Summer Fun in the Pool

We LOVE to swim... especially on these ridiculously hot days we've been having.  And we've been blessed with generous neighbors who have a pool! But since I'm home alone with my 2 1/2 year old L and baby E, we weren't taking advantage of it too much, until we found the best floaty ever!!!  L can float all around the pool by herself!  She can lean forward to practice swimming or float more on her back (or straight for that matter!)

And best of all, mommy has 2 arms to hold baby E who is currently doing some aquatic therapy for his ACC (agenesis of the corpus collosum-more on that in another post). His therapist is excited to see how this helps him and so are we!  It's very simple movement things, and makes you wonder sometimes how its going to help him at all, but he loves the water (when its not too cold!) and it's so relaxing to do the exercises with him! He's even taken a nap or two in the water and definitely sleeps great once he gets out!

Yummy and EASY Pizza Crust Recipe

I have tried so many pizza recipes.... but this one is definitely my favorite and the easiest to work with!  It definitely made nicer dough than the store bought packets I've tried (or any of the home made recipes for that matter!) So give it a try (even if you're a bought pizza or pizza dough mix kind of cook!)

It's from Oopsey Daisy, a great blog with lots of fun crafty ideas (and good recipes too!)

Click here for Oopsey Daisy's Best Ever Pizza Crust recipe (the one that even her hubby approves of!)!

Fantabulous Grilled Cheesy Potatoes

I Love love love this grilled potatoes recipe so I thought I'd share! It's sooooooo yummy. If you are on a diet though, you might want to look the other way...

Grilled Cheesy Potatoes (from tasteofhome.com)
3 cups cubed red potatoes
5 tbsp water, divided
3/4 to 1 cup shredded cheddar or other cheese
1 large onion, finely chopped, or 2 heaped tbsp dried minced onion
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter

Place potatoes and 3 tbsp water in a bowl; cover and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes or til almost tender; drain.
In a large bowl, combine cheese and onion. Stir in the potatoes. Transfer to a double thickness of greased heavy-duty foil (about 18 inches square).
combine the Worcestershire, salt, garlic powder, pepper, and remaining 2 tbsp water. Sprinkle over potatoes. Dot with butter.
Fold foil around the potato mixture and seal tightly. Grill, uncovered, over medium heat for 8-10 minutes or til potatoes are tender and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Changing pad

I’ve never been a fan of carrying a changing pad. As if I need one more thing in my bag! But I thought I’d try one out and see if I could incorporate it somehow into my diaper clutch (you can check those out on my facebook page!). For this one, I just used things I had around the house, some flannel fabric and a hand towel. I cut my flannel the same size as the hand towel, sewed around, clipped the corners and turned and topstitched. Here it is:

It's folded in half to show both sides.

When I fold it in half longways, and then fold it in about 4 inch increments it’s the perfect size to fit with the diaper clutch.

I sewed up an extender tab quickly and put on some snaps so I could fill my clutch with diapers and still get the strap around the changing pad. It does make the clutch a little bulky, but still gives the convenience to “grab and go” to change your little one’s bum. I’m considering adding these to the Monkeyshiners line-up, though I’d like it to be a bit trimmer and flatter; perhaps new terry and pretty quilter’s cotton instead of flannel. But this will work for now; we’ll see if I get into carrying it with me! If you like this idea, leave a comment here, or write a note on my facebook wall! A little interest gives me a lot of motivation!

Make your own Playdough!

My first official blog kids activity is here! When my daughter asked to play with her playdough this morning, we realized that it was a bit old and yicky. So, project for today (during the hottest week of the year): stand over a hot stove and make playdough! See how much I love her?!

Below is the recipe I love; I think its from some Weis store flyer, though I can’t be sure- that little scrap of paper is LOOOONG gone. As I said, you do have to cook this recipe, but I really think it makes great playdough. It lasts for a long time, is nice and soft, and in my opinion is just as good, if not better than, the stuff you buy. And, bonus!!!, its much cheaper since all you need is flour, oil, cream of tarter, salt, food coloring and water.

I love making playdough with kids as they can learn so much in the process! They learn math as you measure and count ingredients, and science as you stir them together and see what happens as it heats up! I try to let L do as much as possible, though you have to be careful with the hot stove. Also, she thinks that flour is a snack, so sticks her fingers in it all the time. Try to be willing to let your kids make a mess- the fun is in the exploration! But do encourage them to clean up when they are done- of course a 7 year old will be able to do a better job at that than a 2 year old, so keep that in mind.






My absolute favorite part: adding the colors! Kids can see how mixing two colors together make new colors. If you buy the brand name food coloring, they have a handy chart on the back to make a number of fun colors- not that you need a refresher or anything… LOL. Or just experiment and let your kids figure it out as they go!






Here’s the recipe I love:


1 cup flour


1 cup water


¼ cup salt


2 tbsp cream of tarter*


1 tbsp vegetable oil


food coloring


Mix all ingredients** in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat*** stirring constantly until a ball forms. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead.






This makes a little more than what will fill 3 regular playdough containers.


Some points to note:


*You can find cream of tarter with the spices in the baking aisle of any grocery store. It’s usually in a teeny tiny container, so I prefer to go to one of the many country stores around here that sell bulk items, and they usually have a much larger container for a better price!






**If you want your playdough to be all the same color, add your food coloring with all the other ingredients. We wanted several colors, so we cooked the playdough, and then split it into small baggies. Add the food coloring and knead in the bag. You do have to be careful not to split the bag by letting out the air and kneading gently! I found that if you knead it briefly you can usually take it out of the bag and finish incorporating the coloring evenly by hand without staining your fingers. If you don’t care about having stained fingers, just separate, drip on some coloring and have at it!

***I usually end up using medium high heat- I get bored waiting around for it to do anything at medium. I haven’t burned any playdough yet… just keep stirring and keep an eye on it!






So there you go! Give your child the playdough, a table knife, cup, cookie cutters, even a fork, straining spoon etc; you don’t need those fancy playdough toys- things you have around your kitchen will work just fine! And have some fun! For young children, just learning to squeeze it into a ball, roll it with a rolling pin, make snakes etc is a great learning experience! I like to roll snakes and turn them into letters to sneak some abc’s in there! Or if you’re lucky enough to have some abc cookie cutters, those are fun too! Enjoy!

Saving money with cloth wipes

I finally finished up a batch of cloth wipes last night! They are so simple to do, but these have been a work in progress!

I confess, I've gotten a little lazy about using them- my water bottles are always empty, etc...

My plan today is to whip up a cup of wipes solution to try out:

1 cup water, 1 tbsp baby wash and 1 tbsp baby oil.

I found this one here though I'm modifying the process. There are tons of other recipes online for it, with essential oils added for smell and to make it last longer, but I have all these ingredients here and am wanting to try something new!  So when I'm done wasting time online, I am going to mosey over and make one up and USE THEM today! :) 

Just a note:  Even if you don't cloth diaper, you can still save money with cloth wipes but using them for sticky fingers and other cleanups!  Even when you are out of the house- with wipes, all you'd need is a small ziplock bag to tuck them in when you've used them; then just throw them in with your whites or dishtowels at home.

They fit perfectly into any wipes container. These are 8x8-ish wipes folded in half. To use when out and about, I fill a little travel size (hairspray type) sprayer with water and stash it in my bag too.  And a wetbag (or small ziplock or grocery bag if all you are using is cloth wipes).

If you'd like to sew your own, look below.  There are so simple- if you can cut and sew straight lines you can do it!

If not, I would be happy to sew you up a set! Check out the cloth wipes Note on my facebook page.

To sew your own:

1. Cut your fabric: you can buy new flannel or terry (or anything 100% cotton), but I like to use up lightly used recieving blankets, tee-shirts, or towels.  I have a set that's one side flannel, and the other tee-shirt material.  I hear towels make great ones that clean really well, but haven't tried them yet personally.

I cut mine 8 inches by 8 inches (or 4 inches by 8 inches if you like the smaller size). Cut twice as many squares as you would like to have wipes (If you want 10 wipes, you need 20 squares).

2. Pin 2 squares (or rectangles) right sides together and sew around the outsides, leaving about 4 inches unsewn to turn them. Alternately, you can skip the pinning and keep them straight as you are sewing, if you prefer- for best results, I'd pin, but sometimes I get lazy...

3. Clip your corners off, without cutting into your sewing to reduce bulk at the corners.

4. Turn the right side out, pulling the fabric through the 4 inch hole you left. Use a chopstick or some similar item to push your corners out as square as you can. 

5. Pin the hole shut, following the rest of your seam. Topstitch around the edge of the wipe, sealing that hole closed and finishing off your wipe; i try to stay about 1/8 of an inch from the edge.

And that's it!  Sorry I don't have any pictures of the process; maybe i'll add them when I make up more! If you have any questions or I missed something, let me know! There are also good tutorials online.

This one has several different ways to sew them that might be easier, but alas, no pictures either. Very simple directions though.

Entryway Organization!

After finding little items floating all over the place in our entryway and getting stuck in different places, i decided to make an organizer!

I measured the size I wanted and planned out my pockets (though I did some switching when i sewed since they seemed a bit small on the one row!).   I made my own bias tape to top off the vinyl and go around the outside.  I sewed the bias tape to the top of my pockets first, then sewed them onto the main body fabric.  Then I sewed the strip along the bottom of the pockets to hide the raw edges, and finally sewed it around the outside and added the ties.

I'm pretty happy so far, though we'll see how it holds up when L realizes it's there... It's not my favorite fabric either- just some I had around the house, but I didn't have to buy anything! Free is always good... Now we'll see if I get around to doing another soon for the living room- I need to get those remote controls, and Playstation stuff rounded up!

As a side-note, you could very easily do this with a shoe organizer or similar item if you don't sew!  I'm just too cheap frugal to buy one!  And I like that this fits the items I want and I can see through the pockets!

oh, and btw, I'm so  excited for the chance to win a Silhouette digital cutting tool!  you can too- check it out at Little Birdie Secrets here!