Craft Ideas for The Oregon Trail Game

Anyone else have a preschooler who's obsessed with The Oregon Trail game on Facebook? No? Just us? It's turned into a world of pretend play at our house. First, we decided to make some binoculars out of a pair of empty toilet paper rolls. Maggie colored them with rainbow colors, and I threaded a long string of yarn through punched holes. We put a couple rubber bands around them to hold them together while the glue dried, and filled the crack between them with lots of glue.

Maggie loves to pretend she's playing the search mini game on The Oregon Trail, in addition to really playing it. We also play I Spy with these binoculars.

Another Oregon Trail related craft we made was this "oxcart." I was cutting up the paper bag to make a mud puddle for Maggie's birthday party. She wanted the handle I cut off to make a wagon with. Once I taped it to half a cereal box, she insisted the mud puddle become a cover. So now we have this fun covered wagon toy.

Here's how I taped the handle to the inside.

Both of these toys were free and just took a few minutes to make. And they've provided hours of fun, off the computer.

Just for fun, here is a video of the kids pretending to be oxen while I sing The Oxcart from The Children's Songbook.

This song is originally about the Utah Pioneers, but it is pretty applicable to daily life here in India. This is the best picture I've been able to get so far.

My First Scrapbooking Attempt in India

Yesterday I gave scrapbooking a try. I pulled out a piece of light blue posterboard, cut it down to approximately 12x12 size using a pair of scissors, and stitched a design on it, because this month's CC blog hop theme is Stitching. I tried to glue the photo on with a glue stick, but the posterboard keeps wanting to roll up.

I didn't have any alphabet stickers. I saw some at Staples, but I broke my "if you might want it, buy it NOW" rule and didn't get them, because I was already spending $18 on stuff that fit into the "might want it" category. I went back today and of course they weren't there. I had my driver ask at the stationary store for letter stickers. I told him I'd take whatever they had, and this is what he brought me:

Gold plated, metallic, and they don't match one bit. AND all the letters aren't even there. R, T, and L have been replaced by extra letters. Heh.

This layout will have to rest uncompleted until I get a box with some Thickers in it. Still, my stitching came out good and I'm happy with that.

Jungle Animal Birthday Party

Maggie asked for an "animals" party for her birthday. Here's what I came up with. All of the games were a big hit with the kids, 17 months to 4 1/2, and they wanted to repeat them.

Pin the Leg on the Flamingo Game.

I wanted to do a variation on Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and my poster board options were pink, yellow, and white. So, Flamingo it was! I looked at some clipart online and sketched a flamingo on the pink.

Then I cut out a bunch of leg shapes out of the yellow posterboard. I blindfolded the older kids and let the little ones just stick the legs on. I used sticky tack to hold everything.

Elefun - Maggie got this from Santa. We had four kids and four butterfly nets - perfect!

Feed the Monkey Game

This game was a lot of fun to put together.

I sketched a monkey on poster board, looking at clipart again. Then I painted using brown paint, and white paint mixed with a bit of brown.

I traced over all the lines with a black marker to give the monkey face a more finished look.

Next up: bananas to feed the monkey! The yellow polka dots were the best fabric option I could find. I cut out pairs of banana shapes, and embroidered the kids' initials on them. Then sewed them right sides together except on one end. We turned them and Maggie helped me fill them with beans. I used brown embroidery floss to blanket stitch the end closed, to be the stem of the banana.

These also worked as our party favors. Each birthday guest was able to take two bananas home, which left four for my kids.

Hippos in the Mud Game

All this game required was some masking tape, a brown paper bag, and some music. I made a circle on the floor with the masking tape, and taped down the paper bag in a shape of a mud puddle. The kids pretended to be animals while crawling around the circle. As you can see in the picture, Dalton didn't quite get it at first. I played some music (the 1:30 iTunes samples of songs from The Jungle Book) and stopped it when a kid was "stuck in the mud". The child in the mud won that round (and an animals sticker sheet).

Everyone enjoyed playing with balloons for about 10 minutes.

We had an elephant-shaped birthday cake.

I decorated with some green crepe paper to add a jungle feel, and these paper animals, sent to Maggie from Colette.

Maggie Turns 4

Miss Maggie Sue turned FOUR yesterday. She had a fun day with a little party and cake and presents and all.

Strawberry Elephant Cake

She is now the proud owner of Dino Cove books, unicorn puzzles, Pooh shoes, handmade paper puzzles, a wooden spoon puppet show set, an ice cream playdough set...

and...

the cutest box of Legos ever! Let it be known that we didn't buy the pink because it was pink, but because the blue box didn't have such fun colors in it. This is her favorite gift, and it's a lot of fun.

She also got a Triceratops with a pink tulle bow, heh.

Oh, and her nails painted blue.

A Pre-Birthday Morning

Made a cake.

Watched a bug. For 5 minutes.

Another Oregon Trail inspired homemade toy.

Made frosting.

Oh yes, Birthday Girl has another black eye. Ran smack into the coffee table.

The Dalton Says, "Mmm!"

The kids' latest favorite show is LeapFrog Letter Factory. Even Dalton has learned the sounds of many of the letters. His favorites are "puh!" and "mmm!"

My Favorite Accessory

My favorite accessory. Can you tell what it is? Here I am wearing it at Cubbon Park in Bangalore, at Disneyland, and in Bryce Canyon.

No, not the cute baby boy. Well, yes, that. My super awesome, fantastic, $6 baby sling. I can't tell you how much I love this thing.

On the coracle boat in Hampi.

I've worn it on planes, trains, and automobiles. And buses, ski lifts, boats, autorickshaws, elephants, hiking trails, merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels. I've used it to keep Dalton on my lap at restaurants, and as a seatbelt. I've carried Maggie in it, and Kyli when she was so tiny and I had to get three kids out of the house.

Dalton wants out sometimes.

This baby sling has made my life so much easier. Dalton is a bit of a crazy kid. He loves to run off. This keeps him close and gives me a free hand.

Wrapped around Dalton on the elephant.

I think this is the best $6 and 1 hour ever spent. It was so easy to make and has held up great. I use it nearly every single day. It's more comfortable than the Baby Bjorn. It's just like carrying the child on your hip (or piggy back) only hands free.

Daddy tries it out.

Dalton has taken many naps in the sling. Most recently, he fell asleep while waiting for the late-night train in Hampi. The sling enabled me to get both the kids and half the luggage onto the train during the 5 minute stop, barely disturbing him.

Sleepy and snug while hiking in American Fork Canyon.

If you have a baby, this is a must have. Especially if you ever take him anywhere.

Ski lift in Park City.