Tag Archives: kids

Angry birds Easter eggs – DIY

Posted on April 15, 2017 | Leave a comment

Following my last few posts, i am sure you were expecting angry birds Easter eggs. And yes it is. If your kids are fan of angry birds too, it’s a very easy to do. Kids can do it all from A to Z.

Color your eggs in red for red, black for bomb, green for pigs, yellow for chuck and blue for jay , jake and jim. Click here to download a printable sheet of angry birds faces to cut out and paste on the eggs after the colors are completely dry. It’s A3 size paper, and you can adjust it since it’s a vector one.

After the eggs are ready, get a white sheet serving as a table cloth, draw sun and clouds, lay a tree branch and build your nest to put the eggs inside. The nest is a ready made wreath i bought form a shop that sells tools for gardening.

You can also add gadgets of angry birds if you have them among your kids toys, like TNT boxes, catapult….

All i can say Nady and Joud are extremely happy to have the eggs they wished for. Happy Easter to all of you المسيح قام حقاً قام

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Blotto painting lion – kids art and craft

Posted on February 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

A fun and alluring art project for kids. So fascinating that when you open your paper to reveal the lion face, you think it’s a painting that took days and hours to accomplish while it’s just done in 5 easy minutes!

Blotto painting! A surprise painting to discover when the paper is unfold.

Fold a white paper in half, better a thick one, than open it to put drops of paint in the center, using the lion colors, different browns and yellows.

Close it again and rub gently the paper to help spread the paint, in a circular move to obtain a round face, and finally open it to reveal your surprise lion face.

Surprise surprise! what a beautiful lion face, the look of surprise on Nady’s face was priceless! Leave it for several hours to dry completely, better for overnight, not to risk loosing all the arbitrary details you get from the wrinkled paint.

We cut the face to paste it on a frame (white canvas). Then we drew eyes, nose and mouth with a black marker. Lions have always been symbolic of ferocity and strength, so it’s time to make his mane that makes him so wild.

Using yellow paper yarn, cut different lengths to paste all around the face.

Et voila our lion! It’s for a school project, can’t wait to return it home to hang on the wall in Nady’s room where he has his favorite pieces.

It’s a great fun project to fire your kids imagination. All parents should favor the imagination of their children and feed this power. It’s like revealing the natural genius in them. A child with a good imagination is a happy child. He is more alert, presenting ability to cope with life’s changes, and more likely to grow into a secure adult.

For all the people who thinks you should be an artist to craft with your kids, or crafting with your kids will make them grow to be artists, i want to tell you, a creative child, is not necessary growing into an artist adult.

Creative people see things in different ways and find solutions to problems others might miss. Problem solving and innovative thinking begins with the power of imagination. Imagination ignites the forces of creativity in your children.

Last but not least, leaders are creative people!

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Expressing love and gratitude

Posted on February 12, 2017 | Leave a comment

This is the third year in a row we enjoy this beautiful game of love. This year we revisited it as per Nady’s request, who is so proud and happy of what we love and appreciate in him.

The beautiful part of this game this year is that he was teaching his youngest brother the rules of it and he was expressing his recognition to us (mom, dad and brother) through words that were my daily serotonin and immunity dose; lets say i was waiting impatiently for his heart everyday. Trust me you never expect the attention to details and the quantity of emotions kids can express. And yes the recognition to the smallest things you do to them!

It’s so important to tell your children “I love you” everyday. Knowing that they are loved unconditionally, develops their secure attachment to you. Strong closeness to the family will lead no doubt to positive relationships in adulthood and high self esteem.

So the aim of this game is to put the reasons i love him (mainly appreciating the good things he does and expressing my big love and pride) in written words on cutout hearts to celebrate love.

As i always say, many of you stopped celebrating valentines for how commercial it became. Don’t lose faith in this beautiful occasion and teach your children about love in deep and expressive ways.

This year we are hanging the hearts as a garland. Last year we did a frame of love, and the year before it was a wheel of love. You can click on the hyper link to review them.

If you like this game and wanted to do it with your kids, click here, to download the file of hearts to use. Enjoy writing on the hearts the many and endless reasons why you love your children and husband/wife too 😉 It’s not just for kids! Do it to your significant other and let love flourishes in your hearts and homes! You can do it over a week until valentines day comes or even extend it as much as you want to enjoy.

Don’t forget that love is not only words, it should be followed by actions, and the most important the presence. Be present for your kids, in love, protection and service. Happy valentines xx

My PRECIOUS part of me

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Easter bunny burlap bunting – Crafts for little hands

Posted on March 24, 2015 | 8 comments

Spring has officially started so now let’s hop in Easter mood! Meaning it’s time to start our DIY home decoration. This year i am using burlap (jute) as a main element.

Crafting with my son is becoming even more fun as he grows up. He shows more interest and skills which makes me happy and proud. Not just that, he has an opinion too!

We started with a colorful bunting. First you need to cut out burlap triangles. Cut as much as you need and the convenient size, so when attached together, it makes the bunting length you want. Nady chose blue and green paint to make dots on the triangles with his tiny finger. You can use textile paint or acrylic paint.

My little man is becoming so independent, he refused any assistance! I was just sitting, watching and taking pictures!

When all done, leave them couple of hours to dry. In our case we left them overnight to extend more the fun!

Next step we used different colors of felt to cut bunny shapes. If you don’t have felt, choose any textile available. Crafts should be fun and entertaining not energy consuming. Enjoy this precious time with your little ones and make the most of it to be instructive too.

Stick on each triangle a bunny. Click on bunny to download a high resolution file, you can adjust the size of the bunny depending on how big you want it.

Now bunnies need tails. The favorite part for nady. He loves pompoms! you can find pompoms everywhere in our house, even in the fridge! Yes in the fridge near the yogurt his favorite snack!

He was so excited using the glue alone without my help! The most phrase i heard in this craft was “tout seul maman”! (all alone maman). I remember last year when we did a bunny garland i was introducing a lot of new words that i was hearing this time gracefully. Kids grow up fast!

We had so much fun and it was a good exercise developing the fine motor skills and improving his vocabulary.

Use a thread or ribbon to attach the triangles next to each other. Hang the bunting and enjoy 🙂

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8 Comments

Posted in DIY, special occasions, way to play

Tagged acrylic paint, blog, bunny, bunting, burlap, crafts, easter, jaymmy, kids, marmite et ponpon, spring, way to play

Pretty and practical homemade food ideas for picnic

Posted on November 5, 2014 | 6 comments

It’s now the perfect time for outdoor activities in Doha. Everyone wants to spend as much time as possible and take advantage of the weather especially it won’t be for so long.

I heart picnics! what’s better than throwing a fun picnic with the family and friends, enjoying good homemade food while surrounded by nature. The best thing, we didn’t have to go far to enjoy our picnic, 10 minutes drive and here we are in the beautiful museum park. It was full of people picnicking, but the space was so big that everyone got his private green spot.

I know lot of you find it hard to prepare food for picnic and prefer to buy them ready packed to save the hassle. I will give you great food ideas, so easy and pretty that will make you think twice before having take away.

The aim of this post is not giving detailed recipes but ideas of practical food for picnic and how a small detail makes it look fancy and creative. Yes why not, you can have a casual picnic with beautifully presented food that looks fancy.

1- Grilled Chicken and avocado sandwiches. Very easy to prepare. You can use any type of bread, personally i like beignet bread for its soft texture. Stuff it with the grilled chicken, avocado slices, iceberg lettuce and mayonnaise. You can use any stuffing you like, wrap the sandwich with craft paper and tie it with a twine.

Eh voila the pretty and creative sandwiches yet practical. Now it’s easy to put them in a container or even a zip lock bag.

2- Spinach and Emmental quiche. Any type of flat food prepared in a baking dish and cut in geometric shapes is very easy to be stored, if you don’t like quiche you can have pizza, kibbeh bil sanyeh, tarte….

The best part of lunch is when everyone shares his food. If you are a group of people, no one has too much to prepare, distribute the tasks! This quiche was prepared by my friend Hajar. It was delicious!

3- Pasta, crab and orange salad. Salads are always a hit in picnics. Great as a side or main dish if it has substantial ingredients. Easy to pack in a container and stays fresh up to 4 hours without a fridge.

Salads are colorful and cheerful. Long tubular pasta (casarecce), matching the shape of the crab sticks, orange wedges and corn. Yellow, orange and red go really well with the green backdrop. Serve it with lemon mayo dressing to go with the tangy flavor. There are open ended choices of salads. I am sure everyone has his favorite.

4- Hotdog puff pastry and cheese straws. Very easy and quick especially the puff pastry is ready made. It only takes the time of baking (15 mns almost). You can replace the hotdog with cheese or spinach.

Cutting boards are very practical and beautiful to serve the food. Jamie oliver was a big inspiration in this matter. In previous posts i showed you how to decorate your cutting boards for such presentations.

5- Marbled cake. There should always be at least one dessert to please your sweet tooth especially if you have kids with you. A basic but delicious cake is one option.

It’s so clever to bake them in individual molds for picnic. No need for plates and forks, each can have his part with no mess! One day I will share the detailed recipe (it is Cyril Lignac’s recipe) for this cake because it’s so yummy. Again thank you Hajar for introducing this cake to us.

6- Custard and jello in a jar. This was a fab idea for this type of dessert. You can use any mason jar you have at home, close the lid and here is the most practical dessert ever. It can be any pudding you like.

It was a fun day, we really enjoyed the weather and the green space. It was a great opportunity to play with the kids and unwind after a long busy week.