{5 Minute Father's Day Gift: Daddy Word Cloud Tutorial}

I'm loving this 5 Minute Father's Day craft we made: a 'Daddy' word cloud! (Shhh, don't tell Daddy Pea.) These also make great Mother's Day gifts, grandparent gifts, or teacher gifts. Princess Pea gave them to her teachers this year, and they loved them!

I'm very much a last minute planner when it comes to holidays of any kind. They always seem to creep up on me unexpectedly. But sometimes those last minute gift ideas turn out to be the best - like this Daddy word cloud we made!

This week was the last week of school, which, as any parent or teacher knows, is absolute madness, and multiply the madness 10-fold when you are both a parent and a teacher! With the class parties to prepare food for, the gifts to make or buy, the report cards to write, Sports Day, field trips, paperwork to complete, etc. etc. etc. times forever .... plus on top of that we also had kindergarten graduation this week, and Princess Pea has her birthday next week, so we always have her party the last weekend before school is out (post on that later), and her school birthday celebration was on the last day of school, which I had to bake a cake for, we're heading out on vacation tomorrow and - oh yes - it's Father's Day this weekend! Whew! (Scrape me up off the floor sometime next week, please. Just leave me be until then.)

All of this is why this 5 minute Father's Day gift idea came to me in a moment of panic! And also why you're getting this post just the day before Father's Day. But not to worry - it's not too late! You, too, can do this right now and likely be done with it 5 minutes from now.

Here's what you do:

First, ask your kids to describe their father. Make a list of adjectives and nouns that sum up the essence of Dad. Is he a 'pancake gourmet', like Daddy Pea? or a 'Mr Fixer'? Is he 'silly', 'fun', or 'strong'? Try to keep each description to single words or maximum two words.

Then, go to http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm. In the box, type all of the descriptions in a list, with no punctuation. If you have two-word descriptions, use a ~ between each word, like this: Pancake~gourmet. That will ensure that both words stay together in the final word cloud. (Don't use a - as that will join your words into one word, resulting in Pancakegourmet).

Then, choose which words you want to make bigger. Copy and paste those words a few times. For example, if you want 'Best~Dad' to be really big, copy and paste it maybe 6 times. The more times you paste a word, the bigger it will be, so you can rank order the words and paste them differing amounts, if that makes sense. Like this:

Be sure to leave spaces between each one. Then paste 'Daddy' (or whatever your children call him) the most times of all, so it will be the biggest in the word cloud. Then hit the forward arrow and it will give you a word cloud.

You can adjust the font, the colours, or the layout as you like using the buttons at the top, or select 'randomize' to see what you get. Then save to your computer and print. Tip: To print on full-size on a page, select 150% or so in the print options, and be sure to print in 'landscape' format.

Then just pop it in a colourful frame (or have the kids paint or decorate one), and you're done!

Daddy is sure to love it! Perfect for hanging in his office (or in our case, classroom)!

Note: Another great site for making word clouds is http://www.wordle.net. It has more options for customizing, but it can't be saved except to their online gallery.

{Birthday Interview: Sweet Pea, Age 3}

Have you tried interviewing your child on his/her birthday?

When visiting a friend's house a few months ago, I came across a beautiful birthday book that she had for her son, containing a page for every birthday from zero to adulthood. It was so sweet and enchanting, I read it cover to cover and just had to have one! But, I decided to make my own so that I could personalize it as I wish.

So when Sweet Pea turned 3 a few days later, I took the opportunity to sit down and begin a birthday book with her. We did a birthday interview to record her thoughts and feelings about various things in her life at the moment. I plan to put it into a birthday scrapbook, along with some photos of her on her birthday, her party invitation, and a pocket to hold a couple of other mementoes. Each year we will add to it.

Here are the birthday interview questions I asked her, and the responses I got from her 3 year old mind!


What's your name? (she gave me her first name with correct pronunciation, but couldn't tell me her middle or last name)

How old are you? (she held up 3 fingers - her thumb, her index finger, and her middle finger) 3

What do you like about birthdays? Animals. Animal birthdays. Cat is animal... Doggie... Penguin... Tiger... Not Mummy... Elephant... Polar Bear... Teddy Bear.

What was your favourite present that you got for your birthday? Gruffalo t-shirt!

What is your favourite thing to play with? Pinkie (her special stuffed animal), 'cos his neck is wobbly.

Who is your best friend? (named her sister, with cute mispronunciation)

What do you like to do with her? Playing. SuperWhy.

What's your favourite thing to eat? Broccoli.

What's your favourite thing to wear? Hello Kitty shirt.

What's your favourite place? Bedroom. Mummy and Daddy's.

What do you like to do there? Snuggle them.

What's something special you can do? Homework. Try something. Write. Read a book.

What do you want to learn now that you're 3? Like Mummies and Daddies do. Like check something on computers.

:-) It was so cute, and she LOVED being the focus of all these questions! Why not try interviewing your child on his/her next birthday? It will make for a great keepsake to look back at together when they are older! In case you want to try it, feel free to pin or print the image below to use for your own child's birthday interview!