Frozen Birthday Party Activities

Like every little girl, my daughter wanted to have a Frozen birthday party!  Yeah!!  I'm actually a huge fan of the movie and know practically all the lyrics to all the songs.  That's right, it's me rocking out to the Frozen soundtrack and belting out "Let It Go" in the minivan next to you at the stoplight.

Having a Frozen party is easy now that you can finally find stuff in the stores, although it is ridiculously priced and you can never find everything you need at one store or even at the same time.  I slowly purchased items over the month leading up to her party.  Some plates from Kroger, napkins and cups from Target, decorative wall stickers on Zulily and the rest at Walmart.  Buying supplies is easy when you find them.  However, it's the games your daughter requests that can get tricky.

I allowed my daughter to choose just seven of her closest 5-6 year old girlfriends to our home for her Frozen Birthday...yeah, I know, what was I thinking!?!  Luckily a few of the moms are my friends and they stuck around to help.  But, how do you entertain kindergarten girls for TWO HOURS?  Well, my daughter asked for activity stations, like her older brothers had at their Skylander Party and Pokemon Party.  I love that kind of thing!!  So, I said, "As you wish my baby girl" and away to my laptop I went!!

Activity 1 - Coloring Pages. As we waited for all the girls to arrive, I spread out some Frozen coloring pages I printed out that morning along with our bucket of crayons, on our dining room table.  Our dining room was the center of the party of course, fully decked out in Frozen decorations, including three foot tall Anna and Elsa wall stickers from Zulily.

Activity 2 - Do You Want to Build a Snowman?  Once all the girls arrived, I gave each of them a paper plate with 3 large marshmallows, 2 mini-marshmallows, a dollop of marshmallow fluff with 1 small flat toothpick, 2 small pretzel sticks and 1 small piece of an orange slice gummy candy.  After they assembled their snowman, I went around and drew on his eyes and mouth with black icing and a toothpick.  Then, if they wanted to, the girls were given the time to eat their snowmen.  They had a blast doing this!  I used the image below as the sign for the activity station.

Activity 3 - Olaf Lost His Head!  I lucked out with my daughter's birthday being around Easter because I was able to find Olaf shaped Easter eggs at Walmart.  I bought all the ones they had!  Yep, I was that mom.  Sorry!  I used these little heads for a Frozen version of an Easter Egg Hunt in our living room.  There is a scene where Olaf loses his head and he's chasing it.  I thought that would be a great image to use for a station sign and the heading read, "Help Olaf Find His Head!".  The girls loved it!!  They took turns hiding them and finding them.  However, it got to the point when all the girls wanted to hide them and no one wanted to seek them.  So, we moved on to the next activity.

Activity 4 - Princess Fashion Show.  I don't know about you but, I have gotten smart after the third kid.  The day after Halloween, I hit store and buy all the princess costumes I can in a size up because my daughter, like most girls her age, loves to dress up.  My daughter also gets some amazing hand-me-downs from cousins.  So, having seven extra girls over to play dress up, wasn't a concern.  They had a wonderful time trying on dresses and putting on play jewelry.  They helped each other with their hair, adding all kinds of clips, bows and headbands, along with princess tiaras.  Then they took turns walking up and down our hallway to the Frozen soundtrack.  It was adorable!!

At the end of the party, I was completely exhausted but, my 6 year old daughter was as happy as a clam and I couldn't imagine anything better than that!!

Jack Skellington Crafts

Halloween is just around the corner and if you are a Disney fan, Jack Skellington probably comes to mind.  We love to watch the "The Nightmare Before Christmas" at our house each October.  It's like a kick-off to the Halloween season! 

If you'd like to include Jack Skellington in your Halloween decorations this year, here are few great ways to do it:

• Jack Skellington Pumpkin Carving Template
• Jack Skellington Door Decoration
• Printable: Jack Skellington

Go all out and have a Jack Skellington party!  The perfect dessert for that party would be Jack Skellington cupcakes!  Find out how to make them by clicking here. 

Have fun, get creative and have a Happy Halloween!

Make Your Own Big Book of Boo Boos

If you have little ones, you've probably heard of Disney's new show, Doc McStuffins.  My daughter loves this show and loves to give everyone in the family "check-ups".  Doc McStuffins has a Big Book of Boo Boos that she uses to keep track of all the boo boos she encounters with her toy patients.  So, I thought it would be fun to make one for my daughter to use while she gave us our check-ups. 

I was so happy and excited to find that the Disney Junior website offered print-outs to make your very own Big Book of Boo Boos!  Here's the link - Doc McStuffins Big Book of Boo Boos. 

I changed it a bit for my daughter and used a 3 ring binder I already had.  I put a piece of purple construction paper with the heart print out glued to in, in the clear sleeve on the front of the binder.  Then I printed out the boo boos from the show and  punched holes in them to put in the binder.  Then I added extra lined paper for my daughter to record the boo boos she finds during our check-ups.  She loves it and can't wait for her brothers to get home from school to get started!

I hope you enjoy this simple craft as much as we did!  Get creative and have fun!

 

Apple Print Onesie

I'm throwing an apple themed baby shower for a teacher and found the perfect craft for it!

Supplies:

• 1 apple
• 1 green fabric pen
• red fabric paint
• onesie (or t-shirt)

Directions:

1. Put a piece of cardboard topped with a paper towel inside each onesie.
2. Cut the apple in half and pat on a paper towel to dry off juices. 
3. Dip the apple half in the red fabric paint. Wipe off excess paint and then press on onesie.
4. Use green fabric pen to add a stem and leaf. Let dry.

Create an apple print gift bag to present gift in. Use same technique as above but instead of fabric paint, use a red ink pad. Add stem and leaf with a regular green marker. Get creative and have fun!

Pipe Cleaner Crowns

My little girl loves to have "Princess/Prince Parties" with her big brothers. Tonight she had the most wonderful idea: make crowns out of pipe cleaners! So we pulled out all our pipe cleaners and got creative. We even made bracelets and rings. It was fabulous!

Painting with Shaving Cream

A few weeks back I found a picture online of a muffin tin filled with different colored shaving cream.  I thought "What a great idea!" and I immediately wanted to try it.  However, I thought it would be much more fun for my kids to do in the shower. 


Although a muffin tin would be great for a dry activity, it wasn't my first choice to use in the shower.  So, I used a divided rectangle Ziploc container I had for my husband's lunches.  We can keep it in the shower and not worry about rusting and it's easy for the kids to hold.  Having the separate compartments makes it easier to keep the colors separate but it isn't necessary.  The shower walls and clear shower curtain were a perfect blank canvas for the kids. They had a blast!


This is what you need:

• Shaving Cream
• Food Coloring
• Paint Brushes
• Container for "paints"

I used my husband's shaving cream which is only about $1.  The food coloring I already had but, it's only a couple of dollars a box of four in the grocery store.  The paint brushes I picked up in a 3-pack for only $1.  You can use anything laying around the house to keep you "paint" in: old yogurt bin, plastic bowl/plate, etc. 


If your shower is tiled, be careful because the food coloring might stain it.  This activity would also be fun to do outside in the summer too.  I think I'll let my kids do this in our inflatable pool!  Be creative and have fun! 

Great Wall of China Model

As mentioned in my post, How to Make a 3D Model of a Pyramid, my 2nd Grader is participating in a class project called "The Amazing Race".  Each student is supposed to "visit" five of the seven continents and do a "task" for each visit.  The 3D pyramid was for Africa.  My sons next continent was China and he decided to create a model of the Great Wall of China. 
So, off to the Internet I went to find ideas on how to make the Great Wall of China.  I found a great blog called, Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Her idea was awesome and fairly easy.  But, I had to make modifications to suit us and make it our own. 


I couldn't find Styrofoam blocks at my local stores, nor did I have time to order them online (we only had an afternoon to build it).  However, I did find a block of Styrofoam at Walmart.  It was about 2 inches x 12inches x 18 inches.  I had to cut this large block into small bricks.  I only used 3/4 of the block for this project 


I had never worked with Styrofoam so, I tapped away on my keyboard until I found a great website discussing the basics of working with Styrofoam.  They include a great informative video - STYROFOAM Tips.  From the video I learned how to cut Styrofoam, which glue I could use, and how to paint it too!

Supplies

• 1 foam poster board
• 1 block of Styrofoam, 2"x12"x18"- (you could use store bought Styrofoam blocks)
• hot glue gun
• acrylic paint (gray)
• stiff paint brush
• cardboard (we used a fruit snack box)
• scissors

Directions

1. Cut the Styrofoam block into small blocks/bricks with a plastic knife (run it through a candle first, to make cutting easier).
2. Using the hot glue gun, glue two parallel rows of Styrofoam blocks onto the foam poster board to create the base of the wall.  Make sure it is curved just like the real thing.  Be sure to include stairs at either end.
3. Add a second row of blocks on top of your base in a staggered pattern.  Repeat to make the wall as tall as you like.
4. Hot glue the cardboard on top to make a walking path.  Trim the cardboard with scissors to fit. 
5. Add another row of blocks along the edge of the path (cardboard).
6. Build a tower with the blocks in the middle of the wall.
7. Dip paint brush into paint and tap onto the the Styrofoam bricks, the cardboard path and around the base of the wall.
8. Use construction paper and a glue stick to create a mountain and some grass around your wall.

How to Make a 3D Model of a Pyramid

My 2nd Grader is participating in a class project at school called "The Amazing Race".  They have to do a project for five of the seven continents and whoever completes their project before a certain date will receive a prize.  My son decided to make a 3D model of a pyramid for Africa.  So, I hit the keyboard and found lots of different ideas for making a pyramid on Squidoo.  One stood out to us and we decided to make a similar one but make it our own with a few changes.

Supplies

• 8 dowel rods (found at Michael's Craft Store)
• hot glue gun
• pipe cleaners

Directions

1. Use the hot glue gun to glue 4 of the dowel rods into a square.
2. Glue the bottom of each remaining dowel rod to one corner of the square at an angle, so that the tops meet together above the center of the square.  (Tip - We used Play-doh to help keep all the rods in place until we were able to glue them.  This allowed us to make sure the angle was correct when we glued it.)
3. Glue the top of the 4 angled dowel rods together.
4. Wrap the sides and joints of the pyramid with pipe cleaners.
5. Print out or draw two pictures of a mummy or sarcophagus and glue them together, back to back.
6. Punch a hole in the top of the image and hang it inside the pyramid with a pipe cleaner.

I added 5 smaller dowel rods across the base of the pyramid because my son was worried someone might try to wear the pyramid as a hat but, this is not necessary for the structure.  We had so much fun my two younger children wanted to make structures of their own with the remaining supplies. 

Printable and Homemade Valentines

Disney Family Fun magazine has done it again - they have my favorite Valentine's Day crafts of the year!  This year they even share Printable Valentine's Day Jokes and Printable Valentine's Day Cards.  These are great for your child's class.  You could also use them as lunch box notes for your kids leading up to Valentine's Day.  Family Fun also has cute crafts that I plan to use for my kids' classroom celebrations this year.  My top favorites are:

• Valentine Pencil Toppers
• The Write Card
• You Rule!

Share these crafts with those you love this Valentine's Day or any time you want to spread the love.  For more Valentine's Day Crafts visit my post from last year:  Valentine's Day Crafts and Homemade Cards.  Happy Valentine's Day! 

 

Snowflake Crafts

A great way to celebrate the winter season is to do snowflake crafts.  It's a great way to pass the time with your family when it's cold outside.  Here are some great craft ideas I found that I plan to do with my kids.

• Glittery Window Clings
• Winter Scissor Skills Project
• Q-Tip Snowflakes
• Coffee Filter Snowflakes
• Sparkling Ice Crystals 

Stay warm, have fun and get creative!

Homemade Christmas Garland

With the upcoming holidays and the cold weather, now is a great time to have fun making Christmas crafts with your family.  My kids decided they wanted to have more of a say in how our Christmas tree looks.  So, I thought what better way for them to decorate our tree than with their own creations.  First things first, Christmas garland for the tree and more.  I hit the keyboard and found some fun ideas of garland that I can make with my kids.  Here are my top four:

• Dot Garlands
• Sweet Countdown
• Newly Minted
• Cranberry-Popcorn Garland

You can make these crafts your own by tweaking some details.  Replace the button thread with a colorful yarn for your Dot Garland.  Instead of using mints for a garland, maybe try gold wrapped candies to reflect your Christmas tree lights.  The possibilities are endless.  Remember, get creative and have fun! 

Check out my posts below for more Christmas Craft fun:

• Homemade Holiday Decorations
• Christmas Snacks, Crafts and Printables

Storing Crayons

If you lose the box your crayons orginally came in, as most of us do, here are some great ways to store them and keep them from breaking:

• Use an old, plastic baby wipe box and let the kids decorate it with stickers
• For smaller collections try a soap container (great for traveling by the way)
• Small baskets found at a dollar store

When you do have broken crayons, here is a great craft to make for your kids or for their teachers!

• Colorful Crayon Letter

What ideas do you have about storing crayons and what do you do with your broken ones? 

Simple Construction Paper Crafts

Yesterday, my kids and I made an Alphabet Book that we saw on the The Goodnight Show on the Sprout Channel.  Since my two younger children aren't capable of making an Alphabet Book, they used their books for other things like a book of shapes. 

When making our Alphabet and Shape Books, I used a three-hole hole puncher.  In order to make our construction paper fit in the hole puncher, I had to trim each sheet down.  After making three books, I had a bunch of colorful paper strips.  Instead of throwing them away, we plan to use the paper strips to make Paper Chain Snakes and Caterpillars.

Construction Paper Craft Instructions

• The Good Night Show Alphabet Book
• Paper Chain Snake
• Paper Chain Caterpillar
• More Crafts from The Good Night Show

These are great crafts to do with your kids this summer when it's too hot to play outside.  Get creative and have fun!

Fun with Streamers

Some summer days are just too hot to take the kids outside.  So, for some indoor fun, I grabbed some popsicle/craft sticks, streamers (left over from birthday parties) and tape to make homemade rhythmic ribbons (like those used by ribbon gymnists).  It was super, simple and the kids played with them for a long time.

Here are more craft ideas you can do with your left over party streamers.  Have fun!

• Rainbow Streamers
• Handheld Ribbon Streamers
• Wind Socks
• Streamer Bed Curtains

The Good Night Show Crafts for Kids

Last summer my kids and I would watch The Good Night Show on the Sprout channel each night before bed.  It was a great way for our family to finish the day together.  The best part of the show is they tell you how to make a different craft each night.  If it's a craft my kids are interested in, we would make it the next day. 

Don't worry if you don't have the Sprout channel, you can still go to their website, Sprout Online, and click on the link for The Good Night Show.  There you will find the instructional video and a printable version of the instructions.  If you want more crafts, Sprout has a great selection of quick and easy crafts here.  Have fun and happy crafting!

Creative Gift Idea

I showed you the gifts I put together for my first graders teacher with Gift for Teacher or Mom.  I also made gifts for my preschooler's teachers.  I got the idea for their gifts from when I was searching the internet for Gift Ideas for Teachers.


I decided to make my preschooler's teachers decorative canvas tote bags.  He has three preschool teachers and I was able to find a 3-pack of brightly colored canvas totes at Walmart.  I had decorative and alphabet iron-ons at home, so I didn't need to buy those.  I also grabbed a few things to fill the bags:  designer notebook, designer planner, 2 nice pens and a bag of Hershey's Bliss chocolates.


I put the words HOPE, LOVE and JOY on the bags with iron-on velvet letters.  I surrounded each word with relative and colorful iron-on images.  I chose these words because these particular preschool teachers have taught our two oldest children over the last four years and during this time they have brought hope, love and joy into our children's lives.  It only seemed fitting to tell them so.


My son and I gave his teachers their gifts today in celebration of Teacher Appreciation week.  However, this is a creative and fun craft or gift idea for anyone and any occassion.  I had fun making them and the teachers loved them.

How to Make a Paper Flower Garden

Today I surprised my kids with paper flowers for Easter.  My oldest son liked his so much that he wanted to make a whole garden of paper flowers.  So we pulled out the cupcake liners and pipe cleaners and began making flowers.  My son came up with the idea of the garden.  We grabbed a shoe box and covered it with green construction paper.  Then we poked holes in it to stick the flowers in.  My son even figured out that we could use green pipe cleaner to make "grass" for our garden.  He is so proud of his garden that he put it on display in our dining room.  This is what we did to make our Paper Garden:

Supplies

• Cupcake Liners
• Pipe Cleaners
• Shoe Box
• Construction Paper
• Pen (for poking holes)
• Tape or Glue

Directions

1. Make your paper flowers using cupcake liners and pipe cleaners (see below for instructional links).
2. Cover a shoe box with green construction paper.
3. Poke holes in the top of the box.
4. Insert flowers into holes.

How to Make Paper Flowers

• Cupcake Liner Flowers
• Tissue Paper Flowers 
• Flower and Garden Crafts for Kids
• Paper Flower Templates

Paper flowers are a great gift idea for children to make.  It's perfect for Teacher Appreciation Day and Mother's Day too!We had so much fun spending time together making this craft!  I hope you do too! 

How to Make Hair Bows

My 2 year old daughter has been blessed with lots of hair.  However, the only things she will let me put in her hair are very girlie hair bows.  I found some great hair bows at a craft show this past winter but, they were quite pricey.  I asked the woman who made them how she did it.  She explained and it seemed simple enough.  So, now that I am finally finding a bit of free time in my schedule I thought I'd give it a shot.

As always, I headed to my computer to search for tutorials on how to make hair bows.  I didn't think there would be many free ones, but luckily I was wrong.  I found some great sites that make hair bow crafts super easy.  These are the ones I keep going back to:

• Hip Girl Boutique LLC
• Make Bows & More
• Girly Things
• SouthernPlate.com

I'm just starting out and I wanted to test the waters before buying supplies in bulk.  So, I found everything I need to start making hair bows at my local Michael's and Sally's Beauty Supply stores (click on store name to find a location near you).  I purchased the Mini-Bowdabra at Michael's for $9.99.  It is helpful but, you can make lots of different kinds without much at all.  The basic supplies I used to get started and their estimated costs were:

• Scissors
• Lighter, $0.99
• High Temp Hot Glue Gun, $3
• Glue Sticks, free (3 came with glue gun)
• Bow Wire, $0.99 (to tie off the bow)
• Alligator Clips, $2-3
• Ribbon, $1-$4 each

Hair-Hardware.com is a great website where you can buy all of your bow making supplies in bulk.  If you plan to make a business from with your bows, buying in bulk would be your best bet.  I, myself, have lots of little girls in my family with lots of demands for hair bows.  So, I plan to visit Hair-Hardware.com very soon.

Easter Brunch Menu Ideas

There's been a change of plans.  We will be having an Easter brunch (instead of dinner) after church on Sunday with my sister and brothers.  So, I hit the net again for some menu ideas for a simple Easter brunch. 

If you plan to have an Easter day celebration for you kids and maybe a few of their friends, you can Host an Easter Brunch for Kids.  Parents magazine puts together a fun collection of Easter crafts, recipes ideas and even instructions on how to make your own Easter brunch invitations.  (For more Easter crafts see my Easter Crafts for Everyone post.)

I myself will be trying to make as much as I can ahead of time, since I'm sure we will all be starving after church and eager to eat when we get home.  So, I'll be making a few recipes from the Make-Ahead Easter Brunch article by Taste of Home.

But there are plenty more ideas for Easter brunch recipes and here are a few: 

• Easter Entertaining: 4 Brunch Menus
• Dazzling Easter Brunch Recipes
• Affordable Easter Brunch Recipes

Make Your Own Bunny Hair Bow

My work in progress

I love crafts and I wanted to try something new. So, a couple of days ago, I decided to try making hair bows for my baby girl.  And my search began for online tutorials on how to make hair bows.  My favorite one I found (especially with Easter just days away) is the Easter Bunny Clippie. 

I gathered the supplies needed:  scissors, hot glue gun, white/pink/purple ribbon and a hair clip and gave it a try.  Thanks to all the pictures and simple instructions, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be and so adorable.  I just need to pick up the googly eyes and it will be perfect for Easter.

With all the online videos and tutorials on how to make hair bows, you can easily begin your own collection.  View my post How to Make Hair Bows to find out more.