Category: Fun For Kids

For Jon’s birthday, we had family game night. We struggle with finding games that entertain us and the kids. We gave Katelyn this game for Christmas and got it out to play for the first time this weekend. We played again last night and everyone has a great time with this game.

Several versions of the game exist, including a regular version, a junior version and the 7+ version. We have the 7+ one to start with for the girls. Madison and Emily need help reading the cards, so we play on teams with them. Katelyn reads the cards without a problem and will be 7 soon. They all understand the concept of the game and enjoy playing. They each love taking their turn as judge.

The set up and play is easy. You begin by dealing out red cards(5 each). Then the judge turns over a green card. The green card has a descriptive word on it such as yummy or large. Then the players each choose a red card from their hand with a word or phrase that best fits what the judge will think fits the word on the green card. The judge collects the card from each player and shuffles them up so they do not know who gave what card. After reading the card aloud, the players can try to sway the judge into choosing their card. Once the judge chooses a winner, that player receives the green card. The judge position passes to the next person and the game continues. The game ends after someone collects 4 green cards.

We played until we felt like stopping and added up the cards the first time we played since Katelyn collected 4 cards pretty quickly. Last night, we played until someone won 4 and then sent the kids off to get ready for bed. I can see us playing this game for years, especially since there are different versions we can get as the girls get older.

We are in the market for more games like this…ones we enjoy playing with the kids, but aren’t too advanced for kids ages 4-7 to enjoy.

I’m looking at getting:

and

Any opinions on either of these games or suggestions for others?

I want to get a few more to add to our collection before we go to the beach. I’m so afraid with all the rain lately, we will be at the beach with nothing to do. So if I go prepared with other entertainment, it will be beautiful and we won’t need them.

These blocks are finally seeing the light of day. They have been waiting for me to get to them since I painted the peg people. I saw several places online that sell them or where people made them for their kids. Some people call them story dice. I probably call them both.

We have plans to go out to dinner with two other families. Seven kids hanging out with adults who like to talk may get easily bored. So I figured this was a great time to make these blocks so we can take them with us to dinner for the kids. The girls have been having a blast playing with them and helped me think of more pictures to add to more blocks.

I picked up these little wooden blocks at Micheal’s. They are about an inch. Some people paint images on them, mod podge images or stamp them. I was too impatient for that. I just drew the pictures with a pen and covered them with a bit of varnish to protect them. They are very simple designs, since those blocks are little! I also sanded to blocks a bit to dull the corners. I need to make a little bag to keep them in now.

Story blocks are pretty self explanatory, but there are several different ways to play. You can play alone or in a group. Each person can take a block or one person can have them all, it’s up to you. To play, just throw the blocks out and tell a story based on the pictures that land face up. If you are taking turns, each person tells their portion of the story and the next player adds onto the story based on their picture.

Here are some other sites with ideas of how to make them for further inspiration.

The Toby Show

Stitch/Craft

There are also several cute options on etsy if you just want to buy some!

Linking to

This morning after a whirlwind trip to Publix (where got 5 gallons of milk for just over $1 and free blueberries!!), I took the girls to the summer movie. We have always enjoyed going to these weekly shows each summer. Usually mom comes with us, but she’s off visiting with her friends and having some fun. Since this summer has been filled with illness and we’ve been busy otherwise, this was our first trip for the year. We enjoyed watching Shrek 3, eating popcorn and sipping on a drink for $3 each. Can’t beat that deal, especially since it’s a great way to get out of the house and out of the heat!

Don’t forget to check you local movie theaters for summer movies for the little ones!

When I grocery shop with all three of our girls (ages 6, 5 and 4), I leave the store feeling like this:

During the school year, I shop while they are in school or when I just have one with me at a time, maybe two, but I avoid taking all three with me to the grocery store. My kids seem to lose their minds when they get in there. I’m guessing by the looks of the other moms in the store and after talking with my friends, my kids are not abnormal with this behavior. Normal or not, it drives me insane!

Now here we are in the middle of summer and no school days anywhere around us for me to shop alone. I will usually go in the evening when my husband is at home with them or I make my mom go with me.

My husband was about to leave for a two week trip and I needed to do some serious grocery shopping before he left because I didn’t want to have to take the girls to the store with me. Two nights before he left, I planned to go by myself. Turns out, I ended up with an ear infection and missed my opportunity to shop kidless.

So I had to take all three to the store. I was shopping for two weeks and I needed a plan to get in and out with my sanity intact. I put on my thinking cap and came up with this plan. I’m pleased to say it worked like a charm and I left with all three kids, my entire list complete and all my hair in place. That’s quite a feat!

Here’s how you can do it too:

1. Grab a sale flyer from the store. This makes it easy to see what is on sale at a glance and you will need it for step 3.

2. Make an organized list by aisle in the store. There can be no wandering around thinking about what you may need to pick up. This will also help you avoid the unnecessary backtracking for something you forgot in the store. That way once you get past the cookie aisle, you won’t have to go back! I also got my coupons ready and in an envelope. I will normally just have a few ready and get out the rest as I’m shopping along.

3. Make a list for your children. I used the sale flyer from the store and cut out pictures of items we were buying that day. This helps you kids visually see what items they are looking for and it becomes a game of i-spy. I stapled the images on an index card. I made one for each child, organized by sections of the store. One had this card, another one had produce and some groceries and the last one had frozen and cold items.

4. Bribe your children to behave. Mine will do anything for fruit snacks, so I promised them fruit snacks when we got finished, if they behaved. You are free to skip this step if you don’t agree with bribing kids!

5. Take a kid sized shopping cart to the store. We tossed the Little Tikes shopping cart into the van and off we went to go shop.

6. Allow one child to shop at a time with their list and shopping cart. I placed the other two into the two kid sized shopping cart and entertained them with the free cookie from the store and sample foods. Next time I will take some coloring books and crayons or something else to entertain them while they are not shopping. The child shopping took their time searching for the items on their list and when they found them, they placed it in the little shopping cart. I picked up the other things on my list as we went along. Once their list was complete, we put the food into the big cart and switched out kids.

This plan worked like a charm! I got comments from people all over the store and one mom stopped me to say she thought about taking a little cart with her, but was too nervous about. Once she saw us, she said she was going to try next time.

To shop this way took much more time since I had to plan stuff out before we left and kids searching for stuff can be a bit slow, but in the end everyone had fun. I no longer fear grocery shopping with three little girls! I’m passing along our experience in case anyone else needs some tips.

If you have more than 3 kids or your kids are too old to sit in the cart, you need more help that I’m qualified to give! Good luck…and share some tips with me.

We successfully raised 5 caterpillars into 5 beautiful butterflies. The whole process was fun to watch and was quite educational for the whole family! I was a bit creeped out from time to time with the transformation process, but it was so fun to watch. We had them a total of 18 days. When they caterpillars arrived, they were tiny! They grew quite large and all turned into Painted Lady Butterflies.

We were able to watch one of them emerge from its cocoon as a butterfly. What an awesome thing!

Then we released them into the summer sky. I even got one to sit on my finger for a minute before flying away. From the beginning, we told the girls that we were going to let them go, so they enjoyed the process rather than getting upset about letting a “pet” go.

I’m thinking we will get another batch of them!

So now show me something magical about your Thursday! What puts a smile on your face?

We spend lots of time at the pool during the summer. The girls turn into fish and then into prunes! They also need a few breaks from the pool to rehydrate, reapply sunscreen, etc. I was trying to figure out a way to keep them busy and entertained without begging for food each trip out of the pool. That’s when I decided to do pool “paper” dolls. I got the idea from the foam letters we had stuck to the wall in the bathtub. The clothes stick on the dolls when they are wet. These are also great for the tub. Our girls love paper dolls and are happily entertained with these. We couldn’t have a paper doll at the pool without a mermaid tail!

To make the dolls, I bought a stack of craft foam without the sticky back. The pack I got was had about 10 different colors and was about 50 sheets for $5. I cut out a paper doll shape for the body for each of them and then basic shapes for the clothing. I let the girls use Sharpies to draw details on the dolls and clothes. It was a fun project that will have lots of use over the summer. We have lots more foam left to make more outfits.

When I told some friends about this project, some wanted ideas for boys too. With all girls, I have a hard time coming up with boy ideas! So thoughts were cars, dinosaurs, etc. You could cut basic car shapes and trucks as well as different colored wheels, windows, etc, maybe?

If anyone has an idea for boy foam pool toys, please share it!

I don’t think I shared Katelyn’s birthday party cake from Aug. She had a “Hula by the Pool-a” birthday party. So the theme was hula dancers and she wanted a pool cake. She drew a sketch of what she wanted and it was my job to turn that into a cake! Here’s the final result:

Madison’s birthday was in May and she wanted Snoopy. We took the girls to Chuck E Cheese-its (as Madison happens to call it) and had fun with them there. We came home and had cake and ice cream. Since school got out a couple of weeks before her birthday, I did a party for her class too. It’s hard to find Snoopy stuff for parties. I called all over town and nobody had plates or anything. I ended up ordering some off of Amazon along with these rings:

I put them on top of the cupcakes I took to school. They were a hit with the preschool crowd. Then for her birthday cake, she wanted chocolate icing. I was having a hard time figuring out how to do Snoopy with chocolate. I ended up doing chocolate between the layers and on the side of the cake. The top was vanilla. I added some pink where they met on top of the cake. She was thrilled with the cake…even the lopsided writing.

We have had a pair of mockingbirds yell at us each time we leave the house and they started to dive bomb the cat as he walked up the driveway. I figured there must be a nest out there somewhere. So I started hunting for it. I found it one of the bushes in front of the house. Our yard slopes at the end of the bush so I wasn’t tall enough to see inside the nest. While I was peeking around the area, the birds didn’t like that I was there. Then I noticed a different chirping noise near me at the top of the bush. That’s when I noticed the baby bird sitting there. He must have been getting ready to leave the nest. You could still see the downy feathers on his head. I tried to get some pictures, but the angle wasn’t good for that and I don’t do well taking pictures with the camera over my head! So this is the best I could get.

I checked on him again today and I didn’t see him. Mama and Daddy were yelling at me though so I know he was close!

In the mail today we got Madison’s caterpillars. We are trying out the butterfly garden. Hopefully in a few weeks we will be releasing our painted lady butterflies outside. We have several butterfly bushes in the yard already, so hopefully they will stay close for a bit. The girls are really excited about the butterflies.

One more bit of nature from the yard…the other morning the girls woke us up to report there was a turtle walking through the side yard. Sure enough, there was! We don’t get many random turtles around here. I should have let them out to feed it some lettuce or something, but it was before I had a cup of coffee or visited the potty that morning, so I wasn’t fully awake to think it through. He was moving out pretty fast, I hope he reached his destination safely.

Last night Emily pulled the “Make Self Portrait Dolls” from the summer fun jar. I had a vague idea about how I wanted us to go about making these, but I figured I had some time to think about it. Guess I was wrong. It’s the second activity chosen.

These dolls were quite the trial and error project. I think they got tired of drawing by the end! We started off with them drawing a self portrait. Madison used some creative license with her portrait.

First I had visions of stitching their creations onto the fabric to make the dolls. Then I decided that was too time consuming for a toy they would probably toss aside after a day or so. If they end up loving these, we can try that next time.

So then I decided to try to do a crayon transfer from the paper to the fabric. That didn’t go so well either. The crayon transferred, but it was too light to see no matter how dark the original crayon marks were. Crayola makes fabric crayons, but I don’t have any and I wasn’t willing to drag a sick child through Walmart to find some.

At this point I decided to begin researching online about another way to do a crayon transfer. Turns out regular Crayola crayons don’t do well. I guess that’s why they make the fabric kind. Some people said they have had luck with using generic crayons. I found some generic ones my mother-in-law bought the girls and tried those. They didn’t work any better than the first try.

Moving on to the next idea. You can color on sandpaper and iron that to the fabric. So I went out to the garage to snoop through Jon’s sandpaper supply. He had a new sheet of drywall sandpaper, but it wasn’t big enough for all three girls to use. Then he had small sheets of a very rough sandpaper. I colored a corner of one of them and tested it out. It worked well, so I passed out the sandpaper with instructions to draw another picture. The rough grit didn’t work well with the details the girls wanted to do in a small area. So we decided that idea didn’t work well for this project, but I think it would do well for other projects. I gathered up the sandpaper and put it back in a pile on the shelves in the garage. Wait until Jon needs sandpaper again and finds crayon drawings on them!

So after some more brainstorming, we tried to use freezer paper. That stuff does great for so many projects and it did better than using the regular paper, but wasn’t what we wanted either.

Then I decided I needed to stop wasting time trying to figure out how to do a crayon transfer. I just let them color directly onto the fabric. Then I placed a sheet of paper over it and used the iron to melt the crayon and set it right onto the fabric. Who needs to use a transfer?

After they finished coloring them, I let them go through my scrap fabric and choose something for the back of the doll. I stitched around the edges and turned them right side out. After stuffing them a bit, I sewed the bottom shut.

Now they have little self portrait softies.

Here are the backs of the dolls.

Today is what I consider the first official day of summer vacation. I didn’t want to spend everyday trying to figure out stuff to keep the kiddos from being bored. So we compiled a list of stuff we thought would be fun to do over the summer. In addition to the usual stuff like going to the pool, we now have a jar of fun ideas. I planned to get a cute jar with a lid to put the paper in, but since I had a leftover teacher gift with the letter “S” on it, I decided the S could stand for summer and used it instead. To make the jar, I simply cut strips of scrapbook paper and wrote a fun idea on each strip. I curled the strip and tossed it into the jar. Now each night, the girls will rotate choosing one strip and we will do that activity the next day. That give me a bit of time to plan the day and gather supplies. Every now and then we will have to alter plans if it’s a rainy day and the activity is outside, but most ideas are doable in all types of weather.

Now we are ready for summer! I also have strict instructions from a friend of mine to call her each night after we pull the strip to see if her and her girls want to join us for the fun.

Tomorrow’s activity is bubble blowing in the backyard. We will make some bubbles, use some store bought kind and experiment with different objects as bubble wands. Should be fun!

I’m assuming that most children are like mine. When you give them an ice pop, they immediately look for something to wrap around it while holding the cold stick. Our girls constantly got out dish towels or napkins, etc to hold their icy snacks. As summer approaches, I had visions of more laundry due to using extra kitchen towels and of lots of wasted napkins and paper towels, especially when I loaded up on fruit chillers at the store for $0.11 a box! After a bit of trial and error, I developed these icy pop holders. Lining them makes it so much easier to slip the ice pop into the holder because it doesn’t catch on the fibers like it does for felt. The double layer protects the hands better and the layer of felt also helps absorb the sticky drips. They work great and look much cuter than a clunky kitchen towel.

These holders work well with frozen Gogurts too!

This is a quick and easy project.

You can make 3 ice pop holders with this tutorial.

Gather your supplies:

• One piece of craft felt measuring 9×12 inches
• Coordinating scrap fabric
• Scissors
• Thread and sewing machine
• Pinking shears

1. Take the piece of felt and cut it lengthwise into 3 equal pieces measuring 3×12 inches each (as indicated by my dotted lines on the photo).

2. Cut 3 strips of scrap fabric the same size.

3. Place the fabric on top of the felt with the right side of the fabric facing up.

4. Stitch the fabric to the felt using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.Go all the way around the rectangle.

5. Fold the holder in half so it measures 3 x 6 inches and stitch along the side seams. I stitched right on top of the lines I made with the lining. Do not stitch along the fold or across the top, just along the two sides.

6. Trim the top and sides with the pinking shears to prevent raveling.

7. Slip the ice pop into the holder and enjoy!

I toss these in the washer and lay them flat to dry.

Please let me know if you have any questions about my instructions!

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Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with wooden spoons to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested he was beaten by the Roman soldiers.
- READ John 19:1-3

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put I teaspoon vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink,
- READ John 19:28-30

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave his life to give us life.
- READ John 10:10-111

Sprinkle a little salt into each child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers and the bitterness of our own sin.
- READ Luke 23:27

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add I cup sugar. Explain that the sweetness part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us. He wants us to know and belong to him.
- READ Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16

Beat the mixer on high speed for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
- READ Isaiah 1: 18 and John 3:1-3

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid.
- READ Matthew 27:57-60

Put the cookie sheet I the oven. Close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape to seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus’ tomb was sealed.
- READ Matthew 27:65-66

Go to bed! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus’ followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.

- READ John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie.  Notice the cracked surface and take a bite.  The cookies are hollow!  On the first Easter, Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty.  Read Matthew 28:1-9.

I got on a kick before Christmas about painting little people for my niece. She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Curious George. So after searching the web for inspiration for painting these little little dolls, I decided to just paint what she already loves. I also made some to resemble her family.

On Christmas I was so excited to give them to her. I forgot that I didn’t take any pictures of them before wrapping them up, so I put them on the floor to take some pictures. She kept trying to pick them up and play with them during the photo shoot. I’m glad she loves them so much.

I found the wooden dolls at Michael’s and used acrylic paint on them. I then coated them with a clear coat of non toxic stuff to make them shiny.

The wooden pegs start off life looking like this. They have different shapes available with more of a flared bottom for the female. They are all just under 2 inches in size, so be careful about making them for little ones who may try to put them in their mouth.

Here’s the finished product. Melissa was kind enough to send me a picture of them all together since I was having difficulty on Christmas! I first made my BIL too light and then too dark. Maybe one day I’ll try again. They are expanding their family in the next few weeks, so I’ll have to add a new baby to the peg family anyway. I was also going to add something like a pompom to give Mickey and Minnie ears that stand up, but I didn’t want them to accidentally come off and become choking hazards.

Here are the ones I tried to get…complete with little hands playing with them.

Now I need to get busy painting some more for the little girls in our house.

This year for her birthday, Emily picked a Strawberry Shortcake theme. At the party the kids had fun coloring pictures, playing games and eating cake. I can’t believe Emily is 5! I still need to edit pictures from the party, but here’s the cake. I was pleased with the way it turned out especially since I had no idea what I was doing for a theme when I started decorating it at 10pm the night before the party! I was smart enough to purchase the Strawberry Shortcake and cat figure for it. That allowed me to get a bit of sleep that night.

Today we read many library books. One of those books was

Once you have been attacked by a monkey, you tend to shy away from them…even the sock monkey types. I picked up this library book anyway. The girls were fascinated when I told them that the monkeys were made out of socks.

We decided to make our own sock animal. They were not interested in making a monkey. Good thing since I was not making one.

They first considered an elephant, but ended up settling on a dog. Since Madison is such a doggie lover, I was not surprised.

So we all went upstairs and looked in my sock drawer.

We found these.

I also realized that I have more socks with penguins on them than I should admit. I wear flip flops 99% of the year, so I did not mind giving up a pair of socks for this project.

I found some instructions online and used them as a general guideline, but winged my way through most of it.

I got out some yellow thread and we got busy making him. Or her. That is still a debate. Katelyn says it is a girl. Emily swears it is a boy and Madison is just happy to have another puppy around. I guess we will have to come up with a gender neutral name tomorrow for it.

Here is our puppy.

The girls went to bed before he was finished, so I can’t wait to show them in the morning. He/she didn’t have a face or a tail when they last saw him.