The Best Ideas In Life, For Free
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| We shed some of the obvious VBS parts of the arch, but for 9 bucks I was not going to pass this puppy up. Soooo many uses for this and can always be disassembled and donated to a school, church or civic group. Was so easy to put together my 6 year old got in on the action. The kids set up their own table (coffee table with dollar store table cloth, hats, napkins). Not glamorous, but it made them feel like they had ownership of the party and got them excited and brainstorming about things they would do with their friends. I highly recommend this. |
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Every year I make my daughter's pinata. Usually it's a sticky mess of liquid starch, newspaper and balloons which must dry before you can paint it. Cheap, but time-consuming. This, friends, is a USPS box.
 Step one...make generous holes in one side (bottom) and attach long strings (monkey is sitting on them) that the kids will pull instead of pummeling pinata blindfoldedly with a bat (eep!) If you can, take the time to ease the process by cutting a section away, then loosely taping it back together. A false "door" might have helped us (the box was too strong for my 5-6 year old minions to loosen)...I had to resort to gentle dismembering...
Next, fill box with candy and tape up.
Decorate at will with tissue paper and a hot glue gun. I got fancy, but it didn't take much time. Kids are just as happy with an empty box (you know this) and this could easily be covered with a thin layer of tissue in a pretty color as it already has ribbons hanging from the bottom to pull.
This tissue paper came in one pack. For one dollar. Bing!
We created a bunch of fun water games to play outside:
Ping pong toss
Water Balloon Hot Potato (poke a hole in a giant water balloon and let them go to town)
Squirt guns+tiny ducks=duck derby race...each kid uses their gun to squirt their duck to victory
Cup on the head fill up with water cannon double dare type game
So many options. So many uses for dollar store items.
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| A little bit of decoration can go a long way. |
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| Close-up of the arch pieces. They came in one nice Fed Ex box, flat and scored for easy folding. |
Being away from each other is hard, especially when the one you love is in harm's way. Keep them close to your heart with a custom-woven, uniquely designed set: For mom, a chevron-patterned scarf, for a teenage girl, a trendy necklace, and for dad who is scheduled to deploy, a set of hearts to carry in his pocket and a bracelet to keep near his bedside. |
| For their 12 year old daughter Mom will be her rock while her dad is away |
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| For mom, a black and white chevron infinity scarf |
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| For dad, a white heart (hers) connected to a black heart (his) that can be concealed in his pocket or under his hat. And, a bracelet made of her shirt for him to carry or keep at his bedside. |
I just made a deployment scarf for a client who
I'm not gonna lie. When my husband went to Basic Training last year and I had no daily communication or proximity to him I almost lost my isht. Before he left he made me and my daughters a "Hug-a-Daddy," his pillow with his shirt on it. I snuggled next to that every night. I wish I'd had something at the time to bring with me on days I missed him most, but it didn't seem practical to wear his shirt every day. To help other wives, daughters, sons, moms, dads, grandmas, etc who are feeling blue I created the Deployment Scarf. On days you really wish you could be next to your hero but distance is between you, you can wear a reminder of him or her to keep your loved one close to your heart. 
