Sunday, September 1, 2013

Pinterest Challenge: Days 28-30 and Wrap Up

Did you think I fell of the face of the earth?  It felt like I did!  I am enjoying a relaxing weekend up in the beautiful Rocky Mountains and getting caught up on life.  It is wonderful and refreshing.  I know that sounds weird that work can be refreshing, but there have been so many things hanging over my head, that to have time to just get caught on up things is refreshing to me.  The kids are playing out in the woods and getting REALLY dirty and I wouldn't have it any other way.  It is wonderfully quiet and I am getting a lot done.

I actually did finish my Pinterest Challenge in 30 days.  I just never got around to publishing them on the blog.  So here is the wrap up.

Day 27: (From my The Chanchos Board)
Use Red Cups to create a Nerf Gun Shooting Range - Kids would have a blast shooting the men and cups down.

I thought this looked really fun and was right up my boys' alley.  The best part about it.....FREE.  We had red Solo cups, guns and Lego guys.  However, when I actually went to go do this, I thought I would make it more "Summer" friendly.  Give the boys a reason to get outside.  So I adapted it and made it with water guns.  We also didn't use Lego guys.  We just put the cups into a pyramid and let them squirt it down.





They had a good time with it, but I think I will try this again someday indoors and use the Lego Guys.  Or maybe let them use their new Airsoft guns for target practice.  I think they would like the challenge of having to knock the guy down without knocking down the cups.

However, for littler kids, using the water guns and stacking the cups is genius.  Just be prepared to help set up cups A.LOT.

We will totally do this one again.  No $ or special tools required.  Love it!

Day 28: (From my Party Ideas Board)
Camping party invitation

Makai and Josiah decided they wanted a joint camping birthday party this year.  Summer time always seems to be a little nuts and I never have enough time (especially with all three kids at home 24/7).  So I was looking for an easy, but fun invitation idea.  Enter Pinterest.  I found this one and thought it was genius.  My mother in law happened to be up at the cabin and I asked her to bring home a log that I (um, Chris) could cut.  She brought it home that day and Chris cut them into slivers for me that night.  All I (Makai) did was write the information on them.  Easy Peasy.  I would have done an evite (genius Julie) but I like to have an invitation for their birthday scrapbook (the only scrapbooks I can seem to manage to keep updated).


This was fun and easy!  My sister in law (in all her craftyness) took this one step further when my niece decided she wanted a camping party too.  She printed out the information on red, yellow and orange paper, cut it into flames and stapled them to the wood so it looked like a campfire.  Dang it!  Why didn't I think of that.  Nice work (sorry I didn't take a picture of your genius Stacey)!

Day 29: (From my Cabin Fever Board)

fire starters from toilet paper rolls & lint

I thought this looked like a great idea and would be a great way to reuse/recycle.  I collected these for awhile and then when it came time for Makai (and Josiah's) camping party, I thought it would be a perfect time to put them to use.  I ran down to the trash by the laundry and pulled out a bunch of dryer lint to stuff inside the cardboard rolls.





These were not hugely successful and the lint didn't burn nearly as fast as I thought it would.  They worked okay, but I think if you were looking for something in a pinch, they would be good.  Newspaper and tiny sticks are the best kindling, but these would be okay.  Let's just say that I am not going to be digging through my laundry trash can for lint anytime soon.

Day 30:  (From my Summa Time Board)

{Jello} Homemade Shaved Ice.  SO easy and Perfect for the kids for a summer treat!  ONLY 3 INGREDIENTS!

I am always looking for fun, easy and cheap things to do with the kids over the summer.  I saw this recipe and thought it would be a fun one.  So I thought I would try this one out.  The best part is that they are ingredients that you probably have around the house, and all of my allergy kids can have it!

It was pretty easy to do and I whipped it up late one night after the kids went to bed.  The next day when the "I'm bored" comments started flowing, I pulled these out.  Of course, I had to make 3 batches (one for each kid with their favorite color/flavor).




The kids ate them and seemed to enjoy it, but they were definitely not over the moon about it.  I might make them again, but probably just a single batch.  I threw about half of each dish away.  It also had a strange texture, almost rubbery on the top.  I just scraped that part off.

Wrap up:

Favorite Pin for the kids: The Fan Fort and the Ice Blocks.

Least Favorite Pin: The Microwave Mac and Cheese

My Favorite New Recipe: The Quinoa Salad

My kids LOVED this project.  Each day they were excited to see what we were going to do.  You know the thing I love the most about it?  It made me engage with the kids more.  It forced me to be purposeful and to plan fun things to do with the kids (in advance, which is something I am not usually good at).  I am excited to do this again with the kids.  Perhaps I won't do 30 in 30 days, but I might try to pick 8-10 and do one per week over the summer.  I will keep you updated!

There are so many good ideas on Pinterest.  It was nice to actually put into action what I was pinning!  I tried to pick fun, easy things that didn't cost a lot of money and I felt like I was pretty successful.

Sorry it took me so long to get this up on the Blog.  I am sure you will be happy to know that I have continued to pin and I have put more pins into action.  Perhaps I will get those up on here one of these days.  One day at a time!

Happy Pinning everyone and if you want to follow my boards, I am under Lisa Coombs Lord!


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