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Zucchini Bread Recipe

Squash and zucchini has been filling up the produce drawers in my refrigerator the past few weeks. So we’ve been making lots of zucchini bread. And I’ve found that using squash works just the same, really making it squash bread.

Yesterday took some zucchini muffins (that was a mix of squash and zucchini) to a toddler play date. Several moms asked for the recipe. So here it is, pasted in from my old blog, called The Brown House News. Enjoy!

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Inside our fridge with raw milk

I have long been curious about raw milk. I have friends who have been getting raw milk for years. We already get all our vegetables (and some fruit) from a CSA where we know exactly where it is all coming from. We enjoy having a friendly relationship with “Farmer Megan,” as my children refer to her, and being welcomed to visit the farm.

Since we did the 10 Day Real Food Challenge I have been making a constant effort to cut down on buying processed foods, and basically anything that comes in a box or a plastic container. Our family eats a lot of dairy, a lot of yogurt, a lot of real butter.

For a couple years, on and off, I have made yogurt using milk from a local farm – which still gets pasteurized. I always wanted it to be better, to taste like my friend’s delicious homemade yogurt, who uses raw milk. I knew the answer meant starting with non pasteurized milk, rather than reheating milk to make yogurt out of something that has already been pasteurized once. I also wanted to make mozzarella cheese for our homemade pizzas. I wanted to make butter.

Basically, I wanted to experiment with milk, make more things, be less dependent on the grocery store and have a relationship with a farmer where I knew exactly where our dairy products (at least some of them) are coming from.

When Erica over at Child Organics (who I met years ago though the Holistic Moms Network) wrote a post about finding a local farm to get raw milk, I immediately contacted her for more information regarding her experiences. She had glowing reviews about visiting the farm, and her experiences in dealing with the farmers at Green Chin Farms.

Everything she wrote in that post was how I felt, about wanting to get raw milk, about supporting local farmers and connecting with our community through food. A good local connection was what I needed to make the raw milk jump.

I was impressed by the farm’s professionalism from the beginning. Their thorough paperwork detailing every step and procedure Morel, the woman running the farm, goes through when milking and caring for Crema the cow. Crema is her pet. Her only cow. She does all the milking and all our milk comes from Crema. She has goats too, offering the most delicious fresh goat cheese you’ll ever taste. When we visited the farm I could immediately tell all the animals were all taken well care of by Morel, and that the animals liked her in return.

I had several conversations with Farmer Megan about raw milk, since she (also a vegitarian) has worked on a farm milking cows and her husband grew up on a dairy farm. I talked with other farmers I have grown to know through farmers markets and our local food co-op, about drinking raw milk and what to look for in finding a good raw milk farmer. I read the book The Raw Milk Revolution. I met Crema the cow and Morel the dairy farmer. And I decided to make the leap for our family.

And now….this is what the inside of our refrigerator looks like, after one afternoon of yogurt and butter making.

I use a dry erase marker to write on the glass containers so we all know and remember what is what. Every week we get three, two quart mason jars of raw milk plus half a cheese share, which we rotate week-to-week between getting mozzarella cheese (that I still want to start making myself) and cheddar cheese. From that, I skim enough cream off the top of the milk to make butter, saving the buttermilk for my husband to use while making his weekend biscuits. I make two quarts of yogurt (see how here). And I strain the yogurt (using cheesecloth) to make a thick greek style yogurt, and keep the leftover whey for an added boost of protein in smoothies.

To make butter, I have done it by hand with the kids, like this. But to get the job done easier, after the kids loose interest in helping, I just put it my KitchenAid mixer, like this.

In one other small jar I take some of the yogurt and make vanilla yogurt, sweetening it with agave nectar and vanilla extract. I have one child who doesn’t like honey. But the rest of us love our individual servings of yogurt sweetened with honey and topped with granola.

I absolutely love this site in my refrigerator, of homemade goodness in glass containers, using fresh raw milk.

We technically own a share of Crema the cow (or part of the cow), which is how it is legal in Tennessee to buy raw milk. I love that Green Chin Farms is a small, family organization with Morel going out to milk the cow twice a day. It seems like this is the way people are meant to live, the way people use to live. Except today we are finding a way to do it, realistically fitting into how we actually live.

Because you know, if I can’t talk my husband into having backyard urban chickens, I’m definitly not going to talk him into owning a cow! At least not the whole cow.

This is Crema the cow, during a birthday cerebration hosted for her recently, during an open house on the farm where families were invited to attend. This is the photo I like to think about when I serve my children fresh milk, from our fridge. The man in the background is the man behind Green Chin Farms, and the husband to Morel.

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There’s been a whole lot of canning going on here

Our demo plans for our kitchen have been pushed back a couple of weeks. Because we decided to have our contractors hand build all the windows and doors for our mudroom, being built off the back entrance way to our kitchen. The glaze is drying on the windows, and the final door is being made in their wood shop.

All this means I am still savoring every day that is left before we go a month with no kitchen. SO, I have been able to get all my tomato canning and pesto making out of the way. When demo day does finally come, I can say I will be over all my canning projects, with all the jars boxed up in the basement waiting for a new home in my new cabinets.

But for now, here are some shots of the finished jars, and the work of canning. 

This year I skipped making jars of marinara and pizza sauce because pealing 25 pounds of tomatoes was too daunting. So I blanched them, let the skins slide right off and canned whole tomatoes to make sauce at a later time. 

Salsa! Made using my new Tattler tops and our shinny new stainless funnel that I loved enough to take picture of. For the salsa I started with a recipe from PickYourOwn.org. And then I added and tasted, and tweaked until it fit the taste buds of our family. All my girls LOVE blue corn chips and salsa, and it’s a snack I love for them to have. Which sparked this year’s first ever salsa canning adventure here at the Simmons house.

The recipe tweaking entailed only 1 jalapeño pepper (instead of six – YIKES) , only 2 onions and 2 garlic cloves. I had two large colanders overflowing with romo tomatoes to start out with, but I don’t think it equalled the 25 pounds the recipe called for, so I put a little less of all the other ingredients in the seasoning mix to balance it out. I added apple cider vinegar and more cumin (my kids like cumin and their favorite local salsa from the store has apple cider vinegar in the ingredients). We all gave it a final thumbs up taste taste before the salsa went into the canning jars to get preserved.

I love pesto. And, these little five jars were just the beginning. Last Wednesday Farmer Megan (our CSA farmer) had a bin full of basil that sat on hot ashphalt at one of her stops for too long, that she was going to toss at the end of the day. And since my house was the last stop for the day, I happily saved it and made 12 more jars of pesto that night.

For pesto – I use olive oil, parmesan cheese (or sometimes feta or a mix of whatever is in my fridge), pine nuts or walnuts or pecans depending on what I have, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I fill my food process to the brim with fresh basil, add about half-one cup of oil, a handful of nuts, a generous amount of fresh grated cheese, juice from half a lemon and salt and pepper to taste. Then I happily put pesto on everything – from pasta, to pizza, to sandwiches, to crackers with fresh goat cheese. I love pesto!

But wait…there is more canning to come. The pear trees in our backyard are ready to be picked. And, I’ll be doing a fruit swap with our dairy farmer for some of her apples to make apple sauce and apple butter.  YUM. 

And then, I’ll stop canning and do barely any cooking at all for a month, while we get a new kitchen. Soon, we will bid a final goodbye to these red formica countertops with the shinny chrome trim. Next up is a gorgeous white (or gray) marble counter top – that will be even more fun to use as a backdrop for photos like this.

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Tennessee boxes, for the Worldwide Cultural Swap

Our family is excited to be part of a Worldwide Cultural Swap, organized by the Little Red Farm. When I came across this website a few months back, I knew it was something I wanted to do with my girls.

The Worldwide Cultural Swap is done through the mail, sharing artifacts and information about where you live with four other families you are paired up with, through the swap. I signed up back in May, on this page. A couple weeks later I got an email pairing me with four other families wishing to do a swap was well. Then we shared information about our families, the ages of our children and where we live, via email. We created a deadline for everyone to mail out their swap packages. Since it was summer and some of the families in our swap were traveling a lot during the summer, we agreed on the deadline of July 31 to give everyone plenty of time.

We mailed our packages last week, to England, Australia, a Moroccan family who splits their time between the US and Morocco, and Colorado. The girls are SO excited, running to the mailbox everyday looking for a package in return.

The swap asks Americans to focus on their state rather just America, understandably so. Since we are not from Tennessee, it was a fun opportunity for us to learn some new things about our state.

Here is what we put in our box.

I included a document explaining more about the contents and what they mean, for the families receiving the boxes. The write up had photos, pairing the descriptions with the objects you see above. My oldest daughter had a learning moment when she read why the Tennessee flag has three stars on it, saying, “Ohhhh. I always wondered about that.

Here is what the document explained…

  • The official state flag of Tennessee was adopted on April 17, 1905. The three white stars in the center symbolize the three different geographical regions of Tennessee: the Great Smoky Mountains (in eastern Tennessee), the highlands (in central Tennessee) and the lowlands (in western Tennessee, by the Mississippi River). The white circle binds them together. The blue stripe along the margin was added for distinction when the flag is hanging; with the stripe, not only the red shows while the flag is hanging.
  • Knoxville, Tennessee is home to the University of Tennessee. Tennessee football is huge here! On game days people everywhere in the city are wearing orange. The stadium, where they play football games is called Neyland Stadium. It seats 100,000 people and is the largest football stadium in the Southeast. The stadium is located on the Tennessee River and many fans travel by boat to attend the games!
  • Grits are a food of Native American origin, and have now become a cultural staple of the South. They are mainly eaten for breakfast. They consist of coarsely ground corn, or sometimes alkali-treated corn (hominy). Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world, such as polenta, or the thinner farina. Three packs of instant cheese grits were included in the box.
  • In Knoxville’s downtown visitor center, local radio station WDVX hosts the Blue Plate Special every weekday during lunch, where regional bluegrass and country musicians play live music that gets broadcasted on the radio. Our city is known for Bluegrass music, which was started in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee, sometime around the Civil War in the 1800s. The various types of music brought with the people who began migrating to America in the early 1600s are considered to be the roots of bluegrass music—including dance music and ballads from Ireland, Scotland and England, as well as African American gospel music and blues. (In fact, slaves from Africa brought the design idea for the banjo–an instrument now integral to the bluegrass sound.) A copy of a CD featuring some of the local bands from the radio station was included in the box. For blogging purposes – Here is a link to where you can buy the CD, which I hope you consider doing to support this non-profit radio station. It’s a great CD. We support the radio station with donations several times a year, which is why I felt it was okay to copy the CD for this educational purpose. But please – do go show your support for this awesome, community based radio station. 
  • Also in the box was a woven piece of blue fabric with a piece of paper explaining some of the history and heritage of weaving in this region –  East Tennessee is known for its history of craftsmen and craftswomen, from sewing, to welding iron and woodworking.
  • A Tennessee map was in the box too, so swap families could locate Knoxville and its surrounding areas. As was Knoxville visitor’s magazine.
  • And a book titled Appalachian Mountains that my children enjoyed very much. The Appalachian Mountains are about 45 minutes from Knoxville. There is a famous hiking trail called the Appalachian Trail that starts in Georgia, goes through Tennessee and ends in Maine. It’s a total of 2,180 miles.

Our last picture before we packed up the boxes and headed to the post office.

I was very conscience while figuring out what to include in the box, to keep the weight low (as well as the cost of the content in the box) and prevent shipping costs. It turned out our boxes weighed 1.5 pounds each. Even at that, it was just under $15 to ship to Australia and England. It was worth it.

We had a blast getting the items together for the box, visiting the East Tennessee History Center where we collected the book, flag and weaving example. We visited University of Tennessee bookstore for some mini footballs, and the visitors center to get the Knoxville visitor guide and state map, some new CDs and listen to some live music.

This is an old trolly that used to go from downtown Knoxville to Island Home Park neighborhood.

My little one, dancing to bluegrass music being played in the museum.

My girls ALWAYS love visiting this old school house in the museum.

I’m going to make a point to take my girls more often to this free afternoon music season, The Blue Plate Special. They loved it and were very good audience members for the live music. I think we only made the radio once. Oops.

Now we wait, checking the mailbox daily, for packages from far way. We’ll let you know what we get!

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THAT was a lot of sewing!

I’m never one to say no. Especially to the sweet teacher who will spend a total of eight years teaching (like a mother) one of my girls in her 3-6 year old classroom. This year will be the fifth striaght year I’ll have a daughter in her class. And when she moves on to lower elementary, my toddler will join the class, from 2013-2016. Eight years, one teacher and one assistant.

SO, how can I say no? I can’t.

That’s why I volunteered to sew 18 children’s aprons plus three matching teacher aprons, before school starts – which is next Monday. I’ve had the fabric (provided by the school) since the end of last school year. But I can’t seem to do anything, ever, without a deadline. So, here I am, the day before I said I would return the finished aprons, done – just in the nick of time.

If you were wondering where I was last week, this was it, sewing, along with some pesto making, slowing down (em, sort of) and taking a little cyber break. I did take photos and I’ll have lots more to share within the next few days, with a handful of posts already in the works.

But can we all please take a moment, and agree to say that’s a lot of darn sewing! Whooooo (picture me wiping the fake sweet off my brow).

It was impossible for me to get a photo that did all those cute little aprons justice. The children’s aprons were sewn from the Sew Liberated pattern. The teacher aprons I made by copying the size of an painting apron I had on hand. One of the teachers at school picked out the fabric, so I can’t take credit for that either.

That project is done. But my sewing machine is staying out, with lots more planned in the near future. I’m attending a busy bag swap party for my toddler on Friday, for which I’ll be sewing 17 bags, each filled with 10 fabric strips with velcro to make fabric chains. And then there is my goal of sewing each girl a new dress for the first day of school, in seven days. I should add, I have never in my life sewn any of them a dress – ever! But I know I can do it. I WILL do it. Especially since I’ve now told you about it, I must do it.

After that, while the my toddler spends her phase in week at school from 9-noon, before the school nap begins – I’ll be sewing her a new nap quilt to take to school. And then I’ll move to the upstairs with sewing a new comforter for my oldest daughter who will be getting her first ever own room. Plus curtains for two rooms, with a total of 16 windows, and the bathroom windows too.

And then, maybe, I’ll be sewed out. At least for a while.

I love when my sewing sparks my girls to start sewing too, like this moment where my daughter made a pillow for her dolls. Yes, she’s been on a doll pillow kick. 

My middle daughter picked up the weaving loom for the first time, and was quite proud of her work. 

I do love when they understand the work and love that goes into homemade items made for them. I know they feel it too. Like when my middle girl took her finished pot holder and promptly wrapped it up as a present for daddy to use on his weekend biscuit making mornings. That’s when I know they get it.

And I keep saying yes.

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Plastic free lunch packing containers and systems

Back to school time has snuck up on me. I realized this when a friend called me, remembering the post I wrote about ways to avoid plastic cups, asking me about my take on non-plastic lunch containers.

At the end of the school year last year I researched and bought several different stainless steel and glass lunch containers. I took the last few weeks of school to have my kids test the products.

Since my girls started school at age two, they have carried Laptop Lunch Boxes. Generally, we were very happy with them. But when the girls started requesting to heat lunch items using the child freindly microwaves in their classrooms, I had to try something different. I didn’t want them putting plastic in the microwave.

The big girls were ready for a change of system anyway. Something new. Something that would bring excitement surrounding food and welcome new choices – I was hoping.

My children got stuck in a bento box rut. They got used to everything being neatly separated out, and expected to see fruit in one compartment, veggies in one, protien in one and carbohydrates in the other. Not bad, but within that, I was getting tired of packing the same things. I was in a rut too. Bringing new containers to the scene opened new opportunities to pack new things.

The other thing I like about using containers versus a bento box now, is I have a drawer full of small various containers and cloth snack bags to rotate through while packing lunch items. Which means I’m not hand washing little plastic boxes (12 of them!) because I need them for repacking lunches the night before, when the dishwasher is still running from after dinner.

My girls are on a kick where they prefer a few containers over a bento box, so they don’t mind opening a few different things. At the end of the school year, my two oldest girls started taking cloth placemats from home to lay out under their containers while eating lunch. My oldest daughter started the idea and then it spread, to her middle sister. And it became a daily thing.

If you don’t like dealing with multiple tops and lids you might not like all these containers. I don’t mind keeping up with them at home. All of them are labeled with our last name, using label stickers from Stuck on You. We have never had a problem with lunch items not returning home from school.

This is our lunch packing drawer (along with a few other essentials in the white box and our old Laptop Lunches as back ups) organized just for this photo! Because I promise, it’s not always this neat. 

Overall, the ease of opening lunch containers is an important factor for my children. Their Montessori school requests lunch boxes and containers that foster independence, with young children being able to open them. And as you might remember, my toddler is Little Miss Independent, wanting to do everything herself. Including opening her own lunch – without spilling the food all over the floor. Therefore, our picks pass the toddler test too.

My girls found most all the stainless steel lids too difficult to open, even for my oldest daughter. And while the popular stainless steel Planet Box looks cool, it’s a bento box and we are looking for more open ended packing options. And, I don’t like the idea of lunch systems where you have to buy the carrying system that fits the box. I’m picky about being able to wash reusable lunch bags, and not having plastic insulated liners in them. Plus the popular Planet Box is super expensive and has only one useful purpose – lunch.

The containers we bought can be used in various ways around my kitchen and for transporting smaller car snacks. Unfortunately the ones that my girls voted their favorites, do have plastic lids – but at least they are BPA, PVC, and Phthalates free.

Kids Konserve stainless steel containers, with easy to open and close lids in bright colors, tops the list for the big girls. The two small sizes were the ones most used, for fruit, salsa and dips such as peanut butter or humus. They also make a U Konserve in a 33 ounce, 7″x 5″ container, which would be nice for a sandwich or items for older children. There are several options for colors and sizes, to please both girls and boys. And the smallest size can be ordered as pairs.

These Steeltainer containers are the most toddler friendly and the easiest to open. Actually, it was the most requested container by all my girls because it is so easy to open and close. It is small, but big enough to hold some lunch staples like bread, crackers, cheese, grapes, apples, humus wraps or some veggies on one side of the divider. The interchangeable divider does not prevent liquid from getting from one side to the other, which is a complaint some reviews had. Since the girls want to bring more than one container for lunch, I don’t mind packing around that.

For glass, the small containers by Wean Green passed our kid test.  My oldest daughter loves these containers. My middle girl says they are difficult to open, even though she can do it. There is no way my toddler could open them by herself. But for a glass lunch container option, I can’t think of a better one than this. I will say, they do not leak! This summer they have found their way into daily use in our kitchen, and we have not broken one yet, when dropped on our kitchen’s hardwood floors. If the girls are taking pasta or soup that needs to be reheated, these are the containers I send. The lids come in four fun colors and there are five sizes, ranging from 4 oz. to 16.5 oz. They are offering a back to school set here.

The New Wave Enviro Stainless Steel Food Container, purchased locally, never even made it’s way to school. The design is flimsy, and the lid has to be angled just right to fit on the base. And while it has nice clips to hold the lid on, it still takes a tug to get the lid off and all my girls were afraid their food would spill while getting the lid off.

The same issues can be said for the Lunch Bots stainless steel containers when it came to opening them. There is no clamp on this one and the design is sturdy – so sturdy that even a grown up has to give it a good pull to get the top off. I can see how a hungry child (my oldest child) would worry about spilling their lunch while opening the box. I got an immediate, No way I’m not taking that,” from my testers.

I do however, use them both for packing after school snacks. My girls have staggered pick up times, which means we have wait times sitting on picnic benches or in in the car during the winter, and snacking until the next girl gets dismissed.

I was glad I skipped other styles with hard looking stainless steel lids to open – like these, and the ones that come with the Planet Box. All the reviews on Amazon warn about it. And I believe it.

Minus that our two grey aluminum Sigg boxes were not meant to go in the dishwasher and appear a little beat up now, the girls still love them. I included them in a post last fall on Waste Free lunches. You can do a lot with these little boxes and they are tall enough to hold small glass Pyrex containers. Even my toddler can open and close them with ease.

For snack bags, ours are sewn by the local mom behind by Livin’ Sew Green. Cloth snack bags are handy for corn chips, sliced apples, and crackers that are packed from home, versus buying the more expensive (yet convenient) lunch size bags at stores. The girls’ school promotes waste free lunches, so the girls prefer these cloth bags, verses having to put anything in the dreaded trash can labled “landfill.”

Abe’s Market was so kind to send me a complementary Semilla Snack Circle, that is perfect for a sandwich – so much better than a square wrap because you have less bulk. I really like the fabric texture, very functional. It is sold in sets with snack bags. I recommend those too, if you don’t have a local sewing connection.

As for a lunch bag to put it all in – we continue to love bags by Built. It holds what we need and whole thing goes in the washing machine every Friday. If it needs cleaning during the week due to spills, it air dries quickly.

For drink container ideas, we pack glass water bottles from Life Factory and Kleen Kanteens. I did a run down of plastic free drink cup options, from babies to adults in a separate post here.

Keeping things cold, I have long worried about the safety of the gel stuff inside lunchtime ice packs if they were to leak. Especially when I catch my toddler getting them out of the freezer to play with and squish in her hands. At the end of last year I found these ice packs from Kids Konsserve that comes with a sturdy sweat-free pouch for the ice pack and keeps the gel pack away from the food. They stay cold for hours, and come in fun colors for kids.

With lunch boxes and containers options are hitting the shelves now for back to school. I hope this helps sort through some of the ways to pack a lunch, and gives you ideas of what you can do a little differently this year.

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A Simple Moment

A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.

If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.

Canoeing can be hard work! Look at that little tough girl bringing in the rear, going to return the paddles. Love her SO much. And the Daddy who took off on that afternoon, by himself with three girls on bikes, riding the Greenway to Meed Quarry to rent a canoe for the first time! What a trooper. All of them!

A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.

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Sponsor and Giveaway :: The Cíche Mom

Today I introduce you to The Cíche Mom, Simply Natural Mom’s newest sponsor.

Katie Willocks is a local Knoxville mom who started the small business The Cíche Mom. Cíche in Irish means breastfeeding. And that’s her focus – to make breastfeeding friendly products that help facilitate and encourage moms to create a special bond with their children.

In addition to nursing covers and teething necklaces for moms to wear and babies to teeth on, she has recently began making other green living products such as snack bags, reusable wipes and more.

Her handmade goods are available at her Etsy store and locally at Fluff n’Stuff.

 

Simply Natural Mom: What most inspires your sewing, and what you decide to create?

The Cíche Mom: I am constantly inspired by my daughter. She was having a rough time teething one day so I made her a smaller version of my nursing necklace.  Hence the teething bracelet.  It’s one of my most popular items to date. Beyond that my desire to leave this world better than I came to it is extremely important to me. I love to share my products to help other people get to that same goal.

Simply Natural Mom: Moms love using natural, cloth items with their children. Tell us why moms love wearing teething necklaces for their babies.

The Cíche Mom:  How many times have you been pinched, tweaked, kicked or punched (even lovingly) by your little one while nursing?  Occupied hands during nursing makes for a much more pleasant experience, and less scratches on mama at the end of the day.  Of course there is the obvious reason,  baby will mouth while she is teething. It’s nice to know that what she’s putting in her mouth is natural AND soothing.

Simply Natural Mom: What advice do you have for moms who are looking for simple ways incorporate more green products into their routines?

The Cíche Mom:  Start small!  Maybe it’s just a rain barrel, maybe you just start recycling.  Every little thing you do makes a difference.   One by one things start to add up, and before you know it you’ll be unable to imagine living like you were before.


For today’s Giveaway, The Cíche Mom is offering a natural wood and fabric ring teether to one winner.

To enter, please visit The Cíche Mom’s Etsy store and tell us which item would be your favorite thing to own. Also considering visiting The Cíche Mom Facebook page and liking it to stay in touch with new items being made.

For additional entries, subscribe to Simply Natural Mom by RSS feed, email, Facebook, or Twitter. Or help spread the word about this giveaway by sharing it on Facebook, Twitter or your blog. For each new subscription, or when you share the giveaway through social media, please leave a separate comment here telling me you did so.

One winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator, based on the number given to each comment in the order they are received. So each entry must be in a separate comment, in order to enter more than one time.

I’ll close comments on Sunday, July 29 at midnight EST. Winner will be chosen using Random Number Generator. The winner will be announced here Monday morning. So please check back here to see if you won!

Congratulations Katrina, entry number 1 was the winning number.

Thank you The Cíche Mom!

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Easy seed pack party gift using pots from home

At a birthday party on Saturday, instead of doing a traditional goodie bag, the mom was very creative and put together these pots last minute, the afternoon of the party, using items she had at home.

The tags were cut from artwork done by her daughter and on the back she wrote, “Thanks for coming to my party. Leah.”

Wrapped up inside the terra cotta pots were a pack of seeds, three colored pencils and a popsicle stick to write the name of the seeds the children plant in their pots.

It was so simple and so sweet. I loved it! 

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On the go, busy box craft gift for a three-year-old

There are times when I do homemade birthday gifts and times when I have to get something on the go. Saturday was one of those days when I bought a gift on the way to the party. I had no idea what that gift would be until I began walking the isles at Target.

Toys didn’t seem right. The three-year-old birthday girl is leaving in 12 days to live in Norway with her family for one year.  So the toys, most likely, would get left behind and she wouldn’t see them again until she is four.

So I started thinking about what she might bring on the plane, and on the go, across the world. She’ll be living in a 1200 square foot apartment with her family of five, being entertained by her a work-from-home dad. I immediately thought of things to keep her busy, and possibly help them all out.

In the busy box is a drawing pad, glue stick, kid scissors, foam stickers, pipe cleaners and pompoms, Kid Made Modern crayons and Kid Made Modern tape. The contents of the box added up to about $25.

My kids didn’t help pick out the gift, but it did meet their approval. Meaning my oldest daughter told me “it was a really good gift.” As I predicted, it was parent approved too!

Before we carried the gift into the party I decided to share it with you, and do a little mini photo shoot with my iPhone. That’s why the photo looks like it was taken in the front seat of my car – because it was! Truly an on the go gift, on two different levels.

All the kids liked it so much when the gift was opened, it gave me the idea to gather up some supplies we have at home and make up some busy box craft kits for my own kids.

I bet you could easily do the same. Feel free to share some of the ideas of what you put in your versions. I’m thinking buttons, googley eyes, beads, popsicle sticks….the options are plentiful.

It reminds me of this sewing kit I made for my niece, using all extra stuff I had on hand.

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