Chalkboards

Here are a few of the chalkboards I drew for the "Chalkboard of the Month" club earlier this year:

This one covered April and May:

This one was our countdown to Summer break at our house (my son wrote the numbers each day):

This was covered Summer for my friend since I had the baby in July:

Strawberry Pickin'

 

Picking Strawberries was on our bucket list this summer.  So, one morning I loaded the kids up and we found a U-Pick berry farm not too far away.  There's something about popping fresh, sun-ripened berries into my mouth that I LOVE.

When we got out of the car we could smell the berries!  Yum.   It didn't take long to fill up these two boxes.  We lucked out with big berries as this particular farm had just opened for picking and wasn't picked over yet.  The kids did most of the work as bending over in the heat 8 months pregnant just isn't as productive as you'd think.

 

 

We came home and made a batch of strawberry freezer jam the first day.  I like to use Certo Liquid Pectin by Sure-Jell and I always follow their recipes from inside the box.  The jars are Ball Plastic Freezer Jars.  I can find both at my local grocery stores or big box stores.

 

We cooked and processed two batches of strawberry peach jam the next day.  The strawberry peach was my favorite of the two.  Next time I'll try raspberry peach.
 

Do you pick fruits with your family?  What do you make with them?  I want to do peaches next summer!  In the mean time, I'm off to make more toast.

Tie Dye Shirts

 

I love tie dye.  When I saw a Jacquard Tie Dye kit at Goodwill for $2.99 I snagged it and have been waiting for nice weather to use it.  

I also bought a Tulip One Step Tie Dye Kit from Michael's so I had a few more colors to work with.

I soaked our clothes first in soda ash {the Jacquard kit came with some but they do sell it at Michael's} for 30 minutes.

Then I scrunched them up in different ways and applied the dye according to the package instructions.  I did a couple of rainbows, a few swirls and attempted a heart.  I watched several YouTube videos on how to do the swirls well and the heart but I couldn't find instructions for the rainbow so I guessed.  And it worked!  Here's what I did:

Basically I started gathering the entire side down to the bottom hem of the shirt.

Next I tied increments off with rubber bands and applied colors in ROYGBIV and blue on the ends.  I scrunched up the blue but didn't band it off.

I love how the rainbows turned out!

I let my son apply the dye for his shirt.  He was little heavy handed but his shirt turned looking great.

We wrapped them in plastic and let them sit for 24 hours then I rinsed them in my utility sink, washed them and dried them.

Here are all of the shirts I made.  One for my son, a couple for my daughter, one for me and a couple of onesies for the new baby!  I had plenty of dye left and extra powder from the Tulip kit so I passed it along to a friend and she made several shirts as well.

Summer Bucket List

We like to make lists around here to force us to enjoy each season fully.

We made this summer bucket list two years ago and wanted to make another one this year.

We made a list of the things we want to do this summer and I filled them all in on a poster board.  I wrote most of them this year now that my son can read.  I drew a few pictures to color in and as we complete each one, they can color in that square or picture.

 

I kept our list VERY simple this year as our new baby arrives in July and I'm tired/worn out/done walking long distances/ready to be done.  A few things we included:

• farmer's market
• blow giant bubbles
• write a story
• water balloon fight
• find a new park
• catch fireflies
• lunch with Dad
• fly a kite
• children's museum
• skip rocks
• go fishing
• outdoor concert
• pick strawberries
• putt-putt golf
• lemonade stand
• Slurpee run
• baseball game
• summer reading program
• go see Monster's University and Despicable Me 2 (they can't wait!)
• make s'mores
• go to a festival
• fireworks
• camping (with their dad this year...I'm not sleeping on the ground!)
• play in the rain
• Dippin' Dots

Do you make bucket lists with your family?  What fun things do you include?

We are participating this summer in the Happy Family Movement Summer Bucket List Challenge.  Click here to find out more and sign up yourself! 

Kiddie Olympics

We held an Olympics for the kids in our neighborhood this summer. 

 

Every parent came up with a game and brought something yummy to eat.

I made popcorn torches.

Someone else brought this cute flag fruit cookie.

Another brought red, white and blue rocket pops!

The events included a long jump on bubble wrap, discus throwing, a scooter relay race, squirting down foam cups, shooting foam rockets and a cup relay race.

I handed out kazoos to have them hum the national anthem (which they didn't know) and then handed out gold medals.

I thought it only appropriate that Caitlin, dressed for the occasion, hand out the  medals. 

I made the medals out of cardboard coasters I found on clearance in the dollar spot at Target. I spray painted them gold, added some designs with gold glitter puffy paint, then hot glued on the ribbons.

Christmas in July

We celebrate Christmas in July around here because, well, it's just fun to do.

This year on July 25th we listened to Christmas music and read Christmas books.  We even watched The Grinch.

Then we made a gingerbread house.


I'd wanted to make these Borax crystal snowflake ornaments so I thought this would be the perfect time.

I saw the snowflakes when Jim Noonan "Professor Figgy" showed their kits on the Martha Stewart show.  You can find the directions here on Martha's site.  You can also buy the kit from the Professor Figgy website with everything included.

First we made the shapes with pipe cleaners.


My son mixed everything up. 


Then we hung the pipe cleaners from sticks in the solution.  They have to sit for around 12 hours.  And I learned the hard way not to have the pipe cleaners touching the solution that settles on the bottom.  That part won't crystalize.

Here are our finished snowflakes. 

July 4th Tin Can Windsock

When I saw these tin can windsocks over at Ucreate I knew they'd be easy to recreate with my kids.
.

I used the cans left from a game from my son's superhero party.  They had hot glue still on them but we just painted right over it.

We invited some friends to join us for the project.

The kids painted theirs blue and I painted mine with stripes.

Then we added star stickers.  I just cut some stars out of white contact paper.  I had zero faith these would stay on outside but they did!

I punch two holes in the bottom of the can with a screwdriver.  Then we strung yarn through to hang them.

I hot glued satin ribbons around the inside rim.

 

Our hung outside from July 4th late into August and they survived the weather just fine.  They were a great addition to the flag and made our house look very festive this summer.

 

 

Sun Catchers

 

I saw these sun catchers on a craftster.org forum. 

They were the perfect summer craft for the kids.

I picked up mini foil pie pans at the dollar store.  The instructions weren't clear on what kind of beads they used so we just used the clear pony beads we had in our craft supply.

The kids and I layered the beads, then put the pans on a cookie sheet and popped them into the oven.

I baked them at 400 degrees.  The foil pans were ready in about 20 minutes.  The glass took much longer, about 45 minutes, and was CRAZY hot when I took it out.  FYI, the metallic beads didn't melt well. 

Once they were cool, they popped right out of the pan.  And there were plenty of holes for stringing from gaps in the bead coverage.

I strung fishing line through them and we hung them in the tree out back.  I love the way the light shines through them.

Sand table into waterworks

My parents were in town last week and we made all sorts of fun things with the kids.  One of my favs was this fun water feature for outside. 

We have a Step 2 sand and water table that has a hole for an umbrella in it.  We bought it on Craigslist a couple of years ago sans umbrella so we've always just had a hole in the middle.  We fill it with sand in the spring and when the sand is all gone we just let the kids play with water in it for the remainder of the summer.  I had a an idea to build some sort of hose attachment that would come up through the hole and then fit different pvc pipes and connectors onto similar to the one at the children's museum we frequent. 

On top of being an all around handyman who can build or fix anything, my dad builds fountains and was the perfect expert to build this for us.  After a trip to Home Depot and an hour cutting pvc and assembling pieces, the kids were set with a nozzle to change up all sorts of ways.  From the base you can interchange any pvc pipes and fittings to make the water go wherever you want.   I'll probably add a simple pump in a bucket next summer to replenish the water as it fills up pretty fast. 

He screwed some holes in some end caps to create a sprinkler effect as well.

It's been oddly warm here the last week so they had a few chances to play with it.  The neighbor kids all came over one afternoon and spent two hours playing in the water, filling buckets, and splashing around. 

Thanks again, Pop Pop!  Best.  Idea.  Ever.