Monthly Archives: August 2012
National Trail Mix Day Tasty Easy Recipe
Today is National Trail Mix Day. Fun fact – Kolcraft’s President, Tom Koltun, is a triathlete and knows the importance of grab and go energy snacks. The following is his favorite trail mix that is easy to make and super tasty!
What you need:
- Cup of peanuts
- Cup of cashews
- Half a cup of almonds
- Cup of raisins
- Cup of m&ms
- Plastic bag or even better – reusable container
What to do:
Mix all the ingredients in container and enjoy!
Win A Jeep Umbrella Stroller – Perfect for Parents On the Go
You and your little one will enjoy your time out-and-about with the Jeep Wrangler All-Weather stroller. This lightweight stroller features our trademark all-weather seat pad: in warm weather, roll up the seat pad to keep your child cool and comfortable. When the weather is cooler, roll down the seat pad for extra warmth. The Jeep Wrangler All-Weather stroller also includes an underseat storage basket, parent cup holder for easy access to your drink, foam-padded handles, an adjustable sun canopy, and best of all it is easy to fold, open, and take with you!
- Only 10.8lbs.
- Seat pad can be rolled up for increased air circulation during warmer weather and rolled down for extra warmth in cooler weather
- Under-seat storage basket
Read more here, tell us your favorite feature and automatically be entered to win this Jeep Umbrella Stroller!*
*Contest open to mainland US residents only. Contest ends Monday, September 3rd at midnight CST.
Fun Summer Frankenstein Craft and Recipe for Kids
Frankenstein Pops in the summer?
It may surprise you, but we get to celebrate Frankenstein more than just at Halloween. Tomorrow, August 30, is National Frankenstein Day. The author of Frankenstein, Mary Wollenstone Shelley, was born on this day in 1797. While celebrating Frankenstein, may not spark the interest of all generations, we know these Frankenstein pops surely will get the attention of your kids’ taste buds.
What You’ll Need:
Frankenstein Pops In the Making
- Large Marshmallows
- Candy eyes (we purchased candy eyes at the store, but chocolate chips will do!)
- Green food dye, or frosting (we bought edible green spray)
- Popsicle sticks (we used candy sticks)
- Optional: You could also make Frankenstein’s hair out of dark sprinkles
What to do:
- Dye the marshmallows green
- After they dry, attach them to your stick
- Add the eyes
- Add the hair
- Ready, set, go…. ENJOY!
Frankenstein Pops In the Making
While you are enjoying the tasty Frankenstein treat, enjoy a few of these Frankenstein facts:
- Frankenstein is a German name meaning “stone of the Franks”
- Television character Herman Munster’s appearance is based on Frankenstein
- Frankenstein the movie is the first film to use the famous Castle Thunder sound effect
Back To School Parenting Tips
Your children have either gone back to school or will start very soon. After a summer of late mornings, not so strict bedtimes and carefree afternoons, it may be hard getting back into the swing of school. A few easy tips:
- Adjust bedtimes – While your child is getting used to getting up earlier, be sure to have him go to bed earlier even if it’s only 10 minutes. Increase that time every night even on weekends so that within a week you are back to school night bedtimes.
- De-clutter study spaces – It’s hard to focus if your child’s desk or study area is full of clutter and remnants of the summer. Be sure to clear off her study area. This will serve as a visual prop that something different is happening and it will help her focus on her studies and not her crafts from summer camp.
- Celebrate – Cook your child’s favorite dinner the night before school or the night of his first day of school. Let him know that education is a gift to celebrate!
Don’t forget the little brother or sister who is left behind. Play school by reading a book together, counting, drawing letters, etc. to help him or her understand what big brother or sister is doing all day. End your playtime with a cuddle and say how glad you are that he or she is still home for middle-of-the-day cuddles!
What back to school tips do you have?
Ladybugs Your Kids Can Eat & Other Fun Summer Activities
School may have started, but summer isn’t over yet! We love ladybugs and had fun learning about ladybugs with our kids through these fun activities.
- Go on a ladybug hunt in your backyard, garden or in a forest preserve. Look under leaves, shrubs, branches, flowers, fields, tree stumps, cracks in wood, under a fallen tree, etc. Be sure to teach your children to be gentle and observe the ladybugs & not disturb them by trying to pick them up. They can use a magnifying glass to see their spots and other marks without picking them up.
- Have this yummy strawberry ladybug snack from our friends at NWF. You can talk about your ladybug adventure while you make this easy snack.
- Sit outside and read a ladybug book together. There are many ladybug themed books you can buy or check out at the library. If you want to be really creative, make ladybug antennae with a headband and construction paper or make wings with poster-board or fabric. Dress up like ladybugs while you read!
Have fun on your ladybug adventure!
National Tooth Fairy Day Activity and Craft for Kids
It’s National Tooth Fairy Day! It’s a great day to celebrate your child’s healthy smile with these fun activities!
- Happy Food for Healthy Teeth – Talk to your child about healthy eating and the special foods that the Tooth Fairy eats – vegetables, fruit, milk, etc. Sugar takes a bit of sparkle away from the tooth fairy! Make the Tooth Fairy sparkle by eating only happy food for healthy teeth today!
- Color a Happy Smile – Print out these Tooth Fairy coloring pages and talk about healthy smiles while you color the Tooth Fairy!
- Sing and Brush – Sing a brushing song while your child brushes his teeth. We like these easy-to-sing brushing songs.
- Keep Yourself in the Know – Most toothpaste brands have tips on their sites about caring for your child’s teeth. Be sure you are in the know!
- Think Outside the Bank – Some people think the Tooth Fairy needs to leave behind a small dowry. The excitement is not in the amount of money left in the pillow, but in the celebration of hitting another milestone. Other ideas besides leaving money are: leave a congratulatory certificate, a letter from the Tooth Fairy, a shiny penny from the year your child was born, a gift certificate to do one of your child’s favorite activities with her or a scavenger hunt to find the gift left from the Tooth Fairy.
Use your imagination, celebrate your child’s healthy smile and enjoy National Tooth Fairy Day!
Bringing Your Child’s Book to Life Fun Activity & Craft
Reading to your child has many benefits from developing language to growing imagination. We have blogged about bringing your child’s books to life including I Am A Bunny & Skippyjon Jones. We had a request to bring A Cuddle for Little Duck to life and we had fun doing it! We liked A Cuddle for Little Duck because it is a sweet book of the simple joys of everyday living and the importance of cuddles – what’s not to love about that!
What you need:
- A Cuddle for Little Duck book
- Yellow & orange construction paper
- Non Toxic glue
- Googly eyes
- Scissors (adult use only)
- A nature trail, forest preserve, prairie, pond or pet shop if you can’t go outside in nature.
- Open arms for cuddles
What to do:
- Read the book A Cuddle for Little Duck
- Act the scenes: run through the meadow (a prairie, park, empty lot, yard, will work), go to a pond to look at frogs (pet shop will work in a pinch), sit under a tree and tell your child a story (mommy duck tells a story at lunch to baby duck), put on some music and shake your tail feathers like little duck
- Cut a big yellow circle from construction paper for ducks body, a smaller one for head and 2 ovals for wings (teach your child shapes while you do this)
- Cut small triangle from orange construction paper for beak and two bigger triangles for feet
- Glue all the parts together to form a duck
- Glue on to face the beak and googly eyes
- Be sure to give lots of cuddles throughout the day
If there is a children’s book you would like us to bring to life, please let us know by leaving a comment!
Fun Nature Walk Activity To Help Children Learn Colors
Learning colors can be fun when you make it into an outdoor adventure, plus you get the added benefit of getting exercise!
Pick a color of the day. We picked pink. We wore pink, ate pink foods like watermelon and looked for pink flowers and animals on our nature walk. We went to a local nature preserve and found some pink flowers, hummingbirds with pink in their wings and even found other kids who were wearing pink. When we got home we drew a picture, with a pink colored crayon, of what we had seen.
Nature walks are an easy, fun and great way to help your child learn her colors and get exercise. If your little one gets tired on the way, don’t worry just have your Kolcraft stroller ready and let her learn her colors from the stroller! 
National Creamsicle Day
Usually our Tuesday posts are dedicated to a Tip Tuesday but since today is National Creamsicle Day, our tip is to enjoy this last bit of summer making a tasty treat with your kids!
What you need:
- 2 cups orange juice
- Up to 1/3 cup honey
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 cups fresh cream
- 2 cups fresh whole milk
- 4 to 6 drops organic sweet orange essential oil (or 1/4 tsp orange extract)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Stir 1/3 cup honey into 2 cups orange juice.
- Pour the mixture of juice and honey into a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and heat it over a medium flame until reduced by half.
- Once the mixture of honey and orange juice has been reduced by half to viscous syrup, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Whisk four egg yolks, two cups fresh cream and two cups fresh whole milk with organic sweet orange essential oil or orange extract and one teaspoon vanilla extract. Continue whisking until all the ingredients are very well combined.
- Whisk the mixture of honey and orange juice into the mixture of eggs, cream and milk.
- Pour the Creamsicle mixture into your Popsicle molds and freeze until solid, at least twelve hours.
- Enjoy!
Recipe submitted by A. Koltun, daughter of Kolcraft’s President, Tom Koltun
*If you are concerned about using raw eggs, you can also try the recipe without them, but there will be a bit of a different texture.
Kolcraft Moms Take on Chicago
Moms at Kolcraft Headquarters
Kolcraft was abuzz with excitement to welcome 4 Kolcraft Mom ambassadors to our corporate office in Chicago. We had talked with these moms via blog, social media and on the phone, but never met in person. Their time in Chicago was a time for us to get to know them & them to get to know us.
We started the Kolcraft Mom Fest with spa treatments at the Red Door Spa. We know moms don’t get much time to themselves, so we wanted to pamper them after their travel to the Windy City. That night we dined Chicago style at the locals’ favorite pizza spots – Lou Malnati’s. Then if was off to see some fireworks on Navy Pier and walk the Mag Mile before drifting to dreamland at The Drake.
The next day came bright and early with breakfast at Kolcraft corporate offices. Here the moms got to meet 3 generations of Koltuns – Sandy Koltun, CEO (son of the founder of Kolcraft), Tom Koltun, President, and Anita Koltun, social media intern. They also toured the offices and saw our test labs. The day was spent showing them products in various stages of concept and development. It was exciting to see their reaction to “first looks” at products and to get their feedback. We ended the day with a limo tour of Chicago sites.
Friday was the end of our time with our Kolcraft Moms. We met them for breakfast and were serenaded by A Nation of Mom’s son who played the violin like a little Itzhak Perlman. It was hard to say goodbye, but we are grateful for the time we had with them.
See our Chicago memories with the moms
Read more about these 4 amazing moms at:
- Kolcraft Moms Tour Chicago
