Fun memories #4: Beauty shop night

Beauty shop nights are too few and far between at our house. Just a few simple "extras" can make an ordinary night into a special beauty shop night. A few ideas:
-a bubble bath instead of a regular bath, or using special new good smelling soap in the shower
-short head massage to make a shampoo more special
-a special towel wrap (like the ones pictured) around her head (our girls LOVE this and don't get it much)
-getting to use mom's special lotion after bath time
-getting fingernails and toe nails painted...we keep a stock of cheap nail polish we find here...we can find fun colors for the girls and even find nail polish glitter pretty regularly. It's a special treat for the girls to get sparkles on their fingernails or toes.

Fun memories #3: Tea party and tea party baking

This was a fun memory with some other TCK friends. We noticed that these girls had a kids' cookbook, so we told them we needed to have an afternoon together to try some baking, and we turned it into a tea party. These girls were also old enough to help with some of the baking, so this project was fun for kids who are a little bit older. Getting ready for the tea party was a lot of the fun. The girls were so excited. We cleared some space in their room and set up tables. Another thing that made the tea party special was using the heart table cloths. These "table cloths" are just one yard square pieces of fabric I picked up at the local market. A seamstress hemmed them for me for about 50 cents, and the fabric itself cost maybe a dollar, so there's a fun, reusable table cloth for you that cost about $1.50. We use these little one yard squares for lots of parties to make our little plastic tables look a little more special. We also set out fake flowers on the table. The girls were so excited to get things ready.
When our guests arrived, we made the cupcakes together. We got icing ready while the cupcakes baked. I will try to remember to post our cupcake recipe later. For now, here's the butter cream icing recipe we used for the cupcakes:
Butter cream icing
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 lb. powdered sugar (called "icing sugar" over here)
a little water
Mix together your shortening and butter with a hand mixer. Add the powdered sugar. Add water until you get desired consistency...start with no more than 1 tsp.
When the cupcakes were ready and cool, the girls decorated them themselves. Then, we had cupcakes, ice cream, and "tea" for our tea party. They loved it.

Craft project #8: Coral reef mural

We decided to make this mural after looking at a beautiful picture of a coral reef in one of our extra home school books. We did this with mostly paper and water colors. Supplies we used:
-one big sheet of sturdy paper
-white paper (for painting our fish)
-colored paper cut into small shapes
-water color paints
-scissors
-glue
First, we painted our blue ocean background. Some little helpers from our building actually helped us do this part. We let this dry for one day and came back to the rest of our reef the next day. Then, we used shapes cut from colored paper to create the collage that formed our "coral reef" (which you see at the bottom right hand side of our mural). Then, we painted some pictures of different types of seaweed and plants, and glued them along our coral reef. Next, we chose our favorite fish and sea creatures from the pictures in our book, and painted them the best we could on separate pieces of white paper. Then, we pasted the fish pictures onto our scene. Last, we labeled all of our fish and sea life. This mural made a nice decoration for the wall of our school room for quite some time. It was a fun little project to incorporate some of our "helpers" in our building, too.

Craft project #7: Cardboard animal cage

This project came from a rainy day activity book we picked up a long time ago in Singapore. We used an old cardboard box from the mail, along with a spare piece.
Supplies needed:
-cardboard box and spare cardboard piece
-yarn
-tape
-brads
-scissors
Cut the top flaps off of your cardboard box so you are left with only the base. Cut your extra piece of cardboard into four long strips that match the size of the perimeter of your box, as you can see in picture. Attach the strips into a square using your brads. Cut yarn into lengths that match the size of your remaining "window." Tape the lengths of yarn to the back of your cage door. Now, attach the door to your box with good tape...we used packing tape. Next, cut out a latch in the shape you see here...a rectangle with a notch in it works fine. Cut another matching rectangle with a notch, and attach it to the side of your box using brads and tape. Attach your first rectangle with a notch to the front of your "cage," using only a brad, so you can move your latch up and down and open the door to your cage. If your little one likes this project, you could make a whole zoo full of cages.

Craft project #6: Paper plate hot air balloon hangings

This is another craft idea taken from a Gospel Light resource book. We used this idea for a SS project, and pasted a memory verse at the bottom. If I can't think of another SS activity, we usually make a decorative item that can carry a memory verse, so the kids have incentive to look at/practice the verses that week.
Supplies needed:
-2 paper plates per child
-pre-cut shapes from colored paper
-glue
-yarn (cut three equal lengths for each child)
-hole puncher
-stapler and staples
-brown paper or cardboard, pre-cut to be your "balloon basket" in proportion to your paper plates
-memory verses, cut out and ready to glue onto the balloon basket
First, allow your kids to choose the colored shapes they like and glue them to the bottom side of the paper plates. Next, staple the paper plates together to make your balloon. Then, punch three holes around the edge of the plate...one hole at the top for a hanger, and two holes at the bottom for attaching your "basket." The, punch two holes into the top of your "basket." Tie the basket to the balloon with two pieces of yarn. Use the third piece of yarn to tie a loop onto the top of the balloon for a hanger. Allow the kids to glue the memory verse to the balloon basket.

Craft project #5: homemade stick puppets

These little stick puppets are so simple and versatile, and the girls have had so much fun with them. The great thing about these is that you can make them out of just about ANY character. Just photocopy any picture of a character or animal, let the kids color and/or decorate them, then let them cut the picture out. Tape a tongue depressor or barbecue grilling stick to the back of your picture. Then, glue a heaver piece of paper or card stock to the back of that. Then you have instant puppets! Here, we made royal puppets and a castle backdrop out of old cereal boxes we painted, cut, and glued together. In the other picture, Elizabeth Ann is holding some scarecrow puppets we made to learn about Autumn. These could be adjusted for any season or story, according to whatever character pictures you have on hand or what story you want to tell. You could also photocopy coloring book pages and make stick puppets out of those pictures. One year, for Maggie's birthday, she had an Elmo party, and we made these simple stick puppets out of pictures of Sesame Street characters. Lots of possibilities. These little puppets become treasures for the girls, and I can only throw them away if I do it in secret.

Craft project #4: Nature collage

Part of the fun of making the nature collage was taking the nature walk that preceded it. We just took a short walk around our neighborhood. On the nature walk, the girls took little baskets and collected bits of nature around them. It was a good chance for me to learn a little bit more about the plants I see here, too, as our helper explained several that had been unfamiliar to me before. It was pretty neat to get to see the unique things the girls were able to add that we found lying around...like banyan tree leaves and coconut hair. They took a lot of pride in arranging their collages just right.