I've Moved!

After months and months of planning and prepping, we've rebranded and merged all my sites into one! You can now find all my TP Craft content, along with my personal content from The Beckham Project, and my super old favorites from Yellow Fence over at www.TheBeckhamProject.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest!

Where in the World...

Some of you might be wondering where in the world I've been. Well, I think I've decided to dedicate my tpcraft.com site to all things craft and to discontinue posting over here. So if you're interested, please come on over and start following me at tpcraft.com, or on our facebook page, or on pinterest.

Summer Bingo {Finished Album}

Last year when we played Summer Bingo I took pictures of Cole doing various items off his cards every week and had them printed as a 5x7 picture. I adhered the picture to the back of his weekly card and viola an adorable little album with all our summer fun!

Cardboard Tube Penguin

This is a cross post from my TP Craft site. If you are interested in other crafty projects using toilet paper and paper towel rolls then you should check it out.

Penguin Supply List: 1 toilet paper roll, black paint, glue, scissors, white paper, yellow paper, 1 other colored paper, google eyes

Start by painting your toilet paper roll black and allow to dry. Cut an oval out of your white paper. Add google eyes, beak, and a small bow tie.

Glue your oval onto your toilet paper roll.

Book Suggestion: In the story Penguin, Ben is disappointed when the penguin he receives as a present doesn't speak. All that changes when Penguin saves the day. This was a sweet book with delightful pictures that your preschooler is sure to love.

Encourage Kids to Write...

One of the things I'm including on each of Cole's weekly Summer Bingo cards is for him to write a note to a friend or family member. About a month ago I ordered some notecards from Shutterfly. I keep them in the back of our summer binder and when he chooses that activity we pull one out for him to write to a friend. He loves using his special summer notecards and I love that he practices his writing.

For Lego Lovers...

You may recall from our Lego Birthday Party, that there are a bunch of Lego lovers in this house. I came across a great site called Lego Quest Kids where weekly challenges are posted and kids are encouraged to send in their creations. We haven't participated in the challenges but I did go back through the list of past challenges and I'm using some of them on our weekly Summer Bingo cards. So far Cole's favorite activity has been creating his favorite food out of Legos.

Organize Your Summer...

Last year I posted in depth about how I organized our summer binder. I created a summer binder again this year because I like the way it kept us on track and let me know exactly what free events were going on around town. In our binder I have a calendar for each month and then various flyers, coupons, handouts, etc. that we collect along our way.

Toilet Paper Roll Lion

This is a cross post from my TP Craft site. If you are interested in other crafty projects using toilet paper and paper towel rolls then you should check it out.

Lion Supply List: 1 toilet paper roll, paint, glue, scissors, google eyes, yellow paper, pipe cleaner

Begin by painting your toilet paper roll yellow. We mixed a little glitter glue in with our paint to make a sparkly lion. Allow your paint to dry.

Cut legs from the bottom of your toilet paper roll.

Cut a circle out of your piece of yellow paper and cut small slits all the way around the circle so that it looks like a sun. I let Cole do some of the cuts on this, but then he got board so I finished it for him.

Add google eyes and draw on a mouth.

Glue on your lion face on the toilet paper roll and add a pipe cleaner tail.

Book Suggestion: I love the story of the The Lion & the Mouse. It's a classic fable with a wonderful lesson. In this version, the story has no words and the beautiful illustrations tell the story. I like using wordless books with my kids. It gives them a chance to really tell the story and predict what they think is going to happen as well as recant what they've seen.

Summer Bingo Cards...

I love it when school is out and we get to do lots of fun activities. Last year was our first year participating in Summer Bingo and it was a hit. Cole loved it, I loved it, it was a huge success for everyone. Here we are again this year ready to get our bingo on. I decided to follow the same format I used last year for the bingo cards. I'm going to hole punch the corner and connect them all together with a ring. The rules and the way I have it set up have stayed the same and pretty much the only thing I changed was the ticket redemption policy. Every Sunday Cole gets a new card and he has 1 week to complete the items. For every bingo he gets 1 ticket which can be used to purchase something from our treasure box, or saved up for a big outing.

Update: A reader emailed me to let me know that Stacy removed her download links. If you click here you can download a copy of the rules and a few bingo card templates.

Summer Bingo Treasure Chest

Last year I structured our ticket/prize system for Summer Bingo with a set prize for each ticket amount. This year I decided to do something a little different. I gathered up all the small toys/trinkets/left over party favors and Cole and I put together a treasure box. I had him lay all the items out on the floor in order from what should be the lowest valued item, to the highest. Then we assigned them each a ticket value. Now when he earns bingo tickets he can go shopping for prizes. I'm curious to see how it goes this year.

Summer Bingo

It's time once again for Summer Bingo! This is the photo that I'm using for the cover of Cole's cards this year. I'm working on getting a few posts together about what we're doing this year and a few things I've changed. In the meantime you can check out all the great bingo fun we had here.

Paper Towel Roll Giraffe

This is a cross post from my TP Craft site. If you are interested in other crafty projects using toilet paper and paper towel rolls then you should check it out.

Giraffe Supply List: 1 paper towel roll, yellow & brown paint, google eyes, glue, scissors, pipe cleaner

Start by painting your paper towel roll yellow and allow to dry.

Paint some brown spots on your paper towel roll.

Cut some feet out of the bottom of your paper towel roll.

On the top of your paper towel roll so that it looks like the head of a giraffe sticking up.

Add your eyes, pipe cleaners and a scrap of paper towel roll for a mouth.

Book Suggestion: In Giraffes Can't Dance, Gerald the giraffe just wants to dance. He overcomes his akwardness with a little help and a new beat. This is a delightful book that teaches children that everyone can unique and dance to the beat of their own drummer, or cricket.

life = 4 x 12 {May}

Here's our May family picture for my life = 4 x 12 project. We took this in front of the Bunker Hill Monument on our recent family vacation to Boston. You can see all the pictures from this year here.

Product Review {Safety Tat}

I want to preface this post by stating that I received no compensation at all from Safety Tat for this review (not even free product). This is 100% my opinion on a product I love.

I ordered Safety Tats a few years ago when I first heard about them. Cole, my oldest, was about 1 at the time and I thought they were the best invention ever. I now use them on both kids whenever we go to a large public place where there is a chance we could get separated from each other. I keep my Tats in my camera case because I figure if we're going somewhere I take my camera then there is a chance I'll need one. Thankfully, my children have never gotten lost, but I am always glad that I put a Tat on them. I've had numerous parents and grandparents ask about them and I'm always happy to refer them back to the Safety Tat website. If you're looking for a little peace of mind, or a great gift idea for a mom of young kids, check out Safety Tats.

Here you can see Kiley sporting her Safety Tat at the Orlando Science Center.

life = 4 x 12 {April}

I decided to take our April picture in front of our current house. I thought it was only fitting since this is the last full month we'll spend in this house. You can see all of our family pictures here.

Rainbow Cupcakes

We made rainbow cupcakes the other day and they turned out awesome. I started with a traditional boxed cake batter and divided it into 6 bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl. Then we scooped 1 scoop of each color into a muffin tin. My cupcakes turned out very, very full. Almost a little too full. After they baked I added a buttercream icing and a few green sprinkles. Tada! They were tasty and very pretty to look at.

Muffin Tin Monday {Cool Pineapple Tray}

Ok, so I know that "technically" Muffin Tin Monday should be in an actual tin. BUT... I found these adorable Nibble Trays and I just love them, so I thought I'd share these. I found these on Amazon and they are SO worth the $7.99 price tag. They are dishwasher safe and the little dip cup area can be frozen so that your dips stay cool. We will be using these a LOT this summer when we go to the zoo and other adventures around town.

life = 4 x 12 {March}

I just realized I never posted our March family picture for my little project this year. This picture was taken on a spring break trip to the beach. I got the idea for this project from the lovely Tara Whitney.

Rainbow Craft...

I know I've been a little absent lately, but I have a really good reason. We're moving! And what does a random rainbow craft have to do with your move you might ask??? Well, I've been cleaning out our craft closet and Cole and I found a ton of little scraps. I had him sort them by color and then drew a rainbow on a large piece of paper. He had a wonderful time gluing them down in each of the colored sections.