$5 Friday -- Dollar Store Smiles Edition

When will the snow ever end??? I don't know about you guys, but all this whiteness and being cooped up in the house for far too long was enough to drive us all a little coo-coo. So this afternoon I took Emily with me to the dollar store for another $5 Friday adventure! This time we focused on only buying items that made us smile.

We learned many things along the way! For example, did you know that curling ribbon makes for excellent pig tail holders?

Or that a five year old can fit one candy lollipop ring on each finger?

I think these shoelaces are AWESOME! But it wasn't until much later that Mark pointed out to me that they glow in the dark! Now I think they are even MORE AWESOME!

Of course, we love flowers of all kinds! These bunches of fake flowers even had fake butterflies on them.

Blowing bubbles is always fun, but we managed to find fruit-scented ones that were even more fun! (Although I don't think they would taste very good at all.)

Here's the breakdown for how we spent our $5 today:

Curling Ribbon (3 pack) = $1.00

Shoelaces = $1.00

Lollipop Rings (6 pack) = $1.00

Fake Flowers = $1.00

Scented Bubbles (3 pack) = $1.00

Total Spent = $5.00!!

Having a fun "snow" day with my girls = Priceless!!

Fishy Fun on Friday

We decided to have some fun with a "fish day", so I took the girls to the local fish hatchery to learn all about the life cycle of trout. For just $1, you can buy a bag of fish food. Emily loved feeding the fish.... and ducks! Both of the girls had a great time!

Emily was loving this modern fish sculpture.

When we returned home (and scrubbed our hands with lots of lemon to get the fish smell off), we did a fun fish craft project! First, we covered a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil.

Then, Emily tore a bunch of blue, white, purple, and teal tissue paper into thin strips.

She glued them onto the aluminum foil, so the strips were overlapping a bit. She let some of the foil peak through.

Then, we used leaves from our backyard to make fish!

Adding googly eyes to the fish made them look so silly!

We really enjoyed our fun "fish" day!

$5 Friday -- Crafty Dollar Store Edition (and Giveaway)

I've made felt crayon rolls for Emily before, but when I took the girls to my local moms club meeting, Emily pointed out that we didn't have any paper for her to color on. After the meeting, we had lunch and did a fun shopping trip to the dollar store! When we returned home, I started working on an improved crayon roll, a crayon wallet, if you will. This one has space for a memo pad!

And I used felt in Emily's favorite colors ORANGE and green! 

Look how nicely it folds up! I can't wait to take this with us to restaurants, meetings, doctor offices, etc. 

HERE'S THE FUN PART, one lucky reader will win one too!! Just leave a comment and be sure to mention your child's two favorite colors and you will be entered for a chance to win a custom made one just for you! Ahem.... I mean, for your child, of course.  ;-) Winner will be chosen by random.org and deadline for entries is Wednesday, June 3rd at 6:30pm EST.

Felt and ribbon cost a little less than a dollar, so we made a fun trip to the dollar store to spend the rest of our $5 on some summer toys. 

It's still too wet to use these, but that hasn't stopped Emily from having indoor bug hunts.

Here's a breakdown of how we spent our $5:

Felt for crayon wallet = $0.25 per sheet x 2 = $0.50

Ribbon for crayon wallet = on hand

Butterfly net = $1.00

Frisbee = $1.00

5 pack of glow sticks = $1.00

Bug house = $1.00

Total spent = $4.50!!

Get your entry in for this fun giveaway, and good luck!

$5 Friday -- Outdoor Picnic Snack for Five Bucks

This Memorial Day weekend, I'm sure there will be lots of picnics and barbecues. For $5 Friday, I took the girls with me for a special trip to the grocery store to see how far we could stretch our $5 for an outdoor picnic snack! 

Here's what we purchased for less than $5:

1 lb. organic carrots = $0.99

1/3 lb. red seedless grapes = $0.66

1 bag white cheddar popcorn = $0.50

1 bag soy nuts = $1.49

1 box pasta salad mix = $1.00

1 pitcher ice water = free

Total spent = $4.64!!

I made the dip for the carrots by stretching the ranch seasoning packet from the pasta salad mix with a little more mayo and added some milk to make it a little more creamy. It worked well!

Happy Frugal Picnicking!

$5 Friday -- Window Crayons

I was so happy to find these Window Crayons, and I scooped them up the minute I saw them at Target for just $2.70! I have let Emily use window markers before, but the ink seems to run out rather quickly, and the kids have to be really good about putting the caps back on because otherwise they will dry up easily. The crayons, however, are brilliant, and they work well on any glass surface. Emily drew on the storm door, some windows....

...and you know those vases you get from the florist, and you never really know what to do with them? She drew on those too!

Drawing on the storm door kept her occupied for a long time. She was really enjoying herself!

Don't have any window crayons? We have used bath crayons with great results! They need to be a little wet, but they write well on the glass and they clean up easily. Have fun!

$5 Friday -- Mother's Day Gift Idea and More

Here is the sundress I made for Emily using one of Mark's old dress shirts. If there is enough interest (just leave a comment), I would be happy to post a tutorial on how to make one -- it's very easy!

Today, we used our marbled paper from last week to make a Mother's Day gift Mom is sure to get lots of use out of -- a To Do booklet! 

They are small enough to fit into a purse. Emily enjoyed using the corner-rounder. A stapler works great for binding the pages together. This project used materials we already had on-hand.

After Mark came home, we played a classic game of marbles, which I have not played in AGES. I found a deluxe set of marbles at Big Lots for $5, perfect for $5 Friday!

$5 Friday -- Paper Marbling -- This is awesome!

After yesterday's post about making an art smock from a garbage bag, you knew today's post was going to be about a fun, messy project, right? Paper marbling is a bit messy, but lots of fun, and very frugal! 

To do your own paper marbling, you will need: cardstock, liquid starch, water, 2 dish tubs large enough to hold a sheet of paper, acrylic paint, a bamboo skewer, and lots of paper towels.

In one dish tub, put enough liquid starch to fill the bottom of the tub. Add drops of acrylic paint. Try to have colors that go nicely together. We used red, orange, and yellow on pink cardstock paper. Beautiful!

Swirl the colors around with a bamboo skewer.

A comb works nicely for swirling the colors too. Very gently lay the paper over the starchy paint. You may want to bend the paper in half and carefully unroll it into the paint to get the designed transfered well. Transfer the paper to the second tub filled with water, and rinse off the starch. The paint will remain on the paper. Lay on a flat surface to dry.

The finished paper looks like this! Also, the paper feels very soft when it is done, almost like micro-fiber. We will be making more crafts from our marbled paper in upcoming posts!

Here's the cost breakdown for today:

Cardstock paper = on hand 

Dish Tubs = on hand 

Liquid Starch = $1.97

Acrylic Paint = $0.97 each x 3 = $2.91

Bamboo Skewers = on hand

Total Cost = $4.88!!

$5 Friday -- Spring Shaped Bubble Wands

I've posted previously about how much the girls enjoyed our Homemade Bubble Solution. Today after Emily helped me weed the flower beds, we made our own Spring bubble wands!

To make your own Spring bubble wands, you will need: 12" wooden dowels, thin-gauge wire, some electrical tape, and some cookie cutters.

Wrap the thin gauge wire very tightly around the cookie cutter and twist ends together. Wrap the ends around the wooden dowel, and add electrical tape to cover any sharp edges from the wire-ends.

Here's the cost breakdown for today:

Wooden Dowels = $1.99 for pack of 15

Thin-Gauge Wire = $1.35

Electrical Tape = on hand

Total Cost = $3.34

$5 Friday -- Outdoor Tea Party

We have been blessed with some beautiful weather lately, so we started our day collecting twigs to make a trivet. Somehow this led to an endless tea party with Emily pretending that the trivet was an outdoor stove. I love how one project leads to another one like that.

This went on for a long while, and Emily pretended to make me several different kinds of tea. (I love tea!) We had a quick lunch, and then it was time for a play date with friends at the playground.

I think both of the girls will sleep well tonight. What is it about being outside that tires kids out so much? 

Thanks to the nice weather, for $5 Friday we didn't spend any money -- Free Friday!!

$5 Friday -- Bean Bag Toss

For $5 Friday, we made our own bean bag toss game and spent some time playing it outdoors. I indulged Emily's love for outer space and made it a throw-the-star-into-the black-hole game. 

To make your own, use a star-shaped cookie cutter for a pattern and trace onto pieces of felt. Cut out the shapes. Sew together and leave a small gap to fill the bean bag with dry rice. Sew up the rest of the star. Cut a large hole out of a piece of black foam board. Decorate with white paint to make it look like a black hole.

Play!!

Later, we came inside and made our own rocket from recyclables. We used an old mailing tube, but you could easily use a paper towel roll instead. 

Cut tissue paper into strips, and tape to the inside of one end of the tube. Cut out a circle from a piece of scrap paper, and cut a straight line from the outside of the circle to its center point. Fold edges over to make a cone shape. Glue the cone shape to the other end of the tube.

Here is the breakdown of how we spent our entertainment money today:

Foam Board: $3.59

Felt: 50 cents (25 cents per sheet x 2)

Paint: on hand

Dry Rice: on hand

Tissue Paper: 27 cents (clearance at Target)

Mailer Tube: Free from recycling bin

White Cardboard: Free from recycling bin

Tape: on hand

Glue: on hand

Total Spent = $4.86!!