Plastic Bag Kites - A Windy Day Activity

We've had some SUPER windy days this April with beautiful blue skies and cool weather. The perfect setting for getting outside. While looking for "windy day outdoor activities" for the girls I stumbled upon plastic bag kites. This simple, quick activity provided literally hours of fun for the girls.

All you need is a plastic shopping bag and yarn.

Toilet Paper Roll Bunnies

This girl house can churn out empty toilet paper rolls, so I'm always on the look out for ways to turn them into fun activities. These bunnies were a big hit and simple to create.

What you need to make one bunny:

1 and 1/2 toilet paper rolls

A pair of googly eyes

Paint

Black marker

Hot glue gun

A cotton ball

I started by letting the girls paint their rolls. You'll need one single roll for the body, and then we cut another roll into fourths to create the ears for two bunnies.

Once the paint has dried. Attach the eyes and cotton ball tail using hot glue. You'll fold the other half roll in half and cut into two pieces to create the ears. We hot glued these into place and then reenacted Beatrix Potters' "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies" but any good bunny story will do.

Happy Spring!

Gnome Beard Bib {FREE Pattern}

This sweet little boy turned one last week. His Mommy, my friend, threw him a gnome themed first birthday party. Here is a sampling of the adorable party she hosted. (Photos by Jennifer Bradford.)

His gnome beard bib was made from soft, white Minky fabric and took about and hour and a half from start to finish to create. After searching the internet for a gnome beard bib pattern I ended up just creating one. Below is a free pattern with basic instructions for making your own (adorably handsome baby boy not included). I felt like the bib was a tad too long, so this pattern is slightly shorter in length than pictured above. Save these images and print on letter size paper at 100%. Happy sewing. 

Felt Christmas Tree

I saw a felt Christmas tree on Pinterest and knew I had to create one for Adalyn. I decided to make it reversible because everything in a house full of girls must be PINK, but I also wanted the option of a traditional green tree. I also designed it to hang on a ribbon that I slipped over a door top wreath hanger, so that it could be moved from room to room. I used brown packing paper to create a template for the tree design. Working with the paper to get a shape I liked before cutting the tree from 72" wide green (and pink) felt. 

All three of the girls enjoy the tree, even baby Coralee. Below, is a free template I created so that you can make your own felt Christmas tree ornaments. The ornaments were embellished using the Martha Stewart craft rick rack sticker borders. Happy felting!

Busy Bags {For Adalyn}

One of the biggest challenges I've faced this first month of Homeschooling is keeping my middle daughter Adalyn, the two year old, entertained while I instruct Marin. Cutting paper, gluing paper to paper and playing with stickers only held her attention for a brief little while. I began saving empty plastic containers and filling them with buttons for her to sort between and dump from one container to another. Once I discovered how hands on she was I began looking for "busy bag" ideas to keep her entertained. Here's what I came up with after researching so many great ideas. (See source list at the end of this post.)

Color Trees: Separate felt triangles from the color coordinating clothes pins and have the child find the matching pieces and place them together. 

Pom Pom Magnets: Child sorts colored, magnetic pom poms on to color coordinating popsicle sticks covered in magnetic tape. You might also create a unique pattern on one stick and ask your child to mimic the pattern on another stick.

Button Snake: When I saw this idea, I was excited to recreate my own version. Using rainbow colored felt I cut hearts with slits large enough for this plastic button to slide through. Simple to create with items I already had.

Number Cards with Jewels: In a "girl house" you can never have too much bling. I created these number cards with circles just the right size for jazzing up with these sparkly princess jewels. I laminated the cards and give just one to Adalyn at a time (right now). Once she fills in the circles, we count them together.

 Above is how I store each of these activities. In a three, ring pencil holder. These slide into a 3" binder.

Princess Matching Game: On one side are permanent patterns. On the other side the child must find the objects that match the left side and recreate it on the right. I just bought a big bag of foam shapes and letter half size foam cards. Unfortunately  more often that not, Adalyn just wants peel the backing from the foam pieces and stick them to her hands.

Clothesline: This is hands down Marin's favorite activity. The pattern is free on Money Saving Mom and was super easy to make.

More Busy Bag Resources:
Motherhood on a Dime
Money Saving Mom
Pinterest
Second Story Window
Play At Home Mom

Clothespin Mermaids

In anticipation of Marin's upcoming birthday, the girls and I created these clothespin mermaids. The original idea was to send a mermaid to each of Marin's friends inviting them to her party. But we just couldn't part with them yet and we decided a photo of Marin holding the dolls could be just as fun.

Marin was very involved in creating the dolls and did the painting on their bodies and wound the yarn for making their hair. Adalyn "assisted" her by painting a page of mermaid tails (grin).

To create the tails I cut glitter foam using this template.

Felt Mermaid Tail Costumes {Halloween 2011}

Marin wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween this year so to simplify things, both girls were mermaids. The tails were inspired by this pattern I saw on the Miss Pretty Pretty Etsy store. She sells a pattern if you are interested. I loved her use of colorful felt and the concept of the tails attaching around the waist with velcro. I fashioned the mermaid tails from butcher paper and then cut from felt once I was happy with the size. I bought simple shirts and leggings and attached felt shell boobs. To make the headbands I cut seaweed shapes and starfish (stuffed with cotton) from felt attaching them with hot glue. If you'd like to make your own here is a template for the seaweed and starfish.

 
 
 

I just had to include this last photo, as this is often how Halloween and trick-or-treating feels. Just a rushed blur of kids running from house to house. Moms reminding them to "be careful," "watch for cars," "don't go inside anyone's  home" and "SLOW DOWN." Tee hee hee. I'm so grateful to my sister-n-law Christy for escorting Marin most of the night. This seven month pregnant mama was content to sit with baby Adalyn on the hay ride eating skittles.

Multi-Arm Octopus Belly Mama

Getting ready to take the girls out trick-or-treating this evening. This Multi-Arm, Octopus Belly Mama plans on escorting two addorable mermaids to tonights festivities. A simple costume made from felt and tape. Won second place at the office costume contest.

Today Is...

During my PreK curriculum search I came across many ideas for teaching the concept of days, months, years and seasons to pre-schoolers. Not wanting to invest too much money in something that would be used just a short period of time I created this poster and had the blank "canvas" printed at a local print shop and then printed the various pieces, laminated them and added velcro dots. I thought this might be useful to others and so I'm sharing my files here. This design caters to my daughter, Marin, thus primarily pink design (sorry boys).

Blank 16.5" x 23" Poster
Day, Month, Year, Season, Weather Pieces

Felt Birthday Hat {For Miranda Panda}

I created this custom, felt birthday hat for Miranda's first birthday. My best friend Tasha chose a panda theme party for her baby girl's birthday. Little ones LOVE to play peek-a-boo, so I thought it would be fun to have the panda on her hat play peek-a-boo.

This is the fourth felt birthday hat I've designed. An enjoyable craft. Can't wait to make one for baby A. Here are the other hats I've created.

Advent Calendar {Spice Tins}

I know, I know, it's December 14th. A bit late for sharing my advent calendar, but well, that's life. My blog isn't the only thing that's neglected. You should see my eye brows! But things are changing, tonight I'm updating the blog. And who knows what tomorrow might bring for my face!

My friend Angie shared this Glittered Magnetic Advent Calendar from Martha Stewart which inspired this year's advent calendar. You might remember my "Advent Forest" made of paper truffle boxes last year. The paper boxes were fun, but I was looking for something more durable. And plus, who wants to do the same thing two years in a row? Gotta change things up, people. So...this year, we went PINK. Yes, that's right, with two little girls in our world now, most everything is pink. I purchased a pink artificial Christmas tree and ornaments to match. Each of these spice tins holds about three tiny ornaments. I purchased the spice tins from Specialty Bottle. The quality was wonderful and they arrived quickly! Each day Marin opens a metal tin and adds new PINK ornaments to her PINK tree. She L.O.V.E.S it! However, her Daddy and I want to throw all 25 tins out the window each time they come clattering off of the refrigerator. Yes, that's right, these pictures make the idea look and sound perfect, which it would be IF I would have used stronger magnets for the backing. I just used magnetic tape on the back and let me tell you, it's NOT strong enough. So, modifications need to be made, but who has time for that? Until next year, we'll enjoy the sounds of Marin's excitement about opening a new "number" (as she says) and the clatter of metals tins falling to the floor each time the fridge door is shut just a tad too hard.