New Year's Eve Family Interview

I never really enjoyed New Year's Eve as a younger person, but a few years ago we found a way to make it a fun family holiday, and since then I've enjoyed it much more! Every year we have our own special tradition on New Year's Eve involving a series of easy, at home activities and treats. Each activity or treat is hidden within a paper bag. You can read more about our New Year's Eve Bags for the Whole Family here.

Last year, one of our activities involved a quick family interview. It became an instant hit with everyone, even Daddy. We liked it enough that this year I've created a new, cuter printable version that we can use again and share with others!

Host A Kid-Made Ornament Party

One of my favorite things about this time of year is all of the traditions we celebrate as a family. Some of the traditions my husband and I had as children and now share with the boys. Other traditions we've made as a young family together and they are something we can all look forward to.

But as we honor our old traditions, it's always fun to try something new too. And often that is what leads to a discovering something that will become a new tradition. This past weekend we hosted our first "Kid-Made Ornament Party" and it was so much fun - it might just become a new annual tradition.

On a chilly Sunday we invited a handful of young friends (ages 3 to 8) over along with their parents and we encouraged the kids to get crafty and creative with a table full of ornament making materials. For this post we were lucky enough to work with The Oriental Trading Company who sent most of the supplies for review.  However, the opinions and ideas in the post are all our own. We're excited to share some of the things the kids came up with when given a range of awesome project materials! 

Mini Golf Birthday Party

About a year ago Big Brother discovered the fun of mini-golfing and he loved going several times over the summer months. He was pretty excited to discover that because there was less snow and frost this winter, our local mini golf place was already open for his birthday.

He quickly asked to have a handful of kindergarten friends join him for a birthday party at the mini-golf center.  I was excited, as it meant an easy location with not a lot of set up or clean up, although it did take thinking through logistics a little.

Kindergarten Count Down Chain

It's hard to believe, but a week from today I will have a kindergartner in my house. I shared a little about how I'm feeling about it earlier this month in my Monthly Goals post.

But even though I may be feeling sentimental, Big Brother is a bundle of excitement, anticipation, and a few nerves. He's been asking daily for count of how many days are left until school begins. So, with one week to go I put together this Kindergarten Count Down Chain to help keep track of the days.

We do something similar for the winter holidays, so Big Brother knows a little bit about how the chain works already. It's a little like an advent calendar, there is one link for each day. Each day he removes one link. The last link is taken off the day kindergarten starts.  

Our Second Blogiversary!

It's hard to believe that our second blogging year has come and gone already, it definitely snuck up on us this year!

In honor of our second blogiversary, I wanted to take a few moments to celebrate some of our top posts from the past year.

Simple Circus Animal Birthday Party Ideas

Last month we celebrated Little Brother's 2nd Birthday. It's amazing to me not only how quickly this birthday came up, but that he's already been two for a whole month!

Usually we have the boys' birthday parties either at home or at a small town hall we can easily rent. In the past we've done both an Outer Space Birthday and a Construction Birthday at our local town hall. But this birthday wound up overlapping with another event, and it was easier to use a restaurant space. This meant I really had to simplify what we were planning for activities and how much I was bringing into the restaurant.

Little Brother's love of animals did inspire some fun with Circus Animals. Here are a few of our Simple Circus Animal Birthday Ideas. 

30 + Crafts, Activities, and Recipes to Keep Kids Entertained at Family Holiday Parties

We're blessed to have a large group of family and friends, which also means we're pretty busy at this time of year.We attend many family holiday parties over the course of the month of December. Since having had children I've found it can be really helpful to plan ahead and have a few crafts, activities, and recipes up my sleeve that can keep kids entertained (and let's face, just not too wild) while the adults get to visit. Although we're nearing Christmas Day itself, we still have several parties to attend. So here's our list of -- Crafts, Activities, and Recipes to Keep Kids Entertained at Family Holiday Parties.

30 + Crafts, Activities, and Recipes to Keep Kids Entertained at Family Parties

Cardboard Christmas Tree

We have the tradition of getting our tree a little later in December, so that we can keep it up a little past New Year's Eve. A few years ago Big Brother started noticing other people had their tree up earlier than that, and started asking why we couldn't have one sooner. That's when we started the tradition of creating a cardboard tree.

Cardboard Christmas Tree

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The fun of the tree is that each year we build it, paint it, and decorate it — and at the end of the season we recycle it. That way we get to start fresh the next year. It's great to keep in either the boys' room or the playroom after we get our real tree as it's a little smaller. And, this could be a great idea for a classroom or preschool where they might not have room (or money) for a real tree.

Bird Feeder Ornaments (As Inspired by The Night Tree)

We're really excited to participate in the Christmas Read + Play blog hop. We participated in the Halloween Read + Play collection in October with our Halloween Sticky Collage and loved all the great ideas we gained then.

For this series, over 20 bloggers have chosen a favorite holiday book and paired it with a fun play, craft, or learning activity. There are several great books and ideas to get you through the whole season! We love seeing what great, new ideas we can gain from all these other fabulous bloggers.

Bird Feeder Ornaments (As Inspired by the Night Tree)

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Several years ago I fell in love with the Christmas story The Night Tree by Eve Bunting.  It tells the story of a family who has a special Christmas tradition: every year they head into the woods to decorate a tree with popcorn, fruit, and seed balls. This tradition not only provides them with the opportunity to be together as a family but also to practice the spirit of giving by leaving treats for the animals of the forest. 

Family Made Thanksgiving Wreath

With Thanksgiving approaching there is no way you can celebrate the holidays without at least one hand traced turkey. This traditional craft remains a classic, except this time we put a new spin on it.

Family Made Thanksgiving Wreath

We decided why stop at one turkey when we can have a whole family of turkeys? And why not display them in a fun way, like a wreath?

5 Books to Read Before You Go to the Apple Orchard

If you're like our family, and live in the right region, around this time of year you're probably headed to a local apple orchard to pick apples. For our family it's an annual tradition. We have two different orchards we love to visit each year and often try to go with our extended family one weekend day a year for picking.  

This past weekend was the perfect day to go: warm, sunny, plenty of delicious apples, and lots of family fun.

Before going we often try to read some apple books as part of our lead up to the trip. It's a great way to get excited about going and to learn about the trees, an apple life cycle, and the orchard. Here are our top five picks to read before (or after) an apple picking adventure.  

1st Birthday Construction Party

Last week we celebrated Little Brother's first birthday. It's hard to believe how fast this year has gone, or how quickly my little guy is turning into a big guy.

I had a lot of fun getting ready for his first birthday party, and I have to thank Pinterest for most of my inspiration. The danger in perusing Pinterest is sometimes the parties are just so well put together and so well planned, that you forget they are not always the real party but something put together for show. As I looked my favorite parties were the ones that are real family parties, like the one we threw for Little Brother. The best part was, we had so much of this stuff, we didn't need to buy too much.

Leprechaun "traps" for St. Patrick's Day

There are some very cheery posts out there for celebrating and crafting St. Patrick's Day. Although this one isn't as fancy, it is one of my favorite new traditions we started as a family.

New Year's Eve Bags for the Whole Family

Making plans for New Year's Eve as a parent is definitely different than it was before kiddos. For us it's all about staying in and having fun at home. The last few years we've created some of our own traditions around celebrating New Year's Eve as a family, but this year I was looking to add to our traditions.

A quick Pinterest search for family themed New Year's Eve ideas came up with different variations of "Countdown Bags." Many of the ideas seemed good for bigger kiddos; I've tried to make this set more approachable to younger kids so the whole family can get involved. As a primary teacher, I love the idea of putting a clock on each bag so kids need to read the time, but I know our younger kids are not going to make it to midnight. I decided to label our bags from 10 to 1. This way we can do the bags as quickly as we need to, and hopefully, we can end our family celebration not too far away from their regular bedtimes.

Bag 10

Over the years I've added some fun hats and necklaces to our New Year's box, so Bag 10 contains some necklaces and a note which encourages to get dressed in our festive wear. 

Bag 9

Several years ago my husband and I started the tradition of only having appetizers for dinner on New Year's Eve, and we've continued that tradition with Big Brother too. Bag 9 contains special napkins and cups for our meal. 

Bag 8

Kids love balloons, even without helium. Bag 8 encourages us to have some fun with balloons. I know Little Brother will particularly love the blown up balloons. (Please note babies must be very closely watched with balloons as they are a choking hazard.)

Bag 7

We love to play games, and we're really enjoying this new card game we got for Christmas, so this set went into Bag 7. 

Bag 6

Another one of our New Year's Eve traditions as a family involves watching a movie. This year we're planning on renting something we haven't watched before on Amazon. To make it fun with the countdown bags, I created a "ticket."

Bag 5

Of course, every movie needs popcorn!

Bag 4

We always love glow sticks, but how neat are these glow stick wands I found at the dollar store?   

Bag 3

Even though we've had a lot of sweet treats lately, every New Year's Eve party needs a special drink. We'll be drinking root beer floats with these fun straws I've been saving from a Target trip this summer. 

Bag 2

We'll be getting close to the end, and therefore need a little confetti and streamers!

Bag 1

And no New Year's Eve celebration is complete without noise, so of course we'll end our night with some noise makers!

I'm really excited to see how these fun bags go over with the kiddos tomorrow. What are some traditions you have for celebrating New Year's Eve? 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties. 

25 Days of Christmas Reading

I love childrens' Christmas books. I've been collecting them since long before I was both a teacher and a mama. Last year I was eager to take our collection and start a new family tradition, and we're even more excited to continue with it this year.

25 Days of Christmas Reading

Similar to an advent calendar we try to start on December 1st. Each night, as part of our family countdown to Christmas, we choose one book from the basket we haven't read yet this year and include it in our nightly bedtime reading routine. Our collection ranges from the classics like T'was the Night Before Christmas, The Polar Express, and The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet to new age finds like Gingerbread Mouse and Tractor Mac Saves Christmas. Some are funny, like It's Christmas David while others more serious, like Welcome Comfort. And of course we don't leave out some of our personal favorites, like How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Wild Christmas Reindeer. 

On Christmas Eve each child gets one more book to add to the collection (along with new pajamas for the whole family) and we all cuddle down to read together. By Christmas morning we've read at least (often more than) 25 holiday tales to help us celebrate the season. During the day itself we usually take some time to reread a few favorites. 

We enjoyed our first selections this evening. What are some of the holiday books you like best? Is there one you must read every year? Share a title you enjoy in the comments below and hopefully we'll get some new book ideas! 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties. 

Creating a Family Garden

My Mother's Garden, Summer 2008

When I was growing up my mother always had a pretty amazing garden. Some of my earliest memories of being outside revolve around the garden; playing around the edges while she worked or my bare feet in the soft, carefully turned dirt. I can remember exploring it with my brother while searching for summer snacks. Crunchy green beans and juicy tomatoes always taste better when you eat them still standing in a garden. At the end of the summer our kitchen would smell incredible as my mom prepped the food, canning and freezing it so we could enjoy it throughout the winter.

Daddy adding all sorts of good growing "stuff"
into the soil; including composted cow manure,
limestone, green sand, and rock phosphate.

Unfortunately, as much as I love gardens and fresh veggies, I never inherited my mother's green thumb. I'm not always the greatest at keeping plants watered or getting the most from them. I continued to get my vegetables from her garden until a few years ago, when I realized I probably better be a little more grown up and get them from a local CSA farm share. Each summer season we love getting a weekly basket of fresh, in season vegetables from our favorite local farm. We're counting down the weeks until we get to pick up our first selections this year.

But now that Big Brother is getting a little older, I really wanted our children to experience having a family garden. I want them not only to experience the fun of eating from the garden, but also to develop the respect of watching something grow from a seed to a full sized plant and to understand the care and process that goes into growing food. So we decided to expand our small, mostly herbs and tomatoes, raised bed into an even larger raised bed this year. And luckily, I can still ask my mom all sorts of questions as we embark on this new project.

Our picture lists of seedlings we wanted to buy. 

During the course of the week we read several children's books about gardening. Two of my favorites include The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons and This Year's Garden by Cynthia Rylant. After reading both books Big Brother and I talked about what he would like to grow and then made a picture list to take to the farm stand. (We'd already purchased some seeds over the weekend.) All together we decided we would grow pumpkins, cucumbers, peas, green beans, carrots, celery, peppers, and tomatoes. As we're still getting our CSA share this year, we don't need to grow enough to support our family but we'll be able to supplement what we receive.

We had a lot of fun selecting things at the farm stand. When we got there I realized our list might not help us that much, as the plants obviously didn't have vegetables yet. But Big Brother solved that problem by looking at the seedling labels. He was especially excited to discover purple peppers!

A few days after purchasing the seedlings, we were ready to plant the garden. We made it a whole family affair, and waited for Daddy to come home from work. In terms of planting the seeds, one way we got Big Brother to gently and carefully plant them was to say "Goodnight seeds, we'll see you again when you're a plant." He loved saying that as he patted the dirt. He also understood the seedlings were "baby plants" and he needed to be gentle with them. He enjoyed using his gardening tools, a birthday present, to dig small holes. 

Each day since we planted Big Brother likes to look out over the garden and see how things are growing. I can't wait for the first moment he discovers something ready for picking on one of our plants. Until then, I need to convince him weeding is fun.