The Mother Load

I have been off for a few weeks, and I finally got around to organize the piles of coupons that have been sitting in an evergrowing stack on my desk. It's a good thing to because today I got a ton of stuff really cheap!

Everything in this picture cost less than .83 each!
Cattleman's BBQ at .25 each, Glade AirSprays .50, Loreal Kids Shampoo .79, Betty Crocker Brownies .83, Dawn Dish soap .49, Colgate Toothpaste .51, Wipes .59 & .79, Pringles .69, and whole wheat & veggie Pasta .29-.39 each



...and here's my free stuff for the day:

2 Aquafresh Toothpaste, 4 Lawry's Marinades, 1 Weber marinade pack, and 2 O-cello sponges

It's so worth the time and effort to cut those coupons!

The Artful Parent Blog

I came across these two awesome blogs today. It's tons of fun, creative ideas to do with your kids.

http://artfulparent.wordpress.com/category/childrens-art/

http://bkids.typepad.com/bookhoucraftprojects/

If I only had a girl...

This week's craft was Korker Bows. These are really simple to make, just time consuming. You can make them in stages though. It's way cheaper to make your own them to buy them, plus you can customize them to specific outfits. I've got several girl baby showers coming up so I whipped these up to match the outfits. If only boy stuff was this cute!

Summer Recipes

Kool-Aid Finger Paint

2 cups flour
2 packs unsweetened kool-aid
½ cup salt
3 cups boiling water
3 T. oil

Mix wet ingredients into dry. Once cool, paint away!

Scented Play-doh

1/2 packet kool-aid
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar*
1 cups boiling water
1 tablespoons cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients together in pot, add the boiling water and oil. Stir over medium heat until it forms a ball.
Sub: 1 T. baking soda & 1 T. baking powder for cream of tartar.

Slimy Goop
1 part liquid starch
2 part Elmer’s glue
Food coloring (optional)

Mix all ingredients well.

Rubbery Goop

2 cups baking soda
1 ½ cup water
Cup cornstarch

Mix all in a saucepan over medium heat until mixture boils. Stir constantly until it is thick. Let the mixture cool.

Silly Putty

2 parts Elmer’s Glue All (not washable school glue)
1 part Sta-Flo Liquid Starch

Mix ingredients well
Sand Play-doh

4 cups clean play sand
3 cups flour
1 cup water
¼ cup vegetable oil

Knead with your hands until it forms a ball. Too dry, add water until it reaches a nice dough consistency. Add flour if it is too watery.

Sidewalk Paint

Sidewalk Chalk
Water
Stiff Brushes

Grate or smash sidewalk chalk into bits. Add ½ part water to 1 part chalk dust. Paint on sidewalk with stiff brush. Paint washes away with water.

Flubber:
Solution A:
1 ½ cup warm water
2 cups elmer’s glue
Food coloring
Solution B:
4 tsp. Borax
1/3 cup warm water

Mix solution A in one bowl, mix solution B in a separate bowl. Dissolve both well. Then just pour solution A into solution B. NO NOT MIX OR STIR! Just lift out the flubber. Store in Ziploc bags. Recipe can be halved.

Things to do with Kids

Activities to do with kids:

1. Blow Bubbles
2. Play with puppets
3. Make a fort or Obstacle course out of cushions and sheets
4. Color a large box
5. Dance to music/Draw to music
6. Play with Sand
7. Play with a bucket of water, sponges, and paintbrushes
8. Play dress-up with stuffed animals and your child’s clothes
9. Draw on a mirror with dry erase markers
10. Go on a smelling Hunt (explore how things smell like lotion, vinegar, spices)
11. Go on a listening Hunt (explore & discuss different sounds on a walk through your neighborhood
12. Pretend to go on Safari
13. Pretend to look for buried treasure (draw a treasure map, put small items or coins for kids to look for)
14. Decorate pancakes with fruit & yogurt
15. Act out a story from a book
16. Create a living painting (ask child to recreate a famous artwork by mimicking sounds and movements.)
17. What happened next (begin a made up story and ask the child to add to it)
18. Make Sidewalk Paint
19. Make CD Spinners
20. Use an old keyboard to play office
21. Make braided bracelets http://www.makingfriends.com/friendship.htm
22. Recycle Crayons (Melt broken crayons in an a high temp candy mold, or in an old muffin pan)
23. Secret writing– Option 1: Write secret messages using a toothpick or Q-tip dipped in lemon juice. Hold the paper over heat such as a light bulb or toaster to make the writing appear. Option 2: Write with white crayon, paint over with watercolor to reveal the message.
24. Letter/Color Shopping Trip: Buy things for a meal that all start with the same letter or color. Ex: “S” Shopping trip might lead to spaghetti, string cheese, and spinach salad. Have fun planning & eating non-traditional items together!
25. Draw on non-traditional materials (newspaper, vellum, vinyl, tissue paper)
26. Child’s color sheet—Use photo editor program to create a color sheet of your child.
27. The Alphabet Game/The food game/The color game: Name things that all start with the same letter, types of food, names of colors or other groups of items. Each person takes turns naming objects in the category until no more objects can be thought of.
28. Practice Spelling Words/Letters using rolled play-doh, sidewalk chalk, or pipe cleaners
29. Make a collage & stamp with objects around the house.
30. Make Play-doh

http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/

www.crayola.com

www.kinderart.com

www.saxarts.com/resources/lessonPlans.jsp

Say What?

Things Adam said this week:

"May I be excused over the table please?"

"It's really sweaty outside"

"Okie-dokie-hokie-smokie" (followed by hilarious laughter) "Oh man, I'm cracking up!"

Family Time

Adam & I went to Georgia to visit my mom & sister last week. We got to spend an entire week this time. Jared just started an internship last week so he didn't think it would be a good idea off when he just started working. (Currently Jared is working M, W, F for his internship and T, Th, Sat. for the Credit Union -- which makes for a long week!) Adam got to spend time with his GA cousins Alyssa (8), Logan (7), and Savannah (4.) They had a blast playing with each other in the evenings.

Here is my little sis' Vanessa. You can't tell it in the pictures but, she's about 5 inches taller than me. How is it fair that she got to be naturally this tan and tall? Wow, I look completely pastey next to her! Oh well, I taught all her kids to say "You know you like it" as payback for what she did to me when she was 12. (It involves wiping gross things on your older sister while screaching "You know you like it!")

Here are the three of us "representin"

Birthday Card

Here's the card I made for our upcoming card exchange. I thought shaker boxes would be lots of fun until I made 21 of them! I think they turned out cute. I hope no one else joins our exchange because I'm not making anymore of these!

I came home and was so proud of all the new cards I got tonight from the card exchange. My husband thought mine was the ugliest of the bunch (before he knew it was mine) because "no one wants a bulky card." Ah well, he didn't spend hours making shaker boxes so what does he know.

Directions to make the ugliest card on the planet: This is too hard to explain, much easier to just show. However, here is a site to get you started. Shaker Box Tutorial

Modifications: I did not use the mounting tape as I would have had to stack two layers to make the box thick enough to fit the beads in. Plus, it's kind of pricey around $4 a roll, and would have done probably 4 or 5 cards at the stacked rate. It's a good alternative if you are only making a few cards. I used 1/4" foam core board ($1.99 at the HL) and a very sharp x-acto knife (don't use a dull blade or it will cut jagged cuts into your foam.) I cut strips of foam core board about the thickness of the mounting tape pictured in the tutorial above. Then I used my favorite terrifically tacky tape to stick it together. When you finish step 2 of the above tutorial you'll fill in your beads. I only used 1 tspn.- 1 T. worth, it doesn't take much. Then I used my glue runner around the edges and stuck in my stamped image (that was already cut to size.)

Note: Acetate is the same thing as a transparency -- think back to what your teacher used during your elementary school days. If you can't find this at Hobby Lobby in a pack, it's available at office supply stores like Staples and teacher supply stores.