Things to Make - Sticker Scenes and Other Easy Crafts

I like doing arts and crafts with my children, hopefully you all know this by now. But some days I also like NOT doing arts and crafts with my children. And on these days, I find Oriental Trading Company's sticker scenes quite handy. The scenes usually come with a blank background page and a huge sticker set. My kids can spend hours decorating the backgrounds with the included stickers. Okay, so it's not necessarily the world's most creative activity, but the stickers makes for a great after school project when my kids need some downtime (sticker scenes also work well on playdates when kids become bored or fussy). And a special thanks to Tracie for letting me know about Oriental Trading (do they deliver to Hawaii?).



Oriental Trading Company also sells various other "easy" crafts for really cheap prices (though you have to buy in bulk, we use the extras for playdates or sometimes my kids do the same craft multiple times). For fall, their selection includes "scratch off" leaves, jeweled leaves, various stickers, and lots of other stuff. Oriental Trading Company isn't offering me any perks for giving them props (though I wish they would), I'm just a fan.



After creating with stickers for awhile the girls usually end up drawing their own pictures. Sort of cool how that works.

Things to Do - Eastering Round II

As I mentioned last week (click here for the post), Easter has become quite a big deal around here. For Easter Sunday we had my husband's family over for brunch. I made baked granola (so yummy) using this recipe and tomato-onion-cheese-bacon strata using this Weight Watchers recipe. I love brunch, there's something so decadent yet wonderful about eating a big meal early in the day.

We also had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. I'm sick of all the candy, so I (oops, I mean the Easter Bunny) bought eggs filled with silly putty and small toys from Oriental Trading Company, which the kids loved. F even said "these are way more fun than candy eggs." My sister-in-law brought over an egg dye kit and I must say it felt wonderful to watch my children do a craft project without having to do it with them (thank you, A!). And, of course, all three kids woke up to chocolate bunnies and wonderful forest friends courtesy of the Easter Bunny (bought from Hazel Village ). I often plan on paying a little extra and buying hand-made toys for the kids, but then they want something plastic and it's so cheap I just cave. Anyways, this year I splurged and it was well worth it, the dolls are beautifully made, aesthetically gorgeous and the kids all love them. I hope all of you had a great weekend!!

MONDAY LINKS:

*These children's jackets are adorable. I sort of want one for me.

*50 Ways to Explore Nature In Your Own Backyard

*Wow.

*Cross-writing, sort of a cool idea.

*Books that Changed the Way We Think About the Earth - a great list.

*This home is just dreamy. I want it. I really do.

*I've been following Olivia Bee for a long time now through flickr and now she has a blog and she really is just great at what she does.


(I bought myself new shoes, the left foot seems happy enough but the right foot is a little confused. And I bought T an adorably cute Easter outfit, so I'm not quite sure how he ended up shirtless all day, but so it goes.)