I love Melissa and Doug toys! But buying them
And here are a couple of our personal favorites! They also make a phenomenal present!
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Category Archives: kids
Big Girl Shoes for My Little Girls
My girls are flower girls this weekend and so I had to go out and get them shoes. They have adorable ivory dresses with wreaths. Rather than get a cream shoe that they would never wear again I decided to get a metallic sandal they could wear all summer. But I wanted them to match and that is a challenge because the baby is still in “toddler shoes” where as NerdPie is a
“youth” (yes, incorrigible youths;). So…
I originally was going for silver but we all fell in love with these. They have about 1/2 inch wedge on them. The girls are both excited that they have a shoe with a heel, mind you it is only 1/2 inch;). NerdPie said, “I like these! They are high!” But worry not, the 4 year old will not fall from her “stilts”. I caught NerdPud walking around in my 3 1/2 inch wedges (successfully) before she turned 2.
Now they just need pedicures!
Personalized Easter Baskets
(Welcome Central Valley Today viewers! These are the details of my spot today!)
This is such an easy project that I feel kind of guilty devoting a post to it. I mean if it is something I can easily do anyone can. It doesn’t have to be perfect, I mean mine aren’t.
And full disclosure, these here in the picture aren’t mine. I couldn’t get a picture of the ones I did for my older two children without getting their names in the picture. These were done by my friend Angie for our church when my last two were born. And she decorated all sides of the buckets, I didn’t;). And hers are cuter than mine but my kids love the ones I did!
Ok, the main idea behind these personalized buckets is that you don’t have 10 million cheap baskets around the house that won’t hold anything and have to be replaced every year. With personalized buckets you have 2 choices. The kids can use them all year round to transport their things and decorate their rooms. The other option, and the one we use, is we pack them away after Easter just like you do stockings. Then pull them out and use them year after year. The ones I made are 8 years old already and still look pretty good.
The first thing to do is pick the right bucket! I picked awesome paint buckets when I did this eight years ago. They are shallow but huge! I had to get something smaller for my kids to use for egg hunting for the next couple of years. #MomFail Pick a bucket that fits the kid you are getting it for. While it looks cute to see a child lug around a bucket that is 2/3 their height, they find it very frustrating. Same thing with picking baskets that are to wide. Then they just turn and accidentally dump out everything. That makes kids not want to find all the eggs!
Now that we found the bucket we are ready to go! Wipe down the bucket with a baby wipe or cleaning wipe and let it dry completely. Then you just take your paint pens and go at it! If you want you can use templates too. They can help with basic shapes but you probably won’t get anything to detailed with the templates. Let is dry for an hour or two and you can use it! I like to let them cure for a day but it isn’t really needed.
And seriously, that is it! Now fill it with goodies or take it egg hunting! Make sure if you are egg hunting though you are looking for my perfect Easter eggs! Your kids will feel so special and you spent as little as $1 on the bucket! Such a deal!
Happy Easter!
Free Poetry Month Resources!
Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? It is and as always there is a wealth of free resources out there to teach your kids about poetry! And I mean kids of all ages!!!!
Scholastic has a ton of activities for kids k-12. There are workshops, printables and prompts but it all starts with a reading from Jack Prelutsky!
The Shel Silverstein site has a ton of resources from mini units to single printable pages. They have simple printables under kids and a ton more (including this and last year’s poetry month packs) under educators. 1 warning about the site, it pops up with music and you have to click through a few pages to get to anything.
Poets.org has a variety of units available. They were all created by secondary teachers. It also has poems to teach with some of them even being read to you!
Do you like poetry? I loved Shel Silverstein growing up and gotten his books from the library for my kids. But honestly, other than to answer trivia questions, I don’t know much about poetry. So I look forward to learning about this with my kids! Go get your literature arts on and teach your kids to enjoy poetry!
By the way, make sure you check back because later in the month I will be reviewing some poetry apps too!
Recycle, Reuse and Educate
It isn’t hard to take this scrap of wrapping paper and get not only a great fine motor skill lesson but some great kids crafting!
Duo and Make A Wish
Through March 31, 2012, Discovery Bay Games will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation for every person that takes the Play Together Pledge on Discovery Bay Games’ Duo Facebook Page, with a maximum donation of $10,000.
I love this company’s interactive games and I love this idea. Playing with your family isn’t just fun but has also been proven to be great for your kids! The kids learn more and respect you more after actually having fun with you!
So pop over to the Facebook, take the Pledge and help out Make A Wish!
The Perfect Easter Eggs
Ok, was it just my family growing up? My family that would come together for Easter and pool like 7-10 dozen hard boiled, colored eggs. There were so many cousins that we would break up the egg hunt by age and height breakdowns;). It would take a half hour to hide the eggs and something like 3 times as long to find them, if we found them all. Then we would live on egg salad sandwiches for the next week. And after they were outside in the Central California heat for 2 hours doesn’t that sound yummy?
So when I had my own kids my husband and I decided to do things a little different. I have bought a collection of cheap, fillable, plastic Easter Eggs. Then I buy adorable and cheap things (often on clearance the year before;) to fill them! We even separate them by colors and assign them to specific kids. So 1 year I filled daughter #1’s eggs with play jewelry, son #1 got plastic bugs and son #2 got leaping bunnies. It is so easy and fun! We have been doing it for 8 years now and it has always been a hit!
There are no nasty egg sandwiches for days. The kids spend the next few weeks or months playing with their dime store treasures. I just bag up the the plastic eggs and store them in the garage for next year!
And if one gets forgotten in the heat? It’ll be fine tomorrow!
(Disclosure: I am submitting this to the Hershey Bunny Trail and am receiving a basket of goodness as a thanks!)
10 Great Online Coupons!!!
There are some awesome coupons out there for online shopping. I wish I had had a few of these before I did all my Blissdom shopping!
1. Get 20% and Free Shipping with Code EMPTWENTY at Spanx.com! Valid Through 3/31/12.
3.Use Code LKS13CP5 to Get $20 Off Orders of $120 or More at Footlocker.com!
5. Get 15% Off When You Spend $75 or More on Kids Furniture at Target.com!
6. Take $5 Off Orders of $25+ with Code februarylove at Philosophy.com! Valid Through 3/31/12.
7.Use Code 000301275 to Get 30% Off Your Purchase at LaneBryant.com!
10. Get Up to 30% Off Kids, Baby, and Maternity at OldNavy.com! Valid Through 2/22/12.
Who?Comics App
Thank you to who?Comics for sponsoring this post and encouraging my child to read biographies in comic book form! Please click here to learn more about the app. And follow who? Comics on Twitter for updates
As you all know, I am a big fan of reading and an even bigger fan of learning! So you can just imagine how excited I was to receive the opportunity to use the who?Comics app on my iPad with my kids!
Who?Comics is a free app and it comes with 2 books. There are 27 other books available for purchase. Some are sold individually but there are also packs available. Which of course, are a better deal;). So I got the Scientists pack (surprise, surprise;). Right off we checked out Marie Curie and Thomas Edison!
Here is a little detail you should know going in. These comics are not the super quick, over view type comics. There are 150 pages of details about the subject’s personal life. Which means it isn’t a quick read! I was very familiar with Marie Curie and I learned so much! NerdPie and I even cried at 2 different spots.
So what is my overall feel? Well, I love the idea of having these on the iPad for easy access! The art is clear and the story line moves at a good clip. This isn’t going to be a situation where you can read the whole thing in the doctor’s waiting room and that can be a good thing. This app was developed over seas and so there are a few translation issues. Due to that and the fact that these really deal with real life situations, I would make sure you child is near you when they read them. I had to explain about certain illnesses and certain historical events that were mentioned in the books we read. There was an assumption that the kids understood everything but mine had quite gotten there yet. (For example, why and how Poland was being occupied By Russia and how they weren’t supposed to speak Polish.)
My kids thoroughly enjoyed these comics! My kids are even asking for books from the library so they can learn even more! Both about the people in the stories and the science they discovered!
Thank you again to who? Comics for sponsoring my post. Please click here to learn more about the app. Visit who? Comics for updates. I was selected for this opportunity by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own. #CleverWhoComics #spon
Win a Dell Laptop!!!
I think Lady Geek TV is so cute! It is a series over on YouTube sponsored by Kaspersky and always has a great computer safety message. My kids love it too! But what I love more than just the show is that I won a Dell laptop from them last week!
This week’s episode focuses on ridding yourself of icky content and they have another Dell Laptop Giveaway!
So watch the video and enter!!!