Author name: amy

This is something I should of posted many months ago.  But when life gets busy, blog posts get left behind.  But I did want to document it, because it is something I may want to reference sometime in my future.

Valentines Day is Madelyn’s birthday in our home.  I decided to make it a point this year and plan some form of a real party for each of my children.  What I mean by “planning a party,”  We have many birthdays to celebrate and sometimes life just gets busy and a birthday will come up and we just go do something. Especially if it is near a holiday or we are really busy at that time of year.  But this year, I wanted to make sure that every child had games, and decorations.  Just a small goal of mine:)

For one of our Valentine birthday party games, we stacked conversation hearts.  You try and see how many you can stack in one minute.  If it falls over, you keep stacking until someone says “Stop!” 

Another game we played, which I don’t have photos for because….life:)  Was to have each child wear a pair of winter gloves and then you give them a wrapped Hershey kiss and they have to unwrap it as fast as they can.  You should do it in a relay style race, but my little ones didn’t want to get that concept, so we just did individual.

We always do a pin the tail game as well—again no pictures:)  Jadyn made a Ms. Valentine and we had to pin the lips on the Valentine. They always love that game.

We then just improvised some games and did charades.  I will probably for the next birthday, print off some simple things to have them act out. They all laughed and thought this was the best game.  We acted out movies, things, places, etc.

We also did a get together at our local library with our homeschool group.

We brought a bunch of craft items and let the children make heart beads, pipe cleaner people, tissue paper crafts, whatever they wanted.  It was a “create your own Valentine craft.”

We then had heart shaped cookies and frosting.  Always a treat. We also made some Jello jigglers.

Some games that we played were famous pairs.  I would say “peanut butter” and the children would have to guess the pair.  Answer is jelly.  Some others we said:

• eggs and bacon
• Mickey and Minnie
• Barbie and Ken
• crackers and cheese

 

• Batman and Robin
• Fred and Wilma
• Chip and Dale
• Chips and dip
• King and Queen
• ice cream and cake
• socks and shoes
• spaghetti and meatballs
• peter pan and wendy
• macaroni and cheese
• Donald duck and daisy
• miss piggy
• Tarzan and Jane
• romeo and Juliet
• Cinderella and prince charming
• Adam and Eve

We had them shout out others that they could think of as well. It was a fun way to stimulate their brains:)

Then we did the clothespin drop game.  Any one do that when they were a child?  Take a mason jar and clothespins and see how many you can drop into the jar.

Sometimes it is harder than you think.  We stood on a chair to make it more difficult.  We gave everyone 5 clothespins to drop.  

Then our friend Summer, came up with this game.  She had the children glue a cupcake liner to a paper plate and gave each of them a pack of Sixlets.  They are like mini round M&M candies. 

They then had to use a straw and suck up the candies from the plate and place them in the liner with no hands. 

The children did a good job! We did it a couple of times and then they got to eat them.We had a great time with our friends for Valentines Day.  We then exchanged Valentines with each other.  The mom’s were creative and gave out applesauce and goldfish with cute labels that said things like “you’re a great catch!” on the fish bag.  I thought giving treats with labels was a great idea–next year:)  As always, we have a great time with our friends.

Thanks for reading my post of our Valentines fun in April:) Be blessed today!

 

In our small little community, we have formed a group of homeschooling families.  This has enabled us to get together and head to the park on nice days, meet for lunch and play, and to get together to do the things that we don’t normally do by ourselves.  One of the things the mothers and I discussed that we DON’T like to do is science experiments and messes!  The thought of glitter, slime, or any other “messy” thing is not something we would attempt in our homes.  Who want’s to pick up extra messes?!?!

We decided to plan a day that we all got  together then we could share in the clean up:) We started out by having lunch, everyone brought something and we shared in a potluck style feast.  Then the messes began……(it really wasn’t that bad).  I had each family, bring a couple of ingredients that we needed. One mom would bring the Borax, another mom a box of cornstarch and glitter.  That way everyone just spent a few dollars on things we needed and we could all share.

One of the things we made was playdough.  This is something that we have made for many, many years.  It is a great recipe and does not get hard, if you keep it in a plastic baggie.  We added glitter to some and the children enjoyed making creations with it.

This is the recipe that I use for my play dough.  It makes a nice spongy dough. Not a messy dough to play with at all.   I mix up double batches at a time.

• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1/2 c salt
• 2 T cream of tartar
• 2 T vege oil
• 2 c flour
• colorings

In a saucepan boil the water, salt, cream of tartar, and oil.  You can add your food colorings at this moment.  Sometimes I add a packet of Kool Aid. It  makes a great smelling playdough.  Then I add my flour.  I like to add it with a wooden spoon and stir it in as best as I can.  It will be quite chunky and sticky but will get spongy as it cools.  I then flop it onto the countertops and as I can stand kneading it, without scalding my hands, I knead.  As the dough cools it gets spongy.  As I am kneading it, I also add my scents and colors, depending upon if I didn’t already.  Store in plastic bag.

We then made a bouncy ball.  This bouncy ball was just a temporary bouncy ball.  It bounced for a couple of days–if you kept it in a sealed container. Then it eventually got hard.  This is the ingredients that you need:

• Borax (found in laundry section)
• warm water
• corn starch
• glue
• 2 small mixing cups–use disposable and throw away afterwards
• a stirring stick (plastic spoon)
• food coloring (optional)

Label one cup ‘Borax Solution’ and the other cup ‘Ball Mixture’.  This helps in the confusion of making 15 different cups for children?!!?!?

 

1. Pour 4 ounces of warm water into the cup labeled ‘Borax Solution’ and 1 teaspoon of the borax powder into the cup. Stir the mixture to dissolve the borax.
2. Pour 1 tablespoon of glue into the cup labeled ‘Ball Mixture’. Add 3-4 drops of food coloring, if desired.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the borax solution you just made and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to the glue. Do not stir.
4. Allow the ingredients to interact on their own for 10-15 seconds and then stir them together to fully mix.
5. Once the mixture becomes impossible to stir, take it out of the cup and start molding the ball with your hands. The ball will start out sticky and messy, but will solidify as you knead it. Once the ball is less sticky, continue rolling between your hands until it is smooth and round!

 

The last thing that we made was flubber or slime. This was probably everyone’s favorite thing to make. My children enjoyed playing with it for days afterward.  My little boys learned that you could put it in a cup and make a “flarp” sound.  Boys?!?! What you need:

• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 cup Elmer’s glue
• liquid food coloring
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon borax

 

In bowl – mix together the cold water, glue, and food coloring. set aside.

In bowl 2 – mix together the hot water and borax, until the borax is completely dissolved.

Then slowly add glue mixture to borax mixture. Mix well and pour off excess water.

The only thing I noticed is that if left on clothing–it is hard to get off.  Get it off when it is wet not hardened.  My floors which are tile, I had to scrape hard spots that got on the floor a few days afterward, they came off but I would not recommend getting it on the carpet.  This was definitely fun! We will make it again because my children enjoyed playing with it so much!

Be brave and bold and grab a couple of families together and enjoy making messes together!

Have a blessed day!