What’s Your Fairy Name?

Our family volunteered at a wonderful local festival this weekend and the younger kids and I we were presented with marvelously fun name tags from some volunteer fairies.

It was so much fun that I thought I’d look for a fairy name generator online, and I found a whole host of them.

Here are all kinds of fairy name generators (plus one we made ourselves).  See if you and the kids can find one that suits your crew.

There’s even a pirate fairy name generator!  🙂

Of course, we’ve done pirate names here before.

And in the spirit of the generator we made for that, here’s our very own Magical Childhood fairy/elf name generator.  And just like the pirate name generator, this one works for boys and girls.

To find your fairy name:

Pick 3 numbers, each one ranging  from 1-9 (you can use the same number more than once), such as 555 or 931.

Then find the name that corresponds from each list.  In the first set, your child can pick from a fairy or elf name for that number.  The second two names go together to form your fairy/elf surname (such as Glitterbug) :

 

Fairy/elf first name:

1. Flora/Felix
2. Sparkle/Teasle
3. Petal/Bramble
4. Daisy/Clover
5. Willow/Wilder
6. Peaches/Fidget
7. Meadow/Hemlock
8. Poppy/Berry
9. Juniper/Jupiter

Fairy/elf last name part one:

1. Glitter
2. Pepper
3. Star
4. Ice
5. Sparkle
6. Flutter
7. Moon
8. Silver

Fairy/elf last name part two:

1. Bug
2. Twig
3. Dust
4. Blizzard
5. Leaf
6. Sprite
7. Splatter
8. Goblin
9. Sparkle

View this post on Instagram

Her fairy name was Daisy Glitterbug. ✨ #rotr #magicalchildhood

A post shared by Alicia Bayer (@magicandmayhem) on Jul 8, 2017 at 5:47pm PDT

Have fun!

 

 

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Garden Potions!

Here’s a sweet way to make a little magic in the back yard this summer.

My Alex had been having fun making “potions” with rain water, grass clippings and such, and he asked me to help him find new ingredients.  I decided to make it a little extra magical and went and got a pitcher of tap water and a can from the recycling.  I secretly dropped a few drops of green food coloring in the bottom of the can, and then made a show of filling the “empty” can with some grass clippings from the yard.

I gave him the pitcher and told him that I’d put magic grass in the can.  Then I had him pour some water into the can and pour the can into a bucket.  Of course, the water in the can instantly turned bright green when it mixed with the food coloring at the bottom, and Alex and Fiona watched in amazement as the magically green water poured into the bucket.  🙂

I also asked the kids to find 8 yellow dandelions for a second can (that I’d already secretly sprinkled with some yellow food coloring), and we used spent lilac blossoms for a third can that had some blue. 

I also gave them a jar of fairy dust (Florida sand from a vacation) to sprinkle in.

Lastly, I had them gather dandelion puffs so they could blow wishes into their concoctions.

I gave them lots of buckets to pour into, so they could also have fun with color mixing.

Alex is old enough that he easily figured the secret out, but he had fun pretending anyway.  Little Fiona just had fun gathering the ingredients and pouring and pouring.

They happily played for an hour with their potions.  It was an easy, nearly free, absolutely magical way to have some back yard fun.  We’ll definitely be doing more of it!

I also picked up an old spice rack with little glass bottles at a thrift store, and I’m going to assemble a whole magic potion rack for them to use sometime soon in their outdoor play kitchen.  I’ll try to post pictures and update how that goes!

Make Your Own Beautiful, Affordable, Collapsible Dollhouse

Here’s a project I’m absolutely in love with!  Southern Disposition has the plans for an ingenious dollhouse she made from three ring binders, scrapbook paper, magazine pictures and a few found treasures.

It collapses to take up very little space, it’s utterly gorgeous, it’s green, and it’s super affordable.  She estimates she made hers for about $30 but she says you could easily do it for under $10 with a little creativity.

What a sweet holiday gift this would make.  🙂

Head over for all the fabulous information.

Break Time

I’m taking a little blogging break.  I’ll be back soon!

In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves and have chocolate.  😉

10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy Monday!  Here’s another batch of fun stuff to do with the kiddos this week.  If you have other ideas, please add them to the comments!

1.  Make caterpillar pizzas.

2.  Tie long ribbons to sticks and go ribbon dancing in the back yard.

3.  Make some seed bombs and find an unloved place to launch them.

4.  Transform unloved stuffed animals into hand puppets.

5.  Help the kids make up a list of 20 (or more!) things they love about Daddy, Mommy or another loved one and hide them as a lovely surprise.

6.  Help the birds get their nests ready by leaving short lengths of yarn, dryer lint (yes, it’s safe) and even hair from hairbrushes on your bushes and trees.  Later take walks and see if you can spot nests from your gifts to the birds.

7.  Have the kids use crayons or colored pencils to draw a picture on the back of each bill as you mail it in, plus decorate the envelope and write something cheerful.  You might make someone else’s day magical as well.

8.  Make some rain gutter ball mazes, or better yet set up a water system with these in the back yard!

9.  Declare today a cozy day and wear cozy clothes, cook comforting foods, watch shows that cheer you all up, cuddle on the couch and otherwise make it a special, low-key day.

10. This one comes from Victoria.  Today, I taught her how to weave grape vines and skinny dogwood limbs into wreaths and crowns.  She wants to make lots of tiny ones and hang them on trees along paths at a nearby state park, for hikers to happen across.  It sounds like whimsical fun to me!

Land Art!

Want a little inspiration for making something magical outside with the kiddos?  I love this Flickr pool of Land Art for Kids.  Check out just a few of the images….

I can’t wait to see what my kiddos can come up with to join in.  Best of all, it’s an all season, all climate kind of project.  What fun!

And yes, I’m still planning on moving shop.  I’m working on getting my bearings at blogger right now.  I’m going to see if there’s any way to transfer a year’s worth of posts over there, other than copying roughly 360 posts.  It would help if I were not quite so clueless about all of this stuff!  🙂

I’ll keep you posted.

Happy weekend!

Thoughts About Moving

My paid account at Live Journal is expiring today and I’m toying with the idea of moving to Blogger.  Someone has registered magicalchildhood over there but I snagged magical-childhood in case I decided to relocate.

Many of you have commented that you don’t like Live Journal.  Any opinions one way or another?  It’s my understanding that if I don’t pay for another membership I’ll have ads, which I do not like.  I’ve always been adamant about keeping magicalchildhood.com ad-free and would like the same for the blog (especially if they’re earning someone else money! G).  I also wouldn’t get to play with so many themes, which was always fun for me.  😉

I’m on the fence.  What do you all think?!

Favorite Quotes

"It’s made by gorillas.  That’s why it’s called a gorilla cheese sandwich!"

    (Victoria at age 3 1/2)

Squirt Painting!

Here’s a fun craft using stuff you probably already have in your cupboards.

You need:

~ flour
~ water
~ food coloring
~ 2 or more squirt bottles such as bottles from syrup, glue, ketchup or mustard
~ paper
~ bowl and spoon
~ disposable cardboard box (optional)

1.  Mix some flour with enough water to make a thick paint-like consistency.  Mix in a few drops of food coloring and pour it into a squirt bottle.  Repeat for as many colors as you’d like.  We do three.

2.  Place a piece of paper at the bottom of your cardboard box.  The box will keep the mess contained.  If you like, you can cut off the flaps or cut down the size to make it work best.  Or you can skip this step and do the craft outside or over a safe surface.  Remember that food coloring can stain, so if this is a problem you may want to tint the flour/water with washable paint instead.

3.  Now let your kiddos drizzle, draw and squirt to their heart’s content!

We consider this kind of art “camera art”– meaning it is too messy to keep forever so we take a picture of each creation and drop the finished creations right into a bag to dispose of. We save out one or two of the best to display all day, though.

 

ALTERNATE CRAFT:
Another option that’s great for little ones is to do the craft in a baking dish and squirt right into the dish.  Kids can draw with their fingers in the goop and then you can rinse in the sink and start again.

This can even be done straight onto driveways or patios. Toddlers will enjoy it with just flour and water in a single bottle. Best of all, it’s so cheap and easy they can do it again and again.

Note: Squirt paint won’t be tasty but it is non-toxic (unless you mix in paint).  For babes who eat a lot of their art supplies, you can also make it with baby cereal or pureed fruits or veggies and water.  Sneaky, huh?  😉

 

 

Words to the Wise

"Shouting to make your children obey
is like using the horn to steer your car,
and you get about the same results."

~Anonymous