45+ Fun Activities For Over The Winter Break

Hello,

Are your kids as excited as mine are for the Winter Break from School just around the corner?

How will you keep your children happy and busy?

I put together 45+ School Break Boredom Buster Ideas & Activities. Many are low-cost and most are FREE! (For my local friends, I have included a list of local businesses at the end.)

These activities can be done in a play group setting, just as a family or with friends.

A GRATEFUL HEART ~ Send Homemade Thinking of you, Thank you or Just Because cards to friends & family.

ACTIVITY of Choice ~ Visit Pinterest and let your child pick out an activity or craft idea. Visit my Pinterest Boards.

BAKING ~ Bake and deliver treats to friends & family.

BILLIARDS ~ Go shoot some pool.

BOWLING ~ You know you love wearing those super stylish bowling shoes!

BOUNCE HOUSE ~ Let the kids burn some energy at an indoor bounce house.

CARNIVAL ~ Make an indoor carnival with games, prizes, and snacks.

CHARADES ~ Play charades or put on a comedy/talent show.

CHARITY/DONATE ~ With your children have them go through their toys, books, and games and pick out item’s to donate to a local charity.

CHUCK E CHEESE ~ Never gets old (including the germs in those places so lots of hand washing required with this one.)

COMIC BOOK ~ Create a fun comic book.

COOKING ~

• Teach your kids how to make a simple meal
• Make a meal/soup for a friend and deliver to them. Let the kids take the meal up to the door, they’ll love surprising someone with dinner.

CRAFT TIME ~ Get all the craft supplies out, gather little odds and ends from around the house (look in the junk drawer), empty tissue boxes, & paper rolls, soup cans, etc. and let them create!

ELECTRONICS ~ Give them some time to play their video games and/or computer screen time.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS ~ Review & practice emergency drills and check your emergency supplies and bags.

FAMILY Videos ~ Watch old family videos together (kids LOVE watching themselves on the TV)

FAMILY WORSHIP NIGHT ~ Invite friends over for family worship. Bible character/events charades, Bible story reenactments,Bible-themedd craft, etc. (Ideas here: Family Worship Idea’s

FLOOR TIME ~ Play Legos and or Barbies with your kids!

FORT – Build a fort using blankets & furniture cushions.

GAME DAY ~ Get out the Board Games & Cards and set up game stations. Serve snacks & have fun!

JIGSAW PUZZLE ~ Work on putting a puzzle together individually & as a family.

ICE SKATING – Indoor or Outdoor Ice Skating

INDOOR GARDEN ~ Plant some fast growing seeds or bulbs.

LIBRARY – FREE! Check out some books, movies, video games and music.

MAKE A MESS ~ Make slime, flubber or dough.

MATH FACTS ~ Practice math facts using games.

MOVIE NIGHT-IN ~ Popcorn, treats, comfy pj’s and a good family movie.

MUSEUM ~ Visit local museums

MUSIC TIME ~ Turn up the music and dance!!

PAINT ~ Get the paints and canvas out or visit a local painting studio.

PAPER AIRPLANES ~ Make a variety of paper airplanes and race them.

PARKS ~ Check out one of the many Beautiful Community and Metro Parks.

PETTING FARM ~ Visit your local petting farm.

PICTURE TIME ~ Give them their own camera and let them take pictures of themselves, things around the house, or even outside. I’m always fascinated at seeing photo’s from their perspective.

POTTERY ~ Visit your local pottery studio. (Invite friends)

READ ~ Pick out a new or old favorite book to read. (Craft idea: Make bookmarks)

ROLLER SKATING ~ One of my favorites 😉

SALON ~ Go get a pedicure & manicure with the girls.

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS – See Pinterest Board

SHOP/Visit the Mall

SLEDDING ~ If there is snow of course.

SLEEP OVER ~ Let the kids invite some friends for a sleep over. (Movie, Junk Food, No Bedtime, Games, etc)

SPA DAY ~ Face mask, Make-Up Application, Hair & Nails.

SWIMMING ~ Community Indoor Pool

THEATER/MOVIES ~ Ticket prices cheaper during the day.

USE YOUR IMAGINATION ~ Allow your children to use their imaginations to come up with their own idea’s of fun.

VIDEO CAMERA ~ Give the kids your video camera and let them make their own movies. They LOVE this!

WATERPARK ~ Indoor water park will you allow you to pretend it’s summer for a day.

ZOO ~ many zoo’s have winter activities.

Lot’s of idea’s to help make their winter break from school a memorable one. 🙂

LOCAL FRIENDS (Wyandotte, Michigan Area) remember to check the list Below for Local Businesses.

I would love to hear your ideas too! Feel free to comment below.

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Happy Winter School Break Days to you!

~Betty

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Local Businesses ( Downriver Michigan)

INDOOR TRAMPOLINE –

Sky Zone – Taylor

ROLLER SKATING –

SKATELAND – Woodhaven

Lincoln Park Skating Center – Lincoln Park

BOUNCE HOUSE –

Play Atlantis – Melvindale

BOWLING –

Indian Lanes – Wyandotte

Parkway Lanes – Trenton

There are several places to Bowl in the Downriver Area

CHUCK E CHEESE –

Southgate

PAINTING –

Pips Painting Pub – Wyandotte

ICE SKATING –

Yack Arena – Wyandotte

Southgate Arena

Kennedy Recreation Center – Trenton

SHOPPING MALL – 

GREAT LAKES CROSSING has a fun arcade/play area for kids. Aquarium & Rainforest Cafe

THEATER –

MJR Theatre, Southgate

Trenton Village Theater – Trenton

MUSEUMS –

The Henry Ford – Dearborn

Hands On Museum – Ann Arbor

Michigan Science Center – Detroit

Cranbrook Institute of Science – Bloomfield Hills

LIBRARY –

Bacon Memorial Library – Wyandotte

WATERPARK –

Splash Universe – Dundee

POTTERY CLASS –

Pottery Creations – Wyandotte

Clayin’ Around Pottery – Allen Park

PETTING FARM –

Taylor Petting Farm (heated barn!)– Taylor

PARKS –

Bishop Park – Wyandotte

Elizabeth Park – Trenton

Heritage Park – Taylor

and Many Beautiful Metro Parks

LAZER TAG/ARCADE

Zap Zone – Taylor

Bible Character Costume Party

Hello,

In May, I hosted a Bible Character Costume Party for our congregation.  We had so much fun!

It was a lot of work planning and preparing for it… totally worth it though.

Dinner Menu…

BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders, Philly Beef Sliders, Mac N Cheese, Baked Beans, Potato Salad, Loaded Potato Salad, Cole Slaw,Fruit Platters & Variety of Pies and Cookies

Kingdom melodies played during dinner.

Games…

I had prizes ( Gift cards and Gift Baskets) for Best Costume, Most Creative Costume and a prize for the Winners of the games we played.

Divided the guests into 4 groups/teams to play the games. Played the games Minute to Win it style.  That was so much fun seeing all the friends trying so hard (looking silly) to win for their teams.

Wrapping Lazarus:

Each team was given a roll of toilet paper to wrap Lazarus. We selected one person from each team to be Lazarus and set the timer for 2 minutes. The team that wrapped the fastest and had the most coverage won.

Collection Manna: This game was hilarious! I had every team member put a little vaseline on the tip of their nose and they had to pick up cotton balls using their nose (no hands) and transfer the cotton (manna) to another plate. The team that collected the most manna won.

Bible Puzzles: Each team had to put together 2 puzzles. Both puzzles were of Biblical scenes taken from the cover of 2 publications. The picture was glued to a cereal box and cut out in 12 pieces (I think..maybe it was 15?) We gave the teams 2 minutes to put their puzzles together….pretty sure we may have extended the time just a bit.

 

Book of the Bible Cup Stack: I wrote the names of each book of the Bible on styrofoam cups…each team had to stack the cups by putting them in order of the books of the Bible. The team that had the most Bible books in the correct order, stacked in the time allotted won.

Photo Props…

We made some Biblical props such as, Scrolls, Ten commandments on tablets (spray painted foam board), Ephod breastplate and some of the other props were just for fun.

We hung a Biblical scene photo backdrop ( My sister painted a canvas). The photo area was a huge hit. Everyone really enjoyed posing for pictures. 😀

The first picture is of my family…

and here are some of the friends dressed in their costumes…

 

 

Costumes…

Putting your costume together does not have to cost a lot of money. Many of the friends went to second-hand stores and found clothes/items for very little money. Pinterest will provide you with lots of costume ideas.  Check out my board: Bible Costume Ideas on Pinterest .

Pillow Cases, Table Cloths, Bath Robes, Scarves, Jewelry, Etc. can easily be found in these stores.  Also, Party City has a nice selection of Biblical costumes.

The friends were commenting that they could not wait for the next Bible party… maybe next year. 😉

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Happy Bible Character Costume Party planning to you!

~Betty

P.S. I didn’t get a chance to get permission to post everyone’s photo, so until I do, I blocked out some faces. 😛

Fifth Grade Graduation Party – Beach Themed Party

Hello,

Our son will be starting middle school in September… middle school!  I thought it would be fun to have a 5th grade graduation party for him and a few of his friends. The same friends that celebrated their Kindergarten graduation together. Not sure how the time flew right by us but it did. Can’t even think about High School graduation. 😦

So back to the 5th Grade Graduation Party…

We did a Beach theme. The weather decided to be perfect “beach day” weather, CrAzY hot! Which we had to enjoy in our backyard instead of actually being at the beach. Oh well. it was fun!

Outdoor decorations…

Plastic Table Covering used as waves on the fence

Beach Balls

Photo Booth Area

Party favor gifts for the graduates…

Filled Sand Pails with candy, silly string, glow toys, gift card and cash.

Here is the Candy & Cake Table…

And here are some of the kids getting their fill of candy!

It was a fun day for the kids.

I have 2 years before I’ll need to host our daughter’s 5th grad graduation. She can’t wait. 😛

Happy Beach Party planning to you!

~Betty

End of School Year Gifts for Classmates

Hello,

As I sat there with our children making end of the school year treat bags for their classmates, I wonder to myself what do I do next year since my son will be in Middle school. Do we still do end of the school year gifts? Hmm

It also occurred to me that I never shared the gifts that we did from last year. Just like this year, I went for super easy and inexpensive.

This was last years….

I found those fun & colorful lollipops at the Dollar Store (5 for $1).

Just added ribbon and tags. Easy!

This year, because we are really short on time we’re just doing bags of candy.

Here is what we did…

Nothing fancy at all but still a sweet little end of the school year treat from the kids to their classmates.

So looking forward to summer vacation!

Happy End Of School Year to You!

~Betty

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Teacher Appreciation Mexican Fiesta Luncheon

Hello,

Teacher appreciation week is over. For the final day of Teacher Appreciation week, we invited the teachers and staff to join us for a Mexican Fiesta Lunch in the library. If you want to see what we did earlier in the week visit here and here.

Somehow, there was some miscommunication and the first lunch started 40 minutes earlier than expected. Needless to say, myself and some of the other parents and a staff member scrambled to set up as fast as we could! It certainly wasn’t set up as I had envisioned. There were decorations that didn’t get displayed (Such as giant inflatable cactus) and some food that didn’t get placed in nice serving dishes. We did the best we could in a very short amount of time.

However, the teacher’s loved it!  Some even said it was their favorite week of the year. 😀

Upon entering the library, the teachers were greeted and helped to get in a festive kind of mood by hearing fun fiesta music playing.

This was the main table where our teachers ate their lunch.

We did set the tables with bowls of chips & salsa and wrapped silverware. I forgot to take a picture after it was completely set. It looked pretty cute.

The menu:  Shredded Beef, Shredded Chicken, Mexican Rice, Cheesy Corn, Refried Beans, Festive Fruit Salad, Stuffed Peppers, Taco shells, tortilla’s, chips & pico de gallo,  salsa and a ton of toppings. (4 different cheese, sour cream, spicy sour cream, green and black olives, lettuce, tomato, jalapeno, cilantro, white, red and green onion and guacamole).

This was part of the food table…..

Kills me to see the sour cream in their original containers. And the fresh guacamole in that bowl. BTW, the guacamole went fast!

Chips and Pico de gallo (recipe here) served in giant margarita glasses.

The local Mexican bakery was happy to donate a tray of cookies and one of the parents made these little cakes.

We had two buckets filled with drinks. One with Iced Tea and water and the other with several different kinds of soda.

It turned out to be a great lunch!

My brain is already filling up with some ideas for next year. Shhh… don’t tell my husband.

Happy future teacher appreciation weeks to you!

~Betty

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Teacher Appreciation Week – Fruit Baskets, Snack Trays & More

Teacher Appreciation Week 2015 – Day 2

Snacks for the teachers.

I delivered this tray full of snacks and a basket of candy to the teacher’s lounge.

By the next morning. most everything had been devoured. 🙂

Day 3 –

Theme: “We Couldn’t Have Picked Better Teachers!”

Gift:  Fresh fruit and flower pots.

Up close…

And the fresh fruit…

I added little signs to the baskets…

“You’re the APPLE of our eyes”

“ORANGE you glad summer is almost here?

“You’re awesome to the CORE”

“You’re all just PLUM PEAR-fect!”

“We’re BANANAS for you. You’re loved BUNCHES”

Inexpensive and fun!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to you all!

~Betty

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Teacher Appreciation Week 2015 – Superhero Breakfast

Good Morning!

To kick off Teacher Appreciation Week 2015, we started with a Superhero Teacher Breakfast.

Table set and ready to go…

Breakfast Menu:

Sausage & Egg Muffins, Pastries and Muffins, Fruit Salad, Yogurt, Energy Balls and Juice.

Yep, the juice containers wore capes 🙂

Here is a poster we made to welcome our teachers…

Super way to start the week!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to you!

~Betty

Teacher Appreciation Week 2014 – Day 5 Breakfast

Teacher Appreciation Week is over… what a great week for our teacher’s!

We kicked off the week with a Popcorn Bar and mid-week we provided a delicious Chili and Salad Bar Luncheon.

To end the week we treated our teacher’s to  breakfast and a gift.

Good Morning!

A yogurt bar with lots of toppings, including homemade granola…

Even added some bling to the spoons ;)…

Jenna made these cute little loaves of bread…

You’re simply the best juice!..

We gave each of the teachers a gift card (donated from parents). I added the gift cards to these basil plants. I covered aluminum cans with scrapbook paper and embellishments…easy and adorable!

And Nancy put together these sweet Thanks a latte cups…

We truly enjoyed making Teacher Appreciation Week  special for our deserving teachers.

Until next Teacher Appreciation Week!

~Betty

Teacher Appreciation Week 2014 Day 3 Chili and Salad Bar Lunch

We kicked off Teacher Appreciation Week 2014 with a Popcorn Station set up in the Teacher’s lounge.

For Day 3 we provided a delicious Chili & Salad Bar for lunch!

Check it out…

This sign greeted our teachers

I failed to get a picture of the Chili – we had a few different kinds. White Bean Chicken Chili, Vegetarian Chili and a Meaty Chili.  Here are the chili toppings…

And the salad bar…

After our teacher’s reached the end of the salad bar line they were very thankful they weren’t paying by the weight of their plates! Free Salad piled high!

We had dessert and drinks too…

Delicious Banana pudding cups!

Jenna also made these adorable chocolate dipped Oreo “Apples”…

We used those Oreo treats as part of the table centerpieces…

Along with these apples that I added little notes to the scrapbook paper leaves…

So much fun treating our incredible teachers to a special lunch!

To end out this special week, we are providing the teacher’s with breakfast and a gift on Friday.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week Luncheon to you!

~Betty

Teacher Appreciation Week 2014 Day 1 Popcorn Station

Teacher Appreciation Week 2014 – Day 1

Popcorn Station

We made a cute sign to go with our popcorn theme:

We provided a few different popcorn flavors and a plain popcorn that the teachers could season with their choice of several different popcorn seasonings.

And some movie theater size boxed candy and soda.

A “pop”ular start to their special week!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

~Betty