Tag Archives: parenting

Preschool Girl Gift Guide

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Tis the season for gift giving.

This year Mila has been much more vocal about what she’d like to receive under the tree this year. It’s been so nice to have that feedback and assurance of what she’d actually like from me and Santa!

Instead of keeping these big secrets to myself, I figured I’d share with you my Preschool Girl Gift Guide.

Accessories

Mila has been obsessed with necklaces and bracelets. No matter if she’s accessorizing for preschool or just wanting to pretend to be a princess, she has to have them on! We have a huge range of ‘nice’ accessories and play ones that we keep separate. I plan on getting her a few more for Christmas too!

Right now, our favorite Etsy store to get accessories from are Sloane and Daisy.

She has the most adorable bracelets and necklaces for any time of the year, seasonal ones, and PRINCESS ones. We are obsessed with the princess ones right now!

Make sure to check Sloane and Daisy out and use GREYSKIES15 for 15% off too!

Besides her preschool bracelets, we have a ton of different play bracelets too! It’s so much fun to watch her pretend to be a princess with them.

You can get these play bracelets from a ton of different places.

Amazon has a ton of different sets. My favorite one just for her to wear around the house are these. They’re cute, but if she loses them, it’s okay! We also love this princess set, to dress up with. Mila is obsessed with crowns and they’re cute too.

Clothes and Shoes

Mila is at the age where she thinks clothes are cool and always gets excited when she gets clothes in the mail! There are so many cute small shops and businesses that we love to shop from.

I usually try to link where we get Mila’s outfits in social media posts, but here are a few you should definitely check out if getting.

Adelynn Mae has the best holiday shirts, hair accessories, and buttons. You can use MILA10 for 10% off too!

Bailey’s Blossoms shop is full of boho outfits that every little girl needs!

Reverie Threads is another amazing shop that Mila and I shop from frequently. They have a wide range of outfits that are dressy and comfy for her.

Ten Little has the best fitting shoes for kids. They send you ways to measure your child’s feet and have the cutest styles too.

Stitch Fix is another option to get your little (or you) that you can continue getting throughout the year! There’s a ton of different styles that you can either keep or send back. We love getting out Stitch Fix box and if you follow this link, you can get $25 off your first fix and we’ll get $25 our next one too!

Pretend Play Items

The items Mila has asked for the most this year is pretend play items. Whether it’s baby dolls with accessories or something big like a doctor’s area, pretend play items are a hit!

First, I’d like to state that pretend play does not need to be expensive. There’s a ton of ways we use pretend play to get her engaged. I just splurged a little bit for Christmas this year to surprise her! Another big way I’ve saved in the past is by looking on Facebook Marketplace!

Anyways, here are some of the items Mila has asked for this year…

Hopefully with her wishlist, she’ll want to become a doctor one day!

Puzzles

Currently, Mila has been challenging herself with puzzles, matching games, and building blocks. I think she likes the brain work out!

Previously, I’ve shared different puzzles through Mila’s activity boxes. Some great puzzles you can get are name, alphabet, and number puzzles. They’re great for letter and number recognition. Mila also learns better when she can pick things up. I feel like when she actually can feel the letter, it helps her mentally grasp that information.

Another amazing business that Mila and I are working with is PicassoTiles.

They’re known for their magnetic building block tiles… their is so many different ways you can play and learn with these tiles.

We were able to get this Magnetic Face-Board Dress Up Puzzle Book, pictured above. Mila absolutely LOVED it! She played with this set for hours and loved following the cards to dress the characters up. She also went off script and made new outfits too. I loved how it gave us opportunities to talk about different cultures too.

PicassoTiles toys make great gifts for kids of all ages. Make sure to check them out!

Board Games

Mila is just now getting into board games. She’s at an age where she can follow the rules and loves to win. We play them most weeknights and sometimes all weekend afternoons.

Although we love her Frozen board game, we have to add a few more to get a better mix.

Here’s some on our list:

Books

My go to gifts for Mila since I’ve been pregnant are books! We love reading any time of the day.

Even though I could list a ton of different books, I’m only going to make one book box suggestion: Little Bookish Wardrobe.

Like Stitch Fix, a Little Bookish Wardrobe subscription can be a gift that continues throughout the year. This subscription is filled with books, and outfit, a craft, and either another craft or toy!

It’s such a great value and Mila loves getting her book box every month.

If you guys would like, I’ll do a holiday book recommendation list. This will be our favorite Christmas books that we’ve used for advent before. We might have to get a few more too!

This Preschool Girl Gift Guide is what works for our family. Of course other kids will have different interests, but this is a good starting point.

I can’t wait to see how magical this Christmas is! Now time to do some shopping. Fingers crossed everything gets here on time!

Let me know in the comments what other items would you add to this list? Do you have any other guides you’d like to see. I’m planning on a Mom Gift Guide and an Experience Gift Guide too.

Christmas Bucket List 2021

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It’s almost the most wonderful time of the year!

Mila and I are getting so excited for this holiday season. Although we’re trying to hold off most of our activities until after Thanksgiving, we’re feeling the pressure!

A good middle ground was to make our Christmas Bucket List 2021.

This isn’t the first time Mila and I have made a Christmas Bucket List. During her second Christmas in 2019, we made a similar one! We had a ton of fun getting to every item, but she didn’t grasp it like she will this year.

Bucket lists are fun because you can prepare for an upcoming season and list what you want to do. Then, any extras are just added fun.

All of our Christmas Bucket List items are easy to do and most will just be at home.

Here’s what we came up with:

  • Decorate the Christmas Tree
  • Put up decorations
  • Drink hot coco
  • Write a letter to a santa
  • Visit Santa
  • Have treats for Santa and his reindeer
  • Sing Christmas songs and dance to them
  • Bake cookies
  • Christmas movie night
  • Eat a candy cane
  • Go look at Christmas lights
  • Make wrapping paper
  • Make gingerbread houses/people
  • Make an ornament
  • Wear Christmas pajamas
  • Take family photos
  • Christmas on the Square
  • FLORIDA!
  • Have a Merry Christmas

I can’t wait to celebrate Mila’s FOURTH Christmas season with her. She’s already so excited for Santa and the magic behind it all. And… she already wants to cross the items off.

Even though we paused our list due to the pandemic last year, I figured we needed to bring it back and make it our tradition.

As always, we’ll be sure to share our holiday experiences, crafts, and activities. Stay tuned.

All I did to make the physical list was unrolled craft paper and drew on it with markers. It was easy to do and it feels like we have another huge and interactive Christmas decoration for the year.

What would you add to your Christmas Bucket List that I missed? Let me know in the comments.

The BEST and EASIEST Jiffy Corn Casserole

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Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without tasty sides. Even though I love all the classics like stuffing and green bean casserole, this Jiffy Corn Casserole is a staple for our family’s Turkey Day!

Like the title of this post says, it’s so easy to make and will be the BEST Jiffy Corn Casserole you’ll ever have.

Intrigued to try? Here’s all you need to make it:

  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 can of creamed corn
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 box of Jiffy corn muffin mix
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 8 ounces of sour cream
  • 1/4 cup of sugar

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then, in a large bowl or your greased/nonstick sprayed casserole dish, mix in all the ingredients. Just mix until it’s all together, minus the corn!

Afterwards, stick the uncovered casserole dish in the oven for 45-50 minutes and you’re done.

The first time I ever made this recipe, I was shocked! It tasted so good. It’s almost like corn bread, but softer and better? I’m unsure how to explain it. My best comparison is to Chi-Chi’s corn side.

Hello to that Chi-Chi’s throwback!

If you don’t like corn casserole sweet, just take out the sugar and you can still make it. My family usually likes cheese on top of it too. If I decide to make the casserole with cheese, I’ll sprinkle shredded cheese on, then put it in the over to melt it.

It just makes it even tastier!

Mila usually helps me mix everything together, but it doesn’t take any time at all. It’s so easy and tasty that your family and/or friends will ask you to make it for all your get-togethers!

What’s your go to side to make for Thanksgiving or any other type of gathering?

Pumpkin Pie Crescent Rolls

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Want to know my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner? The desserts! I think it’s a lot of people’s favorite part too. Pumpkin pie, in my opinion, is the best pie of the day.

This year, I’ve taken this classic dessert and out a little twist to it and made: Pumpkin Pie Crescent Rolls.

Even though I love pumpkin pie, these Pumpkin Pie Crescent Rolls taste even better!

Here what you’ll need to make them:

  • 2 crescent roll tubes
  • 1 cup of pumpkin purée
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

First, preheat your oven to 375 F. Then you can line your baking sheet with parchment paper or spray your sheet with nonstick spray.

I used nonstick spray and they turned out great.

Then, mix the pumpkin purée, sugar, brown sugar, egg yolks, pumpkin spice, and vanilla in a bowl.

Next, unroll your crescent rolls. You can cut them in half, but I just went with how they were packaged instead of making smaller rolls.

After unrolling the rolls, spoon one tablespoon (or make your best judgment) of pumpkin pie filling on to the crescent roll. I liked putting a little extra so some of the filling came out.

Next, put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes and they’re done!

I ended up putting sugar and pumpkin spice on them when they were finished. It just made the flavoring pop more.

And who doesn’t love extra pumpkin spice.

Although we ate them as is, I think they’d be delicious with whipped cream or ice cream. Maybe even some caramel drizzle over them too! Either way, you’ll want to take these to your Thanksgiving dinner!

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?

Thanksgiving Treat: Rice Krispie Turkeys

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The holiday season goes so quick! I’ve been thinking of Thanksgiving Treats and how to make them festive. Eventually, I came up with these Rice Krispie Turkeys.

All made from leftover Halloween candy, these turkeys are cute and perfect for Thanksgiving.

All I used to make these turkeys are:

  • Rice Krispies
  • Candy corn
  • Eye sprinkles
  • Twizzlers
  • Feathers

As I mentioned above, everything I used to make these came from Mila’s candy stash. We got a ton of mini Rice Krispie treats and this seemed like a fun way to use them. There was always an abundance of candy corn left from the Fall Scarecrow Snack Mix.

I ended up cutting little slices of a twizzler to make the turkey’s wattle. Yes, that’s what it’s called.

Then, of course, we used eye sprinkles to complete the look.

To assemble, you simple just press everything into the Rice Krispie. It’s not too difficult. One tip I’d give you is to use your hands to hold the shape of the Rice Krispie while pressing everything else in.

That way none of the ‘feathers’ or eyes fall out.

To complete the look, I added a craft feather to the back. I think it looked adorable. I’d suggest wrapping washi tape around the feather so it doesn’t stick to the Rice Krispie.

Another added bonus of this fun Thanksgiving treat is that Mila loved helping make the faces too! This could end up being a really fun activity for Thanksgiving day with the family. Im always looking for kids activities to keep them busy and smiling.

Either way, these Rice Krispie Turkeys are tasty, easy to make, and will be perfect for your Thanksgiving Day.

What foods or treats do you make for Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving? Let me know in the comments.

Fine Motor Turkey Activity

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Are feathers the googly eyes of November? I think so! This Fine Motor Turkey Activity is the BASTE way to play while prepping for Thanksgiving.

Another huge positive for this activity is you only need two things: feathers and a colander.

You can make a turkey face too if you’d like.

You can find feathers at any dollar store for only a dollar and you get a ton of them. You can use them for so many other crafts and activities throughout the year too. They also make for a great sensory object.

For this Fine Motor Turkey Activity, all I instructed Mila to do was make a turkey out of those materials.

Mila had fun sorting the colors and making the turkey look ‘silly.’ It gave me time to make dinner and it would be a fun race for the kids on Thanksgiving Day.

I truly believe the simplest activities make the biggest impact.

As usual, Mila did an amazing job and I know other kids would like this activity too.

I love how this activity could be used for little kids too. It’s a great sensory activity that works on motor skills!

For older kids, you could do a timed activity where they either need to put all the feathers in OR take them out the quickest. It’s simple for kids of all ages.

What sort of activities do you do during Thanksgiving? Or does your family play any fun games?

Make a Turkey Sensory Bin

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Happy November! We’re celebrating this month and Thanksgiving with another fun sensory bin. You all know how much we love them! This time Mila did a Make a Turkey Sensory Bin.

Not only did she have fun playing with the different materials, she made Thanksgiving art.

This bin looks like a random grouping of items, but it all came together so perfectly. Here’s all that we used:

Like with all sensory activities, I let Mila explore the different materials. She was familiar with everything, but the beads threw her off. We usually only use beads for threading activities… or making bracelets.

It was fun to watch her interact with these materials with the thought of making a turkey too.

Obviously, she pointed out the feathers and eyes for the turkey, but everything else she made up on her own. I had a canvas with a brown circle glued down on it. This became the base of the turkey.

Then, I let her glue down everything else and put the items where ever she wanted.

This is how it turned out:

She says the beads were the turkey’s necklace, the candy corn it’s ears, and everything else is normal.

I just love her quirky turkey.

To extend this activity, you can have your child describe the texture and feeling of the items. You could also do a fun counting game with them too.

No matter what, it’s a great way to make memories with your child.

I have a few Thanksgiving and turkey activities lined up. As always, I’d love to hear about your traditions or activities you do too!

Let me know in the comments.

Fall Scarecrow Snack Mix

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This week was my first time ever sending in a preschool snack with Mila. It was an exciting mom moment for me! Of course, I made sure it was a nut free mix that everyone would enjoy. Then we came up with the Fall Scarecrow Snack Mix.

Here’s everything I used to make this nut free Scarecrow Snack Mix:

  • Pretzels
  • Chex Cereal
  • Caramel Corn
  • m&m’s
  • Candy Corn
  • Candy Pumpkins
  • Rollos

The best part of this mix is it’s super easy to put together. All you have to do is find a big bowl and pour everything in.

Unfortunately, my big bowls weren’t big enough, so I had to keep making the mix over and over again. Good thing it’s easy and doesn’t take a lot of time to do it!

One thing I wish I would have gotten more of was the caramel corn. When I went to Target, they were almost sold out of the ‘monster mix.’ The monster mix just have chocolate drizzle and sprinkles. Some of the other caramel corn had pecans and other nuts. Obviously, I didn’t want to send any type of nuts to a preschool classroom in case of allergies.

Mila loved this mix, but she was definitely picking out all of the chocolate and Chex cereal!

I loved making this Fall Scarecrow Mix for Mila’s preschool party… and keeping the extras at home for us to share too. Here’s the little Tik Tok video I made to show how I made it all. Even though it’s pretty self explanatory, I loved how it all came together.

The end result is beautiful too!

What is your favorite snack or food item to share at classroom parties? I’d love some Christmas suggestions.

Halloween DIY: Googly Eye Headband

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A smile is the best accessory a girl can wear… but a Googly Eye Headband is the spookiest.

Mila absolutely loves accessorizing for school, dance class, and everything in between. We had to make something a little creepy for Halloween week! This Halloween DIY was a fun one to make and made a huge statement too!

To make our Googly Eye Headband, we just needed three things… I found everything at our local dollar store:

  • Fluffy Kitty Headband
  • Hot Glue
  • Googly Eyes

First, remove the ears off of your cat headband. Mila’s were easy for me to take off. I just had to tug at them a little bit. They didn’t negatively impact the headband either!

Next, glue the two ear together to make a diamond shape. Be careful here, you could burn your fingers.

Then, start gluing googly eyes down.

I didn’t do it in a specific order. Just where I thought the different sizes should go.

Once the diamond shape was completely covered, I glued it to the headband. To make it more cohesive, I added a few googly eyes directly to the headband too.

After everything was glued down, I made sure to take off excess glue that stuck to the eyes and headband. I ended up adding a few more eyes on it too when it was put together.

Mila LOVED how it turned out and has worn it a couple of times already.

I think it would be perfect for a witch’s costume, if your child wouldn’t want to wear a hat. It might be cute for a monster costume as well.

My favorite way Mila’s worn it was with a Halloween shirt to school!

The headband doesn’t get weighed down by all the eyes and Mila had hers on for the entire day.

This simple Halloween DIY is a fun way to add a little spooky to your every day outfits. You can easily pick up these items at your local dollar store too!

I hope you and your little ghoul love this accessory as much as we did!

What’s your favorite wearable Halloween outfit or accessory you’ve made for either you or your child?

Tiny Ghoul Gang Party

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Mila and my’s favorite part about this October was her Tiny Ghoul Gang Party. It was a fun way to get all of her friends together and celebrate Halloween!

She had been asking me for weeks about having a party. For some reason she was convinced that her birthday was this month… and not six months away. Instead of fighting that battle for six more months, we invited her preschool and dance friends over and had a Tiny Ghoul Gang Party.

When I first decided to throw this party for Mila, I came up with a pumpkin painting party idea. She loves painting and crafts and I figured her friends would too.

I had a ton of Halloween activity ideas pinned and saved on Instagram. There’s so many creative people in the world, I’m so thankful they share their ideas! It was easy to find things for the kids to do.

Thankfully it was minimal prep too!

The Activities

Pumpkin Painting:

The main party activity was pumpkin painting. We literally laid down an old blanket and table clothes, set out paint and brushes, then let the kids have at it. Honestly, they went right to wanting to paint pumpkins which took me by surprise. If I would have known that, I would’ve got the paint out beforehand. Thankfully, there was a great group of parents who immediately jumped in and helped out!

Besides paint, we also let the kiddos put googly eyes on their pumpkins to decorate too! They all turned out adorable.

This activity is messy. Obviously. If I were to do this again, I’d have found more tables or gotten pallets for the kids to use. Just to stabilize the pumpkins and keep the brushes and paint upright.

Witch’s Brooms:

I just talked about these in another blog post. They’re one of my favorite Halloween activities and went pretty well with a big group of girls. The hardest part was finding the letters of all the girls’ names.

Before the party, I made all of the brooms. If I would do this activity again for kids, I would have their name beads already set out or put in a bag.

Again, there was an amazing group of parents their with us that helped out!

Sensory Bins:

Technically I had three sensory areas set up, but we only got to two. The one sensory play idea that wasn’t used was a potion making station. I think that was fine because it ended up getting cold, which is never good mixed with wet clothes.

The one bin that was used the most was the spaghetti bin. There were eyeballs, fingers, and spiders that the kids could find. But, a couple of them (mostly Mila), ended up just eating the spaghetti… yum. They all did seem like they loved playing with this sensory bowl.

Maybe for the next Halloween party, I’ll do multiple cold spaghetti bowls.

In the other sensory bowl was ‘monster soup.’ It just had torn up tissue paper, Halloween colored sensory items (balls, pipe cleaners, etc). The girls really enjoyed this too!

Bobbing for Apples:

Like I stated above, the cold and water don’t really mix, but the girls really enjoyed trying this. It’s just your classic bobbing for apples game. The ones who participated did really good… the others volunteered to just eat the apples.

Halloween Egg Hunt:

Mila helped prep this activity. I found Easter eggs that looked like jack-o-lanterns at Target. We filled them up with candy and Mila spread them around the yard.

I’m not sure how well she hid them… but the kids loved running and finding them. It was an easy activity and got them playing independently.

Throwing Games:

We also had a few throwing activities that I didn’t get pictures of. One was to throw rings around pumpkin stems. Again, easy set up and fun! Then my mom found this game where you throw a ball in pumpkin styled cups. What kid doesn’t like throwing?

I think all the kids loved what we had set up. There was Halloween music playing in the background, so we got to see some dance moves too. When the kids didn’t have a guided activity, they just ran, talked, or played on the play equipment too. I don’t think any of them were ever bored during the party.

It was so much fun to see Mila’s favorite groups of friends come together.

The Food

I promise I had every intention of making this party have more food than dessert. It just didn’t manifest that way.

The food spread was mostly a dessert bar full of Halloween treats. To be honest, I bought all the desserts. I did not have time to make everything, besides adding extra Halloween sprinkles to the cake. Still, I loved how it turned out!

For the food, we had fruits, veggies, cream chicken, mummy hot dogs, and a skull meat and cheese plate. Plus, there were buckets of chips and a sweet Halloween mix too.

I was actually surprised with how much food was eaten. Of course I still had leftovers, but the majority of it was gone!

We also started a fire and had s’mores too.

The Goodies

To make it a little more special, I made Ghoul Gang shirts for the girls. I think they turned out adorable and even made myself a sweatshirt.

It made for really cute pictures and I love getting shirts, so I knew Mila’s friends would too.

We also made baskets for the kids to take too. It was just a trick or treat bucket filled with goodies for them to take home.

The best goodies for me was watching all of the ghouls having fun. Their smiles and laughs are the reason why any parent does what they do for their kids. I love that this group of girls get to grow up together. Just knowing Mila will have friends going into school and through life brings me so much peace for her.

I am so thankful for all the parents that let their kiddos come. Mila has talked about it almost every day since.

Throughout the madness of the day, Mila and I didn’t get a single picture at her party. This isn’t too crazy. We rarely remember to get pictures together.

Once we got home, she thanked me for her party and gave me a big hug. That’s when we got the picture.

I love being her mom and having the ability to do these types of things for her. Something tells me she’s going to be a kid that wants a party for all occasions. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to do it!

Even when life is crazy, it’s party days like those and the hugs after that make the hard parts worth it.

I can’t wait to see what we come up with for next year’s Halloween party.

Have you ever threw your child a Halloween party? What was your favorite activity at yours or Mila’s?