Easter Scenes
April 1, 2013 at 8:20 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Daily Life, Parties & Holidays | Leave a commentTags: easter
The sickness in our house continued into our weekend, so there wasn’t a lot of photo snapping the past few days. We did, however, manage to dye Easter eggs and conduct our annual Easter egg hunt. Jason and Jenna love hunting for eggs and are especially competitive about finding the golden egg. This year, there were two, so each could claim victory. Jason was especially pleased when he discovered that the golden egg contained “the Abraham Lincoln dollar bill,” apparently his favorite of all the dollar bills. I asked Jenna later what her favorite part of Easter weekend was and, not surprisingly, she cited the Easter egg hunt and finding the golden egg as the best.
And speaking of Easter egg hunts, can you spot the egg in the last photo? Even after I pointed this one out, it took a bit for anyone to recognize the egg nested near the bottom of this tree. That Easter bunny is a sneaky one …
Painted Eggs
March 25, 2013 at 11:26 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Holiday Ideas | 3 CommentsTags: crafts, easter
We had a house full of sickness this weekend, which makes for the perfect time for simple crafts like this one. I bought a batch of paper eggs at the craft store and let Jason and Jenna go to town painting them in pink, gold and silver. I thought we would use them as decorations, but Jenna has already hidden them in her room. Guess I’ll have to find them first.
Gold Rocks
March 1, 2013 at 7:50 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Holiday Ideas | 2 CommentsTags: st. patricks day, gold
J+J love little treasures to hold in their hands, and who doesn’t love a little gold these days? With St. Patrick’s Day a couple of weeks away, I decided to create a little pot of gold-painted rocks for Jason and Jenna. Unfortunately, they already found them in a half-painted state in my office, so the element of surprise (and any pretense of Leprechaun magic) is clearly gone. But perhaps I’ll bury them in the backyard for a St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt.
Happy March!
Photo Prop Valentine’s
February 10, 2013 at 5:01 pm | Posted in Children's Activities, Paper Designs, Parties & Holidays, photography | Leave a commentTags: valentine's
I finished Jenna’s watercolor set Valentine’s on Friday, and this weekend I moved on to Jason’s. Both of their schools no longer allow candy, so I had to come up with fun gift options of the non-sugary variety. Mustaches are hysterical to J+J these days, so when I saw these paper mustaches, I decided on a photo prop theme.
Here are the templates that I used for the cards and eyebrows:
- Cards (Print on 8 x 11 paper and cut into thirds)
- Eyebrows (Print on 8 x 11 paper, cut out individually and attach eyes)
I purchased die-cut paper mustaches, but you could also print and cut these mustaches
Watercolor Set Valentine
February 8, 2013 at 9:57 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Parties & Holidays | 11 CommentsTags: children, valentine's
Jenna’s class has a Valentine’s Day party next week, and since candy is not allowed, I wanted to include a gift item that all of the kids would like. Jenna loves art, so watercolor sets were a perfect fit. I found a batch of inexpensive watercolors at the craft store and then set to work. My first step was figuring out what the Valentine’s would say. This was much harder than I expected, and my husband and I brainstormed for quite awhile to come up with ideas. I also found a great resource for all sorts of Valentine’s puns, and two of my final messages came from this list. I especially love these because Jenna helped paint them!
Valentine’s Day Dominoes
January 31, 2013 at 3:19 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Holiday Ideas | 2 CommentsTags: craft, diy, gifts, valentines day
My children don’t actually understand the rules of dominoes, but they love aligning the little pieces in all sorts of configurations and carefully stacking them sideways only to knock them down in a quick procession. This year, I made a set of Valentine’s themed dominoes using small rectangular pieces of wood purchased at the craft store and paper-punched heart shapes.
Coffee Filter Watercolor Hearts
January 28, 2013 at 8:30 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Parties & Holidays | 3 CommentsTags: valentines day
A couple of years ago, I let Jenna dip-dye a batch of coffee filters cut into heart shapes. It was probably one of her favorite crafts ever, so I thought I would bring it back this year. Since we no longer stock food coloring, we used watercolor paints instead. And, much like last time, we used the painted hearts to make a Valentine’s Day garland.
Design Your Own Dishes
January 20, 2013 at 8:30 am | Posted in Children's Activities, Design | Leave a commentTags: diy, gifts
I’ve been seeing all sorts of hand-drawn dishes popping up on Pinterest lately. Using no more than Sharpie markers and plain dinnerware, it seems you can create gorgeous designs. I love the look of these – and the idea of Jenna designing her own set of dishes – but was a little skeptical about how well the markers would work. We tried it out this weekend, and the results are pretty awesome. I think I might need to run to Ikea soon to buy more inexpensive china.
We started with a few of our plates, Sharpie oil markers in silver and gold, and a black porcelain marker.
We each drew our our designs on the plates. For me, it was a little intimidating to get started. I don’t draw very well and there’s little possibility for correction with the markers. I tried to wipe off an area that I wanted to redo, but the color didn’t budge. It seemed to dry immediately. I later discovered that the color doesn’t hold up very well in the dishwasher, so if you end up with a design you don’t like, just wash the dish in the dishwasher instead of baking it in the oven and it will likely come off entirely.
Once we were finished with our drawings, we baked the dishes in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and let everything cool in the oven before removing.
This was a ton of fun for both Jenna and me and the markers worked really well. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to hold up in the dishwasher. I tried washing them in the dishwasher and the design of one plate was perfectly intact, while another disappeared entirely. For now, I’ll probably hand-wash them.
I think our designs are pretty adorable and would work great as teacher gifts and Valentine’s Day gifts. I also think I might try this as a children’s activity during our next dinner party.
Oh, and Jenna loves eating from her Jenna plate:
Simple/Fun: Pasta Bead Necklaces
January 14, 2013 at 7:30 am | Posted in Children's Activities | 2 CommentsTags: children's crafts, jewelry
This weekend, Jenna and I painted tiny tube-shaped pasta and made necklaces with the pasta beads:
Friday (Insta)Favorites
December 21, 2012 at 12:50 pm | Posted in Children's Activities, Daily Life, photography | 3 CommentsTags: christmas, holidays, instagram
Something simple that I’m enjoying this holiday season is capturing little holiday details, sharing them on Instagram and seeing others do the same. I’ve also been participating in a couple of series lately. The #happyholigram tag is one of my favorites. Are you on Instagram? Share your name so I can follow along with your festivities this holiday season.
Here are a few other favorites from my week:
- Adorable prints in support of Operation Sandy Hook
- On a lighter note, this video had our entire family in hysterics
- What happens when you combine Mark Rothko and rice
- While everyone else is geeking out about The Hobbit, I’m heading out to see Hitchcock today
Happy Weekend!
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