Free Printable Valentines to Cut and Color

Yea! It's almost Valentines Day party time (say the kids). Boo, more work and stuff to buy (says the tired overworked parent). Well, no need to do or buy anything, busy mom. The free printable goddess has you covered. Printable valentines cards, crafts, party decorations. Print in black and white and put those restless kids to work coloring and making their valentines. That should keep them busy for a good hour while you and I have a glass of wine. Shall I pour? :) Free (Yes Free!) Valentines to Print, Perfect for Snowbound Kids

Homemade Printable Valentine Cards for Kids---Free!

Valentine's Day card exchanges are a rite of passage in preschool and elementary school. Homeschool groups, scout troops and religious education classes often exchange cards, too. Here are free printable DIY valentines to share. These free printable valentines come courtesy of Family Fun magazine. What's more fun than Valentine's Day card exchanges? Making your own valentine's that look completely different than everyone else's!  Free Printable Valentine's Day Card Crafts for Children

Cheap, Recycled Valentine Craft Project for Party

Valentine's Day requires us to do some writing of cards, notes or letters, so why not write with a flourish? Use this guide to design a lovely flower (or feather) pen and an attractive vase. You can make the entire project from recycled materials, purchasing or finding only the new pens or pencils and floral tape. No floral tape? Use masking tape and color in green! Read more

Cheap, parent-friendly kids' birthday party tips

As a mom to four kids, ages 24 to 14, I've planned a plethora of kids' parties. I'm also a teacher and I've hosted numerous classroom events. I've had some great successes and colossal fails. From those experiences, I've put together a list of tips for parents on planning kids' parties. These activities work for both gender parties. I did a lot of parties as a "single mom" as my husband worked a lot and couldn't help. I've written these tips with single adults in mind. Being a frugalista, these hints focus on cheap, homemade party ideas.  I've included some free printable party games and crafts, too. Cheap, parent-friendly kids' birthday party tips 

Easy, cheap kids fall birthday party tips

Got a child with a fall birthday? Autumn is a great time for an outdoor birthday party. Sometimes, fall outdoor parties are easier to manage because it's cooler. Here's an easy, cheap kids' birthday bash, suitable for preschool to elementary age children. I've included tips for food, crafts, games, activities and cleanup.  Easy, cheap kids' fall birthday party tips

Anti Halloween Alternative Party, Family Activities to Trick or Treat, Celebrate Halloween at Home

Halloween is one of the top three events (with birthday and Christmas) most children look forward to each year. Some kids plan their trick or treat costumes months in advance. So what happens, if, when the big day rolls around, the child is too ill to trick or treat? Here are activities you can do at home. These tips will work for parents who don't like door-to-door trick or treating, or who are religiously opposed to Halloween, too. Use these ideas for church harvest party Halloween alternative events, too. Anti-Halloween alternative games, crafts, candy and treat ideas.  Family Activities to Trick or Treat, Celebrate Halloween with a Sick Child

Creative summer slumber party for kids: Backyard stargazer bash

Summer vacation is the perfect time for kids trapped indoors during the school year to reconnect with nature (it's also an excuse for parents to knock off work and get some much-needed mental refreshment). Why not attend to both of those needs with a stargazing family slumber party, compliments of Mother Nature? Here's all you need for this easy, inexpensive (darn near free) family fest. Creative summer slumber party for kids: Backyard stargazer bash . For free printable star charts, night sky maps and astronomy activities, visit this link Free Printable Star Charts and Astronomy Lessons.

Easy Kids 4th of July Party Planners--History, Crafts, Games, Food, Fun

Here's a blowout of crafts, games, activities, coloring pages, food and fun for 4th of July.


Check out my friend Karen Barnes' printable coloring pages article. Karen is the goddess of cool printable crafts.

And for 4th-festival sweet treats recipes, here are tummy-yummies from my pal Linda Ann Nickerson--4th of July Desserts and Treats.

My buddy Marie Anne St. Jean shares pet-friendly 4th of July picnic ideas (I love the costume ideas!).

From food guru (and all-round fun gal) Debbie Henthorn, here are No Ho-Hum Burgers--Entrees for the 4th of July.

Crafty Kay Wittenhauer shares this crocheted patriotic wreath pattern (My hat is off to yarn divas. In my hands, needles become weapons of mass destruction!)

Sylvia Cochran provides links for 4th of July history lesson plans and crafts. I love how she groups them by age-appropriate level.

Music is a must for celebrating our nation's birthday. My gal pal Carly Hart shares patriotic play list for 4th of July parties.

How about throwing an America birthday party for a fun and educational 4th of July? Children and adults of all ages will love these inexpensive games, crafts, activities and food.  Easy Kids' 4th of July Party Planner with U.S. History Ideas.

However you celebrate the 4th of July, be safe. If you're working, thanks for your contribution. 

Free Printable Valentines Day Craft Activities and Decorations

Free Printable Valentines Day Craft Activities and Decorations Looking for cute free Valentines Day craft activities and party decorations? Here are websites full of free printable crafts, games, party supplies, greeting cards, valentines and holiday activities. Perfect for classroom valentine exchanges and parties. These are perfect for home and classroom use, day care, senior centers, craft clubs, 4H, scouts, church groups and more. Read on...

Free Printable Summer Preschool Crafts

Free Printable Summer Crafts and Activities for Preschoolers Want to inspire that kind of delight in your children, day care or play group? How about some projects for your 2-6 year olds to color, cut, paste and assemble? Summer is an especially good time to work on fine motor skills and social interaction. We want to keep children actively learning about and exploring their world Here are ten complete projects to print free on your Adobe Acrobat reader. Perfect for a summer party or anytime fun! Read more

Memorial Day and 4th of July Backyard Water Park

Red, White, Blue and Green! 4th of July Backyard Water Park Memorial Day and 4th of July means family picnics, backyard BBQs and lots of summer fun! Here's a complete DIY patriotic water fun park with 10 activities that you can set up in your backyard. All the guests, young and old can enjoy the fun! Be sure to make a separate area for the land lubbers who wish to stay dry. Your lawn gets a good drink of water and everyone can cool off. Educational and fun! Read more...

Free Printable Valentine's Day Craft Activities and Decorations

Looking for cute free Valentine's Day craft activities and party decorations? Here are websites full of free printable crafts, games, party supplies, greeting cards, valentines and holiday activities. Perfect for parties. Click here

Free Printable Tron Legacy Party Craft Activities

Disney will release the movie TRON Legacy in a video game called TRON Uprising. Both are based on the 1982 cult favorite TRON. Here are free printable coloring pages from TRON: Legacy and TRON (1982). On Coloring has over a dozen realistic free printable TRON Legacy coloring pages.Disney has a website for TRON Uprising and TRON Legacy with light cycle and grid games. You can try your hand at maneuvering the light cycle.

Coloring-Book.info has forty-seven pages of free printable TRON coloring pages. The coloring pages are detailed, realistic and follow the movie images closely. They are likely printed from the companion TRON coloring books that came out with movies at that time. You can print and color light cycle images, vehicle chase scenes, warrior scenes, battles on the virtual grid, light discs and other TRON movie stills. Here's a free printable TRON birthday party theme with activities and crafts.

Returning to play their original characters in "TRON: Legacy" are Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn/ Clu and Bruce Boxleitner as Alan Bradley/ Tron. Although neither movies achieved high viewer or critics reviews, the TRON movies remain popular. Kids love the films for their cool light cycle scenes, vehicle scenes, robotics, LED and neon computerized graphics. The original TRON came out near in theaters near the time that the last movie, "Return of the Jedi" in the Star Wars trilogy came out.

Although Star Wars eclipsed TRON in popularity at the time, TRON had some interesting pre-figuring of virtual computer technology. The light cycle has never really been duplicated in sci-fi movies. For more free printables from movies, television shows and cartoons, visit Free Coloring Pages 4u

Free Printable Angelina Ballerina Coloring Pages, Party Invitations

Angelina Ballerina is an endearing series of childrens' stories from Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig, featuring a little mouse named Angelina, who takes ballet and her friends. Here are free printable Angelina Ballerina coloring pages and crafts.

PBS Kids has a cute assortment of free printable Angelina Ballerina coloring pages featuring Angelina and her friend Alice Nimbletoes, grandma and grandpa mouse, Angelina's mother and father Maurice and Mathilda Mousling, Miss Lilly dance mistress of Camembert Dance Academy, Henry, Angelina's little cousin, Sammy Watts, Penelope and Priscilla Pinkpaws, William Longtail, Polly, Queen Sepharina and Princess Valentine.

Angelina Ballerina is the homepage for Angelina Mousling. Along with free printable coloring pages, you can find free printable Angelina Ballerina activities. Get free printable Angelina Ballerina crafts, door hangers, bookmarks, post cards and picture frames. There are also games to play, like jigsaw puzzles, tile matching games, sing along, Dance with Me, Reach for the Stars and other charming little games to play with Angelina Ballerina and friends.

Nick, Jr.free printable crafts, activities and games for Angelina Ballerina.
Coloring has assorted free printable ballet coloring pages and crafts featuring couples, specific dance positions and ballet steps, famous ballerinas, costumes from famous ballets and general ballet coloring pages. These coloring pages would make excellent supplemental resources for dance class and physical education.

Free Printable Despicable Me Coloring Pages

Free Printable Despicable Me Coloring Pages, Minions Coloring Pages Steve Carell took some time off from The Office, to bring us the box office hit cartoon Despicable Me, complete with fun-sized little yellow minions. I personally thought the theme song was the best I'd heard from a kids' movie. If you need free printable Despicable Me coloring pages and minions craft activities, Read More

Free Printable Disney UP Party Games, Crafts, Decorations, Invitations

Free Printable Disney UP Craft Activities and Party Decorations
Walt Disney's full length movie UP about balloon man Carl Fredricks and his would-be Wilderness Explorer friend Russell came out in 2009. If you loved UP, you'll love these free printable craft activities and party supplies. Read More

Unique Party Invitation Ideas

Cheap Creative Party Invitation Ideas Planning an event, party, get-together, shower, reunion or open house? Who wants to settle for sending out boring old invitations when you could use a really creative unique way to announce the party? Here are altenative party invitation ideas.Read More

Cheap Sweet 16 Party Planner

Inexpensive Backyard Sweet 16 Birthday Party Planner: DIY Dance Floor and Beach Cabana Bar For our oldest daughter's Sweet 16 birthday party, we pulled out all the stops on our creative energy. Here is an inexpensive backyard Sweet 16 birthday party planner with music, dancing, non-alcoholic beach luau bar, diy cake, treats and games. Read More

Cheap, Easy Preschool Party Planner with Activity Stations

Cheap DIY Party Planner for Preschool Age Children with Activity Stations While there are dozens of adorable little girl party themes, I find it best to go with a simple, inexpensive party theme. Here's a party planner for preschool age children that's full of cheap, diy homemade fun. Based on preschool learning centers. Read More

Despicable Me Minion Birthday Cake, Party Favors Recipes

"Despicable Me", "Despicable Me 2" and "Minions" are huge hit movies with kids and adults. Gru's yellow capsule-shaped minions are especially popular. Need ideas for Despicable Me or Minions birthday cakes? Here are recipes for Despicable Me birthday cakes, using Hostess Twinkies to make Minions. You can actually make Twinkie cake Minions recipes as party games or crafts. Use Twinkies Minions for party favors or edible decorations (eating the party decorations would be very Minion-like indeed!) Here are recipes for Despicable Me Twinkie cake Minions.

Hostess Twinkies: Party guests should get to decorate their own Twinkies Minions to eat.

Bowls of frosting or spray cans of decorator frosting in these colors: blue, black and white

Pep-O-Mint Lifesavers or other small round white candies with holes. If you can find candy necklaces or bracelets, cut the string apart and remove the candies. Cheerios or Alpha-bits cereal would work for Twinkie cake Minions.

blue Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-ups, blue fruit leather or blue frosting

string black licorice

yellow licorice, cylinder Good n Fruity, Runts or Mike 'n Ike Candies or cylinder cookies (for arms)

Tootsie Roll midgets

To make Despicable Me minions birthday cakes, unwrap Hostess Twinkies. For Minions' safety goggles, attach white candies to front with frosting. Fill in with white frosting then black dots in the center. You can also make a ring of silver frosting with white frosting inside and tiny black dots of frosting in the center. Use black frosting to draw goggles band around the Twinkie cake Minions heads.

Make Minions overalls by wrapping a strip of blue Fruit Roll-Ups wrap around base of Twinkie cake Minions. Draw overall straps with blue spray frosting. If you wish, you can also make overalls entirely from blue frosting. Poke yellow cylinder candies or cookies in sides for arms. Put dabs of frosting on the end for gloves. Attach two unwrapped Tootsie Roll midgets on bottom for feet. Poke bits of licorice in the top for hair.

Guests might name their Twinkies Minions and give them personas. You can also arrange decorated Despicable Me Minions upright on their Tootsie Roll feet and place atop birthday cakes. Or make them into Minions army birthday cakes! Children will love making their own Despicable Me minions treats. For more fun, creative recipes, visit this author's blogs Great Food 4U.