children – Page 2 – kerricreates

Colored (RAINBOW) Rice

Published on April 14, 2017April 14, 2017 by kerricreatesblog2 Comments

I love setting up sensory bins for my kids. Over the years, we have done white rice, beans, popcorn kernels, shaving cream, salt, and more, but we have never made rainbow colored rice. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make!

This week, my kids are on Spring Break and the weather forecasted several rainy days. Since we were staying home this week, I decided that I’d plan a couple of fun activities to keep us busy. I picked up a large package of inexpensive white rice and some Wilton’s Gel Food Colors at Target and began looking at recipes for colored rice. Some recipes called for rubbing alcohol, but I wanted to make ours without, so I found that vinegar was a great alternative for setting the colors without the alcohol.

My daughter and I had so much fun making this rice! She actually made it almost all by herself! We created this little video tutorial (below) as part of her kid’s series “Craft Time With Karis.”

In the past couple of days, “Colored (rainbow) Rice” has provided hours of sensory and imaginary play. Karis added some little bunnies and plastic eggs for Easter play. She put plastic dolphins and other animals in too, and yesterday we included some cardboard with holes cut out and a funnel for pouring rice. This inspired Karis to create an imaginary town called “Flowerville” while she played with her animals and rainbow rice.

Watch our tutorial to learn how to make some “Colored (rainbow) Rice” with your kids!

More “Craft Time With Karis” Fun:

Tricky Hopscotch (with a twist)

Valentine Craft (Cookie Cutters & Paint)

Children’s Art Corner

Published on January 26, 2017February 25, 2017 by kerricreatesblogLeave a comment

My daughter loves art! She will sit for hours drawing, writing stories, and coloring pictures. I have several areas set up around our house with art supplies, but I recently decided to put together a more intentional art space for her.

Michael’s was having a huge sale one day, so I headed over (with my coupons of course) and picked up these metal A R T letters, the chalkboard box for crayons, and the off white tray for paper. The rest, I already had around my house.

These adorable chairs were made for me by my brother when I was a child. They were in my childhood room, painted light pink, with dark pink carpet covering the seats. My mom gave them to me several years ago and I repainted and recovered them for my daughter. The wicker table belonged to my mom, who passed away a year and a half ago, so it means a lot for my daughter to have something so special to remind her of her sweet Grandma.

I bought the metal bucket years ago at the dollar store and it has held colored pencils in various locations around our house. Now it has a permanent home. I had used the mini white shutters last year for my Christmas mantle, but realized they were the perfect addition to this little art corner. The finishing touch was this bright and cheerful pennant banner. I had already cut the triangles for another project, so it only took me a few minutes to thread them through a piece of twine.

I absolutely love when I can use what I already have to create an inviting space for my children to enjoy. This little art corner has already gotten a lot of use in our home and is the perfect setting for inspiration to take place!

Thankful Tree

Published on November 23, 2016October 29, 2021 by kerricreatesblog2 Comments

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to create a thankful tree. We have done this several ways throughout the years, but this has become my favorite way to display our gratitude in the month of November. It is a great activity that encourages families to spend quality time together and to focus on the things we are grateful for.

Fall walks are full of beauty with the changing colors and leaves and twigs scattered throughout. We are blessed to have gorgeous walking trails in our city. This year we took our kids out to collect branches near the river. We brought the branches home and placed them in a vase. This year I just used a large mason jar. I cut out simple tags using my Cricut machine, punched a hole in the top, and threaded a loop of twine through each one. #CommissionsEarned

One evening, when we were all home together, we sat down in the living room and spent a few minutes writing the things that we are thankful for, then decorated our “tree.” This activity can be done anytime in the month of November and can become part of your Fall decor, or it can be an activity that you do with extended family and friends on Thanksgiving day when many are gathered, as a part of your time together.

For more fun Fall activities check out my latest blogpost: Thanksgiving (Turkey Handprints) Kids Table

Science Experiment Party

Published on October 11, 2016October 29, 2021 by kerricreatesblog3 Comments

Micah is our little scientist. He loves all things science, so naturally, when he was about to turn 10, we began to plan the ultimate Science Experiment Birthday Party. The vision started to take shape one afternoon when we bought a slab of dry ice for Micah to “play” with. He literally spent over 4 hours experimenting with it. I decided then and there that dry ice experiments would be the main event of the party. I wanted to include a couple of other simple activities as well. A Coke and Mentos demonstration, cornstarch and water play, and build your own edible molecules made this an unforgettable birthday party!

The decorations were quite simple, since most of our time was spent on the science activities. I created a really fun “Happy Birthday Micah” banner using letters from the periodic table and a couple of science symbols. My cricut came in handy for most of the homemade decorations. I used an old toy microscope as our centerpiece and placed Micah’s plasma ball near the food area. I used a black sharpie to draw lines and numbers on clear plastic cups to make them resemble beakers. I lined our counter with everything needed for the party, so that it was quickly accessible to keep things moving along.

We read up on the proper safety precautions needed when handling dry ice, so we were well prepared to host a party of this kind. In the birthday invitations, I asked that a parent be present to help supervise their own child/children and asked the kids to come dressed in long sleeves, long pants, and close toes shoes. We provided gloves and safety goggles for each person handling the dry ice and when the kids arrived we were all ready to go. #CommissionsEarned

Water mixed with dry ice in some mason jars makes for some pretty awesome smoke, but when you add a couple of drops of dish soap, you take it to a whole new level. What kid doesn’t like to create a giant mass of bubbles that turns to smoke when popped!?!

Did you know that you can blow up a balloon by placing it over a water bottle with a small chunk of dry ice inside? But why stop there, a rubber glove pulled over a mason jar will work as well…and it’s pretty awesome to let it fill up so much that it pops off all on it’s own.

Time to get messy. Cornstarch mixed with water makes for such a great hands on experience. You can actually shape the mixture into a solid ball, open up your hand, and then watch it melt before your very eyes and turn back to liquid form. And what kid doesn’t enjoy getting a little bit messy just for fun!?! #CommissionsEarned

Dots candy and toothpicks make the perfect edible molecules. Try and create real models, like carbon dioxide, or just create your own crazy molecule. Science can be fun and tasty at the same time! Petrie dish anyone? A couple of drops of food coloring, a few sprinkles, and 4 of Wilton’s black sugar pearl sprinkles turn ordinary green jello into an edible science experiment. #CommissionsEarnedGummy lifesaver topped marshmallow pops dipped in nerds are always a huge hit in our house. I used Wilton’s candy melts in dark chocolate and orange to create these yummy treats.

Wilton’s candy melts are perfect for creating edible cupcake toppers. To go along with the science theme, I created beakers, test tubes, and molecules. Mini m&m’s completed the look.

What’s a science party without test tubes? These plastic test tubes made great party favors to send home with Micah’s friends. Chewy Airhead Bites are the perfect size candy to fit into the tubes, but you could use a variety of different candies. #CommissionsEarned

For more fun birthday ideas check out some of my other blogposts:

Portal Cookie Pops & Birthday Party

Nerf Wars Birthday Party

Wings of Fire Birthday Party

My Little Pony Capes

Published on June 14, 2016September 6, 2017 by kerricreatesblog1 Comment

My daughter loves My Little Ponies! The thing that makes me so happy about this, is that I loved My Little Ponies as a little girl too! In fact, my mom actually saved several of my ponies and gave them to Karis a couple of years ago. I cannot even tell you how much fun it is to see my own child enjoying the very toys that I so often played with when I was her age.

One afternoon when Karis was playing ponies she asked me if we could make clothes for them. Now I can sew a little bit, but making clothes for tiny horses is beyond my abilities. I noticed that a couple of her newer ponies came with little capes. With a little trial and error, I figured out a simple way to make pony capes by using small hair scrunchies, scraps of material, and various ribbons, buttons, and fabric flowers that I had in my craft drawers. We spent several hours together designing these “outfits” for the ponies to wear. Most definitely time well spent with my girl, and it brings me joy to watch her play pretend while dressing her ponies up in their beautiful capes.

Check out my tutorial to make some pony capes of your own and click here for the printable My Little Pony Capes Template.

Dolphin Birthday Party

Published on June 10, 2016October 29, 2021 by kerricreatesblog3 Comments

My daughter, Karis, fell in love with dolphins after watching the Dolphin Tale movies last year. The day after her 5th birthday party she declared that for her 6th birthday she wanted to have a dolphin party. This was so much fun to plan! With the help of the dollar store and Michael’s, I was able to create all of the under the sea decor for under $20. I used paper lanterns cut in half and ribbon to make 3 jellyfish. Crepe paper in two shades of green worked perfectly as seaweed. White balloons in various sizes and thumb tacked to the wall formed a line of bubbles. The net held several stuffed dolphins that my kids had won years ago at Circus Circus in Reno, NV. The hula hoop and blow up dolphin were the perfect addition. For the dolphin garlands I used card stock in several shades of blue and gray. I cut these dolphins out by hand and then sewed them with a regular needle and thread. These hanging dolphin garlands created a dramatic entry into our underwater experience. I reused some circle and square garlands left over from my son’s birthday party the previous year because they looked a bit like floating bubbles. I love when I get to reuse decorations from past events! I decided to do mini cupcakes and marshmallow pops for dessert, and to go along with our dolphin theme, I created mini dolphins out of Wilton’s bright white candy melts. I used Celebration Sixlets as pearls and Wilton’s white sugar pearl sprinkles as bubbles on the marshmallow pops. I lined my round of styrofoam with a blue and white polka dotted ribbon and pinned on a sparkly blue dolphin. I also glued a blue dolphin to a flat toothpick to place on top of the cupcakes.

Because the party was in June, and because we have a pool, the main event for Karis’ party was swimming. I found 2 huge blow up dolphins for the kids to swim with, and although my daughter was hoping she would get to swim with a real dolphin, she was pretty happy with her two dolphin friends. The kids had a blast and my big 6 year old girl was all smiles! As the party was coming to an end, I brought out a crate of bubbles with a “thank you for coming to my party” note attached to each. I would have to say that Karis’ dolphin swim party was a huge success! #CommissionsEarned