Colorful Dinosaur


Storytime at the Library was all about dinosaurs last week. They had this craft that was really fun and simple.

All you need is:

  • printout (or drawing) of a dinosaur
  • glue
  • paper scraps
They boys glued on the paper scraps to make a colorful and stylish stegosaurus!

Simple Thoughts on Motherhood

I've been thinking a lot about Motherhood lately. 

I recently learned of this mother's life and have been inspired and uplifted by her perspective. I believe Motherhood is a beautiful gift. I believe Motherhood is divine.




Shark Cupcakes


My Mother-in-law gave us an amazing book titled Hello Cupcake! a while back. It has so many fun and creative cupcakes designs and it has actually become one of the boys favorite books to read! LM had his 4th Birthday a little while ago and so I let him look through the book and decide which cupcakes he wanted for his big day. He chose these fiercely delicious SHARKS!


Mine didn't turn out nearly as immaculate as the book's picture, but I gave it a valiant effort with the supplies I had! They were a lot of fun to make, and even more fun to chomp!!

Hat!


We read HAT, by Paul Hoppe this week. For our craft, we made our own hats!


What you need is:
  • Paper plate
  • Paper bowl
  • tape
  • stickers


First, I cut a whole in the plate big enough for the bottom of the bowl to fit through.
Then, I taped the bowl into place underneath with masking tape.
Next, the boys put stickers on.

My boys love putting on hats, so making their own big hats was a big hit!



Family Home Evenings

Last year I decided to come up with a Family Home Evening (FHE) idea each week and post them on this blog. (You can see our past ones here.)

It was fun to come up with a new idea each week....but sometimes we didn't have FHE simply because I didn't have time to come up with an idea! I knew that I wanted to make our FHE's more regular, and so I decided to not come up with my own ideas, but to simply use the lessons in the Church's Nursery Manual.

We bought one a while ago and so each Monday evening, after dinner, we sit together and have our FHE lesson, and of course, a treat. The lessons are short, simple, and preparation is minimal. You can do as little or as much as your children's attention span will allow. They have suggested activities you can try if you want and even pages you can copy or print for the kids to color and craft.

We've been doing these lessons for a while, and I have to say, that Nursery Manual is the best thing since take n' bake pizza! FHE has been successful. Often short, but always sweet. :)

I'm going to post a link to the lesson we are on each week for anyone that wants to join in. This week we are on Lesson 15: I am Thankful

Wiggle Worms




My sis-in-law gave me this awesome book for my Birthday called, Making Toys for Preschool Children. It has so many fun ideas and I'll be sharing them on here as we try them.

This activity is called Wiggle Worms. Here's what you do:

  • Cut out strips of paper.
  • Draw "wiggle worms" on some of them.
  • (We also decided to draw hearts on the rest of them.)
  • Put them in a bag.

To play:

  • Sit in a circle on the floor
  • Take turns passing the bag around the circle and pulling out a strip of paper.
  • If you pull out a "wiggle worm" then everyone stands up and wiggles.
  • If you pull out a heart then everyone gives each other a hug, or comes in for a big group hug.

This is a fun family activity too! And LM has put in a request to play it for Family Home Evening!

Do you like this idea?

Looking for more activities for your little BOY?
http://www.littlefamilyfun.com/2012/03/crafts-activities-for-boys.html

Thoughts on Childhood


We are slacking a bit in the craft and activity department lately! So, today I just wanted to share that I love being a mother.

I recently heard another mother share this amazing thought (I’m paraphrasing):

My children will grow up and in a few short years they will be adults. From then on, and for the rest of their life, everyone who meets them and knows them will know them as an adult. But as their mother, I get the privilege of knowing them as babies and children. I get to see them experience childhood. What an honor it is.

Every child is precious. Every child is divine. What an honor it is to know the children in our lives.

Pen and Pencil Can


A simple and fun way to create a place for all those writing utensils hanging around the house:
Wash out an old soup can and put scrapbook paper around it. I used double stick tape on the edges to hold it in place.

Cluck O' Clock





Book & Craft this week was making hens to look like the ones in this book:


I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the hens look like they're painted. So I thought that would be a perfect craft to go along with the book!


The boys painted with finger paints onto several pieces of white paper. After they dried, I cut them into hen-shapes. I cut out red feathers for the head, and orange beaks from construction paper and we glued them on. Then we drew on the eyes with a black marker. Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!


This would also be a fun craft during Easter and springtime!


*P.S. The best finger paints around are by Crayola. They are the perfect consistency. Not too runny and not too thick. And best of all they are completely washable--and so easy to wipe off tables, fingers, and wash out of clothes. I HIGHLY recommend them for painting crafts with kids. 
And there is a great deal on Amazon right now to get a nice set of 12 different colors. In big bottles that you can use for a LONG time! Check it out!



We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Clover Cookies



Since we don't have any shamrock cookie cutters, I found a super simple way to make St. Patrick's Day Cookies over on everydayfoodstorage.net . They gave a whole recipe, but I just used a box of sugar cookie mix and put a few drops of green food coloring in it.


Then......

Roll the dough into balls and place them together by 3's (or 4's) on a cookie sheet




Use a cup, plate, lid, or anything else and flatten them.




Add a stem.



And bake!! 

The result: Clover Cookies sure to bring oodles of Good Luck!


HAPPY ST, PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Shamrock Treasure Hunt


Buying these glittery shamrocks on clearance last year has served many fun purposes this season! Here are 2 more things I've done with them:

1. After the boy's naptime, I laid the shamrocks out in a trail around the house. They followed the trail and it led them to a pair of St. Patrick's day socks for each of them!

2. We used the rest of the clovers to decorate one of our windows!

Sticker Scenes


Use stickers to re-create a scene from a favorite movie!
LM's favorite movie is Cars. He loves Lightning McQueen! We have some Cars stickers so I thought it would be fun to create one of the scenes from the movie with them, when McQueen races Doc but runs into a cactus and Mater has to tow him back up.

You could do this with any stickers from a movie or not. Create a fun scene with whatever stickers you have!

Grab Bag Game


This activity is so easy and fun. We grabbed a bag and placed all kinds of toys and objects from around the house in it. I had LM reach in the bag and asked him to try to feel for something specific each time (apple, egg, airplane, etc.) When he thought he found it he grabbed it and brought it out of the bag to see if he was right.

Free Art on a Clover


After I was inspired by the things I mentioned in my post, Enjoying Early Childhood, I have wanted to allow LM to have more opportunities for Free Art. Most of the time we have a specific craft we are working on. Occasionally we paint or color just for fun. But I thought it would be fun to one day get out ALL of our arts and crafts supplies and just let him go at it! I thought it would be a fun way for him to just be as creative as he wanted to be.

I haven't done that yet, but this was a step closer. I cut out a big clover using construction paper and then got out all our markers, crayons, colored pencils to let him color it however he wanted to. He chose to mostly work with the pencils and markers, but it was fun to just watch him CREATE!

Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli


This week's Book and Craft was making our own paper-bag Monsters to go along with this book:


All you need is:

  • paper lunch bags
  • crayons
  • googly eyes
  • glue

We colored the monsters with crayon and I drew the teeth. Then we glued on googly eyes. I cut out a piece of "broccoli" and we took turns feeding the monsters different things like in the book. The boys loved it!

Shamrock People


We made shamrock people out of some glittery clovers I bought last year on clearance after St. Patrick's Day.

All you need is:

  • shamrocks, or green construction paper to cut out your own shamrocks
  • googly eyes
  • construction paper for hats
  • glue
  • scissors
  • marker

We made these when the boys' cousin E came to visit. While they played, I cut out hat shapes, one for a boy shamrock and one for a girl.

Then they glued the hats together and glued on the googly eyes. Lastly they drew smiles with marker.

The result: a mighty cute clover couple, I do say!

Red Light, Green Light!


We made a craft that ended up turning into a fun game. LM has been very observant and helpful about watching traffic lights for me as we drive around town. I originally thought it would be fun to just make one, but then we decided to tape a paper flap over each color and open them up one at a time as we played the classic, Red Light, Green Light game. (the flaps fell off from so much use, so they are not shown in the picture above.)

All you need is:
  • white cardstock
  • red, yellow, green construction paper
  • crayons
  • glue
  • tape

Have Fun!

Apple Tree Game



LM loves to count things lately, so I made up a game for him to play.

All you need is:

  • white cardstock
  • red, green, brown construction paper
  • scissors
  • glue
  • dice


What to do:

  • Cut out a tree and glue it onto the cardstock
  • cut out or rip small pieces of the red paper
  • Scrunch up the red pieces into little balls


Playing is simple. We just took turns rolling the dice and placing that many apples on the apple tree.

Easy Frog Craft for Kids

Summer is in full swing....and ending all too quickly! If you're kids have any bored days where they are jumping off the walls l...