Best Part of Summer: Butterflys

So why not raise your own??  I must say, we had so much fun checking on these little guys everyday. 

For my son's birthday this year, we decided to get him a butterfly kit.  They sell them at most major toy stores and online.  Here is the one we did:  http://www.shop-insectlore.com/Butterflies/Butterfly+Garden+Shipped+with+Live+Caterpillars.axd

Now don't get yourself all excited thinking there are live bugs in the kit.  The box acutally comes with just the butterfly house and a certificate that you take online to order the actual caterpillars (I suggest ordering the bugs before you give the kit to your child because even though it only took a few days to get them in the mail, boy was that a long few days for my kids to wait!)  Once you get your caterpillars, you get to watch them grow and grow and grow.  Its pretty amazing how quickly they get soo big! 

After that they go into their cocoons, and then after a little more waiting......  YAY BUTTERFLYS!!  We were glued to the butterfly house for weeks.  The kids loved that they got to feed the butterflys flowers and sugar water everyday.  They never missed a day...  And if they had it their way, we would have fed them every hour. 

The hardest part of the whole experience was convincing the kids that we needed to let the butterflys go.  We watched them a week, and they finally agreed it was time.  We found a nice flowery spot and said goodbye.

This little guy tried to hitch a ride back in the house on my husband's hand.

Free Home Depot Fun

So, as a lot of us already know, Home Depot has Kid's Workshops the first Saturday of each month.  I have wanted to take the kids for awhile now, but just never got around to it.  Ok, honestly, I was a little afraid it may be too much for my 4 and 1 year old, plus I wasn't sure how it all worked, so I kind of put it off.  But my husband and I finally decided it was time to try it out, and I'm so glad we did.  For those of you who have also thought about it but weren't sure what to expect, here ya go:

1.  Its completely free.  For the cost of $0, your child gets a Home Depot apron and a cute little kit to build something wooden (something different each month).  They have all the supplies set-up, ie hammer, glue, nails, whatever you need.  There are little tables set-up with little chairs (or in this case, 5 gallon buckets which, by the way, are the perfect height for little ones to sit on).  And when all finished with your project, your child is given a little pin-of-accomplishment to put on their apron.

2.  The projects are pretty easy; even my almost-2-year-old did a great job.  Both kids had a blast.

3.  I'm the kind of person who likes to just jump in without instruction, and thats what this is.  The employees hand you the project and only help if you need it.  It was nice being able to sit with my kids and go at our own pace with our set of instructions.  We didn't have to keep up with anyone else.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a fun, free, activity that you and your child can enjoy together, make sure you hit-up the Home Depot Kid's Workshops.  Just check their website to see dates, times, and upcoming projects.

Back from Vacation

I'm back!!  I had a week of two sick babies, a sinus infection for myself, but then it was all better because we went on VACATION!!

We spent a week in Ocean City having lots of family fun.  We did the beach, hit the carshow, saw the wild ponies,

walked the boardwalk, had my favorite ice cream, 

did some crabbing

and had lots of family fun-time!!

We had a great time!  I had soooo many fun ideas pop in my head over the past few weeks that Russ and I will have lots of stuff to keep us busy.  Can't wait to post!!

An Eggcellent Snake Project

I finally got tired of seeing the basket of plastic Easter eggs sitting in the living room floor and decided we needed to do something with them or throw them away.  I was looking at them (thinking about tossing them in the trash) and noticed that each half of each egg had holes in the ends.  I assume these holes are there in case one gets stuck in your childs mouth.  So anyway, I grabbed some line and gave it to Russ to string the eggs onto. 

I was amazed at how much thought he put into stringing them together and how carefully he worked.  I wanted to help, but he enjoyed it too much and wouldn't let me!  So, as he was stringing the eggs, they started looking like a long, winding snake.  Our playtime had developed a into a snake project. 

Russ continued stringing the eggs until he had one left.  The very last egg was turned backwards to give it a "finished" look and the line was tied in a knot.

Then, since we decided it was a snake, I painted a face on it and glued on a piece of ribbon to make a mouth.  Our pointless project turned into a cute little toy.  My 8 month old daughter especially likes playing with it!!  And best of all, I didn't have to throw the eggs away.

Happy Earth Day

I was at my dad's last week, and he had the cutest little simple tool I'd ever seen.  You use it to turn strips of newspaper into little pots for starting seeds.  They are great little pots because once the seeds sprout, you can plant the entire newspaper pot into the ground.  

I wanted to make this little tool for myself, but that would require using the lathe, and well, I need all my fingers.  I came home and sat down next to the recycling bin and figured out how I could make the pots using stuff we had thrown out.  I finally got it to work and so, to celebrate Earth Day, we decided to make some of these newspaper pots and planted some wildflower seeds in them.

The only "tools" I used were a water bottle that we cut both ends off of and a laundry detergent cap.

To start, take your newspaper (after you've finished reading it) and cut strips all the way across that are about 6 inches tall and are the length of the paper.  

Take one strip and wrap it around the water bottle.  Let about 2 to 3 inches of the paper hang over the end of the bottle (the overhang will form the bottom of the pot).  The overhang should be over the cut end of the bottle.  You keep wrapping around and around until you reach the end of the paper.

Once the newspaper is around the bottle, push the overhanging paper up inside the cut-out hole in the bottle.  I used the laundry detergent lid to get it pushed all the way up in there.

Next, carefully pull the newspaper off the bottle.  Reach inside and twist the paper that was pushed inside.  It helps if you set the pot on the table while twisting the inside paper.  This will form a nice, solid bottom.

Now you can fill you pot with dirt and plant your seeds.  I placed all my pots in a tray that we got when we bought flowers.  If you don't have one, you can put them on a cookie sheet.  Put the tray in a nice sunny area, water daily, and when they sprout, you can plant the entire newspaper pot and all straight into the ground!

Happy Earth Day!

Crayon Iron-Ons

I know, I've already done crayons (probably will do them again).  But, they have soo many fun uses that I can't get enough.  This time we used our crayons and some sandpaper to make iron-ons.  The little ones (and big ones) will love creating their own clothing or accessory designs!  Its such a fun project for kids of all ages.

Take a piece of coarse sandpaper and color your design on the rough side.  I free-handed some hearts and flowers.  Since my son isn't old enough to really draw designs yet, I cut out some shapes and letters for him to color.  Remember:  When cutting out letters or when coloring words, you must make them backwards so when they are transfered, they face the right way.

Now for the adult portion!  Take your material (shirt, bag, whatever) and put it on your ironing board.  Be sure to put a piece of white paper or aluminum foil under the layer of fabric you are putting your iron-on on.  If you don't, the crayon will bleed through.  Place your picture on the fabric, crayon side down.  Now iron it on.  Be sure to move the iron very slowly and iron for 10-20 seconds (don't burn your shirt though). 

Now, carefully peel off the sandpaper while its still hot and ALL done!!

Wait until your child sees their masterpiece on a piece of clothing.  They'll love it!

BE SURE TO READ THIS:  While handwashing is best, you can wash your project in the machine on cold.  DO NOT DRY YOUR PROJECT IN THE DRYER!  Not only will the crayon melt all over your project, it will probably ruin all the clothes in the dryer.  I know this from experiences with crayons left in pockets.

I Love Contact Paper

This past weekend my playgroup and I had a booth at a local Children's Day where we had to provide a craft for all the kids in attendance.  We needed something that was easy for all age groups, not messy, and inexpensive.  So, we decided to make stained glass windows using tissue paper and contact paper.  This project is super simple for even the youngest kids.  The children seemed to all enjoy it so I'll share it with you.

Start out by ripping a whole bunch of little pieces of tissue paper.  They can be any size or shape, doesn't matter.  You can mix up the colors however you please.  I suggest that instead of buying it, you should pull out that stash of tissue paper you've collected at birthdays and Christmas.

Now, get out your contact paper.  For those who don't know about contact paper, its great!  Basically, its clear shelving paper that is sticky on one side and can be used for crafts, laminating, or lining shelves.  There are so many projects you can do with it (don't worry, I will be posting more).  You can find it with the shelving paper at your local grocery store.   So, back to the project:  cut a square about 5x5 out of the contact paper.

Peel the paper off the contact paper, and place it on the table sticky side up.  Have your child stick the pieces of tissue paper all over the contact paper.  The can overlap, there can be spaces uncovered, the whole sheet can be covered, it doesn't matter.

When they are finished, take another piece of 5x5 contact paper and peel the paper off.  Stick it on top of the first sheet of paper so that the tissue paper part is sandwiched in the middle. 

Now, grab some scissors and cut a shape into the contact paper sandwich.  I like eggs and hearts because they are simple.  If you want to do something more difficult and can't free-hand it, you can print a template online and use it as a guide.  We decided to do an Easter bunny since Easter is this weekend and my son has Easter bunnies on the brain.  You can do different shapes for each of the holidays.

To finish it off, cut a hole in your design and put a piece of ribbon through it to hang it from the window.

As I said, this project is so easy, but the kids will love it.  My photos don't do them justice, but they really do turn out cute.

Peek-a-Boo Puppets

I need to start off by thanking my buddy Becca for hosting this puppet party for our playgroup. These peek-a-boo puppets turned out sooo cute!  They pop in and out and can dance all around.

Start off with a wooden dowel. Take a styrofoam ball and stick it on the end of the dowel to form a head (I guess it would really be the skull since it will be covered, but anyway...) Then, take a plastic cup, cut out the bottom, and slide it up onto the stick.

Next, take a sock (I used an old one because its cheaper than buying one) and slide it over the ball, down the dowel, and up over the cup.  The sock needs to be hot-glued to the cup.  Before you glue it, make sure the cup is all the way at the end of the dowel; this is so you have room to move the puppet up and down when its finished.  If the sock is longer than the cup, just cut the sock.

Now you want to take fabric, felt, or whatever and cover the cup.

Ok, so on to the fun part.  You can use felt cut-outs, wiggly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners,or whatever else you want to make a face and decorate your puppet.  This is a part thats fun for the kids.  Now of coarse, they can't use the hot glue gun, but you can give them Elmer's and let them go crazy.  The Elmer's doesn't stick so well, but when they aren't looking you can use your hot glue gun and re-secure their pieces.  For mine, I made curly hair by wrapping yarn around a dowel, wetting it, and microwaving until dry.  Make sure to microwave at small increments (20 seconds or so) or you will burn the dowel and yarn.  Trust me, I know!!
 

Time to have fun with your puppets (or take a nap with them)! 

Butterflys and Blooms

This week felt like spring had finally arrived.  So to celebrate, we made some pretty pretty butterflies and flowers.  This project is literally the easiest and cheapest project possible, and it turns out soo cute.

Give your little one a coffee filter and some markers and tell them to go crazy.  It doesn't matter how much or how little they color the filter. 

For the butterfly:  Gather the filter up in the middle so that there are two equal sides to the coffee filter and wrap a pipe cleaner around it to form the wings (you actually only need about 1/4 of the pipe cleaner).  Bend the ends of the pipe cleaner to resemble antennea.

For the flower:  I actually used two coffee filters, placing one on top of the other.  On the backside of the filters, gather up the entire middle section.  Wrap a pipe cleaner around it. 

Now for both the butterfly and the flower, you take a spray bottle of water and lightly spray the coffee filters.  The water will cause the colors to make a really cool tie dye type design.  Each project will be soo different and super cute.

I have a surrogate....

for my chicken eggs!  My good friend Mamma Tortilla is currently incubating 8 of my chicken's eggs as a fun project for her little ones.  She is going to keep me, and everyone in the blog world, posted on their progress, so be sure to click on her name to pop over to her blog and check it out.  I'm hoping she can get some good candling pics along the way.  The chicks will stay with her for the beginning of their lives, and then they will come back to us. 

Meet the Daddy

Here is Kevin.  He is the daddy of all the eggs.

And here are the potential Mommies

Froee, Al, Kiki, and Lizzy

 

So, be sure to check back in about 20 days to see pics of our little chicks!!  It will be exciting to see what the babies look like. 

A Hair-Raising Project

I think this project turned out just hilarious!  We made our own Chia-Pets using old pantyhouse and grass seed. 

Basically, you take a pair of your old, ripped pantyhose and form a little pocket.  Put a little grass seed in the bottom, then some dirt, some more grass seed, then fill with dirt.  Tie the end to form a head and cut it from the rest of the pantyhose. 

On one of the heads, we added googly eyes, a felt mouth, and twisted a section of dirt into a nose.  For the other, we used parts from our Mr. Potato Head.  My husband and son made the one with the Mr. Potato Head parts, and if you know my husband, you'll notice it looks a lot like him!!  I cut a hole in the bottom of a styrofoam cup and placed the head on the cup, with the knot in hole.

Finally, we took the heads and put them in the kitchen window.  The heads have to be watered every day.  I think ours are watered about two or three times a day because Russ dumps water in them every time he washes his hands.
This project was definately one of our family favorites.  I gave mine a haircut last night.  I tried to talk my husband into trimming his, but he refuses :)

Here they are enjoying some of the warm weather on the back porch!!

UPDATE!!!!

The one on the right as had a few haircuts.  The other, not so much.

Fun with "Recycled" Bottles

Yay for National Craft Month!!  Russ and I decided that for our first National Craft Month project we were going to have fun with old plastic bottles.  This is mostly because we didn't have the supplies for the other ideas I had, so I went digging thru the recycling bin.

So, with the round shampoo bottle I found, we decided to make a piggy bank for Russ' farm themed room.  I took the lid off and painted it into the nose.  For the tail, I took a pipe cleaner, painted it pink, cut a hole, and glued it in.  I used heavy paper painted pink for the ears.  The feet are caps from soda bottles painted pink and glued on.  The eyes were painted on.  And last, but not least, a hole was cut in top for the money to go in.  As soon as we were finished, Russ had to run in his room and put money in it.  He was so impressed with his little piggy!

While I was doing the cutting and gluing (the parts that Russ couldn't help with), I gave him another shampoo bottle and he painted it.  His abstract paint job didn't much resemble an animal, so we decided to make it into a maraca.  I filled it with rice and glued the lid on.  Then, I found a dowel that fit down the hole in the lid (and ripped the cover off).  I glued the dowel into place.  It was a simple project, but you should see the look on Russ' face when he is playing with the things he makes himself.

Tie Dying for Two Year Olds

I don't know about you, but I LOVE to tie dye.  And because I love it, well, I figured my son would, too.  The problem was how do you give a two year old bottles of permanent dye and let him go crazy in the house??  So, I had to get a little creative (and cross my fingers hoping it would work the way I wanted).  I have painted on paper this way, but never tried this on clothing.  Well, it worked and so now I'm going to share it with you!!

*Mix up your dye using the instructions provided with the package.  When the dye is mixed and ready to go, put the colors in an ice cube tray.  Obviously, you will use a different ice cube hole for each color.  Be sure to not overfill so the colors do not mix. 
*Put the tray in the freezer.  Wait a few minutes and check the cubes.  When they start to get a little bit of freezing on the top, stick toothpicks in each color.  If you add the toothpicks before the cubes start to freeze, they will not stand up straight (and if you do it too late you can't get them in).  After the toothpicks are added, carefully put the tray back in the freezer until the cubes are frozen solid.
*Prepare your area.  I just put a trashbag on the table and put the shirt on top of it. 
*When the cubes are frozen solid, remove them from the tray.  I arranged them on a plate and put them on the trashbag next to the shirt.   

Now your little one can use the cubes (holding them by the toothpicks) to paint the shirt.  Russ had his own little method that he came up with.  He would take each cube and place them on the shirt one by one.  Then, he would take them all off one by one.  He did this multiple times.  The longer the cubes were on the shirt, the more they melted leaving more color. 

We flipped the shirt and he did the other side.  When he had had enough, I had him place what was left of the cubes on the shirt, and I just folded it up inside the trashbag and let it set until the cubes were melted.  About 30 minutes later, we opened the shirt and IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! 

Be sure to check the instructions that came with the dye to see how to rinse and wash the shirt.

No Cream Like Snow Cream

With over two feet of snow on the ground and more pouring from the sky, how can you not want to make snow ice cream??  We made some tonight and oh my, it was soo good.  Even my skeptical husband loved it (and had to go back for seconds... and thirds).

So, here is our recipe:  Mix 1 can sweetened condensed milk with about 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Gather a big bowl full of nice fresh snow (about a gallon or so).  Pour the milk mixture into the snow and mix well.  To make the best snow cream ever, you have to mix with a big icicle! 

When its mixed to your desired consistency, scoop, add chocolate syrup if you want, and eat!!

There is no better way to enjoy all this snow!!

And so you know, you can't freeze the ice cream in the bowl.  It just doesn't work very well.  But, you can take it and put it into icecube trays and stick toothpicks in them.  They make great popsicles.