Welcome to our first Pinned it, Did it! post!! Every Friday, we'll bring you things we've tried after pinning them on Pinterest. Sometimes they'll be things we've pinned on our personal accounts, sometimes, ideas we've pinned on our Toys In The Dryer account. Either way, we'll let you know if the project or recipe was worth the effort and if our kids had fun doing them. We start with a sponge ball fight: When I saw this pin on Pinterest, I knew it was PERFECT for our neighborhood block party! We've had water balloons in the past that left a huge mess to clean up in the morning plus parents worried their little ones would try to eat the small balloon parts left in the grass. Thus, sponge balls were tried and were an exponential success!! Both the little kids and the teens loved them! Confession before I continue: I have no photos of the actual sponge ball fight because I got to the party at the very end of the fight (work ran a little late). These photos were also taken … [Read more...]
Toys In The Dryer, Then and Now
Toys In The Dryer is 1 Year Old!! One year ago today, Toys In The Dryer published our very first post, Introducing Toys In The Dryer!. We are both proud and excited that we have made it to our 1 year blogiversary. We have grown leaps and bounds over this past year and we can not thank our readers enough for helping us do that! Did you know we've published 265 posts so far?! It doesn't really feel like it to us!If you've been following us from the very beginning, you know that a few things have changed over this year: We had a (very) brief period where we had a Mom of the Week meme. After only two weeks we decided that MOTW was not going to be very popular. Why we gave up after 2 weeks when we were less than 2 months old is beyond us, but we changed to Fun Stuff Fridays. FSF became popular in it's 21 week run averaging 220 link ups per week in the end. However, we feel that FSF has run it's course being similar to many other linky parties out there. We now bring you Pin it, … [Read more...]
Happy Labor Day!
For many, Labor Day symbolizes the last day of summer. Most children (including ours) will begin school tomorrow, and life will return to the hustle and bustle of the fall and winter months. Just for fun, we've come up with some Labor Day facts for you (in case, like us, you only know Labor Day as the holiday to do nothing or the day before school starts): The Labor Day holiday was created to pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of the American workers. Labor Day stems from the labor movements in the 19th century as workers protested long hours, little pay, and young children being forced to work. The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. In 1884, Labor Day was moved to the first Monday in September. Labor Day was made a Federal holiday in 1894. … [Read more...]
Back Yard Camping
Hubby and I are very much into tent camping. Part of the money we received from our wedding was spent on high quality camping gear, and before we had kids, we camped multiple times a summer. It became a lot harder, however, when the girls were little. It took too much effort to pack up a bunch of baby items. Hubby and I decided that we would instead, begin to teach our girls to camp using our back yard. It has been a once-a-summer family tradition every since. Back yard tent camping has most of the same opportunities as real camping without all the hassle and with some of the comforts of home (such as a nice bathroom for my picky girls). Though we still try to go real camping, we make sure to camp in our back yard at least once a summer. We use our fire pit to cook over the fire, roast marshmallows, and keep warm as the rule is you can only go inside to go to the bathroom once we've begun our camping adventure. If you're not really into the hassle of real camping or have … [Read more...]
An Interview with the Directors of "Paranorman" and a Giveaway!
There's only 2 days left until the new animated movie by LAIKA, "Paranorman", hits theaters! Yep, that's right, "Paranorman" opens nationwide on August 17, 2012. No doubt you've seen the commercials for it on TV, heard sound bites on the radio, or viewed the trailer in the theaters. If you've been living under a rock without TV, radio, or the movie theater, and have no clue what I'm talking about, see the official trailer below. Jamie was lucky enough to get a press screening of the movie and was even luckier to get an interview with the directors, Sam Fell and Chris Butler! I would throw in a huge "EEEKKK!" here but that would sound unprofessional. Lets start however, with what's so special about LAIKA and "Paranorman". I mean, what's all the hype? It's just another animated movie, right? Wrong! LAIKA produced the Academy Award-nominated movie "Coraline", it's first stop-motion movie. What is stop-motion animation? Well, according to Wikipedia, stop-motion … [Read more...]
Walmart Box Tops for Education
It's August which means that most of us are beginning to think about back to school. I confess though, I have yet to begin my planning. I have, however, been saving my Box Tops all summer in preparation for Nutty to make a large deposit in the collection bin on her first day of school. If you haven't been as good at saving your Box Tops over the summer, you are in luck! Participating products at Walmart are now loaded with 4 Box Tops to help you stock up for your first day of school! Look for the Box Tops display at your local Walmart to earn 4 Box Tops on more than 100 of your family’s favorite items including Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, Nature Valley and Totinos By liking Walmart on Facebook you can earn more Box Tops from General Mills Check out the Box Tops For Education website to learn more about the Box Tops Program and how you can help your school reach its goal for the 2012-2013 school year Visit EarnMoreForMySchool.com to find out how you can earn even more … [Read more...]
