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MPMK Gift Guides: Top Toys for Quiet Time, Babies, and Building S.T.E.M. Skills

November 10 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

Use all 10 of the MPMK Gift Guides to get my shopping done every year - great description and age recs!

Now that all 10 of our infamous Gift Guides have been published, I'd love to take a little time today and introduce you to three of my favorites. While each of these lists covers a range of skills, ages, and interests - they also all have a common thread. Each one highlights toys that do a particularly good job of teaching your child new skills and building brain power, all while keeping them incredibly engaged. Ready to see them? Here we go... #1 Best Learning Toys for Quiet … [Read more...]

Filed Under: MPMK's Comprehensive Toy Gift Guides Tagged With: best learning toys, Best quiet time toys, best S.T.E.M. toys, best STEM toy, best toys for babies, best toys for young toddlers, Christmas gift guides, S.T.E.M. toy gift guide, top baby toys, top educational toys, top learning toy, top learning toys, toy gift guides

10 Winning (And Affordable!) Ways To Store Holiday Decorations

November 9 by Annie

#7 is genius - will save me so much time next year!

As I start the process of unpacking my haphazardly stored holiday decor each year, I always think to myself that there must be a better way. So this year I decided to do something about it as part of our Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life series. What did I do exactly? I turned to a pro, of course. I asked our in-house professional organizer, Annie, for her favorite tips! Bookmark or pin them now and save yourself a lot of time and grief at the end of December. It might seem as though this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Annie, Holiday, Organizing, Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life, Seasonal Fun Tagged With: Christmas decoration storage, Christmas decoration storage hacks, christmas light storage, DIY holiday decoration storage, gift wrapping storage, holiday decorations, How I organized my entire life, how to get organize, how to store holiday decorations, organized storage, ornament storage, POYEL, Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life

MPMK’s Gift Guides: 300+ of the Most Stimulating & Engaging Toys Available

November 4 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

MPMK Gift Guides: An incredibly detailed collection of the most engaging toys available arrange by age and your child's interests - bookmarking for Christmas shopping this year!!

I've got some HUGE news today friends! Drum roll please... the 2015 Toy Gift Guides are here! How great would it be to get all of your Christmas shopping done ahead of time this year AND to feel confident your kids are going to love their gifts and keep returning to play with them again and again? In case you're unfamiliar with our infamous gift guide collection, this is not your average roundup of a few of our favorite things - Oh no. This is an incredibly extensive library of the most … [Read more...]

Filed Under: MPMK's Favorite Things Tagged With: best active play toys, best airplane toys, best anna dolls, best bikes for kids, best car toys, best castle toys, best craft supplies for kids, best doll accessories, best dolls for girls and boys, best dolls for kids, best educational toys, best Elsa dolls, best Frozen toys, best games for family game night, best games for kids, best games for pre-readers, best games for siblings, best Legos for kids, best Olaf dolls, best outdoor toys, best princess toys, best racing toys, best reading and writing toys, best S.T.E.M. toys, Best sports equipment for kids, Best STEM toys, best toys, best toys for being active, best train toys, best truck toys, castle gift guide, Christmas gift guides, doll accessories gift guide, dolls gift guide, family game night, Frozen gift guide, gift guide: kids games, LEGO sets by agebest toys for being active, magnatiles, MPMK gift guides, princess gift guide, quiet time games, S.T.E.M. gift guide, single player kid games, the best toys for quiet time, toy gift guide, toy gift guides

Photography & Memory Keeping: How to use TiltShift on Your Camera Phone

November 3 by Kristin

How to take cool pics of people, places and more using the TiltShift generator - this is my new favorite thing!

Kristin, one of our professional photog contributor's here, is back today with another super helpful iPhone camera tutorial. I've always wondered how to use those fancy tiltshift apps with my iPhone but have been too intimidated/busy to really explore them. I'm super excited to have Kristin here to add to our Photography and Memory Keeping category by de-mystifying it all and show us exactly what we need to know to jump in and start using the feature today. Have you ever noticed that when … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Kristin, Photography & Memory Keeping Tagged With: camera apps, camera phone tutorial, how to take better photos on your phone, iphone camera tutorial, iphone tutorial, tilt shift app, titlshift tutorial

Kid Craft: Paper Leaf Thankfulness Garland

November 2 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

Such a pretty (and easy) way to practice gratitude as a family.

Happy Monday guys, hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! It's so hard to believe it's already November... it seems like I just had baby M and he's already 7 months old. And don't even get me started on his older siblings - while M is busy growing his first tooth, his big brother has suddenly lost three in rapid succession. As usual for this time of year, I'm feeling like things are moving too fast and I'm yearning for ways to slow down and be in the moment. This Paper Leaf … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday, Seasonal Fun Tagged With: gratitude craft, gratitude projects, Thanksgiving crafts, Thanksgiving kids craft

Last-Minute Halloween Cereal Bar Treats

October 29 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

Halloween Cereal Bar Dessert - there are so many ways to customize this basic recipe.

Happy almost Halloween guys! I've got a lot on my plate between the big day tomorrow and wrapping things up to reveal our complete 2015 Toy Gift Guide next week, but I still wanted to quickly pop in and share what I've been up to elsewhere. Just in case you need it, here's a last-minute treat for a class party or impromptu, pre-trick-or-treating bash. Hope you enjoy and hope your kiddos score lots of goodies tomorrow. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday, In the Kitchen, Seasonal Fun, Uncategorized Tagged With: Gluten-free Halloween treats, Halloween cereal bar treats, Halloween dessert, Halloween treats

8 Chapter Books for Kids About Strong Families

October 28 by Janssen

Books for kids centering on strong families - these are the perfect reads this time of year!

Since we've already done a round-up of her favorite Thanksgiving books, I thought a collection of books centering on strong families from our resident children's librarian, Janssen, would be perfect for this time of year. We went with chapter books so big kids can read them on their own or families can read a chapter together each night. Enjoy! With the holiday season just around the corner, family is on everyone's mind, whether it's making gift lists for siblings or visiting relatives … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday, Janssen, Seasonal Fun, The Book Nook Tagged With: book nook, Books about strong families, children's books, children's books about family, kids books about family, Thanksgiving books

Coconut Macaroon Baked Apples

October 27 by Natalie

Simple coconut macaroon baked apples - the dessert that's sure to impress this holiday season!

'Tis the season for pumpkin and apple recipes! If you've taken advantage of the seasonal grocery sales or done some apple picking at your local orchard, chances are you need some apple inspiration. This recipe is for you!  … [Read more...]

Filed Under: In the Kitchen, Natalie, Seasonal Fun Tagged With: apple dessert, apple recipes, autumn dessert, coconut macaroons, desserts, fall dessert, holiday dessert, holiday recipes, quick desserts, quick recipes

Top-Notch Waldorf and Montessori Inspired Toys

October 26 by Alli

I cannot get enough of these lovely handmade wooden toys - my kids absolutely love them too.

Can you guys believe it's nearly November already?! You know what that means... time to start thinking Christmas shopping. Although the process can be overwhelming, it can also be a lot of fun hunting down the most exciting, enticing and developmentally appropriate toys for your littles. I know I always feel a great sense of anticipation and accomplishment when I've finally settled on my top picks and placed my order. Today we're hoping to help with that and Alli is here sharing one of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alli, Fresh Finds: Playtime Tagged With: best developmentally appropriate toys, best handmade toys, handmade toys, sponsored, wooden toys

20 Treats Perfect for “Booing” Your Neighbors

October 22 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

The perfect, easily packaged treats for "Booing" your neighbors - #4 is amazingly good.

I don't know about you guys but it's been an eventful couple of weeks around here lately! Along with turning 6 (what?!?!) my oldest lost his first and his second tooth. He opted to leave the first tooth for the Tooth Fairy but to keep the second. I lived for Tooth Fairy visits when I was his age so I couldn't quite fathom this idea but, hey, to each his own. This led to a rousing discussion on how much $$$ the Tooth Fairy leaves on the MPMK facebook page. Also this week, I shared 20 Treats … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday, Seasonal Fun Tagged With: Boo Your Neighbors, Halloween desserts, Halloween treats, Treats for Booing Your Neighbors

Memory Keeping: Free Family Tree Template

October 21 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

My kids loved helping me make our family tree with this easy template.

I've got something great to share with you guys today. In an effort to continue to fill our photography & memory making section with do-able ideas for busy parents, I've persuaded Andrea Genevieve Michnik from the Tiny Prints Blog share with us a really lovely family tree project. You can do this one on your own or with the kids and there's even a free printable template to make sure you can't mess it up. That's my kind of project! Here's Andrea... Teaching kids about their heritage … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Photography & Memory Keeping Tagged With: family tree photo project, family tree template, how to make a family tree, tiny prints

POYEL: 5 Days To A More Organized Kitchen

October 19 by Annie

Decluttering your kitchen made easy! Five small projects, each one of which you can do in a day.

Our resident professional organizer, Annie, is here today with our latest Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life post. She's going to help you tackle your kitchen in 5 manageable steps. Do one a day and by the end of the week you'll have the organized kitchen of your dreams! Every project seems daunting until you break it into small, manageable parts. Regardless of how badly your kitchen needs decluttering or how intimidated you've been to begin, today's post is designed to get you going and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Annie, Decluttering, Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life Tagged With: How to get organized, how to organize your kitchen, kitchen decluttering, kitchen hacks, kitchen organization idea, Kitchen organizing, POYEL, Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life, silverware drawer, tupperware

10 Ways Having Young Kids Is Like Being Held Hostage

October 15 by Steph (MPMK Founder)

10 ways having young kids is like being held hostage - OMG #3, yes!!!

Hey everyone, how's your week going? Mine has been crazy busy! Mostly, I've been working like a madwoman on updating all 10 of MPMK's Infamous Toy Gift Guides for Christmas. Yes, that's right, Christmas - already! (Psst - I'm updating them as I go this year. That means some of the guides like,"Best Toys for Building S.T.E.M. Skills in All Ages", "Best Toys for Babies", and "Best Building & Construction Toys" already have some new additions... Go check 'em out if you're dying to see … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The grown ups (that's you!) Tagged With: having young kids is like being held hostage, parenting, parenting humor

Free Printable: Thanksgiving Gratitude Conversation Starters

October 14 by MJ at Pars Caeli

Between the candy overload of October and the present overload of December, November is the perfect time for families to focus on what they have to be thankful for.  And today's free download is just the tool you need to help! Simply print and keep near the dinner table, then pick a "thankful conversation starter" each night in November and discuss - easy peasy! And we're giving it to you now so you've still got a few weeks to get yourself set up. Here's MJ with the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday, MJ, Printables, Seasonal Fun Tagged With: gratitude, printables, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving craft, Thanksgiving gratitude activities, Thanksgiving printable

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