Catch those sales!!!!!

There are two times of the year when it makes sense to stock up on crafting supplies. The first is in August. Those back to school sales are great for buying all your glue, tape and markers for the entire year. The second is after Christmas/New Years.

Almost every store out there has holiday stuff they want to get rid of cheap and fast. Ribbon, tissue paper, holiday themed kits, gift tags, etc. All this stuff might seem worthless to some, but to a person looking for odds and ends to fill craft boxes for the year it's a gold mine. I recently picked up ribbon spools for 10 cents, paper for 15, and a huge box of foam stickers for only 15 cents. Score!
Moral of the story? Think out side of the box, hunt those clearance signs, and stock up!

Winter Break Sledding

It's amazing how quickly winter break flew past us! It was so jam packed with activities that I didn't even have time to sit and write about them!! We took a trip to the local children's museum, traveled out of state to visit family, had a sleepover with some friends, but I think the highlight of the vacation was sledding. It started by going out in the backyard to play. You know, throw a few snowballs, make some snow angels, that sort of thing.

 

I expected this to last only 5 or 10 minutes before everyone froze and was back inside with wet socks asking for hot cocoa, but no. Instead they found the sleds (and the lid to the recycle bin) and asked to go sledding. So we took a walk to the park where the biggest hill in the area is.

We weren't the only ones with this idea, the hill was packed with excited kids bundled up, screaming with joy. Even with some wipeouts, tumbles, and a close call with a tree, no one was hurt. We sledded until my behind was frozen (I really need to find adult sized snow pants!) so I made the call and we headed back home. The way the kids talked about the fun they had on that hill made me any frozen cheeks a joy.

Pipe Cleaner Friends

Oh, how time flies! I feel like these last few weeks (OK, nearly a month and a half) have gone by in the blink of an eye! We moved. My son started at a new school. We had to trade in our summer ritual of eating a relaxed breakfast in our jammies for clock watching and lunch packing. We packed and unpacked a sea of brown cardboard boxes. And to top it all off I went back to work full time. To say the least it's been nuts!!

BUT, there's always a silver lining in everything. Even though our time was limited, we found a little of it here and there for some fun. One of the things we did was really quite simple, even amongst the moving chaos. I bought some pipe cleaners and pompoms at the store (they actually came all together, even included some googly eyes). And we got creative twisting and turning, gluing and giggling, and came up with some very neat creatures.

The one piece of advice I have for you if you find the same combo pack in the store is this: Directions for how to make the cute animals on the outside of the package are NOT included. I assumed they were, and it wasn't until we got home and I read the small print on the back that stated the pictures were only ideas... one of them even used products that weren't supplied in the pack. :( At least it was only a minor set back, but now I'm a little wiser.

 

Here's what our pile of supplies looked like. We used tacky glue.

 

 

End of Summer Summary

Wow, this summer has been a whirlwind! I can hardly believe that we're preparing for school to start soon, and many of my friends are already posting back to school pictures on their facebook wall. These last couple of weeks have been especially crazy for our family, and that is why I have not posted ideas on the blog. Just two weeks ago we made the decision to move to a new home before the first day of school. So in these last 12 days I have found a new job in a new city, found a house in this new city, and have been quickly saying good bye to all our friends here and packing boxes. The first day of school for my first grader is Monday, so we still have a lot to do in a short amount of time. All creative ideas have been put on the "keep in mind for later basket".

So what have I learned this summer? That summer vacation is not something to be afraid of. Yes, it was exhausting and we're all looking forward to school starting back up. However I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the freedom that the lack of structure gave us these last couple of months. If we didn't have anything planned we took our time getting dressed, ate breakfast on the couch, and enjoyed plenty of laughs being silly while brushing our teeth. These are things that will change in a week. "Stop goofing off and brush those teeth! We have to leave in 2 minutes!"

What does this mean for the future? I've really enjoying writing this blog over the summer. It's been a win-win situation. I liked being accountable to all of you to come with fun activities, my kids have enjoyed all of the cool things we've done, and I've gotten really great feedback from friends who've enjoyed gaining ideas. So I don't want this journey to end. I plan on keeping up with the posts over the school year. But my goal won't be nearly as ambitious. Instead of trying to post daily my goal is to post two to three times per week. That would mean fun Mommy/kid activities on the weekend, and once or twice in the middle of the school week. I think that's realistic for me.

I have really enjoyed the aspect of helping ideas spread, so if you have something you're proud of please feel free to share it on my facebook page, 104 Days of Summer Vacation. Maybe your idea is just what another mom is looking for.

Well, I'm off to pack some more boxes, then head to Target to pick up our school supply list I haven't even touched yet. I hope they still have a small selection of folders to choose from and we're not stuck with the ugly reject folder. ;)

Bead Bracelets

During the school year I was right on top of preparing a fresh and healthy breakfast for the kids every morning. As the summer has progressed on I've gotten more and more lenient about what can be classified as breakfast. Most mornings I've been able to pass off a banana or a bowl of yogurt as this most important meal. (Although I have those dark days too... like the one morning I let the kids open a box of crackers for breakfast.) But this morning I decided to get on top of it again and make a hot meal. Whole wheat pancakes (with white chocolate chips) was the winner.

While I was cooking them up my son busied himself at the table with a container of beads. By the time the kids were done eating and I sat down to eat he had already finished a bracelet.

Here's a tip: If the kids are stringing beads on a thin string (this is a stretchy material) in which it doesn't make sense to tie a knot at the end to keep the beads from falling off, use a piece of tape to hold the end down.

As the day unfolded we ended up going out to Hobby Lobby to get some more beads. My daughter was in heaven! She found seed beads and thought they were just great. She thought they were "shrunken" beads. After looking at small beads, and sparkly beads, and dark beads, and giant beads, and swirly beads, and shiny beads we picked out some that my son wanted to make a torch necklace out of.

We didn't actually have time to finish the torch (we had to run off to the eye doctor). But I'm sure he'll finish it before breakfast is over tomorrow.

Baked Clay Pots

While we were at the fair yesterday, sitting and watching the people doing the pottery demonstration, I mentioned to my son that I think I know how we can make some pots at home. Well, I think that's all he thought about from that moment on, because when we got home last night, as tired as we all were, he asked again and again if we can make pots. I told him we'd talk about it tomorrow.

Well, rise and shine first thing this morning and he's asking me when we can make some pots. I got him to hold off until after breakfast, and after getting dressed, and then I couldn't hold him at ease any longer... the pot making began.

The recipe is really quite simple.
1/2 c salt
1/2 c flour
1/4 c water
I used whole wheat flour so they turned out brown, but if you use white flour you'll have a white "clay".

Mix everything together until it forms a ball.

Shape as desired. We cut out a circle using the top of a scoop.

Then coil some clay snakes around the circle. We smooshed the sides together with our fingers.

Bake at 200 degrees for about 3 hours. The bottoms of our pots were kind of thick so they were a little soft still. We turned them upside down, exposing the soft part, and baked for another hour.

They have a little sparkly look to them when finished. We haven't decided yet if we're going to paint them or not, but chances are good that we will... everything seems to end up painted in this house.

County Fair

It seems like I've made so many outings lately, but there's just so much to do over the summer that it's hard to stay home! And I realized this morning that we hadn't been to the county fair yet, and there aren't that many days left to make the trip.

I piled the kids in the car at around 10am, stopped at the ATM to make sure I had cash just in case I needed it to park (which I did), and about a half hour later was going through the entry gate. I thought we'd only be there for about 2hrs, but there was simply so much to see and do that we didn't leave until over seven hours later!

We saw lots of different animals; in petting zoos, livestock show barns, and educational farm mock ups. By far my sons favorite was the baby pigs. He could have spent the entire seven hours petting those pigs if I let him!

We found a mini circus that had shows every hour and a half, so we had to watch. I was really amazed at the quality of those performers. They had good tricks, were fast paced, and very entertaining. Well done!

We found a pottery wheel demonstration. They even let the kids take a little dollop of clay to shape. Unfortunately they didn't get to keep it, but add this one to the list of things my son wants to learn now.

There was an area that explained how weaving works. They had a large table set up that let you feel how different fur feels from different animals. The other side of the table had tufts of plant based fuzz to feel, like bamboo and hemp. I thought this area was really interesting, I liked how hands on it was.

A guy selling knives was demonstrating how sharp they are by making some really cool vegetable sculptures. I'm going to have to try some of these for myself.

There was an area set up with all sorts of good info for people to grow their own plants at home. There was this really neat picture frame box to make a vertical garden. This is another thing I want to try and make now.

I still can't believe that we stayed there over seven hours! But it was well worth it because we all had fun. My feet ache now, and the kids stayed up way too late, but oh well. That's what summer's for, right?