Hula Hoop Forts

Thankfully, Cooper was pretty excited about this idea!

Reason being…it didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned.

I had pinned the idea on Pinterest and had seen 2 different version:

1. Using a shower curtain and hooks

2. Pinning a sheet around the hula hoop

Easy peasy, right?

Haha….well…I figured we had the shower curtain, why not give that a go. Well, try hanging that, and actually keeping a “fort” shape in tact. Imagine each time you climb up the ladder, the hooks all slide to one side of the hula hoop. Go ahead and laugh. I would’ve too if I’d been watching myself.

Also, if the hula hoop is not perfectly level, again, all the hooks sliding to one side kinda problem.

So, here’s the best way I found to create a successful hula hoop fort:

materials:

sheets

safety pins

hula hoop

twine

ladder

step 1: Tie a piece of twine from one side of the hula hoop to the other, keeping it somewhat loose. Repeat on a perpendicular so you create an x, keeping them as close to the same length as possible (remember, must be level!) Gather the X at the top and tie together creating a loop.

step 2: Pin the sides of the sheet around the top of the hula hoop.

step 3: Roughly measure the length of your sheet, and how far down you want your hula hoop to hang from wherever you plan to hang it. Reason being, is for measuring how long you need to cut your twine to hang it. It helps to do this BEFORE climbing the ladder with the cumbersome hula hoop and sheet.

step 4: Cut twine accordingly and hang. We hung ours on our back patio cover. The kids LOVED it and I would imagine it was that much easier seeing as you didn’t have un-level tree branches to deal with.

step 5: Put blanket and/or pillows on the ground and read some books! or let the kids go crazy pulling them all over the place.

I hope this was a helpful explanation. Here are some more pictures to give you an idea of what we did, and how fun it can be! Note – I used both shower curtains and sheets, but sheets will be used if we ever do it again, MUCH easier!

Here you can see the combo of shower curtain and sheet. I had nearly given up when the sheet came out, otherwise I would’ve pinned it more thoroughly. The curtain worked better when I hung it on either side of the twine, kept it from falling altogether at least. =) We hung two and they wanted them to connect! hehe

Peeky!

AFTER they went all berserk in there (this truly was what went on, look up the definition, it will make you giggle), we did finally sit down and relax inside the little “fort”. =)

Summer Fun Starts Today!

What is Cool Summer Days?

Pre-Pinterest days I stumbled upon this adorable idea on a blog. I hosted a little craft party and a few girlfriends and myself made them…no sewing people! Iron on is your friend.

The idea is during the summer months you tuck a paper into each cone with something fun to do that day. I’ve done it for two summers and overall, it has been a wonderful experience! Our excitement for it comes and goes throughout the summer, but overall, it has been a tremendous help! Read on to find out why…

5 reasons why I bother

#1. It helps cut down on TV time, because something else has already been planned.

#2. It gives the kiddos something to look forward to! Check out Cooper this year, he woke up like it was Christmas morning!

#3. Cuts down on how often the orange rhino rears it’s ugly head. It’s true! When I have something planned, we’re ALL more distracted and excited. BUT…you have to plan ahead for failure, bad attitudes, or change of plans. Just keep plugging along.

If you’ve never heard of the “orange rhino”, check out the following two blog entries:

Hands Free Mama – The Important Thing About Yelling

The Orange Rhino Challenge

#4. It provides motivation.

The fact of the matter is…my son likes to dawdle.

It drives me bonkers. So…we are FINALLY starting a morning routine that he won’t gripe about. Why won’t he gripe you ask? Because until his morning routine has been accomplished, he doesn’t get to see what today’s cool summer days calendar has in store for him. Here’s what I designed to hang in his room as a reminder:

So the rule is…no TV or calendar fun until this is done.

Check out his bed from this morning, so precious!

AND finally….reason #5…

#5. It creates lifelong memories! When I first started this, I had no idea what would become of it. But now that we’ve done it for about 2 1/2 summers, many of the silly “holidays” we’ve celebrated are becoming family favorites. Donut Day will always be one we will celebrate, calendar or not.

What should I do?

I will do my darndest to post what we do each day this summer to provide you with some ideas. Feel free to check out my labels on the sidebar of my blog – Cool Summer Days June, July and August, they’ll provide some ideas to start with.

So…day #1 for 2013…

MAKE YOUR OWN FLUBBER!

Click the picture for the link and instructions on how to. Quite easy! Here are some pictures of my kids after we made our own. **Note: Right after we drained the water, it did NOT appear to be “flubber” and I nearly dubbed it a fail. But, after the mixture sat in the bowl for about an hour, it was ready to be played with! For the next hour! Yay!

The near fail…but then…success!

And then, in Allie’s sweet little investigation of this new found Flubber…

She looks up…

to find daddy getting in on the Flubber fun! In the way that only a dad can. Faking it as snot! =)

Have fun making your own Flubber!

Next time I think we’ll make it blue so it looks like BOB from Monsters vs. Aliens.

Mother’s Day Gift Idea–Shrinky Dink Silhouettes

Are you ready for your heart to completely melt? I hope so!

I’ve seen these around on other blogs, but it took a good friend awhile to perfect the technique. So I hope this works well for you!

Here is the exact link for the “shrinky dink” material we used in case you’re looking for a good buy.

Before you follow the instructions below, take a side picture of your child (or children) on your phone. IF you’re talented enough to get them to stand still in front of a plain background, kudos to you. I had to take about 50 of my 2 year old daughter before I got one that would work.

Shrinky dink material

Red & Black Fine Tip Sharpies

Scissors

Hole Punch

Silver Jewelry Clasps

Let me know if you have any questions! Now go bless the socks off someone by following this tutorial. =)

Thoughtful Thursdays - You've Been Egged

Last year my kiddos and I “egged” a house…

Click here to see the full post from last year and get the free printables.

Eek! Look how adorable they are! I can’t get over how much they’ve grown in a year!

This year, I used the free printable from the Happy Home Fairy (mostly because I waited too long and didn’t want to make my neighbor “pass it on”). Click the picture below to go get your free printable!

See the pictures from how much fun we had? What are you waiting for?! Go do it! =) Happy Early Easter. Sunday is coming!!

I MAY have taken like 15 pictures before this not realizing the card for my camera was in the computer, not my camera. They were happier at the beginning.

See? They still had some cuteness in them!

And one last shot from before we rang the doorbell and ran!

Cooper was soo excited, and Allie was listening to make sure we weren’t going to get caught!

Thoughtful Thursday–Gumball Necklaces!

I’ve mentioned that I coordinate a local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group, and I can’t believe I haven’t shared more of our crafts with you! So…allow me to give a tutorial on our most recent craft, gumball necklaces!

Supplies

• 8 gumballs (follow this link for the best bulk price I found)
• 1 yard or more of matching ribbon (ours was ~1/2” wide, do longer than 1 yard if you want your necklace length longer)
• 1/2 yard of 1” matching ribbon (for the bow – we got our ribbon from Michael’s)
• Metal skewer (follow this link for the skewers we used, or if you just need some amazingly cheap skewers that are good quality!)
• Tape
• Toothpick

Directions

1. Use a metal skewer to pierce the dubble bubble logo side of the gumball. Hold the top of the gumball steady as you guide the skewer carefully.

2. Flip the gumball over and pierce another hole directly opposite to the first hole. If you try to poke a hole straight through both sides at once, the gumball will crack. Poke holes in all 8 gumballs.

3. Tape a toothpick TIGHTLY to the ribbon.

4. Then use the toothpick to thread the ribbon through the gumballs. Tie a know between each gumball as you string it.

 

 

 

 

5. Once you’ve finished stringing all gumballs and tying knots, remove the toothpick from the ribbon and tie a small knot with the ends of the ribbon. Then, use the thicker ribbon to tie a bow over that knot.

AND…the thoughtful part…we encouraged our girls that if these necklaces weren’t there thing (how could they NOT be, right? ), to give them to a girlfriend as an early Valentine’s gift thanking them for their friendship. So…my parting thought for all you blog readers out there, don’t let Valentine’s Day pass without telling a good friend how much you appreciate them.

Tata for now!

Menu Plannin’ Monday

Last week:

Monday: Chicken with Orzo

I was out of spinach (we ate it all up too quickly! yay!), so I substituted edamame, delicious! Instead of purchasing a roasted chicken, I just cooked chicken in the crockpot so it shredded!

Tuesday: Spanish Style Stuffed Peppers

So easy and fast! I add chicken (‘cuz my husband prefers protein with EVERY meal).

Wednesday: Autumn Chopped Salad

This, too, came together rather quickly and was tasty!

Thursday: Chicken & Roasted Fennel and Carrots

Surprisingly delicious! A friend recommended this recipe, and she added the Trader Joe’s mixed grains (in the frozen section, heats up in 3 minutes). And again, we added chicken. The orange is definitely what makes this dish!

Friday: Pasta Fagioli

This was just okay. Tasty, but nothing spectacular. It was a bit bland. And we had A TON of leftovers!!

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Slow Cooker Hawaiian Meatballs

Didn’t get a picture of these, but they turned out great! And the leftovers made a great lunch the following day.

BONUS: Blue Sunset Smoothie

Usually I try to sneak in greens when we have smoothies, but we’ve been burning through our greens, which is great! I used regular milk for ours (the recipe calls for brazil nut), and I used frozen blueberries. It was tasty!

Plans for the week ahead:

Monday: Lemon Chicken & Salad

Tuesday: Cheesy Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

Wednesday: Tortellini & Salad

Thursday: Feta Turkey Burgers

Friday: Chicken Caesar Salad

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Oven BBQ Chicken, Biscuits & Salad

Friday Faves - Apples & Traditions

#1. honeycrisp apples

Honeycrisp Apples! Pretty much enough said.

#2. our new favorite tradition

I’ve been wanting to start having my kids memorize Bible verses, but wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. I didn’t want it to feel like something that was forced by any means. I wanted them to enjoy it, and look forward to doing it! So, kind of on a whim, I told Cooper we were going to start memorizing verses, and for each week he could memorize our verse for the week, we’d go get frozen yogurt on Saturday. I wanted to see if it was something he’d be interested in.

Well, we’re two for two and getting ready to go on week #3! He’s loving it! He’s so proud, it’s helping us actually LEARN values in the Bible (‘cuz we’ll chat about what the verse means and remind one another if we see something that pertains to it throughout the week), and frozen yogurt is a perk!

So, as I had mentioned, I started it on a whim so I didn’t sit down to plan out verses initially. We began with Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Then, I sought out the following link on my Pinterest board. It’s perfect! Week #2 we did 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Be kind to one another and build each other up.” We’ve now got it printed, laminated and ready to go!

Here was the card we memorized this past week:

Here’s our next verse we’ll start tomorrow…

So easy, and beyond rewarding! Maybe it’s a tradition you could start, too! Seriously…froyo, weekly? Okay, so it doesn’t have to be that. Choose something that will motivate your own child.

Happy Friday!