I am super excited to get to co-host the Happiness is Homemade link party put on by Lisa at Blogghetti, Cathy from A Peek Into My Paradise and Brittany from Mommy on Demand this month. I used to have my own link party back in the day before I had three boys and a teensy weensie bit more time to spend hopping around the blogosphere and setting up link parties. I’ve missed it! So, I’m super excited to get to co-host this month and get my feet back into the link party scene.

So, what this means for you: you can link up here on While He Was Napping for the month of November and your awesome projects, recipes and all the other amazing things you’ve been doing will be seen on SIX other awesome blogs! So, get to sharing! Leave a comment with your link numbers and I’ll share them on social media!

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I’m still in shock that Halloween is now over and now its time to start Christmas Shopping…eek! Where did the year go!?

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

We appreciate each of spending time us and making our parties alot of fun!! This month we are introducing 4 new co-host’s so please make sure you take the time to follow these lovely ladies! If you are interested in co-hosting with us in December fill out the rafflecopter below!!

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If you’ve ever been to a drive-in movie, you know how fun it can be. We love piling into the back of our van with all our favorite blankets and treats and enjoying a movie out in the summer air. But the drive in movies aren’t just fun in summer time, right?! You can skip the chilly night air and bring that fun right into your living room with a fun kid’s activity and art project: Making cardboard box cars! Then, let the kids sit in them while you watch a movie! Two fun family activities in one!

DIY CARDBOARD BOX CARS FOR AN AT HOME DRIVE-IN MOVIE NIGHT

DIY Cardboard Box Cars Materials:

– cardboard boxes your child can fit inside (1 for each car)
– box cutter
– spray paint
– packing tape
– construction paper
– hot glue gun and glue sticks
– scissors
– foam letter stickers
– chalk markers
– 3-inch circle punch
– aluminium foil
– black paper plates
– paper cup
– black wide (2 to 3 inches) grosgrain ribbon

DIY Cardboard Box Cars Directions:

PREPARE YOUR BOX

1. Start with some large, empty boxes. The boxes need to be big enough for your child to fit inside them semi-comfortably. Large diaper boxes are good.

2. Cut the flaps off the top of the box and a space wide enough to comfortably stand up through the bottom of the box.

3.  Use the flaps and packing tape to create any extra shape to the car you want.  I made a little dashboard in the green car and used small triangular pieces to help support the windshield in both cars.

4. Spray paint the boxes. My red box needed a primer, but the blue box did not.  Both boxes got four coats of paint, plus the red box got a layer of primer.  Let the paint dry thoroughly, preferably overnight.  Mine actually dried for a couple of days, but 4-6 hours should be sufficient.

** If you want to construct cars as a group activity, whether for a movie night, a kids’ party or some other event, you will want to have the above completed prior to your event.  You may want to do some of the following prior to the event as well, such as having things pre-cut.

 

CONSTRUCT YOUR CARS

5. Use paper plates and construction paper circles to create wheels for your car. Each wheel will need one plate and one circle. Use a glue stick to glue the construction paper circle to the center of the plate and use hot glue to secure the plate to the box. You will NOT want the plate to extend past the bottom of the box or it will get crushed when the box is placed on the floor.

6. Use a small piece of one of the cardboard flap, cut to a rectangle, to make a rear view mirror. Cover the rectangle with construction paper and use a small piece of aluminium foil to make the reflective ‘mirror’ part. Hot glue the mirror to the windshield inside the car.  It won’t fall off, but it’s not super sturdy either. But, it’s hot glue, so no big deal.

7.  Make a steering wheel with a black paper plate.  You can decorate it or not.  One of my boys chose to put a colored construction paper circle on his, the other decided not to.

In the green car, I secured the steering wheel to the dashboard I created with a small piece of cardboard taped onto the dashboard.  I then hot glued the steering wheel plate to the small cardboard.

In the blue car, I used a paper cup covered in black construction paper to make a steering column.  I then hot glued the steering wheel plate to the cup and the cup inside the box where the steering wheel is supposed to be (on the left, in our case).

 

GOTTA HAVE A SEAT BELT

8. Not only does a seat belt keep you safe, in this car, it holds it up! Create a seat belt with wide black grosgrain ribbon.  I poked small holes in opposite corners of the box.  If you’re standing at the back of the car, I put holes in the front right and the back left so it was like wearing a seat belt on the driver’s side of the car (in the US).

Put one end of the ribbon through one of the holes and tie a knot. Measure on the child how long the ribbon needs to be.  Length will depend on the length of the child’s torso and where they want the car to sit while they are playing.

Have them stand in the car and pull the ribbon up over their shoulder and to the back of the car. Big J wanted his car to sit lower than Little J did, so the best way to figure this out is to actually measure it with the child in the car.  Poke the other end through the hole at the back of the car and tie another knot. In the green car, we hid the front knot under the bumper.

9. If you want to create a bumper, use one of the flaps from the short side of the box and cut off a strip abour 3 inches wide.  Wrap it in aluminium foil and use hot glue to secure it to the car.

 

DON’T FORGET THE HEADLIGHTS!

10. Create headlights with circles of yellow construction paper.  Glue them on with a glue stick.  Yellow plastic cups would also be cute and super easy for this.  Create a windshield with a rectangle of light blue construction paper and glue it on.  I had to use hot glue for the windshield.  You could cut the windshield out, but I knew ours wouldn’t last that long if there were just small pieces of cardboard holding it all up, so I left it intact and used the construction paper instead.  They have no problems seeing over it.

 

PERSONALIZE IT!

11. Create a license plate with construction paper.  We used foam letter stickers and Big J and I used a chalk marker to write the large letters on the green car.  Little J just did his own thing on this one.  Make it a fun one!

 

READY, SET… DRIVE!

Now, your kiddos are ready for a great movie night!  We have a large screen and projector that we like to set up for movie nights at our house.  It was perfect for our at-home drive-in.  And best of all, we didn’t have to wait for it to get dark, which means the kids were still in bed at a decent hour.  Mom win!  But what’s a movie night without some awesome movie night snacks?!  Popcorn is the old standard and there are lots of ways to make just the way you like it.  But, it’s definitely not the only go-to movie snack in our house.

 

MY TOP FOUR MOVIE SNACKS (besides popcorn)

SWEET AND SALTY COMBO

1. Bacon Jalapeno Poppers!  These things are like crack. Seriously, I can promise you won’t be able to eat just one. Or two. Or even three. These jalapeno poppers are so delicious. It takes a little bit of time to cut them, pull out the seeds and then wrap each one – BUT, it is SO, SO, SO worth it! The sweet cream cheese, the salty bacon, the mild heat of the jalapeno. Yum. YUM.

 

HEARTY AND CHEESY

2. Pizza Pretzels.  It’s a soft pretzel with pizza toppings: pepperoni, Italian herbs, Parmesan and Colby Jack cheese.  It’s probably a ton of calories and your entire carbohydrate allowance for the day… but it’s totally worth the splurge!

 

FRESH AND SWEET SALSA

3. Mango Salsa and Tortilla Chips.  This is the perfect way to get a little sweet and salty going on.  It’s a fresh salsa made with delicious sweet mangoes, zippy onions, crunchy peppers and fresh cilantro.  Pair with tortilla chips.  Or eat it out of the bowl with a spoon.  I won’t tell.

 

SATISFY THAT SWEET TOOTH

4. And, because I’m a chocoholic… Peanut Butter Cup Bars.  It’s all the goodness of peanut butter cups in an easy to make cookie bar-style little treat.  There’s just something about the peanut butter and chocolate combo that hits the spot for me.

 

BONUS SNACK: If popcorn is just totally your jam… I got you. This Snickers Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn is AMAZING! Almost as addicting as those Jalapeno Poppers up there. But with chocolate. Try it. You’ll love it.

What are you waiting for?! Get your drive in movie on… at home!

So, last weekend I made my 10,000th pin on Pinterest… Yes, hello, my name is Krista and I have a problem.  Lucky for me, a great many other people can relate and I bet I can find a support group when I decide to kick the habit, but that won’t be happening anytime soon.  But I thought it a great excuse for a giveaway…  Because everyone loves a little free sumthin’-sumthin’, right?  After polling my Facebook buddies (come on over and join us!), they let me know that surprises are way more fun than a small gift card.  So that’s what I’ve got for you today.  Your chance to win a Mystery Prize Pack!  Because surprises are so much fun, I’ll give you a few hints but I’m not going to ruin it for the winner.  So, here’s a little peek and some of the stuff in this prize pack.

 

Giveaway will close Monday March 2, 2015 at 12:00 AM PST.  Giveaway is open to Continental US residents only.  Sorry, but my pockets aren’t deep enough for international shipping.  Winner will be contacted via email sometime on Monday, March 2, 2015 and given 24 hours to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen.  Winner will be randomly selected with Rafflecopter.  This sweepstakes is sponsored by me, Krista, and mention of other sites, companies and services does not indicate an endorsement or sponsorship or participation from the aforementioned companies.  It’s all me.  Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter.  Good luck and GO!

This giveaway is also being hosted on my Facebook page.

These Sparkle Bottles were actually part of our Travel Kits, which you can find in the {Kids on the Road} Series, we took on our insanely long (and waaay too close together) road trips we took in 2013. But, they are still awesome and we still have one of them nearly a decade later.

WHY SPARKLE BOTTLES?

I found the original idea at My Crazy Blessed Life, and Johanna called them “calm down bottles” and used them with the idea of helping her little girls calm down after a tantrum.  There was the added bonus of a built-in time out timer.

That wasn’t my goal with them originally, though they have been used as such since I first made these.  In the beginning, I just wanted a distraction for my poor children who were strapped down in car seats for hours and hours on end.  Since then, I’ve found they work well as timers or calm down distractions for my kids. Sometimes. Sometimes not. But, they aren’t consistent depending on the temperature; so, while they are pretty, they aren’t functional as precision timing devices.

HOW TO MAKE A SPARKLE BOTTLE

I wasn’t able to find the exact ingredients Johanna used so I had to improvise.  I actually found some other materials that I opted to use instead of what Johanna did.  And it still turned out great – and was even a little cheaper.  So, here’s how I made my Sparkle Bottles.

Directions:

1. Clean any labels or sticky glue off your bottles.
2. Heat the water.  It doesn’t have to boil, but it should be steaming.  You want it to be hot enough to melt the glue, but not hot enough to melt your container.
3. Pour approximately a 1/4 cup of glitter glue into the bottom of the bottle.
4. Add approximately 2 Tbsp of Clear School Glue to the bottle.
5. Fill the bottle about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full with the hot water.
6. Tighten the caps back onto the bottles and shake until the glues and water are thoroughly mixed.
7. Remove the cap and pour in as much glitter as desired.
8. Fill the remainder of the bottle with either glue or water.  If you want the glitter to fall faster, put in more water.  For slower falling glitter, put in more glue. The clear glue is thinner than the glitter glue. Glitter glue will make your glitter fall more slowly than the clear glue. If you’re trying to make a timer, I suggest the clear glue. It doesn’t change the
9. Make sure the glue and water is well mixed.
10. Put super glue in the threads of the cap and tighten it down.
11. Shake and enjoy!

HELPFUL HINTS AND TIPS FOR MAKING YOUR SPARKLE BOTTLES

• Where did you get your supplies?
  I bought all the materials at Walmart and Target.  Target had a couple different glitter glue colors than Walmart. But you can find them in the craft/office supplies department of just about any general retail store, as well as on amazon.
  

• The clear glue was at Wal-Mart in the art supply section with the crayons and markers.  You might find it in the back to school section this time of year too.  I used nearly a full bottle of it in my four Sparkle Bottles.

• How did you keep the cost lower?
  The Elmer’s Clear School Glue was about half the price as the Aleene’s Clear Tacky Glue and I didn’t have any problems with it.  I would do that again if I make more of these.
• How much of each glue did you put in each bottle?
  I tried the quantities in Johanna’s tutorial with my first bottle and that was WAAAY too much glue for the Elmer’s brands.  Our green bottle takes about 30 minutes to settle.  Yeah, thirty.  We use that as the quiet time timer for Big J when I’m trying to trick him into taking a nap…  If you use the quantities listed above you’ll get about a 5 minute timer, if you’re using the bottles to keep time.  Of course, the exact time will depend on whether you fill the last 1/4 of the bottle with glue or water.  Play with it.
• What kind of glitter is best?
  DON’T use super fine glitter.  I tried this.  All that created was a major goopy clump.  It was not pretty.  I poured it out and started over.  It was that bad.  You want chunky glitters.  Check out the photo for an idea of what size glitter I preferred.  Slightly larger worked out too, like from the dollar store.  I got my favorite set of 12 bottles of glitter at Wal-Mart for about $7.

• How do you get the colors?
  It mostly comes from the colored glitter glue. I DID NOT add any kind of separate coloring agent. The glitter will also lend to the color if you stick to color families.
• Can I mix and match colors?
  Of course. You can do whatever you want, it’s your project. I do recommend sticking to complementary colors to find the best mixes. This takes a little trial and error to figure out quantities, but it’s not rocket science so don’t stress over it.  Mixing and matching allows you to make some cool colors.  Our orange bottle is actually red and yellow glitter glue with a bit of orange glitter.  Don’t be afraid to play with the colors!
• These are HUGE! Can you make them smaller?
  YES! One of my best ideas from this project came in the form of a mini Sparkle Bottle.  The big bottles were a little too heavy for my small kids to really hang on to well.  So, I made mini ones with travel sized cosmetics bottles – the kind you can get pass TSA.  He loves it and I love that it can go in the diaper bag without taking up a ton of space – or weighing 400 pounds!

This post was written by Krista and originally appeared on While He Was Napping.