Friendship Day Aprons (a play date craft for kids)

Friendship day is on August 2nd every year, and as you can these aprons are from 2013, but we made them on friendship day that year and I had them posted on my old blog but hadn't gotten around to putting them on this one yet, so here they are. I realize friendship day has already passed this year, but these aprons are practical and a great craft to make with toddler/preschooler or older kids and their friends together at a play date! My daughter still wears hers when she helps in the kitchen.

You can purchase little cloth aprons like these at a craft store, as well as the iron ons, and fabric paint. You might also want to purchase a fabric marker to write the names/year or whatever you'd like on there but we just used a Sharpie.

I picked Minnie and Mickey hugging because both of the kids liked those characters and they're a boy and a girl hugging which represented my girl and the little boy we made them with! I ironed those on ahead of time and then when the kids were having their play date we painted their hands with the fabric paint and then did their hand prints on the aprons.

I wanted both sets of hands on my daughters so I did hers on the top under the iron on, then I wrote "Friendship Day 2013" then had my friend do her sons hand prints under that and then I wrote their names underneath at the bottom.

My friend wanted her sons apron differently, she wrote up above the iron on and then put one of each of their hand prints next to each others with their names underneath.

I think both of the aprons turned out totally cute and this is a great craft for kids and their friends!

Hosting a St. Patrick's Day Play Date

I hosted a St. Patrick's Day Play Date for my daughter and two of little girl friends the day before St. Patrick's Day. I'm going to post a bit on the set up, food, and activities.

This was how I had the food out on the counter. For drinks I had Honest Kids organic Appley Ever After Juice. I picked this flavor because it had a green part on the drink. Then we had a cookie cake, "rainbow" parfaits, and spinach four leaf clover tortilla chips. The other mom brought over hummus with a green lid for dip! I also had gold coins sprinkled about for decor.

The "rainbow" parfaits were made with dairy free coconut milk yogurt, and food coloring. I didn't have red or yellow to make red, orange, or yellow. So I used pink, green, blue, ad purple. I scooped some yogurt into 4 different bowls, added some food coloring to each one and stirred each up separately. Then I added a bit of each color, starting with purple into the clear little serving cups. I also had 3 green spoons for the kids to each have one with them!


Now, for the spinach four leaf clover tortilla chips, I will refer you to this recipe


For decor I had this leprechaun taped up to the wall that I purchased at Dollar Tree. I also had green flowers on the table, clover and leprechaun decals on the window, and magnetic clovers and a leprechaun on the fridge. All (except the flowers) purchased at Dollar Tree.

For the activities, we made necklaces, made Shamrock Man, and played bingo 

For the necklaces I dyed some uncooked pasta noodles green, and cut some shamrocks out of green construction paper that I then punched holes in so they would be able to be strung along with the noodles. To dye the pasta noodles I put them in a ziploc bag, then added in some rubbing alcohol and shook it all up until the noodles were all coated, then did the same with green food coloring. Once they were all colored I put them on a foil covered baking sheet to dry. 

I had my daughter do her necklace in a pattern of two noodles, then a shamrock. 

Host A Toddler Picnic

Every year for my daughter's half birthday I host a picnic for her and her little friend who has a half birthday close to hers too! This post is to share how you too could host a toddler picnic play date! Picnics are a very fun thing to do in the summer, so there certainly doesn't need to be a special occasion to have one.

Here's what our picnic table looked like all set up.

I lay out a piece of fabric that looks just like a picnic blanket with giant ants crawling all over it. It's so adorable and makes a great themed table cloth. You could probably find some similar fabric to use, use a plastic table cloth from Dollar Tree, or no table cloth at all!

Now, before I get into what're some good ideas food-wise I'm going to tell you some things I think are crucial to have a sucessful outdoor picnic with no problems:
- A plastic bag for trash
- A thing of wet wipes for wiping off hands and faces/possible messes
- Paper plates, napkins, and cups. Using plastic ones would work too, but this way they can just be thrown into that plastic bag when finished and there's less clean up.
- I found that a sandwich container was the perfect thing to put our fruit salad in. It has a lid which is great for covering it up when not being used, and traveling with it. It's not a huge size either, and holds a good amount for a few toddlers to enjoy together.
- Cold water bottles are good to have on hand and ready to be used
- Toddler utensils of course

Now, I'm starting to get into the food of it all so I'll just list off what I served:
- PB & J Lunch Box Muffins. This recipe from i should be mopping the floor is phenominal! I make these quite often and knew they'd be a great addition to a picnic. Kids love PB & J and these muffins were a great, mess-free way to pack a protein into the meal.
- Toddler Fruit Salad. I cut up a few strawberries, a kiwi, and a handful of green grapes and then sprinkle wheat germ on the top. I refrigerated it for about an hour before the picnic.
- I had out a little dish of a goat cheese with honey in it that my daughter likes
- Snacks & Hummus Tray. Kids love to dip and one of my daughters favorite healthy dips is hummus. I put some on a tray along with some broccoli, carrots, gluten free pretzels, and Multi-Grain crackers!

After that food was finished up, I brought out some homemade vegan ice cream that I had prepared the night before. It was so delicious and just adorable. I fell in love with these Ice Cream Pop Molds from Tovolo. They're such a fun thing to put our vegan ice cream into and great for little ones to hold and there's no messes made either since the drips are caught by the cone part!

 

The ice cream was made by blending a cup of frozen mangoes with two frozen bananas and a splash of almond milk. My daughter was eating hers up so fast it was hard to get a picture!

Now, I always like to have a craft or activity at the play dates I have. This time, to stick with the theme, we made an A is for Ants craft! I had it set up on my daughter's little table like this

You'll need:

- Green construction paper

- Brown construction paper

- Scissors

- Glue stick

- Black Sharpie marker

- Black washable tempera paint

- A dish for the paint

I had cut out capital letter A's from the brown construction paper and wrote "A is for ant" on the green construction paper ahead of time. All they had to do was use the glue stick to glue their letter A's down, and then dip their fingers in the black washable tempera paint and make some prints on the paper for ants. The letter A represents an ant hill that the ants can be climbing on or near. It turned out really cute. You can go back and add antennae and legs to the ants with the marker if you want.