Watermelon Pinata

A small pinata for a change. Watermelon reminds me of summer so I made the watermelon pinata to lift my spirits in this 30 day rain here on the East Coast. Seriously this rain is getting so old!



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Butterfly Pinata

One of Jada's little friends is having a Birthday Party next month, and we have no idea what to get a child that has everything! I thought a useful homemade Pinata gift that she can use at her party would be appropriate. We will fill it before her party with some small toys and treats. I forgot to take a picture of the back but it's just covered with some purple tissue paper.
We made this out of a cardboard box, tape and party streamers. Oh and the middle part of the body is construction paper with pipe cleaners for antenna. You can see some of my other Pinata creations HERE

We hope the Birthday girl likes it:)

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Rainbow Pinata ~Tutorial

Rainbow Pinata

It has been raining here for almost a month straight! We would be happy to see a rainbow at this point. I made this by the seat of my pants and I am in no way an expert. If you see a step that could be left out by all means do it:)
I was going to buy a rainbow pinata for Jada's Birthday party in September but honestly I just couldn't shell out $20 for something that would be dystroyed in 5 minutes! So I made my own thinking it would be pretty easy HA! So I thought. The next one I make will be easier as now i know what to do.

First I made a arc out of two pieces of cardboard and taped them together.

Then I taped streamers on continuing the line under and over to the other side

Then I cut small strips of streamers and taped them on. I used this method below to tape them on.

I rolled long lines of duct tape like this
And stuck my small strips on that look like this:

Here is a look at my strips of tape

Once I had all my party streamer strips on I cut a flap into the top to put out treats in. I made 2 small holes for our string for hanging.

There is a ton of tape on this but I think 6 sugar hungry children will bust it open pretty easily:)

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Making Bread In A Bag

Nothing like soft warm bread on a rainy day. Or should I say week! It's been raining here on the East coast for almost a week!
I have had the recipe for bag bread for many years and have no idea where I got it but it's a gem. A very yummy science experiment. I will try to walk you through this recipe as best as I can.

First you will need the following:
A pan
2 pkg of fast rising yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 c warm water
4 tsp vegetable oil
3 C Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt

1. In a gallon sized Freezer bag place 1 1/2 c flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Close bag tight and ask you child to work the bag with their fingers to mix the ingredients.


2. Add the oil and water to the ingredients in the bag. Reseal and demonstrate to your child how to mix the ingredients. Gradually add the remaining flour, until mixture forms a stiff ball.


3. Grease your hands with solid vegetable oil and remove dough from bag and knead on a floured surface. (I did this part as I had 6 kids doing this activity with me. It can get very messy!)

Knead for about 5 minutes until small air pockets begin to form under the surface of the dough. when they appear allow your child to observe them.


4. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Grease a bread pan, divide dough into two equal pieces and place in pan.


5. Cover with clean cloth and let rise for 1 hour. In the mean time ask your child what she thinks will happen to the dough. Read a children's book about baking bread. We read the little red hen




I don't think I need to do a book review as I'm sure we have all read this book at one time or another. I will say that this book was an excellent choice for this activity:)


6. Show your child what happened to the dough once it has risen. Ask your child questions about how the dough got bigger etc


7. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degree F for 25 to 30 minutes

As soon as you take the bread out of the oven butter the tops of your loaves with paper towel. This helps your bread stay soft

Let cool for 20 minutes. In the mean time you can set up a self serve snack station

And Bon Appetit!

We toasted some too. There is a reason we don't do this activity too often, my waist line doesn't need it!

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Easter / Spring Sweet Treats

Easter/Spring sweet treats
We had our Easter party yesterday and here is the grub. Made from the Rice Krispie square recipe


So remember the other day I said I would try to dye eggs with the children. Well does this count?:


I even took the leftovers to Jada's gym daycare last night. Not sure how RIGHT taking sweets into a gym is but the kids were pretty happy:)

Update on the Bunny Baskets

It is super deduper windy here today so please ignore the fact that his ears are about to fly him away. This was the best pic out of tons that is half decent. Again my sister made the baskets (Thank you Katrina!!!!) and I put his face on. And once again special thanks to Sun Scholars for posting this tutorial! And another great bunny basket I found Here at Mama Pea Pod.

Bunny Baskets

A huge thank you to Sun Scholars Blog for creating a tutorial for these adorable Bunny Baskets!!!!! Run over and check it out!!

I can't take credit for these. You may remember I mentioned a while back that I had an order in with my sister to make some new Easter baskets. Well she hand delivered them this morning and all I had to do was put their faces on!

And the back. I am just over the moon happy with them! Bring on the Easter egg hunt!!!! I have one more on order for my husband so I will post it once I get it finished. Oh and I am having problems saving and posting. When I save my work it messes up the placement of my pictures. Any idea why???

Modern Nesting Dolls~ Christmas Gift Planning

I'm getting a head start on a homemade Christmas this year. I got the idea of modern nesting dolls off of the Etsy site. I love Etsy!
They started out like this:


I tried to buy these local without success so I had to buy them off of Ebay. Then I painted them and sealed the paint with mod podge.

And finished product:



I decided to keep this for Christmas because Jada really doesn't have the patience with the set that we already have. I hope by Christmas she will have a bit more interest in quiet activities. After all she will be 3 this Christmas and hopefully potty trained by then.....Fingers crossed Ha!

St.Patrick's Day Chair Covers

Sorry the pictures are so dark. We changed the location of the table and chair set to the daycare in the basement.

I made these with extra fabric from Jada's rag quilt I made her. You can read about that Here. When I was finished it just didn't right so I dug out my trusty green paint and traced around the shamrock. I cut the Lucky letters out of dark green felt and hot glued them on. You may notice that they are shorter than all the others I have made. I actually cut one pillowcase in half this time around. Really it's for the kids and they don't notice the difference in the hems. If they did I would be in shock ha-ha!

Going Green!

I try to do my part to keep the earth a little greener. I recycle, reuse things as much as possible, donate toys and other household items to thrift stores, I also buy from thrift stores. The one area I a was lacking in was chemical cleaners. I HAVE to use bleach for toys and other child related cleaning due to the Child Care regulations here in Canada. However, for our household cleaning I wanted to try and cut back on those nasty chemical filled detergents.

So it's almost March and everyone is decorating in green for St.Patrick's day, I thought we could share some of our Green Earth friendly detergent recipes. And it will save you lots of green $$$$$$$$$$$. I was a bit skeptical at first but I tried it and it works! first I made my own dishwasher detergent using this recipe. You just need 4 ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboards. Vinegar, borax, salt and baking soda! that's it. You must watch the how to video I just love her accent!
This is the container I use to store my dishwasher detergent in. The scoop inside is from a baby formula can. I use 2 scoops of the powder for each load of dishes. I also add vinegar to my rinse instead of the expensive jet dry that I used to buy. The vinegar helps prevent your dishes from becoming cloudy.

(This Container came with Jelly Bellys inside)

The other recipe I want to share with you is the laundry detergent recipe from Here again super easy and cheap. We have a front load washing machine so it works out to about 2cents a load! can you believe that!?? I should get around 640 loads from this batch. Sorry I didn't take any pictures while I melted the soap for this batch. Trust me it's easy just follow the recipe and you will be fine.

My 5 gallon bucket that I make and store the detergent in. I just place the cover on and store it in the corner of my laundry room.

What it looks like after it sits overnight. (It becomes pretty jelly) stir and as the recipe states I fill an empty liquid laundry container half full, then add water to fill the container the rest of the way. Shake well before each use. I use 1/4 cup for each load as I have a front load washing machine. If you have a top loader you use 1/2 cup.

I have to tell you it smells so good!!!!! I changed up the recipe a bit and used 2 bars of ivory soap instead of the soap listed in the recipe. At first I was useing way too much detergent per load because I was so used to useing the store bought stuff. You will need to do a few loads before you get the right amount for your needs.

Here is the bottle I used.

Shake container and measure 1/4 cup for front loader. I used a bit more for Jada's soiled t-shirts.



You can't see the suds very well, especially in cold water and that is hard to get used to. I assure you that your clothes are getting cleaned. I smelled them when I took them out and they smell as clean as regular detergent. And more inportantly they are as clean as if you used store bought detergent.

To make the laundry detergent it cost me about $15.00 after taxes. And I still have plenty of ingredients left over to make many, many more batches of detergent! I don't think I will ever go back to buying the chemical filled store bought stuff. Now, if I could just find a way to make my own bounce sheets. If you have made any of these I would love it if you would share your experience with them and any recipes you would like to share:)