I am (uplifting them)

Here’s a wonderful project that I am so happy to see!

I am (uplifting them) is a new social media project that proposes to use social media to uplift our kids instead of to shame them.

Page creator Stephanie says:

I am saddened by the amount of kid-shaming photos and stories I see all over the internet. My proposal is that we flood the world wide web with kid-positivity and uplifting stories and photos. So, grab a kid (preferably your own; if not get permission) and ask them to finish the sentence, ‘I am…’ Write down what they say (I guarantee it’ll be positive) snap a picture of them holding it and post it everywhere! Post them here as well and let’s see how many uplifting, positive things we can learn about our children!

Want to take part?  You can join in on Facebook or Twitter and invite your own kids to celebrate how fabulous they really are.  🙂

I’m off to see what my kids want to put on their signs!

 

Play With Silk!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Here’s a totally random little way to have some fun with your kids and create something really calming and beautiful (sometimes you need that during this time of year!).

At Silk, you just click your mouse and drag, then watch the artwork created.  It all looks like silk blowing in the breeze. You can try writing in cursive, swoop the mouse around and experiment with different effects.

Fun! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

30 holiday crafts, activities and goodies for December

What fun!  ParentMap Magazine has this assortment of fun things to do this month….

Including our giant ice suncatcher.

Head on over and see what strikes your fancy.

Weekend assignment

Should you choose to accept it…

Find a few minutes to do something really nice for yourself.  Buy yourself a couple of truffles at the check-out and go enjoy them on the porch swing.  Take a relaxing bath with a magazine.  Call a friend who makes you feel fabulous.  You get the idea!  Extra credit if you come back and tell me what you did!  🙂

Happy Weekend!

Adventuring

I’m terribly sorry to be gone so long!  It’s our local school’s back to school week, so it is our not-back-to-school week here at home.  We’ve been adventuring of one sort or another all week (hence the camel!  we met him at the zoo!) and we are leaving now to meet some friends for a camping adventure.

Here are some fabulous things elsewhere to make up for my slacker ways this week!

• I love the looks of these flower headbands that are made with satin circles, hot glue and a lighter!
• I can’t wait to gather up lots of scrap fabrics and try making these woven fabric hot pads/decorations with the kids. 
• Got bored kids?  Here’s 50 ways to play.
• Speaking of play, here’s a good reminder of how we as parents need to not get in the way of it and accidentally stifle creativity.
• Here’s stories that children can listen to online, courtesy of the BBC.

And now, I’m off to frantically pack a van full of camping equipment and forget half of what we  need.  It’s my way.  😉

Kiss your kiddos, count your blessings and sneak yourself some chocolate.  See you soon!

Make a Pom Pom Shaun the Sheep!

I love this craft!!!!  You can make these adorable sheep from wool yarn, and even shear them!

You can make a whole little flock for the kids to play with.  You can even make them out of recycled bags.

Head on over to dad can do for all the instructions and printable patterns.

Happy Thursday!

Fairies Seem to Love Michigan

I’ve wanted to visit Ann Arbor for years because of the fairy doors all over the city, but now I’ve found out that Northville (also in Michigan) hosts lots of fairy doors too!

Take a look at some of these darling little entryways.  I think it must be at least a tiny bit magical to live in a city that has tiny little bits of whimsy scattered so nicely through itself!

Does your city have any fairy doors?  Does your house?  We have a little gnome door on an outside tree and we made salt dough fairy doors last year for inside.

I am now inspired all over again.  Maybe we’ll have to make more!

If you want to see more of Ann Arbor’s fairy doors for inspiration (or to go visit!), here’s a site with pictures and a map.  You can even see inside some!

Happy Tuesday!

Help Kids With Dolly Donations

Have you heard of this neat site?  Dolly Donations offers free, simple cloth doll patterns and coordinates drives to donate dolls to children in need all over the world.

Magical Mama Sarah, who runs the site, just sent 181 dolls (and a few extras!) off to a Haiti orphanage, one for every child in the orphanage.  She’s already at work making more for local children in need.

The site offers free patterns and tutorials to make cloth dollies with a minimum of fabric.  You can even find patterns to knit or crochet, plus instructions on how to paint faces and add embellishments.

Sarah says visitors are free to use the patterns to make dollies for their own kiddos, but asks for people to make an extra (or more!) for children who could really use them.

What a wonderful idea!

Fun With Sheep!

Two year-old Alex is very into Shaun the Sheep lately, and all of us love him (and the whole Wallace and Grommit series) too.  Daryl has found some neat sheep-related stuff online to keep him happy and I thought you might like it too!

We have…..

Make your own sheep music…

Shaun the Sheep bleatbox….

And click on the related links there for Shaun crafts and clips and more.

Sounds like a baaaaaaall!  😉

Free Printable Model Motorcycles, Macaws & More

Yamaha has the most amazing models available free for download!  You can find everything from motorcycles to Japanese animals that you can print on heavy paper, cut out and assemble with the kids.  Some of these are really intricate and amazing.  These would be great fun for motorcycle loving daddies (or mamas!) to put together with the kiddos.

The site also gives lots of information about the animals and other models.

Cool stuff!

Make Your Own Fireworks Show!

This page from Crayola is great fun for kids of any age.  Design your own fireworks show with a variety of different colors and shapes of rockets.  You can plan where they each go and then click to start the show.  Fun!