I’ve been seeing all the black Friday deals showing up, and I’ve been checking out the toy deals. I always enjoy shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. My sister in law and I get up early in the morning and head out shopping. We make a day of it and have a blast.
We shop all day long, chatting away while we wait in the long lines, and taking a nice leisurely lunch break after we’ve hit all the morning door buster deals, and before we head back out for more shopping.
Of course we check out all the Black Friday ads …read more

You’ve heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I’ve got a new day to add to your holiday vocabulary, Free Shipping Day. If you’ve got plenty of toys to buy this holiday season you’ll be happy to know many online retailers are having free shipping day on December 17th this year.

Over 300 merchants have already signed up to participate in this year’s Free Shipping Day, and founder Luke Knowles expects more than 500 merchants will be participating by the time the date gets here. Some of the merchants that have already confirmed they are participating include Toys R Us, JCPenney, …read more

Building a gingerbread house can be a fun project for you and your kids. It’s a great fall and winter family activity, especially around the holidays. You can even get together with some friends and have a gingerbread house making party Build one giant gingerbread house, or several smaller ones to take home.
“How To Build a Gingerbread House” is a great guide to help you along the way. The book contains step-by-step instructions, easy recipes and over 200 color photographs to help you complete your gingerbread house project from start to finish.

The best part is, all you need to get …read more

Veterans Day is November 11th and it is a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about their country, and to feel a sense of pride for all the people who have helped build our country by serving in the armed forces. It’s a great day to teach children a little history, and background of how we got where we are today.

I thought I’d put together a few fun Veterans Day activities for kids to help teach a little more about the importance of veterans, and what they do for our country.

Veterans Day Word Ladder and Scramble Worksheets
A Veterans Day Printable …read more

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