Day 158: Homemade Bubbles (success).

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I count these as a success, although I still haven't found homemade bubbles that rival the "blowing power" of store-bought bubbles.  My kids seemed to like this previous recipe a little better than this one today.  Anyone else have a recipe for me to try??

Ingredients:

6 cups water
2 cups Dawn dishwashing liquid
3/4 cup light corn syrup

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large container.  Shake everything up and let sit for a few hours. Pour into empty bubbles containers to use with bubble wands.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 156: Pom-Poms as Erasers (success).

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My kids love to use dry erase markers and this pin looked like a quick way for them to easily erase their work if they made a mistake.  This was easy and worked -- simply hot-glue gun a pom-pom on the bottom of a dry erase marker.

The only negative was that my son kept losing the marker cap (since he usually sticks it on the bottom of the marker while in use), but he was occupied for quite awhile with drawing and erasing, so I count that as a success!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 146: Organizing Lego Instruction Books (success).

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My son is just getting into Legos, which means that although we only have a few sets, I'm stepping on tiny Legos everywhere in the house!  I will be looking into Lego storage solutions at some point, but for now, I wanted to try organizing the instruction booklets; the books are already getting torn and ripped from use, and are just thrown in the box with all the Lego pieces.

I took the staples out of the middle of the instruction books and put each page in a plastic page protector before placing in a binder.  My husband thought this was over-kill (he suggested putting the entire booklet in one page protector, as it took A TON of protectors to do the three little sets we have!), but I've already noticed my son is more willing to take apart and re-build his current Legos now that the instructions are easier for him to flip through and see.

For now, this is the system we're using -- I may have to adapt it when he gets more sets with longer instructions!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 139: Scratch-Off Chore Card (fail).

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I am so bummed this didn't work out!  I had such high hopes that my kids would love to do their chores (ha!) with this scratch-off chore card, but it was not worth the effort / frustration to make the cards and then was super messy while the kids were scratching off the paint.

Materials:
* tempera paint (darker colors are better)
* dishwashing soap
* chore card template
* paint brushes
* craft punch (or scissors)
* contact paper

Instructions:
Add a little soap to your paint and mix together.  Use the paint / soap combination to paint onto the contact paper.  Let dry and repeat again; do several coats so you can't see through the paint.  

While the paint is drying, print out chore cards with the template above, or create your own.

When the paint is fully dry, use a craft punch to cut circles from the painted contact paper.  This step was disastrous for me -- my contact paper kept getting stuck in my craft punch and paint flecks were everywhere.

Peel off the back of the contact paper and adhere one painted circle on top of each chore.  As you can see, peeling off the back resulted in even more flaking of the paint.  Plus, even with 3 coats of paint, the chores could be seen through the painted contact paper on my daughter's pink chore card.

Give each child his/her own chore card and a shiny coin, and start cleaning -- or not.  My son figured out that the cleanest way to see the chore was to peel off the painted contact paper.

Getting the hang of scratching off the paint -- which involved lots of paint chip clean-up afterwards and a frustrated 4 year old (and Mom)!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 138: Marble Run Water Play (fail -- although fun).

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This looked so fun, but ended up not working out so well -- we moved the water table inside on a rainy day (with a tarp / towels underneath) and built up the marble run to sit inside the water table.  

Although my daughter played with it for a long time, my son quickly tired of the marbles not moving along as well in water as they normally do without water.  It may have also had something to do with the water table not being completely even (my engineer husband tried to fix it), but the marbles consistently got stuck halfway down the run due to water resistance.

Verdict: FAIL.

Friday Favorite: Use Sunglasses as Impromptu iPhone Holder.

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There have been a handful of "emergencies" where I've needed to hand my phone off to my kids so that I could get something accomplished while they're occupied.  These scenarios typically end in lots of whining / fighting over who gets to hold the phone, who can't see, who's sitting too close to the screen, etc.  Problem solved with my sunglasses!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 133: Bubble Docking Station (success).

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This is genius -- a docking station for bubble bottles!  The kiddos loved it -- and better yet, we didn't waste tons o' bubbles on this hot day of outside playing!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: Organizing Cookie Cutters on a Paper Towel Holder.

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My kids and I seem to use the same handful of cookie cutters again and again, so I loved the idea of organizing one the select few cutters we use all the time away from the big box we have shoved deep in the pantry!  The one problem is that we now have nowhere to put our paper towels :)  Guess it's time to invest in another paper towel holder!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: Water Balloon Basketball.

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We've had a streak of hot days, and the kids loved this water balloon basketball idea.  They would have done this for hours had I been willing to fill up water balloons all day!

The set-up.

Shoot & score!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 117: Straw Bubble Wand (success).

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This worked great!  Using a few items I already had at home, I made a bubble wand that my kids thought was better than the store-bought ones!

Materials:
Tape
7 straws (taped together)
Bubbles (we already had Super Miracle Bubbles, but you could make some at home)

Dip in bubble solution and start creating awesome bubbles!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 116: Jello Shaved Ice (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

My kids loved helping me make this, and could barely contain their excitement for the 4+ hours it took to solidify before eating :)

Ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
2 cups Sprite or 7-Up
1 (4-ounce serving) package of Jello, any flavor

Instructions:
In an 8x8 glass pan, whisk the Jello package contents into the boiling water until dissolved.  Carefully stir in the soda (having a cute boy in charge of whisking is optional).

Freeze for at least 4 hours (I would suggest longer -- our batch was like shaved ice at the top and jello at the bottom after 4 hours, but after 6, was like shaved ice throughout).  Use an ice cream scoop to shave the ice.  Serve immediately.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: "Lift and Peek" Teaching Clock.

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My son is suddenly super interested in telling time, but is getting so frustrated when I try to teach him about the minute hand -- he just does not get it.  I made this clock today, and he was starting to catch on.  It was cute to see his little mind at work!  This was super easy to make using two paper plates, a Sharpie pen, one brad, two small pieces of paper, and some double-sided tape (to stick the two plates together in the center).

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 114: Heart Manicure (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

Even though Valentine's Day has already passed, I thought this was cute to try -- and it worked!  Instead of taking my own "how to" pictures, I decided not to reinvent the wheel and instead, simply borrowed the original blog author's photo below (website link above).

Materials: Toothpick, nail polish & a piece of tinfoil.

Instructions:
Pour a small amount of polish on a piece of tinfoil; refrain from using a quick-dry polish, as it will get sticky very quickly.  Let the polish sit for one minute to thicken up just a little bit, which will make it easier to work with.  Using a toothpick dipped in polish, make a dot on the nail.  Make a second dot next to that.  Using the toothpick tip, drag one of the dots down at a 45-degree angle.  Drag the other dot down at a 45-degree angle to meet the other side.

My finished nail -- I love it!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 113: Reuse DVD Case into Mini White Board (success).

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I recently did a DVD re-organization that involved placing all of our DVDs into sleeves for compact storage, which left me with tons of old DVD cases.  This turned out to be a cute idea for the kids -- and would be handy on long car trips for entertainment!

Materials:
Old DVD case
Piece of card stock
Dry-erase markers
A glove (or sock)

Instructions:
I simply measured and cut to size a solid-color piece of card stock, slipped it into an old DVD case, let the kids color with dry-erase markers to their hearts' content, and then showed them how to simply erase with the glove and start over.  The glove fits perfectly inside the DVD case for storage, although I'm on the hunt for smaller dry-erase markers that will also fit easily inside the case.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 110: Bunny Handprint Art (success).

Pinterest pin and website picture.

Happy Easter!  In honor of the day, we tried a hand-print bunny craft.  I'm a sucker for crafts with my kids hands or feet on them :)

Materials needed:
Washable paint
Paintbrush
Markers
Paper

Instructions:
Spread white paint over kids' hands, except for the thumb.  Stamp their hand on a colored piece of paper (attempting to have them do the Star Trek "Vulcan salute").  Let it dry and paint the ears, nose and eyes.

First attempt -- we didn't use enough pressure when we "stamped" her hand on the paper:

Second attempt:

 Done!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Friday Favorite: Liquid Laundry Detergent Container into Bubble Refill Dispenser.

Pinterest pin and website picture.

I just mixed up a new batch of homemade bubble solution and poured it into this liquid laundry detergent container.  My kids can't wait until tomorrow (when the bubble solution settles enough to create awesome bubbles) to help themselves to more bubbles whenever they are running low!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 107: Homemade Bubble Solution (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I think I've found our new homemade bubble recipe -- it's easy to make, uses only three ingredients, smells delicious, and didn't frustrate my kids when they were using it since they were easily able to create lots of bubbles using this solution.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1/2 cup liquid dish soap (I may experiment with different varieties to see if the bubbles differ)
1/8 cup corn syrup

Pour the ingredients into a large container and shake well.  Allow the bubbles to settle for a few minutes before using.  This is what my solution looked like before allowing it to settle:

Play!

I found that we could blow the largest bubbles when I let the solution sit for a day before using. That's mostly a reminder for me to make this beforehand!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 104: Gigantic Homemade Bubbles (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

It's felt like summer around here the last few days, and evidently, that means I only attempt pins involving bubbles :)  I'm still on the hunt for an amazing bubble recipe for my kids, as this one didn't do the trick.

Ingredients:
6 cups water
1/2 cup blue Dawn dishwashing detergent
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin

Instructions:
Dissolve the cornstarch in the water, stirring well.  Gently stir in the remaining ingredients.  Allow mixture to sit at least an hour, stirring occasionally to prevent the cornstarch from settling to the bottom.

Our cornstarch never dissolved, despite frequent stirrings, and eventually became a hard mass on the bottom of the bowl.  When my 4 and 2 year old attempted making bubbles after a few hours, they weren't very successful and got frustrated.

And because of the cornstarch, my deck looked like this until I scrubbed it down with soap and water...

As a comparison, this is the amount of bubbles my son could create using the "super miracle bubbles" solution purchased at Fred Meyer.  I am on the hunt for a homemade concoction that works this well!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 103: Bouncing Bubbles (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I didn't have distilled drinking water, but this pin still worked for me using bottled water instead!

Ingredients:
1 cup (distilled) drinking water
1 tablespoon dish soap
1 teaspoon vegetable glycerin

Materials:
Bubble wand
Clean glove (to keep bubble from popping)

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 24 hours.  Then, carefully blow a bubble to catch / bounce with your gloved hand.  

The one thing I found is that I could really only catch a few bubbles per glove before this pin stopped working -- once the glove got a little wet, the bubble no longer was able to be caught or bounced; it would immediately pop.

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 97: Kool-Aid Easter Egg Dye (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

After discovering the way to make perfect hard-boiled eggs, we were ready to dye some Easter eggs using Kool-Aid!  This pin worked great, and my kitchen smelled so good while we were doing it -- as a child raised in the 80's, there was a lot of Kool-Aid consumed in my past.  The scent definitely brought back some sentimental memories for me!  

It was so quick and easy for my 4 year old to do this himself without staining his hands / clothing, and each packet only cost 20 cents!  I had only picked up 2 Kool-Aid packets, but before Easter comes, we'll be doing this again with many more colors and the rest of our family members!

Ingredients:
1. Fill a coffee cup or bowl with enough water to cover an egg placed in the water.  We had enough here to fit 2-3 eggs in at a time.

2. Add a single Kool-Aid packet to the water.  Stir until crystals are completely dissolved.
3. Add a hard-boiled egg, and leave in for a few minutes for a deeper color.
4. Remove egg and allow to dry.

Verdict: SUCCESS!