kid stuff
Tiny Dancers
This is the once-a-year post where I get to gush for a few minutes while my mommy heart swells with pride. Just bear with me for a moment and I promise I’ll try not to go on too long. The truth is that being a “dance mom” is a role I never in a million years expected to play. I am 6’2″ and, having been tall and awkward my entire life, have always lacked a certain grace and rhythm that other girls seem to have. I normally avoid dancing like the plague. I’m not joking when I say that clapping in time during church is a stretch. Not surprisingly, I ... read more
How to Make DiY Stepping Stones With The Kids
Looking for a fun summer project to add to your backyard bucket list this year? DiY stepping stones are surprisingly fun & easy to make for kids of all ages, and they cost only a few dollars in supplies! They’d make a great Father’s Day gift for any dad who loves spending time outdoors. For step-by-step instructions and creative ideas for how to personalize your stones, be sure to check out my latest post over at P&G Everyday! Pin It
Watercolor Thank You Cards {DiY}
In the wake of our battle with the flu last week I wasn’t feeling up to any major creative endeavors, but by the end of the week the girls were begging to do a craft. What can I say? They are definitely my kids! One of my favorite writing activities for language arts is having the girls write thank you cards. (Well okay, Trouble doesn’t write them, but she does dictate what she wants to say!) I have found that the sooner we write them, the more likely we are to actually send them, so when the girls received a fun Valentine’s Day package from their auntie on Friday and ... read more
Valentine’s Day Embroidery Hoop Art {Easy Embroidery for Kids}
We are in full Little House mode over here, and I gotta say, I am loving every minute. As I told Husband last night, our girls may never score a 1600 on their SAT, but my oh my, will they be able to sew, bake, & pickle like nobody’s business! Last week, inspired by one of the projects in the Little House Craft Book, Princess and I took it upon ourselves to learn embroidery. It was something I have never done before either, so we learned together. She was completely hooked almost immediately. I was frankly amazed at how quickly she picked it up! She proudly completed a practice sampler, ... read more
All The Things I’m Thankful For {Printable Gratitude Journal}
The girls and I have spent a lot of time this month talking about having an “attitude of gratitude” and what it means to be thankful for all that we have. Honestly there are many times a day when it seems like they just don’t get it and I frequently wonder if I am expecting to much of them. After all, it has taken me 34 years, and I am still learning. Is it unreasonable to want my 3 and 6 year old to be able to see beyond their own wants and needs? Perhaps, but I keep at it anyway. Because I know that even if they don’t get it ... read more
What I Won’t Give My Kids For Christmas This Year
A couple of months ago I wrote about taking all my kids’ toys away, and how that experience has fundamentally changed our family and the way we look at stuff. The response from that post–both positive and negative–was completely overwhelming, like nothing I have every experienced before while writing this blog. Who knew I could be so controversial? While the vast majority of readers applauded the decision and a few even said they were inspired to follow suit, there were also many others who passionately disagreed. They argued that I wasn’t teaching my kids any personal responsibility, that I was taking away their childhoods, that they would probably become hoarders, ... read more
Free Halloween Costumes {Day Seventeen}
This is the seventeenth day of my 31 Days of Living Well & Spending Zero challenge. To read all the posts in order, start with Day One or visit the Overview Page. * * * Can you believe Halloween is only two weeks away? Now none of you mentioned it out loud when I first brought up this 31 days challenge last month, but I know at least a few of you were thinking “Spending freeze? In October? Yeah right! What about HALLOWEEN?” Or something like that. But I promise I didn’t forget about Halloween. In fact, the girls and I have been working on ideas for this ... read more
fall leaves canvas {easy kids DiY project}
We had a one-day cold front pass through last week, (and by cold, I mean 85 degrees instead of 95), which I took as a clear sign from above that it was time to dig out the bins of fall decorations. I also took it as a sign that it was time to rock the skinny jeans & knee-high leather boots, even if it was only for one day, and even if I was so hot I thought I might be going through early menopause. Hey, us Florida girls have gotta take what we can get. But I digress. In my eagerness to embrace all things fall, I decided we ... read more
Why I took my kids’ toys away {& why they won’t get them back}
If you follow Project Simplify 365, you already know that I’ve been on a mission this year to simplify my family’s life and rid ourselves of excess. Over the course of this past year I have probably given away about 75 percent of their toys, keeping only the items that I felt encouraged their imagination and that they actually played with. I thought I was doing pretty good. Even so, there were warning signs that my kids still had too much stuff. In June, we took a field trip to Reptile World in Orlando. Afterwards we decided it would be fun to take the girls to dinner at a dinosaur-themed ... read more
3 easy reptile crafts for kids {DiY}
A few weeks ago (or was it months….) I mentioned that we were studying reptiles in our homeschool science class. For reasons that I still don’t understand, my normally all-things-pink-and-pretty girly girls are really, really, really fascinated by snakes, lizards, alligators, & turtles. I suggested a few times that we move on to something else but Princess, who literally gets attached to pretty much everything–she has been known to burst into tears when I throw away a popsicle stick–begged every time to just do reptiles for “just one more week.” In any case, all that time spent studying reptiles gave us plenty of time to do lots of different reptile-themed activities. ... read more
weekend in key west {princess turns 6}
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while I probably don’t have to tell you just how much I love throwing parties. I look forward to my girls’ birthdays all year long, and start collecting party ideas accordingly, picking their themes at least 6 months in advance. So I was more than a little shocked this year when my wise-beyond-her-years little girl said, “Mommy, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I don’t really want a birthday party this year.” I’m not gonna lie: more than a few tears were shed, and not by her. She asked to have one friend over for a sleepover, but when ... read more
Simple Olympics Party {Fun With Kids}
I don’t know about you but here in the Soukup household we have been SO excited for the Olympics to start! We hadn’t made any big plans, but on Friday the girls & I decided it would be fun to throw together a very impromptu party to celebrate watching the opening ceremonies. We invited one other family, spent the morning searching Pinterest for ideas, and the afternoon making our food & decorations. All our projects were very simple & kid-friendly, and by 7pm, we were ready to bring on the games! There are still 2 weeks left to celebrate this once-every-4-years phenomenon, so I thought I’d share what we did. ... read more
reptile world {our first field trip}
I hate snakes. Actually the word ‘hate’ doesn’t even seem strong enough to describe the way I feel about snakes. Just the thought of them makes me shudder. I don’t like talking about them, reading about them, looking at pictures of them, or especially seeing them in person. Unfortunately for me, Princess has been totally fascinated by snakes for years. I wasn’t at all surprised when she chose snakes as our first animal to study. For weeks we read all sorts of books about snakes & other reptiles. We made snake crafts, painted snake pictures, wrote a snake book, & learned all kinds of neat facts, like that some snakes ... read more
summer road trip {quality time with the girls i love most}
The girls and I hit the road last week for our very first girls-only road trip. I was a little nervous about tackling a 9 hour drive with a 5 and 3 year old all by myself, but the girls were absolutely amazing in the car. They were such little troopers and we had SO much fun just hanging out and stopping at (almost) every rest stop along the way. 3 year olds have very small bladders!After spending our first night just outside of Gainsville, we drove to Atlanta to pick up my sister Beth and niece Coryn from the airport (they were flying in from Seattle). The girls were ... read more
captiva island beach weekend {hello, tropical storm debby}
My friends LeeAnn and Melissa and I have talked about vacationing together for almost 2 years now, and this past weekend was the first time that all 3 families could go to the same place at the same time. We booked our weekend at South Seas Island Resort months ago, and we were all excited. Really excited. So we weren’t going to let a little thing like Tropical Storm Debby stand in our way of a good time. Oh sure, when most people think “Beach Vacation” they think of basking in the sun, pina colada in hand, taking only the occasional break to cool off in the ocean or perhaps ... read more
