Last week I wrote a post about Nutty's camping birthday party. In that post I told you that her giant smore's cake needed a post of it's own. Now you'll know why... As I said in my previous post, this cake took me two days to make, was a little hard, and wasn't very practical but it looked awesome and the girls loved it. The real instructions on how to make this giant smore's cake can be found on Not Just A Housewife. I won't steel her post. I will, however, tell you how making my cake went... Unlike the original cake, I started out making two vanilla cakes. I surprised myself on how well they turned out (i.e. I got them out of the pan without ruining them). I also surprised myself on how I was able to level them (no photo, sorry). Between my cake layers I put marshmallow fluff creme. This is where my first problems came in. The chocolate chips melted just fine but I quickly realized I didn't have a cookie sheet quite as large as I wanted. Oh well, my round pizza sheet … [Read more...]
Budget-Friendly Summer Activities For Kids–Camp Alternatives #Spon
Summer is almost over but many kids are still packing their bags to attend overnight camps. According to the American Camp Association, the average cost of one week at overnight camp is $690. If you don’t want to pay the high price tag of a summer camp, there are plenty of camp alternatives that won’t empty your wallet. Read on to discover six budget-friendly summer activities for kids. Sign kids up for a reading program. This is an especially good summer activity for kids who are just learning to read. Find out what programs your local library offers, and sign up your little ones. It’s a great way to keep kids busy for a few hours each day. Start your own “camp.” It will require a bit of coordination and planning, but the closest camp alternative is creating your own “camp program.” Decide which parent will be hosting “camp” each day of the week and make a list of activities for each “session.” If you will be driving the group of campers, make sure everyone in your vehicle is … [Read more...]
Volcano in a Bottle
Making a volcano in a bottle is a great (and fun) way to teach kids about chemical reactions and also teach them about volcanos. Here's what you will need: an old soda bottle or water bottle (I used an old wine bottle) 1 Table spoon of baking soda a drop of food coloring 1/4 cup vinegar water Place your bottle in the kitchen sink (or in your yard). Make sure the bottle is filled about 2/3 the way with water. Create a funnel or use one you have to add the baking soda. Pour in the 1/4 cup of vinegar and food coloring and watch it erupt! Fun facts: Mixing vinegar and baking soda produces carbon dioxide....this is the same gas that is found under the earth which causes a volcano to erupt. Have you made a volcano in a bottle with your kids yet? … [Read more...]
Purex Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Review #Spon
If you have kids then you know stains! You know that they spill things, smear things, and soil things. One thing that drives me incredibly batty is the fact that my daughter uses her clothing as a napkin. Does anyone know how to get her to stop? I have tried everything short of safety pinning a napkin to her clothes. I'm pretty good at getting stains out of clothing...heck I have lots of practice with four kids and an equally messy husband...but one thing I have never been able to manage getting out was grease stains. Grease from splattered oil, grease from juice, grease from the garage, and grease from using your shirt as a napkin. I've tried a lot of things! Well, after I received my free bar of Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar I knew exactly what I was going to do to put it to the REAL test! I grabbed one of my daughters favorite shirts and got to work....well work I didn't have to do. I simply followed the directions on the bar and let Fels-Naptha do the work. I got my daughters shirt wet … [Read more...]
Berry Picking
Do you have a fun place to get away from the "real world?" We do! We go up north to my father-in laws house twice a year...once at Christmas time and once in the summer. Summer is my favorite time to go there for sure. There are so many fun things to do and see that we don't get down here in the big city. When we go in the summer we spend the majority of the days outside enjoying the fresh air! We ride papa's tractor, the fancy John Deer Green Truck, four wheelers and so much more. My favorite thing by far is to go berry picking! We haven't been all that lucky the last two years because the weather has not cooperated. Two years ago it was too cool and a frost destroyed all the berries, last year it was too hot and the berries were destroyed....this year the weather has been JUST RIGHT! We brought some of our dear friends up north with us this time too! We scavenger around the forest for wild blueberries, wild strawberries, and my personal favorite wild raspberries. Even though I … [Read more...]
Camping Birthday Party Ideas + FREE Printable
Nutty's 7th birthday was last week. I don't know why, but she insisted on having a camping themed birthday and having a sleepover. So...because I'm such a great mom, we had a campover birthday. Twelve girls total (including Nutty and Tottie) with six of them camping overnight in a tent in our back yard. What was I thinking?! I searched all over Pinterest for ideas for her party but I'm not one to go way overboard with decor and things. I just wanted ideas... It started with Nutty's invitations. She really liked this invitation. Though the site somewhat told you how to make them, the author of the post admits she had a hard time coming up with an appropriate pattern. I did some more searching and couldn't come up with one either. After over an hour of cutting, measuring, re-cutting, folding, etc, I finally came up with my own pattern. To save our lovely readers some time, I thought I'd actually share my pattern with you so you can easily make your own tent invitations! … [Read more...]
