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Sometimes the best crafts are the simplest - and I forgot how simple and fun these Rock Buddies can be. I didn't remember until earlier this week when we made some with Little Brother's best buddy on a playdate. So of course we had to make some more once we remembered how simple and fun they are!  This is a great after school or weekend craft - or even a summer boredom buster. The

Nothing is making us happier than the fact that spring has officially arrived here in our part of New England. One of my favorite parts of early spring is seeing the bright yellow flowers of the forsythia bushes. I've pointed them out so often as we drive around town now the boys are eager to spot them too. Unfortunately, we don't have a forsythia bush in our own yard so we decided to create

Glue-Resist Painting is something we've enjoyed doing before because it takes minimal materials and is easy to create. So when we were looking for something fun to do to get us in the mood for Easter, we definitely got inspired for trying some glue-resist painting with an Easter theme. What's great about these eggs is they are colorful and done with watercolor, so even little hands can help

It's that time of year when lots of fun things are coming up — Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher Appreciation days, not to mention birthdays and baby showers too. And all of these fun events may wind up in need of wrapping paper. Making our own wrapping paper is a great way to add a little more sentiment to a gift. Using Oriental Trading Company's craft selection can inspire a wide range of

As happy as I have been to have a real winter this year, it's that time of year where I start to crave color. Not just because the world is white - but because I know that pretty soon we'll enter New England's fifth season - Mud Season- and everything will turn brown. So while putting together our post on Paper Plate Wreaths I got inspired to try creating a paper plate rainbow with the boys and

In the last few years we've discovered how easy it is to make a "Paper Plate Wreath" using a paper plate and some decorations. In fact, we find them so easy we've made them for several different seasons and holidays! Which is what inspired collecting all of these awesome posts from other bloggers too - because if they're that easy to make, why not make one for every season of the year?

Big Brother is in a phase where he loves paper folding crafts - paper airplanes, origami, and more. He got both an origami and a paper airplane kit from different relatives over the holiday weekend. He's been excited to dig into both - and while each kit came with paper, it won't be long until we run out. Luckily I quickly realized that we have lots of colorful paper still on hand - used

A few days ago I came up with this Easy Button Tree card for a quick evening project. And it just came out too cute not to officially share it. It took just a few minutes to prepare, and the kids were able to put together a few cards pretty quickly. They'll use them later this month for teachers and other special friends. Materials: White card stock Green card stock Colorful buttons Glue

One of my favorite things about this time of year is all of the traditions we celebrate as a family. Some of the traditions my husband and I had as children and now share with the boys. Other traditions we've made as a young family together and they are something we can all look forward to. But as we honor our old traditions, it's always fun to try something new too. And often that is what leads

Through most of our Thanksgiving break one (or both) of the boys were fighting some kind of bug. Not so fun for a holiday weekend, but on the other hand it did mean we got some much needed downtime at home. On one of the days it was clear we needed something fun and festive to perk us up, which is why I pulled out the materials for these Cork Christmas Trees. They were a quick, easy to

It's hard to imagine that we've already been into the routine of school a few weeks and that these Simple Summer Themes are slipping far behind us. We were so excited about Outer Space Week, that when the first week was cut short the boys asked me if we could do more - and we extended it to a second week. The boys are always thrilled to explore activities and projects around Outer Space.

In the past we've had fun doing different fingerprint art projects, like these fingerprint teacher bookmarks. We've also shared how to make fingerprint thank you cards, along with other fun fingerprint ideas. This was a fun extension project that also used some of our newest foam stickers: create fingerprint athletes. We used our fingerprint athlete pictures as thank you cards, but they

It's been so amazing to have some green color pop up in our world this week, it truly and finally feels like spring. And while the green has come, we're still awaiting those colorful May flowers. But as we probably have a small wait still (although really, I think it's only small) we put together these May Day Tissue Flower Wreaths. We enjoyed making paper plate wreaths at St. Patrick's Day,

Little Brother is quickly approaching three (how did that happen?!) but in true toddler fashion he still tends to like projects best that are pretty quick. If there are too many steps to a project it tends to lose his interest. This snowball fight painting was right up his alley the other day though. While we've been happy to get a little snow, it's still not quite enough to enjoy our typical

Our Christmas season is almost over (believe it or not we still have one more family gathering this weekend) but it's never too early to start creating our thank you cards. We love thinking of hands-on ways to create our thank you cards. In the past this has included creating Potato Print Snowmen or Magic Word Thank You Cards. Other times we just like using some of our process art to create thank

In general I find that the winter vacation following Christmas goes by pretty quickly. We usually have family members to see, new things to play with, and some fresh snow to enjoy outside. Not to mention the fun of our Family Focused New Year's Eve to distract us only a week after Christmas. But, just in case vacation stretches on a little too long for kiddos, it's always nice to have a few

Mitten Ornaments This post may contain affiliate links, thank you for your support.  We're really excited to be participating in the 10 Days of Kid-Made Ornaments as hosted by Mama Miss. There are so many amazing homemade ornament ideas being shared by some of the most creative kid bloggers out there. And all of the ornaments are both kid-made and inspired by a different children's books! Of

We were really excited to be able to participate in the Kid Made Gift Series that is being hosted by Teach Me Mommy. We really like making homemade gifts, especially around the holidays. These potato stamped tea towels were something I'd been thinking of trying for a while now, and we just love how they turned out!  Potato stamping is always fun and versatile, as you can create just about

This has been one of the best foliage years I can remember, colors just popped all around us. So while the trees were showing their beautiful colors, we were inspired to create our own fall leaves at home. To create colorful and shiny fall leaves, we used an unusual painting material I've enjoyed using with students before: corn syrup.  Corn syrup mixed with food coloring creates a

It's hard to believe that autumn is around the corner, but you can sense it in the air.  School starts next week and I've already spotted a few colorful leaves on the ground! So it's not hard to believe we're getting in the mood for a few fall crafts. The crab apple tree in our yard is very abundant in our yard this year, and although we never do much with these apples, this year we're