New Year's Eve Tradition

Back in March, before I started using Pinterest, I saved to my Evernote notebook a post from the blog Eighteen25. They created this cute box to store a printout of the kid's interests/favorites/dreams every year (both of the following images are theirs).

This is a great idea to do on birthdays or the start of each new year.  I really like the idea of a tracking the current interests of kids and even adults. Though I think the box is cute and a great idea for a many families, a digital file would work better for our family.


I'm constantly trying to purge our belongings so that we actually know where things are and remember that we have things! So, for us, we'll be using the printable below, scanning it back into the computer, and then including it in our photo books that I do through Shutterfly.  We have a big collection of Shutterfly books; I like how it keeps all of our memories accessible without the bulk.

Click the image for the full-sized printable JPG

For the adults, I recommend taking a look at the list that Simple Mom's Tsh came up with. The last page of her PDF is formatted so that you can print it out and cut out little cards. 

This morning, I noticed that 30 Handmade Days also did a New Year's printable. Go check hers out, too! The image below is hers.

Happy New Year!

Summer On-the-Road Survival Kit + Free Paper City Printables

LE and I are spending more and more time away from the house now that the sun has decided to stick around Madison. There are a few extra things to keep in the car for impromptu park visits, outdoor naps, and play stops.  Since John and I switch cars back and forth a fair amount in the warmer months (we both prefer the one with the sun roof), we needed a solution to make the switch easy.

My favorite way of keeping things organized with all of the extra stuff for LE during road trips is by using a big clear plastic bin, labeled with the contents inside the lid. While we're away from the home, we use the bin as her play center and then when it's time to go, we can always make sure that we leave with everything that we arrived with.

It only made sense to create a bin to transfer from car to car. filled with  the summer surplus. That way, we'll always have our Summer On-the-Road Survival Kit with us without going through the effort of taking out everything one by one.

Here's what our kit includes:

• small blanket to cover the grass for picnics or outdoor naps
• towel for after we splash in the water or get dirty
• swim diaper-- you never know if the splash pad calls our name when we're out
• sunscreen
• first aid kit
• point & shoot digital camera
• snacks
• umbrella to shield the sun at picnics or naps
• book 
• token toy
• bucket
• insect repellent wipes
• diaper clutch
• sunhat

What would you put in yours?

If LE were a year or two older, I'd be inclined to keep paper cities with us, too. Not just for the summer, but really any time that there's a possibility of being away from the home with limited entertainment.

Have you seen the paper cities at Made by Joel? He has free printouts for cities, people, helicopters, cars, etc. The kids color them in, cut them out (or you do), crease them to get it to stand, and then they have a super portable city to play with! He has a lot of inexpensive, creative ideas for imaginative play time. You should go check it out if you haven't already.

All paper city photos are from the Made by Joel website.


Here's where I linked up!

Summer {Free} Printable

We got our patio installed yesterday and today, which means that summer can officially begin in our household! I'm definitely looking forward to a little bit of outdoor living space that is level with our backyard for LE's sake. Right now she's not a huge fan of grass, so the patio and rocks that are surrounding part of it will make a great outdoor play area for her.

We're also looking forward to having some great evening meals out there and hopefully some excellent s'mores are in our near future! For today, we'll have to make do with the few cookies leftover from the batch that I made for the workers. They are a respectable substitute for now-- definitely my favorite chocolate cookie to make, though a bit too chocolatey for a certain male somebody in this house. For the adult female in this house, they're just right. (If you are interested in these cookies... see the recipe post)

In honor of our patio and summer and all things NOT Wisconsin winter related... I created a printable that you are welcome to use! I did a little browsing of my favorite sites for summer printables, and while printables are a plenty, they are mostly themed graduation, dad, or mom as opposed to just summer.

Click on the thumbnail and then click "Download" on the lefthand side to get the full-size image. It's formatted to print on 8.5x11 and fit a 8x10 frame!

Please, printable is for personal use only!!