Do you remember Ranger Rick from your childhood?  Maybe your kids read the magazine now.  It’s the time-honored publication brought to you by the people at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).  The same people who are now bringing you a new “Be Out There” initiative to inspire families across America to open the door and get outside.  As part of the Five Hens special Wild Week, I want to encourage you to take part in the initiative and be out there too.

This week, I’m having fun making Halloween costumes for my boys.  We let them decide what they want to be each year, and if we can find a pre-made costume that looks good for a reasonable price (I love resale shops), we just buy it.  If they request something out of the ordinary, I’ll try making it for them.  I have a bit of an artistic side, so it’s always a fun experiment to see how the costume will turn out.

Over the years I have found that my medium of choice is simple, inexpensive cardboard and hot glue.  Using hot glue on unpainted cardboard is easy, dries fast, and results in an amazingly strong and sturdy costume.  It’s up to you how much to embellish afterward.  I cover my creation with spray paint as it gives an even coat and dries quickly.  Then I look around for unusual items that will add that special, authentic touch.  Remember to do all of your hot glue before you paint; it will not bond painted pieces strongly.

Here are three of our recent cardboard costume creations:

Robot

What You’ll Need:

• Large cardboard box
• Small cardboard box
• Utility knife
• Hot glue gun
• Silver spray paint
  

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• Silver dryer venting
• Black cable organizer
• 2 small, rectangular gift boxes
• Battery-operated mini Christmas lights
• Upholstery nails/thumbtacks
• Antenna
• Mini drain covers

Today, our good friend Cat Lichtenbelt shared her very personal story with us about her struggles and triumphs with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Cat mentioned how many doctors she had to go through before she finally discovered an occupational therapist who was able to properly diagnose her son’s disorder as SPD. So, to hopefully help others out there who may be wondering if their child has SPD, here’s a quick summary of what SPD is. Technically, SPD can be described as a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste), the sense of movement (the vestibular system) and/or the positional sense (proprioception).  Read the rest of this post...

Forget about running out to the store for your household shopping.  Alice.com is here and everyone needs an Alice (remember…Alice…from the Brady Bunch?).  What’s Alice.com? It’s simple, here’s how it works:

1. You tell Alice what you buy—choosing from great deals on 1000’s of products—and Alice goes to work.
2. They organize all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, remind you when you might be running low.
3. You order just the items you need, WHEN you need them so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store.
4. Alice ships it direct to your door with free shipping included.

Sound good?  It gets better. This week, Five Hens is giving away a $50 credit to Alice.com. Now that’s a good deal!  And, even if you’re not a winner, we’re offering all of our Five Hens readers $10 off at Alice.com when you spend $50. Just click right here to get started.

And the winner is…

Janette O. from Poquoson, VA

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