Kool-Aid & Ice Painting

Here is a FUN project idea for a hot summer day! My kids LOVE this! All you need is Kool-Aid, Ice, and paper! The Kool-Aid acts as your paint when it gets wet with the ice! Kids love to smear it around and see the pretty designs they come up with!

Another FUN thing about this is it smells SOOOOOO good! Also, if your kids lick their fingers, it won't hurt them!

I will tell you it takes a couple of washes for the dye to totally come out of their hands! =)
****TIP, Grape is the only Kool-Aid I don't buy because it doesn't really come out purple, it's more of a brown! It is better to buy blue and red and put them close together to make purple!

I caught him RED handed! =) 

Then after you are all done, you can have some Kool-Aid to drink or popsicles made from Kool-Aid. Or if you want to stay away from the artificial Dyes.... Do what I did and just give your child a Pop made from 100% juice! A Yummy end to a fun craft! 

***Notice the hands in the picture below! This was after they washed them...

However, they were back to normal the next day! =)

PVC Bow and Arrow & Finger Glove for Girls

I was looking through a toy magazine a few weeks ago with my kids and saw that they were selling a GIRLS Bow and Arrow set! They were marketing it after the new movie Brave, which is coming out on June 22nd! They wanted almost 20 dollars for this cheap plastic Bow and Arrow set! I was looking closely at the picture and also there is no real place for the child to rest the arrow before shooting so I think MOST kids would have trouble actually shooting it!

Furthermore, I wanted to add to my post about the Hawkeye costume, which has been getting so many hits, and show you how you can change it up and make a PVC Bow and Arrow set for your GIRL! 

All you have to do is follow the instructions to make your bow HERE!

The only changes we made was we used the 1/2 inch PVC (instead of 3/4 inch) and shortened the two piece of pipe to 1 1/2 feet each (instead of 2 feet each)! This makes the bow 3 feet instead of 4 feet long! Since the bow is smaller, there won't be as much pressure on the center cross connector and it will stay strong!

Then choose your child's favorite color and spray paint the bow!

The next step is optional:

I went off the idea of the Brave movie and painted some celtic designs on the bow, with a K in the center for my daughters name!

If you paint anything on the Bow, seal it with Mod Podge by just painting over your design and letting it dry! I used a Glossy finish Mod Podge so it really makes my design shine! Below is a picture of what it looks like before your Mod Podge dries!

Then, follow the steps to make your arrows HERE! It's the same link as above! I just added a different step! Instead of using tape to decorate your arrows, paint them with pretty colors and seal with Mod Podge! For fun I taped all my wooden dowels together and painted a design across all of them! They turned out cute!

Lastly, I wanted to show you how I made a GIRLS finger glove! I gave this idea in my post about the Finger Glove and Armguard, click HERE to see how to make it!

The only changes I made were to the fabric and ribbon used.... and you don't have to do the step of cutting off the jewels on the rings!

This Finger glove is SO CUTE!!!

Your daughter doesn't need to be into archery to want one of these!

I've already had some little girls eyeing it on my daughter! 

They are so cute and fun to add to the dress up box!

   

Here is a few more pictures of my Kiki and her Bow! She love to pretend to shoot gum balls in peoples mouths instead of actually shooting the arrows!

   

Fun Father's Day Ideas (Dad or Grandpa)

Father's Day is 11 days away!!!! Here are some fun Ideas that we are using this year!

You have probably seen this idea floating around.....Fill a small box with money filled balloons! Most people use it for kids birthdays who live far away BUT why not use this idea for a Grandpa who lives far away for Father's Day! It works even better if your kids call him Papa.....because then you get clever and spell it out "POP-a!"

All you have to do is get your children to draw or write out a special note to Papa for Father's Day on a small piece of paper!

Roll up the cute note and insert it into the balloon. You can also add in some money for a fun surprise! Another awesome thing about this is you can call around to ALL of his Grandchildren and get a special note for each! My Father has three other Grandchildren in different states and he is going to be surprised to see a special message added to the package from them TOO!

 

Then simply insert your pump into the balloon and blow it up! 

   

Such a fun way to receive little notes from everyone!

You can also make this into a game for your kids, just for fun or a birthday idea!

Check out my post Pop The Balloon Game!

Father's Day Questionnaire 

Thanks to Pinterest and all of the examples of questionnaire's for Father's Day.... I came up with this next idea! I actually just figured out how to add PDF files to my blog so I made it easy on you! If you want this questionnaire just click below where it says "Fathers Day" and download the file to print it out!

Fathers Day

I put together my favorite questions which I thought would get the cutest answers from my children! They did really well at answering all of the questions and I am TOTALLY gonna save these for years to come!

I have to tell you what my daughter said when I asked her "his hair is....." she answered "one big hair!"  She also said My daddy is really strong and can lift a "Big Huge Cupcake!"

How can you not LOVE this idea!?!

Simple Golf Bag Pen Holder

Here is another cute idea for a Father or Grandfather who loves golf!

I blogged about how to make this cute golf bag pen holder. Click HERE to find out how!

Also connected to this link are some fun Photo ideas for Father's Day, Christmas, or Daddy's Birthday!

Here is another great idea that a child can do for daddy or grandpa!

A Sharpie mug designed by a child!

Click on the picture to see how we made this!

Delicious "Mall" Pretzels: Gluten Free! (also options for Dairy Free and Vegan)

No one in my family has a gluten allergy but I like to be able to change recipes for people out there who do! I could not imagine not being able to have certain kinds of foods again! How about those HOT, Yummy Pretzels you can get in the mall!?! Many People with a Gluten allergy CAN'T have them... or I choose not to buy them that much because I can't control how much white sugar they add to them! I am going to show you how to make them and you can adjust the recipe for your dietary needs!

Since I have your attention I just wanted to tell you how I made these pretzels GLUTEN FREE! It's all because of the one ingredient, Buckwheat! You can substitute Buckwheat with MANY of your favorite recipes to make them Gluten Free! Here is a few more interesting facts about Buckwheat: Although treated as a grain, it is not a cereal or grass, but it is actually a fruit that is closely related to wild rhubarb! It is considered a superior source of protein when compared to wheat, rice, and even millet. Buckwheat does not contain gluten like wheat does and therefore you can truly count on it to be "Wheat Free"! Some other facts about buckwheat are, just one cup contains 12 grams of fiber. It also contains the antioxidant Rutin, which can improve circulation and help prevent blood vessels from becoming blocked and it's also a good source of vitamin E. *Tip- after using Buckwheat flour it can spoil easily so be sure to store it in a ziplock bag AND in the fridge for up to 3 months!!!!

Ingredients you will need:

• 1 cup of milk (Dairy Free or Vegan option: Almond, Coconut, Soy etc.)
• one pack of Active Dry Yeast
• 3 Tablespoons Maple Syrup, or any other sweetener you choose
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter (dairy free or vegan option: Earth Balance or coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups of Buckwheat Flour (this flour is Gluten Free... if you don't need to make them this way then you can sub this part for any other flour you have but I suggest not using white for nutritional purposes. I blogged about this before Click HERE to read!

• 2 1/2 Tablespoons Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• And for the end either melted butter and Cinnamon/raw sugar mixture or Course salt if you want to dip them in cheese etc.

Warm up the milk in microwave or stove top for about a minute and a half. You should still be able to comfortably keep your finger in it. If it's too warm it will kill the Yeast. Add your pack of yeast and let sit for 3 minutes.

   

Add the melted butter and maple syrup to the milk and mix together. Then slowly add in your flour and salt to the mixture. 

 Kneed for about 10 minutes by hand or with a stand mixer.

Now put your dough in a greased bowl and cover with a towel and let rise for about an hour. 

Your dough should double in size!

Preheat you oven to 450 degrees. Divide your dough into 6 lumps for the large "mall size" pretzels. After making these I will tell you that I think it would be a lot better to make the pretzels a little smaller, especially if you are feeding kids. So, next time I make these I would divide the dough into 8 to 10 lumps! Now combine warm water and baking soda in a wide bottom bowl. Also get your greased cookie sheets ready right by you! Now you are going to roll out each lump of dough as thin as possible.

Form your dough into pretzel shape!

Then dip your pretzel into the warm baking soda water and throw on your cookie sheet!

I threw in a few pics of me doing this with my stomach in the way! =) 

As you can see, I set up a little station to roll, form, dip, and then place on the sheet!

  

If you are going to make these to dip in some kind of sauce you should sprinkle with course salt before baking! Then bake for 7-11 minutes! Me and my family LOVE the cinnamon/sugar pretzels so I just baked them without salt.

While they were baking I put about 1/2 cup raw sugar and 1/4 cup cinnamon in a large ziplock bag. I also melted about 4 Tablespoons of butter in a bowl.

When they were done baking, I dipped them in butter and then put them into the bag gently shook the pretzel in the cinnamon/sugar mixture!

Let cool a few minutes and SERVE!

Can you tell he is enjoying it!?!

The Avengers Homemade Hawkeye Costume: Part 3 The Quiver

Here is the, long awaited, LAST post to the Homemade Hawkeye Costume. This is how I made the Quiver, an Archers case for holding arrows. We messed around with different materials that could be sturdy enough for play but lightweight so the child doesn't get tired of holding it! I figured the best material would be cardboard! This is also cheap and you most likely have it in your home already!

Materials You Will Need:

• A tube of cardboard from wrapping paper.
• Black strong tape, Gorilla or duct
• Hot Glue
• Black fabric or something you want to use for the strap.
• A small piece of black Velcro
• Stapler
• Needle and Black Thread (if using fabric)
• Black spray paint (or whatever color you want the quiver)

What I did first was removed wrapping paper from its cardboard roll . Then I cut the roll in half, giving me two equal halves (pictured). You want your Quiver a little larger then one of these so you need to combine them together to make your holder a little larger. If you are only making two arrows... You actually don't need to do this step because they will fit in one of the halves of cardboard. 

To expand the holder I cut a straight line down the length of both rolls. Eyed how much more cardboard I wanted to use to expand and then cut the excess cardboard from one of the rolls. The second picture on the right shows that I added about a three inch width section to expand the cardboard. I then used my tape to hold it in place. You could also just use a stapler for this part. Then I hot glued the rest of the edge, down the line.

   

*The next step is to spray paint the cardboard... Since my son is dressing up as Hawkeye, we used black.

*Now you will be making the strap. I chose to use the same fabric I bought for the finger glove, simply because I had it.... also I love the look of leather that it has. However, you could use anything you want for this, example black elastic or even black duct tape folded in half (get creative). 

I cut two pieces of the black fabric. One about 19 inches long and the other about 5 inches. I folded the fabric in half, it made it about 1 1/2in. wide, and simply hand stitched the three edges together with black thread.

   

I measured the lengths of the fabric specifically for my son... many different children from our neighborhood have put on the quiver and it works for them too. However, just incase, before you do any stapling check out if you are making the straps so the Quiver fits on your child. 

*Tip, you want the Quiver kind of tight on your child... you don't want it to be hanging and swaying when your child is running.

Then fold about an inch of fabric in to the top and bottom edges and staple the two different lengths of fabric to the cardboard.

   

This picture is just meant to show you both straps. I actual hot glued one edge and din't like how it turned out so I'm telling you a better way to make it! However, now you should have one LONG strap and one shorter strap stapled to your cardboard.

I then sewed a piece of velcro onto the ends of the straps. Depending on what you used for the straps...You can also hot glue the Velcro on.

*Now you will cover the end with the shorter strap because that is the bottom of the Quiver and we need our arrows to stay put! Like I said above, I did this before adding the straps and I now think I should have done this step last... It works really well if BOTH straps are STAPLED to the cardboard before the bottom is taped on!!! 

Cut out a bit of cardboard from your leftover piece. Make it kind of fit into the bottom, filling in the circle. Then use your strong tape and tape down the whole thing, basically covering the whole bottom. You can make it look clean by covering the bottom side view with one more piece of tape around the bottom just so you don't see all of the little pieces coming together.... (pictured above in the side view).

   

 Here is a picture of my son with the Quiver on from the front. It is great that the velcro connects at a lower point and it's very comfortable to wear!

 The length of the strap holds the Quiver in a good place and makes it easy of him to pull out his arrows just by reaching back! 

There you have it, a nice lightweight and comfortable Quiver for your little HAWKEYE or Archer!

I just wanted to add something fun about this Quiver. My son loves to dress up! He sometimes will just wear this Quiver to hold his swords because of the easy access to pull them out over his shoulder! So this is a fun item to add to the costume box even if you aren't going to make the Bow and Arrows!

To see the whole costume page click HERE!