Nerf Target Game

For Christmas, my 7-year-old got a couple smaller Nerf guns. Now, we already some, but they were all bigger guns (or Chewbacca's crossbow or Captain America's shield) so we played in a different way than target practice. But since these were smaller and I was tired of getting hit with little Nerf darts, I put together this simple target game. I grabbed a couple of the cardboard tubes we had lying around from paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls. These make great bases. The hardest part was looking for balls that were the right size and density. If they were too small, they would fall right through the tube. If they were too big, they wouldn't sit on the tube. If they were too heavy, they wouldn't fall off when they were hit with the dart. Well, I was really looking for those balls that we used to have for a ball pit when my son was like 2, but I never did find those. Instead, we used some fake snowballs I had lying around. I think I bought them at dollar tree or someplace similar over a year ago. It turns out, they were perfect! So, I found book to set our tubes on. You could easily use a table. You just need the tubes to be set on a flat surface so that they don't just fall on their own. We put up the tubes and set the snowballs on top of them. Then, we started shooting! It easy enough to set up time and time again so after the first couple of times, my son was able to play by himself and was entertained for about half an hour just shooting the targets. It's easy enough, but you can make it more challenging by backing up and shooting from further away. It's a fun little game that's easy to set up and play inside when it's too cold to go outside! (The temperature the day we played this was around -2.)

Painted Rocks

A couple months ago, we did one of the Michael's Saturday morning kids crafts workshop. We do these from time to time when I'm looking for something to do and I remember to look up the craft ahead of time (think, busy mom that forgets a lot). The reason I always want to look ahead of time is to make sure it's something my son will actually enjoy. Our Michael's is on the opposite side of town and frankly, we just don't go over there if we don't have to. Plus, Michael's crafts aren't free. So, I saw that they were doing painted rocks and thought my son would really enjoy this! And it's SO easy to do at home. If you haven't seen these, you've been living under a rock! See what I did there...
Yeah...so...painted rocks are cool now. So we got there, walked in, they gave us our supplies (flat rocks, paintbrushes, paint, plate to put paint on, and paper towels so we didn't make a mess), and I brainstormed with my son about what we should make. That's right. We. Some parents just let their kids go at it and make whatever and that's awesome! Let your child stretch their creative wings! More power to you! But that is just not who I am. I like to make sure that he's not just making crap. He can do that at school. So we planned out what the rocks were going to look like in the end. And we talked about what he wanted to do and what he wanted me to do.

And we chose the rocks with our ideas in mind! We chose a somewhat square one for our Creeper head from Minecraft, an oval one for our owl, and then we knew we had to make a heart when we found a rock that was heart-shaped.

We did the background color for each of the rocks first. That way, when we were done, the first one was dry enough to add detail. Since our rocks were black, we had to do multiple coats for lighter colors.Make sure the paint is completely dry before adding a new layer on top to avoid your colors bleeding together.

After we finished, we let our rocks sit while we did some shopping and then came back to pick them up when they were dry. I think they turned out great and we'll definitely be making some more this summer!

Even though we had a great time painting our rocks, I am by no means endorsing Michael's Kids Club. My favorite is Home Depot's Kids Workshops, but those are only held once a month. Michael's is just a back-up if we're already planning to be out and they have something interesting on the docket. Some of their crafts are sponsored by Sprout which my kid hasn't watched in like 4 years so we're not interested at all. And while most of the crafts aren't OVERLY girly, some of them are! I mean, my son is cool with making bracelets, but he's not okay if I take him to make a fairy house. Our biggest complaint has been the people in charge of these crafts. The woman that used to be in charge of these used to complain about kids. I don't know why she felt comfortable talking about this with me, but it was really annoying and unprofessional. And the girl in charge now is just so quiet. We have to ask like 100 questions just to get the details about the craft we're making. So go into these with your eyes wide open people!

Science: Float or Sink

I decided to do a fun little science experiment with my 7-year-old son a couple weeks ago. This takes hardly any time to set up and you have all of your supplies lying around your house. How great is that? I love an easy project that doesn't cost anything that my son finds fun! Plus, he's learning something along the way.

First, I had Owen walk around the house and find 15 things that wouldn't be ruined by water. I told him we were going to see if which ones sink and which ones float so make sure you pick out a variety of things so that not all of them sink or that not all of them float.

Then, we found a large bowl or small bucket (just make sure all the things you picked out with fit). We filled our bowl half full with water. We folded a towel in half to put next to our bowl so that we would have someplace to put our items after we took them out of the water.

I then prepped a piece of paper to fill out so that we could record our results that included 3 columns for items, prediction, and result. I wrote in each item and then we made our predictions.

Then it was finally time to put everything together and see which ones sink and which ones float. We did one item at a time. Owen ended up guessing 14 out of our 15 items correctly! I think that's pretty good. Then, we talked about why each individual item floated or sank. 7-year-olds now-a-days are pretty smart!

One of the great things about this little experiment is that you could adapt it to any age group. I easily could have done this with my 3-year-old preschool class when I was teaching. But you could even do it with 5th graders! I think the biggest difference is deciding how much freedom the kids have in picking out items and then the conversation afterwards about why each item floats or sinks and how in-depth you get with it. Either way, it's a fun little experiment to do with kids!

Travel Gifts

This is a fun family tradition that was passed down from my mom to me and I hope that my son does this for his kids when he has them. First of all, I love to travel. I make it a point to try to go on a vaction at least once a year. Sometimes I end up taking far more than one. For example, in 2017, I went to Scotland, a roadtrip through the Southeast United States, Wisconsin Dells, and Las Vegas! It was a crazy year and we spent way too much money! Now, for every vacation with my son, I get/make small gifts to be opened while we're travelling. These don't have to be anything huge or great. They're usually either something he can use while on the trip or small toys he can play with to entertain himself while we travel.

Here is a list of some of the things I have gotten for my son:

Games:
1. "What Am I?" Guessing Game
2. Kids travel game book

Toys:
3. Stress Ball

4. Magnetic Me

5. Lego Box

6. Catch Ball (you know, the one that you attach to your wrist and throw and then it bounces back to you so that you can play catch with yourself!)

7. Play Packs- there are so many different ones to choose from. They have everything from Star Wars to Hello Kitty to Minions to Inside Out.
8. Candy- Clearly, we don't want our son to be on a sugar-high while stuck in the car, but a fun candy necklace is entertaining and delicious!
Useful Items:
9. Sunglasses
10. Dry Erase Markers (to draw on the windows of our car during our roadtrip)

11. Personal Fan

12. Conversation Cards- this sounds silly, I know. But it helped time go by. We got him this set that was pretty much a version of kids 'would you rather' questions and we used them to talk and entertain ourselves for over an hour!

Now, travel gifts don't have to just be for kids. They can also be for adults! I know my husband enjoys these just as much as my son. That being said, I usually only get him 1 or 2 presents. Here are some things I have gotten him in the past:
1. Magazine- My husband doesn't subscribe to any magazines so it's nice for him to be able to thumb through Wired when we travel.
2. Portable charger- He uses his phone more than anyone I know so of course, it's always dying when we're out doing stuff all day. These are GREAT for vacations.
3. Travel Press- This is one of the coolest things I've bought him to date! My husband loves his french press at home so when I got him a travel version? Oh, he was in love!
4. Puzzle book- My husband just loves crossword puzzles. And he thinks it's so fun to get me involved in them with him. So we try to solve all the puzzles together. It's nice while in the car because I can drive, he's giving the hints, and it keeps both of us entertained!
5. Headphones- because sometimes, I'm fine with everyone else in the car listening/watching something else while I drive and jam out to the music I want to listen to! lol

Remember how I said this list wasn't just for kids? Well, it's not just for husbands either! Sometimes, I even buy myself some travel gifts! Sad? Maybe. But fun? Of course! Here's what I get:
1. Nail polish- not for use while in the car, clearly.
2. A new waterbottle- preferably one that will keep my drink cold for 24 hours!
3. Journal- so I can write down everything about our vacation to report back to you guys!
4. Adult coloring book (and some colored pencils)

We love putting together little presents to make the actual traveling part of our vacations (which isn't always fun) a little more tolerable. What are some things you get your kids as travel gifts?

Craft Fair

In December, I had a booth at my second ever craft fair. I think the hardest part so far is getting enough inventory. The second hardest part is putting together an attractive display.

First, let's talk about inventory. My 2 best sellers were ornaments and stuffed animals. Next time, I definitely plan to make more of those 2 things. I didn't sell as many hats as I thought I would. So it just goes to show you that things you like and what you think is going to sell really well, may not be what everyone else is willing to buy. My profits have not been as high as I would like them to be. But my second craft fair went better than my first. So I'm willing to keep trying and hopefully, it will just keep getting better.

Now, for the display. My first fair was just embarrasing. I cringe just thinking about it. I had 2 tables with no covering. I used plastic crates for my display. For my second fair, I thought a little more about the display. I made a spinning tree for my key fobs. I used a wooden crate this time. And my husband made me some wooden stairs to display my stuffed animals. I did think to bring a black table covering for my main table. But then I decided to use a second table and last minute, threw an old blanket on it so they didn't match at all. Next time, Im going to try to make it look a little more cohesive. Ah! We all have goals, right?

I think the biggest take-away is to keep learning and keep evolving through each one. And if you want to buy something from my crochet business, feel free to head on over to klcrochet.etsy.com where I sell finished items AND patterns!

Yearly Christmas Photo Frame

Since the first Christmas my husband and I spent together, his mom has bought us the yearly holiday Hallmark frame. Every year, they come out with a new frame (that has the year on it). Sometimes, it's a simple silver frame while other years, it lights up and everything! At first, we thought it was kinda cute. But now, we're super excited to see what it looks like and put our family Christmas photo in it and add it to our collection. We've celebrated 9 Christmases together and look forward to adding to it every year. I can't wait to see what our collection looks like in 20 years! I think this is a great tradition to start with your own family. We only bring out these frames at Christmas time so it's always a nice experience looking back over all the years as our family has evolved.

Winter Cupcakes

A couple weeks ago, I was in charge of making cupcakes for our monthly choir treats night. The person I was paired up with wanted to do a winter wonderland theme so I was off on a mission to make my cupcakes look like they were ready for a winter wonderland. For the base, I made 2 batches: a simple chocolate cupcake and a simple vanilla cupcake. I was kind of in a hurry so I didn't have time to get crazy with my flavors. Besides, this post is about the decoration, not the recipe.

Since I was making 2 batches (about 44 cupcakes), I started with 32 oz of white frosting. Then, I added just a few (about 6) drops of blue food coloring. I didn't want it to be too blue, just more of like a subtle ice blue. I piped the frosting on top of the cupcakes (make sure they're completely cool first) and let them dry. I sprinkled a couple of them with glitter sprinkles to make it look like snow.

Then, I made the white chocolate snowflakes. I traced some snowflake designs on a piece of wax paper. Flip the wax paper over. Melt some almond bark. Put the melted almond bark in a squeeze bottle. Pipe/Trace the snowflakes. If it's too hot, wrap the bottle in a towel. Let the snowflakes dry completely before trying to take them off the wax paper and placing them on the cupcakes. I even added some blue sugar sprinkles to some of them.

After my choir practice, I put together my cupcake tower and placed them all on there. Everyone kept complimenting me so I think they turned out perfectly for what I needed them for. The tracing technique for almond bark is such a simple thing that it makes it useful for any occasion.