• family - parenting

    Five Cute Valentine Crafts for Kids

    Valentine’s Day can be a lot of fun for children, especially those who are in grade school and enjoy sharing parties and treats and cards. There are so many special treats and crafts that you can do with your kids to celebrate Valentine’s Day! I still recall being in grade school and making a mailbox out of an old Kleenex box for my Valentine’s every year. That was a sweet tradition. Valentine’s Day is not far away at all now! Maybe one of these adorable kid’s crafts will become a special Valentine’s Day tradition for your child. DIY Kids Valentine…

  • Food

    Frozen’s Olaf Marshmallow Craft – Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?

    Do you want to build a snowman? Good luck. Now you can easily with this simple craft featuring marshmallows and pretzel sticks. EASY PEASY. This Frozen inspired Olaf Marshmallow Craft is so much fun. One of my kid’s teachers used to say – Don’t play with your food until you’ve eaten all your toys! But this Olaf marshmallow craft is a little bit of both – edible food, craft and a toy. So this is one instance where you can play with your food and have fun building a miniature Frozen Olaf Marshmallow Craft toy. It’s the best of all worlds…

  • family

    8 Fun and Easy Christmas Crafts For Kids Under 10

    It’s time for Christmas crafts! My girls have been talking about doing some Christmas crafts for days now. SO, I think it’s time to gather a few up and have some fun. But first a trip to the Dollar Store to get supplies. I know we will be making up some reindeer food once again because it is fun and it is a tradition of sorts here. Paper bag reindeer puppets are easy. Pine cones are excellent for crafting with. Both of my kids are forever finding them and collecting them too. These crafts here are pretty simple. Most children…

  • family

    21 DIY Christmas Ornaments

    21 DIY Christmas Ornaments I am a sucker for pretty Christmas ornaments. I love the unique ones that have meaning and emotional weight because they were made with love. Every year my kids make a couple of their own. This past year I bought them a pile of plain glass ornaments and I let them decide how they wanted to decorate each one. Some turned out really sweet. Just like theseĀ 21 DIY Christmas Ornaments. I have compiled a creative list of 21 DIY Christmas Ornaments for you to dive into this Holiday season. There is nothing better than a homemade…

  • family - parenting

    PERFECT Teen or Tween Gifts – Fashion Angels Charm Mashup and Work In Progress Natural Facial Care – #TMMGG2015

    Fashion Angels Charm Mashup is a toy I would have gone nuts for as a tween or teen girl. I loved to craft and make things just like my girls do. So, I figured this would be a lot of fun but I was surprised it made me feel like a kid again too. Usually bead kits drive me a bit batty as a parent because the beads can wind up tracked all over the house, but we have learned a few tricks from the kid’s crafting experiments here over the years and I quickly just made sure ALL the…

  • family

    15 Creative DIY Origami Crafts for Kids

    Origami is the ancient Japanese art of folding paper. I happen to know this because I have a teenager who loves origami and Japanese culture in general. Traditional Japanese origami – paper folding began during the EDO period. The most commonly known form of Japanese origami is the paper crane. My teen folds these all the time and can also make origami bowls, plates and cups which is a party trick she tends to use when other kids are over. [tweetthis]Which of these origami crafts for kids will you try first? [/tweetthis] These ideas are totally appealing to the crafty…

  • family

    Fun Family Leaf Crafts and Activities

    Fall is approaching, which means the leaves are changing colours and soon will be falling everywhere. Why not use some to make fun leaf crafts? As lovely as it is when the leaves change colours, it can be a bit of a mess when they fall all over roads and lawns. In our old neighbourhood, at our old house, we had so many leaves. We bagged them for days on end. It was so much work. We had some huge trees in our yard. In the newer area where we live now the trees are just a little bit younger…

  • family - parenting

    5 Summer Crafts for Tween Girls

    Well, school is soon to be out and you know what that means, right? It means chaos, unless you have something planned for the kids several days in a row. I have a tween and a teen and they are super crafty little things. In fact, I have told this story before but the oldest when she was three started preschool almost entirely because of the crafts. It’s true. She wanted to craft all the time and I had run right out of ideas. That was before Pinterest, obviously. So, that and the fact that she was super talkative and…

  • family

    8 Adorable Father’s Day Crafts Kids Can Make

    Have you been looking for some Father’s Day crafts the kids can help with? Here you go. There’s something brilliant here for your children to make just for Dad. I love the Star Wars mug. It’s super creative and unique. So how do you celebrate Father’s Day? Do you buy your Dad or husband gifts, or do you make something sweet and from the heart? [tweetthis]Here are 8 cute handmade crafts your kids could make this Father’s Day![/tweetthis] There’s nothing more special than those cute handcrafted treasures from your kids for Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, or any old occasion. Sometimes…

  • family - Health - parenting

    10 Sensory Play Ideas with Gelatin

    My kids are a curious combination of sensory seeking and sensory avoiding. That’s not uncommon for children with sensory processing difficulties. My older daughter avoids anything that feels scratchy. My younger daughter seeks out deep pressure often and also avoids any fabrics that are not soft and comfortable. Both have some sensory issues. I have written about that often here. Remember this post about 5 easy and free sensory play activities for kids with sensory processing disorder. [tweetthis]Five Easy and Free activities for kids who love sensory play https://www.thriftymommastips.com/easy-and-free-sensory-play-activities-for-kids/[/tweetthis] Both of my girls indulge in and seek out messy play.…