Family Life: Harry Potter Party Free Printables

Sorry, another Family Life post. Last one I promise, I kind of had them back logged for awhile!

Did you know Harry's birthday is this Tuesday (July 31st). We have been celebrating Harry's birthday for a few years now. It all started when my son was little and he was a HUGE fan. There was probably a year straight (about 5 years old) where he wore a pen drawn lightening bolt on his forehead everyday. I had to keep drawing a new one on for him after each bath. One year while playing on a little soccer team he insisted that they were actually playing Quidditch and would not call his coach anything but Dumbledore. One year he dressed up as Harry Potter for Halloween and we threw a large Harry Potter birthday party for him. Since then he's moved on the other things but he still enjoys watching the movies from time to time and reading the books.

This Tuesday afternoon, while it's way to hot to play outside anymore, we'll come in and I'll hand the kids their Hogwarts letters. We'll celebrate in the kitchen where we'll make some WANDS at Ollivanders, then head to Potions Class and try out a couple science experiments (HERE and HERE). We'll grab some treats from The Great Hall (butterbeer cupcakes) and take the Hogwarts Express to the living room where we'll watch a HP movie (probably #1, #3 or #7.2, our favorites)

Will you be celebrating Harry Potter's 32nd birthday? (according the fan sites he was born in 1980, I had to look that up) I made a few printables for my kids and thought I'd share.

Cupcake Toppers

Hogwarts Letter (you'll have to fill in your child's name and place/time of party)

Party station signs.

Why do I make silly parties like this for my kids? Mostly because I get bored as a stay at home mom. I also think (or at least hope) that the kids will remember me as a fun mom. I like to keep them very simple so they are actually do-able. I've seen some crazy good HP parties out there on blog land that would make mine seem pretty pathetic.  

Family Life: Olympics

For Family night this week we held our own Franson Family Olympics. It was a success! My son had actually be looking forward to it for a couple weeks, ever since I mentioned the idea to him.

Before we headed to the park for some games, we had a "Opening Ceremony" in our home. We read this book to the kids...

And made the torches you see them holding in the picture above. The torches are just simple construction paper cones with crumpled red and orange tissue paper inside.

For the gold medals I just used a tiny dot of hot glue to attach a chocolate coin to a piece of ribbon. I had thought about using something healthier, but the chocolate coins were just too easy.

We headed to the park where we could have more room and played 3 games: a family relay race, Frisbee discus, and a sort of volley ball where we stood in a circle and our only goal was to not let the ball touch the ground (pretty hard to do with a giggly 5 year old!).

Earlier in the day I had each of the kids pick a different country out of a hat that they were to represent during our Family Olympics. I grabbed some books at the library on each of the countries and we read about them and colored a picture of their flag to hang in the house.

It wasn't real grand but it was a lot of fun family time. Sometimes I think we (well, at least I) get caught up in making everything over the top perfect, with tons of expensive games, treats and prizes. I've noticed this with birthday parties especially! You know... kids can use their imagination. A couple simple props is all you need to get their minds rolling and to make it memorable. Don't get weighed down by doing too much preparation... just get out and play!

Family Life

 

Honestly, I'm not so great at remembering to do a weekly family night. We have a set night of Monday every week where we plan to get the kids together, turn off the TV and have some quality family time. Sometimes that means watching a movie or game, sometimes a "lesson" or a discussion on how to improve, and sometimes it's just a trip to get some ice cream cones together. With the kids being so young we actually spend a lot of time with them in the evening already, so I admit it usually slips my mind. Because of this though, when I do plan a family night, I go all out! This last family night was no exception. I felt like a pretty awesome mom :)

It all started with this great idea on service I found HERE! I really liked the "spy" theme and thought it fit in perfect with "secret service". My son claims that he will join the CIA when he's an adult (something that makes me a little nervous, to tell you the truth) so I knew he would love it.

In addition to the cute printable on secretly serving others, I added a pair of "spy" glasses (cheap sun glasses from the dollar store) and some "explosives" (pop rocks candy). We talked about why it's important to serve others and to serve others secretly, without a thought of reward. I set up a couple games for them as well. Black construction paper foot prints guided them through a red yarn "laser beam" maze and pop the black balloon "bombs" to find the secret coded messages (scriptures on serving others). Afterwards we sat around the living room and laughed together about the funny pop rocks tickling our noses as they popped.

Overall a pretty successful family night, if I do say so myself. I've come across a few more family night ideas that look pretty fun for the future...

"Tangled" Family Home Evening by Blue Skies Ahead with free printable

Popcorn Parable with free printable

Banana Splits For Dinner Party with free printable and inspiring message

 

Fairy Garden

Today I made a fairy garden with my girls. I thought I'd share the cute pictures with you!

The boy was at Cub Scout camp all day so this was the perfect time to make something extra girly.

We spent the morning painting the little houses. I picked up a couple inexpensive bird houses at my local craft store and had my husband cut the holes into doors. I like that they turned out with a little keyhole shape.

(notice the little pillows and tiny hairbrush we left for the lucky fairy who moves in)

My favorite part has got to be the little bathtub (borrowed from our Littlest Pet Shop animals). I wish I was small enough to move in!

After we got our houses all painted I took the girls to the home improvement store to pick out their favorite flowers. I taught the girls how to plant their flowers and instructed them on how to take care of them. Then we decorated our garden with pretty stones, sea shells, a mirror taken from an old compact, and my contribution... the little fabric bunting.

The girls have been checking their garden regularly for fairies. I keep reminding them that they are very hard to see and you may just mistake them for an actual flower!

Family Pictures

We recently took the kids out for some updated family pictures. Don't I have 3 adorable kids!? :)Spring has sprung and as I write this it is a gorgeous 80 degrees outside. Loving it!

  

Favorite Easter Finds

Easter came quick this year, didn't it?! Yay Pinterest for helping me throw together some Easter activities for the kids this week! I'm such a good mom at the last minute.

My 5 year old enjoyed coloring this little bunny and glueing a handful of cotton balls to it's tail. You can find the source HERE!


Grandma and Grandpa stopped by last night and I printed out these Easter story sheets, stuffed them in 12 Easter eggs for a quick egg hunt and it actually turned out to be one of our best family nights. Here's the source where you can find all her printouts, 12 in all!

Resurrection Rolls were cooking in the oven while we had our family Easter lesson. We made them first and hid the eggs while they were cooking. HERE is a good recipe for this easy Easter treat with a message.


You've seen these treats before, right? My daughter hadn't. She is SUPER excited to make these chocolate nests. I'm saving this for Thursday... first day of Spring break. HERE'S the source!

Lastly, this is my front door. I got the idea for the egg garland HERE. 2 packs of 42plastic Easter eggs totaling 4$ (Walmart) made the perfect length for my door.



My front door is actually a mess. It's covered in spots and fingerprints, my doorbell is broken and there is purple paint of my front steps. Every time I come home and see it, I sigh. But then I remember that the spots come from the tape of my children's artwork that they love to hang on the front door for all to see, the fingerprints are from little children who are always welcome home, my doorbell is broken from the countless little friends who come to play and make my children happy and entertained, and the purple paint is from a secret art project my girls once made me outside because they wanted it to be a surprise. After all this I remember that the front door to our home looks perfect. Still, I should probably clean it up a bit next time I want to take pictures.

Family Life

It's science fair time at our house. For their project the kids decided they wanted to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe (sounded like a yummy project to me!). So we have been busy making, and tasting, LOTS of cookies! According to the results of all of our taste testers (grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors, and best friends) here is our recipe for the best chocolate chip cookie...

1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter (the clear winner over margarine)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (I liked the melt in your mouth of baking powder... I lost though)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package of milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix both sugars, butter, and egg in a large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until light brown, 10 to 12 minutes.

A little something else the kids have been working on...

Their own embroidery projects.

And finally this project actually comes from a post last year, but I wanted to revisit it in time for Easter. It's a fun way to use up colored egg shells from all those left over Easter eggs.

Egg Shell Mosaics...

After you've made all the egg salad you can handle :) gather up your colored egg shells and have the kids decorate some projects for their rooms. I purchased these inexpensive little mirrors for them to decorate. Picture frames would also be cute!

Kid Craft, Mushroom Fairy House

Made from a left over plastic bowl and paper cup. Make a bunch and set up a tiny village outside on a sunny Spring day. My girls had fun decorating the outside and insides of the cups with crayons for the fairies. Sweet and simple.

I picked up the bowls and cups at the dollar store. 8 little houses for 2$! We attached the bowl to the cup, as well as the little mushroom spots, with glue dots.

Valentines Day Craft {Heart Pockets}

We do a lot of little crafts at our house. My kids love them and it's my way of interacting with the kids without having to come up with conversations between a Barbie and a stuffed dog (which I notice the older I get the harder it is to imagine things for Barbie to say. How was it I could play with my dolls for hours as a little girl?) The key to kids crafts is simple, simple, simple. I didn't always follow that rule. I used to get overly excited and create projects that were way to complicated and expensive. It finally occured to me that even though I may have spent my childhood glueing cottonballs to construction paper and find it incredibly boring now a days, my kids haven't grown tired of it yet. They love to be able to do projects themselves...the simpler the better.

So even though this project is an oldie, it's a goodie. My girls were excited to see it laid out for them when they got home from school, they enjoyed putting it together and from start to finish we spent about 15 minutes, which was 15 minutes of one on one time with a mom who was relaxed, happy and not overly concerned with the constuction of our project.

I gathered all my supplies from good ol' Walmart. Red paper plates, a bit of ribbon, a stapler is nice and some stickers, paper hearts, and glue.

To make the heart pocket, fold 2 paper plates in half and slide one inside the other. Staple the bottom of your heart together and the top, one staple on each side so your heart pocket can open up to store Valentines inside.

Then we stapled some ribbon to each side so it can hang on a door knob or a little shoulder. Decorate your heart with stickers, glitter, dollie hearts, or markers.

Fill it up with Valentines and treats for your friends and you're all set! Simple.

So be good for GOODNESS SAKE!

Is it just my kids who go a little nuts this time of year? I thought not. The "Santa's watching" thing only lasts for a moment and then they are back to WILD delight about the coming holiday.



So this year, in hopes of positive reinforcement, we are counting up the times the kids have been good. Santa will see our paper chain on Christmas Eve and is sure to be impressed!



The kids are super excited that it's almost reached to ground already, but I'm hoping by the 24th we'll have it wrapped around the kitchen. Every little good deed, from eating all their dinner, to letting mom and dad sleep in Saturday morning, to an A on a spelling test, gets an added chain.

Gereral Conference Printables for Children October 2011

How to get your little children to listen to at least some of General Conference this weekend? I have no idea... but these printables are pretty cute. I'm not sure if they will really work on my kids, but perhaps I'll try. I admit that in the past I've sent the kids outside to play on General Conference weekend so that I can hear a talk or two. But I think they are getting old enough now that I can expect them to sit through at least one session.


Conference Bingo HERE


Coloring Ties HERE


Conference journal for kidsHERE

My favorite General Conference tradition... pie at my in laws Saturday night after the Preisthood session!

What is General Conference? Find out more HERE.

4th of JULY ideas

Everytime a diffrent holiday comes around I hear myself saying "oh I LOVE *insert holiday here*, I think it's my FAVORITE!" I just love holidays. I love spending time with my family, I love a day off work, I love all the fond memories I have of holidays growing up. I spent my 4th's as a child swimming in my Aunt's Pool in her backyard, playing with cousins, eating homemade ice cream, and waiting, waiting, waiting for the sun to go down. It seemed that the 4th was a day twice as long as any other day!

Super cute idea to turn mason jars into sippy cups
HERE

Our 4th of July celebrations this year are going to be pretty low key. A lot of my family will be getting together in California (at that same Aunt's house with the big backyard pool) for not only a celebration of independence, but also my Grandma Bee's 95th birthday party! I wish so much that I could be there, but circumstances as they are, we will be hanging out at home with some treats, a slip n slide and a small box of fireworks. (actually sounds pretty nice when I say it like that!) I have to make it special for the kids though! I want them to have the same fond memories of holidays that I have. I searched the blogging community today for some fun and SIMPLE 4th of July surprises for the kids. Here's what I think I'll throw together for them this year.



Red Vines are the perfect treat for watching fireworks. I found this cute idea...

HERE



And I loved how you can change up these wands for other holidays by hanging on to the stick and just switching up the ribbon colors. I found this idea...
HERE

For the boys...

Melly and Me patterns are some of my favorite things to make. Let's see... I've made a mushroom backpack, a moose, a mama bug, and koala couple, a dragon, a chicken and her babies, a unicorn, an elephant, and now a pair of fighting (and snuggling) Ninjas. I hope soon to get my hands on their lastest book, Sewn Toy Tales.Check out Melly and Me's fun blog HERE!

There is also a free Melly and Me Oopsie The Octopus pattern on Moda Bake Shop!

Making A Rolled Pillowcase

The boy has been home from school the past few weeks. He goes to a year round school and they are on a track system. He is "off track" right now... which means he's home, and bored, and forgeting all the important things he learned while he was "on track" (I don't like year round school much).

While the kids are home I try and find things to entertain them, especially in the winter. This was our project for today... a pillowcase. I made him do the whole thing, including (gasp!) using my sewing machine! He was a little angry at first because he had to turn off the video games, but it only took about 45 minutes (perfect for his attention span) and in the end he said it was "cool".



It is pretty neat to see how it quickly transforms from a rolled tube to a comfy pillowcase. This turned out to be a great first sewing project for a 9 year old boy. There's a tutorial HERE! that shows how easy a rolled pillowcase is to make.