Posts Tagged ‘summer’

Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #17: Sand Shapes

Friday, May 10th, 2013

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Another creative way to use a cookie cutter is to make sand shapes. This is a particularly fun activity in the summer, when your kids want to play in the sand at the beach. You can press the cookie cutter into some wet sand, and out comes a beautiful shape.

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If the sand is too dry to hold the shape, just pour a bucket of water on the sand, and it will be able to hold its shape better. Run your fingers around the outside of the cookie cutter to get the best result from your cookie cutter shape. Fool simple people into thinking you found a fossil by taking a fish cookie cutter, and after making a fish shape in the sand, add bones by drawing lines with a popsicle stick.

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You can add embellishments to a sand castle by using cookie cutters in the shapes of whatever decoration you want. A square cookie cutter might be perfect for windows or the shape of rocks or bricks on your castle. A gate can also be made with a square cookie cutter. Bushes can be formed by a flower cookie cutter, if you can stand it up on its edge. I would get a flat cutting board behind it so that you can press down hard on the cookie cutter to form the bush on its side. Then lift the cutting board away.

For more ideas on what you can make with sand, check out The Wonderful World of Sand and Dirt.

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Guess What I Got for my Birthday?

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

hammockAfter the kids had gone to bed one night this summer, my husband and I sat on the back porch.

“I’ve been looking for a hammock at yard sales for two years. If God wanted me to have one, He would have sent one my way by now. You see, in the dictionary of my mind, right beside the word REST is the picture of a hammock.” I paused. “Maybe the reason I don’t have a hammock is that God doesn’t want me to rest.”

My husband laughed and said, “I think you’ve romanticized hammocks.” He stood up, walked back into the house, and returned two minutes later with a sleeping bag. Throwing the sleeping bag on the grass in the middle of the backyard, he flopped down on it.

I stared at him.

Jumping off the deck, I walked over to where he was, and I lay down beside him. I looked up into the stars and trees.

“Oh,” I said. “This is the same view I would get from a hammock.”

“Exactly.”

Two months later, it was my birthday. I now own a hammock! (I think my husband wants me to rest…)

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Glow-in-the-Dark Chalk

Monday, August 27th, 2012

glow-in-the-dark-chalkFor my daughter’s birthday, she received a kit of glow-in-the-dark chalk. It was super easy to make. All you had to do was shake the glow powder and chalk powder in a small container, add a small amount of water, and pour it into a mold. The box said that the chalk would harden in half an hour, but it was not hard whatsoever within that time frame. It was more like an hour, and even then, the chalk was sort of soft and had to be handled carefully to not crumble in your hands.

But it worked. The chalk (especially the yellow and green) glowed in the dark as my children drew pictures all over the driveway one night. It was super fun. The red and blue glowed a little bit, not nearly as much as the yellow and green. This is definitely an activity worth doing with your children, since my kids kept squealing with joy as we were adding more and more details to our glow-in-the-dark chalk masterpieces.

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Camping in the Backyard

Monday, August 13th, 2012

camping-in-the-backyardMy husband and third son went camping in the backyard last weekend. It was my husband’s idea. He wanted to spend time one-on-one with each of our kids this summer. He is planning to go fishing with my second son, and he will be taking my oldest son to a robotics class for youth. He also plans to take my daughter to the local children’s museum. I love that my husband wants to spend time with our kids, and that he enjoys them.

It must have been fun for my son Nathaniel to lie down in a sleeping bag next to his dad’s sleeping bag, chatting as they fell asleep in the tent. There’s something about one-on-one time that makes a kid feel important, like he matters. It doesn’t even have to cost any money.

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Summer Activities for Kids

Monday, August 13th, 2012

summer-activities-for-kidsHere are the best summer activities for kids. Fun articles and videos will show you how to have fun as a family this summer:

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Ice Cream Floats

Friday, August 10th, 2012

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Ice cream floats are absolutely delicious, and they are super easy to make. Just pour half a glass of your favorite fizzy drink, and then scoop a couple of scoops of ice cream on the top. Simple. It’s like making a fizzy drink into a creamy dessert.

When making these drinks, do not put the ice cream in first, followed by the soda. No. If you do that, the drink will froth all over, and you’ll have to scoop off the froth, which is abundant. Instead, make sure to pour the drink first, then scoop the ice cream.

My oldest son loves root beer, so I made him a root beer float. My second son wanted a strawberry soda float. You could throw in some chopped strawberries if you want to get fancy. My third son wanted a chocolate float, which contained more ice cream than the others, with club soda on the top, and chocolate syrup drizzled on it. My daughter wanted a grape soda float, and the next door neighbor girl wanted an orange soda float, which looked beautiful and could have been made from orange sherbert if you wanted to buy more than just vanilla ice cream like I did. I tried all the drinks with a spoon, and ALL of them were totally delicious! The chocolate one was probably my favorite.

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A Day at the Lake

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

day-at-the-lake-1Yesterday we spent the day at the lake. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and the kids played in the sand and splashed around in the water. Alan took a half day off work, and we just sat on the beach. It was nice to just sit and do nothing.

The kids made sculptures using the sand, sticks, and seaweed. They dug for water, and then they decided to bury their little brother, who actually wanted to be buried in the sand. He giggled as the sand was built up around him.

day-at-the-lake-2Another one of my sons enjoyed playing with the mud that was made by the wet sand. I wonder if beach sand could work as a mud treatment? If so, I should have had my kids dump mud on me, since I already felt relaxed, as if I were at a spa. Instead, I mostly just watched my kids play, or I lay down on a towel to rest while listening to the sounds of the water lapping on the shore.day-at-the-lake-3 It was certainly a relaxing day at the lake…

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Dollar Movies

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

dollar-movies-1The summer is a great time to go to the dollar movies, and yes, they still exist in many cities. The tickets usually cost $3.50 instead of $1, but that’s still good when you have a family of six. The movies have been out of the real theaters by the time you see them at a dollar theater, which is about two months behind. In Spokane, the dollar movies are at the Garland Theater, which is huge and quite beautiful for an old movie theater. Yes, the floors are sticky, but who is going to complain? Oh, and every summer they show a free movie certain mornings, to help people get out of the heat. (Or to get them hooked on going to that theater so that they can stay in business throughout the year.)

We’ve watched several movies at this theater over the years, including “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and “Tangled.” It made us want to build boats out of sandwiches and float lanterns up into the sky. My kids love seeing movies on the big screen.

If yodollar-movies-3u have a zero budget, another way to watch fun movies during the summer with your family is to get some entertaining DVD’s from your library. Not all the videos are educational. Some of them are just for fun, and many are recent releases. Check them out, go home, pop yourself some popcorn, and declare a movie night!

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