Scissor skills activity-toy rescue

My 5 year old just started kindergarten, and the one concern her pre-k teacher had for her was that she doesn't have the hand strength to use scissors very well. Over the summer I had her cut paper when we could, but I knew she would love this scissor skills activity...rescuing her toys!

Paper Plate Dinosaur Craft

Paper Plate Dinosaurs are the perfect craft for toddlers...especially if you have a friend over to play. They allow for creativity, individuality, and they aren't too frustrating for little hands to finish.

All you need is:

• Paper plates
• Scissors
• Paint or markers
• Construction paper
• Glue stick
• Googly eyes

1. Cut the paper plates in half and hand each kid a half. 
2. Get them painting or coloring and cut out legs, tails and heads in coordinating colored construction paper. I just free-handed these.
3. When the plate is dry, have them glue the head, legs and tail to their dinosaur.
4. Add googly eyes and draw on a mouth.
   
5. You're done! Admire the cute little dinosaurs :)

Thank you I Heart Arts and Crafts for the fun idea! I'm linking up to the Happiness is Homemade link party.

VTech Switch & Go Dinos Review

We were blessed to be able to review two of the new VTech Switch & Go Dinos recently and my boys have LOVED them! Being all boy, both of them are very into vehicles and dinosaurs so these toys are perfect.

We received Span the Spinosaurus and Brok the Brachiosaurus to review.

Dinosaur Party: Dinosaur Cake

To wrap up our week of dinosaur birthday party ideas, I wanted to show off the cake I made for K’s birthday party.

I was pretty thrilled when both of my boys asked for a dinosaur cake this year since their birthdays are 2 weeks apart…it just meant a little less creativity required on my part and C’s cake allowed me to learn and practice before K’s party where more people would actually see his cake :).

K begged me for a volcano so I took the corner I cut off at slant for the water, layered it on top of another corner and put a Ding Dong type snack on top of that. Even still this cake is not done to scale, but K loved it and I was pretty proud of how it came out. I also got to use some of the cute little dinosaurs I bought for the fossil eggs I made.

Happy Birthday K!

Dino Party: Fossilized Dinosaur Eggs

These party favors are fun to make and fun to destroy. Fossilized dinosaur eggs are what we chose to send home with our party guests and I got a few reports back on how much the kids loved breaking them up…
Also known as Treasure Stones (thanks Skip to My Lou and about.com), these eggs are made from a dough and dried so that they resemble rocks. I do recommend making these a week in advance so there’s time to dry the eggs. All you need is:

Dino Party: Felt Dinosaur Banner

When I saw Dana’s Peep bunting this year, I knew I had to make a dinosaur banner for K’s birthday party! This was so easy to make and it was fun décor which now hangs happily in my boys’ bedroom :)

This banner was super easy to make. I just cut out felt dinosaurs from my applique post, and hot glued them onto a long ribbon. I then hot glued googly eyes onto each dinosaur and hung it up. As simple as that!

Dinosaur Party: Fossil Prints

While Land Before Time played in the living room during K’s dinosaur birthday party, the kids had the option of making fossil prints in salt dough in the kitchen. Any kid who loves Play-Dough will love the activity and it was a fun way to keep the kids’ hands busy for a while.

To make salt dough, take 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup salt and 1 cup luke-warm water. Mix the ingredients together to form a dough.

I think I multiplied this recipe by 5 so we had a huge bowl of salt dough. Each kid got a lovely glob to play with and use to make dinosaur fossil prints using the various dinosaurs my boys have collected over time. If you have a way for kids to take their fossil prints home, the salt dough can be left out for several days until it becomes hard like a fossil and your kids can hang on to this fun memento from the party.

Thanks so much Get Down & Get Your Hands Dirty for this fun recommendation! I’ll be linking up to Kids Get Crafty, Works For Me Wednesday, What are little boys made of? Preschool Corner Friday.

Dinosaur Party: Invitations

Get ready this week for an abundance of dinosaur party theme posts because we just celebrated K’s 5th birthday, and it was dinosaur-rific!

For the invitations, I just printed out my dinosaur applique from my No Sew Applique post, cut out several by hand (no Cricut for me-yet!), and printed the information on white paper. When I glued it on, I just trimmed the white paper to the same shape as the cute little dino and glued a googly eye on. Simple, cute and cheap!

Sadly, the day of the party it was stormy so we had to relocate to our home, but more on that to come…:)

Dinosaur Cake

Recently we celebrated my 3 (!) year old’s birthday and he requested a dinosaur cake…I love the simplicity of making cakes for my boys because they want the toys on top and they are fairly simple to decorate:

I just made a 9x13” cake. On one corner I cut the top off at an angle to make the beach/water and I put the corner that had been cut off on top of another corner for a little hill.

I can’t believe my little boy is 3 and am so excited to watch him grow and develop every day. Happy Birthday C!

I’ll be linking up to Works for Me Wednesday, Kids Get Crafty, Create and Share, What Are Little Boys Made Of? and Fun Stuff Fridays.

No Sew Dinosaur Applique

I found this shirt in like-new condition for 50 cents at a garage sale. No stains, just kind of blah...
Since K is sort of obsessed with dinosaurs right now, and I've been itching to try no sew appliques, so this was my chance! It is so easy and took about 1/2 an hour to add some cuteness to this shirt.

Here's how:

1. Acquire a pattern; draw, print, buy, whatever. I drew mine and here's the pattern (feel free to use it if you think it's cute enough :)
2. Trace the pattern onto the smooth, paper side of the Wonder Under.
3. Press the rough side of the Wonder Under to the wrong side of your fabric for about 5 seconds on wool setting. Once the fabric has cooled, cut your shape out. When ready to adhere to your shirt (or whatever you're appliqueing) peel the paper backing off of your shape.
4. Position the shape on your material with adhesive side down. Cover with a damp press cloth and press on wool setting for 10 seconds or until the press cloth is dry. Directions are also on the Wonder Under packaging. Voila! Cuteness achieved!

I'm linking up to Creative Share Wednesday at the Trendy Treehouse and...