ninja turtles

Heeeeere we go, people! T-minus 24 days (or 15 days if you celebrate Hannukah like me) ’til Christmas! Here are my picks for the little dudes in your life.

Click the item names below for the links:

1. ALPHA POPS: These are genius. Combining a kid’s favorite food group and learning? Check. Match uppercase and lowercase letters, match colors, use for imaginative play. Yum- I mean- fun!

2. BROTHERS BANNER: Sweet little sign for bros bein’ bros. Cute for a playroom or a new big brother. Love this Etsy shop- lots of rad designs!

3. KIWI CRATE: Yet another genius idea! Monthly subscriptions (3, 6, or 12 months) of creative and educational projects for kids of all ages. AKA no work for you mamas to come up with something to battle the “I’m bored’s”.

4. SPY GLASSES: Because every little boy wants to be a spy!

5. NINJA TURTLES WALKIE TALKIES: Duh.

6. SHARK AQUABOT: Swims in water! The only kind of pet I’m okay with right now.

7. HARRY POTTER BOOK SET: A special keepsake plus it comes in a cool trunk! You know me and my true love for Harry Potter. My husband and I passed that love onto our son. He’s not quite ready to read the books, but he’s seen the first movie about 50 times. This month.

8. KINETIC SAND: An OCD mother’s dream come true! Sand that isn’t messy! You can squeeze it, mold it, shape it, let your kiddo really experiment with it. Comes in lots of fun colors too.

9. TWIST AND DRILL: If your kid loves to pretend to play power tools as much as mine, they’ll love this! The drill actually works and twists the screws in to build cars and trucks. Good for hand eye coordination and pretend play.

10. HI/BYE HAT AND GLOVES: For friendly kids to say hi and bye to everyone they pass on the street. Warm and wooly but don’t put these in the dryer… been there, done that. Now Max wears them.

11. THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES: Fun and silly and written by one of my fav comedians, B.J. Novak. I think any kiddo would get tons of giggles out of this one.

12. STAR WARS COOKBOOK: Make ice saber popsicles. Enough said.

13. WOODEN CHESS SET: Chunky chess pieces perfect for chunky little hands with directions engraved at the bottom. A great first set for early learners.

Any gifts we missed? We’d love to know. Happy shopping!

-L

Ari turned 4 yesterday! I cannot believe I have a four-year-old. What?! After Max’s 1st birthday party last month (HERE) I was pretty spent, so it was music to my ears when Ari declared he didn’t want a party! Background… he’s not too into other kids his age and much prefers adults. We’re working on it at preschool and with play dates, but honestly it was his birthday, so he should get to do what he wants, right? Ari’s request was going to his fav pizza place, Mellow Mushroom, with just the family. So that’s what we did!

I kept decoration to the bare minimum (to my standards) and just made these little pizza party hats, a pizza cake, and pizza tattoos.

Pizza Party tattoos in our Etsy shop HERE

For the pizza cake, I just used sour straws and chocolate cheerios for the “pizza toppings”. I tinted frosting red for the middle layer and yellow for the top. You guys… I totally attempted a brown crust out of frosting and failed miserably. Scraped it off and stuck with a clean yellow top!