Silly Fun With Wiggly Eyes

I had a streak of orneriness the other day and decided it would be fun to stick some wiggly eyes around the house and wait for someone to notice them. 😉 What are wiggly eyes? The cute little plastic eyes where the black part of the eye moves around. They are black and white but can also be colored.

I put a small piece of double-sided tape on the back of each eye. A word of caution…be careful not to stick them on anything valuable in case the tape would leave some sticky residue behind or tear paper.

This is what my husband saw when he wanted to fry some eggs. (Yes, he thought it was funny. He’s a good egg.) 😉

It’s not every day that the coffee pot looks back at you!

Here are a few other places that I put wiggly eyes…

In the fruit crisper drawer in the refrigerator…

On a potted plant…

Inside a bathroom cupboard…

On my hubby’s hat…

On an insulated cup…

On the bathroom scale…

And on the piano. (I didn’t use any tape for this one. I just laid the wiggly eyes on so they would stay in place.)

Did any of those pictures make you grin? 😉 It’s a simple and inexpensive way to have some fun. Who knew a pack of wiggly eyes could be so fun? 🙂 Give it a try yourself!

Hide & Seek With a Twist

Do kids still play Hide & Seek? You know, where some kids go hide and one person tries to find them? Well, what happens when there aren’t enough kids around to play? Or maybe the “big kids” have gone off to school and only the youngest is left at home? You can try this new twist on the Hide & Seek game! You don’t need anything but a few toys that are already in your house. All you do is collect up a few favorite toys and hide them for your child to find. I know…too simple? But it can be lots of fun!

Here’s Clifford the Big Red Dog hiding under the covers.

Here’s a little shoulder buddy hiding among the boxes of cereal.

Depending on the age of the kids playing how hard you make the hiding places. If younger kids are playing, make sure to leave a little of the toy visible.

Matchbox Jeeps love to drive on books!

Sock monkeys go bananas for bananas!

You can give little hints if the hunt goes on for too long. Maybe Tommy Turtle got too hot and decided to find a place to cool down. (Yes, he’s in the refrigerator.) 😉

This gorilla must be wanting to help make supper!

The older the kids are that are playing, the smaller the toys might be.

Or just for fun, ask your child to set the table for supper and hide a fun toy in the silverware drawer.

You can make a whole game out of this idea or just randomly make things disappear to places the kids will come across them and be surprised. Or start with a new toy that you hide and whoever finds it, tells everyone where they found it and they get to be the next person to hide it. This can be an ongoing game that keeps everyone grinning. Hope you’ll have fun playing Hide & Seek a new way! 🙂

Hide and Seek With Sneaky Little Caterpillars!

As you may have seen from my earlier posts, each summer I enjoy raising monarch butterflies. Their numbers have been drastically declining so I try to do my part in keeping them alive and well. Sometimes they make me laugh. Take the other day for instance…I was cleaning out their little “hotels” and so the lid was off. Some of the caterpillars I have at the moment had recently hatched so they are super tiny. Like this little guy…

He looks like he’s making a break for freedom! In less than a minute, he was all the way up here!

I could just imagine him saying, “YES! I’ve made it to the top and here I come big world!” 🙂 But the big human was watching. I grabbed a milkweed leaf and held it in front of him. He wasn’t too sure he wanted to get on the leaf but he finally did. Gotcha, little dude!

I looked away for a few seconds and when I looked back this is what I saw…

You sneaky little caterpillar! Where did you go?? Get back here! Guess where I found him? Look at the next picture and see…

Yep, he was hiding on the backside of the leaf! 😉 There were 10 little guys in that “hotel”, so I had to go on a hunt to find them all. Let’s see…we’ve now got #2 and #3…

There’s #2 through #7…

Added in #8 and #9…

Where in the world is #10 hiding?? OH, there he is! 🙂 Hiding on the bottom side of a milkweed leaf again!

Found them all! It can be hard but still fun when trying to spot all the little caterpillars. I guess I need to invest in a magnifying glass! 😉

Hide and Seek Snacks

Are you looking for a way to make after-school snacks a little more fun? Maybe you need to cheer someone up after a not-so-great day at school? Today’s idea is super simple but lots of fun! Grab a cup for each kiddo and let’s make a Hide and Seek Snack! All you need is a cup for each child and some small snack items. I used a 9 oz plastic cup for my example. Gather up whatever snackies you have on hand that your child likes to munch on.

I found some fruit gummies, Cheez-its crackers, chocolate chips, cereal, raisins, cashews and Honey Nut Thins crackers. You can tailor the items to fit your child’s age. Tiny marshmallows or cheese cubes on a toothpick were some of our kids favorite items for this game. Put all your snack food into the cup.

If you have more than one child, you might find it helpful to write each person’s name on a cup. It can help solve the squabbles over whose cup of goodies it is! 😉

Now for the “Hide” part of the fun! Find a place to hide each cup of snacks. Again, depending on your child’s age how hard you make the hiding place. Here are a few suggestions to get you started. In a drawer…

In some pots and pans…

Hidden among some water bottles…

Or maybe hiding between some favorite books.

When the children arrive home from school, tell them you’ve made them a special snack but they need to search for it. You can give them clues to help them find their snack or play the game of “You are cold, you are hot”…the closer they get to where the snack is hidden the “hotter” they are. For instance, if they are in the wrong part of the house you say, “You are cold.” When they get to the right room, you can tell them “You are warm now!” As they get closer to the hiding place, you can say “You are getting warmer!” or “You are hot!” And if they are standing right beside it, “You are burning up!!” Happy cheering and lots of clapping when their snack cup is found goes a long ways towards making this Hide and Seek Snack a lot of fun! 🙂