A Valentine Craft.

We're just a few short weeks away from the first holiday of the new year and that means it's time for some Valentine Craft Inspiration.

Our little family has been strip searching Pinterest EVERYDAY for fun activities to do. Between a new baby and constant snow fall, we're stuck inside most days and need things to keep us busy. Today's post is a Kid Friendly Valentine Craft that will brighten any mantle or wall in your home.
What you'll need for this craft:

-Large White Poster Board  -Construction Paper (for hearts)  -Painters Tape -Paint (Valentines Colors) -Paint Brushes -Picture Frame  -Yummy Valentine Treat  ______________________________
First, Cut out a handful of hearts in a variety of sizes.  Next, Use painters tape to tape down each heart randomly on the poster board.

Next, allow the kids to paint all over the paper/hearts, making sure they don't get paint under the hearts.

Then, allow the paint to dry.

When the paint is dry, CAREFULLY remove the heart papers to reveal heart shapes underneath the kids artwork. 

It's always a fun surprise for the little kids to see that the paint didn't get in those spots!

Use the heart papers and glue them onto another poster board for an extra special piece. 

Then, cut the poster board to fit inside your picture frame.

Finally, put your beautiful new artwork on your mantle or hang it on your wall. 

This craft is perfect for kids big and small and can be done for just a couple of dollars. We had all of the supplies, paper, tape and paint at home and picked up the frames from the Dollar Store! (We used 11x14 sized frames)
We hope this inspires you to do some fun crafts with your littles this holiday!  Check back next week for another Valentine Inspired post.

DIY Toddler Halloween Party on a Budget.

This month I have teamed up with the lovely Shani from Sunshine and Munchkins to bring you a fun DIY Toddler and Budget Friendly Halloween Party.  Shani and I met at a blogger event in August and became quick blogging friends. With both of us having toddlers ages 4 and 2 it was an fun fit. One afternoon at a bump in at Hobby Lobby we started talking about having a playdate which quickly during into ideas for a fun toddler Halloween party.  Shani and I both know the excitement and pressure that comes with putting together fun holiday activities for our kids.  In the blogger world there is even more pressure to get sponsors and "free stuff" to throw the picture perfect party or playdate. Today, Shani and I are excited to bring you a Halloween Party idea that is completely toddler and budget friendly for any mama! All of the ideas could even be used for a week of daily activities.  
Follow along below for step by step instructions to give your littles a holiday activity to remember! 
Step 1. Team up with another Mama. Shani and I thought it would be fun to work together because of the similar ages of our kids and the fun ideas we both had for Halloween activities. Teaming up with another mama allows for you to split the work so you're not feeling overwhelmed or stressed trying to plan an afternoon of activities alone. The More The Merrier!  While everything we do in this party is completely doable with just you and your littles, it's always fun to invite friends and watch your kids interact and play with others! 

2. Plan and Prepare. Shani and I emailed and texted back and forth for a few days the ideas we had for the Halloween Party. Next we decided what activities we wanted to do, listed out each idea (craft, game, treasure hunt, goodie bags, food, decorations/photo booth) and then divided up responsibility for each idea.

The craft we chose was to decorate pumpkins. I went to the grocery store and chose 4 little pumpkins. Each pumpkin cost $.29/lb and each weighed about 3 pounds.  I spent $4 for all 4 pumpkins.  We had stickers, eyeballs, pom-poms, confetti, paint, glitter and glue, most of which we already owned, for the kids to decorate the pumpkins with.

The game Shani put together was a fun and easy pumpkin toss. She picked up 3 buckets from The Dollar Store for $3 and made homemade bean bags for another $3. 

We sent the kids on a fun treasure hunt to find their goodie bags. Shani found festive clues from Imagination Soup and printed them right from her home computer. 

Goodie Bags are usually every toddlers favorite part of an event and we were able to put together 4 fun filled bags for $6!  Inside the goodie bags was 1 small bag of candy corn, 2 pencils, 4 spider rings, pumpkin bubbles, glow in the dark vampire teeth, a notebook, and 4 Halloween coloring page. Each treat came in a 4 (or more) pack so I was able split them up between the each kids bags. Each treat was from the Target dollar section.  Shani printed out the 4 cute Halloween coloring pages (half sheet sizes) and we stapled them together.  Easiest Goodie Bags Ever! 

For food we chose a few cute Halloween inspired snacks we could feed the kids at lunchtime.  Ghost and Pumpkin shaped PB&J sandwiches, Ghoul String Cheeses, Pumpkin Mandarins and Mummy Juice Boxes. The mandarins and string cheese were simply made using a sharpie and the adorable juice boxes were made using scrap fabric and google eyes.  Shani also made the most delicious festive jello popcorn for the kids to munch on during crafts and games.  Each of us had most of the food and snacks in our pantries so cost for food was $7 for the whole event. 

The decorations, photo booth and table setting was easily thrown together with signs, cobwebs, spiders, plates, napkins etc I already had in my 'halloween box'. The cute photo props I found at Target for $3 and the Happy Halloween sign was $1.  (One TIP I do love to pass on for any holiday is STOCK UP for next year. Products go on sale for 50%, 75% and sometimes 90% in the few weeks after a holiday, so stock up on decor, plates, toys etc... during this time) We were super fortunate to have Creative Juice Cafe donate tassel's and popcorn buckets for our party also. 
3. Set Up. Set up came together very painlessly. I set up the decor, table and photo booth the night prior to the party and Shani came over early the morning of to help with finishing touches.  We prepped the food, set up the game, prepared the craft and hid the treasure hunt clues/goodie bags, all within 30-40 minutes before we began. 

4. Party.   Once all the prepping and planning was complete it was time to PARTY.  We scheduled a two hour time frame to allow plenty of time for everything we planned, but with toddlers, sometimes it's over in what feels like a matter of minutes.  All four kids had a blast getting to dress up, craft, play games, eat yummy treats and get fun goodie bags.  We found that the activities and crafts were all awesome and age/attention appropriate for both the 4 year olds and 2 year olds, however the 2 year olds did make a little bit more of a mess with the craft and 2 year olds struggled a bit with aim during the pumpkin toss.  Everyone had tons of fun. 

We hope this post will inspire you to do some fun Halloween activities with your kids!  Our main goal was to put together some budget friendly ideas that anyone could easily do.  You don't have to be super crafty, have "connections" or have lots of money to have some festive fun right at home with your kids.  We hope we've given you some fun ideas! 
Thanks again to Shani and her sweet kids for partying it up with us.  It was so fun to watch our kids play and craft and have fun!  I bet Shani and I will work together again in the future so stay tuned for some more toddler and budget friendly posts from Sunshine & Munchkins and FordOlogy!  
Happy Halloween Partying Mamas!