Milk Jug Art

For the start of the Halloween season I thought I would share a fun recycling art project that the kids will love.

We took Lost Children's idea and instead of the stick we used a battery tea light to make a little table light for the patio. I like this idea better but it's up to you what you would like.

There are so many decorating ideas that you can do: 

• Frankenstein (which we tried to do)
• Ghost
• Pumpkin 
• even a cute little monster!

What you will need:

1. An empty milk jug washed and dry
2. Paint 
3. Battery tea light

What to do:

1.) Paint and decorate your milk jug the way you would like.
2.) Once paint is dry cut around the lid area to make room for the tea light to sit in.

That's it! It's simple but time consuming. My kids got bored quick so I noticed I did most of it alone.

Would love to see your milk jug art on Instagram!

For more Halloween crafts come back next week for more Halloween crafts. Or check out my Pinterest boards! Follow Kristina Morud's board Halloween on Pinterest.  

Brownies in a cup

Today I'm going to share a great DIY gift that I will be making more for my teen nieces and nephews this Christmas.

First you will start with a mug. I picked mine up at the dollar tree.
Write on your cup with the recipe with a sharpie.

• 4 tbs Flour
• 4 tbs Sugar
• 2 tbs Cocoa
• 2 tbs oil
• 2 tbs water
• 1/2 tps vanilla
• Cook for 1 min in microwave

Place mug in oven at 350 for 30 min to bake the sharpie on the cup.

To make this gift complete I will be adding a couple bags of all the dry ingredients into the gift.

For more great DIY gifts check out my Pinterest page Follow Kristina Morud's board Gift Ideas on Pinterest. and make sure to check back next week for a new DIY gift from now till Christmas!

Would love to see your cups on Instagram!

Disney Movie Rewards

Today's Pinterest tip is probably not a new one if your family is a Disney fan like ours. You know those little papers that come in the movie can add up into some great prizes on Disney Movie Rewards. I save up the points through out the year to use them on some Christmas presents. They have so many great things to choose from they are not cheap things that end up in the trash (as parents we know how frustrating that is). My favorite is to save up for DVD's or Blu-rays something that I know our family will enjoy.

You are probably wondering what does this have to do with a Pinterest tip? Well did you know that you can follow Disney Movie Rewards on Pinterest. It's awesome they give away free codes once in a while and they have some awesome ideas on their page. It's worth a follow check them out! Christmas is coming up which means soon they will be giving out free codes almost everyday. So make sure to sign up at Disney Movie Rewards to start receiving points today!

Colored Rice

Sorry that I have been MIA for a while life has been crazy!

Today I have a fun activity for your little ones that they will love. My 2 year old fell in love with this activity and played for an hour or so with it. He had fun pouring the rice into his toy pots and pans.

When we were playing with this we went outside because it's a little messy.
Thank you eHow for this great sensory bin activity.

What you will need:

• 1 cup of rice
• 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
• Ziplock bag
• Food coloring
• Plastic containers to hold rice after

What to do:

1.) Add the rice to the bag. Add vinegar and food coloring to the rice. I did 8 drops but if you want darker colors add more. And shake the bag till all rice is covered.

2.) Line a cookie sheet with foil. Pour rice on to the cookie sheet and spread the rice around with a spoon. Thinner it is quicker to dry.

3.) Let the cookie sheet of rice dry for a couple hours. Ours took about 3 hours. Once done your ready to play.

4.) Store the rice in a Ziplock bag or a airtight container.

Hope you guys enjoy this as much as we did. We will love to see your pictures on Instagram.

For more kid activities check out the tab above or my Pinterest board.
Follow Kristina Morud's board Things to do with the Kids on Pinterest.

10 Money Saving Apps!

I'm always posting on recipes and activities. However lately we have been on a challenge of saving as much money as we can as a family to save up for our upcoming trip next summer. You might be wondering how are we doing that and I'm excited to share it with you. The first way that we are saving money is through apps. Yes you read that right Apps are helping our family save money. Thanks to Grocery Shop for Free for some new apps to add to our list.

10 Money Saving Apps:

1. Saving Catcher: This is the new price match that all Walmart's are using. I have only used this once after price matching it caught an extra $5 that I missed when I was price matching with local stores. I will be using this a lot more when I'm grocery shopping!
2. Saving Star: This is one that I haven't personal used but I have it on the list for this weeks shopping trip. From reading on Grocery Shop for Free it's great for specials on produce and Freebies on Friday.
3. Shooger: Is a great app for local business in your area
4. Ibotta: I'm in love with this app you can add the deals on the app with coupons for a low price and sometimes even free items. Who doesn't love free...I know I do. After you scan the product bar code and your receipt it's sent to be reviewed then you will earn your rebate. The rebate adds up and then you can cash out for gift cards or into a pay pal account. Let me tell you the rebates add up fast!
5. Checkout 51
6. Shopmium these last two can be added to Ibotta for even more savings. I haven't had much to do with them but I'm excited to see how much more I can save!
7. Valpak
8. Favado: Great to make your grocery list plus tell you what coupons to use to get the lowest price. Another plus is that there are links to print the printable coupons that you can use. No more searching. 
9. Cardstar: no more searching for that reward card to the store this app lets you put them all in one place. You never have to worry about not having your card and missing on deals. We have all been there.
10. Barcode Scanner: Scan products and get more information on the product or even price that it is in another store.

Hope you find these apps as useful as I have the last couple weeks. If you use an app that's not on the list I would love to hear about it in the comments.

For more money saving tips check out my Pinterest board
Follow Kristina Morud's board Coupons and budgets on Pinterest.

Smash Balls

This kids activity for today has been my 2 year old sons favorite for a year now. It's smash balls from time for play. Now I will say there is not much to this activity and reading alot of the comments on the post was like what's the point of this it just makes a mess. Yes it makes a mess but if you use a cookie sheet clean up is not so bad. I like doing this activity with my young one because it's great for his eye and hand coronation.

All you need:
Cotton Balls
1 cup flour
1 cup Water
Few drops of food color
Toy hammer

What to do
Preheat oven at 300
Mix flour and water
Add food color
Dip and cover cotton balls in the mixture. Place on cookie sheet lined with foil for easy clean up.
Bake in oven for 45 minutes

Once finished if you find the bottoms are to sharp you can cut and make them safer. I haven't had to this yet.

And now let you little one smash away those toy hammers are perfect for this!

Hope you guys enjoy this activity.

For more kids activities check out the tab above and my Pinterest board.

Cinnamon Sugar Apple Chips

Hi everyone sorry for missing last week the back to school bugs hit our house hard. Hope that's it for a while because two sick cranky kids was not fun one bit.

Today I have a yummy recipe that came from Jessica in the kitchen. With it now being September I'm looking forward to all the fall recipes and activities we have plans. And this was a favorite of mine growing up. I don't like plan apples...I know crazy but I love Apple Chips. Instead of munching on unhealthy chips this is perfect. To make them even more healthier you can skip the sugar and just use the cinnamon.

While making these I noticed I need a apple corer and a nice slicer ...honey if your reading this Christmas gift idea ;). As you can tell some of my apples where thick because I was using a knife and I'm not the best cutting thin with a knife it's usually me that I cut.

Ingredients

• 2-4 apples (I only did 2 this time)
• Cinnamon
• Sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Thinly slice apples with a mandolin. On a greased baking sheet, Aarange apple slices so they aren't overlapping.
3. In small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of apple chips.
4. Bake on the top rack of your oven for 2 hours until chips are dry and crisp. Flip half way through for even cooking.
5. Remove from oven and let them cool completely. 
6. Store in a zipped plastic bag for up to 3 days to stay crispy.

Hope you enjoy this recipe just as much as our family did.

For more recipes check out the tab above and also check out my Pinterest board.Follow Kristina Morud's board yummy food to try on Pinterest.