Category Archives: celebrations

How to make a Dakota fire hole

Posted on 09/07/2013 | 1 comment

My husband comes up with these great activities for the family to do. When he said he was going to make a fire in a pit under the ground I thought he was strange.

But I have realized the wonderfulness of this type of fire. The Dakota fire hole is a great fire to make. It is completely underground! It has a low smoke output, no need to worry that smoke is blowing into your childrens’ faces, and I feel much safer having this type of fire when my children are roasting marshmallows over it.

Making a Dakota Fire Hole is initially more labor intensive than simply building a fire on the surface of the ground. However the outlay in energy required to make a Dakota fire hole is more than offset by its efficient consumption of fuel; it greatly reduces the amount of firewood required to cook meals.

When making this fire hole, you want to take notice of which direction the wind is blowing. If it is blowing at an east to west movement, then you want your vent tube to be facing the east side

step one—removing the dirt and digging your pit.

To make a Dakota Fire Hole first remove a plug of soil about 12 inches in diameter and dig down one foot.

keep digging….

keep going…. Stop and give 3 year old some worms that you dug up. Or save some for going fishing later with the family.

Is your hole about 12 inches down??

Step 2

Making the Airway – Starting about one-foot away from the edge of the fire pit, dig a 6-inch diameter air tunnel at an angle so that it intersects with the base of the fire pit.

Can you see the spade of the shovel poking through?

There it is, now clear out the mess that has gotten into the fire pit.

Now that your hole is dug , let’s make a fire

Add some charcoal….we really like the kind with the lighter fluid already coated onto the coals.

Add a small amount of kindling

Then light it up

After your fire has been preheated you cook on this tonight.

Add an old oven rack to cover your fire and cook your items onto it.

For more information about how the dakota fire hole works click here.

1 Comment

Posted in celebrations, Household, Uncategorized

Tagged fire, household, outside, survival skills fire

Family Dinner Conversation Starters

Posted on 08/12/2013 | 4 comments

stockimages”FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.

Family meal time is an important time for everyone in the family. Families who eat dinner together regularly are more likely to have stronger, happier family relationships. As families struggle to find amounts of quantity and quality time together, family dinnertime provides the opportunity for both.

I thought I would try using a conversation starter question to keep our times around the table interesting. It seems to work for everyone. We rotate letting a different child choose each night. We let the one who chooses to answer first and then anyone else can add their 2 cents worth. It has made meal time a little more interesting. Something we look forward to doing each night.

I would encourage you to print this list of questions off and cut them into individual questions. Roll them up, place them in a mason jar and set on your table.

Download (PDF, 46KB)

4 Comments

Posted in celebrations, Household

Tagged dinner coversation starters, family bonding, family meal time, food

Roasting marshmallows…..

Posted on 08/05/2013 | Leave a comment

We had a great weekend, as we usually do, lots of time spent outside playing t-ball with the children, having a BBQ, swimming–usually but it is only 68 degrees for August:(, and then we have a fire to roast marshmallows for a nice fun wind down to our day.

We have always used the regular type cylindrical marshmallows, but this time we used the flat square ones. They worked so wonderfully. I don’t know if my children all of a sudden became experts at toasting marshmallows, because they almost always burn them, but these didn’t burn as quickly. They turned a nice roasted brown color and then didn’t puff up and make a mess. A nice “clean” roasting marshmallow so to say.Definitely something to try next time you think of roasting marshmallows with your children.

How to make a homemade pinata

Posted on 07/08/2013 | 1 comment

For my daughters’ birthday this year, we made a homemade piñata. It was a fun undertaking. We have always purchased them before but at $20 for something you are going to smash to pieces in a matter of minutes kind of seems like a waste. I remembered doing one in kindergarten when I was a child and thought the experience would be fun for the little ones. Make this at least a week in advance to give it proper time to dry.

Cut up strips of newspaper into long strips.

Mix up your paste. 2 cups water, 2 cups flour, and 1 Tablespoon salt

Protect your work area, as this gets very messy. Lay lots of newspaper down on the table.

Blow up a large balloon, we used the punch type balloons. They were 3 for $1 at Walmart.

Dip your newspaper strip into the glue and lay on your balloon.

I had 3 children each make their own pinata. The child that did not put much glue on the strips, their pinata balloon popped as it was drying and then it lost its form. The child that left a few holes and did not properly cover all the areas, her balloon popped too and it was ruined. The child that made sure to cover their strips in glue completely and even wiped some glue on top of the strips when done to make sure, that is the one we ended up using.

We covered our balloon completely and then set them outside in the sun to dry. We then put another layer on and let it dry as well. By this time our balloon had lost its air. If your balloon stays in-tack cut a hole in the end of it large enough to place your treats inside.

We pierced a hole in the top and then threaded rope, attached to a washer, all the way through the balloon and then tied the ends.We used crêpe paper to decorate ours. Just use glue and stick on strips of paper.

Your completed pinata.

We used a wrapping paper tube as our bat. It was a sturdy roll. You can use a child sized bat as well.

We filled ours with suckers, gummy worms–in ziploc baggies, chocolate bars, party blowers, and air heads candy.

Fun, easy, simple, and frugal

1 Comment

Posted in celebrations, Household

Tagged celebrations, homemade games

Plain and simple summer birthday party fun for children

Posted on 07/08/2013 | 1 comment

With 12 of us celebrating birthdays throughout the year, we pretty much have one for every month to celebrate. Our 8-year-old daughter is the fortunate one to enjoy her birthday on the 1^st of July. She is the lucky recipient to enjoy “Daddys’ awesome fireworks show.” My husband enjoys the 4^th of July holiday more than any other holiday during the year. The excitement and anticipation of fireworks and seeing the joys of the childrens’ faces is what gets him excited. He is a good Daddy. Here are the highlights of a plain and simple birthday party in summer.

we started off by riding go karts around the yard. The 8-year-old was taught to drive the go-kart herself this year.

here she is chasing her 17-year-old brother on his Odyssey.we did a water balloon toss game, and our daughter diligently filled up 200 water balloons for this occasion. By the way my daughter is wearing our bathing suit…they are made by wholesomewear.com a wonderful durable bathing suit. I love them.here are the 1,2, and 3 year olds getting into the water balloons

On the menu: macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and………

hot dogs cooked over a Dakota hole fire—very cool google this idea

fresh fruit blt chicken salad veggie pizza a homemade water slide fondant cake made by big sister
We then made a treasure hunt, that sent the girls around the yard looking for clues. One example of a clue was…..in the tree that Tarzan swings from you will find me……..(we have a willow tree). We did 6 clues and that seemed to be sufficient for them.

In the end they found a box filled with glow sticks,(for our fireworks show)bubbles, candy, slap bracelets, and silly string……which they decided to get the older siblings while they were driving the go-kart.
My 15 and 20-year-old, yeah better not get mom…………..Then on to more games…….. Our neighbor gave us a refrigerator box this week out of the blue and it worked out to be a blessing. We found some paints in the garage and came up with a homemade bean bag toss game.We made the “bean bags” out of felt squares and rice.Next, we made a homemade pinata. The children really enjoyed making that this week.
Dad brought out the potato gun to shoot. Another great fun family project.
Here is the 8 year olds first time shooting. Then to top it all off fireworks!! This was our first year in…….forever…….that we all got to sit outside and enjoy. We usually have a little one that does not enjoy the noise. But this year everyone stayed for the whole thing, it was beautiful.