DIY Gift Idea For Kids: The Creative Experience Gift Bag

It's that Birthday Party time of year! Every year, we seem to accrue more and more parties to attend. Which is, actually, a really fun problem to have. I used to really struggle with what to give as a gift to the Birthday Boy or Birthday Girl. Kids are hard to buy for. Well, in some ways they are really easy to buy for. Kids love toys, books, etc.

But, as a parent whose kids, twice a year, are on the receiving end of gifts, I started trying to be more thoughtful about the gifts that we give. It's so easy to duplicate a toy or book, especially at birthday parties for classmates you do not know as well. 

And, in general, I'm pretty over the amount of toys we have. That sounds ungrateful, which I don't mean it to. I have just realized over the past few years that we have a room of toys, but only a small percentage actually get played with. 

With this in mind, I got the idea to start giving birthday kids a creative experience. Something they could use their imaginations to decorate and enjoy during special time with their parent, grandparent or caregiver. 

My go-to gift for all birthdays now is the DIY Gift Bag. I head to Michaels or AC Moore and head to the fabric section (or, if I have enough forethought, you can Amazon). 

Depending on the kid, I grab a child-size plain canvas apron, canvas tote bag, t-shirt or hat. 

I think of the child's personality and interests, and try to find an iron-on patch or a pack of iron-on letters. 

Then I grab a package of fabric markers (particularly for younger kids, as these are less messy than fabric paint) and any fun decorations I can find. 

Lastly, I pick up a cheap canvas reusable bag or backpack (you can usually find these for $1 at most craft stores) to put all of the materials in as the gift bag.

Voila! You now have a DIY gift experience that is not only fun, but usable or wearable again and again. It's a win-win.

I'd love to hear your favorite DIY gift ideas for kids - so leave a comment and inspire me!

CHARM IT! Custom Charm Bracelets for Girls {GIVEAWAY}

As a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was playing dress up. There was something thrilling about playing the part of someone else, living a life some place new, or going on a brilliant adventure. My sister’s and I used our imaginations quite often. Sometimes we were pirates, sometimes princesses. Sometimes we were teachers in front of a classroom or chefs commanding a bakery.



One play act I loved to indulge was being a grown up. I would stock an old wallet with paper, pretending they were dollars or credit cards, and carefully step into an old dress of my moms. I’d spend the morning toting around a baby doll, shopping, driving and doing all of the fun things I imagined “big girls” did. If I wanted to get really fancy, I’d throw on some large pieces of costume jewelry, dulled with age.



The only problem with this kind of make-believe is that none of these things were mine. I had many years to go before I had proper jewelry, high heels and (lawdy) a credit card. As the mom of two daughters, I watch my girls use their imaginations to dress up in all the same ways I used to. And despite the best of momma’s hand-me-downs, what they truly desire is a “piece of flair” all their own.



Well, the secret wishes of every young girl have finally been answered with CHARM IT!



CHARM IT! is the original, detachable charm jewelry brand for girls. These pieces of jewelry are designed with kids in mind, so they are durable and bright. I think my favorite part is that these necklaces and bracelets are customizable. Instead of play-acting with someone else’s clothes or jewelry, young fashionistas can now create a wearable piece of art that perfectly reflects their hobbies, likes, personalities and accomplishments.



Each of my girls had a chance to create their own bracelet. We hopped online and headed to the CHARM IT! website, where we perused all the fun charms. The website is super user friendly and easy to navigate (which is important when you have two little girls eager to design their very own pieces of jewelry!). Each girl wanted a charm with their initial. From there, I was intrigued by how their individual personalities came out by their choices.



Chica wanted the “I Lost a Tooth” charm, since she lost her first tooth last month. That was a very big accomplishment for her and she wanted to mark the milestone with a charm. I loved that this option was available! She also loves Hello Kitty, so we chose a HK charm as well. And true to her sensitive, sweetheart, Chica also chose the “Love Letter” charm and the “Bee Happy” charm. Her bracelet perfect encapsulates every part of her personality!



Bug, on the other hand, is totally glam. This girl loves to have her nails done, so she opted for a “Glitter Nail Polish” charm and “Rainbow Sunglasses” charm. If you’ve met Bug, you know how this is so her. When she’s not chasing glam, she’s chasing treats, so she couldn’t imagine a charm bracelet WITHOUT a Cupcake charm. And lastly, Bug looks up to her big sister a lot, so she chose “Love Letter” as her last charm, just like Chica.



I love that CHARM IT! bracelets are a fun way to mark milestones and give girls a little ownership of their likes and hobbies. It’s great, too, that you can keep adding charms as they grow, customizing as their interests change. Buying a new charm is the perfect little gift to add to a birthday or holiday gift!


The fabulous people at CHARM IT! want to give one of my fabulous readers a chance to win their very own customized charm bracelet! One winner will have a chance out pick out 5 charms of their choice from the website as well as a bracelet.



HOW FUN IS THAT?

Good luck and happy winning!

You can connect with CHARM IT! on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and the web.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Virtual Piggy {Review}

Chica is coming to an age where she is beginning to understand the concept of money. She understands that coins and dollar bills have value, and that we use money to make purchases at stores. Chica now knows items she wants to buy (something from the grocery store, a toy, etc), and can now comprehend that those items are worth a certain amount of money.  We want to begin integrating ways for her to earn money, teaching her how to save money, and to give her a better idea of what the value of money truly means.

As a parent to a child entering into this age of understanding money, I was very excited to learn about Virtual Piggy.This new online resource is a safe way for kids to manage their spending online with the help of their parents. Virtual Piggy has partnered with a large number of family-friendly merchants so kids can have a safe purchasing experience.

So how does it work?

Here we go.

Parents create a Parent Account, in which their credit card information is stored privately (under PCI-DSS security LOCKDOWN, might I add).  Shipping information is also privately stored under the Parent Account. Kids have no access to any of this information. Kids accounts only access a username and password for transactions, so parents can feel good about the fact that birth dates, ages, names and address are never used.


The Kid Accounts are then added by the parents. The kids accounts have very specific parental controls, in which the parent decides approved merchants, spending limits, and to what extent parents must approve transactions. No guessing what stores your children are shopping with or how much money they are spending. All of that is decided beforehand by YOU. Kids also have the opportunity to make a Virtual Wishlist, where they can add items they would like to save for or receive as gifts (Yay parents! No more guessing or ferreting out answers!)

Then the financial education comes in, and the part I am most excited to start using with Chica. Parents can set monthly allowance amounts, savings goals and charity goals. We want to start as early as possible with our girls in teaching them financial responsibility. With Virtual Piggy, they are challenged with the task of balancing spending and savings goals. The VP experience is a “real world” environment under the umbrella of parental control and protection.

Win-win-win!

Yep. I’m sold.

Some exciting things coming up with Virtual Piggy:

Win Your Wishlist Sweepstakes - Virtual Piggy will be selecting 10 kids to receive the contents of their Wishlists (up to $500) for the holidays!  Sweepstakes ends December 7, so learn more about how to enter to win here.

Member Value Program - from now through January 15, Virtual Piggy account holders will have access to discount holiday promotions. Once you sign up and log in with your username and password, you will be able to look through all the promotion codes. Save some money!

For more information you can find Virtual Piggy on the web, Facebook and Twitter.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post from Splash Creative Media on behalf of Virtual Piggy. All opinions are my own.

Fear of Dogs: How to Overcome?

I've written before on the topic of Fear: fears as a parent, fears that my children encounter, and my own fears (such as the creepy things my kids say).


Hubby and I have been dealing with a new fear of Chica's recently.  


Dogs.


We don't currently own any pets. So Chica has not been raised with animals on a daily basis.  But we have many family members and friends who have dogs and cats, and Chica has been fine around them for as long as I can remember. Sure, when she was little, she might have been nervous. But as she has grown, Chica has generally been fine around dogs and cats.


Then there was an Incident.


On Easter, she was playing with my sister's dog, Guinness. Guinness is a big German shepherd, who is as docile and sweet as anyone can imagine.  Seriously, he's one of the most well-behaved and calm dogs I know.  So Chica and Guin were playing together all Easter weekend.  Perhaps we let our guard down, or Chica got too comfortable with him. But at one point, she was laying near him and accidentally leaned on him with her elbow.


And he snapped at her. 


Guinness did what dogs do: he let her know she had hurt him and was protecting/defending himself.  He did not bite her. But he used a formidable growl and his jaws got very close to her.  Chica, not having encountered this before, was quite rocked by this experience. Which I totally understand, because having a dog unhappy with you isn't fun!  


Now, I know Guinness did nothing wrong, nor did Chica. And as far as I can see it, they'll go on incident-free from here until Kingdom come.  


But since Chica has had The Incident, she is wary not only of Guinness, but of all dogs. Like, every dog she encounters. Dogs that she never gave a second look at now terrify her. Dogs she has been around for years she is suddenly trembling in their presence. 


And I'm not sure what to do.


You see, when I was Chica's age, I had my own Incident with a dog. Nothing traumatic or awful.  I was 4 years old when the dog up the street jumped up on me and knocked me a down. She wasn't a huge dog, but at the age of 4, most dogs are bigger than you. And it scared the beejeebus about of me. 


From that point on, I was wary of dogs.  For most of my elementary school life, I avoided any location that had a dog. This included:  friends houses, potential friends houses, parts of my neighborhood and my Nana's house.


That's right. For an entire year, I refused to set foot in my own grandmother's house. And guess what? She didn't even own a dog.  She just often fed a neighborhood dog, so it always hung out around her house. And I wasn't taking any chances.


Over time, I got over my fear of dogs. I believe I was in middle school when I stopped needing to know if a dog was going to be somewhere before I committed to going. I didn't need to ask for my friends to lock their dogs away when I came over to play.


I know that Chica will most likely grow out of this phobia.  She needs to process The Incident, and learn that dogs communicate in certain ways and that most are very friendly. But I also know I lost out on many opportunities because of my fear of dogs growing up. It really hindered me emotionally and socially. I will always remember the paralyzing feeling I used to get when faced with a dog unexpectedly. 


And I don't want Chica to have to go through that.


So I'm asking you: What is a good way to address a fear of dogs in a child (short of buying a dog ourselves, which isn't in the cards right now)? Did you ever fear dogs? How did you overcome it?


I'm really looking forward to reading your feedback. As advice comes in, I'll write a follow-up post with all the ideas that were shared so it can be a resource for others!

{How To} Dixie Cup Popsicles

Nothing says "Summer" like a nice, cold popsicle.  Growing up, I loved the long days with lingering twilights.  Those nights when the sun seemed to slowly set, my sisters and I would dig into the thin cardboard box of orange, red and purple ice pops.  It was heaven.


Now I realize that it's easy to make popsicles at home. This saves money, allows you control over the ingredients, and gives you a chance to try really creative flavor combinations.


Last summer, I was excited to make homemade popsicles. I went out to Walmart and got a popsicle mold kit. The white plastic had 6 popsicle shapes complete with 6 plastic sticks.  On our way to check out, we got some sugar-free pudding mix and skim milk to create our homemade pudding pops. Little Chica and were ready to have some Popsicle Making Fun!


When we got home, we whipped up the pudding, poured it in the mold and popped it in the freezer. The next day we excitedly retrieved the frozen pops, but when we attempted to release the popsicles from the mold, the plastic sticks snapped off!  No sticks render popsicles all but inedible.


No popsicles. Total disappointment.

GummyLump: Melissa and Doug Review and Giveaway

I was first disappointed to find out that GummyLump in no way involved gummi candy.  If you know me at all, gummi bears, gummi worms, and generally gummi anything sugar are true weaknesses of mine.


But then I actually checked GummyLump out.


And all disappointment was forgotten.


Because GummyLump?  GummyLump is a parent's dream!


GummyLump is a fantastic website that carries only the highest quality and most unique kids toys.  Many of the toys are the solid wooden toys, such as Melissa and Doug, that are becoming so popular. These toys are great enhancers for imaginative and educational play, which I really appreciate.  In today's world, there are a lot of crappy toys.  They are cheap, they break, and many don't offer much in the way of helping a child learn and grow.  These toys, quite literally, come a dime a dozen.


But brands like Melissa and Doug, Educo, Haba Toys and more, challenge kids to pretend and be creative. After listening to Kathy Hirsch-Pasek speak, I understand the need for toys that engage kids in creative play. I get now that quality toys are not just "babysitting" kids, but they are empowering kids to grow and learn.


For her 2nd birthday (almost 2 years ago - can you believe it?!), we bought Little Chica a second-hand play kitchen off of Craigslist.  And to this day, she adores it.  And there are never enough pieces of play food to pretend with. She can spend hours creating meals for us, pretending to be a chef, running a restaurant.  So when the opportunity came my way to review the Melissa and Doug Chef Role Play Costume, along with a Melissa and Doug play food set (we chose the Scoop and Stack Ice Cream Play Food Set since, let's face it, we have a slight ice cream addiction around here), I couldn't say yes fast enough!

Little Chica LOVES her new Chef uniform, which in her mind legitimizes all of the "cooking" she does.  I'm afraid she is going to start charging us and expecting a tip!  The ice cream set is yet another high-quality Melissa and Doug toy: realistic, solid and can endure the beating of kid play!

How cute is she?

Here are Little Chica's thoughts on the toys:








Better yet, Gummy Lump has a great play food toys special offer: Buy 3 get 4th set free!  Not bad idea to stock up for the holidays and birthdays.




I better run, since Little Chica is urging me to try her new "ice cream soup," and I think she will take it hard when I tell her it's probably not best to wear the Chef costume to nap time.




But before I go, let me give you the details of the GIVEAWAY GummyLump is so graciously providing!
One of you, my fantabulous readers, will be winning one (1) Melissa and Doug Chef Role Play Costume, as well as one (1) play set chosen from one of these fabulous choices.




How to enter and win?  Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below.




Good luck and happy winning!

Valentine's Day Treats: Ladybug Pretzels and Heart Fruit Kabobs

Being the mom of a preschooler, we are not at a loss for parties.  Her class holds a party at least once a month, if not twice.  Every holiday gets its own bash, and the parents have the opportunity to send in snacks for the kiddos to enjoy.

Since I've come across SO MANY CUTE IDEAS (pardon me, I get a bit excited about such things) on Pinterest, I love having a reason to try out the creative new pins I find.  As opposed to being that weird 30 year old woman putting together Pilgrim Hats, Clementine Jack-O-Lanterns and Reindeer Cookies (which I, in fact, did).

So, for Little Chica's Valentine's Day Party (which is today),  I made the following 2 pins:

Source: Uploaded by user via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: blogs.babble.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

AND THEY TURNED OUT SO GREAT!  On past Pinterest projects, I've been thrown for a loop.  Some are deceivingly more difficult than the pin lets on.  There has been many nights of cursing, weeping and gnashing of teeth over a creative snack I tried to recreate from a pin, but all things went awry.

There is no pressure greater than volunteering a snack for your preschooler's class party, only to have it blow up in your face the night before.

As you can imagine, I'm glad these 2 lovelies came together somewhat easily.  Here are some helpful suggestions from my experience:

My Heart Fruit Kabob creations

The Fruit Kabobs were actually the more difficult of the two, as punching the cookie cutters into the melons is not quite as easy of a task as it may seem (especially this time of year when there is not as much "fruit" to seed ratio in the cantaloupes, leaving me with less fruit space to work with).  I'd suggest cutting each melon into 1-inch slabs (roughly the width of the small heart-shaped cookie cutter you will use).  That way, it's easier for the cookie cutter to punch through.  I was not thinking and used skewers instead of popsicle sticks (hoping that my mistake won't be sending several preschoolers to the emergency room with bleeding gouges).  I am not serving mine with a dip, but I think they'd go particularly well with Cannoli Dip!

My Ladybug Pretzels

The Ladybug Pretzels ended up being my favorite. I thought they'd be super involved, with the melting of chocolate and all. But since you can melt the red chocolate wafers (found at stores like Michaels) in the microwave, it's easy to quickly dip the pretzels, let them cool/harden on wax paper, then come back and dip the bottoms in the milk chocolate.  I used a leftover skewer dipped in the milk chocolate to quickly make the brown polka dots, and the white frosting is the tubed kind you find in the baking aisle at the grocery store.  Next time, though, I might melt a few white chocolate wafers and make the whites of the eyes in the same manner as I made the brown polka dots.  The frosting was harder to manage.  For the eyes, I put chocolate jimmies (aka "sprinkles) that were cut in half into the white frosting.  Again, me not so good at the frosting, so I tried to steer clear of it as much as possible.

Check out Part 2 of my Valentine's Day Treat Posts: 

Surprise Cupcakes and Red Heart Rice Krispy Treats!