Paper Fireworks

Quick patriotic craft for kids. 

4th of July "Fireworks".

Materials needed:

Construction Paper (1red, 1white, 1blue)

Scissors

Glue

Optional: glitter paint, stickers, markers

Directions:

Cut the 8x10 papers in half. 

Make one tube out of 1/2 of each of the colored paper. 

Cut remaining red white and blue paper into strips and glue inside top of each tube.

You may need to use you fingers to gently curl each strip into a slight outward direction.

Add decorations with stickers, marker's, stickers, or glitter to create a patriotic fire cracker for yourself!

What's your favorite patriotic craft? 

Black Bean and Rice Burritos

Made a delicious, healthy, vegetarian, dinner tonight. (And my husband ate it and loved it!)

Black Bean and Rice Burrito

Ingredients:

1cup uncooked Rice

1can (low sodium) black beans

A few Green onions

2 Roma tomatoes

1Tbsp Lime juice

1tsp Cumin

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tap pepper 

1 1/2 tap chili powder

A few cilantro leaves

Lg tortillas (gluten free or regular)

Shredded cheese

Cook rice according to directions.

Meanwhile, dice tomato & green onions.

Open and rinse black beans well.

When rice is done stir beans, onion, and tomato. 

Add the seasoning. Add more seasoning and adjust to suite your taste. 

Place rice mixture into tortilla and sprinkle with cheese, roll up, and take a big bite!

Note about options: 

1)this can be a gluten free meal by simply opting to use gluten free wraps. 

2)fresh cilantro is the best option, I grow cilantro, wash, dry, chop of the leaves, and freeze in small bags it so I have it on hand when I need it. 

frozen cilantro leaves

Fluffy flip flops

I made a surprise for my little girl. 

We saw this item at a craft fair on the 4th and she wanted them, but I wasn't willing to pay $5 for a pair of cheap flip flops. So I made them myself. 

Materials needed:

Flip flops

Yarn or ribbon

Scissors 

Directions: 

Cut yarn into 3inch pieces

Tie them around the plastic edge of the flip flop and trim to desired length. 

Do you have quick and easy projects?

Bargain!!!!

I love shopping, but even better is when I get an incredible bargain while shopping.

I found some adorable picture frames, totally my style, in the clearance area at Michael's!

Originally $49.99 marked down to $10.  On top of that an additional 25% off and got to the 15% coupon on my total purchase as well. 

Total paid after-tax was $13.64 For two frames that originally would've cost me over $105!!!! 

Do the bargain dance!!

Do you have a great shopping bargain deal you want to share?

Flubber Fun!

Todays fun child craft/activity was making Flubber. It goes by other names too, some call it Gak. You can find recipes for it all over the internet. It's a simple process, takes minimal time, and creates minimal mess. 

Ingredients:

Water

Elmers Glue

Borax 

Food coloring 

Step 1. Take 3/4 cup room temp water and mix with 1 cup of glue. Add food coloring here if you want color.

(I'm glad I had extra glue on hand because I thought one was enough and I found out that each bottle only has about 1 cup. So figure on using about 2 average size school bottles.)

Step 2. In a separate container mix 1/3 cup hot water and 1 tsp Borax. 
(There are all sorts of questions about safety of borax. Please have an adult handle the Borax powder and do the initial mixing of Borax and hot water. Once the ingredients are combined there is no inherent danger for children.)

Step 3. Combine glue mixture and borax mixture into a bowl and start stirring. It will glob up very quickly. This is fun for kids to see or experience first hand while stirring.
(make sure you use a disposable or non-food bowl. This can make the bowl rather sticky and a challenge to clean.)  When there is little or no water sitting on bottom of the bowl you are done.

Step 4. Remove and start playing. 
 At this point you can pull out the flubber and start playing!

Mush, squish, pull, press, tear, strech.......

Although this leaves little or no residue on the table I put a sheet of wax paper to make sure that it didn't  pick up any dirt from the picnic table. And after playing with anything it is always good to have kids wash their hands. 

Do you have a favorite summer experiment/activity for your kids in the summer time?