Homemade Binoculars

Simple craft today! Kids love looking through Pop Pop's binoculars, so we decided to make some! The boys are out hunting in the yard now looking for Big Foot, Bad Guys, Birds and Bugs. I like that something soooo easy can keep them busy and get their imagination running!

Homemade Binoculars Items Needed:
2 toilet paper rolls
tape
string

We just used paint tape and duct tape to decorate. You can have them decorate them or paint them if you want! Tape them together. Add a string or shoelace for them to wear around their necks and let them go!!! You can even tie this into the earlier scavenger hunt post and pair them up together! Have fun! We hope everyone is enjoying the posts and projects!

Mod-Podge Wood Plaque

My 9 year old did not used to be into crafts and independent play. He has really done awesome this summer getting into them. I took a nap with my 2 year old today. (nice!) During which Carter decided to get creative! He has been waiting to try some mod podge. We did the home made version this morning of half elmers and half warm water. I have never used mod podge but this home made version seems to work. It is not glossy but looks good.
We have a tote that holds our Craft supplies in it. Carter got into it, chose a wood plaque, and red and black paint and got to work. He painted the plaque. He got paint all over the table and he printed a picture of his favorite wrestler and mod podged it to the plaque. It looks great. I am very proud and did not even yell about the paint on the table! Simply reminded him to put paper down next time! :) I love that his mind is expanding and he is enjoying it as art was not one of his favorite special classes. I am going to have to get some more wood plaques and put some scrap book paper on them for me!!!

Fizzy Friday Fun!

Time for some Fizzy Fun! 20 Days! Carter really likes the exciting projects like explosions, fizzy, totally boy activities. I have been waiting for a rainy day to do this one we found pinterest.com about fizzy bubbles.

FIZZY FUN
ITEMS NEEDED
TUPPERWARE
BAKING SODA
FOOD COLOR
VINEGAR
EYE DROPPER OR MEDICINE SYRINGE

Fill bottom of Tupperware with baking soda. Mix vinegar and food coloring in separate container. Have kids fill droppers and drip the solution into the Tupperware. Bubbles, fizziness and fun! I love Callen's tongue sticking out in serious concentration. It was a good motor skill lesson for him as well learning how to hold the dropper and push it so the colors came out. I got shot a couple of times! Great fun! Only takes 10 minutes to set up! Both boys were sad when they ran out of their mixes! Really easy project with instant results for fizzy noisy fun! Carter and I talked about the reaction and he remembered using the same ingredients in school while making his volcano...that will be soon I am sure. I think I will hit the mentos trick for him also soon!

Colored rice sensory box

Again, I never thought my 2 year old would enjoy a simple little tote of things, he still loves his construction box and plays with it for at least an hour a day. He will ask for it and play independently with it which is huge in my house! This box was for both boys as Carter got the fun of coloring the rice different colors and finding what he wanted to put in it for his brother. He is proud of it.
To color the rice just food color an let dry. Carter put some weebles, a helicopter, a spoon and a few recycled k-cups to scoop and fill.


Callen was a little confused about the feel and texture of the rice but got into it! Carter buried things and told home to find them. Another hit with Sensory Boxes! Going to do an ocean one but that is for outside! :) 18 days down! I have to admit it is harder than I thought! We do plenty of things but there are days when I don't feel like doing any! The good thing is it keeps me motivated to get an activity done and good for the boys. We have been working on some other projects as well and will have some good posts coming up!!

The Stache and bouncy balls

We LOVE moustaches! We simply printed up stache pictures and glued them to a stick. The kids loved it when I sang and talked to them with it on! Carter liked to chase his brother of course and we all laughed at each other! Carter woke me up this morning with the little one on and talking funny. They were quick easy and a riot!!! IT IS A MUST DO! How can anyone not appreciate the STACHE.










We also made bouncy balls. There is a pinterest post on this, however, I went with the easier version when we happened to come across a Rose Art Super Ball kit on sale at walmart for $3.00 when we picked up some glue sticks for future project.
Both boys love to play with bouncy balls. Now they get to make them! Highly recommend the kit!
Super Easy. Has ball mold and colors. Each ball only took 2 minutes to do, and 20 minutes to rest. We made 4 balls and still have more left over. They bounce well and make my boys smile. That is what it is about. Good day with lots of smiles and laughter. Hope your day brought joy as well!

Construction Box

I always see sensory boxes for kids on www.pinterest.com so I decided to try one and see what my 2 year old thought. We chose the construction one with small rocks. I did not search high and low for construction trucks just added any trucks I found in the first crate I came too! :)
CONSTRUCTION BOX
ITEMS NEEDED:
BOX OR TOTE
SMALL PEBBLES OR ROCKS (I opted for small rocks as he is less likely to eat them)
TRUCKS BULLDOZERS, CARS ETC
SIGNS
SPOON OR SOMETHING THEY CAN DIG WITH

Callen loves it! He bury's the trucks, puts rocks in them, digs with the spoon and is pretty neat with it. He puts the lid on it and puts it in it's home and brings it out when he wants to play with it. Super cute and I had no idea this idea would work! Will do another. I liked the ocean one too.... Another success thanks to all the creative peeps on pinterest!

15 Days! Bath Paint Fun!

 We love bath time activities! This one had a duel effect as it cleaned the boys and they had fun! Great Pinterest Idea!




HOMEMADE BATH PAINT
ITEMS NEEDED!
BABY SOAP (LIQUID)
CORN STARCH
FOOD COLORS

THAT'S IT! PUT SOME CORN STARCH IN ADD THE FOOD COLORING AND FEW SQUIRTS OF SOAP AND STIR, ADD SMALL AMOUNT OF WATER UNTIL CONSISTENT WITH PAINT! 

Callen loved to color himself more than the walls! This is great

as it is soap! :) He had such a great time when it came to my 9 

year old's turn to shower  he insisted that I make him some as 

well! He would not let me take pictures but he had more fun

coloring the walls! Comes off easy! Lots of fun with this activity!

Calming Jars and Reading Time

Today was a day to catch up on rest from the last few days of fun! We implemented a mandatory reading time that I hope to continue if not daily then at least 5 days a week. Everyone picked a book and had 30 minutes of reading, writing and or resting. This was needed as both boys have issues sitting still and reading! It was nice!
We also made Calm Down jars. I mean come on, who cannot use one of these. We saw this idea on pinterest in many places and I think it is a great mediation tool to calm down your overstressed, overwhelmed, overstimulated upset child! I think I need one too!!Some call these time out jars. Really simple! 

Calm Down Jars/Time Out Jars

Things Needed:

Jar

Hot Water

Glitter

Glitter Glue

Food Coloring

Super Glue (to tighten cap after so kids do not open it!) 

Here are your instructions from www.herewearetogether.com and tips below on our experience! 

 1 tablespoon of glitter-glue with about fill with hot water leaving about 1/2 inch from top, then added  food colouring and a tiny tub of glitter.
The glue makes the water so thick and gooey that the glitter just slowly and gently swirls around, it takes 5 minutes to fall to the bottom!

These Photos are from the first set. We plan on making more with pearlized glitter, and in plastic jars. Here are some tips! 

• Pearlized glitter glue makes all the difference!
• If you want "swirls" in the colored water, make sure to use some pearlized glitter glue or pearlized paint to color the water.
• You can not substitute Elmer's glue in place of glitter glue -- it just makes the water all foggy and white and doesn't help suspend the glitter at all.
• The finer the glitter you use, the better.  
• Chunky glitter will fall much faster, but finer glitter will stay suspended for quite awhile.
• Food coloring or liquid watercolors work to color the water.  
• Leave some room on top but not as much as in the photo! Trial and Error!!! Will Post 2nd set once we get pearlized glitter glue!

Slingshots, Explosions and Puppet Shows

OH MY! Day 7 brought a ton of activities in the mountains. Some fishing, a carousel, rock stores, and some pinterest fun. SLINGSHOTS, EXPLOSIONS, and puppet shows!! They boys were excited about these ones!

We figured since we were in the mountains with lots of land the boys could try out homemade slingshots. We sent them to find their own sticks and used a rubber band. There are many ways to do this to make it more professional but we were looking for something cheap and fast. The nice thing about it was the boys were not great at it they could only hit things within 5 feet so we did not have any accidents! They used pine cones and pebbles to let loose!









BIG EXPLOSIONS!!! CAN YOU GUESS WHAT WE EXPLODED?

Soap! This was another super easy project! We tried to keep them easy in the mountains as we had so much other stuff to do!! This is ivory bar soap. Put it in the microwave and it blows up to a huge sculpture! Make sure you place it on a plate or wax paper!! We put it in for 2 minutes and watched it go! Very neat! and Not Messy! It looks like it is but that mass of soap is really a big chunk. You can reuse in the tub! Or let it snow on your kids in the tubs. It flakes! 

You must use Ivory! The soap that floats! They are the only one who infuse air into their soap enabling it to enlarge and expand like this! Next time we are thinking of adding food coloring to see what that looks like!! Even Poppop had fun with this one!!! 

At the Carousel of Happiness there is a spot for kids to give their own puppet shows. I thought this would be fun! The boys were not so great at it! They just made the puppets fight....boys...

Great fun in the mountains!!! We also went to the rock store and let the boys pick some rocks out, they really liked the magnetic ones. 

Mountain Fun! Day 6

Sorry for the delay! We were in the mountains visiting Nana and Poppop so did not have time to let you know what pins we did! We had a fun-filled 3 days with tons of outdoor activities! When we get there they love to run around like crazy so we did a NATURE SCAVENGER HUNT!
This was great for a few reasons...

1. While we were unpacking the car, lugging suitcases in, and getting situated the boys stayed out of our hair!
2. The boys are always super excited when they get there, this gives them time to run, see their cousin, and have some outdoor fun without me looking over them! (They stay on the property)
3. I got to have a cup of uninterrupted coffee!!!!!!! WHOOOOEEEEE

I had made this early in the morning so I needed that extra cup! They kept the boys busy for about an hour! Then they got bored and moved onto building lephrachaun houses. I forgot to take a picture of theirs as I got busy with my 2 year old! So all in all a fun Hunt we also did one in the car. Its an hour drive but for a 9 year old, 7 year old and 2 year old boy that is a long drive! It got to the point I told them that if they asked one more time "are we there yet??" They would have to sit on the steps at Nana's for 5 minutes.  They stopped.

Day 5 GLOW JARS! oh and a wrestling mask and gloves

5th day of Summer brought us to Glow Jars from pinterest! We are loving pinterest and Carter is enjoying our activities! We really were just doing a test run for this weekends trip to the mountains and boy am I glad we did! It looked simple!


To make them just cut open glow bracelets or necklaces and drip in empty jar! Shake Shake Shake!
Tips from our first run! Make sure jar has no water drops in it and is dry. Otherwise it waters down the glow! We did purple and green. Green shows up much better, the purple was really light (however, it was the one that had water in the jar still)  WEAR GLOVES! I put gloves on Carter but did not on myself and got some on me and it definitely is an irritant! 


Carter thought it was awesome! He is taking them to bed with him tonight. I stuck the purple one in the freezer to see if we could get it to last longer or reuse. Pictures are tough without the flash, they are not as good as the ones on Pinterest but still pretty cool! RECOMMEND THIS CRAFT. It is fast, easy and the kids love it. self, so when I cut the green one open and it squirted on me it definitely is an irritant. It says non-toxic but was tingling and itchy. Lastly, get a lot of bracelets. We used 2 in each jar and that was not enough. 


Carter also made his own wrestling gloves and mask! He did this on his own when I was in the yard with Callen! So we are inspiring him to be creative also!! <3 it!

Melted Crayons

Day 4!! Today was the first day in summer break I really was not feeling great. Of course that meant the boys were extra wild. We started out the day with cartoon in my bed which turned into a wrestling match pretty quickly! We did a few things today including making more shirts for cousins and painting with melted crayons. 


We let Callen paint today and it was cute every swipe he made he had to get my attention and show me looking all proud. Including his face and belly. The boys ran through the sprinklers, had a water balloon fight and this afternoon we rounded up some rocks and crayons and painted! Sounds weird huh?


Gather rocks and put them in the oven at 250 for 5 minutes (don't let them explode!) They get hot so be careful! Take them out one at a time and color on them! It melts it right away looking pretty and bright! I will post pictures tomorrow as I didn't get them on the computer tonight! We placed them around the yard so when we see then we will smile! We also put one in the mailbox for the mailman with a note from Carter thanking him for bringing him his birthday cards. Random act of kindness will bring good karma right!?

Few points on the project! The rocks are hot! But it works best if you color them right away! Smoother finish! Carter used an oven mitt, I just used a paper towel and callen had a rock not heated up!

                                     














We liked the smooth rocks better they were easier to do! We also had an hour of computer game time. It was nice and quiet time! Carter likes www.jumpstart.com and Callen loves Thomas the train of course! Both have some educational games on them! 


Goodnight my friends!

Day 3! More Paint!

I stuck with an easier craft today. I have been ignoring housework doing projects with the kids! So today, BEFORE we started I had the boys do their chores, well Callen helped, I got a few loads of laundry done and kitchen picked up. Then we played outside with some bubbles and got Callen good and tired. We got smart with the paint and when he went down for a nap Carter and I started to paint our T-Shirts. Yesterday whenever, we got close to any paint Callen was yelling "NO MINE" so we spent half the time telling him to share.


Carter liked this project and said it was more fun. He wanted to paint himself a Randy Orton Shirt. We looked at the images he wanted and then he got started! We used fabric paint. And had to sit at the table as the wind was blowing too much for outside work! Quick dry time on them also! Carter was like...hmmm what else can I paint? I did have to have a talk with him though about entertaining himself some as he bugged me every half an hour asking me what else we are going to do today....I think we will have to make a "I AM BORED" jar. Full of independant play and chores and worksheets for when I hear those words!!!

Day 2 Carter's choice

I was not even out of bed this morning when Carter was jumping on me saying "what are we going to do today mom??" I said....COFFEEEEEE :) So I made my coffee, pulled up our pins and told Carter to pick one. His first choice was clay but we don't have all the ingredients so that will have to wait. His 2nd was a pet jellyfish. We found this project on Pinterest from this website: bhoomplay.wordpress.com 

As we gathered the items and started the project Carter said "Wait, you mean it is not a real jellyfish" LOL. I have to give credit to the mom that completed this one. It looks great.

The steps for this one are a little longer and can be found at the website above.













This project was more time consuming than yesterdays. Carter quickly tired of cutting tentacles so be prepared to do some cutting yourself! In which as my hands are not agreeing with me I could not help much so it took a couple times going back to it as his attention span is not that long! Here is midway through his project!

Some tips on the cutting is make it small. We had to hunt for different bottles to use as our jelly was too big! So I think a liter bottle will work best or make it small!! Also we did not make the head big enough as it squishes up some in the water. Our finished project made Carter smile.

Overall....our pet Jelly is a FAIL. Not enough excitement to keep Carter wanting to do it. Ours kind of looks like trash in a bottle! LOL! Oh Well we tried!!

Carter was a little sad about this and wanted to try something else so we went ahead and picked another! Making our own fingerpaints! Sound messy enough?

SO SIMPLE!!! 

3tbs Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 c cornstarch

2 c water

Mix all in a sauce pan until it thickens, deposit into containers and add colors! Wait until it cools and have some fun! This was Callen's first time using paints and he was not sure at first using one finger but quickly discovered it was more fun to smear his whole hand in it! Good Thing it was a nice day, I turned the hose on them!! Two Pins down today! One Fail and One Success! We also filled the baby pool and ran around in the hose! Callen likes to swim with Vader.

First Day of Summer!

Ok! We are off to start the summer! 86 days!  We have collected a ton of Pinterest ideas and plan on doing at least one a day through out the summer! No more collecting them! We will do some of the great ideas we have collected! My boys are 9 and 2 and are very active boys so this will help keep them busy!
Day 1:

Today, we decided to make play dough. We have done so before but not in large quantities. It is super easy and I found a great recipe on www.pinterest.com

2 cups Flour
1 cup Salt
1tbsp oil
3/4 cup water with food coloring of choice mixed in!

First mix the dry ingrediants then pour and stir the liquids in! To get it mixed well you will have to get your hands in it! I suggest putting flour on your hands or kids hands while they mix it!

We are reusing our deli plastic bins for storage! The kids had a blast, Carter made it and showed Callen how to play with it! It kept them busy for a few hours today! SUCCESS!! Carter was begging for another project! (Being the first day I did not want to get a head of ourselves) I got him to help mow the lawn and run through sprinklers instead! Now it is 5 and I have some time to myself as my boys are worn out! Better get making dinner! We will have more to share tomorrow!!

Here is our end result! Took Less than 10 minutes to make each batch and not too messy!! Proud Boys!