Night Time Monsters

Today I'm over at Modern Parents Messy Kids talking about how to battle those night time monsters. One of my children was blessed with my overactive imagination and we've had to come up with some simple ways for him to learn how to work through some occasional bad dreams or thoughts. 

Some of the things we've done

• an old remote control  under his pillow to change his dream channel or turn off bad dreams
• we talk before he sleeps about where he wants to go or what he wants to do in his dreams that night
• and what we are sharing today - Melting Monsters!

Head on over to MPMK to get the "how to"

How To: Paper Ninja Stars

 NINJA STARS!

When I was in grade school it seemed like all the boys could make these and I was jealous. Now I can make them all I want (Oh and my kids like them too).

Here's how to make paper ninja stars. Don't worry once you make one or two it will seem so easy and you'll be making them all the time!

You'll need a square sheet of paper. You can make a reguar 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper square by folding it diagonally and cutting off or tearing the extra at the bottom.

You'll take your square, fold it in half and cut it into two sections.

Fold both of those sections in half lengthwise.

Next you'll fold each of the corners down on a diagonal. Make sure that the two sections have opposite diagonals (he didn't do that here he had to re-fold we tend to forget that part if we haven't made them in a while)

Next you're going to take the points and fold them down to form another triangle - easier to see that explain. See how each half folds opposite ways?

Now flip the piece on your left over and place the piece on your right over the top like this:

Now you're going to take the top point on the left and fold it down on the diagonal

Tuck the corner into the little fold (if you're not seein the fold make sure you made your original folds and triangles opposite each other)

Do the same to the bottom

Now turn it over

and tuck the other sides in

Did you do it?!

To throw you just sort of flick it like a frisbee (but not at people)

Once you get the hang of making them you'll find ninja stars everywhere! You can use 2 different colors to creat different patterns too

Have fun!

Pinned Lately

I love looking through Pinterest for ideas of things to make or do with the boys. Here are some recent pins from my "To Do" board!

Printable Jigsaw Puzzle

Ice Fishing Game

Kids Card Holder

DIY Car Garage

City Playmat

Ninjas

A DIY lightbox for tracing

LEGO playhouse

And a LEGO camera with your iPhone

Sea World + Shark Week

A few weeks ago the boys and I took a last minute before school vacation to California. We made Sea World one of our stops! We hadn't been since they were toddlers so they were SO excited. We love sea life (well, any animals really). The boys spent the few days before we got there devouring their website. Do your kids do that? Research where they are going until it drives you crazy? lol!

They loved the Shamu cam and were dying to go on the new roller coaster Manta. We got there and went on Manta first thing - it didn't disappoint! We all loved it! Then we looked at the schedule and decided which shows were important for them to see. 

My 8 year old LOVED Pets Rule. Loved it. We stayed after to pet some of the animals too. My 9 year old loved Sea Lions LIVE (I thought he would it was my favorite as a kid but sadly no more walrus in the show). I remember going to Sea World and dreaming of the day I could become a dolphin trainer. I think they were doing the same ;)

Some other favorites were the Beluga whales, the penguins, the brand new Turtle Reef and of course - the Shark Encounter!

We saved Shamu for last with the Shamu Rocks (a Shamu show set to music that my boys loved) and I'm so glad we did. We had perfect seats for the end of the night fireworks right after!

I was freezing because I lost my sweater somewhere along the way but Sea World found it and mailed it to me for free that night! (I stopped by lost and found and they had me fill out a little form) I thought that was pretty cool. Usually when I lose things I consider them gone but that was a great experience. 

If you've been thinking about a trip to Sea World lately - do it! So much education and experience for the kids. Their new shows and exhibits are so cool and I'm so glad we went!

(For full disclosure we were given media passes to Sea World but did not have to write a review - we liked it so much we wanted to :)

Speaking of sharks - who is excited it's Shark Week on the Discovery channel? I thought I'd do a little round up of shark crafts for your shark loving kids.

A paper plate shark from Almost Unschoolers

Love this clothespin shark from Estefi Machado 

Paper Plate Shark Jaws from Dollar Store Crafts (I shared this before but had to include it!)

If you weren't around last year around Halloween here was my son's constume that got a lot of laughs around the neighborhood.

Something for the Little Ones

I came across this great archive of activities to do with your kids ages 1-3 from Play Create Explore. It looks like a fun list to go through if you're looking for some ideas!

Like Clean Mush

Body Painting

Baked cotton balls

Dinosaur Sensory Bin

Or Styrofoam Sculptures

Find the full list HERE!

DIY Fun Bags!

I'm over at Modern Parents Messy Kids today with a DIY boredom buster that costs pretty much nothing! It's definitely something you want to keep in your "back pocket" with kids around!

See all the awesome things you can do with a bag of stuff HERE

Collapsible Cardboard Playhouse

My friend Jenn from Ambrosia Creative has done it again. In her post over on She Knows she gives a tutorial to create the perfect collapsible cardboard playhouse. Pretty it up and give one as a gift or make one any time for your kids. LOVE this!

View the great step by step HERE

Simple Summer Fun - Car Cooking

So simple, but fun for kids - cooking in your car! Since the inside of your car literally gets as hot as an oven, why not use it as one!

Cardboard Collective made banana chips in a car (I may do this one this week!)

Family Chic made S'mores in their car

Baking Bites made chocolate chip cookies in her car

 

Is it hot enough where you are to cook in your car?