Safari Ltd St. Patrick's Day

Hey Everyone!
I am sooo excited to share this with you.  I am making St. Patrick's Day cards for my nieces and nephews, my daughter at college, friends and family with these incredible Incredible Creatures from Sarafi Ltd.

First of all, these toys are amazing!  If you need the perfect birthday gift...here you go.  Just look at their cute expressions!  I paired them with some St. patty's Day themed buttons and click, click, click. (Yep, I am a bit of a shutter bug!)

I printed these photos at CVS with a white border in a 4x6 size - they make the perfect postcard. Here are a few of them.  I wrote corny sayings on them like "Lucky to have you" or "Lucky to be your Auntie Mel".

The lady at CVS smiled when she saw them and asked, "What are you doing with these?"  I explained and she said, "Oh! my nephew in Indiana would LOVE these."

I mean, who wouldn't smile if they saw these in their mailbox?

Sending out a little HAPPY this St. Patrick's Day!

I think I am going to get one of those calendars that celebrate all kinds of uncommon holidays like International Pancake Day or Wear Silly Sock Day and make cards for EVERY holiday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Have a fun and playful day!
Mel

More St. Patrick's Day Cards for Kids

I am putting happy in mailboxes this St. Patrick's Day!  I simply photographed some Schleich animals with buttons from shellysbuttonsandmore.com (they are Dress It Up buttons by Jesse James) then printed at CVS.

A 4x6 photo can be sent as a postcard with a single stamp.  These are going to my nieces and nephews this week.

They are fun and playful!!!

I love the quality of Schleich's animal toys.  Each one is hand-painted.  They can be found online and at Toys R Us.  I have been playing with these toys for years.  I used them in my classroom for years and now as models for holiday cards.

I need to find a calendar that has all kinds of wacky holidays on it - like Pancake Day or Celebrate Ice Cubes Day.  And send cards for EVERY occasion.  Snail mail is gonna be "in" again!

Have a fun & playful day
Mel

St. Patrick's Day Cards for Kids

For Valentine's Day, I made cards for my nieces and nephews, my daughters (in high school and away at college), my husband, and friends & family.  They were a BIG hit.

So I decided to do it again for St. Patrick's Day.  I gathered up some random toys that I had (Lalaloopsy, the fox is from Target, Schleich meerkat babies, Schleich elephant, Carebear, aliens from Toy Story, Hello Kitty, Tinkerbell) and paired them with shamrock buttons from Joann.  ta-da!

So cute, right?

I paired them with corny sayings like "I'm so lucky to be your Auntie Mel!"

Who doesn't like to get good mail, right?  I mean like NOT the electric bill :)

I printed the photos at CVS in a 4x6 standard size.  At CVS, it gives me the option to add a white border, so it looks postcard-ish.

A single stamp...

and you've got a happy mailbox!

Who will you send a St. Patrick's Day card to?

Justin Timberlake may have brought sexy back, but I am going to bring snail mail back!

Have a fun & playful day!
Mel

Math Games Mondays - Minions

BANANA!!!

Okay, who doesn't like the minions?  They are so funny!  My 3 year old nephew calls them BEE-BOs and even my 17 year old likes them.  One sure fire way to get your kids to learn is to center the games and activities around things they like.

When you think of minions, you think of math, right?  No?  Well, I cam up with a simple math game for Math Games Mondays series all about minions and math.

I found minions playing cards at my local Dollar Tree dollar store and the banana candies (because minions LOOOOVE bananas!) at a local toy store.  So, $1.00 for the playing cards and $1.99 for the candy.  You don't have to use candy.  You can use buttons, pennies, anything you want for counters.

It's a simple one to one correspondence game.  Your child needs to put one banana candy onto each spade or heart.  Have them count "one" then put the candy on, then count "two" and put the candy on.  Do this until they he has the correct number of bananas.  By counting out loud and one at the time, it is showing number value.

Repeat until all 5 spades are covered...

or all  hearts...

or all 3 clubs.

You can adapt this game for anything your child may be interested in at the time. Go with the flow and the learning will flow.

Have a fun & playful day
Mel

Love Notes for Kids

I am not a perfect mom.

I'm not.  By no stretch of the imagination will I win a Mother of the Year contest.  Being a mom is hard.  Being a mom of two teenage girls - it's hard.  Being a mom of a child any age, at any stage - it's hard. But being a mom also makes me happy, so unbelievably so. 

One thing that I know that I am good at when being a mom is encouraging,  My Grandma Helen always wrote cards for EVERY occasion - birthday, Christmas, if you had a car accident (not kidding. She sent me a card after I wrecked my first car).  She was a woman of Faith, a true Christian, an encourager through and through.  I think that's where I get it.

I leave notes for everybody - my high schooler, my college kid, my husband, nieces and nephews, friends, and family.  That's what I do.  It's my thing.  I am sure that it'll be on my gravestone - Mel sent a ton of cards.

This week is Valentine's Week.  Give a card on Valentine's Day, but do it on a Tuesday or a Friday - any day!

 Say "Thanks for being a great kid" or...

Today's a great day to have a great day - one of my favorite sayings from Joanna Gaines of HGTV's Fixer Upper.

Any day's a great day to encourage your little ones (or even your grown up ones!) What a great way to build self confidence and give them that little boost to get through the day.

Have a Fun & Playful day
Mel