Let’s Take A Drive Bridge

This blog post is a little bit different from the others, this is our first blog as a part of Kids Craft Blogger Challenge through MomTrusted / Early Teacher. Check out Early Teacher when you get a chance.

This month we received around 25-30 big and medium sized popsicle sticks to work with.  What do you do as a craft with this tool when you have a son that has TONS of cars? You build a bridge for them to take a drive on. This will even work for girls that have lots of dolls that like to take walks in the park too.

What you need:

• Popsicle sticks– Medium to Large at least 50.  This really depends on how big you want your bridge. We made it wide enough for two cars to pass, but if you use smaller sticks your bridge will be more narrow.   

                                        

• Wood Glue – this process will take several days, you can use hot glue if you want it done faster.

• Shallow pan– to soak your wood in to be able to bend it.
• Clothespins- to piece your wood together after it is glued.
• Xacto knife– to cut any sticks down to size.

Step 1:  Lay out your popsicle sticks into a design you want to make. This is important to know what plan to follow and where to make adjustments.

Step 2:  Start by gluing your sides together. Your sticks that will be vertical you will want to double up. Place your cross beams in the middle. Makes it a little bit more sturdy and looks better too. You can see below how I used the clothes pins. These are small clothespins so I have more room to work with.

After this step I let it dry overnight.

Step 3: Start building your support beams on the bottom for the actual bridge portion.  You want to make a square with the ends sticking out so they can be mounted on the sides of the bridge. Also put one more stick vertical in the beam. You will make 2 of these.

Once the glue is dry you can attach it to the sides of the bridge.

Step 4: Soak two sticks in water until they can be easily bent.  This will be the middle arch or the bridge to connect either side of the bridge.

This picture shows the bridge upside down to show how I connected the bent sticks.

Step 5: Start laying your planks with the smaller sticks.  This works best with they are vertical. 

Step 6: Add your center planks.  We used the larger sticks to go horizontally in the center and cut them to size using an xacto knife.

Step 7: Let your child paint or decorate however they want to make the bridge one of a kind.  We have yet to do this step yet, but once Easter is over and things calm down I am sure Jackson will love to decorate it. 

Step 8: Enjoy!!! 

This project took about 3 days to finish. I was able to take my time instead of rushing things.  Waiting for glue to dry is the hardest thing about the project.  I would love to see your bridges and hear your feedback on how you though this project went. 

Shaving Cream Easter Eggs

This is probably the most fun I have ever had dyeing Easter eggs.  It was messy, but no where near as messy as regular egg dye. The colors didn’t come out to bright, but you might want to leave the shaving cream on overnight  (making sure it is covered ). Food coloring will stain your skin if the shaving cream gets on your skin, you might want to wear gloves.

What you need:

Tray to work on

hard boiled eggs

food color

shaving cream

Step 1:  Spread your shaving cream all over your tray.

and get daddy

Step 2: add your food color

Step 3: Spread your food color out using a fork

Step 4: ADD YOUR EGGS AND ROLL!

We left the eggs in the shaving cream for about 3 hours.  You can leave the on over night but I would cover the tray if you decided to do that.

Step 5: Wipe off  with a paper towel.  Enjoy your Easter eggs

Outdoor Waterbed

This idea originated by Play At Home Mom LLC, you can find it here.  The idea of playing with water and staying dry at the same time is fantastic!   We did it slightly different from Play at Home Mom (basically just the size and color of the tarp).

What you need:

1 tarp – we used a 8×10 heavy duty tarp

Duct Tape –  we used some Gorilla Tape. Stuff is strong! 

Water Hose

This is a super easy project, just takes a little time.

Step one:  lay out the tarp and fold it in half

Step two: Duct tape all around the edges leaving a small opening just large enough for the hose to be placed in.  You may want to go around twice for good measure.

Step three: FILL IT UP!  It is easier to left up the end that the hose is in while it fills up so that water doesn’t leak out.  Once you have the amount of water you would like in it, just tape up that side too!

I have seen a few people place dish soap in it at this time so there are bubbles, toys, or any other objects. Just make sure that you don’t put anything that can poke a hole in it.

Step four: HAVE FUN!

Bunny Hops

Problems thinking about what to place in your child’s Easter basket?

Pre-made Easter baskets are well let’s face it… BORING

Cheaply made but are expensive.  Plus there are always one or two things in the basket that will never get used.

Putting your own basket together can become expensive as well too, but you can customize it to fit your house and your child.

Easter candy is EVERYWHERE right now.

My family and I are still trying to get rid of Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and just random candy in between too.

EASTER CANDY WILL NOT BE IN MY SON’S EASTER BASKET!

I am a little tired of candy to be honest and we really don’t eat it much, hence the reason why we still have so much.

(Family please, if you send candy from now on please only send individual sizes)

So what will be in our son’s Easter basket?

Item’s that will be useful, and we can use every day for crafts and just plain fun time.

This will be a Crayola Easter!

Sidewalk Chalk

MORE Crayons

Bubbles

and perhaps an outdoor toy.

NO EASTER CANDY!

Can I say that again…

NO EASTER CANDY!

Jack has had enough Peeps to satisfy him until the next holiday.

So now that you know what is going in Jackson’s Easter basket.. What’s going to be in your child’s?

**UPDATE 3/16/2013**  I went shopping today and got his Easter Basket together.

It isn’t much but does  a 3 yr old really need much?

We have bubbles, Rise of the Guardians, Angry Birds Tattoos, Triangle crayons, sidewalk chalk, and a dinosaur.

For a total of $30! We already had the basket.

Not to bad and I am sure my little man will be thrilled with it, since he picked pretty much all of it out on his own!