Annie Lang's Blog!

When the kids are out on Winter Break and it's too blustery and bleak for outdoor activities, we plan an indoor overnight festival to make the season fun.  We've had a Festival of Hearts, Fairy Festival and a Winter Wonderland Festival so this year we decided a Lucky Leprechaun Festival would be a fun theme to plan.  Invitations were made, treat bags were prepared and decorations went up.  The Dollar Store had plenty of gold coins, mini cauldrons, shamrock garlands, costume accessories and green tableware to choose from.  St. Patrick's Day was yet a few weeks away, but i t doesn't need to be March 17 to host a party for a pair of wee little Lucky Leprechaun hooligans!   To get things started, the kids spent time decorating bags to take home all their treats and prized.  You can download this FREE printable template from my home website right now and let the kids have fun embellishing their own bags with crafting supplies you have on hand.   Next, time was spent prepari

Valentine's Day is long gone, but here's a great way to spend an extended weekend with the grandkids while their parents take a winter break.  We began planning several weeks ago and it's amazing as to how many great ideas a 6 year old can have!  Since the girls were spending several nights, the schedule needed to be filled with plenty of fun activities, games and projects.  We decided to call it our Festival of Hearts Party and with a little luck, it may become a February tradition.  The first night of the party began with dinner, a heart cutouts house decorating activity, reading storybooks, a quick bath, tooth brushing, pillow fight and then an early bedtime to insure they would be well rested on Party Day.  To decorate the house, we were able to get a lot of Valentine decorations on sale at 75% off because of the post Valentine's Day sales.  We also cut and colored small hearts, stapled them to straws to use as pokes and hung a few from strings to make orname