Crabby Patty Cupcakes

I can't bake. Really I can't.  However, little man has been begging for these Crabby Patty cupcakes and today is big man's birthday.  Unfortunately, big man is in Dubai on business, so we celebrated with him in spirit ;)  Any excuse to eat a cupcake, right?

I will say that these can be made to look a lot prettier. I just don't have the skills or patience.

Here's the 411:

Ahoy Matey-

XOXO

The Pig and That Very Angry Bird

Well, I did it. I made The Pig. More importantly the little dude made a movie. Making this Pig was so frustrating, watching him play with it, was so worth it.

~XOXO~

My Angry Bird Post HERE

Every Day's a Holiday

Every Day's a Holiday - Year Round Crafting with Kids

by Heidi Kenney

Photographs by France Ruffenach

Chronicle Books

ISBN: 978-0-8118-7144-0

*Thank you Alyson & Chronicle Books for the opportunity to review*

My Review:

From the Publisher:

Kids love making crafts, and no one knows that better than Heidi Kenney, creator of the popular blog My Paper Crane. In this festive how-to book, Heidi shares a year's worth of classic and not-so-classic projects that the whole family will enjoy, from the National Bird Day embroidered handmade book to the St. Patrick's Day mini leprechaun pin. Fifty fully photographed projects are geared to all age levels and abilities. Some—like the New Year's Day newspaper hats—are simple enough for small kids to make themselves with minimum assistance, while more complicated projects require a little extra help from mom or dad. With so many fun projects to bring the family together, Every Day's a Holiday proves that every day really is a holiday.

Inside the Book:

Nov. 13 America Recycles Day: Recycled Mini Robots

Nov. 4 National Candy Day: Rock Candy

1st Friday in June Donut Day: Marzipan Doughnuts

April 1 April Fool's Day: Faux Cupcakes

Feb. 14 Valentine's Day: Felted Love Bugs

Other Resources:

My Paper Crane

The Nature Connection (and GIVEAWAY!)

The Nature Connection

by Clare Walker Leslie

Storey Publishing

July 2010

ISBN: 978-1-60342-531-5

My Review:

From the Publisher:

This interactive workbook, packed with creative, year-round nature activities, is sure to please everyone ages 8 to 13. Clare Walker Leslie guides kids to observe and record what they see, hear, smell, and touch outdoors, whether they live in the country, the city, or somewhere in between. She offers dozens of fun things to do in every season: write a poem; make a sketch; tell a story; record daily sunrise and sunset times for a month; draw a local map and mark the locations of trees, rocks, animals, and other sights; keep a moon journal; learn about the constellations; or collect leaves and bring them home to sketch and identify. Rediscover the world outside with The Nature Connection!

The GIVEAWAY:
Leave me a comment with your email address. That's it!  One random commenter will win a copy, provided by the publisher, shipped by me :)

Giveaway ends 11-10. Thanks for entering. You will love this book :)

**Thank you Alee for the opportunity to review.  Storey Publishing ROCKS!**

~XOXO~

Homemade Gummy Candies - Lego Style!

These little gummy candies are so easy and fun to make (and the kids loved to eat them!).

Gummy Candy Recipe

1 3-oz box of Jello, any flavor

1 box of unflavored gelatin, mine came with 4 small packages to a box, I used 2 pkgs

1/3 cup water
corn starch for light dusting

candy molds, ice cube molds etc.

In a small sauce pan add 1/3 cup of water, 1 3-oz box of flavored Jello and 2 small pkgs of unflavored gelatin. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes. Turn heat to med-high and dissolve Jello mixture, stirring constantly for about 3-5 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool for about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to an easy to pour container (I used a small coffee creamer) and fill your molds. No need to grease the molds.

Let the molds sit for 20 minutes or for faster cooling place in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. After they had hardened (or jellied?), I used a clean makeup brush to lightly dust the candies with cornstarch to keep them from being sticky. Hint: The candies will seem hard to get out of the molds but they are really not. You can really pinch them out, they are pretty tough at this point. Don't worry :)

*I found the Lego molds at the Lego store in Dallas last month or you can buy at Lego.com*

~XOXO~

Resource Links:

Skip To My Lou

Lego Ice Cube Trays

You Light Up My Lego

These are the greatest gifts for kids ever! Hours and hours of fun. I bought the key chains for the girls and the head lights for the boys. Brilliant Lego Brilliant!

Have a great weekend!

~XOXO~

Lego is not selling these items online (in stores only) but I did find them on Amazon:

LEGO Head Lamp
Play Visions LEGO Super Bright LED Key Flash Light

Kid's DIY Bird Feeders

I just love these little pine cone bird feeders! They are so easy to make and can hang from anywhere.  Here's what you need:

Pine Cones

Peanut Butter*

Birdseed

String

Use a plastic knife to spread the peanut butter on the pine cone. Be sure to get in between the needles.  Then coat the pine cone in birdseed and tie a string around the top. Hang from any tree!

*If you have a peanut allergy, canned frosting can be substituted

Tweet, Tweet~
XOXO

Cheap Father's Day Idea: The Coupon Book

Max and I made this little coupon book and gave it to Byron for Valentine's Day but this project would make a great Father's day gift.

What I did: I scanned in several of Byron's neckties. I then used www.picnik.com to add text to the top of the necktie pattern. After I had several different looks and coupon sayings, I cropped, printed and stapled them together at the top. Very Easy!

Pick out your ties and scan them into jpg files

Use some kind of photo editing software, I used Picnik, add text

Crop, print and staple

Ta-Da!

The last coupon says "Coffee on Us" and it included a Starbucks GC

Have fun with your own version!

~XOXO~

Are Mornings With Your Kids Hell?

Mine use to be. Not anymore. Let me back-up a bit and give you some background. Max was adopted from Russia at 7 months. He was developmentally behind by 4 months and was not meeting milestones.  Lots of therapies later, Max still struggles with a few things. Don't we all you say? He struggles a little harder than most.  Max has pretty severe ADHD and Sensory Issues. I should really say HAD because we have worked through most of his obstacles and are managing very well these days. This leads me to what our morning use to be like. Lots of screaming, lots of not focusing, lots of doing everything but what needed to get done, running late, lots of hurt feelings. Something had to change and it did.

This is mainly for the weekdays. Weekends are much more relaxed:
1. Set expectations
2. Keep it simple
3. Be consistent

Buy one of these. Walmart. $5.

We actually went through 3 alarm clocks before we could find the right one. Some made too loud of a tick-tock, some were too hard to set, turn-off etc. Also, it took awhile for Max to get use to an alarm. He would literally lie awake stressing about the alarm going off. This took time for us but he finally warmed up to the idea (see #3).

Make one of these. Fiber board. Clip art. Laminating sheets. Velcro.

This is Max's morning "To Do" list. He wakes up every morning at 6:30 am. He gets dressed, brushes his teeth and makes his bed. This takes Max approximately 20-25 minutes to complete. I made lots of different clip art situations because there was a time in Max's life that transitioning was a struggle. I would use this board to help him understand his day. I don't have to do this anymore and in reality, don't even need a picture schedule anymore. (see #2)

Lay clothes out the night before.

Laying the clothes out the night before does a couple of things: (1) It is it's own picture schedule of what is needed to be done (2) sets them up for success (3) keeps expectations in check. You can't expect your child to do everything. (see #1 & #2)


It doesn't have to be perfect.

This is what Max's bed looks like when he makes it every morning. Perfect? No. Perfect enough? Yes.


So, after Max's alarm wakes him up around 6:30, he completes the items on his list and meets me downstairs around 7am (Yes, folks, I don't even get out of bed until 7am). I help Max with his hair and fix him breakfast.  The bus comes at 7:30. No more screaming, no more running late.

The picture chart will work with anything. Chores, after school routine, whatever you are having trouble with.  I really should go to a word chart and ditch the pictures now that he is starting to read.  So really anything works.


Here is what we do for weekends:

1. The night before (Friday Night), I set out his breakfast on the kitchen table. Usually dried cereal in a baggie, banana and apple juice. I make it something simple that he can take to his room and eat.

2. He is allowed to watch TV, play video games, toys etc in his room or playroom.

3. He is not allowed to wake us up (unless it's an emergency).  Yes, it can be hard to teach a 6 year old (actually 5 at the time we started this) what an emergency is, but this is part of his learning process.  He learned real quick that not getting his Xbox controller to work is NOT an emergency but a bloody nose is...all part of growing up :)

Having these expectations on weekends gives us time as parents to sleep in. You could even set the alarm to work opposite on weekend. When the alarm goes off, you can wake mommy and daddy up etc.

Anyway, you get the point.

I don't normally post about parenting on this blog and I try to be very sensitive to Max's issues. However, I was on a Facebook thread with some friends and realized that a lot of parents are struggling like I did BEFORE the schedule. I hope this post can help someone. Please leave me a comment or email me privately if you have any questions. If you don't like my parenting, please keep it to yourself and move on.

Resources for a Picture Schedule:
Living Locurto
DoToLearn
Downloadable Schedule Boards
Downloadable Picture Dictionary

XOXO-

Glass Magnets turned into Rings - Minus the Magnets!

1. If you ever need any kind of jewelry crafting stuff (& much more). Order from this company www.artchixstudio.com. They totally rock and look how they addresses my package: To The Fabulous...Christy Bright.  I ordered the adjustable rings HERE.

2. what you need:

1/2" or bigger glass floral thingies (you know, the ones with a flat side)

Glue (I am using bead/glass glue from craft store)

Scissors

Small pictures (I found some using google and printed them out)

3. Trace small circles and cut out. You want the picture a tad bit smaller than the glass marble.

4. Glue face down to top of marble. Let dry. Let dry. Let dry.

5. I can't figure out why I am showing you this picture again?

6. Glue rings to back of picture. Let dry. Let dry. Let dry.

7 & 8. These suckers are hard to photograph but the kids love'em!

Have fun.

You can read my post on Glass Magnets HERE.

XOXO-

Scrappin With Santa

This is one way to get "my non-crafting" Max to hold scissors.

I have been saving toy catalogs for weeks now. Max spent about 45 minutes cutting out toys he wants Santa to bring him for Christmas (because it's all about getting in this household). Now, I just need him to hold glue so we can paste the cutouts in a letter to Santa....Baby steps.

XOXO-

DIY Glass Magnets

What you will need:
Glue
Clear Flower Marbles 1/2” minimum size
Craft Papers with a Small Pattern
1/2” Magnets
Scissors
Pencil
Small Tins (dark color is better is using chalkboard paint)
Primer Spray Paint (if your tin is a light color)
Chalk Board Paint (if you want tin's you can write on)

1. Lay the clear flower marbles out on a surface, flat side up.
2. Use a dime or small circle to trace patterns out of scrapbook paper. The heavy stock papers work better.
3. Add a small dab of glue to the top of the flat clear flower marble and put the paper image (image side face down) on the marble.

4. Give the glue a few minutes to dry, then add another drop of glue to the back of the paper and add the magnet. Let these dry throughly.
5. Spray the tin with primer, let dry (one coat should be fine).
6. Spray the tin with 1-3 coats of chalk board paint, allowing to dry between coats.
7. Cut a circle out of scrapbook paper to line the bottom of the tin, glue in place.

(These are some tins I did at Halloween with Chalkboard paint)

Not only can you do seasonal gifts. But these little magnets also work great as party favors or even little travel games! I used electrical tape for the tic-tac-toe board in one of the first pictures.

I love crafts that can be enjoyed with kids, given as gifts and that are super easy. This craft takes less than 15 minutes to complete. Enjoy!

XOXO-