2012 March | Plum Adorable

You’ve been Egged! {Free Printable}

Have you ever been ‘egging’ before?

No, not that kind ‘egging’. I have never done that before.

Right mom? :)

I’m talking about ‘egging’ your neighbor or friend’s houses with plastic eggs filled with goodies. Last year I used this free printable from Eighteen 25. But, now that I have a place to share my printables, I have created one with a little more fun added to it.

All you need to do is…

1) Print out this free 8.5×11 printable.

2) Fill a bunch of plastic eggs with candy or other goodies.

3) Figure out when your neighbor or friend will be gone for a bit.

4) Have your kiddos spread plastic eggs all over their yard and then leave the note on their door!

You could just add candy, but if you really like your neighbor or friend, then you could add some special things to some of the eggs and let them know on the note what they should be looking for!

Some ideas would be….

Dimes, Quarters, $1 Bills (or more if you roll like that).

Gift Certificates (you could just add one $2 or $3 certificate to a favorite ice cream shop or it could be a homemade one that is good for a batch of homemade cookies).

Or just add bigger candy in some of them.

If you just want to do jelly beans, then just cut off the bottom!

My kids had so much fun doing this last year! We went to my bff’s house while her son was at baseball practice. The fun part for us was that our other bff, lives right next door, so I recruited her kids to come out and help us spread the eggs. We put them in trees, on the deck, under the deck. I added four $1 bills to four of the eggs and they loved finding the money! My friend pretty much knew it was me that ‘egged’ her, but you could make it anonymous if you wanted to. Or you could add your name to the note.

If you’d like to take your kids ‘egging’ then download and print the printable below on 8.5×11.

Click here or on the image below to download.

Happy Egging!

~Jenny

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Filed Under: Kids, Spring

Refrigerator Scrabble

28 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

Well now that my fridge is looking so clean, or really so plain and boring now that my Christmas cards are finally down, I had an idea in mind to make use of some of our open fridge space. My little Kaylee girl is at the stage of the game where we are starting to build on her letter sounds to make 2 to 3 letter words and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall! She is starting to read just a tiny bit, and I want to encourage that for all its worth! And I kind of LOVE Scrabble - well, actually I kind of LOVE SPEED Scrabble, I don’t actually really like regular Scrabble so much! (If you don’t know what speed Scrabble is, GOOGLE it and then find someone to play it with!!) My hubby and I really like to play and the kids have started begging to play with us too, which is fairly difficult since Cole is only in first grade-but he is a GREAT little speller and really only needs a bit of help and Kaylee only has a few words under her belt - mom, dog, cat, dad, Cole, Kaylee, hat, bat, at, etc.- you get the picture.

And I have to admit, I have a Hate-Hate relationship with those multi-colored plastic alphabet magnets that used to be on my fridge when my kids were toddlers! When you have OCD, they aren’t a good idea! They drove me CRAZY! I would find them everywhere because my kids LOVED to knock them off the fridge and then run around with them. I am breaking out in hives just thinking about those things!

So I decided to use the scrabble pieces that we found for a KILLER price at the Goodwill, add some magnets and use them on our fridge for word building practice for little Miss Kaylee! Or for Speed Scrabble practice for Cole or for leaving notes for all the family! The kids LOVE this!!!! They have been glued (the kids – not the magnets) to the fridge for half the afternoon coming up with all sorts of fun stuff! It was really easy, really affordable and it looks like the kids think it’s pretty fun!!

Yes, that does say $3.99!

And I think a standard Scrabble game comes with 100 pieces, this one had over 300 – I think they shoved every scrap Scrabble piece that ever came into Goodwill into this box! YAY for us!

I only ended having enough magnets to put up about 65 letters on my fridge (tripled the vowels and most common used consonants).

~JESS

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Filed Under: Crafts

Long Overdue Project

27 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

Did you guys have a great weekend? I did!! It was jam packed and crazy busy but super FUN! We had our annual MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) Auction on Friday night and I helped with set up of that pretty much all of Thursday and then had a million things to do before the auction itself on Friday! This is the first year in three years that I didn’t have to do ANYTHING at the auction other than help serve dinner and it was awesome! My hubby and I had a great time sitting with some great friends and laughing at the hilarious auctioneers and we even won a trip we had been bidding on for THREE years straight!! SO EXCITED!! I’ll tell you all about it when we actually take the trip in August!

Saturday we spent that day at our son’s first ever Martial Arts competition. We left our house at about 7:30 in the morning and got home at about 7 o’clock that night. Cole got to experience his first sparring and form competitions in Tae Kwan Do and he LOVED it! He came home with 2 trophies, one for 2nd place in form and one in 3rd place for sparring! He got to see many of his friends compete and win trophies too! It was a great time for us to watch him grow in confidence and to see him stretch himself as he is learning to overcome nerves and learn about being a good winner and loser. He is learning great lessons already at 7 years of age!

Here is a picture of Cole after he received his first trophy! SO EXCITED!!!

And this picture I had to share because I thought it was so cute! Right after Cole got his first official set of sparring gear, little sis, Kaylee, REALLY wanted to try it on too! So of course she did, right before Ballet class! So here is our little ninja ballerina. Do NOT mess with her folks!

So after our fun filled weekend, I had to get back in to the swing of things with my house! It was a HUGE disaster. I usually do all my cleaning (I have a pretty tight schedule of when I do my cleaning, laundry, etc.) on Mondays but there was NO WAY my house was waiting until Monday this time. So after a pretty packed Sunday morning, we got home around 2 and I tore through our house and cleaned from top to bottom! And it felt so good to be able to finally see the floor again on Sunday night!

I know those of you who know me well don’t really believe me, but you can ask Tyler, he’ll tell you! It really was a pit! Too many days of being home long enough to only MAKE messes and then run out the door! So once my house was clean, I had to tackle a small project that was WAY overdue that I put off EVERY YEAR for as long as I possibly can.

Taking down the Christmas cards! That’s right…it is March…almost April…and my fridge is still COVERED in CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! I would leave them up ALL year if I could but Mr. Plum Adorable is giving me the eye to start taking them down (really he started doing that about 3 months ago..in January!) I just really like to see all my friend’s adorable faces for as long as I possibly can!

SO here is what my fridge looked like this morning!

And this is it now….so sad…so plain….so BORING!!!!

I have had a few friends ask me what I do with my cards after I take them down. I can’t possibly throw them away. I am not too sentimental about much but picture cards I ABSOLUTELY am! So I cut them down to just the picture and then I scrapbook them all onto a couple pages and add them to my annual album! I have been doing the Project Life albums for a few years now, and I LOVE them! Here are a couple examples of my previous years pages:

I also usually go through and add little strips of paper that I glue in the corners of each picture that say each family members name. My kids LOVE pulling out the albums and looking at their friends throughout the year!

And now that my fridge is bare again, I’ll have to share another idea I have for some magnets!

~JESS

vOLCANOeS, TORNADOS & LAVA, OH MY! 4 SIMPLE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE

22 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

My friend Andrea has two boys, one is a year older than my son and the other is a year younger. They have so much fun when they get together. Two years ago we made these volcanoes and they were a hit. Can you tell how cool the boys thought they were? I have so many cute pictures of this day, but I didn’t realize my camera was on a funky setting, so most of them are blurry. Sad face.

We got together this week for more science fun and today I am sharing FOUR ‘recipes’ that will make your kids think you are cool.

1. MAKE YOUR OWN VOLCANO

I found this recipe on Make and Takes. This is a great site for all kinds of kids crafts. For the complete recipe click here.

In a nutshell, you just mold playdoh all around a plastic water bottle (see the original recipe here to learn how to make the playdoh look gray). Let it harden/dry overnight on a cookie sheet with foil on it. Add some ‘characters’ that might be in ‘danger’ of the lava.

When you are ready to make your volcano ‘explode’ just add 1/3 cup baking soda using a funnel. Add some red food coloring to the vinegar and start pouring the vinegar into the bottle. Stand back and watch the magic happen. Our cute boys were so little. Sigh.

2. MAKE YOUR OWN LAVA LAMPS

Here are our boys this past week. Andrea’s youngest son even joined in on the fun this time since he is old enough now.

I have seen a couple of lava lamps on Pinterest, but the recipe we used came from Come Together Kids (another favorite of mine).

Directions

This one is simple. All you need is cooking oil, water, food coloring, an empty water bottle, and Alka Seltzer antacid tablets.

Add vegetable oil about 2/3 of the way, then fill with water leaving about an inch of open space. Add food coloring and wait for it to break through to the bottom and color the water.

Now, for the fun part.

Drop half of an Alka Seltzer (or as Andrea’s son called them the ‘magic pills’) into the bottle and watch the bubbles form.

The boys LOVED these. They could have done it over and over again. And the cool thing is they did. My son showed his sisters as soon as they got home and then of course he had to show daddy when he got home too!

3. HOW TO CREATE A TORNADO

I LOVE this one.

I can’t seem to find where I found this recipe? I had ‘pinned’ this recipe by Ellie Moon but this is not the recipe that I had printed out. Hmm… I like to give credit where it’s due, so if I find it I will definitely let you know. We will be trying the Ellie Moon one next time though since it seems like a bit of a different ‘spin’ to this one.

All you need for this is a jar (the taller the better), a butter knife, water, vinegar, dish soap, glitter (optional) and food coloring (optional)

Directions

Fill the jar three-quarters full of water and add one teaspoon of dish soap and one teaspoon of vinegar. Then add a few drops of food coloring. We also added some glitter!

Next, take a butter knife and swirl it around and around. Then pull out the knife and watch your tornado go.

For some reason the boys thought it made it go ‘faster’ when they blew on it. So, they just kept blowing and blowing. So cute! I could have done this one over and over. It was fun to watch it twirl. I also loved this one because you could quickly do this anytime.

They are fascinated.

4. MAKE MINI COLORED FAUX VOLCANOES

I had pinned this idea from Play At Home Mom and thought it would be fun to add to our experiments since we were using all of the same stuff anyway. This experiment is basically the same as the volcanoes minus the actual volcano.

Just take clear plastic cups, add some baking soda and put a few squirts of food coloring into each glass. Then add some vinegar and watch it explode!

I didn’t get as many pictures of this one. Apparently my son thought it looked so good that he decided to taste it. He was in for a big surprise and quickly learned that vinegar and baking soda do not taste good together. I wish you could have seen his face. Winking smile

I hope you will go out and experiment with your kiddos. It really doesn’t cost much or take that much time to gather everything.

The best part is that they will think you are an even more of a rock star mom (or dad, grandma, grandpa) than you already are!

~Jenny

How to make a faux mini pallet sign for around $5

21 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

I wanted to make something for my cousin’s birthday. She recently moved into a new house, so I thought a sign would be perfect. Originally, I had thought about doing a picket fence sign, so I bought 7 of these at Ace Hardware for .79 a piece.

After I got home, I decided that I didn’t want to keep the tips on them (at least not for this project) so I cut them off with my handy saw that my hubby got me for Christmas. Then I cut them in half.

They are about 10 inches long. I also found a couple of pieces in my garage to nail to the back to hold them together. You could probably just use the same wood, I just liked it a bit thinner.

I knew I was going to sand it and wanted to have a darker wood under the paint, so I stained it with some dark stain I had leftover from another project from last summer.

Then I painted them with a light yellow acrylic paint.

Before I nailed it together I sanded down each piece including the the two pieces that actually get nailed on the back.

To attach the pieces on the back I put them all together and then nailed the nails into each board. Make sure that your nails are not so long that they go through the whole sign.

I had a couple of different sayings in mind, but then I saw this pallet sign on Pinterest from Corner House. I loved it for a couple of reasons. I loved it for my cousin because it’s a great reminder that she has lots of family that will love her always! The other reason I love it is because as a Christian, I know that even if for some reason everyone around me stopped loving me, I know that God will never stop loving me!

Or, as my 4 year old said to me the other day, “God will still love us even if we’ve done really, really bad things.” Love that boy!

I cut the words out on some leftover vinyl. I wanted to make sure it would stick since I was giving it as a gift so I tried it with the vinyl first. But, then when I made the second sign I used contact paper and it worked just as well!

I used a small sponge to paint inside the negative part of the vinyl & contact paper. Then I peeled off the vinyl and let the paint dry completely. I then went over it with sandpaper again to give it that vintage look.

I only spent about $3 on this whole project. I had everything on hand besides the wood. But, even if you had to purchase the other items, it would still make a great inexpensive project and or gift!

I made another one…I love this one!

~Jenny

Linking up with…

The 36th Avenue

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Filed Under: Crafts, Gift Ideas, paint, vinyl

Decorating for Spring

20 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

It has snowed TWICE this week! SO I feel a little weird putting up all my Spring decorations…But I am going to choose to be optimistic and put them up anyway and PRAY that spring really is right around the corner! PLEASE….PRETTY PLEASE!

I found a really cute candle holder centerpiece idea on Pinterest not too long ago, and put it in my St.Patty’s Day Folder to add to my March Mantle décor and I was really proud of myself because I actually did get it up in time for St. Patty’s Day! On the 16th!! Talk about cutting it close. But I liked the candle holders so much and I felt that they were actually quite perfect for a good transition into my Spring decorations so I still get to share them with you today! And I REALLY like how they turned out! Thank you so much Two Twenty One for the awesome idea, I NEVER would have come up with this on my own and it was so EASY and so AFFORDABLE!! (My FAVORITE!!!).

Here is my inspiration from Two Twenty One!

And here is all you need to make it happen!

I found the candlesticks at Value Village ($1.99 each, the hurricane vases were $2.77 at Wal-Mart, our local Dollar Store was out of large vases- totally weird!, and the candles were $2 at Wal-Mart, had the E6000 on hand and the Split Peas were $.88.)

The hardest part of the process was removing all the stickers from the bottoms of the vases (those bad boys DID NOT want to come off! Had to whip out the miracle worker- Goo GONE!)

Next Step was to adhere the candle sticks to the vases with the E6000, Easy Peasy! And then just let it dry! (Seriously, the waiting was hard for me too, I am not the most patient person!)

Once I waited (FOREVER) at least a few hours for the glue to dry, I added my candles, my peas, and a ribbon and it completed my lovely St. Patty’s Day mantle! FOR A WHOLE DAY!!

Today I got to work on my Spring Decorations! And thanks to Jenny and her ADORABLE printables, I had the perfect addition to my Spring Mantle and new hurricane vases!!

Have you decorated for Spring yet? It’s coming! I just know it! It has to right…. RIGHT?!

~JESS

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Filed Under: Crafts, Free Printables, Spring, Spring

Spring is in the air {free 5×7 and 8×10 printables For your spring decor}

19 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

Click on any of the four images below to download and print.

For best results print on quality 8.5 x 11 inch quality paper.

Watermark will not be on print when downloaded.

For personal use only.

8×10

Click here for the 5×7

8×10

Click here for the 5×7

8×10

Click here for the 5×7

8×10

Click here for the 5×7

~Jenny

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Filed Under: Free Printables, Spring, Spring

Homemade Cookies–A fun way for your kids to make extra Money {Free Printable Tags)

15 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

My daughter really wants to get a Kindle Fire, so we told her to save up her allowance. Being the smart girl that she is, she told us that it would be quite some time before she would have enough money to buy a Kindle. She wanted to know how she could earn extra money. So, we decided to bake cookies and sell them to our friends and family. We actually did this last summer as well when we had a few rainy days and they couldn’t do a lemonade stand. We made these Snickerdoodles from Stephanie’s Kitchen and they are DELICIOUS! Click on the link or the picture below to get the recipe.

The day we made this first batch I just happened to be going out with some friends later in the day, so I texted them to see if they wanted to support my daughter in her effort to get a Kindle Fire. Of course they ‘couldn’t say no to a kid trying to earn her keep’ (this is actually exactly what my friend Caryn said :) We decided to sell a dozen for $3 (although I think I put thirteen in the bags). I’m happy to report that my daughter is well on her way to earning that Kindle!

I made these cute printable tags to add to them. Click here or on the actual image at the end of the post to download and print.

Now we need to decide whether we make these delicious Snickerdoodles again or move on to a different delicious cookie.

Hey family…we are hittin’ you up next, so what kind of cookie do you want her to make? :)

Click on the image below to download and print.

~Jenny

Linking up with…

The 36th Avenue

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Filed Under: Everyday, Free Printables, Kids, Recipes, Sweets

Here Comes The Rain AGAIN!

14 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

So I seriously want to know how many of you read the title to this post and IMMEDIATELY had the 80′s song running through your head?! You know that 80’s hit, Here Comes The Rain Again by the Eurythmics (lead singer Annie Lennox). NO? JUST ME!? I have this problem, if I hear the title to a song or just a snippet of a lyric, the song is playing in my head ALL DAY LONG! My hubby thinks it is pretty funny to just walk by me and say something like, “everybody was Kung-Fu fighting” because he knows that not 2 seconds later, I will be singing THAT song!!!! Earlier today I was singing the theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club House! (The life of a stay at home mom!)

This weather here in Western Washington, not too far from the city of Seattle is driving me CRAZY!! And yes Milli Vanilli, I DO BLAME IT ON THE RAIN!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! I know, I know… I do choose to live here and this is typical weather for us, but I could just really use a day or 2 or 10 of sun or not even really sun, just not RAIN. I just don’t want to get soaked every time I go from car to house to school to store to car to home! UGGHHH… Good thing I am a fan of pony tails and cute rubber boots! Speaking of which, I thought I would share with you my favorite new accessory for this week (an apparently the next 10 days according to the forecast - RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN).

These are my boots, Cole’s boots and Kaylee’s boots. For some odd reason, can’t seem to get Mr. Plum Adorable into a pair?!

So all this rain does mean more time indoors. My hubby tells me to just buck up, bundle up and grab an umbrella and go outside anyways (he was born and raised here, I CLEARLY WAS NOT!) so I am still not so keen on that idea. So I have been doing lots of searching on Pinterest for fun indoor activities and found some cool stuff we are going to try this upcoming week! (Especially since early release and Spring Break are coming up soon and I want a back up plan in case we are spending some time indoors.) Check out these cool indoor rainy day activities!

This site, Inner Child Fun, has 10 different Rainy Day Activities to do!

Check out this Nerf Gun Shooting Range from Busy Kids=Happy Mom!

This magic paint from Modern Parents, Messy Kids looks super cool, I can’t wait to try it, my little artists will LOVE IT!

I loved the simplicity of this balloon ping pong, good way to get them moving inside the house!

Another fun rainy day activity for us is to just put on some music, turn it up LOUD and have a little dance party! My kids used to look at me like I was crazy when I would try to do this with them but for some reason now they have decided they love it! So for your listening pleasure, here are a few of my favorite RAINY day inspired songs!! (If you are reading our blog via email, the youtube links won’t come through so you’ll have to go to the site to see the videos!)

Singin’ in the Rain

Set Fire to the Rain

Flood

It will Rain

She’s my Kind of Rain

Hope ya’ll are staying dry! And finding something fun to do!

~JESS

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Filed Under: 'Pin'talicious, Crafts, Kids

St. Patrick’s Day Fun! 15 ideas to do with your kids.

12 Mar posted by Plum Adorable

It’s pretty clear that we like to have fun with every holiday and St. Patrick’s Day is no exception. So, whether you are having a party or just looking for ideas to do with your kids, we have some fun ideas for you to celebrate St. Patty’s Day.

Last year I made my girls these shirts. Click here to see this year’s shirts as well as a download for this template. Or click here to see our burlap stenciled pillows to see how to make the shirts below.

For breakfast I made them rainbow waffles and green milk.

Then I sent them on a treasure hunt using these cute Shamrocks from The Crafting Chicks. {free printable}

At the end of their treasure hunt they found these simple ‘pots of gold’. I found the glittered baskets at the dollar section at Target. The tags were also from the The Crafting Chicks.

I like to change things up a bit and keep the kids on their toes, so this year I thought it would be fun to make them this simple breakfast. This is from Thoughtfully Simple. Free printable as well.

And because my kids love any sort of treasure hunt, I found these cute printables for a treasure hunt from Oopsey Daisy.

And because this just makes me laugh, I may have to add this to the hunt. This is from Differentiated Kindergarten.

Here are two ideas to put in your pot of gold at the end of your treasure hunt. The M&M’s idea is from It Is What It Is and the rainbow Twizzlers idea is from Our Best Bites.

Here are some other fun ideas.

Rainbow pancakes found at I am Baker.

Rainbow cupcakes also found at Our Best Bites.

Make green popcorn using Kool-Aid. What? So cool!

This recipe was found on Tasty Kitchen.

This would be fun for a party! I found this on Pinterest and there was no link back to a website. Looks easy enough to make!

If you are celebrating, don’t forget to check out our free St. Patricks Day Printables. Click on the images below to take you to the post to download the free printables.

Print on burlap.