DIY Rainbow Heart Hair Clips

The Pride parade is coming up this weekend in San Francisco and my girls are super excited to get decked out in their rainbow gear and go along to watch.

We've got rainbow t-shirts, rainbow socks, rainbow tattoos, and now thanks to this super simple DIY, we've got rainbow hair clips!

These heart shaped rainbow hair clips were so easy to make that the kids were pretty much able to do everything by themselves - and they had a lot of fun making them. They're keen to make more of them in different colors for different events and holidays. And just for fun!

Here's a look at how we made them...

What you'll need:

Sculpey Clay in Rainbow Colors

Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters

Small Rolling Pin (I like this acrylic Clay Roller)

Knife for cutting clay

Alligator Hair Clips (45mm)

Hot Glue Gun

Optional: Craft Mat to protect your table surface (I like this one)

Start by cutting a small piece of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple) of the Sculpey Clay. The lines on the Sculpey Clay come in handy for making sure you cut the same amount of each color. We used an eighth of each block.

Roll each piece into a snake with your hands. Make sure to keep the thickness and length of each snake as even as possible.

One you have rolled each color, place them closely together in rainbow order.

Using the clay roller (or rolling pin) roll gently over the clay lengthwise. As the clay is rolled out the pieces will stick together. Roll until the pieces are all attached and to a thickness of about 3mm - 5mm.

Once the clay has been rolled out, grab your cookie cutter and start cutting out hearts. We were able to cut seven 40mm width hearts from our clay.

To mix things up a little we alternated the direction of the cookie cutter so that our hearts were a mix of horizontal, diagonal and vertical stripes.

Not keen to waste the remaining clay, I rolled it up into a ball and the kids messed around with  rolling it out to create marbled patterns. This created some pretty fun patterns (and a few that were a flop!).

Sculpey Clay needs to be baked to harden, so we lined our hearts up on a baking sheet lined with parchment and baked for 15 minutes on 275F (130C) as per the instructions on the Sculpey packaging. The clay needs to be baked for 15 minutes per 1/4" (6mm) of thickness. Our hearts were a little thinner than this but 15 minutes seemed just about right.

Once the hearts had completely cooled I used a hot glue gun to attached them to the alligator clips.

If you plan to wear clips on both sides of your head, make sure to glue some with the clips facing left and some with the clips facing right.

 Once the glue is dried the rainbow heart clips are ready to wear!

These hair clips were so much fun to make - and so easy - that we'll definitely be making more soon. I'm thinking red, white and blue stars for Fourth of July, marbled shamrocks for St Patrick's Day, red and pink hearts for Valentine's Day... So many fun opportunities to get creative!

Rainbow Kids' Clothes for Pride

June is LGBTQ Pride month. The biggest celebration of the month here in San Francisco is the Pride parade which is coming up in just over a week's time. Last year I took Lola and Mathilde along to watch the parade and they absolutely loved it. Such a happy community event full of love and so much color. This year Ava and Kim are keen to come along with us too as are my parents who will be visiting from Australia. You can see all the color and fun from last year's parade here.

In preparation for the Pride parade, I've been looking into fun rainbow colored outfits for the girls to wear. There are so many fun rainbow options out there so I thought that today I'd share some of my favorites here on Little Hiccups. These clothes and accessories are perfect for the Pride parade as well as adding a touch of rainbow to your kids' every day closet - because let's face it, rainbows make everything better!

1. Pride Socks Livin' the Dream T-Shirt

Ava and I will both be wearing this great retro style t-shirt from Pride Socks. It is available in sizes from toddler through to adults in both red and purple and is oh-so soft and comfy.

2. Gap Kids Pride T-Shirt

This great t-shirt is available in kids', womens' and mens' sizes. Gap will donate 30% of the net sales from this t-shirt to the United Nations to support Free & Equal, a UN Human Rights Office campaign for LGBTI equality. 

3. Mitz Accessories Retro Rainbow T-Shirt

Lola and Mathilde will both be wearing this fun t-shirt from Mitz Accessories. The rainbow colors are wonderful and vibrant, but the best part is the felt cloud that runs down the back of the t-shirt! My girls absolutely love it. It's available in sizes 0-3 months up to 7 years. 

4. Pride Socks Rainbow Striped Tube Socks

All three of my girls have these fun tube socks that add a sporty touch of rainbow to any outfit. They are available in baby sizes through to adult sizes in various rainbow patterns. 

5. Pride Socks Trucker Hat

It's going to be sunny at the parade so don't forget to bring a hat. This great hat is actually an adult size, but will fit older children as well. It's available in black and white with various rainbow striped patterns.

6. Hello Shiso Rainbow Clips

Local company Hello Shiso makes the cutest hair accessories for kids. These rainbow clips are just perfect for Pride - and any other day of the year!

7. Pride Socks Sugar High Knee Socks

When the tube socks just aren't enough rainbow for you these colorful socks are a great choice. I'll be rocking a pair of these at this year's parade. These socks are available in women's and men's sizes, but older kids would be able to wear them too.

8. Mitz Accessories Retro Rainbow Dress

The dress version of the t-shirt that Lola and Mathilde will be wearing to the Pride parade is just as cute and also features the fun felt cloud down the back. Like the t-shirt, it is available in sizes from 0-3 months through to 7 years. This print is also available in tank tops (with the felt cloud) and leggings.

9. Tattly Rainbow Set Temporary Tattoos

Tattly make the best temporary tattoos out there. This rainbow set features 8 fun rainbow designs and has been a favorite with my girls for many years. 

--

The San Francisco Pride parade will be held on Sunday June 25th, kicking off at 10:30am. For parade information click here.

I hope to see you there!

Maker Faire 2017

A few weekends back we spent a day at one of my favorite festivals: Maker Faire.

As always, the day was filled with all sorts of creative fun. The girls made art from salvaged junk, rode crazy bikes, made replica cells out of foam clay, dressed up as robots, ate delicious treats, and watched all sorts of crazy things shoot flames.

   

As always, it was pretty hot when we arrived at Maker Faire, so this year we headed straight inside one of the halls full of fun hands-on activities and demonstrations to escape the heat. There were all sorts of activities to keep the girls busy.

Monterey Day Trip

Here in the Bay Area we're pretty lucky to be surrounded by amazing natural beauty. Stunning beaches, towering redwoods, snow capped mountains, rolling hills, lush forests, natural hot springs... all of these can be found within just a few hours drive of the Bay Area. We're pretty spoiled for choice.

One of our favorite places to visit either for a weekend away or a day trip is Monterey county, located just a two hour drive along the coast south of San Francisco. We've visited Monterey many times and we always find something new to do. Whether it be spending a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, taking in a little of California's history at the Carmel Mission, soaking in the views along the Big Sur coastline, playing in the amazing Dennis the Menace Park, or just relaxing at the beach, we always enjoy our visit to Monterey and can't wait to come back.

This past weekend we took a day trip to down Monterey and it was the perfect day out. We spent much of our time at the beach, with the kids chasing waves, exploring tide pools, searching for treasure, climbing on rocks and making sand castles. We also visited the quaint Point Pinos Lighthouse for a little history, and took a drive along the famous 17 Mile Drive.

Keep reading to see more of our adventure in Monterey as well as your chance to win tickets to Monterey Bay Aquarium and MY Museum.

Ready for Summer with Galileo Camps

Summer is almost here! Can you believe it? Ava and Lola have just five weeks of school left before the Summer break and they couldn't be more excited. We have some pretty fun plans lined up for this Summer. We have friends and family from Australia coming to visit, a little bit of travel, and, the most exciting thing for the girls, Summer camp! 

Summer camp is still a relatively new thing to this Australian expat. To me, sending the kids off to Summer camp feels like we're taking part in an American institution; another thing, like Halloween and handing out Valentines at school, that growing up I only experienced through American television shows. Another box to check off in our list of embracing American culture.

While I love that sending the kids to Summer camps fulfills that sense of embracing American culture, more importantly it's an amazing experience for the kids. One of my favorite things about the girls going to camp is the sense of independence it instills in them. They're encouraged to step a little further out of their every day comfort zone and experience new things in a fun and friendly environment. Whether that be pushing themselves a little further physically through trying new activities, like the slack line we tried out in the park this weekend, or pushing themselves creatively through activities that challenge and inspire their imaginations, Summer camp truly provides a trans-formative experience. 

This Summer Ava and Lola will be experiencing Summer camp with Galileo Camps. Galileo offers Summer day camps for pre-K to 8th grade children with locations all throughout the Bay Area. The camps teach kids to explore and create through a curriculum based on art, science and outdoor activities. Kids will learn lasting innovation skills and build confidence in their own abilities. Imaginations will be sparked and kids will learn the ability to create without fear, which is such an important and often overlooked skill. I just know that Ava and Lola are going to have a blast at camp and will bring home new skills, confidence in their abilities and long lasting memories.

Reading through the Galileo Camps curriculum makes me wish that I could go to Summer camp too! You can check out the curriculum, locations, dates and rates here. And even better, Little Hiccups readers can save on Galileo Camps with a $40 discount per family. Simply use the code CAMP17 when signing up here.

Did you go to Summer camp as a kid? Have your kids been to Galileo Camps before? I can't wait for my girls to experience Galileo Camps for themselves. I just know that it's going to be an amazing experience that's going to make for a memorable Summer.

Mathilde's Dinosaur Party

This time of year is always super busy for us with fun events most weekends, and this past weekend was no different. In fact, this past weekend saw one of the most fun events for us: Mathilde's dinosaur party!

Mathilde had such a fun time celebrating her 3rd birthday with all of her little (and big) friends. We were lucky that Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day weather-wise and this year, there were no other parties up on our roof deck at the same time. Last year there were other tenants using the pergola area on our roof deck during Mathilde's digger party so were not able to use the table and chairs, and we had nowhere to hang a piñata. But this year we were in luck and had the whole roof deck to ourselves. Or maybe all of the dinosaur roars coming from the kids scared everyone else away!

Dinosaur Party Invites

Last week my little baby turned 3 years old! Can you believe it? This weekend we'll be celebrating Mathilde's birthday with a dinosaur themed party.

As you probably know, organizing parties for my kids is one of my favorite things in the whole world. I love the chance to get creative with fun themes and a dinosaur theme certainly is fun. This past week I've been so busy creating all sorts of dino fun including a t-rex piñata, a dinosaur dress up activity, a dinosaur bone dig, dinosaur footprint cookies and lots more. 

As always, the first thing I created was the invitations. A few years back Ava had a reptile themed birthday party and I made invitations featuring plastic reptiles wearing little party hats that I made out of paper. You can see those invites here. The party hats made the otherwise "scary" animals look cute and friendly. Those invitations ended up being a huge hit and I get asked about them all the time. I'm working on getting an invitation shop up and running, I promise! Anyway, I decided to go with the same idea for the invites for Mathilde's dinosaur party, so I got three of her favorite Schleich dinosaurs and dressed them up ready to party.    

I put them all together with a little text and voila!

I printed matching address labels and sent the invites off in nice t-rex green envelopes.

Aren't they fun invitations? The top photo of Mathilde in her Mitz Accessories dinosaur dress roaring at her t-rex would've made a fantastic invitation too. I snapped that shot after the invitations were posted out, but you will be seeing it at her party - along with that amazing dress!

 

Stay tuned for lots of dino themed fun coming up!