{25 Homemade Gifts for Preschoolers}

25 Homemade Gifts for Preschoolers

Are you the crafty type? Looking for some ideas for making a DIY gift for your preschooler for Christmas, stockings, a birthday or just because? 

25 Homemade Gifts for Preschoolers:

Very Hungry Caterpillar button threading counting game on Mama Pea Pod

Magnetic peg dolls from Frog, Goose and Bear

Scratch-off tickets from Teach Mama (I made these for all our stockings a couple of years ago and they turned out great!)

No-knit knitted Christmas stockings from Red Ted Art (I'm still trying to find the perfect sweater for this!)

Magical treasure-filled walnuts from Here We Are Together

Cozy car caddy from Homemade by Jill

Freezer paper stencilled t-shirts with your child's favourite picture on it, on Mama Pea Pod

Recycled DIY crayons from Frog, Goose and Bear

Jingle bell ribbon rings from Make and Takes

Personalized I-spy bottles from Lalymom

DIY play kitchen from The Boy and Me

Holiday straw toppers from Fireflies and Mudpies

Easy-sew personalized pillows from Mama Pea Pod

Felt quiet time book from Babes in Deutschland

Fort in a bag from Saltwater-Kids

Superhero cape from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!

Toddler-friendly sewing basket from Childhood 101

Snowman kit from Make It Do (we got one of these as a gift and it was a huge hit!)

Mermaid Waldorf doll from Taming the Goblin on Mama Pea Pod

Felt ABC mat from Oopsey Daisy

Ribbon wands from Frog, Goose and Bear

Fairy house kit from Inner Child Fun

Puppet making kit from Childhood 101

Gingerbread play dough from Sweet Sugar Belle


There are lots more adorable ideas on my Homemade Gifts for Kids Pinterest board!

For more simple ideas for kids, subscribe to Mama Pea Pod.

{Outdoor Play Party: Party Games}

We love to have birthday parties outdoors whenever possible. We had a super time at Princess Pea's birthday party last weekend, and we played loads of outdoor party games, like this Under-the-Sea limbo pictured above! (It was a mermaid-themed party!)

The last edition of the Outdoor Play Party featured 31 fun ways to play outdoors! (Please forgive us if we haven't commented on every one of your posts, we are all extra busy having lots of outdoor fun with our own kiddos now that summer is here!) I really loved this Chalk Dress-Up Dolls post from The Iowa Farmer's Wife - my girls will LOVE doing this!

 

(And be sure to check out the monthly outside play linky that she is cohosting with JDaniel4'sMom for monthly themed outdoor play ideas!)




Sharing at: The Cultivated Life's Daily Outdoor Challenge

{Mermaid Party}

Did you know that Mama Pea Pod was voted in the Top 10 websites in the Red Tricycle Most Awesome awards for Birthday Party Ideas! Thanks so much! x

Princess Pea is turning 5 this month, and we had her mermaid-themed birthday party last weekend. It was so much fun! From the preparations, to the games, to the food, to the amazing cake my friend made for her, it was non-stop giggles and laughs for me, her, and all of her friends!

I debated breaking this up into several posts, as it was such a great party and I have so much I want to share! But, since it would take me forever to prepare multiple posts, I'm just going to share the highlights here with you, and I'll divide this post into several sections instead.

1. Decorations:

I already shared our homemade 3D mermaid party invitations. Here's what else we did to set the stage for the mermaid theme.

We ordered mermaid-themed plates, cups, napkins, and placemats online, and for the boys, I picked up pirate-themed dinnerware. I got blue and turquoise tablecloths and cutlery from a party supply store and cut them to the size of their kiddie tables.

This is my new favourite way to decorate for kids' parties! I picked up some mermaid-themed wrapping paper and put it up on the wall next to their tables with sticky tack. Simple, easy, and makes them feel like they're 'in' the theme. It also made a perfect backdrop for party pictures later on.

A friend had given us some adorable sea-life wall stickers a while back, so we put them on the window temporarily, between the 'seaweed' streamers that were hanging down. And, of course, we hung blue, turquoise, and 'sea foam green' streamers from the lights and hung balloons in the same colours.

I had also really wanted to attach some fisherman's netting to our deck space, but we didn't have anything to attach it to. I've since had hooks added to the underneath of our upstairs balcony for future party decorating! ;-)

2. The Food

Another way we 'set the stage' was with the food itself. What do mermaids eat?

Octopus dip
(I found this idea on Pinterest here)

Starfish sandwiches

and sushi!

 

Oh, and sparkly mermaid cake, of course!

(obviously, I've deleted her name from the picture)

This cake was made by my super-talented friend, Masha. Don't you just love the edible glitter on the mermaid's tail?

Make that sparkly, rainbow mermaid cake!

3. Creating Little Mermaids

As the guests arrived, we turned them each into Little Mermaid Princesses. They each got some turquoise 'mermaid hair' to clip on; some sparkly, turquoise 'mermaid bangles'; a 'seaweed necklace' (a green, leafy lei from the dollar store); and some 'mermaid shimmer cream' to rub onto their arms and faces if they wished. 

Then they set to work decorating their own mermaid princess crowns.

I had prepared the crowns by cutting out a rectangle of stiff, gold card, and cutting a wave design along one edge. I punched holes in each side, and tied on some elastic (about 25-30 cm long).

I set up a 'crown station' in the corner of the living room. The girls had a selection of sequins, fake jewels, tiny bits of sparkly sticky-backed craft foam, stickers, and wooden fish and starfish shapes to stick on.

They were a hit, and so cute on all the little mermaid princesses!

(Oh, and check out the mural we made with the girls' handprint mermaid painting and some scraps of bulletin board borders!)

4. Games and Activities

We had SO much fun with our games and activities! I always figure the sign of a good kids' party is no tears - well, the kids spent the whole 3 hours laughing non-stop. So I guess that's the sign of a GREAT party!

We played Mermaids and Pirates - Daddy made an excellent pirate (all kitted out with his foam pirate hat and cutlass!), chasing the girls all over the garden. We set up 'safe zones' on each side of the garden using hula hoops, and the mermaids had to run across without getting caught by the pirate. If they got caught, they became pirates, too. They LOVED this game!

It was so popular that later we played another variation of it: Fishing for Mermaids - this time Daddy had a 'fishing net' (a piece of pink netting with beads threaded into it that we just happened to have) that he chased them with.

Next up was Under the Sea Limbo. I used the mop handle and decorated it with blue and green ribbons, as seen on Pinterest. The girls had a blast going under and over it to the music. (This has since become their party game of choice for every party!)

Next we had an Under the Sea Dance - to the tune of the same name from The Little Mermaid soundtrack, of course, I called out the names of sea creatures and they had to use their dramatic play skills to 'dance' like the creature. Much hilarity involved in this one! 

Dancing Crabs

Dancing fish

Dancing octopus

The Funny Face Contest was a lot of fun - and they especially enjoyed getting to see all their funny faces on the TV right afterwards, as we hooked the camera up to the HDMI.

And finally, we had some Underwater Bubble Blowing - I set out a tub and filled it with bubble solution (I used the 1L refill bottle of Tesco brand bubbles as I find they make really good bubbles, and the ingredients to make homemade bubbles are hard to find and expensive here, but I also like the Super Miracles Bubbles brand, which we can't buy here). I set out a selection of bubble wands that I had picked up for a couple of dollars at Michael's last summer. They enjoyed making bubbles of all sorts of shapes and sizes, and in no time the entire garden was filled with bubbles. I must admit, I love a garden full of bubbles!

All in all, I'd say it was one of our best parties ever, and probably the one that I enjoyed the most myself!

Happy Birthday to my big girl! 

Love you!

x

If this is your first time visiting, welcome! Please take a look around using the buttons and labels on the right and below. I'd love for you to also come join our Mama Pea Pod Facebook community, where you'll find lots more party, play, and parenting posts shared from the best of the blogosphere.

You might also be interested in these party posts:

Gruffalo Birthday Party

Pink and Red Heart Party

Rainbow Party

ABCs of Kids' Party Ideas

{Mermaid Party Invitation Cards}

Like Mama Pea Pod for birthday party ideas? Please consider throwing a vote our way in the Red Tricycle Most Awesome awards for Birthday Party Ideas! Thanks so much! x

June is Mermaid Month at Mama Pea Pod! Why? Because it's Princess Pea's birthday month, and this year her party theme is mermaids! 

That means that we are going mermaid crazy at the moment! If you didn't already see it, be sure to check out the Mermaid Waldorf Doll tutorial from this month's Time for Mama guest post by Taming the Goblin - and enter to win the doll in the tutorial. And for the kids' creative time, give them a go at making mermaid handprint paintings - we had so much fun doing ours!

So, the first way to set the stage for a birthday party is, of course, the invitations. Here's how we made some beautiful, sparkly mermaid party invitations!

These were inspired by the Usborne book "Mermaid Things to Make and Do" - as you may know if you've been following for a while, we love the 'Things to Make and Do' series from Usborne; we have several of them (no, this is not a sponsored post - we just really, really love them!).

Now, because of the fiddly pieces, I ended up doing most of the 'labour' for these, while Princess Pea made the selections for which papers to use, which pieces to stick where, etc., and stuck on some of the less fiddly bits. She doesn't have a lot of patience for fiddly things, but an older child could do it independently. 

First, we got some good quality, blue card stock from the stationary shop, folded in half, and, using coins to draw around, made the cut-outs for the waves along the top.

Then we used some skin-coloured-ish bits of scrapbooking paper to make the torsos, arms, and heads separately. Next, we used various scraps of scrapbooking papers and old stationary envelopes to cut out hair, clothes, accessories, and various sea creatures.

Finally, we used some sparkly green craft foam to make the mermaid tails. Then we stuck each piece onto the card, making sure part of each mermaid went over the edge of the card, creating a 3-D effect. (You could make them even more 3D by using those foam stickies to attach them, instead of glue.) As a final touch, we drew faces on the mermaids and sea creatures with a pen.

We just love how they turned out!



Sharing at: Crafty Moms Share

{Mermaid Handprint Painting Outdoors}

Princess Pea is mermaid crazy these days!

She's having a mermaid birthday party next weekend, 

so we're in full mermaid-creating mode around here!

The girls (and I!) had so much fun last weekend doing a mermaid handprint painting outdoors! 

It was really quite simple to make the handprint mermaids, and even 2 year old Sweet Pea was able to make her own with just a little help. We found the handprint idea in the Usborne book 'Mermaid Things to Make and Do'. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Paint your whole hand orange (or whatever colour you want your mermaid's hair to be), and press it, fingers spread wide, onto the paper. Repeat at a slightly different angle to make more hair.

2. When it's more or less dry, paint a circle over part of the palm, to make the face.

3. Use your fingers to make shoulders and arms with sweeping outward strokes.

4. Paint your whole hand blue-ish green and with your fingers closed tight, press it with the palm end at the shoulders and the fingers pointing downwards to make the body.

5. Paint just your middle three fingers in the same blue-ish green and press down twice, with fingers closed, at 45 degree angles to make the tail.

6. Once dry, use a marker or fine paintbrush to add facial features and decorative additions (jewelry, hair accessories, scales, etc.).

7. Add glitter for a special touch.

If you like, you can use real sand along the bottom, as we did, to make the sea floor. 

 It would be even better if you had some more gravelly sand, but we just scooped a little fine sand out of the sandbox.

We also fingerprinted seaweed, fish, octopuses and jellyfish.

We love our mermaid painting and the girls can't wait to display it at the mermaid birthday party!

Love mermaids too? Be sure to check out this month's Time for Mama series post - how to make a Waldorf-inspired mermaid doll! There's even a chance to win the doll!

Sharing at: It's Playtime, Come Together Kids