Super-Easy Cool Comets

Faced with yet another hot afternoon, we made up some comets, dipped them in a bucket of water, and the girls had a blast hurling them at each other until they were soaked!

It started off innocently enough with Emily tossing a comet at Clara.....

Sunday Snapshot -- You MUST Try This!

If you do only ONE thing this Summer, you MUST do this!!

Fun with Music -- Ribbon Dancing!

We had rain all day, and the girls needed to burn off some energy. So we tied some ribbon onto some canning lids, cranked up some Latin music, and had a DANCING fiesta in our living room!!

Woo hoo!! Both of the girls had so much fun!!!

Solar-Powered Lunch!

We had a scorcher of an afternoon today -- prime conditions to make our own solar oven! We recycled a pizza box and a clear plastic lid from a disposable cake pan. Add a little aluminum foil, and voilá... a super eco-friendly and frugal solar oven!!

We even made our own sun tea, just to harness the power of the sun a bit more. I love that it's made from a tea called "Children's Tea". Mark and I often joke that it is "made from only the most well-behaved real children".

It's actually a caffeine free berry/honey tea, and it's quite delicious! 

Emily LOVED helping out with the solar oven! We made our own pizzas using spinach tortillas, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and oregano... yum!

Adjust the reflector to get as much sun as possible directed into the solar oven. You can use a stick or wooden dowel to prop it up, but we found a little more foil worked well too.

After a few minutes, the pizza was done and baked to perfection!!

Now it's time to stuff yo' face!!!

Nom, nom, nom!!

I love that we were able to bake while keeping the house cool, and without using any electricity! We had so much fun, that we may even try baking some cookies for dessert!!!

Cheap Thrills -- Airplane Racers

For a fun time, make up some paper airplanes (Emily has a slight obsession with making these lately), attach some bent paper clips and tie a long piece of string. Race your airplanes!!!

Emily thought this was so much fun, and Clara was quick to pick up on the racing fun too! Since Clara isn't quite old enough to be able to throw a paper airplane, having a string to race them along worked perfectly.

Shake, shake, shake your string!!

Ready.... set........

.................GO!!!!

Cheap Thrills -- Simple Bean Bag Game

For a fun time, sew up a few easy bean bags. Then take them to your driveway for a test run with some targets drawn with sidewalk chalk!

It's so much fun, and a great way to practice addition by keeping score!

It's not solely about the execution.... bonus points for style!

Extra bonus points for joining the kiddos!

Fun!!!

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Pretend Play on a Dime -- Garden Center

Emily loves to pretend that she works at a garden center. She can spend hours arranging and re-arranging the flowers (as seen here), planting pretend seeds, and caring for her pretend plants. So Mark and I put together a little store front for her about a year ago, and she has been playing with it virtually every day since!

Mark put together the frame for the store front using inexpensive PVC pipe (thanks, honey!), and I sewed a banner from an old bed sheet. I painted the lettering using a freezer paper technique. 

Repurposing Toys -- Peter and the Wolf Play Set

Last weekend, our family went to see Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" (Thank you, Aunt Julia!) We all really enjoyed the ballet and music! So much so that Emily wanted a play set so she could re-enact the story. I thought that was a fabulous idea, so I sent her on a scavenger hunt to find toys she already had around the house to use for her play set! This kept her busy for a long time, but she was able to find everything she needed.

Without having to buy anything, she found two men dolls (one for Peter, and we added a white beard and cane to the other one to make him into the Grandfather), a small duck, a cat, a gate, a wolf, and even some hunters!

LIVE and in HD... It's FFFB!

I was interviewed for two segments LIVE this morning on 69 News at Sunrise to share some of my ideas for family fun on rainy days!

In case you missed today's show, here are the clips:

Next, Eve Tannery and I had LOTS of fun gettin' crafty!

Special thanks to Eve and the crew over at 69 News WFMZ for such a FUN morning!!

Fun Fossil Dig

Mark and I took the girls to a local park for a fun "fossil" dig! Since there are no beaches near us, we settled for the park's outdoor sand volleyball court. The girls love to dig in the sand!

Our "fossils" were made up of small toys (i.e. Happy Meal toys, game pieces, toys from the dentist, or from party goodie bags). We counted them to make sure we knew how many there were, then Mark and I buried them (partially exposed) for the girls to find. Clara was so excited to find her own treasures!

Emily used our old salad shaker to sift through the sand. That salad shaker was from when Mark and I started dating, and we would joke that we weren't quite ready for the "salad spinner" stage of our relationship.

There were LOTS of fossils to find!

When all the fossils were found, we all took a nice long walk through the park. What a wonderful (and frugal) way to spend the afternoon!

So much fun!!

Weekend Rewind -- Make Kites, Not Friends

It's time for another fun post from the archives. Here's an activity we plan to do again this weekend! The kites were A LOT of fun! The snooty moms at the playground, not so much, but it made for an interesting story. Wishing you and your family a wonderful Easter weekend!

Today's post was going to be all about making kites, and how we followed this great tutorial from maya made showing how to make your own kite. Not just any kite, mind you, but the best damn kite ever!

I'm planning a similar activity for my MOMS Club, so I thought I would take the girls over to the playground for a "test run". The girls and I were having a fabulous time, and the kites flew really well.

Then something weird happened. Two moms and their kids walked over to the playground from the apartment complex near my house. I thought it would be nice to see if they would like to join us. After all, it is a beautiful day, perfect for flying kites, and I had plenty of materials for all of us. So I walk over to them, smile and say hello, and asked if they would like to build some kites with us. No response, and get this -- they both completely looked the other way!!! What is up with that????

Now that I'm officially a victim of complete playground rejection, I just don't understand it. I mean, what is the point? I always felt that being a stay-at-home mom meant that we were all in this together, and should try to support one another as best we can. I know a lot of us complain that it is difficult to meet other moms, or have a social life, in general. But when someone takes the time to be friendly and approach you, do you react this way? No!

I hoping maybe, just maybe, this was all some stupid misunderstanding. Like maybe when I asked if they would like to build kites, they heard, "Would you like a steaming hot bowl of herpes?". Or perhaps, as my friend Jenny Henny suggested, they don't speak English. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I have to say, this was a bit of a blow.

Now, about the kites. Let me tell you, they are super-easy to make, and they fly very well -- even with just a slight breeze! Emily liked running back and forth with hers in the field.

Here's how to make your own kite: First, fold your paper in half, like this.....

Next, fold the flaps over on an angle, like this.....

Then, add a bamboo skewer to the back like this. Attach with tape.

Punch a hole in the kite, along the fold, to attach the string.

Fly, and enjoy!
I can guarantee the kite will fly. However, no guarantees that it will make you any new friends.... sorry!

Zoo Journal

For Emily's birthday, we splurged on a family membership to our local zoo. Since we plan to make many trips there throughout the year, I thought it would be fun for her to keep a zoo journal filled with sketches of all the animals she sees!

It was a beautiful day, so most of the animals were out for us to see and sketch! She started by drawing these handsome penguins.

And look at this sweet lorikeet! He kept thinking Emily had food.

Emily's favorite part is the river otter exhibit! They are so playful and fun to watch!

She is very proud of her zoo journal, and showed everyone who would look at it!

I'm looking forward to seeing how her drawings evolve over the course of the year, plus I love how this simple activity encouraged her to closely observe each animal. We had a great time!!

Felted Easter Eggs

The girls and I had so much fun making these CUTE felted Easter eggs! To make your own, you will need some wool roving. If you have trouble finding wool roving, you can purchase it online here.

Start by filling a pitcher with some very warm water, and add a few tablespoons of dish soap.

Stir up the water in the pitcher until the soap is well-combined.

With a small amount of wool roving, get it wet and start rolling it into a ball in the palm of your hand. Clara was eager to keep up with her big sister, and with just a tiny bit of help from Emily, she was able to make a few eggs of her own.

Add more wool roving, bit by bit, until the egg is the desired size. Add stripes or dots to your eggs, make them multi-colored! Go CRAZY with your wild egg designs!

Once your felted ball is the right size, gently shape it into an egg shape.

Wow!! This is so much fun!!!

I see some felted Easter egg hunts in our future!

So pretty! Added bonus -- kids with clean hands!

* This post contains affiliate links.

Story Stones and Sidewalk Scenes

For some cheap creative fun, draw on some rocks with a fine point permanent marker to make your own story stones. Once your characters and props are all made up, take them out to your driveway and.....

....with a little chalk, draw up some scenery for your imaginative story!

Emily loves to make up stories, so this activity kept her busy for a very long time. We had quite a tale going on here, involving lost kites, fire trucks to the rescue, and boats that fell over the edge of a very high waterfall. The drama! The excitement!

Of course, there were also trips to Grandma's house, some minor fender benders, and one accident involving a car driving through a house. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured.

Emily asked if she could go back outside to continue with her story after dinner. She won't have to twist my arm.

Have fun!!