Girl's Camp Ideas

I'm a Tent Mom this year to 7 cute Beehives. Since this is a 'Trek' year (a pioneer reenactment) the Beehives get their very own Girls Camp. And I am excited! Our theme is 'Bee Your Own Kind of Bee-U-tiful' and goes along with the scripture 1 Samuel 16:7. As a Tent Mom I get to help organize the campsite and create goodies to help the girls have the best time ever! I got a lot of my ideas from Pinterest, and some I created myself. Enjoy! 

Every day has a mini theme, and one of them is Princess Day!! So I decided each of my girls should be sporting a crown. :) Cute eh?

I found a bottle of Stiffy at Hobby Lobby and decided to do an experiment. Which works better:

Stiffy vs. Mod Podge?

I cut the lace in to seven equal parts, and sponged on the liquid...Stiffy was easier to work with, but it is very runny. And because of that Mod Podge dried faster, and the crowns held up better...less bendy.

Therefore, Mod Podge won in my book. 

I ended up using White Glitter instead of Gold. And I used another coat of Mod Podge to make those glitters stick!

I hot glued the crown onto plastic headbands, then bagged them up, and tied a little quote I found: 

front side

back side

Easy. :)

I found a great tutorial off of Pinterest for these headbands. My daughter and I are in love.

Go here for the tut.

I've made 15 today! Super easy.

In our stake, the girls get a Ward Bead for their boondoggle necklaces, it should have the year and go along with the theme in some way. 

I found these at Walmart for $2.

There were no instructions on how to use them, so make sure you peel off the protective covering on the glass before placing them in the metal charm piece.

First I found a cute ribbon that fit in the glass, and cut to size.

I found the square charms after I ordered these cute stickers on Zazzle.com. You can create whatever you want! My order was 20 stickers for $5. I think they turned out cute, so I was determined to make them work.

I cut them to size!

And used the part of the sticker with the most important information: the year.

Not too shabby. Each bead came out to be $1.20 each.

Each ward was given a color, flower and a theme. Our ward is the pink roses and our theme is from President Gordon B. Hinckley's Be's: Be Positive! Each ward has to make a flag for camp and here is ours. :)

I found a cute site here that had a great tutorial for Felt Roses.

My cute Beehives! I printed their pictures out on a Fabric Transfer sheet then ironed them on to some fabric, then I cut them out in circles for the center of the roses.

I'm still working on some more goodies! Yay for Girls Camp!

Summer with Kids

Have you ever wondered what in the world you are going to do with your children all summer?  As a mother you want the best for your kids.  You want them to have fun, you want them to keep busy, not to spend all of their time watching Nick Jr. or playing on the wii, xbox, DS, iPad etc etc.  We want them to still know how to read when they go back to school!  For many the thought of 2 more months of summer makes them want to curl up under the covers and hide.  The ideas across the blogoshpere are endless, but can also be a little overwhelming.  We have come up with a plan to help you out!

Friday Summer Fun!

This week we will be starting a series called "Friday Summer Fun!"  Every friday we will post some of the things we did the previous week.  This won't be a list of 50 craft ideas or 100 things to do with your kids.  It will be more like - Monday we did this, Tuesday was this outing or craft etc.  There will be fun recipes, there will be craft ideas and games. Its just a smaller bite - a little easier to manage.  And we hope it will be useful!

What spurred the idea?

I often hear "You are such a fun mom" or "How do you come up with all this stuff" or "I wish I was fun like that."  Here's a little secret.  You are!!  I had an eye opening weekend a few years ago and I realized that all it takes to be a fun mom is to have a plan.  Flexibility, of course, is always key.  But if you just take a little bit of time to plan,  you will be amazed at the results.  And its not that I'm a fun mom - I'm just a mom!  ANYONE can have a blast all summer with their kids!  I figure I'm planning it out anyway - I might as well share and help some of you get started.

So here's a little homework for you before Friday:

Print out a calendar and do a little research.

I am a very visual person so at the beginning of each summer I print out a calendar for each month.  Just a simple, Microsoft Word, boring little calendar that is 3 pages long.  June, July and August.  Then I take time to look through some of my resources.  Our public library puts on free events all through the summer.  We just went to a magic show last week - for free!  Our park district (out west it is usually the city parks and rec) does all kinds of workshops and free activities as well.  For instance, every monday they have a free art workshop at the park by my house.  I drop my girls off for 2 hours in the morning and they do crafts and play games.  Just long enough for me to make a quick trip to the grocery store with only 2 children!  Many of the surrounding cities and park districts do lots of fun things too.  Movies in the park, concerts on the riverwalk, nature workshops, etc.  Beyond the free activities there are lots of things that are only a dollar or two that are really fun as well.  Our local drive in has a killer deal on tuesdays, one of the other movie theaters is only $3 for the first daily showing of every movie - the new releases!  One of the pools is only $3 after 5pm.  Some local farms have some really fun things for the kids too.  Just do a little research.

They get to pick 2 desserts each week to make with me

Anyway - I look over things like that and write anything that sounds interesting down on the calendar.  Because, I know myself.  If it isn't written down it will never happen - because I'll never remember!  Once I get all of the "specific time" things down I start to make a quick plan for other things.  One morning a week we play at one of the local splash pads.  Wednesday mornings we check out new parks with friends.  Tuesday mornings we get new books at the library and turn in our summer reading program sheets for prizes.  We usually take one or two days a week to go somewhere a little bigger: one of the the zoos, the children's museum, downtown Chicago.  There is at least one day a week we hang around home all day - usually mondays.  I have to keep the house under control sometime!  That day I pick some sort of craft or activity (or 2) from the vast stockpile otherwise known as pinterest.

Its all on the calendar.  I sit down Sunday night and look over the week and see what is going on.  I add in any ideas I have and make note of a craft or two for that week so that I can pick up what I need at the store.  I can see that Wednesday at 1pm is the magic show at the community center - oh!  Well that morning we could go to the park, have a picnic lunch and then go to the show.  And even that much of a plan will get you through the day.  You'll find yourself having so much fun and the more you plan out ideas - the more ideas will spontaneously come to mind.  We are only 3 weeks in and already my kids are going to bed so happy and asking with a big grin "What are we going to do tomorrow mom?!"  I'll admit that sometimes I have to say "You know, I'm not sure - but it will be fun!"  And then I spend 20 minutes figuring it out before I go to bed.

So go start your research and we'll let you know what we did on Friday!

Top Ten Budget Friendly Disney Gifts

I have a few family members who love Disneyland...including me. Whenever a special occasion comes around, I love to shop for 'Disney Treasures'...something I know these family members of mine will love and treasure themselves. Since I live no where near Disneyland...I always head to the internet first. Some of the treasures on my list I have actually bought, some are for the future, and all are budget friendly.

1. Disneyland soundtrack of the actual rides in the Park

I purchased this for my Dad and he has enjoyed it, as have I. You can find this particular CD for sale on Amazon.com. 

Below are some of the tracks found on the soundtrack...

Walt Disney's Dedication Of Disneyland

Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me)

Splash Mountain Medley

Space Mountain

and more! There are 22 tracks.

 

We also listen to Pandora--there is a channel that is called Disney (Kids) Songs, and it will play many of the Disney Classics including some of these tracks.

2. Disney Air Fresheners

They smell like the real deal! And they look super cute hanging above your dashboard. :) Purchased the Mickey Ice Cream Bar for Mother's Day, and she loved it.

Again you can find these on Amazon.com

3. Disney iphone cases

These are kind of out of my budget, but they are so fun to look at! And maybe save up for...I found these two websites had the greatest selections:

www.zazzle.com

www.redbubble.com

Super cute!

4. Disneyland Fact and Trivia Books

I love to learn of the history of any National Landmark, and since Disneyland is our go-to Family Spot, it's fun to learn it's history too.

There are many to choose from, and many are affordable.

Search for them on Amazon.com

5. Disney Window Decals

I'm personally not a window sticker person, but whenever I see these on someone's back window, they make me smile.

So if I ever did buy one, it would be one of these. :)

Find them at www.laughingplacestore.com

 

6. Disney Tees

I love stocking up on Disney Tshirts before a Disneyland trip. The styles from Target and The Children's place have a subtle and vintage look that I love. And best of all they are affordable!

Whenever I come home with Disney Tees before a Disney vacation, it adds to the excitement. It would also be fun to get new shirts every morning before heading in to the park too!...if you could wait that long...I'm always bad with surprises...

 

7. Personalized Disney Water Bottle Labels

Found these cute labels on this cute Etsy site:

Announcements Plus

Super fun for parties! And even fun for a Disneyland Vacation!

Or if you want something more environmental friendly...

You can make something like this! I found this tutorial on this site here.

Love it!

 

 

8. Disney themed Wallets

Found these beauties on Amazon.com

 There were also purses to match...although more expensive.

 

9. Disney Themed Food!

Check this site out here for 30 Disney themed cupcakes...I'm already getting requests from my kids. :)

Would love cupcakes any day...

10. Disney Store Toys

I am always looking through this site here!

There are so many fun Disney toys here...just click the sale button for amazing deals.

 

There you have it, my top ten budget friendly Disney gifts!

Baby Girl Shower Ideas

I recently got to throw a Baby Girl shower to my friend who has 3 boys. You bet we were excited to bring out the PINK!

We decided to serve brunch since the shower went from 10 to 12. 

 

Fruit Cake: made out of watermelon, whipped cream and more fruit as the toppings

Pink Drink: Raspberry Sherbet + 7up

We had a Bow Making station. We supplied the materials, the guests assembled them.

One of my favorite gifts that I saw: Shoes made out of felt!! Adorable!!!

 

 

THE GAMES:

There were three :)

First was the Icebreaker, or the game the guests picked up on arrival.

Feel free to use these to your hearts content.

The instructions are easy. The daughters names are listed, and the mothers names are in the box. Match em up! (If you need the answer key, email me and I will send it to you.)

 

After Brunch, we played 'Dad Knows Best'. The guests were to guess how many questions Megan would get right.

Megan would get a point for every question that matched Robbie's answer. She wasn't answering them according to her...she was answering them according to Robbie's answers. Make sense?

The guests could guess along with Megan.

*For some extra fun, I asked these questions to Robbie and recorded him while he answered. We watched the tape during the shower. :)

 

After presents, the guests played 'Parental Guidance'. I called the mother and the mother in law to get some fun stories about Megan and Robbie. The guests were to guess if it was a Megan story or a Robbie story. 

 

Below are the tags for the guest 'Thank Yous'. I filled the bags with Kettle Corn. Easy and Sweet.

Girls are so fun.