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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Easter potatoes

The kids and I made, quite possibly, the easiest Easter-themed craft yesterday. I'm sharing it with you because it's cheap, easy, fun and kids of all ages can do it.

We decorated our Easter eggs first and decided to add this quick project because our kitchen table was already covered in newspaper and the kids were covered in egg dye. "Why not add more messy fun to the mix?" I said.

All you need is a potato, some paper, paintbrushes and paint (I recommend a non-toxic tempera paint for little kids).

Just cut a potato in half. A potato of any size or type will do.

Squeeze some paint onto a paper plate or dish.

Give each kid a paint brush and let them do their thing :) Polka dots and stripes are easy. 

You could also try a tie-dye effect, faces or designs. Or  adults could carve their potatoes (see Pinterest for ideas) with a small knife or pumpkin carving tool to create more detailed prints.

Chloe enjoyed painting the outside of her potato too :)


Liam's first potato print. Testing it out.


Making a whole bunch of them.

And hand-printing a bit.

They used up all of the paint I gave them.

And here are the results -

We let them dry, then cut out our favorite ones to send to family as Easter cards -



And a photo of the Easter eggs we dyed. We did shimmery ones this year -


If anyone else tries this out please share a photo of them in the comments section below.
We'd love to see them!


And some prior Easter crafts I've done with my kids:




Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Liam's 4th Birthday Party

We celebrated Liam's 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago. We had about 35 family members to our house for an afternoon of food, games, gifts and cake! I feel blessed that so many people showed up to help the little man ring in his 4th year of life. Thank you to everyone that came & surrounded him with love!

Liam picked his birthday party theme again this year. He chose robots.

I'll let the photos do the talking:


A shiny new bicycle helmet was hiding inside this box...
A bicycle will arrive sometime this Spring :)


The morning of his party Liam woke up and wasn't feeling well (fever, puked the night before). Here he is just hanging out, watching TV.



I set up a little robot-decorating table for the kids. Stickers, pipe cleaners, google eyes and print outs.
My niece Bella, no joke, decorated like 15+ robots.



And what's a birthday party without an EPIC BREAKDOWN five minutes before guests arrive?
(I see this and laugh, yet feel so bad for him at the same time!)


And then he calmed down and I got a few photos...





He posed with Chloe....and then another mini-meltdown with Mom...


I made these little robots as party favors for the kids. Mandarin orange cups for the heads, bubbles or Slinky's for the bodies and an assortment of goodies for the robot parts.





In the weeks leading up to Liam's Robot Party the four of us made our own homemade robots out of recycled bits, glue, stickers and paint. Here's the robot that I created, complete with spice-container-lid-mouth and yogurt-cup-arms!


And here are the rest. Liam is SO proud of his robot!



And let the party begin...


              My nephew & his sweet girlfriend        Matt's aunt Luci and the newest family member, Nico

                          My niece Bella                                     My sister-in-law Nici and nephew Rylan


                       My nephew Hudson                                           Liam's grandma and Nana

                       Cousins eating lunch                                                 Cousin-in-laws


Playing a couple of games...



Chloe attempting to steal the entire bowl of cheese corn...



Lots of yummy snacks, including Jello robots.



And lots of gifts for the lucky birthday boy.









I made this cake. I found a few ideas on Pinterest, but I pretty much winged this myself. Fruit roll ups, Oreos, Reeses' Pieces, Dots, wafer cookies and candy orange slices make for yummy robot parts!


Liam was not feeling well once it came time to sing happy birthday. But he was a trooper!


I'm sure everyone at the party was thrilled when he blew those sick germs all over the cake! 


Love = letting your cousin lick the frosting off of your birthday candles too.


And the morning after the party...

                 Donuts (and fruit) for breakfast!                                         My niece Caroline
              Playing Candy land with grandma                                      Chloe and Hudson 


Happy 4th Birthday Liam. We love you more than you will ever know!
Mom, Dad and Chloe


Links to previous birthday parties: