Kid's Activity-Spring Flower Baskets

We try to do a fun activity with our kids every Friday. Usually it is something out of the house. Last Friday however Josh had been out of town and didn't get home until it was about time for the boys to go to bed, so rather than take them somewhere all by myself, I decided to do a craft with them. I had just seen this tutorial on Marthastewart.com, and was dying to try it out. I am so excited for warmth and spring, so I decided that we would make a spring craft. I only wanted to use the stuff that I had already, so that made it tricky, but I love what we came up with.
First I gave the boys some green markers and small Popsicle sticks. They colored them on both sides (as did I. I totally loved doing this craft).

Palmer not only colored his Popsicle stick, but gave himself a mustache. What an overachiever huh :)
And of course Hunter thought that looked like a great time, so he also gave himself one....
Here is how you make the baskets (or you could go on Marthastewart.com and it might be a little more clear). Can you see the lines I drew. I used the fold in the bad as where I wanted the top of my basket to be. You want a thinner handle for this project so you can actually see the flowers inside.
When you cut it out it should look like this. Martha Stewart's was done with pattern scissors, but I was lucky my boys would do the flowers, I didn't want to press my luck. I thought how she did it was cute though.
Then they had a ball decorating their basket. I think these would be cute with white or colored paper bags.

And Sasha just hung out with us. Have I mentioned that she is the best dog? We sure love her.
I would have used Picassa for this, but for some reason it isn't working...I cut out some leaves and flowers. If you have older kids I think they would like to make their own leaves and flowers. Mine however were happy for me to do that part. I just did tulips and daisies. You could also make these out of construction paper or card stock.

Then I hot glued (have I mentioned how in love with my glue gun I am?) a piece of floral foam in the bottom. You don't have to do this part, but we wanted to see the flowers. I had a long piece that would probably have done 6-8 baskets.
Then the boys stick their flowers in the foam and voila! It was a lot of fun to do and the boys now have some spring decorations.
I can't show you Hunter's because he had a serious meltdown in the middle of this activity and spent the rest of the time sulking. His is still sitting on the counter in parts. I think these would be fun to use for Easter at each place setting. You could fill them with Easter basket grass and put candy in them. I would have used the Easter grass if I had some, it would have looked a bit more finished, but the boys were happy with them.

Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet Centerpieces

For our Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts this year, one of the things that I was assigned to do was to make the centerpieces. I figured this wouldn't be to big of deal, because I am best buddies with the internet. I was SURE there would be something great that I could do fast and easily. Ya know just copy some extremely crafty woman. Apparently the extremely crafty women aren't posting their Blue and Gold centerpieces because there were mighty slim pickins out there in cyberspace. I decided that I would go out on a limb and come up with my own idea. Now I was a little nervous because I don't do this very often.
I ended up going to The Wood Connection and buying some dowels, dowel stands and some 5X5 square blocks (If you had a way to drill a hole in the blocks of wood, you could do this yourself). I had them drill a hole in one corner of the block turning the shape into a diamond. I then printed off some clip art from here, and Mod Podged it onto a blue painted square.
Right in the middle of my project, Josh came home from a business trip so I interrupt this serious scout centerpiece tutorial for some serious cuteness. Josh always brings us home a treat when he is out of town. Usually it is just something small, but it keeps the boys okay with the fact that he is gone, because it is extra fun when he gets home. Just something he likes to do, and I LOVE it.
He went to Phoenix and brought them home gummy cactus'. He brought me home chocolate. McKay and I shared (and Josh :) and McKay has found a new love.
Well, after the diamonds were all dried I put them together with a couple of pieces of ribbon. The centerpieces cost about $5 a piece and I love the fact that we didn't throw them away after the banquet was over, we will use them every year.
So even though a lot of Blue and Gold banquets are over, hopefully someone will find this useful and have a pretty easy idea for centerpieces next year.

To display them on the tables I just punched out yellow polka dots for the blue tables and blue polka dots for the yellow tables and scattered them around.

President's Day

I am a big fan of holidays. Any holiday. I love this calendar, that tells me when all sorts of random holidays are. How much more do I love REAL holidays. And obviously since we have a son named "Lincoln", president's day is a big deal to us. I found a fun (and pretty funny), craft for the boys to do. As it was Family Home Evening, we first had a lesson on the presidents. I had a whole bunch of facts about each president (I only did Washington and Lincoln because our kids are young, but it would be fun to do it with other presidents too), and the kids had to choose which of the presidents it was. Things like "he was the tallest president 6'4" (that was Lincoln) or He was a General in the military (Washington). The boys learned a lot and they got a lot of them right too.
After we did the lesson we made this craft I found out in cyberspace somewhere (I really need to be better at giving credit where credit is due. I am usually in such a hurry that I snatch the idea and don't even pay attention to where I get it. Sorry!) It only requires three shapes turned one way they are Abraham Lincoln and turned the other way (with cotton balls for hair), they are George Washington. We laughed a lot and the kids had a great time. Josh as always jumped right in and helped them.
It was fun because they could do it all by themselves, that is always a bonus.

This is how each of their pictures turned out. Pretty awesome huh? Well, they thought so :) I keep trying to think of what I will do when they are teenagers and don't want to do my crafts anymore, I mean can you picture 16 years olds sitting down with a glue stick making these? I am glad I don't have to think about it yet!


Josh bought this book for Lincoln a while ago and so we read it with the family for our nightly reading time.
For dessert we had Cherry Berry Pie. As they ate and finished up their craft I read a story to them about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Not sure that it is true, in fact I have heard it isn't, but it is a good story and from everything else that I have heard about that wonderful man, he would have done it. He was such a good person. I am glad that we have this day to remember and honor them.

Kid Activity-Making Compasses

On President's Day we played games, the kids each got their hour on the Wii, we read stories, played play dough and still had oodles of time left. The boys were bored. Heck I even made them run the length of our street and back 6 times, do 100 jumping jacks and jump rope 50 times (which turned into more), but even that ran out. Now I realize it is very good for kids to think of their own things to do, but a kid can only think of so much before hanging around mom telling her he is bored sounds like the funnest thing they can think of. I recently made compasses with the scouts in our ward, so I decided the time had come to make them with my kids.
This really is a project for older kids as it has to do with needles. I had to have strict rules with the boys when it came to handling the needles (I ended up with one in my heel, all the way in mind you, when I was little and my dad had to pull it out with pliers, so I am a little hyper when it comes to "needle safey".) The boys had to be sitting all of the way up to the table the whole time they did this. Each of the kids got a magnet and ran it down the length of the needle (you want long ones for little hands) about 50 times (you could also set a timer, we did it once and it was easier). Once it is magnetized you stick the needle in a cork (of course an adult needs to do this) and drop it in a bowl of water. It will point north.
The boys thought that this was great and they would spin their bowls to try and get it to point another direction. We also learned all of the ways NOT to magnetize a needle. They have to rub it all one direction. If it is rubbed back and forth it WILL NOT WORK. Hunter rubbed it sideways which also ruined the needle. We tried to go back and fix it, but it didn't work. We had to get a new one.
We also wanted to do a science experiment out of our book "365 Science Experiments," and found another compass idea. Since we had already magnetized the needles we didn't need to do that part (although they did, because they liked doing it so much).
For this experiment you need a jar, magnetized needle (so also a magnet), pencil, small piece of cardstock, hole punch and thread. You punch a hole in the cardstock, tie the thread to it as well as to the middle of the pencil, place the pencil over the middle of the mouth of the jar, making sure that the cardstock is hanging freely (not touching the bottom of the jar), poke your needle through the center of the cardstock and it will also point north. Did that make sense? Hopefully if it didn't the picture will help you.
I think that this was the favorite experiment only because it was a little more involved. The kids kept asking if they could keep their new compasses. Of course I told them I wasn't too thrilled about them having a sharp pencil, needle or glass jar in their room, so they decided to go and play with their pirate compasses that we handed out as prizes at Hunter's birthday party.

Dad's Retirement Dinner

Sorry for such unoriginal titles, but I like to have the title spell out what is in the post so I can find it easily. My Dad has finally retired (well at the end of this month) from Intermountain Farmers Association. He worked there for 30+ years 15 of which he served as President and CEO. We have a lot of good memories associated with IFA and my Dad deeply loves the company that he worked for for so many years. Most people change jobs at least a few times in their lives. My dad has worked there from the time he was in college until retirement. I have watch him work very hard my whole life and I knew that where he worked must be pretty special for him to be so dedicated to it.
This dinner was given at the Little America in honor of my special father. There were about 250 people in attendance and they all loved and respected him. He was given a standing ovation twice that evening and he deserved them. Everyone should have the opportunity to hear the things said about their fathers as I heard about mine that night. Many people talked about my dad's integrity and honesty. I think those are two of the best things that can be said about anyone. I am very proud to be the daughter of such a person.
My mom has been there with my dad every step of the way. They are two peas in a pod and definitely complete each other. There were a lot of wonderful things said about my mom too.
We got to take a picture with everyone there. My aunts and uncles also came to support my dad on this special night. It is a night I will always remember.

Hunter's 5th Birthday Pirate Party

Hunter only asked for a pirate sword and eye patch for his birthday. He found it in an Oriental Trading magazine. He told me this two days before his actual birthday and so I promised him that we would get them if he wanted to do a pirate friend party. He was thrilled.

I knew I wanted to do the message in a bottle thing for the invitations and was just ready to start on them when I found these! They were cheaper than doing it myself, plastic and came with sand, toys and an eye patch. No contest.


I got some printables from a cute etsy shop. They were my favorite part of the party. It was so much fun to put together! She even personalized them with his name and age and a pirate that looked like him. It was so cute!

When the kids came we sent them to the "loot table" and get a pirate bandana for their head, sword and eye patch (the very same that Hunter coveted).
Now do you see why he fell in LOVE?!

And everyone was all too thrilled to be dressed as a pirate.
This is Hunter's very best friend from preschool. Funny thing is that his older brother was Palmer's best friend.
The girls were such good sports as well. Don't they look cute as pirates?
Our first game was "pass the crocodile," which is sort of like hot potato. We had 17 kids and it was a little crazy, but a lot of fun!
Then we had some yummy lunch. Kids are so easy! They just want sandwiches and chips.
This really is the longest post of all time, but I want to remember every detail. I had a ball planning the party!
This was the funniest. All of the kids kept asking for more "grog". I tried to freeze swedish fish in the ice cubes and it was pointless, you couldn't even see them and then they sunk to the bottom and lost their color. Gross? Yes.


We also had Goldfish crackers that were called "Shark Bait."






I was a little worried about serving lunch, but the kids were awesome!

The pirate captain himself.

We divided the kids up into two teams. One group was the crew of the "Black Pearl" and the other was the crew of the "Flying Dutchman". They each got six ping pong balls and tried to sink the other teams ship. I have to say I LOVE the internet and all of the ideas that it gave me.
The ships I painted. Don't they look seaworthy?


Our last game was walking the plank. The kids had to hold a spoon with a golf ball on it and walk across the plank. I tried to show them how to do it and I COULDN'T! They were all much better than me.




Then it was time for presents. Of course Hunter was pretty pumped about doing that.

Then it was CAKE TIME!

Josh drew a treasure map for the kids to go on a treasure hunt for "Captain Hunter's Treasure". I took this picture a few days after the party and by then it had gotten a grease stain on it. I am POSITIVE that pirate maps had all sorts of stains on them so we are just authentic at our house.
They found the TREASURE!


And it was time for the party to be over. I planned for 1 1/2 hours and I had two things that I didn't even get to. After all of the friends left, the cousins stuck around for the rest of it.
My awesome sister Debby kept McKay occupied for the party (along with her baby). She is pretty much awesome.
So we did our tattoo parlor. The rule was that since church was the next day, they had to pick a spot that their shirts would cover.

The last game was so fun. It is a good thing that we couldn't play it though, because I bought the wrong size of pretzels. You have to have regular sized pretzels for this. You get a hook and they have to transfer as many pretzels as they can in 60 seconds (by hooking them on the hook). Ours didn't work so well, but I am determined to do this game again with my boys and do it the right way.

I actually LOVED planning this part and I think the kids like it. Palmer gets a party this year too. I am already trying to think of things to do!

P.S. Thank you Heather (my awesome sister) for all of your help preparing for the party.  I have the greatest sisters ever!  My parents also came before and helped me.  Thanks guys!