Homemade Key Rack

I have wanted to make a new key rack for my kitchen as the one I had did not really match.  And I thought since it was going in the kitchen that it would be fun to use utensils to hold the keys.  Well I finally got around to getting all the supplies for this project and recruited my little helper to assist in putting it all together.  You know she wanted to do the painting part right (it is her favorite thing)!

I have to say that if you decide to make this get your utensils at the dollar store.  They are cheap and because of that not very thick and you can bend them easily.  I know the utensils we use at the house are MUCH harder to bend so trust me get the cheap ones! 

Also we applied crackle paint to this but you don’t have too.  I just really LOVE the way it looks and it goes so well in my kitchen.  But this could very easily be done with just one color (or two if you paint the letters a different color).

Supplies

Base Color Paint

Crackle Glaze

Flat White Paint

Clear Protector Finish

Wood Plaque

Paint brush

Wall Hanger

Wood Letters

4 Utensils

A Strong Glue (I used Beacon 527 multi-use glue)

Directions

Start by painting your wood plaque and wood letters the base color of your choice, then allow to dry four hours.

 Apply evenly the crackle glaze to dry base color, allow to dry one to four hours (don’t wait more than four hours!)

 Apply a very even coat of your FLAT (must be a flat paint) white paint.  Do not work this layer of paint much as it will not crackle evenly if you do. (this will start to crackle quickly)

 Once the paint is dry apply the clear protector finish to protect the crackle and keep it from peeling off.

 

 Allow the protector to dry then put your wall hanger on.  You want to do this before you put on the utensils. 

 Next bend your utensils.  I lined mine up to make sure they were even with each other.

 Now glue on your letters and utensils.  And allow to dry several hours.

 Then hang your new Utensil Key Rack on the wall and add your keys!

Homemade Slip n Slide

Summer is here!! Summer is here!!  Are your kids out of school yet?  Well my daughter is out of preschool already and the boredom has set in (yeah and it is only the first week!) So I guess it is time to start thinking of some more fun summer activities to do with her that will keep her entertained longer since summer lasts for several months!

This weekend we made our own slip n slide.  I know you are probably asking “Why make one when I can just run to the store and buy one?”  And the answer is because for the same money (or less depending where you shop) you can make a bigger and better one with pretty much the same effort or less as the one you would buy at the store

I LOVE this slip n slide because it is so wide there are no worries about sliding off into the grass.  And it is long enough to go all the way down the hill in our back yard.  The plastic we used can be bought in different sizes so no matter how wide or long you need you can find the size you want.  

My oldest daughter was so excited about this that the next morning (after playing on it for hours the day before) she insisted that she did not want to go to the zoo but stay home and play on the slide so by 10am she was out slipping n sliding.  My youngest on the other hand was not so impressed.  As soon as the water touched her foot she screamed.  I thought she would love it if she just tried it out so my oldest put her on her lap and went down but nope she was not having anything to do with our slide.   As a matter of fact she just walked over to her swing and wanted nothing to do with us… oh well more sliding for us (yeah you know I had to try it too!).

Supplies

Plastic sheeting (we used 10ft X 25ft)

Rocks (we used a big rock on each corner to hold in place)

Water hose

Directions

Unroll plastic sheeting and place rocks on four corners.

Wet plastic with water then leave water hose sitting on plastic to keep it wet and start sliding!

Trying to go down with Little Sister

WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

I think I will just go on my swing!

Yep, clothes and all I had to give it a try... SUPER FUN!

I am Super Girl!!

I can do this all day!

I am fine right here, and don't even think of spraying me with that water!

 

Healthy Ice Cream

I don’t know about you but my daughter loves to snack, and the things she wants to snack on are usually pretty unhealthy.  And getting her to eat healthy foods is getting harder and harder.  I have tried almost everything including pureeing veggies and putting them in her food (which actually works pretty well).  So a couple months ago when I heard about making banana ice cream I was pretty excited.  Okay I have been making and eating this for myself for a couple months and it is yummy and has no fat no sugar and almost no calories.  Not exactly like ice cream but VERY close.

So this weekend I told my daughter that mommy was going to make her something special, and then I came out with this homemade ice cream.  She LOVED it, and she thought I was just the best mommy ever to make her special ice cream (shhhh don’t tell her it is easy to make!). 

The trick here is having a good blender.  When I started making this I just had a regular $20 blender you get at Wal-Mart.  I could still make it but I had to add a LOT of milk which made it runnier.  For Mother’s day my hubs got me a Ninja blender and it works AWESOME.  So you can make it with a regular blender, but it comes out more like ice cream in a better more powerful blender.

Ingredients

1 Frozen banana (freeze without the peal)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 Tbs Milk (can use almond, coconut, or soy if you want)

Sprinkles (because they are fun!)

Directions

  Freeze your banana, but make sure you peal it first and I usually cut them up and put them in a baggie.

 Add your ingredients (except for the sprinkles) to your blender and blend.  Note: if you do not have a powerful blender add more milk one table spoon at a time till it mixes everything up.

 Scoop your icecream out and add sprinkles.

Eat and enjoy!

 

Question of the day: How do you get your kids to eat Healthy?

Duct Tape Obstacle Course

What to do on a rainy day?  Why not make an obstacle course out of duct tape!  I mean everyone has duct tape on hand right?  No worries this is super easy to do and the kids will love it, oh shoot I even gave it a try.  I will say though that my daughters were much better at getting through than I was, my booty kept getting caught on tape.  Oh well it was still fun and my girls played with this for quite a while then we had a blast running into it to tear it down.  

After my youngest went through a few times I added a  bunch more tape because it was just too easy for my oldest to get through.  The cool thing about this is you can make it as hard or as easy as you want which also makes it great for for any age child (or adult).

Supplies

Duct Tape

Directions

 In a hall way or anywhere in the house where you can tape the ends of the tape to something (if you don’t have a space in the house that this will work, try moving the couch a couple feet out from the wall and doing it there)

Put the tape on one end then the other end of something criss crossing and sideways, make it so that the kids will have to crawl under and climb over the tape.

No just get through your obstacle course, if it seems too easy the first time get in there and add more tape.

That's me already got my butt stuck on the tape and I just started... maybe it is my form?

Finger Paint Mess

Kids love finger painting, it is messy and fun. But have you ever thought of really letting them get messy with it.  I mean taking it outside and letting them do whatever they want?  I decided to let my girls do just that. 

Running off with the paint

I will say though that my 1 yr old was not as interested in it as my 4 yr old was.  My 1yr old like to steal the bottles of paint and walk around the yard.  But my oldest had a blast.  She painted with her hands then painted with her feet (it was a little slippery which made it fun).  After she was done making a big old mess we flipped the poster board over and she started mixing the colors.  She got too see that yellow and blue make green, and red and yellow make orange, but her favorite was mixing the blue and red for purple. 

With the color mixing this is not only a fun messy project for the kids but it is a learning activity too. 

Worried about the cleanup, no worries we used washable paint and it came out of everything easy.  I was worried that my youngest would eat the paint and get sick so the paint we used was also non-toxic because you know she stuck her paint covered finger in her mouth (man I can’t wait till she is over this stag).    So no worries with this project if you buy the non-toxic washable paint. 

Supplies

Poster Board

Non-Toxic Washable Paint

Directions

Lay poster board out and squirt some paint on it.

Let the kids play and explore with the paint.

Hey this is slippery!

Color Mixing

Food Sensory Bin

I have been looking into doing a sensory bin for a while, but my biggest fear is that my youngest would eat everything I put in the bin.  She is still in the stage where she puts everything in her mouth.  So I finally thought why not just do a food sensory bin and then it would not matter if she put it in her mouth, so that is exactly what I did.

But you know I cannot do a bin for my youngest and not do one for my oldest so I changed it up a little for my oldest and added some letters and toys to hers so she would be more interested.

I was surprised by how much she LOVED this whole idea.  Both my kids actually really enjoyed there bins and played with them for quite a while.  I never understood what Sensory Bins were all about but after some Research I finally figured it out.  They are mostly for fun and to stimulate your child’s senses.  And really what better way to start out stimulating senses than stimulating your taste since right?  Well the bin we did actually had more to it than just taste, we had marshmallows that are soft to the touch, pretzels that are a little rough to the touch since they had salt on them, some cereal and candy which all had different textures so not only where her taste stimulated but her touch was too and if you take into account the fact that everything was a different color and shape then her site was stimulated too.  Man I think I got these bin’s down.  Now to get you started this is what we used for ours, but you can use whatever you want for yours!

Supplies

Bin (we got one at the dollar store)

Marshmallows

Pretzels

Jelly Beans

Cereal (any kind)

Directions

 Start by deciding what you want to put in your bin, then adding it.

Now just let your kids play and have fun with it; Let them explore the bin and see what they can find.  

 

Question of the Day:  Have you ever made a sensory bin?