Princesses in the House

 We had two rainy days here, so we got all sorts of crafty and made us some princess crowns. This is for real. We made these bad boys in like 30 minutes. (If you don't count the mess up mom had with the sewing machine. I do not profess to be seamstress, but I'm trying.)

Need: fabric glue, felt squares, scissors, pencil (if you want to trace out a pattern on the felt), sewing machine, thread, and elastic. 

1) Use the pencil to trace an outline of your crown on the felt.

2) Fold the felt square in half and cut out the crow shape. (I was only able to get one crown out of one square of felt. Maybe if you do some fancy finagling or make the crowns smaller you can get two out of one square.)

3) Measure the elastic around your child's head without stretching it. You will need the elastic to run behind the child's head to a little above her ears. (You can see the elastic in on the white crown below.)

4) Then added some bling! I couldn't find my fabric glue, so I let the girls use regular glue to place their gems. I then removed them and used hot glue to really fix them on the crowns. It would have been easier if I had my fabric glue.

 But I think they turned out really good for the little time I put into them! My princesses must agree because they have been wearing them for two days in a row.

 

 Aren't they cute?

Frozen Yogurt

Do you like frozen yogurt? I do. I really like it because I don't feel guilty when I eat it. (Well, unless I add like two cups of peanut butter cups as a topping.) But seriously frozen yogurt is a deceptive dessert because it contains probiotics, calcium, vitamins, and depending on where you go, real fruit or other flavors. The best part: it's not as fattening as ice cream and it still taste like it should be! So I pitched it to my editor as a story, and she let me write up some reviews about local frozen yogurt places here in St. George, Utah.

What's your favorite place to go for a sweet treat? Do you like frozen yogurt or ice cream?

Sorting Game

I'm always on the look out for ways to entertain (and secretly teach) my kids. During the summer months it's pretty easy to keep them occupied outside, at the splash pad, but we are getting into some cooler weather, and I need to be prepared! I found this cute sorting game on Pintrest. I didn't have the nifty tray, so naturally I adpated it to what I had on hand. (Also don't mind the pictures. They are always an after thought, usually after I've already started the process, and I'm too lazy to go back and do it again. Luckily this is easy enough that you don't need pictures, but who wants a pictureless post, right?)

You'll Need:

A box or tray
Assorted construction paper
Colored popsicle sticks (From the Dollar Store)
Glue
Toilet paper rolls
scissors

Step one: Cut the construction paper.
Step two: Cover each toilet paper roll in a color that corresponds with the popsicle sticks.
(On the left you see some covered and non covered rolls.) I rolled the paper all the way around the toilet paper roll so I wouldn't have to see the brown. The technique: cover the paper with glue, place the roll on the paper, and roll the paper around the roll.

Step two: Glue the toilet paper rolls to the box or if you're using a try glue them to a stray piece of card board. At this stage I used hot glue to speed up the process.

Step three: Drop some colored sticks around the rolls and let the kiddos sort to their hearts content. My little princesses loved it. Yes, at one point they did start fighting over the sticks, but then I put my three-year-old in charge of teaching the 17 month old and all was harmonious! Enjoy!

Painting is So Much Fun!

I remember back when I was little I loved to paint. So why not let my kids make a huge mess and enjoy the process? I found this little wonder on Pintrest (of course;), and I had to give it a try.

What you'll need:

Toilet paper rolls (I seriously save these all the time. You never know when they will come in handy!)
Washable Paint
Thick paper, like cardboard or poster paper
Paper plates
Tarp (optional)

How to do it:

1) Designate a paint-safe zone outside or inside. We opted for outside. I laid out a huge tarp because the OCDness inside of me couldn't handle paint on the concrete, even if it is washable.

2) Shape the toilet paper rolls into different shapes. I made a heart, triangle, square and circle.

3) Squeeze the paint onto the paper plates.

4) Lay out paper on the tarp, hand the kids the paint and rolls, and let your kids dip and stamp to their hearts content!



My kids loved this so much; we might have a repeat art day. And since we did it outside it was suuuper easy to clean up! (I love that!) We are all happy and the master piece is hanging in the princess's bedroom.  Quite cute!

Everyone Loves a Gift Basket!

I'm going to a good friend's wedding this weekend. I'm traveling pretty far, so gas is really eating up the gift budget. I decided to go with a homemade gift basket. Why? Because it's fun to make and really easy to personalize! On a side note, it's also a budget friendly! I'm actually really hoping she doesn't see this post until after her wedding, but if not. Happy Wedding gift! I hope you like it! Now act surprised when you open it!

The theme for this particular basket is Breakfast. So it's a Breakfast Basket. I love alliteration! I purchased a basket, small muffin pan, muffin mix  (I wanted to get this special kind but the grocery store discontinued it. boo!), hot chocolate packets, and I personalized two mugs.

I found this great tutorial for using Sharpies to personalize mugs. I made my own stencils for the letters. I found a font I like on the computer, printed the letters, cut them out, and traced around the stencils with a pencil on the cup. Then I went over it with the Sharpie. Bake the cups at 350 degrees for thirty minutes and Voila! Personal mugs! But they're hand wash only!

It was actually a really fun little basket to throw together. I hope they enjoy it. All I have to do now is wrap it up! Oh and drive 6 hours with two kids;) Wish me luck!

Hero Hero Capes

In our house, we don't have superheros, we have hero heros. And what better way to celebrate hero heroness then with capes?

 (The only way I could get a picture of the back of the capes was by turning on the tv. They zoned out enough so I could capture the moment.) 

What you need: Old bed sheets, felt, craft glue, safety pins, and any decorations you can find in your house, we used jewels, a butterfly, and a flower.

Here's how we did it: Cut a trapezoid shape out of the old bed sheet. Leaving enough room at the top to tie around your child's neck. Then use the felt to cut out the first letter of your child's name or their superhero sign. Use the craft glue to stick the letter and decoration on the cape. (Sorry there are no pictures of the process. Just my cute hero heros.)

Voila! Instant hero hero! When it's dry, tie the cape around your child's neck and secure it with a safety pin. This project took about 15 minutes to make, but about an hour to dry. And the best part! I had all this stuff on hand so it was FREE!!!! I love free fun!

Hanging Out with the ABCs

 I'm always scouring the internet for fun ways to teach my kids. One idea I stumbled on was for ABC organizing!

You need: 26 clothes pins, paint (optional),fine point Sharpie, hanger.

So the first question people ask is are the black ones vowels? And the answer is no. I had to search my house to find 23 clothes pins. (Thank goodness for a great neighbor who donated 3 pins to the cause. I didn't want to make a trip to the dollar store for 3 lousy clothes pins!) Some of them were painted black from another project. So . . . they stayed black.

I let my toddler paint the clothes pins with me, but while she was sleeping, I did the rest. Because some of my pins were black, I used white paint to add the upper and lower case letters to each pin. If you can use a Sharpie, do it! It was really hard to paint the letters neatly.

 But it was worth it. My toddler loves pulling them off and putting them back in order. It conveniently hangs from any door knob, so she can work on it in the kitchen or her bedroom or anywhere there's a door.

I'm gearing up to paint the numbers 1 to 26 on the back of the clothes pins so she can work on numbers as well. Wish me luck!