Cute Family Gift Idea: Service Gift Cards

 

Here's a last minute gift idea that your kids can make in a matter of minutes! Just create a simple "service gift card" in Word, copy and paste to fill the page, print on cardstock (or whatever you have), cut apart, and let the kids come up with all kinds of ways they can help other family members.

Having your brother or sister volunteer to clean your room for you? What kid wouldn't love that?

Reese's PB Temptations - A Cookie AND a Craft!

 The toughest part about making these cookies, besides not popping peanut butter cups into your mouth while unwrapping them...

is waiting for them to cool...

So to curb my five-year-old's incessant "can I have one yet, Mom?"s,  I quickly came up with this simple idea to distract him for a few minutes...and reuse those scattered wrappers.

By the time he finished crumpling the wrappers and gluing them on his tree, the peanut butter treats were cool enough to eat.

They were definitely worth the wait!

Christmas Book Countdown!

Instead of counting down with an advent calendar, the kids and I gather up all of our Christmas books at the beginning of December and get wrapping - an idea that my best friend, Diana, shared with me a couple of years ago...

 (Christmas book stash from 2009 - I didn't realize I had so many!)

Then each night before bed, the kids take turns unwrapping one book for us to read together. Even two years later, getting to pick and unwrap the book is a BIG deal! Now that Abby and Noah are a little older, we've swapped out a few of the younger books for some new ones like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Legend of the Candy Cane, The Elf on the Shelf, and an extra surprise for Christmas night - The Twelve Days of Christmas!


This has become a tradition that the kids really enjoy, and it gives me a great excuse to keep buying Christmas books!

Idea from Christmas Past: Holiday Treasures Box

Among the presents sitting beneath our Christmas tree this year will be our very first Treasures Box inspired by none other than that optimism-instilling resource that I have come to know and love - Fishful Thinking!

The holiday season is a time of reflection with family and loved ones. Reflect, collect, and share something good that happened this year by making a Fishful Thinking treasures box.

Here are a few treasured experiences we've added to the box so far...

Abby's treasures:

• 4th of July fireworks
• Daddy buying me a big lollipop at the candy store
• Singing Christmas songs with the primary at church
• Counting all the way to 1000 by myself (just yesterday!)
  

Noah's treasures:

• Fishing with Papa
• Going to the playground
• Seeing the big rockets (at the NASA Space Center)
  
• Hitting golf balls with Dad
  

Daddy's treasures:

• Finding a new job
• Taking the kids to the driving range
• Going to a Dallas Cowboys game in their new stadium
• Playing "mean guys" with Noah (aka wrestling)
• Playing video games with Abby
  

Mama's treasures:

• Snuggling my kiddos
• Our trips to my grandma's house 
• Having family come visit three times since we've moved
• Taking the kids to visit my old elementary school and reconnecting with teachers and childhood friends
• Seeing Abby accept her Reflections contest ribbon for her giraffe drawing
• Singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at bedtime with Noah 
• Taking family walks and catching fireflies 
• Visiting a live nativity with the kids. (They wanted to walk through three times so they could see baby Jesus again.)

There are definitely more where those came from! We will be adding to our Treasures Box this week, and then we'll open our box on Christmas day and pull out some of the "treasures" to read and remind ourselves of the many things in life that bring us joy.

It is my hope that the spirit of Christmas will be felt in each one of our hearts this holiday season and throughout the year as we reflect on and give thanks for the wonderful blessings that we have been given.


*This was posted on my personal blog in December 2009. We'll be adding to our treasures box again this year and placing it under our tree - once we put it up!

Thanksgiving Favorite: Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats

Chocolate, marshmallows, and fudge-striped cookies all rolled into one little pilgrim hat? Now that's something to be thankful for!!!

I found this idea on FamilyFun a few years ago, and we have been making them every Thanksgiving since - so good! Of course, melted chocolate + kiddos can get a little messy...but it's totally worth it!

Making the Most of Those Pesky Sick Days

Cold and flu season is in full swing around these parts! Those rotten germs invaded our house at the beginning of October and have been hanging around ever since.  

My poor little girl had to stay home from school for a couple of days this week - a pretty big deal since she absolutely LOVES school. Of course, I hate when my kiddos are sick, but on the flip side, it's nice to   have that extra one-on-one time, even if it involves sniffles and sneezes.

Over the last few days, Abby and I snuggled up on the couch, watched a little Phantom of the Opera (her first time - with editing), introduced her to my grandma's famous warm rice and milk, picked up Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer (just finished the book!) and the latest Scooby Doo movie at the pharmacy along with vapor rub, cough drops, cold medicine, vitamin C...and then made a quick doughnut run on the way back home. Before bedtime, we've been enjoying our own vaporized  "steam room" using those effervescent shower tablets as Abby draws all over the bathroom mirror. (Note to self: Pick up more glass cleaner.)

A major highlight for me? Abby's comment: "Staying home with you is fun, Mom!"

Awww...music to my ears.


*Have any sick days tips or surefire cold remedies to share? We could definitely use them. Cold and flu season still has a long way to go.

BKids Review: Stack 'n Link Pal & Peek-A-Boo Blocks

I am one of those sappy moms who still has a huge plastic bin full of baby toys that I just can't part with (and two more of favorite baby clothes), even though my kids are now five and seven years old. Thank goodness for having tiny nieces and a nephew who inherited the other half dozen bins that used to line the walls of my garage.

Another perk to having a brand new baby niece is shopping for cute little outfits and spoiling her with the latest in baby-sized entertainment like this BKids Stack 'n Link Pal...

Now these are not your ordinary stacking rings. The new "bebee and friends" line has chunky rings with raised animal shapes, miniature music notes, and polka dots which will make for extra sense-stimulating-fun when Vivi grabs on or chomps down with her gums. When she gets a little older, she can link the rings together and pull them apart again. I'm sure she'll love spinning bebee monkey's head round and round too.

The Soft Peek-A-Boo Blocks also have all kinds of raised shapes and textures just right for her little fingertips, and six of them are squeezy too! The other three blocks are super easy to open and close, and the soft blocks fit right inside. The blocks are numbered 1 through 9 which encourages number sense development, and, of course, stacking those colorful blocks will build early hand-eye coordination.

My niece is only three months old right now, so by Christmas time, she will have reached the toy's age recommendation for 6+ months. Perfect timing, huh? I may have to break them out a little early though since we are visiting at Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to stack rings and play Peek-A-Boo blocks with her. I'm sure my two-year-old niece, Ami, will want to join in too. I am really looking forward to it!


*Thanks to BKids for sending the toys my way. I received these products in exchange for my honest review. For more info on baby stages of development and/or how to pick an age appropriate toy, click on over to the "Tips for Mom" portion of the BKids site (written by yours truly).