Yummy Haribo Gummi Candy

Boys Parties:Have a Ball of a TimeThis is a great Summer Birthday idea; it can be done in your own backyard. Send out homemade invitations saying “Roll on over to our house where we’ll have a ball of a time”. Maybe print it out onto a sports ball printer paper. Let the children have free play for an hour, with a yard full of balls, soccer balls, baseballs, and bouncy balls, put up a net, have some bubbles out. Then have cake, the shape of a ball or their favorite sport type cake. You can have a piñata shaped as a ball of choice and then for goodie bags they get a baggie of candy from the piñata and a big bouncy ball. Voila a very fun party with very little effort.Construction PartyAny party can be made simple with a little creativity, let the children have free play, pull out all the big trucks you own, some mega blacks, Lego, anything that they can build, some hardware stores may even supply you with little build it kits. Put out some pretzels or chips in the back of a dump truck; make some sugar cookies to put out as well shaped as trucks, arrows, and anything else that may represent construction in any way. A cake with a road with a little dump truck on it and a worker, maybe a sign or two from any little construction sets you may have or find at your local dollar store. The goodie bags can be a hard hat filled with toy tools, construction type stickers, etc… for putting in such little effort you are sure to get big results.Hot Wheels PartyDecorate your home with blue and yellow balloons and streamers, print off some hot wheels coloring pages from your computer to put out for the kids to color during the party. The cake can easily be made by yourself, by placing a couple cars on a road, you instantly have a hot wheels cake. If you want to take decorating a step further there are many hot wheels party favors out there at your local dollar store or toy store. Goodie bags can be their coloring page that they colored during the party, a hot wheels car, and some candies.Fear Factor PartyThis party is for the daring only. The main activity at this party is the eating contest, make gross food for the party goers to eat such as eyeballs (peeled grapes) and other similar ideas, and just get creative. Also put out brains (cooked cauliflower) for them to touch while blindfolded, they could also touch boiling hot water (actually ice water but if the brain believes it’s hot it tricks them and the freezing cold actually feels hot for a couple of seconds) the ideas are endless. Make a worms and dirt cake. For goodie bags just fill them with anything slimy that you can find, they have those gooey bouncy balls, and candies such as gummy worms.Girls Parties:LuauIf it’s a summer party this can be done outdoors, but there’s no reason you can’t have a luau in the winter indoors. Have the kids come dressed in their favorite summer clothes, you can provide them with hula skirts and leis, play Hawaiian music and for activities you could have a limbo contest, a hula dancing contest, or play a game of hot coconut. The cake can be made to look like a coconut, or decorated as the map of a Hawaiian island, maybe even just nicely decorated with Hawaiian type orchids. Goodie bags can be straw hats filled with anything tropical you can find, some ideas are a bottle of tropical punch, leis, cheap sandals, etc…BratzSince these are the new Barbie’s it seems, why not give your little girl a Bratz party?! When the guests arrive they can all join in on a fun yet minimal makeover, then they can escape to the basement, play room, bedroom, whatever you have where they can dress up in feather boas, costume jewelry, fun clothes, etc… and they can then perform a fashion show. Have the cake be very simple maybe place a new bratz doll or two on top for the guest of honor to keep, then for goodie bags fill them with lip gloss, glitters, and jewels. Slumber PartyIf you’re brave enough to tackle this one, here are a couple of ideas to help you along. The planning for this type of party is actually quite simple because the girls normally just want to watch movies and snack. Keep snacks available like chips, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, and pretzels. If you are feeling creative you can make a chocolate fondue, this will keep them busy for a good hour or so. Decorate the cake as your child’s favorite character or thing, if she’s into horses for example you could make a stable cake. If you need to find a way to keep them busy take them for a walk to your local store or ice-cream parlor, and then it’s time for movies and bed. For goodie bags a small bag filled with over-night goods works great, items such as a toothbrush, nail polish, a flashlight, etc…

Halloween holidays are about partying and excitement. Halloween crafts & games are especially inclined towards kids. It is their enjoying the festivity with good spirit. You need to be creative and innovative to invent new craft ideas to entertain the kids and decorating the house the Halloween way.
Many traditional Halloween games find their roots down in the old folklore. While for looking for these games, internet is the ultimate source, here are a few recommended choices for your next Halloween:
1. Bob the Apple
Here you need a lot of apples dipped in to silver tub. The tub is half filled with water. The game is to pick maximum number of apples in a given time frame with touching with hands. Yes, you pick them with your mouth. This is perhaps the most traditional and the most common yet real fun game for Halloweens.
The trick in this game is quite simple - trap the apple at the tub’s bottom and bite it! It is quite quick and the apple won’t drown away that easily.
2. Make your own treat.
This is based on dirty eating - that is edible dirt and worms.
In clear plastic cups, add scoops of chocolate ice cream at the bottom, one scoop per child. Give each child their cups. Now give them a Zip-Loc baggie. Fill in this baggie with some Oreo cookies. Now instruct the kids to smash these cookies into bit and pieces. What next, pour the cookies in your ice cream. Add the gummy worms. And dig in hard with the spoons. Your personalized spooky ice cream treat is ready to eat.
3. Scary Pumpkin Windows
Get square pieces of orange construction sheets. Now let the kids draw some scary pumpkin faces on them. Further cut out these faces. Let the paper be square because as you may want to decorate the windows with this. Tape this to your windows and illuminate from behind using a lamp. Enjoy the sight of scary windows, the Halloween way!
The choices are surely endless. Just challenge your left brain harder and let your thoughts go wild. You shall be able to develop many other ideas to make your Halloween more exciting. And as we always say, never forget to log on to the internet for any and all sorts of searches and it is indeed the World Wide Web! Hope we have given a kick start to your imagination!

Summers are always fun. And this summer, it became more meaningful as YMCA/JCC Wolf Creek held a Summer Culinary Camp. The week-long activity is spearheaded by Diana Jacobson, a family program director. She was supported by her highly-skilled staff. Jacobson also shared that the day camp tackled the aspect of kitchen safety as well as subjects like math and science and social grace and etiquette. Kids were the participants and they were divided into two groups. Children from the ages of 6 to 12 belonged to one group and kids from 10 to 15 years old belonged to another. During the first session with instructor Amy Tanner, she taught the kids the importance of cleanliness - not just with their selves but also in the cooking process. With nine girls and one boy as her little chefs, instructor Amy demonstrated the proper way of hand washing using warm water and soap. And after that, she taught them about putting on the hairnet to keep their hair from their eyes and from the food that they will prepare. The organizers saw to it that they will make daily activities interesting for the children, so Jacobson made it a point that they would and cook different recipes each day. Day one in the campsite was devoted to cooking sugar cookies with chocolate candy as topping which was something immensely delightful for the kids. They mixed the ingredients and stirred the batter in bowls. And on the second day, they prepared taco in bags. Day three was a special day because it was Outdoor Cooking Day. Organizers built a campfire for a more outdoor feel. It was a fun-filled day as the kids got the chance to cook their marshmallows and hotdogs. Mrs. Tanner and day camp director Sarah Maidon discussed and demonstrated fire safety to the kids. Day four was all about being healthy. It was themed Healthy versus Unhealthy, Couch Potato versus Exercising Outside. And the kids made “Worms on Dirt” and “Ants On a Log” as their activity. Gummy worms, Oreo cookies, pudding, peanut butter, raisins and celery were the ingredients that the kids used for the day’s recipe. Day five was about breakfast and its importance. Monkey bread, pancakes and orange smoothies was the children’s menu for breakfast. Cooking is one of the most important skills one has to learn not just because you can cook any recipe that you fancy, but also because people with cooking skills is one of the most in demand right now. With these in mind, pass on that cooking prowess and let your children know the wonders of Dutch oven cooking. Look for a Dutch oven guide and be the master of your kitchen - with the assistance of your children.

It’s that time of year again: Easter! And as always, you need to create some fun Easter baskets for the children in your life. Whether you are looking for something non-traditional, or trying to come up with a basket that’s fun and yet doesn’t break the bank, or even making your first Easter basket, this article will have something for you.

Each of these baskets are inexpensive and great time savers. They are easy to construct and can be put together in less than an hour. So hop to it and go ahead and create the perfect basket; here there is something for everyone!

Forest Easter Basket

If you know a child that’s an avid hiker/camper/outdoor lover, this is the basket for them. Before you start building the basket, get these items together:

Once you’ve gathered together everything, it’s time to create the basket.

1.       To represent soil, place the brown paper or Easter grass at the bottom of the basket. Then, layer over the brown with the green in order to represent grass. This is a good base to start with.

2.       Next you can add the bunny. You can either use it as a centerpiece and place the plush toy in the middle, or you can place it towards the back so it’s a “supporting” element.

3.       Then it’s time to start adding the eggs. Place them all around the bunny. If you want a very natural looking basket, don’t use too colorful of eggs. But if you like a lot of color, or only have colored eggs on hand, use them.

4.       Next, you can arrange the animal cookies or crackers. Put them among the eggs, so that it looks like they are peeking around them.

5.       Next it’s time to use the green and orange construction paper into “carrots. Cut long triangles from the orange paper for the carrot, and then add the green paper by cutting and shredding a small rectangle that you can tape to the carrot’s base for its leaves. You can decide how many of these you need.

6.       Lastly, if you decided to get some stickers, place a couple of lady bugs and/or butterfly stickers to the handle, as if they were crawling up it. This will give the basket a very forest friendly look.

So now you have the perfect Easter basket for an outdoor lover!

Farm Easter Basket

This basket is very colorful and utilizes the traditional farm animals as symbols of Easter. For this basket you will need:

Now it’s time to build this fun basket:

1.      First, you should mix together the green and yellow Easter grass until it simulates farm hay. Then fill the basket almost full with the mixture.

2.       Next, take your stuffed chicks or baby ducks and place them on top of the hay. Arrange them however you see fit. This could be at random, so they’re evenly spaced, or so they are arranged in a line as if they were following each other.

3.      Then place the eggs all around the plush toys. If you want to add an extra, cute touch, break some of the egg shells so it looks like they just hatched. Put some of the shells on their head or beside them.

4.       Next, if you want to add more candy to the basket, because after all, Easter is a big candy holiday, set some twizzlers or gummy worms around the chicks. This way it looks like they are about to have lunch! Yummy!

5.       Your last step could be to add some colorful flower stickers to the basket, because what spring scene is complete without freshly blooming flowers? Also, take the ribbon and tie it around the handle for that perfect finishing touch.

So there you have it, an adorable farm themed Easter basket! It seems that you can put all your chicks and eggs in one basket after all!

As you can see, Easter baskets can be a really fun way to flex your creative muscle, and create some wonderful new memories of one of the biggest holidays around! Happy Easter!

Halloween Invitations for Your Scary Halloween Party!

As children, most of us fondly remember dressing up in scary costumes and going door to door begging for candy. We didn’t really worry about party Halloween Invitations then because we had plenty to keep us occupied as we strolled through the neighborhood and snacked on our haul of treats. Today, more families are looking for safe alternatives to trick or treating. Sending out costume cards and planning some great Halloween ideas for kids can be a way to still make the holiday fun. Here are some possible games you might want to include in your post-Halloween invite plans.

Green Apple Finding & Halloween Invitations

To play this Halloween game, you’ll need a dozen red apples and one green apple, plus some string and a tree. Fix the apples so they can be hung from the branches of the tree. Now you’ll blindfold each of the kids one at a time, spin them around a few times and send each of them to pick an apple from the tree. Repeat the process until each of the kids has their own apple. The Halloween party invitation recipient who finds the green apple wins a prize. Since this is Halloween, candy is always a good choice. You could also give a caramel or candy apple as a Halloween prize.

Become the Mummy & Halloween Stationary

This can be a fun game for all ages. If you’re working with younger kids, you might want to divide the group into pairs and pass out only one roll of toilet paper to each set. With older children, you should consider diving them into groups of three and giving each group two rolls of toilet paper. The idea is to wrap one of the team members like a mummy using all of the toilet paper. Whichever team uses all of their paper first is the winner. The game is fun but also requires teamwork so it’s useful in many ways. You might even want to send out Halloween cards or custom Holiday Invitations with a mummy theme if you like the idea of making this game a focal point of your event.

Digging Through the Dirt & Personalized Halloween Party Invitations

Send Halloween Invitations Cards to younger kids who won’t be self-conscious about getting dirty and making fools of themselves in front of their friends if you want to play this game. First, you’ll want to make a good load of “dirt” which is really just crushed chocolate sandwich cookies. Generic cookies are a good choice since taste is going to matter and you’ll want to get several bags. Plus, you’ll want to load up on the whipped cream. If you can make your own, that’s a good way to save money. Next, purchase a supply of gummy worms. Divide up the “dirt” and whipped topping mixture evenly for each guest and add the same number of gummy worms to each. Have the kids dig through the crushed cookies to find all of the worms without using their hands. It’s definitely not a scary Halloween game! Trying any or all of these games is a great way to make your guests happy they responded to your unique Halloween party invitations and printed Holiday Invitations.

Halloween is the best time to introduce children under the age of 5 to the world of art and craft making. Preschool Halloween crafts can be made by young children with adult supervision. Preschoolers can be taught valuable lessons about life in general, by involving them in art and craft activities. These experiences will remain with them for a long time and mould their creative talents and artistic skills.
Children below the age of 5 are a precocious lot and they are at a learning stage in their lives. They are just getting to know their surroundings and are eager to learn new things. It is a novelty to them to be able to create craft items themselves. However, the adults need to be very patient and encourage them to create something on their own, be it a drawing, painting or even Halloween crafts. A little guidance on the part of the parents or schoolteachers will go a long way in helping to hone their artistic skills. A search on the Internet for preschool craft ideas will give a number of simple Halloween crafts that can be created by very young children. A few fun Halloween crafts meant for preschoolers are described below to get you started.
After the pumpkin is carved, do not throw away the seeds. They make a great snack if they are roasted with a little salt. You can save some of the seeds so that they can be used for craft decorations. Clean the seeds thoroughly, and let them dry. Take a piece of cardboard or construction paper and cut out a circle. Glue the seeds with the pointed ends facing outwards on to the edge of the circle. Glue a second row on the inner side. Sprinkle some glitter in the center. Punch a hole on the top edge and hang it in the room or upon the wall. Another option would be to paint the seeds and attach a stem to make it into a flower to be put up on the wall.
Edible Halloween crafts are a great hit with preschoolers. Kids usually enjoy eating the craft items they have created themselves. Dirt and worms is one such preschool Halloween craft that a child will enjoy making and eating! You will need a clear plastic cup, chocolate ice cream, some chocolate cookies, a plastic zip-loc bag and some gummy worms. Place the chocolate cookies in the zip loc bag and ask your child to smash them up into little bits. Next, put a small dollop of chocolate ice cream in the plastic cup. Pour the cookie crush over the ice cream and add some gummy worms. Give the kid a spoon to eat their creation and enjoy!
Preschool Halloween crafts are fun for adults and children alike. They help parents to get to know their kids’ creative talents and have great fun bonding together. For more ideas on preschool Halloween crafts, you can surf the net; moreover let your creative imagination take over to create something truly enjoyable for your child.