Welcome! I am a mom to two wonderful kids, a lovely retired greyhound, and a wife to a great husband. Needless to say, there are a lot of daily messes to clean up around our house. Daily Messes is my blog to share ideas on things to do with your kids, snack and meal ideas, crafts, and holiday fun. I hope you find something to enjoy!

Friday, April 5, 2024

Monday is the Eclipse!

I love eclipses of any kind and meteor showers. I'm the crazy one who stays up late or gets up early to see the event, even if I have to be wrapped up in blankets. I try to capture it on camera, mostly missing the meteors, but I have gotten one or two. So, of course, I am really excited about the eclipse on Monday. We are close to the path of totality and will be driving to see it.


One of my favorite memories of grade school is making a solar eclipse viewer. I think it must have been for a partial eclipse. The memories of making the viewer and seeing it, have stuck with me through the years. The kids' school has let the off on Monday, so we'll be watching it together.

I bought my solar eclipse glasses when there was a partial one not too long ago. Some stores still have them, but in case you can't find any eclipse glasses, you can make your own viewer. There are two different types: the shoebox viewer and the pinhole viewer. Both will work, you just need to have foil and a shoebox for the one, and only white cardboard or thick paper for the other. Here are some sites with great instructions on how to make them: Shoebox viewer instructions, Pin hole viewer.

FUN ECLIPSE SNACKS:
If you are having a viewing party (or like me, just want an excuse to have some extra sweets), here are a few cute snacks ideas:
  • Galaxy Cookies: Similar to my Christmas swirl cookies, but use blue and white dough. You could also lightly brush the outside of the chilled cookie dough with water, roll in purple/blue/white nonpareil sprinkles, slice, and bake, for an extra fun cookie.
  • The sun or moon is pretty easy to add in icing or fondant to a cookie, cupcake, or cake.
  • Cut fruits and veggies into star or moon shapes.
  • The moon is made of cheese, right? Have cheese slices or make a cheese pizza (for your meat lovers, add pepperoni "craters").
  • Make solar themed chocolates (sun, moon, stars, etc.). Amazon has some cute molds (stars/moon, star candies, star lollipops, sun glasses aka eclipse glasses) although local craft stores like Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics usually have star molds.
  • Galaxy/Eclipse Popcorn: Similar to the Valentine's Candied Popcorn, but use a mix of blues, purple, black, and white candy melt/chocolates. Use star, moon, and sun shaped sprinkles, or even just yellow sprinkles for the sun.
  • Chocolate dipped Oreos (regular or mini sized). I'm working on dipping them today. I plan on making a display out of them: full sun (all yellow Oreo), partial eclipse (half yellow, half black Oreo), 90% eclipse (since that's about what we'll see), full eclipse (all black dipped Oreo).

  • Instead of Oreos, you could also do it with round pretzels. Dip pretzel in melted chocolates or Candy Melts, set on wax paper, fill in the hole using a spoon or piping bag.
  • Sugar cookies. It's hard to go wrong with cookies! You could made sun shaped cookies, moon shaped cookies, earth themed cookies, half yellow/half black cookies for the eclipse. There are so many options! And now I want cookies...
  • Pancakes: Pipe pancakes in the shape of a sun (circle with rays).
  • Easy Solar system themed foods (anything with sun, moon, orbit, galaxy, etc. might work): 
    • CapriSun
    • SunnyD
    • Sunkist
    • Eclipse Gum
    • Milky Way candy bars
    • Sun Chips
    • Starbursts
    • Moonpies
    • Sunflower seeds
    • Sun-Maid Raisins
    • Skybar candy bar
    • Space Goldfish (They used to have a space themed Goldfish, but I'm not sure if they still make it.)
    • Freeze Dried/Astronaut ice cream (Amazon has on Prime, but can also find in camping section of stores and in some museum gift shops. I've even seen it at Michael's Crafts!)
    • Ice cream: I've heard of Moon ice cream and Blue Moon ice cream.
    • Krispy Kreme's Eclipse Donut, available Monday 8/21.
    • Babybel cheese: peel off part of the wrapper.
    • Mini Chips Ahoy: I think these kind of look like the moon with chocolate chip craters.
    • Stretching it a little here, but Mars candy bars.
  • Adults only: Blue Moon or Corona beer

FUN:
  • ECLIPSE WORD FIND 
  • Higgins was worried about still seeing the sun over the top of his glasses. I made him a face mask for the glasses out of a thick paper plate (these are official eclipse glasses, just with bonus coverage). I saw the idea on Facebook, and I think it will work out great! (see picture below for instructions)
  • I thought it would be fun (and educational) for the boys to have an observation sheet for the eclipse in case they got to see it. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted online, so I made one this morning!

Click here for a printable PDF observation sheet.
Some of my favorite sites:
NOTE: If you are lucky enough to be able to watch the eclipse, never look at the sun without the special eclipse glasses or eclipse filters for cameras/telescopes/binoculars.

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Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Valentine's Day is Tomorrow!

The kids are too old to exchange Valentine's at school, which I kind of miss. It was always fun for me to see what kinds of things they came home with. I still give them something small, usually candy or a book. 

If you're lucky enough to have kids that are still in the age of celebrating Valentine's Day, my list of Valentines, Food, Crafts, Gift, and Activity ideas is below!


HOMEMADE VALENTINE'S:
  • Minecraft Valentine's Day Boxes 
  • Heart Crayon Valentines
  • Candied Popcorn Bags, "I'm popping with happiness that you're my Valentine". One year I attached a Valentine themed bag full of candied popcorn to a store bought Valentine.
  • Use potato stamps to make a hearts on a homemade card. (Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out the shape.)
  • Play-Doh Heart ornaments/necklaces
  • Make Heart Shaped Chalk
  • Hot Air Balloon: it could even have a picture of your child in the basket. "Your friendship lifts me up."
  • Butterfly Pencil
  • Bubbles with a Valentine's Day themed note like "Your friendship makes me bubbly".
  • S'more Kit (marshmallow, graham cracker squares, piece of chocolate), "Your friendship makes me feel mushy inside".
  • Goldfish or gummy fish in a fishbowl shaped baggie with a "school" type of message. The pre-made bags can be hard to find and making the bags can be a little time consuming (click for directions). If you use a regular bag, you can cut a bowl shape piece of paper, write the message and place behind the fish.
  • Other non-candy ideas: clementines, cars, glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces ("Your friendship brightens my day"). The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find little treasures in.
  • Hanging Stained Glass Card with "stained glass" made from wax paper and crayons.
  • Easy Stained Glass Heart with contact paper and tissue paper.
  • "I know I'll go far/succeed with you as my friend" type of message with a goodie bag of school gear: pencils, erasers, goldfish bag, ruler, markers, stickers, etc. The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find themed pencils and erasers.
CRAFTS:
ACTIVITIES:
FOOD:
GIFTS: * 
PETS:
  • The boys like to help make the Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Biscuits for our greyhound. We use heart, star, and pumpkin cookie cutters to make the shapes. 
  • Gift ideas for Pets
  • There are a lot of Valentine's Day gifts out there now for dogs, including this Valentine's Day heart shaped box of treats for dogs at Target ($9).  



What are some of your favorite homemade Valentines and treats?

*If you buy an item on Amazon using the links, I may receive a small commission for the referral. It does not affect your cost at all! If you want, you can read my Disclosure page for a little more information.
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Monday, November 20, 2023

Thanksgiving is Thursday!

 Thanksgiving is November 23rd this year; it's just a few days away!  Below I have some of my ideas for Thanksgiving (food, crafts, activities, and books for kids). 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


FOOD:
CRAFTS:

ACTIVITIES:

BOOKS*:
  
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Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Back to School

 It's hard to believe it's back-to-school time. The summer certainly went by quickly and my kids have grown several inches. It's crazy. Although it was nice to run into the store and get a hair cut today while they were in school.

I have my Back To School Word find here.

I hope you all have a great school year!

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Wednesday, March 1, 2023

St. Patrick's Day Fun (Food, Activity, & Leprechaun Visit Ideas)

The kids also both know the secret behind the leprechaun visit, but still want him/her to come. They still really get a kick out of finding the Elf, the Leprechaun visit/treats, and finding their Easter baskets, so I'm going to try to keep finding new ways to surprise them. 


Below are my St. Patrick's Day food, activity, craft, and leprechaun visit ideas. I have some St. Patrick's Day-themed Word Finds/Search/Hunts, a maze, and a coloring page down below under the CRAFTS, FUN, ACTIVITIES section. I'll update this post if I come up with any new ones. 



FOOD:
  • Breakfast:
    • Rainbow and Shamrock pancakes. Once I started using condiment bottles and candy-making/decorating bottles, the shapes were easy to do. I made regular pancake batter, separated into 4 bowls, added food coloring (blue, green, yellow, red). I then placed one color in each bottle and piped the shapes onto the hot skillet/griddle. Once the pancakes were done, I placed them on a plate and added whipped cream clouds under the rainbows.
  • Lunch:
    • Lunchtime fun: cut bell peppers width-wise to get a shamrock shape, add a chocolate gold coin under a sandwich, make lunch all green (see leprechaun visit below). 
  • Dinner:
    • Shepherd's Pie. Another easy dinner for St. Patrick's Day. This is a mild recipe. We like a little more seasoning in our dishes, so I add diced garlic, fresh ground pepper, and paprika to the meat. A little chili powder might also be nice. For the potatoes, I also added fresh ground pepper and used sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese. 
  • Bread: 
    •  Almost every year we have Beef Stew with Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day. (The kids aren't huge fans of corned beef yet.) The soda bread tastes best when you make it the day before, or at least the morning of. We love eating it with beef stew.  
    • Rainbow bread. One year, I made a braided loaf of bread with rainbow colors. After mixing the dough, I separated into equal pieces (I think 5), dyed each section a different color, rolled out the strand, and braided. We used it to make french toast and rainbow sandwiches for St. Patrick's Day.
  • Dessert/Snacks/Drinks/Misc.: 
    • Shamrock sucker napkin rings.
    • St. Patrick's Day Shake. My version of the shamrock shake.
    • Hidden Shamrock Pound Cake. Shamrock shape hiding inside the pound cake. 
    • Oreo Gold Coins. There are a couple of ways to make these cookie coins. 1. Spray one side of the cookie with Wilton Gold Color Mist Spray (edible). Let dry. Turn over, spray other side, let dry. 2. Dip in yellow/gold candy melts or yellow-colored white chocolate. 
    • Pretzel coins. Buy round pretzels. Locally, I can only find these at Meijer, but I'm sure other stores must carry something similar. Dip the pretzel in melted yellow candy melts. Place on a piece of wax paper. Fill in the center with candy melts. Let set. You could also pipe on a shamrock/clover in yellow or green candy melt. For extra shine, spray with the edible Gold Color Mist Spray. 
    • Rainbow cupcakes (version 1 and version 2). These are a little more time-consuming than regular cupcakes, but make a big impression when someone bites into them. Another option is to hollow out the center of a cupcake and fill with sprinkles or small candies. I haven't made these yet, because I hate biting into a cupcake and getting a bunch of hard candy in my mouth. Plus, it falls out everywhere. However, it is a surprise and kids love extra sugar. 
    • Make cookies. The boys love decorating cookies (and of course eating them!). I have a shamrock cookie cutter and we make sugar cookies. (Click here for a sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape.) If you don't have a shamrock cutter, you can use a heart cookie cutter. Cut out 3 hearts, overlap the points and push down to join. Cut a small piece of dough for the stem and push down to add to the shamrock. Bake, cook, and decorate. I also made Pots of Gold cookies. I couldn't find a pot/cauldron cookie cutter and ended up using a cupcake cookie cutter. Once it was decorated, it looked really nice and like a pot of gold! 
    • Leprechaun Donuts. These could be made for the Leprechaun to eat when he or she comes to visit or to be left by the leprechaun for the kids to find. 
    • Pretzel shamrocks. Use mini-twist pretzels to form the shamrock shape. Dip 3 twists in green candy melt/green-colored white chocolate. Place on a piece of wax paper, with bottoms touching. There will be a small gap in the middle. Fill in with candy melt/chocolate. Break a piece of a twist or stick pretzel to form the stem. Dip in candy melt, place shamrock stem. Let set/dry completely. 

CRAFTS, FUN, ACTIVITIES:
  

LEPRECHAUN VISITS AND TREATS:
I hate cleaning up after the Elf and Leprechaun, so their visits are usually not very messy. Normally, the leprechaun leaves a trail of some kind leading to the pots of gold (treats are usually gold/yellow or green colors). 
  • Leprechaun Pots of Gold. I went a little crazy on our first leprechaun visit. I made a rainbow out of construction paper and taped it to the wall. Above the rainbow hung a cloud made of batting and it was raining jelly beans over the pots of gold. I should have used a clear thread to hang the cloud and jelly beans, but forgot to buy it. Be careful when stringing the jelly beans: the needle gets sticky very fast and can be hard to push the candy. Watch out for your fingertips! 
  • Leprechaun Treat Bags: how to make your own pot-shaped baggies. If you don't want to make your own, Wilton does sell a treat bag that has a bowl-type of bottom. You could cut out pot shaped piece of black construction paper and place inside (or tape to the outside depending on the filler for the bag), to form a treat bag that looks like a pot.
  • Make their lunch all green! They got a kick out of this last year. I think this would even work with older kids (maybe without the leprechaun note).
    • Include a note from the tricky leprechaun and include a gold chocolate coin as an extra treat.
    • Sandwich: Use green bread or green tortillas to make their sandwiches. I made peanut butter and apple wraps in a green tortilla.
    • Celery sticks with peanut butter.
    • Fruits & Veggies: kiwis, granny smith or golden delicious apples, green grapes, cantaloupe, pears, green bell pepper slices, celery, sugar snap peas, green applesauce (or at least with a green lid)
    • Sides: green chocolate dipped pretzels, green veggie straws/chips, green tortilla chips, green candy popcorn (see my Candied Popcorn post for directions, just use green, white, and/or gold candy melts), only green jelly beans/M&M's/Skittles
    • Green pasta: buy green pasta. My local grocery store usually carries Barilla and Ronzoni brands Veggie/Garden Rotini or spaghetti noodles. Sometimes they also have Ronzoni SuperGreens Rotini. If you cannot find the Garden/Veggie pasta at your grocery store, try adding green food coloring to the water before cooking regular pasta.
  • FINDING THE TREASURE:
    • One year, I wrapped rainbow crepe paper around the stair railings. There was also a trail of coin-shaped confetti leading to the hidden pots of treasure. I made sure to include a few dead ends, so it took them a little while to find their treats. 
    • Another time, I made rainbows for the trail. I used both regular rainbows and rainbows where the colors were in reverse order. The normal rainbow trail led to their pots. However, the reverse rainbow trails led to quite a few dead ends. The dead-end trails also had small pots, but they had a note that said "This one is a trick. Keep looking.". 
    • Make a scavenger hunt from the leprechaun for the kids to find their pots of gold. I did a small scavenger type of hunt last year. There were small pots hidden around. The ones that had the pipe cleaner shamrocks attached, contained the clues.
    • Some kind of a reverse trap. Normally, you set a trap for the leprechaun, but how about an obstacle course for the kids to get to their pots? In 2018, I made a crepe paper obstacle course for them to get to their pots. Higgins loves anything that resembles an obstacle course. If he has to crawl, jump, climb, or contort, he's happy. Last year I made an obstacle course out of paper chains with cutouts of shamrock and pot of gold shapes. The strings went from floor to ceiling.
    • Hide some plastic gold coins around the house. Have a few that have a voucher attached to them to trade in for actual money. 
    • Some fun pot of gold fillers:
      • Green, gold, or St. Patrick's Day-themed pencils or pens
      • Fun pencil toppers/erasers
      • Green or yellow bouncy balls
      • Bubbles (some party stores sell individual items so you can pick out a green or yellow one)
      • Shamrock stickers
      • Shamrock sucker (either store bought, or see shamrock sucker napkin rings for an easy to make shamrock shaped sucker) 
      • Green or gold Frisbee
      • Chocolate gold coins
      • Gold/yellow wrapped candy (mini Snickers, mini Reese's cups, Sixlets, Rolos, Starburst, Hershey Kisses...). Party City normally has bins where you can buy individual candy pieces and items for goodie bags. It's my go-to store for finding small filler ideas. Some stores carry single color bags of jelly beans (either prepackaged or fill-your-own bag stations).
      • Arcade tokens
      • Car wash tokens
      • St. Patrick's Day rubber ducks (shamrock, leprechaun)
      • "Gold" $1 coins (can usually get these from the bank) 
      • Small Nerf gun or ball (yellow or green)
      • Small water gun (yellow or green)
      • Yellow or green nail polish, hair bows, ribbons, bracelets 
      • Cars, toys, art supplies, beauty supplies...Pretty much anything your child likes, that happens to come in yellow or green colors, and will fit in the pot will work. Higgins loves to use my tape, so his pot of gold has had rolls of tape that have yellow or green covers to them.
      • Yellow hand sanitizer 
      • Socks: St. Patrick's Day-themed socks seem to be a big hit. 
      • Books: (You know me, I love books and giving my kids books!)

 Pipe Cleaner Shamrock Instructions:
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Valentine's Day is Coming Up!

It's hard to believe January is just about over and February is tomorrow. Valentine's Day is coming soon!  

I don't get any requests for homemade Valentines now that the kids are older. The older grades don't even trade Valentine's!

I still give them something small, usually candy or a book. 

If you need any ideas on home made Valentines or things to make it fun/special, my list of Valentines, Food, Crafts, Gift, and Activity ideas is below. 


HOMEMADE VALENTINE'S:
  • Minecraft Valentine's Day Boxes 
  • Heart Crayon Valentines
  • Candied Popcorn Bags, "I'm popping with happiness that you're my Valentine". One year I attached a Valentine themed bag full of candied popcorn to a store bought Valentine.
  • Use potato stamps to make a hearts on a homemade card. (Use a small heart cookie cutter to cut out the shape.)
  • Play-Doh Heart ornaments/necklaces
  • Make Heart Shaped Chalk
  • Hot Air Balloon: it could even have a picture of your child in the basket. "Your friendship lifts me up."
  • Butterfly Pencil
  • Bubbles with a Valentine's Day themed note like "Your friendship makes me bubbly".
  • S'more Kit (marshmallow, graham cracker squares, piece of chocolate), "Your friendship makes me feel mushy inside".
  • Goldfish or gummy fish in a fishbowl shaped baggie with a "school" type of message. The pre-made bags can be hard to find and making the bags can be a little time consuming (click for directions). If you use a regular bag, you can cut a bowl shape piece of paper, write the message and place behind the fish.
  • Other non-candy ideas: clementines, cars, glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces ("Your friendship brightens my day"). The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find little treasures in.
  • Hanging Stained Glass Card with "stained glass" made from wax paper and crayons.
  • Easy Stained Glass Heart with contact paper and tissue paper.
  • "I know I'll go far/succeed with you as my friend" type of message with a goodie bag of school gear: pencils, erasers, goldfish bag, ruler, markers, stickers, etc. The dollar store or dollar bins at Target or Michael's are great to find themed pencils and erasers.
CRAFTS:
ACTIVITIES:
FOOD:
GIFTS: * 
PETS:
  • The boys like to help make the Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Biscuits for our greyhound. We use heart, star, and pumpkin cookie cutters to make the shapes. 
  • Gift ideas for Pets
  • There are a lot of Valentine's Day gifts out there now for dogs, including this Valentine's Day heart shaped box of treats for dogs at Target ($9).  



What are some of your favorite homemade Valentines and treats?

*If you buy an item on Amazon using the links, I may receive a small commission for the referral. It does not affect your cost at all! If you want, you can read my Disclosure page for a little more information.
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