[Party] Where in the World?

 

Yesterday was kind of a big deal for our family.  My 18 year old son turned in his application to serve an LDS mission a few weeks ago.  As a missionary he would be assigned to serve for two years.  Missionaries are sent all over the world and speak almost every language imaginable.  We received word from the post office that his assignment had arrived yesterday morning.  We were so excited and anxious to see where he would be going!  He wanted to wait until evening to open his letter so that many of his friends and family could be there with him.  Twelve hours is a long time to wait.  Truth be told, I've been waiting for this day for over eighteen years!!  I could hardly stand it.  We decided to make a party of the whole thing.  It gave me something to keep me busy all day.

So, I set to work.  We went with a map theme.  It seemed like the logical choice since that was the big question of the evening...where in the world would he be going??

You can't have a party without garland, right?  I love me some garland.  I knew that I wanted to make it out of maps.  But where was I going to find enough maps for cheap to finish the job.  Then it came to me...a stoke of genius really.  We had an old road atlas collecting dust on the shelf.  I set to work removing the pages and cutting them into triangles.  It was quick work.  Before I finished watching an episode of Downton Abbey, I had a huge pile of triangles.  Then I punched them and strung them on some yarn and hung them all over our front room.

I hadn't even begun to exhaust my map source.  So, I made little cupcake flags.  I just cut strips and glued them to a toothpick.  My strips were about three inches long and one inch wide.  Fold them around a toothpick and glue in place.  Cut a notch in the end if you want.  We made these cute little jars of yumminess to serve for dessert.  I did a strawberry shortcake version and a chocolate cake version.  They were fast and I could make them ahead of time.  I didn't want to have to be tied to the kitchen, once our guests started arriving.  They were delicious! 

I decided to just use some full pages of the atlas as a table runner and put a globe in the middle for a centerpiece.

Last but not least, we made a guessing jar.

We had each of our guests venture a guess as to where they thought he would be going.  They wrote their name and place on a strip of paper and put it in the jar.  People were guessing Russia, Brazil, Taiwan, China, France, Kansas, Michigan, Africa, Spain, Washington state, Oregon, Paraguay, etc etc.  When it as all said and done, there was only one person who guessed correctly!

It was a super fun evening.  I'm so proud of my boy!  Do you want to know where he will be going?

California!

Have you seen missionaries in your neighborhood?  Be sure to say "Hi"...they are some of the most outstanding young people you will ever meet!

[Easter] Hunt Surprise

 
So, I've been thinking.  Lots of families around here have long standing Easter traditions.  They gather with friends and family to celebrate the season.  But maybe you know of one or two that just aren't up to the task this year.  Or maybe just someone that needs a little extra TLC.  Why not provide a little Easter fun for someone else?  It's not that hard and it could just become a family tradition of your own.

Gather some supplies for a good old fashioned egg hunt.  I used plastic eggs.  You will need twenty-four of them if you are going to use the printable that I am providing.  Fill them with jelly beans and other goodies.  They don't have to be sweets.  You could use small toys or money or whatever tickles your fancy.  You could number them if you want to or seal them with washi tape.

Now put them in a festive container.  This cute Easter bag comes to mind.  Or you could use a fun bucket or a spare basket.  Or some bunny britches! You could even add a cute stuffed bunny for good measure if you'd like.  You can never have too many bunnies!

Now comes the fun part.  You have to be all ninja-like.  Gather the kids and explain the procedure.  You are going to sneak up on the family you would like to surprise.  Quietly hide the eggs in their yard.  You might want to go when you know they aren't home or when their blinds/curtains are closed.  I would stick to the front yard to avoid dogs and such.  When you are done hiding all of the eggs...leave your empty Easter bag (or bucket or basket) on their porch.  Be sure to attach a fun tag to explain the fine points of the Easter Hunt Surprise!  Click here for an orange version or here for a pink version.

Then ring the door bell and run like the wind!

Door bell ditching Easter style!  Gotta love it!

Happy Hunting!

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I Believe in Pink

I believe in pink.  I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.  I believe in kissing, kissing a lot.  I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong.  I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls.  I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

Audrey Hepburn 

Today's post is brought to you by the color pink.  Because it's snowing like no tomorrow outside.  What if snow was pink?  That would be fun.  You know.  Just to mix things up a bit.  Maybe just one pink snow day a year.  Right before Valentine's day. 

This party mix is pink and yummy and guaranteed to make you happy.  Which in turn will make you pretty.  Eat some.  You'll like it.

Start with some pretzels.  Heart shaped would be fun.  I had these awesome square waffle-y ones.  Drizzle them with some milk chocolate.

Now pop a bag of microwave popcorn.  Pour it into a bowl.  

While you are at it.  Pour a bag of white chocolate chips into a bowl too.  Not the same bowl.  A different bowl.  A microwave safe bowl.  Microwave it at 40 percent power for thirty second intervals...until it is all melty and wonderful.  Pour it over the popcorn and stir it well.  Dump it out onto a cookie sheet and let the chocolate set.  You can pop it into the freezer for a minute, if you are in a hurry.

Next up...strawberry wafer cookies!  Delish!  I decided to cut mine up into little squares.  Beware--your children and most likely your husband will try to sneak some of the cookies while you aren't looking.  They're little rascals, aren't they?  

Break your popcorn up into little bunches.  Add dump them into a serving bowl or two.  Add your chocolate pretzels.  Sprinkle your wafer squares on top.  Add some nuts.  I chose cashews.  Then I added strawberry malted milk balls and pink and red M&Ms.   Mix it up a bit. 

Now snuggle up under a warm cozy blanket with your honey and watch Breakfast at Tiffany's  just for fun.  She believes in pink.  And so do I.

[Valentine] Love Bug Game

Do you need a little game for a class party?  Or just something fun to do with the kids for family night?  Here is a simple Valentine dice game.  Print out the game cards.  Grab some dice and a pencil.  And channel you inner Picasso.  Ready...set...go!

[The Gratitude Project] Fun and Games

 First things first.  Here's the FUN:

Today's post is brought to you by my six year old daughter.  She is feeling grateful.  From left to right, she is grateful for trees, ice cream cones, rainbows, colors, (a particular friend), (another particular friend), family, flowers, and leaves.

Now for the GAMES":

Here is a Thanksgiving game to enjoy with the kids.  It's a lot like this one.  To download and print out your game cards, click here.  All you need to play are some game cards, a pencil, and a die.  You might want some crayons to color your masterpieces when you are done.

[The Gratitude Project] Gatherings

I love getting together with friends and family to celebrate the holidays.  Or just the everyday.  I am so thankful for these times of gathering!

Are you hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year?  Do you plan on having a "kids table"?  I've come up with a fun place mat filled with activities for the kids to do while they wait for the mashed potatoes.  All you need is some crayons.  Color the Thanksgiving characters.  Help the turkey get out of the maze.  Make a list of what you are thankful for.  And spur on some laughter with these Thanksgiving day jokes.


Disclaimer:
These place mats are designed to print out on a legal size paper (14" x 8.5").  The paper used in designing this place mat is from Weeds and Wildflower Designs.  I used some free Thanksgiving Clipart from the web.  To my knowledge there are no copyright or limited use agreements.  I also created the maze at this site.  They have lots of fun puzzles to choose from.  Just plug in your parameters and it spits out a puzzle.  Doesn't get much better than that!

[The Gratitude Project] Cousins!

Today I am thinking about extended family...and cousins in particular.  Cousins are like instant best friends.  The only sad thing about our cousins, is that they live so far away!  Let's do a shout out to cousins today and send them some fun mail!

Cousins and corny go hand in hand, right?  That's what I figured.  So I came up with this corny pun. (To print your own tags, click here)

And I bought a lot of candy.  Grrr-ape flavored candy.

And I put in a clear box to amp up the fun.

And we wrote a little note on the back of the card.

We sealed it, we addressed it, and we dropped it in the mail.

Fun mail!  It's what makes cousins happy!

[The Gratitude Project] Helping Hands

 

What started out today as gratitude for the delightful birds in our backyard, turned in to so much more.  I've been wanting to make some bird feed garlands for the trees for a while now.  My daughter was playing with a friend this morning and things started to detereorate.  Her friend had to go home.  My daughter came to me in tears.  So I decided that this morning would be the perfect time to pull out this project.  We had a great time stringing all of these goodies for the birds.  We pulled some string from off the shelf and popped some popcorn.  We also found some dried fruit in the cupboard and some fresh cranberries.  Shell peanuts added that extra bit of bling to our garland. 

I love the birds in our yard.  But I love these little hands more than words can say.

Having a project that we could work on together helped dry the tears and quickly turned them into smiles and laughter.

[The Gratitude Project] Families

I have been thinking lately that I want to really focus on gratitude in this month of November.  Not just for a day or two.  But for many days...twenty-two days to be exact.  Twenty Two Days of Gratitude.  My intent is to post something everyday from now until Thanksgiving that I am grateful for.  Want to join me?  I would love to hear or see what makes your heart sing!

Today I am thankful for my family.  My husband and kids.  They are so amazing!  Families are the most precious gift!  We have made a practice in our family of reserving Monday nights for family night.  We look forward to it every week.  We talk about important topics, read scriptures, play games, craft, make treats, and enjoy being together.  Sometimes we go on outings or adventures.  It's the best.  Being with my family makes me happier than anything else...hands down!

So, I am going to do something today to show my family how much I love and appreciate them.  I'm not quite sure what just yet.  But I am going to think of something spectacular!  Or maybe something simple.  It doesn't really matter.  It's mostly about being together.  Want to join me?  You could make a great dinner, or have a movie night!  You could play a fun game with the kids after school, or spend time crafting together.  Go to your favorite ice cream parlor or make cookies together.  Laugh and enjoy one another.  And tell them that you love them. 

Ready.  Set.  GO!

Chocolate Caramel Apples--A Photo Documentary

We are on fall break.  And that can only mean one thing...chocolate caramel apples baby! 

Travel Ready

When I was little, we would travel across the country to visit with family every other summer.  We had a big full-size van and a lot of kids.  This was before the days of having televisions suspended from the ceiling, or any type of handheld device for entertainment.  Our van had a radio, but you could never get much reception through America's heartland.  Heck, this was even before seat belts.  I remember sleeping on the floor between the seats.  My Dad built this cool platform for the cargo bay of the van.  All the luggage went underneath and it made into a bed on top.  This was important because my parents did not believe in stopping at hotels for the night.  Between my parents and my older brothers, we usually had three or four drivers.  The bed was for the alternate drivers when they needed to rest up.  You could usually fit a smaller napping kid on that bed too.  Awesome. 

Close quarters.  Lots of bodies.  How do you keep everyone happy and entertained for twenty-plus hours?  I remember singing songs together.  Does anyone still do that?  We made up our own lyrics.  Good times.  My Mom was and still is a genius!  (Come to think of it, she was probably the one that came up with the platform idea.)  Anyway, she made the coolest denim cover that went over the back of the bench seat in the van.  It was custom fit and had pockets of every size and shape to hold all kinds of treasures from coloring books and crayons to books and games and treats.  It kept everything neat and organized and right within reach.  It was awesome!  It was like Christmas morning for a little kid like me.  I wish I had a picture.  (Mom, do you have a picture?)  If cars still had bench seats, I would totally make one of these.

Mom and Dad made quite the traveling team.  

Well, we are heading across country for a family vacation before summer ends.  We actually travel a lot together as a family,  but this is a much longer trip than we usually take.  We don't have a big full-size van.  We have a mini-van.  We don't have six kids...we have three.  And two of them are teenagers that seem to entertain themselves.  We will be stopping for the night.  We do have computers and iPods and a billion movies at our fingertips.  But.  We also have a kindergartner that tends to get a little bored and wiggly and is prone to sore bum syndrome.  So, I thought that I would put together a little travel kit just for her.  And I'm hoping her siblings will put down their iPods and play with her a little.  We'll see.

Want a peek inside my little kit?


You will recognize this little dice game.  I threw in a few others as well (Yahtzee and Farkle to name a few).

I made a few reusable game boards for some of the classics.   I found some Crayola Dry Erase markers in the back-to-school section at WalMart.  It's about time Crayola jumped on the dry erase band wagon, don't ya think?  And they are washable.  Which is huge!  I can't tell you how many shirts have been ruined over the years from the kids getting black dry erase marks on them at school. 

I also printed off a bunch of travel games from  Prepared NOT Scared.  They are awesome.  If you haven't ever been to her site,  you definitely need to check it out.

And of course, my latest peg doll pals!

I'm also including some string for string games, a deck of small cards, and some new coloring books.

I had originally planned to put it all in a smallish rubbermaid box that I bought a while back.  But now I'm wondering if I should make an over-the-shoulder messenger-type bag to put it all in.  Choices.

 What am I forgetting?  What do your children do on long road trips to keep happy?

A Game of Mouse

Have you ever played Mouse before?  I've been looking into some dice games for a reason I will explain shortly.  But I came across this fun game of Mouse and I thought I would share it with you.  This is a great game for kids ages three and up.  You will need some dice...one for each player.  Or I suppose you could share and get away with just one.  You will also need this printable.  I chose to laminate my game cards so they could be used over and over again.  If you chose to laminate them, you will want to use dry erase markers.  If not, pencils will do just fine.

The object of the game is to be the first to complete your picture of the mouse.  You must start with the body.  So, in order to start your picture, you will need to roll a six.  If you don't get a six, pass the die to the next player and wait for your next turn.  Once you roll a six, you are free to add the other body parts in any order.  If you roll a number that corresponds to a part you have already drawn, then you forfeit your turn.

So what are you waiting for?  Print out a couple of cards, grab some dice and get going!  I think we will be playing this tonight.

Happy Day Punch Cards

Sorry for the sporadic or should I be honest and say "lack of" posts lately.  We are on spring break around here.  Normally that would mean that we high-tail it to the mountains for some family fun and relaxation.  But this year we needed to stay close to home.  So we are taking advantage of the extra time to get some things done around the house.  Both of my older kids are in dire need of some extra cash.  I am more than happy to pay them for extra work around the house.  I am not talking your average everyday chores.  I could tell you my philosophy on that, but I will save it for another day.  I am talking extra projects that I need help with.  I make them work hard for the money!  The problem is, that I am not so good at keeping track of what they've done and whether or not I have paid them.  So I devised this punch card system to keep track of the hours they work.  When the card is full, they can trade it in for cash.  It's up to them to keep track of their punch card.  We've been using them for a couple of days now and they are working like a charm!

This is how it works...determine how much money each smiley face is worth and write it on the left side.  Then just use a hole punch and punch out a smiley face for every hour worked.  Simple.

Want to know what we've been working on?  It's amazing what can get done when three or four "adults" are working together!  So far we have...

*washed, vacuumed, and prepped the boats for some summer fun

*scrubbed all of the cars inside and out

*tilled the garden, amended the soil, and planted some spring vegetables

*cleaned up the yard from a long winter--lots of leaves and lots of sticks!

*weeded the lawn and fertilized

*fixed the swing set (we came across an extra slide that the neighbor was getting rid of, so we moved the stairs  to the back of the fort and now we have two cool slides coming off of the front!)

*hosed down the siding and all of the porches

*pulled out all of the wicker and other patio chairs- cleaned them and got them all set up for spring/summer

*cleaned the grill

*cleaned the garage

*cleaned the shed

I'm sure that I am missing some stuff, but you get the idea.  We have had gorgeous weather the past couple of days, so we have been concentrating on outside projects.  All of that is about to change though.  So, maybe we will head inside and do some spring cleaning?


UPDATE:

My littlest one is not quite old enough to work for an hourly wage yet. But, she wanted in on the fun. So, I made up a punch card for her too. This one is job based instead of time based. For every extra job she does, she gets a punch on her card. Decide beforehand how much each smiley face is worth and write it on the side. Nickel? Dime? Quarter? Maybe even a dollar? Whatever you think is fair.

Would you like to have some punch cards for your kids?  Just click on the printer icons below, print and cut out your cards.  That's all it takes! 

Easter Eggs

We are finally getting ready to decorate our Easter eggs this morning.  My daughter can't wait.  She loves a blank canvas!  I thought I'd share a few cool egg ideas I've found lately.  Just in case you need some inspiration!

I adore these floral modpodge eggs by Brown Paper Packages!

Or how about these origami paper wrapped eggs from One Dog Woof?  She has a really cool cutting and pasting technique that I am anxious to try!

These doodle eggs and water color eggs by Alisa Burke are completely amazing.  She is so talented!

Lil Luna creates these super fun subway art eggs using cut vinyl or stickers.  Don't you just want to raid your sticker stash and get to work?

And last but not least, these Lichtenstein eggs by Art Club Blog brought a huge smile to my face!

Now go boil some eggs and channel your inner artist!  Happy Easter everyone!