December 18, 2011

Best games & gifts for 4 & 5 year olds

Four and five year olds are getting ready for or just starting school. It’s a big time in their lives. Developmentally they have a growing vocabulary, increased fine motor skills and a little, or in some cases, a lot more of an attention span than when they were toddlers. Four and five year olds are extremely curious and absorbing new concepts like little sponges. This can make buying gifts for four and five year olds fun but also challenging. Many toys that say for ages three and up already seem too babyish and yet many of the cool toys seem to say that they are for ages six and up. Don’t worry. This list of the best gifts for four and five year olds is teacher recommended and kid approved. Continue Reading …

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December 17, 2011

Hot gifts for tweens: Mosaic Charming Chandelier

This chandelier that girls will make and decorate is right out of a fairy tale but right on target skill wise for eight and nine year old girls. I can attest that even girls up to 12 years old enjoy making and displaying this Charming Chandelier. This is my hands down favorite creative gift for girls for Christmas 2012. This unique gift is going to light up the life of many young girls at only $17.00 at Amazon.com for 1200 plus crafty pieces. Continue Reading …

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November 23, 2011

How to throw an Elmo birthday

Young kids get “tickled” over an Elmo or Sesame Street birthday party and decorating for the party is as easy as A,B, C and 1, 2, 3.

1. Go through your child’s plush animals and books and pull out everything Sesame Street. Tuck Sesame Street characters around the room and stand books up as fun and easy decorations for the food table.

2. The Sesame Street website has a wonderful collection of free printables that you can use to decorate for your Elmo party including letter printables that can be used to make a birthday banner with your birthday boy’s or girl’s name.

3. Since Sesame Street is all about bold primary colors you can do a fun and simple science experiment with your child and create a pretty party centerpiece at the same time. Purchase a bouquet of white carnations. Separate into four different cups of water. Add drops of red, blue and yellow food coloring into three of the cups and add blue and yellow into the fourth cup to make green. Over night your child can watch the white carnations turn into a rainbow of colors. Arrange the flowers together for a centerpiece for the party.

4. Since letter blocks are part of the logo for Sesame Street, it’s fun to create your child’s name from letter blocks to decorate a table or even the cake for an Elmo party.

5. The Sesame Street website also has free printables featuring numbers one through twenty. Print out your child’s age and make a welcome sign for your party guests.

 

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November 19, 2011

How to throw a Winnie the Pooh birthday party

I just love Winnie the Pooh, that silly old bear, and his friends Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Rabbit and of course Christopher Robin. Winnie the Pooh is a favorite nursery theme and it is wonderful young birthday party theme. Here are some tips for inviting your friends and family over the 100-Acre Woods to celebrate a special birthday.

Dress for success Winnie the Pooh style.

The birthday boy or girl can be dressed for a day in the 100 Acre Woods Pooh style with a red t-shirt. Mom, Dad and the siblings can done red t-shirts for the special day too and take a honey of family photo at the birthday party.

You’ve just got to have a honey pot.

Whether you fill it with flowers or serve popcorn in it, every Winnie the Pooh party has to have a honey pot. Start with a pottery crock and either paint on the letters if you want a permanent keepsake or use removable letter stickers if you just want a honey pot for the day. Don’t forget, Winnie the Pooh’s pot is a “hunny” pot.


Have your Winnie the Pooh cake and eat it too.

You can find 45 Winnie the Pooh birthday cake ideas at CoolestBirthdayCakes.com
from simple and sweet to the fanciest honey pot of Winnie the Pooh cakes.

You’re invited… to print free Winnie the Pooh invitations.

If you want save money and make your own Winnie the Pooh party invitations you can find several cute ones at the unofficial Pooh Printables Page. There’s also some cute Pooh themed lined paper there that’s perfect for thank you notes.

Decorating the 100 Acre Woods.

You can find fun printables for decorating for your Winnie the Pooh birthday party at Disney Junior website. If you have preschool age guests, these printables also make fun party favors.

Raid that plush animal collections and pull out all of the Winnie the Pooh and friends characters. Plop them along your party tables up against flower arrangements or potted plants. Arrangements of leaves are perfect for a rustic 100 Acre Woods.

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November 17, 2011

How to throw an American Girl doll birthday

My daughter has long been an American Girl doll fan and thanks to her grandparents she has the Kaya doll, Felicity doll and Elizabeth doll. For her eleventh birthday, she decided she wanted to have an American Girl doll party and I couldn’t have been happier. A doll party is super sweet and easy too.

American Girl birthday party invitations:

We couldn’t resist a photo invitation with our girl and her American Girl doll inviting her friends to bring their dolls over for a play date. We worded the invitation to bring your “favorite doll” so whether anyone had an American Girl doll or not would not be an issue.

American Girl birthday party cupcakes:

The birthday cake was as obvious for a doll party so finally we decided on cupcakes. We made cupcakes with white cream cheese icing and decorated them with the American Girl purple and hot pink star emblem. The party girl loved them and it was so easy for the party host. We even found hot pink star sprinkles.

American Girl birthday party favors:

We created our own party favors that were all about dressing up the dolls. We included found travel hairbrushes that folded up, lots of ponytail holders and stick on jewel earrings. We handed the bags at the party and the girls had fun doing their dolls hair and each other’s hair.

American Girl birthday party menu:

We decided since we were having a girlie girl party that we might as well go all out with our ladies themes. We decided to set up the party as a tea party with pots of tea, pitchers of pink lemonade, teacups, assorted tea sandwiches and cookies. Use a small star cookie cutter to make cookies and sandwiches in the signature American Girl emblem.

American Girl birthday party activities:

With plain plastic frames and assorted scrapbook stickers, our party guests were able to create a picture perfect frame. We took a photo of each guests and their doll and mailed it to them in their thank you notes.

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September 29, 2011

Gifts for 8 & 9 year olds: award winning Illustory

Illustory is a kit with paper and markers that allows young kids to write a story and illustrate it on special paper. That sounds nice but what’s really cool is that then kids can mail in the pages in a prepaid envelope for their book to be published and returned to them. This gift is perfect for eight year old girls and boys who’d love to see their name in print but aren’t old enough or savvy enough for internet publishing. This unique gift gets 4 and one-half stars from shoppers on Amazon.com. The few who rated it low basically said you can find this service online. I agree but maybe not everybody wants their eight year olds using online services and at just under $20.00 it’s a great gift for creative kids.

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September 3, 2011

Throw an Old Fashioned Ice Cream Party

Whether it’s to celebrate back to school, the end of summer or a birthday, any day is a great day to Throw An Old Fashioned Ice Cream Party.

 

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August 9, 2011

Car Racing Games and Activities for Kids

Vroom! Vroom! Some kids just to the rip roaring of a race car. Keep your little race car fans on track with these fun Nascar Crafts & Activities.

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August 7, 2011

How to Throw a Race Car Birthday Party

Vroom! Vroom! Zoom! Zoom! Youngsters just love cars, racing and anything that is in motion full speed ahead. Racecars are a popular birthday party theme. Whether your little one is into the Cars movie, starring Lightening McQueen, NASCAR, Speed Racer or just Match Box cars in general, you can use these tips and ideas to get on track and pull off a fun and easy Race Car themed birthday party.

Race Car Birthday Party Invitations:

My son is into Lightening McQueen, Speed Racer, NASCAR and Match Box cars so we went for a general racecar theme birthday party. We announced our party with invitations with classic checkered board flag black and white and asked our guest to “race on over to celebrate” with us as a clue to the theme of our party. We embellished our invitations with racing theme stickers that he could add on himself and choose personally for each guest. Creating a themed invitation helps give guests a clue as to what the birthday boy or girl is really into and it clearly helped some guests choose their gifts from Cars bubble bath to remote control cars.

Race Car Birthday Party Games & Activities:

This experienced Mom likes to keeps games and activities simple. I usually opt for one easy and short organized activity and another activity that is set up like a learning center where kids can choose to come and go.

Game: Red Light, Green Light with Steering Wheels

We saved the cardboard circles from frozen pizzas for a while and turned them into steering wheels. Here’s how: Continue Reading …

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July 29, 2011

Dog Theme Birthday Parties

Are you ready to “paws” for a birthday?  Get some great Dog Birthday Party Ideas here from the mom of a dog lover.

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