Jaimee Rose from the Arizona Republic has done it again. Another fun and festive party — this time filled with pretty pinwheels. My daughter requested a “lollipop balloon” party for her 4th birthday next month, but now I’m thinking lollipops, balloons and pinwheels. Too much?

See more party pics and sources for all the goods on Jaimee’s blog.

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If camping is in your future, and you want to eat well, check out these scrumptious-looking tin foil dinners Stephanie from Stephmodo makes for her family camping trips (assemble, wrap, and pack in a cooler). Meat, onions, potatoes, beans, spices and butter. Personally, I’d take these over campfire hot dogs any day. I just wish my kids would feel the same way!

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I was looking for an easily transportable activity for the kids that we could take on vacation – and found these B. Pop-Arty! Funky Pop Beads at Target. I remembered my mom talking a lot about pop beads from years ago and how much fun they were, but this is the first time I think I’ve seen them for sale.

I have to tell you, these are even better than I thought they’d be. There are 500 beads, and they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. I didn’t even realize when I bought them that they came with bracelet and ring “bases” I guess you’d call them. The beads are a little hard for my three year-old to snap together by herself, but she still loves wearing all her new jewelry.  I’d say these would make a great gift for a girl age 3 – 12 or so.

$14.99 at Target

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If you’re looking for creative art for a child’s room or nursery, and have an interest in your family geneology, you should check out the family tree prints from Brandy and Duke. This company is run by an Australian mum who became interested in tracing her family tree after the birth of her son. Soon after, she began offering a series of fun, creative custom family tree prints. This Birdhouse Family Tree is my favorite. They’re professionally printed on museum quality, acid-free textured paper.

$69 AU (about $60 US) at Brandy & Duke

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Have you noticed that boxes of Triscuits now include plantable basil or dill seed cards? Triscuit has partnered with the nonprofit group Urban Farming  to help people take the first step in growing their own food (or in this case, herbs) at home. They asked if they could send me two boxes of Triscuits and $20 to buy gardening supplies to try a little home farming myself, and I said yes.

I bought containers and organic soil at Target, soaked my seed cards as directed, then had the kids help me pour the soil, peel the seed card apart, and sprinkle a little soil on top. Next, we watered, and waited, and watered and waited. The directions said it would take about 10 days. On day 19, I was closely eyeing the $2.99 potted basil plants at Trader Joe’s, and seriously doubting my ability to coax out baby herblets in our 113 degree desert heat.

But then. On the morning of Day 20, I looked twice and saw we had teeny tiny green herb heads poking up! You can see them in the bottom left image above. It was a bit of a thrill, I must admit. Then I felt guilty for coveting those already-farmed basil plants. There really is something to be said for the satisfaction you get from nurturing your own plants from seeds.

Triscuit has set up a website with information, tips, and videos on starting your own “home farm”. If you’re just getting interested in growing your own food, herbs are a good way to start. It’s fun for the kids to be a part of it – especially in our case, when it took so long to get the darn things to sprout! Hopefully when the herbs big and luscious, they’ll be more willing to eat “those green things” since they grew them themselves.

More info at the Triscuit Home Farming website.

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If you’re planning to head out into the wilderness this summer, REI has compiled some great resources for families at their REI Family Adventure website. One of the things you can download is this Kids Adventure Journal. It has a spot for your kids to paste in their photo and information, and the pages are filled with mazes, word puzzles, outdoor scavenger hunt lists, spots to record what they’ve seen that day, and more. (These passport-size journals are also available in REI stores, but there’s a good chance they may be out of them – this was the case when we visited REI earlier this week.)

If you want even more ways to keep the kids busy – especially on those long road trips — you can download an assortment of activity sheets, including crossword puzzles, word scrambles, hidden word searches, even instructions to make an origami bear. There’s also a sheet that lets you find out your very own “Trail Name” based on your initials. Mine is Eccentric Viper. You’re dying to know what yours is, aren’t you? Find out here.

A map of the country lets you look up local hiking and biking trails by state, and resources like the camping check-list will help you get prepared for your outdoor adventures, or in my case, intimidate you into wondering if you’ll ever be prepared to tackle a camping trip with little ones. At a glance, I swear there are at least 400 items on the list!

I would love to hear what your must-have camping items are. Personally, I just bought some telescoping marshmallow roasting skewers that I can’t wait to try out.

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Bench $99, Adult chair $39.88, Kids Chair $19.97 ($14.98 for the green one), and Side Table $29 at Lowes.com

(Spotted on Ohdeedoh)

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First off, thanks to Mary Beth at Salt & Chocolate for giving me the idea to make some ice block treasures for the kids. We made these for a backyard BBQ a while back, and it kept the kids and their friends busy throughout the evening. Here’s how to make your own…

What You’ll Need:

Small trinkets from around the house (buttons, coins, shells, legos, plastic animals, etc.)

Large container that fits in your freezer

Excavation tools (toy hammer, plastic gardening tools, rock salt, toothbrushes)

What to do:

1. Place a few of your items in the container and fill partially 1/3 full with water. Place in freezer overnight.

2. Place more items on top of the frozen layer, and fill with ice-cold water until container is about 2/3 full. Again, place in freezer overnight.

3. Add final trinkets and fill up container with ice cold water. Freeze final time.

4. Take container outside and release ice block either onto the ground, or in our case we put it in a water table to elevate it a bit.

5. Give the kids their excavation tools and let them get to work on retrieving their treasures. It’s fun to watch how much excitement ensues when the first treasure is released. (In our case, it was an arm from a rubber lizard.)

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The WiggyRoll is made of 100% anti-pill fleece, and attaches on to the crotch buckle of an infant carrier. It rolls up and attaches to itself, and is easy to remove even with the baby still in the carrier. The WiggyRoll was created by a mom (of course) who kept finding herself out and about without a blanket, or in some cases, with a bulky blanket that would hang out of the carrier and get dirty. The SnailCap is made of the same fleece material, and keeps your bundle “snug as a snail in his shell”.

I think these blankies and hats would make superb baby shower gifts — especially for moms with upcoming winter due dates. And even summer babies in Phoenix would appreciate these cozy items — when they venture out into our sub-arctic shopping malls and movie theaters!

Happily, the WiggyRoll folks have offered up Wiggyroll and SnailCap sets for two lucky Fun Finds For Mom readers to snuggle their cuties in comfort and style. Jump over to our Giveaway section to enter!

Update:  The winners have been selected, but… If you didn’t win and want some of these great blankets and hats, WiggyRoll is generously offering a 25% discount to Fun Finds For Mom readers. Use the Discount Code: FFFM25

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Congratulations to Asianmommy and Andrea who each won a WiggyRoll and SnailCap Set!

Enter here for a chance to win one of two sets of a WiggyRoll and SnailCap. Learn more about these cozy, functional snugglies here.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post by midnight MST on Friday, June 18, 2010. Anonymous comments won’t count. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced by June 21. If I don’t hear back from the winner, another winner will be chosen. One entry per person please. Thanks and good luck!

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