Continue reading]]> Disneyland’s Bibbity Bobbity Bootique

Pretty much any Disneyland visit will give your family chances to meet Disney princesses, but do you have a little girl who loves to play princess, herself? Guess what! At Disneyland’s Bibbity Bobbity Bootique, your little princess can get her very own princess makeover from her very own fairy godmother. (For princes, or princesses who’d rather wield a sword than a tiara, knight packages from well-trained coachmen are also available.)

Kaylee tried two different makeover packages, on two different trips. We had so much fun! She loved getting the princess treatment, and her fairy godmothers really made the experience special. Click below to see her first makeover.

Or see her second, more elaborate makeover below.

Think this might be an experience you want your little princess (or prince, or knight) to have? You can see a listing of what’s available, what’s included, and how much the experience will cost here. Be sure to reserve a spot early, though. This is not something you can just go visit day-of. To get the date and time you want, you should make your reservation at least 60 days before your visit.

Magical Makeover DIY’s

This part of the post contains a few links to related products on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases.

If you are pretty sure you would need your own personal fairy godmother to afford a makeover at Disneyland, don’t despair! Think of my videos of Kaylee and the linked listings as a magical wishing well of ideas. With some basic supplies and a healthy dose of creativity, you can create a magical makeover for your little one right at home.

Choose where you’ll do the makeover, then set the scene with something like this.

If you’re doing the makeover in a bathroom, just attach it over your regular shower curtain. If you’re using another room, you can put it up carefully with thumbtacks or tape. Be sure to use something like masking tape or painter’s tape to prevent damage to your walls.

Need a comfy gown for your princess?

A fancy tiara?

A hairpiece?

Or perhaps a sword and shield that won’t damage furniture or siblings?

Try the ones I’ve linked! With a few magical extras and some hair and makeup products you have at home, add your own time and creativity to make a magical makeover experience!

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Every November I find myself in a mad dash to do something cute for our family’s Christmas cards and every year I end up doing the same old boring thing.  But not this year!  This year I am planning ahead and doing something fun, different, and interesting.  And… the kids are going to help me do it!

Here are some things I found on Pinterest. Follow us on Pinterest to find these and other great family-friendly ideas.

This adorable Reindeer Card is made using your children’s fingerprints, a little art work, and some googlie eyes. Isn’t it adorable?

I think it would be really fun to do photos of each family member individually with photo booth props.  That’s something you don’t see every day.  You can find some cute photo booth props here on Amazon.com.

I always wonder what to do with all of those extra buttons that come with blouses I buy.  This is such a great idea and would be a fun thing to do together as a family.  These could even be fun Thank you cards for the kids to make for after Christmas.

Tee hee.  I guess you could do this with a green screen and it would probably take some help from Mom and Dad, but isn’t this idea so fun? Here are some more fun ideas from their website.

I love love love this newborn inspired Christmas Tree card.  I think this is the only year we will be able to make one of these cards, so we better get to it!  We have a 3 month old baby and his toes are so cute.  I would love to document them on our Christmas cards this year!  This little piggy went to market…..

Continue reading]]> This was a fun girls LDS Activity Days game that the leaders in our ward came up with called Minute to Win It.  It was for the Mom and Miss Activity that is generally held in the Spring.  You may have seen the TV show.  This is their take on it (see the video below).  I was able to participate and everyone had the best time as you can see!

Here’s some decorations from the activity

The girls helped in the planning and decorating.  They made these darling painted flowers and butterflies out of paint and tissue paper

Every year we get a photo together.  This is the last year my oldest will be in activity days, so next year, all the girls won’t be together anymore…  sad… she will love Young Women’s though.  You can see my baby bump too

They served a yummy meal for us.  We had chicken salad sandwiches on rolls, fruit, salad, and cupcakes.  It was fun to socialize with our daughter and have a party just for girls!

Here’s the games that we played at the end of the activity.  The leaders called it “Minute to Win it”.

Continue reading]]> Our daughter turned 12 this year and we really struggled with coming up with a great tween birthday party idea.  There were some great ones that were just too childish, some that were too expensive for our family’s budget, and some that were too teenager-ish.  What to do?

I wanted to simplify and just have kids over for dinner and a game night…. only with a twist.  We finally decided on a backyard BBQ and were able to make some themes associated with it (bugs, camping items, and things you could find outdoors).  The kids had so much fun and didn’t want to go home, so I would say it was a success.  Here’s some photos that can give you some ideas of things you can do at your next party.

This party ran us around $50 and we had enough leftovers for dinner the next night to invite extended family over for dinner.  We fully utilized the dollar store as you can tell.  We invited 10 kids and 8 showed up.  We invited the kids for 3 hours and that was just the right amount of time.  I think they would have liked to play more games had there been more time.

Decorations 

  We hung balloons from the dollar store upside down in the trees using crepe paper streamers also from the dollar store

Food

We served, bug encrusted hotdogs, cheeseburgers (not pictured because they were still cooking), chips, carrots, and bug juice (strawberry lemonade) with a gummy worm in the bottom of the cup.  We ate on paper plates and outside to minimize cleanup.

Games

After dinner, we played some games: Jenga, Apples to Apples (a really fun family game), and Spot It. The kids all had a blast and spent a lot of time laughing and talking.  We moved inside because it was pretty windy, but we could have played outside on a better day.  Whoever won a game got to choose a prize (full size candy bars).

S’mores

We roasted s’mores in our backyard (this could be an optional activity if you don’t have a fire pit) using our awesome adjustable marshmallow roasting sticks.  This was a big hit with the kids and my husband got to make a fire, grunt grunt…

Cupcakes

We had buggie cupcakes for dessert and sang happy birthday with trick candles that kept lighting up.  The cupcakes had crushed oreos on top and gummy worms as well as plastic dollar store bugs on them.  One friend at the party said it looked like we dropped the cupcakes in the dirt and then served them to the kids.  Exactly the effect I was going for!

Gifts and Favors

Lastly, we opened gifts and handed out favor bags as the kids were leaving.  We put their prizes from the games in with the treat bags before sending them home with them.

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I will answer it as soon as I can.  Thanks for looking!

Continue reading]]> Every year we do a little neighborhood egg hunt with the big kids and little kids together.  The parents hide the eggs, and the little kids go first and then the big kids go next.  It takes all of 2 seconds as we usually hide them at our neighborhood church.  Everyone shares and each brings 12 filled eggs and their children go home with 12 filled eggs that they have found.  It’s super fun for the little kids, but the big kids get… well, a little bored.  This year I thought it would be fun for the big kids to do something a little more challenging with some added team work.  While perusing Pinterest, I found some fun ideas.

What do you think about this one where the big kids find a certain color of egg and then do a math algorithm to find out an address in the neighborhood where a special prize is hidden?  I also love these 25 non-candy items to put in easter eggs.

I think a glow in the dark easter egg hunt would be fun too. I’m not sure if people in our neighborhood would be able to make it for a nighttime event, but it would be fun to have a potluck dinner and then let the little kids find eggs at dusk and the big kids find eggs when it gets dark or after dessert. The large plastic eggs need to be used for the glow in the dark hunt. Glow bracelets are fun to put in, but sometimes don’t light up really well, so I’ve heard the plastic tea lights that are battery powered work much better.

A scavenger hunt with a map and clues might be fun to do.  I’ve also seen some ideas for teens including a geo-cashing hunt.  I think this might be too difficult for the age of our kids, but still something interesting and fun to keep in mind.

For more Easter ideas, check out our Pinterest board.

Do you have any great easter egg hunt for older kids ideas?  If so, please post a comment.

Continue reading]]> It seems like every year, I get so busy before Easter, that I forgot to plan anything special and unique for our tradition of family easter egg dying.  I have good intentions, but I never actually follow through.  Well, this year, I’m starting early! Easter is starting early too, as in March 31st.  I better hurry!  Ready set go…

After looking on Pinterest today, I found a plethora of great Easter egg decorating ideas.  Here’s my top 10.  Oh and before we start, here’s how to make the perfect hard boiled egg use 5 day old eggs!

#10 – Use rubber bands of various sizes to create white bands in your eggs.  I think this looks so classy and is so easy!  Idea came from this site.

#9 – You will find step by step instructions on how to make tie dyed eggs here on this site using neon food coloring.  My oldest daughter loved tie dye, so I think she will want to use this method!

#8 – I think this tissue paper method is such a great way for little ones to feel involved in the easter egg decorating process and it’s beautiful too.  I think you could experiment with the shapes and make really fun designs.

#7 – Use q tips dipped in acrylic paint (found for $1 or less at craft stores) to “paint” eggs after they have been dyed a base color.  This looks so easy!  We already have a bunch of acrylic paint, so this might be a good choice for us.  Click here for more information.

#6 –This site has some great Easter egg decorating ideas using pens. How creative!  I have an artist in my family that I think would really like this creative process.  I’m not sure if it would be safe to eat the eggs after using pens on them, so please check that out before consuming them.

#5 – I totally fell in love with these little beauties from Family Circle Magazine. They are so easy. You just using small strips of origami paper and small flowers. I think paper doilies would also work nicely on this design. Do you think so?

#4 – Of course Design Mom has lovely photos of her making vibrant eggs (and lots of other beautiful eggs too). Also, check out this site for the actual dying instructions for vibrant eggs.

#3 – If you want to wax very creative and are doing egg dying with older kids or adults, you can try this natural food dye technique. I love love love the results using real flowers and leaves and that no boring color tablets were used in this design!  This one is a little more time consuming, but I think it would make for a really memorable experience for the family and the eggs are just absolutely stunning!

#2 – These eggs were decorated using washi tape. I don’t have any washi tape yet, but I think I need to get some! You can find lace tape here and bright colors here. I think the lace would look nice on the eggs above that have the flower in the center and the origami paper middle.  I can think of a lot of craft projects I could use washi tape on, and this one doesn’t look like it uses much, so I could have some leftovers for other things.  Sounds like a great plan!

#1 – I must confess, even though it’s probably quite messy, I’ve always wanted to do glitter eggs with my girls.  ALWAYS!  This is the year I’m going to do it.  I even bought superfine glitter so that I could not have an excuse to do something else this year.  You must dye the eggs first and then use thinned glue and glitter to intensify the color.  I like Martha Stewart’s little contraption made from foam board and straight pins for help in making the perfect glittered egg.

What will you do for Easter this year?  Please share with us by posting a comment!

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Last year some friends and I brainstormed some ideas for capturing kids imaginations.  Since all of our kids pretty much wore dressups all day long, we decided if wouldn’t be difficult to get them into an imaginary world on film by dressing them up in costumes and asking them questions about the character they were dressed up as. Naturally, once they had the costume on, they actually became the superhero or princess easily.  It was fun to watch kids who are shy in many circumstances really come out of their shell and say the funniest things because they were clearly the character they were dressed up as and they could forget their inhibitions.

We wanted to bottle up their enthusiasm and gain access into their world by asking them questions about certain characters or heroes that they were interested in.

In episode 2, we ask a little boy about Batman.  My favorite part of the video is when he talks about the Joker and says, “He jokes people”.  Kids have the cutest imaginations and we wanted to capture that in this video.  This boy is so darling and just seemed to know everything there is to know about Batman as you can see in the video below.

Watch the video here:

For years, our family had searched for costumes that were durable and suitable for every day wear (Halloween costumes seemed to fall apart easily and be itchy for our tender-skinned kids).  We came across the Little Adventures line and we nearly have all of their dress up clothes now!  I like that everything they sell is machine washable and made with non-itchy fabrics.  If you’d like the capes in the video, The cape he is wearing is so cute and comfortable to wear and he loved it as you can see.  You can find the set of 5 capes here on Amazon.

For another Lil Imaginators video (Episode 1), click here.

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My husband hates hates hates yard work.  There’s nothing he hates more.  Hate, however is not a strong enough word. I should say he despises yard work.  When we first talked about getting married he warned me that he would not step foot in a garden or plant any flowers EVER.  I thought, “Yeah yeah, whatever, he’ll change once he sees how fun and rewarding it is!”  How many times has this thinking worked out for womankind.  Never.  And it didn’t work in my case either.  He has planted a couple things when I needed lots of help.  But, my husband still hates yard work and couldn’t care less if our yard was nice or a pile of weeds.

I, on the other hand, care very much how our yard looks and I want it to be beautiful and inviting.  I have tried very hard to make our landscaping low maintenance (with no maintenance plants, sprinklers and strategic placement of cement to reduce weeds).  It’s nice to know that all of my hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.  I was so incredibly pleased when we received the Orem Beautification award, along with a $25 gift card to a local nursery.

I have no idea how we won.  We were on vacation and had a note on our door when we got back.  I get to have that cute sign in my yard for a month.

Our yard is very large, so this is just a snippet of what it looks like.  We also have a seating/firepit area, swingset area, garden area, and a large basketball hoop (my husband does participate in this!).

I find gardening to be relaxing and I like that my kids like to go out with me and help in the yard.  It’s something we can do together and I think it teaches them valuable skills, like how to grow your own food and how to take care of plants.

You can’t see it well from the photo, but I have created a children’s seating area in the back yard with a fairy garden and 2 chairs where they can go sit in the shade and explore.  It’s fun for them to have their own little space and it was a fun project to do together.

If you have any gardening tips, please post a comment!

***our address has been blurred out in case you were wondering what that obnoxiousness was next to our front door

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Lil Imaginators Cast Members

About a year ago, some friends and I started on a project  that explores children’s imaginations.  It’s called Lil Imaginators.  We asked about 10 young children from different families and backgrounds to come and be on film at our local college campus.  They had so much fun and so did we!

We wanted to gain access into children’s imaginary world by asking them simple questions about princesses and superheroes and seeing what their answers would be.  We were floored by how imaginative and funny their responses were to our questions.

In this episode (episode 1), we ask the kids, “What do princesses eat?”  Watch the video and see what their hilarious responses are.

Episode 2 will be launched in August of 2012.

If you are interested in any of the princess costumes in the video, we have links to them below.  The brand is Little Adventures and they come in a variety of sizes and are non-itch and machine washable.  Some of these kids wore them for 6 hours during the video shoot and none of them complained about being uncomfortable in the princess dresses or boys capes.  Our family actually owns all of these costumes and we’ve had some for over 10 years and our kids pretend in them on a daily basis.  They are fantastic!
Cinderella dress
Snow White dress
Rapunzel dress
Yellow Beauty
Arabian Princess
Sleeping Beauty
Pink Parisian Princess
Dragon cape
Superhero cape set

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