Thursday, March 28, 2013

Puzzle Easter Egg Hunt

Our house is buzzing with the excitement of Easter. We have been hiding eggs around the house, outside, and anywhere we can just for the joy of the hunt. My boys will be seasoned veterans by the time Easter arrives. Those plastic eggs are worth every penny. In an effort to change things up, I filled eggs with the pieces to one of our puzzles while my boys were napping.
 
 

I left the empty puzzle box in the Easter basket. When they woke up, they immediately began scouring the house for plastic Easter eggs. They were just excited the eggs were actually filled this time. We knew immediately when we were missing an egg, because we didn't have all 24 puzzle pieces.
 
This would also be fun on Easter Day. Candy is great, but sometimes a little variety is nice too. Do you have any fun egg hunting traditions at your home we can borrow??

Friday, March 22, 2013

Laundry Bites!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Biz Stain Fighter for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you like laundry? I know...stupid question. But if you answered yes, please feel free to come by my house once a week and tackle mine. We average about 12 large loads a week. My mom thought I was crazy when I told her we had that many loads. I think she forgot what it was like when she had two little ones. Can you imagine those women with multiples? Triplets? Quadruplets? Oh my, I might just lose it if I had to do that much laundry.
My least favorite part is stain fighting. It always amazes me when my children head off to school clean and come home covered in who knows what. The mystery stains don't even match the items in the lunch I packed. I try to take off their clothes right then and pre-treat them with a stain fighter. However, when my husband gets a hold of them, their little outfit just gets turned inside out and the mystery stain escapes my knowledge and scrutiny like a secret agent in hiding.
My solution...Biz Stain fighter. It is a detergent booster, that when added to your normal detergent, provides additional stain fighting. It especially helps for all those secret agent stains that skip by me.

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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Army Camoflauge Birthday Party

I don't know but I've been told...my oldest just turned five years old. My youngest is turning 3, so we celebrated with an Army themed Camo Birthday Party for the two of them. The troops all came in camo and we played army games, served army treats, and passed out army party favors as well. I worked hard to come up with some unique army themed games in addition to the some of the traditional must haves.

 
We put signs throughout the yard leading the troops in the right direction to the enlistment office, mess hall, military barracks, and target practice.
 
 
Near the enlistment office was the classic army poster.
 
 
 
At the Enlistment Office the recruits were given dog tags which I used a metal engraver to put their names on. (You can buy one for $10)
 
 
I found these awesome tags at a garage sale. They were from a liquor advertisement. Lol. I just covered up the advertisement with some camo duck tape. It left the perfect metal surface to engrave each child's name on.
 
 
We also took their recruitment photos in front of the flag. I used the pictures on our thank you cards.
 
 
 
These were some of our party favors. They said Mission Complete. Thanks for Dropping By!

 
Each favor contained a water grenade splasher and some plastic army men.

 
 
After several years of birthday parties, I quickly realized no one shows up on time. I had a craft arranged for the little ones that showed up on time. We built little army tanks out of 2x4's and let them paint their own tanks with sponges.
 
 
You can see the original post here with the instructions.
 
 
One of our first group activities was the grenade hunt. We told the kids there were grenades in the field, and they needed to find and disarm them as soon as possible. (Nothing like a good old fashioned Easter egg hunt) They held candy inside of course.
 
 
I love the chaos. The camo eggs were actually quite challenging to find at times.
 
 
We moved on to the Search and Rescue. I buried 8 plastic army men in tubs of sand. On your mark, get set...go. The kids had to search and rescue their men as quickly as possible. Who knew they would love digging in the sand so much!
 
 
For target practice I had this cool toy that shot out green balls when you jumped on it. A definite crowd pleaser.
 
 
Off to the obstacle course, where the kids slid down the pole...
 
 
Jumped across the trampoline...
 
 
Crawled under the camo tarp...
 
 
And then grabbed the sandbag and pulled it to the finish line.

 
Each child was given a gold medal for their hard work!
 
 
The last game was tug of war. After the kids played against each other, my husband played against all of them.
 
 
Crash!?! Ha ha!
 
 
Now off to the Mess Hall to recharge and refuel.
 
 
I was lucky enough to find these camo buckets at the dollar store in the Easter section. For $1 each they were perfect for having lunch made up in advance.
 
 

 
I wrapped some water bottles in camo duck tape to match the theme.

 

 
I also bought a cute candy mold on ebay and made some chocolate army tanks. I think the adults loved them even more then the kids.

 
I decided for the easy cake option and made cupcakes instead. A few green sprinkles and an army men topped them off. Yes...a few people tried to eat the army men thinking they were chocolate too. Ha! Ha!
 

 
Our last minute addition was this army pinata I made out of a brown paper sack. It worked even better then I expected. I will share this tutorial another day.
 
 
The pinata held up through two rounds of the kids before it finally broke!

 
Remember, my pirate ship from last year...
I just painted over it with camo and turned it into an army boat. (Well worth storing it in the storage building for a year!)


 
Watch out for the elite force pictured above. That is us! My boys had another great birthday party! Thanks for stopping by.



 

 


 

Monday, March 11, 2013

Easter Egg Popsicles

I came up with this idea for Easter egg popsicles last year, and my boys loved it. However, I took pictures and then never posted it in time for Easter. I just tucked it away and saved it for this year. My son looks so much younger to me. He saw the picture a minute ago and denied it was him. Ha. He said, "I don't suck on pacifiers." I had to explain to him it was a popsicle and then he suddenly remembered and wanted to make them again. Ok, now on to the easy instructions to make these easy easter egg popsicles.

 
Supplies:
 
Plastic Easter eggs
Popsicle sticks
Egg Carton
Applesauce
Push pin
Skewer

 
Directions:
1. Start by pushing a hole in the bottom of the egg base. I used a skewer next to wiggle the hole big enough for the popsicle stick.

 
2. After I enlarged the whole, I inserted the popsicle stick through the opening..

 
3. I generously filled the top of the egg with applesauce inside an egg carton.
 
4. Top with base as shown.

 
5. Set egg carton in freezer to set Easter egg popsicles.

 
6. Enjoy!

 
These popsicles are so fast and easy to make. My boys both loved them. And on top of that, they are so inexpensive. They would be a great addition to an Easter party or event.
 
Also check out these fun Easter projects we did last year.
 
 
My Easter's Basket's Full Game (click here)
 
 
Guess Me Game (click here)
 
 
Easter Bunny Cupcakes (click here)



Saturday, March 9, 2013

St. Patrick's Day Scratch Off Ticket Free Printable

I made these fun St. Patrick's Day Scratch Off Tickets (free printable) for my little one's. Every year, a little leprechaun named McMischief, comes to visit our house the week before St. Patrick's Day. McMischief usually leaves a trail of gold coins to something fun each morning. One morning it might be a box of Lucky Charms cereal, another day green milk, and usually some sort of St. Patrick's Day surprise.

 

This year I thought it would be fun to leave scratch off tickets from the mysterious and elusive Leprechaun named McMischief. They say...Are you feeling lucky? Scratch off three clovers in a row to win!

To download this free St. Patrick's Day printable from docstoc.com visit the link here. You will have to create a user name and password to download the many free printables I have shared. Please let me know if you have any problems!



St. Patrick's Day Scratch Off -
 
Supplies:
Free printable 
Clear Masking Tape
Acrylic Paint
Dishwashing soap
Paint Brush
 
Directions:
 
1. Print out the Scratch Off Cards. There are three to a page. 2 are winners and one is not. Cover the shamrocks with a piece of clear masking tape.
 


 
2. Mix up any color of acrylic paint with a drop of dishwashing soap.
 
 
3. Paint over the masking tape area to cover the scratch off. It is a little (or very)  bubbly at first as shown below. No worries. By the second coat, it covers it perfectly. ( I used almost paint only as the second coat. Look at the last picture)

 
4. Cut apart your St. Patrick's Day tickets and get to scratching! So Fun!
 
 
You can also get this free printabe I made last year here.
 

 
 
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