Our Fun Friday Activities for Today! {8/10}

Here is what we will be doing today:

1. Magic Milk Paint - This looks super fun (and a little messy).  All you need is milk, food coloring, a toothpick, and dish soap for this activity.  My 3-year old is going to love this!!!


2.  Sprinkler/Outdoor Play/Possibly Pool Time - We didn't have time to make it to the pool yesterday, so hopefully it will make it into our schedule for Fun Friday!!


3.  Dancing up a Storm! - We just got the Tangled soundtrack... all of the songs are so good!  Perfect for dancing around in your living room!

What are you all doing today??  

Looking for more activities to do today? Check out more ideas here!

Our Fun Friday Activities for Today! {8/3}

Here is what we will be doing today:

1. "Olympics-themed" paper flower bouquets - We are going to be making tons of these in the "Olympics" colors for an Olympics watch party!!!


2.  Library Story Time - Our books are due so it's time to get some new ones for the weekend.  Plus, anything inside with air conditioning is always a plus!!


3.  Puzzles - We found tons of great 48-piece puzzles from the dollar store... all different themes.  We may even try to do a few outside before it gets too hot!

What are you all doing today??  

Looking for more activities to do today? Check out more ideas here!

How to Make a Tissue Paper Flower Bouquet

Making tissue paper flower bouquets is a really fun activity for kids to do and you will probably have everything you need already laying around your house somewhere!  When they are finished, you will have a beautiful centerpiece for dinner!  Save money on real flowers... these are way cuter and made from the heart!

These Tissue Paper Flower Bouquets also make great Back-to-School gifts for teachers (save the apple for your kids' lunch box and give the teacher a fun flower bouquet), mother's day gifts, and party favors decorations!  They can really be customized to fit any occasion by changing the colors, adding ribbon or beads to the jar, or even adding lettering to the outside of the jar!

To get started, you will only need 3 things!  (Well, 4 if you include a pair of scissors)

You will need:

• Tissue paper - We always save tissue paper from gifts.  Even if it is crinkled or torn... it comes in handy for things like this!

• Container - We used an old Marie's salad dressing jar that I had saved.  You can use anything you have laying around -- jars, plastic cups, vases, etc.

• Twigs - Send the kids outside to gather these!

To make tissue paper flower bouquet:

1.  Cut tissue paper into strips (from 1 to 2 inches wide and 3 to 5 inches long).

2.  Wrap the tissue paper strip around the branch and carefully twist until secure.

3.  Once the "flower" is formed, you can do as many or as little flowers on each branch as you like.

4.  Stick the finished branches into your container and arrange.

5.  Ta-da!  (Feel free to add ribbon, beads, letters, and as much bling as you want!)

Our Fun Friday Activities for Today! {7/20}

After a long and (very) hot week, we are keeping our Fun Friday activities simple today!  Hope you can join in on the fun with us!  Here is what we will be doing today:

1. Swimming, swimming, and more swimming - We are going to hit the pool today!  If you are bored of the same swimming routine, grab some measuring cups, funnels, plastic toy kitchen pots and pans, or anything random that may be laying around your house.  Take them to the pool and your children will love playing "restaurant" and pretending to "cook stuff" using pool water!


2.  Snack Time Letter Practice - We are going to get creative with our snack time today!  Draw a letter on a piece of paper and have your child use small foods (such as raisins, nuts, blueberries, popcorn, cut up fruit, corn, cereal, etc.) to form that letter.  My daughter loves this activity, and she also loves that she gets to "eat" the letters!  If your child is older, you could do whole words instead of single letters!


3.  Bubbles Outside - We still have tons of bubbles leftover from a trip to the Dollar store, and this is always a fun activity that burns quite a bit of energy.  If you want to sneak in some learning, have your child count the number of bubbles they pop!


What are you all doing today??  Do you have an idea that you would like to be featured on fun Friday? 

Looking for more activities to do today? Check out more ideas here!

Homemade Princess Play Dough

Does anyone else have a little princess at home who must have EVERYTHING "Princess-themed?"  My daughter is so obsessed with princesses that whatever color she is wearing on a particular day determines the particular princess she is that day.  Today she had on a plain cotton yellow dress and was saying she was Belle!  So I had been wanting to make our own play dough for awhile, but my little princess is not a big fan of getting her hands dirty.  So after we saw this play dough, I was inspired to "pretty up" the play dough.... and Princess Play Dough was created!!

Last week, I promised you all a full report and recipe... My daughter loved it!!  It turned out so soft and very easy to maneuver!   She also added tons of cute beads to it and turned it into bracelets and necklaces! It was so simple to make!  We will definitely make this again!

Princess Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon oil
• food coloring (Red: 20 drops, Blue: 5 drops)
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• Pink glitter

Directions  

1. Heat water, oil, and food coloring in a medium pan on med low heat.
2. Mix flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a separate bowl and add to liquids.
3. Continue heating and stir well until mixture forms a ball.
4. Let dough cool for 5 minutes.
5. Knead well.
6. Sprinkle glitter on surface and roll dough in glitter to cover.
7. Store in airtight container or ziploc bag.

(Yields: 4 large balls of dough)

Our Fun Friday Activities for Today!

Well, the weekend is almost here! We have more fun ideas for activities to do with your kids today!  In order to beat the heat, all of our Fun Friday activities today can all be done INSIDE!!!  Here is what we will be up to today... We would love for you to join us!

1. Princess Play Dough - We will be playing with princess play dough today!  Everything in our house has to be princess-themed now...  We will post our recipe and instructions on how to make Princess Play Dough next week!


2.  Long Jump Contest - Crystal over at Money Saving Mom did this activity with her kids this week and it just looked like so much fun! It looks like a great indoor activity that will hopefully burn tons of energy!


3.  Reading on a Palette - Lay a sheet or blanket on the floor and pick out a huge pile of books to read to/with your children.  It's amazing how such a simple thing as laying on the floor reading books can re-direct a bored child's attention.  This also makes a great quiet time activity!

What is on your schedule for today?

Looking for more activities to do today? Check out more ideas here!

Our Fun Friday Activities for Today!

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July!  We kept cool and busy!  Because of the holiday, Fun Friday got here fast!  Which means it is almost the weekend... yea!!!  Here is what we will be doing today to keep busy:

1. Magic Paint Posters - I picked up a few of these on clearance a few weeks ago at Michael's.  They are really fun and easy!  All you need is water and something to paint with... the paint is right on the paper, so all your child needs to do is wet their paint brush, swirl it in paint, and paint the picture. We have used a paint brush in the past, but I think we will experiment with cotton balls and Q-tips today!


2.  Hula Hoops - My sister just got us a new hula hoop!  This should be good for burning extra energy!  It is definitely not as easy as it used to be!  Today we are going to try to learn how to "jump rope" with a hula hoop. 

3.  Obstacle Course - This is so fun and versatile because you can use whatever is laying around your house for this!  You can set up pillows on the floor to jump over, drape blankets over coffee tables to crawl under, and even use hula hoops to jump through!  Have your child perform a series of activities such as:

• Jump over 3 pillows
• Do 1 sommersault
• Crawl through the blanket tunnel
• Jump in the middle of a hula hoop without touching it
• Run and touch the door 
• (Repeat entire series 3 times)

Feel free to change it up according to what you have on hand and/or your child's skill level.  


What will you be doing today on Fun Friday?  We would love to hear your ideas in the comments!

Our 3 Fun Friday Activities for Today!

Well, it's finally Friday!!  Time to keep the kids busy busy busy!  Our Fun Friday theme this week is, of course, 4th of July!  This is such a great holiday to do activities for because so many things can be made to look like flags, stars, stripes, and using the colors red, white, and blue!  Here are 3 things we will be making today...

1.  Patriotic Popsicles - Yes, we just made these, but I think we will be making a bigger batch today... 6 just doesn't go very far in our house.  If you have small disposable cups, try experimenting with those in order to make a larger batch, and use straws, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, etc. to hold them.  Also, feel free to use other fruits such as strawberries and cherries for the red, and blackberries for the blue.  You could even use a combination of several different fruits!

2.  Flag Snacks - Like most of our projects, we are using stuff we already have in our fridge/pantry for this one.  So if you would like to "experiment" with us, just take 1 graham cracker longways and spread with plain or vanilla yogurt.  Use blueberries to dot the upper left hand corner where the stars on the flag would be (you are making the background).  Place raspberries side-by-side to make the stripes part of the flag.  Eat and enjoy!  These really were yummy!  My kids want more.  Momma wants more.  'Nuff said.

3.  Star Jigglers - We found a cute ice tray where the ice cube holders are shaped like stars.  Target had them on their $1 aisle!  There is a lonely box of cherry jello sitting in our pantry just waiting to be made into star jigglers!  This should be a big hit!  If you don't have jello, use water, fruit, yogurt, or anything else you may have on hand!  I will post the results of our Star Jigglers!  Would love to see yours too!


What will you be doing on Fun Friday?  Does anyone have any kid-friendly 4th of July recipes that are simple for kids to do?

Yummy Flag Snacks

Like most of our projects, this one started out by rummaging through our pantry and fridge.  Using stuff you already have at home is great for several reasons:

1. You can use up any food that needs to be used or may be expiring soon.
2. You don't have to get your kids loaded in/out of the car!
3. You can stretch your (and your kids') creativity.
4. You don't have to get your kids loaded in/out of the car!!!

So with what we had on hand, and trying to keep with a 4th of July theme, we came up with these Yummy Flag Snacks!  They are super easy to make!  And did I mention they are delicious too!

Yummy Flag Snacks

You will need:

• Graham crackers
• Plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
• Blueberries
• Raspberries, sliced in half

To make:

1.  Spread graham cracker with yogurt.
2. Arrange blueberries in top left corner of cracker to for the "stars" area.
3. Line up raspberry halves on cracker to form the "stripes."
4. Enjoy!

For another delicious (and healthy) 4th of July snack, try these Patriotic Popsicles!

Do you have any favorite 4th of July snacks or dishes you will be making?

Homemade Patriotic Popsicles

This morning we were trying to come up with a fun 4th of July activity that we could do at home inexpensively with things we already had in the house.  Our watermelon popsicles and pear yogurt pops have been disappearing quickly, and we had some fruit in the refrigerator to use up, so we decided to make these patriotic popsicles! 

While it sounded like a great idea at the time, the assembly was a little challenging!  The raspberries and blueberries were really messy and they stain very easily, so we ended up pouring each mixture into a glass with a spout and then pouring each mixture in that way.  I would definitely recommend a funnel to make this a little less messy.  In the end, they turned out good, and we have some fun snacks to eat on the 4th of July (if they last that long)! 

Patriotic Popsicles

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups  fresh raspberries*
• 1 1/2 cups applesauce*
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries*

            * If using frozen, thaw to room temperature

To Make:

1. Puree raspberries in food processor or blender.  Fill each popsicle mold one-third of the way full with raspberry puree.
2. Pour applesauce on top of raspberry puree and fill until two-thirds of the way full. 
3. Puree blueberries in food processor or blender.  Pour blueberry puree on top of applesauce and fill until full.
4. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Note: If you don't have popsicle molds you could use plastic cups with popsicle sticks.  Or fill ice cube trays with each flavor and add to water for flavor.

(Servings: 6)

Our 3 Friday Fun Activites for Today!!

Well it's Friday which means we will do anything to keep the kiddos busy in order to make it to the weekend faster!  All of our fun activities today are frugal activities (completely free!)  And honestly, who wouldn't turn down a little extra help with household chores!  I don't know about you, but laundry is a never ending battle at our house!  Here is what we will be doing today:

1.  Fun with Laundry {Seriously!} - So a few days ago, I had a mound of laundry sitting in my laundry room just waiting to be folded, and a very energetic (almost) 3-year-old looking for something to do.  So we dumped a pile of towels in her room and started folding!  My daughter had the best time helping me fold the towels, and then jumping onto the pile of towels after they were stacked!  So we would have to re-fold and stack again.  This kept her entertained for a good 30 minutes and by the end, she knew how to fold a towel all by herself!!  So... we will be doing more laundry today :)

2.  Homemade popsicles and yogurt pops - We will be making more of these to get us through the weekend!  They go pretty fast at our house!  We may experiment with some new flavors... I will post next week.  Clean out your fridge and use up any fruit/veggies or yogurt that is about to expire!

3.  Filling a bucket with water - I know you are probably reading this and thinking that this sounds incredibly boring, but this kept my {VERY active} child entertained for 45 minutes!!  We have a large tub that we found to keep all of our outdoor toys in that she emptied out, climbed inside, and we turned the hose on to trickle out and she held it in to slowly fill the bucket.  She loved it!  Anything involving water is usually a big hit!  This will be one of our fun activities today!

What activities will you be doing today to keep busy? 

Our 3 fun activities for today!

Since Father's Day is right around the corner, our Fun Friday activities are all going to be about Father's Day!  You still have a few days to get everything you need to spoil the fathers in your life!  We prefer homemade gifts!  If you need some homemade ideas, here are 3...

*Image courtesy MySunshineAndButterflies.blogspot.com

 1.  Make a Father's Day coupon Book!  I found this cute book on Sunshine + Butterflies.  It gives you step by step instructions on how to do it!  Plus, you should have all of the supplies already at your house.

2.  Make his favorite dessert!  Load the kids in the car and head to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for dad's favorite dessert!  I'm thinking this Oreo Cheesecake just might do the trick!  If you are looking for a new recipe idea, you can't go wrong with a recipe from the Kitchenaid Best-Loved Recipes Cookbook!

3.  Make a card!  Grab a piece of printer/construction paper and get to work!  Use paint, crayons, markers, or anything you have laying around the house!  (If you couldn't tell from this, our daughter is sort of a minimalist when it comes to coloring in pictures!)


Happy Friday!!!

DIY for Kids: Wipeable Placemats!

This is such a fun project to do with kids!  My 2 1/2 year old just loves making her own placemats!  She is so excited to use them that she will eat just about anything I make her for the first few uses of it!  (She even ate some of the veggies from this meal!) Her interests change just about every day, so when we didn't have a Hello Kitty placemat to use one day, she was not a happy camper.  So we decided it would be way more fun to make our own! You can evenpersonalize them by adding your child's name!

You Will Need:

• Paper (Construction paper, coloring book, plain white paper, etc.)
• Something to color with (Crayons, Markers, Paint, etc.)
• 1 roll of Contact paper
• Scissors  
• Stickers, letters, glitter, etc. (optional)

To Make a Placemat:

1. On a piece of paper, have your child color/paint a picture or a page from a coloring book.  
2. Decorate with stickers, letters, glitter, etc. (optional).
3. Place the picture on the contact paper to measure for desired size, leaving a 1" border around paper.  
4. Cut 2 pieces of contact paper to equal sizes.
5. Carefully peel the backing off of one of the cut pieces of contact paper.  Place picture on sticky side.
6. Slowly peel the backing off of the second piece of contact paper and align, sticky side down, to one corner of the contact paper with the picture on it.
7. Carefully peel off all of the backing, pressing down as you go in order to get rid of air bubbles.  
8. If the sides are a little uneven, just trim them up with the scissors! 

Note: To make a double-sided placemat, have your child color 2 different pictures of the same size.  Put them in back to back when placing in contact paper.   

To Clean Placemat:
Wipe with damp cloth or sponge.  (Baby wipes work too!)  Dry with towel.

After finishing this placemat, my daughter decided she wanted to add stickers to it.  If your child wants to add more "embellishments" after the contact paper has been stuck together, simply add stickers, etc., and then another layer of contact paper on top to make it wipeable again!

3 Fun Things to Do With Your Kids

Our week is usually filled with activities, running errands, and other weekly chores.  By Friday, sometimes we have run out of ideas for things to do.  Here are 3 fun things to do today to stay busy:

1. "Paint" your house - Grab paintbrushes and buckets of water and let your kids have fun "painting" the outside of your house with water!  Sneak in some learning and have them draw letters, numbers, and pictures!  
2. Visit the Library - Stay cool indoors while letting your kids explore new books!  Sign up for the summer reading program at your local library to keep your children motivated to read all summer long!  If you have already signed up, go get some new books to read over the weekend!
3. Play dress-up - Get out old Halloween costumes and other fun outfits and let your kids have fun changing clothes and playing dress-up.  You can even have them act out their favorite books or movies that relate to the outfits you have picked out!

What fun things will you be doing today? 

Homemade Popsicle Recipes

As I mentioned yesterday, one of our fun things to do to keep busy was making homemade popsicles.  We had some watermelon to use up, as well as some Yo Baby Meals - Pear and Green Bean. (This is the only way we can get our child to eat her veggies!)  We ended up making two different flavors of popsicles -- Watermelon and Pear Yogurt Pops!

Homemade Watermelon Popsicles

You will need:

• Watermelon 

To Make:

1. Slice desired amount of watermelon and remove seeds.  
2. Add to blender or food processor and puree.
3. Fill popsicle molds with mixture and freeze for at least 4 hours.  

Note: If you don't have popsicle molds you could use plastic cups with popsicle sticks.  Or for a fun alternative, freeze mixture in ice cube trays and add frozen watermelon cubes to water for a refreshing drink!

 

 Homemade Pear Yogurt Pops

You will need:

• 1- 15 oz Canned Pear Halves (2 pears if using fresh)
• 1- 4oz Yogurt (we used Pear and Green Beans Yo Baby Meals organic yogurt)
• 2 tablespoons water

To Make:

1.  Add all ingredients to blender or food processor and puree.
2. Fill popsicle molds with mixture and freeze for at least 4 hours. 
3. Smile -- Your kids are eating their vegetables :)

Does anyone have any favorite homemade popsicle recipes?  Please share in the comments!

Fun Friday!

As the weather continues to heat up, we are always on the lookout for fun (mostly indoor) activities to keep the kids busy.  There are certain days we have to be really creative to keep boredom from setting in!  Here are 3 fun activities for kids that we will be doing today:

1. Dancing to Disney - Pull up your favorite Disney songs on YouTube (our current favorite is Tangled) and dance around with your little ones to some hits!  Great way to burn energy (and calories!) 

2. Bead work - Gather beads and string and have your kids string the beads on to make bracelets, necklaces, crowns, key chains, belts, etc.  This is really good for concentration!  Have them work at the kitchen table.  This will give you a few minutes to unload the dishwasher and do a quick kitchen pick up!

3. Popsicle Making - Let your kids pick out their favorite fruits, yogurt, and juice. Use any fruit or yogurt that you may have on hand that is about to expire!  Have them help you throw all of the ingredients in a blender, put in Popsicle holders, freeze, and enjoy tonight on a walk to the park or around the neighborhood!  I will post our popsicle recipe later!


What fun activities will you be doing today?