grow mom a window herb garden

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We moms cook a lot. We are the ones who are responsible for putting a hot meal on the table most nights. The more I cook, the more adventurous I've become in selecting recipes. A lot of the recipes I choose to make call for fresh herbs, and I was constantly paying high prices for these at the grocery store. I really wanted to get into making my own window herb garden for my kitchen window, and I thought that would be a perfect project for my kiddos to make for me! Kirsten mostly helped with this one. She wrote out labels for the herbs, she helped plant the seeds, and she's been making sure they have enough sunlight and water. Every day when she gets off the school bus, the first thing she does is check on her little garden. It's become quite exciting for her to see the seeds sprout into plants. We used clear plastic cups and she loves seeing the roots through the cups. We started the whole process a couple weeks ago and I just snapped a picture of them this past weekend. In just 2 short weeks all 5 of the herbs have at least sprouted, and 2 of them have really taken off. The picture would have looked better had all 5 of them been well grown, but I wanted to post this before Mother's day! What a great little Mother's day gift for me from my kiddos. I look forward to using these herbs. Here's how we made it:

What you'll need:

5 plastic cups - you could of course use 5 nice plant pots, but I just used what we already had on hand
soil
seeds
white sticker paper
black marker
scissors

Directions:

1. pick out 5 varieties of seeds that you would like to grow.



2. fill all 5 cups with soil.





3. give your kiddo the seed packets with the names on them, and have them write out the names of the seeds/plants on the white sticker paper.

4. cut out the names from the sticker paper, peel off the back and stick on each of your 5 cups.



5. make a small well in the soil and sprinkle a few seeds in the centre. Repeat for all 5.





6. water your seeds and place in a window that gets lots of sunlight.



7. give your seeds sunshine, water and love and you'll have your very own little herb garden in no time at all!





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fingerprint pussywillows

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This is one of two crafts I managed to salvage from my camera's memory card when my hard drive malfunctioned. I lost so many awesome crafts that I did with the kids. I'm really devastated about that. I did find this little gem on my camera's memory card though. I saw the idea of making fingerprint pussywillows in this month's issue of Disney Family Fun and knew it would be a craft we would enjoy. We love all crafts that involve handprints, footprints, fingerprints and thumbprints. This is a really simple Spring craft to make and it looks really pretty. Here's how we made it:

What you'll need:

canvas or paper
brown markers
light grey paint (I mixed white and black together)

Instructions:

1. using your brown marker, draw some pussywillow stems on your canvas

2. get your light grey paint and have your child dip their finger in the paint and stamp all along the pussywillow stems

3. allow to dry and display your masterpiece



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grasshead ladies

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I have bad news about my computer. Nothing could be recovered. My hard drive malfunctioned and everything was wiped clean. I'm definitely learning my lesson the hard way. I've spent the last few days trying to get some posts back together. I was very thankful that I have the last month's worth of pictures on my camera memory card. That helped a lot. But I lost so many pictures, photoshop actions and brushes, purchased clip art, storyboard and blog frames, blog posts, etc. I always knew I should back up my stuff more often, but life always got in the way. Now that I've lost so much, I realize that I should never be too busy to do a backup. Ughhh. I hate learning lessons the hard way. Anyway, enough about my whining, and onto the craft. Here's a great craft for earth day that uses recycled materials around the house.. We used empty yogurt drink containers and turned them into pretty ladies. Kirsten really enjoyed this craft and has enjoyed watching her grass grow. We bought some awesome soil/seed mix by Scott's and the grass grew in no time. That stuff was amazing. Here are the instructions to make your own:

What you'll need:

empty yogurt drink containers
scrap fabric
scissors
googly eyes
glitter glue
glue gun
grass seed/soil

Directions:

1. remove labels and wash and dry your yogurt containers



2. decorate your little ladies however you want. We used fabric scraps, googly eyes and glitter glue. I hot glued the fabric and googly eyes on for quicker drying.



3. put some soil/grass seeds in your empty container and water it.



4. place your container in a sunny place and water as needed.

5. your little grass lady will have hair to style in no time!





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hand(print)s around the world

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With Easter over, we've been doing a few crafts around here to celebrate Earth day next Sunday (April 22nd). I absolutely adore this one. It turned out exactly as I had hoped it would. The earth and the people around it are actually their handprint stamped around in a circle 4 times. This isn't really a save the planet kind of craft for Earth day, but more about teaching our kids that there are people of different color, race, and religion all over this world, but we are all the same and we need to treat everyone kindly and with respect. I know my kids are only 3 and 4, but it's never too early to teach your children those important life lessons. They thought this craft was really cool, and they are proudly displaying these masterpieces on canvas in my living room. Here's how to make this really simple craft:

What you'll need:

canvas or paper
paint - blue and green for the earth, and 5 different colors for the fingers (people)
paint brushes
markers or sharpies

Directions:

1. paint your child's palm with some green and blue paint. Then paint each of their 5 fingers a different colour.

2. have your child stamp their hand around in a circle 4 times. You may have to add more paint to their hands after 2 stamps (that's what I did).

3. allow for the handprints to dry

4. using your markers or sharpies, turn the fingers into people by adding eyes, mouths, hair, and arms holding hands





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kool-aid Easter eggs

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I saw this awesome idea on Hey! Jen Renee last year and I couldn't wait to try it. She calls them Kool-eggs which is genius, lol. It's a pretty brilliant idea using just kool-aid and water. No need for any vinegar because kool-aid contains citric acid itself. Dying Easter eggs has become an annual Easter tradition in our house and this just gave it a new fruity twist. The kiddos had a blast dying their eggs yesterday. We only did 1 dozen and they were kind of disappointed when we were done! I just didn't want to make any more than we would be able to eat. They smell really fruity when they first come out of the kool-aid/water mixture, but when they dry, they are just like regular Easter eggs. I think this will definitely be a method we do again. Stop by the blog tomorrow to see what we did with our Easter eggs! Here's how you make them:

What you'll need

single-serving pouches of kool-aid
cups
spoons
water
hard-boiled eggs
plastic tablecloth - this will prevent stains on your table if it spills

Directions

1. lay a plastic tablecloth down on your table to prevent stains if the kool-aid mixture spills

2. in a cup, mix entire contents of kool-aid packet with 2/3 cups water. Stir until kool-aid is dissolved.

* with the packet of purple kool-aid, I added less kool-aid powder and more water. The purple kool-aid will turn the egg dark gray really quickly, by adding less powder and more water, we got a nice purple colour

3. put some hard-boiled eggs in the kool-aid mixture and take them out when you reach your desired colour

4. let the eggs dry in the egg carton





















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Playdoh chicks

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This was a really fun activity we did a couple weekends ago to spend some time in the afternoon. We just grabbed some playdoh, feathers, craft foam and googly eyes and made ourselves some little chicks for Easter. This was really fun and kept the kiddos occupied for hours. I swear these kids would play with playdoh every hour of the day if they could. Here are some pics of their fun:















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magical jellybeans and lollipops - part 2

Pin It Does anyone remember this post from last year? It's going to become a yearly tradition in my house for Easter and I absolutely love it. If you are not familiar with last year's post, this is what you do. Every year on Easter Eve you gather your kiddos and give them each a "magical jellybean." Have them plant this magical jellybean in a plant pot with Easter grass and tell them that by the morning when they wake up, their jellybean will have turned into a lollipop. Seeing their amazed little faces in the morning was absolutely priceless. I'm so excited to do it again this year. I took the tradition one step further this year though. Kirsten had asked me where I found the magical jellybeans, and I really didn't have a great answer. I decided that we would make some adorable chickie eggs, and that these little chickies would be laying our magical jellybeans. The week before Easter we will periodically check on our chickies to see if they have laid any magical jellybeans yet. By Easter Eve, they will have laid 2 magic eggs - 1 for each of the kiddos. Then we will plant them and watch them grow into lollipops! So exciting for the kiddos. Here are the steps:

1. Make some adorable little chickie eggs out of plastic easter eggs. We glued on googly eyes and craft foam beaks. I then placed yellow cupcake liners (turned inside out) into a silicone muffin tray and placed the eggs in the liners.



2. The week before Easter, check your chickie eggs to see if they have "laid" a magical jellybean. You'll want to sneak a couple in there at some point so your kiddos can find them.





3. Save these magical jellybeans for the night before Easter. Fill a plant pot with some Easter grass and have your kiddos plant their magical jellybean in their pot.









4. While your kiddos are sleeping, make sure their magic jellybean grows into a lollipop. If you stick some playdoh in the bottom of the plant pot, the lollipop will stick straight up when you put the stick in. Dispose of the jellybean so there isn't any evidence - that shouldn't be too difficult, lol.



Original idea from See Jane Blog



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