DIY Mermaid Stress Balls

If you need a fun activity for tweens and teens this summer, you will want to make these DIY mermaid stress balls! This craft is so much fun, and it is easy too.  You can make these with super simple supplies that you may have on hand. If not, grab them at your local dollar store.

 

If your kids are anything like mine, they have an insatiable love of fidgets. Harper had a ton of fun making and squishing this pretty stress ball. Even teenage Rolf was caught playing around with one. Can you guys believe that cute little blond haired boy is 14 now? Harper is 10, and we have been filling our days with little projects, as her brother has his own social life and agenda this summer.  From ipad stands to 3d Ladybugs, we have been getting super crafty. This stress ball craft might be our favorite yet.

Supplies:

 Balloons

Water beads *we used blue, green and purple beads.

Faux pearls and glitter if desired.

Directions:

Soak water beads until they are activated. To make this easy peasy, use a water bottle to activate for easy transfer.

If you want to add any beads, confetti or glitter, add it to the bottle now.

Stretch your balloon over the water bottle.

Empty the water beads directly into the balloon.

Remove and tie the balloon off.

Happy squishing!

Find more favorite craft ideas for kids here:

Easy butterfly craft

Birthday cake sensory bin
Minion puppets

Vegan Summer Side Dishes

 Summer is near, and I have gathered some of my favorite vegan side dishes to share with you. These are easy, healthy and are made with loads of fresh summer veggies. I know you are going to love a few of these tasty side options, if you are eating vegan or not!

I am not completely vegan, or vegetarian. I just rarely eat meat these days. I like it! But, the rising costs of groceries keeps me from buying it often. Adam and I are totally fine with meatless meals, Harper never eats meat unless it is in a taco. Rolf is our resident carnivore. So, these side dishes are perfect for our family.

I am sure you will find  few recipes to try and love too.

1. Vegan Waldorf Salad by Happy Kitchen

2. Lentil Quinoa Salad by Green Bowl 2 Soul

3. Mexican Pinwheels by Sprinkles and Sprouts

4. Baba Ganosh by The Lazy Slow Cooker

5. Vegan Pasta Salad by Nourish Plate

6. Four Bean Salad by Aussie Home Cook

7. Avocado Bean Dip by Sungrown Kitchen

8. Summer Rolls by Drive Me Hungry

9. Vegan Jalapeno Poppers by Food Sharing Vegan

10. Sweet Potato Salad by Plant Based on a Budget

11. Jackfruit Tuna Salad by LB Health and Lifestyle

12. Black Chickpeas by Tips and Recipes

13. Fire Roasted Corn Salsa by The Helpful GF

14. Vegan Pasta Salad by Strength and Sunshine

      15. Artichoke Pasta Salad by The Conflicted Vegan

Find more favorite recipes here:

3 Ingredient Fool Proof Biscuits

Butter Garlic Glazed Carrots (Instant Pot Side)

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars 

Mint Chocolate Chip S'mores

Nashville Hot Chicken Fried Potatoes

Let me tell you about the tastiest way to make fried potatoes ever. If you like the flavors of Nashville Hot Chicken, then this is the place for you! These Nashville Hot Chicken Fried Potatoes are so good that you are going to crave them all the time. Luckily, they are easy to make and are a cheap and delicious side dish to so many dishes.

My son, sweet Rolf, is 12 years old now. He is only about 2" shorter than I am. His feet are twice the size of mine. He is so beautiful... but he has an appetite like no other. But, he is PICKY. I am always looking for ways to fill him up, and if I can get him to try something new, then that is wonderful. 

I tried this tasty and easy fried potato recipe for a side last week and my family loved it. Even Rolf. He has asked me to make these again already. You only need 5 ingredients to make these and they taste so good! Let me tell you how I made these.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons of Nashville Hot Chicken Seasoning (I like The Spice Lab's version)

1/2 cup - 1 cup Buttermilk 

1/2 cup of flour

1 -2 large potatoes

Oil for Frying

Directions:

Slice your potatoes using a slicer like pictured above. You want them to be thin.

Pour the buttermilk over your potatoes. If you are only making one large potato, use 1/2 a cup. For more potatoes, add more buttermilk.

Add 2 tablespoons of Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning to the buttermilk.

Gently toss so that the potatoes are completely covered with the buttermilk and seasoning.

Allow to rest in the fridge for an hour.

When the hour has passed (this is so important for the flavor!)

Mix the flour and the remaining 2 tablespoons of hot chicken seasoning.

Stir.

Dredge the potato slices through the flour.

You can just make a single layer of potatoes on a plate or something as you work your way through the slices of seasoned potatoes.

Pour your oil into a saucepan. 

Heat over medium heat for a few moments until the oil is hot enough to fry. I am sorry, I have no idea what temperature I had this oil. I just know how to fry potatoes in oil after all these years in a kitchen. HA!

I guess, I would say, I treated it just like I would fried chicken?

When the potatoes were nice and crispy, and golden brown, I pulled them out of the oil to drain on a paper towel. Use a slotted spoon!

Repeat with remaining potatoes, and these are the end results.

They have that whole spicy chicken vibe, but they are just potato slices. 

They are SO GOOD! 

These would be great for satisfying a fried chicken craving on a potato budget.  But, they are also just a great way to make potatoes super enticing on the side of any meal.

If you try this recipe, I hope you LOVE it! Be sure to save this to your pinterest food board. It would be great if you would share this recipe on social media.

Find more of my tasty food ideas here:

Cake Mix Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Fool Proof 3 Ingredient Biscuits
 

Lego Stamped Pumpkin Art

 Harper and I love to paint with, well, anything but a paint brush! Last week she came home from school and asked me if I wanted to make something with paint, and how could I resist the invitation? This lego pumpkin idea was just the thing. It pairs cute and creepy together just right.

This is such an easy activity, and it is fun for kids of all ages! Even Rolf, who is 12 now, was curious about this and told us it was a "cool idea" before dashing back to his busy preteen activities. 

Supplies:

Orange Paint

Black Paint

Green Paint

Legos

Paper Plate

Paper

Directions:

Pour a small amount of orange, black and green paint onto a paper plate.

Offer your child legos in assorted sizes and paper.

Encourage your child to dip a lego into the orange paint and make the shape of a pumpkin.

Now, fill that shape in with more lego stamps.

When you have filled in the shape of the pumpkin, dip a lego into the black paint and make a face.

Next, give your pumpkin a stem with the green paint.

Allow to dry and display.

These were a really fun, kid led Halloween craft. I know your kids will love making pumpkin art this way.

You can find all of my Halloween crafts here

Painting projects here:

Reader favorites include:

Pumpkin Window Clings

Ghost Play Dough Ornaments

Cork and Button Apple Tree Process Art

This cork and button apple tree process art is perfect for preschoolers or kindergartners this fall. It is an easy activity that requires very little prep. 

We love process art, and we love all things fall around here! Harper and I have been hoarding fall decor since we saw the first adorable decorative pumpkin in stores back in July. Rolf is not so quick to jump seasons, but on the first of September, he said "Finally! It is September. Now we can buy all the pumpkins we want without comment." HA! 

Related: Apple Tree Window Clings

Harper and I felt like painting and wanted to start on some fridge decorations for the season. We came up with these adorable cork and button apple trees. They are so worthy of displaying! Plus, they are easy to make!

 

Supplies Needed: 

Paint in Brown and Green

A Wine Cork

A Paper Plate

White Paper

Buttons

Glue

Directions:

Pour a quarter sized drop of both the brown and the green paint onto a paper plate.

Offer your child the cork.

Encourage your child to first stamp the trunk of the tree with the cork.

Then ask your child to give the tree leaves with the green paint.

Allow to dry for about an hour in a warm, sunny place.

When the paint has dried, offer your child the glue and some buttons. We used yellow for this project to make the kind of apples we like. Feel free to use red, green or even a mix if you like. As you can see below we also made one with red buttons, just because we had so much fun the first time.

Encourage your child to spread out the buttons, pressing them onto dots of glue.

Allow the glue time to dry. Then display! This is perfect for refrigerator art!

Are you looking for more awesome apple art projects for kids? 

Here are some favorites:

Easy Paper Apples

Apple Process Art

Basket of Fruit Process Art

Lemon and Limes find a second life after their prime with this easy and fun process art activity! It incorporates an introduction to weaving for small hands with a lot of painting fun. This activity is great for kids of all ages from Toddlers and Preschoolers, to older kids, like Rolf who is 11 now and still had fun with this!

Ok, first, let that sink in. Rolf is 11 now. When I started this blog, he was a baby. Literally, just a baby. And here we are 10 years later. Still sharing, growing and creating. Let's have a big group hug!

Next, isn't this such a cute process art project for kids? I love that the touchy, smelly parts make it super engaging for little hands. If you have been reading for a while now, you know how I feel about sensory play and  projects! (I love them!) Well, I also love to paint with Harper too!  We had a few lemons and limes in the fruit basket that were a little shriveled up and unappetizing so instead of tossing them out, we put them to work in an art project.

 Supplies: 

A lemon and a lime, sliced in half

A paper plate

Glue

Scissors

A brown bag of construction paper

Yellow and green paint

Directions:

Cut the brown paper into thin strips.

Offer your child one strip and encourage the child to glue it to the paper.

As you can see we used 3 vertical strips, then began the under/over process of weaving the horizontal strips.

Keep the weaving simple, you only need 3 vertical and 3 horizontal strips of paper. If your older child is creating this, feel free to encourage a more complicated weave!

Now comes the fun!

Pour a little paint (about a quarter size drop of each color) on a paper plate.

Offer the citrus fruit to the child, allow them to squeeze the juice out and pick at the seeds if they want to. They will want to because it is fun and it smells good! Just have a towel nearby to wipe their hands! When all of the seed picking and fruit squeezing is finished, encourage your child to press the fruit into the paint, and begin filling the woven basket with fruit!

Remind your artist to use all of the fruit and colors!

Allow to dry and display.

This is fun to make in the summer, when we are making loads of lemonade, so maybe save a few lemons after squeezing for an art project? Or pull this out in the winter, when the kids need a break. It is such a sunny little process art project that they are bound to love it!

Find more art and craft ideas for kids here

Play Doh Sea Snails

 Play doh is always a favorite play time tool at my house. There are just so many ways you can create with it! This play doh snail activity is so easy! Kids of all ages will love to grab a can of doh and a few favorite shells and get creating! 

Summer is near, and we are so glad. We have been virtually learning for about 15 months now and we are ready for a break. While the kids have less work to submit each day as the year dwindles down, we have more idle time than ever. I am NOT the mom who wants to entertain kids all day long (sorry guys!) so I turn to open ended creative ideas like this one a lot. It keeps the kids happy and gives me a chance to get some things done. 

Even my 11 year old had fun with this one. Rolf usually is too tween cool for any of my hands on play anymore, but this one was high interest and he got involved with his sister.

These play doh sea snails are awesome for rainy day play too. You only need 2 colors of play dough and a few shells to make the magic happen!

Supplies:

Sea shells 

2 or more colors of play dough

Instructions:

Invite the kids to roll out a color of doh for the body of the snail. Carefully insert one end of the rolled doh into the shell. Make sure the end is rolled thin, and don't force it too far into the shell.

Form some small antennae and attach to the head of the snail.

Add small details with a different color of play doh.

Repeat with more shells for a bunch of cute little friends!

This is such a fun activity for kids that requires so little in supplies. It is economical and easy, but can create more detailed creatures with a little patience and imagination.

You can find more fun play doh ideas here

Reader favorites 

Play Doh Food Puzzles for Toddlers

Play Doh Pie Counting

Flying High In the Sky

This easy to set up sensory bin is perfect for little hands. It is fun to sort thru and play in, and it has a really fun feature for night time play; this Flying High in The Sky Sensory Bin Glows in the DARK!

We have been making sensory bins for about 8 years now.Even though Rolf is a tween and is generally too cool for my projects, even he wanted to get his hands into this one. I used things we had in our craft supplies, but for your convenience I added affiliate links to help you find some of these items that you may not have.

Supplies:

A Storage Bin with a lid

Neon Blue Food Color

Glow in the Dark Paint

A zipper seal baggie

White Rice, Uncooked (2 cups)

Rainbow Ribbon

Toobs - In the sky

Tongs

Glow in the Dark Stars

Cotton Balls

To dye the rice

Place 2 cups of white rice into a zipper seal baggie.

Add 2 tablespoons of non toxic glow in the dark paint (I used art deco brand) and 10 drops of neon blue food color to the baggie.

Seal and shake well.

Pour the rice on a paper towel, paper plate, or something like an old cookie sheet and allow to dry for about 4 hours. You may need to stir halfway through the drying time.

To assemble the bin:

Cut several sections of rainbow ribbon in various lengths from 1 to 3 inches.

Gently "fluff" several cotton balls to resemble clouds.

Pour the dry, dyed rice into the storage bin.

Bury several sections of rainbow ribbon in the rice bin.

Place the remaining rainbow ribbon on the top of the bin.

Bury several plastic glow in the dark stars in the rice bin.

Sprinkle the remaining stars on top of the bin. 

Add fluffy cotton clouds to the bin.

Add the planes and helicopters from the tube of Toobs 

Add a pair of tongs to the bin and invite your child to explore.

The tongs add a challenge to the bin, which is excellent for practicing fine motor skills.

I like to make sensory bins in a container with a lid,so we can snap the lid on it when play time is over and revisit the activity later.  For bins like this that are fun to play with anytime, that comes in handy because my kids want to dig around in this one all the time!

Here is the bin after dark. We LOVE glow in the dark activities! 

Some of our favorite glow in the dark activities include:

No Electric Night Lights

Galaxy Glow in the Dark Slime

Find more sensory ideas here:

Sensory Play