Mom Lovin' Hop Anniversary & Giveaway

I am so overjoyed and thankful for the wonderful community of mothers I have had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with in the blog world. Over the past year since I started my blog, I have really been inspired and uplifted by so many wonderful ladies, including all of the moms that host and link-up at the Mom Lovin' Hop every week. I am very honored and grateful to be apart of their one year anniversary. To celebrate the hosts and some past co-hosts have gotten together and are giving away $66 in PayPal cash to one lucky lady! Enter below and don't forget to link-up this week too!


A crazy special thanks to the following blogging mamas who happily visited our hop over the year, partnered with us, built community among other moms here and of course for contributing to the cash giveaway!

Illeana:: Illy Who Blog

Elizabeth:: Sattvic Family & Savouring Simplicity

Lindsay:: Wedding Rings to Teething Rings

Andrea:: (Hand and the Heart)

Julia:: The Everyday Momma

Jennifer:: Mommy Life After PhD

Chastity:: A Cowboy's Life

Aanie:: The Active Mum

Jenna:: A Mama Collective

Now, after you enter this AWESOME giveaway, don't forget to scroll down farther to link up to the hop! Don't miss our 52nd!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here we go! Don't forget to... 

**grab out button and display it proud for other mama's to get in on this action! 

**read the rules, link up and socialize!

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Please, if you are new to the hop or have been here but haven't left a comment, please let us know on our own respected blogs that you are a new follower (be sure to say HOW you are following) so we can follow you back! 

Also, If you are interested in co-hosting FOR FREE shoot Hannah an email at hannahsjoyfullife (at) gmail.com to get on the list, growing your followers couldn't be easier! 

{Think Outside the Toy Box} Paper Bags: Astronaut/Alien Costume

Welcome to week three of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series! I so love being a part of the this series so far. Myles and I have been having tons of fun making and playing with each project so far. I look forward to the time we get to spend together each week trying to figure out what to do and how to put it all together. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much he has been actually participating and engaged with each project so far. I can't wait to see what the rest of the weeks bring us!

If you are here for the first time or want to check out all the details again, take a look at the post introducing the Think Outside the Toy Box summer fun series. Also if you have missed weeks one or two, these are the projects we have done so far:
Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling (and bath)
Plastic Bottle Waterfall

Now on to this week's fun with:

  PAPER GROCERY BAGS

For this week's project, I drew inspiration from a couple of things my son likes. One being space rangers in the form of Buzz Lightyear and the other being this bag from Mega Bloks.

He discovered the amazing potential of the bag when we were visiting his best friend Cameron. One day when we were playing at his house, Myles saw Cameron put the empty bag over his head and run around like a spaceman. Once Cameron let Myles try, he would not stop. He ran around forever with that dang bag on his head! After I saw how much fun he had with it, I was tempted to buy the block set just for the bag. However, by this time, I had already learned that for some reason toys seem to lose 90% of their appeal once they come into our house. So I wasn't about to waste $20 to have him not look at the thing more than once. Then one day I got the bright idea to just make my own bag with a clear plastic hole in it! It is a total win in our house because it is super easy for me to make and it combines Myles' desire to be Buzz Lightyear with his love for running around with a bag on his head! And that is how we came up with the....  

  Paper Bag Astronaut / Alien Costume

What You Will Need: 

A large paper grocery bag

1 zip-lock gallon freezer bag

Scissors

Duck tape

Pencil

Colored Pipe Cleaners (Optional)

Directions:  
*Because this activity involves cutting with scissors, it should be made by an adult. Kids can watch and help at your discretion, but for safety reasons, should wait until the costume is complete to play.*

1. Start by measuring and marking with a pencil where the hole for the face should be. I put the bag next to the son and roughly estimated (while chasing him around the kitchen) the dimensions of the face cut-out. If your kid (like mine) does not want to cooperate, just make it start about an inch in from the top and sides and then as long as their face is. I think the picture below is a good estimation reference. 

2. Place the zip-lock gallon freezer bag inside of the paper bag directly over the hole you just cut. Tape all four sides of the plastic bag down to the paper bag with duck tape.

3. Now you will want to cover the whole outside of the paper bag with duck tape. I tried only covering the front (as you see in the pictures), but the sides ripped within minutes of play. So I would suggest just covering the whole thing at this step. Then you will want to cut arm holes into the sides of the bag. The location and size of the holes depend of the size of your child, so have them try it on and get a quick estimate of where the arm holes should be. For reference, my son is 34 inches and I had to put the arm holes about 2-3 inches up from the bottom.

*It should be easier to tape the sides first and then cut the arm holes... I learned that the hard way. Plus from looking at my pictures now, I think it would look a lot cooler with the silver duck tape covering the whole thing.*

 
4. If you want to turn your astronaut into an alien just add two pipe cleaners to the top of the bag. I picked green ones to fit the alien theme, twirled them around my finger, and poked them through the top of the bag. 

*Again, I would suggest using the duck tap over the top and sides before play time. That way you avoid having to make another one within minutes (like me)!*

  

 5. Play! I think this would be fun for pretend play with friends; one could be the spaceman/astronaut and the other could be the alien. Or like my son, they can just run around screaming random babble and practice ninja moves.
 

And a little outtake just to show you the struggle is real over here:

Playtime in Myles' brain is synonymous with 'destroy everything mommy is trying to do'. Here he is caught in the act of premeditated annihilation of mommy's hard work. That devilish smile on his face is typical right before he goes to play his favorite (and my least) game: kick, kick, kick whatever is around me, even though I know I am not supposed to! 

  And with that week three of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series is complete! Also don't forget to check out what all of the other ladies put together for this week's item in the link-up below. 
 

And if you have a post (new or old) that you created showcasing paper grocery bags in a kid's project, craft, game, experiment, etc., submit it below as well. No post this week? No problem; join us next Monday when we will be using Kool-Aid! 

 Also just in case you want to get a head start, here is the complete list for the coming weeks:
June 16 - Kool-Aid
June 23 - Ice Cream Cones
June 30 - Pool Noodles
July 7 - Wax Paper
July 14 - Puzzle Pieces
July 21 - Paper Cups
July 28 - Plastic Milk Jugs

{First Birthday} Under the Sea Party: Cake and Presents

As I sit here writing this post about my son's first birthday party, I am watching 'Monster's University' with my now 22 month old son! I'm finding it hard to believe that in 2 months I will have a 2 year old. I just don't know how the last year has gone by so fast. I seriously feel like this birthday was just celebrated and now somehow I am knee deep in DIYing for his second! Planning kids' birthdays are too fun! I loved putting everything together for Myles' Under the Sea 1st birthday and can't wait to share all the details of the party next week! For now I've got some more fun pictures of my little guy enjoying his big day!

And if you missed any of my previous first birthday posts, here they all are:

First Birthday Theme and Photo Shoot

First Birthday Festivities

First Birthday Under the Sea: Party Guests and Photo Booth Pictures

Cake Time

Having his party after his actual birthday really worked out in my favor when it came to the cake eating. The completely unsuccessful go at the muffin cake eating on his birthday made me realize that a traditional cake at his party was not going to bring about the desired result of the epic first birthday cake showdown! However, I scored big time when I discovered his love for the wiggly stuff: Jello! Good thing was, I hadn't already ordered a cake or anything, so a change of plans just called for some scouring of Pinterest for inspiration. I had a good plan and was excited to see how it would turn out. I didn't have time for a trial, so I just had to put all my trust into my domestic instincts and hope for the best. I'm going to leave you all in suspense and make you come back next week for my party DIYs posts to see how it all turned out. 

He was loving all the attention when we sang to him and then dug right in to the jello! He shoveled fist fulls of the yummy blue stuff into his mouth over and over until he decided he was full. Then his fist fulls of jello began being offered to everyone else. A couple of his cousins, grandparents, mommy, and daddy all got to taste his then destroyed cake.

All was fun and games, until... 

{Think Outside the Toy Box} Plastic Bottles: Waterfall

Welcome to the second week of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series!

If you are here for the first time, you can check out the introduction to the Think Outside the Toy Box post for all the details of this awesome new series. 

Now on to this week's fun with:

  PLASTIC BOTTLES

Last week in this series I introduced you all to glow-in-the-dark bowling. Now that would have worked great for this week as well. However, I already had my mind completely set on an idea when I saw plastic bottles on the items list for this series. I knew immediately what I was going to do with them and I was super excited. I have been looking forward to trying this project out ever since I pinned this image months back onto my DIY Myles board. To be honest, I probably never would have gotten around to doing it if it weren't for this series. So I am loving trying all these project and ideas out with Myles. Unlike last week, so far Myles is loving his plastic bottle waterfall. I'm guessing because it involves water and getting messy. Also he is really intrigued by how the whole thing works; he has been moving the bottles around and sticking his hands in them trying to figure it all out! This has already given us lots of fun playtime in the summer heat!

Plastic Bottle Water Fall

What You Will Need: 

5-6 plastic juice or pop bottles, rinsed out
Open spot on a wood fence or large piece of wood
1 Steak knife, scissors, or X Acto knife
6-10 screws 
6-10 washers (optional)
Drill or screw driver
Step-stool (optional)

Directions:  
*Because this activity involves cutting with knives and drilling screws, this should be set-up by an adult. Kids can watch and help at your discretion, but for safety reasons should wait until the waterfall is finished to play.*

1. Find an open spot in your wood fence to set up the waterfall. Or you can attach a 4x4 or larger piece of wood to any fence or wall you choose.

2. Take one plastic bottle and cut the whole bottom off of it. Hold the bottle, cap side down, up to the wood to measure where you want the top to be. I had my son stand on the step-stool and reach his hands up. We placed the top bottle where he could comfortably touch the top of it. Use one screw and washer to attach the bottle, cap side down.

*Tip: we noticed that after we put the whole thing together the water from the top bottle was mostly just splattering out all over. So Mark thought of the idea to put the cap back on the bottle and cut a small hole into the middle. He is so smart because it worked perfectly!*

3. At this point you can set-up the waterfall however you would like. Because I wanted Myles to be able to reach the top when standing on his step-stool, we weren't able to make ours very tall. After the top bottle, we were only able to fit 3 more bottles. This ended up working out great for us, but if you have older and taller kids, you may want to start higher and use more bottles. 

For the middle two bottles, we cut rectangle shapes out of the sides of the bottles and attached them to the fence staggered and slightly diagonal so that the water would pour into the next bottle. 

For the last bottle, Mark came up with the idea to make it so that the water would sprinkle out of the bottom of it.  Using the knife, we stabbed one side of the bottle about 8 times. Then we attached the bottle (holes side down and cap still on) to the fence. Also this bottle should be vertically straight.

4. Fill another plastic bottle with water. Set it inside the top bottle and let the waterfall fun begin!

 

 5. Repeat, repeat! Get wet, messy and add some rubber ducks to the mix!

So there you have it: week two of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series is complete! Also don't forget to check out what all of the other ladies put together for this week's item in the link-up below. 

And if you have a post (new or old) that you created showcasing plastic pop bottles in a kid's project, craft, game, experiment, etc., submit it below as well. No post this week? No problem; join us next Monday when we will be using paper grocery bags! 

 Also just in case you want to get a head start, here is the complete list for the coming weeks:
June 9 - Paper Grocery Bags
June 16 - Kool-Aid
June 23 - Ice Cream Cones
June 30 - Pool Noodles
July 7 - Wax Paper
July 14 - Puzzle Pieces
July 21 - Paper Cups
July 28 - Plastic Milk Jugs