It’s official: With just 2 more shopping days left until Christmas, we’ve finally entered the holiday home stretch. Have you finished all your shopping–or even started your gift-wrapping? If you’re like me and the kids are home from school, you’ll need to get creative, but also get your holiday preparations done. To keep your kids occupied as you put the finishing touches on Christmas, let them personalize their wrapping paper with this Keepsake Footprint Paper craft from Pottery Barn Kids. To get this party started, plan to factor in a little extra time for set-up, or enlist the help of an older sibling to assist younger tots. You can use store-bought brown paper (found at your local craft store or wherever packing supplies are sold), [&hellip
The Playful Walnut Archive
I must confess: I am a weather geek. Nothing gives me quite a thrill as the words “five-day forecast.” Just ask my husband. He says I refer to rain as “precip” (do I really?), and that I smile when I hear the weather man say, “High pressure will dominate.” Naturally, when we had children, I hope to spread my love of all things weather and eventually cultivate my own little storm chasers. What better way than with a kid-friendly weather station? If you’re looking for a last-minute holiday gift for a kid who’s more at home outdoors than in, we predict you’ll love the Storm Chaser Portable Weather Pod. Part of the Backyard Safari Outfitters collection, this handy gadget goes wherever the wind takes you [&hellip
Christmas movies have become my favorite quotables these days, and “It’s a Wonderful Life” happens to be at the top of that list. I can’t decide what I like best–the scene where a young George offers to get Mary the moon (“Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down”…”I’ll take it. Then what?”) or when a more mature George begs for his old life back (“Get me back, I don’t care what happens to me. Get me back to my wife and kids!”). The intense emotion and powerful drama of these moments is easy to get swept up away in. It not only makes for good television watching, but it puts the season in perspective. Maybe we just [&hellip
Astronomy has long been a favorite subject of mine, a passion for the planets that dates as far back to when I was 7 and wished I could ice-skate on Saturn’s rings. While I now know that’s just not possible (at least not in my lifetime, anyway), I enjoy sharing this memory with my daughters. (The little one laughs, while the older one simply rolls her eyes.) Just earlier this week, while at the bus stop, my 7-year-old told me that Pluto was no longer considered a planet, and we got to talking about outer space and the solar system. Little did I know, a few days later, my preschooler would point out a solar system model suspended from the ceiling at her play group [&hellip
My kids may not know their Lynyrd Skynyrd from Kid Rock, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like to rock out to the guitar riffs on “Sweet Home Alabama.” Because we’re a musically diverse family whose tastes range from the Dead Kennedys to the Presidents of the United States of America, it’s not uncommon to see us break into spontaneous dance or to pull out the air guitar when a resident grown-up is on KP duty. Naturally, my daughters want to follow suit and with a cool gadget like Air Picks, now even they can look like bona fide rockers even if they can’t play a note. Simply select one of three songs on your Air Pick, strum in time to the music and it’ll [&hellip
Has your child written his letter to Santa this year? I can vividly remember dutifully writing out my wish list–and throwing in a “How’s Mrs. Claus?” for good measure–before dropping it off in a specially-marked mailbox at a local garden center. I was convinced that somehow, it would magically arrive at the North Pole, no matter how much postage I affixed to it, and that Santa would bestow upon me everything that I had requested. After all, I had been a good girl all year…well, most of the time. When we recently took our daughters to the very place I had mailed my letters many years ago and I pointed out the same mailbox, my 7-year-old wondered aloud, “There must be a faster way my [&hellip
Sometimes, my 3-year-old favors her bunny over Mommy. Her menagerie of stuffed rabbits, bears and other furry friends rivals the residents of the Bronx Zoo, and their many adventures are fueled by her active imagination. Just this afternoon, an elephant joined a skunk in outer space; they met aboard a rocket ship (I kid you not). I don’t take it personally when I’m not invited along on these outings; I secretly savor just listening in to a young, creative mind at play. Because my preschooler’s stuffed animal stories can become especially detailed at times–and her friends may don different appearances or turn into new creatures altogether–these plush playthings seem to cry out for a updated look. If you know of an equally imaginative child who [&hellip
My 3-1/2-year-old is fascinated with puzzles. She started out with simple 3- or 4-piece wooden models whose knob-handle pieces made them easy to complete. Before long, she was moving on to puzzles with more pieces, especially the ones that had sounds and other bells and whistles. I notice there’s a particular one at our local library that she favors: a maze of animals whose tummies get filled with tiny marbles by using a magnetic wand. Each time she “feeds” the hippo, she shouts out in jubilation. I’m impressed with her persistence, as it wasn’t too long ago when she would have given up and cried if she wasn’t successful right away. Practice and patience are two things I’m trying to teach my girls, and I’m [&hellip
When it comes to holiday shopping, what do you get for the kid who has everything? I’m exaggerating, of course, but sometimes it feels like my girls have more gifts than Toys R Us. While we swap out old stuff twice a year to make room for birthday and Christmas gifts, it still seems like the stuff multiplies overnight. I don’t remember being this spoiled as a kid, but then my mother reminds me of the infamous Toy Closet, a bottomless pit of toys, dolls, board games and books that was forever busting its seams. Talk about history repeating itself!… This year, we’re on a special lookout for non-traditional gifts that are easy on space and that encourage kids to use their imagination, instead of [&hellip
There’s no denying it: I am more excited about the opening of the new Muppet movie than my kids are. Both girls are petrified of Animal (“He’s too loud,” “Why does he always scream,” they ask me. I could ask the same of them, actually…). I don’t expect I’ll be ordering 4 tickets to “Disney’s The Muppets” on Fandango this week, but that’s quite alright by me. I want nothing to spoil this long-awaited moment, for a number of reasons. For a hour or so, I’d like to sit in a darkened theater with my Twizzlers and my childlike sense of wonder as I gaze at the life-sized characters I adored so much. The little girl who never missed an episode of “The Muppet Show” [&hellip