If you know me well, you know just how much I love putting together creative gifts for kids. I don’t know what it is… I know I could just pop into a store, buy something fun that’s all ready to go, wrap it, and be done, but putting something special together for a particular kiddo is just so much more fun. I love it.
Oh, the awesomeness that is the annual ‘cousins’ birthday’… A few years back, my sister-in-law and I came up with a plan that allowed us to celebrate all of our kiddos’ birthdays in person, despite living in different provinces {or on different sides of the world}. With all 5 of our kiddos having birthdays between July and November, we simply decided we’d do ONE celebration the one time we were guaranteed to be together each year – August long weekend in the Okanagan – and make it an official celebration of everyone! And that’s what we’ve done ever since. It’s super low-key… We sing a big ‘happy birthday’ song that includes everyone’s names, each cousin opens a special gift, and then we play or hang out or get on with whatever else we had planned. It’s something we look forward to each year!
Yesterday, as Miss G and I were reading two of our favourite Hervé Tullet books {Press Here and Mix It Up!}, I was suddenly reminded of the fun colour exploration kit we put together months ago for one of Grae’s little friends. It was nearing the end of our time in Kuwait, so things were crazy with our upcoming international move and me being deep in the throws of early pregnancy sickness/exhaustion, so I never got around to sharing it, but after hearing Grae talk about it so excitedly yesterday afternoon, I think we may just have to whip up a similar kit for her to enjoy this weekend.
Admittedly, neither Brad nor I are huge Star Wars fans… But Miss G? Well she’s recently become one thanks to this Cosmic Kids Yoga video. {Hah!} So when she heard that the birthday party we’d been invited to this weekend was Star Wars-themed, she was absolutely thrilled. Of course, when I asked what she’d like to get the birthday boy as a gift, she threw out ‘A STAR WARS PLAY DOUGH KIT!!!’ almost immediately {sorry friends, I promise to get her onto a non-play dough gift giving kick very soon} and then I realized how over my head I was…
Today was Miss G’s first birthday party back in Canada and she was thrilled that a) it meant she got to finally see one of the friends she’s missed terribly while away, b) that it was princess-themed and involved art, and c) that it gave us the perfect excuse to create a ‘princessy’ gift.
Miss G and I made several little portable craft kids for her friends in Kuwait, but when we got back to Canada last summer and wanted to create something similar for she and her cousin to take along on our house boating trip, we had zero luck finding carrying caddies like the ones we’d always found easily in the desert.
After his dad’s Facebook post about the number of times the word ‘and’ shows up in the book Where the Wild Things Are, I knew that we had to get today’s birthday boy a new book {something with more than 8 sentences, preferably – that nifty fact also learned through a FB post about the dreaded/beloved Where the Wild Things Are ☺}.
Another birthday party, another play dough kit. ☺ I don’t think we can help it. I mention an upcoming birthday party, and Miss G automatically thinks, ‘play dough kit!!!’ This one, a cupcake play dough kit, was actually inspired by the little cupcake play dough favours that we gave out at Miss G’s very low-key birthday celebration we had here in Kuwait.
When Gracen gets invited to a birthday party, she’s usually excited about two things – actually going to the party of course, and coming up with a fun gift to bring along! This gift was for a friend who was celebrating her 7th birthday this time around, so Miss G knew she wanted something ‘big girlish’. We brainstormed ideas throughout the week {a hair dressing kit and a card making kit were other options in the running – two of G’s favourite things}, but in the end we decided on a little chef’s baking kit since our friend enjoys baking with her mama just as Grae and I enjoy baking together.
I’m pretty sure Gracen’s obsession with Frozen has reached an all-time high recently. She’s always really enjoyed the movie, but since removing the YouTube app from her iPad a while back, I’m fairly certain she’s spent at least a portion of her allotted screen time watching it every single day. Of course, when your start your day with a dose of Frozen, it translates into into a whole lot of Elsa dress-up, many Anna hairdo requests, non-stop ‘Let It Go’, and daily reenactments of the ‘do you want to build a snowman?’ scene {accompanied by plenty of door knocking}. Welcome to our world.
Grae and I absolutely love putting together fun play kits as gifts, especially when they involve sensory play materials. While we’ve made a very simple homemade play dough kit previously, time around we decided to make the birthday boy a colourful kit filled with a rainbow of play dough and a bunch of fun tools and loose parts to up its play possibilities.
By now, I think it’s pretty obvious that Miss G and I love to make and give homemade gifts. I love giving something unique that can’t just be purchased at a store, and I think we both love the process of coming up with an idea, collecting the materials, and putting it all together in a fun way. Our gifts are never overly involved {okay, with the exception of the portable activity packs maybe}, but they’re fun and normally aim to inspire play and creativity, which is very much us.
Gracen’s little weekly play date buddy turned 4 today, which called for another homemade gift. Like almost all of our expat friends here in Kuwait, he and his family will be headed home for the summer shortly, so we wanted to make him something he could easily take along and hopefully use during the journey back to Canada. Since he and Miss G play with LEGO pretty much every time they’re together, we figured a portable LEGO kit would make a great gift.
Another birthday party means another opportunity for Grae and I to come up with a fun, homemade gift {which we love doing}. This time around, we decided we’d put together a tinkle trunk filled with fun dress-up costumes and accessories similar to what Grae has in her dress-up station. We were really excited about the idea until we realized that the birthday girl is headed home to the States just a few days after her party. A tickle trunk simply wouldn’t do. After some brainstorming, we opted for something she could bring along on her travels – a portable activity kit! Our goal was to keep it as compact and lightweight as possible, while cramming in tons of fun {and quiet} things she could explore and play with during her travels. Here’s what we included…
There’s no doubt that we’ve been all about the ‘kit gifts’ this year… Since moving to Kuwait, we’ve brought craft kits, play dough kits, and sensory play kits to Grae’s little friends’ birthday parties, and today we added type of kit to our gift list… A drawing kit! As soon as the birthday girl’s mom told me that she loved to draw, I knew we could put together a fun and easy kit filled with items that any little artist would love.