How To Make Paper Beads

I love doing crafts with my kids that I used to do with my mom when I was growing up.  One of my favorites was making paper beads out of magazines, which I'd then turn into very fashionable bracelets and necklaces. *wink*  At six and four, I decided my kids were old enough to try making their own paper beads so I pulled out some scraps of colored paper, glue and a few other materials to get them started.

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Kids Night In Box: Day At The Farm

I love doing fun activities with my kids at home, but sometimes the thought of coming up with an idea or theme and then gathering all the materials together feels like more than I have time for as a busy mom of three kids.  So when I heard about the Kids Night In Box, I thought it would be a great solution and also a great opportunity for my kids to do something new and fun together as a family.

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Springtime Butterfly Kit and Journal

Springtime is one of my favorite times of the year (minus the allergies, of course).  I love seeing all the new life: buds on the trees, flowers poking up through the dirt and baby animals.  The minute it's warm enough for my kids to start playing outside without a jacket and shoes, you can find them in our yard, digging in the dirt, catching bugs and chasing butterflies.  This year, we decided that a butterfly kit would be a fun way to welcome spring.

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Movie Club Monday: The Princess Bride Inspired Taste Testing Activity for Kids

You know those movies that you grow up watching that you absolutely love?  The ones you could watch a million times and quote all the lines and still enjoy it?  For me, one of those movies is The Princess Bride.  My sisters and I would watch it together and anytime one of us would quote it (either in or out of context), we'd all bust up laughing because it just never got old. "That's inconceivable!"  "I'm a poet, did you know it?" and "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die." are just a few that make the rounds and it always takes me back.  Last month, I shared some monthly link parties that I am going to be participating in this year.  Today is the first one that is part of the Movie Club Monday series and the theme is nostalgic films.

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15 Ways To Play With Glow Sticks

When I think about the things that remind me of summer, I can't help but have glow sticks come to my mind.  What is it about glow sticks that make them so much fun?  Maybe it's that they glow in the dark.  Or it could be that just wearing them makes you smile.  Whatever the case, I really don't think you are ever too old to enjoy them with your family and friends, so today I'm sharing a round up of my favorite glow stick activities!

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8 Colorful Hands On Activities for Kids

If your kids are anything like mine, they are very hands-on.  They love to do whatever I'm doing, whether it's gardening, baking, crafting, building, etc.  This is why I try to come up with activities that they can do most, or all of it, by themselves.  It's exciting for them to create something and it builds autonomy which is an important skill as they get older and need to figure out problems for themselves.  Over the last couple of years since my kids were old enough to appreciate and enjoy it, I've done a handful of really fun and colorful activities.  These are tried and true and my kids ask to do them over and over again.

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The Best App for Organizing Kids Artwork and Schoolwork

When I was in 9th grade, my mom brought out a box of my old school papers, pictures I had drawn as a young child, lists of my first words and favorite foods to eat at different ages and so on.  She apologetically told me that she'd tried to keep as much as she could but couldn't hold onto everything and hoped I was okay with what she'd held onto.  I opened a box and it was like a walk down memory lane, except I didn't have memories of everything in the box.  I tried to organize everything by age and then school year but my mom couldn't remember all the dates and could only give me approximate time frames.  If I was lucky, I found a year or even a full date written on the back.  All those pictures and school assignments are now in a scrapbook of mine that I started on shortly after receiving this box of memories and I continued to add to it as the years progressed.  Now I have kids of my own and I find myself wanting to keep every single picture they draw or art project they make, but let's be real: there is no way I can physically hold onto everything.  So what's the solution?  I'll tell you: it's called Keepy.

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Mermaid/Under the Sea Party

For my daughter's 5th birthday, she wanted a mermaid party.  Originally she had asked for a mermaid beach party but when I reminded her that mermaids live in the ocean, she came up with the idea to change it to a mermaid/under the sea party. *wink*  I had her help me look through Pinterest and pinned any ideas she liked to my party ideas board.  It was fun to have her help me plan it out and be involved but it also made me a little sad because it means she is growing up.

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The ULTIMATE All Things Valentines Round Up

Less than two weeks ago, an idea popped into my head.  It went something along the lines of, "Holy crap!  Valentine's Day is going to be here in a month!  I need some new ideas, yummy recipes, crafts, printables, beauty... I need all things Valentines!"  I hopped on a few Facebook groups and asked my blogging friends to submit their Valentines posts for what I hoped would be an ultimate Valentines round up.  I didn't just want crafts or recipes.  I wanted something where I could find a ton of different ideas centered around Valentines all in one place.  And that, my friends, is how this post came into being.

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Mommy Style Monday: Water Beads

There is something about January that I really dislike.  If my daughter's birthday wasn't during this month, I would be totally fine to just get rid of it all together.  I'm not sure where you live, but here in Utah we tend to get a lot of cold, overcast, snowy, rainy, slushy days in the winter.  My kids live for the outdoors, so wintertime is hard on them (and me).  I am a warm weather, sunshine loving person and can get a little bit of seasonal depression during this time of year.  I've found that staying busy is a big help and trying to rotate through a variety of activities helps my kids from going too stir crazy. *wink*

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Mommy Style Monday: Favorite Children's Books

Hello and happy Monday!  I have to tell you that while the fact that it's Monday doesn't necessarily excite me, the fact that last week is finally over does!  I had a super crazy busy week and about half way through it, my body forced me to slow down a bit by giving me a nice little cough.  Super annoying, but it's felt nice to rest up a bit and get geared up for another week.

Today, I've teamed up with 7 other mommy bloggers and we're all sharing our favorite children's books with you!  One of my earliest memories about books was when I was about 5 years old and I was towing my little red wagon home from the library with my mom stacked high with books.  We went back every week because I literally devoured every book multiple times and got bored with them and wanted new ones.  I know for a fact that my love of reading came from my mom.  She read me books all the time and always had them available for me.  I memorized them before I knew how to read and when I finally learned to read, I kept on reading.  I was always getting in trouble for staying up too late reading on school nights.  So many of my memories with my family revolve around books and reading.

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Preschool Halloween Party on a Budget

In August of this year, I attended a blogging workshop.  While there, I met a fellow mommy blogger named Kyla (she blogs over at Ford-ology) who lives about 15 minutes away from me and has two kids the same ages as mine but opposite genders.  It was like a match made in heaven!  That night, she and I got to talking and decided that we definitely needed to collaborate on a post in the near future.

One day Kyla and I ran into each other at Hobby Lobby with our kids, who immediately started talking and playing with each other like they were already friends.  As Kyla and I were talking about activities our kids could do together for a playdate, it slowly evolved into a preschool/toddler Halloween party on a budget.  (Funny how things work huh?)  The more she and I talked, the more it all came together.  So today we are each sharing how you can host a fun, simple and entertaining Halloween party for your kids and their friends without breaking the bank.

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3 Fun Ways to Paint with Toddlers and Preschoolers

As a stay-at-home mom, I'm always trying to come up with fun activities for my kids to do beyond coloring and Play-Doh.  Not that there's anything wrong with these things, but my kids get bored of them pretty quickly.  And when they get bored, what do they do?  Bug each other.  Which in turn bugs me.  So it makes everyone a lot happier if I have a few new activities to offer, especially during the winter when it's cold and we're stuck inside and even when it's summer and it's hot outside. *wink*

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Kid Science: Elephant Toothpaste

As much as I love the summertime and the sunshine and letting my kids play outside, there comes a point every day where it's just too hot and we have to come inside and cool off.  I made a commitment to myself that I would try to have a balance between structured time and unstructured time this summer, but I haven't been doing as well on the structured time with my kids as I would like.  So at the beginning of the week, I decided to do a little experiment that I've had on my mind for the last little while, but hadn't gotten around to: elephant toothpaste.

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American Fork Canyon: Granite Flats Campground

When I imagine going up the canyon, I think of narrow, winding roads with thick trees and brush all around. I think of cozy little picnic spots nestled in the trees and a river or stream flowing nearby. This is probably due to the fact that I grew up living within a short driving distance of American Fork Canyon in Utah.

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46 Ways To Have Fun This Summer {plus a FREE printable}

I am totally one of those people who LOVES to-do lists.  I get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction when I put a little check mark next to something that is on my to-do list and sometimes I even add things to my to-do list that weren't there when I first made the list, just so that I can check it off.  Eat breakfast?  Check!  Brush teeth?  Check!  Make sure kids eat their veggies at dinnertime?  Double check!  ('Cause ya know, I have two kids...) *wink*

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Bubble Snake

The weather here in Utah has been pretty crazy lately.  It will be sunny and 80 degrees one day and the next will be rainy and 60 degrees.  My poor kids ask me every morning if it's going to be a warm day outside so they can play in the yard.  Thankfully, today the answer was yes and they were outside as much as they could be playing on the swing set, jumping on the trampoline or splashing in the water.

One of their favorite things to do outside is blow bubbles.  We go through more bubbles than almost anything else they play with.  (This could also be due to the fact that they tend to spill the bubbles...)  While my son was napping, my daughter and I made a little contraption that when you blow into it, a stream of bubbles comes out the other end.  We call it a 'bubble snake'.  It's really simple and costs practically nothing to make.

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Keeping Toddlers Busy While Waiting In Line at Disneyland {and other theme parks}

When I was planning our family vacation to Disneyland, I knew I was going to have to come up with some ideas for keeping my kids (ages 3.5 and 18 months at the time) busy while standing in line for the rides.  Knowing how hard it can be to keep them out of trouble while standing in line at the grocery store, I knew I'd have to have a few tricks up my sleeve so we didn't all go crazy. *wink*

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Kid Science: Growing Seeds In A Bag

A few weeks ago, I thought it would be a good idea to get some starts going for our garden.  I bought some soil and those little biodegradable pots and used some seeds I already had and then planted two of each kind.  I made sure they were watered, got plenty of sunshine during the day and brought them in at night because it was still pretty cold.  This lasted about three days.  One afternoon, we had a crazy windstorm and guess what got left outside.  My little plants.  My daughter discovered them and came running inside with tears streaming down her face: "Mom!  The seeds!  They blew over!"  She was really sad about it.  Sure enough, there was dirt all over the patio and no seeds to be seen.

Since then we've had some snow and rain and sunny days and I haven't attempted to start any more plants, not sure if it was really springtime yet.  One day, I remembered a time in first grade starting seeds in a plastic bag using a wet paper towel to keep the seeds moist, then sticking it in the sun and watching the seeds sprout.  Duh.  Why didn't I think of this before?  (Answer: Probably because even though I've had a garden for the last few years, I'm still an amateur gardener.)  Turns out this is actually a viable way to start seeds for your garden and not just an elementary school experiment.

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Teaching Your Preschooler Time

Kadie: "Mom, what's for lunch?"
Me: "It's not lunch time, it's breakfast."

Kadie: "Mom, last year I went to Aunt Dani's house."

Me: "Sweetheart, we were there yesterday."

Kadie: "Mom, what's today?"

Me: "It's (insert day of the week)."

Kadie: "Does that mean it's splash pad day?"

If you've ever tried to help a young child understand how many days it is until a certain event or activity, you've probably been met with confusion and frustration that it's not happening right now.  This is because small children live in the present and they have a hard time thinking abstractly.   Time is a very abstract and intangible concept, which is why it is difficult to grasp until they get closer to age 6 or 7 and their brain starts to develop in a way that they are able to begin to understand things such as time.

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