Cardboard Creation- Pet Carrier

Since we seem to be in a cardboard craze in the crafting world these days I wanted to share with you a creation I recently crafted.
For Emma's 5th birthday a few weeks ago we gave her this very sweet handmade kitten from Magic Cabin. Well, she just has fallen in love with her kitty, Susie and with all that love comes many requests.

The list of needs for Susie the cat:

• water bowl
• food bowl
• pretend felt cat food
• blanket
• bed
• pet carrier 
• winter jacket
• feather stick cat toy

I have not fulfilled the entire list at the moment. Who new this gift would give me such a long list of creative chores to fill? But, I did make the pet carrier. I used an empty box of Huggies. I spotted the handles on the box sitting by recycling and new it would be perfect. So, along with a some pretty duct tape and an Xacto knife our pet carrier was made and it is getting much use. Susie is a busy gal after all. 

Mud Pie Kitchen

 This is the mud pie kitchen I put together this summer for my children. It has been an absolute treasure. Join me over at Family Sponge today to see how it all came together and how it works for us.

Celebrate National S'mores Day

 August 10, 2012 is National S'mores Day! What a wonderful day to celebrate. I just love silly holidays. It creates memories, traditions and brings families together.
As much as I love the idea of eating s'mores all day.....that's just not going to happen. So, to start our celebration off right and with a little less sugar I made a pretend s'mores kit for the kids.

 Here's how I did it:

1. Build a pretend campfire with rocks, paper rolls, sticks, tissue paper and battery tea lights, if you have them.
2. Cut sheets of brown and tan felt into rectangles for the chocolate bars and graham crackers.
3. Give the kids cotton balls and sticks for the roasting.

They are now ready to get to some serious s'mores making and this was so easy to set up with things that most of us have already. This is a great opportunity for some fun pretend play. I bet a really darling s'mores felt set can be made with some extra time, but this was kind of a last minute thing. Next year I WILL prepare!

Now, I am not that evil of a hippie mother to force my sugar hungry children to only make fake s'mores all day and dream of the sugar they might be having at the neighbors house on National S'mores Day! So, I will leave you with 10 crazy s'mores recipes from Bon Appetit. Enjoy!!

Olympics Fun- The Balance Beam

 With the Olympics in full swing we have been setting up many obstacle courses in our home. The kids love this sort of indoor play and they are so fascinated by the Olympics so they are very eager to swing and move just like they see the athletes do.

 About a month or so ago I built a balance beam for some extra gross motor fun in our playroom. I wish I could give you more specific instructions for this, but honestly my handy man at Lowe's was a huge help in this since I am not the most handy when it comes to building these sorts of things. But, basically I used one 8' piece of wood and had two 9"pieces and one 6" inch piece cut out of it at Lowe's.  I connected the two 9" to the ends and the 6" in the center for stability. I used those bracket things (sorry I did say not handy) to connect it all.

 I think I may have the kids paint it one day, but for now it has been a wonderful addition to our obstacle courses just as it is!