Events Category
Celebrating Father’s Day At Kolcraft
Being a family owned company, we especially love Father’s Day & Mother’s Day. Recently we were talking about what it means to be a dad and what our dads mean to us. People started sharing photos of their favorite moments with their dad and moments with their children or grandchildren. These are so cute, we had to share them with our Kolcraft fans.
Enjoy meeting some of the dads of Kolcraft.
Celebrate Oscar the Grouch’s Birthday with Your Kids
Today is Oscar the Grouch’s birthday! While Oscar may not be the happiest character on Sesame Street, he has a lot to teach our children.
- How to recycle.
- How to keep things clean by picking up trash.
- How being grouchy effects other people.
Oscar has his own page on the Sesame Street website, where you can find games, activities and more to help teach your children about recycling, etc.
You can also celebrate his birthday with this refreshing, easy summer pie. We added green grapes & green apple slices to make it extra green for Oscar. You can buy green paper plates and napkins at the Dollar Store to add to your green grouchy birthday party! 
Happy Birthday to Oscar – the loveable Grouch!
Happy Memorial Day
Happy Memorial Day to all our Kolcraft moms, dads, and families. As we honor those who have given their lives for our freedom, we hope that you and your family have a safe and happy holiday.
Memorial Day Craft for Kids
Memorial Day is a wonderful time to teach your kids about those who have given their lives for our freedom. We love this Memorial Day easy craft for kids. We tried it out with our kids and they had lots of fun making these flag place mats.
What you need:
- Red, white, blue construction paper or craft foam
- Non-toxic glue
- Scissors or cutting knife (adult use only)
What to do:
- Cut red & blue foam into vertical strips about 1 inch wide
- Make horizontal slits in white foam or paper about 1 inch apart from each other
- Weave strips of red and blue through the slits on white foam/paper alternating patterns
- Use for your Memorial Day picnic. One of our Kolcraft Kids wrote a message to her Grandpa thanking him for being a Veteran.
Share with us how you celebrate Memorial Day!
National Infertility Awareness Week
This week we celebrate National Infertility Awareness Week. This year’s theme is “Don’t Ignore Infertility.” There is so much pain around infertility beyond the physical because there are also emotional and social implications. Unfortunately there is a lot of ignorance around infertility and awareness is key to breaking down barriers and building healing bridges.
What you can do if you have struggled with infertility:
- Speak up – Share your story about infertility. Whether you blog, tweet, belong to a special interest group or teach a class you can help people open their eyes to this issue and step out of their ignorance.
- Find support – Don’t be afraid to seek support. Infertility can be a lonely journey. Find a support group you can share your journey with in a welcoming environment.
- Get involved – There are many road blocks from healthcare and the government to helping infertile couples to become pregnant. Write to your local representative to have policies changed.
What you can do even if you don’t struggle with infertility:
- Educate yourself – Just because you don’t struggle with infertility, doesn’t mean you should be ignorant of it. Educate yourself to all that is involved in infertility so your knowledge can prevent you from making insensitive comments like; “Yeah we got pregnant at first shot.” “We just think about it & we are pregnant.” Or probably the worst – “Don’t stress, I’m sure one day you will be able to experience the joy of motherhood. It’s the best feeling ever.”
- Make a donation – Funding is needed for infertility research. Because many infertility treatments are not covered by insurance, couples spend a lot of money on fulfilling their dreams to become parents. Consider making a donation to help bring needed programs and services to couples dealing with infertility.
- Be sensitive – If you know someone is struggling with infertility be sensitive to that, but don’t leave them out of your own parenting experiences. That will only make them feel more alienated.
For more information on Infertility Awareness Week, please visit the NIAW website.
Have Your Child’s Photograph Taken And Help Operation Smile
During the month of April, participating photographers are joining the celebration of smiles by offering individual portrait sessions and a desk size portrait in exchange for a $24.00 donation to Operation Smile. This national fundraising effort will benefit Operation Smile which is an international children’s medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries that provides free life-changing surgery for children and young adults who are suffering from facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.
Our friends at Wehmeier Portraits told us about the event and are participating in this amazing event. We love the Wehmeier family and how much they always think of making children’s lives better. We think it is a wonderful way to capture your child’s smile while giving a less fortunate child something to smile about. Check out the Operation Smile site to find a participating photographer. Be sure to tell your child how her smile is helping others. It truly takes a village to raise a child and your child can help make the village a little better for another child.
5 Tips on Being A Green Eco – Friendly Family
Being an eco-friendly family may seem like a daunting task, but with these 5 simple tips your family can help take care of our earth and make it a better place!
- Grow your own garden – Growing your own vegetables is a healthy way to care for your family, the earth & your bank account! Tomatoes, summer squash and herbs are some of the easiest vegetables to grow. Your kids will love being able to watch their garden grow and eat their hard work! If you live in the city with no room for a garden, support your local community garden or community market!
- Clean up – Pick up litter. Get your kids in the habit of picking up cans, plastic bags, etc. that people throw on the ground. Put on disposable gloves & go on a garbage hunt in your neighborhood to pick up litter others have left behind.
- Say goodbye to chemicals – Cleaners are packed with chemicals that are harmful to your family and the environment. Trade in your chemical cleaners for eco-friendly versions (we love the products at Eco Store USA & found they clean better than chemical cleaners!) or use homemade cleaners like our grandparents did years ago – vinegar, oils, lemons, baking soda, etc.
- Go paperless – Pay bills online to cut back paper waste and ask companies not to send you catalogs via mail. You can keep up with savings from companies by signing up for emails, liking their Facebook page or following them on Twitter.
- Recycle, reduce and reuse – Take a look around your house & cut back on unnecessary things, see what you can recycle and start to reuse things. Start with one seemingly small thing & keep adding one more thing every week. You will be amazed how quickly your house and your family become green! We love the Freecycle site to help recycle, reduce and reuse.
Each of us can do something to make our lives and the world a better place. Anne Frank, a girl wise beyond her years said it well, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” We don’t have to wait. Let’s start today to make our world a better place!
What tips do you have for becoming a more green family?
Passover and Easter
To all our friends who celebrate these special days of Passover and Easter, we wish you the happiest of holidays as you make memories with your family.
5 Ways To Celebrate National Wildlife Week with Your Kids
This week is National Wildlife Week which is wonderful week to get outside with your children and teach them to appreciate nature. A child is never too small to be in wonder and awe of the wonderful world around her.
- Participate in the NWF Wildlife Watch Map
- Join others celebrating National Wildlife Week by tweeting your sightings on #wildlifeweek on Twitter
- Enter the National Wildlife Photo Challenge. Encourage your kids to take photos too. You will learn a lot about how your child sees the world when you look at his photos.
- Go for a hike with your kids and point out all nature that you see: birds, fish, trees, flowers, bugs, etc.
- Have a meal dedicated to talking about nature and ways you as a family can respect nature and spend more time outdoors.
Celebrate Dr Seuss’ Birthday with Your Kids
Today is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and what better way to celebrate than through a party and reading to your child? We have a few ideas for making your Dr. Seuss birthday celebration fun and educational!
Dr. Seuss Party Decorations
- Make Cat in the Hat party hats
- Decorate your wall with trees from the Lorax. Just take this finger paint art craft and make it on poster board.
- Make a Dr. Seuss themed birthday cake. We love these ideas inspired by his books! Be sure to sing happy birthday!
- Have green eggs and ham for breakfast with this easy recipe.
Dr. Seuss Party Activities and Crafts
- Play pin the green eggs and ham on the plate. Simply cut out a plate, green eggs and green ham from construction paper and hang on wall like pin the tail on the donkey.
- Do a Dr. Seuss word search with your children or make your own!
- Have kids sit in a circle, read words from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and see how many words they can come up with that rhyme. i.e. – Cat, Fish, Dog, etc.
- Color Dr. Seuss coloring pages and talk about which character is your favorite and why.
- Make bookmarks with Dr. Seuss characters. Encourage your kids to draw their favorite character. It doesn’t have to be perfect!
Make sure you have storytime and read your kids’ favorite Dr. Seuss books. Have fun celebrating the author who has taught thousands of kids how to read!
