DIY Lego Play Tray

A few Easters ago, instead of giving the kids lots of candy, I decided I wanted to  make something for their Legos.
I started by looking on Pinterest to find fun ways to display and/or store Legos.

I found things like:

These were great, but not quite what I was looking for or wouldn’t work for our needs.
So, I went to the craft store for inspiration and found wooden trays-the kind that look pretty on a cart or counter displaying wine glasses and such.  So, I thought-why not make them each their own Lego play tray!
The got the last 2 trays on the shelf.  They were natural wood, so I painted them when I got home.  Blue for my son and white for my daughter.  I chose these colors because of the vinyl colors I had available to make their names on my cricut, which was my second step after painting them.

After the trays were painted and the vinyl letters applied, it was time to make the trays officially for Legos.  I had ordered 10X10 Lego pieces from amazon.com.  I measured and laid out the 10X10 Lego squares- to see how they would fit, and how I would need to cut and piece the Lego platform inside of the tray.  This worked out easier than I thought due to the dimensions of the tray itself-WIN!

One LEGO 10X10 fit perfectly!  I just needed to cut a second 10X10 to fit in the remainder of the space.

The Lego squares are thin enough that all I needed to do is cut them with my kitchen butcher scissors and super glue them to the bottom of the tray.

After that, it was done!  This had to be one of the easiest and well received DIY gifts for the kids I’ve done yet.  It’s been 2 years and the kids STILL use them.

It’s great because they can pick up the entire tray, without disrupting what they’ve built, and move it from place to place.

What are your Lego creations?

Landal

If you have little ones and are looking for something  phenomenal to do indoors, and gets your kids energy out- then Landal is the place to go.

Landal is a resort area that has cabins, camping, restaurants, pools (indoor and outdoor), etc.  BUT, if you just want a 45 minute drive to do something fun for the day or half a day, Landal is a great choice.

...and its FREE FOR ALL MILITARY AND THEIR DEPENDENTS!
Yes, folks-FREE.  Just show your military ID before entering into the play area.
(update Dec. 2016-they now charge a small fee, even with your military ID.  It is 3 euro per child)

This place is really great!  they have a padded play area on the floor that is enclosed by these soft wall blocks for crawlers and babies (you can see it in the bottom of the above picture).
But the great part is the castle like play area.  I have a 6 and 4 year old and they are both able to do all of it. I've even worked up a sweat playing and climbing with my kiddos myself. It's big enough for adults to go in and have a little fun with their kiddos.
They have air hockey and some other games that cost 1-2 euro, but the actual play equipment is free.  there is a trampoline that you can pay for too...it's around 2 euro for 3 minutes or so.
This play area is  massive and so much fun!

    

There is a little snack shack and really nice seating area for the adults to sit and what I like about it (confession of an overprotective mom) is that from almost anywhere in the seating area you can sip a cappuccino and see your kids almost anywhere they are in the entire play area.  It's clean and nicely open and cutely decorated.  (and the bathrooms are clean and FREE)

My kids and I ate lunch there and it cost about 30 euro...but was really nice.  You cannot bring your own food in, so be prepared to buy something to munch on.
When you drive there it feels like you are not supposed to be there at all...you drive though a resort area and through narrow, curvy roads.  Once at the top, after driving through some of the resort (passing the outdoor water park area) you will find a really nice restaurant...in the back of that restaurant is where you'll find the play area.  I know that sounds crazy, but the back of the restaurant opens up to this huge play area.
Outside the restaurant is a trampoline like 'bubble' on the ground for kids to jump on and a little wooden water splash zone (only operational in the summer-it's just enough for the kids to splash their hands around in and have fun with a bucket and little wooden water bridges and such)

Here is the link:  Landal

If you are at spangdahlem, the playground that is featured is the one in Sonnenberg (it's the closest).  The address is:

Landal Sonneberg 
Sonneberg 1 
54340 Leiwen 
Mosel 
Tel: +49 (0) 6507-936 90 
Email  sonnenberg@landal.de  

GPS coordinates

49 ° 48 '12.5'' N 
6 ° 53 '30.4'' E

Monday to Friday 9:00 - 21.00 clock 
Saturday, Sunday and holidays 10:00 - 15.00 clock

Phone #:  01806 - 700 730

Clothesline in a Bag

One day I was on a search for things for my 3 year old to do.  I wanted little learning activities for her, so I  scoured the Internet and found a few things.
Numerous sites mentioned 'activity bags'.  Such as, Ziploc or pencil bags filled with little activities that your little one could grab out of a box to keep busy for a little bit. 
I took a couple of those ideas and ran with them.

I decided to make what I call a 'clothesline in a bag' activity bag. 

What you'll need:
felt
string
clothespins
imagination:)

I took some string that I had in my craft drawer and pinned it under the windowsill in the dining room. 
I put the clothespins in a Tupperware container.
Cut a few shapes out of felt and decorated them with stitching, buttons, etc.  They were definitely nothing fancy, but my daughter had fun.

It was interesting to see how she had to really fiddle around with the clothesline and clothespin and felt clothing to get them all lined up and secured successfully.  So, it ended up being much more than I thought and was teaching her dexterity as well as entertaining her.
Even my 5 year old son did it a few times, creating numerous 'patterns' out of the felt clothes.  So, it worked for both kids, which was a double bonus!woohoo!

Home Made Ball Pit

(please disregard my son's wounded forehead.  He fell off off his scooter the day before)

Since the weather has been beautiful lately, we've been practically living outside.  So, on this one day that it rained, it seemed like my kiddos had cabin fever worse than ever. 
I decided to pull out an oldy, but goodie that my ingenious husband thought of years ago. 
I took our old small baby pool that we bought from the dollar general store and blew it up.  We have about 4 bags of ball pit balls so I emptied a couple of bags into the pool and made our own ball pit.

Super easy and for some reason the fun lasted all day.  It worked out great and made my day lots more manageable.  (I only had to keep the puppy away from trying to chew holes in it:).

Butcher Paper!

I bought a kids easel at a Yard sale 2 years ago and it has been the best $8 I ever spent.  It came with a HUGE roll of butcher paper.  The other day it was cold, yet again, and we needed a change from the normal art projects that we do.  I had bought some new washable markers for the kids and placed them in makeup bags from the dollar store.  One for my son, and one for my daughter. 
All it took was some tape on either end of the butcher table to secure it to my dining room table and it provided about an hour of table coloring fun.  I was able to cook dinner and effortlessly keep an eye on my artists.  As a mother, it was a dream:)

I hope my roll lasts for a while longer because I don't really know where to go to restock it.  Someone told me that the local newspapers usually have left overs similar to this after printing the paper...a couple of feet on each roll that gets thrown out because it's not enough to print an entire paper on.  I'll have to investigate.
(On a side note, one Christmas I wrapped presents for our family in the butcher paper and let the kids decorate it with Christmas themed stickers and red and green crayons.  The family loved receiving Christmas care packages with the kids artwork as wrapping paper)
Do you know where I can restock my beloved butcher paper roll?

Tents Make it All Better

When it rains, tears pour. 

At least on some rainy days that seems to be how my house feels.  Kids seem to be restless and nothing seems to entertain them. 

What to do, what to do?

Break out our wonderful Ikea tent and make sure to make things a little more different to peak the kid's interest in their toys.

So, I set up the tent (which takes 5 minutes) and added some play pit balls inside along with some blankets.  I also set up one of the dozen train tracks we have on the coffee table as apposed to the train table as usual.  I put Lilly's baby station in a different spot than normal.

Guess what happened?...Children played joyfully for the rest of the morning.  The same toys that were out minutes prior, that were so boring, instantly took on a new light once moved around a bit.  And, lets not forget the key rule to a rainy day...

Tents make it all better.

Easy Cupcake Decorating with Kids

So, the other night we hosted a play date.  We had pizza and then decorated cupcakes that I had made earlier that day.  To make sure this did not end up a sugar overloaded mess, I modified. 
I put a cupcake on a small saucer for each child for easy clean up.  I also put white icing in small cocktail sauce containers. (these were a wedding gift that came with a shrimp platter for parties).  This way I was able to divide out the amount of icing each child was going to use.  They each got to ice their cupcake in their own fashion.  I always have sprinkles on hand, so I brought them to the table for their decorating delight.  They had a blast, however, I was not able to get a picture of the finished products since they were devoured so quickly. 

The Best Kind of Sandbox

Spring is just around the corner and I thought I would share with you what has been the best kind of sandbox for my kiddos AND did not cost alot of money. 
We baught a plastic kiddie pool for about $8 at Walmart, 3 years ago for our kids, and turned it into a sandbox.  We still use it and it has held up well to all kinds of weather. 
We filled it with about 4 bags of sand that were pretty cheap from Lowes.  It has been so much fun for my kids and we even use it in the winter on the days that it is not so cold outside. 

Turning a kiddie pool into a sandbox was cheaper than buying one of those green turtle sandboxes in the toy departent.  It was worked out perfectly and we love it. 

*On a side note it is easy to clean.  We went on vacation a couple of years ago and forgot to put the cover on it.  (tutorial on making the waterproof cover to come)  The neighborhood cats had a blast with it as a litter box.  It was super easy for my husband to dump the sand and for me to clean and disinfect it with soap and bleach.  (and yes, we put brand new sand in it:)

Mother of Inventions

(you can't see it well, but my son has a huge smile on his face)

So, my hubby went to a Kansas City Chiefs game and it was freezing outside.  What to do with 2 kiddos with severe cabin fever?  Mix it up a little bit.
I found 2 pieces of poster board and was wondering what I could do with them to keep the kids entertained...giant painting canvases, pirate scopes, and then it hit me! 
Race Car Tunnels!
With a little bit of packaging tape, the right slope, all the cars in the house that would fit through the rolled up poster board, and baskets to catch the winners-here's what we came up with.  It ain't pretty, but you are welcome to use the idea when you are desperate for TV free entertainment for your little ones.  It's simple but the kids loved it!

Painting with Ice Cubes

I totally stole this idea from my high school friend that has her own blog that's magnificent.  I love this idea because we do art projects and painting constantly.  This makes things a little different which in turn makes it more fun for the kiddos.  This is the first time Lilly has gotten to paint with ice cubes and both my munchkins loved it. 
I put a piece of paper on a paper towel to absorb extra moisture from the melting ice cube and put the paper towel and paper in a pan to keep everything contained.  We use washable paint so the cleanup on the pans is super easy. 

Put a few drops of paint on the paper, place an ice cube on the paper and let the kids smear the colors all around.  I gave my kids a plastic fork to help move the ice around but they liked using their own hands to move the ice cube around.  This was a little more messy, but not bad.

Loved how they turned out!

Kids and Computers

I'm one of those mothers who hates it when my kids watch something on TV that doesn't teach them a valuable lesson.  They are so deprived, I know!
The same goes for the computer.  My son loves to play the PBS kids games and his eye hand coordination and problem solving skills have improved from using the computer and playing these educational games.  My daughter is at the age now that she can benefit from certain online programs too.  Below (in no particular order) are the top 3 of my kids and I's favorite free websites with educational games for them to play.  My children are 4 years old and 2 years old, so the below websites are based on their educational levels.

Veggie Tales Website for Games

PBS kids


Starfall's (one of my favorites-what my daughter is playing in the picture below)

                                                                                                                                                 

Relishing the Family Moment

At Christmas time, traditions begin...making sugar cookies together, going out and cutting down the Christmas tree, driving around the neighborhood and looking at lights with Christmas music playing, etc.

This was our second year decorating a ginger bread house.  This years house was a kit from the craft store and was made out of styrofoam.  I hot glued the house together and let the kids have at it with the foamy decorations. 
In the midst of decorating I found my OCD tendencies start to come out.  I was secretly correcting the kids placements of their stickers, etc.  I had to stop myself and step back.  I realized the more the ginger bread house was decorated solely by my children, the more precious it would be... no matter what it looked like in the end. 
So, this Christmas season I am reminded to live in the moment and relish these precious family times together creating traditions...not trying to make them perfect. 

Because after all, have you ever seen a more gorgeous ginger bread house?

Pirate Play Date

So, how do you make a playdate on a cold rainy night fun?

PIRATES!

O.k., so this took a few minutes of prep before hand but was well worth it.  I had been saving baby wipe containers for a future kids craft...I knew they would come in handy at some point.  They worked out perfectly to transform into pirate treasure chests. 

Here is what you'll need:
Plastic baby wipes containers (one per child)
Black construction paper (you can use any color you want)
Tape
Pirate stickers for decorating
Sharpie for writing childrens names on treasure chests
Treasures to put inside the chests
Black cardstock to cut out in the shape of a pirate's eye patch
Black yarn for securing the eye patches on each child
Hole punch for the yarn and cardstock assembly of the eye patch

I cut to size and taped the black construction paper onto the wipes containers to start the treasure chest transformation.  I also wrote each child's name on the chests to complete the prep work before the playdate.  Our treasures consisted of purple feathers, Backyardigans scratch craft, and mini glow sticks (one treasure for each child.)

Each child got a treasure box that already had an eye patch inside it. (I had cut eye patch shapes out of black cardstock, punched holes on either side, and strung through black yarn). They put their eye patches on and went to town decorating their treasure chests with the pirate stickers we had on hand.

  

After the decorating was over, it was on to the treasure hunt. 

Before the playdate began I had put each treasure in its own plastic baggie.  I  hid them around the kitchen and dining room.  Since the boys are 4 and my daughter is 2, I didn't make it that hard.  I hid the baggies of treasure on the inside of the cubbard and under the counter and dining room chair.  I gave them simple hints to look for the treasure baggies and they found them with no problem. 

It was alot of fun to see them looking and giggeling during their hunt.  Each child got one treasure from each baggie and then the pirate play date was complete. 

We had a ton of fun and I think the pirate treasure chests turned out super cute and it passed the time since we couldn't go outside. 

AARGH Matey!