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Ideas for Crafting Your New Years Eve Party Favors

December 29, 2009 By The Recipe Mom 1 Comment
partyfavors

partyfavors2What makes New Year’s Eve special? The food, the fun and the party favors. For the fun and party favors create your own crafts to enjoy. It’s a great way families can celebrate together.

Instead of buying a lot of party favors and noisemakers this year, let the family make their own. When you decide to make crafts, it’s best to get everything you need ahead of time to avoid last minute runs to the store. They close early on New Year’s Eve so others get a chance to celebrate in their way.

Noisemakers

You probably have items around the house that can help you with this project. If you have any paper towel or toilet paper rolls they would make the perfect beginnings for noisemakers. Empty plastic eggs (if you can find them or have some left over from Easter) are the right size for noisemakers.

Stuff one end with a piece of tissue paper and cover it with tape. Fill your roll with rice, corn kernels or dried beans. Seal the other end the same way. You can decorate the outside with glitter, streamers, and stickers. The Easter eggs can be filled with rice or dried beans and covered with glittery paints.

Party Hats

No celebration is quite complete without a gorgeous hat. It isn’t too hard to create one. Start with construction paper and fold it into a conical shape. Keep it closed with tape or staples. This is your basic hat design. From there, the rest is up to you. Decorate the hats with glitter, garland, colored foil, lettering and any number of other accents to make your hat stand out.

Celebration Masks

If you plan on celebrating with a theme party later that evening create a decorative mask for your New Year’s celebration. Take a piece of construction paper and have someone trace your face, eyes, nose and mouth. Cut away the excess paper. You are now ready to decorate. Use a Popsicle stick to hold your mask up to your face.

Face Painting

Here, you are the basic design that gets decorated. Using paints that are safe for the skin, let each family member make up someone else’s face. Make it festive for the night. Take pictures of everyone’s finely crafted face.

As the final countdown sounds, be ready to celebrate with all your treasured crafts. Crafting is a great way to help get into the spirit of the evening.

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Mother’s Day Fun for Kids

May 9, 2009 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment

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Serve Mom Breakfast in Bed

It’s usually always Mom that is up at the crack of dawn preparing breakfast for everyone. This would be a great gift for Mom, breakfast in bed. This will allow Mom to sleep in and then surprise her with breakfast in bed.

Keep this breakfast simple. Serve her that favorite muffin or toast, or even a small dish of fresh fruit. Don’t forget to add the steaming cup of hot coffee or tea. Make it even more special with a flower or a card with a special poem straight from your heart.

Give Her the Day to Herself

Of course, Mom loves us very much. Mom’s are always at our side and ready to help out anytime we need something, right? Mom will be so excited when you present her with a coupon for a full day to do whatever it is she wants to do.

This will only require a pretty piece of paper. Then you can create your own special gift certificate allowing her to have one day of total piece and quite. This can be decorated using markers, crayons or stickers.

Present your Mother on Mother’s Day with the gift certificate filled with love. Buy Mom a book that you know she wants to read? This would be great for her day off. Add a cup or a mug with her favorite beverage. This will allow Mom to enjoy her favorite drink while she reads. To help the day remain quite ask the grown up helping you to make sure you are kept busy as well as supervised so that Mom doesn’t have a thing to worry about the whole day long.

Spend Quality Family Time Together

Do you think Mom would rather spend time as a family instead of alone? Plan something fun that Mom will enjoy doing. After all, Mom spends a lot of time making sure that you are entertained. Mom’s often put their own interests aside because they know that you would enjoy doing something else. Repay the kindness to Mom by planning a day of family fun activities that you might not ordinarily do.

Perhaps Mom likes art, take her to the local museum and even have lunch there. If there is a concert Mom would like to see then buy family tickets for all to enjoy. The possibilities for things to do on Mother’s Day are endless. With a little imagination and a little grown up help this Mother’s Day will be one that your Mom will always hold dear to her heart.

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Make it a Healthy Easter Basket

April 4, 2009 By The Recipe Mom Leave a Comment

bunnybasketWhen it comes to the kids Easter basket many of us cringe to think of all that unhealthy candy they will find. Easter baskets are full of chocolate, sugar and treats that are bad for their health all the way around. Try a healthier approach from the Easter bunny with a few of these ideas.

Instead of those solid chocolate eggs, those bags of M&M’s and all those jelly beans why not use healthier additions. Granola bars, pure juice boxes, string cheese, fresh fruit, sugar free gum and peanuts make a great choice. Give them just a little chocolate by adding chocolate covered raisins to the mix. A little chocolate can be a healthy addition if kept in moderation.

Instead of adding that solid chocolate bunny to the basket this year hide small chocolate eggs at their Easter egg hunt. Not only will the kids get exercise running around looking for the eggs but by the time they find them all only about a quarter of them will be worth eating.

Candy isn’t the only thing that can be found in an Easter basket. The Easter bunny loves to give away toys and other such types of presents. This year think about sinking the money into something that keeps them active or educates them. There might be something they have really been wanting and just haven’t saved the money to buy yet. The possibilities are endless.

Seasonal gifts are always a hit. With Spring just around the corner things such as gardening items, outside toys or even a summer pass to the local pool are great basket fillers. Add some bubbles or side walk chalk for the younger children to enjoy.

Small toys that promote activity are a great choice for an Easter basket. Jump ropes, outside games, balls and bats or a hula hoop can fill an Easter basket and give your children hours of enjoyment and exercise.

Craft items are wonderful Easter basket filler if you have a child that is into the arts. Scrapbooks have become very popular with girls. Boys might like a sketch book and some colored pencils. Choose items that fit your child’s needs or ones that they have been asking for over and over again.

Educational items are also a good idea. Storybooks, activity books or even hand held games such as Scrabble or Wheel of Fortune can be fun along with being educational. Keep them age appropriate and add things you know will peak their interest.

When it comes to the babies in the family they must be included but it can be a little hard to find healthy things to place in their baskets. Educational toys, stuffed animals, a new blanket, teething rings and teething cookies are always a good bet when it comes to our tiny ones.

Last but not least, if they want something special include that in their basket. Girls enjoy toiletries and may not have the extra money to buy something new. Boys enjoy movies, music and sporting items that may be just a little more than their wallet can afford.

Keeping the Easter basket healthy isn’t really that hard of a chore. Just remember that a little chocolate is a welcome sight and as long as it’s in moderation it can be a healthy addition to any Easter basket.

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