This past weekend, I finally took the girls to the Crayola Factory in Eason, Pennsylvania. I’ve been wanting to check out this place for some time now since several of my friends had taken their kids and enjoyed it. It’s a great place to take the kids for some indoor craft and coloring activities, perfect on those cold or rainy days. If you are ever around the Easton area in Pennsylvania, make sure you make a stop here with your kids. It’s something the entire family can enjoy! Here is a list of their hours of operation.

By: Anne Pham

Over the weekend, we staged our daughter’s birthday party at Bounce U, an incredible inflatable bounce center where young and old can bounce alike and not feel silly about who’s watching. For party favors, I decided to give each child in attendance a water bottle personalized with their name and cute icon to match–cupcakes for the girls, and pirates for the boys. The party favors were a huge hit; the children literally clamored for them. As an added plus,  I loved that the bottles are environmentally friendly. A practical gift that will be around for a long time.

Please feel free to submit your ideas on unique party favors.  I’d love to hear them!

By: Anne Pham

After we completed our kitchen renovation about four months ago, I wasn’t sure what to do with our empty baker’s rack. Because it was no longer being used in the kitchen, I decided to temporarily place it in the kids’ play room to get it out of the way. A couple days had passed and I slowly started to place several of the kids’ crafts and supplies on the shelf to keep them off the floor. Well, looking at the picture, the baker’s rack is now a full blown storage system for our craft materials. Doesn’t it look great? So, don’t be so fast to throw out furniture until you thoroughly evaluate its potential usefulness in another capacity. What items in your house have you reused or refurbished?

By: Anne Pham

Now here is a craft project that will keep your little one occupied for a long time. It’s called Sticky Mosaics, made by Treasure Trove Toys that can be found at your local craft store. The company offers all sorts of kid friendly mosaic projects that your child can create such as unicorns, princesses, dragons, and knights, so whether you have a boy or girl there is something for everyone. Prices range from $2.99 for a single project to $14.99 for a set of 4. I love that this project not only kept Sophie busy for hours but it taught her color and number coordination. The best part was looking at the smile and confidence she expressed when she showed me her finished work.

By: Anne Pham

Now that I am home with the girls full-time, we have been busy doing plenty of crafts together. One that we particularly enjoyed doing recently was making wearable crafts out of felt flowers. It was fairly simple and my girls loved the fact they could choose the colors, and pattern to be created on their flip-flops, headband, and bracelet. Best of all, this was a great opportunity to teach my girls the basic rules of sewing, something I know they will appreciate later on in life. If you are looking for a fun, colorful, and simple sewing project to do with your child, I would highly recommend this project made from the Little Experience Company.

By: Anne Pham

One of the many simple things I enjoy in life is looking at art created by a child. So the other day, when my daughter gave me a drawing she had just finished, it instantly put a smile on my face. The picture consisted of myself, my husband, herself (carrying a pink purse of course), and her younger sister. I can always appreciate a child’s interpretation of the world through art because there is always truth, humor, and reality in them. Here is her masterpiece which is now hanging upstairs in our bedroom.

By: Anne Pham

Over the weekend we held our annual pre-summer yard sale in attempt to empty out all the piles of clothes, toys and household items we weren’t using anymore in our house. Since I figure that this would be a family event all weekend I had to think of a clever solution to entertain Sophia and Olivia during the yard sale so they wouldn’t get too bored or distract me from helping potential customers. I decided to set up a lemonade stand in which the kids could sell cold drinks and homemade cookies to anyone attending. It would be a win-win situation right? They would be out of my way and the kids would have fun selling cookies. The lemonade stand turned out to be a major hit. My kids totally enjoyed it, the customers loved the cookies, and best of all they were able to entertain themselves during the entire yard sale so that I could get a little work done. I think the kids made more money at their lemonade stand than mommy had at the yard sale.

By: Anne Pham

With a few craft supplies laying around your house,  your kids can make some simple art projects that will be sure to keep them busy for hours. If you don’t have any craft materials at home, your local arts and crafts store may carry all the necessary materials. Here are a few projects I made with my kids.

By: Anne Pham

Plastic Window Sun Catchers

Lantern Animals

Beaded Owl

Pom Pom Animals

Last week my niece Jade and her friend Helen entered the Habitat for Humanity Dream House Contest, a non-profit organization which builds homes for low to no income families in the United States and won first prize in the 10- year-old division. Their goal was to build and create a house entirely out of paper mache using their own imagination and concept. Inspired by Greek mythology, they constructed the house paying homage to the Greek Nymph, a female spirit which lives in mountains, groves, springs, rivers, and trees (hence the paper mache tree). I am so proud of Jade and Helen for not only taking home first prize, but for creating awareness to such a great organization. Great job girls!

By: Anne Pham

With some craft supplies lying around your house, these are simple and fun crafts you can make with your kids during the holidays. (pine cones, pipe-cleaners, felt, ribbons, foam, pom-poms, glue, construction paper, paper plates, beads, etc.)

courtesy of: Kay Chen

If you have pictures of simple crafts you would like to submit to ID Me Labels please send them to anne@idmelabels.com.