To celebrate their 110th birthday, the 8 original crayons are throwing a birthday bash at the new fun-omenal Crayola Experience, the world's only interactive Crayola family attraction. Right now, they're out on a colorful adventure to spread the news, and you're invited to join the fun! How can you join in on the fun? You can FOLLOW the crayons on their adventure, LEARN more about each color and enter to WIN a trip for 4 to celebrate their birthday and the Grand Opening of the all new Crayola Experience this coming May, 2013! Visit the Crayola Facebook page and click "enter now" for your chance to be first in line when the Crayola Experience reopens. The new Crayola Experience features four floors of new interactive exhibits and one-of-a-kind attractions that will bring the magic of color and your child's creativity to life! The winner will be among the first to experience the fun, along with a three- night, all-expenses paid stay. It's an experience your kids will never forget - … [Read more...]
Blast from the past- teach them OLD card games
For Easter this year my mom scored on some AWESOME card games for my kids at the dollar store! I was looking through them and it got me to thinking about all the fun, and easy, card games I used to play when I was a kid. Go Fish- Go Fish is best for 2-5 players. A regular deck of card may be used, or you can purchase fun kid-friendly cards as well.. The dealer deals 5 cards to each player All of the remaining cards are placed face down to create a pond (or stock). The player to dealer's left starts. The first player may start by asking for a specific persons cards, for example- "Johnnie, may I please have your 5's?" The player who asks must already hold at least one card of the requested. If the player who was asked has cards of the named (5's in this case), he must give all her cards of this rank to the player who asked for them. That player then gets another turn and may again ask any player for any rank already held by the asker. If the person asked does not have any cards … [Read more...]
Brownie Mix
If you are like me, and you should be cause I'm cool, you are kind of bothered by all the "odd" ingredients in mixes you find today. I searched high and low and couldn't find a brownie mix that contained ingredients that I could pronounce, let alone knew what they all were. So I created my own! And lucky you, I am sharing it with you today! I have a large family (there are six of us) so I make it in bulk and store it in a canister. You can divide the recipe up evenly and it will turn out the same for you. Best part, you can pronounce EVERY ingredient in it! Lindsi's Fabulous Brownie Mix 2 T salt 3 T baking powder 4 Cups cocoa powder (like Hershey's) 12 Cups of unbleached flour (you can use bleached if you want but IMO-yuck) 16 C sugar Mix well and store in a covered jar or tub To make a batch of brownies you need 2 1/4 Cups of your brownie mix 2 eggs 1/3 Cup vegetable oil 2 T water 2 tsp vanilla Bake at 350 degrees for 28-30 minutes in a small square pan....yum! … [Read more...]
Creating a special reading place- on a budget
With four kids I don't have a lot of extra cash floating around (who does these days?). My daughter asked me to create a Book Nook for her. I have to admit, I giggled, because I thought "um, you're 5 what do you know about a Book Nook?" While on bed rest from my surgery (coming soon in another post) I got to work and did some pinning on Pinterest. Apparently Book Nooks are where it's at these days! I was able to create a special place for my princess with less than $50. Sweet!!!!!! We had several extra crib mattresses laying around (which may not sound normal to you but at one point we had three cribs in use at our house). I knew I could make a custom cover for the mattress and add some special flare to it as well. I found these stick on letters at Target in the clearance section for only $3.46. I thought they were perfect for the wall. They didn't have enough "R's" so I had to get creative and make an extra "r" out of a "p" (can you tell which "R" is made by me?) I Google … [Read more...]
Things for the kids to do when mom or dad are sick
Mom is sick....uh oh....here are 15 things for the kids to do when mommy or daddy are sick 1.Have a Dance Party- turn up the radio and let them boogie on down 2. Educational games on your smart phone-this keeps my boys entertained for hours, or until the battery dies 3. Indoor bowling- yup, you read that right! 4. Create some crazy shapes out of exploding soap 5. Dot to Dot, brain quiz or workbooks- I have a stash of these just for the days when I am under the weather, they love them! 6. Make rainbows and prisms on the wall 7. Popsicle Stick puzzles out of old photographs of your kids 8. Scratch pads. Seriously these things are genius! Let us show you how to make them. 9. Have your kids run an obstacle course while you rest 10. Paint with marbles- it's easy and so much fun 11. Stickers- let's be real all kids love stickers! 12. Play with shaving cream- I know it sounds messy but it will clean your table and it smells SO good! 13.Make a paper … [Read more...]
Raspberry Cheesecake Popsicles
Here are the ingredients: 12 oz frozen (or fresh) raspberries 1 tablespoon sugar 2 tablespoons water 1 pkg cream cheese (8oz), softened 1/3 cup milk 2/3 cups confectioners sugar (aka powdered sugar) 1 teaspoon vanilla Pour your raspberries, sugar and water into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let the mixture gently boil for around 8-10 minutes. Once the time has elapsed you will pour your raspberry mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until it is a smooth puree. Set the raspberry puree aside in a small plastic bowl and let cool in the fridge (around 2 hours). In a small bowl combine the cream cheese, milk, confectioners sugar and vanilla and blend well until nice and smooth. You can either use a popsicle maker like I have or you can purchase popsicle molds at your local store. Insert the sticks and layer your raspberry puree and cheese cake batter in the mold. Let freeze until solid and enjoy!!! … [Read more...]
