Summer Bucket List

Wow it has been awhile! Whoops! My new shop is keeping me pretty busy.

I just created a Summer Bucket List for my family. It will mostly be me and my little bug, but we'll involve Daddy when we can. 

This is our first year making an actual list. It should be fun and keep us even busier! We'll just cross things off as we do them. 

Mother's Day Coloring Sheet!

I love giving my Mother's a homemade card for their special day aka Mother's Day! Now that my little bug is older he is able to make it for them. Here is a coloring sheet so your little one can color their own. Click here.

~CJ

Sesame Street Party

I just threw a Sesame Street Birthday Party for my 2 year old! He's getting so big. He had the time of his life. Unfortunately I didn't get the best pictures as usual. Here is the problem with planning parties I'm finding. Only I know what is going on so I have to do everything and I don't think about things like pictures when I'm doing a billion other things. No matter what, I never have enough done before hand.

So here are some pictures from the party. Hopefully I can explain enough without the pictures. This is the overview. I'll do a couple of more specific posts.

***Update- You can see games here.

Painting with Cars

(This weekend was my little bug's Birthday / Party so I'm pretty wiped out. Luckily I've had this in my drafts so you still get a post today. Check back next week for the party details)

I know this idea has been around forever, I'm not inventing the wheel here. I just want to share how easy it is and well worth it! A few weeks ago I was watching my Nephew. It was the first time it was just him. I've usually had his older sister too. So I wanted to do something fun and BOY! He really enjoyed it and so did my little bug! We painted with cars!

Supplies

Paint (I just did acrylic)

Cars (I didn't want to use our nice cars, so I bought a pack at DollarTree just for painting with [3 for $1])

Paper (just used plain copy paper)

We had aprons on just in case

Also we had a clear cloth down to protect the table. That was back when I wanted to keep the table clean. Now I realize it's his art table let him have fun with it. It is now colored in crayon.

Just let the kids dip and drive on their paper. It looks pretty cool and the kids loved it!

 What is your favorite thing to let kids paint with?

Want another idea, see the post of painting with lettuce.

~CJ

MLK Day

It's Monday already?!?! I can't believe it. Since the Hubs works for the school district which means he had a day off from work and school today! So we enjoyed a nice (long) bike ride! We biked to a park that is a little over 6 miles from our house, ate a picnic lunch, tried feeding the ducks but they wouldn't come close enough. Ryder got to play with his cousin on the playground and then we biked the 6+ miles home. It was tough and I am pooped! Luckily my little bug is taking a nice nap so I can relax. Hence the not so exciting blog post.

January 21st is always a fun day. It kicks of the Birthday's. My brother is turning 30! We'll be going out tonight to celebrate. As if that weren't exciting enough, my grandparents are celebrating their 68th Wedding Anniversary! I love that! We had a party for them Saturday, it's always fun to get families together to celebrate!

My little bug is turning 2 in less than 2 weeks! He is getting so big and is so smart. I can't believe how much he knows. He impresses me everyday. So in a few weeks I'll post party stuff:) It's Sesame Street! It's going to be so much fun!

10 easy Valentine's Day Ideas

My little bug isn't in school yet so Valentines aren't really needed. However, I thought it would be fun to have him give something to his cousins. Plus I teach a primary class in church that I would like to give a little something to so they will like me... So here are some ideas that I have come across that I LOVE!

What got me thinking about it was I saw these bubble gum party favors at Sams Club today for $10. They also had just fun colorful ones that weren't valentinesy. If I didn't already have the favors for my bugs upcaoming Birthday Party I would have gotten those. $.41 a piece, what a deal!

samsclub.com

These recycled crayons are so much fun. These are one of the first things I ever pinned and I'm so glad I did. I love the no candy idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61951289@N08/5672821563/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This next one is perfect for school age kids. When I was in school I was always losing pencils

http://indulgy.com/post/exx28Vs6E1/love-this-diy-valentines-day-gift-idea-all-yo

Valentines don't have to cost much. Here is an almost free idea. However, I'm a little nervous about taking all those paint chips.


http://www.babyalerts.ca/valentines-day-diy-projects-kids/

I'm thinking of making the grandma's a photo bookmark or my little bug.

I love this boy valentine! Feb 14th is such a girly holiday. What boy wouldn't love this?

http://www.jacolynmurphy.com/2012/01/for-valentinesall-is-fair-in-love-and.html

How cute would these be to throw in your child's/ hubbys lunch? So fun!

http://www.coolmompicks.com/2012/02/last_minute_valentines_ideas.php

These ones can be done with staples or a sewing machine. Love that you could buy candy in bulk and divid between gifts.

http://irinascutebox.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-day-gift-idea.html

This brings me to a side note, can kids even hand out candy not package from the store? When I was a kid we would just buy a big bag of conversation hearts and put like 5 in each card. I think that is a no-no now right? So I guess the one above would be for non school kids.

I love this idea, maybe it doesn't fit into the easy category because it would be time consuming to make all the slits.

http://24-7-365.blogspot.com/2009/02/lavish-me-with-praise.html

Another sucker one. Seems easy especially if you had a cricut to help you. She does include a template.

http://www.quietfish.com/notebook/?p=3109

And last, but not least Fortune cookies. I think older kids would have a fun time coming up with the different fortunes to go inside.

http://celesterockwood-jones.typepad.com/designwashrinserepeat/2009/02/freebie-fortune.html

Valentines Day is in a month from tomorrow! Do you know what you are going to do yet? Now to get ideas on what to give to the Hubs!

~CJ

Advent Calendar

Is it just me or is the last week of November going by real slow? One day it's Halloween and then the next it is Thanksgiving and then a month later it is December 1st. Anyone else feel that way? I think a lot of it had to do with Thanksgiving being early this year. I'm just so excited for Christmas season! I've tried putting off most Holiday things until December. Don't get me wrong our lights and decorations are already up, but waiting to get truly into the spirit. One more day!

I"m really excited this year because I made an Advent Calendar. It starts on the first, but we put it up today.

 To make this I just cut a 4x4 square out of Christmas Paper that came in a holiday pack that I will never use, I really like it for this though. Then I Printed off the numbers from studio diy. I cut those out and attached to the front with homemade glue dots.

Then I made up a little calendar and starting filling in which activities would be good for what days. I tried to keep the weekdays easy and do the more time consuming ones on weekends. After everything looked good I handwrote the activities onto the paper. I also added the date we should be on incase we get behind.

This will be tomorrows card...

I just hung them up with clothespins (I wish I would have painted or covered with paper). I hung them up with 1 in the middle and switching off. This way when we get to only a few days left all the numbers aren't to one side, they will be in the middle.

Here is our list of things to do. We'll see how much we stick to it. I'm planning on doing some posts on the activities.

24- Play with Nativity Blocks
23- Christmas Devotional on BYU tv
22- Unwrap a Christmas book and read it
21-  Play with Magnet Nativity
20- Make a homeless bag and give it to someone before Christmas
19- Unwrap a Christmas book and read it
18- Watch Muppets Christmas Carol
17- Go to Tucson Zoo
16- Go see Temple Lights
15- Watch Mickey's Christmas Carol
14- Unwrap a Christmas book and read it
13- Make and Decorate Sugar Cookies
12- Unwrap a Christmas book and read it.
11- Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
10- Watch Home Alone
9- Watch Mr. Krugers Christmas
8- Drive around and look at Christmas Lights
7- Visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop
6- Unwrap a Christmas book and read it
5- Watch Home Alone 2
4- Open Christmas Jammies and watch Polar Express
3- Go on Polar Express
2- Watch Elf
1- Play with Magnet Activity
0- CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope this gave you some ideas! I know this time of year is hectic with all that is going on. But make sure you take the time to enjoy it! Happy Holidays!

~CJ

Zoo Scavenger Hunt

I just bought a zoo membership and I am feeling like the coolest mom in the world! I'm more excited than my little bug. Mainly because he has no clue what is in store. In celebration of my membership I'm planning a zoo day with some of my family members (4 of them have memberships too). So between the memberships and me getting a free culture pass at the mesa library everyone is getting in for free.

To give the kids an added bonus I made a scavenger hunt for them to work on while we are admiring all of the not so wild life. I just created a table in a word program and added pictures from the Phoenix zoo website. I found one online here, but our zoo doesn't have a hippo so I had to make my own. Hopefully you can use it too. If you want me to make a change for you let me know craftsbycjg@gmail.com

Here is the link to print your own scavenger hunt! When they mark off 8 spaces they get a treat. When they mark off all 15 they get another one. I have these zoo fruit snacks purchased from Sams Club.

We tested this out earlier today. As you can see it was well used. The kids enjoyed it, especially my Nephew Wyatt who is about 3 1/2. Planning on making a different 2 based on the sides of the park. We only did half today so we didn't see all that was on our list. We still got our treat though!

Do you do anything to make the zoo more fun?

Happy Monday!

~CJ

5 little ducks felt board song

5 Little Ducks (Please forgive my camera)

I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, you know make those fun kid songs a little more fun. Since I'm lacking a computer and my little bug is too young to criticize my artwork I just drew my animals. I'm sure you could find cute clip art of different ducks to use.

Pipe Cleaner Accessories

The other day the little bug and I played with pipe cleaners. He liked bending them and loved when I made them into accessories! Like these pipe cleaner glasses!

 It took 2 pipe cleaners, one for each "lense" and ear piece. We also made a bracelet. Those were his favorites!

Sometimes I find myself spending too much time doing stuff for me (sewing, crafting, pinterest etc), I leave my bug to entertain himself. I missing out on so much fun and making memories. I'm trying harder to focus on doing fun silly things with him each day!

~CJ

Ps this is my 50th post! Kind of exciting!!!

Color Sorting

HAPPY OCTOBER! (This means I can put up Halloween decorations now right?)

I hope you had a great weekend! Mine was fun. As usual my laid back Saturday turned out pretty busy.

My little bug is getting really good at matching things up. So I decided to make him a sorting tray. I picked up a serving tray last weekend from Goodwill for $.50 on half price day. I was going to paint each compartment, but using paper was much easier, faster, and this way I can switch them out for different colors.

 So far we have only sorted pop poms, but he loves it! He doesn't quite make it through all of the balls, but he gets enough to go through a few of each color! He loves Blue and that is the only color he says. Everything is BLUE!

I hope this gives you an idea to do with your little one. You don't even need a tray. just paper would work. I've done this with Egg cartons and plastic Easter eggs before too!

~CJ

Car Seat Cooler

So with my new sewing machine I was able to finish a project I cut months ago, but just never got around to sewing with my Mom-in-laws machine. I made this carseat cooler!

 I used this easy to follow tutorial from five crafty sisters and it was pretty easy. It took me about an hour to sew 2 of them. I had done the cutting earlier. Probably about 1 1/2 hours total time. (that was also me figuring out my machine)

I know it's starting to get cooler so I'm a little late for this, but my little bug still complains "hot" sometimes when we get into the car.

What is nice is the ice packs are removable. You don't have to put the whole thing in your freezer, just the ice packs!

What I also love is that the ribbon holds it up! It wont fall down! I was worried about the towel being too
 thick, but it works nicely!

~CJ


~CJ

Fun with Foam

The other day I bought some foam sheets from DollarTree. 

Photo courtesy of DollarTree.com

They come in a pack of 32 for $1. I was trying to think of something fun and outdoors to do with them. My little bug loves being outside, but it's hot in AZ so we thought we'd test these in water. Come to find out, they stick pretty good to windows when wet!

Just DIP IT

And STICK IT

He thought this was so much fun! I cut up the foam sheets into thirds, so we only used 5 sheets, but it still gave him 15 pieces to make art! These are reusable to. We've played with them 3 different times.

~CJ

Time Out!

Oh boy! Are we hitting the "terrible twos" already??? We are starting to put Ryder in time out, mainly when it's something we tell him not to over and over again. Or when it's something really bad that we really don't want him to do.

We use to have him fold his arms. That lasted about a day, I didn't want him to feel like he's always in trouble when we tell him to fold his arms for prayer. We then switched to putting his hands on his head. So we'll have him stand up against something (wall, couch, cabinet etc.) and put his hands on his head. We leave him there for around a minute (if that) and have him say sorry and explain why he was in time out.

I feel like even though he is only 18 months old he understands. My proof... after he gets out of time out he will go and do that thing that he was just in time out for and then put himself in time out.

 Aye aye aye, do any of you have time out success methods? I'm not quite sure he is really getting it...

~CJ

Frozen Apple Bites

My little bug is 18 months old. It is nice because he can pretty much feed himself without making a huge disastrous mess. However there are a few things I wont let him feed himself such as yogurt and apple sauce. I found a solution to the yogurt while looking at Pinterest. I don't know what link I first saw, but it's everywhere. Frozen yogurt dots. Interesting...

I wondered if the same theory would work for applesauce. I decided to give it a try and make Frozen Apple Bites.

More after the jump...

Lettuce Stamping

I know this isn't a new concept, but hopefully if you run across this it may remind you and you can try this with your little one(s). My little bug really enjoyed it!

Today while making lunch I was cutting up lettuce and saw the stub and thought we should do some stamping. I've been wanting to do more "arts and crafts" so this was perfect. Besides instead of just throwing it away, why not play with it first.

More after the jump..

Toilet Paper Tube Necklace

I found this website this morning called no time for flash cards. It has a ton of activities for kids. I came across one using toilet paper tubes. I love this idea because we need toilet paper, but don't really have a use besides filling with dog treats for the dogs. (Need another idea for dogs see this ice lick I made)

Here is what we did. Color the tubes. My little bug was kind of young for this. He mostly just stuck the colored pencils through the tube. Still a fun activity. We even added some stickers!

 Then I cut the tubes into 4 pieces and strung them onto a piece of yarn for a necklace. He loved it!!!

 He especially loved to crumple them together. 

He actually ended up wearing this all day!

~CJ

Swap Week Introduction

I know we have all heard of Shark Week, well next week on crafts by CJ it's Swap Week!

I have been participating in a lot of swaps lately. My husband thinks I'm nuts and has a hard time keeping track of what it what. This is my little introduction  to get you as excited as I am. If you don't already follow my blog you are going to want to, so many ideas are coming to you in one place!

Here is the line up...
File Folder Swap 
Recipe Swap
Freezer Meal Swap
Card Swap
Busy Bag Swap



See you next week:)
~CJ

Patriotic Pizza

On the second Sunday of every month My Husband's family has a potluck dinner. We try to have a theme to make it fun and to spark ideas of what to bring. For July, in honor of America our theme is Red, White, and Blue. I wanted to come up with something really fun and tasty. The easy way out is dessert. Assuming that most people will bring a dessert I did not want to go with that option. This is what I came up with... Pizza!

Flagprint

4th of July crafts are everywhere! I wanted to come up with a little craft for Ryder and I to do that could be displayed as well. I'm working on a little patriotic "mantle". This is what we came up with. Ryder had so much fun doing it!

I know this is self explanatory and you could figure it out on your own, but just in case here is what I did...