Blog Archives
December Christmas Traditions
December is the month for holiday traditions! Coolest Family on the Block has your family Christmas tradition needs covered from Christmas Pajamas, to Ugly Christmas Sweaters, to proof of Santa’s existence, and so much more!
Christmas Book Countdown Advent
Christmas Morning Tradition: Gift Wrap Doorway
10 Ideas For Your Christmas Pajamas Tradition
Ugly Christmas Sweater Tradition
Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest Rules
Santa Proof: Photos of Santa in your home!
Santa Proof: Santa’s Magical Sooty Bootprints
Santa Proof: Phone Calls from Santa
Santa Proof: Watch Santa feed his reindeer!
Make Writing a Letter to Santa a Tradition
How to Mail a Letter to Santa at the North Pole
How to Email a Letter to Santa
What are some of your family’s December traditions?
Let me know in the comments!
Visit my other blog…it’s pointless, sarcastic, and mildly amusing.
JennRian.com: I’m, like, funny…
Celebrating Memorial Day: Patriotic Traditions!
Here are some great family traditions for celebrating patriotic holidays: Memorial Day (May), Flag Day (June 14), Independence Day (July 4th), and Veterans Day (November).
Attend a local parade or other event
Many towns hold parades, fireworks, or memorial services on certain patriotic holidays.
If you live in Beaver County, PA or the Greater Pittsburgh Area you can find local events posted here or on my local Facebook page: Beaver County Family Fun.
Display and/or carry a flag and wear poppies
Wear red, white and blue
(Video here)
Teach the kids to salute servicemen/women and veterans
Teach the kids the Pledge of Allegiance
Here’s a video of Adaline reciting the Pledge of Allegiance when she was 3 years old.
(Video here)
Need more inspiration? See how other bloggers celebrate patriotic holidays…
*Flag Tag Relay Race: @ Spoonful.com
*Flag Day activity for kids: Flag Hunt!: @ No Time for Flashcards
*4th of July Neighborhood Bike Parade: @ Busy Kids Happy Mom
*Making Memorial Day Special and Fun For Your Kids: @ Disney Family
Patriotic Balloon Volleyball, Patriotic Color Race, Plan a Patriotic Party for Memorial Day
*10 Kids 4th of July Celebration Ideas: @ B-Inspired Mama
Have a Kids 4th of July Party, Decorate the House, Play with a Sensory Bin, Make a Kids 4th of July Treat, Dress Up, Have a Picnic, Do a Craft, Learn about Independence Day, Have a Kids 4th of July Parade, Decorate Your Bike
*Our Family Flag: @ Beauty and Bedlam
”What better way than the 4th of July to create your own Family Flag? Use construction paper, felt, or fabric. Select…symbols that represent each member of your
family.”
*Activities to Teach your Child about Memorial Day: @ Premeditated Leftovers
Have a History Lesson, Observe the Moment of Silence at 3 PM and Important Tradition, Learn About Your Military Relatives, Gather for a Family Cookout, Learn a Patriotic Song Together, and More Patriotic Activities for Kids
*10 Ways to Celebrate Memorial Day with Your Child!:
@ Super Coupon Lady
Go to your local cemetery, Fly your flag high, Find out about Memorial Day events in your city, Bring donations to your local veteran’s hospital, Enjoy children’s Memorial Day books together, Make a patriotic themed craft, Wear patriotic colors, Take a moment of silence, Attend a Memorial Day parade, Teach your kids to place their right hands over their hearts when they see the flag go by
*Memorial Day for Kids {A Few Ideas}: @ Fun-A-Day
A Simple American Flag Craft, Drawing Pictures for Marines (or other servicemen/women), Visiting a family member’s grave
*Memorial Day Activities for Kids: @ My Kid’s Guide
Make bouquets and wreaths, Make flags, Visit the local veterans hospital, Memorial Day Activities for Kids: Visit Veterans, Read stories on Memorial Day, Everyone wears red, white and blue
*10 ways to say thank you on Memorial Day: @ The House of Hendrix
Use your phone, Tweet use the #wearegrateful hashtag, write a letter, Fly a flag, Attend a parade, Make patriotic cookies, Pray for the families, give a discount to veterans, offer to do yard work, Do something
*10 Memorial Day Traditions That Are More Meaningful Than a BBQ:
@ The Stir Cafe Mom
Visit a veterans’ home, Visit the local veterans cemetery, Attend a parade., Attend a memorial service, Raise your flag, Honor the National Moment of Remembrance, Hoist a POW/MIA flag, Visit a battlefield, Watch/Listen to the National Memorial Day Concert, Share a photo of your beloved fallen soldier/airman/etc. on Facebook or Instagram.
*Discover and Share Memorial Day Traditions and Activities: @ PBS.org
Displaying the Flag, Visiting Gravesites, Participating in the National Moment of Remembrance, Visiting Local Veterans Homes and Hospitals, Attending Memorial Day Parades, Experiencing the Nation’s Memorials, Brushing Up on Family and American History, Wearing Memorial Day Poppies
*5 Family Activities for Memorial Day Weekend: @ Parent Society
Get out and grill, Watch a parade, Watch the fireworks, Snag some savings, Root, root, root for the home team
*Celebrating Memorial Day with Children: @ No Twiddle Twaddle
Honor a soldier’s grave, Read books that honor soldiers
*Sharing Memorial Day with Kids: @ The Educator’s Spin on it
*Memorial Day Books for Kids: @ 3 Boys and a Dog
How does your family celebrate patriotic holidays? Let me know in the comments!
May Day (May 1st) Traditions
May 1st is “May Day”! On May Day there is a tradition of leaving baskets of flowers or goodies hanging on your neighbors’ doors anonymously. Other ways to celebrate May Day include the Maypole, building fairy houses, making/wearing a floral hat or wreath, and even a Magic Jellybean Lollipop Garden (a tradition that my family does for Easter). Below you will find a round up of May Day ideas from around the web including traditions, maypole tutorials, May Day treats, and free May Day printables.
You can find inspiration and tutorials for May Baskets on my May Day pinboard. A May Day Basket post will be coming someday. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. Who knows?! (I sure don’t.)
MAY DAY TRADITIONS
*6 Ways to Celebrate May Day: @ WikiHow
Adding a Maypole to Your Backyard, Warming Up By a Bonfire, Trying Other Dancing, Enjoying May Day Food and Drink, Celebrating May Day with Flowers, Trying a Little May Magic
*The Most Fun May Day Traditions: Magic Morning Dew, Fairy Houses and Foliage Accessories: @ BunchFamily.ca
*Jack in the green: @ Wikipedia.org
*Creating Summer Hats: @ Creative Connections for Kids
*May Day Flower Headband Tutorial: @ Simple Simon and Co.
*May Day – Magic Jelly Beans: @ Nothing But Country
*Super Mommy Secret~May Day Tradition: @ Secrets of a Super Mommy
*An Old-Fashioned May Day Celebration: @ Mrs. Gore’s Diary
*Montessori Inspired May Day Activities: @ Living Montessori Now
A great collection of links to May Day Activities
*LOCAL SPRING FESTIVALS!
Check your local community to see if they are hosting a spring or May Day festival!
Adelina from @ Home Maid Simple shared her family’s trip to the Provo Spring Festival complete with Maypole dancing!
*Carrying on the May Day Tradition: @ Omahaha
MAYPOLES
*Paper Towel Roll Maypole Craft: @ DLTK-Kids
*Children’s Maypole Tutorial: @ Mommy Blessings
*Making a Maypole: @ MarthaStewart.com
*Maypole Dancing and DIY Maypole: @ How to Run a Home Daycare
*May Day and DIY Maypole: @ Montessori Mischief
They used a tall floor lamp as a maypole!
MAY DAY TREATS AND SNACKS
*DIY Mini Maypole Cakes: @ Studio DIY
Cute Maypole bundt cake made with a stripey straw and ribbons.
*May Day Cupcakes: @ Cupcake Project
*Maypole cupcakes: @ Martha Stewart
*Maypole Cake: @ Fiskars
MAY DAY PRINTABLES
*Start a May Day Tradition with these Free May Day Printables: @ Happy Money Saver
*May Day Surprise: @ Creative Preschool Resources
Free printable tag
*Free Printable May Day Gift Tags: @ Skip to My Lou
*DIY Printable May Day Basket: @ Alpha Mom
*Printable May Day Basket Template: @ Printables4Kids.com
*Free Printable May Day Basket (cone): @ The Neighborhood
*May Baskets Poem and Poster / Coloring Sheet: @ DLTK
Do you celebrate May Day? What’s your May Day tradition? Let me know in the comments!
Easter Tradition: Magic Jellybean Prayer and Lollipop Garden
Confession: I kinda hate jellybeans. I think they’re gross. Not only are they way too sweet (in a not good way) but they always sink to the bottom of the Easter basket and then you have to dig around for them inside of that disgusting plastic Easter grass that feels gross and smells horrible. Some kids might’ve found digging for their candy to be fun, but it just got on my nerves. And who wants to eat candy that was just floating around loose rubbing all over that yicky Easter grass? Not I, says Jenn. Not I.
But, jellybeans are mandatory in Easter baskets otherwise the Easter basket police will come take me away and shove jellybeans down my throat until I agree to feed them to my children. Or maybe not. But my kids (who clearly have very poor taste in candy) love jellybeans.
All that to say…hey, people, have you heard of the Magic Jellybean Prayer and Lollipop Garden? For the past few years I’ve taken a basic Easter Egg Hunt, The Jellybean Prayer, and the Magic Jellybean Lollipop Garden Easter traditions and put them all together.
(Watch video here)
The first year that we tried this we were going to plant the jellybeans out in the yard but it ended up being too cold to have the kids outside for that long. Instead I grabbed a random pot of dirt at my mom’s house (because who doesn’t have a random pot of dirt sitting around) and planted the jellybeans in the pot inside the house first and then we set the pot out on the porch.
If the weather is nice enough we have an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Nothing fancy, I literally just toss eggs filled with pennies out in the yard moments before the kids come out. Mixed in with the other Easter eggs are 5 special jellybean shaped Easter eggs.
When the hunt is over the children give me the jellybean eggs that they found and gather around for the Magic Jellybean Prayer. Inside each jellybean egg is a part of a poem and several jellybeans. I open the eggs in order and read the rhyme and give each child a jellybean to eat and one to plant.
How to grow a lollipop garden from magic jellybeans:
-Read the Jellybean Prayer
-Plant the jellybeans in a pot of sugar or directly in the ground.
-Set the planted jellybeans in Easter Eve moonlight or Easter sunlight and wait for them to grow.
(Magic jellybeans will need all night to grow when using moonlight, but they grow in only a few short minutes when put in Easter sunlight.)
-Your magic jellybeans will become a tasty lollipop garden!
I found the poem I use for The Jellybean Prayer at Happy Home Fairy.
(By the way if you like all of the holiday ideas on my blog you’ll love Julie’s blog. Not only does she blog way more regularly than I do, but she’s super nice and sweet and not cranky and sarcastic like me 😉 It’s a breath of fresh air compared to what you normally get around these parts. Shut up. < see?)
The Jellybean Prayer (Free Printable) @ Happy Home Fairy
There is another version of The Jellybean Prayer that is all over the internet but I’m not really fond of it because I think the rhyme is cheesy and hardly has anything to do with Easter (orange is for the edge of night…whaaa?). So, because I’m picky I really prefer the prayer shared on Happy Home Fairy. I think the rhymes and colors make more sense and it’s sweet and simple for kids to understand.
I really try to avoid giving the children artificial colors and flavors when I can so I used Hammond’s Natural Lollipops (available on Amazon). The flavors you see below are Cherry (Pink, White, Red) and Peach Mango (Green, Orange, Red)
(They also have Butterscotch (Cream, Gold Stripe), Pomegranate (Red, Orange, White Stripe), Lemon (Yellow, White Stripe), Root Beer (Brown, Tan, White Stripe), Cinnamon (Red, White Stripe), Orange (Orange, White Stripe), and Mint (Red, White Stripe).
In the photo from 2012 I used YumEarth Organic Lollipops.
If you don’t mind the artificial colors you can find lots of colorful swirl lollipops on OrientalTrading.com
The jellybeans that I gave the kids to eat were vegetarian Green Beans All Natural Jelly Beans and Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans.
The jelly beans we planted were just regular ones from the dollar store and since we don’t eat them I save the bag for planting each year.
I got the Dudley’s Jelly Bean Filler Eggs at Hobby Lobby years ago. Good luck finding them anywhere online, I haven’t had any luck.
The kids have enjoyed planting the Magic Jellybeans for the past few years and this year Jonathan will be old enough to join in the fun with his sister and cousin.
Have you ever planted a Magic Jellybean Lollipop Garden? Is the Jellybean Prayer part of your Easter traditions? Let me know in the comments!
**DISCLOSURE: This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links. If you purchase something using these links I may get a small amount of money. This does not change my opinion of the products recommended, all opinions are my own.
*FREE PRINTABLE EASTER BUNNY PAW PRINT TEMPLATE
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2011
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2012
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2013
*50+ EASTER EGG DECORATING IDEAS
April Holiday Traditions
April is almost here and it’s time to start planning your holiday traditions!
Here are some ideas for family traditions for April holidays.
*30+ APRIL FOOLS PRANKS TO PLAY ON YOUR KIDS
If you’re not really digging the idea of pranking your kids maybe you can come together
as a family and create some silly and foolish April Fools Day fun with these…
*APRIL FOOLS DAY FAMILY TRADITIONS!
*FREE APRIL FOOLS PRINTABLES!
Just print and prank! 😉
*EASTER TRADITION: MAGIC JELLYBEAN PRAYER AND LOLLIPOP GARDEN
*FREE PRINTABLE EASTER BUNNY PAW PRINT TEMPLATE
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2011
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2012
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2013
*50+ EASTER EGG DECORATING IDEAS
How to Make Leprechaun Footprints: Video Tutorial
How to make leprechaun footprints: video tutorial
Here’s a quick video tutorial showing you how to make the leprechaun footprints that you see in these posts:
*Leprechaun trickery is afoot! and
*St. Patrick’s Day Tradition: Leprechaun Footprints.
I also included some footage of Adaline discovering the mess the leprechauns made in 2013.
(Watch video here)
To make leprechaun footprints:
-Put green Crayola washable fingerpaint on a plate, piece of paper, or thick paper towel
-Make a fist and dip your hand into the paint (dab off the excess)
-Press your fist onto your surface of choice
-Use your pinky finger to make toes
-Repeat using other hand
More details:
-It takes me about 45 minutes to make the mess.
-I do ALL of the prints for one foot/fist at the same time so that I don’t have to keep switching hands.
-It takes about 5 minutes to clean up the footprints.
-The footprints wipe off easily with water. You may want to use some soap if the paint was on long enough to dry.
-My daughter enjoyed cleaning up the footprints.
Has a leprechaun ever visited your house? What kind of things have your kids thrown in the toilet? Let me know in the comments!
*March Holiday Traditions
*Leprechaun Visit 2013: Little green footprints!
*Leprechaun Visit 2011: Magic green milk, footprints, and more!
*50+ FREE St. Patrick’s Day Printables (Links)
*The time that Buddy the Elf stole a picture from my blog!
*30+ April Fools Pranks You Can Play on Your Kids!
Great for Leprechaun tricks and Elf mischief as well!
*Easter Bunny Tracks: Paw Print Trail!
*Santa’s Magic Sooty Bootprints!
This post is linked to…
SITS craft link up / SITS Sharefest /Kids Activities Blog: St. Patrick’s Day