love bots on parade

Why stick to paper for your Valentine lurve? Why not make something a little extra...

herein lies the (new) rub: a boredom buster!

You're stranded at home, the baby's asleep and your preschooler begins the "I'm Bored!" chant. Here's a new way with play dough or homemade play clay (checkout the CRAFTzine blog for a perfect recipe.) that will maybe, just maybe bust those boredom blues. Have a batch of homemade play dough in the fridge that might possibly be getting too old? Use it as an anchor for an assortment of household objects and make these nifty crayon rubbings.

You will need:
*play clay
*rolling pin
*semi-flat found objects like washers, bottle caps, etc.
*crayons without their wrappers
*paper (scrap paper is perfect)

scrumdilly-do it!

Set up your work area with splat mat, dough, crayons, paper and found objects.Roll out your clay/dough dough to a good sized flat blob.Have your wee ones play with their found objects by pressing them into the clay. Your found objects should be no thicker than the dough you rolled out.When they are happy with their arrangement, place a sheet of paper over the art (we used the backside of printed paper we no longer needed) and tape at the corners to anchor it down.Using the flat side of the crayon, have your kidlet rub the crayon back and forth over the paper to create a rubbing. Use more than one color for variety.You can even arrange your objects to look like a creature or robot. Cut cardboard from old food boxes into robot like shapes for a robot making factory. Use up all your scrap paper and make your own Robot Parade. Even better, play this song while you're at it!
Stay tuned for another take on this method...I've got two more ways with play clay that are easy to do in a pinch!

Robots! Go-bots!

May 3 is Space Day. Since I have a thing for Robots I thought I would get y'all amped up to throw a robot party like this amazing mom did!
Birthday parties can easily get out of hand, especially if you live in a neighborhood where bigger is better. All you have to do is take a deep breath and let your wee one help in the planning. Bouncey house or not, you will have an excellent day full of fun and a wee bit o' chaos!

For a space or robot themed event there isn't much you can't do. All you really need is an awesome art activity, a couple of games, cake and a take home item. If you serve up cupcakes with a sprinkles bar that is even better! The birthday boy pictured above had a blast. There was robot making from recyclables, pin the nose on the robot and much running around. Plus, there was cake. For the giveaway/goodie bag, Mom Stacey ordered up a couple of custom t-shirts at a great deal from custom t-shirts. You could do this with an image drawn by your kidlet. You don't have to go all out, just pick a theme and run with it. Keeping the festivities outdoors is best. Kids need a lot of space as their energy levels grow in leaps and bounds as the group grows.

Check out these links for more space and robot themed fun:
Family Fun Space Themed Party Fun
Straight from the mouths of Moms, parties they planned
Kid's Party Fun
Amazing Moms
Build a Robot
Robot Rummy
Space themed party supplies

I'll try to get a kaboolde list togethre for you later today. Have fun!