summer fun

We've been keeping busy around here this summer. We have a list of things we want to do...kind of like a summer bucket list. I'll share that at some point. One of the things my kids wanted to add to the list was crafts. We do crafts that I plan and direct a lot...but I wanted my kids to know the fun of just creating completely on their own - no directions, no rules (ok, maybe one...no glitter glueing on the floor...only at the table! :), no right or wrong way to do things...just whatever their imagination can create! Thus I started...

...the scrapbox! In it I placed some left over craft items, old scrapbook papers, and a few things from the Dollar Tree.

My kids love being able to dive into the scrapbox any time they feel like creating something!

They know they are allowed to use anything in the box anytime they want and I have loved seeing their creativity come out and see the dozens of items they have come up with recently!

These are just a few of their creations! :)

Scrabble Jr. is one of our new favorite games. Then I found these letter cookies at the Dollar Tree that are just about the same size as the regular game pieces so we had to have a special game of Scrabble one day!

Of course followed by eating a few of the cookies.... :)

This is where we are a good part of the day!

:)

And this is where we are another good part of the day! LM Giggles looks scared here...she's totally just playin'! Lol

So goofy! :) And I love his little belly! These two are ridiculously TAN after being outside so much every day - even with multiple applications of sunscreen. Not fair! :}

He came running up the side of the slip'n'slide saying, "Look, Kiki! I'm David Hasselhoff!!" I said "What?! How do you know who THAT is?!"

"Spongebob."

Oh. Of course. I should have known. Ha.

sock puppets

So I was walking through Hobby Lobby a couple months ago and happened to glance at one of those little free tear-off craft ideas. Which was followed by a "well, DUH!" moment. It was such a simple idea...why hadn't I thought of that already??

First we pulled out my big box of buttons, some rainbow yarn, sharpie markers, and socks (from the $ tree). Add a hot glue gun and we got...

...some cute sock puppets. :) After my kiddos made theirs, I had extra socks (and "hair") left over, so I made one too, just for fun. I was so focused on helping them make the puppets that I forgot to take pictures of them working on them... oops. They love my big box of buttons and had fun examining them all to find just the right ones. Mr. Happy's first puppet needed four eyes. We decided it was a happy monster puppet. After gluing everything on, I let them decide how they wanted the hair on their puppet to look...Mr. Happy was just excited to get to cut it with "grown up scissors" (with my help, of course). The girls needed braids in theirs, which I also helped with.

After that, we needed a puppet theater...which is where the HL idea came in...modified just a bit...since I do not sew.

Simply a curtain rod (that I already had from my first classroom a few years ago), some clippy curtain rings, and king size pillow cases! The great thing about this is that 1) you can put it up and take it down and put it up again in whatever room you want! and B) when you want to put it all away, it can all go in one pillow case!

Mr. Happy cracked me up. Although you can easily just go under the curtain rod, through the pillowcases, he evidently thought that to get to one side or the other of the puppet theater, one must run down the hallway, through the family room, living room, and dining room to get to the audience side in the playroom! He did this several times back and forth. In this pic above you can see he left his puppet hanging and is tearing down the hallway to come watch the show with me. :}

My itouch was playing music on the stereo in the background, so there were several musical concerts by the puppets. I think this one was Hannah Montana for a few minutes... :}

to infinity...and beyond!!

With two little girls and one little boy, the ratio of pink girly toys to cool boy toys tends to be somewhat uneven at times around here, so when mommy had a package arrive in the mail last week in a cardboard box, I asked permission to use the box. Mr. Happy is into super heroes lately. I have a playlist of super hero music on my itouch that he looves to listen to. It includes theme songs that we all know (Superman, Spiderman, the Hulk) and some that we'd never heard of (Capitaine F'laim...or something like that!). However, Buzz Lightyear is one of his very favorites (and one that I don't have the theme song for! hmm...) so we took the box, a roll of aluminum foil, and some colored duck tape and turned it into...

...a rocket ship! (ok, so it's not exactly like Buzz's spaceship...but he didn't care...) It came complete with a US flag that LMS made, and an alien that I drew for Mr. H. to color in. :)

Oh yeah, and LMS also made a sun and a moon and LMG made stars and we hung them up in the "sky".

Of course his Buzz costume from last Halloween was a must. Here he is getting ready to take off into space! :) (I'm pretty sure we had the super hero music on in the background by this point...)

One Ziplock back cut in half and taped on the inside made for two windows.

Every rocket ship needs a control panel...including at least one big red button!

Then LMG found something that gave us an idea. So Mr. Buzz was zooming along through outer space when he looked out his window and saw....

...a real, live green alien!!!

He thought this alien was pretty darn funny...wish I could put his giggles on here! :)

After this, it was time to return safely to earth to get out of his hot buzz costume and let his alien sisters have a turn flying through space! :)

I'm glad you had fun with your rocket ship, my little super hero!

What should we make with the next big box we get?? Any ideas?? :)

Ok, camp post coming soon, I promise!

pudding finger paint

Ok, trying to catch up with my photo blog... :) Remember this picture?

LOVE those happy colors all together! :)

This activity is so cheap and easy. And really did not get all that messy.

Jelly Belly jelly beans has their own brand of pudding cups! At my grocery store, they come in a set of four (four of the same flavor) for $1...so $6 total with PLENTY left over. Now, yes, you could just make vanilla pudding and dye it with food color and it would probably be even cheaper, but I just loved all these bright, happy colors - and they smell awesome! :)

The best part was tasting a little of each flavor! :)

Their pictures turned out so cute and fun - and when they dried, they still smelled awesome! :)

spaghetti shirts

Did you see this picture on my photo blog? I said I would write about what made these baby wipes so colorful. So here we go!

Instead of using bibs once the kids got out of the baby stage, at our house we use "spaghetti shirts" - just white undershirts that we keep in the kitchen to throw on when we're eating something that could get messy and it doesn't matter if the kids spill a multitude of foods on them.

And of course to me, a plain white t-shirt is just begging to be decorated! Last summer we decorated some with fireworks... like this:

This was from the familyfun.com website, here. Just take any variety of noodles, glue them to a piece of fun foam (I think they used cardboard in the actual website but we didn't have any.) and you have your very own noodle firework stamp!

This was a lot of fun and the shirts turned out pretty cute, but they have shrunk over time and my kids have grown (I wish they would stop that!! lol) so I decided it was high time to make some new spaghetti shirts!

I found another t-shirt idea also on the familyfun.com site here.

(The shirt she is wearing is one she made in preschool a couple years ago.)

First the girls took their pinky fingers and made yellow dots where ever they liked on their shirts. Then they chose different colors and used their thumbs to make the flower petals around the yellow middles.

Mr. Happy did some caterpillars and a spider and then just some happy dots. The girls thought the caterpillars were so cool they decided to add their own to their shirts also.

Here's how they turned out:

I added the green stems and leaves for them and the legs on the caterpillars and spider. Oh, and faces on them too...although you can't see that from these pics. Anyways, these turned out so happy and colorful! I love them.

We actually had two shirts each so the girls each did another one. Mr. H. was ready to go play so I will do another shirt for him later.

LMG just wanted to try doing many dots all over. LMS of course wanted to do something neatly organized...so she did a rainbow. Which I think is just adorable!! :)

chalk paint

I found this idea on Meg's blog a while back and have been waiting for a good opportunity to try it out. Last Friday was the day. It is so simple to make and a lot of fun to use! (And I have been working since Saturday to get all these pics uploaded! My internet has been slooow at uploading for some reason. Thankfully, tonight it was back at it's normal speed!)

All you need are as many bowls as you want colors. Me being the color girl that I am, I had to have six bowls and six colors. :) These bowls were from the $ store and I use them for camp, so I already had them on hand. Next you need one box of cornstarch for each bowl.

Next add drops of food coloring...as much as you want. You can always add more later...

And of course, everyone has to have a turn. :)

This recipe calls for equal parts water and cornstarch...but I totally guessed. I think I probably added a little more water than an equal amount. And that was ok. I suggest a whisk to stir with. That's what Meg did. Seemed like a good idea to me. It's a little hard to stir at first...but keep going till it's all mixed up.

Then move to the biggest part of the driveway...and paint away!! :)

Oh. Bathing suits are very helpful with this activity. I didn't have to stress about them getting their clothes messed up. And clean-up was easy.

Just a warning: if you let your kiddos help squeeze in the food coloring, their skin may turn interesting colors. Although, it could happen to you too - my thumb looked like it was covered in blood! Ha! However, once the color is mixed in and they start painting, none of the color stained their skin.

(And I just have to say that I love that his little hands and feet still look a little bit chubby and babyish. :)

It was so HOT this day that I even let everyone have a popsicle - before lunch! They thought this was spectacular. :)

When holding a popsicle in one hand and a paint brush in the other, be sure to pay attention to which hand you bring to your mouth to lick! LM Giggles can tell you...this chalk paint doesn't taste so good. It did make her giggle though... :}

Working on a masterpiece.

Their masterpiece. An ocean with a purple octopus, a couple mermaids, seaweed, and fish. The brushes were kinda big so the details were a little challenging....

Next I told them to try splattering the paint. This was a fun experience...although I had to dodge a few splatters so my camera wouldn't get "painted"! :)

Then they came up with a new idea...

And this led to....

But since it's just water and cornstarch...and they were in their swim suits, I didn't care a bit! And actually...although there are no pictures to prove it...I made a few footprints myself! :)

Finally it was time to clean up.

And since it was so hot outside, this version of cleaning up was very welcome!

So, go try some chalk paint yourself...and if you do, take some pictures and let me see!