Earth Day Festival of Colors

This weekend was a super busy one for our family.

If you're following Little Hiccups on Instagram and saw my stories this weekend you would've seen why. We had Cal Day (UC Berkeley's super fun and family friendly open day), a friend's birthday party, and an Earth Day Festival of Colors today at Ava and Lola's school. I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!

I have a lot of photos from the weekend to share, so let's start with the Earth Day Festival of Colors...

This was the third year that our school has held this particular event and it's always a lot of fun. The festival is based on the Indian Spring festival Holi and features yummy Indian food, a pedal powered mango lassi station, henna tattoos, making wildflower seed bombs, lots of fun Bollywood music, and Indian dancers. The highlight of the day is when all the kids, and the adults, get to throw colored powder at each other. It's so much fun!

Magic Blooming Flowers for Mother's Day

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Parabo Press and contains affiliate links. 

Mother's Day is coming up in just over a month's time. Can you believe it? This year is flying away so fast! 

In preparation for Mother's Day the kids and I have been working on some small, personalized gifts to send to their grandmothers back home in Australia. Because we need to post our gifts half way around the world, we're a little limited in what we can make; for example, painted flower pots and home baked cookies are not an option. Rather than seeing this as a hurdle, I like to take it as a creative challenge and come up with a fun idea for the kids to work on. 

This year, our Mother's Day project actually comes courtesy of my kids. These magic blooming flowers are super simple to make but really make an impact. So what's magic about these flowers? Give them to a loved one with the petals folded in, pop them in some water and they magically bloom revealing a beautiful flower, perhaps with a hidden message inside! Ava and Lola have both made these at school before to celebrate Spring, and Lola often makes them at home. They're really so easy to make, and I've made it even easier for you with a printable template. Hooray for simple DIY projects!

Easter 2018

It's been a week since Easter Sunday, but the kids and I have been away on Spring Break so I'm playing catch up today and sharing our Easter celebration with you. A little late, but better late than never, right?

Macy's Spring Flower Show 2018

Every Spring selected Macy's stores around the country celebrate the coming of the new season with a beautiful flower show. San Francisco's flagship store is one such location for this display, and every year I make sure to check it out. This year's show is on right now, so Mathilde and I headed into the city to check it out.

Each year the flower show is based on a particular theme. This year's theme is "Once Upon a Springtime" and features magical fairy tale inspired displays with woodland creatures, a dragon, knights, a castle and a big pink throne for visitors to sit on. The displays are mostly located on the first floor through the cosmetics and accessories departments, and change from Winter to Spring as you walk through the store. 

Let's take a look...

First up, Mathilde and I checked out the window displays on O'Farrell and Stockton Streets. Mathilde was captivated by the cute creatures hidden among the toadstools and flowers. The corner window contains a giant book and a waterfall, but given the harsh sun during the time we visited I was not able to capture this well in a photo. You'll just have to go see for yourself!

 

Non-Candy Easter Basket Ideas

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Easter is almost here!

Only one more week to go until the big day. Are you ready?

If not, don't worry because today I'm sharing some of my favorite non-candy Easter basket goodies for the kids.

First up,  here are my favorite picks for big kids...

🐰 Duck! Rabbit!
🐰 Gummy Bear Bubbles
🐰 Gummy Bear Night Light
🐰 Hello Shiso Bunny Hairclips
🐰 Seedling Design Your Own Butterfly Wings
🐰 Hello Shiso Bunny Headband
🐰 Lego Easter Chick
🐰 Bling2o Penny Candy Goggles
🐰 Smencils Scented Pencils
🐰 Candyland
🐰 Eggling Crack & Grow

And now for the littlest kids...

🐰 Crayola Palm Grasp Crayons
🐰 Peppa's Easter Egg Hunt
🐰 Plui Rain Cloud Bath Toy
🐰 Haba Shakin Eggs
🐰 Bunny Teething Toy
🐰 Grimm's Wooden Balls
🐰 Tubby Todd Bath Bombs

🐰 Fat Brain Toys Tobbles Neo

🐰 Infantino Good Bites Carrot Teether
🐰 Kid O Floating Duck Bath Toy
🐰 Skip Hop Dunck Stacking Bath Toy

Can you believe that Easter is only one week away? It really did sneak up on us this year. Hopefully these lists will help those of you who, like me, have left Easter preparations to the last minute!

Rainy Day Wear for Kids

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

The rainy season is in full swing here in the Bay Area, and much of the country, so today I'm sharing my favorite rain gear for the kids. It may not rain often here for much of the year, but when it does, it's generally pretty heavy, so decent rain gear for the kids is a must - especially seeing as we're outside so much.

Karate Competition

Yesterday Ava and Lola competed in their second ever karate competition. 

Back in December the girls competed in their first competition, a sparring competition, and they've been eager to compete more. This weekend's competition was a kata competition. Kata is the choreographed moves that karate, and other martial arts are based on. So rather than sparring against other competitors like their previous competition, the girls performed their moves in front of the judges and were awarded points.