Mother’s Day is just around the corner.  Help your little ones either make something nice for their Grandma’s or let them help you choose a nice gift from the store.

Note:

Here are some ideas from Family Fun.

Evaluate:

So rather than stressing about making something cutsie I decided to go and by my mom and Mother-in-law some of my favorite truffles.  I’m going to pick them up tomorrow.  It should be early enough that they won’t all be gone and late enough that they will still taste yummy when I give them to them on Sunday.

Today’s Activity:

Time to get out those empty cans and make your tin can phone.

Note:

I have never made these before EVER in my life but I have always wanted to.  Check out this website to learn how to do it.

Evaluate:

This was a lot easier than I had expected.  The kids couldn’t help much putting it together but the sure did enjoy playing with it.

Today’s Activity:

Fill up your buckets part way with water.  Leave them out for the night to freeze.  Sorry but this will take two days and I didn’t realize it until I tried it today.

THIS is what you will do tomorrow…after the water is frozen fill it up the rest of the way (not to the top though, we all know water expands when frozen).  Once you have filled it with water take your plastic cups and fill them with rocks until they are sturdy on top of the layer of ice and then freeze them again.  Once it is frozen remove the cup.  This may be hard because it WILL be frozen into the ice.  I recommend using a paper cup if you have it because you can use a blow dryer to melt the ice around it and plastic may melt.  If that doesn’t work, just bring it inside and wait it out…you could possibly fill the cup with hot water to help control where the ice melts.  Then remove the chunk of ice from the bucket and set it on your porch with a glowing tea light in it.

Option 2:

This is also a drawn out activity but I did this today as well.  I ran into a cute Gingerbread House kit at Costco and Max has been begging to make one so we did that today too.  Although I did most of the decorating (I know, it looks like a kid did it) the kids enjoyed watching me get very messy as well as eating the leftover frosting and candy.

Note:

Take the opportunity to teach your kids a little bit about the science of water turning to ice.

Evaluate:

Like I said above, this is going to take longer than I thought but other than that it was fun to do with the kids and I’m excited about it.   Mine aren’t done yet and they won’t be until Saturday but I have seen these and I think they are AWESOME!

Today’s Activity:

Today is a craft, and kind of a treat.  We are going to make cornucopias out of our ice cream cones and Runts.

Note:

Hopefully you didn’t have any trouble finding the runts, I found mine at Winco.  If you didn’t find any you could always fill them with fruit shaped cereal or fruit snacks.  You can use these to decorate your own home or take them with you to share at tomorrows Thanksgiving dinner.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Boil some water.
2. Hold the ice cream cones over the steam (do not get the cones wet).
3. Stand there for a long time (about 30 minutes!) steaming the cones.
4. Once the cone is soft enough mold it so it looks like a cornucopia.
5. Fill with Runts or a fruit shaped treat.

Evaluate:

Let me just say that my SIL is amazing!  Several years ago for Thanksgiving she made like 20 of these.  This is NOT an easy task!  I had to sing songs so that the kids wouldn’t get board but it didn’t matter much because their arms ended up getting tired anyway (and so did mine!). I even tried microwaving a cone with some water to create steam but it didn’t work. These really are super cute if you have the time to do it.  After about 20 minutes I started worrying about getting Max to school on time so I did my best to shape one (it did break a little).   So my most successful one is on the right in the picture above.   It was for sure a fun experiment so I would suggest at least trying it and if you run out of time then just set the cones out without reshaping them because they still look cute.

Today’s Activity:

Remember those individual size milk cartons you’ve been saving?  Well now you can take them off your counter (or wherever they’ve been sitting staring at yo

u and begging you to throw them away) and get to work.  HERE are your instructions.

Note:

Don’t worry about perfection, just have fu

n and have music playing in the background.

Evaluate:

So it looks like they actually used acrylic

paint but I still used sharpies and I now have permanent marker on my table.  Amber said Windex will get it out but I tried it and it didn’t seem to work, plus Elese kept sticking her hands in it.  Also I couldn’t seem to get the hole punch to punch a hole through plastic so our craft is incomplete.  So here is what I learned:

Lay down newspaper so you don’t ruin your table.

Invite the HULK over to punch the holes for you.  I even tried a knife (BE CAREFUL) but it didn’t work great.  I’m sure I could have figured it out but dinner time was quickly approaching as was my aerobic class I planned to meet a friend at.  I suggest that if you have a moment to spare before you pull out the craft that you try and figure out how to attach it to the lights so the kids don’t have to sit and

watch you struggle.

BOTTOM LINE The kids didn’t seem to care that I couldn’t get the lights all hooked up.  They were just happy that I was sitting with them watching them decorate their milk containers.  My goal is to have fun and spend time with my kids and I accomplished that.

Let’s go for a hike!  Pack a back pack with some water and snacks and head to your favorite kid friendly trail.

Note:

Lucky for me I live in Utah and I’m surrounded by all sorts of outdoor adventures.  If you aren’t sure where to begin take a moment to ask a friend or do a quick search online for “kid friendly hikes” in your area.  If weather is an issue just dress warm and be willing to turn around and head for home if things get too cold.  Also, be prepared to make some hot chocolate afterwords.

Prepare:

Our Halloween craft project is coming up if you’d like to participate start saving your single serving milk containers. All you will need is a string of lights from your Christmas storage (preferably white but any will do), empty individual sized Milk containers and a black sharpie.   If you’re nervous about getting together enough containers ask your neighbors to pass theirs onto you rather than throwing them away.  Besides I’m sure your children wouldn’t be upset with a stop at their favorite fast food restaurant on the condition that they order milk to drink.  You have until Friday the 16^th to get your materials together.

Evaluate:

Yesterday was a very enjoyable day for me.  I took the kids bowling and aside from Max’s fit about having to go home and never knocking down all the pins, we had a fun time.  Then Max went to his cousins birthday party while Elese and I put dinner in the crock pot, watched Cinderella, and even took a little nap together.  The rest of the day was spent sitting on the porch, wrapped up in a blanket watching Max ride his bike and Elese play with her cousins.  We also ended the day with a rousing game of Candy Land.  I’m glad I took this day to spend with them, it made for a much happier and more patient me.