kids activities

TURN YOUR KID’S ARTWORK INTO ART

A perfect art project for Teacher’s Appreciation Day or Mother’s Day. By simply taping the edges of fold-over notes, it creates a clean border for the chaos within. Then write your sweet note inside and send! Or make a few and bundle them together with twine and give as custom stationery. Step-by-step tutorial below.
WHAT YOU NEED:
acrylic or oil paints
paint brushes
masking tape or painters tape
foldover notes or cardstock
willing children
STEP 1:
Line up all notecards so that the sides are touching
STEP 2: 
Put one piece of tape down in between two cards just to save yourself time and supplies. Tape ALL edges down so that you have a tape border around each card.
STEP 3:
Have your kids fill each card with paint edge to edge. I like to choose the paint colors myself so that they turn out sort of nice no matter what! Start with warm tones, then cool, then have them finish with a clean skinny brush for a metallic paint. 
STEP 4:
Carefully peel off the tape and voila! A nice clean boarder that looks pretty enough to gift!
xo

VALENTINE’S DAY SCAVENGER HUNT – FREE PRINTABLE

Here’s a fun activity for your littles on Valentine’s Day morning… 
scavenger hunt slash Valentine’s Day decoration!
Ari is REALLY into “finding treasure”, secret clues, and going on a treasure hunt, (it’s really fun when he hides food…yikes) so I’m super excited for him to do this on Valentine’s Day! Make a scavenger hunt around your house with this free printable HERE and HERE. Just print on any paper, cut out, and hide the hearts all around the house! 
You could even add toys or candies with the hearts. 
When you’re done you can string the hearts up in a banner that reads “I LOVE YOU” for decoration. 
Great practice for reading and letter recognition. Gotta sneak it in there somehow!
I actually got the concept of the heart scavenger hunt from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood AKA the best show of all time (PBS kids). This show taught ME incredibly helpful ways to navigate through toddlerhood and taught ARI how to cope with change. Starting school, going to the doctor, help with transitions, potty training… there is literally a song for everything toddlers and parents experience. Plus, they don’t display negative behavior which is so rare in kids shows. I cannot say enough good things about this show!! 
Hope your little explorers have fun with this!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
-L

FEATURED: ROWEN’S SHARK PARTY

We’ve been bugging our crazy-talented friend, Shara, for pictures of Rowen’s Shark Party since we walked through the door of the party… and had our mind’s blown. Modern, clean, fun, creative touches EVERYWHERE. Crafty in the coolest way, clever menu, fun games for kiddos…so good.
Shara used two slightly different colors of crepe paper and twisted them to create “water”. She hung all the sharks from string so they would appear to float on top of the waves. Genius.
 One of our favorite things of the party was this shark wreath! Shara spray painted a foam wreath core gray then hot glued plastic sharks (here) all around to simulate a shark attack feeding frenzy!
The fins on the mantel were pin-on fins for the kids to wear. Shara made them using stiffened felt and a template found here.
 I mean… really
Cake topper here

 Menu:
Shark Bait sandwiches (tuna salad)
Shark Fin sandwiches (cheese triangles)
Slow Swimmer Salsa and Sea Algae Guacamole with Fins (blue tortilla chips)
Shark Teeth (Bugles)
Whale and Goldfish crackers
Vegetarian Shark Food (crudites)
Watermelon Shark fruit salad (carved by Shara’s husband after she showed him pictures on Pinterest and convinced him it would be easy! Ha!)
Sea Dogs (hot dogs)
Great White Sugar Cookies
Fish Kabobs (gummy fish and shark candies on a stick)
Life Preservers (mini sugar donuts with red gel icing)
Jaws cupcakes (vanilla cake with vanilla whipped frosting and gummy sharks
Shark Attack cupcakes (blue velvet cake with coconut cream cheese icing and fondant fins)
Chum Punch
Shark Infested Lemonade
 Shara’s favorite things about the sharks hung from the ceiling were the shadows they created when the light was turned on. The slight movement of the sharks and the big shadows made it look like there were actually sharks swimming around the room.
Party Activities: 
Shark Dress Up Bucket- shark, sailor, and captain costumes, beach ball, surfboard, sunglasses, flower leis, blow up shark, beach paraphemalia
Air swimmer remote-controlled helium shark (Amazon)
Pink the Fin on the Shark (Amazon)
Make Your Own Shark Game craft station
Let’s Go Fishing Game
Finding Nemo Movie
 
Ari LOVED this activity… we still have his shark on the fridge!
 Favor buckets: “shark tank” bubbles, “under the sea” coloring book, shark stickers and tattoos, bag of shark and fish gummy candies, shark squirter toy, fish stamps, sunglasses, and glow bracelet
Invitation, favor tags, and thank you notes here
Gummy fish kabob!
Big Birthday Boy Rowen!
Thank you for sharing your party with us, Shara! We loved every minute of it (oh and so did our kids!!).