Who’s ready for another week of sharing, networking, and growing your site?

We’re so glad to have each and every one of you joining us each week and can’t wait to connect with you on 2 more social medias this week!

This party is all about building and fostering a community of bloggers that actively support each other in their blogging journeys.

And, as you all know, one of the best ways for bloggers to connect with one another, is through social media.

So the Share ~ Network ~ Grow social media link up was born! We’ll be featuring 2 different social media networks on the link up each week and hope that by focusing on 2 rather than all of them every week, you will have more of a chance to connect and engage with some amazing new bloggers!

Now, let’s get this party started!

This week’s featured social media networks are GOOGLE+ and STUMBLEUPON!

The rules for this link up are very simple! (Seriously, we don’t like a lot of rules either!)

1. Please follow your host and co-hosts! We’d love to connect with all of you!
2. Grab the button if you’d like! Not mandatory at all, but we would sure appreciate it 🙂
3. ENGAGE! No one likes a link and run blogger. If you add your link, try to engage with at least one other blogger.

That’s it! See, told you it was simple!

<div align="center"><a href="http://bloggertoblogger.com/" rel="nofollow" title="Blogger 2 Blogger"><img src="http://bloggertoblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Share-Network-Grow-250-Button.png" alt="Blogger 2 Blogger" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Now, for the party! Brought to you by your host:

Blogger to Blogger

And our fabulous October co-hosts!

Becka from Probably Crafting

Katy from Chaos & Kiddos: Mommy’s Survival Guide

Interested in co-hosting for a month?

It’s a great way to network with other bloggers and grow your social media following! Just fill out the form and we’ll email you with the details!

It’s Monday!! You know what that means…it’s time for another Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Series challenge! This week…Kool-Aid. Last week, I thought I hit the bottom of the barrel as far as low cost, spending less than $6 on an afternoon of family fun with Paper Bag Maracas, but I blew it out of the water this week! Kool-Aid was on sale at Target for $2. I already had the rest of my supplies, so $2 and we were ready to go! Time to get messy and creative with Kool-Aid Sprinkle Art.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the kids were itching for some fun, so we stripped down for some messy art and took it outside to the back deck. A few pieces of construction paper, some Elmer’s glue and a tub of Kool-Aid and we were ready to play. 

 

I started by creating some pictures with the glue based on the kids’ requests (a sun, a tree, a snowman, a silly face). Then I handed them a paper cup filled with Kool-Aid and had them sprinkle away. The sprinkled (or dumped…ha!) the Kool-Aid along the glue around the edges of the picture, carefully spreading it as they went. 

 

Once they had it covered, I bent the paper gently in half to bring the excess Kool-Aid to the middle and dumped it out, shaking gently to remove and loose mix. In truth, the boys were already happy with seeing the light colored mix on their pictures…but the fun was still coming!

 

As the glue absorbed the Kool-Aid, it slowly turned to the actual color of the mix – red. They were shocked and super excited about this. “Mommy! My sun is turning red!!!” At that age, it was pure magic. 

I should note that this is not a forever project. Although I suspect the glue would have dried hard eventually, it stayed more like a gel when mixed with the Kool-Aid and never got much past the slimey, sticky phase, so I just tossed the remainders after the kids went to sleep. Our goal was to have fun using our hands to sprinkle and get messy, and to watch our pictures come to life with color. Next time we do this, I am definitely going to pick up several colors of Kool-Aid for even more fun! 

 

This activity was immediately followed with bath time! Kool-Aid gets EVERYWHERE. And you know after just a few short minutes, they found their fingers in their mouths. Sugar for the win! 

 

Be sure to check out what the other ladies did with Kool-Aid on their blogs today, and link up your Kool-Aid family friendly projects below and share the fun as we all head into summer months. 

 

From ABCs to ACTs

The Mad Mommy

Welcome to Social Media Saturdays, the one and only linkup sponsored by the International Bloggers Association, where bloggers grow together. Have you joined yet? If not, go there now!

We’re all about making new friends and finding each other in the places we hang out online. This is the place to mingle, make new friends and form real relationships– not the place to drop links and leave!

If that sounds good to you, then by all means, share the links to your social media accounts here!

Here are the rules:

1. You don’t have to, but if you want to be classy please follow your hosts in each category that you join. We are:

Brittany at brittanybullen.com, Giada at craftytastygeeky.com, Katy at chaosandkiddos.com,

Keitha at bajantexan.blogspot.com, Tina at gringoslocos6.com, Marg at margsworld.com

Paula at paulabuenosaires.com, and Shana at Technotini.com!

2. Tweet about the party and spread the word so that we can all connect with new friends! The more people who join us, the better experience we all have!

Click the button below or write your own tweet with the hashtag #ilovesocialsaturday so your new friends know where you came from and so that we can chat all day!

3. Follow the person before you in each category that you join and at least 2 more so that we make sure everybody gets some love!

4. If you’d like to put our badge on your site, grab the HTML here. Let us know if you did because we sure do love people who love us!

<div align="center"><a href="http://brittanybullen.com" title="Social Media Saturdays"><img src="http://craftytastygeeky.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/smsbadge_125x125.jpg" alt="Social Media Saturdays" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Let’s get started!!! Happy Saturday!!

Browse IBA blog directory!

There, you can find great new friends in your niche to subscribe to and visit regularly. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to build a network of support!

We’re so excited to introduce the newest addition to our weekly linkup– the first-ever official IBA Blog Hop! This hop is just for members of the IBA (badge required) to visit each other’s latest posts in any category and share the love. If you submit a link here, make sure to visit and comment on and/or share three more.

Each week, we’ll be featuring the three posts that got the most clicks in the previous week, so make sure to come back to see if you’ve been featured! Happy Blog-Hopping!

Here are the featured posts from last week’s Social Media Saturday

Chair Makeover: Miss Rose

Robin at Redo It Yourself Inspiration

Are You Curious About Wacky Cake?/a>

Joanne at What’s On The List?

Blogology Part 2: Blogging Platforms

Megan at The Adventures of Nnoble and Pond

If you get featured, grab the badge!

<div align="center"><a href="http://brittanybullen.com" target="_blank" title="Social Media Saturdays Blog Hop"><img src="http://craftytastygeeky.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/featuredBadge2.jpg" alt="Social Media Saturdays Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

And now linkup your social accounts!