Propeller seeds: fun and easy kids activity

Last week, on our walk home from school,

my girls saw these 'propeller seeds', and asked me what they were.

I told them they came from a tree,

and showed how you can throw them in the air,

and see them spin like a propeller.

They thought it was the coolest thing ever.

So we collected some and took them home.

They had such a good time playing with them.

SOOO nice when kids are so easily entertained...


I told them that these were actually seeds, and that the wind helped new trees to grow when the seeds were planted elsewhere. I realized they understood, since my 7-year-old said: "Just like dandelions..."


We decided to plant some of the seeds.
I wasn't sure if we should stick the whole thing in the dirt, or peel the seeds out, so we did both.


Today it's exactly ONE week later, and we have this:

So our little experiment was very successful...


And I have 2 very proud girls, who check on the progress daily.

We might transfer some to our yard even...

First Grade Birthday Party Ideas

Our oldest turned 7, so we invited some of her classmates for a party.

I have the hardest time coming up with things to do, 

so in case there is anybody out there who recognizes that,

I will share what we did :)

MAGIC DRINKS

We started our party with "magic" Sprite and snacks.

I had put a drop of food coloring in the clear cups I used to server their drinks. (I did that ahead of time.)

I served them one by one, holding the bottom of the cup in my hand, so that they couldn't see it.

They were AMAZED to see that the clear Sprite turned into a colorful drink.

And even more amazed when the next ones turned into different colors.

Fun, but simple, and a great way to start a party.

(And yes, eventually they did figure it out, but it took a little while.)

After seeing several similar games online, I came up with the following game:

POM POM RACE

The things you need are pictured above.

Start with one bowl filled with pom poms.

The kids race the pom poms on the spatula to the other bowl, which is placed some distance away.

Give them a certain amount of time to do it. (We did one minute, but you can try it yourself to see what time and distance is appropriate.)

They can't touch the pom poms with their hands, and anything they drop doesn't count

Then count the pom poms in the other bowl.

The kid who managed to transfer most pom poms is the winner.

DECORATE PICTURE FRAMES

I had them decorate picture frames:

I painted them in girly colors beforehand,

and had them decorate it with glitter glue, flower sparkles, paper punch-outs, etc.

TREASURE HUNT

And, they went on a Treasure hunt.

I wrote on the lid of a disposable cake pan with Sharpies,

and put sparkly stuff inside.

I hid envelopes throughout the house, containing hints where the next envelope would be,

and the last one pointing to the treasure.

(Would have loved to do this outside, but the weather didn't cooperate.)

They were very excited about this game.

I had much more planned, but these things, combined with cake and opening gifts, were plenty.

Doily Love...

Photo source: Creative Passage

A few weeks ago I saw this pretty doily garland on this blog.

Ellen used some colorful doilies to create this awesome garland.

I happened to find the same doilies at Michaels a week or so after I saw her blog post, and I got some with the intention to create a similar garland. They're so cheap, even though I like to crochet myself, at $1 a piece I couldn't resist...

But I liked them so much, that I decided not to cut them up (yet), so for now I use them as a table runner instead:

I like the instant pop of color it adds to our decor.

This is such a fun and easy project. 

You can just sew them together using some transparent thread.

Or even skip the sewing all together, and just lay them out side by side...

Or be brave, and cut them up and create the garland that I mentioned in the beginning of this post.

I linked up at Sugar Bee Crafts.

Raspberry Muffin Recipe

A while ago I came up with this recipe, and it became a favorite in our house.

It's simple, and made out of ingredients we have on hand most of the time, since I usually have frozen fruit in the freezer. 

I like to use raspberries, but you could also substitute for other berries.

Here is the recipe, and below is a printable version, too

Raspberry Muffin Recipe

Yields: 12 raspberry muffins

                                                  Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar (divided)

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

1 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat oven at 400 F. Put liners in muffin tin.

Mix flour, ¾ cup of sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix the egg, milk and oil. Add the mixture to the large bowl, and mix, until moist. (Batter will still be lumpy.) Fold in raspberries. Divide the batter between 12 lined muffin pan cups, I like using an ice cream scoop for that.

Mix 2 Tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle on top of the muffins.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until muffins are golden.

Enjoy!

(just click the picture and print from your browser)

Shared at Delightful Order and Sugar Bee Crafts

Teacher appreciation gift

We made this gift for the teacher of my oldest daughter.

She is a GREAT teacher, and we wanted to give her something to show that we appreciate her.

So we gave this glass jar, filled with Hershey's Nuggets, wrapped in cute apple paper.

The paper and other supplies I used are scrapbooking supplies that I have had for a while.

With my Silhouette Cameo I cut her name in vinyl to personalize the jar.

My daughter helped me cut a 12 by 12 inch sheet of scrapbook paper into 48 pieces that were 1 by 3 inch each. That is: I positioned the paper, and she moved the knife of my paper trimmer...

(First cut it into 12 1 inch strips, and then cut each strip into 4 equal pieces.)

On the top of the jar I made this label.

I sketched the apple by hand to match the apple on the paper.

Then, following that pattern, I poked holes in the cardstock, and stitched the apple by hand.

She colored the apple.

Together we added the scrapbook paper to the bars, using adhesive.

I used the following bag of Nuggets. It holds about 50 pieces: just perfect: we ate 2 and wrapped 48.

(I got the jar and the candy at Target.)

We hope she likes chocolate!

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts.

I love spring...

Spring flowers...

My husband and our girls decorated these cute birdhouses for my birthday.

The unfinished one is from our 11 month old :)

I had seen this idea HERE a while ago:

save all your little scraps of yarn, and put them in a suet feeder, so that the birds can use it for their nests.

Since I had one laying around anyway, and I am always having these loose ends of yarn from all kinds of projects, this seemed a neat thing to try. I imagined the birds using it, and maybe the kids could even see them take some of the yarn.

(Insert laughing of my husband here, who thought I'd completely lost it, when he saw what I was doing...)

And I have to say:

he was right...

So far, I haven't seen any proof of them using it.

We even have a robin's nest in our yard, and I checked it out while they were away to see if they used any. 

Nope...

Oh well, it looks pretty colorful :)

And of course I'll leave it out there, who knows?!

I don't let myself get defeated that easily... 

Crochet hats, flowers, owl and sweater

Here are some crochet projects that I have been working on.

I haven't had much time to post pictures, so here they are all at once :)

Some hair clips for a little friend of my girls

A baby hat for a friend

A monkey baby hat

A baby headband with a rose

I used this pattern to make this little owl.

It's simple and cute.

I used the pattern for the body, and then did my own thing for the eyes and beak.

A navy cardigan for our youngest:

(I started out with a pattern, but modified it so much that it turned into my own...)

I really love to crochet.

It's relaxing, and so easy to take with you...

I can't really sit around doing 'nothing', so it's nice to have a 'portable' craft to work on.

Shared at Embellishing Life