'Bee' a Great BabYsitteR {Activity Days}

 I've been a slacker in getting my Activity Day activities posted as of late...my apologies.  So while I was putting this one together I thought I would make a better effort of getting a few pictures and getting it posted.

All of my girls will be turning 12 this year...I'm slowly loosing them all to YW :(  I thought it would be a fun idea to make babysitting kits, since 12 seems to be the standard age when you start to get those babysitting calls.  So you can imagine how excited I was when I came across THIS little kit at Wendy's Activities.  So cute and full of great ideas...and, did I mention it was already done and put together!  All I had do was print.  Love it when other people do the work for me!

I printed up these pages...

Added them to these folders.

Purchased these bags (Old Navy...$1.00).

Found a few supplies for some of the games (a lot of them from around the house).

Then for the activity we went over a few of the pages in the kit and then put together our games.
I now have 8 {almost} 12 year old girls who are excited to get out there and get babysitting.
Such a fun and effective way to introduce the whole babysitting experience.

ThankFuL TReEs: ActiVity DaYs

This week for Activity Days we talked about living in ThANksGiViNG daily and how we should be thankful each day for the blessings that we have...not just at Thanksgiving time.  I found some cute journals at Michaels for a buck and gave them to the girls to use as Gratitude Journals.  I told them that they need to try to write in their journals each day for the rest of the month (if not longer). 

I glued a printout of this scripture inside to remind them of blessings of living in ThaNksGiVinG daily...

(thanks again to A Bushel and a Peck for this idea!)

As a craft we made ThaNKfuL trEes to take home and share with their families.

 

I made a few thankful for tags for the girls to take and have each family member add to their trees.

I used mini clothespins to clip them to the branches.

 

Their challenge was to go home and share the message of living in ThaNkSgiVinG daily with their families for FHE (one of the ideas for Faith in God requirements) and have everyone add their thankful for tags to the tree.

And to finish them off we added a few leaves.

I printed a bunch of leaves on one page and used my 2 inch punch to punch them out, added a loop of raffia to hang them and then backed them with another circle of card stock.

A fun way to teach the importance of living in ThAnKsgIviNG daily.

The trees can be used year after year.  We have a tradition of taking ours out every November and adding to the branches.  So fun to go back and look at what everyone was thankful for in years previous.

PoiSoned ApPLes: Activity Days

So here's another not so quick but easy idea for Activity days.

I wanted to do something festive and a little creepy for Halloween for my girls this month.  I found these way cute (and a little bit creepy) beaded spiders.  At first I wasn't sure if they were going to be too complicated, but the girls had fun making them even though they were a little time consuming.  I enjoyed the craft time very much, it was a nice {QuiEt} activity.  They had to concentrate a little to get those little beads on there! 

And to add a treat to the tricks (there must ALWAYS be a treat) we did caramel apples.  Cause really, who isn't down with a little caramel apple this time of year. 

Have you used the Kraft Caramel Bits yet?  I recommend.  They melt quick and you don't have to mess with those stinkin' wrappers!

We carameled and sprinkled our apples...

Made our spooky spiders...

Ended up with a tricky treat...PoiSoned ApPLes.

Oh, hi there...

It's been a while.  And while there are several reasons as to why I have not been here wasting my (and everyone elses) time, I'm gonna wrap it up in one nice little package and blame it on

SUMMER. 

We've been having a bit of it here...and enjoying it, too. 

So here I am, checking in. Saying hi.  And letting you know it may be hit and miss here for the next few...but I'm sure you can handle it.  I hope you're having some of your own summer.

In the mean time here's a great Father's day gift idea...hee, hee...a little late, I know...but whatever.  Father's day comes every year, right?

We (Activity Day GirLs) made this little snack to give to our dads for father's day...another quick and easy one.

A little root beer, a little microwave popcorn, some curly ribbon and another cheesy saying...here's what you get...

"RoOt rOot for DaD!"

"You're the beSt PoP around!"

The Tags: print, cut, apply...

Moms and Muffins

We held our "Moms & Muffins" breakfast this past weekend for the Activity Day girls.

It was lots of fun and I think everyone had a good time (I never really know...preteens are hard to read...almost as bad as their teenaged friends).  We did have a good turn out, everyone came in fancy hats as was requested.  The party was meant to have a tea party theme.  So we had breakfast with our moms (muffins, obviously), gave awards for their decked out tea party hats, and then took pictures of the girls with their moms.

And now I can say...one more down.

Anyway thought I would share a few pics of the decorations.

First, here's the invite I made up in Photoshop.

I know! 8:00 in the A.M.! 

That's so early for me to up and functioning correctly.  But schedules had to be worked around.  Busy girls.

Here's a bit of an overview of the tables.

And a little bit closer in on the details.

I used a lot of decorations from around the house (cheap) but did have to fluff it up a bit further.  I made pink pOm PoMs (already had the blue and green) and strung a few paper doilies, then made a few of the rosette balls (above)...and there you have it, ready for a party.

More for Mom

As promised here is a bit more for Mom. 

Along with the flowers we made for our mom's, my Activity Day girls are going to 'make' a jar of bath salts.   Homemade bathsalts was my intention in the begining. I wanted to make them from scratch using Martha's recipe...

You need only four ingredients to make these moisturizing exfoliants. The base can be made from either Epsom salts or sugar, depending on whether you want a large or fine grain. Color the scrubs with shades that are in keeping with some of the scents you use -- pink with grapefruit, for example, or green with eucalyptus. Makes about 2 1/3 cups.

Tools and Materials:

2 cups Epsom salts or organic cane sugar

1 cup carrier oil

8 drops essential oil(s)

1 drop food coloring

Special equipment: plastic pipette, canning jars

Great idea, huh?  Yes, but then I went to look for all the supplies and ended up not finding everything I needed and realized that it was probably cheaper to buy it done for us already in a big bag like this...
Edited to add:  I found these at Walmart

All we need to do is add some food coloring to add a touch of color,

Top with our flowers and we're done.

Don't know if I can qualify that as a whole activity...but I figure it will leave us time to write a nice letter to our mom's that we can attach to our almost homemade bath salts :) 

It's the thought that counts, right?

I don't do tea parties.

So I was put in charge of decorating for a little "Mom's and Muffins" get together we're having for ALL of the Acitivity Day girls and their moms here in the next couple of weeks.  That means 30 plus girls (ages 8-11) and their moms will be in attendence...yikes.  The 'theme' or 'style' for the party is going to be 'Garden Tea Party'...and I'm not real sure I know what that is.  You see, I grew up with one little brother and now have little boys of my own and none of the previously mentioned have ever requested to have a garden tea party with me...ever.

So needless to say, this stresses me out just a bit (okay, not really, but I hope I'm going in the right direction here).  I've been practicing staging my tables (yes, I'm just THAT stupid and crazy) and here's what I've come up with so far...please feel free to express any thoughts, opinions, insight, judgements, HELP!! where necessary.

See those little silver trays (above)?  I got those at the dollar store.  SeriousLy!  And all of the 'tea cups' (really probably just mugs) at the DI.  I think I got all 15 or so for 4 dollars and 50 cents.  Really $4.50!  Not bad seeing as that's probably right back where they're going.

I made these rosette flower ball thingys out of crepe paper, styrofoam balls and a little hot glue.  Found this idea here...although, I may have altered mine a bit just to get them done quicker.  They took a lot longer than expected.

The rest of the stuff I found around my house (and my mom's).  These place mats are my mom's and where handsitched by my grandma.  I cannot believe her french knots!  Perfect.  Every single one of them.  They're simple and facy at the same time...and they say tea party to me.

The lace table cloth was my great grandma's, one that she used on her dinning table regularly.  It makes me want to dress up my table every night for dinner...although, I'm sure my meals would just disgrace a fancy table setting.  Really, there's no need to dress up anything when I'm cookin'.

So, what do you think?  Tea party-ish? 

Whether it is or not, it's been fun digging through this stuff that once graced the tables of my grandmothers.
I'm sure they would know how to through a {tea} party!

P.S.  Anybody know where I can find a fancy hat?  Ya know, the big brimmed kind.  Something else I don't do...the fancy hat.