Family Fun Magazine strikes again! So...I had been saving our toilet paper and paper towel tubes all summer thinking that Logan's pre-school teacher would want them like Mrs. Jenn did last year. Well....no dice. She said she'll send out a message if they have a project in mind, but that she doesn't have much storage right now. I figured I would either save them for a future need or go ahead and put them in recycling. Literally, that same day, I got my monthly Family Fun Magazine and found an article all about crafts made with paper tubes. Not only did they have some fun ideas, but they had the PERFECT craft for all of the little trinkets the boys (namely Aiden and his lizards/frogs/worms) collect here and there.





Here is the picture of the magazine. The plan: cut tubes short enough to fit inside of a shoe box with the lid on. Dip one end of each tube lightly in glue, press into rows filling up the whole box, decorate and voila!
I'm pretty sure they used a Stride Rite box because the one I had laying around looked remarkably like the picture in the magazine. I only had one so I sacrificed a good-sized Yahtzee box for Logan. Here is our test to make sure we had enough tubes. I wrapped the box tops in plain paper. Logan sort of lost interest after the glue part was finished, so Aiden and I did all the art work. Aiden requested a fish, a basketball and a lizard on his. I think my lizards need some work!

Oops...side-ways picture! Logan got a rocket, a fish and a "pillow" that Aiden drew (the rainbow looking number on the side).

The absolute best part of this craft was going through the playroom hunting for treasures. We seem to have quite a few key chains laying around! Other items of interest: mini flashlights, extra special cars, small wind-up toys and the little pieces to some of Logan's star wars action figures that are easily lost in the shuffle. The boys love pulling these out and playing with the little treasures inside which is a second bonus because most of this stuff was previously just taking up space.

Again I say...Family Fun...genius.

We're back from vacation! Every one had a great time, plane rides were survived (there were some rough moments, but overall not so bad) and we're now enjoying our last week before Logan starts Pre-K next Tuesday. The boys got to see the GGs, Nana & Papa, Auntie Denna, Uncle Tom and baby Ryan. They spent 5 days at Nana and Papa's house while mommy and daddy had some much-needed relaxation time! I took over 400 pictures, but promise not to post them all!

While I dig through the pics on my camera, I thought I would post on our post-vaca craft project from yesterday. This was another idea straight from the pages of Family Fun Magazine. I saw it a couple months ago and made a mental note to collect some shells in California and Hawaii. The boys never made it to a beach in Cali, but Brian and I spent an afternoon in Hawaii combing the beach and snorkeling in one of the resort lagoons looking for shells, coral, crab claws, lava rocks and anything else we could find.



The project is making a mini aquarium. It involves sand, shells, blue colored water, a little glitter and baby oil all mixed together in a water bottle. Our supplies are pictured. Since I'm still fighting the jet lag, necessary craft items also included an early-afternoon iced coffee for mommy!
The boys with their empty water bottles. I found some cool, very tall and round ones that worked really well.
Coloring the water

Brady was napping, but we made one for him as well. Each boy picked out a variety of things to put in their bottle. I helped add the sand and baby oil was strictly a mommy job. Here are the finished bottles:
The rest of the shells in our "cleaning station" Brian and I had collected them in a Vitamin Water bottle in Hawaii so the boys put them in the water table to rinse them off.

So...the whole aquarium concept was very cool and all three boys love playing with them, but the sand we used (from our sandbox) did not work at all. It's far too fine and just mucked up the view. I suggest using only straight beach sand. We ended up draining the oil and water, washing the shells and the sand out of the bottles and re-assembling (sans sand). Much better! This is a picture of the water in motion which is why it's a bit blurry.