How to Plan a Kid's Craft Exchange

May 27, 2012

I have a love/hate relationship with kid's crafts.

I love them because I know crafting fosters creativity, helps build their dexterity and motor function and is very important for their imagination.

However, I hate/strongly dislike kid's crafts because they take time to plan, can be messy and my first born high control nature generally gets the best of me when Nora does a craft different than how I would do a craft (how dare her? Right!?).

Thankfully I have genius friends (yes... being genius is a pre-requisite for being my friend) who come up with incredible ideas like doing a Kid's Craft Exchange.  (Thanks Amy!)

Here's how you too can plan/host a Kid's Craft Exchange.

How to Plan a Kid's Craft Exchange

1. Invite 10-12 friends that have child(ren) roughly around the same age as your child(ren).  This is important to note because kid's crafts do need to be age appropriate.

2. Determine how to communicate with your newly formed "Kid's Craft Exchange Club."  In our case, our club facilitator set up a private Facebook Group where everyone was able to communicate about scheduling and specific craft questions and thoughts.  You could also do this through email.

3. Schedule your first meeting. We decided to meet for a couple of hours on a weeknight.  We made our gathering a "Mom's Night Out" and the host served wine and sweets.

We're planning on meeting every couple months or so until we decide otherwise.

4. Choose your craft and make enough of that craft kit for each child represented in your club. So the idea of this club is that you think of one craft idea per meeting, buy all of the items necessary to assemble the craft kit and make a kit for every child represented in your group.

In our group we had 10 moms attend.  8 of the moms had one crafting child and 2 had two crafting children.  So all 10 moms made 12 kits (8+4 kids).

Note :: The reason I say "child represented", rather than "mom represented" is because you need to take into consideration how many children each mom has in the group.  In my case I only needed one of each craft because Elsie is too little for crafts.  However, in a year or so I'll have two crafting girlies.

5. Attend the first meeting with your crafting kits in hand to exchange for more kits.  At your meeting, each mom in attendance will be given a couple minutes to explain the craft she brought and pass the kits out to each mom in attendance.

You'll leave each meeting with a box full of pre-planned crafts for your kiddos.

Take it from me.  It. Is. Amazing!!


Questions? Comment below. 

Happy Crafting!  

Read more...

A 1st Birthday Brunch for Elsie

May 22, 2012

This past weekend our sweet-as-pie daughter, Elsie, turned ONE!  Can you believe it?!  It really does feel like just the other day we were announcing her birth to all of you.

Since becoming a mom nearly three years ago, I feel like I have a new-found understanding of Psalm 144:4 "Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow."  The days/months/years really do fly by, just like the psalmist said.  And with the addition of children to our family it seems as if the truth of this verse is magnified 10x. 

Rather than see this verse as doom and gloom, I think it's reason to CELEBRATE! Celebrate all of the great things God has given us right at this moment.  

One of the big reasons to celebrate (for us) being the one year birthday of Elsie and God's faithfulness that has been shown evident to us through her life.

And celebrate is exactly what we did.  

Elsie's Birthday Brunch



:: the menu :: 

White Chocolate Raspberry Scones, Apple Turnovers, Mini Sugar Donut Cake, French Toast Kebabs, Mixed Fruit, Mini Lemon Bites, Chicken & Apple Sausage, Crustless Spinach Quiche, orange juice and iced coffee.



Happy Birthday Elsie!

For more info on Elsie's party decorations, read my post on Scottsdale Moms Blog, Top 5 Birthday Party Decoration Ideas.

Read more...

Girlfriends + Vegas

May 9, 2012

This being a mommy thing can be kinda tiring, right?!

Because of that very reason, three of my college girlfriends and I decided it was time to take a much needed ladies-only trip.  We all have 1 or 2 children ages 9 mo - 3.5 yrs old and are scattered across the country so it was time to get away.

Where to?  Vegas of course!  (Why not?!) Our requirements - rest, sun and good food.  All of which Vegas was sure to have this time of year.  

I. LOVED. IT. From the moment I left home on Friday morning, to the minute I crawled into bed late Monday night - I savored each minute.

I'll let the photos do the talking...

Saturday Agenda : 
Starbucks. Pool. Frozen Drink. Lunch. Pool. Frozen Drink. Dinner (Mon Ami Gabi). Lights out at 10 pm. 


Sunday Agenda :
Starbucks. Gym. Pool. Lunch. Pool. Frozen Drink. Dinner (Bouchon). Lights out at 10:30 pm.
Monday Agenda :
Combination of Saturday and Sunday activities plus a flight home in the evening.

Not too bad, huh?!! 

Thanks Nealy, Jess and Abby for the unforgettable memories.  Till next time.  

Read more...
Related Posts with Thumbnails

  © Blogger templates Newspaper II by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP