My neighborhood has a block party every summer (more to come on that later). Last summer we decided to save a little money and do something other than a dunk tank for water fun. My neighbor has a nice sized hill in their back yard so we decided to do a giant slip and slide! Let me tell you, the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids did!! To make your own giant slip and slide you'll need: A roll of heavy duty plastic such as plastic sheeting Some type of steaks such as tent stakes or garden steaks A sprinkler A decent sized hill Simply steak down the plastic, set up the sprinkler so that the water lands on the plastic, wait for it to get wet, then slide down! If you want it to be slightly more slippery, you can add some Dawn dish soap along the plastic. In all fairness, I do have to give some warnings about this giant slip and slide... Once the slip and slide has been used a couple of hundred of times and the ground is patted down, it gets SUPER slippery! … [Read more...]
Kids Car Wash
Some of you may remember my post a while back about Making Cleaning Fun. Well the spring has been sloooooooow to arrive in the frozen tundra and today it finally arrived! The sun is shining and their Cozy Coupe cars from Little Tykes were in desperate need of a cleaning. We lined them up for the car washing of their lives! I ran in the house and grabbed a bucket of warm soapy water and a few wash cloths. My daughter decided that the cars needed a little vacuuming before they were spiffed up for spring. After lots of bubbles and giggles we ended up with three VERY clean cars. Have you ever held a car wash at your house? … [Read more...]
Sponge Ball Fight–Pinned it, Did it!
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...]
12 fun Beach Day Activities
1. Fill a bucket relay- Set up a bucket a few feet from the water. Have each child race to the water and fill their hands with water and race back to the bucket to dump it in. Time them to see how fast they can fill the bucket up with water using only their hands! 2.Go on an archiological dig- Dig deep into the sand to find rocks and trinkets. Discuss how each item looks, feels, and even smells. Explain how the smooth rocks got their feel from the waves crashing over them and buffing them smooth. Tell them how the sharp and jagged rocks may not have been in the water very long and they haven't been smoothed by the water. 3. Look for sea glass- Did you know that glass is smooth after it has been in the water for some time? Mason jar glass often takes a blue color to it when it has been buffed by the waves and shore. Brown glass is usually from root(beer) bottles and red sea glass is considered one of the rarest colors! See if you can collect enough sea glass to make a mosaic … [Read more...]
Gardening with your kids
For Earth day the kids and I decided to plant our veggies for the summer! It was GREAT fun! Last year was our first year growing our own veggies and we learned a lot. We learned that weeding is VERY important, we learned that the deer will not leave our garden alone without a little electricity (insert evil snicker here) and we learned that we did not plant ENOUGH of anything. This year we decided to add a few more (OK actually 24 more) crowns of asparagus to our crop. This time next year we will have asparagus coming out of our ears and I cannot wait (and neither can my kids)! We just finished planting three varieties of lettuce, radishes, onions, red potatoes, green beans and peas....and to top it all off we have room left over for a few tomato plants! I am....oops I mean the kids are, SO excited! Source Gardening with my kids last year changed the way they looked at vegetables. They actually enjoy them now. There is something magical about plopping a few … [Read more...]
