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My son and I discovered by accident what wonderful shakers/ noise makers those little packages of scrapbooking embellishments make. The little metal pieces, especially brads and eyelets, make different noises depending on the size and shape, and little hands love […]
Filed under: Tutorials, Crafts, Family Fun, Kid Stuff | 3 Comments »
Christmas is coming up quick, and I don’t know about you, but I have no idea what I’m going to get my husband and son. Especially my son. I would never have thought that buying a few Christmas gifts for an 18 month old would be that hard, but… I just don’t know!
One thing I […]
Filed under: Reviews, Family Fun, Shopping | 7 Comments »
Coloring is always fun, even for my 18-month old. I printed off our Halloween coloring page from this website, and there are lots of other great websites out there that offer coloring pages for all holidays and events. Here are two others I found:
Coloring.ws
ColoringPages.net
The important thing with all these kid’s craft and game ideas is […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Kid Stuff | 12 Comments »
Boyd, Joel, my sister, and I went to the Fall Festival in Mona, Utah last weekend and had a really great time. I wasn’t thinking we would stay that long because I didn’t think there would be too much for Joel to do, but I was pleasantly surprised and we stayed almost the whole time […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 2 Comments »
I have been sick sick sick for the last week and my creativity is about as clogged as my nose. So I’ve found some really great things other people have done for Halloween and want to share their ideas with you.
Plastic bag ghost from Etcetera Jeri
Halloween ornaments, decorated candles, and more from Mommies Magazine
Egg cup […]
Filed under: Crafts, Family Fun, Kid Stuff | 4 Comments »
I found some great ideas for Halloween games on this About.com page and thought I’d share them with you! Halloween is not until Friday, so you still have plenty of nights to play these games with your family. We haven’t had a chance to do them yet, but they’re on the agenda for this week. […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Kid Stuff, Celebrations, Routines, & Traditions | No Comments »
We have a monthly family party to celebrate all the birthdays that month. They’re always great fun with lots of good food and games. For our October/Halloween party, we played some old fashioned games that were really fun.
The first gave was bobbing for apples, which is an old standard. If you haven’t done that in […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Kid Stuff, Celebrations, Routines, & Traditions | 7 Comments »
Our family party this month was a ride on the Sundance ski lift up Provo Canyon in Utah. It was a beautiful drive, and riding up and up and up on the ski lift gave us an amazing view of the surrounding valleys and mountains.
If you live anywhere near Utah County, this is a […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 14 Comments »
I spent last weekend with a bunch of 12-18 year old kids for a church activity that we call Youth Conference. The theme was “Mission: Possible” and we spent two days giving the kids opportunities to serve other people.
My group took a tour of Catholic Community Services, an organization that provides treatment and […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 8 Comments »
Kids are very aware and affected by the emotions of others. I recently heard about a study that showed that very young children can sense the differences in the emotional tone of a situation. I’m no scientist, and I see this everyday in my son. When I laugh, he laughs; when I’m […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Kid Stuff | 1 Comment »
Guided Play: Obstacle Course, Find the Ball, Give & Take
Today’s guided play activity was pouring. This game is great for babies 9 months to toddler/preschool age because it helps kids practice some fine motor skills that are important for development. And babies/toddlers like to put things in, take them out, and make […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Kid Stuff | 1 Comment »
I have started doing “guided play” with Joel for a few minutes after lunch each day. Play is a very important part of learning and cognitive development for babies, and I want him to be learning all the things his brain is ready to learn at this stage. So I’m going to start […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Kid Stuff | 1 Comment »
If you haven’t been on a swing set in a while, take your kids to the park and hop on a swing. Doing things you used to do as a kid is a very happy thing. I think 5 minutes on a swing every day would help me be a better mother with more […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Health | 1 Comment »
Paper is one of the best toys for babies 9-18 months and even older. You have to make sure they don’t eat it, but little kids love to tear paper! When we are in the car and Joel is miserable, all I have to do is give him a piece of paper, and […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Family Life | No Comments »
We LOVE dessert at our house. We pretty much have dessert every night - is that weird? I don’t think it’s normal. My family had dessert every night growing up - usually M&Ms (counted out so each person got exactly the same number. This is what you have to do with […]
Filed under: Food, Family Fun | 1 Comment »
Isn’t bath time supposed to be fun? It used to be. Around the time that Joel turned 1 he started to hate bath time. I couldn’t figure it out! He never really did like to get his hair washed, but being in the water didn’t bother him until one day […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Family Life | 3 Comments »
Last weekend we went rock hunting (or hounding) with my husband’s family. I had never heard of rock hunting either, so you’re not alone in your wonderment. Rock hunting is…well, hunting for rocks - every kid’s dream!
We trekked over to the west side of Utah lake to find shell fossils first. The […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 2 Comments »
Hello everyone. This is Boyd, Kelsey’s husband and this is my 2nd attempt at writing a post on Vanillajoy.com. Just thought you should know it was me and not Kelsey.
Every parent should learn how to do one thing—kids face painting. Why? Because it is the only activity that every single kid enjoys (if […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 1 Comment »
A happy memory from my childhood is going on birthday outings with my Grandma. She would take me to lunch at a restaurant of my choice and then shopping to pick out a birthday gift. The birthday I remember best I chose to eat at RAX (which I haven’t seen in years - […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Celebrations, Routines, & Traditions | No Comments »
So I went to the Little Bee Craft Boutique and had a great time walking around and browsing through tons of booths with cute and creative stuff. The vendors were all very friendly and it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.
I like to go to these things to see what people […]
Filed under: Crafts, Family Fun, Shopping | 3 Comments »
Here’s a great April fools’ trick from marthastewart.com. Tie a rubber band around the kitchen sprayer to give your kids and husband a surprise shower when they turn on the faucet! APRIL FOOLS!!!
Here’s another good one…color milk with food coloring. Yum-yum! One time we asked my Grandma to make green macaroni […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Celebrations, Routines, & Traditions | 1 Comment »
At my book club last week, conversation rolled around to Disney movies. One of the girls there said that Disney has a lifetime guarantee on all their movies, so if one of your Disney DVDs gets scratched or broken you can mail it in and they’ll send you a brand new one, even if […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Education, Media, & Literacy | 4 Comments »
We have a family get together each month to celebrate any birthdays in that month. We usually eat lunch or dinner together and then have some sort of activity. My husband and I were in charge of the March party, and we decided we wanted to talk about how we met our spouses, […]
Filed under: Family Fun, Celebrations, Routines, & Traditions | 1 Comment »
If you don’t know how to play Sudoku, it’s time to learn. It really is a fun way to pass the time while waiting for kids or any other time. Here’s a quick run down:
The object of the game is to get numbers 1-9 just once in each of the 9 mini squares and […]
Filed under: Family Fun | No Comments »
Isn’t Sudoku addicting? I guess I do have a bit of a compulsive nature about me… anyway, I just recently went through a series Sudoku phase playing every night before bed, while waiting in the car, and even during my work as a transcriber for the deaf (not while I was transcribing, of course)!
So […]
Filed under: Family Fun | No Comments »
I learned a valuable lesson while at Disneyland in December. Our son was not very happy and was crying more than normal, I think because of all the newness and not being able to crawl around on the ground and play like he’s used to. My husband and I were grumpy because our […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 1 Comment »
If you’re at Disneyland with children too young to go on the rides, take advantage of the “switch pass.” You can wait in line with your whole party and they’ll give you a switch pass which allows half of your party to go on the ride and the other half to go in the […]
Filed under: Family Fun | No Comments »
Like I said yesterday, we went to Disneyland last week and I was surprised at how many people were there in December. I wouldn’t say December is a bad time to go, but November might be better. It was more crowded and colder than I expected.
Anyway, we were there over a Thursday and […]
Filed under: Family Fun | No Comments »
We went to Disneyland earlier this month and I have some advice for families with young children: WAIT! Disneyland really is a magical place but we had a hard time enjoying it with a baby. We were only able to go on about four rides in two days and our son hated […]
Filed under: Family Fun | No Comments »
This is a great game that my family sometimes played on Sunday nights, our designated family night. Here’s how you play.
What you need:
Bag of bite sized candy (M&Ms, Skittles, Reese’s Pieces, etc)
Paper grid with 25 squares (5×5)
(Click for Printer Friendly Version)
How to play:
1. Put one piece of candy in each square.
2. Send […]
Filed under: Family Fun | 3 Comments »
