Tech Tots

When I was invited to the Microsoft store opening at La Cantera, I was excited to see what they’d be offering our city and I have yet to be dissapointed!

On top of offering a community theater with a 103″ touch screen to be used by the public (I took my sons CubScout pack there; more on that later!) and technology teaching classes, they have something called tech tots.

A free interactive class targeted at children aged 2-5, tech tots offers a hands on learning environment for your littlest ones. Click here for full details of the event, which will be held in store from 10-11 am.

I’ll be there with the 2 smallest of my small letting them explore the world of technology.

Hope to see you there! Be sure and say hi!

DIY crayon friends

Rayne was asking me when we were going to get valentines for his class and pondering which ones he wanted to buy: super heroes, legos, angry birds, etc… But when I told him we could make our own, my arts and crafts loving 3rd grader was hooked!

Not allowed to bring candy or treats to his class for the valentines exchange, we had decided to make our own crayons.

This DIY project has been on my mind for a while, and then fellow mommy blogger friend Tori at The sTori Book made some heart shaped crayons for her preschoolers class, and they came out perfect, so my mind was made up that we were doing it! Luckily, Rayne loved the idea and was excited to start!

Grab a box of crayons (we used about 60 to make 24 crayons), and an oven safe silicone mold.

Rayne chose this one to make little crayon friends for his friends. Cute.

First, preheat your oven to 450

Then peel off all the paper from your crayons.

Break or chop them up into little pieces that’ll fit into your mold. Try to keep them all the same size so they melt at the same rate.

Rayne decide he wanted to make rainbow swirl colored crayons so we just kept the colors all together and Rayne picked and chose the colors he wanted to mix.

Silicone molds are pretty flimsy so I placed mine on a cookie sheet before placing it in the oven.

“Bake” for 5 minutes or until they’re all melted down. It happens quickly and you don’t want them to bubble and burn so watch carefully!

Rayne thought it was cool watching them melt down. We watched them change from solid crayons to melted pools of colors.

Once they’re all melted, place them in the freezer for a few minutes to set and them simply pop them out of the mold!

To turn them into Valentines, use double sided tape to adhere them to card stock.

“Valentine, thanks for being such a colorful friend!”

Each one hand signed by Rayne

I’m anxious for Rayne to come home from school today and show me all his Valentines and to tell me how all his friends liked his homemade crayons!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

DIY handprint reindeer ornaments

There’s always room on our Christmas tree for one, or two or three, more handmade Christmas ornaments from my mini’s.

So far this year we’ve added a wooden angel and a clay tree from River and a wooden snowman, clay gingerbread man and picture from Rayne. Today we’re adding a Rudolph from each.

This ornament was an arts and crafts project put together by myself and another class mom for Rayne’s class Christmas party. Rayne had to miss his party, so I made extra crafts baggies for him and River to make at home.

To make your own handprint reindeer keepsake, gather up some brown foam board, pipe cleaners, red jewels, glue, wiggle eyes, and a pen.

Trace your child’s hand on the foam board and cut it out.

The thumb will be the head and the 4 fingers will be the legs.

Glue on your red jewel nose at the tip of the thumb and then glue on the eyes. Rayne chose a side profile with one eye and River wanted a front face with two eyes.

Next, cut the pipe cleaners to the size antlers you want and poke a hole through the foam board near the top where you want the antlers to go. Twist the antlers through the hole to secure them. Add more horns by cutting smaller pieces of pipe cleaner and twisting them around the antlers.

Poke another hole through the foam board where you want the tail to go and twist that through. Decorate your reindeer how you want with extra pipe cleaners, jewels, stickers, etc…

Thread through some ribbon or an ornament hook and hang them up on the tree or give them as gifts to family members!

Merry Christmas!

Devine Acres

We started December by heading to Devine Acres to roam around their Christmas tree farm and have pancakes with Santa.

In true Texas style, the day started out in the  gorgeous 70’s and only promised to climb from there, a perfect day to be outside, although not “Christmas” weather.

We packed the mini’s in the mom-mobile (aka the minivan) and headed out for our drive; about an hour or less from where we are in San Antonio.

We decided to make the kids have breakfast before heading around to play and explore so we went to their little snack shack to grab our food and were immediately handed 4 hot plates of 2 giant pancakes and 2 sausages each before going to pick a spot to sit under their big event tent.

Waitresses walked around taking and delivering drink orders while live christmas music was played on a stage where kids could sit and listen and even join in on songs with instruments laid out for them.

When the boys finished eating, we stood in line to wait our turn for a picture with Santa! He was very friendly and never seemed to tire of the line of children.

After that, it was free time explore all the activities there were to offer including: rubber duck racing, gold mining, tractor ride through the christmas trees, playground, bowling, bean bag toss, feeding and petting the goats, mazes, sack races, marshmallow roasting, and so much more that I can’t even remember it all!

We stayed for 3 hours and easily could have stayed longer, but nap time was approaching.  Diving Acres never disappoints me, we’ve been for their fall pumpkin patch and all they offer during that season and I’m just as pleased with their Christmas time fun! This is on my list of family things to do around San Antonio!

*disclosure: my family and I were invited out to Devine and give free admission to pancakes with Santa and all Devine Acre’s activities.  All opinions and thoughts are 100% my own and may differ from your experiences.

Thanksgiving arts and crafts

The park was soaked yesterday from an all night storm and my minis were getting restless. That can only mean that it’s arts and crafts time!

I decided we’d make some turkeys. It is the month of November after all!

To make turkeys like ours you’ll need yellow, red, brown and white felt, glue, a sharpie and colored popsicle sticks.

Cut a circle for the body, a yellow triangle for the beak, yellow feet, white circles for the eyes and a red turkey wattle.

Have your kids glue the features on the turkey bodies. Then on each of the popsicle stick “feathers” have your child write something that they’re thankful for.

Finish by gluing the sticks onto your turkey and there you have it!