Calling all Dungeons & Dragons and LEGO fans! There’s a new minifigures series available! I spotted this one at our local Barnes & Noble store! They are also available for purchase online through the LEGO website.
Let me confess right up front that I know very little about Dungeons and Dragons. But I do know some of our grandkids play and so these minifigures are very cool to me! haha! Here’s the whole gang that is available in this LEGO minifigures set: (Picture copied from the LEGO website)
Don’t they look pretty cool?! Here’s a little closer look at the characters offered. (Pictures copied from the LEGO website)
I bought one package today and here is what I found inside:
I believe this is a Gith Warlock. 🙂
You will also find a sheet with the pictures of each character that is available so you can check each one off as you collect it.
Looks like another fun minifigure series from LEGO! Have fun collecting! 🙂
I just came across the Crayola Education Facebook page and saw that they will be hosting a fun online event for kids! It centers around the book “Hello, I’m a Quokka” and it’s happening tomorrow, September 4, 2024 at 7:00pm Eastern.
If you can’t make it at that specific time, the event will be recorded and you can find it later on the Crayola Education Facebook page or YouTube page later.
I’ve never seen a Quokka in person but wow, they are cute! They look like they are always smiling! Should be a fun event for families! 😃
The days of summer are slowly coming to an end, though the temperatures here this week have felt very warm! Let’s take a walk in nature together and see what fun things we can find. I call this “finding joy in nature and in the simple free things in life”. If you have a camera or a cell phone with a camera, take some pictures of the interesting things you find. Kids love to take pictures of special things. 🙂 I’ll show you some of the cool things I found on my walks in nature lately.
It can be fun to see how many different colors of wild flowers or weed flowers you can find. Here is a light blue flower that grows along the roadside where we live.
You can also make a note of what size the flowers are that you see. For instance, these little yellow flowers are very small.
While the yellow flowers on this plant are quite large.
Here we have a little feather that I almost missed seeing, but look how pretty and soft it is!
This is a dandelion whose days of being yellow are gone and all that’s left are the seeds. But look how pretty and perfect it looks! Some people call these “wish flowers” because they pick the flower, make a wish and then blow all the seeds and their wishes into the air.
These tiny, tiny pink flowers are on a weed, but they are so delicate and pretty!
We even found a little friend hopping through the grass!
We added another color of flower to our list when we found this purple weed!
And who do we have here? Why hello, there, little caterpillar! You can make up a story about where the caterpillar came from and where he is heading now. Why is he running so quickly through the grass? 🙂
These flowers were also growing along the roadside but they look very much like the Black-eyed Susans that are growing in my flowerbed.
Keep an eye out for butterflies! We have lots of these little ones flying around our house. I think this might be a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly. So pretty!
You never know when you might spot a man raking hay… 😉
Taking a walk in nature can be so refreshing and calming and gets you away from screen time and gives you quality time together. You can take it a step further and print out your pictures and make a scrapbook together. I hope you’ll take a few minutes out of your busy last-of-summer days and enjoy some time outside. 🙂
Hello again! I don’t know if I have invented something new or if this idea has been out there and I just never saw it, but here goes! You know how you can have an ice cream or a frozen yogurt bar where you put your ice cream or frozen yogurt in a cup and then add all the toppings you like? Well, let’s do that but use pudding! We made a pudding bar yesterday and it was lots of fun. First select your flavors of pudding and make the pudding. I chose vanilla, chocolate and butterscotch and I used instant pudding because it’s so quick and easy to make. The kids will have fun just making the pudding and helping to set up the pudding bar!
For this brand of instant pudding, you pour 2 cups of milk into a bowl, add the pudding powder from the box and stir for 2 minutes. This pudding is soft set in 5 minutes, but I made ours on Saturday evening, put them in the refrigerator overnight and served them for lunch on Sunday.
Pudding is ready to go!
Now gather up all the things you would like to use for the toppings.
Put them into small containers so they are easy for people to serve themselves from. Here’s what we used: miniature marshmallows
Whipped cream
Banana slices
Chocolate chips…I used milk chocolate
Peanut butter chips
Miniature Oreo cookies
Small animal cookies
And sprinkles…sprinkles are very important. 😉
Assemble the toppings together and bring out the pudding!
Use small bowls for serving the pudding in. Let each person put the type and amount of pudding in their bowl and then add their own toppings. You can serve it like a cafeteria line with each person serving themselves. Here are some interesting combinations we saw at our house: Butterscotch pudding with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips.
Then there was some vanilla and some chocolate pudding topped with sprinkles and 2 animal cookies.
How about vanilla pudding with peanut butter chips and sprinkles?
What do you think of chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream and a mini Oreo cookie?
One bowl had vanilla pudding with banana slices and whipped cream.
And last, but not least, how about some vanilla pudding with a little bit of chocolate pudding swirled in? Oh, and sprinkles…gotta have those sprinkles!
A pudding bar is a simple dessert to serve and so much fun for kids. It’s a fun novelty to serve your dessert up just the way each person likes it and it’s fun to see what combinations others pick. I hope you’ll give this a try and have as much fun as we did! 🙂
Yep, here we go again with another post about Lego! LOL I can’t seem to help myself, but I found a cute inexpensive little Lego set for 2024 and I just have to share! 🙂 The name of the set is Lego Creator Gift Animals #30666. You can make 3 different animals from this set but I chose to make the dog. The instructions to make the dog are included in the package. Isn’t it so cute?!
Here’s what comes in the package:
And now you can see all the pieces sorted out and ready to be put together. (Yes, I sort my Lego into like pieces before I start building…just seems easier that way.) 😉
The directions might be a little tricky for a young child to do alone as it just shows more pieces added to the dog, not the exact pieces you will need for that step.
There’s the dog all put together! 🙂
It’s so cute I just have to share another view of the dog doing the “puppy bow”!
Oh, look! The puppy is so happy to see you it’s jumping up! LOL Can you tell that I’m having fun posing this dog?! Haha! 😉
If you want to make the other 2 animals, the instructions can be found online.
I found this set at a Barnes & Noble store and the price was $4.99. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing this little Lego set and maybe you can get one for your own or for your favorite Lego lover! 🙂
Yep, you guessed it! I found some more Lego sets with clearance prices at our local Walmart this week. Everyone loves a Lego sale, right? I don’t know if your store will have any of these but it might be worth a look because most of these prices are 50% off! Here’s what I found:
#1.) Lego Disney King Magnifico’s Castle #43224. Regular price $100.00, sale price $50.00.
#2.) Lego Dreamzzz Crocodile Car #71458. Regular price $60.00, sale price $30.00.
#3.) Lego Minecraft The Crafting Box 4.0, #21249 Regular price $80.00, sale price $40.00.
#4.) Lego Dreamzzz Mrs. Castillo’s Turtle Van #71456. Regular price $47.97, sale price $23.00.
#5.) Lego Marvel Ghost Rider Mech & Bike #76245. Regular price $34.97, sale price $17.00
#6.) Lego Marvel Endgame Final Battle #76266. Regular price $100.00, sale price $50.00.
#7.) Lego Super Mario Diddy Kong’s Mine Cart Ride #71425. Regular price $110.00, sale price $55.00.
#8.) Lego Ninjago Dragons Rising Destiny’s Bounty – race against time #71797. Regular price $160.00, sale price $80.00
Here’s hoping you can find some awesome Lego clearance prices at a store near you! 🙂
I spotted a new type of Crayola crayons while shopping the other day! Of course, I had to buy a pack and try them out. They are called Swirl Crayons.
Here’s the description from the back of the box: “Crayola Swirl Crayons contain hidden specks of color swirled in for a surprising stripey, streaky effect!” After coloring a picture, I would agree that that is true. 🙂 But first I want to tell you that each crayon also has a fun name. There are names like Meteor Shower…
Summertime…
And Raindrops, just to mention a few.
I got a page from a coloring book to try out these new crayons.
Can you see the fun streaks of a different color that show up when you color with these swirl crayons?
I hope you can see the special flecks and streaks that show up.
This type of crayon is fun to use and it’s a surprise what flecks or streaks of color might show up to add that extra special something to your picture. 🙂 The colors in the box are not the basic colors needed for school, but the Crayola Swirl Crayons are a great addition to fun art projects at home. 🙂
Hello again! Wow, sorry its been so long since I posted, but life has a way of “happening”. This time what happened was my husband got knocked off a ladder while cutting tree branches and he broke his rib. Yeeeeeah….ouch doesn’t begin to cover it! Poor guy! He’s starting to see some improvement now but I’ve had some crazy busy days taking care of him and doing his work and mine. Thankful for those that have come to help and for those who are planning to come soon! Hugs to all! 🙂
So let’s have a little fun with some more jokes and riddles! I’ll hope to share some projects soon but we’re taking it one day at a time right now. Let’s laugh! (Just don’t tell these jokes to my husband because it still hurts him to laugh.)
#1.) Why did the turkey cross the road?
Answer: To prove he wasn’t a chicken!
#2.) Why do bees have sticky hair?
Answer: Because they use honeycombs!
#3.) What is a giraffe’s favorite food?
Answer: Neck-tarines!
#4.) What is a horse’s favorite game?
Answer: Horseshoes!
#5.) What do you feed a llama?
Answer: Llama beans!
#6.) What did the piggy bank say to his child?
Answer: “Do you think I’m made of money?”
#7.) How do cats celebrate their birthday?
Answer: They have a big purr-ty!
#8.) Why did the snake lose the argument?
Answer: Because he didn’t have a leg to stand on!
#9.) What is a good gift to give a turtle?
Answer: A shell phone!
#10.) What is an Italian dog’s favorite food?
Answer: Paws-ta!
I hope these riddles brought a grin to your face and a laugh to your belly! 🙂 Keep smiling!
Are you having some extra warm days? It’s quite warm and toasty here with a “real feel” temperature of 90 degrees. I’m sure other folks are even warmer! These warm days make us all want something cold to eat, right? So today I want to share a yummy suggestion for a frozen snack or dessert…Frozen Banana Bites!
You will need a banana, a cookie sheet or plate, waxed paper or parchment paper, toothpicks and an assortment of chocolate chips or peanut butter chips, sprinkles, crushed cereal, mini M&M’s, chocolate milk powder, etc.
Put a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper onto the cookie sheet. Cut the banana into thick slices.
Put a toothpick through each banana chunk, sideways.
Now it’s time to “decorate” each banana piece. 🙂 Here are some suggestions to try: putting candy sprinkles on both sides.
Crush a few pieces of a favorite cereal and coat the banana chunk with it. I used HoneyNut Cheerios.
Melt a few chocolate or peanut butter chips and stir in a little bit of coconut oil to make it thin enough to coat the banana chunk with it. I just put some on the top and sides of the banana, but you could probably dip the banana in the melted chocolate too.
I dipped this banana piece into Ovaltine which is a powdered chocolate mix for adding to milk,
This one has the melted chocolate and sprinkles on it.
For the last one, I used the melted chocolate and a miniature marshmallow.
Place the cookie sheet with the banana chunks into the freezer for about 1 hour. Then take them out and enjoy! The kids will have fun making them AND eating them! 😉
Do you wonder what to do with your magazines once you’ve read them? If you have children or grandchildren, save them for some learning fun! Or donate them to someone who has young children and share these great ideas with them. All you need for these learning projects is a used magazine that can be cut up, some paper, a few markers or crayons, some glue and scissors.
#1.)There are a few ways you can do these projects, but let’s start with “Animals”. On a blank piece of paper, write the word “Animals” at the top. Then let the kids go through the magazine and cut out any pictures of animals that they find. This is good for recognition of a particular item and great practice for those motor skills!
The cutting part will go better if you tear the entire page out before the kids start cutting. Here are the animals I found in my magazine…
Have the child glue the pictures onto their “Animals” paper. Now is a great time to chat about what animals they found, how many of each animal there is, what color they are, which one is their favorite and even some discussion about the differences between the animals. For instance, the 3 cats in this example all have different colored eyes. Fun fact! 😉
#2.) Following the same idea, you could have the kids do a page about 1 particular color. I chose the color red. Letting them choose what color to look for makes it more fun for them.
#3.) The next idea is to pick one letter and look for things that begin with that letter. And to keep an eye out and cut out the letter itself. I went with the letter “F”…flag, forks, flowers, fruit, food and fence. 🙂
#4.) You can also follow this same idea but use numbers. Have the child find 1 of something, and 2 of something else, and 3 of another thing…you get the idea…1 flag, 2 cats, 3 dogs, etc.
#5.) Now let’s work on letter recognition. Write each letter of the alphabet on a piece of paper and have some markers or crayons handy.
Have your child go through the magazine and find each letter of the alphabet. When they find a letter, let them cross that letter off their piece of paper.
If they would like to color in the letter in the magazine, let them do that. Or circle it…whatever they want to do to mark it.
Now you have 5 fun suggestions of ways to help your child learn while reusing old magazines! And you never know what fun fact or yummy sounding recipe you might come across for yourself. 😉
The Kids Niche 