Fantastic Find

Career Paper Dolls on Education.com

There are 20+ free, printable, black-and-white Career Paper Dolls on Education.com! There's a boy and girl to dress up with the outfits. You have to sign up to be a free member before you can download.

Drawing and Doodling

My daughter really enjoys art in any way, shape or form! We already think Ed Emberley's drawing books are wonderful but I came across two Joy Sikorski drawing books that she loves! My daughter didn't get her art interest from me, I'm not even good at doodling (it was fun to do in a boring school class though)!

Printable art fun:

Free online art lessons:

Digital art fun:

Kid Minute to Win It

Do you watch Minute to Win It on NBC? The first week of school we were still holding tight to summer so one evening we had fun outside playing a couple Minute to Win It games! We picked two of the simpler games and changed their blueprints a little. My kids wanted to win a million bucks but they settled for a fruit roll-up and a later bedtime!

• some ping-pong ball games: Ping Tac Toe, Puddle Jumper, Blow Ball •

• pedometer games: Temper Tantrum, Nervous Nelly, Bobble Head •

I cut the top off an old sock for the pedometer to stay on the foot. You can find pedometers at Dollar Tree.

• • More Minute to Win It games that would be fun for kids: A Bit Dicey, Baby Blockin', Breakfast Scramble, Caddy Stack, Cyclone, Floatacious, Keep It Up, Nose Dive, Pop Top • •

Free Owly Comics Downloads

Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is in May when artists like Andy Runton, author of Owly graphic novels, have free comic booklets at comic book stores. This year I planned to have my kids and husband head to the comic book store down the street so we could add more Owly goodness to our collection! Unfortunately we all forgot since we were preoccupied with a newborn. Thank goodness Andy is kind enough to share free PDF downloads of Owly FCBD fun! You can also order FCBD Owly booklets from past years for cheap + shipping (US Media Mail $4.95) from Top Shelf (scroll all the way down)!

Not sure what graphic novels are and if they're right for your kids? Read Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens on Scholastic's website. It says "graphic novels have emerged as a growing segment of book publishing, and have become accepted by librarians and educators as mainstream literature for children and young adults—literature that powerfully motivates kids to read."

Mom, What's for Dinner?

These two main dishes are yummy and were eaten at my dinner table without complaints!

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Grilled Pizza Pockets from Real Mom Kitchen

Cool Cootie Catchers

Have your kids ever made a cootie catcher?

Get them outside today with a fun cootie catcher nature game from 5 Orange Potatoes!

Friday night sleepover? Print a spooky truth or dare cootie catcher from Family Fun!

End of summer road trip? Print a cootie catcher with fortunes from MomsMinivan!

Klutz has The Cootie Catcher Book with 25 preprinted punch-out-and-fold catchers!

Celebrate Book Lovers Day!

Today is Book Lovers Day!

Here's how my kids and I are celebrating:

Reading digital books ▬ Readeo's free Book of the Month and Greg Foley's Bear books on We Give Books

Having a readathon ▬ our favorite children's books on Goodreads

Crafting bookmarks ▬ Monster Page Corner Bookmarks from Tally's Treasury

Buying a children's book ▬ Socks for Supper on half.com

Do You Have a Will?

A while ago on TODAY's Money Jean Chatzky shared what important documents everyone should have on-hand.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch the full video segment on TODAY: Are your most important documents safe?

The Hiccupotamus and Chuckling Ducklings

My kids and I love and highly recommend the books The Hiccupotamus and Chuckling Ducklings by author/illustrator Aaron Zenz.

The Hiccupotamus is colorful, fun, and just plain silly! We like the crazy rhymes (Have you ever said criss-crosserous or strawcerous?) and laugh every time!

The illustrations in Chuckling Ducklings couldn't be any more adorable! It's an educational book about the names of baby animals. See some of the artwork from Chuckling Ducklings on Bookie Woogie.

Spring Beanbags

It's really a no-brainer but when I saw Make and Takes idea to use hot glue and felt to make beanbags I was in love. We went to town for Valentine's Day and made 25 hearts for a school V-day party plus a quick heart beanbag toss set for some cousins (reused a cool whip container covered with felt to hold the hearts). Then we made shamrocks and rainbows for St. Patrick's Day. The rainbows fit right in to this spring set too and the adorable bunny beanbag idea came from Two Straight Lines (her bunnies are definitely much cuter though). I ran out of beans and had old rice so that's what I used for all of the beanbags shown in the picture.

Hooray for Hopscotch!

I have fond memories of playing hopscotch in elementary school and loved having my own hopscotch marker. Last year in my daughter's bunny basket there was chalk and a Hoppy Taw and she had no idea what it was for! Now she regularly draws her own hopscotch and gets jumpin'-- I even join in the fun now and then!

Spring weather in Utah is unpredictable and crazy! The time we spend outside is usually minimal so indoor activities to get some energy out are necessary! That's why I really like this creative Hopscotch Play Mat by A Girl and a Glue Gun (guest post on The Idea Room). *image from A Girl and a Glue Gun

Playing outdoors requires drawing the pattern first but that's part of the fun! Check out some great and different hopscotch pattern ideas and rules on Squidoo (scroll down a little to see the 6 pattern images) for making outdoor hopscotch just a little more exciting! *Dizzy Dragonfly Hopscotch image from Squidoo

*post contains an affiliate link

Snap a Poladroid

My parents had a Polaroid Camera and I always thought it was interesting how the film developed and how the pictures looked. Believe it or not, someone has created a free application that mimics a Polaroid using digital photos!! Poladroid Image Maker can be downloaded to your computer really quickly so you can start snapping some poladroids!! I found out about this photo fun while browsing through This Mama Makes Stuff.

Amanda's Free Fonts

Look no further than kevinandamanda.com for a huge selection of free fonts for scrapbooking and more! Amanda provides step-by-step instructions on how to download and install the fonts and she can even turn your handwriting into a font! I use Pea So Lovely font for my post titles (credited on the left sidebar) and I love it! The doodles fonts are really fun too! It's important to read her terms of use before you use a font from her site.

* spring image created with fonts A Little Pot & Pea Tisha's Doodles

Easy Frog Craft

I take my son to Circle Time every Thursday where they read a few books on a topic and do a craft. Yesterday was all about frogs and the kids made this fun frog blower. I asked the teacher where she got the idea and she said they've done it for a couple years now and she couldn't remember. I traced and scanned my son's frog so you can make an easy frog craft with the kids. Find the download on google docs: frog craft with blower.

Trace the frog pattern on foam, cut it out, and glue on googly eyes. Then push a party blower through the cut slits.

(Martha Stewart has instructions for handmade party blowers)

Have fun catching some flies-- ribbit, ribbit!

More Printable Paper Dolls

I came across these fun paper doll links on Cooperating 4 Boys blog because Jennifer linked to one of my paper doll posts!

• True-Town paper dolls: 3 girls and 3 boys with many outfits to color

• Microsoft Office Templates Paper Dolls: boy and girl with outfits (b&w and color)

Copying Isn't Nice

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