DIY Sprinklers!

It's been around 113F here lately so if we're playing outside you can bet it has something to do with water. We're lucky that we have a dry (except during monsoon season) heat so water on our skin evaporates and cools us off quickly! 

I found some fun DIY Sprinkler ideas because why buy a cheapy plastic one when you can just make your own. Or better yet - have your kids make it!

A big fun sprinkler and slip n slide set up from Diary of a Preppy Mom

A whole backyard sprinkler park from Event Horizons

Waterfall from Crafty Sisters

A super easy sprinkler from Making Memories with Your Kids

A large surface area sprinkler from Home Spun Threads

A kid wash from Familylicious

Stay Cool!

Zap! Zoom! Pow! A fun new app!

While recently reading Somerset Memories I found an article about an app called Halftone. Once the boys caught a glimpse of it they new they wanted to try it out!

From the Halftone site:

Halftone turns your photos into unique, vintage comics that friends and family will love! More than a simple “photo filter” app, Halftone makes it easy to add paper styles, captions, speech balloons, graphic stamps, and fonts (including built-in comic fonts). Your final image can be sent via e-mail, uploaded directly to Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and Flickr, shared with apps like Instagram, Camera+, and Color Splash, printed, and even sent as a real, physical postcard through the mail!

Basically it allows you to turn your photos into a comic! The boys made some of themselves but I made one too

I love a fun phone app find!

Sometimes Parties Don't Go As Planned

I thought I'd write a little post since I talked about my boy's sleepover on Facebook. We had planned to have 4 boys plus my 2 over for a sleepover with all kinds of amazing sleepover activities and of course a midnight snack bar. However, things change.

We had planned on moving beforehand and were supposed to be settled in by then. Things changed and we were in the new house but just barely. There was nothing there. So we brought a few things over so that we could sleep there since that was the address on the invite. Then we realized that no one had RSVP'd except for one boy. I didn't want to plan a million activities for 6 kids when we may have none. So I bought decorations and got snacks last minute. We picked out some things to put together a few goodie bags. 

1 boy did come and my boy decided that to make it more of a special sleepover we'd go to a pizza place with an arcade and then to the movies (yes we did have the other boys' parents permission). So we did. We saw BRAVE which they all liked and then came home for late ice cream cupcakes.

We did end up doing a few activities and I had my camera BUT forgot my memory card so iPhone photos it is.

Our birthday table set up

After the movie we came home and had a glow party. We put glow sticks into white balloons, had glow necklaces and glasses from the dollar section at Target

In the morning - a part of the party my son was most excited - cereal lol! We don't ever buy cereal so he was super excited to buy several different types to choose from along with some cinnamon rolls on his birthday party morning.

Then we went swimming at 8am and made light sabers out of pool noodles.

In the end he loved his little sleepover. His Harry Potter party last year was a bit more involved so having it a little easier this year may have just been what we needed. Just some more proof that we aren't perfect over here either ;)

Fort Friday

Happy Fort Friday everyone! Welcome to all the new readers from our Parenting Magazine mention about forts!

Let's look at some reader fort inspiration! You can always send us your forts by email at info@allfortheboys.com we love sharing them.

Love this little cutie in the fort her and her dad built! Great use of a dollhouse I'd say ;)

Love this lighted fort from Beauty is in the eye of the camera

How great is this treehouse from BHG

Another outdoor space - fom anabananasplit on Flickr

This one makes me smile from Katherine Borchers on Flickr

Have a great weekend! We are ready for it!

Summer Fun Jars

We have our list of Summer Bucket List activities but haven't displayed them all in a fun way yet. Now that we are getting settled in our new place we are all working together to come up with a way that will work best for us. Our schedule this summer is pretty much the same as last. So we have afternoons and evenings free to do all of our Buckett List items (along with the weekends of course!)

I love this visual display from Mer Mag though and wanted to share it!

I really love the visual reference even for kids who can read. I think it helps in the decision making process and the excitement to do the activity. These images were printed straight from Pinterest!

She gives downloads for the jars and more gorgeous photos on her blog.

Heavy Water

I saw this drink on Pinterest

Source: thesisterscafe.com via Robin on Pinterest

 But didn't want to go out and buy a bunch of sugary drinks so we made our own little experiment with salt.

2 cups of water, salt, food coloring, and a piece of paper were our tools.

Fill one cup with some salt (to make the water "heavier")

and the other with a few drops of food coloring.

A paper on top will keep the water from spilling all over the place. I had to help at this point since no one else was home!

Slide the paper out. We haven't perfected this move yet so we did it over the sink and did lose a bit of the water, but you get the point

He thought it was pretty cool and wanted to talk about why they weren't mixing together. I suggest trying this one over the sink or a big  bowl until you master the slipping out the paper - maybe cardboard would work better?

Book Report

It's not often that we find a new book series that they boys are REALLY into. They are more of the World Records, Gross Facts, or Animal Non-fiction type of readers (with some Star Wars thrown in). Yes they like the "usual" Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Rick Riordan series but I was so excited to find something new that I thought we'd share it with you!

The Carole Marsh Mysteries - Real Kids, Real Places

We first bought these two for our travels The Mystery in Hawaii and Disney World

 

Here's what my 9 year old has to say about the books:

I like Carole Marsh Mysteries because they are fun to read. They have mystery and real information about the place where the story is. It's also cool because you can apply to be a character in an upcoming book. The characters in the books are based on real kids. I've read the mystery of Hawaii and Disney World but I want to read more of the series. I especially want to read The Mystery in Hollywood, The Mystery in New York, and The Mystery at Area 51. I think the books are good for boys and girls!

He really has been talking about them quite a bit! He's got his brother interested now too. The suggested age is 8 and up and that's probably right on. He is an advanced reader so these are pretty easy for him but who doesn't like a quick entertaining read?!

Independence Day Crafts or Activities

I wanted to post this before the weekend but we finally moved (in 113F weather) and had an evening pool party celebrating my little man with our close friends and family. So I'll share some today and hope that you can get around to doing some before or on the 4th!

Oh and Happy late Canada Day to our friends North of us. Hope you all had a fun weekend!

Paper sparklers for the younger ones from Say Yes to Hoboken

Noisemakers from Supermom Moments

Firework art from BHG - straws, glue, and sand? Count us in!

DIY Confetti Paper Rockets from AlphaMom

Fourth of July Printable Paper Badges from Ambrosia Creative

Red, White, and Blue crayons from Love Them Madly (I think we may actually do this but stick them in the car instead of the oven)

Printable Pinwheels from Skip to My Lou

Sandwich Pops from Living Locurto (a request from my youngest)

Qtip Fireworks from Busy Bee Kids Crafts

For this and some other awesome ideas see our roundup from last year!