My new go-to bday present

This "build-your-own-fort-kit" has been a big hit with the birthday kiddos and their parents, it is inexpensive and easy to put together, which is why it is my new go-to bday present!

I got the idea from Saltwater Kids, this post. She got the idea from Bloom, this post. And since then I have seen it at Design Dazzle, this post. Or with a superhero twist here at Grosgrain.

I've only included one twin size sheet and about 10 clothespins but the other tutorials have several sheets and more clips. I've also been using a matching pillowcase cut in half and lined with a coordinating print, then made into a drawstring bag, which just seemed easier to me but you could just use the pillow case the way it is or any other bag you find.

And on a related note, but also for any number of other fun projects, you can design your own tags on Picnik using this tutorial at Homemade by Jill or this one at The Mother Huddle. There is another one on the Picnik Blog right here, and they link this post at Wordplay. Or you can just use the tags at the bottom of the post from Saltwater Kids. Whew! That is a whole lot of links!! I hope you use them and make a fort kit for some luck little guy or gal!

What to get for the three-year-old who has everything?

A bubble-wrap hopscotch game for my nephew's birthday, original idea here!

Merrily we stroll along

Tutorial here at one of my new favorite blogs Prudent Baby.

Too cute not to share...

We are going to a Hello Kitty bday party tomorrow for one of Haley's little kindred spirits. Her mom just happens to be my friend in real life and in blog world. I thought these puffy party decorations were too cute to pass up!

Ten commandments

So Moses was in the water, in the desert, and ate manna, all before he was on top of the mountain to receive the ten commandments.

The kids wrote the commandments on strips of paper and decorated them. We glued them into a paper chain and tried to shackle each other together. But what happens when you break one of the commandments? The chains aren't strong enough to hold anything together.

We also memorized John 2:10 "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."

If you are wondering we "broke" commandment number 5 in our chain, if you have kids you know why!!

Manna in the desert

After Moses was in the water, and after the Israelites were led by the pillars of fire and cloud, God provided them with manna to eat, they complained about it, but that is another lesson, and I don't have an activity for that...
Spread butter all over both sides of a tortilla and dredge it in cinnamon and sugar. Fry it in the pan and flip it like a pancake until the sugar is really sticky and brown on both sides. Be careful not to overcook it, it makes A LOT of smoke and tastes REALLY bad!!

Obviously this is not what manna was really like...but who wouldn't enjoy a tortilla coated in caramelized sugar?

Thanks Lena Cheevers for the idea!

Pillar of cloud, pillar of fire

So after Moses was found in the water, He grew up in Pharaoh's palace and then eventually led the Israelites out of Egypt, following a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night! We glued cotton balls and crumpled up squares of tissue paper to tubes made from poster board to represent this miracle. It was a hit, the kids enjoyed it and it was SO easy for me to prepare. If you can get some mailing tubes that would make the prep work even easier!

Moses in the water

If you turn a milk carton into a basket, and fill it with a baby doll, float it in some water, without your children knowing, then read them the story of Moses and tell them to go find him somewhere in the house...your kids will have fun. And then they will take turns hiding him in every sink in the house!

Joseph's coat

We are headed into the life of Joseph during our studies for the next few weeks, and we started off by making some coats with many colors for our favorite babies and animals! The idea was an adaptation of this VBS craft the kids came home with 2 years ago and this 18" doll clothes idea. Mikey and Jeremiah both chose animals with tails and so we had to do a few alterations to make the coats fit!

What you need:
Paper bag
scissors
markers or crayons

Project rating:
supplies: on hand
execution:very easy
mess factor: few scraps of paper bags
fun factor: kids enjoyed it, took a good amount of time for them to get their vests just the way they wanted them.

How clever is this?

What a genius idea, put these cutouts on top of Lego wheels for hours of fun!

Tin can magnetic spelling game

After seeing these refrigerator magnets made out of tin can lids, (the link is to a blog, for a sweet young lady, please go leave her a comment about the adorable work she did!) the wheels started turning, exactly how I got from refrigerator magnets to spelling game I don't know, but this keeps my kids busy in church! I have made several sets of these now, the first ones didn't have felt on the back, just a bead of hot glue around the edge of the lid, felt is way cuter. Also these lids are cut off using one of those sideways can openers from Pampered Chef so the edges are not raw, and not dangerous (or barely dangerous). DO NOT USE CAN LIDS WITH SHARP EDGES...SOMEONE WILL GET HURT...IF SOMEONE GETS HURT, DON'T BLAME ME...PLEASE. If you don't have the nifty sideways can opener, use frozen juice lids, or email me and I will send you some lids, I have some extra...I won't tell you how many...it is embarrassing.


What you need:
felt, any colors
scissors
tacky glue
tin can lids
cups that tin can lids will fit into
modge podge
magnetic strips or magnetic paper
alphabet stickers and words or printed alphabet and printed words (I recently saw some of those little magnetic poetry games in the dollar section at Michael's that would be cute with this!)

Cut circles out of the felt that are about 1/4"-1/2" bigger than your lids.

Put a bead of glue around the (semi) exposed edge of the can.

Step 3 is to maneuver the lid down into a plastic cup, where the felt will be held in place OVERNIGHT! This way the glue has time to set up. If you take it out too soon the edges just peel away, but even leaving it in over night, the glue wasn't dry all the way. So step 4 is to take it out of the cup, and let the glue dry, I waited overnight again. Step 5, trim away the excess felt from the edges. DON'T trim the felt until the glue is dry.

Step 6 option one--using the magnetic strip, which is already sticky on one side, adhere your letters to the sticky part and then trim away the excess, cut each letter out individually and stick them to the top of one of the lids.

Step 6 option two--using the magnetic paper, modge podge the individual letters to the paper and then cut them out, and stick them to the top of one of the lids.

Also modge podge the words you have chosen or the sticker letters to the top of the other lids. And there you have it! I left one of the lids blank so the kids could make their own words. My friend Ashley suggested making a bunch of words out of the magnetic paper so they could switch the words in and out, which might keep them occupied longer.

Project Rating:
Supplies--I had everything on-hand. You can get magnetic paper at any craft store, it is kind of spendy, about $3 for one little sheet, but you don't use very much of it, so you would have plenty left over for another project.
Execution--I hate waiting for glue to dry...so that part was torture for me. But the rest was pretty simple.
Fun factor--It was fun because I had an opportunity to craft something!
Mess factor--Just scraps of felt to clean up, and glue off my fingers! The plastic cups had some glue on the inside, which peeled right off.
Teach the lesson--There was no lesson to teach this time, but the kids are quiet for about 10 minutes with it in church!
Side notes/learned by experience--the kid cups you get from restaurants worked great for stuffing the lids inside, because they fit perfectly inside the lip. Also the magnetic strip was easier to work with for the individual letters.

Other things to do with tin can lids:
Chalkboard paint magnets
More magnets, with vintage photos and clever quips, by Popnicute!
And more magnets, by Recycled Crafts...
Snowman craft, by Craftbits
Pictures with punched out nail holes, by Marlie's Creative Universe, these are Christmas, but you could do any holiday, or theme.
Purple people eater game instructions, by DLTK
Wind chimes, by Se7en
Turn them into ladybugs with felt and pipe cleaners for antennae
Make a magnetic clock for learning how to tell time
I also saw these somewhere with kids' school pictures glued in, and decorated...don't remember where.

Chicken Scratch or Dots and Boxes

My mom taught my sister and I how to play "chicken scratch" on a road trip from Kansas to Mississippi one summer when I was a kid. I have called it chicken scratch every since, but apparently the real name is "dots and boxes." Either way I liked playing it when I was a kid, and now I like to play it with my kids! Print a few copies and keep them in the car, use them at restaurants or in the doctor's office while you wait.
Chicken Scratch

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Cereal box turned lunch box, or little girl purse, or whatever

We went to the park with some friends, and packed our lunches in these clever tote-boxes from Family Fun. As with everything I put on here, it was over-the-top easy. Just cut the flaps off, I tore them off. And cut out some handles...I used a box cutter. The one at Family Fun was modge-podged all over for a more decorative look. I just glued a piece of paper that each kid decorated themselves to the front.

Project rating:

Supplies--minimal, on hand

Execution--easy

Mess factor--few scraps of cardboard

Fun factor--too fast to be fun, but we got a lot of compliments on them at the park

Sidenotes/learned by experience--cut the handles at least 2 or 3 inches down from the top, and don't make them too wide, otherwise they tear out easily.

Telling time

Mikey has trouble telling time, partially because I haven't worked with him much, partially because he just doesn't get it. So for a little practice we headed outside today.

What you need: sidewalk or driveway, sidewalk chalk, something to be hour and minute hands (I used foam, but sticks would work great.)
First I had the kids tell me what time they wanted it to be, and then I told them where to lay. You will notice the list of times down the right side of the picture. I wrote those out before hand and when I was done "reviewing" with Mikey we started working on the list. Haley had a short, fat piece of foam for the hour hand, and I had a long skinny piece of foam for the minute hand. Using the list on the side, Mikey told us where to put the hands. When he got it correct, he crossed that one off the list with the chalk.



Then he wrote down some times, and Haley and I had to place the hands on the clock, while he "checked our work."

Project rating:

Supplies: minimal, on hand

Execution: beyond easy

Mess factor: some chalk on hands and clothes

Fun factor: enjoyed by all!!

Did it teach the lesson: YES!! Mikey does have trouble but he loved the hands-on portion of this game, and it totally reinforced the concepts.

Side notes/learned by experience: They had more fun with the foam hands than they did laying on the concrete "being" the hands. You could easily do this on the sidewalk with multiple, mini-clocks.

Building activity

 

We studied the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis this week.  The kids built towers with crackers and peanut butter.  This is easily adaptable to any building or construction lesson.  

You need:

Plastic knives or spoons

peanut butter

crackers

Directions:
really?  I don't think you need them.
Although I started by giving them the instructions in Spanish, to reinforce the fact that when God confused their language it was impossible to continue work on the tower.

Project rating:

supplies--minimal, easy to gather, had all on hand

execution--also very easy, kids needed little or no guidance to complete the project

mess factor--using the trays made clean up easier, kids hands and faces needed cleaning up (especially after Mikey tried to shove the whole tower in his mouth at once, see bottom right photo.)  overall, clean up was easier than I anticipated.

fun factor--definelty worth any mess

did it teach the lesson--yes, especially adding the directions in a foriegn language.

sidenotes--I highly recommend using trays underneath ALL your kids projects,  it is something we started recently and it makes clean up sooooo much easier.  I also gather my supplies on the trays so it is easy to see who has what and who still needs what.  We got our trays from a friend who works at the hospital, she just brought some that they were going to throw away (the trays were used to hold sterile tools) but I have also seen them at teacher stores and ones that are not disposable at walmart.  I love these hospital ones because they are HUGE and contain big messes.  And they wipe up easily.

Mustaches

This project gets high marks in the easy-peasy category. The kids did most of the work, I just traced mustache patterns and tied knots. It also get high marks in the very-silly fun category, making it an all-around great activity, highly recommended.

What you need:
scissors
mini hole punch
marker
elastic beading cord
scotch tape
magazine clippings of hair (or for littler ones, I used craft foam)
these templates

Trace the mustache shapes onto the magazine clippings or the craft foam and cut them out. Punch holes and tie the elastic cord through the holes. You will need to make several knots and then trim the ends so they don't tickle your nose.

Caring for a cattepillar? catapillar? CATERPILLAR

Caterpillar is the correct spelling for anyone wondering, maybe you all already knew how to spell it? Anyway, meet Mr. Raindrop. He is a lovely little forest tent caterpillar, that Mikey found on the toys outside.

Mr. Raindrop is our second caterpillar, preceded by Baby Caterpillar, who Haley found. Unfortunately Baby caterpillar found his way out of the jar through holes in the lid that were too big. (Haley warned Dad, Dad dismissed warning, drama ensued)

This is really a lot of fun for all of us, especially me, I mean, especially the kids. Mikey has a caterpillar bucket, with a rag and a smaller jar for collecting dirt. He takes the bucket outside every other day and collects new sticks and leaves and dirt. Then we gently remove the caterpillar, wipe out his jar, change the stuff inside and replace him in his new cozy home. For about two days Mr. Raindrop didn't eat much or even move much, I was preparing the kids for his imminent death, I thought for certain we had killed the little guy. Then yesterday we got to watch as he started building this:
YEAH! We didn't kill him, he was just resting up for his big project! This is how eastern tent caterpillars pupate, they build these silky little cocoons and then turn into big ugly brown moths. Haley is still expecting a beautiful butterfly, I keep trying to warn her, I hope she won't be too disappointed...I hope drama does not ensue.

When you find a caterpillar, do a google image search to find out what kind it is, what it eats and how best to take care of it. Eastern tent caterpillars are more of a nuisance than anything, and so most of the information was about how to get rid of them! Fortunately we found a little home school kid's blog all about taking care of them, called "A Bug's Life" he had dozens and dozens of these, making him a subject matter expert in my mind! This has been a very fun, easy project to do with the kids, I highly recommend it.

Ribbon streamers

What you need:
hoops, I got these at Michael's, or cheap plastic bracelets from the dollar store
ribbon


Cut the ribbon into long lengths and tie them onto the hoop. My five year old figured this out, so I don't think you need further instructions!

I didn't make one for Ella, fortunately she wasn't too disappointed because she liked the empty spools just as well.

Send your kids outside to play with them. Expect them to run around screaming at the top of their lungs that they are shooting stars and twirling flower princesses. The next day they will figure out that if you put it on top of your head it looks like you have a wig with long hair. This was a great project, very easy and the kids have been playing with them for hours!

I got this idea from Me and My Girl, which is a retired blog, but all her posts are still up for viewing.

We represent the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild, the lollipop guild...

Thanks again to the Better Homes and Gardens email that my mom sends me, and thanks again to my mom for sending it!

(FYI--my title is from The Wizard of OZ, I always thought it was lollipop kids, until tonight when I looked up the lyrics. Who would've thought?)

What you need:
Hard candies like lifesavers
Bags to crush the candies in
Something to crush the candies with
Tin foil
Cookie sheet
We used some cookie cutters, but I don't recommend it
lollipop sticks
packaging

Preheat oven to 350. Unwrap and sort the candies.

Bag the candies and crush them. According to the kids, this was, by far, the best part of the whole project! According to me, it was the messiest.

Arrange the candies on the cookie sheets in patterns. Make the piles about 1/4 inch tall. The candy melted out of the cookie cutter and just became blobs, plus it was difficult to get the cookie cutters out of the goo once it had been melted. Also, make sure there is enough room to insert lollipop sticks once it comes out of the oven.

Bake at 350 for about 6 minutes. When it is getting close to time, watch them carefully. We left one batch in the oven too long and all the lollipops spread into one giant pool of sticky candy mess. When you pull them out, IMMEDIATELY, insert the lollipop stick and twist it around so that the candy is coating the stick. Then let them cool. They cool off pretty quickly and easily peel off of the foil. They are kind of fragile. We wrapped ours in clear favor bags.

One final thought, if you mix all the colors together it tastes like some really disgusting cherry cough syrup/moonshine combination. Maybe you like 100-proof cough syrup?

Okay and just one more thought, this was a very messy, sticky project. BUT it cleaned just as easily as it messed up. And it was worth the mess on the mess vs. fun scale.

Banquet tables

The kids and I put these tables together for our Thanksgiving Banquet at church last week.

Last year the kids made the Pilgrim and Indian candle holders. I made the ship from a basket and some burlap. It was fun and so I kept all of it to use over again. This year we added the corn to the table and printed out vintage Thanksgiving greeting card pictures and tied them to the corn with gold cord.












I know this is totally a mom thing, but I just love the Pilgrims and Indians, simply because my kids made them.
















We use a brown table cloth and a burlap runner.













This idea came from BH&G or Country Living or some magazine like that. Yellow apples wrapped in gold tulle. It was pretty cute, although it took longer to do than I anticipated.










I had no idea how to core an apple without my Pampered Chef tool, isn't that ridiculous? One of the ladies who was at the church cooking came to my rescue, and I am pretty sure she was laughing on the inside! But it did hold the candles better because I was able to make them just the right size for the tapers.