lids adorned with scrapbook paper circles frisbee-style at the jar.

Penny Pitcher:

I covered an old coffee table with butcher paper and circle cut-outs of pictures of the kids. Guests tossed pennies onto the table trying to land them on the birthday girl's picture for 3 points (since she was turning 3) or the birthday boy's picture for 1 point.

Bean Bag Toss I made a handful of colorful, polka-dotted bean bags and set them up with a bucket at which to aim.

Guess the Gumballs

I filled a Mason jar with colorful gumballs and set them on a table with a basket filled with tickets and pens for guests to make their guess. The closest to the correct amount (267) got the jar.

We also set out bubbles and our sand table and labelled them with signs for fun. The Prizes:

And, of course, no carnival is complete without prizes. I made some tickets for each of the games, and our guests could trade them in for loot (Fun Dip, circus peanuts, Ring Pops, silly straws, stickers, and tons of other little trinkets).

The Decor

For decorations I used colorful scrapbook paper to create accordion-folded circles. These were used for the centerpieces (holding pictures in bright, plastic pots) and for the Happy Birthday banner above the food table. For all of the game signs, I created them in Word using some fun circus fonts I downloaded.

Colorful tablecloths and balloons rounded out the decor.

The Food

The menu was simple: hot dogs with all the fixin's, peanuts in the shell, animal crackers, chips, and sodas. Cupcakes and popsicles were dessert. I just made boxed cake mix with store-bought frosting to save time. I topped them three ways - with sprinkles and a gumball, with sprinkles and a tuft of cotton candy, and with marshmallows I made to look like popcorn (cut an x into the top of a mini marshmallow, then brush on a mix of about 1 tablespoon of water plus 1 drop of yellow food coloring).

My goal was to make this an economical but over-the-top party that my kids would enjoy. I wanted to do as much work ahead of time as possible to my husband and I could be a part of the joy the kids experienced, and I think it was a huge success. I wouldn't have changed a thing!

A Little Help for Our Feathered Friends

We've really been enjoying watching the birds gather nest-building supplies in our yard this season. We decided to lend a helping hand and add a little of our own flair. We gathered any dead grasses, small branches, etc. from the yard that looked like good, helpful nest-building items, and we threw in some leftover yarn from the stash. With all of the colors, it will be fun walking around the neighborhood admiring the nests. This was a fun, easy, and time-consuming educational project for my almost 3-year-old.

Pretzel Sticks and Marshmallows

A bowl of assorted marshmallows (gingerbread men, french vanilla snowmen, mini marshmallows, and jumbo marshmallows - all leftover from Christmas baking) and pretzel sticks turned into an entire day's worth of activity.
We used these to build all sorts of things from animal corrals, fences, houses, a mailbox, etc. The activity ended only when Miss Priss asked this mama to make a kangaroo...out of pretzels and marshmallows. Oh boy. I failed miserably, and we took a break.
Thankfully Daddy is extremely creative and resourceful, and he pulled through for her that evening.
Ta-da! A kangaroo made of pretzel sticks and marshmallows. Unreal!Clearly she was thrilled.

If you're looking to escape the doldrums of winter indoors, this was a cheap, easy way to entertain for the day!

Rainy/Snowy Day Fun

The Texas weather has been CRAZY this winter leaving us guessing at times as to when we can leave the house again. We've had to pull out all the stops to keep these kids busy, and when something occupies this almost three-year-old's time for more than a few minutes, I like to share. One morning I grabbed some foam paintbrushes, a bottle of shaving cream, and filled up the bathtub. This little lady painted to her heart's content. You can mix a drop of food coloring into the shaving cream for another sensory element, but make sure to do so in a bowl and not in the tub. When the food coloring is completely mixed into the shaving cream, it should not stain your tub or grout.

Handmade Christmas 2010

Continuing the annual tradition, I made most of our Christmas gifts again this year and wanted to showcase them here.
First up, my baby boy. I decided to make a quilt for each of our kids for their first Christmas. I tried quilting my son's but it didn't turn out the way I would have liked, so I'm ripping out the quilting and starting over. Here is the top, though.
Our 2 1/2-year-old daughter is very into mommy-ing. We saw the doll bed that I posted about here, and had to make it for her. My husband and I made the bed, and I made a bedding to complete it for her.
For my nieces, one in college and one in high school, I made ruched scarves.

For my sister-in-law and her family, a "Table Talk" jar filled with dinner time conversation starters. For my 4 1/2-year-old nephew, a drawstring bag with a tic-tac-toe quilt and bean bags to use in place of the x's and o's.For my almost 2-year-old nephew, a bucket filled with magnetic fish and a fishing pole.For my oldest nephew (9-years-old), I made a magnetic bag and pencil/pen holder with a composition notebook and a fun daily writing prompt book inside.

For my 7-year-old nephew, we made a spy kit with all of the necessities for spying.There is a caution tape and twine dispenser:

A notebook for collecting clues and a secret envelope with papers to create secret spy codes:
A couple of bags with fingerprinting tools and evidence collecting necessities (tweezers, tape measure, etc.):

As always, it was a ton of fun to put everything together and to gather ideas for all of the kids. Each year I start earlier and earlier, and I'm already putting together some ideas for next Christmas. =)

Uses for pool noodles

Last week we had a major black mold disaster during our master bathroom DIY remodel which ended with our family in a hotel. I was so thankful for this helpful hint from a friend as it made our night MUCH easier. Our 2-year-old sleeps in a twin-sized bed with bed rails. She's too tall to sleep in a pack-n-play comfortably, and bed rails are way too cumbersome to be portable. So we stopped at the Dollar Tree to buy some pool noodles which we used along the edge of the bed between the fitted sheet and mattress. It worked perfectly, and she slept soundly.
I've been meaning to post this idea for awhile now. Then this morning when I was catching up on Craft Gossip, I saw another fun pool noodle use which caused me to do a little Google search. Turns out there are tons of ideas out there for this inexpensive piece of foam. Here are just a few I stumbled upon.
Out of the Crayon Box's idea for using a pool noodle to make a wreath form. She went from this:
to this:Obsessively Stitching's Flower Party Decor:

My Little Gems' Lacing with Water Noodles:

My Little Gems' Water Noodle Race Tracks:

Craftzine's Flower Garland:

Dying Pasta

It is HOT here in Texas, so I'm always looking for fun, creative, open-ended activities to while away our time in the air conditioning. Gluing seems to be a huge hit around here. I've been cutting paper scraps for her to glue. I also have used dried beans, lentils, and pasta. I ran across this idea for coloring pasta and thought I'd share.

What you'll need: pasta, food coloring, rubbing alcohol, and Ziploc bags.
Fill a Ziploc bag with pasta. Then add 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol and a half dozen (or so) drops of food coloring. Close the bag, and shake it until the color is well-distributed. This is a great step to have the kids help with.Let the pasta sit in the bags for 15-30 minutes for the pasta to absorb the color. Then spread the pasta onto a cookie sheet to dry overnight.
I was skeptical because it seemed like the color would rub off onto our hands, but it hasn't at all. The rubbing alcohol wets the pasta just enough for it to absorb the food coloring, then it evaporates leaving the pasta completely dried and colored. This is an easy, cheap, and fun activity! We've used these for sorting, gluing, and as a sensory activity in a tub with scoops and measuring cups.