Terri Thompson

Yummy Popcorn Treats for Your Next Family Movie Night

February 13, 2017 By Terri Thompson

I absolutely love family movie nights.

Often, we pick out a good movie, grab a couple of pizzas, and spread a blanket on the floor for a pizza picnic movie night. It never fails to make everyone happy.

But, pizza is not the only food that is perfect for a movie night.

There are a ton of snack choices, but one of my favorites is popcorn. While it’s delicious with just butter and salt, there are some fun ways to make it special. So, mix it up and try one of these delicious popcorn treats and fire up one of these fun family friendly movies.

Make family movie night more special by making one of these sweet or savory popcorn treats. You'll definitely find one your whole family will love.

Whether you like sweet or savory, you’ll find some great options in this list. Pop up a batch for your next family movie night.

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Sweet Popcorn Treats

Hot Chocolate Popcorn from Cookies & Cups

Honey Butter Popcorn from Kids Activities Blog

Christmas Flavored Popcorn Sugar from NurtureStore

Cookies and Cream Popcorn from Penny Pincher Jenny

Salted Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn from The Chaos and the Clutter

No-Mess Caramel Apple Popcorn from Views From a Step Stool

Homemade Sweet and Salty Popcorn at Nourished. The Blog

Movie Theater Popcorn Mix from Like Mother Like Daughter

Easy Homemade Kettle Corn at Yummy Healthy Easy

Cotton Candy Popcorn at Bitz & Giggles

Birthday Cake Popcorn from Lil’ Luna

Lemon Popcorn at Six Sisters’ Stuff

Homemade Cracker Jack Popcorn from Pint-Sized Treasures

Fudgy Marshmallow Popcorn at Cookies & Cups

Savory Popcorn Treats

Cool Ranch Flavored Popcorn at Lord Byron’s Kitchen

Garlic Parmesan Stove-Top Popcorn from Little Spice Jar

Salty Spicy Popcorn at Give Recipe

Pizza Popcorn from Foxes Love Lemons

BBQ Ranch Popcorn from Plain Chicken

Chili Cheese Popcorn from Chocolate Moosey

Italian Breadstick Popcorn from A Pastry Affair

Inspiration Laboratories has five fun suggestions for popcorn toppings, both savory and sweet. Yum!

Grab a blanket, a fun popcorn treat, and pop in a good movie. It’s time for family movie night!

No-Sew Valentine Pencil Toppers

February 6, 2017 By Terri Thompson

One thing I love about Valentine’s Day is the chance to make small gestures to let others know how special they are.

Sometimes it’s a simple card to say “You’re Awesome!”

Other times, it’s a small gift to say “I was thinking about you today.”

These simple No-Sew Valentine Pencil Toppers are a fun little gift to give your friends. They’re easy to make and easy to personalize for each individual person.

I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t love receiving this simple homemade Valentine’s Day gift .

These no-sew Valentine pencil toppers are the perfect homemade gift to make for your friends. This craft is perfect for both kids and tweens.

Supplies Needed:

Red or pink felt sheets
Scissors
Scrap paper (to make a pattern)
Tacky Glue
Fabric Paint
Pencils

*Note about the glue. I love to use Tacky Glue for projects like this, but if you can’t find this specific glue, you will want to find a glue that works on fabric.

How to make your Valentine Pencil Toppers

Before you get started, you’ll want to make a quick pattern for your hearts from scrap paper. It is the best way to make sure all your hearts are the same size.

Hold the pattern up to a pencil to make sure it is the correct size.

Next, cut out two pieces of felt for each pencil topper. I found it was easiest to fold my pattern in half and also fold my felt. Hold the folded edge of your pattern up to the folded edge of your felt. Cut out your heart.

Use your Tacky Glue to attach your two heart pieces together. Apply glue around the edge of one heart leaving a section at the bottom open. This will be the opening for your pencil.

Put your second heart on top of the heart with glue and press gently. Press and hold for about 20 seconds, then let dry for a couple of minutes before moving to the next step.

Decorate your hearts

Finally, it’s time to decorate your hearts! Use fabric paint to create your decorations.

We used a 3-D fabric paint in a squirt bottle. I found this worked really well. Felt is not smooth so the squirt bottle was a great way to control your lines.

You can make frilly decorations or funny decorations. We even made a few friendly faces. Anything goes, just let your creativity guide you.

When you’re all done, let your Valentine pencil toppers dry for a few hours before slipping them onto a fun pencil and giving your friends the perfect little Valentine’s Day gift.

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Yummy Valentines Treats for Kids to Make

January 30, 2017 By Terri Thompson

My girls love to help in the kitchen.

They’re getting to the age where they can do more and more of the work themselves. I love this because the more they do in the kitchen the more confident and capable they become.

Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to find some Valentines treats for kids that my girls could make themselves.

Get in the kitchen and make some Valentines treats for kids. These Valentines Day treats are perfect for kids to make themselves.

Some of these Valentine’s Day treats only involve putting a few things together, others are simple baking projects. But, all would be perfect for older kids and tweens to make themselves.

Pick your favorite, shop for supplies, and have some fun cooking with your kids.

Valentines Treats for Kids

Love Bug Sandwich Cookie Balls from Arts and Crackers

Conversation Hearts Valentine’s Day Popcorn Snack from Mommy’s Bundle

Pink Fudge Hearts at Red Ted Art

Cream Cheese Cherry Crescent Rolls at The Jenny Evolution

Valentine’s Day Dipped Pretzels at the Manic Mama of 3

Absolutely adorable Strawberry and Chocolate Ladybugs from The Soccer Mom Blog

Valentine’s Day Fruit Pudding from The Moments at Home

Healthy Valentine’s Day Arrow Snack from Fantastic Fun and Learning

Valentine’s Day Heart Cupcakes at Amanda’s Cookin’

Valentines Day Cookies for Kids

Heart-Shaped Whole Wheat Crackers at Mama Papa Bubba

Sweetheart Smoothies at Cutting Tiny Bites

Conversation Heart Cookies at Red Ted Art

Vanilla Cream Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies at The Jenny Evolution

Valentine’s Day Button Cookies at The Jenny Evolution

Valentine’s Cheesecake Wafers at Manic Mama of 3

Heart-Shaped Penguin Cookies from Parenting From the Heart

Valentines Day Treats for Kids

Chocolate Covered Raspberry Clusters at The Quiet Grove

Sugar-free (and gluten-free) Strawberry Shortcake in a Jar at Wholesome Yum

Valentine’s Candy Bark at Gluesticks and Gumdrops

Chocolate Spoons at Red Ted Art

Strawberry Heart Muffins at Crafty Moms Share

Love Birds Nest Treat at Red Ted Art

Valentine Snack Mix at Cutting Tiny Bites

Valentine’s Heart Fruit Kabobs from The Jenny Evolution

Heart Shaped Crispy Rice Treats at Mama Papa Bubba

Conversation Heart Marshmallow Pops from The Soccer Mom Blog

Homemade Chocolate Valentine’s Popsicles from Kids Craft Room

Valentine’s Day Edible Tic Tac Toe Game from Finding Debra

Chocolate and Candy Heart Popsicles at 3 Princesses and 1 Dude

Chocolate Covered Fruit Truffles at Amanda’s Cookin’

There are just too many to choose from! What recipe do you think you’re going to make with your kids for Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day Literacy Activities

January 24, 2017 By Terri Thompson

The closer it gets to Valentine’s Day, the more I want to add hearts to every activity.

Don’t you?

If you’re like me, and wanting to plaster everything with hearts, I’ve found a great selection of fun Valentine’s Day literacy activities to help your kids have fun while they practice reading and writing.

Practice reading and writing with one of these fun Valentine's Day literacy activities perfect for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Reading

Use candy kisses to spell your name, sight words, or spelling words with this simple Candy Kisses Game from Fantastic Fun and Learning.

Mix in a little science with this Melting Hearts Word Search activity from Inspiration Laboratories. You can hide sight words or spelling words in these hearts.

Practice your spelling words, or even sight words, with this Valentine’s Day Spelling Activity from Coffee Cups and Crayons.

Deliver some hearts while you practice reading with this fun Sight Word Delivery Game from Growing Book by Book.

Practice sight words, words families, or spelling words with this fun hanging words activity based on the book The Day it Rained Hearts from Inspiration Laboratories.

Get out your fancy heart doilies to practice reading with this Valentine’s Day Word Families activity.

Practice homophones with this free heart matching game from This Reading Mama.

Read a great book for Valentine’s Day.

ABC Creative Learning has a great list of 25 Valentine’s picture books.

You can find 10 Valentine’s books that will appeal to boys over at Embark on the Journey.

If you’ve looking for chapter books, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas has a list of Valentine’s chapter books for kids.

Practice reading and writing with one of these fun Valentine's Day literacy activities perfect for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Writing

Practice writing letters, sight words, or spelling words with this simple Valentine’s Day sensory writing tray from The Imagination Tree.

Use these Valentine’s Story Stones from Creative Family Fun to write your own Valentine’s Day stories.

Combine art and writing. Create a batch of these Kindness Heart Postcards from Toddler Approved and write notes to send to family and friends.

Create this gorgeous golden heart book from Imagination Soup and use it for creative writing. It’s the perfect place to write some Valentine’s poetry.

Make I Love Books from Fun-A-Day. This preschool activity can be easily modified for older kids by having the kids do all the writing themselves.

Have some fun with some kid-friendly Valentine’s Day Mad Libs found at My Sister’s Suitcase.

Don’t these all look like fun? Which of these Valentine’s Day literacy activities are you going to try with your kids today?

Practice reading and writing with one of these fun Valentine's Day literacy activities perfect for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. #literacy #ValentinesDay #BetterThanHomework

Valentine Word Family Game

January 23, 2017 By Terri Thompson

I love to add a holiday twist to learning games.

It adds to the fun and can help make a reluctant kid eager to learn.

Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, I’m going to share some fun ways to incorporate the holiday into learning. We’ll start with a simple Valentine word family game that makes use of heart doilies.

Get out paper doilies to help practice word families with a fun Valentine Word Family Game. It's a fun Valentine reading game.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

I usually like to stick with supplies that I usually have at home to make a learning game. But, this time I made an exception. I spent a little bit of money on some heart doilies to make a fun activity even more special.

Supplies Needed:

Heart doilies
Red or pink construction paper
Circle punch
Black Marker

Get out paper doilies to help practice word families with a fun Valentine Word Family Game. It's a fun Valentine reading game.

Make your Valentine Word Family Game:

Decide on the word families you want to work on. Choose the ones that your child is working on in class or select something you see they are struggling a bit with. If you’re not sure where to start, here is a great list of word families I refer to quite often.

Use your heart doilies for your word family base. Use the black marker to write a word family on each doily. Don’t do too many, 3 or 4 word families should be plenty.

Next, make your game pieces. I have a circle punch, so I just cut out four circles from my construction paper for each word family. If you don’t have a circle punch, you can cut out small squares or even small hearts.

Write a word on each circle from each word family. I had four circles, so four words for each word family.

An example would be: -est family, nest, rest, test, best.

Get out paper doilies to help practice word families with a fun Valentine Word Family Game. It's a fun Valentine reading game.

Play the game:

Give your child the word family doilies. Turn the paper circles upside down and mix them all up.

Choose a paper circle and read the word. Put the circle on the correct word family doily.

Keep playing until all the paper circles are on the correct doily.

Extend the fun:

Use just the word family doilies and see how many words you can write down for each word family.

Play the game with more than one kid. Have each child take turns turning over a paper circle.

How would you use this Valentine Word Family Game?

Get out paper doilies to help practice word families with a fun Valentine Word Family Game. It's a fun Valentine reading game.

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Get out paper doilies to help practice word families with a fun Valentine Word Family Game. It's a fun Valentine reading game. #Literacy #ReadingGame #ValentinesDay #BetterThanHomework

Terri Thompson