My daughter has begun collecting Our Generation doll’s and I love the wide variety of accessories and playsets available for them. Everything is just that much cuter in doll size! Continue reading “Christmas Holiday DIY Playset for 18 Inch Dolls”
Category: Little Hands
Read for Treats! Printable Reward Chart
Summer is fast upon us and one thing I want to work on during the break from school is the kids reading. They both love the routine we have gotten into of us reading to them each night, but I also want to help encourage their own reading progress. I have ordered some beginning levelled readers for my daughter and a few new chapter books that I thought would interest my son, then came up with a fun reward system that has them excited to read daily.
DIY K-Cup Advent Calendar
Somewhere between having 2 kids and becoming a stay at home mom, I became a coffee drinker. I managed to make it through 4 years of university without touching a cup of coffee, but the sleepless nights with newborns and long days with toddlers quickly turned it into my preferred form of caffeine.
Gingerbread Play-dough Cookie Making Kit
Are you looking for a fun and imaginative gift for the young kids on your gift giving list? This Gingerbread Play-dough Cookie Making Kit is sure to spark creativity and add extra cheer this holiday season. It is quick and easy to put together with my printable labels and a bit of cooking to mix up the gingerbread scented dough.
Easter Egg Decorating with Rice Krispie Treats
I loved dying Easter Eggs as a kid, but I have not kept up the tradition with my own kids since no one in our house is particularly fond of hard boiled eggs. We have tried the plastic ones meant for dying and decorating, but they take an awfully long time to absorb the dye and don’t look near as good as a real egg. Continue reading “Easter Egg Decorating with Rice Krispie Treats”
3D Paper Easter Baskets
Today I am excited to share this quick little paper craft courtesy of my mom, Christine Wolzl. These simple paper baskets would be a fun little craft to do with kids and are so easy to customize using your favourite color or patterned paper. They would be great at a kids party for favour baskets or filled with treats as part of the place settings at Easter dinner.
Easy DIY Handprint Snowman Christmas Cards
Between my two children, we have 6 different teachers to buy Christmas gifts for this Holiday season. My kids both love school and I think the teachers and aides play a big part in that so I wanted a small gift each to thank them for their efforts. Continue reading “Easy DIY Handprint Snowman Christmas Cards”
Giving Back With Kellogg’s Cereal
We are continuing to give back to our community this Holiday season thanks to some help from Kellogg’s cereal, Hasbro Toys and The Salvation Army.
Free Hasbro Game or Toy Offer
Back in October, I stocked up on Kellogg’s cereal to take advantage of the Hasbro Game or Toy Offer they were running. By inputting a special code printed inside the box, I was able to order 5 coupons good for a free Hasbro toy valued at up to $15 or a coupon for $10 off a toy that cost $25 or more.
It took just over a month for the coupons to get shipped to me, but once I had them they were easy to use at Toys R Us and Walmart to “buy” toys. I let my kids pick out one toy each for themselves and we used the other 3 coupons to pick out toys to donate to the Christmas Bureau. It was fun shopping together, and I was happily surprised by my son’s response of “Oh, that’s a nice thing to do for other kids mom!”
There are lots of great organizations collecting new toys at this time of year, but I chose the Strathcona Christmas Bureau because of their connection with the wonderful Santa we always visit at Sherwood Park Mall. In the past we have made a monetary donation during our visit with Santa, but this year it was a lot more fun to toss toys into the large donation bin. I already had a few toys I had bought to donate, but thanks to the Kellogg’s coupons we were able to give more toys and make Christmas merrier for a few more kids.
I didn’t have high hopes for our Santa visit after my daughter insisted she wanted nothing to do with Santa, so I was pleasantly surprised when she climbed up on his knee and happily chatted to him. I can’t say enough good things about this Santa and we had a lovely afternoon creating Christmas memories.
Treats for Toys
Our boxes of Rice Krispies did not stop giving with the Free Hasbro Toy. With Kellogg’s Treats for Toys program, I was also able to plan a fun little activity for my kids that gives back to the Salvation Army.
By simply making a toy inspired Rice Krispie treat and uploading the picture to the Rice Krispies website, Kellogg’s will make a donation of $20 to the Salvation Army to buy a gift for a child this Christmas. I uploaded our picture this morning and it was incredibly quick and easy.
I had a teddy bear shaped silicone mould so I decided to use that for our toy inspired treats. With a bit of store bought icing and a selection of candies, we decorated our teddy’s and created a fun bedtime snack that gives back. It doesn’t get much sweeter then that!
Thank you to Kellogg’s, Hasbro and the Salvation Army for helping us give back this Holiday Season! I love both programs and it is amazing that we were able to give so much with little more then the cost of a few boxes of breakfast cereal.
Fun with Pumpkin Playdough
Last week I made some delicious pumpkin dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner and ended up with a lot of pumpkin puree left over to use up. I made these delicious Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Squares and decided to use the final bit for a batch of this yummy smelling Pumpkin Spice Playdough. Continue reading “Fun with Pumpkin Playdough”
Something Sweet for the Teacher
Last week was my son’s last day of pre-school. It was a great introduction to school and I am (mostly) looking forward to sending him off to kindergarten this fall.
He had a great year and had some really amazing teachers who made it fun for him to go each day Most days I didn’t even get so much as a wave good-bye as he was running into the classroom to play.
I wanted to do a gift card of some sort, but I knew the one teacher did not like tea or coffee. Both teachers have young families and since our family goes out for ice cream a lot during the summer months, I decided on a gift card for Dairy Queen.
I enlisted the help of my mom to make the cards. She was happy to do it and I knew she’d do a great job so this was one place I was happy to pass the DIY torch over.
The cards turned out great and I love that my mom even thought to included a small pocket inside for me to tuck the gift cards into!
And as a little something to go with the cards and gift cards, I decided to use a couple of the plastic pots we had leftover from an activity at my daughter’s birthday party. (There’s more on that to come, I promise!)
I designed a new insert to go in the plastic pots and had my son color and decorate one for each of the two teachers.
Now coloring and crafting is NOT my sons strong suit. It has been a battle all year to get him to do the crafts at pre-school and if it was left up to him he chose to play with toys or build with blocks before touching a crayon or scissors. At pick-up each day I would see each kid coming out with their wonderful creations, and my son was almost always empty handed.
Knowing this, I hope the teachers appreciated his efforts to sit down and actually create something for them. He seemed to try and get through the coloring part quickly so he could get to the playing in the dirt and planting, but he did seem quite proud of his creations at the end.
The gifts turned out great and I hope it help show the appreciation for his wonderful teachers. My daughter is already excited at the idea of starting at the same pre-school in the fall because of her big brother’s great experience.
dolledupdesign.net 