DIY Gift Idea: Family Memory Game

I managed to knock a couple big crafty to-dos off my list this past weekend, one of which was a gift for Claire's upcoming third birthday. I made the same thing for our nephew, who turned three a few months ago, and wanted to share a little tutorial for this super-cute, personal gift that will be treasured for years to come.

Family Memory Game
This is a basic matching game, like the versions you can buy in stores with animals or cartoon characters or whatever on it. Kids from age 2 or 2 1/2 can learn to pick up two face-down cards, see if it's a match, and if not, remember where they are to try to get a match on subsequent turns. This DIY game uses photos of family members, keeping the faces of far-flung relatives fresh for kids and helping them learn to read the names of loved ones.

I made mine with 12 family members, for a 24-piece game. You could do more or less, depending on the number of relatives (and pets, close friends, etc.) you want to include.

Supplies:
Photos of family members (cropped to 3x4, two on a 4x6 photo)
3 1/2 x 4 1/2 cards (wood or chipboard)
scrapbook paper with a small, regular pattern
acrylic paint and brush
Mod Podge and sponge brush
corner rounder (optional)

Step 1: Editing the Photos
Find a good picture of each family member that can be cropped fairly close around his or her face and not have other people in the frame. Crop each to 3 x 4, two on a 4 x 6 photo for easy and cheap printing. Including the person's name is nice, I think, since the names of family members are often among the first words kids learn to spell, read, and write. Once you have the template set up, editing each person's photo goes pretty quickly.

Step 2: Prepping the Cards
I had planned on using cardstock and laminating them, but decided such a thin card would be hard for tiny hands to pick up. Chipboard would have worked well, but I ended up finding these 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 wood cards at Michael's that are the perfect size, with nicely rounded corners. They come in packs of four for $3.99 each, making the project a little more expensive than I intended (around $30 total) but they are nice and substantial.

I painted the sides that would form the background for the photos white, for a nice consistent background.

 

While that side is drying, cut the scrapbook paper to 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 pieces. I used a corner rounder on them at this point, since the wood cards were rounded.  When the painted side is dry, Mod Podge the scrapbook paper to the other side.

  
Step 3: Prepping the Photos
While the Mod Podge is drying, separate the two matches of each person. Round the corners, if that suits the shape of your cards.

Adhere photos to the painted side. You could use glue/Mod Podge, but I ran them through the Xyron sticker-maker to add permanent adhesive, then Mod Podged over it for a nice sheen. (I skipped that last bit with Claire's, and they still look lovely :)

 

Step 4: The Packaging
Find a nice box that will hold all the cards. Scan a couple of the cards so the "cover" of the box can show some real game pieces. Type up the title and directions, and use some of the leftover scrapbook paper from the opposite side of the cards for a coordinating box.  

I know our nephew and his parents are enjoying their game, and I can't wait for Claire to open hers in a month or so, so we can play our own game of "Family Memory" too.

The Kitchen Table #TBTStories

Throwback Thursday Stories, hosted by The Mom Creative.

Today: 1984. I was turning three.

I recently bought a new kitchen table and chairs. We just got all new kitchen cabinets and countertops too, so I definitely wasn't wanting to spend money on new furniture at the same time, but our old table and chairs were kaput. More accurately, just the chairs, which were falling apart underneath us.

You see, that dining set was my parents' first, purchased when they got married in 1973. It was in my house growing up until I was thirteen, when we moved to a new house and my mom upgraded to a new set. This one sat in the basement for a decade (a well-earned sabbatical after 21 years of service), until I had my first little apartment in grad school. It became mine and has graced Matt's and my kitchens in Nashville, Clarksville, and now back to Nashville.

The table itself and the two chairs in less-bad condition now reside in the playroom, where they will host many hours of puzzles, games, and homework in the years to come. I'm glad not to be tossing the thing entirely, because it has such sentimental value. Forty-one years of family dinners just me and my parents, afternoons of homework throwing my math book across it, and birthday celebrations like the one in the photo above, when I turned three, surrounded by my parents, all four grandparents (such a blessing to have them all live close by), and a great-aunt and -uncle who never had children of their own. This was the crowd that gathered every year on my birthday, and it was always so special.

I chose this photo because you can actually see the style of the chair around my little toddler body. I spotted a similar style when watching the movie American Hustle last night. Such a seventies style, and I won't forget it. We're upgrading and getting with the times now, but the memories made around such a simple thing as the kitchen table will continue to grow with my own kids.

Kate's Winter Wonderland Tea Party

Tuesday was Kate's fifth birthday. She's smart, tall, creative, and SOOO ready for kindergarten, which I can't believe begins later this year! Matt and I were actually out of town on her birthday, but since Kate firmly believes that it is blowing out one's candles that makes one magically turn a new age, it was her party on Saturday that really mattered.

I tried something different this year, after three years of parties where we invited whole families and everyone mingled while the kids played. This year, I thought we'd try a kids-only party (mommies optional) with a "Winter Wonderland Tea Party" around the dining room table.

We invited just four friends, since our dining room has six chairs (four guests, plus the birthday girl and her sister) and I planned activities to keep six little girls ages 2-6 occupied for two hours. After coordinating VBS last year, I was well aware how time is harder to fill than you think and how groups of kids so easily dissolve into chaos!

There were definitely moments of chaos, but overall, I thought it was really fun and special (partially because of the chaos, I'm sure, if you ask Kate!) I'm so excited to share it with you.

First, the Theme and Decor
To me, January equals light blue as much as February equals red and March equals green. So I was eager to deck the halls with light blue, silver, and white, and to take advantage of after-Christmas sales to find lots of snowflake-themed stuff. (The Mom Creative would approve: check out her post on party planning in advance.) I went to Michael's the day after Christmas and found snowflake ornaments, ribbon, and cupcake liners, plus silver doilies and netting, at 50-70% off. I later found snowman chocolates and snowflake-themed paper plates and napkins on clearance, too.

 

I decorated the table with the netting, ribbon, ornaments, doilies, and snowmen, plus some crystals (the type that would go in a vase) that I found at church, leftover from a wedding held seven months ago.

 

 

I hung ribbon and ornaments from the light fixture (above) and made a banner for the mantle with extra ribbon, doilies, and some scrapbook paper (below). One benefit of centering the party around a table was less pressure to decorate the whole downstairs!

The Food

There was tea, of course, this being a "tea party," but I suspected the kids would not all care for tea, so we also had lemonade and apple juice. My mother-in-law collects tea pots, so she had a big selection of blue and silver ones from which to choose.

 

 

The party began at noon, so I had lunch food for the kiddos. I plated their grapes, cheese, and crackers, and then carried around the tray of tea sandwiches for them to choose. I made egg salad and pimento cheese sandwiches, cut into little triangles. (As Kate said, "I don't want tea in my sandwich!") For the record, the kids hardly ate anything. They were too busy being silly around the table, thrilled by the idea of a kids-only meal.

 

I had the same food and a selection of teas laid out for the mommies in the kitchen to snack on. One mommy was out of town and another had to work, but the two that were there and Kate's grandmothers hung out in the kitchen while the kids ran in to tattle ("Claire poured her own tea!...well, so did I") and stampeded through when Kate said she had to go potty and all the other girls agreed, cramming themselves into our half-bath!

 

In place of a big cake or cupcakes, we had petit fours (ordered from Publix—delicious!) and snowflake cookies my mom made.

Activities 
I let the kids play as everyone arrived, and then called them to the table, served the "tea" and lunch. After they finished (or, rather, claimed they were finished eating) I brought out supplies for a beaded snowflake craft, prepared and plated for each child so we wouldn't have to be passing out each individual item.

Pointing out the sample I'd made, I gave a brief how-to, and the moms and grandmas helped the kids as needed. Not requiring any glue or scissors, they simply twisted sparkly pipe cleaners together, threaded pony beads along them, and folded the ends over!

 Before we sang "happy birthday" and passed out petit fours, I gave each child a dessert plate with marshmallows, pretzel sticks, a sliver of carrot, and various candies, with which to make a snowman (and eat him, as desired, alongside their petit fours and cookies).

After cake and presents, the kids got up from the table for a little game (followed by open playtime until parents arrived). I cut holes in a tri-fold presentation board and had cotton balls in a bucket for the kids to toss through the holes. (Kate helped draw snowflakes on the board,  but the Exact-O knife was all Mommy.)

It was a fun little party for my big birthday girl. We let the men back in the house for a family party that evening with pizza, ice cream, and her big gift from all the grandparents—a balance beam and mat to improve her gymnastics skills!

Happy birthday, K-bear!

January

January always feels like such a "clean" month. I'm not sure that's the word I'm really looking for, but there's that feeling after you pack up all the Christmas stuff and get back into your routine, plus the bare trees and (depending on where you live) a smooth, white blanket of snow may cover the ground.

Our schedule has been a little wild this month, as I've been traveling the past couple weeks for work, and will head out again next week for a conference. The good news is that the big girls went with me the first week and Matt is going with me this next week, so only this past week did I feel like I was abandoning my family. Matt is such an awesome dad, though, and doesn't blink at caring for all the girlies himself for a few days.

We've been doing a lot of puzzles this month. The girls got a few new ones for Christmas, and I decided to introduce Claire to 24-piece jigsaw puzzles that say "age 3+." She's been doing pretty well for a 2 1/4 year old! (I guess I haven't taken pics of that, though, as these two puzzle pics are both age-appropriate with letters and colors.  

Despite the polar vortex and this past week's cold snap, there have been a couple warm days in there. We had a friend over one Sunday afternoon, and they played outside for a while without jackets!

Claire did wear a jacket, and while she may look cold in this picture, it's really her "I scared!" face, as Kate and her friend were exploring the "fort" inside a clump of evergreen trees and imagining scary things under there! (She's carrying her tool kit I got her for Christmas--she likes to carry it around more than actually open and play with it!)

I was in mama heaven watching them out the window while doing dishes at the kitchen sink. I mean, more heavenly would have been not having dirty dishes to do, but I was filled with love for our house that affords such a nice view of the yard so I can keep an eye on the kids while cleaning up!

 

Quick updates on the kiddos, rowdy as ever: 

BGC got ear tubes last week to hopefully prevent all her drainage and infections, plus they wanted to do a more invasive hearing test while she was under anaesthesia. She'd failed every other hearing test she'd had, and this test confirmed that she has severe hearing loss, so she'll be getting fitted for hearing aids soon. She's making amazing progress, though, getting close to sitting up unassisted and maybe even creeping. She's getting quite adept at rolling where she wants to go, and is finally accepting a soft-spouted sippy instead of a bottle. Yay!

Clairy-Bear is two-and-a-quarter, still such a ham. She loves sunglasses and peanut butter, so I love this photo of her in her heaven! And I love that toothy grin!

And Kate! Kate will be FIVE next week! Her party is tomorrow, and--fitting for her January birthday--we're having a "Winter Wonderland Tea Party." The table and mantle are decked out in silver, white, and light blue. We've got petit fours on order and fun activities planned. Can't wait to tell you all about it, but here is a little sneak peek!

Claire's Harvest Party

Claire turned two on Nov. 1, and we had her fun farm/harvest-themed party on Nov. 2. We've been on the go quite a bit since then, thus the delay in sharing the details, but it was really so darling, I can't wait to tell you about it.

 

Theme
I ordered the invitations off Etsy, and just adore them. The designer tweaked them (free of charge) to my color scheme of pink, orange, and yellow.

Since we have way too many toys as it is, we asked for food for our church's food pantry in lieu of gifts, and I collected all our CSA boxes from the farmer's market all summer to have a thematic receptacle for all those non-perishables! (I took that pic before the party even started--we collected about ten whole boxes and bags full!)

 

For the decor, I used pennant banners in pink, orange, and yellow, as well as some burlap (made that wreath with an easy tutorial and plan to switch out the embellishments to use for other seasons), a scrap of yellow gingham picnic tablecloth I had around, and some bright, casual flowers.

 

A friend introduced me to the word "tablescape" when it came to my party decor, and while it sounds hilariously pretentious, I think this party was my favorite "tablescape" yet! I left it up for days and smiled every time I passed through the dining room.

 

I made this little photo box displaying a couple favorite photos from our trip to the farm a few weeks ago. The box, before I painted it, was a purple Melissa & Doug toy package—those little divided wooden containers M&D toys come in are the best. We have one in the girls' bathroom to hold the thousand little hair elastics we have. Anyway, they also make great shadow boxes!

And, for fun, I printed out some fall- and farm-themed coloring sheets and put them out with some pumpkin-shaped crayon rings I found at Target.

Food
I'm not the greatest cook in the world, so I've made it a policy to only tackle one complicated food item per party. Something always goes wrong, requiring a do-over or at least a last-minute run to the grocery store, so I really don't have time to deal with more than one high-maintenance food. Usually, it's the cake—Kate's ice cream cone cupcakes and Claire's rainbow smash cake were the focus in past years.

This time, I really wanted to try these carrot-shaped sandwiches I saw on Pinterest. So, I ordered the cake from Publix and kept all the other food simple so I could focus on these sandwiches.

Basically, you wrap crescent dough around ice cream cones, brush it with an orange-tinted egg wash, and bake. The complication was getting the cones out—parchment paper between the cone and dough helped, but made them take much longer to bake. I stuffed mine with egg salad and chicken salad. They were very tasty and made such a neat visual impact.

 

Publix did a lovely job with the cake, and I just did caramel apples (store-bought), candy corn, a veggie tray, my spinach-artichoke dip that I make for everything, and fruit salad in a watermelon-basket. The watermelon might have qualified as a second "complicated" food item that might have gone terribly wrong, but I told myself it's no big deal because if I screwed it up, I'd just put the fruit in a bowl and all's well. It was actually pretty easy, though, so that was cool.

The Birthday Girl
Last, but certainly not least, let me update you on my sweet Claire at age two! She's still so serious sometimes, then a complete ham once she loosens up. She imitates Kate's every word and move, and they are the best of friends.

Sober, then smiley.

She's about average in size, tracking a bit shorter than Kate was at this age, with straight, straw-colored hair. I call her "Sister Golden Hair" after the old song, since she's got the closest thing to blond hair in our family.

I know some of you are wondering about Claire's obsessive love of nursing, and how the weaning process has gone. I quit pumping at one year, thinking it would just phase itself out, but Claire was still intent on nursing whenever she was with me, and the milk held out. Around 18 months, I began to resist nursing in public, and as we got closer to two, it was strictly night-time only: bedtime and if she woke in the night. She started taking a sippy of water to bed, voluntarily alternating her beverage of choice (me or the cup) while we rocked and sang before bed. She was born at 10:21 pm, so I felt bedtime on her birthday was still fair game for our last nursing, which was sentimental for me too, as I've loved being able to nurse Claire.

I intended that to be the last, but when she woke up at 1:30 am, the need to get us both back to sleep trumped my willpower. So, the "rule" now is middle-of-the-night-only. She's been sleeping through the night better lately, so it's gotten pretty rare. 

Claire's favorite foods are peanut butter and baked beans. She'll eat PB by the spoonful, and will eat beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if she can. Right on cue, she loves Elmo and Abby, even though she doesn't see Sesame Street near so often as Kate did at that age. She loves to play with baby dolls and anything Kate is playing with. She still loves technology and tinkering—games on my phone and the screwdriver in my desk drawer are both fun playthings. She sings songs like "Happy Birthday" and the ABCs, counts to ten (sometimes skipping 5, 6, and 7, but who's counting?) and can do a forward roll like her gymnast sister.

Happy birthday, Clairy-Bear! We're so excited you're TWO!