More keeping the kids busy while dining out or waiting in line

I love these Little Dover books.  At about 4x5 inches, they are small enough that I can keep a few in my purse as a surprise for impromptu meals at a restaurant or waiting in line or even waiting at the doctor's office.  They are hard to find.  I have seen a rack of them at Cracker Barrel.  They are on Amazon for only 1.35! They ship for free with a 25.00 purchase.  Once you are on Amazon look around, there are many titles to choose from.

Making mosaic stepping stones for the garden with kids

My grand plan is to make an entire pathway on the side of our house to meander through a yet to be created flower garden on the side of our house.  I will post before and progress pictures soon.
I love this Flip flop shaped stepping stone kit.  I just ordered one of these for my 6 year old, T.J. and myself to use as soon as we have created our square ones (previous post).  We opened out first kit tonight to get ready for casting tomorrow. You will need a small bucket or large plastic bowl from the dollar store to mix the cement in.
While you are at the dollar store, pick up some extra glass gems for making more stones with the re-usable mold in the kit.  When you have used the cement that comes in the kit, you can purchase a bag of regular old cement (not concrete) to use the mold again and again.
When I taught fourth grade, I made stepping stones with my entire class using donated un-used pizza boxes lined with clear Contact paper.
We used it sticky side up, placing our decorations on the Contact paper and then pouring the cement it over the glass gems.  The kit has you decorate the top of the stepping stone.  I think this will work better than pouring the cement over the top; the cement ended up oozing around the gems and covering them up a little.
Check back tomorrow for pictures of our stepping stone project.

rainy day ideas to keep the kids occupied

My 6 year old son loves all of the Home Alone movies.  He has been a fan since the age of 4.  I originally ordered this boxed set because my son really enjoyed watching Home Alone I and Home Alone 2.  Much to my surprise, 3 and 4 were also hits with him.  He has watched them over and over again.
I highly recommend ordering this boxed set of all four movies on DVD today and stowing it away for a rainy day movie.  Don't forget to have some movie candy and microwave popcorn on hand to add to the fun.  What movies do you recommend for rainy days?

Regularly 29.99 on sale for 16.88.  Amazon prices can change quickly, so don't wait.  

Rainbow cupcakes to brighten a rainy day

If you haven't checked out the OneHundredDollarsaMonth.com blog yet, you are really missing out!  Here is Mavis's recipe for rainbow cupcakes.   Don't worry about the title!  These are great for summer!

Keep the kids busy and make the garden beautiful at the same time

My son got this awesome stepping stone kit for his 6th birthday.  We can't wait to create a bunch of these using the reusable mold.  We will head to the dollar store for more gems and pick up some cement at Home Depot.  On sale from 15.33 down to 12.13 on Amazon.

Keeping kids busy while dining at a restaurant

        To keep my 6 year old son busy I always bring a few activities such as, Melissa and Doug Place mats and food stickers. Last night we had a great dinner out at Docker's with my parents.  My son was entertained the entire time.  He made everyone at the table a make believe meal.  After a two hour dinner, we still have some place mats and stickers left for our next dinner out.

This sells for only 5.99!

How do you keep the kiddos busy when you dine out?

West Michigan residents keep the kids busy without breaking the bank!

The overall price may not seem like a great deal, but after the fourth visit you will be visiting the park for free.  I also love that I didn't have to pay the entire cost up front.  I went with a platinum pass for my son, which means parking is included!  If you have a child under 48 inches this is a no brainier as it is only $10 more for the season, which is the cost of one day's parking!
Do you think it is worth the price to go with a season pass?

Update: We had a fabulous time on our first visit.  TJ has reached 48 inches.  We were able to go on all but one ride.  We decided not to wear our bathing suits, as the temperature was only around 70 when we went.  Big mistake.  We ended up going on the Grand Rapids raft ride.  I may as well have had a bucket or two poured on my head!  

What I loved most about our visit was that TJ had as much fun on the Dumbo ride as he did on the Shivering Timbers wooden roller coaster.  

Deal Alert:  If you are a season ticker holder, I recommend purchasing the souvenir cup for 12.99.  You will receive free refills on the day of purchase and 99 cent refills for the rest of the summer.  

Keeping the kids busy with fun crafts

As a certified art teacher, I love to keep my 6 year old busy with arts and crafts.
 My son loves this Alex Paper Plate Bug Kit. Regularly 15.00 on sale for 10.04 You never know when an Amazon price will change.

 As a mom, I love it because the bugs are adorable and easy to assemble.  Some of the embellishments are actually stickers, making assembly very low on frustration for the kiddos.  As an art teacher, I love that the pieces in the kits allow for lots of creativity.  These are not just color and assemble kits.  So far we have made three of these.  I'll post pictures of our creations soon.

We also love this My first Sticky Mosaics Vehicles kit  available on Amazon for only 9.99!  

Live Butterfly Garden deal on Amazon

We just ordered our caterpillar larva from Insect Lore for our Live Butterfly Garden.  We have hatched butterflies before and had a ball.  I will post pictures as soon as they arrive and along the way.  The kit is usually 19.99 on sale for only 11.36 ! Amazon sale prices can end at any time, so get yours before the deal ends.

This post may contain affiliate links.  

Camping without the mosquitoes!

If you haven't been able to get outside to camp with the kiddos yet this summer, take a look at these deals on Amazon to bring the outdoors in.  I can see my 6 year old having a blast with these great camping toys from Campfire Kids.  Set up some sleeping bags in the family room and make some s'mores in the microwave.  Leave the mosquitoes outside!

On sale for 19.44 down from 24.99.  Amazon deals can end quickly.  

This post may contain affiliate links.  

Beading Contests

With all of my excitement last month you would think that I would have gotten my various submissions for upcoming deadlines together, but I haven't. Beyond my original couple of days of planning and creating a few things, I haven't given my Bead Star submissions much thought. I sent an email to Bead Trends with a few submissions for the August 2010 issue only to find that their in-box was full! I guess that is what I get for waiting until the last minute. I am still not sure if they received my submissions, but I would have heard something by now. I managed to sell one of those bracelets on etsy already anyhow.
I have had a very productive month both creation and sales wise. My etsy sales seem to be growing exponentially and I have continued to find more time to create. I have been making more strung and memory wire creations as opposed to my usual charm bracelets. The charm bracelets take much more time, so obviously I am able to produce more product than if I was doing all charm bracelets. A typical JunQue Jules charm bracelet takes at least three hours from starting to select the beads to creating and placing the charms.
I am happy about my recent etsy success because it is sometimes too easy to yearn for my former eBay days when I could easily sell 25 bracelets in one weekend; some going for close to $200, if bidding got intense. I also miss the excitement of watching the bids climb from minute to minute. I am still happier with the pace and community I find at etsy.
Another positive this month has been the creations done by my (almost) three year old son. He has gotten really good at stringing plastic pony beads on leather cord. I am wearing one of his necklaces today. He sits on my lap and beads while I bead. I am loving this, but I am forgetting the beads awaiting me to pick up under my design table right now.

Pearls and Oysters

Since I first heard about the Bead Star contest and magazine I have been brainstorming ideas for the nine categories. My work is quite eclectic, so it will be easy for me to come up with entries for most of the categories, or so I thought.
I looked through my recent creations and selected my entry for "plastics" and a possibility for "metals". My plastic entry is one of my popular bauble bracelets. I love how lightweight and sparkly they are.
Today I decided to create something similar to the copper talisman bracelet that I was intending to enter in the metal category. I was second guessing myself on whether or not it had enough metal. Loving beads as I do, I tried to use restraint on my second creation, but ended up with even more beads on the second bracelet than on the first. I am thinking about using it as my "stone" entry now.
I am really happy with my "pearl" entry. I will post a photo later. Speaking of pearls, I was quite delighted to find fresh in the shell Louisiana oysters at Sam's Club yesterday. I plan to lightly coat them in cornmeal and fry them up for dinner later. They are so sweet that way! My brother stopped by last night and shucked one and said they were fabulous. If you haven't checked out his detailed blog, What's Eric Cooking?, you should. It is the blog I would write if I had more time. He photographs every step os his cooking process.
Maybe I will find a pearl while I am shucking. Does that really ever happen? I still remember reading The Cay in high school. That is really my only knowledge of how pearls are found; beyond my finding them at Lima Beads or Fire Mountain that is.