Paper Plate and Cotton Sheep

I love cotton crafts because little ones love the sensation of the softness. My girls treated these sheep like stuffed animals for the day. They are easy enough for the youngest of crafters. My 2 year old completed the whole project on her own. Of course I cut the head and legs out for them, but they did the gluing.

They glued the head and legs on first because our plates had a high ridge and they didn't stick out enough from the back. After they were glued on they painted the glue on with cotton swabs all over the top of the plate. We used little ones we had left over from a birthday party. Once there was glue EVERYWHERE ...and I do mean EVERYWHERE:) then they continued to stick the cotton balls (from Dollar Tree) to cover all the glue. They drew eyes on the face and they loved petting the sheep and letting them have a picnic on the living room floor on a blanket..aka our permanent picnic area.

Paper Hand Puppets

 I started with just a basic head, arms, and body cut out. We used heavier construction paper. I didn't really use a template for this, but you can just draw it however you like. I cut a few at a time since I have 4 kids...4 of everything around here!

I cut shapes out for ears, noses, eyes, paws..use different colors of paper or they can color them in. The love to glue! I wanted to have some different shapes so they could choose any animal. I cut the mane out for the lions by just making it bigger than the head and they glued the ears on from the back of the head before gluing on the mane.

Cutting the eyes and stuff out gives them a chance to make up the animal, or person, that they want to make. I keep a bin of markers on the table for the rest of the design.

I folded a piece of paper so there was a pleat in the back. I then cut it so it was smaller then the front with the pleat in the center. Glue the outer edges to the back side of the puppet front and let dry. These have held up to a surprising amount of play.

Fingerprint Pussy Willows

I got my Family Fun magazine the other day and fell in love with this project because it let all of us join in. Draw the branches with brown marker and we used light brown paint on a paper plate to dip our finger tips into. The magazine used an ink pad for black pussy willows and that was nice too. My older boys even enjoyed this..maybe because it led to a brown fingerprint on each others faces....boys!

Once the paint was dry we went in with the same marker and put little "stems" for each of the pussy willows to attach it to the branch. I have this hanging on my kitchen wall and I love it. My 3 year old wanted to add the rain. My kitchen is painted "silly old bluebird" blue and the blue rain drops are so pretty. I think she has the artists eye:)

Teach your daughters....

"Well-behaved 

 women 

 rarely make history"

I know this, but it's something that just dawned on me that I need to teach my daughters to not always be "well-behaved"

Sometimes teaching our children to be happy adults makes them a bit hard to handle as kids we need to get to bed on time. I have to remember this when I get upset at my kids for being strong-willed. Thank goodness they are and may they always be and be full of self confidence to keep them safe and engaged in the world around them.

I've had some self-conscience girls in my classroom when I was teaching middle school and I feared for them. When you see a timid girl who needs some praise and confidence..give it to her before someone else does that will take advantage of her. I hope my girls are tough soft ball players who always know they can do their own thing and not need to follow a crowd for acceptance and would knock you out if you raised a hand to them...same with my boys of course but less of the knocking to the ground would be best:)

"Lubba Lubba" Trail Mix

“Lubba Lubba” Trail Mix

This was named by my 2 year old daughter who walks around with a tub of this stuff whenever she can. I’m sure it’s not all that different from any other Trail Mix or ‘GORP’ but I’m including it as a reminder that having a bag of this stuff in your bag while you are out can save the day…through in an emergency juice box and you are set for a picnic at all times. It’s not messy so I’ve pulled this out everywhere you can think of and it’s even saved the day for my older kids not to mention when I’ve been pregnant I was never without food!

Just throw it all together in whatever containers you like. I reuse a clear pretzel jug and ziplock baggies. Just leave out what you need to in order to keep it gluten free.

Mini pretzels

Dry roasted peanuts lightly salted.   (watch these, I just bought some and didn’t read it first..they have MSG in them! Crazy. I keep that stuff away from my family)

Craisins – we love blueberry and cherry flavored..yummmmmm

Cheerio’s or rice Chex cereal

Almond slivers

Small amount of round candy to make digging fun if you wish. I like chocolate covered raisins because I can tell myself it’s not real candy and the dark chocolate kind has antioxidants. I can totally justify dark chocolate raisins at any time.