162) Hand Stamped Portrait Tie

The Bee and Bean are pretty luck to have a really awesome dad! They love to climb on him, play outside with him and tell him countless stories. He is always happy to lay on the floor and play in the dollhouse or even dance with them in their latest performance. He is the best reader of bedtime stories and is always happy to sit and snuggle. So this year I wanted to make sure we gave him something  extra special for Father's Day. Of course the tie is the classic Father's day gift, and while he doesn't have to wear a tie to work everyday he does have to wear them sometime, so I thought we would make him an extra special one. One made just for him.

We started by buying a nice, but pretty inexpensive tie at Target. The Bean picked a nice silver gray one. I then cut a piece of paper that fit on the bottom of the tie and asked the Bee to draw a picture of her dad. She is really into drawing people right now so she was more then happy to do so.

Her portrait was a perfect four year old drawing, which I loved. I then took her drawing and shaded the back of her picture with a pencil. Next I took some pink, easy to carve rubber (you can get this in any arts and craft store, usually in the printmaking section) and laid the paper drawing side up on the pink rubber. I then traced right over the lines of her drawing, not picking up the paper until I was done. Once I pulled up the paper, I could see her drawing faintly traced onto the rubber. If you have never used this trick it is very handy anytime you need to trace something! I then carefully carved out the negative space of the drawing with a linoleum cutter. If you have never made your own stamp before, it is much easier then you would think. I highly recommend this book Making An Impression by Geninne Zlatkis it is a great guide to making stamps.

Once I had finished carving, which honestly took about 10 minutes, we were ready to stamp. We used a Versa ink pad, which is good for stamping on fabric, wood and pretty much any surface. You can find them in lots of craft store or even online. We had a black Versa stamp pad which was perfect for the gray tie, just enough contrast to see the image without being too much. Originally I had thought that we would just stamp the image once but it looked so good on the tie that I stamped it repeatedly to make a pattern.

The finished tie turned out awesome! The Bee loved seeing her design on there and her dad loved the present made just for him. The tie is a perfect kid made present but still subtle enough that he could wear anywhere.

83) Summer Camp Week 3: Summer Classics

Lately we have been all about popsicles. Sitting on the front steps after dinner almost every night eating popsicles. Being sticky, sweaty and hot while watching the haze of the day start to fade away. It all seems so classically summer. I can remember doing the same thing when I was a kid and often wonder about all the kids who have ever lived in our very old house and done the same thing too. It makes me think of all the summer classics, that are just so fun and so perfect for summer they never seem to go out of style. So this week's summer camp is dedicated to the classics. The ones you did as a kid, that your kids will do and hopefully their kids after them.

Monday: Rec Hall
The Form a Square Game is one of those classic keep'em busy games great for restaurants, waiting or just a rainy afternoon. Even little ones pick this game up pretty quickly and older kids love to figure out the strategy behind the game.

Tuesday: Back in the Bunks
A new twist on an old summer favorite, Kool Aid Play Dough is fun to play with and smells delicious!

Wednesday: Mess Hall
Everybody loves a cup of lemonade on a hot summer day.  Both big and little kids can Make Lemonade with just a few ingredients, maybe even set up a lemonade stand.

Thursday: Arts and Crafts
Tie-Dye T-Shirts was one of my most favorite summer activities when I was a kid. So many options on how to tie-dye that it is easy to find a style and method perfect for any age.

Friday: Outward Bound
I have met very few kids who don't like to Make Mud Pies. Easy, inexpensive, messy but loads of fun.

42) A New Family Portrait

For those of you who have been reading for a while you may have noticed that things on this blog have been a little spotty and really pretty quiet the last few months.  But I assure you it has all been for some very good reasons. Sick kids, broken computer (thanks to the Apple geniuses for making this post possible) , beautiful weather that has been keeping us outdoors as much as possible, and all the fun, busy and chaotic events of springtime and the end of the school year. I have also been really busy in the shop! I celebrated my 150th sale last week, something I never even dreamed would happen just a few months ago when I started out. I have been working on lots of fun custom orders and adding some new spring and summer crayons as well. In addition to some updates to the shop, I have also been trying to update the blog. Finally adding a new shop page and a place for all our tours, series and lists so they can be easily found. With all that stuff accounted for the real reason for all the radio silence can be blamed on the newest member of our family. A new little childhood lister will be making his appearence sometime in October.  So for the last few months, I have been spending most of my down time sleeping as only a newly pregnant mama can. I am so happy to have finally  moved away from morning sickness and all the other first trimester woes and to be in the happy place of the second trimester with a return of my appetite, a little more energy and a very quickly growing belly. 

When we told the Bee and Bean a few months ago their first response, literally, was that they only wanted a girl baby. They have since been telling everyone we meet at the grocery store, post office and every where else that we are having a girl baby, even though we didn't know that for real. This week we went for a sonogram and found out that, we are not in fact, having a girl baby but instead will be having a little boy! The girls were not thrilled with the news (you can see their reaction below) the Bean actually had a pouty bottom lip. They seem a little more open to the idea today and hopefully the next few months will change their minds completely. So any advice/suggestions/guidance for life with three? 

82) Summer Camp Week 2: Grow

We have been a little pokey this spring with our annual vegetable garden. We just finally put in our tomato plants last week and the rest of our seeds just a little bit before. Thankfully the cool spring weather has worked to our advantage and all our plants are starting to grow. The Bee, at this point, is a seasoned gardener who loves to check out the progress of the plants and help me with the weeding. The Bean's interest comes and goes but she does love to help with any digging.


Monday: Rec Hall
By far the girls most favorite gardening activity is watering, usually themselves as much as the plants. We always have a plethora of Recycled Bottle Watering Cans around. They are easy to make, using something you probably already have in your recycling bin and so fun to use.

Tuesday: Back in the Bunks
For a rainy day stuck in the house or maybe just some afternoon reading in the shade 12 Books That Make You Want to go Outside

Wednesday: Mess Hall
These Herb and Fruit Soap are easy to make, older kids could probably do it themselves, and a great gift for teachers. You can make the soaps with pretty much any herb or fruit so they are great for summer.

Thursday: Arts and Crafts
Right now our garden is filled with small plants and seedlings, making it hard to tell whats what. Since I am rarely organized enough to draw a map of the garden these Plastic Flower Garden Markers have come in handy. The girls loved making them, they hold up well and use materials right out of your recycling bin.

Friday: Outward Bound
Strawberry season is one of my most favorite times of the year. Not just because I love strawberries but because we take an annual trip Larriland Farms to pick them. This week get out and checkout where things grow! Take a trip to a pick-your-own farm, visit a farmers market or just find a place to Dig in the dirt.

81) Summer Camp Week 1: Transportation

Welcome to week 1 of the Summer Camp Series! The girls have officially begun their summer break and while I am so excited to slow down a little, I am also a little nervous about what we are going to do all day everyday. So here is our schedule for the first week. Each day has a camp theme because I have watched the original Parent Trap with Haley Mills one too many times in my life. Honestly I am just using the schedule as a loose guide for what to do. Some weeks I am sure we will stick tightly to the schedule other weeks we might do all five days in one. Hopefully you all will join us on our adventure and share your own summer camp projects and tales.

Monday: Rec Hall
Shaving cream is one of those favorites at our house. A favorite of me because it cleans up pretty easily and a favorite of the girls because it is foamy and fun to play with. Add some cars to your shaving cream and you have yourself a Shaving Cream Car Wash.

Older kids who might not be interested in shaving cream play might still like to play with shaving cream and try their hand at shaving cream marbling.

Tuesday: Back at the Bunks
Summer time around here means lots and lots of afternoon thunderstorms. They usually don't last very long but have a bad habit of ruining our outdoor afternoon plans. Our Tape Car Track is a quick and easy rainy afternoon activity that keeps everyone happy and busy.

Wednesday: Mess Hall
This week the heat has kicked in and we have spent a few afternoons outside running in the sprinkler and playing in the water. To spice up our water play a little we made Ice Cube Sailboats, which were fun to play with even long after they had melted.

Thursday: Arts and Crafts
Another favorite at our house, Car Painting is the perfect mix of art and play. If you have older kids or are feeling a little adventourous Scooter Painting is another way to go. We used paint in our scooter painting but someone once told me that they scooter paint just using water to make tracks and lines.

Friday: Outward Bound
There is that old saying that "Getting there is half the fun" which is very true when you are kid. Sometimes we Take a Ride on the Light Rail (the train system in our city) just to ride. We might get off at one of the stops along the way to eat lunch, or walk around but really the train ride is the best part. This summer I am hoping to expand our public transit rides for fun and take a ride on the Water Taxi.

161) Ice Cube Sailboats

Our first week of Summer vacation has been filled with lots of hot summer like days. The girls have spent much of the time playing in the yard with the hose and sprinkler. To add a little something fun to all their water play we made ice cube sailboats. This is by no means a long term project. In fact in the hot afternoon heat the sailboats only stuck around for about 10 minutes but it was a good diversion when the girls started bickering. Not to mention the colored water left behind, which the girls loved playing with long after the sail boats were gone.

The idea for the Sailboats came from a blog called El Hada De Papel, it is one of my favorite blogs, filled with tons of ideas of beautiful things to make with kids.  I used some old baby food trays but you could use any ice cube trays. We then filled the trays with water and added a few drops food coloring to each tray. Fortunately El Hada De Papel showed this awesome trick, using clothes pins to hold the toothpicks in the ice cube trays, which made making these little boats very easy. After the ice cube trays were ready we stuck them in the freezer. When we were ready to sail our sailboats I took them out of the freezer and the Bee helped me wrap a thin post-it paper around each toothpick. The toothpicks made it easier to take the boats out of the tray and we set them to sail in a large plastic container of water.

We made a few trays so played with a few boats each day. Both girls enjoyed playing with the boats but the Bean really loved making them sail, playing until the last boat finally melted. Both girls loved the color left behind by the melting boats and playing with the colored water. They were so easy to make ahead of time and perfect to pull out when we needed a little something else to do, I can see us making them again this summer.

161) Blown Watercolor Painting

I love Spring time and much to my surprise the Spring temperatures have been pretty lovely around here for the last few weeks. It took a while to warm up this Spring, which here in Baltimore usually means it goes right to summer. However, this year, the temperatures in the mid 70's have meant lots and lots of playing outside around here. We have also taken to doing lots of art making outside lately, which always makes the clean-up a bit easier so I won't complain. Last week did a type of painting I totally remember doing as a kid and loving. 

I put out some large watercolor paper, some liquid watercolor paints (although you could even use food coloring and water too), some pipettes (you could also use a brush or squirt bottle) and some plastic drinking straws. The girls then used the pipettes to suck out some of the paint and squirted it right onto the paper. The watercolor made lovely puddles of paint on the paper. They then took a straw, or in the Bee's case 3 straws, and blew through the straw right into the puddle of paint. The air through the straw caused the paint to spread and splatter, creating beautiful patterns and shapes beyond their control. 

As always I loved how differently the Bee and Bean approached the project. The Bean went for a less is more approach. She only used a few colors, put all her paint into one large puddle on her paper, blew the paint around a little and then moved on to playing in the yard. The Bee took a more is more approach, using three straws, three pipettes to cover almost every inch of her large paper in paint. She spent a very long time working on her painting and even came back to it a little later. Once they were all done we let painting dry outside, within a few hours they were all dry and ready to go.

25) Cold Brewed Iced Coffee (For Mother's Day)

I usually write about kid related stuff here but today in honor of all you mama's out there, I am sharing one of my all time favorite recipes for Mom's only (maybe a few spouses if you are feeling like sharing.) A few years ago my friend Debbie told me all about the awesomeness of cold brewed coffee. At the time I was swamped with work and kids and too overwhelmed to even give it a try. Finally the school year ended,  summer came and I had the time to give it a try. It was so unbelievably good, I turned right around and told everyone I knew about the awesomeness of cold brewed coffee. While I am generally a fan of any coffee and really any iced coffee, this iced coffee is different. It is smooth, rich and creamy, even if you don't add anything to it. Not only that but it is really easy to make.

- Mix 1 1/3 cups of ground coffee (any kind) to 4 cups of water and let sit for 12-24 hours.
- Drain coffee grinds and pour remaining coffee into a pitcher to store in the fridge for up to a week.

I usually mix my ground coffee and water into a pitcher, and let them sit for 12-24 hours in the fridge or on the counter. I then drain the grinds with a mesh strainer but any small strainer would work. I then pour the coffee back into the pitcher and keep it in the fridge. I have read that the coffee is good in the fridge for up to a week but it has never made it that long in my house. In the hot summer months we usually make a pitcher every other day.

So to all the Mom's I wish you the happiest of Mother's days and hope that you enjoy a few minutes to sit and sip!

80) Summer Camp Series

Unbelievably the girls only have 2 more weeks of preschool left! That means that in two weeks we will officially be on summer vacations. I have mixed feeling about this. When I was teacher I used to look forward every year to summer break only to find that I would spend the first few weeks sort of lost. Without my normal schedule and I was mostly overwhelmed with the freedom to do whatever. After a few weeks I would usually fall into the rhythm of summer and all would be well again. Once I had the girls, I found the transition to summer even harder. With the girls, the glorious days of late sunsets started to feel really long. Without our normal school year routine I started to find the days really hard to fill. After a few weeks of floundering I would usually realize that we needed a plan, a schedule, something to keep us all on track. The kids needed to wake up in the morning and have some idea of what the day was going to look like. I needed something to fall back on when everyone got grumpy, myself included. So I created a loose weekly schedule giving each day a theme. I wanted the schedule to be enough to give us some direction without over planning our summer and not leaving room for spontaneous summer fun. So the last few weeks I have been updating our schedule a little and thought that I would share it here. Starting in just a few weeks I am hoping to share a weekly post with a schedule for the upcoming week. Each week will include activities (some new, some we have done on here before) that are really just a suggestion, a starting point, somewhere to go to when you need a plan. I will write each activity as open ended as possible so that it can be applied or altered slightly to fit lots of families and kids of all ages. As always, this newest series will be a work in progress and I would love any help, ideas or suggestions! What is your favorite summer activity? What was your favorite thing to do in the summer when you were a kid?

80) Sherwood Gardens

Spring in Baltimore is a finicky thing! This week we have had temperature in the low to mid 90's, two weeks ago we had snow. You just never know. So every Spring we take multiple trips to Sherwood Gardens waiting for the peak tulip days. Some years this happens early in April other years it is closer to the start of May. Yesterday we went over to visit the gardens and found that most of the beds haven't bloomed yet, but many are getting close and a few are out in full force. Sherwood Gardens is located in North Baltimore in the Guilford neighborhood. The six acre gardens are free and open to anyone and are the prefect spot for walking, climbing, picnincing or just enjoying the spring weather. The girls love to go check out the flowers (despite my constant reminders not to pick them), they have a few favorite trees there perfect for climbing, there is plenty of space for running and lots of benches to sit on. We almost always bring a blanket and a snack. I am guessing another week or so before the tulips are in full bloom (although I am no expert) and then in the end of May the tulip bulbs will be dug out and sold to anyone interested in having tulips in their own garden next Spring!