Ever go on a beach vacation and want to send something fun back home to loved ones? Well today we have an easy and whimsical DIY for you. Painted coconuts! Did you know you could send a coconut through the US mail? How fun would it be for a child to open their mailbox and be surprised with a beautiful coconut? 

All you have to do is paint a cute picture on one side of the coconut. We obviously chose an outline of the state of florida, but you could do something similar for any country you are visiting. You could also do an easy ombre sunset if you are less artistically inclined. On the other side of the coconut, you simply write a quick message and the address of your recipient, similar to a post card. Drop your coconut off at the post office and they will affix postage to it. What a fun, affordable, and adorable gift! 

Who will you surprise with this unexpected and creative idea? 

In continuing our series this month of easy, affordable ideas to help make Christmas magical for your kids, is this wonderful felt Christmas Tree. I apologize for the cropped out toddler, he loves this tree so much he couldn't bare to be apart for it for 2 seconds while I took a photo. I guess that is the whole point. 

There are so many great things about making a felt tree. Felt is extremely inexpensive. It's also easy to work with. Toddlers love ornaments and are constantly clawing at the real tree with real glass ornaments. So giving them their very own toddler sized Christmas tree that they can decorate over and over is so wonderful. 

Directions: Cut out a large tree shape from green felt. Then think of whatever other ornaments you would like to include and start hot gluing the layers together. Feel free to copy any of the patterns I made up here. We have a couple of gingerbread men, an elf, the 3 wise men, a polar bear, a gingerbread house, a star, traditional ball ornaments, peppermints, a penguin, a nutcracker, rudolph, baby Jesus, Santa Claus, a snowman, a candy cane, and a snowflake. You could make this all religious ornaments if you want it to be more Christ centered as well. And don't forget felt presents to go under the tree!

Your kiddos will love this tree all month long, and as a mom, you will love that nothing on this tree is breakable, and your wallet will love how inexepnsive it was to create as well. 

Happy Crafting!

We have so much fun here on the farm. A lot of it is hard work, but every now and again we pause and have a little fun. Here are some of our adorable offspring (and a spring chicken) having some fun with a home made cardboard airplane. 

This is a wonderful afternoon little project that won't cost you any money, that your littles can help you with, and that will provide them with hours of entertainment and imaginative play. 

Hope you have a high flyin' day! 

As a parent, you are bound to get persuaded into fort building on quite a regular basis. Spending so much time underneath my kitchen table reading and pretending, gave me a great idea. My husband loves when I come up with an idea on my very own - no pinterest needed! Haha. I decided to paint a sky on the underside of our kitchen table! 

This was the perfect easy afternoon craft. You simply flip your table over and freehand whatever storms, clouds, stars, whatever your imagination can think up. And as you can see from the smudges, our son got involved too! We used acrylic paint, which is inexpensive, durable, and dries quickly. I was unsure if my son would love it, but he has spent every single day playing under our table "in his cave" since the day we painted it. It was so quick and cheap and he has gotten so much enjoyment from it. 

And the best part is, when he gets bored with it, we can simply paint over it and add new characters or scenes and it will be like new to him again! I also love that when our table is sitting in our kitchen and company comes over, my house looks perfectly clean and orderly, but there is a world of fun still available to our little man. Give it a try on your kitchen table and you won't regret it!