Matching Game

This is a game I whipped up tonight to use with the bambinos tomorrow. It's just a cookies and milk matching game. They match the number of chocolate chips on the cookies to the number on the glass of milk.

I made myself cardboard stencils and traced the cookies and milk on paper. Then I cut them out, drew on the chocolate chips and numbers and covered them in contact paper. I also watched my cat get stuck on a sheet of contact paper. Serves him right for gettin' all up in my business. :)

Traced milk glasses

For the 20th time, Get Down! Here comes the contact paperAll done

Scooby Doo!

What I lack in the kitchen, I make up for in the bedroom artistic ability. If nothing else, I CAN draw!

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Around Christmas time I like to buy those gingerbread house kits. They sell them everywhere, and they are a lot easier than making a gingerbread house from scratch. I'll admit it, I suck at baking. If it doesn't come in a box or a can, I'm clueless. The last time I attempted to make bread it had a rock hard crust, and the inside tasted and felt something like a bath sponge. So anyway, these kits help me out a lot.

So last year, we went to the Discovery Center and saw posters for a gingerbread house contest. The kids were excited, so I told them we could figure it out. I am pretty artistic, so I thought maybe if their mom could just help me make the gingerbread, I could assemble and decorate the thing. So we went to the front counter to get more information, and I realized this might be a little harder than I thought. They were doing a TV and movie theme, and the next day was the last day to turn in contest entries. The one thing that did save my butt though, is that they were only to be judged on appearance. I could have made the thing with toilet water for all they cared. The receptionist even suggested graham crackers.

The kids were all hyped up on the free candy canes they got at the museum and had about a million ideas of what we could make. It came down to Spider Man, Sponge Bob, or Word World. We decided on Sponge Bob because he is square, therefore we figured, much easier to make out of gingerbread.

We went right to the grocery store and as we walked in, passed a display of boxed gingerbread kits. That's when it hit me. We could buy the kit, and use the pieces to create a Sponge Bob! With a little fancy knife work, some extra frosting, and some leftover Halloween candy, this is what we came up with. His pants are kit kats! Pretty cute, huh?

We didn't win the contest, but at least we did better than graham crackers, and we were very proud to stand next to our Sponge Bob!

Easter egg cup

Here is another kind of bunny cup we made one time to hold easter eggs. I found these really big paper cups in the basement and decided they'd be large enough to hold each child's special easter eggs, because, you know, you can't let your brother get his hands on your special blue egg. I cut out all the shapes for the bunnies and just had the kids glue them on. I added a few staples for extra security. We of course glued on the trusty cotton tails, and added my favorite feature, the handle. In order to make a handle, I cut the lip off the top of the cups and bent it in the shape of a handle. Then I punched two holes in the side of the cups and slipped the handles through and secured them with tape. These turned out pretty cute I think.

Father's Day Frame

This is a frame we made for Father's Day. I had to erase the cutest part, but oh well. The frame, letters, paints, and dogs and bones were all from the craft store. I let the kids paint the frame and letters outside in their underwear. (wood paint stains) It was a huge mess, but since the letters weren't yet attached it didn't matter. I painted in the spots they missed afterward. Then I glued on the letters and the dogs and bones which came already painted. We put in some cute pictures and Father's day was done.

Be my valentine

I'm not a big fan of those cheesy paper valentines kids exchange every year. I prefer to make homemade valentines. These are some that we made with lollipops and construction paper. I cut out the heart shapes and had my little buddy first glue the smaller hearts inside of the bigger ones. Then he glued the hearts on top of lolli pops. I attached the leaves with hot glue. They just wouldn't stick with Elmer's glue. I think these are pretty cute and super easy.

Bunny Cups

These are little bunny cups that we make every year. Sometimes we use craft foam, sometimes construction paper. Sometimes google eyes, sometimes we make eyes out of paper. The pink bunnies actually have little glitter flower stickers for noses. They always get a cotton ball tail though. I like to attach a little to/from tag to the ears. You can pretty much use whatever you have laying around and make a really cute treat to send in for the whole class. Once you get working on these babies, they go together really fast. When they're dry, just fill them with easter grass and throw in some candy or dollar store goodies. These are always a big hit.