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Supplies for Watercolor Gift Bags: White lunch bags (I found mine at Target next to the regular lunch bags.) Watercolor paints & brushes Oil pastels or crayons (optional) Before painting, you can draw pictures or designs on the bag with oil pastels or crayons, which will resist the watercolor paints. I recommend the oil pastels for the brightest colors. Then, it’s time to paint! To get nice bright colors, wet the brush, then “stir” it round and round in the paint color of your choice....

They’ve loved it! I’ve had to do most of the cracking, as their little fingers can’t quite crack those large nuts, but I’ve made sure to have some easy cracking peanuts in there too. It’s been fun to show them what’s inside and we did a little taste test. There’s walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, and one mystery nut. Does anyone know what this is? It doesn’t list this one on the package....

Spend some time in the kitchen exploring these 10 fun and easy food science experiments! Read on for the details. Dancing Raisins: Your kiddos will be mesmerized by this experiment. Head over to Buggy and Buddy for the tutorial. Invisible Ink: Painting with Citrus: Use extra lemons and limes to make invisible ink. Tinkerlab has the instructions for this experiment. Ice Cream in a Bag: Who knew you could make ice cream in a bag?...

We love to celebrate our storytime reading with fun crafts and activities to further our learning and exploration of our books. With Dr. Seuss’s birthday coming up on March 2nd, I’m highlighting 4 activities to craft for one of my favorite books, The Lorax. Truffula Tree Pom Poms: Create this framed craft with sparkly pom poms and baker’s twine. The twine makes for the perfect stripes in those Truffula trees!...

Get there early! I arrived just before 10 am to my local Utah thrift store and witnessed close to 30 people lined up to get in. They are the real bargain hunters. Kami and Allison are usually among them! They say most people head in towards the collectibles first, seeing what’s new for the day. You could probably go every single day and find something new. Pile it in, decide later....

1. Toddler Pee Wee Herman Costume: Oh man, does this bring me back to my childhood, I loved good ol’ Pee Wee Herman. How fun would this be to dress up your little toddler in this costume? I just love that little bow tie! You can find this tutorial over at Simply Real Moms. No-Sew Care Bears Costume: One of my favorite stuffed animals I had as a child were Care Bears....

My favorite thermometer is the Braun No touch + forehead thermometer! It’s clinically proven to give precise and accurate readings with it’s gentle forehead touch or No touch technology from up to 2 inches away, what?? One of the best features is it’s silent mode, so you won’t wake up a sleeping child, yay! And it’s safe and hygienic – great for infants, children, and adults. Happily my temperature is at a cool 98....

1. Simple “All in One” Italian Soup It’s perfectly paired with some toasted crusty bread. Dip your bread into the broth for extra goodness! This soup is ready for lunch or dinner. Or I actually just ate some leftovers for breakfast this morning too, ha :) 2. Easy and Delicious Creamy Tomato Soup Be sure to serve this creamy tomato soup with homemade bread or dinner rolls! Another fun way to serve this up, that the kiddies will LOVE, is with grilled cheese sandwiches....

Street corn salad recipe Our vegetable garden is overflowing with fresh produce. We planted corn, tomatoes, green peppers, beans, Brussels sprouts, kale, squash, zucchini, green onions, and pumpkins. We’ve had so much produce we are giving it to neighbors and our chickens and ducks are loving their summer treats. Having so much means we are having to get creative with our meals because it feels like we are eating the same produce every day....

Decorations: You can make a few of these fun photo cubes with pictures of your baby on it. You could show off all the fun “first” moments from the year. Invitations: Print out this Paper Box Pattern. Write out your party details in the squares of the pattern. You can either send out your invitations like this and let your party goers assemble the box, or cut and glue this paper box together handing out your box assembled to each guest....

My suggestion for your gift to a teacher is a classroom donation! We all know a teacher’s salary is limited, let’s admit it, they are way under paid! So helping fill up the classroom is the best gift you could give. Either make a guess at what your child’s classroom may need as you visit the classroom or simply ask the teacher what they would love to have on hand....

Trail mix is the best. It’s a real life-saver when you’re standing in the middle of your kitchen on a Sunday night thinking about what you can put in your child’s lunch box that is easy to throw together, but good enough that she’ll eat it instead of trading it for a friend’s mystery meal. You want to make sure that mixed in with the salty and sweet is a redeeming nutritional quality your kids won’t notice or mind....

I’m happy to be partnering with Disney-Hyperion and their new picture book Nanette’s Baguette by author Mo Willems. We love the Pigeon series written by Mo Willems, and Knuffle Bunny is one of our family’s favorite stories as well! In comes this new story about Nanette and how she gets to pick up the baguette from Baker Juliette. It’s a silly rhyming story kids will love! More about the book, Nanette’s Baguette: We’re celebrating this story all about baguettes by baking up some yummy pizza bites....

Who doesn’t like creamy delicious ice cream this time of year? Well, I’ve got a better idea… Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches! These are the perfect dessert and super easy! You can choose your favorite cookies, pair them with your favorite ice cream to get the best treat! There is something about cookies and ice cream together: more sweetness, a bit of a different texture and one big tasty bite! Add plenty of your favorite ice cream and let the kids have fun putting these together....

Last year, around this time we talked about options for a Greener Halloween. I was overwhelmed and enthused with all the responses and suggestions for greener trick-or-treating. We ended up passing out fruit leather, glow-sticks and apples picked from a friend’s farm. It was kind of a made-in=China-meets-local motif, though I’m happy to report we ran out of apples. Three cheers for healthy choices from our next generation! This year we’re definitely keeping the apples, but as I mentioned, we’re more focused on costumes....

Supplies for Custom Vase Tutorial: Cylindrical glass vase Patterned paper Paper trimmer Start by measuring the height of your vase with a ruler. Mine measured 10.5 inches tall. Cut your paper to that height. If the width of your paper does not extend around the diameter of the vase, cut two pieces and adhere them together (I used tape on the paper for my wide vase). Roll the paper and set inside the vase....

DIY dried flower wall art Follow along as I show you how to make dried flower wall art to display your memories or favorite dried flowers. I used a combination of dried flowers and pieces I pulled out of a faux dried flower arrangement that I recently picked up at an antique store. The frame that I used I found for $20 at a pop-up antique sale almost a year ago, and I am thrilled I finally thought of a great way to use it....

Halloween is such a great time for crafts and treats. We’re making chocolate candy witch brooms (similar to these Easter candy lollipops we made last April) and they are a huge hit for a Halloween bash! Supplies: Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups pretzel sticks toothpick Method: Pierce the bottom of your peanut butter cup with a toothpick, helping to create a hole for the pretzel to go into. Then stick your pretzel into the hole, but not too far as you don’t want it to come out the other side....

At our house, Thanksgiving is all about the family and the food. We spend 2 days cooking, and about 1,000 hours chatting and chasing kids. That busy schedule does not leave a lot of time for us to create a magazine-cover-worthy table setting. All thoughts of fine china and beautiful bouquets fly out the window when you catch your toddler wrist deep in a vat of creamed spinach. Not that I know that from experience or anything!...

We’re sharing a step-by-step video tutorial for instructions with making these fun and fancy recycled crayons. You can make these with almost any muffin tin, silicone works great too. And there are so many silly-shaped muffin tins out there to use and make these recycled crayons. Recycled Chunky Crayons Video Supplies: 20-30 old crayons metal muffin tin, any size cooking spray Instructions: Get out your old crayons. Take off the paper (if it is still on)....