Skipper Being a Good Sport
Skipper claiming a new bed on the back porch!
Earlier in the day the girls were out on the back porch coloring and drawing in a couple big boxes we gave them to play with. The girls get so excited about getting large boxes to play with around the house. Every time we get a box or a group of boxes of any size they usually ask for permission to use them for their play time. Jake and I try to give them as many opportunities to explore creative play, but sometimes the boxes hang around for longer than intended or can get in the way or make a mess with all the “decorating” paraphernalia scattered around.
Sometimes when the boxes are big, taking over the house, and it is going to be a sunny day we will send the kids with their goodies outside. They have been know to play with boxes building various forts and structures for hours. Skipper loves it any time the kids are outside playing. She usually hops right in the middle of everything and at times is in the way, but the kids and the dog love it!
Skipper snacking on a treat from the kids.
Even after the girls came inside Skipper decided to hang out in their box.
Waking up from a nap in the box. She slept in the boxes for several hours in the sun that day. I am not sure who enjoyed it most the kids or Skipper.
Love It – Butterflies and Flowers Connectagons by HearthSong
Butterfly and Flower Connectagon Fun!
One of our kids got a Butterflies and Flowers Connectagons by HearthSong toy as a gift. It has been neat seeing the various configurations she has created with this fun toy. The butterflies are beautiful bright colors and the flowers are all snowy white. The pieces are wooden and they can be interlinked in several spots on each piece. There are many combinations that can captivate their attention for quite some time.
The HearthSong Connectagons is a building set that stimulates creativity. Our set includes 50 butterflies and 12 white flowers. The slotted sides allow the kids to connect the butterflies and flowers together. It helps with hand-eye coordination and teaches kids how to experiment building many different sculptures with these beautiful pieces. Some of the configurations make it look like the butterflies are flying to or from the flowers.
Showing off another butterfly configuration she made!
To learn more about Connectagons or to read reviews you can go to HearthSong’s website or Amazon. If you are not interested in the butterfly and flower Connectagons you may enjoy one of the other sets they carry:
HearthSong Connectagons® Glow-in-the-Dark Celestial
- 157 glow-in-the-dark pieces with slotted sides
- Full moon, moon phases, constellations, and galaxies
Hearth Song Connectgons Original Building Set
- Connectagons Creative Building Set
- Set includes 240 Wooden circles
- Build freeform sculptures in any direction using wooden pieces with slotted sides that connect
- Encourages open-ended play
- For Ages 4 and Up.
“Love It” is a series of posts on items that I use regularly in my household that I love! There are some items in our daily lives that make life more enjoyable, efficient, or just plain fun. I will be sharing with you some of the products that have been given to us (or to me) that have made it to the top of my list. It’s my way of giving a huge thumbs up!
Kids in the Kitchen: Cupcake Pops on a Stick
Blue Raspberry Cupcake Pop anyone?
The kids were baking up a storm in the kitchen the other day. They put together these delicious blue raspberry cupcake pops. Thankfully for kids who enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking. Now if I could get them to spend more time cleaning up their cooking messes. They do clean up some, it’s just not always a thorough, but they are getting better!
Some of the delicious cupcake pops they made!
The sprinkles had a blue raspberry flavor which made these extra tasty!
Kids “Make Your Own” Fruit Kabobs
Kids make your own fruit kabob bowl! Everything for the kabob is edible!
The other day one of my daughters had to bring a snack to an event. She wanted to bring fruit kabobs. The traditional fruit kabobs would need to be put together in advance plus they use wooden sticks.
My husband came up with an amazing idea! He put dry spaghetti noodles in a ziplock bag inside the bowl of mixed grapes. The kids loved making and eating their own fruit kabobs! They can even eat the spaghetti sticks if they want too! Super easy, yet fun for the kids!
Bag of dry spaghetti noodles for the kids!
Bowl of three different types of grapes for the kabobs!
Kids in the Kitchen: Winter Rice Krispy Treats
The girls made these super cute rice krispie treats. They made and decorated these special treats to share with friends. Thankful for kids who love to spend time in the kitchen. It is great seeing their creative juices flowing!
Soda Pop Top Ribbon Bracelets
Two of the “Soda Pop Top Ribbon Bracelets” we made!
The girls have been collecting Soda Pop Tops from my husbands aluminum soda pop cans for the last few months. The other day we got all the soda pop tops out and made a bunch of cool bracelets. It was a lot of fun! We came up with some neat bracelets that we made out of the recycled soda pop tops!
These are super simple to make even for the kids to do themselves. There are so many variations you can make with these bracelets. Attached are pictures of four different types of bracelets we made that day. The kids also made decorative belts for themselves and a matching belt for their baby doll out of the recycled soda pop tops too!
You can use any ribbon you want! For this simple Soda Pop Top Ribbon Bracelet we choose white with red hearts. This would be a great Valentine’s Day goody your kids can make to share with their friends at school.
The bracelets were adjustable – wrap it around your wrist and weave the leftover strand of ribbon into the next one or two soda pop tops to lock it in place. It was very easy to take it on or off. With the ribbons we used the bracelet stayed on really well, we didn’t have any problems with them slipping off. If you have a thinner more flexible ribbon you can tie the two ends together in the back instead of weaving it through the pop tops.
Here’s another example of the Soda Pop Top Ribbon Bracelet with the simple weave as well,but with gold ribbon. The gold color really popped out against the silver pop tops!
This one was fun too! We used the same ribbon, but on this one we overlapped the pop tops and only weaved the bottom row which gave this bracelet a more 3D look which was super cute!
This Soda Pop Top Ribbon Bracelet turned out really well. We weaved the ribbon through a double layer of overlapping pop tops. The bracelet was thicker, but still comfortable and fun to wear.
The blue double layer soda pop top bracelet! They kids has a blast putting together all kinds of cool bracelets in various colors and styles. It was fun to see them use their creativity. They have worn these bracelets several times already and get a lot of compliments. These bracelets are simple and unique which make them fun to wear.
Recycled Bottle Top Tank
On her own my daughter decided to start recycling the bottle caps for a craft. The other day she pulled out the recycled bottle tops that she had been collecting and put together this bottle top tank . With a little bit of construction paper, tape, and bottle tops you can make a lot of cool items for fun!
She put this Bottle Top Tank in the living room so it can “guard” our front door (not sure it is the most welcoming sight for our guests, but at least it is harmless).
Crafting Our Own Pottery
Brina learning how to work the pottery wheel!
One of the gifts Karlie recently got for Brina was a do-it-yourself pottery wheel. Since we like doing “crafty” things we decided it was time to try it out and see what we could create. Since it was Brina’s pottery wheel she went first, but she was kind enough to let all of do a piece as well (even Mom and Dad). While our creations are not anything fancy or perfect we had a blast creating neat items on the wheel. Maybe with a little more practice we’ll be doing master pieces!!!
Karlie trying it out too!
Having fun shaping the item.
Focusing on making her pottery piece
These are the pieces we ended up making with Brina’s pottery wheel. Waiting for the pieces to dry so we can do the next step….painting! It was a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing Brina!
We used the Kids Craft Pottery Wheel Kit which can be picked up at WalMart or Amazon (WalMart’s had a much better price on this item). We did have to mix in some water to get the clay soft enough, but once we got going the clay and the pottery wheel worked great! The clay was air dry so we didn’t have to worry about baking it. You can get more air dry clay at Hobby Lobby too if they want to do more projects.
Happy Kids & Messy Mud Pies
The girls love making mud pies! I cannot count the number of times they have been found mixing up a batch of dirt, sand, clay, pebbles, water, sticks, and a variety of other treasures they find in the yard to make their special mud pies. The mud pie in this picture was made especially for me! 🙂 It is what they call a “Happy Mud Pie”! When I was a kid my Mom would let me make mud pies in the backyard so this activity brings back some fun memories for me too. Although, I don’t remember getting so dirty doing it as a kid, but my Mom may have a different opinion about that subject. Ahem…
To be honest one of the biggest reasons I am not a big fan of the kids making mud pies is because it is messy (I don’t like big messes), not to mention the random holes they happen to dig in our yard, but when I do allow it they usually have a blast and come up with some interesting creations. They always get excited when they get my approval to make mud pies! After whipping up their mud pie concoctions they will set them out in the sun to bake for a couple days. Once they are good and dry they will pop them out of their containers and proudly show us their fun creations.
The more I think about it the mud pie making process is good practice for cooking (measuring ingredients, mixing, etc…) plus it allows them to experiment, and be creative with a variety of ingredients. While I will probably never be a fan of messes sometimes I have to let go of my priorities and just allow the kids to have fun making a mess. Plus, if it is warm enough outside I can hose them down prior to coming indoors. 🙂 I am thankful for my kids and glad that they enjoy opportunities to play, be creative, and yes even make messy mud pies.
Celebrating Christmas Eve With My Family
Brina requested homemade Monkey Bread!
Thankful for a quiet and fun Christmas Eve with my family. It was a great day! We ate read books, played games, ate great food, made gingerbread houses, watched classic Christmas movies, and more wonderful fun with the family. It is nice to have a day to spend making memories together.
We got to open a family gift a day early! Jake got us the game “Forbidden Desert – Thirst For Survival“! we had a blast playing it together TWICE today!
Making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers! We had a great time making a mess and putting them together!
They turned out pretty well!
My sweet, thoughtful, and handsome man! He drove all the way across town early this morning to get me sushi, love him!
Sushi anyone!?
Starting reading this classic Old Yeller by Fred Gipson book to the girls today…so far they are enjoying it!
My parents got us some sweet hot cashews! DELICIOUS!!!
Watched the classic Christmas movie – Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer!
Another Christmas classic – Frosty the Snowman
