There’s thirty-six days left until Christmas! We’re getting so close to advent season and counting down to Christmas everyday.
Although we have our normal candy one, this year I thought Mila and I should make another.
Say hello to the Santa Christmas Countdown.
With a square wood piece and a little paint, this Santa Christmas Countdown came to life.
The transformation of this piece is adorable. It started with just paint, then numbers, and each day it’ll be filled with cotton balls.
After filling it up, it becomes Christmas decor for years to come!
I love how easy it is and that Mila loves the idea of filling his beard in. Although I’ll just have her use regular glue for the beard, I’ll go back in and add hot glue so it stays on there.
Didn’t it turn out amazing? I love each step of it, but the cotton balls are my favorite. The added texture just makes it so much warmer and jolly. Just like Saint Nick!
You could DIY this Santa Christmas Countdown OR you could just have me make it for you.
I have a Santa Christmas Countdown listing ready to go on my Etsy shop or you could message me too. Either way, I love this piece so much that I wanted to share it all with you!
Let me know in the comments… Do you have an advent calendar every year? If so, what how do you countdown to Christmas?
There’s no better time to celebrate Halloween and little girls than with a Ghoul Power Boo Basket. This yearly tradition is a fun way to get your child ready and excited for Halloween.
Boo baskets were originally secretly left for neighbors and friends, but they’re fun for kids too!
Another amazing part of Boo Baskets is supporting small businesses. There have been so many things from Instagram and Etsy that I’ve been eyeing. Gifting them to Mila in such a fun way made them even more special for her!
Now it’s time to unpack all the ghoul power items inside Mila’s Boo Basket this year.
Activities
All Boo Baskets need some fun activities for kids to get excited for Halloween. Mila’s is packed with some of her favorite things:
The best part of these activities are they can be done inside. Halloween is a weird transition time for kids from being outside in summer to staying inside more from the cooler weather. These are all great options for kids to play safely inside and have fun. Mila is obsessed with all of these. The bubbles are so much fun for her. The seek and find makes for great scavenger hunts. Stickers are always a hit too.
Accessories
Girls love accessories, even at three!
Our favorite shop right now is Sloane and Daisy. Both of the bracelet and pin are from there. They fit so many outfits and Mila has worn both of them multiple times since she’s gotten them. If you’re interested in a bracelet or a pin set from Sloane and Daisy, use GreySkies15 for 15% off!
Mila also got plastic spider rings, which are always so much fun during spooky season.
Bow and Wand
Mila loves playing with wands. This month she used this one to pretend she was a witch. Of course, her wand has to have pretty pink on it! I also topped it off with one of her Halloween bows from ACT Crafts and Creations.
You can easily make one of these wands that your child will definitely love.
Halloween Pajamas
My favorite part of Mila’s Boo Basket is her new Halloween pajamas from Harlee Bee and Co. I love the rainbow print on it and Mila loves the flower crown on the ghost. The fabric feels so nice and it’s well made. I wish they came in my size!
This year’s Ghoul Power Boo Basket was so much fun to make for Mila. I hope she loved it as much as I did putting it together.
Do you give your child a Boo Basket? If so, what’s something you’d suggest adding in one.
Yesterday, I planned on writing a recommendation post while Mila napped. Turned out, I must have needed one too. Her usual quick nap turned into her and I snoozing for three hours. I’m definitely not complaining about the extra sleep, but it pushed back some of my plans. Oh well.
Since Mila took her nap a little later and longer, she wanted to stay up. I figured instead of just watching a movie, we could do an Earth week inspired activity. There’s a few that I’ve saved on Pinterest, but during the lockdown, I found a subscription box that caught my attention.
The Kids Art Box is an activity box for kids of all ages. It can be modified for younger and older kids, which is perfect for siblings. March’s box, the one I have, came with four activities and a seed bomb visual recipe. The really cool thing about this box is everything you need comes in it, besides the visual recipe ingredients. This is a game changer. I have a lot of craft supplies at my house, but usually when I was to do a specific one, I have to go to the store. The Kids Art Box takes care of the trip to the store or tearing your house apart. It’s also all color coded. So, the instruction card comes with a colored dot and you can find all the supplies you need for that specific card with the same colored dot.
The mom who makes these, Melanie, does an amazing job of organizing the boxes, making sure everything’s in there, and explaining what needs to be done. Unfortunately, I didn’t snag a picture of everything wrapped up. Mila thinks everything need unwrapped immediately (thanks birthday week!). All activities are clever, creative, and conducive to learning. It’s definitely worth the price as well. The best option is $33 a month and you get everything you need. I think between having all the supplies and not having to search a while for activities, it’s so worth it. If you want to check out the boxes and want $10 off, press here.
Back to our story…
I grabbed the box and Mila had tore everything open. It wasn’t hard to figure out what went where, but she thought her way was better. When looking through everything, she kept noticing the picture of the Earth and she does this weird thing where when she sees it she tries to eat it. It’s from watching a movie, Pets 2. The next time we watch it, I’ll try to record and share; makes me laugh every time. Anyways, the activity I chose for her to do was the mixed media Earth collage.
It came with: cardboard cut in a circle, blue and green paint, a packet of buttons, a packet of gems, a glue stick, string, washi tape, glitter glue, and a paint brush. A laminated picture of the world, along with directions, supply list, and information about the craft accompanied it as well.
Mila is obsessed with the buttons and gems! She kept saying ‘cute!’ I told her we were using green and blue because that’s the color of our earth. After the eating noises stopped, she pointed to the different colors and I told her she needed to paint the earth on her circle. She did typical painting routine and I think she nailed it. I asked her why it wasn’t all blue and green and she pointed to the clouds. At least I know she was referencing the picture.
By then, it was getting late and Mila started yawning. We cleaned everything up and let her earth dry over night.
When we woke up and after we watched Frozen of course, Mila insisted on seeing her earth. The paint dried up nicely and we started right on adding other media.
She’s never really experimented with glitter glue or a glue stick, but caught on after I showed her. She loved squeezing everything out and was insistent on glueing the buttons and gems down. When it got too sticky for her, she let me help her. We played around with the different media for about thirty minutes until I thought she couldn’t add anything else.
I really loved this activity and Mila did too. We talked about why we were adding blue and green and what they represented. She kept pointing to the the blue and saying beach or pool. I can definitely see us doing something similar in the upcoming years. She enjoyed it and I think it’d be interesting to see how she progressing in her understanding too.
Our little earth doesn’t have a home yet, the glitter glue is still drying… she ended up using the whole tube. She’s all girl and loves her glitter. I’m thinking of putting all our Earth Week crafts where I usually have garland. When Mila sees her art hanging, she always points to it and shows it off when people visit. It’ll be adorable to see all of her different interpretations.
I’m seriously so happy with this art box. When we do the next activity, I’ll make sure to show everything packaged together and lined up. I really want to do a “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” activity, just trying to find something for her age. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know!
Again, if you’d like to look up more information on this, click here. If you follow that link, you can get $10 off of your order!
What are some ways you celebrate or how do you teach your child about Earth Day?