Sensory Car Wash

Sensory Car Wash

I came across this cool sensory car wash on Pinterest  and thought my kids would love it!  It's made for occupational therapy but my kids love going to the car wash and I wanted to make them something like it.  I ended up using a large dish pack box we still had from the last move and the first station in the car wash was "rinse"...which you can see below is the shimmery silvery stuff hanging down.  I found it at the Dollar Tree in the Christmas section, it was some kind of garland.  I hot glued the garland to the inside of the box.

The next station inside was "soap". I used embroidery thread and threaded packing peanuts onto several strands and then at the end of each strand, poked the needle up through the top of the box and tied the thread.  It's held up really well through lots and lots of car washes.

This is a view from the end of the car was looking in. You can see the soap suds better and then you can see I used 2 dusters from the Dollar Tree next.  I tied embroidery thread through the ends and again poked the needle up through the top of the box and then tied it on top so they hang nicely.  When the kids crawl past them they spin/twirl...since I used the thread to tie them up, it allows them the movement to twirl and reminds them of being at the real car wash.

The last station was the drying station.  I used the fake imitation sham wow car wipe thing from the Dollar Tree, cut slits in it and then hot glued the top to the box.  I tried to pick things that would have different sensations as they went through to make it a more sensory experience.  I wanted to find one of those small battery powered personal fans that people carry around in the summer and attach that at the very end so they would have a little blow drying too, but I couldn't find any at the time.

Sometimes when the kids are having fun going through, I pretend to be the car wash attendant and I give them a quick squirt with a water bottle before they go through, just like they do at the real car wash we go to.  They love it!  And their friends ask me to take it out when they come over too, they all love it.  And it's nice because when we are not using it I just pick it up and the box folds flat and put it in the storage room.  When we use it we set it up with one side against a wall and then put a magazine rack or  something else sturdy on the other side to keep it standing upright as both ends are open it has no support to stay open otherwise...but makes it easy to fold flat and put away when you're done playing.  It was super easy, cost $4 in supplies from the Dollar Tree and has gotten a LOT of playtime over the last few months!  

Isn't it funny how you can spend so much on toys your kids say they really want and then they barely play with them?  And then you can make cheap things like this that get tons of repeat play?  I love it!

Felt and Pom Ice Cream Cone

Felt and Pom Pom Ice Cream Cone

Up until today we have been enjoying lots of time at home “not going ANYWHERE!!!” as my daughter surprisingly exclaimed with glee each morning of Christmas break.  We enjoyed lots of little activities aside from the kids just enjoying their Christmas gifts, and in Jordan’s case, some of her new craft supplies….such as these jumbo pom poms.  She got a big bag of these pom poms and wanted to make something, and being that the plush cake and strawberries I made are one of her favorite playthings, we decided to make more play treats and whipped up this triple scoop ice cream cone using felt, pom poms and a glue gun.

 Yummy Triple Scoop Rainbow Ice Cream..."mmmmm..my favorite mom!"

And although Christmas is truly over, she suddenly gasped one day and exclaimed to me “MOM!!! We didn’t make gingerbread cookies!!!” Which I had no idea she even knew about them because it’s not  anything we have done before, so we just made these paper gingerbread men and J enjoyed using her new glue (who would of thought glue in a stocking was so exciting!) googly eyes and craft scissors.

Like the Christmas Clothespin Magnet holding the paper gingerbread man?


And since I haven't been keeping up with the things I've wanted to post, here is another after the fact picture from Christmas...makes me laugh

And a few more from the day while I'm at it...

Glowing Rapunzel Hair Tutorial

Glowing Rapunzel Hair

Just like in Tangled!

"I have magic hair that glows when I sing!"

Rapunzel is one of our favorite movies...that's right "our"...I can't help but sit and watch it with my 4 year old!  Up until about a week ago, she planned on being snow white for Halloween, which I thought was great because she was snow white last year so we already had the costume.  Well, when she decided to be Rapunzel, I got kind of excited.  At first I wanted to get the Rapunzel costume and wig from Costume Express when I won their giveaway recently but they had already sold out for the season.  I found this rapunzel braid on Amazon Here for about $30

And then saw this awesome glowing Rapunzel hair party decoration on Etsy Here

And then knew exactly what to do for J's Rapunzel costume.  Make a glowing long Rapunzel braid that glows.  This was rather quick and easy to make and cost less then $5!

What you need

Battery powered short strand of mini lights

(found at hobby lobby for $1.99)

Purple ribbon

yellow yarn 

(more of a buttercream yellow and the thing of yarn is 355 yards, buy 2 packs if this is for a teenager or adult)

3 ponytail elastics

scissors

 Measuring

 Take the end of the yarn and measure around your child's head creating a crown and then let the yarn hang down to the floor, notice where the yarn touches the floor then add a bit more length for good luck, and snip.  This is your guide piece for measuring out all the strands of hair.   (or however long you want it)

 Making Sections of Hair

Lay the guide strand out across the floor nice and strait.  Then, hold then end of the yarn and just unroll it till it gets to the other end, then hold it down on the opposite end and loop it back the other way, working your way back and forth, until you get a nice thick row of hair.  I made each section of hair about the thickness of a quarter when you grab it.  So Once you get a row of thick hair, repeat that process 2 more times till you have 3 rows of thick long yarn (hair).  Remember you are just rolling the yarn back and forth, not cutting out individual strands

 Braiding it

Carefully bring all 3 sections side-by side.  Come down about 3 inches from the top and secure with a hair elastic or rubber band. Slip your purple ribbon in there with the elastic next to one of the sections of hair.  Start braiding the hair all the way down, Incorporating the ribbon as you go.  When you get a couple inches from the bottom, secure with another hair elastic or rubber band. 

OPTIONAL: If you want the lights to be in the hair permanently, then see the step below for where to put the battery pack, and then incorporate the strand of lights into the braid as you do the ribbon, being sure to keep the wires and lightbulbs from showing as best you can.  If you want to be able to take the lights off, continue below, leaving the lights for last.

 Model and Fit

Get your child and wrap the braid around their head like a crown and then secure in place with an elastic, making sure to tuck the loopy ends under the braided part so you don't see it.  Tie a piece of ribbon around the elastics at the top and bottom to hide them and make it pretty :)  I left the end of the braid as is, but you can trim the ends if you like.

 see the loopy ends on the underside of the braid where you connected it with elastic?

Make it GLOW

Lay your Rapunzel braid on the ground upside-down so the you are looking at the loopy ends that are hiding under the braid...Put 3 fingers through the loops and try to line up the loops of frabric as much as you can...mine weren't all perfectly even so I didn't get all of them, but enough to hold the battery pack.  Tuck the battery pack inside those loops.  Now, turn the switch to one and start spacing out your lights and tucking them into the braid to light it up.  Once you have all the lights placed in the corrects areas, you can either use strands of yarn to tie the lights in place which can be snipped for easy removal later or use some small hair claws/clips to secure the lights and wires in place.  

The reason you may want to make the lights removable and not incorporated into the braid is it is a little heavier with the battery pack and your little one may not always want to have that in there when playing, but for halloween and other special dress-up events, the lights just take this long Repunzel hair accessory to the next level of coolness while also making your kid more safe and visible on Halloween night!

This Repunzle braid is super fun without the lights too!

You can add fake flowers to the braid to make it more like the movie, I plan on doing that I just haven't picked up any yet.  I did have one that I stuck at the top of the braid as you can see... 

Let's see the battery lights were $1.99 and the yarn was $3.99 but I had a 40% off coupon so this fun repunzel braid cost less than $5 to make!

I picked up some fabric and plan to make an actual repunzel dress using the cinderella dress tutorial from make it and love it.  But if I don't end up having time at least she'll have this purple dress or maybe borrow a repunzel dress from a friend and make the handmade one for Christmas....HOPEFULLY I can get it done for Halloween though!

UPDATE!

While linking this up to parties I found this awesome RAPUNZLE DRESS TUTORIAL by Me Sew Crazy!  Can't wait to try it!

(and apparently there are already lots of braided yarn tutorials out there, I didn't realize!  Well, hopefully I inspired some new ideas by adding the battery powered lights :P)

I also saw this cute flynn ryder costume by crazy town welcomes you...I was thinking maybe my 18 mo little guy could be either Flynn Ryder or Pascal...