Father's Day Gift Ideas

Father's Day is approaching fast. If you are a procrastinator like me, then you still haven't gotten a gift yet. I always have an idea what I want to do, I just don't do it till last minute. I'm guessing at 30 years old, I am not going to start changing my ways. 

Here are some Father's Day gift ideas. Some I have done in the past and some I might use for the future. So if my husband is reading this.... STOP. If you are not my husband, please continue reading below. :) 

I think if it's his first Father's Day then he deserves something extra special. The way to my husbands heart is sporting events and watches. For his first Father's Day we picked him out a nice watch. It's something he uses all the time and I hope it will always be a reminder of what an amazing father he is. We also always make something homemade. For his first Father's Day I got a baseball and put Makenna's little handprint on it. He keeps it on his office desk and really loves it. 

 It was super easy to make. This works better with smaller children under the age of two. Otherwise the handprint will be to big to fit properly. Just get a normal sized baseball, permanent ink pad and a permanent maker. If you are working with a baby, wait till they are sleeping to do the handprint. Press their little hand into the ink pad and then wrap it around the ball like they are holding it. I remember it took us 3 balls to get it right. So have some extra balls on hand. Make sure to wipe the babies hand with a baby wipe right after so their hands don't stain. I then wrote Happy Father's day with the date and Makenna's name on the bottom. Simple project and any baseball loving dad will love it. 

Last year for Father's Day Makenna was almost two. We started a new tradition of doing a quiz about Dad. I found some sample questions online and made up some of my own. Then I asked Makenna the questions and she answered them to the best of her ability. She talked really well at that age, so this is definitely for ages two and up. I am going to ask her the same questions this year and see how they differ. They were quite hilarious last year, so I can't wait to see this years. I printed it out on a heavy stock paper and she colored on it and we put her handprint. Another simple project that will be fun to look at through the years.

Some other great gift ideas are tickets to his favorite sport team, a beer of the month club membership, a round of golf with some personalized spot markers, and just about anything your child can paint on. We have made coffee mugs and picture frames before.  

What are some Father's Day gift that you are giving or if you are a dad what are some gifts you have loved to get?? Please feel free to share below! 

Makenna and her Daddy the day she was born <3

How To Stop Baby Godzilla

My daughter Makenna has quite the little attitude and temper when she doesn't get her own way. Instead of using her words, lately she immediately goes into Baby Godzilla mode. Kicking or pushing over anything in her way while she screams and yells. Last week, she destroyed a whole Thomas the Train City we built while Matthew and I looked on. All because she wanted a train Matthew already had. Matthew looked over at me and said, "Ka is crazy!" lol Yes, yes she is Buddy. 

Danielle found this craft on Pinterest a while ago and sent it to me. 

It's been called a Hush Bottle, Timeout Bottle and Timeout Timer, but I think we will call ours a Sparkle Bottle since Makenna is into all things sparkle and princess. What it is, is a sensory bottle that is supposed to help relax and calm. We can use a little relax and calm in our daily routine, so we decided to make it. 

   

I would say this is more of a grown-up craft. I started doing it alone, until Makenna woke up and wanted to help. She helped pour some glue in and quickly moved on to something else thank God. 

Here is what you need (sorry for the horrible lighting)

Per Sparkle Bottle:

• Half a bottle of Clear Tacky Clue
• Tube of glitter glue
• Small tube of extra fine glitter
• Water bottle (I used a large Smart Water bottle)
• Hot Water
• Some sort or funnel or large pouring mixing cup
• Goo Be Gone or anything to help take off the sticky lable

Steps to make a Sparkle Bottle:

• Drink all the water in your bottles so you can use them for a craft and then realize that you need water in the bottle anyway. 
• Fill bottle with HOT but not boiling water. If your faucet water gets really hot then just use that, if you use original water heat up in a cooking pot on the stove till hot but again not boiling! You don't want to melt the bottle or burn yourself. 
• However you get your full bottle of hot water, pour it in a pot or large enough measuring cup and add entire bottle of glitter glue.
• Stir glitter glue until no more clumps. (if it's not de-clumping, heat up water a tiny bit and stir some more)

• Add in the little tube of extra fine glitter and stir until all mixed in
• If mixture is in a pot, pour it into the mix cup or use a funnel to pour it into your water bottle. (it's probably easier to use a funnel so you can get all the glitter water out of pot/measuring cup easier) (CAUTION WATER BOTTLE WILL BE HOT FROM THE HOT WATER :) ) 
• Add about half a bottle of clear tacky glue.
• Put the lid on and shake until all the glue is melted in

• Shake bottle and time how long it takes for glitter to settle. For Makenna and Matthew I wanted about 4-5 mins. If you want more time, add more glue. (Wait for entire mixture to cool down before gaging how long it takes for mixture to settle. Because water is hot it will settle faster than when it cold.)
• EDIT: PLEASE GLUE CAPS SHUT ONCE PERFECTED. Use a permanent type of bonding glue. First thing Makenna and Matthew both did was try to take off the cap. Glitter water everywhere would not be calm and relaxing!  

Right after a good shaking

1 Minute

2 Minutes

3 Minutes (red/gold bottle settled a lot faster than the blue bottle)

4 Minutes

They look really cool when finished. A lot better than my craptastic pictures. I have yet to use them in the mist of a meltdown, but I will keep you all updated on how it works. I'm not sure how I'm going to mix it into Matthew's routine yet, maybe as a Thomas (the train) relax bottle. He is not the Baby Godzilla type at all. More of the 'put his head down and quietly pout in the corner type.' But being a boy he is constantly on the go, so this bottle might help him just have a few moments of quite time or work for those rare timeout moments for him.

It will probably take a few times to get them to actually use them accordingly, but I'm sure it won't be long before it becomes their routine. When Makenna becomes Baby Godzilla, I usually let her go until she calms down enough where I can get her to take a few deep breaths. Sometimes I ask her to take the deep breaths, but lately she starts doing it on her own after she realizes she's not getting her way. Now i'll just shake her bottle and hand it to her, tell her to take a deep breath, and come see me when she and her bottle settles down. Wish me luck!!!

Any advice on how to get a screaming child to calm down? What works for your kid(s)? What would you use you "Sparkle Bottle" as? Please feel free to share below!!

-K

Happy (ALMOST) Mother's Day!

Have you been wondering what to make for Mom or Grandma this Mother's Day? This can always get sticky when working with babies and toddler's. However, it is also one of the best & most special times to save up all the memories and package it nicely for Mom & Grandma.

Being a nanny, it is one of my many joys being able to do fun arts & crafts with my little ones. I really enjoy seeing the looks on the parents' faces when you hand them a precious piece of art work their child has completed.

This Mother's Day I really wanted to do something special for my boss from her son, Thomas. Thomas is about to turn twenty-one months old. As we all know, projects at this age can not only get sticky & messy, but it becomes a serious game of, "WAIT! DON'T EAT THE MARKER!!" ;)

My boss loves her garden, plants & flowers. Although, we all tease her because she tends to forget to water the beautiful plants and they end up not making it! So, for this Mother's Day I decided that Thomas and I would give her some potted flowers that will never die. This was the end result....

Adorable! Right?! ;) Needless to say my boss was smitten when Thomas gave her, her beautiful pot of flowers!

Listed below are the simple steps to go about making this unique Mother's Day Project;

*Small side note: ALL materials were bought at the Dollar Tree. This Project cost me $5.34 to make.*

Tools You Will Need:

1. A small flower pot.
2. Colored construction paper.
3. A foam ball. (They sell them in packages)
4. Pipe cleaners. (I used sparkly pink ones)
5. Scissors & a hole punch. (I used a knife)

Steps To Make This Awesome Craft:

1. Trace your Child's hand to make a template.
2. Take template to trace as many hands as you want in your bouquet. 
3. Cut out all hands.
4. You may write messages on the hands like I did above, or you may allow your child to color them. Get creative!
5. Take your hole punch or knife & make a small hole at the bottom of the hand.
6. Stick your pipe cleaner through and fold the pipe cleaner in half. You may want to wrap the two end's around one another to make it look tight & swirly.
7. Take your knife & puncture slits into the foam ball.
8. Stick your pipe cleaner into the small slits and stick the foam ball into your flower pot.
9. Take either a black or brown piece of construction paper and cut it into tiny pieces to serve as the "dirt" in your flower pot. I cut the paper into vertical strips then cut horizontally across the strips to make small pieces.
10. WAAAALAAA! You have the cutest little flower pot that Mom & Grandma have ever seen!

On the actual Flower Pot itself feel free to write a cute message. You can even write the child's age that way you will never forget how old they were when their hand was that little!

Have a great time getting creative with your little one! I know that I did! 

Feel free to comment below with some of your favorite Mother's Day craft ideas! 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!!

-D