Simple Summer Fun - Car Cooking

So simple, but fun for kids - cooking in your car! Since the inside of your car literally gets as hot as an oven, why not use it as one!

Cardboard Collective made banana chips in a car (I may do this one this week!)

Family Chic made S'mores in their car

Baking Bites made chocolate chip cookies in her car

 

Is it hot enough where you are to cook in your car?

DIY River Raft by Mer Mag

Mer Mag is a huge source of inspiration for me. I LOVE this River Raft they just did for Handmade Charlotte. A fun craft for winter OR summer!

Find tutorial HERE and Mer Mag HERE

Makedo makes forts easy

The awesome people over at Makedo sent us a FreePlay Kit for One to play with. I had originally intended on having someone help us make this extravagant fort structure (and I may still try) but I think the fun of this product is that KIDS can use it and I wanted my boys to create something of their own.

I know it's fun to see all the inspiration of the amazing things this product can do.

(all photos from Makedo's Inspiration Gallery be sure to check out the rest!)

I think this is a GREAT product for a gift for kids and wanted to show what the kids could do with it on their own. I helped a little to show them how the product worked and helped them brainstorm a bit on how to get what was in their mind to work. 

We just moved and had several boxes to choose from but they chose some large boxes to construct their walls. The Makedo kit comes with a safe saw and a hole poker (SO easy) to create holes for the "bolts". They attached their walls together with the "bolts and nuts".

The black thing you see there can be a moveable hinge (how cool would a door be?!) or you can lock it so it doesn't move. They put a couple of those on the flaps of their smaller boxes to give them some height.

Once the walls were up they wanted a sheet for the roof to allow some air in (it was 105F) so we added a sheet over the top. Taking a cue from our couch forts they added a broom for height and attached a few points of the sheet to the boxs so it wouldn't fly away. Then they decorated.

A good fort has a guard right?

Their fort even has a table perfect for playing UNO (our favorite card game). The broom is stuck inside the box with a couple of bricks to keep it from sliding around.

At night a fort with lights is usually requested. We scored these plastic outdoor bulbs on clearance at Target.

The score? 4 thumbs up from my boys. The fort was sturdy, easy to put together, and the parts can be used over and over. We have some other ideas up our sleeves for Makedo. But I'm glad our first project was something the boys did on their own!

There are all kinds of sets on Amazon or the Makedo site. We recommend them!

DIY PLAYMAT

My boys made this playmat/placemat for a post over at Modern Parents Messy Kids. They made it with the intention of giving it as a gift but it has yet to leave our house. My 8 year old loved designing his own and wanted to do more scenes after this one!

Go check out the post to see what cool new product we used, more photos, and the how to!

Secret Agent Scavenger Hunt

As soon as I saw this post on Design Dazzle I knew I had to share it here before we shared our Summer Bucket List because we are adding this to it for sure!

The post was a guest post from Frog Prince Paperie - go check out the post for the how to!

Do you have something you think we need to add to our bucket list before we share it? Leave a link in the comments or shoot me an email!

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!

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 ;)

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.