I’ve been watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade every year since I was a child. I love checking out all the floats, and the big balloons floating down the street. It’s definitely a tradition at our house while we’re getting ready to head out to make our family rounds for the day.
This year we will be watching the 83rd edition of the Macy’s Parade. This year’s parade will be setting another new milestone, it’s marched down parts of Broadway for 82 years, the 2009 procession will be the first to bypass Broadway during the route.
Joining Macy’s parade favorites this year …read more

Cookie parties don’t just have to be for grown ups. Kids would have a blast getting together to decorate Christmas cookies. It makes a great theme for a children’s Christmas party.
Today I have a great recipe for you to use for your party, and some cookie decorating party tips to share from the author of a new cooking with kids book Cindy Mushet. Her new book is called Baking Kids Love.
Send out the invitations a couple weeks ahead of time, letting the children and their parents know what to expect. You can make the dough ahead of time and have …read more

If you’ve waited until the last minute to get or make your child’s Halloween costume, don’t panic there’s still time. The selection at your local store, or even online might be getting very picked over. You can still make a really cute Halloween costume from items you might already have on hand in your craft stash. The costume doesn’t have to be complicated to be cute and to be really adorable on your child.

Here are 10 of my favorites:

I love this Beautiful Butterfly Costume
The baby lobster costume is very popular, but you don’t have to buy it, you can make …read more

So you just found out you have to make some treats for your child to take to school for their Halloween party. What do you make? Here are a few ideas to help. Your kids will have a blast helping you make treats for their party, then they can tell their friends all about how their special treats came together.

These peanut butter spider cookies from Betty Crocker put a new twist on the peanut butter kiss cookies, and they’re adorable.
The green monster Halloween krispy treats are really cute.
Glittering pumpkin cookies would be a big hit.
These ghost sticks are super easy, …read more

The other day I talked about how much fun it is for kids to paint pumpkins instead of watching their parents carve them. I’m a big fan of painted pumpkins, we have a blast every year creating our painted pumpkins, and they last so much longer than their carved relatives. We had one of our painted pumpkins until after Christmas last year.
You can also use the insides of the pumpkins later for pies, if you just decorate the outside, so you get a double bonus.

Pumpkin painting can be very creative, and there are many different ways you can create your …read more

I can’t believe October is halfway over already, Halloween will be here in less than 3 weeks. My son’s been begging me for a craft night, so I think we might sit down one night soon and do a couple Halloween paper crafts. Not sure yet whether we’ll do something we found, or make up something of our own.
I thought I’d take a look and see what kinds of fun Halloween papercrafts are out there. Maybe we can use one of these, change it up, or combine a couple to make a fun spooky Halloween scene.

Here are 10 Halloween paper …read more

When my son was younger I always dreaded pumpkin carving night. It’s not my favorite thing to do, and I usually recruited my husband for the sharp knife part. My son always wanted to get in on the carving action, but we had to tell him to stand back, because the knife’s too sharp.

Then I discovered how much fun it is to paint pumpkins, and that’s what we’ve done every year since. You can paint faces on your pumpkins, or make a character with your pumpkin, just let your child use their imagination.

You’re not just stuck with paint either, there …read more

Columbus Day is coming up on Monday. It’s always the second Monday in October. So I thought I’d put together a fun list of kids activities. It’s always good to pair fun with learning, use some of these fun activities to help your child learn the history of Columbus Day.

Columbus Day Printable Worksheets for Kids
Columbus Day Word Search
Columbus Day Coloring Page
Make your own version of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria with these egg cup ships.
Play a Columbus trivia question, with facts and tips about Columbus, his ships and his voyage, there are a few fun Columbus facts …read more

This Thanksgiving and Christmas when you’re setting the Thanksgiving or Christmas table, add a little something special for the kids. I know when we were growing up we always had a separate “kid’s” table. Why not make it extra fun for the kids, and make it someplace they want to sit by giving them special decorations, and a special table setting just for them.

Paper Cottage has some really cute placemats and plates, just for kids. I think they’d even be fun for everyday to get your kids excited about the upcoming holidays. You can also use them for a kid’s …read more

Most wanted Christmas toy lists, and hot toy lists will soon be popping up everywhere for the 2009 Christmas season. I always love checking out these lists. It’s so fun to check out all the latest toys! I guess that’s probably why I write here at Play Library. I’m like a big kid!
This morning I was checking out the Family Fun top 10 toys for this year on Regis and Kelly. Their top rated toy was the Invasion of The Bristlebots. Bristlebots are part robot, part toothbrush. They look like they’d be a ton of fun. You can snap the …read more