Are you having a hard time coming up with good baby shower ideas? Why not throw a nursery rhyme themed baby shower. Grab a well-loved book of nursery rhymes and start planning. You’ll soon find yourself with plenty of ideas for a great baby shower.

Play games such as Finish the Baby Rhyme, found on this great list of baby shower games.  You could also play Nursery Rhyme Charades. Have each guest draw a name of a nursery rhyme out of a bag and act it out. This is sure to bring lots of laughter! Another fun idea would be to fill a jar with cotton balls and have the guest guess how many bags of wool “Baa Baa Black Sheep” has. The person who guesses the closest to the correct number would win a prize.

There are many great baby shower ideas you could use for decorations. Use pages from old nursery rhyme books. You could make a garland, a table runner, wall decorations or small framed table decorations with these pages. Borrow stuffed animals that are related to nursery rhymes, such as lambs, ducks or geese. Moons, stars, and flowers would also all complement the theme. Use an old nursery rhyme book as a guest book. Have each guest sign a different page and present it to the guest of honor. This will be a special memento of her baby shower.

More baby shower ideas for your Nursery Rhyme Shower:

You can easily serve food that relates to nursery rhymes. Serve “Humpty Dumpty” deviled eggs, “The Muffin Man’s” muffins, or cheese chunks for “Little Miss Muffet’s curds and whey”. You could serve star-shaped cookies to represent “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and moon-shaped cookies to represent “Hey Diddle, Diddle”.  For a drink, serve hot tea to represent “Polly Put the Kettle On”.

As favors, send your guest home with flower seeds or small potted flowers. Attach a tag with “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” printed on it. Another option for favors or prizes would be tapered candles with tag that has “Jack Be Nimble” printed on it.

Please share your baby shower ideas for a nursery rhyme shower in the comment section.

If you’re looking for some great birthday party ideas that both girls and boys would love, why not plan an art party. This party doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive and I guarantee all the kids will love it.

Any type of art activity would work great at this party. One birthday idea would be to give the kids fabric paint or fabric markers and let them decorate a plain t-shirt or even a tote bag, such as these personalized totes.

Reserve one area of wall space for mural painting. Tape up large sheets or paper or use a roll of brown paper wrapping paper. Have the children work together to make a mural. The kids will enjoy it and this would be a perfect activity to work on while waiting for the guests to arrive.

Here is a short five minute video from 5 minute life Videopedia on how to host a children’s art party.

Birthday Party Ideas- How to Host a Childrens Art Party

More Birthday Party Ideas-Art Party

Another birthday idea that would be fun for this party would be collaborative drawings. Have the kids sit around a table with a piece of paper and crayons. Set a time for 15 seconds and have them start drawing. When the time is up, have them pass the paper to the right. Set the timer again and have them start drawing. Keep passing the papers until everyone has had a chance to add something to each piece of paper. I bet you’ll have some fun and crazy drawings!

For decorations, I would have the birthday girl or boy color, draw and paint pictures. You can then hang these up gallery style.  Print up a sign that says “__________’s Art Gallery” filling in your child’s name. Focus on primary colors if you use balloons or streamers. Also, use primary colors for plates, napkins and silverware.

Your refreshments can be simple. I would make some simple cupcakes and use different colors of icing on them.  Arrange them on a plate to look like a painter’s palette. Another fun birthday idea would be to have a supply of sugar cookies and icing. Let the kids showcase their artistic talent by decorating their own cookies.

The party favors don’t have to be expensive. I would recommend buying small notebooks or sketch pads and pairing them with crayons, colored pencils or even watercolors. Send this home with the guests along with one of the collaborative drawings.

Do you have any birthday party ideas for an art party?

When the family is gathered, it’s time to have some fun with these musical Christmas kids games. There are many great Christmas activities for kids and families that involve Christmas carols. You can sing Christmas carols as a group or go caroling around town. You can even read books together about different Christmas songs. We have a great resource about storytime for you to read, if you’re  looking for tips on enhancing your read-aloud experiences.

But, if you’re looking to play a few games and have a lot of fun, here are a couple of good Christmas kids games!

Guess the Lyric: Guess the Lyric is a fun trivia game that you can make yourself. All you need to make this is a pile of index cards. On each card, write a portion of the lyrics of a Christmas carol. You can make these as easy or as hard as you need. If you are playing with a mixed-age group, you may want to make one set of cards for the kids and one for the adults. Here are a few examples for your cards: “Bells on bob-tail ring/Making spirits bright” Answer: Jingle Bells. “He knows if you’ve been bad or good/So be good for goodness sake!” Answer: Santa Claus is Coming to Town. “In the meadow we can build a snowman/And pretend that he is Parson Brown” Answer: Winter Wonderland. Work in teams or individually and see who knows the most Christmas carols. I can guarantee everyone will have fun! You can find an extensive list of Christmas carols and their lyrics at The Caroling Corner if you need help with making this fun trivia game.

Christmas Carol Pictionary: It’s always nice to have Christmas activities for kids that are inexpensive and easy to put together. Christmas Carol Pictionary is one. You’ll need several strips of paper, large sheets of paper or a roll of brown paper gift wrap, and several markers. Write the names of several Christmas carols on separate sheets of paper. Fold up the strips and stick them in the bowl. Divide into two teams. The teams will take turns sending one person up to the large sheets of paper  to try and draw the carol that they pull from the bowl. The teammates then have to guess the name of the carol that is being drawn.

Get ready for a lot of laughing while you’re enjoying these fun Christmas Kid Games Christmas activities for kids and families!

Please share your favorite fun Christmas kids games your family likes to play.

If you are looking for baby shower games that are inexpensive and easy to put together, I would suggest playing some guessing games. There are many options for guessing games such as these baby showers games , which can be found in our archives. Try guessing games such as Baby Word Scramble or TV Family Tree, which can be found in this list of unique baby shower games.

Here are some other baby shower games that would be great fun at a baby shower.

Baby Picture Guessing Game: When sending out the baby shower invitations, ask each guest to provide a baby picture. Using a scanner or a photocopier, make a poster of all the pictures.  Number each picture. Give each guest a piece of paper and pen and have them try to guess who is in each picture. The person with the most correct guesses wins.

Name That Baby Tune: Many baby shower games involve pictures and words. This game will test your guest’s knowledge of kid’s music. Find a CD of lullabies or other kid’s music. Assemble your guests and give them each paper and pens. Play a short snippet of a song (5-10 seconds) then have each guest write down the name of the song. The person with the most guesses wins.

Guess the Celebrity Baby: For this game, you will need to search the Internet for pictures of celebrities’ children. Assemble the pictures on a single page and print a copy for each guest. Your guests will test their knowledge of pop culture while they try guessing the celebrity parent.  Another version of this game is a matching game. List the name of the celebrity baby on one side of the paper and the parent on the other side. Have the guests match up the baby with the parent. The quirkier the baby name, the better!

Guess the Baby Animal: If your baby shower has an animal theme, a fun game to play is Guess the Baby Animal. Provide guests with a list of animal names. Their job will be to guess the name of the baby animal. If you need help coming up with your animals, here is a very lengthy list of animals and their young. Some will be very easy, and others quite hard. The guest with the most correct guesses wins.

What fun baby shower games have you played lately?

One of my favorite Christmas activities for kids is an advent calendar.  An advent calendar is a way to count and celebrate the days leading up to Christmas. There are a million ways to make one or if you’re not the crafty type, you can usually buy one in just about any store.  I’ve always thought of filling advent calendars with candy or even small gifts, but that doesn’t have to be the only option. Why not fill your advent calendar with activities that you and your family can do together to celebrate the holiday season? There are plenty of Christmas crafts and activities to fill your calendar.

You can fill envelopes with Christmas crafts or activities, then open one each night. Or, make a paper chain and upon removal, each chain would suggest different Christmas crafts or activities. Tuck strips of paper with activities printed on them in the calendar you already have. The possibilities are endless!

I know the holidays can be busy and also very stressful. But don’t worry; these activities are not designed to put more on your plate. Some are small, some happen in the home, others involve going somewhere; but all of these Christmas activities for kids are designed to help you spend more quality time with your family over the holiday season.

Here are some fun ideas of Christmas activities for kids to add to your calendar:

1. Make Christmas cards, such as these ones kids craft homemade cards
2. Read a favorite Christmas book
3. Read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
4. Feed the birds
5. Volunteer together as a family
6. Decorate the Christmas tree
7. Bake Christmas cookies
8. Watch a favorite Christmas movie
9. Deliver cookies to the neighbors
10. Shop for Toys for Tots
11. Make Christmas ornaments, like these homemade ornaments
12. Drink hot cocoa
13. Write letters to Santa
14. Take a family Christmas picture
15. Make paper snowflakes or any other of your favorite Christmas crafts
16. Drive around and look at lights
17. Make a Christmas craft together
18. Visit a live nativity
19. Visit Santa
20. Sing Christmas carols
21. Wrap Christmas gifts
22. Make homemade fudge
23. Go caroling
24. Make gingerbread men
25. Read the Christmas story out of the Bible

Please share any Christmas activities for kids that you and your family share every year?

Treasure Box Kids Holiday Sweepstakes

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Coming up with fresh birthday party ideas when you’re a busy Mom can be one of the more challenging aspects of parenting. There is a lot of pressure on parents to host bigger and better parties with ever increasing amounts of bling. Not only is it expensive, but there can be a bit of work involved in finding the best birthday party ideas for your next bash. Treasure Box Kids brings you imaginative birthday party ideas for children of all ages. Read our post on how to host a Little Mermaid Party for a special birthday treat.

I always like to get my children involved in planning their parties, that way I get a great idea about what they really want, and don’t feel the need to compete with the entire neighborhood. It’s important to create memories that will last on for years for your children than it is to splash your cash.

Birthday Party Ideas from the ‘Cat in the Hat’

I always love to create birthday party ideas that my child will remember. Having the latest character theme is great, but if you really want to host a party that the kids will love then consider hosting a theme party with a character that is universally loved by both boys and girls and will appeal to a wide variety of age groups.

Dr. Seuss is a children’s author whose lessons carry on into adulthood.     Everybody knows and loves the books, and even the film. The most successful  children’s party I ever hosted was a ‘Cat in the Hat’ party. You can pick up a mountain of Dr. Seuss themed party paraphernalia at your local party store. I’d also suggest looking on E-Bay and other online stores for discounted merchandise. There is so much that you can do with a Dr. Seuss party theme.

The most important part is that you can use any colors to decorate your birthday party area. Of course, your standard Cat in the Hat colors are red, black and white, but all primary colors are great for a children’s birthday party. You can accent different parts with ‘Cat in the Hat’ merchandise without breaking the bank.

Dr. Seuss birthday party ideas allow you to be as creative as you want to, from rhyming invitations to ‘Cat in the Hat’ cakes and a the best part of all is that the books themselves will give you great birthday party ideas and games to play. You can take traditional party games and give them a great ‘Cat in the Hat’ slant very easily.

You do not need to have birthday party fears, when a ‘Cat in the Hat’ gives you birthday party ideas!

Share with us your Birthday Party Ideas for a Cat in the Hat Birthday Party!

Kids fun ideas, especially at an early age, have a lot to do with home and hearth.  Baking cookies, making decorations, or just reading with Mom were such special times.  I try to include my kids somehow in whatever activity I am doing around the house.  I bought special slip on socks that they can skate down the hallway wearing to help dust the hardwood floors.  I have step stools so they can help me cook, and, of course, I keep a book of fairy tales by my own bedside in case they want to cuddle up with me on a rainy day.  One of the best kids activities that I’ve found is simply cooking.  Kids enjoy being a part of food preparation—and who can blame them?  It’s relaxing, tasty, and the smells stay with you for a lifetime.  As fall approaches there are limitless ideas for what can be made together in the kitchen.  One idea that I recently found online is making “apple” lollipops that they can take to school to give to their teachers and classmates.

This will require a tiny bit of prep shopping at a store that sells candy making supplies.  Believe it or not, I’ve found everything I need for this at Wal-Mart and Target so you don’t need to trek to a bakery shop for supplies.  Unless you really want to, of course.

Kids Fun: Apple Lollypops

You will need:

• Lollipop sticks, dipsticks, or thin straws
• Red candy coating (this can be red melt-able candy wafers or you can use almond bark and red food coloring)
• Chocolate cake mix
• Chocolate icing
• Green fruit rollups
• Pretzel sticks

The first step is just to make and bake the cake according to the package directions.  Once the cake has been cooled break it up in a large bowl and mix in the chocolate frosting.  Bring the kids in at this point to help you “shape” the apples.  This is the epitome of kids fun!  They get to put their hands into a gooey chocolate mixture and form tiny apples from it.  Have them place the “apples” on a sheet of wax paper while you heat up the red candy coating in a bowl using your microwave.

Step two is just taking the lollipop sticks and sticking them into the “apples” and then dipping the apples in the red candy coating.  When you place them on the wax paper to dry the tops will flatten slightly like a Macintosh apple.

When the candy coating is almost dry, allow your children to break off bits of the green fruit rollups to make leaves to place on the top and use a pretzel stick for the stem.

I promise you, not only is this one of those easy kids activities to do with the kids, but they will enjoy both sharing and eating them with their classmates.  It’s a tasty alternative to the apple on the desk routine we used to do.

I’d love to hear your idea for cake pops—I’m sure a Halloween pumpkin could be done the same way.  Till next time, I hope you enjoyed this tiny example of simple kids fun.

Birthday Party ideas are always easier to come up with when it’s for someone else’s child.  They are also easy to come up with when there’s an unlimited budget!  Celebrities seem to have no problem coming up with virtual theme parks in their backyard when it’s their child’s birthday, but not all of us can spend $300K on our child’s birthday like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.  The rest of us have to find unique birthday party ideas that don’t involve Ringling Brothers or gelato flown in from Italy.  In fact, the closest most of us come to that would be a day at Chuck E. Cheese with pizza.  Still, you can have a circus-themed party or even a make-your-own gelato party that would be just as much fun for your child as one of the lavish Hollywood events.  After all, your child can’t tell the difference between a cake that you baked in your own kitchen and a cake made by a chef in France—or, at least, we hope they can’t.

Here are a few Hollywood kids birthday party ideas to get you started…

Suri Cruise

For Suri’s second birthday, Tom and Katie spent a whopping $100,000 to have a butterfly themed event.  The cake was a four-tiered butterfly shaped cake that set the Cruises back around $5K—that’s right, five thousand dollars for a cake.  They then ordered tiny versions of the same cake for their guests to eat.  Now, I don’t want to guess about your budget, but while I adore themed birthday party ideas like a “butterfly garden birthday party” (or a  bee party like the ones we wrote about in our July blog) I also adore not wasting money.  If butterflies are your child’s idea of wonderful you can still have Suri’s butterfly cake and mini-cakes for your party guests just by taking a trip to your local crafts store (or shop online).  You can purchase butterfly shaped cake pans, as well as, butterfly shaped sandwich cutters that you can use on a sheet cake to make mini-butterfly cakes for the guests.

Bluebell Halliwell

When Spice Girl Geri Halliwell decided to throw her daughter a birthday party she decided upon an Alice in Wonderland theme.  Being a celebrity she went a bit out there by bringing in white rabbits and things of that nature, but from the pictures of the party it still looked like an awesome time.  While an Alice in Wonderland birthday party isn’t necessarily one of the more unique birthday party ideas on the planet, it is still a fun one that opens up a lot of possibilities.  You can have a Mad Hatter’s tea party with lopsided cake and audacious tea pots.  The kids could all wear mismatched clothing or funny hats.  They could even come as a character from Alice in Wonderland!

Kingston Rossdale

Kingston Rossdale’s parents Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale spent $15,000 dollars on his fourth birthday party which utilized a carnival theme.  They had bounce houses, cotton candy machines, lemonade stands, face painting, clowns—basically, “The Works”.  Now, depending upon the budget you want to set this can be reproduced in smaller scale with a trip to your local rental center and party store.  Bounce houses, cotton candy machines, and face painting kits are easily accessible items these days and the always loved by children.

Bigger is not always better—especially when you are dealing with younger children.  Your child of three won’t know the difference between your husband dressed as the Mad Hatter or Johnny Depp.  To a child of five your butterfly cake probably tastes just as good, if not better, than one flown in from France.

If any of you have a cheaper version of a celebrity birthday party drop us a comment, but until then I hope that you got some mileage out of these celebrity birthday party ideas.

Baby Shower Ideas: And the Retail Price of that Rattle is….

Whenever people come to me for baby shower ideas they usually want help with baby shower games.  We’ve all been to showers where we got the mixed up words like: “prseaid” and were asked to figure out that it really was “diapers” for a prize.  I’m certainly not going to down a game I still play in bed when I can’t sleep, but I think that most of the people who want some help with ideas are looking for something a bit beyond the usual.

For the record my favorite baby shower game ever played at a friend’s shower (and this actually went along with a whole game show baby shower idea) was a version of The Price is Right.  This is such an easy game to set up and depend how far you take it (and they took it the whole way) can be a super fun game for a shower or party. For other fun Baby Shower Ideas read a fun article about throwing a Disney Baby Shower.

Baby Shower Ideas

Baby Shower Ideas

To do it right you may want to download the Price is Right theme music to play in the background like my friend’s did—it makes it that much more fun to play.  Set up a table that is long enough to have 3-4 people behind it.  Hand everyone large sized postcards and a sharpie.  The rules are just like the television show.  They must guess the price of a baby item without going over it.  The closest price wins.  Eventually, you can weed down the “contestants” for the big prize.  My friends skipped the whole wheel and went straight to the showcase showdown for the final 2-4 participants.  By the time we were finished with the game everyone was smiling and laughing, it was an unusual but fun baby shower game.

This is just one (great) idea for baby shower games, but it does give you a starting point to get creative.  For example, what game show or board game do you enjoy the most?  Take that game and figure out how to apply it to baby shower ideas that will work for your shower.

As always, we’d love if you’d share those baby shower ideas here with the rest of us.