Cowboy Week!

Howdy Partners! Welcome to cowboy/camping week! This week we'll focus on cowboy/camping/farming type activities and inspiration.

Every cowboy needs a horse so if you aren't lucky enough to have a real one - make your own!

A cute sock version by light blue grey

A recycled 2L bottle stick horse from Tia Ale

and a paper bag version from Almost Unschoolers

Dinosaur Week Part 4: Activities

I've got some fun dino related activities for you to add to your "to do" list today!

A cute dinosaur bean bag game from toddler approved

Dinosaur skull matching from Living Montessori Now

DIY volcano from Flutter Flutter

Create a large dino land like this one seen on Domestic Candy

or make some dino tales from Running with Scissors

Dinosaur Week Part 3: Plastic Dinos

Man a lot of people must like dinosaurs because there are a TON of great ideas out there! Today I'm linking you to some awesome projects with plastic dinos that you can find easily (even at the dollar store!)

The Design Editor has a downloadable dino book made with plastic dinos

Dinosaur toothbrush holder from Parents

A dinosaur corn cob holder from Instructables

Dino photo stands from Photojojo

Dinosaur terrariums are fun to build, move around and display!

from Yellow Brick Home

from The Haps

from Craft Foxes

from The Gold Jellybean

Dinosaur Week Part 2: DIY Dino Eggs

These DIY dinosaur eggs are a great way to keep dinosaur lovers busy. Once you've surprised them you can have them make their own!

Projects for Preschoolers has all the intructions and info. You'll need dirt, flour, salt, sand, and of course, dinosaurs.

I'd love to see if you try this yourself! Make it more interesting by giving them tools to open and clean the dinosaurs.

The Gingerbread Mom made some out of balloons and paper mache to fill with treats for a party - that could be a fun way to start off dinosaur week with some dinosaur activities inside!

Welcome to Dinosaur Week!

Happy Monday everyone! I'm back home after being gone since Wednesday afternoon. Missed my guys for sure! We are kicking off Dinosaur Week with some great ideas from my friend Allison Aars. Her blog You Have Your Blog We Have Aars is a GREAT source of inspiration for activities!

She does themed months for her little guy and they featured a month of dinosaur activities so I thought I'd share my favorites.

DIY dinosar feet

Footprint Fossils

Dinosaur footprints

If you have dinosaur projects you'd like to contribute this week - send them over!

Travel Tuesday: Rainy Day Disney Magic

It's no secret that we are Disney fans around here. Disneyland and hopefully Disney World soon is definitely on the top of our favorite travel destinations. Something about the magic of being there just sticks with us. One of the things my boys have always loved to play is Disneyland. They pretend that they are there in different ways. They've done Pirates of the Carribean in the pool, Astro blasters around the house etc.

The one that gets "played" over and over is The Jungle Cruise. It's my oldest's favorite attraction and always has been. I used to have to pull him around the backyard in the wagon over and over pretending we were on the ride. Did you know they are working on a Jungle Cruise movie (with Tom Hanks AND Tim Allen)? We are SO excited!

One of the ways you could bring the Disney magic home if you're stuck inside on a rainy day is by making your own attraction playset. We made up a Jungle Cruise playset to show you how.

 The boys drew animals and cut them out. Taped an opened up paper clip to the back to set them up, made a boat out of craft sticks and duct tape and the rest was up to them.

We made a video because this must be seen to be truly appreciated ha!

What is your kids' favorite attraction?

Dis­clo­sure: This post is part of a spon­sored cam­paign for Dis­ney on MomTV. I received a pro­mo­tional item as a thank you for participating.

Climbing Love Bug

The one thing I look for in a craft with my boys is interaction. If the craft is fairly mellow to put together (usually means no mess or loud noises) and just hangs on the wall they probably aren't too interested. However if they can play with it afterwards that increases the interest a bit. Today we're sharing a Climbing Love Bug - (a spider in this case) that can climb up it's string. Note: I am using the word "bug" here loosely I realize that spiders are arachnids not insects which most people refer to as bugs. Just wanted to get that out of the way. ;)

You'll need construction paper, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, a straw, string, scissors, and tape.

Our friends at CraftProjectIdeas were so awesome to send us some craft supplies in case we wanted to use them on a project in the future so we had the pipe cleaners and googly eye on hand from them but you can find the same ones at Walmart (they have a huge selection)

Cut out two circles for the body (or one or 5 - the fun part is making this your own)

Tape or glue the pieces together. I'm using washi tape so that you can see how we put it together but scotch tape will hold better for you.

Next you'll form some legs from the pipe cleaners

Turn him over and admire your work

Give him some eyes - I tried to give him more but my boy was having none of that.

Next we gave our spider a heart

You could add some antenna or decorate him/her however you like but at this point your bug is finished - now to make him mobile.

Cut 2 - 1" pieces of straw and place them about 1" apart on the back of your bug. If you have younger ones playing with this you may want to make sure these are on well so you don't have to keep fixing them while they are playing - a couple extra pieces of tape or hot glue maybe?

String a piece of string through the top of each straw so there is a loop at the top of your spider.

Tie off your string or add a button, paperclip etc to the bottom so they don't pull through the straw. I happened to have some wood veneer hearts on hand to use.

Hang the top of the string on a doornob or other secure spot

Have your child gently pull the strings apart and watch your bug/spider climb up the string!

Have fun!

Thanks to CraftProjectIdeas for sending us some supplies! We were not required to use them for anything in particular but we very much appreciate them for inspiring us to create!

DIY Mouse Thieves

I am SO excited to see that one of my favorite creators Scott Bedford at What I Made is back with another awesome creation! Mischevious Mouse Thieves

You can find the instructions and printable template over at What I Made - let him know I sent you and that I'm his biggest fan ;)

How fun would it be to have these out for gift giving? You could surprise your kids or have them make some to set up at other family members' houses when no one is looking. Would be fun for birthdays or everyday too!

These are definitely putting a smile on my face this morning - now to make some...