Homemade Sprinkler

Does this crack anyone else up or is it just me?!?! Heck, I'm laughing even now as I'm typing this. When I saw this fantastically awesome idea here I knew I had to give it a try.
Here is all you need.
* A Hose (duh)
* Duct Tape
* Empty 2 liter bottle

How simple is that!??!

Use a small screw driver or something to poke holes in the plastic bottle. I poked too many and water was shooting everywhere. Even under the sprinkler. So maybe just on 3 sides of the bottle.

Tape the bottle to the hose and have at it!

I think my neighbors were all wishing they lived somewhere else this day. Because, of course, we did this in my front yard =o) Just bringing a little small town back into this small town!

My daughter LOVED it!!!

I'm figuring this project cost me less than a dollar. (I'm not including the price of the soda. We drank that.) =o)

Have at it folks! It's still cracking me up!!!

And The Winner Is...

Wow! So many entries/comments for my first giveaway. How cool is that?!?! A HUGE thank you to everyone for coming to visit me and staying to see what we are up to. I really appreciate it!

And the winner of all of this

is... Terra!

Please contact me by Sunday, August 1st.

Congratulations!!!

Watermelon Beetle AKA Fruit Salad the Fun Way

My Mom called me the other day and asked if I would bring a fruit tray to the family gathering we were having. To me, this was an open invitation for some fruit creativity. I mean, I could have just sliced up some fruit and plopped it on a plate. But really??? That's not how we roll in my house. =o)

So my kids and I decided to make this instead.

It was really easy and doesn't it look at least a little more exciting than a boring old fruit tray?

What you will need:

* small seedless watermelon

* cantalope or other kinds of fruit you would like to add

* 1 large lime

* 1 large marshmallow (I used a strawberry marshmallow that was pink)

* 1 green grape

* mandarin oranges

* tooth picks

This is how you do it!

Cut a small piece out of the bottom of the watermelon so that it will not roll off the counter. That's kind of important. You don't want your beetle driving off the table!

Now cut your watermelon in half. Then cut the top half in half again.

Scoop out the inside of the watermelon.

Cut the ends of the lime off and slice it into 6 slices.

Attach the "wheels" on with a toothpick.

For the "windshiels" of the beetle you will want to make a line about 1 inch from the center of one of the top pieces. Carefully peel the outer skin off of the watermelon. And attach this piece to the bottom half with toothpicks.

Cut the marshmallow in half. Attach with a toothpick, leaving the end of the toothpick out. Cut the grape in half and stick the grape on the toothpick end coming out of the marshmallow.

Cut a lime slice in half and peel the pulp part of the lime away. These will be the eyebrows. Attach with a toothpick.

Cut another slice of lime and attach one half for the mouth.

Attach a mandarine orange with a toothpick for the nose.

Now fill the "beetle" up with the cut up watermelon and any other fruit you would like.

And there it is... a watermelon beetle. What little person wouldn't like to see this on the table???

And don't forget to enter my "sweet" giveaway here. It ends on July 28th.

I link up to these parties over there ------>

Bubble Art and Lots of Smiles

Sometimes the crafts that are easy and cheap are the best ones. Well this one is super easy and SUPER cheap. That's my kind of craft. Have you ever heard of bubble art? It's totally cool.

Here's what you'll need:
*2 Tablespoons tempera paint
* 1 Tablespoon dish soap (clear works best)
* 1 cup cold water
* straw
* pie pan
* plain white paper

That's it. How cheap is that?!?!

Mix the paint, soap and water in a container and shake it up.

Now pour it into a pie pan.

Now blow! Make sure your kids don't suck! That wouldn't be good.

After you have lots and lots of bubbles. Lay a piece of paper over them. Make sure you don't press it all the way to the pie plate. You won't get the individual bubble prints that way. But experiment with the pressure. It makes lots of different designs!

And viola! Bubble art!

My daughter's wasn't very dark (we used pink) so we poured the mixture back into the container (we used an empty salad dressing jar) and added a little bit of red. It was much darker after that and worked great!

And don't forget to cover your table with newspaper or cardboard. It might get a little splatty depending on how hard they blow. =o)

Enjoy!!!

And don't forget to enter my "sweet" giveaway here before July 28th!

I link up to these parties over there ----->

100+ Followers and a Giveaway

I can't believe I have 100 followers (okay, a couple more than that now. I was a little slow out of the gate with this post.) When I started talking about doing a blog it was one of those "it'll give me something to do. No one will ever read it" things. I am so thrilled you all stop by and want to read what I have to say. Okay, maybe you don't want to read what I have to say... but you look at my lamo pictures and are interested in what we are doing/creating/making/etc. I am thrilled!
So, I said giveaway right? I figured I'd better do something fun to celebrate this occassion. And what better way to celebrate than with chocolate, right?!?!

There's a lot of posts out there using the new M&M flavors. Oh sure, there's the original:

They are pretty darn delicious!

But then they came out with these:

I LOVE the peanut M&Ms. I can eat them by the handful. (But isn't that how you are supposed to eat them? Someone please agree with me.) These M&Ms make me very:

Now you can even buy these for you almond lovers:

But when they made these little babies:

I was in:

But then I came across these:

They are peanut butter and strawberry jelly M&Ms. Don't they sound delish?!?!

These are the ones that I am reading are hard to find. I found them at Freddys. Another amazing flavor.

But I think the mac daddy of them all might be these:

I LOVE these little things. These are kind of hard to find around here but I looked and looked and looked. (And then ate and ate and ate...)

So why all the pictures of these little morsels of deliciousness you ask? That's the giveaway. One lucky winner will win two bags of the following flavors of M&Ms:

Plain

Peanut

Almond

Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jelly

Coconut

Pretzel

Yep, you heard me right. That's 14 bags of goodness. How can you win you ask? Leave me a comment. It's that simple. If you want to enter twice, leave me another comment with a link to a post of a fun activity or project to do with kids. How easy is that! (For you smarty pants out there, I don't want a link to one of MY posts. It has to be from someone else.) =o)

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, July 28th.

Good luck!

Strawberry Cream Pie

Let me start by saying I don't normally eat pie. I don't really like fruit (I know. I've heard it for 43 years from my Mom.) But there is something about it that just doesn't appeal to me. So when someone serves pie for dessert I politely say no thank you. The only exceptions are Dutch Apple Pie (but only if it's made by my Mom or myself) and this amazing Strawberry Cream Pie.

But I have to make this pie very stategically. See, if I make this pie at the beginning of strawberry season I will end up making at least 4 of them... and eating them all! Seriously! So I wait until the season is almost over before I make the first one. Then I devour it and wait patiently until next year when I can eat another one. If you're wondering... "another one? She eats the entire pie herself?" The answer is a big, loud "HECK YES!"

So my kids and I went out to pick berries. I've only lived in the Pacific Northwest so I don't know what berries are like in other places, but here they are plentiful! And the strawberries are devine!


Here's what you'll need:

* pie shell (pre-cooked)

* 1 package of vanilla pudding

* whipping cream

* a little sugar

* strawberries

* strawberry glaze (we buy ours in the grocery store in the produce section. I'm sure you can make your own but heck, that would be hard and take more time) =o)

Make the vanilla pudding. Little helpers love this part!

One of the reason I don't like pie is because of the pie crust. My Mom makes a pie crust from heaven. But again, that's a lot of work. I found Marie Callender's pies in the freezer section at the grocery store. They are almost as good as my Mom's. If I couldn't buy this particular brand, I would end up making my own. It's that good!

Make the whipping cream. You can always buy store bought whipping cream but I think it tastes wierd and kind of plasticy. (Have I mentioned I'm a little picky when it comes to my desserts?!?!) So I whip it myself. Don't forget to add a little bit of sugar to sweeten it up a bit.

Now fold the whipping cream in with the pudding. It's up to you how much you want to add. The more you add (the better it tastes, I think) but the pudding won't be super firm so when you cut it, it kind of plops over. But it tastes oh so delicious!

Pour it into your pre-baked and cool pie crust. You probably won't use it all, depending on how much whipping cream you added.

Now pile it high with strawberries. You can either slice them or leave them whole. I slice up the giant ones but it looks pretty when there are whole berries on it, don't you think?

Now drizzle the glaze over the berries.

It's that simple!

And remember when I said you would have leftover pudding/whipping cream mixture? For some reason I didn't have a problem getting rid of it.

I link up to these parties over there ------>

Water Bombs... Homemade Style

My kids love to have water fights. Which kids don't, right?! We go through hundreds of water balloons each summer. I don't mind it too much but filling all of those balloons gets kind of old. And it makes my fingers hurt. (My kids are too young to tie them on their own. Or at least that's what they keep telling me. Maybe I'm a giant sucker???) But how can youhave a water fight without water balloons??? Fear not! Here is an easy (and totally cheap) way to make homemade water balloons! No more tieing. No more picking up billions of colorful pieces all over the yard.

What you'll need...
* Sponges (any kind will work. We got ours at the Dollar Tree.)
* String (again, any kind will work.)
Thank's it!

Cut the sponges into strips. You can either cut them the long way or the short (depending ion whether you want bigger water bombs or smaller ones.) Cut each sponge into 3 if you are going the long way.

Now make two layers of sponges (using 6 strips.) Change the colors around if you would like.

And then tie them tight!

There you go.... homemade water bomb!

My kids had a blast playing with these. We had the neighbor kids over for a water fight (since summer has finally arrived to the Pacific Northwest!)

A couple of the kids still wanted water balloons. Do you think this is cheating when they make them this big???

I link up to these parties ------->