Modern Parents Messy Kids

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Appreciate Your Favorite Teacher with a DIY Survival Kit

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Tuesday, May 3rd is National Teacher Appreciation Day.  That means you have less than a week to get your act together and find a nice way to show some love to all the hard-working teachers in your life.  No worries though, I've put together an educator's survival guide that's brimming with trinkets every good teacher could use.  And of course I've included a few free printables so you can make one of your very own.  Click through for the goods.   For some reason I get excited by … [Read more...]

DIY Vases for Mother’s Day

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I love fresh flowers but I'm not great about remembering to buy them.  I think a pretty vase made by someone I love would help.   These vases couldn't have been more straight forward to make and I really like their simple homemade vibe.  To start, I saved a few glass jars from things like spaghetti sauce and peaches and stuck them in the dishwasher.   Once washed, it was fairly easy to remove the labels.  I rubbed olive oil over any remaining glue and let them sit for 30 - 40 … [Read more...]

Easter’s Over, Now What?

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I know it's been Easter-central here for about a month now.  I'm just about ready to put it to rest and move on to lots of new and interesting stuff for May, I promise.  But before I do, I've got one more post I know we could all use.  Because aren't we all incessantly tripping over plastic Easter eggs, haphazardly strewn about the house, right about now?   And if you're anything like me, you probably cringe a little at the thought of chucking all that plastic into a landfill somewhere … [Read more...]

A Few Things I Could Use Your Help On…

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I'm working on two new items for the site and I'm rather excited to share them with you.The first I actually finished last night.  It's an Amazon shop filled with my favorite things.  Most of the items are tools for stimulating creative play (would you expect anything less from me) but there's also a few things I think every modern family could use.I had a lot of fun putting this together, it was like shopping without having to spend any money.  My goal is to add more items and categories as our … [Read more...]

DIY Silly Putty Carrot + An Easter Recap

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I promised I would hook you up with a Silly Putty Carrot DIY today.  I try to be a woman of my word, so here it is - just head over to momtastic for all the details. Note: because borax can be toxic if ingested, this recipe is only for bigger kids - to be made with adult supervision.   For younger kids, simply mix up some orange oobleck instead.  Just combine 1 cup of water with 1/2 cup of cornstarch and food coloring. And speaking of Easter, I can't believe how much fun I've had … [Read more...]

Anatomy of a “Creative Play Easter Basket”

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I hinted about this post last week, so here it is - C's "Creative Play Easter Basket".  I had 3 goals for this basket:   No candy allowed Absolutely every part of the basket has to be usable for play Inexpensive to make (and by that I mean CHEAP!) Thanks to a lot of clever bloggers and the dollar section at Target, I was able to meet all three of my goals.  I'm really happy with how it turned out and I think C will be thrilled.  Click through and I'll share all my resources so … [Read more...]

Candy-Free Easter Basket Goodies

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Dunck from Skip Hop. Sunny Bunny Wooden Teething Toy at Buddy and JoJo. Animal Ear Headbands at Hart + Sew. I'm putting the finishing touches on the kids' "all play, all the time" Easter baskets this weekend.  (For a sneak peek, see here and here).  In the meantime, I thought I'd give you a few basket ideas of the non-DIY variety.  Check out the candy-free finds above (OK, so one of them is a DIY - I couldn't resist).  Then click through for lots more items.  Set of Six Rainbow … [Read more...]