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Desperate times call for desperate measures.  We've had an overabundance of snow days this winter and the kids are actually getting tired of all the days off school.  When they don't want to play outside anymore and cabin fever is setting in, I've had to reach deep into my bag of tricks to keep us all sane and entertained. Here was a little trick that brought lots of laughs (along with a few crumbs)... This trick was from way back in my college days.  My friends and I learned about it somehow, then challenged people every chance we got.  In all the times we presented the challenge, we never had anyone who was able to do it (and we won tons of free meals and free drinks in the process!). You most likely have the supplies on hand, a box of saltine crackers (salted, not unsalted), a timer, and some willing participants. The challenge is simple... all you have to do is eat (and swallow) the six saltines before the minute timer goes off without getting a drink of water....

We've had several snow days lately and this was the perfect quick and easy little trick to entertain the kids.  You more than likely have everything you need on hand and the kids can do it multiple times and still be thrilled by  it.de63def56e13867f940ba574b16babf2765d48ee5daa5820fa Check it out...   All you need is a ziploc bag, water, and some sharpened pencils (or wooden skewers, etc) Once your bag is filled with water, simply push the sharpened end of the pencil straight through.  If you do it fairly smoothly, the bag will seal itself around the pencil and no water will leak out.  (However, I do recommend doing it over the sink or have a towel handy just in case.)  We found that if you change direction midway through or start poking through the back and then hesitate, you might spring a leak.  Most of the time, though, the pencil goes in one side and out the other without even a drip of water!! It's lots of fun and we had a good time seeing just ho...

We made these yummy lollipops at my daughter's recent Tie-Dye Birthday party .  They were a fun little treat for the girls, but they were so easy, they'd be a fun little treat to make anytime. Check them out... Now look at how easy they are to make! Here's what you need... * Hard candy (photo shows Jolly Ranchers and Lifesavers, but I found that the Jolly Ranchers "melted" the best) * parchment paper (affiliate link) - found in the baking aisle * a hard object (to smash the candies) * sturdy plastic bags (small freezer bags worked great) * lollipop sticks (affiliate link) - found in                                                     the cake decorating section of most craft stores Here's what to do... 1. Unwrap your candies and separate by colors in your plastic...

When we were brainstorming different ideas for my 8-year old daughter's birthday party, we quickly settled upon having a tie dye theme.  In case you haven't been around 8 year olds lately, they can be all about tie-dye, peace signs, hearts and rainbows, so it seemed like the perfect plan. However, once I thought about it a little more, I was worried it would be tricky to pull off.  Regular tie-dying often involves presoaking the fabric, dying it, wrapping it up and waiting several hours before rinsing it out.  That definitely would be tricky to pull off in a 3-hour time frame for our party.  Plus, it's often recommended to use 100% cotton fabrics, and that would rule out the pillowcases and socks we were hoping to tie dye. Luckily, we decided on an alternative that worked out really well...  using watered-down acrylic paints instead of regular dye. Check it out... That rainbow of bottles was filled with the watered-down paint that was really easy to use and all ...

Last week my "baby" turned 8!  To celebrate, we had a small party here at the house with a tie-dye theme.  My birthday girls and her friends had a fun time, had some yummy and colorful treats and left with some cool little projects.  In this post I'll share an overview of the party's projects and treats, with links to full posts with all the details.   (Click on the photo or the links in the descriptions for the full posts!) First, let's start with the food... Though I have very little cake decorating experience and have been just making cupcakes for all of our recent parties, I did make this tie-dye cake that turned out pretty cool.   I just used boxed cake mix, canned frosting and food coloring and I only used a regular rubber spatula and spoon for the decorating, but it turned out well enough to impress a bunch of 8 year olds.  The inside of the cake is even "tie-dyed" as well ~ pretty cool!  (Full post HERE )  I also made some Trix Krispi...

The kids and I just returned from a little mini vacation at the Jersey Shore with my sister and her family.  The kids had a blast with their cousins and I was excited to snap this funny photo "capturing" the cousins under a huge sand bucket. Check it out... I originally saw the idea on Pinterest from THIS Flickr photo.  My photography skills aren't as good as the original, but it was a simple shot to capture.  I just asked the kids to go a little ways down the beach, then held the beach bucket in my left hand and the camera in my right.  I told the kids to pretend something was attacking them from above (which they gladly acted out).  Because I just used the auto focus on my camera, I had to lock the focus on the kids, then move the bucket into the shot (otherwise the kids would have been too blurry and the bucket would be in sharp focus) .   I got a few funny looks from other beachgoers, but it was worth it for this cute photo.

I'd seen this idea for using chalk pastels to color hair several times over the past year or so, but I finally had the perfect opportunity to test it out when the kids were visiting their cousins last week.  I searched again on Pinterest,  found this tutorial at Little Pink Monster and ran out to the craft store to pick up some soft chalk pastels. Check out the fun hair... The girls loved it and it was really easy and inexpensive. Here's what we did... First, I picked up this set of soft chalk pastels (Amazon affiliate link) at the craft store, using a 40% off coupon it was less than $5! Next we got to work putting colorful streaks in the girls' hair. 1.  We brushed their hair to get rid of any tangles and the girls chose a color. 2.  I took a section of hair where we wanted color and dampened it with a wet paper towel, then rubbed the pastel over the section.  A spray bottle of water would also work well. 3.  I rubbed the pastel over the section a few mo...

Things have been very busy here at my house, so I haven't been posting nearly as much as I'd like.  That's why I'm thrilled to have a really neat guest poster here today to share a fun little craft that's just perfect for Valentine's Day. I'm Tricia from Two Big Two Little , where I share crafts and activities that I do with my children. My kids range in age from 1 to 15, so we usually have a variety of end results to everything.   I'm very excited to be guest posting here at Come Together Kids today. Quite a while ago I saw a pin on Pinterest for Coloured Salt Glitter . I thought it would be great to be able to make my own glitter. We love glitter around here, but I get frustrated when I end up cleaning more of it up than what gets used. I finally got around to trying it out. While it certainly didn't make glitter, it does make very pretty coloured salt. To make the coloured salt, put some salt in a ziploc bag, put in a few drops of food colourin...

Here's the last of our activities from our Cousins Christmas party and the one that the kids thought was the most fun.  After everyone played the Roll-A-Snowman game and enjoyed their Snowman Sundaes ,  I got the supplies ready for this super silly activity. Check out these funny toilet paper snowmen... Here's all we needed: rolls of toilet paper (I used the cheap 4 packs from the Dollar Store) construction paper circles for the buttons construction paper triangles for the noses piece of fleece for a scarf ( I originally planned on using crepe paper, but I didn't have any on hand, so I raided my fabric bins for some leftover fleece pieces) tape You could also add hats or other snowman accessories . Here's what we did: The kids paired up so there was one " build er" and one "snowman".  (You could easy do it in larger teams too) .  I gave each team a fresh roll of toilet paper, 3 circles with a piece of tape on the back, a triangle nose also with tape...

Last weekend, the "cousins" got together for a post Christmas celebration.  I wanted to plan a few little activities for them so they would have fun without too much chaos ( 8 kids between the ages of 2 and 10 can quickly get pretty wild! ) I've seen the idea for this roll-a-snowman game in several places, but none of them were exactly what I wanted.  Thanks to PicMonkey, I was able to make my own version and the kids had fun with it.  (It's available as a free printable at the end of the post) Check it out... I just printed out 8 copies and gave each child a die to roll and some crayons.  To keep the pace even, I just had them all roll their dice, follow the directions, then wait till everyone else finished.  Then, I'd tell them to roll again, add the feature, and wait a few seconds for everyone to finish again.  If they rolled a number they'd already used, they didn't draw anything for that turn.  (You could a lso play it so you just keep adding the ...

With three kids, I've had many attempts at Gingerbread Houses over the years.  They love the idea of making a house out of cookies and candy, but every year we end up being disappointed by the final results.  We can never get the royal icing to actually hold the walls and roof together so the whole house ends up being lopsided, if we were even lucky enough to get it to stand up at all.  Then, that same darn royal icing ends up dripping and glopping all over the place when we try to attach the candy pieces.  If they don't get too frustrated, they do enjoy the process, but I knew I wanted to come up with a better idea for this year. Check out our houses...   Don't they look cute?  They look like real gingerbread houses and they even SMELL like real gingerbread houses.  We got to plan our designs and choose fun candies to put on them.  They even have what looks like royal icing on them as decoration  ~ but we didn't have to deal with the real th...