Shield-shaped chalkboard

Are you sick of chalkboards yet? I hope not. As ubiquitous as they've become, I never really tire of the look.

A few months ago, I found this shield-shaped board thrifting. It appears to be some type of game board or weird cutting board with magnets and indentations, but really, I have no idea. I just saw it and was like, "Shield? Yes, please. I'll figure out what to do with you later." I have a thing for shield shapes, you know. 

So when it came time to put a few new things into the office, I knew I wanted to turn it into a chalkboard.

The back was flat except for three rubber feet, so I pried those off with a pliers. I filled the holes with some wood filler and sanded them smooth before painting the surface with chalkboard paint. Later, I painted the edge with some dark coral paint just to give it a little something extra.

Elise asked me what the chalkboard was for and when I told her it was for the office, she replied, "No, it's for my room." I guess that means I'll be making another one very soon.

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First day of school photo shoot chalkboard sign

My little girl started preschool last week. It's her first time at any type of away-from-mom school or daycare, so it's a big deal for all of us. Luckily, she LOVES school. (I knew she would.) It's only two mornings a week, but it's a strange sensation suddenly to have regular, scheduled time to myself. Not that I'm complaining!

It was time to start the tradition of first day of school photos. Growing up, we always had our picture taken by a certain tree. But looking back at the photos, you have to think about what year it was and what grade it was. So much easier if all that info is in the photo itself!

My friend Jodi has taking photos like this for years, which is probably where I first saw it. (It's also all over Pinterest, but has been done so many times, I can't tell who deserves the credit for blogging the idea.)

I didn't want to spend any money on this project, so I used what I had: a piece of scrap wood and some leftover chalkboard paint. It's small and light enough that Elise can hold it without trouble, but big enough to fit all of the important info on it.

Being three, she was not so cooperative with my photo shoot plans before school. Pre-preschool jitters maybe? We did a second session after school, and they came out much better. (Well, minus the shoes. Picking my battles.) That posed smile is a new invention for her. So silly!

Disney World Magic Kingdom birthday party: Activities

Being that this was an indoor party (April weather is so unpredictable; the tornado sirens actually went off during her party this year -- yikes!), I couldn't really do anything crazy like rebuild Space Mountain in the backyard. (Though I'm pretty sure my husband would have loved to see me try.) Instead, I created a few low key activities to keep the kids busy.

I wanted an arty activity that didn't require a lot of supervision. Also most of the kids at the party were still pretty young, and I didn't want to worry about the mess of paint or glue. Beaded keychains seemed to be a good solution.

I searched and searched for Mickey Mouse beads, but came up empty handed. (Hey Disney, get on it!) So instead I settled on metallic star and pony beads. What kid doesn't love shiny things?

I cut some pieces of plastic lanyard and tied them to key rings to start them off. I also had some stretchy bracelet string available, but I'm not sure if anyone made a bracelet.

And it seems as though stars became a running theme in this party's activities.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a single photo of this activity in action at the actual party. Luckily, Elise agreed to appear in the dramatic re-creation of the whole thing. In non-party clothes.

This is a little something I call... wait for it... "When you fish upon a star." 

(Oh yes, I hear the groans! I'm actually not such a pun fan myself, but after I thought of the title, I couldn't not use it.) I made a couple of fishing poles and a bunch of magnetized star shapes.

The goal is to catch the stars with the fishing pole and collect them in the baskets. It was less of a game and more something just to keep the kids busy, but you could certainly take the concept and turn it into a game with a timer or point values assigned to the stars or something.

See the fishing game how-to.

And then when the kids became completely restless, we broke out the chalk and they all converged like moths to a flame. Always good to have a plan B. (My plan C was to send them all upstairs to the playroom, but we didn't get that far before it was time to go.)

See more Magic Kingdom party details!

Invitations	Decorations

Favors, Part 1	Favors, Part 2

Creative and crafty activities for two-year-olds

Two-year-olds can be hard to occupy. Their attention spans are still pretty short, and they're still too young for real arts and crafts projects. While I enjoy doing messy painting projects with Elise, sometimes I need an activity that requires a less involvement on my part (and less mess too).

I thought I'd share some of the creative activities that we've been doing lately. None of them are particularly original, but maybe someone else might benefit from an activity below. You'll notice most of these require Elise to be buckled in her high chair, which is a plus when you have a busy body like my daughter.

Sometimes these activities work for five minutes, other times upwards of 45 minutes. Just depends on the day. 

Stringing large beads on pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaner stays stiff, so it's easy to put through the bead. Obviously, if your kid is still into sticking things in their mouth, you would have to wait on this one. Or use Cheerios.

Painting with water on a chalkboard. Paint is great, but requires close supervision. Painting with water seems to hold her attention just as much and is a lot less messy. I put a tiny bit of water into a jar lid and give her a cheapie paintbrush, and she loves it. Sometimes I also give her bits of chalk and she colors and paints over it. Or she just puts the chalk in the water to soak.

Paint with water books. Yes they still make them! I used to love these when I was little. Although, now they cost like $3.50, which seems kind of expensive for what they are, but she's totally into painting and Mickey.

Playing with Play Doh. Elise seems to be more interested in watching me play with Play Doh than playing with it herself. But she used to totally reject touching anything squishy, and I'm trying to get her over that with more exposure.

We also do a lot of coloring with crayons and chalk, drawing and sticking stickers onto paper. But when all of that gets boring, our old standby the simple cardboard box never fails.

See Creative and crafty activities for two-year-olds Part II >>

Numbers Birthday Party: The Favors

My idea for party favors started with a giant box of sidewalk chalk I got on clearance for $4. What kid doesn't love drawing with chalk? And what goes best with chalk? Chalkboards, of course.

I searched many stores for small, cheap chalkboards. Maybe they are out there somewhere, but I couldn't find any. No matter. I had lots of leftover chalkboard paint, so I just needed to find something to make chalkboards out of. My mom found some magnetic numbers at Dollar Tree that tied to the numbers theme, so I wanted the chalkboards to be magnetic as well.

I read a few tutorials about how to make small chalkboards using picture frames and sheet metal, but the whole thing just seemed like an ordeal, especially to make eight of them. So I hunted around the dollar store for something metal to turn into a chalkboard. 

These 12" steel pizza pans fit the bill perfectly. Although they were cheap, they are sturdy and have no sharp edges. And magnets stick to steel. Obviously.

On the advice of the can of chalkboard paint, I primed the surface first with regular primer.

Then I gave them three thin coats of chalkboard paint. After they were dry and "seasoned" (rubbed with chalk and erased), they were looking pretty great! They don't look exclusively kiddish to me either. I think they could totally live in a kitchen or some other messagey place.

Out of the package, the number magnets were primary colors, but I spray painted them white because I have a slight aversion to primary colors when they are used together. And white suited my color scheme much better.

Once I had all of that done, my brain went to packaging. I got to thinking how nice it is when small toys have a container. And wondered how could I possibly give out small pieces to the kids without some form of containment for the moms. This led me to use some fabric and ribbon scraps to sew up some little drawstring bags.

To display them at the party, I scrounged this plastic crate in our basement that had divisions for file folders (I guess that's what it's for... it came with the house). It was bright blue, so I wrapped it with some polka dot wrapping paper from Target.

We also gave kids and adults a pair of soft pretzels from Gus' Pretzels. I think everyone went home happy!

More Numbers Birthday Party posts

Invitations	Decorations	Activities

Numbers Birthday Party: Activities

Elise's second birthday party was pretty much just a house party with adults and kids. Elise and the toddlers were still a bit too little for any organized games or crafts, but I didn't want the older kids to be bored. So I put together a few low-key non-group activities, some of which went along with the numbers theme.

The little kids really seemed to love this plastic stacking cake. I picked it up a couple of months ago when Amazon had a sudden price drop that made it only $7! It was too cute to pass up. Elise is still playing with it days later.

I brought down Elise's chalkboard table from the playroom. And now I've decided that every kid party we host will have some sort of drawing activity, whether it be paper tablecloths, paper hung on a wall or whatever. It's cheap and easy, appeals to all ages and keeps them busy.

I mentioned in the decorations post that my brother knows a bit about balloon twisting, and he made balloon animals for the kids. Really, this was the hit of the party. I owe him big.

And a couple of little extras...

I printed some color-by-number sheets I found via Google Images. There are so many printable coloring sheets out there! I also had a Crazy 8's card game, which came in handy at the start of the party. I don't know if anyone picked up on the fact that those two things were numbers-themed, but I thought I was clever.

More Numbers Birthday Party posts

Invitations	Decorations	Favors