Category Archives: celebrations

20 Super Fun Holiday Events for Northern Utah

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Christmas is on its way! While this is the most wonderful time of the year, it can also be very stressful. I have spent many hours scouring the web not only for good bargains on gifts but also for some fun local holiday events. As I am typing this post I have 10 tabs open with different holiday calendars. I was hoping someone else would make a great condensed list for me but alas I feel this is my Christmas responsibility to make this for you all!(Although this list from Enjoy Utah was VERY informative) And if you don’t happen to live in Northern Utah- don’t worry, maybe this list will guide you in finding activities in your community.
I am including a few Salt Lake County events that I thought some of you might enjoy!

  1. Layton City Christmas Lights starting November 25. Enjoy a free hay ride through the lights Wednesday December 11 from 6pm to 8pm.
  2. Temple Square Not only can you go see the lights, but there are several events such as Savior of the World, Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert, and the Christmas Devotional. Consider yourself blessed if you are able to get tickets to any of those events! November 29- December 31.
  3. North Pole Express at Heber Valley A pricey train ride but might be worth the trip if you have a train lover in your family! November 29-December 24
  4. Ogden Christmas Village Enjoy a holiday parade/opening ceremonies November 30 at 5:30 pm. If you can’t make it Saturday- don’t worry, this event is up until January 1. And visit Santa at the village Monday-Saturday nights!
  5. Weber County Winter Holiday Festival November 30 from 11am to 8pm. Enjoy holiday displays, a live nativity, music, treats, and more!
  6. Zoo Lights Visit Hogle Zoo at night for a spectacular light display! November 30- December 31
  7. Live Nativity I have never been to one before- I think this is a great way to bring in the Christmas spirit! The one I linked is December 4 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm but you can find them in most any community.
  8. Festival of Trees December 4-7 from 10:00am to 10:00pm.
  9. Holiday Open House at the Ogden Nature Center December 7, 9:00am to 4:00pm. Free admission as well as local crafts/bake sale and activities for the kids. There is also a fun educational program called Snow, Snow, Snow at the Ogden Nature Center where you can learn how animals adapt, travel, and hide in the snow on December 18 from 3:45pm to 4:15pm.
  10. French Toast with Santa on Monday December 9 from 5pm to 7pm at all Utah Kneaders. Proceeds go to Primary Children’s Hospital. (If you don’t mind spending more money Layton has a Breakfast with Santa on December 14.)
  11. Candlelight Christmas at This is The Place State Park December 9-23 Monday-Saturday evenings.
  12. Dickens Christmas Festival December 11- December 14.
  13. An Old Fashioned Family Holiday in South Ogden Chili dinner, tree lighting with the Mayor, and pics with Santa.  December 14 from 6:00pm-8:00pm.
  14. Here Comes Santa Claus Christmas concert performed by the Utah Symphony. December 17th at 7:00 pm.
  15. Santa on a Firetruck: A few cities have the privilege of watching Santa drive down the street on a firetruck. We happen to live in one of those lucky cities!
  16. Holiday TV Shows Planning on staying at home most of the holiday season? This is the list for you!
  17. Nutcracker This is put on by several ballet companies. While I plan on one day taking my daughter to the Ballet West production, we will settle for the Julie Moffitt Ballet School. We went last year and loved it.
  18. Community Plays: White Christmas, Christmas Carol, Littlest Angel at Centerville Theater, Twas the Night Before Christmas at the Ziegfeld Theater in Ogden, Forgotten Carols shown all over Utah and surrounding states, Babes in Toyland put on by the Utah Children’s Theater, and the 12 Days of Christmas at the Empress Theater in Magna just to name a few.
  19. Carriage Ride in Salt Lake or a Horse Drawn Sleigh Ride in Cache County.
  20. Peery’s Egyptian Theater So many fun events- like Brenn Hill’s Cowboy Christmas.
  21. If you are a member of the Treehouse Museum in Ogden, then you can attend the Santa’s Cookies and Milk party on December 7th or 9th.
  22. Centerville City has their Festival of Lights at Founders Park Monday December 2 with a special visit from St Nick himself!
  23. Bountiful has a Holiday Light Parade on Saturday December 7 starting at 6:00pm.
  24. Breakfast with Santa at the Clearfield Aquatic Center- fun activities for kids including an open plunge in their pools!
  25. Kaysville City has their Holiday Lighting and Electric Parade Monday December 2 at 6:00pm.
  26. Come see Santa light up the night at Farmington Station December 29 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Or have breakfast with Santa December 7 from 9:00am to 11:00am at the Harmons located at the Station.
Have fun planning your holiday activities this year.
As always- Happy Teaching!

Rainbow Unicorn Halloween Birthday Party

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My daughter is obsessed with rainbows. And unicorns. And her birthday is on Halloween. I wanted to incorporate all of that into one party theme…. and this is what I came up with.

A Rainbow Unicorn Halloween Party!
First- the decorations:
Rainbow streamers, paint card samples, and pom poms everywhere.

 

Even the pumpkins on the front porch were decked out in colored ribbon to fit the theme.

Treats:
Rainbow slush. So good!


 We made rainbow cookies by adding food coloring to different sections of the dough, sectioning them into little beach balls, rolling those balls into a snake, and then spiraling the snake into a circle. 

A picture of our treat table

One useful idea: Use Ikea plates/cups/utensils instead of purchasing paper products. They are better for the environment, pretty stinking cheap, and you can use them again and again! Plus they are in the rainbow colors- perfect for our theme!

Rainbow M&M treat jar/ balloon weight

Cupcake stand decorated with rainbow ribbon. Even the cupcake wrappers are rainbow colors!

 Of course the birthday girl got a special cupcake complete with a mini unicorn.

 Activities:
We started out decorating trick or treat bags with rainbow stickers and markers. Once they finished that,  they could work on making a rainbow fruit loop necklace.

While the kids worked, the adults mingled. I am still shocked at all the people we fit into our house!

Once the kids were done with their bags, Aaron read them the story “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. Its a tradition to incorporate storytime into Boo’s birthday parties. I pick out the book- and Daddy reads it!

We all came dressed in rainbow colors- except Boo who was wearing a rainbow shirt.

In the basement, we had unicorn races. I made my own stick horses using socks and a broomstick and added a foam cone to make it a unicorn.

We also played with a colorful parachute and rainbow balls. The kids had a riot with this activity!

Our culmintating activity was rainbow trick or treating. We have 6 doors upstairs that I decorated with tissue paper. Luckily I had some awesome volunteers who stood behind each door and passed out candy that was the same color as the door.

The actual day of Boo’s birthday (Halloween) I used rainbow streamers to create a path around our entire house leading to a special treasure: a giant diamond paperweight. Fake, of course 🙂 A special treasure for my most valuable treasure!

Happy Teaching! And Happy Party Planning! 🙂

Heart Rock Collections

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Save those Valentine Heart boxes…. they make super cute rock collection boxes. Because we LOVE rocks!!!

Boo loved examining my rock collection, especially since I let her keep a few.  By the way that entire crate on the right is full of rocks.

Now she is looking over her own collection. These Valentine boxes are the perfect size for those small specimens!

So for all you that love rocks like we do, then this is the project for you! 🙂
Happy Teaching!

Little People Nativity Scavenger Hunt

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I bought this darling Little People Nativity on sale last October (as in over a year ago) and completely forgot about it. So of course when I pulled it out this year I knew I had to do something special with it. This is what I came up with:
Little People Nativity Scavenger Hunt

 

We started our FHE by recalling prior knowledge about why we celebrate Christmas. My daughter’s response was along the lines of “so we don’t get bored”. Yes, we needed a nativity lesson!!! After talking about why we celebrate Christmas, I told her we were going to go on a scavenger hunt to find different things that will tell us more about the story of Jesus’ birth. I had her captivated. Mission accomplished.

Each object had a corresponding scripture, song, or poem on a strip of paper. On the back of the paper I wrote where to go to find the next object.

 

We used the piano bench as our “base”- each time we found a piece to the Nativity we ran it there so we could act out that part in the story.

The objects were hidden in the order they appear in the story of the birth of Christ or where I thought they would appear. I loved the idea of starting at the beginning and acting out the story with the Little People.

 
 
 

don’t forget to have your kiddos have Mary, Joseph, and the donkey walking to Bethlehem before finding the next clue!

 
 

 

the Little People nativity is perfect for this- if you press on the stable it plays Away in a Manger- then you can just sing along!

 
 

so our nativity didn’t come with a shepherd, hence the cowboy playing the part. do i get points for creativity?

 

 

 

it just so happened that we ended our story with an animal my daughter has always wanted. it was perfect!

My daughter is absolutely, without a doubt, is IN LOVE with the Nativity story. Sure, a big part of that is because animals were involved.

She calls Bethlehem her “world” and had to take it to bed with her. I knew it was a victory when she later told me she wanted to play with her nativity instead of going to the dinosaur park ( a place that she loves very much).

I hope this helps you make the story of the nativity come alive for your kids! And of course, if you don’t have a Little People nativity, you could use one that you already have…. or print the pics on this post.


 

Happy Teaching and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Advent Ideas

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I love love LOVE Christmas. Everything about it- the touching story of our Savior’s birth, the bright lights shining in the night sky, the smell of freshly cut pine trees, Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis singing good old fashioned Christmas songs…. I just love it all! So of course I love acknowledging each and every day as we count down to Christmas!
I thought I would share the advent ideas that we are doing this year. I know it’s already the 4th of December, but maybe they will give you ideas for next year- or of course you can always start late 🙂

Christmas Keepsake mini books/ornaments. I found this gem while I was teaching school and have thoroughly loved it- I would recommend this to anyone who loves books, learning about Christmas, and ornaments. After we read the book for the day, we hang it on a little tree next to our fireplace.

Christmas Countdown Blocks
Made these awhile ago with my friends and I love it!

Advent House
I bought this at Target several years ago. I believe it was our first advent calendar. The last two years I filled it with treats and a small activity for us to do together. I even put in money when we worked on coin recognition. This year we went strictly for the treat.

Service Tree
Found this at SugarDoodle and love the idea of getting service into this season. It’s too easy to get caught up in the greed of wanting things- a step back always leads to a greater appreciation for what we do have and a more compassionate and empathetic heart for others.

Last, but certainly not least, the ever talented Shirley at Silly Bean’s Idea Space (we lovingly call her grandma) made this BEAUTIFUL advent box for my daughter. I am absolutely in love with everything about it-  the fun Christmas paper, the pink sparkly vinyl, and the thoughtful little gifts inside that my daughter just TREASURES.  Grandma Shirley, if you are reading this…. we love and appreciate all that you do for our little family. You are SO talented and we are just plain lucky to have you in our lives.

Hope you all have a great holiday season! Happy Teaching!


Fall Bucket List

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It’s time for fall! YAY! I love everything about this time of year and wanted to make sure we accomplished everything fun fall related- so we created a Spooky Pail List! I am excited to share our ideas!!

Yellow and Orange popsicle sticks in a festive Halloween pail

Just like our summer bucket list, I color coded our activities. I decided to keep it simple- completing our summer list got to be a bit of a chore- and while we didn’t complete it we still managed to do about 100 activities! It was WAY too intense. This is what I came up with- and yes, I only used fall colored popsicle sticks which I purchased at the Dollar Tree (that store is my one true weakness).

Yellow Popsicle Sticks (food and treat ideas)
fall cookies
pumpkin pie milkshake– we had this last year and it was SO good- even my husband who hates pumpkiny food liked it!
bake pies
caramel apples

other Yellow ideas that we MIGHT do:
homemade chili
homemade bread bowls
caramel apple cider
plus 50 more fall treat ideas– they look SO good!

Orange Popsicle sticks (activities)
nature walk/ hike
corn maze
pumpkin patch
hay ride
football game
apple orchard
city’s annual pumpkin walk
play in a leaf pile- and take pictures
“boo” our neighbors (so if you happen to be my neighbor and you are reading this- kindly disregard what I just wrote)
leaf art
decorate a pumpkin
scary movie
13 Days of Halloween countdown
Mummy on the Move

other Orange ideas that we might do:
spider ring hair
sprouting pumpkin seeds inside a pumpkin

We are going to be adding Brown Popsicle sticks to our container in November- these will be our Thanksgiving related activities.
Here are some ideas:
thankful rolls
thanksgiving countdown activity for kids- looks super cute!
little turkey cookies
yarn ball thankful turkey

Hope you all have a wonderful fall! Happy Teaching!

General Conference Easter Eggs

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My daughter was extremely excited to watch General Conference this year. I was so proud of her for  desperately wanting to see our prophet and apostles speak. (Or so I thought… she told me later she liked conference because of all the treats. At least she’s honest. I always enjoy the yummy treats, too.)

In order to keep Boo’s interest in watching all 4 sessions of conference, and since Easter was around the corner, I came up with this idea:

Conference Easter Egg Hunt
Supplies: 15 plastic easter eggs, 15 small prizes or treats ( I would make 1 set for each of your children- so if you have 2 kids use 30 eggs, etc)

  1. Print mini pictures (or cut up an old Ensign) of the 12 apostles and first presidency. 
  2. Tape pics to plastic eggs.
  3. Fill eggs with prizes or treats.
  4. Hide eggs. Make sure you hide them in the area that you will be watching conference…. you don’t want to kids to leave the room. That sort of defeats the purpose :).  Or you can be lazy like me and instead of hiding the eggs just toss them all in a basket. 
  5. When an apostle or member of the first presidency speaks, have your little one search for the egg with his picture. Great way to learn the names of our church leaders.
Extension: Write simple summaries of each of the talks. Place each of the summaries inside the conference plastic egg with the church leader’s picture. During family home evening, have each of your children pick an egg. Read and discuss the summary. If possible set goals as a family to apply those teachings.

Dollar Store St. Patrick’s Day Handprint Plate

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Boo and I recently created our third Dollar Store plate- this time with a St. Patrick’s Day flair! I tried making a shamrock plate, but as soon as I saw this adorable handprint leprechaun from Meet the Dubiens I was in love.

Materials for the Leprechaun:

  • Orange and peach paint
  • 2 brushes
  • black, yellow, and green paper for hat
  • marker

Materials for the plate:

  • Variety of colored tissue paper cut into squares
  • Glass plate from the dollar store
  • mod podge/foam brush
Make the handprint leprechaun. (for complete step by step directions on making the leprechaun , head over to Meet the Dubiens!)
Turn the plate over (so the back is facing you). Put the leprechaun facedown on the back of the plate. Then modpodge it on until the leprechaun sticks on the plate. Don’t worry if he looks a little gluey- it won’t stay this way!
Modpodge the tissue paper squares on to the back of the plate to fill in the gaps. Be careful not to rip or tear the tissue paper during this process. 

Turn the plate over and admire your work. Preferrably in front of a large window- I just love how the light shines through the paper!

And it is such a great addition to our St. Patricks Day mantle. (We just rolled up green glitter foam paper and stuck it inside our apothecary jars- simple, yet goes well with our green theme!)

We are having such a great time making these holiday handprint plates! For similar art ideas, follow our hand and footprint pinterest board.

Happy Crafting with your kids- and Happy Teaching!

DIY Embroidery Floss Easter Eggs

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Easter is soon approaching (can you believe it? i am not even ready for st patricks day!) I thought it would be fun to post a quick (and messy) tutorial on how to make some embroidery floss eggs. This would be a fun craft for kiddos (this particular set was completely mommy made however- Boo was not in a crafting mood!)

Materials:
Embroidery Floss (one small skein per egg)
Vaseline
Mod Podge
Balloons (picked these up at the good old Dollar Tree)
Blow up a small balloon until its about the size of an egg. Then coat that balloon with Vaseline. This prevents the Mod Podge from sticking directly to the balloon. 
Cut the embroidery floss into several long strands. Do this before you begin gluing, since your hands will be super sticky. Then dip the floss into your Mod Podge and wrap it around your balloon.

Helpful hint: I covered my table with old sheet protectors. They not only kept my table clean, but the Mod Podge didn’t stick to it. And then, of course, the clean up was fast!

Hang balloons to dry. I just tied a simple knot at the ends of the balloons with white string and hung them in the bathroom on the shower curtain rod.

After a day or so, take the balloons down. The balloons should be shrinking- but the embroidery floss should have kept its original shape. Pop the balloons and take them carefully out of the egg.

And voila! You are finished! And not only would these be fun for Easter, but they make a great addition to Christmas lights (how fun to hang on the deck in the Summer!) and I love the color they add to my home decor!

Have fun crafting with your kiddos- and as always, Happy Teaching!

Mardi Gras 2012

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I have to honestly admit that a week ago I had no idea the purpose or history of Mardi Gras! I knew I wanted to celebrate it with my daughter this year, so I went straight to work doing some research. The best explanation that I found was a kid friendly video from National Geographic Kids.

I made plans to do some Mardi Gras activities and games with my daughter. But as luck would have it, 3 days ago our entire family came down with a nasty chest cold. So although we had to modify our plans a bit due to illness, I wouldn’t let that stinky virus stop us from having fun!

We started our day with festive colored pancakes! Really easy to do- just separate your batter into 3 bowls and add food coloring.

After some needed rest we made some handprint masks. They turned out really cute! I am thinking I will read her bedtime stories tomorrow with my mask- just to spice things up a bit.

I made green,yellow, and purple cupcakes (for the super easy recipe check out Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas blog). I thought it would be fun to use our doughnut pan. They were our own little spin on kingcakes- and instead of adding a little plastic trinket inside the cake, we added strawberries in the center. I think I am going to pull out this doughnut pan more often! Doughnut shaped cookies, brownies, ginormous ice cubes, muffin-tin lunches, strawberry shortcake.. I have officially made myself hungry!

The last Mardi Gras-ish thing we did was had our own mini parade in our basement. Boo decorated her pink little tikes car and scooter with streamers, and we paraded around and made up a Mardi Gras song. It was the highlight of my day! And of course my daughter draws in her journal that the highlight of her day was taking a bath… go figure!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mardi Gras day with your family.
Happy Teaching!

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