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Anybody else really sick of winter?

Tired of being buried by snow, sleet, rain, hail, biting winds and miserable cold?

Yeah. So are my kids.

They’ve been off track for two and half weeks now and this cold snap isn’t helping. We’ve been to the museums, played the board games, colored the pictures, watched the movies, made the forts and baked the treats, but today my kids landed at

B-O-R-E-D.

And I knew that all they needed to was to run around outside and go crazy … which wasn’t going to happen … and so we did the next best thing:

Drag Out The Diaper Boxes.

Yup.  It was time for some good, old-fashioned air guitar … OLD SCHOOL STYLE … since I’m one of those mean moms who won’t let my kids have video games.  

But oh the fun you can have with a box and some music and a whole lot of imagination.

Think of it as Guitar Hero meets Huggies.

And so my Dirty Half Dozen grabbed some cardboard boxes … and started drawing and cutting … 

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… and rummaging through my scraps … 

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… and creating their own masterpieces …

rocker.15I spy a Halloween cupcake pick, a nickel, a candy wrapper and an orange band-aid I’m going to pretend is clean.

… complete with – wait for it – rock star glasses to match.

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And by the time all of them were done, they’d given themselves super-cool rock star names.

So we went big and decided to rock the afternoon.

We took their headshots …

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… and practiced for their upcoming neighborhood world tour …

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And when they had it just right, we cranked up our favorite playlist on iTunes and let them jam away.

And  it. was. awesome.

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And while “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz may not the rock anthem be, my Dirty Half Dozen shredded it like pros.

Oh, and we taped their concert, too. We got some priceless footage “on-stage” as well a hysterical acoustic version of my six-year-olds sure to be smash hit, “I love cute baby unicorns even though they’re not real.” 

And after the kids were thoroughly worn out, they got a kick out of messing around in Picasa with me to create the perfect album cover.

May I present:

rocker.9I have a feeling their album launch party next week during FHE is gonna rock. 

Cardboard guitars, loud music, and all of us dancing on the coffee table…

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… thank you Mr. Walmart diaper box for an awesome afternoon.

So grab a box, raid the art supplies and crank up that music.

 

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Betcha ‘B-O-R-E-D’ goes away real quick.

Rock The Box!

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Featured on Ucreate With Kids:

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Linking up to:

Just in time for Thanksgiving, these quick, easy and very kid-friendly treats are almost as fun to make as they are to eat.  And the best part is that most of us have this stuff lying around from Halloween so maybe even free (or at least cheap!)

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Great pared with place cards or as a dessert on your holiday table, try whipping up a batch of these gobblers as part of your Thanksgiving menu.

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For each turkey you’ll need:

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Cut the bottom off one of your cookies as straight and level as possible.  Then pop the small left-over piece in your mouth quickly before anyone notices that it’s gone.

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Melt chocolate chips for 30-60 seconds, just until they’re smooth and easy to spread.

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Coat the trimmed cookie with chocolate using the back of a spoon …

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… add the candy corn …

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… and set aside to dry for a few minutes.

Dip the Kiss (wrapped or unwrapped) in chocolate  …

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… and place on the edge of the whole cookie.  Let both pieces set for a minute or two before assembling.

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To attach the turkey feathers, coat the cut edge of the cookie with chocolate …

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… and place it directly behind the kiss.  “Glue”on mini M&M’s for the head and waddle using more of the melted chocolate.

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Voila!

Ridiculously cute turkeys just begging to get bit.

And the best part is that you can make these little guys as simple or fancy as you’d like:

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These turkeys have been a Thanksgiving staple in my family courtesy of my awesome Aunt Claudia.  And this is a great project for little fingers while the grown-ups are getting last-minute dinner stuff ready.  Just be prepared—there’ll probably be a lot of licked fingers so you may want each kid to make their own. 😉

Hope you enjoy making—and eating—these fun Turkey Treats …

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Every  … last … bite!

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Thank You to the awesome blogs that featured this project:

I just read Ashley’s latest post over at Make It and Love It and had to laugh. Oh, I remember messes like that. Oh do I remember.

I, too, forgot to read the rule book once.

You see I stupidly thought that having the paints in a box in the closet was enough. 

No, no, no, no, no.

Two little kids who are supposed to be napping + a box full of Halloween and Easter tole paints =

This …

… and this …

Sure, I was going to repaint the ugly bed frame I got for free … but NOT LIKE THIS! 

The curtains, bedspread, pillows– everything – were a complete loss. And for some unknown reason they had all the couch cushions in the room and they were trashed too. And the carpet … yeah. Don’t get me started.

The perversely funny thing is apparently the little punks had fun destroying the room. 

See?

I’m just glad we hadn’t started the remodel yet.

Total cost:

$186 for new carpet for the room and hallway

$46 for new sheet rock, tape and mud to replace one of the walls

$56 for new baseboard trim and chair rail

$41 for new paint

$35 for new bedding (on clearance, thankfully)

… oh yeah …

$14 for new paints that are now kept locked up in storage.

(The little punks got rinsed off in COLD showers, thank you very much.)

Even though this little episode goes down as a total PARENT FAIL on my part, I’m happy to share so that all of you look better.

You’re welcome.

After coming up empty at Target, Walmart, ShopKo, D.I., Savers and Kid-to -Kid for red glitter shoes for Ash’s costume, I finally decided to make my own! I found the cutest pattern for toddler shoes and with a few modifications — Ta Da! Ruby Slippers.

The pattern was so easy to make, even for a beginner like me. I fused red glitter fabric to a double layer of red felt, cut the pieces out and sewed them together on my wonderful little 1941 Singer Featherweight machine. The whole thing took less than an hour.
After I tried them on Ash for the first time I realized that her feet were so wide that the strap across the foot didn’t reach all the way over. I ended up cutting the strap off and sewing in 1/2″ white elastic in its place and that actually worked great. These shoes were the hit of our Halloween and I got so many compliments on them.

The materials for this project set me back $2.75 for the red felt, fusible webbing, glitter fabric and elastic. The pattern was another $3.99, but so worth it. I’ve already made another pair for Ash and am already plotting for some cute Christmas shoes. There’s lots of other cute shoe and clothes patterns here.

While I was at D.I. trying to find red shoes for Ash’s Dorothy costume, I found this and figured that it wouldn’t be too hard to make it look like this:

 

The dress was hammered!
The cuffs and collar were frayed and coming apart.

 

 

The skirt had this tacky gold sparkly tulle top layer that was
shredded and tearing away from the waist line.

 

Princess dresses usually run $7-8 at our D.I., but this one didn’t have a tag. I took it up to one of the cashiers and told him that I was interested in it, but that it was in horrible shape and would need lots of work. He sold it to me for a buck (wahoo!) which helped offset not finding shoes for Ash.

To make this work, I trimmed away most of the frayed edges on the collar and cuffs and hot glued them into place. I would have sewn them down, but the fraying was just too bad. And since this dress was for dress up instead of church, I didn’t mind that it’s wasn’t washable. The gold tulle layer was so badly thrashed that I just cut it all off. Plus, it made the dress really GOLDY which I was trying to stay away from since Glenda’s dress and crown were technically pink and silver.

To make the crown, I cut a crown shape out of poster board and attached some inexpensive pink satin fabric with double sided tape. Unfortunetly, the crown – while authentic and crazy tall like the movie version – made Sa’My look like a drum major. Scratch that. I grabbed the crown, cut a new shorter shape and added some gold trim to cover up the raw edge. Total cost for the fabric and trim: $1.50. The wings were a gift from G&G Peterson for Sa’My learning all of her letters, so FREE.

Voila ~ one cute Halloween costume for less than a bag of candy.