Staying in...

Here's one way to trick the kids into eating their veggies: Let them create their own signature salad Set the table with every type of topping you can think of and let them go crazy with it. I do believe my girls mixed croutons with chocolate chips and marshmallows. (ew!) And they gobbled their salads proudly.

Then we brought out the old toilet paper tubes and had ourselves an airplane derby:

Attach a straw to the top of the tube, add wings and decorate how you wish. Stick a nickel sized piece of playdoh inside the tube (to make it go faster)
Attach one end of a piece of string to a surface that's high off of the ground, and attach the other end to something that's low to the ground...
Then let the games begin!


We're getting ready to move so we have lots of big boxes at our disposal. The thing is, we've been using them for everything BUT packing. This started out as a slide for their stuffed animals, but quickly turned into a slide for little girls. The box was held to the back of the couch by packing tape. It held up for about a dozen slides :)


** earlier in the day it was used as a car ramp-- so versatile!

And you can't have big boxes around and not make a little play house of your own. We set this up in our living room and made a few additions to make it a little more homey.... Like adding a shelf for decorations and a glade plug-in to the wall.


Have you seen enough cereal boxes on this site yet? Cause here's more comin' at ya: Cereal box dominoes! I think I had more fun with this than my girls. The more boxes the better!




When Miss T got sick last week, she was so sad not to be able to play outside in the snow. So we brought the snow in to her. We filled a bowl with snow and prepared several cups of water mixed with food coloring for her to mix with the snow. I gave her a spoon and she was good to go.




We also spent a significant amount of time this week making glitter pictures.




Everyone loves a new outfit-- so we made some out of butcher paper.


Just tear off a long piece of butcher paper and fold it in half. (our friend gave us a big roll of paper she got for free from the local newspaper printing office)
Cut a semi circle out of the top to fit the head through, then have the kiddos create their own style.



Enjoy!

Sportstastic

Play 'catch' a new way today!

Step 1: Find a ball and hot glue some pieces of velcro all over it.

Like So:


Step 2: Cut a a rectangular (or circular) shape from an empty cereal box
Step 3: Hot Glue a piece of felt to the cardboard
and Step 4: Create a handle from the same cereal box and hot glue it onto the back of the rectangle (on opposite side of felt)


Step 5: Find a buddy and go play catch!




And another use for the good old trusty cereal box: Vowel GOLF!

Step 1: Cut holes in 5 different empty food boxes and on each one, write a different vowel. Set them up around your living room.



Step 2: Create a golf club using an empty cardboard box and.....a blowgun?
(whatever kind of 'stick' looking thing you have around the house will do.)
To make this one, we just created a little hole through the box and stuck the blowgun through it. We then taped the holes to hold it into place.



Step 3: Have the child pick a word. (in place of word magnets, just write words down on strips of paper.) Say the word aloud and ask your child to tell you what vowel they heard in that word.


If they heard an 'O' in the word, have them putt the ball into whichever hole has the 'O' written on it. Make sure they get a chance to hit the ball into each of the holes.

If vowels are too advanced, you can adjust this golfing game to any other topic or level. (Counting..sounds...shapes...etc)

After your game of golf, head to the kitchen to whip up some Homemade Playdough.
Click HERE for the recipe and instructions.






Super easy and so much fun.
And may I add just one word of wisdom: If you play with this clay and have dry, cracked hands it will burn like the dickens. Put on lotion...then proceed to play.
So there you have it.
Perfect President's day activities....that have nothing to do with Presidents at all.