crazy for pasta... Total cost $4

A recent post by skiptomylou.org about National Macaroni Day and the coloring pasta has given me such a frenzy today...I can't get enough pasta. So my kids and I embarked on making colored pasta for necklaces at a later time. They look so beautiful. Here are some pix.

2 bags of Penne Pasta from dollar store

1 box of food coloring from dollar tree

and lastly alcohol (I had but you can get at the dollar store)

The beginnings to a Alice in Wonderland Party

This will be my first party since I was hmmm...12....it is on a Alice in Wonderland theme. I will be posting pictures along the way...

This is a combination birthday party for my husband and I. Our budget ius $200 which includes the food. So naturally thrifting and the 99c store came in first place for us. The mushroom is made with 3 tee ball practice balls wrapped in foil for form and then duct taped to secure the base was a lamp shade. The bottom was a boa that we had and broke. A little paint and voila.. The next treasure was this cute little watering can with great colors from the thrift store for $2. The flowers were from the dollar store and they had the greatest eyes. which I glued to them for the talking flowers..

Total cost for these items $7...Keep in mind I have extra product left over.... We will try to cut cost by shapping mushrooms out of newspaper

Update....I have just finished the madhatter hat and bunny ears thanks to http://www.threadbanger.com/ for the how tos... Remember this is all on a budget so for the hat...supplies

Hat..

Poster board $1

Heavy fabric for top $1

White fabric for base $1

Wire from walmart $3.50+ I have a ton left over Used maybe 1/16 of it.

glue stick for glue gun full package $1

sash fabric $1

Hat button pins - free used leftover buttons

Total= 5.21 still needs some spray paint

The Jacket is from Salvation army which was $5.50 and the pin striped pants were mine...(yes he lost weight and fits my pants)

For the bunny ears I used the leftover fabric and scrap wires I am sure metal hangers would probably work also... For the body I found a great hoodie when turned inside out has white fluffy hood and bodice so I will add the ears to the top of the hood. Found some great whit fluffy slippers for. 1.99 i have to make some white drawstring pants but I will use the fabric remnants from above.

My daughter is going to be Chesire cat and will wear a striped shirt with pink shorts and some striped tights...I am hoping to make a mask for her.

Hat total.......$3.43peach fabric

$1 Ididnt use it all not even half

.33 for 1 posterboard

.10 for ribbon trim $1 bag thrift store find

1.00 ream for the floral fabric

1.00 can of spray paint

The outside is my farm.....

There was a time when children lacked educations and learned everything from home. The amish are quite familiar of these lessons of life for their children. My mother learned on the farm with her family of 9. I find every opportunity for my children to grow and learn no matter where I am: The grocery store, the post office, the drs. office, etc.

Here is a great idea I came up with today. M-F My kids and I wake up to take my daughter to school in the mornings. This has been the routine for years but today.. yes finally today it dawned on me the possiblities of learning. On our less than 5 minute drive we pass a college where many cars are parked on the st. So starting tomorrow my kids will have to pay attention to the cars and count the "color" of the day car.

Counting Cartons...$2

I recently found a 10 pack of dice at the $ store. I thought I would replace my Yahtzee dice that the kids have lost but then had a bright idea. My son came home yesterday and was so excited to share that he learned subtraction. So I gave him 2 dice and had him roll. I then arranged the dice to show a subtraction problem that he could count and answer. He LOVED it.
The following morning I used a foam egg carton and placed the dice where the eggs go. Bella and James gave a light shake and opened the cartons to reveal the dice with their numbers (not hard or dice will combine...good lesson for addition) Using a bag of beans the first thing they had to do was match the number on the dice with the beans on the table. So for 3 on the dice the placement of bean would be the same. My 4yo did this successfully but my 3yo had a little hard time so I drew some dots on cardstock to represent each face of the dice and he had to match the dice with the paper then place the beans on the correct dice. The last part of this lesson was the counting. Once they had the beans arranged they needed to count the beans and place them in the carton with the dice. They played for hours. I used pinto beans which were everywhere because of their size so I would recommend maybe a fava or lima bean for lil hands. Will post more pix later.

Have tried updating since but...you know the cyber lost and found

I have had a few crafts but have had them all go to the cyberland and was to lazy to retrype everything again. Been MIA lately because of some medical issues but will be back posting some more thrifty ideas for learning...

Valentines mailbox

With creative inspiration from BHG.com we had a great rainy day project for the upcoming Valentines Day. Although, they had craft instructions and downloads on their site I couldn't blow it up so I had to improvise and make my own templates

What I used.
1 12x12 cardstock
Corragated colored cardboard
Red paper(I used corragate cardboard) for the mailbox flag and heart decorations
those things that you push in and flatten pins??
stapler

I cut the cardstock to match the size of my pink corragate paper and then folded the ends up with a ruler. we stapled the corragated paper to the card stock which resembled a wagon (hmm can you see where my mind is going on this one...oregon trail next project) Then I traced the ends out of the remaining pink cardstock and glued them inside the mailbox. The kids cut hearts to cover the staples and glued on a flower bead for the mailbox knob.

Dinosaur eggs

We recently went to the Western musuem which exhibits fossils. Of course, I had to have a craft and something fun to tie it in with what they learned. I decided we would try making a paper mache egg. Then the bright thought of maybe stuffing it with a toy dinosaur to actually hatch. It worked with a lot of fumbling. This is time intense so it will take a few days to allow for drying.

What you need:

Mache mixture 1 part flour 5 parts water cooked to paste.

shredded newspaper

balloons

plastic dinosaurs

grey paint

shaving cream

First I had to try to squeeze a dino into a balloon without poking a hole. Then I blew up the ballon and knotted the end. The kids then painted the glue around the balloon and began placing strips of newspaper around the balloon. When they were done we let this dry for about a day.

The next day the seemed relatively dry so they began to paint. I wanted to create a texture for the eggs so I mixed equal shaving cream to paint to get a thick pastey paint and the kids painted over there eggs. DO NOT LET THESE DRY NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I had one resting on a bowl and the other two became a little contorted. So we used the two as our newly hatched eggs. I poked a hole in the ballon and it was pretty neat. You could hear a cracking as the mold began to crack and break open as the balloon let out its air and pulled away from the side. When we waited another day to crack the other egg it wasnt as neat to watch we had to help crack the egg. I think it was because it was drier than the other when the ballon whipped away from the edges. Well I hope you like this or can use this craft.....