Marshmallow Wars

Last month Olivia had a sleepover with two of her cousins, both of whom are very active.  We wanted to do something outdoors that would be fun for all ages.  I came across this idea on pinterest.

It's very simple, but lots of fun.  We made marshmallow shooters out of a disposable cup and a balloon, both of which I had left over from Olivia's birthday party.  I did find that the smaller the cup, the more accurate it shoots.

For a great tutorial on how to make them, check out this blog.

At night, we had a war and in the morning we used the launchers for a distance competition (who can shoot their marshmallow the farthest).  They had a great time.

This could easily be adapted for indoors using pom-poms (as the original post suggests).

This was a little hard for my just turned 4 year old to operate, but it was definitely age appropriate for her 6 and 10 year old cousins - and her parents :)

Let the wars begin!

Homemade Ring Toss

This is a fun activity that we did when Olivia had some friends over.  I found the idea on pinterest - just looked at the picture and started creating.  It was originally posted on this blog.

Olivia had a friend over and they were starting to get a little stir crazy which usually results in a fight.  So, in order to avoid the downward slope we were heading toward, I pulled out 6 paper plates, cut out the centers and gave them each three to paint.  They had a lot of fun painting and played well together the rest of the day.

While they were painting, I found a small box (from guacamole dip, similar in size to a box that holds soup or dressing mixes).  I grabbed a paper towel roll, traced it on the box, cut out the hole (just inside the line to make a tight fit) and stuck the paper towel roll in the hole.

On the original post, she cut 4 slits in the bottom of the roll, folded the tabs out and taped them to the bottom of another paper plate.

A few days later when Olivia had an older cousin over they decided to pull out the game and play.

We used a baton that we had laying around as the line and found that the paper rings don't fly that far so we had to make the line much closer than we originally thought.

They had a great time and we have since pulled it out on many occasions.  It's actually been a much bigger hit than I ever guessed it would be!  

Happy playing!

Wow, I'm in love!

I'm sure most of you out there in blog land know all about this website, but I was just recently told about it by a friend and I can't get enough!

Pinterest is FULL of great ideas.  Think of it as a worldwide bulletin board that is sorted into categories.  I've found so many useful tips for decorating and organizing my home.  Olivia and I have been doing all kinds of fun activities and crafts from this site and we've tried a lot of new recipes.  So fun!

If you haven't checked it out yet, click here...you won't be sorry you did!