5 fun songs to sing with your kids (you might remember some)

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Say, Say Oh Playmate
Say, say oh playmate,
Come out and play with me,
And bring your dollies three,
Climb up my apple tree.

Slide down my rain barrel,
Into my cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends,
Forever more - more - more!

Verse 2
Say, say oh playmate,
I cannot play with you,
My dolly has the flu,
Boohoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.

Ain't got no rain barrel,
Ain't got no cellar door,
But we'll be jolly friends,
Forever more,more, more,more,more.


Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
Jump over the fence, fence, fence
They jumped so high, high, high
They touched the sky, sky, sky
And didn't come back, back, back
Till the fourth of July, July, July 


Nobody Likes Me
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
Guess I'll eat some
worrrrrrmmsss
Fat ones, skinny ones,
oochy, goochy go ones,
Ones that squiggle
and squirrrrmmmm
First you cut the head off
Then you suck the juice out
Then you throw the
skin awaaaayyyy
Nobody knows how girls
can live on worms
Three times a daaaayyy
Boom ba de ah da.....
boom boom.

Miss Sue
Miss Sue, Miss Sue
Miss Sue from Ala-bam-a,
Sit-ting in a Roc-ker
Eat-ing Bet-ty Croc-ker
Wat-ching the clock go
Tick Tock Tick Tock Sha-walla-walla
Tick Tock Tick Tock Sha-walla-walla
A B C D E F G
Wash those germs right off of me

Mush-ka mush-ka mush-ka  Freeze

On Top of Spaghetti
On top of spaghetti,
all covered with cheese.
I lost my poor meatball,
when somebody sneezed.
It rolled on the table
and onto the floor.
I found my poor meatball
had rolled out the door.
It rolled in the garden,
and under a bush.
I found my poor meatball,
was nothing but mush.
The very next morning,
I found a bush,
all covered in meatballs,
all covered with cheese.
So if you have spaghetti,
all covered with cheese.
Hang onto your meatballs,
and don't ever sneeze.

Easy, No-Freeze, Homemade Ice Cream

We've had yet another heat wave in Minnesota this week so I thought it was about time that I taught my girls how to make easy, no-freeze, homemade ice cream.  Yes, this recipe is no-freeze so it's super quick, and because it's homemade, it's super yummy too!

To make your own, you'll need:

• 1/2 cup of half & half
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 sandwich size Ziploc bag
• 1 gallon size Ziploc bag
• 3 cups crushed ice
• 1/3 cup rock salt (sometimes called ice cream salt)

Step 1)  Put the half & half, sugar, and vanilla in the sandwich size Ziploc bag.  Seal it tight.

Step 2)  Make sure the sandwich size Ziploc bag is definitely sealed.

Step 3)  Put the ice and rock salt in the gallon size Ziploc bag.

Step 4)  Add the sandwich size bag to the gallon size bag.  Seal it tight.

Step 5)  Make sure the gallon sized bag is sealed tight.

Step 6)  Shake the bags for about 10-15 minutes until the ice cream forms.  We ended up using a towel to hold the bags because they get super cold!

Above is what your ice cream will look like in the bag when done.  You can eat it straight out of the bag or scoop it into a bowl and top it with your favorite toppings.

Step 7)  Enjoy immediately or put in the freezer for later.

Chore Chart and Rewards

The other day as I frantically cleaned my house, pending the arrival of several guests, I desperately tried to get my kids to help me. After several FAILED attempts I realized where I had gone wrong. It all goes back to a few years ago. I always cleaned the house when they were down for naps. They never saw the work that went into keeping the house clean, thus they never had to help. Fail on my part, big time! My kids had no accountability for chores and certainly no consequences for not completing chores. This had to change!

Introduction to chore charts. I found this awesome Etsy store, Abbies House, that sold great chore charts and some awesome magnets to boot. My husband I discussed which chores we thought were appropriate and also added some for the future as they got older. We comitted to a purchase and we are in LOVE with these charts! (Just an FYI- Abbies House didn't ask me to do a review, I am doing it simply because I am so pleased with the quality and the product.)

We all sat down at the dinner table and had a discussion about responsibility and chores. We explained how the charts worked to the kids and we also explained the expectations. Each day they had certain chores that needed to be completed before they were allowed a special privledge. They also had weekly chores on their chart that worked the same way. Plain and simple, do the chores, earn rewards. Don't do your chores, consequences.

Rewards. I am not really a fan of paying my kids to do something they ought to be doing in the first place. Each family has to do what is right for them and for us B****** Bucks (no I'm not swearing, I'm blocking out my last name)came into play. We had Abbies House send us a pdf file of money with our family name on them "B******" and added bucks to it. These work as "money." The kids were told that for each buck they earned they would earn extra priveldges and they were also told that these bucks could be taken away with negative behaviors as well.

Things they earn- extra Leap Pad time, an extra cartoon show, an extra treat, special one on one time with mommy or daddy. They could also save up their bucks for REAL money if they chose- every 5 bucks earns them a real dollar.

What sort of things do you do in your home to teach your children that the house is a family job?

Hip, Hip Hooray! It's Our SITS Day!!

Welcome to Toys In The Dryer!  This post is both for our loyal readers and those that are visiting from SITS today.  

What is SITS our loyal readers ask?  Well, SITS stands for Secret's In The Support.  It is a website community dedicated to helping women bloggers.  Members promise to support and uplift each other and leave comments when visiting each other's blogs.  The SITS website has a wealth of information for both new bloggers and people who have been blogging for years!

Photo courtesy of The Imagery

Ok, on to us!  Who are we?  We are Jamie and Lindsi, authors of Toys In The Dryer.  We are best friends who live 30 miles apart and who talk a MINIMUM of twice a day on the phone (and even more via online chat and texting).  We are often mistaken for sisters and we think that's just fine!  To find out more, click on the "About" tab in our menu bar.  


What's up with the blog name?  Lindsi and I wanted to start a blog together that encouraged us and our readers to spend more time with their kids.  When trying to come up with our blog name we were thinking of things we yelled at our kids when they were bored and getting into trouble...  
Suddenly Lindsi said, "hang on a sec...."  I could hear her in the background... 
"Sam could you PLEASE get your TOYS OUT OF THE DRYER!"  
When Lindsi got back on the phone I said, "that's it!"  
"What's it?"  
"Toys In The Dryer!  That's the name of our blog!"  
The rest is history!


Ok, so we've seen your favorite posts on SITS, what are your readers favorite posts?  According to our stats, these are our 3 most popular posts of all time (in this order):

Ivory Soap Explosion-- This post went VIRAL on Pinterest back in January and we continue to get TONS of hits from it each day.  Guaranteed fun for the entire family!

101 Answers to "I'm Bored"--Another post that's gotten quite a few hits from Pinterest and other places as well.  We offer a variety of things to give your children to do when they say "I'm bored" to you.  Each one has been tested and approved by our own kids! 

Ridiculously Easy Fudge Pops--This post almost didn't get written because Jamie thought it was a bit too easy.  Thank goodness Lindsi over-rid her because it is our 3rd most popular post! We think it's kinda one of those, "duh, why didn't I think of that" posts!







Well folks, we hope you've gotten a good sneak peak at what we're about and we hope you've liked what you've seen.  Go ahead, click on our navigation bar above and play around some more.  If you want to see more of our stuff in the future, there's tons of "follow us" buttons up in the right hand corner of our blog or multiple other ways in our side bar as well!

Pop Cap Necklaces

It all started when Nutty saw (and liked) some pop cap necklaces online and I got a hair-brained idea that we should make them for party favors for her birthday.  I searched all over the internet on how to make them and found that in theory they'd be super easy for me us to make on our own!

Hubby and I drank a few (ahem) beverages and we saved up enough caps to make the necklaces...

The first problem was getting the plastic, rubbery thing out of the middle of the cap.  Those buggers are harder to get out than they look!  I (and when I say I, I mean Hubby) resorted to burning them off with his torch.

It worked great except for the smell, but it created another problem.  See the color?  Never mind, I was going to paint them anyway...after all, the caps are from (cough) adult beverages.

Next came flattening the caps.  No problem right?  We'd just take a hammer and flatten them.  I saw plenty of people do it online...

Ok, so they're a bit mis-shapen but that just adds character!  I actually like the fact that each one is a bit off.  Except....

These lovely little 1 inch pictures that I created no longer fit in the middle of the cap because the smashed sides of the cap made the inside smaller!  What?!  That didn't happen in the tutorial I saw online!  What did I do wrong?!







After many more attempts to do it myself and "I told you so's" from Hubby, I finally decided that I would run to the store and get the REAL supplies I needed...

SOOO much easier!  Nutty and I hammered (pardon the pun) 9 necklaces out in less than 1/2 hour!

Of course, I happen to find this super great tutorial on how to prepare pop caps for necklaces AFTER I made our necklaces from store-bought "caps"...