Homemade Bubbles!

Here is the recipe for homemade bubbles! It's fun to make your own and they smell SO good! I made 3x the recipe and it lasted until the mosquitos ate all of our flesh. Seriously. I made the bubbles in something from our recycle bin, a couscous container. It was perfect and so was the lid. I tried to make wands from pipe cleaners and they didn't work very well so we used blowers from our collection. The crazy straw blowers are from the Dollar Store and they were quite popular with my crew! (2 in a package!) I think I'll pick up some more the next time I'm there. I love that place!

I used a yellow dish soap so I added green food coloring to make our bubbles blue. We have a lot of pink in our house so it's nice to have some blue when we can! ;)

I called my local market and had the pharmacy order a bottle of glycerin. The next day it came in and my husband picked itup for me. Very easy, just call your local market and if the pharmacy doesn't have it in stock they can have it in a day or two. I was at the store at 9:00PM and by noon the next day I got a call that it was in. Very easy, very cheap.

This activity speaks for itself and since I am not a good writer, I'll let the pictures speak for themself............

Busy Little Hands (part 2)

We finished our artwork this morning. It took longer than I expected. My oldest two took great care with their artwork and the youngest could have painted her 3 pieces for hours! Her "artwork" is on the right. You'll have to look closely under all the paint! There is a ladybug, duck and a piece I can no longer identify.

This is what is left of our "cookies".......I forgot to tell the dogs these aren't cookies! I wasn't thinking and left these to dry out on the kitchen table. I came back to find smashed crumbs everywhere. The dogs obviously didn't like them, but as dumb dogs will do, they kept trying to find one that tasted good. Unfortunately they ate all of one child's artwork. I offered to make more dough or homemade icecream sandwiches and suddenly all was good again.

Look closely, there is a duck under all that paint! LOL The duck was yellow to begin with and then she moved on to red. There is now, no trace of yellow under all the red! This wee one had the time of her life painting, and repainting, and repainting! I think it will take a good week for her art to dry!

This little piggie loved to paint her creatures with lots of color and such care! She loved it!

Pure joy for this one!

This is my serious painter! He painted with such attention to detail. The mice were his favorite! He told me that he doesn't want them to have a magnet, he'd like to play with them. This will probably be one of those childhood things that he adores and remembers more than his big expensive toys!


SO thankful for adorable $5 dresses from the bullseye store!!!! Although this is washable paint, washable doesn't always mean it is going to come out! What a mess she made, and loved every minute of it!!!

Busy Little Hands (part 1)

Today we started a two day project. We made salt dough and shaped our favorite creatures. We baked them and tomorrow we will paint them and attach a little magnet on the back. The kids were so focus and serious while rolling out the dough and shaping it into different things.

My son made mice, a snake, a butterfly, and his initial.

My daughter made a pig, a duck, a snowman, a bunny and her first initial. When the "cookies" came out of the oven she screamed for everyone to come, the cookies were ready to eat. OPPS, I forgot to tell the kids these are not edible! I should have explained better so that the little ones understood that they were not cookies!



My youngest made a bunch of clumps. Bless her heart, she sure does have an imagination! She handed me a baby, a ladybug, a ducky and a "pider". While she was busy with the next clump I shaped her blobs into whatever she told me it was.



Tomorrow we will paint them and attach the magnets on the back. I'm not sure where we'll put them as all of our appliances are stainless steal, but we'll find a spot for them!



This was a really fun, hands on project that kept the kids busy until we used all of the dough. I will pull this recipe out at Christmas time and have the kids make some ornaments for our tree.



Here is the recipe:



3C flour

1C water

1C salt

2t oil



mix all the ingredients by hand in a large bowl. when the dough forms a large ball, roll it out and start shaping! Once you have a tray of artwork, bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Larger pieces will need more time. I am letting our batch cool and harden overnight before painting with poster paint. More on that tomorrow.....

Let's Set Sail!

Ahoy Mates!!! Greetings from our new boat! (the packing paper is suppose to be waves!)


We started with moving materials. A large wardrobe box, duct tape, a cardboard tube from fabric (you could also use wrapping paper roll), some left over muslin fabric, washable poster paint, packing paper and a little yarn.

I assembled the box the best I could with the duct tape. I left the top and bottom open so the kids could crawl in and out. I cut a large opening on the side (which is now the top of the boat). I attached the fabric to the cardboard roll with a staple gun and secured it into place with the yarn.

The kids worked together as a team, painting. They LOVE to paint!

When it was painted, the kids jumped inside and we set sail!





Notice all the paint! Make sure you use washable paint!!! LOL
It took an hour and a half to make the boat and then it was lunch time so we are going back out now to take sail. I'll probably post more pictures tonight.

Today's Activity.......

Sun, Sand, Splashing and Fun!!!!

My husband was off today, which was a surprise to us, so we decided to take the kids to the beach. When we arrived the sky was black, a mini storm came and cleared, then the sky was grey followed by beautiful blue!!!! But then thunder sent us packing several hours later. So we saw it all today! But we still had plenty of fun in the sand!

the girls with mermaid barbies, shh don't tell big sister!!!

Surprise waves that knock you down are the best!

jumping the waves is one of our favorite things!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Again Daddy!!!!!

All 5 of us built sand castles, complete with roads, train tracks and Cinderella! Then the tide came up and washed away our village.

We had such a fun family day, it's was hard for me to not have my oldest daughter with us. She loves the beach so much that I couldn't stop thinking about her and how much fun she would have had. But I know she is off creating her own memories that will last forever. I am anxious to show her the perfect sand dollar that I found just for her.

I love days like today! There were too many highs to list! Mostly, I just love sharing the simplest of things with my children, they provide the greatest childhood joys. I hope they will remember today. It was a perfect day, just perfect.

Pirates, Treasure Maps, Compasses and Stolen Dogs

I spy 3 little pirates! oh wait, there's another! We made treasure maps of our backyard and put an X on the map and the kids would swap maps and try to find the treasure! They took such care making their maps and finding the magic spot! The younger two were really tricky so we had to cheat a little bit and watch where they hid the treasure! shh, don't tell! LOL





Don't laugh at my homemade eye patches, I was thinking on my feet! I took apart the egg carton (and I fully expect to pay for it the next time I pull out the carton and forget that it's a little lopsided!) The kids loved them! I simply colored them with a black crayon and pulled yarn through them.


Doesn't she look mean? Don't cross this pirate!


We pretended that this was the enemy's pirate dog and we captured her and made her eat cake! Now we can't get her to leave!


Call in your location mate!


This little pirate was a little sleepy, until she spotted a pirate cake!




Of course the stolen dog was forced to eat cake. I don't think she liked it.
(I totally stole this cake idea from my friend Denise. It was a hit Denise!)



My inspiration for today's activity came from these adorable pirate plates that I found at the dollar store.

I want to give a HUGE shout out to Kori for helping me with my photos. You went above and beyond helping me and I really appreciate it. My photos now go back to flickr the way I wanted them to. THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Water Balloon Fights!

The fun event today was water balloon fights! My son was so excited, I couldn't fill the balloons fast enough for him! I wanted to fill them from our rain barrels but that proved to be nearly impossible due to the lack of water pressure! So I used the regular water and it was a little time consuming considering the outcome.

The kids had a great time throwing the balloons and watching them pop on each other. Unfortunatley it didn't take much for them to pop. The whole event was over in 15 minutes, not what I was hoping for!

My son wanted to stand opposite the girls so it was him against the girls. If one of their balloons didn't pop he would pick it up for them and tell them to try again. Oh the sweetness!

After the kids emptied their pails, I refilled them and told them they could line up and fire away at me. My seven year old thought this was better than dessert! He pegged them right at me and didn't hold back the laughter as they hit me. My sweet, darling four year old said "I don't want to hit you Momma". Bless her sweet little heart! Oh the difference a few years makes! My son has a big heart but at his age, this was the coolest thing ever!

I would definitely do water balloons again and I would say it was a success but I will try another brand next time.

OK, all my photos are chopped off on the right!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRR, thsi blog is totally frustrating me!!!!!!

i think i might "blog" somewhere else!!!!!!!!!!!