Making carrots

I decided that it'd be fun for the kids to make a small Easter basket for my parents since we won't be here to celebrate Easter with them.  So the kids helped make these super cute and super easy carrots!  I saw these online somewhere, but don't recall where. 

Here's what we used:

plastic sandwich baggies
green yarn
scissors
Goldfish crackers (num num!)

We started off by putting some Goldfish into the baggies.... not much.  Get them into the corner of the bag.

Next, twist the extra part of the bag and shape the Goldfish into a carrot shape as best you can.  It's not perfect, but everyone will get the idea. Tie a piece of yarn around the top of the carrot to keep it closed.


Then I trimmed most of the extra plastic off the top (the zipper wasn't too pretty). 

Next, I cut pieces of yarn.  Ours were about 6 inches long, but you can make them however you want.  I would guess I used about 20 pieces on each carrot.

I tied the bundle of yarn pieces around the top of the carrot and voila!  We have carrots!

I plan to make some of these for the kids Easter baskets.  They don't REALLY need any more candy.  There will be some in the baskets... don't worry, but anything I can put in there that is not sweet is a bonus!

Theme days

I  LOVE things with a theme.  Parties with a theme, activities with a theme, rooms with a theme.

I like to come up with different activities for the youngsters that all tie in together... so we basically do lots of stuff around the same subject.  Here are a few of the theme days that we've had and the shenanigans that went with them. lol!  I had to throw that word in there.

Owl theme day

• Talked about owls and the sounds that they make.  My son went through a phase where he liked to pretend that he could hear an owl outside so that's what started this theme for us.  We got out a book about owls and looked through it. 
• This day occurred shortly before Valentine's day so we made Valentine's day cards for the grandparents using the heart owl craft found here.  We adapted it a little by letting the kids finger paint some card stock, used that as the "card" and then glued our owls onto that.  I thought it gave it a cool artsy look :-)

• While I prepared the pieces for the heart owl craft, the kids colored this page The Letter O is for Owl
• They ate "owls" for lunch.  I just used whatever I could find to make the body parts and cut the sandwiches free hand.  Beautiful, I know!  lol

•  We finished off the day by watching The Fox and the Hound.  Only because there is an owl in the movie.  I was grasping a little on that one, but its the first movie I could find that had an owl in it.  ;-)

Fish/ocean theme

•  We started the day off by making an ocean sensory bin!  I read about the idea on this awesome blog Inner Child Fun.  I have to admit theirs looks a heck of a lot cooler than mine, but I wasn't going out and buying anything special for this.  It was fun... and that's all that matters!  My son actually played with this thing lots of other times.  My daughter ate the "rocks"  so she didn't get to play with it much after the first time. lol.  We used assorted pony beads for the rocks, and threw in anything else that reminded us of the ocean!  Filled it with water and we were good to go!

We even had seaweed!!!

Hard at work!  I think finding stuff to put in was his favorite part!

• We read The Rainbow Fish

• Decorated a "Rainbow" fish.  I drew a fish on card stock, cut it out, the kiddos decorated it and we glued them onto craft sticks (the wide Popsicle sticks... I am not sure the technical term for them). :-)

• After nap time/lunch, the fish were dry enough to play with while we watched Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo is the perfect end to any day.  Love that movie!  :-)

 We'll leave it at that for now.  We have a few others that we've done, but I don't wanna give you an overload!  Plus the itty bit is up from her nap now!  Have a great day... make the most of what's left!

Taking it a step further....

I am weak!  lol  

I have given in to the hype and made my own laundry detergent.

It wasn't even two months ago that I told my husband, " I've never had any desire to make my own laundry detergent".  I remember the conversation.  We were in the car.

BUT EVERYONE'S DOING IT!  Could I sound any more like a tween?  Obviously, not everyone is doing it, but it's becoming more and more common.  Supposedly it works well, and saves a TON of money.   I saw a breakdown on how much money you save by doing this and if I remember correctly, after making six batches you save around $70.  We spent that much getting into the circus this past weekend.  Buying laundry detergent in the store OR going to the circus with my family and watching my little girl have the time of her life???  There's no contest!  Even if the store bought stuff smells heavenly.... lol

I used the recipe that I found here, however I used Fels Naptha soap.  I didn't have the time or patience to order any special soap online. 

Right now, my detergent is sitting on top of the washer doing its cooling thing.  We'll see how it turns out tomorrow.  I'll post after I've used it and let you know how it worked.  My plan is to use this detergent, but still use the fabric softener (I like Downy) so hopefully our clothes still smell nice and fresh.  

Alright, I can't let myself go without showing you where they break down how much you will save.  If you care to have a look, here it is!

Happy Wednesday!  We're more than halfway to the weekend! :-)

Sorry, there are no pics.  I was rushing to get it made during naptime.  Mission accomplished.  I really am finished now.  

P.S Because no one else warns you... my eyes are burning from the melting soap!  Open a window or two if you attempt to make this! :-)

Homemade Baby Wipes

So, earlier in the week I went to grab a wipe refill and there were none!  I know my husband just bought a large pack, but I had no idea where they would be!  With a two  year old and a one year old, wipes are very much needed in this house!  This was the perfect opportunity for me to make something I had been wanting to try....

....homemade baby wipes!

At first the thought seemed a little to "frugal" for me, but then I thought can you really ever be tooo money conscience???  Besides we already had all of the ingredients... it couldn't hurt to try them out.

The recipe I used was from the Duggar book, "The Duggars: 20 and Counting".  She's gotta know a little something after than many kids right?

Here is what we used:

• Half a roll of paper towels ( Just cut the whole thing in half so they basically look like toilet paper rolls.  Mrs. Duggar said the only kind that work are Bounty... that worked out well for us since that's what we happened to have.)
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbs of rubbing alcohol
• 2 tbs of baby oil 

 
My Helperoos assisted of course.  Here's what we did:

1. Cut the paper towel roll in half (just a little messy). Place in large bowl
2. Mix water, alcohol and baby oil in separate bowl
3. Pour over paper towel roll and let soak for 30 minutes.  
4. Remove cardboard roll from middle.  And they are ready!

Mrs. Duggar suggested putting them in an empty (and well cleaned) one gallon ice cream bucket with an x shaped slit cut into the lid for easy dispensing.  We didn't have this so I just used an old Huggies wipe container.  

Of course there are some pros and cons to the wipes.  I personally like them, however they are a bit different.  They are oily, have way more moisture (they drip once you get toward the middle), and they break more easily.  I feel like they actually cleaned better though... it took less wipes to get through an episode of #2.  They ONLY wipes that we have been able to use on our daughter were Pampers Sensitive, everything else just irritated her really really bad.  These didn't!  A super plus!   

I am going to continue making these and keeping them on hand for my use with the kids, but my hubby is a "Pampers snob" (his words lol) and doesn't care for our new wallet-friendly version :-).  At least this cuts down on the amount of Pamper wipes we have to purchase!