The Perfect Little Things for an Easter Basket

I love giving things in the Easter basket that are needed anyways and so I'm putting together a helpful list of little things to add into an Easter basket that are very useful and help fill up the space between the bigger items.

                                               

1. Crayons are always appreciated. This year my daughter is getting a pack of glitter crayons.

2. A new pack of undies with a favorite character on them!

3. New spring shoes!

4. Socks. My favorite's can be found here 

5. Jewelry! Can also fit in Easter eggs.

6. Any Annie's bunny snacks are perfect anytime of the year, but especially at Easter time! There's a selection of all kinds here 

7. Glitter glue

8. Stickers, stickers, and more stickers! Joann Fabric's has lots of cute packs.

9. Highlighters. My daughter loves to use pink highlighters to do her tracing worksheets because she can see it so much better over lines than anything else.

10. Books. Toys R Us has lots of Easter books, but I like to give the Easter books before Easter so they can be enjoyed leading up to the holiday. Board books for babies/toddleres or Golden books for preschoolers are good choices.

11. Hair accessories, hats, infinity scarves. Justice has super cute scarves for girls, and Gap has cute hats for boys!

12. Chalk. Dollar Tree normally has some chalk in cute Easter shapes around Easter, here they are!

13. A game or gift card for to buy apps for their Leappad or LeapTV.

14. A barbie doll or action figures.

15. Wheelie cars or Hotwheels.

16. Bubbles.

17. A CD.

18. A movie.

19. A new toothbrush. Pillow Pets make cute ones now!

20. A cute toothbrush holder.

21. New sunglasses, Children's Place usually has great ones!

22. Chocolate bunny.

23. Other candy, Reese's eggs/jelly beans, whatever you like to give your kids.

24. Organic lollipops.

25. A watch

26. Homemade play dough. You can make it look like a carrot like this 

27. Light jacket for Spring.

28. Bubble bath.

29. Pajamas.

30. Little People. They now sell Little People with all different jobs for just $2.99 each.

31. Bath toys

32. Cups

33, Utensils

34. Balls. All different kinds for all different ages, I love these for babies 

35. Animal Planet Tubes.

Puppy Love Valentine's Party for Kids

Hosting parties with my daughter makes me so happy! She loves having her friends come over and enjoy everything we've planned with them! We like our parties to be a bit unique though, so we didn't just have a Valentine's party, we had a Puppy Love Valentine's Party! I chose this theme because when little kids have crushes it's always referred to as "puppy love" and there's so many cute puppy love ideas for a party!

This was the invitation. The Valentine dog stickers from Dollar Tree were perfect for our invites. I liked how I worded things and thought someone else might like to use the same!

First, we have the table all set up. I put a Dollar Tree Valentine table cloth on, and had a centerpiece of a clear vase with artificial pink and red roses that had sparkly hearts with them, and a Valentine balloon on a stick from the grocery store.

At each place setting I put a Valentine heart napkin, paper plate, cup, and heart straw (all found at Dollar Tree). There was also everything needed for the craft we'd be making, a puppy ear headband I made, and on each plate was a personalized collar necklace I made for each of the kids.

To make the personalized dog bone collar necklaces I drew some bones that resembled hearts at their sides on poster board with a sharpie, then I cut them out and punched two holes in the top and strung a piece of yarn through them so it would be wearable as a necklace. Then I used the sharpie to write their names on them.

Each chair had a dog balloon I made tied to it

I just pumped up balloons in a few different colors (pink, orange, yellow, and blue). Then I used cloud scissors to cut each of them a pair of ears out of construction paper in corresponding colors, and taped them on. I also used white paper to give them each a pair of eyes and taped them on the double stick way. After that I took the sharpie to give them each a nose, mouth, and eyes. 

Now, for the desserts. I made Puppy Love Brownies, and marshmallow pops. 

Puppy Love Brownies:

Ingredients:

- 1 box of brownie mix

- Betty Crocker cupcake icing

- Trader Joes Cookie Butter Cookies

- Sweethearts 

- Red Velvet M&M's

- Enjoy Life chocolate chips

- Vanilla icing

- Heart cookie cutter

Step 1:

Make the brownies according to the directions on the box. Once they are cooled carefully take the entire brownie out of the pan and put it on some wax paper. Then use the heart cookie cutter to make as many hearts as you can.

Step 2:

Use the Betty Crocker cupcake icing with the tip that just looks like a hole to give the puppy his ears. 

Step 3:

Crumble up some of the cookie butter cookies to give the puppy some spots.

Step 4: 

Put the vanilla icing into a ziploc bag and cut a small hole in it to put some dabs on the dog for his eyes, and some in between the heart to attach the tongue (the sweetheart). Once they icing is on use two of the chocolate chips pointy side down onto the icing to give them their eyes. And attach the tongue like I said. 

Step 5:

Put some of the pink icing on for the nose and attach the burgundy colored red velvet M&M to it.

Marshmallow Pops:

Ingredients:

- Jumbo marshmallows

- Pillsbury hot pink vanilla funfetti icing

- Chocolate sprinkles

- Heart skewers (can be found at Dollar Tree)

- Wax paper to set them on

Step 1:

Put a marshmallow on a skewer.

Step 2:

Ice the marshmallow.

Step 3:

Dip the iced marshmallow in the chocolate sprinkles.

I put all the different things in bowls so I could have them all out and ready to be iced and dipped! 

They need to be sat on wax paper so the icing won't stick and come off.

For the craft we made this Dog Valentine Craft. I'll just give you the link to the website it came from!

We also played Bingo for the game, I printed the bingo sheets from here 

My daughter loves playing Bingo. We used heart gems from Dollar Tree for the  markers. As you can see she looked adorable in her puppy ears headband. They were simple to make. I cut the headband part from poster board, and stapled it to fit my daughters head. Then I used different shades of brown craft foam to cut dog ear shapes from and stapled those to the headband as well.

I forgot to take a picture of the prize for winning Bingo, it was just a puppy craft thing where you colored some cardboard puppies and they had little stands you could stand them up with. You could also use a puppy stuffed animal or book for the winners prize.

As for the favors table

For each of the kids I got them a heart shaped box of Russel Stover's chocolates that had dog(s) on the front. So perfect for the theme, I was thrilled! I covered the surface with a bit of the table cloth from the table that I had cut off. Then I put out a pink puppy stuffed animal, a decoration, balloon, some plastic hearts, and a pot of artificial pink roses and hearts. There was also silver wrapped chocolate hearts laying out for them to take/for decoration.

As for the other decor, right next to the favors table I had a chair with a heart blanket on it with all our cute puppy stuffed animals on display, and a heart chalk board that said "Puppy Love"

 

She insisted her doll be there too!

We also had these adorable Valentine puppy window clings up from Dollar Tree. I bought both the cartoon and the realistic pack. I couldn't decide, both were perfect for the theme.

St. Patrick's Day Rainbow Sensory Bin

Everything needed for this bin (except the super cute shamrock care bear, we've had that for years) can be found at Dollar Tree. As for the addition of a St Patrick's day stuffed animal I'm sure you could find a Beanie Baby of something of the sort. All you need is a pack of construction paper, and some gold coins. 

Just rip up the construction paper (one piece per color of the rainbow) into squares and arrange them in a row in a sensory bin. Add in the stuffed animal or whatever you're putting in the middle of your bin, and then place some gold coins around it.

Spring Garden Bath

Spring isn't here yet, but soon enough it will be. So I'm going to share a Spring Garden themed bath with you today!

Now, for this bath I did not use the bath paint I normally make. I just used washable tempera paint to decorate the tub, it washes off so when I'm trying to paint a specific scene with detail I use that instead because it's easier to use than the shaving cream kind.

So, I used blue to paint the little bit at the top to make it look kind of like a sky, orange and red for the butterfly, bright green, yellow, pink, and purple for the flowers.

I made the water green with neon green food coloring to make it look like grass.

To the side of the tub for bath time play and to make the bath come to life I added some artificial flowers, plastic flower pots, and a couple shovels. The flowers and pots can be purchased at Dollar Tree, and the shovels came with her sandbox.

Healthy Toddler Breakfast

This is a lovely healthy breakfast idea for a one or two year old toddler. It has things from the grains group, fruit group, and calcium group. 

The grain is gluten free Arrowhead Mills Puffed Rice cereal. The fruits are organic strawberries, and organic blueberries. The calcium rich food is dairy free yogurt (trader joe's cultured coconut milk blueberry flavor).

Pin the Football Game

I made this game for my daughter to play during the football game on Superbowl Sunday a few days ago. You could use it next year for Superbowl Sunday, or for a fun game to play whenever (a sports themed party, a rainy day, etc.)

So, it was really hard to get a picture of her playing the game as she was moving so quickly. But here is her holding her football player she made, standing next to the game after she was finished!

So, I had originally planned to color the poster board to look like a football field myself, and was going to try to make it accurate but that sounded a little challenging. Luckily, my daughter decided she wanted to help me make the poster board. So I let her color the football field green any way she wanted. Perfect! She loved participating in the making of it. Then I wrote the football team's name at the end of the field just like a real end zone would be. I also drew the goalpost with a yellow crayon. Then I taped it up to the wall.

I had prepped the footballs for pinning earlier in the day. I just cut football shapes out of brown paper and then used some white paint to make them look like footballs. They dried while we did other things, and then when it came time to play the game I just put some tape on the backs so they'd stick to the poster board. (We played several times, they went on and off just fine).

You play the game just like any other traditional "pin the...." game. You can use something to cover their eyes, a scarf, a headband, and give them a spin a few feet in front of the poster board.

Best Gift Ideas for Preschoolers

I posted before Christmas with some good gift ideas for preschoolers, and you can view that here. They are good any time of the year as well of course. I made that post with ideas from some things I had picked out for Christmas, and some things my daughter had received for her birthday a few weeks before that we loved. I haven't had a chance to post some other things we got for Christmas that we loved yet, so here it is.

More Best Gift Ideas for Preschoolers


1. The Home Depot 18-Piece Deluxe Toolbox. This is a great addition to pretend play toys for any girl or boy. They can pretend to tinker and fix anything they desire.



2. Melissa & Doug Can Opener Play Set. This can be found at Toys R Us for a very low price and is a super fun play set. It's good for honing fine motor skills and it's a practical life skill. Pretend play in their kitchen set can become even more realistic with the addition of this play set.


3. Pinkalicious Pinkamazing Storybook Collection. This storybook collection includes six of the super cute Pinkalicious stories. It's handy to have them all together like this.


4. Little Live Pets Bird Cage - Friendly Frankie. These are so cute! They're great as a first step before getting a real pet, if you're looking to do that sometime soon. Your child can check on them every day and the more you pet them and the more you take care of them the more they talk and sing to you. Kids also get a kick out of the fact that they can record themselves saying things and hear them repeated back in a little bird voice.


5. Step 2 Puppet Theater. We love love this! It has a light that shines on the stage, a dry erase board front and marker to write the name of the puppet show which encourages early literacy skills. It also has a space in the back to store a few puppets.


6. Don't Break The Ice. This game is a classic and my daughter thinks it's so much fun! I'm sure most other kids would too.


7. Melissa & Doug Color By Dots. This is great for early preschool and for kids who aren't ready to color by numbers yet. It's also a great activity for them to do for quiet time.


8. LeapPad Ultra is the tablet I chose to get for my daughter. I think it's a great tablet and that it will last her a long while. It has both front facing and outward facing cameras. There's also a ton of apps and games available to go with it. My favorite apps/games are:
- Get Ready for Kindergarten: Rocks and Roly Polies
- Octonauts Learning Game
- Little Pim: French Volumes 1, 2, and 3
- Photo Fracture
- The Human Body: Captain Plasma's Adventure
- Disney Minnie's Bow-tique: Super Surprise Party
- LeapFrog Learning Game Letter Factory Adventures: The Rainforest
- LeapSchool: In the Kitchen with Hap
- International Food Fair


9. Sofia the First Wooden Stamp & Activity. My daughter loves Sofia and preschoolers in general love stickers and things of this nature, so this delighted her. It's great because it comes with various stampers and two colors of ink pads. There's also the little book to put stickers in and use the stampers with.


10. Fancy Nancy Storybook Treasury. Fancy Nancy books are so great and expand vocabulary in a very fun way. The price of this set is unbeatable.


11. Sofia the First Once Upon a Princess Read-Along Storybook and CD. Again with the Sofia! This book is so great because it's a long a great story. It's my daughters first story that is also on CD. I was glad to hear that the CD features voices from all the different characters in the story, sounds when they need to turn the page, and sound effects as well.


12. Hungry Hungry Hippos. My daughter thought this game was hilarious and it made for great family bonding time. She delights in playing this and family game nights are fun for all of us when we find a game we can all enjoy together like this. This one definitely makes for plenty of laughs and is a childhood favorite.


13. Melissa & Doug Harmonica. I'm trying to inspire my daughter to have a love of music and this beginners instrument is a great one to spark that. She found it in her stocking and loves it! She is already playing it well and dancing along with it.


14. Calico Critters Baby Love & Care Set. My daughter loves babies and when she got this she knew she would get to set up a nursery in her Calico Critters house. This play set has everything needed to set up an adorable nursery and take care of some babies in the house.


15. Melissa & Doug Slice and Bake Christmas Cookie Play Set. This toy was perfect for Christmas time and would get any child in the spirit. It's a great toy for pretend play. My daughter got out her baby dolls and had them each pick a icing topper to decorate their cookies with just like at her cookie decorating party we had. They are all velcro pieces and can be sliced apart during pretend play and put together in all kinds of different ways, just like the birthday cake set and pancake set.


16. Eeboo Simple Words Puzzle Pairs. These are great for early readers and can help them learn sight words easier.


17. Discovery Kids Extreme Weather Tornado Lab. This is a great learning tool for a weather unit in preschool and above. It looks so fun and is interactive, the child can press a button and hear tornado noises again and again. There is also an educational DVD about tornadoes and hurricanes included.


18. Frozen Elsa of Arendelle Doll. This doll is enchanting and any little girl or boy who loves Frozen would certainly appreciate it. My daughter has been off of Frozen for a while, but she absolutely loved this doll and wanted to bring it to the park with her.


19. Sofia the First Talking Clover. If your child loves Clover this will surely be a hit. Santa left this gift unwrapped among all the wrapped presents and my daughter ran right up and hugged it. It is super soft and says a few cute phrases when you hug him.


20. Calico Critters Burger Cafe Play Set. This is an adorable play set to add to a Calico Critters collection. If your Calico Critters have a house and need someplace else to go for a change, this is sure to be fun. They can put together burgers and pretend to order as costumers or serve as workers.


21. Water Bird Whistles. These are so cute! You fill them up with water and blow into them and it sounds just like a bird whistling.


22. Cra-Z-Art Crayons 24 pack. I usually wouldn't put something as simple as crayons on a list like this, but my daughter got these specific ones for her birthday and I really liked the colors that were in this pack. There was a lot of interesting ones and they're nice to add to your regular collection of crayons.


23. Disney Villain Classics Ursula Doll. Need I say more?


24. Dessert Bullet. I got this for Christmas, but I really asked for it for my daughter as well as myself of course. She's been loving making healthy ice cream in it with me. It's great for bonding in the kitchen and I'm glad we're finding even more ways to eat healthy fruits. Homemade, dairy free is the best ice cream there ever could be. We love this thing! It provides good opportunities to talk about ingredients and step by step processes with children when doing it together.


25. LeapTV Dance & Learn Educational, Active Video Game. You need a LeapTV to play this game, and if you do you should definitely get this game for it. It's so much fun for the whole family and when you have a play date or party for the kids it's sure to be a hit with them as well. Not to mention the literacy skills of your child will be growing while they are being active!


26. Doodle Bear - Glow Doodle. I got this for my daughter for Valentine's day, so I can't tell you how much she loves it yet, but I really am thinking that she will. This specific one also has a marker that the kids can doodle with and then turn out the light and see it glow where they doodled.