Tag

joy

‘Inside Out’ Inspired Memory Balls

This Memory Ball Ornament is inspired by the movie 'Inside Out' A simple and easy craft to make for your kids with their favorite photo memories!

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After a long week of work, I so look forward to the weekends & spending much-needed time together as a family. Last weekend, we went candlepin bowling with our little girl, our friends and their daughter. We let our little ladies have their own lane & they bowled their little hearts out.

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The kids had a ton of fun. The girls were pretending that the small balls were memory balls from their mutual favorite movie, ‘Inside Out’. They were so cute looking at their bowling balls & pretending they could see their core memories. If you have not yet seen the movie, it is a wonderful film that will definitely pull at your heartstrings and give some laughs as well.

All of the pretend memory ball play inspired me to make my little one some memory balls of her own.

This Memory Ball Ornament is inspired by the movie 'Inside Out' A simple and easy craft to make for your kids with their favorite photo memories.

What you will need:

Fillable clear ornaments

Yellow plastic sheets

Favorite photos

Glue Gun

Directions:

These were pretty quick and easy to make.

First open the ornament & separate both halves, Use one side as a template & cut 2 photographs. Snip a little additional off of each photo so that the picture circles are just a bit smaller than the ornament. Glue the 2 photo backs to one another.

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Cut 2 pieces of yellow plastic in the same size.

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Crumple up, fold and bend the yellow plastic.

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Use a glue gun to outline the outside of your crumpled circle. Place it inside of one halve. Line it up as close to the outside connecting edge as you can. Do this to both sides.

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Add a bead of glue around the edge of the photo circles as well & glue as centered & close to edge as you can without blocking where the two ball edges meet.

This Memory Ball Ornament is inspired by the movie Disney Pixar 'Inside Out' A simple and easy craft to make for your kids with their favorite photo memories.

Click your 2 sides together & add a ribbon or yarn as needed.  My sweet girl adored her new memory balls. She even asked if we could make more memories. My answer, we will always make new memories.

This Memory Ball Ornament is inspired by the movie 'Inside Out' A simple and easy craft to make for your kids with their favorite photo memories.

This Memory Ball Ornament is inspired by the movie 'Inside Out' A simple and easy craft to make for your kids with their favorite photo memories

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‘Inside Out’ Paper Plate Masks

Inside Out

*Contains affiliate links*

Yesterday we took our daughter to the movies to see ‘Inside Out’. She had been asking us to go all week & finally broke us down. She was so excited all morning & could hardly wait until we got there.

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I knew that our daughter would love it, but I had heard mixed reviews & was not sure how I would feel about it. As it turns out, I loved it too. It was full of emotion, which made sense since all of the characters were actual emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger & Disgust all played a part. I found myself crying through much of the movie. My husband even got a little choked up during it.

When we were leaving Mai asked us if we could go again tomorrow. “Maybe not tomorrow, baby.”

Joy was her favorite character. When we got home she wanted to change into a green dress because Joy wore a green dress. “I wish I had blue hair.” she told me. She started calling me Disgust & calling her daddy Anger. “Disgust, can I have some more juice please?” Even our dog Duke became a part of it. He was Sadness. All she could talk about the rest of the day was the movie. It seemed only fitting that we made a craft inspired by it.

Since she wanted us all to play our parts so badly, I thought that masks would be the most fun.

We painted 5 paper plates, one in the color of each character. We painted peach for Joy, blue for Sadness, green for Disgust, purple for Fear & red for Anger. We let them dry.

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We did Sadness first.

I cut white ovals out of construction paper to make the eyes. I drew in eyeballs with magic markers & then glued the eyes into place.

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I used another paper plate as a template & cut the hair out of construction paper.

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I drew in eyebrows & then formed Sadness’ glasses out of pipe cleaners & glued them into place.

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We finished off our mask by drawing in the nose & mouth & I used a lighter shade of blue paint to paint in the turtle neck of her sweater. I used blue magic marker to add the sweater’s details. I added two craft sticks to the back for the mask’s handle.

SADNESS

Inside Out Character Paper Plate Mask - Sadness

We finished off the rest of our cast of characters in the same fashion using construction paper & magic markers.

JOY

Inside Out Character Paper Plate Mask - Joy

ANGER

Inside Out Character Paper Plate Mask - Anger

DISGUST

Inside Out Character Paper Plate Mask - Disgust

FEAR

Inside Out Character Paper Plate Mask - Fear

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Through The Eyes Of A Child

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This weekend we took an early trip to Santa’s workshop to beat the crowd and get in our Christmas lists. My daughter asked Santa to bring her a train set this year and some more Play-doh. She made certain to reiterate that she wanted a train set two more times before leaving his side.

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Outside of his workshop there is a room, a magical room filled with twinkling trees & falling snow. I watched my daughter & her friend as they ran through the fake snow. As the snow formed small piles around them, they tossed it up into the air, giddy with excitement. At first I began to object, but the objections trailed off. Have I ever enjoyed anything as much as they do right now I wondered? I stared at my girl, unable to blink. I didn’t want to lose a precious moment. I felt my eyes well up with tears. I hoped that nobody saw me. I felt silly to be crying, but I just couldn’t help it.

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There are moments when a mother cries. The tears are not from sadness, they are from joy. Sometimes there is so much happiness, so much love that your body simply cannot contain it. When it finally bursts, it can bring forth an explosion of smiles & laughter and at other times it flows out as tears. These tears are not bitter, they are sweet.

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I felt as if I had never witnessed anything quite so beautiful. I could feel her wonder. It was magical. Her energy was contagious. I found myself grabbing a handful of snow as well. Before I could throw it, I was hit in the face with a small handful of white flakes. My assailant was a dimpled face angel with braids in her hair. She laughed uncontrollably. “I got you, mama.” She giggled & then ran away.

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I looked around at the disapproving looks from the other mothers at our antics, but I simply did not care. Let them look. Today, I see life through my child’s eyes. Today, I am innocent and free and I don’t care what others think. With tears in my eyes, snow in my hair, a smile on my face & love in my heart I realize that this is my happy place. This is what life is all about. This is why I became a mother.

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When Our Children Become The Teachers

0771Over the past few months, it has been a real joy getting to know my daughter. Sure I have been with her for the past 26 months of her life, but now that she has been talking up a storm I have really gotten the opportunity to watch her little personality take form. What I have learned is my daughter despite what it seems does indeed pay attention to everything we say to her, even if she doesn’t respond. She is bright & funny and a bit of a smart ass.

Mai has been learning so quickly. She loves to learn. She absorbs everything that we put in front of her. Recently, I have been getting the feeling that my toddler might just be smarter than us.

One morning over the baby monitor, I heard her and daddy talking. My husband was commenting on how cute her turtle pajamas were. “Frogs, Dada, frogs!” I had to laugh because I knew that she was right.

She has corrected me as well. It can sometimes be embarrassing to have a two year old tell you that you are wrong, but at the same time it fills me with pride to have raised such a bright young lady.

I have been realizing that there is a lot that I can learn from our little girl.

The Joy Of Living

Everyday things that we take for granted bring our children such joy. There is so much beauty in watching the world through my child’s eyes. Her eyes grow wide when she sees snow on the ground & squeals with excitement when a bunny hops through the yard. There is no rush to get to an appointment or to that next meeting. Each moment is breathed in and enjoyed without limits.

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Fearlessness

You tend to lose this the older you get. I can remember being young & the riding roller coaster until I was ready to puke. Now, it scares the daylights out of me. When you are young, you are ready to jump into anything. You don’t care what anyone thinks or what anyone says. You are not afraid of getting hurt or injured (I know not always a plus, but how liberating).

Don’t Waste A Moment

Do you ever notice how your children never want to nap, eat or go to sleep at night? They are so busy having fun, playing & learning that they do not want to give up a moment of their time. Children have no downtime they are always busy. While, I am pro-nap all the way, I wish that I made better use of my time.

Open Your Imagination

Imagine being a princess of your own castle or having tea with an elephant and a giraffe. The possibilities are endless when you are a child. As an adult many of us lose our sense of imagination. This doesn’t necessarily mean that need to run out and buy a pirate costume & start playing dress up, but keeping an imaginative mind can be beneficial to you in solving problems and brainstorming new ideas. Would J.K. Rowlings be where she is today without her beautiful imagination?

Channeling her inner Jackie O.

Never Stop Learning

Children love to learn and they do it so well. We have a US map puzzle that my daughter & I often do together. She has gotten really good at it. She knows her states by shape, name & location.  At this point, she might know them better than I do. Have you ever seen a child with electronics these days? Many are able to operate them better than their parents. What this means to me is there is still a lot that we can still learn even as adults. Your studies don’t need to end when you reach a certain age. Remember “Knowledge is Power”.

Forgiveness

Do you still have a grudge over some fight with a high school friend 20 years ago? Have you ever woken up not speaking to your husband after a fight? I have bad days with my daughter. We have had moments where mommy had to say no, take away her toys or put her to bed in utter exasperation, only to have her wake up in the morning and throw her arms around me as if nothing ever happened. We could all take a cue from our children.

Things Often Forgotten

Tonight at dinner as we sat down to eat, she taught my husband and I another lesson. I was pulling the fork up to my mouth about to enjoy my first bite when our daughter said “God bless our food, Amen.” I was shocked & a little shamed as well. She did not learn this from me. I have heard this short prayer many times coming from my mother-in-law. We work so hard to instill good manners and values in our child, but have managed to forget about bringing God into her life. Thank you Mai for reminding us what is important.