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Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! Although Thanksgiving will be a bit smaller for many of us this year, I hope your family can still find a fun way to celebrate today. Even though we won’t get to share our meal with grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins, we still defrosted a behemoth turkey and will be making all the sides because… Thanksgiving leftovers are so delicious and I look forward to kicking back and just reheating food for the next three days! Today, I have a simple craft as well as two free printable activities to share. I have two kids in virtual school and they have been learning a bit about the history…
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The Lion’s Share Math, Craft, and Printable Activities
I am not sure how it happened but here we are in November and only a few days away until another one of our favorite holidays. Although Thanksgiving will likely look different this year due to rising COVID cases around us, we have still been getting into the spirit lately with learning activities focused on family, being thankful, and sharing. Today, I am so excited to share with you some recent learning activities and crafts that I made for my kids inspired by another one of our favorite books, The Lion’s Share, written and illustrated by the talented Matthew McElligott. The Lion’s Share is a delightful story about a lion…
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Veterans Day
Happy Veterans Day! Today we honor all who have served our great country whether it be through the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard, alive and dead, in war and in peacetime. In short, we celebrate the dedicated heroes to whom we owe all our freedom. For this special occasion, I have created a thank you card template that you can print out, have your child illustrate, and give to thank a Veteran for their service. It is available for free to download below. It is best printed out back to back onto cardstock and folded in the middle to create a card that your…
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Election Activities for Kids
It is election year again! For months now, my kids have been noticing a lot of campaign signs and commercials. I thought it would be neat to have them make their own campaign posters and pins so I created these printables that are available to download for free below. My kids love imagining themselves in different shoes a lot and really enjoy learning through role play. I printed the election pins out onto cardstock for more durability. The kids wrote their names on them and we wore them all day. I wore my Vote Mom for President button too. They drew their self portraits and wrote what they would do…
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Halloween
Happy Halloween! We love Halloween and always start decorating around Labor Day weekend. These are pictures from last year’s Halloween when we picked the Batman theme. As my son’s birthday is so close to Halloween, our theme usually extends from the one he picks for his birthday. I like to create silhouettes with characters of our theme in the windows of our home. They are simple to create (just black poster board, scotch tape, and white tissue paper), cost very little, and make a great impact. The kids always enjoy watching cars drive by our house, then back up to take another look. This is a picture of our family…
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DIY Star Wars Birthday Party Drive-By
Last week my son turned eight and little pumpkin turned one. How time flies! In the Vietnamese culture, the first birthday is a HUGE deal with wedding-size family gatherings and a ginormous roast pig but who am I kidding… I love making every birthday a big reason to celebrate. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic we couldn’t host our usual large gathering but that didn’t mean we couldn’t invite our wonderful extended family, friends, and neighbors over to help us wave, honk, and celebrate in an out-of-this world birthday drive-by. Invitations were sent out with pictures of the birthday duo, inviting everyone to join us in the dark side for…
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My Little Pony Birthday Party Drive-By
My daughter adores My Little Pony and requested a pony party for her third birthday. Due to the current pandemic, we opted for a birthday drive-by. We celebrated with rainbows, sprinkles, and lots of homemade fun. Decorations: When decorating, I always start with free clip art and coloring pages and what we already have around the house. I projected images of the Mane 6 to make… Oversized Coloring Posters I buy white poster board in packs of 10 from Walmart. They cost around three dollars for ten. I use a black Sharpie to quickly trace a projected image then I go back and slowly trace over the lines again to…
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Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies Math and Crafts
It’s finally October and only a few weeks away until one of our most favorite holidays. We have been getting into the spirit lately with activities inspired by one of our favorite books, Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies, written and illustrated by the creative husband and wife team of Megan and Jorge Lacera. It is a delightful story about a zombie named Mo, who to his parents’ horror… prefers vegetables to traditional zombie cuisine. My kids absolutely love this sweet tale of a family learning to accept their differences. They also adore the fun illustrations, appreciating the Laceras’ depiction of the not-so-scary side of zombies. We made zombies clothespin puppets and…
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The Best Chocolate Cupcakes EVER
Happy National Coffee Day! Today, I wanted to share with you my go to recipe for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. It takes only 30 minutes to make two dozen and tastes like what dreams are made of. The secret ingredient is… coffee of course. The cake is a doctored cake mix recipe from Kakeladi’s Original WASC cake. This is the base for most of the cakes I bake. I have tried all kinds of cake recipes through the years, some from the box, some totally from scratch, but found that this recipe resulted in the best taste and texture. This cake also can be made ahead of time (I…
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Singing to Your Baby
This morning, little pumpkin was eating banana baby yogurt and out of the blue, said “nana.” I didn’t tell her what flavor yogurt she would be dining on and none of her siblings were talking about bananas for her to repeat. Though it isn’t a new word for her, it was a magical moment that showed us she truly understood what the word banana meant and as a bonus, she was able to discriminate its taste. She has definitely been experiencing a vocabulary explosion lately. Other new words in just this week, include coffee, bear, and poo-poo. What do all these words have in common? As you may have guessed,…
