Take Along Activity Kit

3 / 9 / 173 / 19 / 17

Oh my goodness… Only two more days and it’s officially spring break! I’m not sure who’s more excited – Miss G or me. We’re going to work on getting some things done around the house, maybe go on some fun outings around the city, and best of all, get away just the four of us! Admittedly, getaways aren’t as elaborate as they once were {there’s no just looking at a map and picking a random nearby country to visit when you live in Canada}, but we’re finally getting a chance to better explore BC, and that’s a good thing too. Either way, my favourite part? Spending some time as a family away from our regular everyday routine. As awful as it sounds, it feels like the four of us really don’t have a ton of time to just hang out and enjoy each other’s company {which is definitely something I miss about living in Kuwait}. During the week Brad leaves for work as we’re just getting going, then there’s the morning rush, Miss G’s long day at school, and then Brad returns just in time to sit down to dinner. On a good night, there’s about 10 minutes of non-chaotic dinnertime, then B and I divide and conquer to get both kiddos washed and in bed for the night – me usually taking care of Sam and him Miss G. Most weekends, we spend one day around the house cleaning, taking care of laundry, and playing catch up from a busy week, and then on the other day we may go on a fun outing all together or split up one-parent-one-kid style in order to run errands and get things done. Either way, it’s just not enough time all together and that’s why I so look forward to our little getaways. No distractions, no chores, no daily routine to get caught up in.

EASY Portable Activity Kit for Road Trips

8 / 8 / 169 / 13 / 16

After travelling all over the world with Miss G {hello 36 hour treks to and from Kuwait!}, a six hour road trip really isn’t a big deal to us. That being said, our little lady is a huuuuuuuuuuge talker, and sometimes you just need to have a moment of quiet {or a moment to talk to your spouse} while in the car. That, and sometimes our little Sam Jam just needs a moment of silence in order to fall asleep… Big sisters’ animated stories and ramblings are much too interesting to doze off to {obviously}!

LEGO Patterns Busy Box

10 / 9 / 1411 / 11 / 14

Truth be told, I’ve never loved the name ‘busy box’. Or ‘busy bag’ for that matter. It’s ridiculous, I know, but I think I associate both with the term ‘busy work’ from my teaching days, which to me, is basically work {often of very little value} that keeps kids busy and out of the teacher’s hair. Not my cup of tea. I figure that if a teacher is going to expect her students to engage in some sort of activity or work, it shouldn’t simply keep them busy {that’s a waste of time} – it should engage them, challenge them, and teach them something worthwhile along the way – right?? Well, after looking at many, many activities labeled as busy boxes or bags, I learned that most of them do all of those things. Most of them are fun, playful, and help little ones build on some sort of skill {or multiple skills at once}. And yes, they are easy to pull out during times when you’d like your little one to play quietly and/or independently {while you shower, during restaurant and doctor’s office waits, during quiet time, etc.}, but that’s only because you’ve taken the time to prep the fun in advance – not because they’re anything like boring busy work. And so, because I’ve finally made peace with the term, here’s our first busy box – a LEGO patterns busy box. ☺

Portable Car Play Kit

9 / 24 / 1411 / 11 / 14

Have I mentioned that Grae and I love putting together homemade gifts? Because we do. We love it so much in fact, that despite the fact that we had actually already purchased a gift for today’s party, we decided we would make something instead – just yesterday afternoon! Today’s birthday boy is a car lover through and through, so we used that for our inspiration. He also {like many of our international friends} is often on the go, so we decided to make him a portable car play kit so that he has a fun and easy way to take his beloved toys with him – whether it be to a restaurant, on an airplane, or over to a friend’s house.

Portable Activity Kit for Little Boys

6 / 14 / 149 / 3 / 16

I feel like Miss G and I have been making homemade gifts like they’re going out of style lately {and I love it}. This most recent one is exactly like the portable activity kit we gave her little friend Evelyn on her second birthday, only this one contains slightly different activities – things we thought a busy 3 year old would enjoy. Now obviously the activities included in this kit are not just for boys {in fact, Miss G has already announced that she’d like the activity kit I’m making her to be exactly like this one} – it’s just that we gifted this particular kit to her little friend who happens to be a boy.

Portable LEGO Kit for Little Travellers

6 / 11 / 1411 / 11 / 14

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.

Portable Activity Kit for Little Travellers

5 / 22 / 149 / 3 / 16

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…

Build A Snowman Play Dough Kits

12 / 15 / 1311 / 25 / 14

With our last crafting class of the year coming up in just a few short days, Miss G and I wanted to prepare some simple gifts to share with the little friends she’s made at Bright Minds over the last few months. We adore play dough and had so much fun with our larger scale play dough snowman building activity that we decided to make miniature versions in easy to pack cases – everything needed to build play dough snowmen in small locking lid containers for some holiday fun on the go {or at home, really}.

First, we gathered up our materials… A double batch of our yummy-smelling vanilla mint play dough, awesome divided locking lid containers, beads, buttons, googly eyes, orange matchsticks, small twigs, and miniature scarves cut from inexpensive felt.

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We found our locking divided containers at City Star here in Kuwait, but these Sistema Klip It Split Food Containers on Amazon look similar. I love them because they’re small, easy for little ones to seal and unseal, and perfect for packing in a purse, diaper bag, or carry-on. Plus, they keep the play dough and the ‘building accessories’ {as Miss G calls them} separate, which I like too.

To get started, I added a big ball of vanilla mint play dough to one compartment of each container.

Then Gracen added the accessories to the other. To keep things uniform, we came up with a ‘recipe’ of what should be added to each container (2 googly eyes, 2 matchstick carrot noses, 2 twig arms, 5 beads, 5 buttons, and 1 felt scarf), which turned out to be great counting practice for Miss G.

This is how our kits looked when we were done with them.

Afterwards, Gracen matched up the lids, locked them on, and I used a regular glue stick to adhere some very basic labels I made and printed to fit our containers. And that was it – simple but cute gifts for our friends to enjoy over the holidays, be it at home, on an airplane, and while waiting in restaurants and doctors’ offices. I am so keeping one of these to bring along on our upcoming trip to Germany. In fact, I’m thinking I may create a couple of other little ‘play on-the-go’ kits too! ☺