Friday, July 31, 2015

Bubble Fun

Make a bubble snake into an GIANT piece of art.
The kids tried this at a friend's house, and taught us how to do it at home.

bubble snake
Bubble Painting

bubble painting
Bubble Snake

Finished Bubble Painting
bubbles

For each blower you will need one used soda bottle (they are thicker than water bottles), one rubber band, one fluffy sock (that you no longer want), one bowl, dish soap, long white paper, and food coloring.


Draw a line on your empty soda bottle above the bottom piece.


Adults only-with a razor blade cut along the line, cutting off the bottom piece.
(Razor blades are sharp and hard to use, the edge left will be sharp and jagged.  You can sand it smooth if it bothers you.)


Now that your bottle is prepped, grab your sock and rubber band.


Cover the freshly cut end with the sock and rubber band.


Mix together dish soap and water in a bowl big enough to fit your blower.


Your all set to go outside.


First we tried adding the food coloring to the bubble mixture.  Unfortunately, after the bubbles popped no color was left behind.


We then added it directly to the sock before dipping it in the bubble solution.  This worked great!  You will need to reapply every few dips.



Blow, Blow, Blow
-caution they blew so much they got a bit light headed.

bubble art

This bubble snake got to be about over 4ft, long.-WOW!


They blew the bubbles and placed them on the paper leaving behind beautiful bubble art.

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They had a blast! A definite for any family summer bucket list!

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Friday, July 24, 2015

Divergent Party & Crafts

Divergent party

Divergent craft

My daughters and I are huge fans of the Divergent Series, by Veronica Roth.
My oldest wanted to have a Divergent birthday party and watch the movie in the backyard.  It was her year to have a family or small party, so we didn't go elaborate on the decorations and she only invited her sisters and her two besties.

We decided to make matching shirts.  We searched Google Images until we found what we were looking for.  The images we found said you could print them off for tattoos.  We printed them off onto iron on transfer inkjet paper, cut them out, placed them where we wanted them, and followed the directions included with the iron on transfer paper.  I suggest using a ruler for placement of the images, so you can make sure they are lined up equally.

Of course, you could always use a vinyl cutter and cut out the design onto HTV (Heat Transfer Vinyl) and iron or heat press them on.

We ironed the images onto white t-shirts, but joked around that we should have printed them onto beige shirts so they would look skin color, since they are tattoos.

Faction Magnets
We always like to do crafts at our birthday parties, so we tried to think of a few more.  

We have made these magnets many times with just scrapbook paper, and thought it would be fun to make one for each faction.  

We took the same images we got from Google Images and shrunk it to fit.  We just bought the clear flat rocks at the local $ store, but you can find them at any craft store.  We traced the rock over-top the desired image, and cut them out to match. 

We then covered the back of the rock with mod podge, we have done this before with regular school glue paste and it held great to.  Place the picture side of the image on the back of the rock covered with mod podge.  

When the mod podge or glue dries you should be able to see the image through the rock.  We then hot glued a magnet to the back of the image.  Make sure you get a strong enough magnet to support the rock and anything you want it to hold.


Divergent Bags
divergent craft

My daughter wanted some sort of party bag.  We happened upon these orange bags at our local $ store, and thought it reminded us of the fire seen on the Divergent Faction logo.


Divergent craftWe took the same image used before and blew it up to fit the bag and still be seen when the bag was closed.  We cut it out of a large brown paper grocery bag with an exact-o knife. I would recommend using contact paper instead of the brown paper grocery bag.  The paint seemed to spread a little under the edges, and from other projects we've made contact paper prevented this from happening.

We just used regular black spray paint to paint the design.

The kids thought it was so much fun that they each added their own created on the back of the bag. 

Divergent craft






Let The Games Begin

We played a game of capture the flag.
We bought two really bright yellow sheets of felt to use as our flags.  We later thought we should have spray painted them to glow in the dark, and gave everyone glow in the    dark bracelets and necklaces

Each team hides their flag. A few team members stay behind to protect the flag and a few members try to find the opposite teams flag.  The team that finds and retrieves the opposite team's flag wins.  We played it, where if the other team tagged you, then you had to go to jail, until a member of your team tagged you out.  There are many variations to this game so come up with what ever rules fit your party.  It might be fun to add squirt guns or Nerf guns.

Divergent game

We thought it would be fun to play 
Candor or Dauntless aka Truth or Dare

We tried to keep the questions and dares PG rated, since the kiddos are underage! We also told them that if nobody chose Dauntless it wouldn't be any fun!

Decide on your questions and dares, type them out and cut them out.  Fold them up and place them in a bowl to draw from to keep it fair.  On their turn ask them "Candor or Dauntless?" Which ever they choose, have them draw out a folded paper from the corresponding bowl.

Divergent Games
Divergent games

*See examples of questions and dares we used at the end of this blog post
 For Dinner we ate Dauntless Hamburgers.  For a drink we had Orange Kool Aid and drank it through a children's medicine syringe (has wide opening and NO NEEDLE).  We bought the children's medicine syringes from the pharmacy for $.10 each.  *Adults only prop-I would not recommend this for children, or anyone who might confuse real medicine and koolaid.  

They
 had a blast squirting it in their mouth.

divergent drink
Adults Only


We made Dauntless cupcakes using yellow, orange, and red frosting, in a star tipped frosting bag, by pulling the frosting up causing tips resembling fire.

Dauntless cupcakes

Divergent cupcakes

We ended the night watching the movie in the backyard.

Divergent Party

 It was a simple low key party, but the kids had a blast!
Hope this gives you some inspiration for your own Divergent, Insurgent or Allegiant Party!

Examples of what we used:
Candor (truth)
  1. If you woke up one day and noticed that you were invisible, what would be the first thing you would like to do? 
  2. If you win the lottery of 100 million dollars, what would you spend it on? 
  3. Name five things you are afraid of?
  4. What was your most embarrassing moment?
  5. What embarrasses you most about your parents?
  6. If you could be invisible for two hours what would you do?
  7. Who do you think is hotter Jacob or Edward?
  8. Do you think piercings and tattoos are attractive?
  9. Would you ever get  at tattoo? What and where?
  10. Would you ever get a piercing besides on your ears?  Where?
  11. Who was the cutest boy in 7th grade?
  12. What actor do you have a crush on?
  13. Who's cuter Peeta or Gale?
  14. Tell a funny or embarrassing story that happened to you in 7th grade.
  15. Tell a story when your Mom or Dad embarrassed you in public.
  16. Tell a story when you sibling embarrassed you in public.
  17. Have you ever broken anything and lied about it? What?
  18. Who is the most embarrassing person in your extended family? Why?
  19. Have you ever cheated in school? On what?
  20. If you could be Katniss, Bella, Annabeth, or Tris, who would you be? Why?
  21. Have you ever killed anything (bug, spider, pet, PERSON)? What?
  22. Have you ever set anything on fire? What?
Examples of what we used.
Dauntless (dare)
  1. Sing every word you speak for the rest of the game.
  2. Speak in rhymes for the rest of the game.
  3. Show us your best interpretation of a cat.
  4. Eat a raw onion.
  5. Random cheer.
  6. Rip a band aid off your arm hairs.
  7. Pluck an eyebrow hair.
  8. Your new nickname is "Woody" and whenever someone yells "Andy's coming" drop to the ground.
  9. Eat one piece of dog food.
  10. Sing the Barney song.
  11. Sit on a wet rag for 5 seconds.
  12. Every time someone says your name do 10 jumping jacks.
  13. Perform a 30 sec dance solo to your own humming.
  14. Smell the armpit of the person to your left for 30 sec.
  15. Perform a 30 dance of a cat stalking it's prey.
  16. Give the person to your left a 30 sec foot massage.
  17. Write "Loser" on your head in red lipstick and take a selfie.
  18. Demonstrate a pickle mustache by holding a pickle between your upper lip and nose for 60 sec.
  19. Demonstrate and name a new yoga pose.
  20. Perform a 30 sec impromptu rap song.
  21. Perform a 30 cheer about another player.
  22. Smell the person to your left's breath for 15 sec.

If you loved this Divergent party you might also like our Hunger Games Shirt or Swim Suit Cover.
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Other Party Games:
mustruninthefamily.com

mustruninthefamily.com

Monday, July 13, 2015

Corn Husk Dolls



Thanksgiving
Corn Husk Dolls
We wanted to make some fun crafts/decorations for Thanksgiving.  I remembered my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Olsen, teaching us how to make Corn Husk dolls, and thought the kids would like it.  They loved it!

You will need a twine/rope and a package of Corn husks (found in the Mexican food section of your local grocery store, used for making tamales). 

Soak corn husks in water for a few hours or overnight.

Separate your corn husks into similar sizes and shapes.

Pick two nice, not torn, long, wide ones.

Thanksgiving Craft

 Put them on top of each other and tie them off on the skinny side about an inch or two down.


Turn the corn husks inside out where you tied them together.


Tie off the the section you just flipped.  This will become the head.  If it is too thin, you can add a little chunk of corn husk and stuff it.



Grab a piece that wasn't good for the body and roll it.  Tie each end off with the twine.
This will make your arms.




Lift the top corn husk under the tied off head.  Place arms tightly against the head between the two corn husks.





Tie off he two husks under the arms.




Grab two skinnier corn husks.
Cross these two skinny pieces behind the doll.



Fold the skinny pieces over the top of the doll.


After you've folded both pieces over the shoulder, tie them off with twine making a shirt.



Trim any longer pieces off your doll.














If your doll won't stand you can tie her around a small cup to dry and harden.


The girls wanted to make a family.  They twisted and rolled a corn husk and tied it off to make a baby.  They made smaller dolls to make children.





To make a boy corn husk doll, just cut up the middle of the skirt and tie off the feet with twine.


Perfect craft and decoration for Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Columbus Day or Pioneer Day!

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