Frank, Jack and my Mummy!

I made these cute little guys with Raia and Malachi for my craft blog. They are becoming quite the little crafters. We will also be making Frank with Kiera's second grade class on Halloween for their class party. Raia made Frank and is so possessive of him. I think it is funny that she realizes that he is hers because she made him . . .  well most of him:)

Decorate your house with cute creations made by little hands! Your little ones will love this activity! Even my two year old (who helped make the Frankenstein) tells everyone that Frank belongs to her! These are relatively simple to make. The kids did most of the work, but there was a little preparation before we began!

Here we go! 

Meet: Mummy, Frank and Jack!!!

 These really are so cute!

For all three, This is what you need: (Or see a break down below)

Three baby food glass jars (but jars of any size will do- even plastic!)

Emer's Glue or Mod Podge

Paint Brushes

Hot Glue Gun

Green, Orange, white and Purple Tissue paper, cut into thin strips the length of your jar

medical gauze

black felt

googly eyes

two push pins (painted black if you can't find black)

a black sharpie pen

you will also need some willing participants!

First, the Mummy:

I used:

baby food jar 

White tissue paper (pre-cut to size of jar) or medical tape

elmer's glue

paint brush

2 googly eyes

medical gauze

If you are using tissue paper, paint inside the jar with glue and then add white tissue paper. If using medical tape, tape the outside of the jar.

 Then add eyes with elmer's glue.

 Here are the kiddos painting the inside of the jar with glue before they stick the tissue paper to it.

 When eyes have dried add a little glue to the outside of the jar and wrap gauze to it.

 Your mummy will look lovely!

Next, Frankie!

I used:

baby food jar 

Lime Green tissue paper (pre-cut to size of jar)

elmer's glue

paint brush

2 googly eyes

Small strip of black felt (enough to be his hair)

2 push pins painted black

black sharpie marker for mouth and scar

Hot Glue

Paint inside of jar with glue and add green tissue paper. Make sure it sticks well to the side so you see nothing but green in the jar.

I cut the sharp part of the push pins off so I could hot glue the flat side to the jar ( maybe you can find something that doesn't need to be cut)

 Cut out hair to your desirable length and shape, I gave mine some jagged bangs. glue on your googly eyes, use sharpie to draw moth and scar!

 I love Frank!

 Lastly, we have Jack. The easiest one. 

I used:

baby food jar

orange tissue paper, pre-cut to the size of my jar

black felt, pre-cut eyes and mouth

 Paint glue onto the inside of jar and attach orange tissue paper to it. Let your child glue on the pre-cut jack-o-lantern face and let dry completely and you are done!

 g

Love these guys! I hope you do too! Happy Halloween!

Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
 Amy

Monster hands!

Made these with Malachi and Raia for my craft blog. Raia is finally getting the hang of smiling for the camera! Their faces are just so funny in these pictures! We learned how to make these from the preschool class that my mom works with in California. The kids want to do it every year.

 Time to celebrate the season by making spooky monster hands!You only need three things to make this treat!

 Grab your favorite little helpers and these items:

 Popcorn - Candy Corn - Vinyl Gloves

 Super easy . . . pop pop corn and let cool, pass out gloves, put some candy corn inside and have the kiddos shake them down . . . two or three may gather in the same finger hole, so space evenly.

 It should look like this: (love that smile)

 and that one too . . .

 Then add popcorn and shake it down into the finger holes as well. You might have to do a little crunching to get it to fit. Don't worry, it will be okay. Tie the top in a not or close it off with a bread tie.

 Enjoy . . .

 and be a little silly . .

Happy Halloween and
Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
 Amy

A three ingredient treat!

I just posted this on my craft blog, Amy's Craft Bucket, and thought i would put it here too. This is Kiera's new favorite treat!
To make this:
Simply buy a can a crescent rolls, fill with marshmallows and chocolate chips, roll them up (seal them good!) and cook them according to directions! I also sprinkled them with powdered sugar!!

I found this recipe on Pinterest via http://www.northerncottage.net/.
See my board: Cookies and Other Yummy Things, here.

Superhero Birthday Party

 You had a birthday shout hooray! Well we had two birthdays, so shout it twice!! In month of September Bubba turned five. Raia turned two in July, the week after I had surgery. So we kinda accidentally missed it. Well, we didin't really miss it. She did get to open her "Dance With Me Baby" doll, 

which she had wanted ever since she saw her cousin, Aarilyn's at Christmas last year. 

She was so happy to get it. She danced the rest of the night away. 

I had to put up a picture of our little dog Maddie, first. The kids love her so much and she is currently on vacation . . . .

I love doing special things for birthdays. I think it creates really important memories for my kiddos. I don't always get to go all out, but I really want them to have a special day where they feel extra loved and appreciated.

 For Bubba's birthday I made an ice cream cake. Super yummy and much more affordable than Dairy Queen. We covered it with whip cream for frosting.

 For Raia, it was red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

After seeing the stacks for the presents, Kelsey's dad, Quinn decide he need to start having big birthday parties too.:)

 The best part of the party was playing games with the friends.

 Look at Bubba's smile! In the picture above!!!We invited our close buddies and family for a  pool party so we only had one game but it was a big super awesome hit.

 It was an obstacle course for superhero training called "save the citizen" (like Sky High) It required you to crawl through tunnel, football step through some hula hoops, crawl under the "force field" table . . .

 Break through a "wall" and finally, save the citizen (which was that baby sitting on the green chair). Judging from the smiles on the kids' faces, I'd say breaking through the wall at the end was everyone's favorite part. We used Styrofoam cake squares to build it. It was really funny watching the bigger kids trying to crawl through the tunnel. It seemed a bit hard for them. Also, Quinn, decided he needed to throw balls at the bigger kids as they ran the course to see if they could dodge them.

There he goes . . . off through the tunnel!

 Just looking at these pictures again makes me remember how fun it was! Even Raia loved it! I am sure Maama was secretly wishing that she could do the training course herself, that is why she volunteered so quickly to help Raia!

 Here she is, saving the citizen! For awhile she sat in the chair and held the "citizen" captive on her lap.

This wall was such a big hit!I got the idea from my friend Jodi, who did something similar at her sons birthday party last year. I had such a hard time finding the Styrofoam cake forms!

The blue streamers were acting as the"force field". It was pretty powerful!!

 Priceless . . .

 A

 Raia went back again and again. I think she was excited that she was actually allowed to knock something down. The perfect way for the birthday girl to indulge her destructive behavior!

 This was a first for this technique . . .

 Here she is again . . . this time giving it a chest bump!

 Cambria destroying the wall daintily . . .

The birthday boy feeling like a real superhero. The whole time he couldn't decide if he would jump over the wall or bust through the wall . . . this gives us the answer!

 I think he feels like a hero!

We almost had one casualty, but she quickly recovered and saved the citizen!

Here are my lovely wall builder's (at this point my knee was still in really bad shape and I just couldn't get around very quickly.) Thanks to Kai and Ashley who rebuilt the wall time and time and time again!

Kiera, leaping over a building in a single bound.

Quinn, making this superhero duo work hard to get their save!! Don't worry . . . Good triumphed over evil!

The world is safe once again!

 Charlie didn't want to be enrolled in superhero training, he just wanted to practice for the rodeo!

 Our little pool that was perfect for the hot September night. I wanted to rent ut the rec center pool, but financially I had to be more realistic . . .

This is what the cake looked like all frosted. They never look quite like they do in my head . . .

 A

 Here are Raia's yummy cup cakes with two candles!

AS part of the decor, for Malachi I had a sign that said, "In the heart of every little boy beats the heart of a superhero." with Superman's emblem on it. For Raia, I had a hard time finding a quote that matched, but if I had to do it again, I would take a line from The Sound of Music,  "How do you keep a wave upon the sand?" or "How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?" 

Here's my boy, blowing out the candles . . .

 Sorry Grandma . . .it is what it is . . . blowing out the candles in her birthday suit. It is somewhat poetic in nature.

 After the party was over and the real birthday arrived, we celebrated the morning with super healthy birthday pancakes!

 Yummy! Love that toothless grin!

The end!

(until we celebrate in California with my fam, that is . . .except I don't have pictures of that because I forgot my camera, they are all on my mom's camera . . . I am going to have to make a phone call!