Luckily, some smart teachers came up with a great solution: pizza boxes. Pizza boxes are a great vehicle to store your lil’ one’s (and your) favorite items from that year of school without taking up too much space everywhere. They also are fairly flat and can stack easily under beds, in closets, above cabinets, or behind couches when they’re not being used. If a pizza box is too big for the projects you saved or the storage space in your home, you can always do shoeboxes as well.

Decorate your pizza or shoe box on the outside to personalize it

First, have your lil’ ones decorate the box on the outside and inside with their favorite memories from the year, their handprints, signatures from friends and classmates, or any other creative way to help them remember that year in school.

Next, it’s time to fill your pizza box with projects and memories. Pick out your favorite art projects, papers, worksheets, and letters from the year and fill the box. Take the rest and throw it all out (your cluttered house will thank you later). If you choose items carefully, you won’t regret getting rid of the rest of the clutter.

Lastly, close it up with a piece of tape on the front so it can’t fly open when being carried around. Voila! Now you have a creative, cute, and efficient way of saving your lil’ ones memories and projects without taking over your home.

-Lauren grew up babysitting her neighbors and the kids down the street and now works in-house at BFC at the Creative & Social Media Coordinator. She loves creative, crafty projects… and pizza too

Serving: 20 medium/large cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt
4. Mix flour, salt with the buttery egg/sugar mixture
5. Chill the dough for 3 hours
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
7. On a flour covered surface, roll out the dough to 18″ and cut into shapes with cookie cutters
8. Bake cookies on a greased sheet for about 8 minutes

Add some flair by dipping in chocolate and adding lil’ ones initials if you don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter!

Last step: enjoy these delicious treats with family and friends!

-Lauren has been babysitting kids since she was in her early teens. She works in-house at LLD and is the office cookie-baker!

LLD Sitters helping set up for a great kiddie bash

Don’t overwhelm your lil’ ones.  A good general rule of thumb is invite one kid for every year (for example, if your child is 5, invite 5 of their friends). If you do choose to include more friends or adults, try to keep the activity low key. Too much commotion and a new surrounding can cause lil’ ones to feel overwhelmed and unhappy. Stick with fun, simple crafts, games, and activites.

Finger Foods. Although everyone loves being a great hostess and having a fantastic spread, lets face it, finger foods are just easier. Save yourself the cleanup and hassle of big spreads and opt for chips and dip, veggie trays, cookies, and other items that are not as messy. A cupcake “cake” is always a good option to avoid having to cut the cake (or that kid who always has to plant his face in the cake before it is even cut… yikes!).

DIY. One complaint many parents have is how expensive it can be to throw a birthday party for a young child. Although some costs are unavoidable, some things are easy to make yourself! Crafts, decorations, balloons, and games are all things that you can do yourself for a cheaper price. This is also a great way to get other siblings involved in the birthday party; having them help make crafts and set up will get them excited for the day, even though the attention won’t be focused on them.

Keep it simple; Its a party for kids! Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the birthday party is to make kids happy. Don’t get too wrapped up in making it fancy. Kids usually end up happier playing in the cardboard box their gift came in than playing with that fancy hovercraft itself. Remember that your kids will love their party; if they want mini hot dogs instead of cheese and crackers, go for it! If they want to wear their pajama slippers and a princess hat with a Batman cape, let them! Plus… those blackmail pictures could come in handy during their teenage years!

Call in help. Keep yourself from getting stressed by inviting the other guests parents to come with their children. This will help keep them in line and save you from being the bad guy if anything goes wrong. If this is not an option, hire a sitter or party staffer to help out and keep your party running smoothly.

We hope these tips to throwing the ultimate birthday bash have been helpful! Any other ideas? Feel free to comment down below! LLD offers sitters for parties to help watch the kids or staffers to help set up, run errands, and plan the party itself. Let LLD help you with all of your childcare needs! We’re here to help you throw the best party ever!

• Schedule a time when they can bring in their new toy for show and tell if they are younger. Older and younger kids can also bring toys to playdates after school so they can share their excitement with all of their friends.
• Countdowns. The end of school is faraway but luckily there are some significant milestones left before the end of the year. Volunteer to bring in 100 popcorn pieces or 100 m&ms for the day when there is only 100 days left of school. Or surprise lil’ ones with notes in their lunch boxes when they hit milestone days before the end of school.
• Let them wear their new clothes. Kids will love wearing new boots, princess outfits, etc. If they wear them to school, they will associate the excitement of a new outfit with the excitement of a day at school.
• Plan after school activities. Pack your kids’ schedules with playdates, classes, or even schedule in some free time or mommy&me time.
• Ask them what they learned in school. This question is usually met with an “I don’t know” (at least in my house it always is). Actually engage with them and make them give you 2-3 things they liked learning before they dig in to their after school snack. This will keep them thinking about what cool stuff they actually do in school.

• Go outside! If you live close to a park, suit up in snow gear get outside. Despite the effort to get kids ready (& the inevitable mess upon their return) going outside for snowball fights, snow angels, and snowmen will zap some of their energy from being indoors too long! Sledding is another option, but make sure your children are safe if they choose to do this!
• Cook or bake: This is the perfect time to let kids help make recipes like home made pizza. Baking is always a snow day favorite as well. Try a recipe you haven’t yet, or spend some extra time to roll out some sugar cookies! Snow days are the perfect time to make family favorites without worrying about leaving time to do homework and get in bed.
• Experiment: Snow days provide plenty of time for weather related experiments. Have your kids check out cool experiments with thermometers, track the snow with a yardstick out on the balcony or front steps every few hours, or even make their very own indoor snow crystals.
• Craft: Didn’t get a chance to make those paper snowflakes before the holidays? Now is your time! We also love easy crafts  like the snow day ring toss. Or you can use the snow day to get started on Valentine’s Day crafts… Heart-shaped cards, writing Valentines to classmates, and glitter filled projects are all things your lil’ ones will love.
• Movie Marathon: After all that excitement, lil’ ones may need a rest. However, especially with older children, they will not always agree to a nap. Putting on a favorite movie can also give you the downtime you need as a parent (catching up on paperwork, cleaning, or whatever it is you had planned to do if your lil’ guys were in school).

When all else fails, LLD is here to help with friendly and energetic sitters to take your lil’ ones anywhere or do any snow day activity you can dream up! Happy snow storm everyone!

-Lauren has been babysitting for many years and is part of the LLD office team! Her favorite snow day activities are drinking homemade hot chocolate, curling up with a book, and going sledding with friends!

But how can we expect our lil’ ones to exhibit willpower we as adults can’t even follow through with the whole year? We have a few tips!

1. Make a list: Sit down with your lil’ one and make a list of things they would like to work on this year. These changes can be big or small, one-time things or lasting changes. For example, they may want to “get an A+ on one math test this year” or “walk the dog for mom at least once a week.” Try to pick a number of changes from this list that seems manageable. For smaller children this may be limited to one big change and one small change, but this will vary from child to child. Children may also fare better with a series of one-time tasks or accomplishments (i.e. Get an A+ on math test, make a scrapbook for Mom and Dad’s anniversary, vacuum the living room once, 

2. Enforce it: Here comes the hard part! You have a few options for helping your lil’ one make a lasting change in their life:

• Calendars- Print out a calendar for the entire 2014 year. If your resolution is “walk the dog every saturday with mom,” put on the calendar every saturday “walk dog.” If you have more than one child, you can color code each child with their own color. This will help them visualize their task. They can then track progress with a sticker, check, smiley face etc. for every time they complete their resolution task.
• Sticky notes- if a child is completing a series of one time resolutions, sticky notes may be easier. These can be posted on a board with their name or up in their room. Write one task on each sticky. When the task is complete, take the sticky note down and throw it away. Again, the visual element of working through their goals will help children see their progress and want to continue.
• Calendar alerts- for older children with phones, add these events into their phone. If it is a reoccurring event, add a reoccurring event into their phone calendars with a notification. That way, every friday after school their phone will ding “walk the dog,” reminding them to keep on top of their resolution. It is also easy to do the same thing for one time events that way they will not forget about them months down the line.
• Goals list- make a list of goals and post it somewhere visible (i.e. fridge, mudroom, bedroom, desk). As these goals are checked off, let children put check marks next to them. Seeing what they have already accomplished may encourage some children to continue checking items off their list.

3. Create lasting change: These strategies will help your child (and you!) follow through on New Year’s resolutions for the entire year. This will teach responsibility and commitment to changes and promises made.

-Lauren has been babysitting since she was a lil’ one herself and works in-house at the LLD office.