How To Throw A Simple Frozen Party Without Losing Your Mind (or blowing your budget!)

 Hey there friends!

Abbey turned 5 last month. FIVE!

And, like every other 5 year old girl on the planet, she wanted a Frozen party. I love throwing themed parties. I really do! They give me a direction for planning, and get my creative juices flowing. Her rainbow party was so much fun to do! However, it can be so easy to see all of those beautiful parties on Pinterest and get a little jealous. I can't ice custom cookies, I don't have 15 cake stands, and let's be honest...those parties take a budget much larger than mine! They are beautiful, and lots of fun, but you can absolutely throw a great themed party with an every day skill set, and a small budget.

Toddler Box 5: Matching

Hi friends!

I have a new Toddler Box for you today! Not gonna lie, this one was pretty much an accident, but it's one of Abbey's favorites!

I know matching games are nothing new. Between real life games, phones and ipads we have approximately 213981346123678 of them. Abbey loves them!

I had originally just planned to keep all of her card games in this box. Simple storage. Then we pulled out a matching game one day...

We spread the cards all over the floor, and on a fluke, when Abbey found a match, I stuck them in the box instead of just making a pile on the floor.

They fit perfectly! I mean, I couldn't have planned it if I tried. Seriously. So, the matching Toddler Box was born.

Abbey can play this game completely on her own at this point. Sometimes she needs help getting the cards spread out, but after that, she's good to go!
My favorite part of this game...it cleans itself up! I'm serious. The whole point of the game is to put the cards back in the box! Win!

Right now, our favorite game is this one, from Dollar Tree:

I liked that it gave me 2 different options for matching. I love things that get harder as Abbey is ready for it. Right now she matches the split pictures. We haven't tried the flip side yet. We'll try soon!

Another one I just found in the $1 section at Target (love!) is this one:

We've just started working on rhyming with Abbey, so I think she'll like this one.

Really, any matching game would work. Use whatever your little one is ready for!

Be blessed!

Heather

p.s. Make sure you check out the Kids Co-Op party down below, and link up any fun things you've been up to! There are some great ideas in there!

I'm linking up here, come join me!

Toddler Box 2: Beads

Hi everyone! 

I'm here with another Toddler Box for you, and then on to some Kids Co-Op linky goodness!

I am having so much fun putting these boxes together, and Abbey is having so much fun playing with them (which is, after all, the point!) I can't wait to share more of them!

Here is this weeks addition:

Bead stringing! I love this activity because you can do so much with it, and it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. It addresses all sorts of skills, and is SO easy to put together. A big tub of beads (I used maybe a third of it) and some pipe cleaners and you are set. 

NOTE: If you have any reason to believe that this activity poses a safety concern to your child, please don't do it, k? Thanks!

Why pipe cleaners you ask? Why not string? I like using pipe cleaners because you don't have to worry about the beads falling off the end! No knots. no nothing!

Abbey loves playing with her beads!

This game is especially fun to play while rocking some serious bed-head, and some new Dora jammers. If you haven't done it, I highly recommend it.

If you can believe it, this is the toned-down version of this morning's bed-head. It was epic.

You can do so many things with this box.

You can work on plain ol' fine motor skills:

You can match colors:

You can match patterns:

This is a new one for Abbey, so I think we'll be working on this one quite a bit.

Or, you can make "snails".

and take them swimming.

It's your choice, really!

Now it's time for Kids Co-Op fun! 

If you're new to the Kids Co-Op linky party, let me explain it a bit to you. This isn't your typical link up. Anything you link up here, will also appear at all of our co-hosts blogs. How cool is that? This week we have almost 60 co-hosts! That's your idea, at almost 60 different sites, with one little link up! Sweet deal.

Make sure to check out some of the awesome activities that get linked up. There is some fantastic stuff in there every week!

Simple Stamps

Who needs fancy stamps? Not us! Not when we've got toilet paper tubes and potatoes!

A little finger paint...

Some "sprinkles"...

(We've been making cookies a lot lately, can you tell?)

Seriously, this couldn't be any easier. I'm SURE you have some toilet paper tubes lying around, and I'm no artist, but I managed to make some pretty decent potato stamps. Don't lie, you're totally impressed by that heart one. I was too.

I present to you...a masterpiece:

At some point Abbey realized that this project meant potentially mess hands, so she switched to a paint brush just to be safe.

Whew! Dodged a bullet there!

Be Blessed!

Snow Dough

Hi friends!

Need something fun to do inside on a snowy day? Or a too-stinkin'-cold-out-there day? Or a we had snow yesterday, but now it's 40 and thunderstorming day? This is good for all of those! Even when they all happen in one week. Welcome back to Chicago, Heather.

Valentine's Day Treat Tray

In case you missed this over at Fancy Little Things...

I've got a super easy project to share with you all today. I love going to thrift stores and finding old things that can have new lives. So when I found some mini wine glasses (do they have an official name??) at the Salvation  Army, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. 

What we're making today:

Isn't it cute?? I've been seeing these all over Pinterest, and have been dying to make one. Most of the ones I've seen are made out of 3 plates, but I liked the idea of putting a bowl on top. Perfect for little chocolate goodies, or conversation hearts, or whatever you want!

What you need:

The 3 layers of your tray

Something to go in between the layers. I used the glasses, candlesticks would work too!

Heavy duty glue: I used E-6000

Note: When buying glass from the thrift store, check for stickers of an unknown age and origin. This little bit of stickum took me FOR.EV.ER to get off!

gah!

Anyway...moving on...

Now all you have to do is line up your layers and get to gluin'!

I have that heart shaped plate in the middle, so I knew that one was going to be a little off kilter. To keep everything lined up, I started out by gluing the glasses onto the bottom plate, and the bottom of the bowl first. Those had centers, so I knew things would line up. Then I sandwiched the heart plate in the middle, made sure everything was ready to go, and then glued! 

That's it...done! See? I told you it was easy!

Some notes about E-6000:

It STINKS! Definitely do this project in a well ventilated area...outside if you can.

It is not an immediate seal, so you can move things around until they're in the right spot...very nice!

It dries clear.

Once it's dry, you can either rub or scrape off any excess on your plates, so no worries about mess ups!

There you have it...your own little treat tray! 

Mine is already full of my favorites...

yum!

I'm linked up! Come play with me!

Fall Leaf Art

I love that Abbey is at the age that we can start doing arts and crafts together. I love it even more when said arts and crafts are free! Our neighborhood is absolutely loaded with all sorts of pretty leaves right now, so I decided to take advantage and do some leaf art.

See? Isn't that pretty? How cute are those little baby maple leaves?!

This project could NOT be any easier. 

We picked up some leaves on our way home from the park. It gave Abbey a nice distraction since she was not happy about going home. Bonus!

We started out with some glue. Abbey spread some glue onto her paper, and then I went back and made sure there was a decent amount there so the leaves would stick.

Once the glue was on, Abbey got full creative freedom!

Can you tell she doesn't like getting her hands messy? haha!

And here it is....easy peasy!

How's that for a proud face?!