Earth Day Kid Activity: Earth Suncatcher

I love how the sun shines through the turquoise and green earth on this Suncatcher Earth day craft.

You can find this craft over at our new website Inspired by Familia here!
Hope on over and check out all over post on all things familia: recipes, kids activities, parenting & family, daily encouragement, home décor and more.

Cinco de Mayo Activity for Kids: Mexican Pyramids using Moon Sand

Here's another Cinco de Mayo activity with depth as we are trying to move beyond the sombreros and donkeys.  You'll also find a recipe for Moon sand to create this structure!



To find the details go to our NEW website Inspired by Familia!

Cinco De Mayo Toddler Activity: Mexican Flag

This Cinco de Mayo Toddler Activity was perfect for my little guy. I am really enjoying toilet paper printing for little ones. The tp roll is the perfect size for their little hands.  Not only will they get some history from the Mexican flag activity but they will also get to practice their colors.

Flags hold so much culture and symbolism and usually we know very little about why. Do you know why your birth country chose it's colors? It's emblem?

The symbolism and legend of the Mexican flag colors and emblem:

The colors are symbolic of-
Green- the independent movement,
White- the purity of the Catholic faith
Red- The blood of the national heroes.

The legend of the emblem:
       "According to a beautiful legend, the gods had advised the Aztecs that the place where they should establish their city was to be identified when they saw an eagle, perched on a prickly pear tree, devouring a serpent. They saw this mythical eagle on a marshy lake that is now the zócalo or main plaza in Mexico City. This flag was created in 1821, when the Independence movement had ended victoriously."
via Inside-Mexico.com

You can print out the actual flag over at Hellokids or you can use a blank piece of white paper as we did and divided it in thirds and then added the eagle in the middle.

You will need:

• red and green paint
• Mexican flag coloring sheet
• toilet paper roll tube

1. I had to fold the flag in thirds so that my son wouldn't paint all over the flag.

2. Once it dried we added the eagle.

Kids Activity: How To Make A Volcano

I have always wanted to make an erupting volcano but never had a chance to. When my son exclaimed that he wanted a, "Dinosaur party," I immediately knew there was going to be an erupting volcano for one of the activities. I shared a few weeks ago how to make a hatching dinosaur egg which was another great hit for our dinosaur activity fun.

 

 

 

The expression on their faces pretty much sums up how much they enjoyed it. I was hoping to make a volcano for each kid to take home as a party favor but I was limited on time so we went with just one volcano.

 

It's really easy using air dry clay and having the bottle as a base instead of trying to get it to stand up on its own.

 

Follow along to catch all of the great post via your favorite social network :Twitter,Pinterest or Facebook and our readers preferred way via email.

 

What you will need is:

 

• Air dry clay
• empty plastic bottle
• vinegar
• red food coloring
• baking soda

 

To make the volcano:

 

1. Flatten out your air dry clay. I used terracotta color b/c that was all I found and I had not desire in painting it. You can buy white and then paint it.

2. Once it's flatten stick it to the bottle and it will air dry right onto the bottle. Do this around the whole bottle and then flatten it out to create a smooth surface for the volcano.

 

3. The bottle creates a base for the eruption solution.

4. Air dry over night.

 

 

For the eruption solution:

1. Take 2 tbl of baking soda and using a funnel drop it in the bottle.

2. Then add 1/2 cup of vinegar. Notice my bottle is small so it didn't take much for the solution to erupt out of the bottle. If you're using a bigger bottle you will need more baking soda and vinegar.

 

We ended our activities with this and it was a big hit!

Easter Advent Ideas

Are you looking for Easter Advent Ideas to help you prepare your heart and your child's heart to celebrate Easter?  If so we will be hosting a live hangout with Janine from True Aim who is the mastermind behind the series and Mackenzie from Cheerios and Lattes.

Here are some of my favorite ideas: Resurrection Rolls, Mexican Bread Pudding (ingredients are symbolic of His death, Advent Ideas for the Busy Family, Resurrection Eggs, DIY Cross Activity and Caught in Between the Easter Bunny and the Cross.

 5 Tips in 5 Minutes will offer quick tips to make life easier for busy parents. Our first episode is a Special Holiday edition.  Come celebrate the Resurrection with us! Eggs, bunnies, baskets – that is what most people think about when they hear the word Easter.  Although these things aren't bad, they distract us from the true meaning and joy of the holiday.  I want to bring the Empty Tomb front and center this year by offering you quick and easy activities the whole family will enjoy.

You're Invited to an Easter Live Hangout!

When is the event: This Tuesday March 26th @ 8pm CST
What will take place at this special event: Easter Giveaway! - One lucky participant will receive a "He is Risen" DVD from Nest Learning.

5 Tips - We will showcase an Easter craft, prayer, game, and snacks that help us focus on Jesus and the Resurrection. 5 Minutes - We're busy, so we know you are too!  We will attempt to keep this episode short and sweet so you can have more time with your family and less time researching Easter Activities.

How to participate: RSVP by going to the Google+ Event Page. Remember to follow my special guests and me on Google+ Don't have a Google+ account?  That's OK!  You can view the live event right from this page!  Remember to  follow me on Facebook and leave a comment to RSVP so you don't miss it. Can't make it?  RSVP Yes anyways and come back to watch the recording and get links to all the featured activities whenever you can. Hope to see you here!

*Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  Void where prohibited.  True Aim and it's special guests are not responsible for the delivery or condition of prizes.

Dinosaur Activity: DIY Hatching Egg

There's nothing like a Dinosaur activity to get my boys excited!  This post has moved to my new website: Inspired by Familia. Stop by and get all the details to our fun filled birthday party.

You can also checkout my Pinterest boards that have activities, party decor, printables, recipes...

Monster Pillow From a Baby Blanket

Here's a creative way to preserve your baby items by repurposing your baby blanket into a pillow.

 

I turned one of my boy's baby blanket into a keepsake pillow. If you're looking for my ideas to preserve your baby items here's a great article: 6 Creative Ways to Preserve Baby Items.

 

We have tons of blankets from when they were little and I was trying to figure out how to put them to good use. Especially since some of them have some sentimental value. Since my son has nose bleeds I decided the best thing to do was make it into a pillow case.

 

He loves collecting things so we put a pocket in it. The mouth is a pocket. He absolutely loves it. For the first 2 months he want it with him every where now it just stays on his bed.

 

 

 How to:

I just folded the baby blanket in half and sewed around 2 sides of the blanket for a pillow case but for a pillow sew all three sides.

 

I used sturdy fabric glue to glue on the eyes, mouth and teeth. The mouth is actually a pocket, at my sons request.

 

I sewed on the red hair. You can sew the whole pillow instead of gluing it. But I had a long list of stocking stuffer gifts to make for my family so I glued as much as I could. It took me about 20 minutes to make this.

March into Spring Cash Giveaway

How many of you love Spring? I love all things Spring it's such a wonderful time of the year

to start fresh! If you haven't heard over at Inspired by Family Mag 12 bloggers are giving away $110 to a lucky reader.

We are excited to kick off our March Into Spring Cash Giveaway.

 

Some lovely bloggers who love their readers and myself have joined up to bring this $110 Cash Giveaway to you. Joining in the fun are Marty's Musings, De Su Mama, Mothering From Scratch, Inspired by Family, True Aim Education, She Shares, Royal Baloo, The Mom Cafe, Petit a Petit & Family, The Meaningful Mama, Mercy Ink Blog and Stephanie Page.

We appreciate every second you spend here and every sweet note you have left us. Also, make sure you stop by Inspired by Family for the All Things Spring: Crafts, Recipes, Inspirational Encouragement, Kids crafts, home decor and more featuring some of the lovely bloggers mentioned above! Are you ready to win? STARTING WEDNESDAY, March 6th you can submit your entry to win, using the Rafflecopter form below. There are many blogs you can “like” or follow to gain entries! Have fun and you can take your time doing it. Basically, this is the process but you can find the Official Rules here :

• All mandatory entries will be verified so make sure you do all the mandatory entries first using Rafflecopter.
• It’s open to everyone (not minors) and one winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive $110 in PayPal cash or Amazon gift card.
• The winner’s name will be displayed on this post after the giveaway ends and you will be contaced by email (leave your real contact info). You have 24hrs from the time your contacted to respond otherwise another winner will be chosen.

Click here to enter: For those of you who are new to this let me share a few things:

• You are not signing over your first born inheritance by entering this contest on Rafflecopter.
• None of the bloggers above will share your information entered with a third party.
• If you are in a hurry, you can do a few now and stop and come back to do more.
• To follow a blog via Facebook means that you will see the bloggers post in your Facebook feed.
• You must do the entries on Rafflecopter. So if it says follow my blog via email go to the blog and follow and let Rafflecopter know by answering the question. If you are already a follower just respond with the name you used to follow under. So we can verify your entry.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Valentine's Day Bath Fun

Making bath time fun for Valentine's Day is easy with this activity. You can get all the details over at my new blog Inspired by Familia here.

Creative Valentine's Day Crafts for Kids

We are slowly but surely moving all of our post from here over to our website Inspired by Familia.  You can get the details on how to make this fun craft here.

Edible Chocolate Play Dough Recipe

This is definitely a win-win recipe not only do you get hours of fun with play dough and you also get to eat it. I will be sharing with you two activities to have fun with this play dough at Inspired by Family our Play Dough in a Jar Cupcake Fun and at Spanglish Baby our Your Very Own Chocolate Factory craft.

Now you don't have to tell your kids not to stick that in their mouth or not to play with their food. They can actually eat this and play with it.

Edible Chocolate Play Dough
Ingredients:

3-4 cps powdered sugar
3/4 cp cream cheese
3/4 cp powdered milk
1/2 cp Cocoa powder (baking kind)

Mix ingredient in a bowl. You don't want it to have a sticky consistency so start with 3 cups of sugar and if it's still sticky add a some sugar or milk powder.

My son is two and we made it together. He got to put the ingredients in and mix it and of course make a mess.  Note he wass wearing an apron and the bowl we used was large.

DIY Valentine's Day Treat Favors: Sewn with Love

 You can find this super easy and inexpensive craft over at my new blog: Inspired by Familia here! 

Tooth Fairy Printables in Different Languages

In the past month we have had quite the dentist appointments for my boys so this got me thinking about the Tooth Fairy.  It's looking like one of them will have metal in his near future.

I shared about our Tooth Fairy Traditions here and how we not only celebrate the Tooth Fairy but we also get our little mouse friend from my Hispanic background. Since reading The Tooth Fairy Meets El Raton Perez by Rene Colato Lainez, a fun read for children, it has inspired me to bridge both of our cultures with the tooth fairy tradition. We shared with our boys that "we" are the tooth fairy just like we did with Santa Claus but in both situations they still want to play along like there is a Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus and we don't mind playing along with them.

When it finally dawned on me, that not everyone has the tooth fairy (duh), I wanted to make a neutral printable to fit with any culture and one for those who have the Tooth Fairy and El Raton Perez (Latin America and Spain celebrate with El Raton Perez) and the French also have a mouse but his name is La Petite  Souris. I know many countries just throw their tooth up on the roof or place it in interesting places so hopefully one of these printables will be able to work with your tradition.

Tooth Fairy Receipts in Different Languages

Here's one for those who are in bi-cultural English speaking families: The Tooth Fairy and El Raton Perez. To print just right click on image and copy and paste into your document.



This one is blank so that you can fill it in with what corresponds to your own traditions:

For our Spanish speaking friends whose tradition incorporates El Raton Perez:

For our French Speaking Friends whose tradition incorporates : Le Petit Souris

Does the Tooth Fairy visit your house or do you have another tradition? I would love to hear about your tradition?