Ice Cream In A Bag

July 14, 2008

This is such a fun activity and surprisingly tasty...

Kids love this and it is easy to let each child make their own. My son and his cousins loved shaking these bags of ice cream.

Materials:

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Half and Half
Crushed Ice
Rock Salt
1 quart sized Ziploc freezer bag
1 gallon sized Ziploc freezer bag
Duct Tape

Directions:

Put the milk and half & half, sugar and vanilla in the 1 quart freezer bag and seal. For security, fold a piece of duct tape over the seal. Place the bag with the ingredients inside a Gallon sized Ziploc freezer bag. Pack the crushed ice around the bag. Pour 1 cup of salt evenly on the ice.

Seal the bag and shake for about 10 minutes. Wipe the bag to be sure salt water doesn't get into the ice cream. Cut the corner of the Ziploc and squeeze the ice cream out into cups. One bag should fill about 5 dixie cups.

We divided it up so that we could let each child shake their own bag. Thus we ended up make mini versions with Quart size Ziploc bags and Sandwich size Ziploc bags.

Love it?! Lets hear if you came up with any other fabulous ways to make this better...did you add toppings?

Kids Crafts For July

July 7, 2008

My sister-in-law and I decided to plan a week of fun for the Fourth of July. We planned several fun crafts for our kids. It was a huge success and a great break from the normal day to day blahs of life. I thought you might enjoy hearing about some of them, most of them could be done anytime of year, just by changing the stars to another shape or the colors to non-red, white, blue.

Bracelets...
VERY easy....we used elastic and red, white, and blue beads. We let the kids string their own. They had a lot of fun. Plus isn't this a great motor skill building activity. :)


Tie Dye...
So, so, so fun! Okay, so the kids are probably a little to young for this one, but the adults loved it! All of my siblings made a T-shirt and the kids loved watching and playing in the hose. We are thinking it is going to be an annual tradition, but next year we are going to do a little better research to make sure we find the best dyes and best techniques for washing so our white doesn't turn to pink.


Star Batons...
These were really cute. My sister-in-law and I did all the cutting, but the kids helped us stick them together with glue and tie the ribbon on. We used felt for the stars, a wooden dowel, and ribbon. This could be done with any shape or any colors and the kids had latched on to these things. They are never too far from them. They love waving them around.

Sugar Cookies...
Always a fun one, but can be a lot of work or time consuming, so we bought the already made dough (Pillsbury dough) and then simply rolled it out and cut star shapes. We sprinkled them with read, white, and blue sprinkles. It was great fun and tasted good too! As you will notice there is no picture of this one! They were eaten faster than I could remember to grab my camera. :)

Paper Pinwheels...
We decided to make large ones, just fun fun. They looked so awesome large, but these are seriously SO easy! Square your paper (whatever size you want it, just make sure it is a perfect square) and then cut 2/3's of the way into the center from each of the corners. Then pull every other corner to the middle and put a map tack in the center for holding it and attach it to a wooden dowel. We used scrapbook paper...already the decorated and has fun colors on the back too. Ours didn't even up spinning very well, but they sure looked cute and the kids enjoyed carrying them around.

Have fun crafting!

A Little Too Quite

July 2, 2008

Have you ever had the feeling that things were a little to quiet? Well, yesterday as I sat at my computer trying to get a few things done, I suddenly had that feeling. Jackson had been sitting on the floor playing with cars, but as I began to type, I felt like something wasn't quite right. I turned around a found him like this....(doesn't he look so guilty?!)

What a crack up! He was having so much fun laying up on top of the bolts of fabric playing with it. He is usually so noisy when he drives his cars around, but as he laid on top of the fabric there wasn't any noise at all. When I turned around and asked him what he was doing. He said, "Mommy Mad Jackson?" I smiled and said no. His eyes lit up and he had about a million things he was wanting to tell me all at once (about climbing up there and how he could drive his cars laying down or sitting up, through the tunnels and over the bumps...). What an exciting adventure he was having.

As much fun as he is having with the fabric that consumes his life, lets all keep our fingers crossed that it is all out of my hands in the nest few weeks. :)

Birdies

July 1, 2008

Cutest Cupcakes I have yet to make these, but aren't they the cutest things. I can think of several fun ways to use them for parties, baby showers, a neighbor welcoming gift, or something to celebrate spring. I don't know, but when I saw these I had to share. It seems like there is a bit of a cupcake fad going on right now, what with the cupcake stores opening up. I know that we have two stores locally that sell cupcakes and I am sure you have a few near you. I'm not sure that my cake decorating skills are up to this level, but they sure are cute.

Wee Wonderfuls

June 28, 2008

A free download from Wee Wonderfuls--these cute Paper Dolls. I am thinking they could also be really fun if you printed them on a magnetic sheet and used them on the refrigerator door (any entertainment I can find while to get dinner done is a good thing).

Oh, What Do YOU Do In The Summertime?

June 28, 2008

As summer is hitting us full force and the weather is heating up (thank goodness), I am wondering what your favorite things to do in the sun are?

I need ideas.

We tend to do the same things day in and day out around here and we need some summer fun. A typical summer day for us involves, the sand and water table, swimming, a trip to the park, or Bubbles, but it is always a great thing when we can mix it up a little around here.

So this is where you come in. What are you doing for fun? What activities do your kids love? Any fun craft activities that you have come up with? Fun games? A great sprinkler for running through? We are in need of fun! Please give us some ideas.

A few things that I have come up with....

1. An Art Project

2. Hiking to Timp Caves
(I guess only really applicable if you live in the area. But if you don't I'll bet you have some great National Parks somewhere close by to enjoy)

3. A Rodeo
(With my sons love for animals this is sure to be a hit)

4. Making Paper airplanes

5. Outside Games

6. Beach Ball Sprinkler
(This looks fun to me!)

7. Mr. Grassy Potato Head?!

8. LOADS of ideas
(cheesy website, but a TON of ideas)

9. Tie Dye

10. Home Depot's Free Workshop for kids
(I think my son is a little too young for this, but those that have kids old enough what a fun activity and its FREE!)

Now it is your turn...give us some ideas! We would be VERY grateful.

Buggies

June 26, 2008

I figured out how to make the cutest little hair accessories (I think you are going to love these). They are fun and easy to make! So...enjoy my little tutorial on how to make them. I've never done a tutorial, so if something seems confusing or if I missed an important step, please let me know, so I can clarify for everyone.

Also...in the midst of all this fun, because I, myself, don't have a little girl and now have a pair of these cute polka-dottie lovies in hand...make a comment in the comment section and we will have a another fun giveaway (winner will be announced on Saturday June 28).

Only there is a requirement this time. I need to know what your favorite blog is. I know you are ALL dying to put mine down...ha., but for now mine is off limits. You'll see why later!

Okay? Okay.

Now lets get going....

(first off...Fray Check all your raw ribbon edges)

I used 3/8" grosgrain ribbon. Cutting it at various lengths.
First Ribbon: 4 inches
Second Ribbon: 3 inches
Third Ribbon: 2 inches
Fourth Ribbon: 1 inch

Take your smallest piece (1 inch) and cut the edges off (fray check these pieces). These will be your future Antennae

Take your longest ribbon and loop it around so both edges meet up (see below picture)

Then glue this together. Repeat the above 3 pictures for your smaller (3 inch ribbon)

Lay the smaller loop inside your larger loop and glue together

Take your two inch piece and glue it onto your loops. Wrapping the edges around as seen below....

Place your antennae on the bug

Personal preference, but I like my antenna shorter, so I trim them.

Now grab your ribbon spool and glue ribbon around the edges of your clip. Hold the ribbon tight.

measure how long you need it to wrap around to the inside and then cut the end and glue it around and down.

Place glue on top and put your cute buggie on.

Congrats on your cute buggie bow!