Kid's Felt Road/Track Set

This was actually one of Monkey's Christmas gifts.  Yep, I am really THAT slow.  It actually was a pretty easy project and only took two hours or so, minus drying time.  When I, or Santa, gave it to him... well, he didn't really play with it much.  I'm not sure it's just because there were so many new toys or what.  But he loves these now.

FELT ROAD/TRACK SET

Materials:

- 36"x36" Felt Sheet (I got mine at Michael's in the kid's craft section for about $4)

- Yellow Puffy or Dimensional Fabric Paint (bought mine at Wal-Mart for $1)

- Good scissors - they don't have to be good, but it'll make your life easier!

Directions:

- I just free-handed the different shapes and lengths of road pieces.  I used a piece of chalk and drew the shape, making minor adjustments until I was happy with it.

-  Then I cut out the pieces I'd drawn and used them as a pattern for the other pieces so there was some continuity in them.  You can make the road any shape you want, but these are the shapes and quantities I used:

2 - Semi Circles (They can make roundabouts or sharp curves)
2 - Swoopys (Creates a little jog in the road)
8 - Large Corners
8 - Small Corners
4 - Short Straights
8 - Medium Straights
12 - Long Straights

 - Once all the pieces are cut out, lay them out and draw the yellow lines down the middle of each piece with the puffy paint.  Let them dry completely.  The only pieces you need to put lines on both sides are the swoopy pieces.

- I had the idea to put velcro on the ends of the pieces, but that was more work than I wanted to take on at Christmastime.  Monkey is just careful and doesn't complain about it.  The only issue is when Gator want to play too, but he plays Godzilla...

These are super nice because they are compact.  We can pack the whole set into a gallon size zipper bag and take them with us anywhere.  They are machine washable, should Gator grab the pieces with graham cracker goobers all over his hands.  They are durable and soft and a favorite at our house.  Totally worth a little bit of my time to have happy boys... Now I just need to make another set for Gator...
 

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.
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Weekend Wander #127

Welcome, Friends!  

Sorry about the lack of posting this week... I was unexpectedly slammed with Etsy orders for these:

And doing 23 of them in 5 days left little time for much else.  Like dishes and laundry, let alone anything cool and fun.  I'm not complaining and I loved being able to help so many awesome dads get a  little personal shout out on just how fabulous they are.  I actually enjoyed making every single one (well, except maybe the last one... but that was mostly because I had to REmake it. Turns out, fixing projects isn't nearly as fun as doing it the first time.) but I wouldn't mind a little break right about now!  =)  I've weeded enough vinyl yo make my fingers hurt.

Funny story... my wedding ring has about 13 small diamonds in it.  I had a dream that these little diamonds kept falling out and I was trying to gather them up because I knew Mr Napping would be so mad if I lost them.  I kept picking them up and I'd turn my finger over and it was little vinyl dots stuck all over my fingers instead of diamonds!  Maybe I've had my share of vinyl for a little while...?

Anyway, I hope your week wasn't as hectic and had some fun in it too.  Let's take a look at some of the links from last week...  Please pin from the original source.  These awesome ladies deserve their props!

I am loving this freebie at Second Chance to Dream

These sweet potato bacon kebabs at Strong Mod look super delish.

I love this bag Bethany at Sweet Bee Buzzings made... WANT!

This foot wash would be worth it's weight in gold at my house.

We're always tracking in mud and dirt on our feet.

Make your own with the tutorial at Wonderfully Made.

There were sooo many more links I wanted to feature, but I'm running out of time to get this party up.
If you were featured, feel free to grab one of these:

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Thanks to everyone who linked and a super thank you to everyone who visited the links.  That's what makes the party even more fun!  Mingle it up peeps!  And now for this week.  And... GO!

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This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.
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DIY Crayons

So, I have been lucky enough to try out some of Wholeport Crafts fantastic supplies.  They have tons and tons of silicone molds for great prices.  While the molds are fun for food, we've been having fun with them in other ways too!

Not too long ago we dug deep into our craft stash and came up with some cool projects to do.  One of those was...

DIY PUZZLE CRAYONS

Materials:

- Old crayons

- Silicone mold

- Oven

Directions:

- Break up the old crayons into small pieces, small enough to fit into the molds.

- Heat the oven to 350F.

- Fill each of the mold cavities with the crayon pieces.  If you want all the same color, use all pieces of the same color.  If you like a "tie-dye" effect, mix up the crayon piece colors.

-  Bake for 10 minutes or until melted.  If you make mono-color crayons, stir the melted wax with a toothpick to get a single solid color.

-  Let cool overnight.

-  Get out the paper and let your kiddos go wild.

We did have a bit of an issue... our crayons hardened with a layer of clear wax on the top of the crayons.  Monkey got a little frustrated when the crayons didn't "work" because it was writing with the clear wax.  I'm not sure why the crayons separated like that.  Maybe it was because I used the cheap crayons.  Maybe the oven was too hot.  Or cold.  Or maybe I looked at them wrong.  I don't know.  If you have any ideas, clue me in so we don't have this issue next time.

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.
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Chill Out!

This post brought to you by Jel Sert. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don't know where about you, but we are HOT, HOT, HOT over here!  I guess we shouldn't be surprised, we do live in the desert and all.  Today we inched dangerously close to triple digit temperatures.  But, I have two little guys that adore playing outside.  So, I keep our freezer stocked with freezer pops, lots and lots of freezer pops. I love to hand these out to my boys after we've been outside as fun summer treat.  We aren't particular to any specific brand, but we do enjoy and often purchase the Fla-Vor-Ice brand.

 

 

Fla-Vor-Ice is delicious and full of flavor.  Fla-Vor-Ice has been around for more than 40 years and they know what they are doing.  There are no major allergens and these freezer pops are convenient, easy to serve - even my one year old eats them with minimal help - and they are affordable.  They are light snacks, so I can serve them without worrying that my boys won't eat dinner.  There's only 5g of sugar and 20 calories in a standard freezer pop.  They are gluten-free and made with real fruit juice.  Freezer pops are fun and not just for kids.  Mr Napping and I eat one nearly as often as our boys.  Fla-Vor-Ice freezer pops are a mom-approved snack.  I love that we can take a box on vacation, freeze them when we get to our desitination and have a yummy treat whenever we want. 

 

There are original flavors, tropical flavors and even a sugar-free variety, there's something for everyone.  Monkey's favorite is the green ones... which is his favorite color.  Mine are the pink lemonade and pina colada flavors.  Yum.  What's your favorite flavor?

 

 

You can join Fla-Vor-Ice on Facebook to stay caught up on all the awesome information and tons of fun images.  

 

 

 

 

Weekend Wander #126

Welcome back, everyone!  You should all be done with school by now... unless you're dealing with the dreaded "summer school".  Did you say that with your evil villain voice?  I hope so.  Whether summer has left you with more time to spend on projects or less, I hope you're finding a little time to create!  So... What'cha been up to?

Sorry, I'm out of time for features... maybe I'll get them added tomorrow...?

Thank you to everyone who linked last week.

I'd love if you'd grab a button or post a link back so others will come and party too, pretty please!

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You know what to do!  Link 'em party people!

Oh, really quick...... Have you entered the Pick Your Plum giveaway?  There's still time!  Get your entries in!

Also, check out this awesome new service for backing up all those mobile photos instantly!  Don't loose precious memories simply because you lost your phone!

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.
If you'd like to get more While He Was Napping, you can find me here:

{Free Printable} Medication Trackers

If you've been around the last couple weeks or if you follow on Facebook, you probably know we've been sick for the last couple weeks.  Not fun.  Not only did Monkey have to miss the last week and a half of preschool - he loved preschool - but we also had to cancel a trip to the coast.  BOO!  That was almost more depressing the amount of moolah we forked over for medical care!  Well, four doctor appointments later, we all had strep and Monkey boy had impetigo too.  Basically, that equated to four people on five different medications for four different durations and times through out the day and three different dosages.  Huh, right?  Is your head spinning?  Uh, yeah.  I've been there.  Having sick kids for a week and a half and being miserable myself, I just used this for my boys:

Classy, yeah?  Haha.  I only had a five day, one pill a day prescription so I just took it with my other pill at bedtime and I figured Mr Napping was capable of tracking his own meds (one pill, four times a day, for 14 days...eesh.  I didn't want to have to track that too!).  Although it worked, those charts are definitely not pretty.

So, I whipped these babies up and they brought order to that otherwise jumbled mess of instructions and medications.  This is what it could have looked like:

These print on a regular 8.5x11" piece of paper and are 4 different colors for quick, at-a-glance reference. Janey's is pink and Billy's is blue. There are 14 boxes (a typical round of antibiotics runs 10-14 days, right?).  I hope you don't need these... but just in case you ever find your busy brood in need of an easy way to track medications, just right click, save as and print.

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.
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