10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy Monday!

Can another week have flown by already?  Wow, April is zooming by here.   Here’s a few ways to make the day magical this week…

1.  Dye some eggs.  Every year, my mother-in-law gives out plates of various goodies and dyed eggs to friends and family, and she always leaves the egg dyeing for our kids.  They absolutely love tackling the cartons of eggs and experimenting with various dyeing techniques.  Crayon resist (drawing pictures with a white crayon before dipping) and rubber band designs (wrapping lots of rubber bands around, dyeing, and then removing them to dip in a new color) are two favorite methods here.  If your family doesn’t eat eggs, try printing some out and decorating them with crayons, pencils and paint.

2.  Freeze several colors of bright juice (such as grape, orange and cherry-apple) in ice cube trays.  When frozen, give each child a clear glass and let them fill it with whatever combination of colors and flavors they like.  Pour in some lemonade or 7-up and they can have a colorful, tasty drink.  Encourage them to wait a few minutes before drinking it down, since the more the cubes melt, the more the flavor will change to their own creations.

3.  Head to a state park.  Most state parks are facing budget cuts and can use the support right now, and they’re so underappreciated.  If you go during the week, you’re likely to have the place mostly to yourself (and the wildlife).  Hike, explore, climb, play and enjoy the changing of the seasons up close.  The spring peepers were singing when we went last week!

4.  Make personalized mini-pizzas for supper.  Hand out pitas (or english muffins) for the bases and put out bowls with pizza sauce (spaghetti sauce or jazzed up tomato sauce work well) and toppings like shredded cheese, black olives, green and red peppers, sliced mushrooms, pineapple chunks, chopped onions, parmesan and so on.  Adventurous or older kids might also appreciate chopped artichoke hearts, feta cheese, spinach and other exotic toppings (Victoria and I love those!).  Kids can also make designs or smiley faces with their toppings.  Bake the mini-pizzas on a preheated pizza stone or cookie sheet at 425 for just a few minutes, until the cheese is melted and just starting to bubble.

5.  Make up some paper bag nature journals to take on nature walks.  Kids can sketch things they find and slip treasures into the pocket.

6.  See if the kids want to do some workbook pages to earn free books from Scholastic.

7.  Look up you-tube videos of songs that were hits when you were a child or teenager and watch them together.  My girls and I had a blast watching ’80’s videos together the other night.  Anna especially likes “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (the literal version is pretty funny!) and Victoria’s favorite is Aha’s “Take on Me.”  I made sure to play some of the corniest with the craziest fashions too!

8.  Create some movable magic in the yard.  Find or make a few colorful, whimsical outdoor decorations (brightly painted rocks with cute creatures work well!) and put them someplace obvious with your kids.  Then move them to someplace a little surprising and hidden.  Casually let them know that the garden whimsy has been relocated and see if they can spot the new niches.  Make it a game to move them whenever you’re outside, so the kids know to always be on the lookout.  We’ve been doing this with some ceramic mushrooms for years and the kids love looking for them (and helping to hide them for the others).

9.  Bring homemade goodies to a fire station or police station.

10. Make a fabulous double swing like this one.  I love it for so  many reasons!  If you have the extra funds, you could certainly just buy this one, but this could also be a really wonderful project for kids to do with Mom or Dad (and then enjoy with them!).  Thanks to Magical Mama Lonni for sending me the link!

And with that, chickadees, I’m off to make some crafts with my kiddos.  We’re allegedly taking part in Screen Free Week here and so we’ve got to really double up on the fun to keep all four kids happy.  I think kool-aid playdough, colored salt glitter and some sort of messy painting is first on the list, with rocket balloons coming later. 

Have a magical week!