4th of July Rice Krispy Treats

Just mix up a batch of your favorite rice krispy treats.  After the cereal is mixed in add some star shaped marshmallows to the mix.  Stir just enough to mix them in and then pour them into your pan.  I stuck a few more on top for decoration.

Yes, a 3 year old can stir the melting marshmallows without getting burned.

Happy Flag Day

Microwaved Ivory Soap

 Microwave Ivory Soap for 2 minutes and you get a big poofy pile.  After it cools it's dry and crumbly.  B. crumbled it all.

 Then she experimented with it.  She wanted to add water to it to see what happened.

Then she tried adding dirt.

B.'s Summer Schedule

 I got tired of my little one asking me every 5 minutes what we were going to do next so I made a visual schedule for her.  It just includes what we do in the morning and a couple things in the afternoon.  I didn't want to schedule every minute of every day.  The pictures are taped so they can be moved around and adjusted.  There are a few extra options so B.  has some say in what we are going to do that day.  For instance she can choose to do a math project or a science project. She has to choose something different each time so we don't end up doing art every day. 

Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

I was looking for a way to spice up our neighborhood walks for the little one who tends to become bored and want to be carried.  I saw one of these on Pinterest and made my own version.

I added a few things to help us talk about safety in the neighborhood like what to do at a cross walk and what to do if you see a dog you don't know. 

We laminated ours and bring along a dry erase crayon to mark off the ones we see.

Valentines Lunch

Heart shaped sandwich, cheese and a heart cut out of apple slices.

Peeps Smores

Graham crackers, chocolate, peeps, microwave.  Need I say more?

Grass people

 Phase 1:  Put grass seed in the bottom of a knee high stocking.  Add enough dirt for it to sit on the top of a cup.  Decorate as desired.  Dip the head in water and let it soak for a couple of minutes.  Fill the cup with water and the end of the stocking makes a wick that draws the water into the head.  Just keep the cup full of water.

Phase Two:  3 weeks later.

Phase Three:  Hair Cutting Day

Daddy wants to see how long his hair can get.  This is a great way for kids to feel like they are cutting hair with out actually cutting their own.  Make sure you hide the scissors after. : )  We used children's scissors and they cut the grass just fine.

Paint Sample Heart Banner

I cut the heart out of paint samples and arranged them by color.  Then I hot glued them to a ribbon and hung it up.

Love Wall Hanging

I printed the word "love" and lined them up tilted on a piece of stiff felt.  I cut that out and glued it to a piece of stiff black felt, which I cut out.  For the hearts I found a piece of regular white felt with a heart print on it.  I cut out the individual hearts and glued them on randomly.  To hang it I stuck a piece of ribbon in between the red and black layers at the top and glued it well.

I just bought the heart chain at Hobby Lobby.

Valentine's Love Wreath

I couldn't find a Valentine's Day wreath that I liked so I made my own.  I got everything from Walmart.  I wove the stems into the wreath and secured them with floral wire.  Then I took some cardboard stickers I found that said love and stuck a piece of  floral wire on the back and had it coming out the bottom to form a floral pick.  Then I secured it with felt and a hot glue gun.  After that I stuck the "Love" picks onto the wreath.

Dr. Suess Birthday Party.

I decided to do a Dr. Seuss Birthday Party for my daughter's 3rd birthday this year.

Decorations and Favors

This was the invitation.  I made in with a computer scrap booking program.  The sucker was marshmallows stuck together with water and painted with red food coloring (tip: Use no taste red.)  The bottom one was just half of a marshmallow rolled flat.

I used pictures from a Dr. Seuss trivia game to make a 3 on the wall and I found the Cat in the Hat at a craft store. The birthday banner came from the dollar store.

For party favors I found some Dr. Seuss erasers, Silly Bandz and pins in the dollar section of Target.  I found stickers at the craft store and got some Swedish fish and blue gummy sharks for Red Fish, Blue Fish.  I got the bendy straws at the dollar store.

Decorations were a bulletin board set I found at the craft store.

 
 Thing 1 and 2 cupcakes - frosted with store bought butter cream frosting and topped with a ball of blue cotton candy. 

Tip:  I suggest making the cupcakes the day of.  If you make them the night before the cotton candy will melt.

Photo Booth:  Took pictures of all the guest with the birthday girl to send with thank you cards. It was a piece of cotton duck taped to the fireplace.  The banner was an old beat up copy of Green Eggs and Ham that was cut into triangles and stuck together with fish shaped brads. 

Games!

Game 1 - As the kids were coming they got to use stickers to decorate their own party hat.

Game 2: Catch a Dr. Seuss Fish.  The fish were a bulletin board set purchased at the craft store.  I put a sticker on half the fish and stuck a brad to each one to make it magnetic.  We used a magnetic fishing pole and if you caught one with a sticker you got a Tootsie Roll (the birthday girl's favorite treat).

Game 3: Pin the Star on the Sneetch.  I found a picture of a Sneetch on the internet and blew it up on a piece of yellow poster board.  I printed star shaped and blindfolded the kids had to put the star on his belly, just like pin the tail on the donkey.

Game 4: Fox in Socks.  There was a pile of different socks on the floor and the guest had 30 seconds to put on as many different socks as they could.  The one with the most socks won.  It was a bit much for the younger ones but the older guests enjoyed it.  * Note the birthday girls cute Cat in the Hat headband.  : )


The pictures didn't turn out for games 5 and 6.

Game 5: Fish Balance: I got some plastic toy fish and had the kids try to walk around balancing the fish on their nose.
Game 6:  Book Balance: Similar to game 5 but they balanced books on their heads.

Food!

 Cheese Trees (Fox in Socks) -Cheddar and Mozzarella cut with a shaped vegetable cutter and stuck on a toothpick.

Goldfish in a fish bowl (One Fish, Two Fish)

 Truffula Tree Fruit (The Lorax).

Green Eggs and Ham: deviled eggs dyed green.











Pink Ink Yink Drink (One Fish Two Fish):  Strawberry Banana V-8 Smoothie

Feed Santa Bean Bag Toss

I was in charge of games at our family Christmas Party so I made a Santa bean bag toss.  I covered a box with wrapping paper and found a picture of Santa's face on the internet.  Then I blew it up and traced it onto card stock which I glued onto the box.  I cut the mouth open really big to make the hole for the bean bags.  For the bean bags I used tan felt to make circle bean bags and filled them with beans.  Then I used some fabric glue and glued on some random pieces of dark brown felt to make the chocolate chips. 

Ribbon/Flower Holder

I got tired of all my daughters hair bows and flowers being in a pile in a drawer so I found this idea on Pinterest.  I went to DI and got an old frame. (Believe me, I was doing the world a service by removing the picture that was in there.)  I stapled some ribbon in rows down the side and on the top to hang it from.  Now I can see them all and none of them are getting crushed.

Reindeer Noses

This was my neighbor gift this year.  They are chocolate malt balls and one red mint.

Alphabet Crayons

I found some silicon alphabet molds and melted down some old crayons.

Computer Armoire bulletin board

I got a computer armoire but my sticky notes kept falling off so I bought a cheap bulletin board from Walmart, cut it to fit, covered it with some fabric and mounted it to the door with some mounting tape.

Gold, frankincense and myrrh ornament

I started with an empty glass ornament.  I printed the scripture in a circle just big enough to fill the ornament with a small tab at the top so it wouldn't slide around. I taped two back to back so you can look at it from either side.  I added a small amount of frankincense and myrrh purchased off of Ebay with some gold sand I found in the floral section at Walmart.

Brown Paper Packages tied up with String

I didn't do this one, my sister did but I loved it so much I had to share.

Old Book Christmas Ornaments

I got an old book from DI -a copy of Moby Dick that was already ruined because it was abridged : ), cut the pages with out pictures in strips and curled them with a pair of scissors.  Then I stuffed it in a clear glass ornament from Michael's.