Rock Star

This past Saturday I attended a baby shower for one of my little cousins. I say little, but of course that is just my perspective. Oh I am getting older and none the wiser. Anyhoo didly doo, it was great to see my cousins. While there my cousin (hmmm, I didn't ask to use her name) S, showed me a cute little rock covered in melted crayon. So cute, so fun and of course cheap and easy.

For this activity you will need to send your kids on a rock hunt. Just about any rock will do. However, a smooth rock looks better.

Place rocks on a baking sheet. Heat rocks in oven until they are hot. I just put them in while the oven was pre-heating to 375 degrees, then removed them when the oven had reached it's goal.
Give each child a piece of wax paper. After giving a lesson on not touching hot things, place the rock on the wax paper and give your little artist some crayons. This is a great way to use you broken crayons.

The crayons will melt as soon as they touch the hot rock. Caution: the rocks stay hot for a long time.

Even Baby Bug (2) was able to color a rock.

My kids had a blast and I hope yours will too. Thank you Cousin S!

By the way, if you do any of the crafts, activities or other idea's be sure to let me know. I would love to see what you have done.

Cut it out.

Summer break might be over, but summer boredom may still continue. You can adapt this activity to almost any age that is able to use scissors. I am sure you or even your kids have made a collage. Here are a few idea's to stretch the collage idea and the imagination:

Make a Christmas wish list

use only one color (do a collage of just orange cut outs or all colors)

Alphabet ( a collage for each letter including pictures)

Alphabet ( Cut out the ABC's out of the letters you find in the magazine)

shapes (how many squares can you find?)

Make an alien out of bits and pieces of pictures

A monster

Create your own animal ( this is great if you get hunting mag.)

Make a menu (Let your kids create a meal out of pictures, then serve that meal.)

You get the picture. Use your imagination and your old Magazines.

Homemade Bookmark

This is a fun east activity for kids. Your child may want to make a whole bunch of bookmarks to give-a-way to friends for school or even simply gifts to Aunts and Uncles.

You will need:

Paper

Clear Contact Paper

Scissors

Markers, paints, stickers or whatever you can find

You can cut the paper into strips or have your child color the entire paper first then cut into strips. You can also use existing art work.
Color.

Cut 2 pieces of contact paper for the front and back of you bookmark.

Adhere to paper. Smooth out bubbles.

Trim edges. There you have it. A homemade book mark.

You might even want to read books with your child before or after your craft or even take a field trip to the Library.

Once S'more

Every summer I cover the inside of a shoe box with foil. The kids and I then make s'mores out in the sun. We talk about reflection, outside temp., solar power and such. We try it at different times of the day so the kids can get a feel for how the temperature rises and falls. Anyway, it's mostly just for fun now, but when they are older I will help them look up answers on the Internet.

Another sideways picture. Ahhhh, I swear it was fine 2 seconds ago.

So if it is still hot in your region of the world, find a shoe box and give it a try. It works better if you let the marshmallow sit a few minutes in the sun first. It doesn't take long for the chocolate to melt.

Restaurant bag

I recently posted about giving ordinary and somewhat tacky canvas bags a face lift. Just after that post more bags began to turn up. Click here for previous post.

This little beauty was transformed into.....

My new restaurant bag. Handy Andy and I rarely go out to eat without the kids. So it has become important to keep entertainment with us. The best toys for a restaurant are small and engaging. Match box cars, paper and pens, Polly pockets, Pet Shops etc. Our favorites are magnadoodles, play dough (there is a large assortment of travel packs), I found a little wooden tic tac toe board at Target, small puzzles and Legos (I love the small pack pictured below!).
Lego Creators make can be used to build more than one thing. Love it!!!!!

This Playdough set even comes with a play mat.

I like to keep our bag in the Van (oh yes, I am that cool, I drive a Minivan.) so we have it anytime we need it. The bag is also great for Doctor appointments.

I have a few more idea's for your bag. Keep a look out for future posts.

Be sure to scroll down to the frame post and sign up for the give-a-way. Today is the last day to get entered!!!!!

The Great Outdoors

We just got back from camping yesterday. Could you tell that I was gone? I hope not. I just love scheduling posts. It took me a while to get it right.

Every camping trip we look forward to the animal hunt. My MIL buys 100+ little plastic animals and stretchy frogs and hides them in our campground for the kids.

After finding them the kids play with them, wash them and sometimes hide them again. When we get home I hide them in our yard in the morning and let the kids go out and find them. They also love to play in the tub with them.

Both kinds of animals can be found at most Dollar Tree stores. The stretchy animals can also be found at Walmart in their dollar toy section. Wouldn't they be great in a Pinata!?!

Our last day in camp, my baby SIL, found a tiny container. Inside of it was a paper scroll about 2"x 1.5' long. It hand the signature of every camper that had found it. After you signed your name you re-hid it in the campground. We thought that was so clever.

After thinking about at home, I thought it would be fun to do the same thing inside my house. I am going to use a clear film container and hide it where my kids can find it. Maybe in a toy box or a sock drawer and so on. I hope that in years to come they will be excited to visit my house with their kids and find the container and write their names and date on it. What a fun tradition that will be.

A hunting we will go

Here is another quick and easy summer activity. On you of those days where you don't have time to plan, set up and execute a great activity, just get out a piece of paper and write a list of things your kids can find in your yard. Be creative for this scavenger hunt. A few examples are: something red (list many colors), something plastic, a flower, leaf, a bug, a stick (specify length), a circle, triangle, square, something from up high, something edible. You get the picture. Go ahead and make your kids as busy as you want them to be. You could even arrange a photo scavenger hunt with older kids. Consider having your older kids write a list for the little ones.

Without a trace

We are right in the middle of summer. I am sure many of you have already heard I'm bored or have seen the clear signs of little hands having too much time.

My mom had a stack of pictures that she would have us tape to our sliding glass door and we would trace the pictures onto plain typing paper.(oh yeah I said typing!) You can use a coloring book. You may have to help young children remove the pages. Tape the original first to the glass window or door.

Then tape a plain sheet of paper to the window.
Then let your little ones go! After they trace their picture with a pencil or pen, they can color in the rest. My brother and I usually skipped the coloring, but we would trace for at least an hour.

For new visitors to Bloggin' it be sure to check out past posts for activities found on the right side bar in the labels section. There are a couple of gems looming about this blog.

Scrappy Paper Dolls

To celebrate going dot com the Tip Junkie featured a bunch of posts about parties. One of them had a link to this post on This Mama Makes Stuff. It was an American Girl themed party and she had Kit paper dolls. I couldn't find a pattern for them so I made my own. Get all of your ribbon, lace, fabric scraps and any beads, paper or embellishments you don't need anymore and let your girls have a blast designing clothes for their own paper dolls.

My oldest daughter is 4 and she was able to do a lot of it on her own. She and her friends, ages 5 and 7, played with the scraps and dolls for over an hour. I think had they all been 6+ they would have play even longer.



This is a great summer activity.

A Sweet Summer Field Trip

Who doesn't love a summer field trip to break up their week. Be sure to put Krispy Kreme on your list. Why a donut store? Well Krispy Kreme provides a special opportunity for you and your children to watch the manufacturing process. I'll bet it's a day they will remember for summers to come. Be sure to call ahead and ask for times they will be making donuts. You may want to plan this soon because the company has been said to be struggling right now. I would hate to see such a fun and educational store to be closed.

Want to add a little more fun to your field trip? Take along a couple of books about donuts. Search your local library or do an Internet search. I found several books on Amazon.com and they qualify for free shipping.

Don't burst my bubble

I use to use homemade bubbles as a kid. Over the years that recipe and all the fun was forgotten. While reading Make and Takes I was reminded of the good times and given a new recipe. This is Marie's recipe:

1 Cup dish soap (she used Palmolive, I used Ajax and will be trying Palmolive next time.

4 Cups water

1/4 Karo syrup

Marie stored hers in a milk jug. I used a 2 litter pop bottle. I first measured everything using only water. I then made marks (1 cup, at the bottom for the soap. Then I added 4 cups of water and made the water line. Then I added 1/4 of water and drew a syrup line. Next time I will not have to use any measuring cups.

I had bought some wands at Dollar Tree. My kids loved the bubbles. I plan to buy or make a few more wands so that the neighborhood kids can join in.

Look at that. So cheap. So easy.

Story letter

My kids are having a blast making cards and mailing them to their cousins with the puzzle pieces. If you missed that post please take a look here. I started thinking about older kids. Puzzles might be to silly for some kids older than 10. Instead, encourage your child to choose 2 or 3 cousins or friends and start a story letter. Help them establish what order the letter should be sent and write instructions for all participants. Each child will add a line to the story and then mail it to the next in line. By the end of the summer you should have a pretty funny story. Make a copy of the finished product and have a book signing party.

Bathroom Artist

*** Today is the last day to get entered for my Bib Clip Give-a-Way. Click here to leave a comment and don't forget to become a follower. ***

I am sure most Mother's, Dad's, Grandma's and other care givers have those days were they just need a minute. A minute without some little tike pulling at their pant leg begging to be entertained. This is a little activity I have shared with my friends. It fun for the kids and doesn't leave a big mess for Mom to clean up.
All you need is paper(I prefer to use stuff that has print on one side and would other wise be thrown away), tape, watercolors, paint brush and tape. Just tape paper to your shower walls. Dress kid in swimsuit, diaper or do this before their bath. Give them a cup of water, water colors and paintbrush and let them get busy painting a masterpiece. Afterwards quickly clean walls and kids with a splash of water. My kids enjoy this activity for at least 30 minutes. I do not recommend filling the tub up with water.