Category: holidays

Memorial Day Ideas: Family Activities for a Meaningful Memorial Day

Looking for some meaningful ways to observe the Memorial Day holiday? Here are several appropriate family activities to do on Memorial Day.

-Fly a flag. What a simple way to show your family’s patriotism as well as your support and appreciation for those who serve.

-Serve a veteran. Have the kids make some patriotic artwork, bake some cookies and pay a visit to a vet that you know. In many communities, like ours, there are nursing homes dedicated to war veterans that are always happy to have visitors. If you’re lucky, your family could end up hearing some great stories straight from those who have been there.

-Serve those on active duty. Put together and send a care package to someone on active duty. Be sure to include your kids’ finest patriotic artwork! If you don’t know anyone currently serving, AnySoldier.com is a website that will let you know who or where to send your gift.

-Attend an event or monument. Check out what events will take place in your community. Many have Memorial Day parades. If not, visit a local military monument or veteran cemetery as a family. What a great opportunity to teach your children reverence and respect for those who have served.

-Watch the national Memorial Day Concert. Check your local listings and tune in for some appropriate entertainment.

-Sing some songs. Teach your children a verse or two of the Star Spangled Banner, or America the Beautiful.

-Read some books. There are some great books that will help kids understand Memorial Day a little better. Check out your local library or purchase some just for the holiday.

-Have a moment of silence. Don’t forget to honor the national moment of remembrance at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day.

-Say a special prayer. Include the loved ones of those who have given their lives protecting our rights in your prayers.

-Tweet. Tweets with #wearegrateful hashtags will be screened, printed and distributed on postcards to troops worldwide.

-Discover your military roots. Do some digging into your family history and see if you can discover a great-great Grandfather Smith who was part of World War I. Maybe an ancestor served as a nurse at Pearl Harbor. You never know what you’ll discover!

Baby’s First Easter Ideas from One Small Child

Looking for some fun ways to celebrate with your little one this year? The crazy Easter egg hunts and egg-dying are still a ways down the road for your tiny tot. That doesn’t mean your snuggle bunny has to miss out on all the fun. Here are some baby-approved activities that will add delight to his first Easter holiday. Take a look at these creative baby’s first Easter ideas.

For the littlest of littles:

Dress your precious little one up in a new dress or outfit. One of the funnest things to do with new young babies is dress them up! Aren’t holidays great excuses to put on something cute and fancy? Check out our adorable holiday outfits for boys and dresses for girls.

Put together an at-home photo shoot. You’ll want to remember all of baby’s firsts-including his first Easter holiday. There are so many props and poses you can use. Scatter Easter eggs, put baby in a large Easter basket, get a snapshot of her in a pretty tutu and bunny ears. Get creative! The possibilities are endless.

Do a fun Easter craft. Who doesn’t love baby foot and handprints? Drag out some paint and stamp baby’s little limbs on some thick paper or canvas. You can even decorate them to make Easter-related pictures.

Make Easter egg shakers. Little ones love rattles! Why not make a fun holiday shaker out of a plastic Easter egg and whatever you have in your cupboard? Rice, dried beans, and popcorn kernels make awesome noise makers. Just be sure to seal the egg well and test it before passing it off to your little guy.

For Mobile Babies:

Egg hunt in a kiddie pool. Fill a kiddie pool with Easter grass. (You can even make your own by shredding paper). Scatter plastic eggs inside and mix it all up. Baby will have so much fun crawling through the ‘grass’ looking for eggs. With a big enough pool, you could even invite his playmates over to join in the fun!

Egg scoop. Fill a large bowl with plastic eggs. Add a spoon that’s large enough to scoop the eggs well. Your little one will love emptying the bowl over and over again.

Have an Easter Egg bubble bath. Float some plastic eggs in the tub for a fun new bath time toy. To make it extra fun, add bubbles and extra rubber duckies!

Teach baby a fun Easter song. Remember your mom singing ‘Here Comes Peter Cottontail’ when you were a kid? Warm up your singing voice and belt it to your babe. It may be awkward for you, but she’ll love it!

Make egg popsicles. Fill a couple plastic eggs with a yummy puree for your little one. No need to be unhealthy. Baby food freezes just fine! We recommend using eggs with a small hole in the top for ease. Fill the egg using a syringe and top it off with a sucker stick. Your older kids will love these too!

Any other ideas? We’d love to hear how you celebrated baby’s first Easter.

Kids Easter Activities 2015

It’s always fun to try something new around the holidays. With a million kids Easter activities to choose from, we’re shooting for three new ones this year.

I love the idea of growing our own Easter grass. I know my kids would enjoy watering it every day and watching it grow. …And wouldn’t it be fun to decorate with? Here’s a great tutorial from How Does She?.

These cascarones look like so much fun! I know I’d be in for a mess, but the kids would have a blast making and breaking them. Mom.me has a great picture tutorial on how to make these.

I really enjoy doing fun service activities as a family. I think it’s important to incorporate service into our family time. Especially around holidays. I love the idea of ‘egg’ing someone for Easter! I’ve seen several variations of this: scatter treat-filled eggs in their yard and leave the sign on their door; leave a basket of candy-filled eggs; or my favorite-put together a simple plate of home-made Easter treats and do the ring and run. This activity offers extra family time since we’ll make the treats together. Family Ever After has a cute “You’ve Been Egged” free printable.

Baby Easter Gift Baskets from One Small Child

Easter is just around the corner! Do you have your baby Easter gift baskets yet? Don’t wait any longer! These gift totes make the perfect gifts for your little ones. Each is personalized just for them, making you a very thoughtful giver.

Lamb Gift Tote:

Our lamb gift tote is the perfect Easter gift for your little one! Filled with an adorable selection of soft lambs, this set has everything he’ll want! From cuddling the stuffed lamb to shaking the rattle. He’ll be entertained for hours. Snuggle together in the super soft minky blanket and read the Mary Had A Little Lamb finger puppet book. Little ones adore the lamb lovey. The gift tote is personalized with baby’s name, making this gift extra special. Great for baby boys and girls.

Bath Time Gift Tote:

Make washing a blast with our bath time gift tote. This adorable set includes everything a baby needs for a fun, comfortable bath. Your little munchkin will have a splash with the squirting duck and waterproof bath time book. The soft washcloths feature a loop for easy drying. He’ll stay warm and comfortable in the hooded cotton terry towel. Includes a muslin gift tote, embroidered with your little one’s name.

Monkey Gift Tote:

Looking for a fun gift for your little monkey? Our monkey gift tote is perfect for your bouncing baboon! He’ll have a swinging time with the adorable monkey rattle and Five Little Monkeys finger puppet book. Even the wildest of little ones can’t resist a snuggle with the monkey lovey. When he’s finally had all his fun, the satin-trimmed minky blanket and stuffed monkey are welcomed as naptime companions. Everything is tucked neatly inside the personalized tote.

Like what you see? Find more gift sets here.

Mom Talk: Family Easter Traditions

Holidays are a great time to get everyone together and share in family traditions. We love to hear how different families celebrate. So, today we’re sharing some family Easter traditions from a few local moms.

SueAnn:

We have a big family and every year we get together on the river bottoms and have a big Easter egg hunt for the kids. The teenagers get to find a bag filled with candy. They love it because they get to feel like they are not a child anymore but they still get the thrill of hunting for something. We always have an open-pit fire so everyone can roast a hot dog for lunch and there is always good food to go with them. Then we get to visit with each other and catch up on what is happening in each of our lives. This is a great time for everyone and the kids especially look forward to it.

Katy:

I like to split the Easter holiday into two days. We try to do the Easter Bunny activities, which include egg hunts, candy and fun activities on Saturday. My favorite thing the Easter bunny gives the littles are a new Sunday church outfit. Maybe a dress shirt for the boys and a dress for the girls. We often are given a book about Christ for the littles to read as well.

We reserve Sunday for more religious events. We want Sunday to be Christ-centered. We talk about the Savior and how important He is in our lives and that He rose from the dead that day. This year, I want to try this Easter activity centered on Jesus.

Bethany:

Growing up my Mom always made Egg Asparagus Casserole on Easter. She would just use sliced bread, nothing fancy, and dry it out a little in the oven. Then we would have to count all the eggs and make sure we found them all because my Mom made sure that there was a enough for the casserole. If there were cracked eggs the coloring would soak through, and we had multi-colored casserole.

For my little family, we stay in Blackfoot for a city hunt and support the activities where we live.

Samantha:

I have the fun opportunity to start Easter traditions with my little family this year. My daughter is just over and year and we’re expecting a son just after Easter. I want family traditions to be a big part of their lives, so I’ve put a lot of thought into how we celebrate holidays now.

I know my little girl will love hunting for Easter eggs and we’ll probably let her indulge in some treats. I adored the gift baskets the Easter bunny brought to me as a child and plan to carrying on that tradition on as well. I hope to do the egg hunt and bunny basket on the Saturday before Easter Sunday so that we can have a more religious celebration on the Sabbath. I fell in love with this idea from Your Home-based Mom. You read the Easter story from the bible with fun trinkets that help you remember it. I especially love this for little kids.

As a child, I always got a new dress to wear to church on Easter Sunday. I loved getting all dressed up in something new. I hope my kids will love these traditions as much as I did when I was a child.

Share with us! We’d love to hear your family Easter traditions!

Blue Christening Outfits: Noah

Looking for something fabulous for your Little Boy Blue’s spring celebration? We love the Noah outfit for Easter, his first birthday, a spring Christening or wedding. …Oh the possibilities.

Our Noah Blue Christening Outfit is an adorable one-piece short-all. Made from blue silk, this outfit is lightweight and comfortable for baby. Not to mention, so luxurious! The simple style features cuffed sleeves and legs. Silk-covered buttons accent each cuff. The pleated front lends to the menswear-inspired design. Your little man’s look is topped off with an adorable beret hat.

Noah blue christening outfits are available here in sizes Newborn through 24 months. Just in time for your Easter celebrations!

My St. Patrick’s Day Tradition

Growing up I knew what our St. Patrick’s Day tradition was. There would be green everywhere I turned. Green decor, green milk, green biscuits at dinner and of course green clothes. But something that never happened on St. Patrick’s Day was my mother wearing green. Ever.

My mother is half Irish and just so happens to have green eyes. (Being adopted that never was an excuse I could use). She took great pride in trying to keep up Irish traditions even though her mother died when she was 16 and her father just after she enlisted in Vietnam as a nurse. Her source for family traditions was gone so early in her life that she kind of had to improvise and come up with something new to make the holiday fun for the kids.

Every year she would prepare breakfast with as many items she could put green food coloring in. When I would come home from school I could always smell the Corned Beef and Cabbage cooking. Do I like Corned Beef and Cabbage? Not even close, but the taste and smell will always bring me back to my mom. She served it with vinegar, green biscuits many years and sweet iced tea, being that not only was she half Irish, but she was also from the South. There is just something special about the nostalgia that comes from sitting down to a meal you’ve had so many times over.

But there is also something exciting that comes from changing those traditions just a little and making it into something new with your own family. I love to cook to celebrate holidays, like my mom, and always look for something new and fun to try. The best kinds of recipes are the ones the littles can help with because you can talk while you cook, teach them a skill and get a wonderful treat out of it!

One of my favorite places to get recipe ideas is the blog Oh So Delicioso. They have several recipes for St. Patrick’s Day but by my favorite is the Neon Green Punch since I have small children that love the color! Electric green is a head turner and since it’s not too sweet I don’t have to worry about giving a second glass to my kids. Another one of my favorite sites for recipes is Weelicious as well (you can see the natural green recipes here).

I have found that with modern traditions, it’s not necessarily about having the exact same thing each year but that you do something each year so your kids know about the holiday and what fun you can have with it. My kids are all preschool age and younger so the big school parties won’t happen until this coming fall. Until then we have the opportunity to make each holiday unique to us and what we love.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Valentines Day Activities for Kids

I’m always looking for new Valentines Day activities to do with my kids. It’s fun to try something new and there are tons of great ideas out there! This is what I’ve found for this year:

We are big fans of food at our house. (Who isn’t?) One of my favorite things to do is make fun food around the holidays. This looks so simple, and I am always happy to find something fun and easy to do with my kids.

I found this idea from one of my favorite blogs redtedart.com. You can find the tutorial here.

Another fun idea is this adorable paper heart. I know my older two will love making these.

Here’s the video on paper quilling. SO fun!

We hope you enjoy these Valentines Day activities with your kids!

Baby Valentine Outfits and Accessories

Today we’re bringing you baby Valentine outfits and accessories. She’ll be so pretty in pink this year! Holidays are a fun time to celebrate, no matter what age you are. Make this Valentines Day extra special! Dress up in pretty clothes, eat a special treat and do something fun together! However you celebrate, don’t forget to show your love for your little sweetheart this year!

{Ruby Dress (left) A sweet pink silk dress with simple beaded lace trim. | Madeline Dress (right) Beautiful embroidered lace overlays pretty pink silk.}

{Julia (left) A diamond patterned one-piece with hand embroidered rosettes. | Allie (right) A classically styled knit romper.}

{Abbie (left) Diamond patterned cardigan with pants. | Pink Knit Jumpsuit (right) Cable knit one-piece in a pretty pink pastel.}

{Jessa Headband (left) Features silk rosettes and freshwater pearls. | Lace Rosette Headband in Pink (top right) Ostrich plume feathers accent the pink lace rosette. | Pink Carnation Headband (bottom right) A simple pink crown of satin carnations.}

{Gold Heart Locket (left) Features a sparkly diamond. | Heart Name Bracelet (top right) Personalize this bracelet for your little sweetheart. | Rose Pearl Bracelet (bottom right) Freshwater pearls have a vintage rose color.}