Screen Printing Tutorial - Frozen Style

Frozen has become this massive landslide of snowflakes and glitter.  Every little girl I know loves it.  Let it Go is heard wherever we go.  And don't even get me started on the mad dash to get the recently restocked Elsa dresses at Disneyland for Little Miss that we had to do.

So, in honor of the awesomeness of Frozen, here's a tutorial just for you!  Little Miss loves Elsa.  She walks around pretending she has Elsa powers, holding her hands out infront of her with an intense concentration on her little 2 year old face or stomping her foot hard upon the carpet turning everything to ice with joyful glee.  But besides the before mentioned Elsa dress, she doesn't have anything else that's frozen.  I tried to buy her a shirt but she's moving up into girl sizes now and for whatever reason, a size XS Frozen shirt we found is fitted instead of straight and just doesn't fit her right.  We had to return it. To make it up to her I made this.

I found an Elsa template from Heidi and Finn.  I decided instead of sewing it on like in their tutorial, I would screen print it instead.  Copying another Frozen design on their site I planned out my design on a plain white tank top that was on sale at Target.

 

Next I sewed on the words Let It Go.  I tried to do it on the machine but it just wasn't working for me so I ended up doing it by hand.  I traced the words with pencil so I just had to follow the line.  Using this system, even doing it by hand, it went fairly quickly. 

 

After the words were complete I washed the entire thing just to make sure the thread was secure and nothing was going to shrink on me.  Then I took my template and cut it out using an x-acto knife.

 I placed the paper template onto white contact paper that I got from home depot.  You really don't need anything fancy for this.  Screen printing can be very complicated, but it can also be very simple as well. Make sure you cut the shape out without cutting through the rest of the contact paper.  The Elsa I cut out isn't needed.  For the screen printing, it's the missing pieces that will receive the paint.

I peeled the backing off the contact paper and placed Elsa onto my screen.  I have an actual screen printing screen we got from a yard sale awhile back.  The screen is dirty though and, because of that, doesn't always work just right.  I really should just toss it but I can't bring myself to do it.  We also have screens we've made when Green Bubbles did Curiosity Hacked (previously known as Hacker Scouts) last summer.  There's a great tutorial at One Golden Apple that talks about making your own screens as well as the contact method above and how to do it with kids!

 I ran into a problem mixing the colors of screen printing ink.  I wish it turned out a little more like the color of the thread and less blue, but I don't think Little Miss cares.  (I have no problem sharing my mistakes with you!)  I used Speedball ink and I highly recommend getting Speedball Fabric Screenprinting Ink Starter Set instead of buying the colors separately.  It comes with all the primary colors plus green, black and white so you are able to mix the colors you need.  Once the ink is applied you do need to heat set the ink by ironing it.  If you forget this step your beautiful design will just wash out.  Or, if you make a horrible mistake and want to remove it.

I also made a tutu to make the tank top for Little Miss.  Do you think she likes it?

We'll be wearing this to Disneyland on one of our many trips.  Little Miss has an Elsa dress from Disney but it's just to hot to wear right now.  The tank top and tutu is a lot cooler!

Weekly Wrap-Up - Lazy summer days

It's Friday!  Time for another weekly wrap-up.

Do you ever feel like your living in a real life ground hog's day where every day seems very much like the other?  I'll be excited when school starts back up just so we're back in a routine and our days change.  Summer always seems to be a free for all of schedules and routines.  Some weeks we are crazy busy, and others we never leave the house.  This week was the latter. Part of me is cherishing it since I know once school starts back up and summer is over we won't be having any more weeks like that. 

Green Bubbles wanted to do science so desperately that we are starting back on Monday but only adding in one subject at a time.  Our offical start date isn't until the 18th but we usually start back early, adding a little each day until we are back full time.  We missed Nature Study this week, but next week will make up for it!  

But I really do hate being couped up in the house all day and an entire week of it is getting to me.   So, we are either going to the library to turn in our summer reading logs since tomorrow is the last day or, if we can convince Daddy, we are going to hang out at Disneyland!  Maybe both...  After all, summer should always end with a bang.


So rather then bore us both with trying to remember what my week was like each day, here's my pictures that just show it all! Our end of summer fun, lazy days.

She discovered the butterfly book I bought her at the library last week.

Megatron cuteness! 

Megatron hates water, but the older two enjoyed the kiddie pool.

This is what happens when toddlers refuse to go to sleep two nights in a row.  She crashed early.

Linking this up to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers .

Freebie - Minecraft Coloring Pages

I did a search for Green Bubbles for some minecraft coloring pages recently and do you know what I found?  Nothing!  I don't know if I just wasn't searching the right way or if somebody really never made any.  So, in the interest of sharing, here's a few that I made for Green Bubbles. 

I made a cake, creeper, sword, and 'golden' apple.  These are the things he's most interested in right now.  There may be more in the future depending on how interested he is in these.  (Link below).  If you download these please leave me a comment so I know there's interest!

Download Here

Nature Study - County Fair

The County Fair is a summer tradition for us.  We don't do the rides and games though since our kids are still so young.  When we go to the fair it is much more nature study then anything else since we spend our entire time visiting all the animals.  This year we made it an event with our nature group and were able to share it with friends. We Care Wednesdays allow you to get free admission with a donation.  On the day we went it was children's books which I have plenty of! Kids 5 and under get in free as well so it worked out well for our group. 

We all meet up at Centennial Farm which is there year round. If you follow the link right now you can see a live webcam of one of the pigs at the fair. The farm is a great place for the kids to see all kinds of farm animals they wouldn't get a chance to see with living in a city.  We got to see chickens, goats, pigs, cows, and sheep.  And of course, since it's the fair, we got to see baby animals of all of those as well.  The kids got to review the vocabulary of the animals: ewe, bull, chick, piglet, calf, and more.  Little Miss' favorite was the two little calves they had while Green Bubbles was particularly interested in the piglets. 

 

After the farm the kids all went to check out the bees where they got a chance to find the Queen bee in a hive, and earned a sticker by doing so!  Most of the kids, including Green Bubbles and Little Miss, also got a chance to make beeswax candles too.

Now here's where it gets real.  It's getting hot here, and I was baby wearing Megatron so I probably didn't have the best patience level this day.  Green Bubbles and Little Miss were pretty naughty that morning as well and we almost didn't go to the fair at all.  They both weren't listening and were just running amock in the house.  We went because it was with our group and I'm glad we did because I don't know when we would have made it another day.  But it also means everyone was a little on edge.

This came out when Green Bubbles announced he was hungry and had to eat.  We had lunch less than an hour beforehand for exactly this reason so I was frustrated.  But we stopped and got a fair favoriate, funnel cake. (Sorry for the shadow in the picture).

Keeping it real... pushing Little Miss in the stroller, babywearing Megatron, and carrying a funnel cake and drink all at the same time does not work well.  The drink flew and the entire thing spilled.  But this is why you have friends with you!  I was about to lose it but our nature study buddies helped out.  We managed to find a good table for everyone to sit.  We ate our cake, but Green Bubbles complained the entire time about everything.  The heat was turning up at this point which I think contributed to the problem.

So we went indoors next and checked out the kids explorium.  Here the kids got to make a bracelet out of pipe cleaners and little beads, explore the principles of  buoyancy placing beads and other objects on pipe cleaners to see how slow they could get it to sink, played a fishing game, and pretended they were archeologists.

It was lot and hot still though, and Megatron just woke up so we took a pitstop at the baby station right next door where I was able to change diapers, refill out water bottles with cold water, and nurse Teddy.  We all felt better after that and ready to take on the rest of the fair!

Of course, we ended up walking right by a splash pad before we managed to do anything else.  It was still hot so I let the kids play.  That was probably my mistake.  They both got wet, Green Bubbles was soaked. They had so much fun but were just to wet and cold to keep going through the rest of the fair so we ended up leaving shortly after.  I'd glad we did it though.  Even though we didn't make it over to the livestock area or the pig races, I would much rather leave on a high note then with crying and complaints!

 

I'm linking this post up with Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Preschool - Jungle

So it's another week and another theme.  This past week we went with Jungle!  I decided to deviate from the Letter of the Week curriculum and am mostly just using the theme as a jumping off point at this point.

First, we listened to A Carnival of Animals by Camille Saint-Saens and danced around our living room pretending to be animals in a jungle.  I threw pillows and blankets in various places to help pretend we were in a jungle.  Couches became trees, pillows were rocks, blankets spread length wise were logs, and we even ended up with some sort of pretend water feature that Green Bubbles kept ending up in.  The kids had a lot of fun with this one and it got a lot of our wiggles out.

 We also made these paper plate lions.  Little Miss picked blue for her lion while Green Bubbles went for more tradtional colors.  After coloring their plates I gave them the noses and eyes to glue on themselves.  I drew the smiles and whiskers though.  They really liked making the lions and Little Miss spent the entire week walking around with her lion roaring at everyone.  These were a big hit!

The books this week (note: links are afflicate links) --

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild - We read this one at the same time as our dancing game. It was the perfect fit since the kids were already keyed up and roaring whenever Mr. Tiger roared was acceptable at the moment.  And my kids were totally wild the beginning of the week too.  We just got back from a weekend trip and they weren't back into our normal routine yet.  Both loved this book, but I think the favorite part was when Mr. Tiger swam in the fountain and took off all his clothes.

Crocodile Beat - A story about a lot of animals making noise, waking up a crocodile, and a hero lion!  Green Bubbles loved the ending of this book and Little Miss got very involved when she realized the crocodile was awake and hungry.  We made our lion plates after reading this book too!

If I Were a Lion - A story about a little girl who's in trouble for being wild.  But she doesn't think she's wild at all and compares herself to a bunch of real wild animals.  While this one might be a stretch for a 'jungle' theme, I've read this one before with Green Bubbles when he was Little Miss' age and knew I wanted to bring it up again.  Especially since they are both in the wild stage right now!

Verdi - The story of a baby python living in the jungle who doesn't want to turn grow up and turn green.  Verdi wants to stay yellow because he thinks only yellow snakes are fast, fun, and exciting.  After an accident Verdi understands why the green snakes act the way they do and, even though he grows up as well, he learns he can still have fun.  This book was cute but for the littles was a bit of a challenge.  The beginning was tough but about half way through it Green Bubbles got more into it.  He said his favorite part was when Verdi met the baby snakes, which was the very end of the book.

The Little Little Girl with the Big Big Voice - Little Miss' favorite for the week, probably because she is a little girl with a big voice as well.  This little girl scares away a lot of big tough animals because of her big voice.  That is until she meets the lion and giggles ensure.

Gumption! -  A cute story about a little boy named Peter who goes on an adventure with his Uncle where he learns all it takes is a little gumption (and a lot of great luck) to have a great time! Green Bubbles liked this one a lot.  I think because the boy saw and did things that the uncle never even noticed.  There were elephants, crocodiles, and snakes as they made their way to the jungle and the gorilla within.  

Aventure Playground - Nature Study

Wednesday are normally our nature study, at least during the summer.  But it is summer so that means it is time for fun too!  Instead of a hike, or hanging at the beach, we hit Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach instead. Cost of admission is $3/child, adults are free.

If you haven't heard of adventure playground, your missing out.  This isn't your traditional playground.  When I was little I lovingly referred to this as the mud park.  I really do love being able to share my fond childhood places with my own children.  This park is only open during the summer and you'll see in a minute while I called it the mud park.

Adventure Playground is recommended for ages 5-12 and it's pretty right on for the ages.  I did bring Green Bubbles last year but I wouldn't do much younger then 4.  Little Miss stayed home and although Megatron got to come along, he stayed in the ergo the entire time. There's a lot of things that toddlers can get hurt with that older children wouldn't have a problem with.  And if you go, make sure your prepared to get wet and dirty.  Bring an extra set of clothes for your kids, including shoes.  Oh, and speaking of shoes, everyone is required to wear tennis shoes here.  No sandals, flip flops, water shoes, etc. 

 The first area is the fort building area.  They have 4 different tree forts built for the kids to climb up into, one specifically just for older kids! Kids are allowed to check out a hammer and are given 3 nails.  There's no fee for this. If they want more then 3 nails they have to earn them!  Pick up 4 pieces of trash, or two bent nails to earn another nail.  What a brilliant rule!  It keeps the park clean, and discarded nails are less likely to be stepped on.  For older kids they are able to check out a saw as well.  While Green Bubbles isn't old enough for that, he did enjoy hammering things.  The picture above was him making a ramp on the side of the tree house.

 And here he is building his cross, plus sign, 'T' and, a car.  At one point he named it all of these things.  He's still to small to actually hammer the nails himself.  I nailed them most of the way in for him, as carefully as I could with a baby strapped to me, and let him do the rest.  He did hit his thumb once but shook it off.  He's gotten really sensitive to things like that lately so I was very proud of him for not letting it stop him from doing something he really liked. 

There's also a rope bridge the kids can cross over the water.  If they fall it isn't a big deal.  The water is really shallow and, at the deepest sections, only goes to Green Bubbles' hips.  This one was out of order last year so it was his first time crossing it.  He can be overly cautious about things so I was surprised that he not only tried it, but really enjoyed it and did it multiple times this day.

Green Bubbles favorite activity is the mud slide though!  The kids line up and climb some stairs built into a steep hill.  Employees of the park stand at the top with a garden hose and just run water down this tarp slide.  At the bottom is a little muddy water pit that kids dive into.  Some kids make giant splashes and actually go under the water but, as mentioned above, Green Bubbles is pretty cautious.  He goes pretty slowly down this slide and just drops gently into the pool at the bottom.  The slide opens and closes throughout the day and every time they announced it's opening Green Bubbles was one of the first in line.

My favorite is the rafts!  I love watching the kids on the rafts.  It reminds me of Huckleberry Finn.  The kids line up (or adults, but if you put to much weight on a raft it will sink!), and when it's their turn they get to walk into the water to their awaiting raft.  They use those long poles to push themselves around on the pond.  Although Green Bubbles really likes to 'lose' his pole in the water and pretend he is stranded and awaits one of his friends to rescue him. 

Some general tips I've learned:
1) They are serious about the tennis shoes.  I've seen them turn people away!
2) Don't forget clean underwear, and socks if your changing them into another pair of tennis shoes.
3) It opens at 10am and we always get there right at opening.  It gets crowded around lunch time with various summer day camps coming to visit.  A lot of kids without a lot of adult supervision is our que to check out.
4) If you have littles, keep them at home.  There were some 3 year olds here from a day camp that I saw, but they didn't seem to be enjoying themselves at all.  One of them cried the entire time on the raft, they were to afraid to go down the slide, and the building area just wasn't very safe for them.  Give it a year or two.  This park has been here since I was a kid in the 80's at least, it's not going anywhere yet. 

Happy Anniversary and 4th of July, Disney style.

10 years ago we decided to get married on 4th of July weekend.  10 years, 3 children, and a lot of ups and downs.  To celebrate we left the kids at home, even the baby, and went out to dinner at Napa Rose at Disney's Grand Californian.

 

The biggest present we gave each other was to renew our passes to Disneyland though.  It's been almost an entire year since we've been and we wanted to surprise the kids.  We didn't tell them until we woke them up on the 4th of July and they were so excited! We decided the night before hand to go to Storyteller's Cafe for breakfast.  It's a character breakfast which we knew the kids would love.  Chip and Dale's Critter breakfast was a hit!

The kids got to see a Chip, Dale, the bears from Brother Bear, and the raccoon from Pocahontas, all while eating some great food.  Green Bubble's favorite part was then the bear gave us a Happy Birthday button with America written as the name.  I don't think he quite understood it, but he loved getting a present from a character.  He even took a selfie with my camera while I was at the buffet with his sister.

Here's a few more photos from our breakfast.  It's hard to get good pictures in general of small children, and adding in a character breakfast you can see how great most of the pictures were!

After breakfast we decided to go to Disney's California Adventure since you can enter it through the hotel.  We expected a lot of crowds being the 4th of July but were pleasantly surprised.  We managed to walk on almost every ride we went on that day.  We got to go on Ariel's Ride, King Triton's Carasol, Toy Story Mania, and Disney Jr's Live on Stage.  Daddy took Malcolm to Soaring while I took the littles to go on the Monsters Inc. ride and we got to see Doc McStuffins and Princess Sofia as well while we waited for them to catch up to us.

And the best part?  We were home by 12:30pm with plenty of time for meals and naps before seeing the fireworks in our own neighborhood away from the crowds.  Since we have the passes we can go back whenver we want and not have to feel guilty for spending so much money to only go for a few hours.  In fact, Little Miss even asked to go back again today and I think we just might!