Underwater Ocean Search and Find Preschool Craft and Activity

Does your child love the ocean? One of my preschooler's favorite places is our local sea center. Today I'm sharing a fun ocean themed craft that also doubles as a game!  It was inspired by this amazing FB video by kidzwiz. This activity involves doodling sea creatures and then going on an underwater adventure to find them all!  Ready to go on a crafty sea adventure?

Ocean Search and Find Craft and Activity!

(Perfect for Preschoolers)

Our 15 Favorite Graphic Novels!

We love reading graphic novels. My preschooler enjoys looking at the pictures and following the fast-paced story. My 3rd grader really loves the storylines. If you're looking for some great graphic novels to read with the kids, check out our list of...

15 Awesome Graphic Novels!

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Also, all photos were taken from Amazon!

Uber Cute Narwhal Paper Snowflakes

The obsession with all things cute and snowflake-related continue!  Today our paper snowflakes are taking an under-the-sea vibe with these funny narwhal inspired snowflakes!

How To Cut Uber Cute Narwhal Snowflakes

(2 designs included!)

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Sparkly Marbled Shell Necklaces

Do your children love collecting shells at the beach?  Or do they simply adore mermaids? Or do they just enjoy adding colorful, glittery flair to every craft they touch?  Well, today's summer craft is for you!  Recently we had a playdate where we made these lovely glittery and marbled shell necklaces!  The kids (whose ages ranged from 2-7) all really had fun, so I had to share the craft here too.

How to Make Sparkly and Marbled Shell Necklaces

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a small bit of change when you purchase items through the links.  Thank you for your support and the grocery money! For my full disclosure policy, click here.

How to make Giant Gorgeous Jellyfish

Giant Jellyfish Decorations?  What?  Yup.  Hi friends! Today's craft is a departure from my normal kids crafts.  But I just had to share this gorgeous jellyfish craft here.  Our church recently redecorated its nursery room.  The new theme is under the sea and one of my very talented friends came up with this super easy (and cheap!) jellyfish design.  We made about a dozen of them to hang up in the room and they look absolutely ethereal and gorgeous.   So I thought I'd share what we did here in case any of you want to make your own giant floaty sea creatures too.

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  This means I make a small bit of change when you purchase items through the links.  Thank you for your support and the grocery money.  For my full disclosure policy, click here.

FREE Color By Number Pirate Printables (And book list!)

We recently visited a friend's house and my son was enamored with these color-by-number sheets that his friends were working on. I'm not sure why, but he got a real kick out of finding numbers and coloring the design accordingly.  After we went home, we ended up designing two pirate color-by-number sheet together.  He really enjoyed coloring them in, so I'm sharing them in case you have a pirate and number loving child too!

FREE Pirate Color By Number Sheets!

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Let's Make Easy Wire Wrapped Nature Pendants!

How has your summer been going so far?  We've been spending a ton of time outdoors, running around, playing in the water, and digging in the sand.  For what?  Treasures!  So far we've found lovely bits of blue and green sea glass, shells, and funny shaped rocks.  We've placed some of our treasures on display at home and turned others into these easy-to-make, wire wrapped nature pendants. 

Let's Make Wire Wrapped Nature Pendants!

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Aren't they lovely?  We love doing nature crafts, like making melted crayon friendship rocks, weaving with flowers, building birds nests, and constructing play dough and rock houses.  Today's wire wrapped pendants are a too difficult for the preschool crowd, but adults and older children can easily wrap pendants for younger ones!  

Easy Kirigami Fish Craft

Howdy! For those of you living above the equator-- how's summer so far?  I'm slowly recovering from illness (hooray!)  Our days are packed with swim classes, trips to the library, play dates, and night time walks.  Is it just me, or is summer just as busy as the rest of the school year?

Lately, I honestly haven't had the time (or energy) to craft.  (Do you ever feel that way too?)  Well, in case you wanted a quick, summer craft to do with the kids, I'm sharing this easy kirigami fish craft today!  I've always enjoyed paper cutting and folding crafts, so I thought this was a really great way for young children to get creative with scissors and paper too!

Let's make some Kirigami Fish!

Make Super Graphic and Colorful Shark Sun Catchers with Kids

Did you know that it's Shark Week?  We don't have cable, so I had no idea until someone else informed me.  While I'm not quite sure what Shark Week entails.... we do love learning about sharks and doing easy shark crafts..... like this

Super Easy Shark Sun Catcher Craft!      

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10 Ocean Crafts and Activities

This week's Creative Preschool Collaborator's theme is Oceans and Fish!  I was excited to tackle the theme because Chuck LOVES going to the beach and playing in the ocean.   So keep reading for some ocean themed storybook ideas, 10 preschool ocean crafts/activities, AND 4 other kid blogger's creative Ocean themed activities!

10 Ocean Crafts and Activties

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Glow in the dark Kids Jellyfish Costume

Recently I received several containers of Tulip Glow Paint to try out.  As you know, I LOVE making costumes for Chuck. (Remember the spider costume, Lightening McQueen Costume, and Mr. Potato head costume?  Yup.  Good times.)  So I was excited to somehow incorporate the glow in the dark paint into a costume idea.  Chuck really loves sea creatures right now, so I made him this easy, NO SEW jellyfish costume.

Oh yeah.  And it glows!

DIY Kids Jellyfish Costume (that glows!)

Adorable right? Just wait till you see it glowing.  It really looks like a jellyfish is sitting on top of his head!

Here's how I made it!

What's up Chuck?

Hi everyone! How was your week?  Did you have a good Labor Day?

Before you read on, I gotta warn you. This post is FULL of photos because last week was chock full of activities. 

Early in the week, Hubby had to go out of town for a couple of days.  We missed him a lot.  It was tough holding down the fort without him around.  Fortunately, my sister came to visit one day.  Having her around sure helped me out. 

Then hubby came back and we visited a bike show in Brooklyn.  (It was a pretty easy going night, so I took a lot of photos.)

Beautiful custom bikes at the show

I've never seen such a tall bike before!

Delicious Mexican food

Whoever lives in this apartment has such a quirky sense of style.  Love the birds!

I can't take credit for this outfit.  Chuck is now picking out his own clothes.

Then, hubby and I celebrated our anniversary with a trip into Manhattan to see Pippin and eat Korean food.  Yurmmy.  (Thanks Tita Tina and Tito Ric for babysitting!)

And then we celebrated Chuck's 2nd birthday with a trip to the zoo.  (Wow.  I can't believe that two years passed by so quickly.  He's no longer a baby anymore!)

Chuck really enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the sea lion.  He and his cousins had fun trying to talk to them through the glass wall.

Phew.   And that's what happened last week.  Time to take a nap. 

What's up, Chuck?

This weekend we went into the city and visited Chelsea Market.  There were so many interesting things to see and eat.  But,  oy vey! I forgot just how crowded New York can get.  It was a wee bit overwhelming to be constantly surrounded by a sea of people.

Here are a couple of photos from our adventure that day... 

Exposed brick and large industrial fans give the place such character

Butcher's shop

Chuck and I were dying to run our hands through the mountains of spices...

Lunch time!

Super adorable cookies... but unfortunately, not gluten free. :(

Yurmmmmy fresh seafood...

We were all super tuckered out by the time we got home

Happy Monday! 

New York Aquarium Part 2

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever..  ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau 

 

 
Jellyfish from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

Hubby's birthday

We celebrated hubby's birthday last week.  Baby Chuck and I woke up early to head out to the store and prepare for his birthday, but we ran into a little bit of trouble along the way. 

(1)  It was very windy that day and I had several Marilyn Monroe-esque moments.  I think I flashed everyone in the parking lot.  Luckily, it was pretty empty and I was wearing a slip.

I ended up using two grocery bags to hold my dress down.

(2) Baby Chuck really wanted to get hubby a birthday balloon.  After deliberating for what seemed like hours and hours, we finally settled on a cute airplane shaped balloon.  I gave Baby Chuck the responsibility of bringing the balloon to the car.  As we left the store, a strong gust of wind blew and our airplane took flight.

It's probably somewhere over Lake Michigan by now, wishing birds and sea creatures a happy birthday.

(3) I like to pretend like I know what I'm doing in the kitchen. But, Ina Garten, I am not.  I tried following an online recipe for a gluten free chocolate cake.   The man in the video assured me that it would be simple, foolproof, and delicious.  I don't know what he was talking about.  Here's how my poor cake turned out.

It ended up being pretty tasty... and at least it didn't blow away!

Independence day images

Hubby and I celebrated 4th of July with some friends. 

We ate a delicious grilled meal. 

Then we sat outside and watched the fireworks. 

Some fireworks were patriotic red, white, and blue.

Others were shot so high, it felt like we were contacting aliens.

These reminded me of funny deep sea creatures.

These look like dandelions set aflame.

I also tried out sparklers for the first time.  I loved them.

Hope you had a wonderful July 4th too!