Easy-To-Make Lollipops

Better Homes and Garden has a fun article on how to make lollipops out of hard candies. It looks like fun.

All you need is:

• Cookies sheet; foil
• Assorted hard candies
• Meat mallet or small hammer
• Metal cookie cutter (optional)
• Lollipop sticks (available at crafts stores)
• Assorted small decorative candies

Click on the link to the article for the directions.

Make Your Own Bubble Bath

YOU WILL NEED

• 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) clear or light-colored shampoo
• 3/4 cup (180 milliliters) water
• 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 milliliters) table salt
• Red food coloring
• Bowl, small plate, spoon, toothpick
• Small, clean jar (A jelly jar works well.)

1. Mix the shampoo and water in the bowl.

2. Add salt and stir for about a minute until mixture thickens slightly.

3. Put one drop of food coloring on a plate.

4. Dip the toothpick in it, and add to the mixture a little at a time until you have the desired pink color.

5. Pour bubble bath into the jar.

Make Gardening Fun

Family Fun has a neat article on how to make gardening a fun experience for your children. Click here to read it . Make it an FHE activity. Remember: The prophet said to plant a garden, so that's what I'll do... Have fun gardening!

Crazy Crystals

You will need:
powdered alum, available in the spice section of the supermarket
water
a small pan
a wooden spoon
food coloring (for amounts, see below)
several small jars
paper towels

1. Measure 4 teaspoons of water and 3 teaspoons of alum into the pan.

2. Add drops of food coloring to achieve the desired color (see the color list below for ideas).

3. Bring the mixture to a complete boil, stirring for a few seconds until all of the alum is dissolved.

4. Allow the mixture to cool two minutes. Carefully pour the alum solution into the jar, and let it sit uncovered and undisturbed for three days. Soon you will begin to see crystals forming at the bottom of the jar. Do not move the jar

5. After three days, carefully pour off the excess water and gently remove the crystals. Spread them evenly on a paper towel to dry.

Color Chart:
"emeralds" 10 drops green
"rubies" 12 drops red
"diamonds" no color
"topaz" 10 drops yellow
"sapphires" 10 drops blue
"amber" 6 drops yellow + 2 drops red + 1 drop green

( http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)

A Little Plug For Family Fun

I just wanted to plug a website that I love. It's familyfun.com. It has tons of ideas. I will still probably post ideas I get from the website, but I wanted to tell you guys you should all check it out. It's a blast. And make sure if you try ideas you find from there, post them on here and tell us how they worked out. Have Fun!

Fairy Wings With That TuTu?

Click here to find the directions to make fairy wings. It would look so cute with a no-sew tutu. As always at FamilyFun.com, there is a video to show you how to make the wings. I'm sure some of you guys are smart enough to figure out your own way to make them. If you do, please post and let us all know.

Cake How-To

Family.go.com has some really cute how-to videos to make some cute cakes. I didn't watch all of them, but I thought the castle cake was way cute and doesn't look too hard. The froggy cup cakes look easy and cute too. If anyone tries any of these ideas, be sure to take a picture and post it here later.

Bean Bag Frogs

Cute little, easy to sew bean bag frogs. Your little kids can pick out the fabric and fill them yup with beans. You can help the older kids actually cut out the pattern and sew it together.
For pattern and directions click here and look the the part of the post labeled Pattern Pieces. (about half way through the post)

(http://www.purlbee.com/)

Ghost In A Bottle

We used to do this science project as kids. All you need is a quarter and a glass bottle (we used to use the Clearly Canadian drink bottles but I don't know if that drink is around anymore. Any glass bottle will do as long as the opening is small enough that a quarter won't fall in). Place the empty glass bottle in the freezer for an hour or so. Take the bottle out of the freezer and place the quarter over the bottle opening. The cold air starts to warm up, causing the air in the bottle to expand. As the air expands, it tries to escape. This causes the quarter to rattle around, just like if there was a ghost in the bottle trying to escape. Easy science project for kids.

Olympics

Since the Olympics are coming this summer, why not have a Family Olympics. There are activities you could use on the following links.

Family Super Star
Let's Go Fly A Kite
Family Olympics

You can google a lot of other ideas. These are just a few. If you get really ambitious, you have have an Olympics with will your kids and their cousins. Or if you are really ambitious, have a Neighborhood Olympics with all the neighbor kids. Or use it as a FHE activity and teach about good sportsmanship or the importance of exercise.

Vacation Fund

I found this idea at www.cafetraditions.com.

The "Vacation Fund" is a tradition that started soon after we got married. We didn't have a lot of money, but we wanted to be able to make an annual vacation part of our marriage. I suggested that we start to save our loose change and also to supplement with an extra dollar (or ten) when we had some money to spare. We bought a piggy bank to put the money in and we made a routine of bringing it to the bank once a month so we wouldn't be tempted to use the money for other things. The first year (12 years ago) we saved $197, enough to pay for gas and two nights hotel in Chicago. In the years to follow we've continued the vacation fund and even saved enough to take the kids to Disney World last year.

~Meg L., Cedar Rapids, IA

Russ and I decided to start doing this. We figure that by the time we have all our children and they are old enough to enjoy a big vacation, we will have the money to take them without having to come up with a lot of money at one time.

Family Vacations At Home

Summer is coming, which means family vacation time. But if you are poor like us, you have no money for a family vacation. Why not set dates on your calender to travel to different countries at home. Have your children pick different countries before hand. The day before (or week before if you are the plan ahead type) look up customs, culture and food from that country. On your "vacation day" have to kids decorate and dress up. Teach them about the country and how kids from that country live. Learn a few words in the native language. Cook a meal from that country. Play games from that country. With the internet you can learn all sorts of things. Have fun without leaving your home.

You could also make this a FHE activity. Teach your children that we are all God's children no matter where we live and what country we are from. If anyone from you family has served a mission in a foreign country, they could come and talk about what it was like. Have fun with the idea. There is no wrong way.

No Sew Tutu

You will need:
Crinoline - in a few colors

Scissors

Elastic band - i used a large hair band in pink but you could always sew one from elastic just a little smaller than the child’s waist.

Cut the pieces of fabric into strips. They can vary on width and on length as this will work well for the tutu when completed. My strips were approximately 3 inches wide by 20 inches long.

Loosely knot a strip of fabric onto the elastic band - make sure that the knot is in the middle of the strip so you have approximately the same amount of fabric on either side of the knot. Do this many times, alternating colors, until the elastic is covered. It is better to overcrowd as the tutu elastic will grow once it is worn.

Do a little trimming if pieces are too long or too uneven.

(http://lovemonkey.wordpress.com/)

Coupon Website

Try Pinching Your Pennies Website. They have had meetings at Macey's (at least they had a few when I lived there). GOOD LUCK!

KALI