Toddler Quidditch

This past Spring, I witnessed my first quidditch match at my local university. I am now hooked! My two-year-old son "scored" a goal in-between matches, and I immediately told my friend, "I have to create a toddler quidditch team."

Where can you go wrong with Quidditch and Toddlers? You can't. It's hilarious, and most importantly, fun!

First things first:  my wizards needed brooms. Since I usually deal with 18-month to 3-year-olds in my mom's group, I needed to find props that wouldn't cause injuries (when they eventually would get used to bat friends over the heads). What better than pool noodles!  I cut about 8 inches off the pool noodles to get them the height that worked well for 2-3 footers. I then cut the noodles into bristles on one end in ten slices. 

In my broom prototype, I used thick twine at the top of the bristles, but opted for simple duct tape to emulate the bristle ties; less rope burns.

The second thing we needed was a pitch. Again, I opted for the pool noodle approach, and luckily, my local dollar store not only had the noodles I needed, but sold these fabulous three-way connectors so I could make the perfectly shaped hoops. I then cut metal garden stakes to size to hold the hoops vertically on the ground. We used a soft, blue ball as the quaffle, and two smaller soft/squishy balls (the basketballs shown in the cover photo) as the bludgers. 

[You can find the official rules of quidditch at the International Quidditch Association's website.]

Thirdly:  A Snitch.  Since I am dealing with younger tots, the only "rules" of quidditch I used was to catch the snitch and score goals with the hoops.  Since I'm the only idiot person willing to act like a total fool, I dressed myself up as a snitch; wings and all.  I cut out cardboard wings and painted them yellow. I added glitter to give them that extra sumthin' sumthin'.

I punched holes and tied them together with t-shirt material.

I used the same t-shirt material and made arm holes as a harness.

The yellow t-shirt I picked up at my local thrift store got cut up into strips. These strips were used as flags to "catch" the snitch.

Here I am sporting my cool getup. I made a ton of flags so that all my little wizards had a chance to catch the snitch. (And yes, I did put the scar on my hat, but the moms didn't catch it. Only the truest of geeks would have caught that, I guess.)

All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon. I will definitely be having more of these Toddler Quidditch Playgroups. It's a fantastic way to get the kids to move and run, work on playing together, listening to a coach (or just an adult other than mom and dad), gross motor, you name it!

Until the next!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

Microwave + Bar of Ivory Soap = Awesomeness

Ok, so another Pinterest idea has been tested and reviewed, and I like it!  Based off of Our Best Bites post from last April, we microwaved a bar of soap.

Not just any soap, but Ivory soap. I'm a minimalist, and frankly, I just love the smell of Ivory soap. It's cheap, it comes in giant packs for just $4, it floats, it cleans you. I love it! Now, I can add microwavable awesomeness to the list.

 I placed our bar on a microwave safe plate.

One minute and thirty seconds later (1:30) on high, it turned into this. MonkeyBoy thought it was the most amazing thing as it exploded onto itself.

It feels really neat; very soft, but flaky and starts to shred apart. I was thinking of pureeing it in the food processor, add a little bit of water and food coloring so we could mold it, but it's a gorgeous day in New England, today. We wanted to go back outside.

I added a lot more water, and I'm now in the process of melting it down to a liquid hand soap.

Waste not, want not!

I highly suggest you do this for a rainy day science project with the kids. I may just have to set up a playdate for this project.






Until the next....

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

DIY: Toy Storage Bench

This $5, yard sale bookcase was the perfect find to create a toy storage bench for my son's room, now that his crib has vacated the premises.

I based my idea off of the Pinterest pin that has been circulating for over a year.

1. Find a narrow bookcase that can lay on its side.

2. Sand and clean the bookcase to prep for paint.

 3. Because the shelf was black, I had to use three coats of primer.

4. I then spray painted the unit white with a professional enamel for durability.

5. The last touch was to get baskets to fit the shelf openings and start storing all the clutter, ah, I mean toys.

I think this bench turned out fabulous, and I couldn't have bestowed it on a more deserving recipient.

"Oooo, thank yooouuu! I love my table!"

It's great to have some space to actually play in his own room, now.

Until the next...

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

– TYG

Repurposed Long-Sleeved T's

So, this may have been obvious to the majority of the population, but I only just had my "a-ha moment" this morning, so bear with me.

I was just mentioning to my husband the other day that I was going to have to buy a few more summer t-shirts for our toddler since I didn't have enough to go around for a week.

So, I'm going through my son's closet, putting laundry away, then it dawned on me: why not repurpose his long-sleeved T's into short-sleeved ones? He has a ton of shirts that are, in all essence, short-sleeved T's with a different colored sleeve attached to make it long.

So, after examining the seams, I decided to just cut the long sleeve off of the shirt, and voilà, instant summer T's!

Apparently, the long sleeve was sewn on while hemming the short sleeve portion at the same time. Ripping the stitches would mean re-hemming, and I didn't want to go through that much effort.

And there you have it! All in all, I was able to get seven summer t-shirts without spending a red cent, plus I was able to get more wear out of these shirts that still fit very comfortably.

Yay! Go mama for saving money and thinking green!








Yankee Doodle Dandy,
– TYG

DIY: Tin Can Craft Caddy

Even with the lack of space and storage I have in my house, I've been saving my tin cans for all kinds of tin can crafts that I've been finding on Pinterest. This one in particular caught my eye, so I whipped out my supplies and got busy.

ITEMS:

• 4 Tin cans

• Craft paper

• Rope

• Hot glue gun

1. Clean out the tin cans, being sure to file down or flatten any sharp edges that may still be there after opening the lid.

2. Cut craft paper and glue around can.

3. Glue two cans together at the seams (in order to hide them).  Glue the other two cans together, but do not glue the four together yet.

 4.  Cut rope handle to desired length, then glue it the entire length of the inside seam of one of the pairs of cans. Do the same to the other set of cans.


5.  Now glue all four cans together.

6. I then glued three rows of rope around the caddy for accent and added stability.













This particular caddy is going to be a gift for a two-year-old. I filled the caddy with all sorts of goodies: colorful pencils, markers, watercolors and brushes, plus Target has rolls of coloring pages by Crayola in their $1 bin department that fit perfectly in a tin can; 120 inches of coloring fun!

My son is jealous, so I think I need to make another for him. But knowing him, he'll use it to store cars, rocks, and dirt.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
– TYG








***DISCLAIMER:  I am in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Target or Crayola.***

DIY: Stuffed Animal Zoo

My son's stuffed animal collection is already getting out-of-control, and he's only two. Rather than have them take up valuable toy storage in his closets and chests, I decided to make a Stuffed Animal Zoo. This way, he can still see all his friends with easy access in and out.

First step was to get a bookshelf. I opted for a $16 model from my local box store. This would be best as a yard sale or thrift store item, but my luck: couldn't find one today.

Second step was to buy some bungie cords. I purchased eight 30" strands for this 31.5" tall case. I cut off one of the ends and slipped off both hooks.

The third step is to drill holes evenly across the top and bottom shelves. I used a 3/8" drill bit for the bungies I bought.

Fourth step is to run the bungies through the holes. Since I only cut one end of the bungies to get the hooks off, I used the "pre-fabricated" end for the exposed top shelf. I thought it looked cleaner.

On the bottom of the bookshelf, I pulled the bungies through and tied them. 

**NOTE**

Particle board is cheap. Incredibly cheap. At first, I pulled the bungies very taut. Just the tension of the bungies caused the bottom shelf to rip from it's screws, showering me with pieces of particle board. I had to reattch the bottom shelf and reinforce it with four screws on each side. When I put the bungies through again, I didn't tie them as taut. Live and learn.

And there you have it. A cage that can wrangle all those stuffed animals that tend to overrun bedrooms.

I love that the bungies can keep the animals in, but they're stretchy enough to pull them in and out.

These zoos can be made in any size for any room. I know that when I was a child, I could have used a floor to ceiling 4'x4' cage.

I really hope we don't need to go there...

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG

DIY: Geo Board

MonkeyBoy has been doing super fantastic with shapes. I thought it was time to create a geo-board so he can create his own. 

All the items I needed to purchase were from my local dollar store and the rest of the items I had on hand in my craft stash and garage.

ITEMS:

• Piece of wood (on hand)
• Paint (on hand)
• Push Pins (2 packs of 120ct - $2.00)
• Eye hooks (on hand)
• Picture hanging wire (on hand)
• Trouser socks ($1+ depending on how many you buy)
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Sandpaper
• Scissor

I started by sanding the scrap piece of plywood I found in the garage. I then gave it a couple coats of white paint.

The board was approx. 16" x 16". I measured out a grid in 1" increments for a 14" x 14" board (196 square inches).

With a nail the same size as the push pins, I nailed a starter hole in each of the intersections (196). This is crucial. I started to just hammer the push pins straight into the wood, but this just broke a lot of push pins.

Once the starter holes were in place, I washed the penciled grid off. Then, I went to hammering 196 push pins. That's a lot of push pins. In retrospect, I may have done a grid every two inches rather than one.

In order to hang it up, I used two eye hooks and some picture-hanging wire. 

For loops, I bought 2-paks of trouser socks and cut them into 1.5" strips. I thought I could just dye the white socks to offer some color options to MonkeyBoy later. Colors were limited by selection at the store.

For smaller loops, hair ties would work well, too, as well as good ol' fashioned elastics. I just figured for my little guy's toddler-hands, we'll start with large, soft loops that have a bit of Lycra stretch, but not a lot of "smack-back" to the face.

And voila! I ended up putting the board up next to MonkeyBoy's felt board.

Hopefully he'll have some fun. 

Well, at least I'll be able to get a free 15 minutes tomorrow if nothing else.



















Yankee Doodle Dandy,
– TYG