Ghostly milk jugs

These are too cute! And so easy to make. From Disney, comes the spirit jug.

Now I would like to offer up just a few suggestions.

1.) You don't need a craft knife, scissors work just fine.

2.) Forget the lights, cute the hole big enough for a tea light (the VERY small) candle

Howling good time

This weekend at our local zoo they are having Howl-A-Paloza day in honor of wolves. They are giving away wolf posters and ears and we plan to enter their first ever howling contest!

I know most of you live far away, but that doesn't mean you can share in the wolf fun! Check out these activities to get in on the fun (older children and adults.) For younger children why not make your own wolf.!  You can print it off in color or black and white so you can design your own wolf.

Have a howling good time!

Discover the forest

With fall falling, it is a great time to get out and discover the forest. And I discovered a site called Discover the forest!  This site can help you find forest and parks near you and has amazing things for children to do!

The book of stuff to do is full of wonderful outdoor ideas. And don't miss out on the what to do section for even more neat stuff. I am so excited about this site. Can you tell?!?! So click on over and enjoy the fall great outdoors this weekend!

Fire prevention week (Oct 9-15)

This Friday my son's kindergarten class is going to a big fire safty event. That got me thinking about sharing the topic with all of you.

Meet Sparky the Fire Dog! His website is full of information. Check out all the games and activities! There are lots of fun AND educational things on this site. Shhhh, don't tell them they are learning!

I can't wait to make origami dalmations with my son after he gets home from school!

Cool pumpkin templates

Have you ever seen those amazingly carved pumpkins and wished you could make some? Well now, thanks to Disney, you can!!! They have a whole section of pumpkin carving templates on their website. I see a Perry the Platypus pumpkin in our future!

It's time to fall into fall!!!

Think back to your childhood.....do you remember how much fun it was to jump in a big pile of leaves?  Well guess what, it is still that much fun and best of all this activity is free. Okay, so there is a little yard work involved.  Our son was so excited yesterday when he got to jump in the first pile of the season and can't wait for the bigger piles that are to come.

So get out your rakes and prepare to fall into fall!

Quick easy pumpkins

Check out these cute pumpkins from Disney's Family Fun! They suggest using Mod podge which is an outdoor type decoupage glue, but you can make your own glue by mixing 3 part white glue (like Elmer's) to 1 part water (more or less) to make it the right texture for you! If you want to add a little varnish in for outdoor use, feel free, but for me I like to just keep it simple.

National Alpaca Farm Day, September 24-25

Click the Alpaca above to find a farm near you!



The Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association is excited to present National Alpaca Farm Days September 24-25, 2011.

They hope you will have the opportunity to visit a farm to learn about alpacas. Every farm has their unique style of welcoming and educating visitors. You won’t want to miss this experience!

Worldwide day of play this weekend!

 

The National Park Foundation and Nickelodeon have teamed up to present the flagship event for the Worldwide Day of Play!

Check this out video to learn more!! That's right FREE admission to national parks on Sept. 24th! FREE people. We LOVE FREE!!!!! Get out there and have some fun.

Too cute bat puppets

Here is a supper cute, VERY easy, fun craft for you fun lovers from the National Wildlife Federation. I like this because they even give you a template for the bat making this so easy any age can do it. I personally prefer wiggly eyes over just drawing them on, but that's just me.

So what are you waiting for??? Get your paper and scissors and make a whole army of bat puppets!

I've got boogers! Want some? **GIVE-A-WAY**

That's right folks, I got some boogers. A few of you have expressed interest as to where I managed to come up with such an odd item as a box of boogers, so I stopped at the gas station where I had found them. They has just a few boxes left. It seems everyone wants to eat boogers! I managed to snag the last few boxes and now I am offering them to you!!!!

Just comment under this post on Facebook about how you want to eat some boogers and you will be in the drawing to win a box! You have till Friday (9/23/11) at noon (eastern) to comment. A couple lucky fun friends will get their own box of booger to enjoy.

What are you waiting for!?!?! Get entering!

Sept 19th is talk like a Pirate day!

Ahoy ye survey sea dogs! Ye be ready for talk like a pirate day?

That's right fun folks, Sept. 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Why? I don't know! But Arggh it be soundin like some good fun to me! In fact you can check this site out to find all sorts of Pirate happenings in your area.

Zoom in on your neck of the woods on the map and see if there be anything to visit. I have found all sorts of things on the make across the country, like libraries having parties and even a Wiccan shop on the east coast who is giving away a gift card to their store. I guess everyone has a little pirate in em!

Fall means baked apples, yum!

Ingredients

• 2 larger baking apples, such as golden delicious
• 1 tbsp margarine/butter
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 1 tbsp raisins (optional as my hubby hates cooked raisins)
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Pinch of allspice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Core the apples, or slice in half and de-core/de-seed that way.
3. Mix the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and chopped nuts together in a small bowl
4. Toss in the raisins.
5. Stuff the mixture into the apple sockets and bake for about 30 minutes.

Sail away into fall

How stinking cute are these little fall boats!

Materials

• Walnut shell (we have a black walnut tree in our backyard, but you can also buy them at a store)
• Leaf
• Twig
• Clay

Instructions

For each, you'll need a half of a walnut shell.

Thread a leaf onto a twig for a mast and a sail.

Secure the mast to the inside of the shell with a small ball of clay

Mom, how are boogers made?

Ummm really? Yup, my kid wanted to know how boogers are made so I decided to see what the Internet had to help me explain it all to him.

For the basics of how a booger is made I found a simple explanation. I drew him a picture of a nose with hairs in it and made little dust particles on them and well, you get the idea. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Now that he knew the "scientific facts" of boogers, I thought we would have some fun with the topic. How about making your own boogers? Not from your nose silly, in a bowl!

What You Need

• Borax Powder
• Elmer's Glue
• Water
• Food Coloring
• Measuring Cups
• Baggies or Bowls

Stir 1/8 cup borax into 500 ml warm water. It's okay if some borax remains undissolved. Allow solution to cool to room temperature.

In a separate container, stir 2 spoonfuls of glue into 3 spoonfuls of water. White glue will give you opaque snot (more booger than snot); glue gel will produce you translucent slimy snot.

Stir a couple of drops of food coloring into the glue mixture.

Add a spoonful of the borax solution to the glue mixture. Stir (if in a bowl) or squish (if in a baggie).

Have fun with your snot!

I also found this is a catchy little song about boogers online. I must say it is toe tapping and sticks (get it) in your head, just remind your little ones "NO WE DON'T WIPE BOOGERS ON OTHERS."

Feed real chickens over the internet!!!

I totally stumbled on this while checking for backyard chicken raising info (we have a flock of 2.) It is a web cam at Flying Skunk Farm of their chickens. You have to scroll down to see the cam. The reason I am sharing a chicken cam? Because YOU CAN FEED THESE CHICKENS!!!! There is a button under the video and if you hit it, it real does dispense chicken food as you watch! I cracked up! So get the family around the computer because you can only click once every 10 min.

Today is polar bear day!

That's right folks! According to Lily the Black Bear, it is Polar Bear Day!!!

Summer is over but not the fun!

Many of my friends are feeling a little down this time of year. Summer is over and the children have headed back to school. But, that doesn’t mean the fun has to end!

Fall is my personal favorite season. Yes, the days are getting shorter, the kids are in school, the temp is crisp. But, there are still tons of fun to be had. With the weekends as the main time for fun these days, it is about making it count. It doesn’t take a lot of money to do that either.

1.) Go for a walk! It is free quality time with the family. Try some place new, like an Audubon areas or a state park forest. Collect signs of fall, like leaves you can take home and rub.

2.) Have a weekend backyard campfire. It is never to late to make S’mores!

3.) Lay on a blanket and look at clouds. Is that a dragon or a duck you see?? Make up stories about the different shapes you see in the clouds.

Over the next month or so I will be posting all about fall fun. So say goodbye to Summer (we will miss you) and hello to Fall our new fun time friend.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming! *GIVE-A-WAY*

Arrghh ye salty sea dogs! September 19 is coming which means it be, international talk like a pirate day! Now these sites be more for ye grown folks. Why not, we deserve fun too! (there be some mature things ye might not want to explain to the wee ones yet.) Don't know how to speak pirate? No problem! This site gives you a crash course in basic pirate speak. This site has all sorts of good pirate fun in the Fun & Game section like "find yer inner pirate."

Don't worry, they do have a section just for the junior pirates! There is a pirate talk for kids, links and there are tons of great printables to have a pirate party! And speaking of pirate parties, MAD Family Fun wants to help you have one!

That's right, just go to facebook and under the link for this post, simply send us a pirate greeting. What do I mean? Just say hi in ye best pirate speak in the comment section. Ex: Arrghh ye salty sea dogs! You have till Friday (Sept 9th) 5pm (eastern) to comment. That way we can get the prize to the winner in time for the 19th. One winner will be drawn from those entered to receive some MAD Family Fun pirate booty!

Back to school ediable bookworms!

Well it is back to school time and reading is high on the list of things to do. We love to read here at MAD. Here is a neat treat you can pack in their lunch or for after school snack time, bookworms. These are simple and sooooo cute! Just some rice krispy treats, fruit roll ups, and a little bit of your time. Heck have the kids help make them! Why not make up some for your little readers or heck, yourself!

I wrapped mine in plastic wrap because I took them to my son's school.

Headstones, Eerie or Educational???

Maybe I am strange, but I have always LOVED old headstones. Some people mighty think it is creepy, but the history, poetry and artwork can be very interesting. For example, we live in the first town ever in our county, so we have old headstones, like Henrietta in the the photo above on the left. She died in 1876 at the age of 21 years, 7 months and 8 days. No one list death to the day any more, just saying!
 

 

And cemetaries have all sorts of art, like these statues. I must admit, the dog one got me wondering. And if you notice in the photo, neither of the headstones owners have passed yet. Headstones also have art, such as symbols on them, like these examples.......

 

So what can you do for "fun" at your local cemetary?

1.) You could make up a kind of game by trying to see how many of each symbol you can find. You could make a bar graph out of the information (shhh don't tell the kids they are learning math skills.) Find out which were the most popular and go online to find out what they mean.

2.) Look for local historcal figures (aka civil war, founding father, artist/actors, etc.)

3.) Read some of the poems on older headstones. They used to write a lot more then name, born/died! If you are having a hard time reading a headstone you can always do number 4.

4.) Make a rubbing! All you need is paper and a crayon. It is just like doing a leaf rubbing when you where little. Just make sure to be careful not to get crayon on the headstone. Darker colored crayons work best.

So get out there and have some fun. I mean come on, it's FREE...headstones, not just for Halloween anymore!

PBS kids are cool

Sesame Street, Curious George, Caillou, or Dinosaur Train anyone? Does you kid love PBS shows? Well here is the spot for them! It is the PBS Kids Webite for educational games and more! Play games with Clifford or do printables with Sid the Science kid.

My son really enjoyed the science activities with Sid the Science Kid.