Strawberry Ice Cream Chia Pudding Parfaits

2 / 13 / 19

Please tell me I’m not the only one who loves whipping up on-theme food for my kiddos on holidays and special occasions. I know, it’s a little bit nerdy and over the top, but I love it so much. Last Valentine’s Day I made the kids these strawberry ice cream chia pudding parfaits and oh my word… You should have seen their little eyes light up when I set breakfast down in front of them!

Besides the fact that they’re both nutritious and super delicious, the thing I love about these ice cream chia pudding parfaits is that they’re a lot easier to make than they look. In fact, you can do most of the prep work the night before so they come together super quickly come morning.

First up, you’ll want to cut a bunch of strawberry hearts… Just cut the green leafy part of the strawberry off to create a ‘v’ shape at the top, then slice! You’ll want fairly thin hearts to place along the inside of the mason jars, so keep that in mind while slicing. If prepping these the night before, just pop them into an air-tight bag or container in the fridge. And while you’re at it, wash and dry a few blueberries and add them in there too.

Next up, your chia pudding. I have a couple of posts about chia pudding (our tropical version | our chocolate version), but if you haven’t tried it, you really must. It’s so unique and delicious and my kids just love it! To make it, pour 1 cup of coconut milk into a jar along with 3 tablespoons of chia seeds, 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup, and a little splash of good vanilla. Shake it up like mad and then place it in the fridge overnight to thicken. If you can, give it a couple of extra shakes before going to bed for the night to help prevent clumping. If not, no worries – it’ll be fine either way.

Alright… Now for the part that has to be made in the morning… The strawberry ice cream! Or nice cream as it’s often called.

Chuck 3 frozen bananas, along with 5 big frozen strawberries and a splash of good vanilla, into a food processor. I find this works best if the frozen fruit has had just 5 minutes at room temperature, but you can do it straight from the freezer too. Basically, you just need to blend it like CRAZY. It’ll take a little while and will most likely require you stopping the food processor to scrape down the sides a few times, but keep going {past the chunky stage, past the mealy stage} until your bananas and strawberries are the consistency of soft serve. Mmmm… so good!

Now it’s time to assemble! Line a mason jar with your strawberry hearts simply by pressing them against the glass surface…

Then gently fill the jar about halfway full of chia pudding…

And generously top with strawberry ice cream.

Finish off the strawberry ice cream chia pudding parfaits with a strawberry heart and a few blueberries on top and breakfast (or snack) is served!

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Whole Wheat Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes

2 / 5 / 192 / 5 / 19

Ages ago {aka back in 2012} Miss G and began making these whole wheat lemon poppy seed pancakes and they’ve been a favourite ever since. Grae absolutely LOVES them, as do I – and that’s saying a lot because I’m not much of a breakfast food person if I’m being honest. BUT – give me something something lemony and not too sweet and I’ll happily eat it any time of the day.

Spa Bath for Kids

1 / 31 / 192 / 5 / 19

You know those times when your kiddo needs a little something extra special just for them? Like time alone that doesn’t feel like forced time alone? Well this spa bath for kids has become one of our go-tos in those situations and is exactly that… Time alone that feels special {maybe even a little bit luxurious} and not at all forced. It’s the perfect really chill, relaxing way to end the day and such a good mood booster for us too.

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The set-up is really simple and can really be anything you want it to be depending on what your child loves and what you have in the house.

I always fill the tub up with a good amount of water and set out a towel, a washcloth, and a little ‘welcome to the spa’ of some sort. {Nothing fancy, obviously… This one is a piece of scrap paper from the junk drawer written with blue pen, but I often just write ‘welcome to the spa’ right on the tub with washable marker like I do for all of the little things I put out next.}

Alright – the little spa goodies… These are put in plastic containers (ancient apple sauce container collection for the win!) and I label each one by using a washable marker directly on the ledge of our bathtub. You can play around with different types of markers {washable obviously!} to see which ones work best on your surface, but regular old washable Crayola markers tend to be my go-to as they go on alright and wipe right off without any effort at all.

What you include is totally up to you, but I always go with the same 5 labels… ‘wash’, ‘scrub’, ‘soak’, ‘sip’, and ‘snack’.

‘Wash’ is almost one of two things… A couple of pumps of Moon Baby (or go to wash for both kids) or castile soap from our foaming soap dispenser (just put castile soap and some water in a foam dispenser that we always have on hand). BUT – how fun would it be to put out a chunk of our awesome DIY squishy soap?!

‘Scrub’ is almost always a big squeeze of the maple brown sugar scrub from Back to Earth that I love, but we’ve also done our homemade lemon vanilla sugar scrub and our funfetti sugar scrub when we’ve had them, and both are super fun and delicious smelling too.

‘Soak’ is usually a locally made bath bomb or some of our beloved coconut oat milk bath that Miss G can just pop into the tub when she’s ready.

‘Sip’ is usually fruit water (plain water with frozen fruit instead of ice cubes) with a paper straw to make it fancy…

And ‘snack’ is usually some type of cut up fresh fruit.

And that’s basically it!

When everything is ready I usually put on a calming Spotify playlist, dim the lights, and invite my little guest to enjoy some time at the spa.

She enjoys some time on her own and when she comes out afterwards… You can just tell – she feels sooooo good. Also, Mr. Sam had his very first taste of the spa bath the other night, soaked it right up, and then asked for another one midday the next day – hah!

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Muddy Monster Truck Derby Sensory Bin

1 / 22 / 191 / 22 / 19

Okay, so before you see this awesome muddy monster truck derby sensory bin and think it’s all fun and games over here all day every day, here’s what you need to know… This morning Sam came along for the school run in undies, a t-shirt, and a sweater. In minus four degree {celsius} weather. No pants. No socks. No boots. And no jacket. Let alone a toque or mittens. Thank goodness we do the whole car blanket thing and he at least had that once in, but you guys – this morning was a doooozy. We got home, I moped a bit, he continued to shout and whine and throw things, and I made a cup of coffee and gulped the whole thing back in bed with the door closed. Then we hugged it out, agreed to start our morning over, cleaned up, and put this sensory bin full of mud and monster trucks together.

Thank fricken goodness sensory play and calm music have the power to turn a day around.

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Here’s what we used to put this taste-safe, scented, amazing-feeling sensory bin together…

one of our go-to Sterilite sensory bins (any shallow bin will work)
cornstarch from our play cupboard (when it comes to cooking with it, I always use an organic version)
cocoa powder
a couple of small toy monster trucks

and later on, these Green Toys cars too.

If you haven’t guessed yet, our ‘mud’ for our monster truck derby sensory play is CHOCOLATE oobleck!!

We didn’t even bother mixing this up in a separate bowl! Sam just dumped the cornstarch and cocoa powder straight into our bin…

Then whisked it up…

And mixed with a wooden spoon as I gradually added water.

You can play with the amounts of each ingredient to create thicker or thinner oobleck, but here’s our recipe…

CHOCOLATEY OOBLECK

2 cups of cornstarch
1/2 cup of cocoa
2 cups of water

Whisk the cornstarch and cocoa together well. Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon {or better yet – your hands!} until the oobleck has a uniform in texture.

I gave the chocolate oobleck one last mix before Sam very enthusiastically popped his monster trucks in.

{It goes without saying that Chloe was in on the fun in approximately 2 minutes flat. Seriously – this kitty of ours loves sensory play just as much as Grae and Sam do!}

It obviously depends on the size of your bin, but our layer of oobleck was thin enough to leave very visible monster truck tracks and Sam noticed right away.

He also realized how insanely neat oobleck is to touch and hold and squish.

As for the mess? With activities like this one, I just remind him to keep his hands in or over the bin. The truth is that the oobleck mud dries up on surfaces and is a cinch to wipe up, but I still don’t want it all over the kitchen obviously.

Part way through his play Sam asked for something for the monster trucks to drive over, so that’s when I offered him a few little Green Toys cars. We lined them up just like you’d see at a monster truck show and after getting a thorough drizzling of mud, the monster trucks began driving and jumping over them.

Although this addition was initiated by Sam, starting simple and adding things in here and there during play is one of my go-to methods for extending play activities.

Also his request? ‘A tool and a bucket’, plus later on, a ramp which I chopped from an almond milk carton. This was during a full one-hour play session and though I have a feeling that it would have lasted significantly longer, we had to put it on pause for nap time. With the promise that he could continue later on in the afternoon, of course.

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How We Potty Trained our 3 Year Old

1 / 19 / 19

Welp, we’re officially through 10 full days of potty training and I have to say – it’s been much easier than I expected it to b {yay!} At this point Sam’s back to wearing bottoms at home, we do the school run and things like grocery shopping without any worry (I’ve even forgotten to bring along the diaper bag and a change of clothes several times – eep!), he’s happy to use a regular toilet both at home and while out, and we’ve only had 3 accidents throughout the entire process (2 of which have been this weekend while we’ve had family staying with us and I’ve had my hands full with other things / he’s been off running around with his cousins). That being said, number twos still definitely cause some anxiousness, but I think we’ve discovered what makes them easiest for him. We’ve been snacking on a few prunes each day to keep things…*ahem*…’soft’, and some privacy seems to allow things to happen, so we’re going with it.

I’ve had soooo many people over on Instagram ask me to share exactly how we’ve done it, but before I do, know that I am absolutely not an expert or medical professional for that matter. I’ve never even read a single potty training book in my entire life! I did successfully help Miss G to use a toilet at a very young age and I have helped several families I nannied for potty train their kiddos – but that’s the extent of it. Also, every kiddo is truly different. What worked for Miss G {and had her completely out of daytime diapers by 13.5 months old – check out how little she is in her underwear} absolutely would not have worked for Sam. Our method is simply based on what I felt would be best for Sam, and it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all sort of situation.

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With that said, here’s what we did do:

– We started talking about using potty, we put potties out in the bathrooms, and we started ‘sportscasting’ our own potty processes (sounds soooo silly, but never underestimate the power of modelling!) months in advance just to get the conversation going and ‘normalize’ the process.

– We waited until Sam was 3 and we felt he was truly ready. He was at the point where he would be going in his diaper and proudly announcing, “I’M PEEING!!” and was also completely open to the process. In fact, when I thought he might be ready back in October and put the feelers out, he became super anxious and resistant and I immediately knew it wasn’t our time just yet.

– We decided on a day and got prepared the day before. We didn’t need anything we didn’t already have in order to start the process, so this was as simple as letting him know that the following day would be the day and chatting about it in a really fun and positive {but genuine} way. “Tomorrow morning we’re going to start using the potty. I’m so excited for you!”

– On the big day, we put potties out in the main rooms of both floors of our house and got a big bucket of water with our favourite cleaner in it out and ready to go. When we were all set up, we took off his diaper and started with sitting on the potty right away, which earned us our very first ’success’. On that day (and for the next few days), we kept the house warm and Sam naked from the waist down, we stayed super close to home, and I just reminded him that when he had to go, the potty was there and I was ready to help.

– When he went, we danced, cheered, and highfived in celebration, then we’d dump the potty into the toilet and he would say goodbye and flush. (We really only had one accident in those early days, but when he did, we didn’t make a big fuss about it – we simply said, “Oops! We waited too long – next time we’ll get to the potty sooner”, and then cleaned it up and moved on. All things potty were kept light and positive).

– On day 2, things were going so well that I gave Sam the choice as to whether he’d like to do the school run in a diaper or in underwear, and he chose underwear!! In this case, I asked Sam to sit on the potty ‘just to try’ before helping him put his undies on and we brought the potty along with us in the car too. I let him know that we could stop any time he needed to go and I made sure to keep our trips as brief as possible (30 minutes max). By day 4, I felt like he was ready, so we began doing longer outings like music class and grocery shopping (again going before leaving and taking the potty along with us in the car). And on day 7, Sam went from being naked from the waist down to wearing underwear at home… I wanted to give him a good long run with being naked a) because it makes getting onto the potty and using it successfully so much easier (one less step!) and b) because I feel like wearing underwear must sort of feel like wearing a diaper, which of course has the potential to lead to accidents. Overall, I think the most important thing through the first week was keeping the process really positive and taking small steps forward when I felt like he was ready.

Now… Here’s what we didn’t do (but obviously no judgement to anyone who has done these things or feels like they’re the way to go – I know they’re often common practice):

– We didn’t get rid of diapers during sleep… At nap times and bedtimes, Sam tries going on the potty and then we put on a “sleep diaper” before he goes down. They’re the same diapers we’ve always used but they’re now specifically called ‘SLEEP diapers’ and they come off as soon as he’s done sleeping. I chose to only tackle awake times a) because our kids tend to sleep hard and for long periods of time and b) because we worked so dang hard to help him learn how to be a good sleeper and his sleep is still very easily thrown off, so I’m just not willing to mess with it at this point.

– We didn’t do tangible rewards of any kind… No Smarties for each potty use, no sticker chart, no toy once fully trained. Truthfully, rewards in general just aren’t my jam. One of my biggest passions as an educator has always been fostering intrinsic motivation, so extrinsic motivators (like candy and stickers) just don’t vibe with that personal passion. If you’re interested, Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes is a fantastic read.

– We didn’t aim to fill Sam with extra liquids in order to increase his ‘opportunities to learn’. I know this is SO common and many people go as far as to give their kiddos ’treat drinks’ (like juice and chocolate milk) in order to increase their consumption, but something about that just doesn’t really sit right with me… I feel like if I was learning something new and feeling slightly anxious / overwhelmed / whatever about it, the last thing I’d want is someone to artificially pile on and give me more to manage. Of course, that’s just my personal feeling.

– Lastly, we didn’t use timers. I know many people set their timers and sit their kiddos on the potty every 15 minutes for the first day, maybe every 20 minutes on the second, etc., but I knew Sam was ready and really wanted the process to be more child-led – more focused on him listening to his body instead of me telling him when to go. Instead, every now and then (and not a ton), I reminded him that the potty was out and ready when he needed it.

And that’s that. While I anticipated that it would go fairly well, it’s been so much easier than I even anticipated and for that I’m thankful.

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Decorate a Window Snowman Activity

1 / 10 / 191 / 10 / 19

I took it down a couple of weeks ago already, but Sam loved his little decorate a window Christmas tree SO much that when it began absolutely dumping snow yesterday, I decided to quickly put up a new window activity for him to enjoy. This decorate a window snowman activity has already been such a hit and the best part is that it can be decorated, taken apart, and redecorated over and over again.

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WINDOW CHRISTMAS TREE 🎄 When Miss G was little, I always used to put together some sort of toddler-friendly Christmas tree for her to decorate and redecorate all on her own. 👱🏻‍♀️ One year I did a felt one, another year I did a sticky tree made of contact paper… and they were always a hit. This year, I decided to switch things up for Sam and went with a cellophane tree taped up onto the window with painter’s tape. Beside it I set out a little spray bottle he’s able to mange with one hand, plus a star, trunk, and some little ornaments I quickly cut out of craft foam. 🌟 I had to show him how the foam parts stuck onto the tree (a small spray of water is all they need!) and then off he went decorating his tree! 🌲 (Stay tuned – I’ll share more on Stories later today.)

A post shared by Jen | Mama.Papa.Bubba. (@mamapapabubba) on Dec 14, 2018 at 11:31am PST

First up, a little peek at the Christmas tree version… This was SO simple to put together and I’ve already stored the foam circles and star away for next year, so it’ll be extra easy to set-up again then. You can read the IG post details here.

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If you’re new to these foam window cling sort of activities, they’re really easy. We’ve been doing them since Miss G was teeny tiny, and though we first started out using coloured acetate sheets, we quickly switched over to craft foam as it’s super inexpensive and easy to find. I love these types of activities for many reasons, but a big one is that the required materials are so minimal. You really only need craft foam (this can be purchased at craft and dollar stores), scissors, and a small spray bottle that’s manageable for your little one’s hands (we like this style and they’re also readily available at dollar stores). This particular window snowman activity also uses some patterned white and clear cellophane (found at the dollar store also) and sticky tape, but if you’re brave enough to try it, you could skip the cellophane and use a black permanent marker on the window to make a snowman outline instead. I’ve heard that it comes off without an issue with a cotton pad and rubbing alcohol and I have tested out small spots with success myself, but try it at your own risk (and definitely do a test spot first!)

I stuck with the safe bet this time around and used cellophane to create our snowman… To do this I just folded a length of cellophane in half vertically, then used bowls as a guide when drawing a half snowman shape using permanent marker. I do find that cutting patterned cellophane is much easier with really sharp scissors, so be sure to use your best pair when cutting out your snow person.

Next, place it up on the window at your child’s height. It’ll stick up there all on it’s own, but I added some little tape rolls just to be sure it stayed put while Sam was playing.

Next up, cut several snowman ‘accessories’ out of your craft foam. I just did this step on the fly, but you can draw on the foam sheets with pencil first if it’s easier. What you include is up to you… I did a couple of different hats, a few carrots, a couple of twigs, then a bunch of buttons and pebbles.

Now I’m not nearly good enough with photography to capture both the cellophane snowman on the sunny window and the foam pieces set out on the table in the dark corner, but this was the basic set-up…

I love putting little play invitations like this one out for the kids to discover and use on their own time. Sam was immediately intrigued by the table full of foam goodies, but when he saw the snowman on the window? He was thrilled.

Having done a similar activity before, he immediately got to work decorating his snow person.

If you’ve never tried this type of activity before, the process is really neat. All the foam pieces need in order to stick onto the window is a spritz of water! So it’s just spray-and-stick for each piece.

Using a spray bottle is great for developing those little hand muscles and motor skills too, so win-win!

“Dis snowman same tall as ME!!”

It’s hard to see, but isn’t his snowman sweet? The twigs coming out of the bottom of its face are in fact arms and the green circles on the sides are his “funny ears”. Also, Sam told me that it doesn’t have a a name when he’s wearing the black hat, but when its wearing this red and white one, the snowman’s name is Santa.

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Test Tube Snow Globe Ornaments

11 / 30 / 1812 / 1 / 18

After making the most adorable little Christmas truck ornaments {inspired by Little Blue Truck’s Christmas} with Sam earlier this week, today Miss G and I made her book-inspired ornament of the year… Test tube snow globe ornaments inspired by the pages of Ada Twist, Scientist! I wasn’t sure how they were going to turn out, but now that they’re done, I think they’re so beautiful and fun!

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If you’ve not read Ada Twist, Scientist, you must… Along with the other books in the collection (Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect), it’s one of our absolute favourites. Ada is endlessly curious and while her experiments and quests to figure out how things work often wreak havoc in her family’s day-to-day life, she learns the value of thinking her way through things and always remaining curious.

The pages of the book are filled with bottles of Ada’s colourful concoctions and experiments, which is exactly what inspired Miss G’s little test tube snow globe ornaments.

There’s a lot of wiggle room as far as which materials you use for these test tube snow globe ornaments, but here’s what we used to make ours:

– little glass craft jars with screw on lids (I REALLY wanted ones with rounded bottoms like these ones with cork tops, but alas… small town living doesn’t always allow for these things. We ended up finding these very similar flat-bottomed glass craft jars at our local Dollarama and they worked just fine. In fact, they’re probably better for the fact that they stand on their own while making them, but they’re just not quite as test tube like.)

– Gorilla Contact Adhesive (I wouldn’t use something like this with Sam, but Miss G is 8 now and this glue worked really well)

– mini bottle brush trees (we found ours at Michael’s in the Tiny Treasures section)

– water

– liquid food colouring

– different types of confetti and slime add-ins

– water

– embroidery thread

– washi tape (which we ended up adding into the mix at the last minute)

Here’s a closer look at the little confetti bits and slime add-ins I put out for Miss G to use. These were all things that came in one of those big slime making add-in kits you can order online.

Here’s how Grae made her test tube snow globes…

First up, she tested the bottle brush trees in the glass craft jars to make sure they fit well.

Most of them fit perfectly and the ones that didn’t simply got a little trim.

Then it was time to adhere the trees in the bottoms of the test tubes. To do this, we simply followed the instructions on the Gorilla Contact Adhesive packaging and put a little glue on the base of the tree, a little glue in the bottom of the test tube, let both sit for two minutes, and then carefully put the tree down into the test tube and pushed it down firmly. {In true Miss G fashion, the two minutes of waiting just HAD to be filled with reading.}

Now while the glue we used does say that it’s ‘immediate contact’, it also says that the glue isn’t fully cured for 24 hours, so we probably should have waited before adding water, but we didn’t. We gave the trees 10 or 15 minutes to set, then went ahead with the project like the impatient people we are – hah! One thing to note is that the trees / test tubes that we used a thin layer of adhesive on definitely formed a more immediate bond, while the ones with more adhesive were still wiggly when we moved on to the next step

Next up, the water.

Aren’t they pretty just like this?

Then Grae worked on tinting the water with liquid food colouring. Because a full drop was too much for the amount of water in our little test tubes, she used a food pick to add the teeniest bit of colouring at a time until the colour was just right.

With the water the perfect shade, she added in all of the confetti, bits, and bobs her little heart desired.

Here are her finished test tube snow globes… Aren’t they gorgeous?

At this point you could secure the test tube lids with glue, but we skipped that part and just ensured that they were screwed on as tightly as possible.

Now while I thought we’d tie our baker’s twine / embroidery thread around the test tubes and create our little hanging loop that way, it just didn’t work out how we thought it would… Instead, we opted to tape a little loop of thread to either side of the lid and then secure everything with several rounds of decorative washi tape, which I think looks really cute too.

Here they are all done and ready for the tree!

This post is part of the awesome 10 Days of #KidMadeChristmas Ornaments series we’ve participated in in years past… If you’re looking for some fantastic ornament ideas to try at home with your kids, pop over and check out the master list of kid-made ornaments – there are SO many lovely ones this year!

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Homemade Christmas Truck Ornaments

11 / 29 / 1812 / 1 / 18

One of the Christmas traditions I just adore? Making a new Christmas ornament with each kiddo every year! It’s such a fun one-on-one project and I think the kids really love hanging their newly made decorations on the tree {and revisiting their old ones each year}. The type of ornament we make is often inspired by something they love or by a favourite book, and this year Sam’s little homemade Christmas truck ornaments were inspired by Little Blue Truck, the star of a collection of books we’ve read again and again.

Unicorn Play Dough Kit

11 / 24 / 18

I feel like we’re re-entering a time of play dough kits and I won’t lie – I’m oh so excited about it! When Miss G was a toddler, we had a minimum of four different play dough kits on our shelf at all times, we swapped them out for new ones each season, and they were played with EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. They were also our go-to gift for her little friends for several years… We’d just come up with a theme based on what the little birthday person loved and run with it! There are truly too many to remember, but we’ve done a mermaid play dough kit, a dinosaur play dough kit, a construction site play dough kit, a Star Wars play dough kit, and a Frozen themed play dough kit to name a few. And this time around? For the little friend who loves everything sparkly? We decided to try something new – a unicorn play dough kit!

Seriously – play dough kits like this where everything is neatly stored in one container are the BEST for quiet time, independent play while mama has to get something done, sick days, or even as a ready-to-go activity for when friends come over. The kits we make hold plenty of dough for multiple kids, plus the tools and loose parts add interest and expand upon what can be done with the dough. And it’s all just sitting there ready to go when the mood strikes!

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Here’s exactly what you’ll need to recreate this unicorn play dough kit:

all-purpose flour
table salt
cream of tartar
vegetable oil
glycerine
boiling water
wilton gel colours
iridescent glitter
iridescent star confetti

a unicorn figurine (we included this one by PAPO and it’s truly beautiful, but it’s also too big to fit inside the kit… this smaller one or this smaller one – or both – by Schliech would also be great options)

a divided GLIS container from IKEA

First up, you’ll need to make the play dough. We went with four colours – aqua, a soft peachy pink, lavender, and a soft, buttery yellow and as always, we used our super soft, no-cook play dough recipe and our trusty Wilton gel colours {<— truly the best}.

Now, to create this kit, we made a recipe per colour, but 4 full batches is a tad much for the GLIS container, so I simply kept a little chunk of each batch for our kids to play with at home. If you were making two unicorn play dough kits, I think you could probably get away with just doing the 4 separate batches and dividing each colour equally between the 2 boxes.

If you’ve never made our play dough before, here’s a recipe run down…

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of table salt
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of glycerine

3/4 cup of boiling water (measured in a dry measuring cup – this is important as wet and dry measures aren’t the same and using a wet measure will likely make your play dough too sticky)

Wilton gel colouring {for colours like these, you’ll only need the smallest amount}

fine iridescent glitter {I made a commitment to quit buying glitter once I learned about how detrimental it is to our environment, but we had this on hand and there are several eco-glitter options now available}

Place all of the ingredients, save the boiling water, in a bowl and whisk well. Measure out the water using your dry measuring set and add the teensiest bit of Wilton gel colouring to it before adding the coloured water to the bowl. Give the mixture a quick mix with a wooden spoon, banging off it off every once and a while. At this point, the mixture may seem too wet and sticky to make good play dough… Do not fret! Leave the semi-mixed dough on the counter to cool for 5 or so minutes. Afterwards, dump the mixture out onto the countertop and knead really well. You’ll know you’re done when the dough is fully cooled, soft and squishy, and the super smooth. And if it’s still a little sticky once completely cooled (your climate and even the slightest bit of extra water can change the texture quite significantly), add flour touch by touch and kneading it until the stickiness is gone.

Next, form your dough into balls and roll them in iridescent glitter. Rolling the glitter on the outside of the dough will give it mega-shine and will make it look extra pretty for gift giving.

Next up, sprinkle the tops of your dough balls with iridescent stars and gently press them down so they stay in place.

Because divided GLIS containers aren’t airtight, you’ll want to place your dough into a big clear zip-close bag before gifting it, but I like the get the doughs shaped and in the container first to see how they’ll fit.

Now because our unicorn was too big to fit in our container (I would have liked to put it in that big compartment on the left), we just tied it to the top of the kit once done, but had we have been able to get our hands on a smaller unicorn, I would have found a spot for it next.

Alright, now onto the loose parts! These little bits and bobs are surprisingly easy to find at craft stores and dollar stores and make such a great addition to play dough kits. For our unicorn play dough kit we went with clear acrylic diamonds, pink acrylic hearts, and small acrylic mirror gems, but you can really do anything that you feel fits the theme. I think little pastel bottle brush trees would have been amazing in this kit, but alas – we live in a small town where these sorts of things aren’t easily found.

To finish off the kit, we added a miniature wooden rolling pin, a mini heart-shaped cookie cutter, a mini star-shaped cookie cutter, and some little pastel-coloured acrylic flowers.

And that was it!

We carefully placed the play dough balls into a plastic bag and then gently set it back into the container.

To finish off our gift, we tied the kit with some twine, added a handwritten tag and the unicorn, and called it good. We don’t even bother to wrap our homemade play kits usually.

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The Very Best Gifts for Kids

11 / 19 / 1811 / 19 / 18

True story? Every year for the last *at least* 5 years, I’ve wanted to put together the awesome holiday gift guides filled with personal recommendations that so many bloggers put out… BUUUUUT – it’s never happened. Why? Well a) because they’re a lot of work and b) because they usually go out early to mid-November, which means you really have to be thinking about Christmas in October… which just isn’t me. I’m very much an all-things-Christmas-can-begin-on-December-1st kind of gal. So getting gift guides out in early November just never happened for me. UNTIL NOW, that is. I’ve not talked about it here yet, but Amazon has this cool new feature where affiliate members can create an ‘Amazon shop’ filled with things they love and personally recommend. {You can check mine out here.} Well, not only is having an amazon shop super helpful for being able to quickly answer all of the ‘which brand is that?’ / ‘which model is yours?’ / ‘where can I find that?’ questions I receive on Instagram, but it also makes putting together gift guides incredibly easy, which is why I finally got around to rounding up a collection of the very best gifts for kids {in my opinion, of course}.

Here’s a peek at what an amazon shop looks like…

I’ve got my gift guides organized by age for babies through 6 year olds, then I’ve got a section for ‘older kids’, and I’ve got one for mamas too {plus other things}! Now two things…

First off, many {if not most} of the items I’ve selected for these gift guides are great for kiddos of many ages… After all, that’s the goal when buying toys for kids, right? Buying things that are open-ended enough to grow with them over time? I simply sat down at my computer, thought about the things I love gifting 2 year olds, 3 year olds, etc. and those were the items that got added to that particular age category.

Secondly, I will be the first to admit that I love Amazon. It’s crazy convenient, you can’t beat many of the deals, and when you live in a small town like we do, it gives you access to alllll the things you can’t get locally in one spot. That being said, I really, really try to support small, locally owned businesses whenever I can and while I truly appreciate people making their purchases through my amazon affiliate links {amazon affiliates earn a teeny bit of commission on each purchase made through their link at no extra cost to the buyer}, I think shopping small is really important. Some of our very favourite places to get kids’ items are Dilly Dally Kids, Collage Collage, Welk’s, Little Earth, and Beansprouts {all in Vancouver}.

Alright, that being said… ready for a little peek at some of the items I think make the very best gifts for kids? Now keep in mind that the screenshots below are just *some* of what’s in each age category, so be sure to click the links and see the full collection. Also, because the images you’ll see below are screenshots, the prices you see may not be the current prices. Best to click through and check on the actual site.

gifts for babies

gifts for 1 year olds

gifts for 2 year olds

gifts for 3 year olds

gifts for 4 year olds

gifts for 5 year olds

gifts for 6 year olds

gifts for older kids

Okay, and while I was at it, I haaaaaad to create a list of stocking stuffer ideas – stocking stuffers kids will actually use – because in my opinion, stockings are the very best part. In fact, for the last couple of Christmases we’ve done only stockings for our kids and this year will be the same. We’ve got all of the big ticket items they need {and more} and they get SO MUCH from their grandparents that a great stocking is more than enough. Click on the photo or link below to check out stocking stuffers for kiddos of all ages.

stocking stuffers kids will actually use

Okay, last thing. Promise. While I know that this is supposed to be the very best gifts for KIDS, I’m sneaking in my gift recommendations for mamas too because mamas, you deserve it!!! From my beloved Vitamix and espresso machine, to my go-to diffuser, a solid starter set of essential oils, and a few of my absolute faves from around our home, these are some of my very favourite things.

To take a look at all of my personal picks for mamas, click here.

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Witch’s Brew Slime Favours

10 / 30 / 18

I can’t believe Halloween is nearly here… Didn’t we just start the school year?! Miss G and I haven’t talked about brining something to share with her classmates this year {yet at least – I’m guessing this little tradition just dies off as the kids get older…?}, but we made these witch’s brew slime favours last year and they were such a huge hit!

Simple Fizzy Eruptions

10 / 25 / 18

Baking soda and vinegar… It just never ever gets old. This very simple fizzy eruptions activity has been a hit with so many of our little friends and guests over the years. And it doesn’t matter if they’ve just turned two or they’re nearly eleven years old – everyone who has come over when I’ve had this set out for a co-op meet-up, play date, or birthday party has pretty much loved it. I mean what’s not to love about colourful fizzy eruptions that leave your play surface looking just like that of the moon, right?

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Here’s the simple-as-can-be set-up… A plate of baking soda (or soda bicarbonate for our UK friends), several little jars of white vinegar coloured with liquid food colouring, gel food colouring, or liquid watercolours {my personal favourite because of the fact that they’re fully washable}, some pipettes, and a play tray to contain the mess {this one from Ikea is our fave}.

At nearly 3 years old, Sam has just really nailed down how to successfully use pipettes, but Miss G was using them when she was freshly 2, so it just depends on the kiddo!

That being said, kids who haven’t mastered pipette use can totally still create fizzy eruptions on their own! Instead of giving them the usual jar / pipette combo, just put the coloured vinegar in old glue bottles, any other squirt bottle with a small opening, or old liquid soap bottles with a pump and let them squeeze or pump the vinegar onto their plate of baking soda.

If they’re able to use a pipette, it’s as easy as squeeze to collect coloured vinegar…

Then squeeze to release the coloured vinegar onto the baking soda base and watch the fizzy eruption magic happen!

When the fizzy foam settles down, you’ll be left with the coolest coloured spots that look just like the moon’s surface {hence why we sometimes call this ‘moon painting’}.

Now if you really want to take things to the next level {like Sam does ALWAYS}, you may want to try the triple pipette method {patent pending – HAHA!}

Simply shove all three of your pipettes into a single jar, squeeze up as much vinegar as humanly possible…

And enthusiastically squeeze them out onto your baking soda in order to create the biggest fizzy eruption possible. The more force the better, really.

I mean, just look at how fun it looks!!

And when you’re nearly done, may as well just dump the rest of the vinegar out, right?? ‘Papa says sam can do it’, I’m told. Hah!

But in all seriousness, when the entire plate is flooded in vinegar like this, most often you can dump off the liquid and use the remaining {wet} baking soda below for round 2. I mean you may as well get as much bang for your buck as possible, right? {This is especially important when you live in Kuwait and you’re buying 45 of these tiny 100 gram containers of baking soda at a time.}

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Witch’s Brew Play Dough Kit

10 / 15 / 1810 / 19 / 18

Oh how I love putting together play dough kits! After years and years of them being one of our play staples {as well as our go-to homemade gift}, Miss G sort of moved onto really loving other types of play around the time Sam was born {#sadday}. Then when Sam was finally ready for it, we stuck with our taste-safe baby play dough and our go-to no-cook play dough for a long while before moving onto full-on play dough kits with loads of fun loose parts included, so it’s been a minute. Recently we’ve done a really awesome Little Blue Truck play dough kit {which I’ll be sure to share soon} as well as an autumn spice dough with whole spices, but this witch’s brew play dough kit is our newest kit and it’s been oh so much fun.

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To make it, I started out by making three separate batches of our go-to super squishy, no-cook play dough. This time around, I skipped the Kool-Aid and Frosting Creation packs and simply made unscented doughs in vibrant Halloween-inspired colours using my favourite Wilton gel colourings.

Then it was off to our Halloween bin downstairs to find some fun loose parts to add to our kit. Here’s what Sam and I found {all purchased at Dollarama in previous years}… Some small plastic rats, mini spiders, flies, and ants, some purple bats, and some monster googly eyes.

Of course a play dough kit means a GLIS divided container from Ikea, so we dug one of those out too. {Seriously one of my very favourite things to buy at Ikea. So much so that I always keep a few extras on hand for gifts and fun projects.}

Alright, so here’s how we organized our kit! Our freshly made play dough in one of the big spots {I’d first place this in a big zip-close bag if giving the kit as a gift or storing it for any amount of time as the containers aren’t air-tight}…

Our little creepy loose parts in the small slots in the front…

And some mini ‘cauldrons’ {aka apple sauce containers} and some play kitchen utensils for stirring the brew along the side.

We also tucked our rats in with the cauldrons and utensils as that’s where we had space.

Here’s the finished kit! Wouldn’t this make a lovely gift when paired with a copy of Room on the Broom? Especially for a kiddos with a birthday or party around Halloween? I also love the idea of making these and gifting them to your child’s preschool or Kindergarten class… I mean which teacher wouldn’t appreciate a ready-made sensory activity for her munchkins to enjoy??

The best thing about play dough kits like these? ANYTHING GOES.

Miss G opted to use one of the big cauldrons we use for Halloween goodies for her witches brew…

And Sam stacked his brew up nice and high and layered creepy crawlies in between.

When they were done, the kiddos removed the little bits and bobs from the play dough, sorted them back into the container {awesome sorting practice for kiddos Sam’s age}, and I popped the play dough into a zip-close bag before putting it back into our divided container and closing it up.

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Fall Leaf Bath

10 / 9 / 1810 / 9 / 18

We’re in full-on fall mode here in the Okanagan and the kids and I have been collecting beautifully coloured leaves since they’ve started falling. Some have become part of the little nature table below our autumn bucket list, some have become leaf creatures, and tonight, a pile of them become part of a fall leaf bath.

I actually set this little fall leaf bath up for Sam last fall and it was such a hit that I had to do it again.

It couldn’t be easier, which I love. Just give your leaves a good rinse and place them on the surface of a tub of water.

This time around I also put some up on the wall – a trick Sam discovered last year. All you have to do is get either the leaf or the wall wet, and so long as the leaf is fairly flat, it’ll magically stick to the wall.

What he discovered this time around? That he could stick a leaf onto a leaf!

While he was playing, we also briefly talked about the different types of leaves in his fall leaf bath… Well, the ones I knew at least. {#momneedstodosometree/leafresearch}

And of course there were leaf hats, leaves stuck on legs and bellies, and several rounds of leaf peek-a-boo.

After Sam was done, it was Miss G’s turn for a bath, and this is what I walked into when she was done… She had separated the leaves by colour and created a game for me by having one misplaced leaf on each wall that needed finding. : ) Gosh, how I love my girl…

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Printable Autumn Bucket List

10 / 3 / 1810 / 9 / 18

Creating a seasonal bucket list of things we’d like to do is sort of becoming a thing for Miss G and I… and I love it. Last year we created this Holiday Bucket List full of all the things we wanted to do throughout the winter holidays and although I didn’t create a digital version, this spring we did the same – only in handwritten form. Our most recent one is this printable autumn bucket list that is currently hanging on the wall in our main living space.

The bucket list includes everything from splashing in puddles to making autumn spice play dough to doing a good deed and taking a family bike ride.

Ours is hung right above the kids’ table that’s turning into a bit of a nature shelf with all of the lovely autumn treasures Grae and Sam have collected while outdoors. It’s low enough for them to access it easily and it’s nice and big as I actually printed it on 11 x 17 paper to make it just a little more kiddo-friendly. {I just took the file down to my local Staples print shop and printed directly from my phone to an 11 x 17 which cost me around 15 cents if I remember correctly.}

No surprise that Grae’s the one who stays on top of updating it and we’ve actually already checked off a pile of items on the list.

That being said, we’re pretty low key about our bucket lists… If the things happen, fantastic, but we certainly don’t stress about completing each and every activity / task. It’s really just there to give us ideas should there be a time when we’re looking for something fun to do and don’t have anything in mind already.

Our space is quite minimalist {okay… maybe ‘stark’ would better describe it} and filled with loads of white with little bits of brick, grey, black, so our black and white minimalist version is a perfect fit, but if you like a little more colour and whimsy in your life, I also created this pretty pastel fall bucket list for CBC Parents:

It doesn’t include quite as many tasks as the black and white version does, but sometimes less is more, right?

Pop over to our Embrace the Changing Season with This Printable Fall Activity Bucket List post on CBC to print the pastel version or print our black and white version here:

MINIMALIST PRINTABLE AUTUMN BUCKET LIST

And if you’re looking for a custom fall bucket list? My friend Stesha of Stesha Rose. tipped me off about Belle Bucket – a company that creates beautiful minimalist bucket lists that can be printed out on architect’s paper so they’re HUUUUGE.

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