Category: Kid Activities

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.

Today I turned our breakfast room wall into an art gallery for the girls’ artwork. It was easy and only took a few minutes. I did this with a few eye hooks, picture hanging wire and some neat hooks I found at IKEA.

You gotta love IKEA!

Now they have their own art gallery and I have my fridge back. It was getting quite out of hand with the fight for the prime realty space on the front of the fridge.

The new rule is if you want something new hung up, you pick something of yours to take down.

This was a quick, easy solution for our ever growing mound of artwork around here.

It’s a cute way to display photos also. I had to throw up a picture of my cute niece on the wall too.

We also have a new, fresh, ever changing art display to view while we eat.

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” -William D. Tammeus

Last Friday K was out of school and we were invited by friends to join them to paint pottery. It was so much fun. We went to one of those places that has lots of choices to pick from for your painting creations. If you haven’t been to one I highly suggest going. Mom and I took the girls a year or so ago to a different studio in town. K and E painted little snack bowls that time. I thought it would be fun to have M paint this time also. She was really looking forward to the painting too.

I dressed everyone in clothes that could get ruined. If I came home with three little paint wearing Picassos, I wouldn’t mind a bit. Turns out they didn’t have any paint on them at all. If I had dressed them in nice clothes they would have been trashed. That’s just the way it works when you are raising kids!

The girls each painted their own plate. These are going to be their new dinner plates. They are really salad size plates, but they are perfect kid size plates. I’m anxious to see how they turn out. I took them one at a time over to the paints so they could pick their own palettes. It was fun to see how they picked their color combinations.

K painted a black moon and a sun on the top of the plate along with lots of additional colors. E has her colors all over with no certain pattern and M pretty much has a brown plate! I think they will love having their own creations to eat each night.

We go back Friday to get their little masterpiece plates and I can’t wait to see them on the dinner table!

Bringing a child into the house is the greatest act of hope there is.”

-Louise Hart

In an effort to make life feel normal after surgery, I went shopping at Walmart today. Mom and I took the girls and a very short list. We ended up spending 2 hours in the store. I’m not sure how we do that.

I picked up supplies for a Valentine’s Day decoration. I’ll make that tomorrow and post pictures and instructions. I hope it comes out cute!

I also picked up ingredients for some Valentine’s Day cookies. It’s my small group’s turn to bring food to our MOPS meeting on Friday. I’m taking cookies and some yummy little cheesecakes. I’ll share pictures and recipes of those later this week.

Finally, I got this cute cookie jar. I saw a blog this weekend that had a piece of furniture-about dresser size-with no drawers, just shelves. She had a basket for each of her kids on the shelves with their name on their basket. On top of the unit was a jar of crayons. In an effort to continue to get this house more organized, our crayons are now nestled in a cookie I have no idea who’s blog it was, so if you have a clue about this photo, please let me know and I’ll give credit for the idea.

Now the crayons are all together and cute sitting on the kitchen counter. I love the bright colors. Crayons make me happy.

“Before we can leave our parents, they stuff our heads like the suitcases which they jam-pack with homemade underwear.”

-Maxine Hong Kingston

While I was sitting at the doctor’s office yesterday, I picked up a Family Fun magazine and flipped through it.

That’s when I found this idea.

Button Bookmarks!

I now have another use for my neverending supply of ribbon and a new reason to love buttons.

If you would like to make a button bookmark:

• Simply cut lengths of ribbon-12 to 14 inches long, to fit a standard-size hardcover book is a great length
• Attach buttons to the ends using tacky glue or a glue gun. Shown in the photo are just a few of the decorating options: sandwiching the ribbon’s ends between two buttons; stacking smaller atop larger buttons; and grouping several small buttons in a pattern.

“It will be gone before you know it. The fingerprints on the wall appear higher and higher. Then suddenly they disappear.”

-Dorothy Evslin

The girls and I have been having a blast with Pop Beads. We make bracelets, rings and necklaces. The combinations are endless. I picked up this set at Target.

They store easliy in the container and are easy enough for little hands to handle. The girls love to make jewelry for everyone they know. It’s cute to see the different styles they come up with and who they think will love the look. The pieces are small, so I make sure they only play with them while they have supervision, which isn’t hard because the set is so fun.