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Mother's Day is coming up in just a few weeks and a homemade gift will always make a mom feel extra special.  Here are five cute & creative gifts kids can help make for their moms or grandmothers.  1.  Fingerprint Candles We made these cute candles for the grandmothers last year.   They can be made with painted fingerprints or just regular drawings of any kind done on tissue paper.  They're inexpensive and surprisingly easy to make (but they look super cute!) 2.  Handprint Trees or Footprint Butterflies Going along with the Fingerprint Candles are these two cute Springtime projects using handprints and footprints.  We made ours for our own home using fabric on canvases, but they can easily be adapted and created using pretty paper or even paint.   3.  Photo Bookmarks If you know a mom who likes to read, these photo bookmarks would make a great gift.  Let the kids have fun posing and then make up a few bookmarks to tuck i...

Another trip we took over Spring Break was to the Herr's potato chip factory in Nottingham, Pennsylvania.  It's a real, working factory making all sorts of chips and snacks and the tours are FREE!  It's about an hour north of Baltimore and an hour south of Philadelphia, so it would be a fun side trip if you're near either of those cities. Nope, my son didn't suddenly turn into a girl.   We had a friend with us and my son wasn't feeling photogenic at picture taking time. The tours are free (woo hoo!) but they recommend calling ahead or registering online since they can only accommodate a certain number of people at a time.   Our tour started with a short movie about the history of the company and then we had a tour guide lead our group of about 25 people through the factory. Cameras aren't allowed inside the factory itself (you can see a few pictures here ) but on the day we went we were able to see them making pretzels, corn chips, popcorn and potato chip...

Every year since the kids were babies, we've welcomed Spring with a visit to the beautiful Sherwood Gardens in Baltimore, MD.  The gardens are nestled among the stately old mansions in the Guilford section of Baltimore City and it's free to the public.  Each year, nearly 80,000 tulip bulbs are in bloom as well as gorgeous azaleas and dogwood trees.   This year the tulips bloomed a little earlier than usual (thanks to the unseasonably warm weather we had in March), but the timing was perfect for a visit during our Spring break last week.  Because of terrible seasonal allergies, my son opted to go visit his grandparents for the day instead of dealing with an afternoon amongst all the pollen.  However, the girls and I packed a picnic lunch and had a really nice day admiring the many varieties of tulips and even climbing a few trees (the girls, of course, not me!) If you're ever in the Baltimore area this time of year, definitely go check it out.  There a...

My kids are off on Spring Break right now and we'll be doing several Easter-themed projects and activities this week.  However, since there's often a lag between us doing the projects and me having time to post about the projects, I thought I'd first share these fun activities that we did last year.  1.  What's better than marshmallow peeps and chocolate?  Only marshmallow peeps DIPPED in chocolate!  They're really yummy and the kids loved adding spring-colored sprinkles.  Here's how we made them ~ Chocolate Covered Peeps . 2.  Have you ever tried glue batik?  It's a really neat art technique that's perfect for kids and it's a fun way to make some Easter fabrics.  Check it out ~ Glue Batik Easter Fabric 3.  Once you make some fun Easter fabrics, add them to a ready-made table runner to personalize your Easter dinner or buffet.  Look how we did ours ~ Easy Easter Table Runner 4.  Instead of plastic easter eggs, whip up some of...