Paw Patrol Cake

My baby girl turned 3 this year and she is one of the biggest Paw Patrol fans you'd ever see! So of course we had to have a Paw Patrol cake...

Halloween Craft: Spider Orb

Here's a fun, simple craft for your kids to enjoy, then you get to display for the holidays: a spider orb!

DIY Detangler Spray

A while ago I had bought some detangler spray for my daughters' hair and it's a necessity because they both have quite the bed-head in the mornings!

Cheesecloth Ghost without Starch

I love the cute cheesecloth ghosts that everyone makes, but most of the tutorials I read required using starch to give the ghosts their shape. I didn't have starch on hand, so I was thrilled when I found a different technique that uses corn starch (which is still probably technically starch, but not the stinky spray kind)!

I found the idea at Love and Laundry...and I'm so glad I did. My kids had a blast making these ghosts.

DIY Baby Food: Peas

My baby girl is now one and no longer eats "mush", but when she was just learning to eat solid foods, I decided to try making some of it. I was shocked at how easy it was!

To make peas into baby food:

1. Purchase frozen peas. I bought frozen peas at our local Aldi...I was even more thrilled to find their organic peas super cheap. 
2. Use a steamer basket in one of your pots. Fill it with about an inch of water (make sure it doesn't come over the bottom of the basket). Cover with a lid.
3. Put that on the stove and when the water boils, pour the peas into the steamer basket. Cover.
4. Let it steam for 3-5 minutes and check to see if the peas are tender. I had to stir mine because the middle peas would still be frozen together.
5. After the peas are tender, remove from heat and rinse in cold water to stop them from cooking more.
6. Pour the peas into a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth, and add water as needed to get the consistency you want. I usually had to add 1/2 cup or more so they would blend.
7. Pour the puree into an ice cube tray and freeze. When they are frozen, you can remove them from the tray and put them in a freezer bag.
8. When it's time to eat, put a cube of peas in a bowl in the microwave. I heated ours on 50% power for 45 seconds and it was perfect. If it's too thin, add some rice cereal to thicken it up.

This might seem like a lot of steps, but it truly goes quickly. I bought my peas for $0.89 and would get at least 1 1/2 ice cube trays worth, with each cube making about an ounce of food (12-16 ounces total?). The store bought baby food was $1.19 for two containers of baby food.  All in all, it was worth the little bit of effort to save some money and to know baby girl was getting food with as few preservatives as possible.

Thank you Parents.com for your guidance :). I’ll be linking up to Making Your Home Sing Sunday, Mama Moments Monday,  Mom’s Library, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, The Mommy Club,

Frugal Holloween Décor: Ghost Garland

After my 5 year old saw the bats on our front door, he declared that we had to have ghosts as well. Thankfully, I was reminded of last year’s ghost garland and was able to quickly cut out some friendly little ghosts while he was gone…
His face lit up as soon as he saw the ghosts hanging in our front windows and I knew that was 20 minutes well spent!
So…if you need some quick decorations for a party or just to get in the Halloween spirit, head over to Fine Craft Guild :)

Frugal Halloween Décor: Bats, Bats, Bats

Decorating for the holidays doesn’t have to break the bank…I love searching other blogs for cheap or free ways to decorate that still look cute and fun…

From my initial experience with bats to our fun batty lampshade, I still love bats at Halloween! They are so easy to make and can look amazing if you make enough of them…

This year, our bats are flying across the front door. Who knows, I may add some more to the inside, but for now any visitors can enjoy our winged friends as they walk up our little sidewalk :)

Thanks again Made for the fun inspiration. To find the batty template head over to Bats, Bats, Bats!

Back Pocket Organizer

If your husband is anything like mine, he can go through jeans pretty quickly…basically, I have a lot of extra denim sitting around :). I’m saving most of the denim for another project but I’ve been stock piling his back pockets for quite a while now. When a friend gave me some of her old jeans, I had the perfect amount to make a back pocket organizer.

To make your own back pocket organizer, you’ll need:

Busy Play: Egg Carton

When I saw this idea on Money Saving Mom, I knew it was something my 2 year old would have to try…all you need are plastic eggs and an empty egg carton and young children will go to town! C loved putting the eggs in and taking them out, organizing them by color, mixing the colors up, you name it and I didn’t have to worry about him breaking them. :)

I love cheap, easy activities that my boys enjoy!

Homemade Marble (AKA Dirt) Run

I have been saving these cardboard wrapping paper tubes for ages and we moved to a place with a chain-link fence…just what I needed to make a marble/dirt run for my boys (as inspired by Fun on a Dime).

All you need is wrapping paper tubes (or paper towel/toilet paper tubes), a hole punch, twisty ties and if desired, the mouths of some water bottles to act as funnels. My boys had so much fun pouring dirt and they were absolutely filthy by the time they came inside :). Punch holes in the tubes and cut into them as shown below so the dirt can make it into the tubes.

Cereal Box Puppet Theater

Are you all ready for a summer full of cereal box fun? I don’t know if it will get that bad around here but I’m finding more and more stuff to do with cereal boxes so get ready :)! One of those things is a cereal box puppet theater, which I found at the lovely Luxury Living Frugal Style…

All you need is an empty cereal box, scissors, paint, popsicle sticks and pictures to make into puppets.

Cut Out Bird Feeder

If you have a bit of cardboard, peanut butter and some sunflower seeds or bird seed, you and your kiddos can make a cute little bird feeder…

Closet Raiding

This summer you can probably find me raiding my husband’s closet to make more of these…


That’s right! More yoga pants for me :) They’re light-weight, comfy and great for working out or doing stuff around the house.

You can only imagine how touched I was when hubby pulled this former shirt out of the closet and lovingly gave it to me so I could cut it up and make it into something of my very own.

To learn how to make your own go here.

I am linking up to the 100+ Clothes Upcycling Projects.

Water Table

Summer heat is here and we are always looking for fun ways to stay cool so yesterday I made a water table for my boys and they played in it for an hour! All you need is a shallow storage bin, water and toys to set your kiddos up with lots of fun :).

Thanks to a suggestion last year, I decided to put the bin up on chairs and it worked really well for my boys…they didn’t try to climb in but could still reach everything.

I’m linking up to What are Little Boys Made of?  and Preschool Corner Friday.

Cereal Box Magazine Holder

If you’ve signed up for free cooking magazines recently, you might have more magazines than you know exactly what to do with…or is that just me? This morning as I was pouring my cereal, I happened to glance on the inside of my Honey Comb box and noticed directions on the flap detailing how to make a recycle rack (which I have converted to a magazine holder).

Paper Towel Tube Binoculars

Summer is in full swing with heat and humidity and I’m looking for more indoor activities to keep my boys entertained! Last week I found a random paper towel tube that I had stuffed into a random cupboard to save for some random craft and we set off to make binoculars :).

All we did was cut the tube in half, and K cut little pieces of paper to glue to his binoculars. I used a rubber band to hold the two halves together which has worked fine for us, but you could glue them together too.

Never mind the fact I go really cross eyed when I use these but he loves them and keeps taking them to look at things outside. Not bad for things heading to the dump recycle bin.

I’m linking up to What Are Little Boys Made Of?, Kids Get Crafty, and Preschool Corner Friday.

Grocery Bag Kites

If you’re looking for another frugal kite option, try tying grocery bags to a long piece of string. The wind catches these wonderfully and my boys ran for an hour with their kites…perfect activity to tire them out for long afternoon naps :)

All of the other action shots were too blurry, but my 2 year old got his kite to fly quite well and my 4 year old was amazing with his kite! Go try this on your next blustery day.

Thanks Live, Learn, Love for the fantastic idea :)

I’m linking up to Tot Tuesday, Kids Get Crafty Wednesdays, Preschool Corner Fridays,

Rainy Day Basketball

There’s nothing like a little indoor basketball to chase away the rainy day blues :)

Cheap, Green Coloring Pages

Right now, K is obsessed with coloring which I am absolutely thrilled about. It’s so fun watching the gradual development of coordination over time as he colors more and more.

My husband, being in law school, goes through paper like crazy and though much of his paper is printed double sided, there’s still plenty of one-sided paper.

Our solution to both scenarios above? Print coloring pages on the back of hubby’s law school paper. K will instruct me as to what he wants to color and all I have to do is search google or Swagbucks for “car coloring pages” or whatever he asked for. I can fit several images on one sheet and K is happy as a peach! This works with paper we receive in the mail or otherwise inherit as well.

K has enjoyed this so much that we have to limit him to one page a day, but this is just a fun, frugal way to entertain him.

I’m linking up to Works For Me Wednesday.

Car Tissue Holder

Allergies are in full swing and many people have to make sure they have tissues with them wherever they go. For me, that means having a box in the car. Since we have a sedan, there’s really no where to store a whole box of tissues, and a box of tissues can suffer a lot in our car, but Parent Hacks solved my dilemma!

Use a hard baby wipes container for your tissues. It’s the perfect size and the tissues won’t get smashed, torn, or dirty even on the floor of your car. Even with my two boys, this container has held up to months of stomping, jumping, and more without even popping open.

I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday and Homemaker Monday.