Some of my most memorable times as a child were with my aunt who was a teacher and spent time with me making holiday crafts. It got me thinking-this could be a great idea for a holiday party. Get everyone together to make hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies and fun, holiday crafts. Here are some other ideas for planning a holiday craft party this year.
Send out a holiday invitation asking guests to bring specific materials like glue, scissors, or whatever else you might need.
ACTIVITIES. Serve up some hot chocolate and make these sweet treats for kids to take home or to use as holiday gifts for friends and family. Gingerbread people from Martha Stewart. Hot chocolate cones make great gifts, recipe serves four and is from FamilyFun. Peppermint Bark, another holiday treat from Martha Stewart, are great for snacking and for giving away.
Book Clubs are a great way to enrich our lives, foster exciting conversations about interesting topics and bring people closer together. Whether you are an Oprah book club member, want to join or start your own book club, this week’s inspiration board, perfect for the holidays, is dedicated to book clubbers like you.
Make it easy on yourself and easy on your guests, but serving up savory and sweet finger foods that are fun and quick to make. Keep guests warm and your conversations hot with Spiced hot chocolate. Quesidillas with chutney and brie add a contemporary twist on ordinary appetizers. They’ll be blown away by this Italian treat, Artichoke Pesto on Ciabatta. Yum!
I’m a little late in planning this, but I recently decided to throw a Halloween Party. Visions of costumes, Halloween punch, decor and treats, got me thinking, why should kids have all the fun?
2. FOOD & DRINKS.The best part of planning a Halloween party? All those delectably themed food and drinks. Serve up spooky fun with Semi-Homemade Sandra Lee’s Vampire Kiss Martini and Martha Stewart’s Spooky spirits. Recipes for both can be found on their websites.
3. DEVILISH DECOR. Transforming your home into a party that will be loved by kids and adults. Hang up this sweet Candy Wreath and light up the way with these Cookie Cutter Pumpkins from Martha Stewart. And Pottery Barn’s fall-inspired tablescape is simply beautiful.
The holiday season is a great time to get creative with your culinary delights. Especially if you have kids in the house (or even just kids at heart!), creating cute little treats for parties, family dinners or just as afternoon snacks can be a great way to get everyone in the spirit of the holdiay. If you are looking for easy ways to add fun to your finger foods, check out these great food craft sites for some ideas and inspiration:
Disney’s FamilyFun.com has some of the best ideas on the web for cute crafts and fun food creations. I love their Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas ideas, but they even have some great everyday tips for creating an extra fun family meal.
The ever-stylish Martha Stewart also offers excellent food craft ideas, including some charming adult ideas better suited for cocktail parties than some of the more cutesy recipes found elsewhere online.
The Crafty Crow is a great craft site for kids that offers a wealth of ideas for parents looking to spend some quality time with their children in a creative setting. This ingenious site is responsible for the super creepy shrunken apple heads below! Yikes!
If your family loves M&Ms, Snickers and Milky Way bars, then Red and Yellow’s Bright Ideas is the site for you! Run by the Mars corporation, this site has adorable edible crafts for you and your family to create out of common candy items.
Another great creative resource for parents is FreeKidsCrafts.com. Not all of these crafts are edible, but they all have to do with food, fun and spending time together as a family!
If you’ve watched any television in the past month, you’ve undoubtedly seen a slew of commercials from the Corn Refiners Association that attempt to salvage the damaged reputation of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). One features two brothers arguing over whether or not HFCS is bad for you in cereal, and another highlights two moms discussing the effects of the HFCS found in store-bought punch. There’s also a commercial where a couple lounges in a park eating popsicles laced with HFCS:
Some Tiny Talk readers might know that I’m allergic to corn. As a result, HFCS has been my enemy for years because (as this series of commercials demonstrates with a variety of foods) it hides in EVERYTHING! After a decade of scouring food labels, I can confidently tell you that a vast majority of foods on the shelves in your local grocery store are packed with it. But is it really bad for you?
The Corn Refiners offer their take–that HFCS is no different from sugar or honey–while certain medical sites offer another–that HFCS is directly linked to the development of diabetes. For a more balanced take on the topic, I think this article from Diabetes Self-Management does a great job of summarizing both sides.
What do you think? Knowing the prevalence of HFCS in the foods you and your family eat, are you concerned about the amount you consume, or the potential effects? Have these commercials changed your mind? You tell us!
Some of my favorite childhood memories come from slumber parties–hanging out with the girls and watching our favorite Disney princesses while scarfing down handfuls of snacks and giggling incessantly! It was a time of innocence and fun, but in retrospect it must have been chaos for my parents. Even though hosting a houseful of perky, pajama-clad kids might sound like a nightmare, you can easily turn every slumber party chore into a fun event! Check out some of these ideas for a sweet, stress-free slumber party.
1. Let the kids pitch in! Give your little ones the chance to pick out their slumber party invitations and to decorate themselves. Your kids will love the chance to show off their budding party style, and they are sure to come up with some creative combinations! Plus, parents and kids alike are sure to love these fun slumber party invitations from Tiny Prints.
2. Plan games and activities that make it easy for you. The best part about a slumber party is staying up late and hanging out with your friends, so don’t stress about keeping everyone entertained. The kids will happily watch a movie (with the proper snacks provided, of course!) or play a classic game like charades or Pictionary. If you want to buy a game for them to play, check out this great video from MSNBC with plenty of tips for easy slumber party entertainment.
3. Scour the web for inexpensive gifts. You can shop for fun slumber party goodies on your lunch break or while you are paying your bills online. It will save time and money–these darling little dolls from Birthday in a Box are only $5 each!
4. Revive some classic slumber party pastimes. Whip up some homemade spa treatments, like these from Birthday Party Ideas 4 Kids, or set up pillow mountain climbing, an indoor obstacle course and a scavenger hunt (as recommended by Suite101!) for easy entertainment ideas.
5. Turn breakfast into an event! Instead of waking the cranky kiddos up and rushing them out the door, entice them to finish the slumber party on a good note with some fun and tasty breakfast ideas. Make bagel portraits, banana dogs or eggs in a nest (all found on Family Fun) for a great start to the next morning!
Football is coming back in all its fall glory, and it’s definitely not just for the boys anymore. At least one good friend of mine has season tickets to watch her alma mater USC dominate in college football, and all of my girlfriends from back home in San Diego have vowed to keep their nails painted blue and gold as we watch every game in support of the Chargers throughout the season.
With more and more girls getting into the game, we can undoubtedly look forward to fun, fan-filled football parties all season long! I can’t wait to have the girls over to watch the game, and since I’m a bit of a health nut, I’ve rounded up some healthier alternatives to my favorite football fare to help you cheer on your team with your friends and family:
I know a little two year old who absolutely loves to eat. She’s happiest when she has both hands stuffed with food, and the adorable thing is that she loves fruit and vegetables more than anything else–she would rather eat avocados than pudding, and spinach souffle always wins over macaroni and cheese.
On a recent trip to a local amusement park, I asked this little muncher’s mom how she packs healthy food for such a big appetite when she’s out and about. Here’s her advice for keeping your kids healthy and happy when you are on the go:
-Certain fruits travel better than others. Grapes are great because there’s no peel, core or pit to deal with–just the stems, which aren’t messy at all!
-Bring individually portioned snack packs, like prepackaged Goldfish, raisins, cheese snacks or Teddy Grahams. These let you keep track of how much your kids are eating, and they are super easy to toss into your bag before you head out the door.
-If your kids are little, The Snack Trap is a must-have for traveling. The cups are designed so that your kids can shake them, toss them around and turn them upside down without anything falling out. But the ingenuous little lids still allow them to stick their hands inside to get the food out without any help.
-Always include variety in your kids’ food choices. You wouldn’t want to eat the same thing over and over again, so don’t force your kids to! Mix it up once in a while to make sure they are healthy and happy no matter where you are.
I love ballpark food. I know it’s greasy and full of fat and all other things bad for you, but I still love it nonetheless. It’s one of the few places that I absolutely splurge. And forget peanuts and Cracker Jack–I want a hot dog, a soft pretzel, nacho cheese sauce and soft serve ice cream!
When I really think about it, though, I am hardly ever at the ballpark. If I had season tickets, regularly attended games or brought kids to the stadium with me, I would definitely have to take a hard look at what I eat while I root on my team.
I found this great article from Forbes.com that lists some healthier options now available at ballparks across the country, and I’m contemplating swapping my soft pretzel addiction for some sushi, a baked potato or a fruit cup.
I also checked out Eat This, Not That (a great website if you are looking for healthier options!) to find out what my best bets are for classic ballpark food, and found to my delight that hot dogs aren’t so bad for you (when you hold the chili and the cheese, of course!). Eat This, Not That also has an eye-opening section about the best and worst foods for kids that might help you make better choices for your little ones at the stadium this year.
While it’s okay to splurge on the foods you love from time to time, it’s also important to evaluate what we teach our kids about food and nutrition. So get a fruit skewer alongside that kosher dog, and settle in for a great time at the ballgame this summer!
Summer’s going by fast, so take advantage of the month of August with nonstop celebrations with family and friends. Take a look at my inspiration board for ideas on how to make the summer of ‘08 the best one yet! From Martha Stewart’s corn-on-the-cob cupcakes to a hot dog and fries birthday cake, here are some ways to get creative with the kids this season.
