Martin Luther King Day

Yesterday, my five year old started asking questions about how we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I really didn't know what to say to him. We explained bits of his story, but little man wanted to do something for the day. So, naturally....I hit the internet trying to find a craft that would work. It made me think about how some holidays we celebrate & make a big deal about & others are just a day out of school.

I found a Biography of Martin Luther King Jr. on Kaboose. They also have some other activities too. Activity Village has some coloring pages. We colored this coloring page. During my search...I found a Hand print Unity Wreath. You can find it at Handprint & Footprint Art. So, talk to your little ones & do an activity to help it stick! Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Love Notes

I have seen these cute little mailboxes popping up all over the blogging world. I love them!!! Last week, for family night {Family Home Evening} we talked about loving our family & different ways that we can show that we love them. The little mailboxes tied in PERFECTLY. I bought mine at Target in the dollar section. Michael's also had some, but they were around $4.00. We decorated them with paper & stickers. At the end of the lesson, we challenged everyone to do AT LEAST one thing of love for the mailboxes. Sometimes you get a treat, other times it is a note, & sometimes it a hand drawn picture. The boys have REALLY gotten into it. Kaden {who loves to write} makes everyone cute little notes. It has been a great focus for our family this week!

2010 Banner

I wanted to make a banner for New Year's Eve with the boys. I considered a "Happy New Year" banner, but thought that the boys would lose interest & not really get it. Instead...we went with "2010". You could use felt, but we just used good old cardstock! I don't have a cricut...so I just printed out some numbers...we cut them out...glued them onto the banner triangles. Then I strung the triangles onto some ribbon. This is just for display...we plan on hanging it up on the fireplace at my parents' house, but this works for now!

Ribbon Spool Shakers

I have two sick little guys {with colds} but my baby {3} get pneumonia very easy. We are staying in for most of the week & it is harder on the kiddos because today is a SNOW DAY!!! I wanted to find something fun for them to make {with stuff I already had}. I came across this great New Year's shaker from Family Fun. Here is what you need:

paint
paint brush
stickers
ribbon spools
tape (masking--NOT PACKING)
dry peas, beans, or rice



Cover one hole of your spool. You will need the other hole to put your dry peas in.


Pour some DRY peas (DRY beans or DRY rice) into the open hole of your spool. Just enough to make some noise...not FULL!! If your spool doesn't have a hole..use a pencil to make a hole big enough to put the peas in.


Cover the other open hole in the spool with your tape (or a sticker like we used).


Paint your spools. Top, bottom, & the sides.


Let them dry.


Set the kiddos loose putting stickers all over the painted ribbon spool. This was probably their favorite part.


Ta-Da!!! The boys are so excited to use these tomorrow night! I'm so glad that we sat down to make these!

Make a Time Capsule

I was looking up some fun things to do for New Year's Eve & came across a really cute idea {thanks Family Fun}. Have your child write a time capsule letter. They can write about the things that they like this year {food, toys, animals, color} & make predictions for next year {how tall they will be}. I also think that a good thing to put in the letter is their New Year's Resolution. Help them think of a goal that they want to work on this year. Then, you seal up the letter & keep it in a safe place {like with your holiday decorations}. On New Year's Eve next year...let them open their letters. It will be a fun little activity that you can keep doing from year to year. I can't wait to do this with my 5 year old who loves to write.

I found it!

I found the post with our finished product from our salt dough ornaments. I guess I am not as behind as I feel this year...we finished these last year on Christmas Eve. Here it is:

So, we got our Salt Dough ornaments finished on Christmas Eve...nothing like cutting it close!! I love how they turned out & we will definitely make more for next year!!







{reposted from December 2008}

National Chocolate Covered Anything Day

Just a heads up...tomorrow is "National Chocolate Covered Anything Day". So start melting your chocolate! Stay tuned tomorrow night & I will show you what we did!!!

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

Another holiday for today is "Button Day". I have a baggie full of buttons...so we went to work. We made THESE cute little guys from Family Fun...nothing like pipe cleaners, buttons, goggle eyes, & some beads.

Get out your buttons & see what you can make!

Party Time

Today is "have a party with your Teddy Bear" day. I was grateful for something to do fun with the boys. Kaden is home from school with strep throat & pink eye. Preston also has pink eye. YUCK! So, for lunch...I put out the table cloth & a tea set. For lunch they had crescent dogs, oranges, teddy bear crackers, & strawberry milk. I set the table for four, but gave the bears "pretend" food. I just couldn't bring myself to waste real food. The boys had no clue what I was doing. I invited the boys to go & get a Teddy Bear & come to lunch. Kaden picked "Elmo Teddy"...his favorite bear since he was 2. Preston picked "Preston"...all of his stuffed animals are named Preston. I put some puzzles under the bears to prop them up & make them at table level. The boys loved eating with their bears.





After nap...we are planning on building a fort {with our bears} & reading stories & doing puzzles. Why not have a party with your bear...even if it something simple!

Silly Holidays!

I love funny, silly holidays. I was surprised to see how many there are out there. One day..I made an list of all of the fun holidays that I would use. I am going to start updating these holidays on my sidebar monthly. So, for now...you will have November's holiday list. If you need some inspiration or just want something fun to celebrate...check these out.

Happy Veteran's Day!

I can't help but want to thank all of the men & women who protect our freedoms. We have been touched by so many wonderful people through the Army & have so many new friends since our adventure started.

I feel very blessed to have a husband who chose to volunteer & protect our country. I think of all of the men & women who are overseas & their families who are home worrying about them.

Please take the time to tell our Veterans how much you appreciate their sacrifices. I want to thank Grandpa Foster, Grandpa Morgan, my sweet & courageous husband, Chris (KC's uncle), Ken (Becca's husband), Jason, Morgan, Dejan, Farah, Jamie, Mary, & other other service men & women that I may have forgotten. Being on the other side as the veteran's spouse...I also want to thank all of the wives & husbands who hold down the fort while their spouse is gone. These are amazing people & they deserve our support. THANK YOU OUR VETERANS!!!





This is one of my favorite pictures. Kaden & his little friend Noah were sitting outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center watching their Daddy's doing flag duty. It was such an amazing thing to watch. This is the kind of impression I want to leave with the boys about our service men & women.



{reposted for our family blog November 2008}

Thankful Tree

I saw this last year & really wanted to make one. We are loving the Thankful jar. {Today is "I am thankful for mom" day...I can't wait to see what they come up wth!} I wanted to "inspire" the boys to come up with their own thing to be thankful for. We will each {including hubby & me} write on one leaf a day until at least Thanksgiving. I would like to take it to the end of November, but I may change to Christmas before then!!! Then we will stick the leaves on our tree. By the end of the month..our tree should be FULL!!!

First, I used a roll of kraft/packing paper to make my tree. I just drew a tree freehand onto the paper & cut it out. I used tape to hang it up on a closet door...so that we could see it often. (Sorry about the picture...it is on a really strange angle.)


I used construction paper for the leaves. At first, I wanted to cut out cute oak leaves, but decided that I would get tired of cutting those out. I went with a very simple leaf. After I cut out the leaves...I creased them down the center for a bit of dimension. I will show you the progress of our tree in a bit!

Festive Finger Puppets

Now..I want to start out by saying...I DON'T SEW!!! We made these cute finger puppets last year as an activity for the kids to do while they anxiously awaited Thanksgiving dinner. It went great & the kids loved the activity & then they had something to play with.



As I said...I did this last year & didn't do a tutorial or anything. It was pretty easy. I just started with felt & cut out a finger puppet shape. You need a front & a back. If you want to get really fancy...use pinking shears. Sew around the edges leaving the bottom open.

Then cut out your embellishments. I am not an artist, but it was really simple. We just attached the embellishment with felt glue.

**If you want step by step directions...let me know.

Thankful Jar

This Thanksgiving month..I really wanted to make my boys focus on being thankful & giving. AND we ♥ countdowns in this family. So, when I saw this super cute thankful jar idea...I was SOLD!! I have seen this at 3 different places, but can only remember 1. Sugar Doodle has cute cards that you can print out. My printer is currently having issues...so I just wrote mine out on paper strips. Then I folded up each word strip.



Then, I took a cute jar that I had & tied ribbon around it. I was going to decorate it all up, but decided that I wanted to be able to use the jar for other things too.



Everyday the boys will pick out one word strip & we will do whatever activity the strip says. I am also excited to do these things as a family!

Tissue Ghost

Preston's preschool class made these cute little tissue ghosts today & I just had to copy! We could really use some ghosts! They are so easy! I made a practice one in less than a minute! I took step by step pictures, but my camera or card malfunctioned & gave me corrupt files...so you only get the finished product. Isn't it cute though?



Here is what you need:

a small paper cup (dixie)
tissue or napkin
black marker
string or fishing line
scissors
glue

Put a thin layer of glue on the bottom of your cup. Place the tissue (or napkin) over the glue...center it the best you can. Draw a ghost face on your tissue. Poke a small hole in the top & thread your string through. Tada!!!! You have a stinkin' cute ghost!

I linked up to Showcase Friday. There are other fun links...so check it out!

Is it Halloween yet?

"Is it Halloween yet?" Are you sick of hearing that yet? I have to admit that I am. Everyday Preston (3 years old) asks if it is Halloween. I am not really looking forward to hearing that for the next 22 days. Don't get me wrong...I am excited too! Today the boys decided to make a Halloween Countdown. I was all for it!!! Preston has been VERY interested in my paper cutter (for scrapbooking). I measured out the paper & they cut it. Then, they went crazy making the links. Normally, I would have "led" the kids to make a pattern, but I have been working on letting them do their own thing. It is getting easier with each project!



I used a sign from the dollar store & hung the chain from it. We hung it on their door because it needed a little decor. The boys are so happy!!

Paper Plate Spider

As I mentioned below...Kaden had a friend come over after school. I needed a quick and easy craft to do with 2 five year olds & a three year old. This was PERFECT!! There are a few different variations on the internet. I wasn't as organized with my pictures as usual, but you get the idea.

You will need:

paper plates (one per spider)
eight strips of paper (cut your paper length wise)
large google eyes (2 per spider)
string (if you want to hang it up)
glue
crayons & markers

Turn your plate upside down & color the top.



Accordion fold the strips of paper & glue to the underside of the plate. (The side that you didn't color.)



Glue on your google eyes onto the colored side of your plate. I poked a hole in the middle of the plate & strung a string through it. The boys wanted to hang it from their beds.

Five Little Pumpkins

I was going through my Halloween decorations & came across The Five Little Pumpkins book. I also found some Jack-O-Latern fun foam that we used to make magnets last year. I had exactly enough pumpkin shapes left to make puppets to go along with the Five Little Pumpkins poem (or story). My shapes were already precut to make Jack-O-Lanterns. I bought it at Joann's last year...they might have something like it this year. You could also just cut your own shapes out of construction paper or fun foam.

Here is what you need:



I have include the poem at the bottom of the post so that you have it to go with the puppets.

Have your little ones assemble their Jack-O-Lanterns however they want. We did 5 for each kid to go with the poem.




Take your popsicle stick & put glue just on the top of the stick. Place your pumpkin face up onto the glue part of the stick. Let it dry.






Once they are dry...do a puppet show & have fun!



Here is the poem:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
Oooooooooooooooooo went the wind and out went the light.
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Egg Carton Spiders

Today we made some egg carton spiders. They are the easiest of our egg carton friends (we made bats & pumpkins too). Here is what you need:



egg carton
black paint
paint brush
black pipe cleaners
google eyes
glue
scissors (not pictured)
string/fishing line (optional/not pictured)

Cut egg cups off of carton. You will need 1 per spider (we made 2 spiders). Paint outside of carton cup with black paint & let dry.


Once the paint has dried...poke 8 holes along the rim of the cup for the spider's legs. Four on each side. (I also poked a hole at the top because I wanted to hang the spiders from string.)


Glue the google eyes onto your spider & let them dry. Excuse the white all over the spider...we had a little one go a bit crazy for the glue!



Cut your pipe cleaner into 4 inch pieces. You will need 8 4-inch pipe cleaner strips per spider. After your eyes have dried on...stick one pipe cleaner piece into each hole. The picture is bad...sorry, but I love his little fingers. I had the twist & bend them a bit inside of the spider so that the pipe cleaners didn't fall out. A little loop at the end did the job.



Bend the pipe cleaners a bit to make it look more like legs. I just used some string that I had left over & hung them up.

Here is the finished product! I hung them up in the boys' room. How fun for them to have their very own homemade Halloween decorations in their room.

Egg Carton Bats

With both boys out of school for UEA/Fall Break, I decided to get some more crafting done. We made our bats & spiders at the same time, but I am going to split up the directions.

Here is what you need:



egg carton
black paint
paint brush
glue
google eyes
string
scissors (not pictured)


You need three egg carton cups still attached together. The middle will be the bat's body. The edges will be the wings. Trim the outside to resemble bat wings.



Paint the entire thing black. Let it dry. You may want to paint the inside, but we were tired of painting by then!


Poke a hole in the top center egg cup (this will be where the string comes through).



Glue on the google eyes & let them dry.



Hang your bat from a string & there you have it!