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Charlotte, Family, Hadley, Kid Activities

In Other October News

Wrapping up the month of October were a lot of fun events.

Charlotte and James spent some time at KayKay and GrandDavid’s while Jason was out of town. This included a trip to the river park and seeing a train which they are still talking about.

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Lots of sibling fun time.

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Hadley started getting control of her torso and got better at sitting up.

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My girl has insisted on picking out her own clothes since she was two and I rarely intervene (see previous post for the exception). I love how she has her own style and I especially love when her style matches up with mine. She looked so cute in this outfit that I couldn’t resist a picture before school. She is beautiful inside and out and I’m so thankful that I get to be her Mom.

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Since baseball season was wrapping up that meant that James was all baseball, all the time. He got interested in the catchers around this time and started wearing his helmet around like a catcher. I don’t know if he’ll end up playing baseball but he’s sure cute playing it!

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And this sweet girl loved bath time and I couldn’t get enough of her blue eyes.

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Books, Gift Giving, Kid Activities, Parenting, Personal

Friday Peanuts

Friday Peanuts

Well, I managed to finally get Hadley’s four month post and James’ three year post up last night. Other than that I’ve still been a scarce blogger. I’m not sure why other than that most days I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I’ll quit saying that I’m going to blog more next week but I am getting close to post 1500 so maybe I’ll do a giveaway then. Any suggestions on what to give??

On to random thoughts.

– I mentioned in Hadley’s post that I’ve given up on cloth diapers for the moment. It’s true. They kept leaking, spraying out newborn dirty diapers is no fun, and they were so bulky on her. I was using bumGenius Freetime’s (all in one’s, one size). I got discouraged and over the extra laundry and decided to wait until we were changing less diapers and I had time to try out a few other kinds. In good news, the cloth wipes are still going strong!

Do Not Sass Talk Your Mother – possibly one of the best parenting discipline ideas for teens that I’ve ever heard. Someone please remind me of this in a few years!

– IF:Pray was this week and even though I didn’t get to participate in real time, I greatly benefited from the tweets going out. If you want to join in a movement that is determined to start a revival in our church then join this one. It’s full of Christ-centered women encouraging and empowering others.

– I love this mother/son shot. Hoping to recreate it with my boy at our next session with the fabulous Erin Cobb!

– I’ve been listening to The Afters’ Life Is Beautiful album recently and can’t get enough of it. If you want upbeat music with a positive message this is a great band.

– I just finished Hello From the Gillespies and absolutely loved it. It was a very interesting read with lots of twists and turns. And with the Christmas card season coming a book set up by a Christmas card letter disaster is perfect to get me ready!

– Speaking of Christmas, I’ve been shopping for a while now but need some ideas for James now that his birthday is over. He’s got tons of trains although he’d probably love a few more. Other than books I don’t have a lot of ideas for him. Any great 3 year old present ideas?

– One thing that I’m thinking about for Christmas is the new preschool themed Koala Crate from Kiwi Crate. Charlotte has always loved hers and these might be fun for Charlotte. If you’ve got older kids they have also started Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate for those 9+. They look awesome!

– And as for my Christmas list? I’m thinking that Smoothie’s would be a good thing to start with the kids for snacks and want a Smoothie cookbook. If you have one that you love please let me know!

Have a great weekend!

*Some links are affiliate links. Please see my link/review disclosures for more information.

 

 

Crafts, Gift Giving, Kid Activities

Keeping Your Kids Entertained In the Summer

Free trial 7-2014

If you’re like me you might be counting down the days until school starts. I never understood my Mom’s love of August until I had kids. Ha! Tomorrow I’m sharing some educational things that we’ve been doing recently but this afternoon I wanted to share a more creative way to keep your kids entertained.

I’ve shared about Kiwi Crate experience before.  I love that Kiwi Crate comes right to your door and has activities that keep the kids entertained while also letting them explore their creativity a little bit.

Kiwi Crate comes in subscriptions, single crates, and party favors and from now until July 31st they’re offering you the chance to try the Starlight Lantern Project for Free (you only pay $3.95 for shipping)!  If you’ve been thinking about trying Kiwi Crate this is a great chance to sample a project and see if it’s something that you want to introduce in your home more regularly.

Kiwi Crate is available in 3 Month, 6 Month, and 12 Month d subscriptions as well as single crates and party favors.  They’ve also partnered With Target and I’ve found that these projects are great for last minute birthday gifts!

Have you tried Kiwi Crate? I’d love to hear if your kids enjoyed it as much as mine!

*This post contains affiliate links but all opinions and reviews are my own.  Please see my link/review disclosures for more information.

Crafts, Entertaining, Kid Activities

A Snowy Spring Day – Frozen Birthday Party Crafts

We had planned Charlotte’s birthday party to be held at the local botanical garden so I just had a few crafts ready for the girls to do before playing.  But due to our change in venue due to the rain, we added other crafts to keep the girls occupied.  I’m glad that we ended up doing it at our house, otherwise there wouldn’t have been time to do the crafts that Charlotte had picked out plus played in the garden!

Place Setting - Detail

When the girls arrived they had printed Frozen coloring pages and crayons at their seat.  They colored while we waited on everyone to arrive.  Their seat also had a bottle of water and a party straw and the supplies for our next craft (ice bracelets) were also set out.

After everyone arrived we started to create Ice Bracelets!

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To create the ice bracelets, I purchased Sparkle elastic and faux clear and blue beads at Hobby Lobby.

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I cut a piece of elastic about 15″ long and placed a piece of masking tape on the end of it to hold the beads on while the girls were stringing their bracelets.  I then stuck this piece of elastic and an assortment of beads in a small plastic cup at each place as well as placed extra beads around the table.

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After the girls strung their beads and we estimated their length I triple knotted the elastic per the instructions on the back and stuck a dot of glue on the knot after cutting the extra string.  The girls loved their fancy new bracelets!

Between crafts we cut the Elsa Cake and had our Snowman Snacks!

Elsa Cake

As the girls were finishing their snacks and cake, we started working on Queen crowns.  I ordered purple glitter crowns from It’s Twinkle Time.  The crowns came in two pieces and with jewels for the girls to adorn their crowns.  I added some sparkly glitter glue from Hobby Lobby and the girls started making their own crowns!

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Crown Supplies

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Note: Lots of ideas originally came from Paging Supermom and these are just my interpretations of them!

Crafts, Entertaining, Kid Activities, TalesOfAPeanut

A Snowy Spring Day – Frozen Birthday Party Paper Goods

I had so much fun planning and preparing for Charlotte’s fifth birthday party.  I showed her lots of different ideas and only committed to the ones that she was really excited about.  I am excited to share all of our ideas from the party today!

(I was to preface all the details by saying that I did these things because Charlotte wanted to and I wanted to make this day special for her.  I am all about not overdoing things for your kids, especially birthday parties, although this post might make it seem like that wasn’t the case.  There’s a lot that we don’t do that other families do but, in this case, I enjoy crafting and making things and Charlotte and I were able to do a lot of the preparations together which made it even more fun.)

I’m going to start by sharing all of the paper goods that we used for the party.

Tales of a Peanut Frozen Invitation Front

Single Photo Etsy

I started my paper goods shop back when Charlotte was turning one and I designed her first birthday invitation.  Since then I’ve continued the tradition and this year was no different.  I like to include a picture of the birthday child on their invitation so that everyone can have a current picture of them also.  Charlotte worked with me to design this invitation just how she wanted it!

Melted Snowman - Single

I made water bottle labels with Olaf on them that said “Melted Snowmen”.  I set out a water bottle at each girls place but had the extras in a dough bowl on my kitchen island.

Melted Snowmen - Grouped

To make sure that everyone noticed the snow day connection, I created 3×3″ cards with Olaf on them that coordinated with the rest of the decor and wrote what each item was on it.  In addition to the “Melted Snowmen” water bottles we had “Snow Dip” (ranch dressing), “Snowman arms” (pretzels), “Snowman Noses” (carrots), and “Snowman Buttons” (grapes).

Tales of a Peanut Snow Dip

Tales of a Peanut Snowman Arms

Tales of a Peanut Snowman Buttons

Tales of a Peanut Snowman Noses

I sat the cards in a “snowball” made from styrofoam balls that I got from Hobby Lobby.  They were very easy to make (cut off one end to make it flat and then cut a slice in the top to stick the card).

Snowball Place Card Holder

For favors for the girls Charlotte and I made Olaf bags and attached a thank you card. (Directions and a template for the Olaf bag is coming next week.)

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And after the party was over, Charlotte filled out her fill in the blank thank you notes and sent them to her friends!

Tales of a Peanut Frozen Thank You

If you’re interested in purchasing any of these items (all the text is fully customizable) you can check out my shop or see the links below for the individual listings.

Snow Queen invitations

Snow Queen Water Bottle Labels

Snow Queen Gift Tags/Place Card Holders

Snow Queen Plates (in stock, non customizable item)

Snow Queen Plates (customizable)

Snow Queen t-shirt

Snow Queen Thank You Notes

Note: Lots of ideas originally came from Paging Supermom and these are just my interpretations of them!

Kid Activities, Parenting, Travel

Disney with Toddlers – Traveling Tips

Disney With Toddlers

I’m trying to finish up all of my Disney posts and want to make sure the things that we did to make our car ride a little easier.  Remember for reference that our kids were 4.5 and 2 on this trip and the trip was roughly 11-12 hours.  We have a dvd player in our car and used it (more liberally on the way back than the way down) but I tried to prepare other things for the kids to do other than just sit and watch the tv.

James Bucket

I used some galvanized buckets that we had at our house to create buckets for each of the kids with treats to dole out throughout the trip.  Some things were basic and some I specifically went out shopping for.  Having new items for the kids to play with and explore I think made a big difference rather than packing things that they already had played with and seen.  It made the everyday items in their buckets special and that much more fun to open.

Charlotte Bucket

Here’s a rough overview of what I included in their buckets:

-New books to read

-New coloring books and crayons

-Dry erase board and markers

-Stickers and pieces of paper to decorate

Felt Book Felt Book Inside

-Felt busy books

Hang Puppets

-Popsicle Stick Puppets

Popsicle Stick Puzzle Popsicle Stick Nativity Puzzle

-Popsicle Stick Puzzles

-Flash cards

-A soft ball for James

Matching Letters

-A letter pole for Charlotte with stickers to attach

Car 4

-Read Aloud Story Books (I love the message of the ones from places like Lifeway but the Hallmark ones are classics too and these were by far the favorites on the trip because the kids could “read” the story themselves.)

I pulled a lot of things from what we already had stashed away at the house.  Book orders at school are a great place to get inexpensive books and I save happy meal books (ask for the three and under toy always, its almost always a book).  I also save party favors and other random toys that we come across for times like these.  For this trip though I also headed out to do some shopping at the Dollar Tree, Party City, and Target’s Dollar Spot.  I found a lot of items (crayons, coloring books, flash cards, stickers, dry erase boards) all in Disney theme for a small amount of money.

A few things that I read about online (on some of those websites I mentioned) was to take a rimmed cookie sheet or a travel tray for your kids to use in the car.  I ended up just taking large pieces of corrugated cardboard that I had from shipping so many things and it worked fine for them to color on.  I also had picked up some small trinkets (hair clips, small bouncy balls, etc) thinking that I might do the “Mickey leaves a treat each night” thing but I ended up not following through with that.  Don’t stress yourself out about doing what everyone else is doing, just do what makes your life easier!