Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Lets face it, Kids are messy. No matter how many times we tell them they will get germs they just won't listen. Dirt is too much fun to play with. Here is a neat way to get them involved in staying germ free.

 

  What You Will Need:

²∕₃cup of 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or ethanol

¹∕₃cup of aloe vera gel

8-10 drops of essential oil, *optional* (such as lavendar, vanilla, peppermint, grapefruit)

bowl and spoon

funnel

recycled liquid soap or hand sanitizer bottle

 

Make Hand Sanitizer   

Nothing could be easier! Simply mix the ingredients together and then use the funnel to pour them into the bottle. Screw the pump back onto the bottle and you're ready to go.

 

How It Works   

The active ingredient in this hand sanitizer recipe is the alcohol, which needs to comprise at least 60% of the product in order to be an effective disinfectant.
 

Essential Oils In Hand Sanitizer

In addition to adding fragrance to your hand sanitizer, the essential oil you choose may also help protect you against germs. For example, thyme and clove oil have antimicrobial properties. If you are using antimicrobial oils, only use a drop or two, since these oils tend to be very powerful and might irritate your skin. Other oils, such as lavender or chamomile, may help soothe your skin.
 
For more information on staying Germ Free listen to today's Messy Moms Radio Show

Lowes Build & Grow Workshop

   Recently I have discovered a new activity for my boys to do. Lowes home improvement stores offer a FREE workshop for kids every other Saturday! The kids can build and take home a project with all the supplies and tools supplied by Lowes. They also receive an apron, protective eye gear, an iron on patch for every project they complete, and a certificate of achievement. We have only attended 2 so far but we plan on attending more in the future. Did I mention its all completely free? To sign up for future projects check out the Lowe's Build & Grow Website.

Here are some pictures from our recent project

They love being able to build something on their own.
Lowes also offers @ home projects!

The Workshops are for Kids Ages 5 and up.

Avery is sporting the protective eye gear.

Even Nana got into the project!

 

These are some friends who joined us!

 

 

All in all it was a great day! We had so much fun building with the kids.

 

Here is the finished Project: North's Sleigh

 

This is the next project we are working on, December 1st!

 

 

 

 

 

Make a Fire House Dog

Materials You Need:

• Toilet Paper Roll
• A Printer
• Glue
• Scissors
• Crayons
• A piece of paper
• 4 Toothpicks (optional)

                         Instructions

1. Start by picking out a template you want to use. You can choose either the colored or if you want to color it yourself choose the black & white. Print out the template by clicking below.    

 

Colored Template                          Black & White Template

 

 

     2.  Cut out the template of choice and color if necessary.

 

     3.  Glue the large rectangular piece on first to cover the tube. Toilet paper rolls come in different sizes, so if you find the rectangle is a bit too big, just trim it down. If you find it's a bit too small, just cut out another small piece to fill in the gap.

 

     4.  Glue on the head, fire hat, legs and tail (using the tab to make a 3D effect).

 

     5.  This step is optional. To make the dog stand up on all four legs, take 4 toothpicks. Glue or Tape 1 toothpick to each of the legs.

 

 

I hope your kids enjoy this little craft as much as mine did!

 



Fire Safety Week: Part 1

This week is Fire Safety Week!

It's time to practice our fire escape route, thank a firefighter, and make some neat arts & crafts!

 

As a mom to three boys, I know a lot about Firetrucks, Firemen, and everything that goes with it! For My oldest sons' 3rd birthday we did a Firetruck theme. We made our own cake which was a three tiered fire truck. We gave out firefighter hats to all the kids who attended. We even had the local fire department show up with a ladder truck! And No I did not set the house on fire, we just asked them if they would come and they did! It never hurts to ask. =) Check out the pictures below {sorry their kinda blurry}. For more ideas and tips on birthdays feel free to ask.

 

This was his Halloween Costume that year!




Here is the cake I made. It has pretzels for the ladder, donuts for the
wheels, and a licorice for the house.



They brought out a huge ladder truck!

The best part about this birthday was that we got to learn more about Fire Fighters and what they do. This week I will be posting some activities that we can all do to learn more about fire safety and sharing what I do with my boys so stay tuned for more.

 

Thank A Fireman!

 

 

One thing we are doing this week is coloring thank you cards for our local fire department.

The kids will color the pictures and then present them to the fire fighters on Friday when we take

a special trip to the Fire Station. Have your kids color a picture and show your support for your local fire fighters!

 

You can get the picture here.





Oatmeal Organizer

   This is just a simple project I made today. I was cleaning out the snack cabinet and realized we had 5 boxes of different flavors of Oatmeal (we eat a lot of oatmeal). The boxes are big and bulky and take up way too much room (I had no room for the oreos, that's what started this clean up). I decided to reorganize them by recycling some empty Frappuccino boxes.

 

I love these little drinks, they are tasty and such a pick me up!

 

   The Materials I used for this project:

 

 

One Glue Stick

Some Pretty Scrap Paper

    I started by cutting out the inserts in the box. Then I fit the paper to the box. Next I glued the paper to the box. For a finishing touch I labeled the boxes with the corresponding flavor of Oatmeal. Here's how it turned out.

 



 

It may not be the greatest DIY Project, but hey it makes my snack cabinet a bit more organized and pretty too! This project took all of 5 minutes to complete.

 

Any more ideas on recycling for projects? Leave a comment below.

Playing Dress Up {Boy Style}

   With Halloween right around the corner I thought I'd share this little Mom to Mom Tip. As a mom, Halloween can be one of the funnest holidays to celebrate. When we have kids we just can't wait for that first time that we get to relive our childhood by going trick-or-treating with our own little ones. We spend lots of money or lots of time and hard work on these adorable costumes that will wear only once. So what do you do with the costumes afterwards? Here's what I do.

   When you think of playing dress up, you think of little girls wearing frilly princess dresses and having elaborate tea parties. (At least that's what I think of) Why does dress up have to be only for girls? My boys love to dress up and play make believe. It strengthens their imagination and it keeps them occupied for longer than a few seconds (*bonus*). Its not easy to find dress up clothes for boys, stores seem to have a very limited selection. So I made a box of all their old Halloween costumes. All my hard work and money spent on these costumes was just wasted before. Now they play with them year round! How to do it: When you buy or make costumes, make sure they are a size or 2 bigger so that they can be worn again even if they get a little bigger. I try to buy costumes with accessories (like masks, hats, arm pieces, tools, etc.) because these make for great additions to the dress up box. Create a box especially for this activity and then keep it in a closet so it can be easily accessed and easily put away.

   Check out these costumes that are currently available in our dress up box.

 

{Dragon Costume from the movie
"How To Train Your Dragon"}

{This is a Homemade Costume for Frankenstein}

{This was not a Halloween Costume but I thought I'd add it in anyway,
This was a Navy Uniform that we made for Veterans' Day}

{IronMan Costume}

{My Personal Favorite: The Alien, This is also a homemade costume}

Free Phineas & Ferb Songs

Found this and thought I would share it. My boys are huge fans of Phineas & Ferb! Here is a link for free song downloads from Listerine. Just click here and enter the code perry3519.



I've been Featured

Special Thanx to Danielle @

2 Little Superheroes

For Featuring My

Little Blog!

 

Please visit her blog and check out her feature on my Chalkboard refrigerator. You can see the feature by clicking here.

 

 



Chalkboard Refrigerator

This is my version of a chalkboard refrigerator. I would not recommend doing this project with a brand new refrigerator! I thought of this project when our old fridge broke down and we bought a refurbished one. Here is my new fridge, the first one is how it is supposed to look.

 

As you can tell it does not have handles. This is how I got it so cheap.

 

Step 1

Gather Supplies

 

1 can of Rustoleum Magnetic Primer

1 can of Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint

1 roll of painters tape

1  roll of plastic drop cloth

2 small roller brushes

*Chalk*

 

 

Step 2

Get Started

 

Start by taping off any areas of the refrigerator that you don't want to paint. If you have an ice/water spout cover with plastic and tape off. Clean the fridge and dry thoroughly. Next apply the primer. I applied 2 coats of primer, letting the first one dry for about an hour and then I applied the second. Once the primer is dry completely you can apply the Chalkboard paint. Again I applied 2 layers of paint and then used a regular paint brush to touch up any areas. Let the paint dry for 24 hours before applying any chalk!

 

 

Step 3

Have fun and get creative!

 

Here are some examples of what I did.

 

This is Our Calendar. I use this space for important dates, appointments, and other things happening throughout the month. The magnets I used did not show up well on camera so I added in a few dates using photo shop to show you an example.

 

This is our Weekly Menu. You can also add on a shopping list or even a chore list!

 

My oldest son uses this space for his weekly Spelling Words.

 

My 5 year old has an obsession with refrigerator magnets and so he loves to play make believe with them all. He has a few different collections but for this one I used his farm animals.

 

The Free Space is for the kids to draw whatever they want, they can even play tic-tac-toe!

 

This was one of the best projects I ever did and the kids love that they can draw on my fridge! I have realized with this one that you can use Chalkboard paint on nearly anything. The total amount spent on this project was $35. It was well worth it.

 

To clean the chalk off simply use any cleaner and a sponge. Dry thoroughly with a paper towel.

 

 

 

 

A Little Bit Of Pink In A World Of Blue

 
   I am a mom. Not just any mom, but a mom to three wonderful, rambunctious, silly, outrageous, insane, handsome, and down right crazy boys. But boys are all I know. I am the little bit of pink in their big blue world. I've tried (much to my husbands dismay) to get them to do girly things that I like to do such as painting our toenails, and playing with baby dolls. But it always remains the same, they are boys, creatures from another planet to me, and they will always want to do boy things. I know I'm not the only mom out there that feels this way and I'm hoping others will come forward and maybe even offer up some advice or share your own experiences. I want to show that being a mom of boys can be the greatest thing in the world! There are lots of things to do with boys and I will be sharing new ideas everyday. Thanks for stopping by, please come again soon!