4th of July Windsocks Craft

Here is a very simple craft that will show your patriotic colors:

Materials:
Paper lunch bag
star or flag stamps/stencils (optional)
paints-red white and or blue (optional)
red, white and blue streamers
tape
construction paper(red or blue)
newspaper
scissors

1. Get a paper lunch bag and decorate it front and back.  We used a star stencil, but you can use stamps, stencils, paints, whatever.  Just keep your colors in the red white and blue theme.  Let you kids be creative in decorating the bags.  We were pressed for time and the kids wanted to swim so they kept it simple( and quick).

2. Get some newspaper and ball up a couple pages and jam it up into the top of the bag so it will stay open.  It will stay in there on its own if you have enough and jam it pack it well.

3.Tape  red white and blue streamers to the inside bottom of the bag.  Ours were about a couple feet long but as long as they are long enough to blow nicely they will be fine.

4. Lastly we cut too slits in the very top of the bag and put a strip of construction paper through( they chose either red or blue paper) for our handle.  Just tape the ends together into a loop.

Here is the finished product.  It took maybe 15 minutes

( depends on how crafty the kids want to be in decorating the outside of the bag)

4th of July Lanterns

Here are the steps to some easy, yet lovely, patriotic lanterns to spruce up your porch or deck:


Materials:
Red, White and Blue Construction Paper
Scissors
Fancy Edging Scissors
Tape
Stickers, Stencils, Stamps, Punch Outs, etc
Rope or Fishing Line  (optional)

1.Gather red,white and blue construction paper.  I had each of my kids do the 3 colors.  Then fold them in half(there are already strips cut into this one which is actually step 2)

Please note that we found it better to fold them the other way.  This way will give you really tall lanterns which were fine, but we felt the squatty lanterns looked better.

2. Cut strips into the folded side of the paper

We found that you really couldn't go wrong here.  Generally we kept the width to about an inch or so but Snuggle Bug cut them as small as 1/4" apart and it gave a cool affect too.

3. Open the paper up now and turn it 90 degrees( so the cuts are now going up and down).  Use fancy scissors to cut the top and bottom edge of the paper.

Ok, I opened up the paper to cut it, but I see that Sissy kept hers folded and cut. I guess either way works!

4. Once you have cut your fancy edge and have the slats going up and down, fold the non cut sides around and tape them together at the top and bottom( don't overlap) .  We also made sure that each crease of the slats was creased really well by going back around and pressing.

5.  Then you can add stars( we glued foam stars and stencils) to the lantern, or if you have the punch out tool for scrapbooking that would be perfect too.  Stamps also would do fine.  We just worked with what we had.

6. We added handles by cutting strips of construction paper and gluing them on the inside of the lantern.  You man mix and match colors or handles or keep them matching.  Up to you( or your kids!).

Here is the finished product minus the handle

And then we just got some rope and strung them on our front porch like so:

you can see that the blue ones were  folded lengthwise, that is why they are taller.

Now if you really want to make them look cool you can string lights and stick some down in each lantern.  Or you can add a bottom to the lanterns and put in a battery operated or solar tea light.  

Glowstick would work too I suppose.

Our 4th of July Fun!!

4th of July is one of my fave holidays.  It use to be because it just meant swimming and cook outs but now it means so much more.  We are such a blessed nation in all that we have.  If you don't think so, go visit a 3rd world country.  You will stop feeling entitled real quick.

So I wanted to make it a big deal to my kids too.  But they were already in the spirit before me!  Bubba  has taken to making pancakes for everyone in the mornings and the kids decided to add blue food coloring to them yesterday and then put some star sprinkles on them to honor our country.  Here they are:

They were disappointed that they were a bit brown from the griddle

Then we did some crafts to decorate our front porch.  We started with these super easy lanterns in red, white and blue.

*Click HERE to learn how to do the lanterns*

We also did wind socks

Click HERE for windsock craft

And here is our porch with all the decorations

We grilled out when Hubby got home and swam some more.  Temps have been 100 or above so the pool feels great even when the water is at 92 degrees.   I made these great burgers with my usual flavorings( steak sauce, worcestershire-i know, it's hard to say, salt & pepper) but added in crumbled bacon and topped it with cheese sauce instead of slices.  OH MY GOODNESS!!  Those were soooo good!!!  I also found a new way to do corn on the cob.  Microwave them! Just leave them in the husks and they steam to perfection and all the silks just slide right off.  Click HERE to learn how to do them.

Then we played some glow bowling when it got dark.  I just filled 20 oz bottles with water( to make them heavier) and broke a glow stick so it was glowing and put 1 in each of the bottles and put the lid on.  We got our basketball and set the 'pins' up in our drive with a hockey net behind( to catch the ball theoretically) and started bowling!  Here is a pic of our pins:

They were really bright and the kids took them in and used them as lanterns when they went to bed.

I have also read that you can break the glow sticks open and poor then glow stuff into the bottles.  That seemed too messy and time consuming to me so we went this route.

I of course couldn't pass up the opportunity to quiz the kids about why we celebrate the 4th of July since we did go over the American Revolution this past school year.  They had no trouble with the answers.

( which was that America declared their independence from England with the Declaration of Independence.  The 4th actually did mark when the US became free but rather when we officially declared that we would  fight for that freedom)

Hope you had  great 4th and remember- Freedom isn't Free!

Blessings from The Mama

Summer Fun at a Glance

So this year I came across an idea I liked on pinterest( what did we ever do before pinterest??).  It was a poster board for the family where you wrote down things that were going on in the summer.  So that way the kids could see what all they had to look forward to and what was coming up.

I took a step further and had the kids tell me things they wanted to do over the summer.  For myself, it never fails that fall arrives and I think,"Crap!  I really wanted to do 'such and such' this summer but in all the hustle and bustle I forgot about it."

So I thought this was a great idea to help with that problem.

Here is our super simple board-

I just used sticky notes, a permanent marker and a poster board I had lying around.  This could definitely get more fancy but I have little time for fancy anymore with 5 children.

Here are some things we stuck o our board:

Other things we have on our poster board-campout in back yard, campfires(put on hold due to no burn ban), family pool party and cookout, go to local baseball game( not to be confused with the above sticky note which just signifies the kids's baseball league*I always get confused when I should put an apostrophe s and when it should just be an apostrophe after an s*), some summer Bday parties, our vacation to Florida, Bubba's mission trip, family who came to visit us, a wedding, do 1 new dessert a week and 1 new craft a week(details later on in this post), summer reading program at library, go to the zoo, 4th of July fireworks, etc.

As we have done some of the activities, I have put them on the left side of the board so we can see what a fun summer we have already had.

I went on pinterest (again) and found a bunch of desserts I have been wanting to try and each week I pick one for me and the kids to make together.  

Then we have a 'Craft Jar'-

Along with all my dessert pins, I have a ton of craft pins I have been wanting to do.  So I wrote down all the crafts that we could do this summer that were on my boards and told the kids to choose 10 of them( one for each week left in the summer).  I then wrote them down on colorful construction paper and dropped in this cute jar.  Each week they take turns drawing one out.  There are crafts such as Q-tip bow and arrows, Mt Dew lanterns, tin can stilts, glow in the dark bowling, etc.

Now the trick to this is to draw on Monday and figure out what you need to get to complete said craft by the end of the week.  This is where I have fallen short.  We are now 2 crafts behind because I keep forgetting the supplies to actually complete the craft.  Oopsy.  Bad Mommy.

I also came across the idea of an Uh-Oh Jar-

  My boys fight like cats and dogs at time.  Not physically per se( though sometimes it does take a nasty turn) but arguing and bickering and so on.  So what we do now is if any of the kids are fighting, arguing, excessively tattling or whining( can't stand those two things), etc they draw out of the Uh-Oh Jar.

As the name suggests, this is not a good thing.  So what's in the Uh-Oh Jar you ask?  Chores!

And not the typical chores( dust, mop, etc), they are already expected to do those type of things( with out compensation).  These are more unpleasant, time consuming chores like weeding, washing out the garbage cans, cleaning out the fridge(yikes)-things of that nature.

I figure that if they have enough energy to fight and so forth they can put that negative energy to good use by doing some beneficial chores.

Is it bad that I am half wanting them to draw out of the Uh-Oh Jar??  I could finally get some of these groan inducing tasks done around here.  It would be poor parenting to set them up to fight or tattle right?  haha 

Yes, yes it would.   I know.

 Darn (;

I have already gotten the trash cans washed out.  And you would be surprised at how fast the threat of, "Do you want to draw from the Uh-Oh Jar?!" quiets the room.  I usually try to give one warning before they have to draw but sometimes if it's a particularly bad offense( as in they totally knew better) then it's a straight trip to the jar.  

So far this summer we have went strawberry picking( I will blog soon about this adventure ), to the drive in to see Madagascar 3(polka dot polka dot afro circus!), had family come visit, had Filipina Princess's(that darn apostrophe issue again) Bday party, and are in the middle of summer baseball season and we are obviously doing the 1 craft and 1 dessert a week thing too.  

What special things does your family do during the summer months?  Fee free to share in the comments section. (=