We're so excited about these new party boxes! Each of box contains everything you will need to throw a beautiful, coordinated (and easy!) party for your little one. And each corresponds with one of your favorite memory books! While the party boxes take care of most of the party decor, we thought it'd be fun to round up some extra crafts, decorations, and snacks to go with the themes. Here's a twist on flower crowns for a little artist party!

It's sometimes tricky for little ones to keep those lovely wreaths on their heads, so I thought about using basic headbands instead! You can use any, but I found thin ones to be easiest with the floral tape. I also found some cute leaf washi tape to help everything stay together!

As for your flowers, you just have to make sure you don't get carried away by anything too huge :). I tried to pick out smaller blooms with flexible stems.

Then I cut each flower, leaving enough stem to attach it to the headband with the floral tape.

Then I marked where the flowers should start (you don't want any flowers tickling their ears and getting ripped off!), and used the floral tape to secure them. The floral tape is much stickier than the washi tape, so I used the washi tape to cover the headband itself, and then the floral tape to secure the flowers to the headband, and then went back and covered visible parts with the leafy washi tape! Alternate the flowers a bit side-to-side to help the crown look more full.

They all ended up so cute! And they didn't take long, so I think they could be made ahead of time for party favors, or as a craft during the party itself. The girls loved picking out their own flower combinations!

We added some leaves to this one, and I love how it looks!

As you can see, they couldn't stop at just one! :) 

We're so excited about the new party boxes! Each of these boxes contains everything you need to throw a beautiful, coordinated (and easy!) party for your little one. And each corresponds with one of your favorite memory books! While the party boxes take care of most of the party planning, we thought it'd be fun to round up some extra crafts, decorations, and snacks to go with the themes. Here's a simple dessert for an animal lover party!

This is ideal for your very littlest helpers, because they can make it all themselves! You just need milk, and both vanilla and chocolate pudding mixes.

Following the directions, make the puddings in separate bowls:

And then make sure to chill the puddings for at least an hour in the fridge. You want to make sure they're as firm as possible!

I found these cute yogurt cups which we've started using for so many things - their lids make them super convenient. 

Now it's time to layer! We found that ice cream scoops were best for getting the right amount of pudding into the cup each time. Alternate the vanilla and chocolate puddings, trying to level them out a bit each time - but no stress! Zebra stripes aren't straight! :)

And for an animal lover party, it's obviously all about the presentation! Black and white striped ribbons around the jars, and little zebra toys for the guests to take home make this simple dessert a crowd-pleaser.

 I know we're officially in the Christmas countdown now, but we still have some beautiful colors from our trees! The other morning we went for a walk with friends with no clear plan besides collecting pretty leaves. When we got back home we rummaged in our craft drawer, and with just construction paper and contact paper (really! that's it!) we came up with these cute little leaf friends!

First we sorted through the leaves they'd collected to try to weed out any dirty/wet ones. We left way ore than they'd need, and a variety of colors and shapes so that they could pick their favorites!

Then we cut out some rough shapes from construction paper for the bodies and beaks, etc.

Then we had the kids place the pieces on the sticky side of a piece of contact paper:

Then they placed leaves over the "bodies" for feathers (or quills, for our hedgehog!):

And then we just helped by putting a second piece of contact paper on top when they were done! They look really pretty in a window (but were surprisingly hard to photograph there, so here they are making one of our walls more festive. :)

I think this was the kids' favorite craft from the last few months! So simple, and they could do almost all of it themselves, so they were very proud. :) I'm already thinking about doing a whole woodland scene in our front windows next fall!

I love Thanksgiving! No matter how hectic life is, it always helps us slow down, remember all that we have to be thankful for, and focus on what's really important as we start the holiday season. Also...pie! 

The kitchen is usually full and busy on Thanksgiving, so I think it's fun to let the kids be a part of preparation in a way that doesn't risk burns. :) Having them help with place settings also makes them super proud when everyone gathers around the table! Here are some cute ideas I found for this year:

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Which one would you choose? Happy Thanksgiving!

I think most of the time around here, my littles are the ones requesting specific desserts and treats. But sometimes, a craving strikes and Mom's the one suggesting chocolate before dinner! :)

This treat happened simply because 1) I love chocolate pretzels and 2) my daughter found these candy eyes at the store one day. I knew we had some white baking chocolate, so I thought it'd be super easy to make some pretzel ghosts!

But as you can see above, I didn't have as much white chocolate as I thought I did. Milk and dark chocolate, on the other hand, are never lacking in our house! So we made an adjustment and decided to add some monsters to our ghosts.

When you're melting chocolate, the temperature matters quite a bit! You can heat it on the stove or in the microwave, and it's helpful to not melt it all the way. Stop it before it's liquid, and then stir - the stirring action will smooth it out the rest of the way! If it seizes (hardens) at any point, you can just reheat it. We found that candy melts work better than other kinds of chocolate for this project.

It's very hard to get a toddler to hold a jar of chocolate without moving. ;) I transferred the melted chocolate into this mason jar - you want to use something tall and narrow. This made it much easier for little hands to dip the pretzel rods in the chocolate without making a huge mess!

Put the dipped pretzels on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet. The decorate however you'd like, making sure to move quickly before the chocolate hardens! Since monsters can be as goofy as you can imagine, this was the perfect project for imprecise toddler hands. :) The candy eyes are what make this great! 

Then simply wait for everything to harden! You can put them in the fridge or freezer if you'd like, but it will also work at room temperature within an hour.