penny carnival

Real Simple fun

Just a quick hello to those of you finding Penny Carnival from the little mention in the Real Simple: Family issue.

I picked up a copy today--it looks like a beautiful issue. But is that any surprise? Real Simple makes bottles of window cleaner look lovely.

Anyhow, I'm humbled to be a teeny-tiny part of it.

So what did Real Simple feature? They mentioned the "story starters" activity I do with my kids and listed a handful of my examples. If you're looking for the whole list (it's a free printable PDF), please check out my original post about it. 

Thanks again for dropping by!

P.S. The Back-to-School Sew Along is plugging along. The deadline is Sept. 12, so if you haven't started stitching yet, hop to it! Remember, you can upload your photos to the Back-to-School Sew Along Flickr group, the Penny Carnival Facebook wall or just e-mail them to me (megan.cooley@comcast.net). 

One random entrant will win this Sewing Calendar from Accord Publishing:

 

Park scavenger hunt

I'm taking a break from all the sew along talk to bring you ... a park scavenger hunt.

Also known as a nature scavenger hunt. 

I've said before that sometimes the daily activities I have planned for the girls (when we actually have something planned) go over like carrots without ranch dressing. And other times you would've thought I'd handed them chocolate cake.

Today was a chocolate cake kind of day. They ate this one up, and then came home and asked for seconds.

Nothing groundbreaking here. I gave them each a clipboard, crayons and a chart I made this morning. I'd drawn pictures of items I was pretty sure we'd find at the park, and then told them to look for the items and either color them in, check them off or circle them when they spotted them.

The girls--Bo, especially--completely bypassed the playground when we arrived and started working on their scavenger hunts. In fact, Bo started checking off things as we pulled up in the car. We didn't treat it as a contest, but you could.

It took us about 30 minutes to find everything. OK, it took me about 5. It took them 30.

The butterfly and the squirrel proved most challenging--should've just stayed in our own backyard if we wanted squirrels. But what a thrill for them once everything on the chart was checked off (they had no patience for coloring in the pictures in the heat of the hunt, but I printed off extra copies when we got home and they painted them).

At the risk of revealing my pitiful skills as an illustrator (the girls swore the ball was really a pumpkin, and I'm not sure about the breed of the dog--what sort of dog has a teeny tiny head and a big barrel chest?), here is our park scavenger hunt worksheet, in case you'd like to try this at home:

Download The park scavenger hunt

 

Here's Magpie looking for a squirrel in the trees, yelling, "Squirrel! Squirrel! Come out!"

 
Again, here's the PDF:

Download The park scavenger hunt   

Let me know if you have any trouble with it. Otherwise, happy hunting. 

 

Sprinkler games for kids

Quick note on the Back-to-School Sew Along: I'm excited to see some of you jumping on board. Yea! A few others showed some interest over on Facebook. More details coming soon, but I wanted to address a question that came up a couple of times.

The images of kids' clothes I posted yesterday don't come from patterns. I was just cruising some online stores and blogs for inspiration. But I think I could make some pattern suggestions and I'd love for others to share their pattern/tutorial links. Do you have a favorite kids' clothes pattern, especially something that would work for school clothes and accessories? Put them in the comments and I'll create a blog post at some point that rounds them all up.

I'll try to find some patterns that somewhat resemble yesterday's outfits and share links to other good stuff in the coming days. Oh, and if you look back at yesterday's post, I added a few more images. The Mini Boden and Tea Collection catalogs came in the mail. Couldn't resist.

Tonight, though, a quick post about summertime sprinkler fun. 

The girls were playing in the sprinkler today, and I could tell after about 30 seconds that simply running through cold water wasn't going to keep them entertained for long. Go figure.

So I made up a couple of "sprinkler games." Worked like magic. They had a splashy good time, and I worked on my tan (long way to go on that front, let me tell ya).

Here are some of our sprinkler games from today. Remember: my kids are 2 and 5. These are pretty basic ideas:

1. One of you is a pirate. The sprinkler is your treasure and you must protect it from the mermaid. Mermaid: if you are able to jump over the sprinkler, you win a point. 

2. Simon Says. Just like the regular game, but the actions take place in the sprinkler, i.e., "Simon says get your hair wet ... Simon says run in a circle around the sprinkler."

3. Catch. Play catch with a large ball, tossing it through the spraying water.

4. We didn't do this one today, but Bo loves obstacle courses. You could incorporate a sprinkler into an obstacle course, either by telling the kids they need to run past the sprinkler without getting wet or requiring them to get wet as party of the mission.

And here are some sprinkler games I found online tonight:

5. Sneaky Sprinkler. Adult turns the sprinkler on and off randomly. Everyone must freeze when the water goes off. 

6. Go Touch. Call out items around the yard the kids must run and touch. For example, say, "Go touch the cherry tree." The first child to touch the tree and then run back and touch the home base (the sprinkler, of course), wins. 

7. I can't find the source for this one, but you could pretend the sprinkler is a car wash. Have the kids scrub down their bicycles and then push them through the car wash (i.e. sprinkler) to get clean.

Editing to add one more game we played today. Not necessarily a sprinkler activity, but it could be: charades. Very simple charades. As in, sometimes we have to use sounds to help Magpie win.

The forecast is getting hotter here. Any other ideas for sprinkler fun? 

P.S. Did you know Spokane has a polo team? We try to catch a match or two every summer. It's very low key here. Tonight we were attending a special function, but normally you just bring a blanket and a picnic basket, and watch the horsies run. Fast.

Oh, how I wish this were the scene out my kitchen window on any given day (although I know that kind of lifestyle requires more work than I can imagine):

   
  

One birthday project down ...

... many, many more to go.

Bo had the great idea to play pin the crown on Sleeping Beauty, so that's what this is for. I had a spare piece of plywood in the garage and used the girls' poster paint. I'm not sure if she earns the name "beauty," but she was free. 

More to come.

 

Tutorial: bean bag your family

Hello, June. Hello, rain. I kind of love you.

First: Two new reader book slings to report. This adorable robot one from Katie's Corner. 

 

And this sweet one from a reader named Kelsey for her son, William:

I am always, always tickled to see these, guys. Keep 'em coming. I'll add these shots to the book sling tutorial in a bit.   

Now, for a new tutorial. It's kind of a silly one.

Back in April, we threw a 70th birthday party for my wonderful dad. We sort of treated it like a kid's party, complete with party hats, goody bags and, well, we meant to play this game:

I had made bean bags with the faces of all our family members on them. I planned to cut a tree shape out of plywood, cut holes in it, paint it and play a sort of Family Tree Bean Bag Toss. The tree never happened, though, so the kids just kind of tossed around the bean-filled versions of themselves (which they loved, by the way. What's not to love? Their face on a bean bag. Put their face on broccoli and they'd eat it. Hmm ... there's an idea).

You, however, might be certainly are more adept at carpentry than me, so maybe you'll give the tree a go. Start working on that, and I'll show you how to make the bean bags.

(By the way, I'm predicting carpentry is going to be the next knitting. I seriously would love to get more into it.)

 

You will need: your computer, printer, PhotoFabric (made by a company called Blumental Craft) or some other brand of fabric that can run through a printer, sewing supplies, scrap fabric and, of course, beans. Pinto or otherwise.

Step 1: Create a word-processing or page-design document on your computer with four photos per 8 ½ by 11-inch page.

Step 2: Following package instructions, print the document onto photo fabric.

 

Step 3: Cut out each photo. Cut a piece of scrap fabric of the same size. Place the photo and the fabric on top of one another, right sides facing. Sew around three sides, either by hand or with a machine.

  

Step 4: Turn the bean bag right side out and use a turning tool (a knitting needle works great) to fill with beans, being careful not to over stuff it. You want the beans to be able to jiggle around somewhat loosely inside the bag.

 

Step 5: Sew the fourth side of the bean bag shut.

You've been bean bagged!

Toss away!  

Easy pillows and birthday party prep

My husband could eat grilled chicken breast and a can of French-cut green beans every night for the rest of his life. He holds high expectations for himself in many ways, but when it comes to almost everything else, the guy is really easy to please.

So it was no surprise that these very simple pillows knocked his socks off this morning.

 

His face lit up when he saw them. It was cute, but seriously, Hon. It's a square of fabric in the front and a square in the back with a flap. Not even a ruffly trim. Chill out.
 
 

These super easy pillows are about all I can handle right now. Life is going a mile a minute, like normal. It's all good, but hectic and there are some unknowns lingering in the not-so-distant future. I'm anxious for it all to be settled. 

I can't even remember the name of the beautiful fabric (which I think is what really impressed J, but I'll let him believe it was my mad sewing skillz instead). Anyone? Anyone?

One other thing I'm starting to work on is Bo's fifth birthday party. If you've been reading Penny Carnival for a while, you might remember her princess party last year. If you've been reading Penny Carnival for a long while (thank you!), you might remember her rainbow party in 2008.

This year's theme: Barbie Goes Camping. And Eats Ice Cream.

The kid is as indecisive as her mother, so we're blending her three favorites.

Did I ever write about the thing J once said about Barbie? We were debating whether to buy the girls each a doll. Neither of us are fans, but he was particularly against it. He said, "We're not buying a Barbie. She has big boobs and a tiny waist." To which I replied, "Since when have you had a problem with big boobs and tiny waistlines?" Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny. So laugh.

Despite our feelings about the doll, we're both on board with the birthday theme. Here are some ideas so far:

-I'm going to bake one of those Barbie doll cakes where the skirt is the cake and Babs is poking out the top, but she's going to be holding a fishing pole and wearing a fishing vest and, if I can swing it, a plaid skirt.

-I'm going to make graham cracker tents (similar to making graham cracker gingerbread houses) and let the kids decorate them with royal icing and candy.

-We're going to have Blow the Fish Down the River contests, similar to the rubber ducky race you can see Magpie competing in here. 

-For the invitations, I'm going to take a picture of a Barbie doll in a miniature camping scene. Since the only Barbies we own were purchased at a junk sale for $1, don't be surprised if her hair is a little ratty and she's missing a limb. It will take all my self control to not place a tiny can of beer in her hand. 

-We'll make s'mores over a fire pit in the backyard.

-The favors will be placed in hobo sacks made from pink bandanas tied to sticks the girls and I collected at the park after a particularly windy day. Inside the sacks will be magnifying glasses, compasses and candy lipstick tubes.

-We'll make fireflies out of glow sticks (for the body) and coffee filters (for the wings).

-If I have time, I'll sew some fabric teepees for the kids to play in in the backyard. Otherwise, we'll just set up our tent.

-I'll ask everyone to wear camping-style clothes, if they'd like.

-We have one of those balls that makes ice cream when you kick it around, so we'll have the kids do that. 

-The pinata will be an ice cream cone, if I can find or make one.

Any other ideas?