DIY Shark Party Game

In trying to come up with party activities for Logan's shark-themed 4th birthday, I was reminded of a magnetic fishing game with sock fish that I had seen on Pinterest. (The link no longer works so I can't show it to you. Sorry.) However, I had also pinned this idea for making a feed-the-shark-beanbag-toss game. I decided to combine the two ideas and this is what I came up with for a young-child-friendly version.

Aside from being an inexpensive party activity, this Shark Bait game was a great way to re-purpose some items that were no longer functioning as intended (but that I was still reluctant to throw away they still could be used for something.) While my sewing skills are not the greatest (which I have previously admitted to here and here), this was still a simple project to pull together with items I already had around the house.

Materials for "Beanbag" Fish:

• old, mismatched socks (Make sure they do not have any holes.)
• buttons (2 per fish)
• thread
• scissors
• rice
• rubber bands (1 per fish)
• puffy paint

 Directions for Making "Beanbag" Fish:

1. Sew two buttons near the toe end of a sock to make eyes. Tip: I found the rolling the socks up made it easier to reach inside the sock in order to get the needle to pass through without getting the thread hopelessly tangled.
2. Add rice to the sock until it is filled up to the heel. Tip: If you don't have rice, use whatever you have on hand; dry beans would work. I've even used beads or small pasta for things like this. Tip: I used a spoon to fill my socks.
3. Secure the "beanbag" by wrapping a rubber band tightly around the heel end of the sock. This should leave you with a "tail" with a length determined by the height of the sock. Ankle socks are, of course, shorter, so you will be done shaping your fish. You may, however, wish to trim the tail-ends of longer socks. Tip: To make it look more tail-like, I held the two sides of the open end together and then used scissors to cut an inverted "V" through both pieces of material.
4. Add a mouth to the fish. I used puffy paint in assorted colors and then left the "beanbags" upside down to allow the paint to dry. Tip: My current favorite material for placing crafts on to dry: cereal box liners. Paint won't stick to it while drying, unlike newspaper, and you can re-use it. And, it's free, unlike wax paper.

Materials for "Chum Bucket":

• large empty container/can
• blue construction paper (2 sheets)
• paper trimmer
• black ink pad
• foam alphabet stamps
• shark stencils
• black Sharpie marker
• glue

Directions for Making "Chum Bucket":

1. First find a large container and make sure it is clean and dry. (I re-used the same cocoa canister that had been made into a drum a few months ago, but a coffee can would also work.)
2. Then, measure the paper to fit around your container. (My ultra-professional method for this? I wrapped the paper around the can, and then used my fingernail to make an indentation to show where the bottom would need to be cut, since the paper was too tall.)
3. Trim the first piece of paper using the paper trimmer, then use it as a guide to cut the second piece to the same size.
4. Stamp "SHARK BAIT" with foam alphabet stamps onto one piece of the construction paper.
5. Use shark stencils to draw a shark on either side of the wording. Fill in the sharks with black Sharpie. (I used the Mako and Blue shark stencils for this.)
6. Glue the blank piece of paper onto your container first. Then, layer the stamped piece over it so that the entire container is covered.
7. Place the "beanbag" fish into the "chum bucket" and get ready to play "Shark Bait."

 How to Play "Shark Bait":

1. You will need: a hula hoop, your chum bucket, and your "beanbag" fish.
2. Lay the hula hoop on the ground to make a "shark pool."
3. Have children stand back and toss the "bait" into the "pool." (Younger kids will stand closer, obviously.)

That's actually all I had planned for this game. No scoring system or anything too complicated or too challenging, just simple fun for preschoolers. Now, some of our bigger party guests decided to make it more challenging for school-age kids by holding the hula hoop up in the air and creating a moving target for others to pitch through, and that made it far more interesting to them.

One last note: I suggest that you make this an outdoor game. We had one "beanbag" burst open before the party and that meant that I had rice all over my living room, and while having rice all over my house is not something I am unfamiliar with (for fun things to do with rice check out my posts here and here), it was not exactly what I had in mind for our party game. Fortunately, the weather cooperated, and we were able to play outdoors on the day of the party.

Slippery Sock Solution

After reading this post about "parent hacks" that my friend Kelli shared on Facebook, I decided that I loved that lingo -- "parent hacks" -- so I am totally going to borrow it! I had seen a few of those ideas before, but the only one that I am currently using is the bread tab on the end of the tape roll so that I can always find the end. (This really is handy, and I have one on every roll of masking tape, duct tape, and packing tape in the house.) Reading about another person's ideas of "parent hacks" got me thinking as to whether or not I have created any "parent hacks" of my own. I came up with just one idea I have pulled off and posted about, my holy footie pj's repair job.

However, I did accomplish another "parent hack" this week, and quite successfully, I might add. Mia has been complaining about her socks being too slippery. (I'm not exactly sure why this is such an issue, considering that it is summer, but whatever.) Anyway, I must have mentioned an idea I had seen or read about somewhere to use puffy paint on the bottoms of socks (or maybe it was footie pajamas, since I was looking for ideas for fixing those holes...). Essentially, this would create DIY gripper socks, like the kind she always had when she was a toddler (but didn't have in her big-girl wardrobe). Mia reminded me that I had said I would do this, and she held me to it. We had a fresh supply of puffy paint on hand from having recently made our own window clings, so I couldn't really use the excuse of not having what I needed to get it done. So, I had her round up all the socks that required my attention before she went to bed one recent evening. This just meant that I had to actually make the gripper socks.

Fortunately, this is a truly simple "parent hack." To make gripper socks, I just took a tube of puffy paint (I used black, but any color would work) and made designs on the bottoms of her socks. Some designs that I used included dots, squiggly lines, butterflies, and hearts. On one pair, I wrote her name in a sort of calligraphy-inspired script, which she was especially excited by. Then, I just left the socks -- paint side up -- on the table to dry overnight. The not-so-slippery socks were ready to wear by morning. Problem solved.

{My slippery sock solution: puffy paint!}

Random Musings of a Tired Mama

I sometimes hear parents say that their kids are paying them back for how they behaved for their own parents. So what gives? My parents say that I was an easy child to raise. How did I end up with a diva-in-training and a walking disaster who's always on the move?

Sometimes I wonder if there is significance in my kids' first words. Mia's first actual word (I don't count mama) was "bye-bye." Since then, we have had many incidents involving her running away from us in public places. Logan's first word wasn't really a word, more of a laugh. "Ha ha ha." Clearly, the joke is on me. Now if I only knew what it was, I could prepare myself!

You know how people joke that if you want it to rain, you should wash your car? Getting Logan to poop is essentially the same. He usually does when his cloth diapers are in the middle of a wash cycle. He doesn't even go on a daily basis, yet this he manages to do with regularity.

How did we end up with so many stuffed animals in our house? My theory is that they breed during the night. Also, why do half of them play music or make noise of some kind? As if it's not enough that they are everywhere, they have to drive me even crazier by playing "Jingle Bells" year round or growling when stepped on.

Why hasn't anyone ever invented a sock that will stay on a baby's foot? I think if this could be achieved it would be worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Just for one day, I would like to use the bathroom without an audience, and go from sunup to sundown without wearing someone else's food crumbs or bodily fluids. (And a full night's sleep wouldn't be too shabby either.)