8 Christmas Crafts for Summer

No REAL SNOW Make Fake Snow

So if you are a parent you have diapers most likely... 
All you need is to tear open a few "clean" diapers 
Pull the fluffy stuffing out.
Put the stuffing in a bowl and slowly add water until it sort of gels up! 
A lot of fun to play with.. But don't eat it!



Make A Summer Ice Rink aka Water Blob






Make Icey Ooblek

Make Snow Dough (aka cloud dough)

Make Frozen Toy Ice Sculptures

SO we recently have been freezing toys in bowls of water to be chopped out! It would be great fun Christmas in July (or August) to make sculptures of these!

Make a Fern Christmas Tree

Use the fern to make crayon print christmas tree to decorate

Make A Candy Tree 

Find a stick and a pot, fill with rocks, sand, dirt or whatever you have and hang homemade ornaments or candy from it!

10 Things to Put in Your Childs Swimming Pool

So this is the time of year when the kids are getting ready to go back to school and most of them are all sick of "swimming" in the pool. So how about you spice up their lives for them and take a minute yourself to RELAX while they are busy playing in the pool! - no life jackets required!

1. A great non messy option to put in your pool is pool noodles

haha but no water, use an electric knife and slice them up!

2. Colored ice cubes, these are great although a little bit messy.

I put my kids in their play clothes or old swim suits dump the ice in the pool and let them play.

The hose works great for clean up! Or it is also a good way to bribe them into the bath tub!

3. Cloud Dough is Amazingly fun!! A great sensory experience... but it can be a little messy!

Not a great inside plan and outside it flies away in the wind so... dump it in the pool! 

A full body experience of floating on cloud dough!

4. Shaving Cream is a cheap sensory experience. 1-2 bottles of shaving cream will coat the bottom of your plastic pool (depending on the size) and they only cost a dollar at the Dollar Tree!

We add in some drops of food coloring and water beads to add an extra texture! Bath toys are also a great addition!

5. Spaghetti Noodles - we put them in the bath last time but how much fun would they be in the swimming pool!!!!

We recently added them to our Pool

See our Spaghetti Pool Pretend Play Here

6. Ooblek, ooblek, and ooblek. Do you think you can walk on water?? Can you walk on ooblek? Can you lay in it? YOu will have to try it to find out!

7. Jello! We added our foam bath letters!

 8. Playdough! I love playdough especially homemade play dough.. But this is a BIG BUT... I always end up hauling out the vacuum to chase around the small dried up bits of playdough all over the floor, table, chairs... etc!

9. Water Balloons! What kid doesn't love water balloons! We play games in the pool with them. How long can you lay on them before you pop one? How about playing twister in the pool without popping the balloons??

10. Last BUT NOT LEAST

WATER BEADS

I have no more to say... this is by far our favorite!

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Monkey 1st Birthday Party

A Monkey 1st Birthday Party

I cannot believe that M2 turned 1!! There is no way it has been a year already! My baby is now a big girl, she went from sleeping, crying, and nursing to crawling, talking, chasing her sister, eating big girl food, and GROWING UP!!!

So anyways... Here was our Monkey Birthday Party!

Our "ball pit" (for the little kids)

Plastic pool filled with swimming noodles

(an electric knife works great to cut them up)

 Party Favors - 

slingshot monkeys 

and stick on monkey tattoos!

These things were a huge hit! All of the kids had a blast shooting them off the deck (and the adults enjoyed it too!)

I had been praying for weeks for good weather so that we would be able to enjoy our big backyard and deck! It rained this morning.... Talk about stress! Then about lunch time it cleared up and the day was beautiful! Temp in the 70s slight breeze (not too hot or too cold) PERFECT!!! 

The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation Exodus 15:2

Here is the table set up:

Printed out Happy Birthday Banner on 8x11 card stock, cut it out punched holes and hung it up! Perfect!

Purple Table Cloths

Home Made Cake Stands

Sock Monkeys

(How to Make A Sock MOnkey Tutorial)

1st Year Birthday Photos

Banana Candy

 

 

Games and Decorations

We stapled hanging decorations to the trees and the deck to make the backyard feel festive.

The Water Blob Returns

I think we really have perfected this idea now... The first time it leaked... A LOT!

But we got it figured out! THe kids had fun stomping, dancing, jumping, laying, swimming, ETC!

Here is the Water Blob Tutorial

Game 1 
Banana Hunt 
Sort of like an egg hunt but with bananas!

60 yellow paper plates
scissors

Cut the bananas out of the rim of the plates, makes a perfect banana shape. I got about three banana out of each plate. Before everyone came I ran around the yard hiding bananas at all heights and spots.

We did a staggered start. Youngest to oldest. Each kid got a 5 second head start from the last one. So the first person goes everyone counts to 5 then the next person goes, then count to 5 etc. Gives the little ones a little advantage!



M1 finding bananas on the picnic table! Of course our dog Sierra was right at her side! (Such a faithful dog, always looking after her charges!)

Game 2
Monkey Mouth Toss/ Drop

So does everyone remember when I got carried away with the spray paint... this is what the box was for!! M1 and I had fun painting a monkey face on the box and then cutting out the mouth. For this we have a really tall deck. So the kids stood on the step of there age, ie the 3 year old on the 3rd step, 5 on the 5th step etc. 

The original plan was to drop a q tip through a swimming noodle and try to aim it in the monkey mouth, but they kept getting stuck inside??? (Of course this did not happen when I trialed this game but oh well) So we just dropped them instead. 

Each kid got 20 qtips to drop in the mouth.

M2 was very intrigued watching everyone playing the games!

Cake

A Monkey Cake... What else can I say?

Its Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Here is the Link to the Recipe

IT WAS DELICIOUS!!

Other Food
Cheesy Creamy Salsa Chicken
Monkey Shaped Sandwiches
Fruit
Veggies
Hummus

and

ALong with the Cake we had a 
BANANA SPLIT BAR

Ingredients:
Bananas
Ice Cream
Chocolate Syrup
Caramel Syrup
Marshmallows
Crushed Heath Bars
Sprinkles
Pineapple
Walnuts

mmmmm Cake and Banana Splits!! Delicious

Such a fun party and a fun day with friends and family!!

Happy Birthday to my Littlest Monkey!
You have blessed our Lives! We Thank God everyday for the miracle you are, for the joy you bring to our lives, and for the love!

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57