Shaving Cream Bathtub Paint

I saw the summer roundup over at A Girl and A Glue Gun and was so excited with all the fun activities she had posted.  It can be difficult to figure out entertainment for kids during the summer but I have made a vow to not worry about the mess as long as the kids have fun with the activity.  When I saw the bathtub paint idea I was super excited because I knew Grant would have a blast.  He loves playing in the tub and it usually gives me the opportunity to clean the rest of the bathroom and do some laundry.

 All I did was took some Pure Silk women's shaving cream (which I got a while back with coupons for all of $0.15) but any shaving cream that foams white will work (I think you can get it at Walmart for $1), and sprayed it in the wells of a muffin tin.  Then I took some of Grant's Crayola washable paint and put maybe a teaspoon in each and mixed it together.  I found an old paintbrush, that will now be his bathtub paint brush, and let him go to town.

I think the "recipe" on the original website used food coloring instead of washable paint but after cleaning up the cool whip we played with and seeing the food coloring stain Grant's entire arm, I was afraid it may also stain the walls of the tub.  The last thing I wanted was to have to scrub the tub walls any more than I do already.

This is definitely an activity we will do again.  He was so excited about his painting he begged me to take a picture so he could show Daddy.  The best part for me, other than seeing how much fun he had, was the clean-up was as simple as wiping it off with a wet washcloth.

This could also be an activity for playing outside.  You could take a white shower curtain from the Dollar Tree, your shaving cream paint, and some sponge brushes and let the kids have at it.  Then just hose them and the shower curtain off, and hang it up to dry for another day.  Or leave the shaving cream on the shower curtain and use it as a foamy slip and slide.

Cool Whip Sensory Play

Summer is in full swing and while we spend most mornings, starting between 8:30 and 9am at one of our local parks, the afternoons I'm left to figure out something that will entertain a 3 year old, a 10 year old, and 1 day a week a 2 year old.  That can be really difficult, especially in a small space like ours.

I worked in a daycare for 4 years and learned quite a few different activities that kids of all ages enjoy.  One of them was playing with cool whip (or for older kids, shaving cream).  We used to do this once a week in the toddler room. 

I bought some to make a cake for my mom's birthday and ended up leaving it on the table for like 4 hours.  I was so annoyed it was ruined because of my inability to remember things these days but instead of throwing it away I decided the kids could play with it the next day and I wouldn't feel like it was completely wasted.

 I used some food coloring for extra fun and Grants whole arm was stained a nice shade of grayish blue.  I think next time I will use a smidge of his washable Crayola paints to coloring the whipped cream instead of food coloring.This could be a good sensory activity for Preschool learning the letter C or learning how the primary colors mix to make other colors.

Disclaimer: if you plan on doing this activity with kids who aren't in high chairs, outside is the best place so you can hose everything off.  Make sure the kids either wear art smocks or old clothing because it will inevitably have shaving cream all over it.  I found colored whipped cream everywhere when I was cleaning and even had to scrub parts of my carpet.  Who puts carpet in a dining area anyways, stupid apartments, makes no sense to me.

This activity was a simple one and the kids loved it.   They were busy making drawings, smearing, and slapping the cool whip for a good 30-45minutes. $1.50 (less if your store actually has the offbrand in stock) for nearly an hour of entertainment for 2 kids....not bad.

At Home Preschool Week 1

I did my first post on at home preschool here and decided posting at the end of each week would be best.  Not only for the fact there's no way I have time to do a lengthy post every single day but also because after day 1 when Grant was doing his "homework" (as he calls it) and I got out the camera, I quickly got a "mommy no more pictures", haha.  So the camera had to be put away (frown).

In case you didn't read my first post I started with the letter C, and our first day was about Caterpillars.

Day 2 was Cookies.  We read, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie  and Grant helped me make Chocolate Chip cookies.

 I cut the letter C out of construction paper, don't judge my C I know it's a bit wonky lol.  I had Grant practice with glue and glue pom poms on it.  This was originally supposed to end up looking like a really cute caterpillar but it ended up just being a little art project.

He traced the letter C on a worksheet again and we played a matching game that he LOVED!  He has actually asked to play many times since I made it.  Making a matching game is super simple.  I picked a few things with words that began with the letter C and did a google search for images of them.  I used Car, Cat, Caterpillar, Can, Cookie, Cracker, Cow, Cupcake.  I copied and pasted them into a word document then printed them on white cardstock and cut them into squares.  I wrote the words under the pictures with a black marker.

Day 3 was Clifford.  We read Clifford Goes to School and watched the cartoon.  Once again he traced the letter C but this  time I went over lowercase and uppercase and he traced the lowercase letter.

I incorporated the number 2 and had him trace the number.  He begged to play the matching game again....quite a few time actually.  I made a letter search and had Grant find all the letter C's. 

I created this in Picmonkey and yes it took quite a bit of time, probably a good half hour.  There are probably easier ways to make one but why take the easy way out right?

Our last day we were supposed to read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and make cupcakes but unfortunately we never got around to it. I started watching a school ager for the summer and it has been exhausting and kind of thrown a wrench in our preschool time.  Our mornings we are usually at the park and by the afternoon I'm completely and utterly pooped!

I am so proud of Grant, we were looking at something and he pointed out the letter C all on his own.  I felt like maybe I can actually teach him his letters and numbers and maybe he is going to retain them.  I was so excited, it gave me inspiration to continue on with our preschool learning.

At Home Preschool Day 1

Grant is 3 1/2 and we had considered putting him in preschool this coming September but we figured 2 years of preschool was unnecessary.  So instead I decided to start doing some preschool activities at home.  Not only for the learning of letters, numbers, shapes, etc but also for the structure and focus time I feel like Grant really needs.




My mom works in the school system and a company brings in books you can purchase.  They had a Pre-k workbook she bought for Grant and it was perfect timing because I was looking for things online and this book had it all.




We took a trip to the library just to get some letter specific books.  We got If You Give A Cat a Cupcake., If You Give A Mouse a Cookie, and Clifford Goes to School (Grant loves Clifford and has the stuffed version he carries to bed most nights).  I already have the book by Eric Carl, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and the stuffed caterpillar to go with it) and Grant has noticed loads of them crawling around our sidewalks recently so I thought starting with the letter C would be perfect.


I printed a letter C sheet from here.  I want to do a letter a week.  I've read varying pros and cons of doing one letter at a time but I couldn't wrap my head around teaching them all at the same time, it just didn't make sense to me.  So a letter a week it is for us and we will see how it goes.  I don't plan on going in order because I want to do all the letters I think will be the easiest for him to write (or trace) first.

For our first day I got out the flashcards and showed him the letter C, we went over what sound the letter makes as well as the difference between uppercase and lowercase.  Then I gave him a worksheet for him to trace the letter C.   I gave Grant a bingo marker (bought at the Dollar Tree) and the C sheet I printed out from here and had him only put dots on the inside of the outlined letters.

We did a caterpillar craft.  I cut out varying sizes of circles from construction paper and had him put them in order from largest to smallest.  Then we got out the glue, yes I was a brave woman yesterday with the messy glue, and glued the circles onto a white sheet of paper.  I had him draw eyes, legs, and put dots around the caterpillar with the bingo markers.


We read The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle and went over how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.


We practiced tracing straight and curved lines,

 

 as well as cutting them.  He is getting better and better with scissors.

Grant had so much fun and wanted to keep doing more.  I decided to do preschool at home and keep it short and sweet, by sticking to 20-30 minutes of school time a day  His attention span is short and I want to make sure we are keeping it fun so he doesn't lose interest or feel like it's "work".

Yellow/Pink Chevron Bridal Shower

My sister's bridal Shower was this past weekend and I of course had to make some water bottle labels for my lil sister's shower.  I'm so excited with how they turned out.  I used Picmonkey to create the image and wording.  It's simple yet classic and that's what I wanted.

I used my Cricut to cut the circle shapes

Originally, when I offered to do the shower I had a vision in my mind of all these beautiful floral centerpieces.  Of course after we had our daughter and put a new engine in our truck I could no longer justify spending a bunch of money on flowers that would inevitably be thrown away or packed in a box.  My solution was to figure a way to make my own flowers.

Enter: Coffee filter flowers.  Here's how my first one turned out before I painted it.

Isn't it pretty.  I was so excited.  I used the templates from Martha Stewart but didn't actually read her instructions.  Being impatient as I am I just started cutting and taping and they turned out great.  So with my coffee filters that cost all of $1.79 for over 100 of them at Walmart.  Here's a word to the wise, make sure you paint the petals before you go to the work of curling, taping, and positioning every petal.  If you do like I did and paint them after you have them all put together and looking similar to perfection, the paint will ruin all your hard work and you will spend another 10 extra minutes reshaping every single petal.

I used paint I had in my stash.  Cheap acrylic that I squirted some into a small bowl of water, mixed it together and started painting.  I wish I would have gotten a great picture of the centerpieces before the event but I can't remember anything these days.  I didn't think about a pic until I was standing taking pictures of my sister opening her gifts, so this picture is not fantastic and of course the centerpieces fell over in the car on the way to the site which bent some of the petals (frown).  I used Frappuccino bottles wrapped in twine and a yellow polka dot ribbon tied around it.  Each one had 3 pink coffee filter roses.

Here are the thank you tags I created in Picmonkey.  I used the background of a pink heart in all the tags I used.  All the food labels, signs for the Recipe card tree, card basket, and cookie buffet.  I created it without really thinking and really really like it.  It's so simple yet it worked!

These tags were stuck on clear treat bags I bought from Hobby Lobby.  I used glue dots to attach them.  Everyone took a bag and filled it with cookies of their choice as their favor and dessert.

The cookie buffet:

Can't for the life of me remember what the sign said but It's something I found by googling "cookie buffet signs".

Once again I forgot to take pictures until the whole shebang was pretty much done.  I had 5 kinds of cookies for people to pick from, butter cookies, white chip chocolate, red velvet hearts, chocolate chip, and peanut butter.

One of my favorite decorations was the recipe card tree.  I sent the recipe cards with the invitations with directions to fill it out and bring it to the shower.  I took clothespins I had in my craft stash and used decorative pink striped tape I found at the dollar tree to cover one side of them.  The sticks were found in my mom's yard and placed in a half gallon mason jar.  I thought this was so cute and she got some really great recipes I plan on stealing haha.

This banner was not made by me but my sister's future mother-in-law had it from another shower she had done and asked if I wanted to use it.  It was burlap and so cute I had to get a picture.

I also had tissue paper poms in dark/light pink and yellow.  I made circle garland that didn't end up getting hung up because of time restraints and guests arriving early.

For food I chose chicken salad and ham salad sandwiches, pasta salad, deviled eggs, watermelon, strawberries, and cantaloupe.  For drinks we had bottled water, homemade strawberry lemonade, and sweet tea. 

My family is not big on games, in fact with every shower I've done (and there have been a few now) they complain at the mere mention of a game.  That being said, I had to have something else for everyone to do other than eat and watch Kayli open gifts.  So I chose the candy game where you match bridal phrases with a candy.  The prize was boxed Sugar Daddy's, Sweetarts, Nerds, Twix mini candy bars, and a PayDay candy bar stacked and tied with pink ribbon.

Everything turned out so great and even though I didn't get to decorate fully like I usually do everyone enjoyed themselves and Kayli got lots of goodies to start her married life.

Yellow/Pink and Chevron Bridal Shower Invitations

There has been very little crafting going on in our house since Miss Eva came into this world.  She is a much better sleeper than my son ever was but my days with a newborn and a 3 1/2 year old are pretty busy.  Between feedings, diaper changes, meal prep/cooking/eating, naptimes, dishes, and laundry it's difficult to squeeze crafting time into the day.


That being said, last year I told my sister I would do her bridal shower for her upcoming wedding this summer.  This was before I was pregnant, before we were living on our own, before I was babysitting another toddler.  Pretty much before I was super busy.


Now the shower is a mere 2 weeks away and I'm scrambling to get things bought, made, and together.


I finished the invites over the weekend.  There is no theme other than the colors Yellow and Pink and chevron and heart prints.  This shower is going to be a huge undertaking, the biggest party I've done so far with a guest list of about 60 people.  So for the sake of my sanity and my bank account, I'm really trying to keep things simple.

I used my Cricut for the invites to cut the scrapbook paper and cardstock.  I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for the yellow rectangle  and oval wording, and the Accent Essentials cartridge for the chevron cutout. I got the wording for the invite from this site.  I thought it was really cute and since there's no real "theme", I needed wording that was universal.


I saw an idea for recipe cards and thought I saved the blog I saw it on but of course my brain is not working most of the time and I didn't.  I loved the idea of a recipe card tree instead of an advice tree.  I didn't want to go the route of advice cards because it seems to me that everyone pretty much writes the same old same old, "don't go to bed angry", etc etc.  And while that's great advice, I'll say from personal experience there will be times when unless you want to be up all night, you're probably going to go to bed angry a time or 2 in your marriage.  I've also had many times at showers I've attended/hosted when people make the comments they don't know what to write and almost seem put out by having to come up with something.  So I decided to design a recipe card and include it with the invite letting people know to bring it to the shower with their favorite recipe written on it.  Once at the shower there will be clothespins and a "tree" for them to attach it to.  I just love this idea. 

I designed the recipe card at Picmonkey.com. I seriously love this site and have used it for so many things since I found it a couple years ago.  Once created I saved the image as a photo, uploaded it to my Kodak software on my computer and printed it on white cardstock as 3x5 images (4 to a sheet).



It's a huge relief to have these finished and mailed out.  Now on to the other dozen projects I have in store for this little soirée.

Hospital Bag Must Haves

I think every woman has a different list of items they feel is necessary in their hospital bag for when they give birth.  I didn't have a clue my first time around and relied on friends and family members for tips.  Some items they suggested I ended up using, others I found pointless to have.  I also had a whole separate bag packed for Grant with a whole lot of stuff I never even pulled out.






So I thought I'd share what is going in my bag the second time around.  The items I feel like are necessary as I have no desire to pack a bunch of crap I won't need.  All that does is make more work for me unpacking it later.






1. flip flops- you must have these for the shower.  I'm sure the janitorial staff does a great job cleaning showers but I still don't want my bare feet in the same shower that dozens of other people have used.  I bought mine at the end of the season last year for $1.  I have no intentions of bringing them back home with me since I bought them specifically for the hospital.  They will get pitched before leaving, less for me to unpack at home.


2. Travel size shampoo/conditioner/body wash/deodorant-  no reason to have large bottles of these items and if you have no use for them once you're home, just pitch these with the flip flops before leaving the hospital.  Normally I'm not one to waste but I figure after I've been through childbirth I feel like I have the right to waste a little if I want.


3. Nipple Cream- I had a difficult time breastfeeding Grant and while in the hospital they will provide you with sample packets of nipple cream but you will go through it like crazy.  The nurses do their best but sometimes it takes awhile to get more when you run out so I wanted to make sure I had my own this time around.


4. Vaseline in a tube- If you're going to have your little boy circumcised they will advise you to use Vaseline on the area to keep urine from aggravating it.  Once again they can give you packets of this while you are there but if you're like me you will use a crap load every time you change his little diaper to keep him as comfortable and pain free as possible.  Therefore you will go through those packets super quick and it could take longer than you'd like to get more if you're in the middle of a diaper change.


5. Travel size antibacterial gel: There will be plenty of this on the walls all over the hospital but you want to have this at arms length while you're there.  You could be in pain from a C-section or just sore from natural childbirth but either way you don't want to have to get up and walk across the room every time you need a quick hand cleaning.


6. Travel Lotion-  with all the handwashing and sanitizing you are going to be doing, you're hands will dry out pretty quick.  Lotion will help.


7. Nursing cover-  With all the people coming and going to visit you, you will want something to cover yourself if you're going to be nursing your little one.


8. Mini Loafa for showering- I bought a package of these at the Dollar tree when I put together a hospital kit for my cousin.  Now I'm glad I did because I prefer using a loafa rather than the super thin hospital wash cloths they provide for you. 


9. Pajamas- This is a comfort item because the hospital will provide gowns for you to wear but who wants to be stuck in those ugly things for 2 days with everyone you know coming to see you and your new little one and taking pictures.  I was fortunate enough to receive a really nice set of nursing ones for Christmas and I ended up making my own hospital gown, but any comfy pajamas will do.


10. Granny panties- yep you read that right.  The hospital will provide mesh ones, use these while you're there but you will need a pair of your own to wear home.  Don't take your nice ones take the ones you don't care if they get stained and you have to throw them away.   Last thing you want is to ruin your favorite pair.


11. Nursing bras- if you have sleep nursing bras take those because you will want to be as comfortable as possible but any nursing bras will work.






Now for your little ones bag.




When I packed a bag for Grant I packed burp cloths, receiving blankets, multiple outfits, hats, socks, and so many other things I thought I might need.  I used very few of the items I packed.  Here's what I'm packing this time around..


1. Outfit-Don't go nuts with the outfits because it's really not necessary.  One for leaving the hospital and one for pictures if you want it different than his/her take home outfit.


2. 1 Receiving blanket:  This isn't necessary as the hospital will provide ones for you to use while you are there but I like having one in a cute print so I'm taking one of my own, but only one.


And that's it for the little one.  The hospital provides most items you will need, so keep that in mind.