Handy Helper – Toothpaste

Toothpaste is becoming a miracle helper in my house. People always think they have a secret object to fix almost anything. I am sure there are thousands of uses out there. But here is a list of uses for toothpaste.. and not just for freshening breath! So far the best kind of toothpaste we have found that works best is the white Crest paste (not the gel)

 

1.) Bug Bites!

Yes! Bug bites! Summer is upon us and in Florida mosquitos are out in full force!  Mosquitos are nasty boogers and they  love Jackson.  I always feel so bad for him when he gets bit. Even if we spray him down, dryer sheets help, but he doesn’t want to keep them in his pockets.  Get a dab of toothpaste on each bite and it immediately relieves the itch and removes the redness.

2.) Burns!

Burns as in from the oven, grill, or curling iron. Anything else you might be a klutz with and burn yourself on, if you are anything like me.  Apply a light layer on the burn immediately.  Let this 1st layer dry and then gently wipe it off.  Reapply the 2nd layer. Toothpaste removes the sting and the swelling. If you allow it to set it on the burn for at least 2 hours (the combination of both applications)  your burn will no longer be tender t touch, no scaring either!

3.) Remove crayon marks on walls!

Gotta love kids and drawing on the walls.  Rub a small dab of toothpaste on a washcloth and rub it on the marks.  Make sure to wash it off with warm water though!

4.) Deodorize Hands!

Have you cooked onions or garlic before and you can’t get the smell off your hands and the stainless steel trick isn’t working for you.. try washing your hands with toothpaste. Toothpaste helps with bad breath so why not smelly hands?

5.) Jewelry

Be careful when doing this one. To polish up stones take a small dab of toothpaste and an old toothbrush and go to work polishing. Rinse with warm water.  Cleans up rather well!

6.) Zits!

Yes, toothpaste works on zits as well. Dab it on and go to bed!  It dries the zit out. Isn’t that just nice?

7.) Fill small holes in the walls.

Again just a dab on a small hole ( thumbtack size) and let it dry. Sand and repaint.

 

 

 

Happy Summer and I hope that these tips help!

Gulfarium Adventures

If you ever come to Destin, Florida on vacation and you have the kids with you, take a break from the beach one day and check out the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park. It is just across the bridge from Destin in Fort Walton Beach (on Okaloosa Island).  There is several activities to suit each age group. I took Jack there for his first time last month and he loved it! I’m not sure of his favorite section although I know he really liked the dolphin show.  He also asked to see the alligators, which are big, he wanted to see bigger and go pet them. I blame myself for letting him watch Gator Boys for that one. My personal favorite part are the penguins (yes! Penguins in Florida!) and the touch and feel sealife tank. Tickets aren’t too bad priced for what all you get to see.

Deciding to go here all started because Jack wanted to be a ninja turtle. We have an old turtle shell at home and it really peaked his interest.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure!

 

Lego Adventures

Thanks to the Lego Movie, Jack has now shown interest in Legos. I was happy to find a Lego Junior set and he actually followed the directions (with help) and built the sets!

He has asked for a few different sets already.

 

Lego Juniors are great for little hands that still need a little assistance!

Put me on a canvas!

To put pictures on canvas is expensive… or so we thought.  There is an easier way than buying the canvases from some online printing store…  DO IT YOURSELF!

Supplies needed: 

Blank canvas

A printed picture same size of the canvas.

Mod Podge

Foam Brush

 

Here’s How:

Step 1: Gather your supplies

 

 

Step 2:

Place a layer of Mod Podge on the canvas. Then gently place your photograph on top of the canvas.

 

Step 3:

Add a layer of Mod Podge on top of the photograph. Make sure to get the edges. Once the 1st layer is dried, add a second. It will dry clear. When you add your Mod Podge brush it on in the same direction.

It will dry clear when done.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the dried product. Will be updated.

 

 

1 year!

 

Well today The Adventures of Action Jackson blog turned 1 year old!  Thank you to everyone who comes and reads on all the activities we do.  We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas is you celebrate. Jackson’s birthday is also Christmas day so we get to celebrate his awesomeness with a lot of presents.  He turned a might 4 years old!

You can also keep up with us on Facebook.   See everyone in the new year!

Star Wars Snowflakes

We did it! We finally did it! Last year we saw this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G snowflakes in the shapes of your favorite Star Wars characters! We are complete Star Wars geeks in this family. Jackson is obsessed. Even more now since they merged his Angry Birds with Star Wars.

Thanks to Anthony over at Anthony Herrera Designs he gives step by step instructions on how to fold and cut this awesome snow flakes.

So far we have only made C3-PO and Yoda, and let me tell you this is hard work!  I did find a trick though after I finished C3-PO, cut the small stuff 1st! Then cut the outer edge. This gives your hand something to hold on to while you cut with your fancy Xacto knife.

 

Best of luck on your cuttings and holidays! Merry Christmas and May the force be with you with this craft!

Santa’s Countdown to Christmas!

Action Jackson is getting to the age where visual displays help to let him know when something important is coming up. Well Christmas is only days away. I have never done an advent calendar and don’t really like the idea of all the little toys or candies in there. Mainly because they will all be gone before Christmas arrives.  So instead I went to Joann’s and found a felt santa.  Since I wanted to do a countdown somehow I thought that I get some white pom poms and glue them each day onto Santa’s beard. Here’s what we did:

Step 1: We had to glue all the pieces of Santa together. The pre-made kit can be bought at Joann’s for $10. We put it together with Glue Dots.

Step 2: Line up all your pom poms in the order you want them. You should have 24 (Since Santa comes on Christmas Eve).

Step 3: One by one take off the pom- poms and number with a sharpie. 24 should be at the end of the beard to make it full when it is finished.

Step 4: Hang him up and add a pom pom each day! We have been using the glue dots and they work just fine.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Gobble! Gobble! Shake Your Tail Feathers!

I haven’t posted anything in a few weeks so it was about time we did a craft.  Finally getting settled enough to bring the crafts out and have some fun. Today was glitter explosion! I don’t know what I would do without our craft tray I got many months ago. It keeps 90% of all the glitter in the tray, rather find that 10% around the house rather than all of it!

While going through my craft supplies I found a couple of old hand prints I had cut out of Jackson’s a few months ago (I’m guessing I really don’t remember when I cut them out). Since Thanksgiving is the next holiday we will celebrate I figured I might as well turn those hand prints into some turkeys!

 

What you need:

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Paper towel tube
• Glitter
• Glue 

Step 1:  Make your handprints

Trace your child’s hand and cut it out on the construction paper. Sorry I don’t have pictures of this step since it was already done. 

Step 2:  Glue

Place glue all over the hand prints, one at a time since it tends to dry fast in a thin layer.  We used clear school glue. 

Step 3:  GLITTER!!!! 

You can decorate any time you want, but we used glitter. Gold, copper, silver, blue, green, and purple is what we used.

 

 

Step 4:  DRY

Allow your turkeys to dry other wise the fingers will bend.

Step 5: Cut your tube

Cut your card board tube from 1 1/2 inch – 3 inches. Depending on how many turkeys you are doing.

 

Step 6: Glue the Turkeys! 

Glue your turkeys on to your tubes. The bottom should stand to the bottom of the tube so that it is standing straight.

 

 

We added some  sequins as eyes. Over all I think they came out pretty cute and Jackson really enjoyed playing with glitter.  These would be great for Thanksgiving as place card holders or decorations.

 

Have fun making yours and send pictures if you want!

Thrifty Halloween Decorations

It’s a few days away from Halloween! This is one of my favorite holidays!  While I would love to decorate the outside of my house like all my neighbors, we just don’t have the money for that. Plus I like decorations very inexpensive! OR FREE!

This week we have made outdoor lanterns for the sidewalk and we have made spooky silhouettes for Jackson’s windows.  Both were made with items from around the house!

We will start with the silhouettes. Sorry I didn’t take pictures of the process since it was super simple. All we did was use Contact Paper. Yup that is it!  I heard you can even use Press N Seal paper too. For us all we had to do was draw on the back side of the contact paper our spooky shapes and cut it out!  We made ghost, pumpkins and bats.  Once you cut it out gently peel the backing off and stick it to your windows! That is it. How super simple!  At night just have a light shining through the back of the curtains so people from the street can see your spookiness!

Spooky Outdoor Lanterns

Yes another easy and (cheap) project. I collect everything, jars mostly, but my craft room is full of random stuff. Thankfully I had several jars for this project.

What you need:

•     Empty clean jar
•     Tissue paper ( green, orange, white) We actually used orange crepe paper (streamers) for the pumpkin. 
•     Mod Podge
•     Scissors, paint brush
•     Black construction paper
•     Black duct tape

You might want a paper plate or something to rest your jar on while you work. 

Take you a section of tissue paper ( like a quarter of a sheet) and cut it in to strips. You will be placing them vertical on the jar, make sure they are long enough.

Take your jar and start brushing on the Mod Podge.

Once you get your jar covered ( or you can work in sections)  start laying your strips of tissue paper. After each strip laid coat a layer of mod podge on top and repeat until the how jar is covered.

Once your Jar is covered with Mod Podge  draw a face on your black construction paper and cut it out.  Finally Mod Podge it on your jar as well.

Next take your black duct tape and tape around the mouth of the jar.

 

Just let dry and your are all done. Drop a tea light or a battery operated tea light inside and let it light you walkway!

Where do I live?

As our children get older the more questions they have. A big one they might as is “Where do I live?”.  Jackson has recently become obsessed with space. As parents, his father and I are super proud. But it started me thinking he knows earth, he knows how to give me directions to Target or Publix, but does he really know where he lives? So I set out through Pinterest to see if there was somehow to give him a correlation between Earth and where we live. And thanks to Teach Mama, she did just that. Breaking down the sections to make it easy on kids.  You start at our house, to your street, city, state, country, continent, and planet.  She even gives you a downloadable file that has the different sized circles to make it easy.

What you need:

•  Downloadable file from Teach Momma
• Construction Paper (This is what we printed our planets off on, trimmed to size)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Whole Punch and something to hold everything together. (We used a D-ring that I was able to slide the pieces of paper in individually and then super glued it shut)

Step 1:

Print your circles out

Step 2:

Collect your print outs for each location

Step 3:

Color and decorate

Step 4:

Glue

Step 5:

Whole punch and connect.

Now that we have finished with this location, I think we will have to do one with all the planets.

Resources where we got our maps:

Street and City maps- Google Maps

Continent- www.yourchildlearns.com

Planet – Google Images

State and Country – www.50states.com