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This summer we have been doing lots of crafts and activities outside. This painting activity was similar to another painting activity we did a little while ago.  We went for our morning walk and gathered leaves, branches and flowers that had interesting texture. Back at home we made our own paint brushes by attaching the leaves to branches with small elastics. What you need: Paint White paper Painter's tape  Pie plates Small elastics  Set up: Tape the paper to the table or placemat, leaving an even border around the paper Pour the paint in the pie plates Now your ready to try out your new paintbrushes. Inspired by our homemade brushes, we painted some nature scenes.  Happy painting!  

It's been a hot week, so we're staying inside and playing with ice. This week's theme was experiments with ice.  Our experiments: Homemade ice cream What makes ice melt the fastest Pick up ice cube without touching it We started off our theme day with a snack, homemade ice cream and blueberries. To make homemade ice cream in a bag you need: 1 cup half and half cream 1 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 3 cups ice 1/3 cup sea salt  1 large ziplock bag 1 sandwich size ziplock bag 3 cups ice cubes Directions: Place half and half, vanilla and sugar in the small ziplock bag and close the bag  Fill the large ziplock bag with the ice cubes Place the smaller bag inside the bigger one. Close the bag tightly and shake for 8 minutes. Our perfect ice cream shaking soundtrack was "ice ice baby" by Vanilla Ice and "shake it off" by Taylor Swift When the cream is frozen scoop into bowls and top with blueberries. What makes Ice Melt Fastest? What you need:   A large ice...

We have been having fun with nerf guns in the backyard this summer. To change it up  from Nerf Gun battles we decided to make some targets to practice on. Materials: Cardboard box Paint pens  Duct tape  Measure the targets, one big circle in the middle, four smaller circles around the middle target. Cut out the circles, measure about a 1/2" from the edge and cut the contour of the small circles. Measure 1" on the center circle and cut the contour. Draw a character on each target. We chose a creeper for the middle target and pigs for the smaller targets. Place the target in their perspective circles, measure twine to hang each target in place. Duct tape the twine to the target and the targets to the support. Tape all the shapes to their respective openings. Add point value for each shape.  It's  time for target practice! Happy crafting!

 Here is a little activity we did for Canada Day. I like scavenger hunts , they add a little excitement to everyday walks. Since there aren't any activities going on today, we have to make our own! We headed out on our walk around the neighborhood to check items off our list We picked up some leaves and rocks on the way because what's the fun of a scavenger hunt without bringing home some rocks! Happy Canada Day!

It's Dino Dig Day!  I got the idea on my first dollar store trip in 3 months! I had a double sided list and my cart was full but my one impulse buy (that wasn't chocolate) was a dinosaur bone sand toy set. On Fridays I like to do a theme of some sort to make things interesting and I was inspired by that dinosaur sand toy set.  This was my set up for our Dino Dig: some plastic dinosaurs, plastic shovels and rakes and a big book of dinosaurs. Our theme day had two activities, a dino dig and making fossils. Later in the day we painted the fossils and had another dino dig outside. Dino fossils Salt dough: 2 cups flour 1 cup salt 1 cup water Mix the flour and salt Slowly add the water, 2 tbsp at a time Kneed the dough, set aside until needed Line 2 baking sheets with parchment as paper Separate the dough equally amongst the kids. Roll small portions of the dough into balls. Use the plastic dinosaurs figurines to make impressions of the di...

This week's theme day was...surprise, surprise...Frozen. During this quarantine we have watched Frozen, Frozen II and Olaf's Frozen Adventure more times than I care to count. So far, all of our themes have been geared towards Little Man so this one was all about Little Miss but it was fun for everyone. Oops Elsa froze her friends. Anna, Olaf, Christof, Sven, and the water Nook were trapped in an ice block. It's up to you to same them! We did a version of this activity years ago with super heroes . It fits in perfect with the Frozen theme and It's a great activity on a hot day.  Freeze plastic characters in a large plastic container full of water the night before. Using plastic tools let the kids chip away at the ice block.  An Elsa, Anna and Olaf craft. Create your very own Anna, Elsa and Olaf with toilet paper rolls. Cover the rolls with blue, pink and white construction paper. Cut out accessories for each character, ...

This was the craft idea that got me back on the blog. During quarantine, Fridays are theme days at our house. We take a break from school work and do something fun. I had the idea of doing a pirate scavenger hunt. I remembered doing one for little man when he was younger but couldn't remember what we had done. I looked up my  pirate post from a few years ago. It gave me inspiration to create a fun treasure hunt for the kids. I made treasure boxes filled with pirate crafts. Material: Kleenex box Brown paper (craft paper or construction paper) White paper  Paper towel rolls for swords and spy glass  Felt (2 large pieces for the big hat and 2 small pieces for one doll hat) Pirate stickers for decorating Markers for decorating the pirate hats (fabric markers or paint markers) Glue gun Directions: Treasure map: Tear the edges of the white paper one piece for the treasure map and one piece for a craft Draw the treasure map on one page and leave the other bla...