Oil Pastel Tooth Fairies

Our house is keeping the Tooth Fairy busy these days! Annika is missing 3 of her top teeth and a couple on the bottom. Bree and Kaleb both have wiggly teeth. There is nothing cuter than a toothless grin for school pictures! Since the tooth fairy has been frequenting our house, we decided to create oil pastel fairies.

I am not very sentimental, and I have brought very few of my childhood things into our home. However, this sweet little Tooth Fairy was a must. It was hand made my by Aunt, and I loved using it. It has a special tiny lace pocket that holds your tooth or the Tooth Fairies gift. I’m sure when my Aunt was making these special Tooth Fairies, she never thought that my kids would be using them too. Love it!

We seem to be having lots of funny discussions about the Tooth Fairy recently. I decided to have the kids draw what they thought the Tooth Fairy looked like. I was immediately asked “Should we just draw Dad wearing a tutu?” Ha, I love my kids! They know that the Tooth Fairy is not real, but they love the tradition…OK maybe the money that she brings! After a bit of discussion, we decided that they would draw their ideal Tooth Fairy. We used textured black card stock and oil pastels to create these unique Tooth Fairies.

Bree’s oil pastel Tooth Fairy: My Tooth Fairy is beautiful. She wears a tooth necklace around her neck to collect the children’s teeth in. My Fairy has large wings like a butterfly to help her fly to everyone’s house. Her favorite color purple and carries a special wand that has a crown on top.

Kaleb’s oil pastel Tooth Fairy: My fairy no longer needs wings to get around. He flies through the air with the latest style of rocket boots,. He prides himself on being faster than any Fairy around. He wears a silver Olympic medal around his neck and carries a toothbrush wand.

Annika’s oil pastel Tooth Fairy: My Tooth Fairy loves to be colorful. She wears a green striped dress, blue sparkly high-heel shoes and a purple bow in her hair. Her wings are just as colorful as she is. She carries a sparkly tooth wand and is always smiling.

I love kids imaginations. These turned out so cute. If you know my kids, these fairies totally represent them. Bree loves butterflies, organization and wants to always be matching. Kaleb likes inventing things, he enjoys sports and loves competition. Annika loves everything colorful, she almost never matches (unless I make her go change) and high-heels and accessories are very important to her. I hope you enjoyed a little peek into my kids and their unique personalities.

Running on Oobleck

Oobleck is a suspension of cornstarch and water that can behave like both a solid and a liquid depending on how much pressure you apply. Try to grab some in your hand and it will form a solid ball in your palm just until you release the pressure, then it will flow out between your fingers.

Basic recipe for Dancing Oobleck

1.5 cups of Cornstarch
1 cup of Water

Pour the cornstarch into a large mixing bowl and slowly add the water. Your mixture should feel kind of like honey and tear a bit when you run your hands across the top.

My kids love playing with Oobleck. Since it can act as both a solid and a liquid, you can also make it dance using sound.

For full instructions on how we uses a sub woofer to make Oobleck dance go here. I love how it looks when you add color!

While we were at the State Fair this summer, the 4-H building had an interactive booth that they had a number of great kid experiments. One of which was a large pool of Oobleck that they encouraged the kids to run across. Who could turn down such a fun opportunity, not my kids! They were off with their shoes and socks so quick; excited to try it out.

Since the liquid becomes more viscous when pressure is applied you can actually walk or run on the surface without sinking. I would have loved to see the kids do cartwheels across it, but since this was at the beginning of our fair day, we stuck to just running.

However, once you stop moving you will begin slowly sinking into the liquid. The kids loved feeling it squish between their toes.

Thanks 4-Her’s for setting up this fun experiment! We have been wanting to try this out for a while. If you are looking to do this at home, you will need large quantities of cornstarch and a cheap kiddie wading pool. It would make a great backyard play date activity! Although I am not sure how you would dispose of an entire wading pool of Oobleck.

Here is a link to a fun list of great experiments that my kids love.

Backyard Movie Night – The Lorax

Going to the theater is fun, but there are so many advantages to showing the movie right in your back yard.

Make a cute sign to show guests what movie you will be showing. This frame started out as an old crib that I found in the alley. I had my hubby cut off the legs and remove all the old hardware. I plan on eventually painting it with chalkboard paint. You can save time by using coloring page images as your sign graphic. The bonus of using coloring pages is they usually free and fit most themes.

When choosing a movie, there are a few things to think about. Make sure that you consider your audience. We have young kids, so the movies that we show all need to be family friendly. We try to show movies that we have already previewed, or older classic movies. Also think about how long the movie is and what time you will be starting the show.

It is fun to have a few props to set the mood for the movie. Each of our guests were given one these adorable Lorax mustaches that a sweet friend made. The kids loved them and they had fun wearing their Lorax mustaches during the movie.

Every movie needs snacks, especially popcorn. We made simple popcorn bags by cutting the top off regular brown lunch bags. We had a few spilled drinks. Which was no big deal, but next time I will have a few low tables for the kids and maybe lidded drinks. It is also helpful to have little lights over the snack table to help the guests find the food table without tripping.

If you don’t own a proper movie screen, don’t worry. Our movie screen is simple, cheap and works great. All we use is a large painters drop cloth found at the local home improvement store. We use one the is off white and it works great. I have also read that a cheap white plastic shower curtain works too.

We stopped the movies about half way through for a quick intermission. This allowed the kiddos to go the restroom and refill their snack bags without missing any of the movie. We kept it brief so the movie would not drag on to long.

The kids loved making Lorax mustache shadows during the credits.

It was a memorable night and the kids look forward to doing it again soon. My kids came up with a cute list of why back yard movies are better than going to the theater:

No tickets are needed.
Enjoy being outside in the fresh air.
Invite lots of friends.
Not as crowded.
Snuggle with your pillows and blankets.
You can wear PJ’s if you want.
The snacks are yummy (bonus of not paying movie theater prices).
You don’t miss any of the movie if you want more snacks.
You don’t have to leave home.

More cute ideas from around the web to make your Lorax party a hit – just click the caption under the photo for full instructions.

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Cute Lorax beverage dispenser by Tonya Staab

A Dice Lorax Game by Smashed Peas and Carrots

Lorax Truffula Tree Craft by Babble

DIY Truffula Trees by Mrs. Lodge’s Library

Lorax drinks and amazing party by Hostess with the Mostess

Exploding Art

A little Science, a little art & a whole lot of fun! ~ Paint Alka Seltzer Rockets

My kids love Science Experiments! The kids recently went to a VBS where they brought home fun rockets. The rockets were basically a film canister and a single Fizzy tablet…similar to the Alka Seltzer Rockets. The main difference is that the Fizzy’s are colored. This got me thinking that maybe we could use paint instead of water and create our own colorful exploding art.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

To make your own Paint Alka Seltzer Rockets your will need:

Film Canisters – One that has a tight fitting lid. The clear ones were really cool to watch since you could see the paint as it built up pressure before the canister exploded.
Slightly watered down Tempera Paint.
Alka Seltzer Tablets
Large sheet of paper

Make sure you are doing this activity outside. It is messy, but totally worth it.

Pour about a tablespoon of watered down tempera paint into your film canister.
Break the Alka Seltzer tablets into half.
Quickly drop 1/2 a tablet into the paint, tightly put on the lid and give it a quick shake.
Quickly place paint filled canister lid side down on your paper and stand back.

The film canister will potentially fly 20 feet in the air, so make sure you are in an open area. Most of the paint will splatter on the paper, but not all of it.

You can see the lid left behind on the paper along with some of the Alka Seltzer tablet. We did reuse the tablets as much as possible with pretty good results.

Notice the canister is basically void of paint and most of the main splatter is on the paper with a slight trail leading up. Our paper looked like a massive firework display. Love it!

This project was so much fun! It got 2 thumbs up for everyone at our house. Now I need to find the perfect wall for our beautiful new exploding art work.

For more fun experiments, check out our:

Fizzy Paint Experiment

Water Bottle Popper

Ivory Soap Experiment

Dancing Oobleck

Walking on Raw Eggs

Popsicle Stick Harmonica

Homemade Musical Instruments ~ Popsicle Stick Harmonica

Your kids will love making music with this simple DIY Popsicle Stick Harmonica. They are so easy to make. When my son saw instructions (not sure where) on how to create these simple homemade musical instruments, he rushed home to create his own.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Popsicle Stick Harmonica Supplies

2 Popsicle Sticks ~ We used the wide ones
2 Rubber Bands ~ You could also use string
A strip of paper the same size as the Popsicle Stick
2 toothpicks cut the width or just wider than the Popsicle Stick

How to assemble your DIY musical instrument:

Sandwich the paper strip in between the 2 Popsicle Sticks
Wrap a rubber band around one end until it is snug.
Slide a toothpick to the inside of the rubber band.
Sandwich the last toothpick at the other end of the Popsicle sticks, and wrap with a rubber band.

My son found it worked best when he placed one toothpick on top of the paper and one toothpick under the paper.

Now your all set to make some music. Simply blow or suck air to make a unique noise. You can also try pinching the Popsicle Sticks together to see what new noise you can create.

This is a simple project that your kids will have fun putting together. It only takes a few moments to assemble. There is something satisfying about creating your own toys.