What you will need:

• Printer
• Card stock
• Scissors
• Pen
• Glue
• Happy heart

Instructions: 

1. Download these JPG files (click on picture and save to your computer):

Page 1:

Page 2:

2. Print on 8.5×11 card stock or upload files to a photo center like Snapfish.com or Costco.com and order prints (will have to crop to 8×10).

3. On Page 2, the coupon tops page, cut out the coupons following the outside dotted lines.

4. Fold blue flap down.

5. Glue blue flap down onto iDad Coupon Card on corresponding coupon (ie. Heart coupon top goes with ‘Free Hug’ coupon, etc.).

6. Watch your dad’s heart melt when he see’s his iDad Coupon Card!

For The Tech Dad

1. Swann Customizable Wireless Music Doorbell with Built-In 90MB Memory  ($40 from Amazon)

Your dad can program 25 of his own theme songs to play whenever someone rings your doorbell. This could be really cool or really embarrassing.

For The Adventurous Dad

2. Liquid Image Underwater Video Camera Mask  ($73.99 Amazon)

Your dad will look cool wearing this video camera embedded into a snorkel mask for easy “Hands Free” photography while he is swimming and snorkeling to 15ft/5m deep.

For The Kid-at-Heart Dad

3. Djubi – the Coolest New Twist on the Game of Catch ($24.95 Amazon)

 You will never get your dad inside once he starts playing this game. Hook it, launch it and catch it! Combining sling shot, ball and net, Djubi (pronounced joo-bee) takes the old game of catch to a fun new level.

For The Green Dad

4. Comic Book Plantable Paper – The Gardener ($9.30 Amazon)

Inside the comic-book jacket are two sheets of plantable paper filled with herb or wildflower seeds ready to sow. Now your cool dad can catch up on his comic book reading while giving back to the earth. It’s a win win.

For The King of the Grill Dad

5. Kansas City Barbecue Sauce KC Combo Pack, Deluxe Gourmet Box Set ($72.00 Amazon)

Is your dad King of the Grill yet? If not, he will be after he uses some of these tastiest BBQ sauces from Kansas City.

For The Beer Lover Dad

6. Susquehanna Glass Moustaches Grand Pilsner Glass, 20-Ounce, Set of 4 ($29.99 Amazon)

What better way to hide your Dad’s beer mustache then with a beer glass mustache! He’ll love these quirky glasses while he sips his brew.

 For The Giving Dad

7. Make it easy for your dad to give back. Set up a folder on his computer or iPad with these charitable links in them. With a few clicks, he will be helping. (FREE!)

FreeRice.com: When your dad has some free time have him play the vocabulary game at Free Rice and donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme for each correct answer. It’s free because it is funded by sponsors who advertise on the site.

Care2.com: With one click per day through Care2 your dad can help fund organizations like Children International which uses advertiser money to fund different causes.

 For The Rocker Dad

8. Memorex SingStand Home Karaoke System ($33.99 Amazon)

Now your cool, rocker dad can really embarrass you while he rocks out! This karaoke system has powerful speakers built into the base. It can connect a keyboard to play with the band and has one dynamic microphone included.

1. I love you because you called me Becca instead of mommy when you first started to talk…but I am glad you eventually did call me mom.
2. I love you because you have one of the sweetest hearts (and smiles) that I know.
3. I love that you will see movies with me.
4. I love that you are so dedicated, focused and talented in soccer.
5. I love you because you aren’t afraid to ask me questions, no matter how hard or embarrassing they are.
6. I love you because although you can be serious, you know how to turn on the sarcasm and one-liners and crack me up.
7. I love how you can memorize any song or rap within minutes.
8. I love you because you make me stick to our traditions…Sunday night dinner, Christmas family video, etc.
9. I love that you are so dialed into music and keep me “cool” by  always introducing new artists to me. If this soccer thing doesn’t work out you would be a great DJ!
10. Most of all, I love you because you picked me to be your mom.

Happy 14th birthday, P. I love you more than words can say and I’m so proud of the young man you are becoming!

xoxo, Mom (Becca to you)

Happy graduation! Better start remodeling the basement.

What you will need:

• Cookie sheet (new–Wilton Recipe Right Medium Cookie Pan– or used, but make sure it is clean)
• Spray paint primer (Krylon All-Purpose White Interior and Exterior Decorator Primer )
• Chalkboard paint (make your own by following this recipe from Crystelle Boutique)
• Paint or sponge brush (Sponge Brushes)
• Chalk and an eraser (Melissa & Doug Eraser and Chalk Bundle)
• Magnets (Officemate Magnets)

Instructions:

1. I wanted red chalkboard paint and couldn’t find it in any stores, so I turned to trusty Pinterest and found an easy recipe. You can make your own chalkboard paint too by following Crystelle Boutique’s directions {here}.

2. Spray an even coat of primer onto the cookie sheet. Let dry.

3. Paint your cookie sheet with your chalkboard paint. Let dry and paint another coat.

4. After your chalkboard is dry, scribble all over it then erase your scribbles to break it in.

5. Now you have a cool chalk and magnetic board all in one!

If you don’t have time to make your own, then check these out:

Wallies Peel and Stick Chalkboard Sheet, Slate Gray, Set of 4

Quartet Modular Frameless Stainless Steel Finish Magnetic Dry-Erase Board

Chalkboard Memo Board Tin Set

What you will need:

• Printer
• Card stock
• A smile

Instructions:

1. Download these PDF files (DIY Printable Graduation Card ‘OMG’) or (DIY Printable Graduation Card ‘Be Awesome’).

2. Print on 8.5 x 11 card stock.

3. Fold in half and write a special note on the inside.

4. Give to your graduation on their big day and watch their eyes pop out when they see the money you put into their card.

If you just want a 5×7 ‘OMG’ or ‘Be Awesome’ graphic (JPG file) to make your own print, card, t-shirt, poster, sticker, etc…then here you go! Just click on the pictures below and save to your computer.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, my mom-in-law and too all the moms throughout the land…including me! Have you hugged a mom today? Do it!!!

Looks like this Mother’s Day I’ll be doing some shopping. Thank you, family!

What you will need:

• Bottled hand soap (I used: Softsoap Coconut & Warm Ginger. Make sure it is a clear bottle with a flat back and label that can be taken off.)
• Goo Gone (8 Oz Goo Gone )
• A photo or laser printout of your child that fits the back of the bottle (I measured what size would fit and pulled a picture into my desktop publishing program to size the photo and add text. I then printed the photos on my laser printer and cut them out.)
• Mod Podge (Mod Podge Starter Pack–I ran out so I made my own–just water down some glue.)
• Sponge brush or paint brush
• Scissors to cut out your picture
• For the bookmarks: Card stock, scissors, ribbon, laminating
• For the finished gift: Finished soap bottle, bookmark, small tin pail (Silver Mini Tin Pail Favors), ribbon

Instructions:

1. Take off the front and back label of your soap bottle. Use Goo Gone to get the sticky residue off. Wash your bottle with warm soapy water and dry.

2. Water down some glue or use Mod Podge to decoupage your picture onto the back of the soap bottle.

3. On the back of your bottle, paint on your glue mixture or Mod Podge where your photo will be.

4. Place your photo on the painted area facing down, back side up. Smooth out wrinkles or bubbles carefully.

5. Decoupage over the back of the photo. Don’t use too much glue mixture.

6. Do several coats. Let dry between coats.

7. While I was at it I also made some quick, easy book marks with a message thanking each teacher.

8. I laminated the bookmarks and then tied a ribbon on the ends. I found some cute tin buckets at Target in the $1 aisle to put everything in.

9. The gifts are done and I think adorable. I hope the teachers like them as much as I do!

If Moms Were Running the World…

1. They would make sure the end of the world did not happen right before the holiday season. How inconvenient, especially when you know you will have returns and exchanges to make. You know it wasn’t a Mayan mom who thought that one up.

2. They would redesign the Costco milk jug so it would pour into a glass not a glass, the floor, the counter and your shoes.

3. There would be a contingency clause with all vacation plans that if a mom foresees her period coming, she is allowed to reschedule the trip and not be penalized.

4. Road construction companies would run their plans by moms to make sure they understand our traffic patterns before tearing up every highway and interchange at once.

5. Fathers would be able to breastfeed.

6. Chocolate would be added to the top of the food pyramid.

7. They would create a dripless travel mug that would actually not drip coffee down the fronts of shirts while moms are frantically driving their kids to school before the late bell rings.

8. They would put adjustable waist tabs in mom jeans. Cinch them in tighter so moms aren’t flashing crack while bending over or loosen them up after they ate a whole box of Girl Scout cookies. Really, who can have just have one?

9. Zumba would become an olympic sport.

10. There would be world peace, no more hunger and 1/2 off sales every Friday at all stores.

But let’s be honest, if moms alone were running the world there would be a catty feud between Australia and Russia over whose national anthem is better. England and Mexico would be spreading rumors about America’s weight gain and China would be trying to steal Korea’s boyfriend.

Happy early Mother’s Day! Now go rule your world!!

Embrace your weird, quirky side while maintaining a high fiber diet.

PRESCHOOL, KINDERGARTEN & 1ST GRADE

1. Hula Hoop Basketball

What you will need:

• 4 hula hoops
• Tape
• Basketball

Directions: Have children take turns making baskets into the hula hoops starting from lowest to highest. Originally from MamaSmiles.com {here}.

2. Bubble Contest

What you will need:

• Bubble solution
• Bubble-blowing tools: drinking straws, funnels, bubble wand, wire loops, and so on
• Marble or other small toy

Directions: Give each contestant a supply of bubble solution and some bubble-blowing tools. Wet the tabletop with bubble solution and have the kids get blowing.

• Who can blow the biggest bubble?
• Who can create the biggest pile of bubbles in thirty seconds?
• Whose bubble lasts the longest?
• Whose bubble is the prettiest?
• Who can blow a bubble within a bubble?
• Who can get a marble or other small toy inside a bubble?

Originally from FamilyEducation.com {here}.

3. Giant Marbles

What you will need:

• Many different sized sport balls
• Rope or hula hoop

Directions: Collect as many different sized sports balls as you can find, then make a circle in the yard with rope or a hula-hoop. Place the balls in the circle and spread them out a little. Standing about 10 feet away, players will use one ball as the “shooter” and will take turns rolling the ball to try to knock as many balls out of the ring as they can without the player’s ball going out of the ring. If a player knocks any balls out of the ring, they get to keep them and roll again. The game ends when all the ball have been knocked out of the circle, and the player with the most balls collected wins. Originally from SheSpeaks.com {here}.

4. Elbow Tag

What you will need:

• Just the kids!

Directions: Divide children into pairs leaving one child who is “It” and one child who will be the first to be chased. Have each group of partners link elbows– and all of the pairs form a large circle, allowing 10 feet of space between each pair. ”It” runs after the other “not joined by the elbow” child inside the circle—-as in a traditional game of tag. If the child being chased needs a break–he or she can run to a pair of children and link elbows with one of them. The child in the pair who WAS NOT linked by the chased child –is now “It’s” new target and must break away quickly to avoid being tagged by “It.” Originally from KidActivities.net {here}.

2ND, 3RD & 4TH GRADES

5. Oversized Paper Airplane Contest

What you will need:

• Large paper (Crayola Giant Marker and Water Color Pad) and/or some lightweight poster-board
• Tape

Directions: Have the children make their airplanes in a traditional dart design. With the larger plane size, you may have to do some tweaking and adjustments like taping the nose so that the wings stay closer together, or folding the wings so that they slope upward. Designate a starting line and then one by one have each child take a turn to see whose plane can go the furthest. Originally from AllForTheBoys.com {here}.

6. Water Pipe

What you will need:

• Kiddie pool or large cooler
• 2 buckets or pails
• Plastic cups for each child

Directions: The kids have a chance of getting wet in this fun outdoor water game. Teams race to fill their bucket of water before the other team does! To PLAY: Divide players into two teams, and provide each player a plastic cup. On one side of the yard or playing area you will need to have a large container of water such as a kiddie pool or large cooler full. On the other side of the yard you will need to set up two identical buckets or pails. The teams create a line from the large container of water to their bucket. On the start of go the child closest to the starting container of water fills his or her cups and go and pours it into the next person’s cup as fast as possible. That person pours it into the next person’s cup, and so on until the water reaches the last player who pours it into the teams bucket. This assembly line style race continues until one team fills up their bucket to claim victory. Originally from Queen-of-theme-party-games.com {here}.

7. Outdoor Angry Birds

What you will need:

• Various size boxes
• Something to resemble the pigs — it can be bowls, buckets, stuffed animals or balloons.
• Balls of various sizes

Directions: Stack the boxes in different formations and place the buckets/stuff animals/balloons at different levels to represent the pigs. Draw a line where the player has to stand to represent the sling shot. Each player takes a turn throwing a ball (angry bird) at the boxes to try to knock down the “pigs” (buckets/stuffed animals/balloons). Keep rebuilding and playing until everyone has had a turn. Originally from Al.com {here}.

8. Balloon Badmitten

What you will need:

• Balloons
• Paper Plates
• Craft sticks
• Tape

Directions: Make paddles by simply taping craft sticks to the back of paper plates. Children partner up and use the paper plate ‘paddles’ to hit a balloon back and forth to each other. Originally from KidActivities.net {here}.

5TH & 6TH GRADES

9. Outdoor Twister Game

What you will need:

• A pizza box-or other piece of cardboard.
• Craft Knife
• Large Mixing bowl-or something else that is round
• Pen
• Red, blue, yellow and white spray paint
• 1 piece of paper
• scissors
• 2 jars or bowls

Directions: 

For the board: Trace a circle (mixing bowl) on a lid of a pizza box or some other piece of cardboard. Use your craft knife/box cutter to cut it out. Throw the circle away-now you are left with your circle stencil.When you make your board-you need 4 columns. One column in each color. You need to have 6 circles of each color. Using your stencil, spray paint your circles.

For the calling slips: Make slips of paper that say: Head, Right Foot, Right Hand, Left Foot, Left hand and put into a jar or bowl. Make color slips that say – Red, Blue, Yellow and White and put into a jar or bowl.

To play: The caller person will pull out one slip from each jar to tell the players where to go (ie. Left Hand, Red Circle). Any player who falls, or touches the mat with an elbow or knee, is immediately out of the game. Last player standing wins. Go {here} for full Twister game instructions.

Note: Your twister board will grow out in about 1 to 2 weeks. The paint will NOT hurt your grass. Repeat-the paint will not hurt your grass. Originally from SassyStyleReDesign.com {here}.

10. Bike Photo Safari 

What you will need:

• Bikes and bike helmets
• Digital cameras or camera on phone (one per team)

Directions: This party is a picture hunt on bicycles.

Each team of two or three kids gets a safari clues list and a digital camera. The team must use the clue list and photograph the location or item they believe is correct within a determined time limit. When everyone returns, someone reviews the photos on each team’s camera to see how many clues they fulfilled. Photographs of correct locations or items will be judged for artistic quality as well as accuracy. Award prizes in many different categories: most artistic, picture furthest off the clue list, most locations correct, etc. Parents and kids can work together to make a slide show of their digital photos from the adventure, or kids can make an album or scrapbook of the printed images. The party continues with lunch or dinner to celebrate everyone’s creativity in the safari.

Note: Make sure everyone participating wears a bike helmet and understands bicycle safety rules. Originally from FamilyEducation.com {here}.

11. DIY Obstacle Course

Directions: Obstacle courses are always a big hit. It is not as complicated to build your own backyard obstacle course as many imagine. An obstacle course is simply a series of fun task, challenges, or mini games that the children try to rush through as fast as they can. They are usually set up so that as soon as you finish one task you move directly to the next until you reach the finish line. You’ll need to come up with some creative obstacles for the kids, you can get as simple or as complicated as you want with these course ideas. You can use objects that you already have around your house for many obstacles. Here are some examples:

• Set up old tires on their side for them to crawl through, or lay them on the ground for the kids to run through.
• Hang a hula hoop from a tree and the kids must throw a football through it before they can move on.
• Have a pile of balloons ready, the children must pop one by sitting on it to move on.
• Set up a table and hang streamers, balloons, even pool noodles from underneath. The children must crawl under it to get to the other side.
• Lay out a 2×4 piece of plywood on the ground. Have the children walk across it without touching the ground, for older children they must walk across it backwards.
• Have the kids crab-walk from one section to another.
• Have the kids jump in a potato sack from one section of the course to another.

Originally from Queen-of-theme-party-games.com {here}.

12. River Ball

What you will need:

• Ball
• Open space

Directions: Divide children into two teams. One team is at one end of the court, the other team is at the other end. The middle third of the court is the river. One person from the team throws the ball and the other team has to catch it. If they catch it you continue with the game. If they drop it, then the person who dropped it or is the closest to the ball is out. The only way the person can get back in is if one of their team members catch the ball or one member of the other team drops the ball. If the ball goes in the river you are out. Originally from KidSpot.com.au {here}.

What you will need:

• Printer
• Word, Pages or desktop publishing/photo computer program
• Photo paper or cardstock
• a Smile

Instructions:

1. Download these 8×10 JPEG files (click on image and save to your hard drive):

2. Upload file to a photo center like Snapfish.com or Costco.com and order prints.

OR

3. Insert JPEG file into a Word or Pages document then print on photo paper or card stock and cut out.

4. Put them in frames and hang on your wall. Enjoy!

That laundry. So thoughtful. Cough, cough, sniff.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I gave birth to a charmer. Yes, he’s cute, sweet and funny, but he also has that extra something that all charmers have–that slightly devious ability to wrap people around their fingers. Some might say he got this quality from my hubby. Some might say he got it from me, but wherever he got it from, he’s making good use of it.