Got Kid Art?

Kids are a natural artist's so at our house, we try to do fun art,  It's really open-ended, and most activities can be done with simple art materials that you might have already.

Here are some of our favorite things we like to do...

Draw your Favorite Animal, since my kids animal changes daily you could make it into a book, for them!

Color your mood: Pick a color that matches the mood the child is feeling and color with just that, it's that simple, color whatever you want.... we like to use different mediums, like colored pencils, and markers to watercolor.

Paint with watercolor

Scribble Art: Scribble on some paper, then color in the areas with three or four colors. We love watercolor pencils for coloring in, and sharpies for the outlines.

Create a scene with window markers: Yes I love my windows for my children's canvas! it's so fun to see what they can create! and it makes me smile when I see their artwork on my patio door!

Paint or draw a Song: Paint/draw a picture to one of your favorite songs, (we like Gold Fish by Laurie Berkner) Or any classical music. Or A holiday favorite like Jingle Bells

Trace Shapes on paper: Find things to trace and then color it, We love wooden blocks s from Mellisa and Doug

Roll Dice Art Surprise game (it's really unpredictable and entertaining.)

Face Painting, We love Snazaroo's face painting products!

Marshmallow and toothpick sculpture: We like to make buildings and bridges!

Stamp/print with everyday objects you find around the house, make a background for wrapping paper.

Bubble printing.   We love bubble wrap, but blowing bubbles and getting a neat print is so much fun!

Paint with Flowers and leave:, We like to collect leaves, flowers, petals, and acorns, and paint with them as if they were stamps or brushes.

Color with Markers

Create a picture with Shaving Cream, this one is so fun to do, it's a giggle fest! the plus side is your house will smell good, I make them clean up before they do something else. WE LOVE playing on our patio door with shaving cream! It's A blast!

Paint with Q-Tips I keep it simple and let them only have primary colors.

Playdough fun time. I have a tot of fun play dough toys that I have collected at Garages Sales, I even get excited for this one!

Make a collage with pom poms, you can glue pom poms, or use the pom poms as a brush, either way, it's a fun time. To glue the pom poms I use a hot glue gun.

Glue drawing and rubbing, get some school glue, let them make swirls, lines, whatever with the glue, then when it dries, let them do a rubbing or a resist on the glue.

Make a Collage: cut out images from magazines, find objects from nature and stickers, if you are using hard to glue things (pom poms, sequins, buttons leaves,) use contact paper, and then display it on a window.

Create beads with model magic Then the next day you can create a necklace

Draw or paint Nature

Paint Sticks: Got sticks, and paint, why not paint them, here is a post I did on this easy fun activity

DIY PK Smores

This is a super easy recipe that most Preschool children can do on their own with little help from a grownup!

DIY PK Smores (I can't believe I haven' thought of this before now.)

Yup my active and spunky pk son wanted a snack,  so I said look in the PBS Do It Myself Cook Book and find something you want to eat. He's not a huge fruit or Veggie fan so... he saw the only not so healthy recipe (go figure right?) I was secretly hoping for the veggie wrap snack... SMORES it is!

I love recipes that are kid proof. This one is.

DIY PK SMORES
you will need:

Chocolate frosting
Marshmallow cream
and graham crackers
 a teaspoon and a butter knife to spread and a cutting board for easy cleanup

I let him use our teaspoon cookie scoop to measure out the frosting and marshmallow cream. We broke the graham cracker in half and put one tbs. of chocolate frosting on one side, and the marshmallow cream on the other side, then we put them together. A PERFECT SNACK for a PK to do it all by himself! It helped that the whole family ate them as soon as it was made!

18 Artists dates to inspire and make you happier

I mentioned in my earlier posts by taking care of yourself you can feel more peace. Here are some of my ways that have helped me become a more secure and happier person:

My pal Julia Cameron over at the Artists way and I call them Artists dates. to give you a brief explanation of artists dates: You and your inner artist's brainchild go out on a date weekly. Alone if possible, if not then take your kids along with you or sometimes you can take your Dear Husband with. It's a tool to help you to become an amazing mother, artist, spouse, friend, you name it, it will transform you!

Some of my favorite artist's dates I have shown lots of resistance too like I am too old for this or that's not for me right now... those have been my favorite ones:

Wave pool, just being in the sun energized me to make a series of paintings with just blue hues

Making cupcakes for NO REASON! (that was awesome I gave the cupcakes away to my daughter's 2nd grader's teachers, they LOVED THEM!) and here is another one that I posted about

Dancing with our disco lights at home to retro Disney soundtracks!

Watching an inspiring movie about other artist's I really like Walt Before Mickey. It was the best!

Look through magazines and cutting out whatever made me go OOH, I like that and making a poster of that and putting it on a poster board and then hanging it up for you to see all the time for a week!

Here are some of my dates with myself.

Going for a sunrise walk on a trail (one of my favorite)

Listening to a classical album and driving in the country

Planting tulips in the fall for a beautiful surprise in the spring

Taking a cooking class, and cooking the new recipes. Craftsy has a bunch of them, they always have one sale

Thrift store shopping (give yourself a 5$ or so limit.)

Making something that isn't in a fine art form  like at Creativebug like paper flowers
Fall in love with creativity at Creativebug I also love Lisa Congdon, she is pretty awesome!

FriendsDay, a whole day or afternoon where you and your BFF can just talk! those are my favorite!

I also have a running list of things I would like to do if I had a sitter (grandma) on hand on the weekends or in the evening.

Temple/Church worship (with husband is nice too)
visit a local farmers market (can't wait till spring)
visit the rose garden by the art center in the summer
Canning something (jelly and pizza sauce are my favorite, I do this with kids too, but it's fun by yourself.)
Sightsee and take pictures

A trip to the dollar store with a $5 budget to spend on just you... I like stickers and a helium balloon! Then I visit the scrapbooking store that is in town and get my eye candy fix.

A great example of how Artists dates can change your life came from a scheduled artists date about a year ago:

My love for paper flowers came from an artist date, I thought what if, I used my cameo to use up some of this horrible paper someone gave me and made it look like a flower? It worked and now I love them and hope that someday it can become a way to make some fun money.

My experience with artists dates have made me see the goodness in the world again and gave me proof that God really does want us to be happy!


I love them so much that I am in the works of posting An Artists date with kids post to come soon!

Our Familys first Book Drive

Coming home from church Sunday afternoon I saw "the truck" in the driveway, Grandpa's truck, the work truck that he uses to haul "big stuff" It was my daughters birthday, which meant one thing. Whatever grandpa made, it was big... Then we saw IT, The new heart-warming house, that put a smile on all our faces.  A book house we call it. a house for books to give back to our neighborhood.

For my Daughters 8th birthday she had asked for a "book house" There it was, on the corner of our lot, with the perfect location to help spread literacy. We are delighted to start this amazing journey of becoming Little Free Library stewards. There is a feeling of gratitude for this opportunity that my daughter and my father-in-law have created for our family and community.

Dreams do come True!

Seriously last year when I was brainstorming all the fun things I could do or would like to be, a librarian came into my mind. I remember my mom taking me to our small rural town library, where my great grandmother:  Grandma Starr was a librarian. At age 8 I wasn't a reader, in fact, I hated it, I wanted to paint, and write, not read. Grandma Starr instilled in me the love of reading. I can still picture the small library with my Grandma Starr showing me the nonfiction books, It was as if the mother ship called me home. I remember from that day on I would go visit her at the library in the summers and we would have "story time" sometimes it was sewing, cooking, or just having her listen to me read... She loved it, I still remember the twinkle in her eyes when I would read something and ask her a question. My love for literacy and writing blossomed that summer when I was 9.

So taking on this stewardship with the Little Free Library with my daughter is fulfilling a family legacy. If I can instill the love of reading for my family and help my neighborhood then the world can be a better place to live.

I need your help! WE need books to for our little free library (LFL)! I will take as many as you want to donate. I will stamp inside each book that it was donated, with the hopes that it comes back to our LFL for others to enjoy. If you don't have books but would like to donate some money, the money will strictly be used for books, and materials to help the growth of literacy in our neighborhood.

So to kick off the start of our Little Free Library, we are going to host a book Drive/ Donation Drive. I will have a tote out on nice days (no rain or snow) please donate some books at our Little Free Library. Inside the Library I will have some color pages for kids, maybe a treat, you will never know what is in the library... I hope that it will always be a surprise! Which is part of the fun!

My hope is during the summer we can have a craft table set up to make bookmarks, make a small craft that then can be made and given to nursing homes for the patients. My vision is to make this a fun event that is like a story time at a library. Please note, where we live the closest library is about 10 minutes away from us. We go to three different libraries, but all are at least a 10-minute drive from our house, which I think is too far away... ''

So happy reading!

On a side note I have some printed sheets from our favorite kid activity books from DownTown BookWorks, please take one and post pics of it when you complete the activity!

Do It Myself PBS Kids cookbook

I love cookbooks, seriously I have a whole book shelf of cookbooks, someone should really stop me, and what's worse is I always have at lest two or three cookbooks cheeked out from the library....  So I couldn't resist this cookbook, remember that if your my child, every year for your birthday I give a cookbook... this is one of them that should make your list!







PBS Kids has a cookbook for kids,  that your elementary school child/children could easily with parent supervision cook themselves a complete meal with out your help (my kind of cookbook right?)  They say nothing sharp, and nothing hot, and they deliver on that promise.  Most of the recipes are snacks, or sandwiches, which works, and then the deserts are often dump pour and
mix sort of deserts. I like this cookbook a lot for the measuring spoons.
they take up less room than my set of measuring cups. The cookbook is illustrated very clearly, and my 7 year old daughter can read the recipes well, and understand the directions.

We made the Shrimp Tacos, they were good, I had my daughter tear the shrimp in half, they were little to start with, and she had fun cutting up the avocado, measuring and mixing.

We also made the Parfaits, that was an activity that my daughter did all by herself with the "help" from her younger brother, it was very heartwarming to hear and watch them in the kitchen.

We then for a lighter supper made the deli meat and pepper roll ups, I substituted the roasted peppers for green bell peppers, it was a hit. My 4 year old son really loved spreading mayo onto the tortilla.

After each recipe was completed my kids were feeling pretty good about themselves, and who can blame them, after all it's teaching them self reliance, and a whole host of good skills (math, reading, science, all in one activity.)

There are lots of variations you can easily do with the recipes provided, This is a spring board, add more or less ingredients, and steps, the sky's the limit to what you can create with this cookbook gem! I looked at this cookbook as a great addition to our cookbook collection! I want to give a big shout out to Downtown Bookworks for this amazing cookbook!

Here are some sample recipes!!! Try them out with your kids, They will love it!

Do you have a favorite recipe that your kids can make? I would love to hear about it!!!

Get into Nature

As a mother I am always finding an excuse to get out side and to get into nature, I pat my self on the back that 1.) I got them out side,  2.) Nature is way more fun than any tv show. So I was excited to see that there is a book about getting outside, and into nature. Thank you to PBS for solidifying my firm belief that nature is full of inspirations. It is.

Fall is the best time to get outside, I dread the winter like most of us, so when I saw that Downtown Bookworks published this Stick and Stones book  Our family had to have it! I am grateful that Downtown Bookworks partnered with PBS Kids, they have some really neat kid activity sets if you are a PBS nerd like I am! They also have a wonderful field guide A Walk In the Woods that helped us identify our leaves, trees, rocks and a snake that was coiled up along the trail, which my boys were like can we keep it? NO!

I felt more inspired about getting into nature. Into The field Guide A Walk in the Woods is jam packed with content that will help even the most curious mind understand the habitat of the "woods." I just wanted to do some fun cheap children crafts that they could really connect learning and art together. I plan on using these books for our son's 5'th birthday party with his pk friends, the kit has everything you need, just add sticks or rocks, or pine cones and let them create! an easy art activity!

What is it about being outside in nature that makes you feel amazing? I feel like a million bucks when I take my kids onto a trail, it soothes and calms my soul. Families bound better when they are outside don't you think? What better way to make some memories than being out side on a trail. While we were walking my oldest daughter was talking about fairies that live in nature, I was half listening, and half watching my younger sons walk together, and all of the sudden while my daughter was talking,  a gentle breeze flowed by and gently leaves started to fall at the same time for a perfect mother daughter moment,  Thank you Fairies!   It was one of those memories that I will never forget, it stopped us in our foot steps as we witnessed the simple beauty that nature provides. That is what it means to get into nature, to make some memories!

We are very lucky to have a state park with in walking distance from our house, I don't know how we got so lucky but I am grateful for it. Here are some of the things we have made using nature and Downtown Bookworks inspiring books to help us.

Stick people, there are so many fun ways to make them, in the Stick and Stone Craft kit had all the inspiration to let me kids run  with the idea of making stick people. They painted them and then used washi tape for their "clothes" I have the maon jar with popcorn kernels displaying the sticks in a window sill as if they were flowers, it makes me smile. I think my kids just like seeing the transformation that googly eyes make, googly eyes transform anything ordinary into a magical creature don't you think...

 I had no idea that you could create cute little creatures out of simple things outside,  you can use anything to make some really unique critters (I'm putting these cuties on our Christmas tree when the time comes.)

We all giggled when we saw  the googly eyes transformed a simple nut, corn flower head. I shelled the nut (maybe a hazel nut, I found it on the forest floor while walking.) The shell was used as the ears, the whole inner shell was the head. Then I glued googly eyes that came with the kit.

The painted sticks were just fun to paint! we may or may not do anything with them. I know of some artists that love painting on sticks, I was inspired by one that paints on cat tail stems! it's a fun way to learn about nature even if you are a parent to a boy that loves sticks and paint.... why not combine the two.

I am always trying to find artful ways to help my kids learn, these two books solidify my belief that we can feel more deeply when we learn through hands on experience. These two kits/ books do that for our family, along with the memories that have been made from our walks in the woods.

Superman Lunch

A Superman lunch I can be proud of! I have been dreaming of doing this lunch for a while. I needed an outlet today so I painted a bit, and after feeling better about creating something, my thoughts turned to a Superman Lunch for E, So I did and it was so much fun to make it and eat this Superman lunch with my boys! 

I started it with Grilled cheese, nothing fancy, but for a 4 year old this was awesome! I used the stencil that came with the cookbook to make the Superman shield I sprinkled cinnamon over the stencil, and then placed it onto the sandwich! (use any other reddish/brownish ground spice that your kids wouldn't mind the taste of, my kids don't like spicy things.) 

Then I shredded some Carrots, I let him plunge the carrots down with the plunger to my food processor, he liked watching the carrots turn to shreds. I think it's important to let children help in the kitchen because it gives them a sense of where their food came from. I was grasping at straws to get him to eat any vegetables, I was reverting to veggie straws, that didn't really have much veggies in them. So after telling them that they give Super Man X-Ray vision, he was good to eat it, Seriously he at the whole thing! Thank you Downtown BookWorks for changing the world of veggies for my son.

Superman X-Ray vision Carrots, (My style)

2 cups or shredded carrots, (makes about 4 servings)
Ranch dressing (enough to coat all the carrots to your liking.)

Mix the carrots and the ranch dressing together, then add Croutons, or crackers to garnish

I got to say, I love this cook book, if you have a tradition to give a book to your children for Christmas,  give them a cookbook, you can't go wrong, I have been doing this for the past two Christmas's and I have had so much fun cooking in the kitchen with my Kids.