Shaving Cream

Yesterday we played with shaving cream!!!  The kids love it when I get out the shaving cream.....so many things to do with it, but yesterday we just played with it.

I will warn you though, if you are doing this with smaller children, watch them very closely cause they will try to eat it or may rub in their eyes. 

 Maddox loved it.....he loved it so much, he threw a fit when I said we were done!  Surpisingly he didn't try to eat it.....I explained to him right away that it wasn't food and we don't eat it.

They all had so much fun!  This is a fun activity to do when your child is bored and can't go outside.....keeps them entertained for quite awhile.  I have one little boy that didn't even want to touch it.....some kids just don't like messes or to put their hands in stuff!

Here is a list of things to do with your kids and shaving cream:

--Play with in the bathtub.....give your child a paint brush and they can paint themselves or the bathtub and the nice part is it washes down the drain when they are done.

--Play with it outside in the summer with their suits on.....you can dye the shaving cream and they can paint their arms and legs or paint their friends.....then just hose off or run through the sprinkler.

--Mix together equal parts glue and shaving cream to make puffy paint....works better to spoon onto paper to keep it puffy....you can leave white to make snowmen or clouds, or dye with food coloring and make hearts, shamrocks, Christmas trees, pumpkins, etc.

--Marble Painting: I will explain this in another post soon.....so fun and looks awesome!

--Put some on a tray and have your child practice writing letters, numbers, their name, draw shapes, etc. in the shaving cream.

--Put some in a ziploc baggy (can dye it with food coloring) and you have a mess free sensory activity......use finger or q-tip to move the shaving cream around.....have a baggy for each letter of the alphabet and your child can practice writing their letters by tracing the letter on the baggy.

 

Tracy

Painting with M&Ms

Do you have leftover M&Ms from Valentine's Day??  Well I had some leftover and even found half a bag from Christmas (thought the boys might like some green).....don't really need to eat any more chocolate, so today we painted with it.  We first did a little sorting and counting and talked about more and less.

Then put your M&Ms in a cup or bowl and add just enough water to cover the M&Ms

And start painting.....the colors aren't real vibrant, but more like a watercolor.

They thought this was pretty cool and they loved that it smelled good too.....they were all saying how it smelled like chocolate!!!  Of course, we had to eat some before we painted as well.

A very easy project that could be used with any color M&Ms and you could also cut shapes out of your paper when done painting as well.

Tracy

Valentine's Day Party!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I will warn you, this may be a long post!  We did so much and had so much yummy food, I just have to share it all with you today.

We started off with the food, cause nobody wanted to eat breakfast......they were all saving room for cupcakes!  And it's always nice to eat early enough that they will actually eat their lunch when it's lunch time.  First off, I made these yummy pretzel buttons (found on Pinterest) and I have to say they were the perfect salty sweet combination......I ate way too many!

Reese and Cooper helped me open all the hersheys kisses and stick them on the pretzels.  Pop them in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes (til the chocolate starts to soften) and then press a M&M on the top.  Super easy and really good too!!!

I made these heart shaped mini cakes with my silicone pan I used yesterday (I think next time I will buy 2......I really had to work at it to get all the crayon off the silicone).

I froze cherry kool-aid in heart-shaped ice cube trays ($1 at Dollar General).  We added those to our Sprite.

 Time to eat!!!

We also had some jigglers and goldfish with the rest of our sugar!!!

Maddox couldn't get enough chocolate!  He was not happy when I cut him off!

 

Time for Valentines!

Maddox handing out his.

Game time!
The first game we had 2 teams.....they had to race down, put on a pair of mittens, open a hersheys kiss and run back.  It was fun to watch them try to open the kisses.

We went to PF Changs on Saturday, so I snagged a couple of the chop sticks for kids to use today.  We used the chop sticks to transfer the candy hearts to another bowl......then we counted to see who had the most hearts in their bowl.  They did pretty good with this and wanted to do it over and over again.,

My 3 kiddos ready for Valentine's Day!!!

(So difficult to get a picture where they are all smiling and looking at the camera, but this morning we did it!!!)

Tracy

Valentines

This weekend, we worked on Valentines for school and daycare and Reese's Valentine box.  Reese decided to make her own valentines for her friends at school, so I gave her some options off Pinterest that I found, Cooper wanted Transformers.....so we didn't make his and Maddox didn't really care!

 Reese had to make a Valentine box for school and decided on a bird house.  Finding the right box was a bit of a challenge, but my dad came through for us.  The only cost to her box was some brown craft paint from Wal-Mart (I was out).....the rest I had on hand.

 My mom has a cricut machine, so we made a bird, her name and some hearts to add to her box.

One half of the roof lifts up in case the valentines are too big to put in the hole or to get out.

I think the roof is my favorite part!

Then we made these with paper we had on hand and the glow sticks were 12 for $1 at Wal-Mart.

I made these for Maddox to hand out to his daycare friends.....16 bouncy balls for $2 at Target.
To make the bags, I used a ziploc baggie, cut off the top, and stapled folded cardstock on the top for a label.

Cooper wanted transformer valentines for his friends.....super easy!

And I made these for the daycare kids.....crayon hearts.....decided to do green for the boys since they all like green and did red, pink, and purple for the girls.  They had the silicone pans at Wal-Mart for $3.50.  I am also going to use the pans to make heart-shaped little cakes for our party tomorrow.

I know these took a little bit more time than signing your name to a Valentine, but it was fun to do with the kids and it was something different than candy.

Tracy

Valentine Boxes

We are having a Valentine Party on Tuesday and the kids are all bringing Valentines for their friends.....so of course we needed to make a Valentine box!  I try and do something very low key for the boxes.....I have done paper plates (use a full size one for the back and cut another in half and staple to the front for a little pocket.....very cute and easy, I've also done the shoe box thing (which takes forever to wrap and cut a slit in) and also the white bag.  Well, I buy a lot of snacks for the kids and it got me thinking to use cracker or cereal boxes.  So, I cut off the top and started wrapping them.  I decided to use foil.....easy to wrap and I had plenty on hand. 

 I cut the cereal boxes down a little, so they were about the same size as the cracker boxes.

All wrapped and ready to decorate.

We used stickers, sequins, foamies, and I punched out some little hearts with my heart punch.  For their name, I used heart doilies (40 for $1 at Dollar General) and wrote their name on them.  Then the decorating began!!

Maddox even made one.....he thought he was hot stuff!

Showing off their boxes.....they were so proud of them!

Cooper made his box today......he covered the sides, bottom, back and even stuck some foamies on the inside.....he loves to create!

I love Valentine's Day.....fun crafts with the kids, making valentines, decorating boxes, yummy candy, and best of all a date with the hubby!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Tracy