Fave DIY Valentines Printables

We spent a significant portion of our the kids' free time this weekend working on valentines. Our school asks that the kids make the valentines themselves or at least add a custom touch to each. And they have to be candy and food free. I am 100% behind both ideas! (Although, don't get me wrong, I would be just as fine with store bought directives). Cam was in charge this year and decided that they would make a personalized bracelet for each classmate along with a little card (we used the You're a Real Gem printable below!). Kane was all for that until the beads showed up and then he decided he didn't want to make the bracelets (of course!). Cam offered to make all of them, but Kane ended up hand making each a card instead and then adding a positive message rubber band bracelet. In case you're about to embark on the valentine journey yourself, I rounded up my fave DIY valentines printables—all are easy to do at home, candy free, and Amazon-accessory ready. Gotta love the love!

You Light Up My World Valentines // Finger Lights

I Can Always Count on You Valentine // Play Bills and Play Coins

You Are Out of This World Valentine // Bouncy Balls

Pencil Arrow Valentines // Cute Pencils

Watercolor Valentines // Watercolors

You're a Real Gem Valentines // Gem Rings

Funny Glasses Valentines // Funny Glasses 

You Make My Heart Race Valentines // Race Cars 

You're the Balm Valentines // EOS Lip Balm 

DIY Trick or Treat Bag!

Every year the kids beg for a store bought plastic trick or treat pail. And while I admire that they usually do a good job of coordinating it with their costume, it ALWAYS breaks. Always. So this year I decided we'd take things into our own hands and make a sturdy set that was still super cute. Head over to the International Arrivals blog to see how we used fabulous fabric markers to get the job done PLUS pickup a free printable design download to make your own!!

p.s. for those of you not in the know, International Arrivals makes fun and unique crafting and creation tools that allow people to express themselves with their creativity. We are looooongtime fans of their Lil' Watercolor Paint Pods, so were super excited to try out some of their other products. Thanks for the fabric markers IA!!

Star Wars Day Printables: May the 4th Be With You!

If you have any little Star Wars fans in your house, you surely know that tomorrow is Star Wars Day! In case this is news to you, here's a great roundup of easy (and mostly free!) printables to help your kiddos celebrate the day. May the 4th be with you!!

1 / 2 / 3

4 / 5 / 6

7 / 8 / 9  

p.s. these are not free, but I had to share our success with the Star Wars workbook series. If you have a kiddo reticent to work on grade skills, give these a try. They've worked wonders for Kane! 

Easy DIY Halloween Activities

It's here, it's here! Happy Halloween!!! If your kids are anything like mine, their excitement for today has been building up for quite some time and they are all ready with their costumes, just waiting for the green light to trick-or-treat. I love the whole crazy thing, but then .... sugar crash city. The begging for more candy while melting down from the whirlwind. So I thought I'd pull together some super easy (FREE!) printable activities that you can have at the ready for the post-sugar crash lull before bedtime. Hope you and yours have a spooky, fun holiday!

1 / Super cute paper cute Halloween dress up dolls.

2 / Love this spooky thaumotrope toy. 

3 / A giant haunted house coloring sheet.

4 / Put that candy to good use with a little game of bingo.

5 / If you can't get this pin a bow tie on the skeleton game printed out ahead of time, just print out a regular size at home.

6 / A scary cats game for the younger kiddos.

7 / The Pre-K set will like this pack of Halloween activities.

8 / Try these shadow makers in the glow of a jack o'lantern.

9 / A set of three Halloween Mad Libs. 

Back to School! Breakfast

Happy back-to-school day!!! (well for us anyway). We were all so excited to get back that we had a little celebration last week. Head on over to Honest to Nod today to check out our back to school! breakfast and our hilarious interview answers.

ps .... and head over to A Feteful Life for your own free printable interview!

Disclosure: The Land of Nod provided us with Meri Meri partyware and a growth chart in exchange for this post. No other compensation was provided and all opinions herein are our own.

Miscellaneous Madness: Number Hunt Bingo

We've got an alphabet treasure hunt on our Summer Bucket List this year, but turns out that we both need a little more work on our numbers than our letters. We'll definitely still get to the alphabet hunt, but mom thought a Number Hunt Bingo might be a fun thing to do around the neighborhood first. So she put together a set of rainbow bingo cards for us and rounded up leftover stickers to use as "markers" (we've got quite the collection of random stickers, don't you!?). We had so much fun hunting around outside -- we were particularly fueled by the fact that mom said she'd give us 5 cents for every card we completed (by getting four numbers in a row).

If you don't live in a city where numbers are abundant outdoors, you could totally do this inside your home. And mom said she plans on keeping a set in the car for us to use when traveling and shopping (grocery stores are FULL of numbers to find). Mom is collecting each of our respective completed cards in envelopes. We'll add up how much we've "won" at the end of the summer and each get to purchase a present. Of course, you don't have to bribe your kids with money -- that is if your children are the total opposite of us and find learning to be an end in and of itself.

Just CLICK RIGHT HERE to download your own set of bingo cards. Happy Hunting!

Go Shorty, It's Your Birthday: A Pop Art Balloon Dog Birthday

Technically, this is our blog. We take turns sharing our adventures and art projects. Miscellaneous madness. Etc. You know the drill. But every now and then, we throw mom a bone. She's been doing some more party styling and graphic design lately and seeing as we're both refusing to wear our knockoff summer water shoes (how dare she!), we figured we'd try and help mom supplement our footwear fund and let her share a super cute party she just did for a few buddies of ours. If for some reason she starts trying to hog our domain, you can bet we'll kick her on over to a separate party blog. But, for now, party animal on. 

Mom's friend Jill asked for some help in putting together a joint birthday party for her two kiddos. Jill had already booked some fabulous entertainment (a balloon artist and our "movement" teacher from school) and secured a party room at one of our local rec centers. It's a great space. But it's a big empty box, essentially. With high ceilings to boot. They kicked around some ideas for an animal themed party, but when Jill decided on a super cute electronic invite with balloon dogs, they knew they had to go with that. Incidentally, mom has been eyeing up a mini gold Jeff Koons balloon dog statue for Cam for a while, so this was a temporary fix for that obsession too. 

They decided to do a backdrop for the main food table as the focal point, including color coordinating streamers, oversized tasseled balloons (mom came up with that idea, but Jill executed it flawlessly and now mom has an additional obsession with tasseled balloons), and a sweet birthday banner mom made incorporating a really fabulous pop art balloon dog print. Jill handled all of the food (mom made a few food labels) and made super cute balloon cookies for a simple "goody," which she put in glassine bags closed with a coordinating dog sticker mom made. And they scattered several more oversized tasseled balloons around the room, which helped decorate some of the otherwise unreachable empty space (they couldn't hang anything from the ceilings). 

Mom loved it all so much, she decided to make a coordinating invitation. Doneskis. The invitation, banners and food labels are all up in her Etsy shop. Now if she could only persuade one of us to have a balloon dog party ....

Artworks: Design Your Own Fancy Masks

Mom was making her kid art idea rounds and came across this fantastic FREE printable set of "design your own masks" from the picklebums (via The Crafty Crow) and knew we had to make them immediately. These great masks combine a lot of our current faves -- superheroes, princesses, animals, magicians ... too good to be true.

Mom printed the templates out on heavy cardstock (110 lb. weight) and we all took our watercolors to them. Once they dried, mom cut them out and we picked out the pieces for our creations. Then you know we added some bling. Mom taped them together (but will probably go back at them with glue once we take them off and likely reinforce the eye holes with packing tape on the back) and pierced holes in the side with scissors. The picklebums used yarn to hold their masks on, but we had some extra clear elastic left from my superhero party masks and we used that.

As of press time, we are working on incorporating our masks into a play where I am "King Spider King" and Cami is a "mermaid ballerina princess" (on a scooter). We've turned the corner of our living room into the "dressing and costume change area" and the couch is going to be our stage. We have a ton left and can't wait to mix and match some more. Such a smart idea for a rainy day or any type of birthday party!