KIDS – Page 4 – the MAD creative

PLANNING a BLUE SPARKLY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Post author:Ashley
Post published:October 20, 2015
Post category:DESIGN KIDS LOVE PLAY
Post comments:1 Comment

Mya turns 3 in less than a month and she definitely has more opinions in the party planning than the past two birthdays. Whenever I drop her off at preschool, she usually has a request, such as “Please get me chocolate milk and applesauce at the store.” But recently, the requests have been centered around her blue sparkly birthday party theme: “I think I need a blue sparkly bow for my party” or “I want all my friends to dance with me” or “We’re going to paint at my party… but don’t worry, we won’t make a mess” or “Everyone will wear blue!” So yeah. She definitely has inputed some ideas and I love how she’s so into it. I’m also pumped as to the ease of planning a one color themed party!

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PONY BEAD SUN CATCHERS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:September 27, 2015
Post category:KIDS PLAY PROJECTS
Post comments:4 Comments

With little effort, these turned out pretty cool. I won’t lie, though: They sat on our counter for a good month before I finally sanded them down and drilled a hole in each. But hey, they’re done now and oh so colorful. They’re similar to the perler bead bowls that we did earlier this year, except they’re semi-transparent which makes for some great sun catchers!

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MYA’S ROOM

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 20, 2015
Post category:DESIGN HOME KIDS PLAY
Post comments:2 Comments

Welcome to Mya’s room. As she is growing up way too fast and her room will also be ever-changing, it’s fun to document her little space. It’s difficult for me to pinpoint a specific “theme” for the room, except that it’s filled with color and feel-good things. Many items are from my childhood and we were able to save a lot of money on furniture. Her crib is from Ikea and the white cabinet/ shelving unit was given to us. Every picture, blanket, and stuffed animal is meaningful to us and probably won’t be to you; but we hope you enjoy the tour nonetheless!

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SHELVING FOR KIDS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 15, 2015
Post category:DESIGN KIDS
Post comments:2 Comments

One of my favorite things to find are inspiring kid rooms. Probably because they’re whimsical, colorful, and anything goes. Since my Kid Decor Pinterest board is getting out of control, I thought I’d narrow down some cool kid shelving solutions. Besides the abundant naked dolls on #4, these creative takes on storage are totally winners.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

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ABC TOOLS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 11, 2015
Post category:KIDS LEARN
Post comments:0 Comments

Mya’s current go-to song to sing by herself is the ABCs. And if you try to sing along with her, you’ll get “Stop. I sing it myself.” And her favorite letter is “H.” I don’t know why. But up until the point of her very adamant alphabet independence, we used some fun learning tools to get the ball rolling. There are countless other alphabet toys than the ones we use, but these work for us… or I just think they’re cool.

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BUNNY BOOKS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:March 18, 2015
Post category:KIDS
Post comments:1 Comment

Mya and I love going to storytime at the library or a local toy store every week. Sometimes she gets overwhelmed by the library class sizes, so the toy store has been a…

“TAG ME”

Post author:Ashley
Post published:March 13, 2015
Post category:KIDS LEARN LOVE PROJECTS
Post comments:1 Comment

Today marks five years for us as a husband and wife team (8 years as an item). I can’t believe how lucky I am to have met the man they call Derek. And what better way to commemorate this than a pet tag! Ohmygoodness, as I typed that last sentence, I realize how lame it sounds. But if I say Mya helped make it, then he’ll cherish it forever, right?

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GLOW JAR

Post author:Ashley
Post published:February 23, 2015
Post category:KIDS PLAY
Post comments:1 Comment

This is by far the easiest little activity you will ever do in your life. Mya loves a good glow stick dance party, so we added a few more ingredients to make a glow jar.

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CREATE ART FROM PHONE PHOTOS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:February 20, 2015
Post category:DESIGN KIDS LEARN
Post comments:0 Comments

After living in our home for almost four years, I’m finally getting our master bedroom put together. It’s not complete (not that I ever will think it will be!), but one of the items on the to-do list was printing and framing some pictures. After browsing through old phone pics, printing at Costco, and some at-home framing tactics, it turned out pretty shnazy. Here’s how we did it!

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HEART DAY HIGHLIGHTS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:February 15, 2015
Post category:KIDS LOVE PLAY
Post comments:1 Comment

Everyone familiar with the movie “Tangled” (ie Rapunzel)? Ok, good. Well, when Mya woke up to her “heart attack” on Valentines’ Day, she claimed the “mean lady” came into her room and put the hearts there. Because in “Tangled”, the “mean lady” steals baby Rupunzel from her MamaDada when everyone is sleeping. So yeah, I don’t think the toothfairy’s going to go over very well.

The original plan was to have a bunch of “blue lizards”– currently some of Mya’s imaginary friends, along with a lion that has stinky armpits. But as it turned out, cutting irregular shapes out of thick poster board isn’t a walk in the park! So we cut out some hearts, slapped some painters’ tape to the back and underwent super stealth mode to place them in her room Friday night. (more…)

LITTLE LOVE BOOKS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:February 12, 2015
Post category:KIDS LOVE
Post comments:0 Comments

I can't say I'm much of a reader otherwise, but I love kid books. Bonus points go to rhyming and beautiful illustrations. Here are some of my favorite lovey dovey books…

SALAD SPINNER PAINTINGS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:February 5, 2015
Post category:KIDS PLAY
Post comments:0 Comments

Am I the only one that wants it to snow a boatload? I just want to get out and play in some snow! But I digress… “Salad spinner paintings” are exactly what you think. We put paint in a salad spinner and let it do its magic. Yup, we’re getting pretty ~~desperate~~ creative over here. Some of it turned into finger painting, but still fun!

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