This post originally appeared on Today’s Parent, who seems to like the way we party. We like that they like the way we party. Our Today’s Parent blog is called Bunch Likes to Party.
There’s something special about hosting your kid’s birthday party in his or her own backyard but what the heck are you going to do to entertain the hordes until their parents come pick them up? Look no further, friends. We’ve got your back.
1. Designer T-shirt Lab
Wow. You need to do this. Immediately.
Here at Bunch we can’t think of anything more awesome than combining water balloons and the always awesome sidewalk chalk. And just to sweeten the deal, combining them for some live action Angry Birds. It is, in fact, even better than playing Angry Birds on your phone. Believe us. We gotta credit the brilliant Allison McDonald at No Time For Flashcards, who’s always coming up with creative activities.
You’ll need:
For the complete instructions and more photos on how to set up and play this game, check out the full post here.
What we’re reading today:
1. Good job, Scandinavians, Norway is the #1 best country for moms. Moms live long, don’t die in childbirth, and get a great maternity leave. Afghanistan is the worst place for moms, according to this annual survey from Save the Children. Canada ranked 20th while the U.S. is 31st.
2. Babble’s found 10 Angry Birds-inspired dishes. TheBabybel one is pretty great.
3. Reuters has compiled some “eerie links” between Harry Potter and Osama bin Laden. BoingBoing suggests these so-called links are pretty ridiculous. Good for the book-burning set we guess? A sample: “Just as Voldemort was shaped by his mother’s death and his father’s abandonment, Osama was shaped by his personal struggle between Western pleasures and Islamic discipline.”
4. Sarah Newton, aka the Youth Expert, wonders if today’s mean girls are meaner than mean girls a decade or two ago.
What we’re reading today:
1. “Does this have alcohol in it?” “Oh, God, honey, no! What kind of mother do you think I am? Why, do you want a little bit? Because if you’re going to drink I’d rather you do it in the house.” — Mean Girls. A recent study shows that supervised drinking does not help kids learn appropriate drinking habits.
2. Does a pregnant woman’s diet dictate whether or not her baby grows up to be obese?
3. Salon writer Caroline M. Grant says that raising kids means always living on a fault line, whether or not you’re actually living on a fault line.
4. So, there was this wedding this morning that is kinda hogging all the arts&life/style-type sections. Bookies in London, in addition to placing odds on what the Queen wears, bet that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will announce a baby next year.
What we’re reading today:
“Gretchen gets frantic when she’s really hungry, so she can’t wait too long for dinner.” Do you think this way when you’re traveling with a toddler? You really need to plan ahead to prevent meltdowns. The Happiness Project author Gretchen Rubin says you should do this for yourself as well. Agreed! Meghan turns into a monster if she doesn’t get enough sleep. Via Huffington Post.
Every read your kid’s diary? Candy Schulman did. Via Babble.
Have you finished all the levels in Angry Birds? Ready for a new challenge? How about creating a live-action version:
Parentcentral.ca looks at a make-up line from Walmart marketed at tweens. Eight-year-olds. And it contains anti-aging ingredients. It’s one thing to play dress-up, but creating an entire line aimed at creating super-young consumer? Is that what leads to this?
