Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my beautiful amazing wife, Michelle.  Everyday is more special because of you!  

Here is a cake I made for her, not the best but it is her favorite "mythical" beast.

Easy Easter Sign

So hard to believe that Easter is right around the corner. Hover the past 3 weeks I have been working on a project with my niece and nephew for this beautiful time of year.

Items needed:

Wood (or cardboard)

Glue

White paper with a rabbit pattern

Cotton balls

Glitter (any color will work)

String (yarn, ribbon, or string)

I had two small pieces of wood line around I thought would be fun to use for small project.  A few days before I worked on the project with the kids I painted wood black to help make the project that we were going to do stand out a little better.  

After the wood was painted I had the kids each pick out a color of glitter that they really enjoyed luckily I have a huge selection of Martha Stewart glitter but any glitter color work for this, once they pick out the colors I wrote in glue Happy Easter and then they were able to sprinkle glitter onto that part.  

Next I printed out some egg patterns in addition to two plain rabbits I also put out some plain white paper to let the kids choose what they want to color.  I was lucky that the kids each chose rabbits and I let them glue the rabbits and then we added cotton balls on top of the rabbits to make it look like fur. Glue is fun and my two kids really loved it, so our project took a while to dry.  Once the glue dried and the cotton balls secure, the kids drizzled some more glitter on top of the cotton balls.  And the sprinkled whatever color the wanted.  Then the rabbits were glued to the wood.  I used twine to hang our Easter decoration, but you can use anything such as yarn, string or ribbon.

This was such a cute project, even if you don't have any wood, use cardboard.

Happy Easter!!

Happy New Year

It's hard to believe it is now 2014, where did 2013 go?  I have some big plans for 2014, not only for this blog but also for our website www.seasonalwonder.com.  Stay tuned and Happy New Year!!

Halloween Window Decoration

I hang up a skeleton in my kitchen window that lights up from the kitchen light in the evening. My nephew loves it, so I told him we could make one for his window that is similar.

Items needed:

-wax paper

-orange paint and a paint brush

-scissors

-an optional item is glitter

Lay out some old newspaper on the table just in case the wax paper has a tear in it.  Then lay out a long strip of wax paper.  I squirted some paint onto the wax paper and the kids painted the wax paper. Believe it or not, but the kids spent 20 minutes painting the wax paper.  I then let them sprinkle some glitter on the paint.  It took about 2 hours for the paint to dry.  Depending on the kids ages, either they can cut out a pumpkin shape or you can help them with it.  If you want you can even cut out a mouth and eyes.  These look great taped to your windows, you can see them during the day and night they create a spooky silhouette.

Happy Halloween

Fall Craft / Greeting Card

So of course it's been a while since I have posted anything fun, mostly because I have been busy.  Today  I am going to post two great fall art projects.

The first one is a great leaf shadow art project.  As you are out taking a walk with the kids, search for a variety of leaves.  Out here in Arizona our leaf selection is limited, which is why we pretty much used small leaves.  

Have the kids tape some of their leaves down on a piece of paper and then place another piece of paper on top of the leaves.  The paper they place down on top of the leaves can be any color, however white works the best.

Then I gave the kids fall crayon colors, of course the kids can use whatever they wanted.  As the kids look the sheet the leaf pattern will begin to show up, very clearly including all the veins of the leafs.  You can then have the kids write a special note to a loved one and then let them mail their special greeting. Such a great art project and fall greeting card as well. 

Fun Summer Birdhouse

My nephew has been wanting to make a birdhouse for a while.  So I wanted to create one where he could paint it and yet it could withstand the summer temps out here.  So I saved a gallon water container and let him paint it.  

While it was drying, we went and picked a twig from outside.  When it was finally dry I cut two larger openings on each side where the bird seed could go, and then I cut two smaller holes right below the larger opening so that the twig could go right through.  The twig would become the perch for the birds.

And then to finish it,I attached a small chain to the lid of the water container, of course if you don't have a small chain, rope or even a strong ribbon will work.  Such a great project for kids of any age, and if you don't have any birdseed around the house the neighborhood birds will love some day old bread.

Easy Father's Day Craft

I did something really easy with the kids this week.  At the bottom of some white printer paper the saying, Happy Father's Day 2013.  Then my nephew painted his palm and placed it on the paper, this would represent a trees branches.  Then he took some brown pain and painted a trunk.  The next day my niece did not want to paint, instead she used color markers and made a "rainbow".  When it was completed I placed the finished picture inside a magnetic picture frame, which I purchased at Walmart for $1.00.

This is an easy gift idea from the kids, and one where a dad, grandpa our uncle can hang anywhere and enjoy year round.

Happy Father's Day!

Easy Sock Puppet Craft

I wanted to create something fun today that inspired the kids imagination.  So I came up with sock puppets, and the night before got a whole bunch of art supplies together that that the kids could use, such as yard, buttons, felt, markers and so much more.

I put a piece of cardboard inside the sock so any glue or marker would not go through.  I cut a slit in the top of the sock as you can see above.  When the kids are done decorating the sock cut an oval piece of cardboard, fold it in half and glue the sock to the cardboard.  This will be where the kids make the mouth move.  The inside of the "mouth" can be colored or glue some felt on it (see picture below).

The kids had a good time working on this and they spent about 30 minutes decorating it.  Depending on how much glue you use, it could take up to 4 hours to dry.

Butterfly Craft For Spring

Spring is a great time to explore nature with the little ones, and after a walk exploring nature why not let the kids learn about the life cycle of butterflies and make one to remember their nature walk.

I printed out a butterfly life cycle chart that kids could color, after we talked about the life cycle I let the kids color a coffee filter, which would become the butterflies wings.  It's up to the kids, but the wings can be colored with paint, crayons, markers or even chalk.  Then attach the wings to a clothespin.

Something fun that I did for my niece and nephew was that I got an empty toilet paper roll and used that as the butterflies cocoon.  Without the kids knowing what I did with the empty toilet paper roll, I placed the finished butterfly in the roll and wrapped it in paper.  We took another walk outside and talked about the life cycle and tried to find some butterflies, when we got back inside, I let the kids find the cocoon and open it to find their finished butterfly.

Such a great learning experience for kids of all ages.  Happy spring.

Easter Craft

Today I made a great project with my niece and nephew, and all the items I needed were already in my house.

Supplies:
A paper plate
Cotton balls
Glue
White Paper
Scissors

You take one paper plate and fold it in half, the you let the child put glue all over the fold part of the plate. Then the kids place cotton balls on the glue. You can use a template for bunny ears, or you can draw out two ears, cut out three circles to represent the rabbits tail, an eye and a nose, the kids can color these. After the glue has had time to dry, the kids can attach the ears, tail, eye and nose.

This can be a great project for kids to do on Easter Day, with supplies you already have in your house.

Make Your Own St. Patrick's Day Early Reader Book

There is never a bad day to be creative, and holidays are a great time to teach little ones about different holidays and traditions. St. Patrick's Day is very close to Easter this year, so today I worked on an early reader book with my nephew who is almost four years old. During the week we talked about shamrocks and Ireland, and today I found a great book that we could read together after he colored it. I wanted to share the site that I got the book from, as they have books for every season that any child would love to work on.

You can view this great site for a variety of different printable books: http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/patrick/index.htm

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Groundhog Day

A fun little project for kids. I printed out a little story about Punxsutawney Phil and had my nephew read the story with me, we then drew lines from the word to the part in the story that it matched up to. And then a fun coloring sheet to top it off, great way for little ones to learn about this weather predicting groundhog.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday.

Ghost Decoration

I usually try and do one craft a week with the little ones. I had an old pillowcase cut it in three equal pieces, with one of the pieces I cut that one in half. My nephew took one of the bigger pieces as the main part of the ghosts body and took one of the smaller pieces and formed it into a ball to use as the ghosts head. Then he wrapped the bigger piece around the smaller one and I connected it with a zip tie. With my help we made a face on the ghost. This was a cute project that made two ghosts out of one old pillowcase. Now if you have an old sheet you can create a giant ghost for your front yard.

Fall Home Maintenance Checklist

I know we all have things we do as seasons come and go, such as cleaning out closets, or cleaning windows, however your home and garden need a little love to and by doing this you are making sure things are working and ready for fall.  Best of all, this checkup is free and you can do it one weekend as a family, the little ones will enjoy helping prepare your home for fall.

 

Check out the fall home maintenance checklist here

 



So wherever you live, this wonderful chart from Martha Stewart will make your life a lot easier.  I love Martha Stewart’s ideas; many of them are simple enough for children and exciting for adults. 

Welcome Fall: Fall Wall Decoration

Fall is such a beautiful time of year and the first day of fall is a perfect day to create a fun project that you can hang up in your home or office to welcome fall.

I had a simple blank rectangle piece of wood with a black wire that was already attached to it. I purchased it at my local dollar store and just removed the wire before the kids began painting it.

I placed a selection of fall paint colors out so the kids could choose which colors they wanted to use. I helped my nephew paint a tree trunk in the middle of the wood and then along with a paint brush and their index finger they created leaves on the trunk of the tree and my niece used the paint brush to add grass near the trunk. It's a cute project for kids of any age. To complete the project I wrote the family name on the front of the decoration.

Happy fall.

Summer Craft Project & Happy Birthday

Once a week I do a craft project with my nephew and niece, while my niece was a little too young for this project my nephew was really into it.

It is my wife's birthday today and I thought a macaroni necklace would be a fun lacing and pattern project for him.

I let him pick out the dry noodles he wanted to use and he picked two colors of food coloring. My nephew picked 10 noodles and placed 5 into two separate zip lock bags. Then I poured a little rubbing alcohol into each bag and about 5 drops of food color. Make sure the noodles are covered in the rubbing alcohol and food color mixture. We let it sit about 15 minutes, the longer it sits, the darker the colors will be. I drained the liquid into the sink and placed the wet noodles on paper towels to dry. To make sure they were dry, we let them sit for 1 hour.

I then let my nephew pick out the string he wanted to use, out of everything I had (yarn, ribbon and string), and he picked a really nice ribbon.

So this is his final creation, a beautiful pink and purple necklace for his aunt's birthday.

And a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful wife.

Last Minute Father's Day Card Project

Father's Day is tomorrow and here is a unique way for the kids to make their dad, grandpa or any special man in their life a special card. I wanted to do something special with my niece and nephew for their dad. A card is nice, but i wanted something a little different. I made salt dough (the kids helped to mix the dough), and they made hand print impressions into the dough. We cooked it and waited about two hours for it to cool. I painted the entire thing white and then let the kids select a paint color to color the imprint of their hand. This is such a cool and unique gift for dad. Since the back of the hand print is flat, use a marker to write a special greeting to that special person from the child. If the child is too young to write, like my niece and nephew I let them color on paper and when they were done, I used the sheets they colored as wrapping paper for their greetings.

Great project to do with the kids today, and one that dad will love.

Finished painted project

Salt Dough Recipe

Heat oven to 225 Degrees

1. Make the salt dough recipe (recipe at bottom of this post). Mix the dough with your hands, it will not be sticky, just knead until smooth.

2. Roll the dough out on wax paper. With a heart cookie cutter cut out heart shapes. I let my niece and nephew make little imprints with their fingers, kids can also write their name in the dough with a toothpick. And then poke a hole near the top with a straw.

3. Place the hearts on a cookie sheet and place into the oven. They should cook for about 50-60 minutes. Once hard they are done.

4. Let cool for at least an hour. Kids can paint them, and even add some glitter if they want. After they have dried, tie a piece of ribbon or yarn through the top for a homemade Valentine's Day decoration.

Butterfly Art Project

Here is a fun project to do with kids of any age, but really the young kids love this one. It's so simple you only need a few items:

• Clothespin for each child
• Washable markers
• Coffee filter, one for each child
• Magnets, one for each butterfly
• Glue

Kids can get creative with this and there really is no way to mess this project up. Give each child a plain coffee filter and let them color it with the markers. They can add as may colors as they want and the entire coffee filter does not even need to be colored. When the coffee filter is how they would like it take it to a sink and wet it with a little water. The water will make the markers run and in turn give the coffee filter a beautiful color. Lay the coffee filter out to dry on some paper towels. When it is dry attach the coffee filter to the top of the clothespin, and attach with glue (hot glue works best). After that has dried let the kids draw some eyes onto the butterfly. Then if you would like glue a magnet to the bottom of the butterfly. This is such a great project for any child; it would even work for a project at a kid’s birthday party.

Simple, fun and creative.

Happy Birthday

14 years ago today my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter Julia. Where does the time go? We made a really beautiful cake today for her and got a little creative with decorating it. Not bad for a box of cake mix and frosting. Happy Birthday Julia, we love you.