DIY Number Cake Topper

    My sweet baby boy, Garren Tyler, is ONE today! I wanted to show you what I did for his first birthday cake! This is such a simple and cute project that you can do for ANY year on top of a birthday cake!

I used watercolor paper, or you can use card stock.... just make sure the paper is thicker than normal. I printed off a number one, front and back!

 I simply colored them with colored pencils and cut them out. You don't NEED to color the reverse of the number but I wanted to.... What I did for Garren's one is put a bunch of different G's all over in all different shades of blue!

 Hot glue two Popsicle sticks in the middle of the numbers!

 Now you want to seal your number with Mod Podge! I used sparkle because I  love the glittery finish!

 Just paint it on and let dry!

 Don't you love how it sparkles!? The best thing about adding this Mod Podge to seal it was after Garren's cake smash photo shoot, I ran the number under the water and it cleaned up LIKE NEW!

It would have ruined it if it was just paper!

Happy 1st Birthday my sweet Boy!

   

Update: Here is the Cake Topper I made for my next baby boy on his 1st birthday. You can make them into any shape that goes with your party theme and write the number inside. Click on the picture below to go to that post. There is a cute video of his cake smash!

Turn Your Child's Doodle to a Canvas Painting

I haven't share this with the blog world yet but we are in the middle of selling or home and buying a new one! If any of you have ever done this you know how much work it is! The fun part is thinking about the new space you will live in and getting the kids involved! My kids have come up with the color schemes for their room. Of course, my little girl wants everything PINK and my big boy wants black, grey, and white with a little red!

The other day my son showed me this drawing he did of an "electric eel snake" and I immediately got this idea to use their drawings as art in their room! It would make it more personal AND match the color scheme!

Here is how we did it!

First think of something fun that your child will love on their wall as art.

You can also go through old drawings that you saved.

My daughter wanted to draw a fairy!

I showed her how to draw fairy wings and she drew her first picture of a fairy ALL BY HERSELF! 

After you have a fun drawing you love, you will have to buy and prepare your canvas!

We taped a design on the canvas with masking tape.

Then I had my kids paint whatever they wanted on the canvas in the color choice to match their room!

   

Here is Brenden's painting before and after the tape was pulled off!

The tape lines break up the blending of colors in the background and give it a fun look!

You don't have to do the tape lines if you don't want to but your kids will think it's fun!

   

Here is Kiki's pink and white painting before pulling off the tape,

And what it looks like pulling the tape up.

   

Here it is after the tape is all off! We made sort of a sun design with the tape on her picture!

Next step is to take your child's drawing to the copy machine. I blew up both of their drawing on 11X17 paper for their 16X20 canvas. Sometimes you will have to piece the drawing together when blowing it up!

Here are the original drawings along with the xerox copy of blowing them up over 200 percent!

Once you have your child's drawing blown up to the right size, turn the paper over and color with a pencil or charcoal pencil making sure you cover over all the lines in their drawing on the other side!

Then, turn the paper over and tape it down where you want it on the canvas. With a pencil, trace over the whole drawing. The pencil on the back of the paper will transfer it right to the canvas! 

You can see how light it is when transferred.... I used pencil to do mine. I will say charcoal shows up darker! In some places you might have to use your enlarged copy to help you in the next step, which is painting!

   

I used purple paint to go over the lines of Kiki's drawing and here is what it looks like transferred to the canvas! 

To finish them both off, I had them sign their names or initials at the bottom and I put the year!

Here are the finished pieces of art! My kids are so proud of their paintings and they are ready to add charm in their new rooms in a couple of weeks!

Alphabet Lollypop Game: Free Printables

 
 Since school is out I have been trying to come up with activities that are both educational AND especially FUN!!!!
I also have to think about coming up with things that are challenging to a preschooler and at the same time a second grader!
Here is what I came up with, The Alphabet Lollypop Game!
It can be played many different ways! AND the best part is I have it ready for you to print out for FREE!!!!

What you will need:

• 4 pieces of card white stock paper
• 4 pieces of regular paper
• 26 Popsicle sticks cut in half
• a pair of scissors
• Markers/colored pencils
• hot glue gun
• Mod Podge *Optional

When printing the Lollypop backings to the game you have to use a thicker paper! I used what I had on hand, which was watercolor paper but you can buy thick card stock from the store. You will need to print 4 of the Lollypop backing paper to have enough for the 52 alphabet circles!
The Alphabet circles can be printed on regular paper!

Once everything is printed, let your kids have fun coloring in the Lollypop backing!
My kids and I loved this part and we got very creative with the swirls!

*TIP* when playing memory your kids could memorize what color backing is with what letter in the Alphabet... however, since there are so many lollypops this could be a good thing and help the game not take so long for younger kids! If you are making this for older children, you might want to skip the coloring part of this and just print the backings on a brightly colored card stock paper! For my family, coloring in the lollypops is the way to go and they like playing with the pops they colored in!

 Now cut your Alphabet circles and lollypop backing circles out!
If your child is old enough, they can help!

Cut all of your 26 Popsicle sticks in half!

Next, hot glue the sticks to the lollypop backing!

  They are seriously cute!!! Your kids are going to love how they look with the sticks!

 Now, hot glue the Alphabet circles to the other side! I would just say, be carful doing this part because the lowercase u & n look the same. You may also get confused with lower case d, b, p, and q! Just make sure you glue them the right way!! =)

This next step is optional. I added Sparkle Mod Podge to add a little shine and to help seal them to make them sturdier for many hours of play!

Paint one side with Mod Podge. Let it dry for about 15 minutes.

Then, paint the other side and let dry!

   

Now your Lollypops are ready for playtime!

I came up with a few games to play with the Alphabet Lollypops. They are more corporative because I have been working with my kids A LOT lately on getting along!

One way to play, of course, is memory. This is where you find the match of the capital with the lower case letters! However, instead of playing teams.... we worked together to find the match and still take turns in picking! Another thing to add to this is have your kids come up with a word for the letter they find the match to.... then have older kids help spell out the words!

Another thing you can play is pull out all of just the capital letter pops. Then work together picking in turns until you come up with the alphabet in order. Then try to find the alphabet backwards!!

Another, more active, way to play with the Alphabet lollypops would be to pull out the hard letters like V, Q, X, Y, and Z. Then spread the lollypops face down on the floor! Have your children each choose a letter pop! Give them each a minute to look at them and think (this is where you can give younger kids suggestions).... Then count down to start the timer.
Three, Two, One...... have them run around the house to find an object that starts with their letter! They have to ALL get back before the timer stops so once the older kids find an object, they can help out the younger ones so they can get back and the time can stop!
OR, you can pick the letter and have them work together to EACH come back with something that starts with the letter.... For Example, my kids got the letter F. They ran away for a second and quickly ran back and put their arms around each other. Brenden said, "she brought her Foot and I brought a Friend!!!"
This was Really fun!
We even did it during little brothers nap time. Part of the rules was to be as QUICK & QUIET as possible and if they made a loud noise I would add 5 seconds to their time!
Record the times and tell them their fastest time at the end of the game!

After trying out these games ask your kids what else they could do with them!!!
Have them get creative with it!
These are so fun, the sky's the limit with the games you can play!!!
Comment below if you come up with something fun to play with your Alphabet Lollypops!

Alphabet Memory Game (Lollypop backing) by glitterlips

Alphabet Memory Game (1) by glitterlips

Alphabet Memory Game (2) by glitterlips

Alphabet Memory Game (3) by glitterlips

Homemade Healthy Yogurt Bites: Activity AND Snack

SUMMER is finally here! I have been enjoying the kids staying up late and sleeping in. In Kansas  it's light outside till almost 9pm. I love it because we are outside taking walks with the dog, playing with the neighbors, and/or sitting on our deck roasting marshmallows around the fire pit. It feels like we get to have so much more family time.

Along with having the kids home, I have a constant choir of little voices saying "I'm HUNGRY or can we do a craft!?!" So with this activity I say YES to BOTH!

Let's have some fun AND make a healthy snack in the process.

First, I'm gunna show you what made me come up with this idea....

My baby LOVES those freeze dried baby yogurt melts! I think they would be his FAVORITE treat if he could tell you himself. He actually SCREAMS with joy every time I just open the cabinet where I keep them! =)

I was about to put them on the shopping list when I thought, "NO! I don't want to spend almost 4 bucks on one pack of those right now. I'm gunna MAKE them and make them even healthier!

I grabbed a banana yogurt and my mini food processor.

 I steamed a few veggies. In this case I chose carrots and zucchini. The reason I used these is because of their mild and slightly sweet taste. I always go for these two veggies when I am experimenting..... 

I blended the yogurt and veggies together.... I also actually added a few spoons of plain yogurt to the mix.

   

 Spoon your mix into a ziplock bag and cut a tiny hole at the tip of the bag.

 Then carefully squeeze out little dots out of the hole onto parchment paper.

Once you have done this, throw the whole thing into the freezer.

It only takes an hour or two and they are DONE!

After they are all frozen, you can simply fold up your parchment paper and store in a freezer ziplock.

   

 OR you can peel the all off the paper and store in the ziplock.

 SO SIMPLE AND BABY APPROVED!

So funny because just before this picture, he was spitting out those same veggies he is now GOBBLING down in that yogurt bite! lol

I've never had a picky kid before this little guy but one thing is for sure.... He isn't getting his own meal and I still place the things he spits out on his tray! There are studies that prove children need multiple times tasting particular foods to start getting used to the taste. I think in Garren's case, this also has to do with texture.... He NEVER liked pureed baby food but give him chunks and he was all over it.

 After making the yogurt bites for Garren I decided this would be great fun for my big kids.

Here is what we did.

We used the same veggies, this time in the large food processor (or you can use your blender). Remember that you want your veggies steamed because if you use raw, there will be hard chunks!

 After blending the veggies, we added cherries and a few strawberries.

 Here is a picture of the fruit and veggies blended together.

 Add some vanilla yogurt and blend! I would say there was about 1/2 cup of fruit/veggie mix to 1 cup of yogurt.

Basically you are making an all yogurt smoothie.

You can get very creative with this.

 Then we added a banana.... this was for taste and to thicken it up a bit.

Blend and put in the freezer for about 30 minutes..... This is just to help thicken it for the next step!

Then I gave each of the kids their own parchment lined plate and a ziplock bag with our yogurt smoothie mix. The hole I cut in their bag tip was VERY small.... This is just so it doesn't pour out to quickly.

      

 I told them to create their own design of lines and dots! Make sure you explain that this is an abstract art project! You don't want older kids to get frustrated because their drawing bleeds together!

 With my help, we drew the first letters in our names.

This could also be a great educational activity where you help your child write the whole alphabet.

I am going to do this when it is just my daughter and me.

 With your leftover mix, make smoothie pops for all of those HOT days to come!

YUMMY!

 Here are my big kids eating their abstract creations! They were ready in about an hour from throwing them in the freezer. Fun Times!!!