Happy Valentine's Day + Kiddo Friendly Projects

Happy Valentines Day, everyone! Today, I'm sharing a fun Valentine's Day project that my daughter and I put together for her fellow pre-schoolers...here's a look at what we've been up to...

Making these Valentines has been quick, easy, and a fun way to do arts and crafts to celebrate this fun day! In order to get started, here's a closer look at what you will need... First, you will need butterfly die cuts. Of course, you could cut these out on your own, but I found a pack of 48 pre-cut at Michaels for $2.99. I'm not sure about you, but that's a little price to pay to not have to cut all of these out!

Next, we picked up these fun Valentine's Day pencils in the dollar section at Target - 12 for a $1 :).

Then, you will need googlee eyes and we found these fun different colored ones at Michael's at 48 for $2.99...

Of course, what kid's craft project would be complete without adding fun colored pipe cleaners?!?!

Some lovely foam hearts... I bought a big bag of foam hearts at Hobby Lobby for $5.99 and when you use your 40% off coupon, that's even better!

Other items you will need that are not shown...glue dots, scissors, and a black marker :)

Now for the fun part!!! 

1. Fold the butterfly in half and cut two 1 inch slits in the middle... And if you have a little one helping you, then simply show them how to fold them in half and draw two half inch lines as guides for them to cut. After about five of them, they will have the hang of it and can make the lines and cuts on their own.

2. Next, cut the pipe cleaners into smaller sections and then take two small pieces and adhere them to the back of the butterfly with a glue dot...

3. Next, slide the pencil in through the back of the butterfly... You may want to add a piece of tape to secure the pencil to the butterfly...

4. Add the eyes, smile, and foam stickers and you are all finished... Estimated time of completion for each butterfly is about a minute...

5. Then let your little one sign their name on the back :)

Here's a quick look at all of the butterflies that PJ put together all by herself :)

And here's my box of love bugs :)

In total, we ended up putting together about 75 of these little love bugs - it was a fun project and I LOVED that Peyton was able to put these together all by herself - and the best part was that she LOVED making them AND giving them :).

Have an amazing Valentine's Day, everyone! Hope you have a lot of fun hanging out with all of your "love bugs." :)

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Family Fun Projects + Ice Melt...it's science

I am always looking for something fun and inexpensive to do with Peyton. And as many of you know, Friday tends to be our Funday... This Friday is no exception. Today's post gives you a fun and inexpensive way to make science fun...so you can make something that looks like this...

Your little one will also have fun learning about how salt raises the temperature of ice... Here's what you are going to need... First, some kind of plastic or cardboard to freeze the ice in... I had just finished my soy milk, so it worked perfectly; just be sure to rinse it out before filling it with water and freezing it. We actually just set ours outside because it was so cold, but you could just as easily put it in the freezer...

After it freezes, simply peel off the cardboard...

Then place it in a large container so that as it melts, the water can stay in the base...then let your little one explore... brrr!

While they are exploring the ice, gather up this...

And this (salt - I used sea-salt because it's more course)...

Then let your little one go to town by adding salt and food coloring... As you will notice, the salt changes the texture of the ice due to the melting and as they add food coloring, you can see exactly where the ice has melted...

This is about five minutes in....

10 minutes in...

15 minutes in... Isn't this cool! I love science!

Peyton had such a fun time making this and learning how ice melts... And for me, well I just think it looks pretty, so here are some fun pics...

Thanks for stopping by everyone! Let me know if you should have any questions! Happy Friday!

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Bean Painting + Kid Friendly Art Project

I hope everyone's week is going well! Today, I'm sharing a fun and easy project that you can do with your little ones while inside to keep away the winter blues. In fact, in this project you will be able to make a project full of colors and in our case, a rainbow of fun!

Peyton LOVES making these...

So to do this project you will just need some newspaper and two items you most likely already have in your pantry

...this...

...and this...

Then just follow these steps to make your rainbow bowl of beans:

1. Set out several small bowls - depending on the number of colors you are interested in making.

2. Pour 1/4 of a cup of Navy Beans into each small bowl.

3. Start adding food coloring to each bowl - you shouldn't need more than 2 drops in each bowl to obtain bright and cheerful color. Then, stir the color into the beans.

4. Let the beans settle in the bowl for approximately 10 minutes to ensure they absorb the color.

5. After 10 minutes have passed, lay out your newspaper and pour the beans onto the surface of the newspaper. We let our beans rest on the newspaper for approximately an hour until all of the food coloring was dry. You may need more or less time depending on the amount of food coloring you used.

6. After the food coloring is dry, simply pour all of the beans into the bowl. This may have been Peyton's favorite part - she loved touching the beans and looking at the different colors of the beans.

7. Peyton loves making bean art at pre-school, so I set up a station for her at the kitchen table with a paintbrush, bowl of glue with 2 parts water and let her decide what to do.... She ended making a beautiful rainbow on her paper with the beans and had such a fun time doing it!

I love doing this project with Peyton and I hope you do too! Enjoy!

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Family Fun Projects + Blue Bird Gourd Birdhouses

I know it's officially the middle of winter now, but I'm already starting to dream about what I'm going to plant in my garden this spring... One reason is that I absolutely love this project. It has been a very cool way to see the long-term fruits of our labor and it's given us something fun to do during the cold weather and fun gifts to give out as Christmas presents.

In today's post, I'm sharing a fun, family friendly project that you can start thinking about as you plan your garden... and I'm guessing there are a few of you out there...just...like...me :) Our family made Blue Bird Gourd Birdhouses from a few of our gourds in the garden whose plants eventually grew to look like this...

And the gourds eventually grew to look like this....

But after the winds grew cold and the frost came, they eventually looked like this... Total time elapse about 6 months...

Once you take them off the vine at the end of growing season, it's important just to let them be in an area that has ample air movement. This bench was right next to the edge of the garden where they were growing, so it turned out to be a good spot to let them cure... For two plants, we ended up yielding about 15 useable gourds...

A couple of weeks ago, we decided that it was finally time to go ahead and get these gourds ready to turn into birdhouses...

To get them to this point, there are a couple of steps that you need to take. First, fill a big basin full of 3 parts water and 1 part Clorox and scrub them to remove any mold or loose flakes on the surface. Once they dry, then sand them down with fine grain sand paper to remove any last bits. Next, have your handy husband (or you, if you know how) drill 4 holes on the bottom for rainwater to drain out and two holes in the top to pull a wire through so that you can hang the birdhouse in a tree... After that, using a circle cutter drill bit, cut a hole in the side of the house... Finally, clean out the inside of the birdhouse with a large spoon to get all of the seeds out -- of course that part is optional if you want your future birds to have food + home...

Our first gifts were going to be for Peyton's pre-school teachers, so we decided to do these in batches and to start with 2. We will eventually make all of the birdhouses and give some of them away as presents, so that will give us some fun projects to do during the rest of the winter...

Next, we used a white outdoor paint and applied it to the exterior of the bird house... There is a lot of information out on the internet about what color to paint the birdhouses and what size the hole should be for each species of bird. If you are making a Martin birdhouse, then you would just add some polyurethane and be done, but little Miss wanted to add some color, so we did our research and determined that blue birds don't have enough homes AND they don't mind color on their houses. Just be sure not to paint the whole house a dark color or the little birdies will get TOO HOT in the summer.

During the painting process, you have to shift the gourds around a bit to be sure to get them thoroughly coated...

And then, you can get out the fun paints and let your little one go to town... Of course, Peyton LOVED this part of the process...

After that, just add a coat of polyeurothane and add the wire in the top and you are all finished...Needless to say, our pre-school teachers loved their gifts and appreciated how much effort went into this project.

So if you are looking for a family friendly project that you can add to the list for the new year, then I would definitely add this one to the list...

Next up... my New Years Revolution!!! Have a happy day, everyone!!!
 

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