The Avengers Homemade Hawkeye Costume: Part 1 PVC Bow and Arrows

May 4th 2012 was a great day! The Avengers came out in the theater. After researching the movie, we decided we were going to let our kids see the movie since they were both begging us to watch it! Yes, even my 3 year old daughter was begging to see it, she LOVES Hulk! If you ask my opinion about children seeing the movie, I would say it depends on your child. If they tend to get scared and have nightmares, it's not for them! Our kids have seen a lot of action and it doesn't affect them in that way. We also had great conversations, after watching the movie, about good and evil and about team work (because all of the Superheros, together, get more accomplished then when trying to do it alone)! One more thing, the movie is 2 1/2 hours long so you couldn't force most little kids to sit that long for a movie. My daughter fell asleep the last hour.
If you are an adult and haven't seen the movie, you are missing out! I'm not that into this stuff and it kept my interest the WHOLE 2 1/2 hours! I now want to see the other movies!

 This movie introduces us to a character most don't know much about, HAWKEYE! Marvel comics drew him with a blue and purple costume but the movie has him dressed in mostly black. My son fell in love with him! After the movie, all he could talk about was shooting a bow and arrow and dressing up like Hawkeye!

   

My husband and I had been discussing how to make a bow for Brenden just so he could pretend. So one day after my husband came home from work, he broke a small branch off our front tree and pulled all the little branches off. Then he got some rope and used his staple gun to attach it to each end. Brenden LOVED it and was playing outside, pretending to shoot arrows at bad guys. Our neighbor Chris came home and we got to talking about the Avengers movie and Bow and Arrows. He has a bunch of REAL "toys" that he brought out to show us. Most of them Brenden couldn't even pick up! As we talked, Chris had a great idea to make a Bow out of PVC pipe. After the conversation, we continued to play outside with other neighbor friends. The next thing we know, Chris comes back in a half hour with all the parts to make the bow and arrows!

**This is where I take a second to BRAG about how COOL my neighbors are! I can't believe how much God has Blessed us with being surrounded by great people! I LOVE where we live and everyone around us!!!**

The first attempt with a PVC bow, we used 1/2 inch PVC pipe. We found that it was a little weak in the center and the bow ended up breaking. The instructions below are for the updated version. Which has been used and played with by many children and holds up!

Parents and caregivers, now you finally have easy and cheap instructions to make your child a bow and arrow which REALLY works and is safe to shoot! I still recommend supervision and ALWAYS with the rule of not shooting towards people!

Hawkeye PVC Bow and Arrows
 Here is what you will need:

• 3/4 inch PVC Pipe  (4 feet)
• 3/4 inch PVC Cross Connector
• PVC cement/primer Combo
• 4 1/2-5 feet braided nylon string
• Black Gorilla or duct tape
• 3/8 Oak Dowels (one makes two arrows)
• 5/8 Rubber Chair Tips (one per arrow)
• Hot glue or 2 inch squares of felt (two per arrow)
• **Optional Black Spray Paint**

First thing you need to do is cut down your PVC pipe into two equal pieces, 2 feet long each.

The next step is optional, if you are making a "Hawkeye" Bow, you will want to spray paint your PVC pipe and connector black. Let dry and then prime and cement together with the PVC glue.

After the primer and cement dries, you can add support by taping the center with black Gorilla tape or duct tape. When you shoot the bow most of the pressure is on the center, that is why this is a good idea. It also gives the Bow a cool look!

Next, drill a hole in both ends of the PVC pipe. This is where your string will be attached.

For this next step you either need two people or one really strong person. To attach the string tie a knot at one end and burn the end of the rope to prevent fraying. When you are ready to tie a knot at the other end you need to bend the bow a little. You can see an example of this in the picture on the left. Chris is pretty strong so he was doing it by himself but what I suggest is one person bend the bow while the other pull the string tight and then tie a good tight knot. After the string is attached, put a little tape over your knot and extra string, as pictured on the right.

   

We also added a little tape above and below the center of the string. This will help show your child where the arrow goes.

How to Make the Arrows

Cut the Oak Dowels in half with a chop or hand saw. The ones we got were 36 inches long, which makes the arrows about 18 inches long each!

The next step is to take your rubber chair tips and attach them to one end of the dowel. We used two, 2 inch square pieces of felt and pushed the rubber tip down over the dowel with the felt in between but you could also attach it with hot glue. On the other end you want to make a notch that your string from the bow will fit into. On the video, this is what my son calls a "scratch". You can either use sandpaper or my husband used a saw blade. 

Then for decoration you can use black Gorilla tape around the dowel. Make any design you want!

   

Now that you know how to make it, here is a fun story which goes along with this Bow and Arrow. We took it out twice yesterday to two different places because of end of school parties. Both times my son had a line of kids wanting to try and shoot it and saying things like "I've always wanted to shoot a bow and arrow!" and "Where did you buy this?" He loved showing all the kids how it works and it was fun seeing it withstand all the action of many different people, even adults, shooting it! 

Enjoy your Bow and Arrow and be prepared to have people ask if they can try it out!

I also wanted to give a BIG shout out to my AWESOME husband for making the really cool video in the beginning. I LOVE you! What would I do without you!?!

*TIP*You can find great black sunglasses for your hawkeye costume at the Dollar Store!

To see the whole costume page click HERE!

My Kids Reaction to SNL Will Farrell Skit

I wanted to share with you this FUNNY skit from SNL! We LOVE Will Ferrell and this cold medicine skit was a hit with the whole family! It is hard not to laugh especially when you watch Brenden's reaction to it! ENJOY!

Maple Chicken and Vegetables~CrockPot Recipe

I had to share with you what I made for dinner last night!!! It was SO EASY that it almost felt wrong! This is totally a recipe that is PERFECT to bring out when you just have a baby, surgery, or just simply have WAY to much going on! A HUGE plus is that it is healthy AND your kids will love it! 

I really didn't measure out exact amounts of what I put into my crockpot... But I will guess the measurements... If you don't follow exactly it won't really matter!

All you need is:

• About 4 Chicken Breasts 
• 3-4 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
• 16oz bag of baby carrots
• small red onion chopped
• 3 tablespoons of 100% maple syrup
• salt and pepper

This literally took me 5 minutes to prepare and I was DONE!

All you do is throw your chicken in the bottom of your crockpot and season with salt and pepper. 

Pour your Maple syrup over top.

Add your baby carrots, sweet potatoes, and onion.

Sprinkle a little more salt and pepper and you are DONE!

Set your crockpot on low and let it cook for 8 hours!

This is what everything looked like thrown together before I cooked it!

A few tips:

Make your sweet potato cubes large because they get VERY soft and tend to mush (unless you like it that way).

Also, even if you or someone in the family doesn't like onion.... you should still add a little! They cook WAY down and you can't even tell they are in there! 

My kids and husband didn't know! =)

Here is the end result picture one last time! The chicken is so soft and easy to pull apart! The veggies are separated from the chicken in the picture because I pulled all the chicken out to shred it right before serving. I also drained the excess juice from the crockpot. You can serve it like this or just mix it all back up and serve it in a bowl! YUMMY!

This recipe is now on my monthly dinner list!

Summer Grilled Cheese

OH MY GOODNESS! This sandwich is to DIE for!!!! I saw this a few years ago on an Oprah episode. Her best friend Gail was driving all around checking out signature food! I wished I could remember what restaurant served this Grilled Cheese sandwich because I would LOVE to taste it one day straight from them but I'm happy I remembered the ingredients! This makes a perfect lunch or dinner on a beautiful Summer day, where you can get some of the ingredients FRESH from the garden! 

Here is what you need:

• Sourdough Bread (I used Multigrain Sourdough from Trader Joe's)
• Havarti Cheese (I love how CREAMY this cheese is but you can sub if you have another favorite)
• Sliced Tomatos
• Fresh Basil
• Secret ingredient HONEY
• (Optional) If you are a meat lover...the boys add Ham to the sandwich 

 I had a little helper to make the sandwiches last night! All you do is layer the cheese, tomato, and basil on one side of the bread. If you add ham just make sure the cheese is the first thing touching one side of the bread. Then add your honey all over the inside of the other piece of bread and top the sandwich. Cook on stovetop in a pan or on a griddle... I like to butter the outside of the bread.

Yummy!!!

I just wanted to add something fun to this! We went Strawberry picking two days ago and our Farm Fresh Strawberries were SO YUMMY paired with this sandwich! Also, the basil we used was from our home garden... If you don't grow anything else at your home, Basil and Rosemary are a must.... They are so easy to grow and you can use them in many different recipes! 

  

If you end up making this, let me know what you think in the comments! My 6 year old son said to me last night after he ate his whole sandwich, "Yummmmm...I want you to make these everyday!"

Pressed Flower Cards: Mother's Day or Any Other Occasion

This project was SO MUCH FUN!!! It's been such nice weather over here in Kansas. We are always finding activities to do outside! One thing my kids LOVE to do is "go exploring". I told them we were going on an exploring adventure with our bike/scooters! We looked at nature, collected flowers etc., and we played at the park! 

   

 My son was SO excited to find these purple flowers because it's his teachers FAVORITE color! We are not only making Mother's Day cards but since school is ALMOST over, my son wanted to make a card for his teacher!

After all of our fun, I took all of our flower findings and put them in a BIG book and then put a weight on top of the book! It only took a day for them to become beautifully pressed and ready for our craft!

I had the kids choose what flowers they wanted and place them on a blank card however they liked it. You could also just use any nice piece of scrapbook paper... just a long as it's a little thicker than a plain sheet of printing paper.

I then put a little hot glue down to hold the flowers in their place. 

We actually did this part of the project in the basement while waiting out a tornado warning! It was a good thing to keep our minds off of the crazy storm outside! 

 The next step would be to paint a thick layer of Mod Podge over the whole surface of the card! It will give it a nice finished look!

 Here are the finished cards, my son got some yellow marker on the front of one card!

 Beautiful for Mother's Day, Birthdays, Teacher Appreciation, Thank You's, etc.

*Also, I wanted to mention, if you like what you see on my blog then PLEASE click the follow button on the right! I would LOVE that! Thanks for dropping by and reading my posts! I hope I am inspiring you all to get creative in your own homes!

No Sew Handmade Tea Bags with Personalized Tags!

This No Sew Homemade Tea Bag idea is a great idea for Mother's day, to a Mom or Grandma who LOVES tea or even for a Tea Lovers birthday! It's a neat personalized gift that the person can actually use and enjoy! BUT don't just stop at Moms.... My Dad LOVES Tea also... You can make these for Fathers Day/Birthday to your tea loving Dad!!!

Here is what you will need to make the Tea Bags:

• Loose leaf tea 
• A few fun pieces of Scrapbook paper (One design per type of tea)
• Crochet thread or Embroidery Floss (any color)
• Clean Lightweight Fabric (Cheesecloth, muslin, cotton, or in my case I used Chiffon)
• Hot Glue Gun and glue stick

I was looking around at Loose Leaf  Tea and I ended up getting 5 different types of Teas at Whole Foods for just a couple dollars! They had a HUGE selection for a great price!

   

The next thing you will need to do is cut your fabric in 6 inch squares. It is ok if your line isn't perfect! It will still look good! Once you have all of your squares of fabric cut, lay them one at a time on a plate. Add about 1 Tablespoon of tea at the top and in the center.

Then start rolling the fabric!

When you stop, you will want your seem in the middle of the roll of fabric.

Then all you do is fold together and tie it tight with a piece if your thread. I cut my thread in 9 inch strips and it was the perfect length! 

There you have it! Your tea bags are now ready for their personalized tags!

   

The next step is to make your personalized tags... All I did was create a shape in Illustrator and typed in fun quotes and verses. For example, these tea bags are for both Grandmas, so I asked the kids what they wanted to say to them and typed it on the tag. When they drink their cup of tea, they can think of their Grandchild! You can also put fun facts like "Tea is Calorie-free"! Get creative with it!

Then I cut out the shapes and glued it to a piece of scrapbook paper. I only put a small line of glue on the bottom, you don't want to completely glue it down. Once you have glued the shape down, cut out around the shape again so you now have a pretty backing on your quotes!

Now its time to connect the tags to your tea bag. Just hot glue the string into the little opening!

   

 If you are giving different types of tea you could either write what it is on the tag or do something like this! I used a different type of backing for each type of tea and then made a little card to put in with the tea. The card will tell you what type of backing goes with what type of tea!

 Now that you are done with your tea bags you need some kind of box or package to put them in. I took advantage of Garage Sale season and found two cute plastic boxes with clear lids for 25 cents each. Before I found this, I was going to cut a cracker box in half and have the kids paint it and use that for the box or HERE is another cool idea I found on how to make a gift box out of a cereal box.

Anyways, I had my kids paint their boxes.

We added their handprints on a piece of paper with a quote from each. Then I painted Mod Podge over the outside and inside of the box to seal the paint and paper!

 Here is the finished gift box of tea!

What a sweet present for any tea lover!