Do you read daily with your little ones? We all know there are so many benefits to creating a reader. Some of our favorite darling moments in our own homes come from reading with our kids too! 

Here are a few simple tips we’ve found helpful to keeping reading times fun and interesting, and engaging.

📚 Let them choose the book so they'll be excited about it!

📙 Face books out on shelves if you can so the cover is visible, not just the spine of the book. 

Book ledges are perfect for this.

📘 Swap out the books on your book ledges, or those in closest reach for your kids.

You can use books you already have or borrow from the library.

📖 Last, find a few books with flaps that are interactive.

Your little one will love finding what is under those flaps! 

Pictured books:

I Love The Mountains

If You Were Spaghetti 

More Lucy Darling books!

2. Make the space dark and cool.

If you haven’t gotten black out curtains, this will be a great investment. There are so many affordable options now and we love this for both the smallest and biggest members of our family.

3.Don’t forget the white noise! 

This is likely not new to many of you, but it’s something we really cannot live without.

 4. Use a Blanket Lovey as a sleep cue.

Even if your baby is not yet ready for a lovey in their crib, you can let them snuggle while you go through your bedtime routine as a sleep cue. A story time book, soft lovey, and snuggles with their grownups are all they need to let them know it’s time to sleep. 

Pictured:Blanket Lovey, Story Books

Hi Darlings!

Happy National Pizza Day!

This might be one of my absolute favorite posts to make because we love making pizza in our house so much. We have tried it all...we’ve bought pre-made crust, made our own dough, even grilled our pizza, and sometimes we use a whole wheat tortilla to make a fast and easy pizza. I think whole wheat tastes more like a flatbread than a tortilla but any kind you have will work!

If you have the time, making your own pizza dough is pretty simple and just takes about an hour to rise, I prep a few hours before dinner time. My 4 year old loves to see how much the dough rises! This is one of our favorite recipes: https://www.loveandlemons.com/pizza-dough/

Because we are so close to Valentine’s Day, we of course had to make some mini heart shaped pizzas. The best part for our little one is spreading the sauce and adding the cheese. My tip is to add a tiny bit of parmesan on top of your mozzarella or pizza mix. We keep it simple with a store bought sauce and pre-shredded cheese too.

I hope you get the chance to have a darling diy pizza night with your family soon!

Well it's time again for Valentine's Day, and in our house it's just another chance to craft and celebrate all things hearts and glitter. We love making homemade cards, and this year we are having fun with yarn! (so if glitter makes you break out in a sweat we've got you mama)

I made a printable (you can download it here) that is great for beginning scissor skills and works with yarn or any string you have on hand! You can make this valentine as fancy or simple as you like, but I think no matter which way you do it, seeing your unique rainbow will be a lot of fun for everyone.

Hope you enjoy!