Dad, You Rock!

Since Father's Day is right around the corner, I've been trying to come up with ways my kids can show their Dad how much they mean to them. Personally, I think hand-made gifts are so much better. Anytime I get a hand-made gift or card from my kids for holidays and birthdays, I treasure it so much more. It definitely pulls at my heart-strings! The smile on their faces when they give me their special gift is priceless too because I know they put a lot of hard work and love into it.

Here's a couple of kids craft ideas for Father's Day!

1. Make a "Dad Rocks" Paper weight!

1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water
bowl
cookie sheet
1/2 cup pea gravel

What you do

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

Mix flour, salt and water together in a bowl. If dough is too sticky add small amounts of flour until it is doughy and pliable. Be careful not to add too much as the dough will dry out and your creation will crack.

Shape a piece of the dough into a ball in your hands. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and flatten to about 1/2″ thickness.

Carefully select pieces of pea gravel to spell out “DAD ROCKS”. Press them firmly but gently into the salt dough.

Bake your paperweight for 2-2.5 hours until completely dry.

Remove from oven and allow to cool before handling or removing from cookie sheet.

Optional: You can spray your creation with acrylic sealer or paint it with a clear coat sealer.

2. Ice Cream Fund for Dad

Have your child share some of his piggy bank money for this cute idea! Just gather up some change and place it in a glass covered mason jar. Wrap a cute bow around the top with a label to Dad. You could have them write a cute poem like this one:

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

Dad, I've saved up my change

To buy ice cream for you!

Happy Father's Day

Love,

Jack

Let your child bring his/her Dad out for a special treat. They'll be so proud to be able to buy Dad an ice cream with their very own money.

3. Dad's Personalized BBQ Apron!

What Dad doesn't like to cook on the grill? I love this idea of making a BBQ Apron just for Dad. You will need to buy a white canvas Apron at a local craft store. For best results, pre-wash and hang to dry. Use fabric paints and paint brushes to create the perfect apron for Dad. Have your child get creative by adding pictures of hamburgers, hotdogs, ketchup etc! I can guarantee Dad will love this gift. You could even stick a few grilling accessories and/or tools into the pockets!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads out there!

Jessica

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by Jessica GPosted in Holidays, Mothers

5 Tips For a Birthday Party on a Budget

So, my almost 7-year-old is having a birthday next week. He's very excited. In fact, he's been talking about his special day for weeks if not months! He's really big into Lego's this year and he's having a Lego Ninjago party. The problem? They don't make Lego Ninjago birthday supplies. I had to think outside the box for this one. As much time as a mother of three has, I opted to go online for some help. I found many different people and websites that offer to make you specialized party supplies. I managed to go through a website called Etsy and I was able to get four goody bag favors for each kid and cupcake toppers all with Ninjago labels. They are really great and I know my little guy was pretty pumped when he saw them. I will probably add some candy fillers into the goody bags and we'll be good to go!

This year I really sat and thought long and hard about who to invite and who not to invite. The problem I ran into is now that my son is in first grade, he has many friends in his class. Since many of mine and my husbands friends had kids at pretty much the same time, I had to really cut the list down this year. What I really needed to do was ask my son who HE wanted to invite to HIS party. So, what it came down to was he wanted all the boys in his class.(He told me he doesn't play with the girls which is fine by me!) He also wanted to invite a few friends from his kindergarten class last year and a couple of his good friends outside of school. The grand total was 14 which is a perfect size right? Had I invited all my friends and all their kids the total would have been around 30. I really wanted to keep it simple this year. I think simple is better and I think having that many people at a birthday party can get overwhelming especially for a seven-year old. I know how overwhelming they can get because I've done the big birthday parties in the past and I know how much work it is for me!

I decided to come up with some tips to do a birthday party on a budget. Here they are!

1. Set a Budget!

I think it's important to set your budget amount for your party. I know how crazy and out of hand birthdays cost! It's good to know how much you want to spend that way you can cut corners and/or add details to the party.

2. Indoors/Outdoors

Instead of booking an expensive party venue, keep it simple. Plan the party indoors or even outdoors to save money. Kids will be happy either way!

3. Do it Yourself!

Instead of buying decorations and expensive games, make them yourself! You can even go as far as printing your own invitations and labels for the party. If you are not into that idea, try going to your local Dollar Tree store. They carry many different and inexpensive party supplies.

4. Make the Cake!

Better yet, make cupcakes! Kids love cupcakes and it's really inexpensive. You could even make labels off the computer and attach them to toothpicks and place one in each cupcake.

5. Have Fun!

I think simple parties are key! What's great about keeping kid's birthday parties simple is that you really get to enjoy your child's birthday party and take it all in.

Jessica

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by Jessica GPosted in Holidays, Mothers

Easter Fun!

1. Make Easter Egg Hunt Baskets

Find inexpensive baskets and have your kids make their own egg hunt basket. There are so many cute ideas for this project. You could use ribbon, glue, glitter and felt. They could even personalize it with their name for an added touch.

2. Easter Egg Decorating

Gather some kids and have an Easter egg decorating party! To make it easy, you could request everyone brings a carton of white eggs. Don't forget to tell them to boil them! Set up an area surrounded by newspapers or a vinyl tablecloth. We all know how messy decorating eggs gets! Have a variety of colors and decorations set up on the table like stickers, gems, glitter, sponges and paint.

3. Have an Easter Egg Hunt

There's nothing sweeter than this! You can even keep this inside if necessary. For fun, set up one or two golden eggs with an extra special treat.

4. Bake

Kids love to help cook and they especially love to eat treats! There are so many cute Easter treats to make so I'll name a few. Easter cookies are always a hit in my house and the decorating is a lot of fun. You could also make peanut butter chocolate eggs, egg cake pops or Rice Krispie treats in various shapes for Easter. For holidays like this, I usually keep food coloring, frosting, marshmallow, coconut, a box of Rice Krispie cereal and a couple of boxes of cake mix on hand.

5. Egg and Spoon Race

You will need spoons, raw eggs and markers like flags or cones. Set everyone up in teams. When the whistle is blown, the first member in each team must complete the course and pass the egg. The object is to pass the egg to the next teammate without dropping it. If you drop the egg, you must resume  at the starting position to start over. This is a lot of fun for all ages!

Now that you have some ideas this Easter, here's a little bit of Easter bunny history!

The Easter tradition started in Germany in the 1500's. Children would anxiously await the arrival of "Oschter Haws" every Easter. They would make nests out of their caps and bonnets and wait to see if they would receive colored eggs. In the 1700's, the German settlers introduced Easter to the Americans when they arrived in Pennsylvania Dutch country.

The Easter bunny actually started from a book that was published in the 1500's about a rabbit laying eggs and hiding them in a garden. That's where the tradition of making a nest and hiding eggs came from.

Happy Easter! What's your Easter tradition?

Jessica

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by Jessica GPosted in Holidays, Mothers