Bucket O' Seasons

This year we want to make sure to get in lots of family activities so on one of my crafting weekends, we did a variation of the "bucket list" ideas ala Pinterest and made us a seasonal bucket list of all of the stuff we want to get done in each season. Some of the stuff are things we do every year so they'll be able to be reused over and over and some are some new additions. Since it's March now, we are starting with the Spring list. I think this is a fun way for the kids to keep track of what we have done by taking the clothespin off when we complete something and dropping it in the bucket. It's also a good way for them to stay excited about the things we still want to get done. And since these activities are pre-thought out we won't be sitting around wondering what to do. Ideas will be right there in front of us. So here's what we have on our Spring bucket list.

• Go to the Zoo



• Go to the Tulip Festival



• Plant flowers



• Family game night



• Ice cream date



• Play at the park



• Fly a kite



• Make a craft



• Go to a movie

Can't wait to get started. maybe we'll even try to knock one of them off of there this weekend.

Shark Board

Yesterday I had very good intentions of getting the house back in order. I mentioned to my sister in the morning that I was feeling crafty and was trying to decide which one of my millions of projects in my head to work on. I noticed Mike had been outside for a bit. When I went out to see what he was up to, I found him drawing on a board to do the project we've been talking about to finish of the kids new shark bathroom. Apparently he was feeling a little crafty too. So he cut it out for me, sanded it and painted it. Then I broke out the Cricut for the decorations and words. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Now we just need to get it hung.


Needless to say, the house chores went neglected one more day and we created more of a mess to clean up. I also tried out another project I had seen on another blog while I had the Cricut out. It didn't turn out perfect but it turned out pretty darn good for a first try. I might be making some more for Christmas gifts this year so sorry no pictures yet. Good thing it's a 3 day weekend. Time to get to those chores, unless another project pops up ;).

Mother's Day Project

Caleb is really getting into a phase of wanting to make gifts for people instead of picking them out something in the store. He is always making cards for people and drawings and so when Mother's Day was coming up this year of course we decided to go with the homemade route again for all of the Grandma's. We went to Hobby Lobby for a little inspiration and Caleb decided he would like to try out soap making. I had never done it before either so I thought it sounded kinda fun. So we bought a few essentials to start out and came home to give it a whirl.


I am happy to say that Caleb loved every minute of it. He got to help run the microwave to melt the soap, put coloring in to make fun colors and pour them into the bug mold he had picked out in the store.

It was a very fun project for him and the twins loved watching and yelling "BUG!" every time we would squeeze the completed ones out of the mold. We wrapped up a set for each Grandma and enclosed a card. Now that they have all been delivered, I get to share the pics. We made enough for 4 Grandma's and we even had some extra to send to Aunt Tracey for a little Happy Mother's Day as well. Caleb has already asked to make it again and requested that we get some more molds and more specifically, a shark mold to make some more with. Should be loads of "clean" fun coming up in this house.

4th of July Treat

Here's a quick and easy 4th of July goodie for your BBQ's and get togethers. Chocolate dipped marshmallows on skewers with sprinkles. I did some regular marshmallows and some strawberry flavored ones and decorated them with blue and red sprinkles. I also did both dark chocolate and white chocolate combinations.
They made a great, fun and edible centerpiece for my glitter toe/hair flair party I hosted last night. The table looked pretty festive.

I got this idea from a cousin of mine she had used the star shaped marshmallows which was even cuter, but after 4 stores of looking for them I gave up the hunt. I am still really pleased with the result though. Fun, easy and I didn't let the kids help this time but it would certainly be something they could do and enjoy. And they are loving eating and can't seem to get enough.

New and Glorious!

Isn't it beautiful? My favorite vinyl supplier Regional Supply was having a summer craft fair today and tomorrow to check out some project ideas and the latest and greatest in the vinyl world. When I walked in the door and was told to check out the patterned vinyl, my heart skipped a beat. Patterned vinyl? Could it be? Oh it was! And it was glorious. I would have liked to get one sheet of every pattern but alas I had to control my urges since I needed to stock up on some of my old favorites as well. So I ended up with three sheets to play with. Now here's the problem, what do I make with them? Any suggestions?

Tic Tac BOO!

Happy October! Let the Halloween fun commence. Mike has been teaching Caleb to play Tic Tac Toe lately. So when I saw this on Kaboose.com I of course had to print it. All I did was print it, cut it out and did a quick coloring with some markers. I glued it to an old cereal box to add some support and viola a game to last the whole month. Caleb and I have already played a few rounds and he's looking for new challengers.

Anchors Away

Today we are spending the day at home. I should be doing chores but I went looking for a craft for me and Caleb to do instead. I found this porthole craft on www.kaboose.com . Ours is a little different since I didn't have all of the supplies they asked for and we wanted our fish to be different colors. I refused to go to the store, so we just used what I could find lying around. It turned out cute and we'll be finding a display spot for it soon for the remainder of the summer.


I wish it would have taken us longer to make. Now I don't have another excuse not to do chores.

Rainbow Bugs

Caleb and I finally got in gear and worked on this project we have been thinking about for a couple of weeks. We saw these online and he really wanted to make some. So the two of us took a walk around the neighborhood looking for the "perfect" rocks as he says (which coincidentally was probably the funnest part of this project). He found 5 to try out and was pretty excited about them. Somehow it got put on the back burner and we have just been looking at plain old rocks sitting on the counter waiting for us.

He picked out the colors he wanted to use this morning and went right to work.Only recruiting mom for the "hard parts"(which turned out to be about 80% of them). We worked away and this is the final results. I think I am going to go look for a weather-proof sealant to add to them so I can stick them in my flower garden when it gets planted.

Who says ladybugs have to all be red? We like ours rainbow colored.

Monster Krispies

We made these for a Halloween party at a friends house over the weekend. We did them once a couple of years ago too when Grandma Braska was in town for Halloween. They are alot of fun. We just use a Frankenstein cookie cutter to make the shape with rice krispies then make faces out of all sorts of candy.

Glue Ghosts and Paper Bag Pumpkins

We managed to get in a couple of crafts this week. Caleb only had preschool 1 day this week so we needed something to keep us sane. Caleb loved Making these Glue Ghosts and was dissapointed that we used up a whole bottle of glue and insists that the next time we go to a a store we need to get more.



These pumpkins were fun. I ended up doing the majority of the work since it was hard to keep Caleb focused after having to stop a lot to allow for drying time but they turned out cute. Mike thought they were too plain so he made a couple into Jacolanterns. They are cute either way. Now I have a couple to use just as fall decorations then a couple that are specifically Halloweeen. It works out great.





Ideas and instructions can be found at Kaboose