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It’s Christmas Eve! And if you are babysitting grandchildren, are they as uber-excited as mine are? Oh. My. Gracious! 🙂 They are so cute and so fun and SO full of energy, aren’t they? So just for you (and my grandkids too), here are some great resources full of fun and easy cooking and crafts ideas for the kids and us seniors to keep us busy while school is out – before AND after Christmas. Perfect for our whole Sandwich Generation families. 🙂 Enjoy.
Frugal Fun 4 Boys – with five grandsons, of course I love this site. And I especially enjoyed their adorable snowman craft. It’s not the same as the cute project my grandkids made – on the left – but it’s also very adorable. I also spotted her very cute and very easy baby in the manger craft, which I posted at Facebook (be sure to LIKE me on my Facebook page AND follow me on my Facebook profile, as I often share extra goodies on Facebook that may not make it here in an article – particularly those of a time-sensitive nature.)
- Sidetracked Sarah – another fun and creative mom. She featured 25 days of easy crafts – perfect for kids and seniors. And they are coooo cute – like her feet and hands angel project! 🙂
- Here’s another set of snowflake instructions to make and take to decorate a seniors home or senior care room. Be sure you click on each page of the slide show. There’s some “magazine Christmas trees” I remember from my baby boomer childhood. TOO COOL! 🙂 We used to do something similar (and maybe even easier) with Reader’s Digests, as I recall. Did you?
- Another fun resource I post to is Pinterest. Check out the adorable ideas I found in my “Easy Crafts for Kids and Seniors” board. 🙂 Very fun! And a couple of other Pinterest boards are Keepin Kids Busy with a bunch of cute ideas for the grandkids, as well as creative grandparenting fun from Grandma Shelley.
Of course, my old favorites also have plenty of fun ideas and easy crafts:
And one other idea if you are headed for Walmart or another store that carries these. My Walmart had a fun kids cardboard play house coloring castle by RoseArt – they were about $20 and are very similar to the picture of the Discovery eco friendly cardboard playhouse to color pictured on the left, only without the roof.  I set it up in the grandkids playroom, with the help of my oldest grandson. We designated specific areas for each grandkid to color. ( Here’s a shot I took before they started coloring.)
I was sweetly pleased to find that they all enjoyed some coloring time, and some playing inside time! Even the oldest grand got into the spirit of the things and decorated the fairy most delightfully. I’m sure they’ll keep enjoying playing in it through the winter and by the time it falls apart, hopefully spring will have sprung and their bikes will be back in business. 🙂  And, of course, if you have a big packing box, that would work quite well also. You might want to draw some big pictures on them when the grands aren’t there. Then let them color them in. It sometimes helps to have a specific thing to color rather than a big blank surface. 🙂
Lots of fun ideas and easy crafts for the whole family – from kids and grandkids on up to sweet seniors. Plenty to keep us busy on this day of heightened excitement and throughout the New Year til school starts, and beyond. 🙂 Merry Christmas Eve from our Sandwich Generation family to yours.
Easy Crafts and Activities for Seniors and Their Grand kids On … http://t.co/z65YiQrK
RT @SandwichINK, Grandkids getting mega excited? Fun and easy crafts for kids and grandparents! http://t.co/HWDSqGP7