Easter Activities

I absolutely love the Easter season.  Mostly because it is all about new life.  I love the flowers starting to bloom, I love the warmer temps, I love the bright springy colors, and I love the joy that envelopes everyone.

But I do not love the dreaded week of Spring Break.  Especially if it happens to be a rainy week and I have 3 little boys just itching to go out and jump in muddy puddles!  So I always try to have a back-up plan.  This year I have prepared myself with Usborne's book "50 Easter Things to Make and Do".  You can check it out here. 

One of the first activities we will be doing is a Bunny Box. 

We always leave goodies out for Santa, why not the Easter Bunny?  I'm still working out what to leave for the Easter Bunny... I'm thinking that chocolate covered strawberries disguised as carrots would be a good choice (a Pinterest idea, of course)!

Happy Birthday Dr Seuss

Okay, I know I am a little late with my ode to Seuss blog posting... but I was away for the weekend!

First the backstory to my blog post:
My oldest son and his friend decided to dress alike for their school's "Twin Day."  No big deal usually, but my child loves to be elaborate and went through a list of imaginative characters that they could be (which all would have resulted in tons of work for dear old me).  So I suggested Thing 1 and Thing 2 so they both could wear red t-shirts and we could keep things simple for me and the other mother.  Well, as it turned out, his friend had a Thing 1 t-shirt.  Great - I had to make a Thing 2 t-shirt; not too bad of a project (one night and only a couple of dollars).

And then it snowed.  Twin Day was post-poned for a week.  And what was the new date?  You guessed it, Dr Seuss' birthday.  So suddenly the t-shirts were just not enough.  So we decided to create a simple hat to wear to take the place of the Things' blue hair.  These were super-simple and came out incredibly cute!!!

I cut the center out of 2 paper plates and tied half of a feather boa to each plate (using embrodery floss that matched).  Instant Thing hair!  and the best part is that they could remove it and put it away if it became distracting to the class (which you all know it did).

The Sky's the Limit

Another day another project.  Today's project makes me feel doubly good because I actually finished it and it is for VBS.  My church's VBS theme this year is Sky: Everything is Possible with God.  For those of you not familiar with Vacation Bible School, there is always a mission project for the kids to focus on over the week.  The year's mission is to collect donations for mosquito nets (you can read more about it on Group's website).  Every time a child brings in a donation, they get to put a mosquito clip on the netting display.  These clips, although cute, can get a little pricey.  So here is what I came up with:

The church had a plastic bin full of mini-clothespins (which translates to free) and I have the Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge, so I volunteered to cut out these cute little flies to make our own bug clips for our mission display.  And another bonus: the older youth at the church will be doing all the gluing!

This would also be a fun craft for the little ones - imagine all the places they could use these!

Don't Cry Over Broken Crayons

I cannot begin to count the number of crayons we go through in this household!  Thankfully, most of them come our way freely.  And I'll never understand why a broken crayon loses its ability to provide color - but it does.  It has too, or why else would the broken ones never be used again?  Insist as I might, my boys refuse to use these crayons.  But I refuse to toss them out.  We had to come up with some way to find a use for these outcast stubs of color that were piling up.  What could we do?

You guessed it: homemade crayons!  Now this was NOT a one day project in our household.  As a matter of fact, this first step took many many days.  But it was all worth it in the end.  Each of my boys had a set of crayons to give to each of their friends for the holidays (and we even kept a set for ourselves).

1.  Find your old and broken crayons and peel the labels off.  You can choose to make kalidescope crayons (multi-colored) or separate them by similar colors.  If separating, it is best to do it during this step. 

2.  Have a "responsible" adult chop the crayons into small chunks.  This is not as easy as you may think - those crayons have a tendency to roll away and fly across the room!  HINT: use an old cutting board and knife that you can keep for crafts only - the crayon does not wash off.

3.  Place your crayon chunks into a silicone mold (again, use one that is designated for crafts only).  Any shape and size will work, just make sure to adjust the time in the oven for larger molds.

4.  Place your mold onto a cookie sheet for support - HINT: line your cookie sheet with foil to protect it from possible crayon spill-over.  "Bake" your crayons for about 15 minutes at 230 degrees F.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from your mold.

TA-DA!!! Every time I see this set of crayons I start singing:  "We're a rainbow made of children..."  Good thing there's no video to this craft!

I even found the cutest poem to include with our recycled crayons by Helen H. Moore:
I had a box of crayons,
All shiny, straight and new,
I lent a friend on crayon,
And-oops-it broke in two!
My friend said she was sorry,
But I said, " I don't care,
'cause now we both can color
with one crayon-we can share!"

Pop-up Snowman

Did you know it was winter?  Looking out the window, I'd never even guess it.  There has been a serious lack of snow around here, so I had to come up with my own way for the kids to play in the snow!  If I don't keep my boys busy, they end up driving me crazy.  That is why I am constantly throwing things together for them to do.  Here is a finished Pop-up Snowman Scene that we created.

 And a quick & easy tutorial if you want to try this with your kids!

1.  fold a rectangle shaped piece of blue paper in half (hamburger style, not hot dog) - we used 9x12 construction paper

2.  make two cuts about 3/4 inch apart in the middle of the fold (I had the boys make cuts on either side of their thumb while holding the paper by the fold & this seemed to work without measuring)

3.  unfold your paper and push the cut-out forward so it pops away from the rest of the paper - IMORTANT: this is where you will attach your snowman!

Now it is time to decorate your scene! 

4.  to make the snowman: we punched two circles (1" and 2"), used black and orange crayons to draw his face, and glued the head to the body by slightly over-lapping the circles.  You can even cut out a paper hat for your snowman or tie ribbon round his neck for a scarf - let your kid's imagination go wild!

5.  for the background: we cut different sized triangles for the trees and stamped & punched out snowflakes to put in the sky.  You can use anything you have at home (ie glitter, cotton, confetti) but just make sure it is not too heavy or the paper won't be able to stay upright

6.  and finally we used old packing peanuts for the snow on the ground. 

I hope you try this with your little ones.  Be sure to post a link in the comments - I'd love to see what you create!