Fun with Kids-How to make a bouncy ball!!

Who wants to make some bouncy balls?? Sarah did!! Here's the recipe! 

You moms out there will love it because its all stuff we usually have around the house...YAY!

½ Cup Warm Water
1 Tb Borax
1 Tb of Cornstarch
2 Tb White Liquid Glue
Food coloring

In a cup mix the warm water and the borax.

In another cup mix the glue, cornstarch, and food coloring.

Pour the glue mixture into the water-borax cup.

The glue mixture will harden after 10 seconds; use a fork to take it out of the water. If the glue mixture is still sticky, squish it with your hands and dip it back in the water.

Roll the mixture in your hands to make a ball. The more you handle the mixture the firmer it will become. Store them in small plastic containers or a plastic bag.

PS... the balls will flatten after resting a while.  If they do roll them between your hands again, this will bring them back to the ball shape.

Edible Finger paint DIY

 We found this lovely idea on pinterest and HAD to try it!! What you will need is some Greek yogurt, (we used plain but will probably try vanilla flavored next time) kool-aid packets, paper to paint on, and containers to mix and store left over paint with. All you do is separate the yogurt into containers according to how many flavors/colors you have mix and then paint. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! 

 Even my 14 year old daughter Gabby loved playing with the "paint"!! As you can see above the mess factor was much smaller with her. LOL! We will be looking for a heavier weight paper for next time but using a double layer paper worked just fine this time.  Other than that they had a blast playing with the fun finger paint! I hope you decide to give it a try soon!

Loves 

Emily

Sparkle Bottles, Time Out Bottles or as We know them by MAGIC FAIRY BOTTLES!!

(please forgive the pictures! This bottle is well loved and hard to photograph...:))

One of my jobs at church is to be a sunbeam teacher. For those of you who don't know what this means, I am a primary teacher (Sunday school teacher) to the 3 and 4 year old children of our ward. I love these little ones so much! They have huge personalities which is on par with the huge energy and wiggles they come with too. Needless to say I am always searching for ways to help them be reverent and behaved. I came across these sparkle bottles and have been very impressed with how well they are working.  I have told my kids that the glitter is little fairies flying around in the jar and if we can hold them still long enough they will float to the bottle and go to sleep. It is their job to help them fall asleep.  It is awesome to watch them watch "the fairies" float to the bottle still and as quiet as ever.  Some people use them as a way to gauge time out times etc. The surprising thing is how my older kids can be found watching the glitter fall also.  They have been really fun to have around. After trying many times to make these just right this is finally the recipe we finally figured out to work great! 

PS stay tuned for busy bag ideas coming soon!!   

1 TBS Glitter Glue

1/2 TBS Clear School Glue

1-2 TBS Fine flake glitter (as much or as little as you like)

Hot water

Clear plastic bottle (I used a 16.9 oz water bottle)

Food Coloring (optional)

Instructions

Clean any labels or sticky glue off your bottle.

 Heat the water.  It doesn't have to boil, but it should be steaming.  You want it to be hot enough to melt the glue but not so hot it melts the bottle.

Put glitter glue into the bottom of the bottle.

 Add Clear School Glue.

 Fill the bottle about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full with the hot water.

 Tighten the caps back onto the bottles and shake until the glues and water are thoroughly mixed.

 Remove the cap and pour in your glitter 

 Fill the remainder of the bottle with hot water and food coloring if desired for color.  

 Make sure the glue and water is well mixed.

 Put super glue in the threads of the cap and tighten it down.

 Shake and enjoy!

PS if you want the glitter to stay suspended for a longer time just add more glue.

Quick and Easy Fourth of July t-shirts

Every year our neighborhood does a pancake breakfast and bike parade on the 4th of July. It is great neighborhood fun! Everyone dresses up and goes crazy with the bike decorating. We always wear something patriotic. So this year I decided to do a little DIY for the kids shirts. I wanted something quick and fun that Lola and I could do together. It was a fun little girls date! Check out what I came up with.

These are the finished product. I think the kids like them!

We started with a plain white tee. I should have laundered them before stamping them to get the sizing out. But I like living on the edge! It will probably effect the way they wash up though.

The other supplies:

foam star stickers

painters tape

multi-surface paint

foam paint brushes  

To make the star stamps we used the foam stickers and stuck a bunch together to make them easier to grip and stamp with. They turned out to be perfect! No need to try and get a perfect little star cut out from foam.

To make the lines I used painters tape to tape off the areas I wanted to paint. I used a little piece of tape as a guide to space the stripes a little better. We put a layer of thick butcher paper inside the shirts to avoid the paint bleeding through to the back of the shirts.

Then the painting and stamping started. We did a couple practice runs using the star stamps and away we went. It was definitely easier to cover the star stamps with paint and then stamp them down. Dipping them in the paint caused a bit of an overload of paint and uneven stamping. We also sponged the red for the stripes. It was easier to dab it on than to paint it on. The stroking caused the tape to move around and caused an uneven stripe. Make sure that you remove the tape before the paint dries completley. It gets hard to peel it off once it is dry. Let them dry completely and then put on!

 They turned out pretty cute!

Quick and easy. Lola and I finished them up in about an hour. She loved getting to make her own shirt. And I loved spending the time with her! We haven't washed them yet so I am not sure how they will wash up. I intend to wash them separately just in case they bleed. The paint is a little stiff but nothing that would stop the kids from wearing them. I am hoping that it softens up a bit. They were fun too make. And they will be perfect for celebrating the fourth!