Bunch Family

Kick off 2012 with a kickass kids table

If your kids are relegated to the kids table for New Year’s Eve, stock their setting with fun accessories.

A glowing setting:

Since New Year’s Eve is one of the few nights when kids can stay up late, create a night-time themed table stocked with glow-in-the-dark goodies. Fill jars with glow sticks, mini flashlights or glow in the dark temporary tattoos. Use glow in the dark stickers to create a night sky on the table cloth. Glow in the dark balloons are available at some party supply stores, and can be tied to each chair as a place marker for each guest. Achieve an ambience worth raving about by turning all the lights off close to midnight (or whenever you wish for your kids to celebrate the new year) and counting down to midnight!  Read more...

Twenty-ten was a pretty great year for Bunchland.com, but we’re hoping to make 2011 even better!

We’ve had some time to reflect on what we liked in Bunchland this  year, but now it’s time to look into the future. As the incoming online editor of Bunchland.com, I’m looking forward to bringing you the sort of fun and interesting things you’ve come to expect from us, but even more.

Next year, we want to hear more from you! We know you know there are other cool parents like you, so we want you to know one another. We’ve been talking about family profiles for a while and it’s high time we started showing other Bunchlanders just what a Bunch family looks like. Maybe it’s too much Seinfeld, but we’re pretty convinced there’s someone pretty much like you elsewhere in the world. (Though not exactly like you because you’re obvs uniquely awesome in your own way.)  Read more...

No idea what to do this weekend? Bunchland’s got your back

TORONTO

What: Happyview P.S.

When: Sunday, 1:30 p.m.

Where: Lower Ossington Theatre (100A Ossington Avenue)

Price: $24.50 or $80 for a family 4-pack

The details: We saw this hilarious one-man show last time it ran in Toronto, and we laughed till we thought we were going to pee our pants. It’s a great concept: the audience members are supposed to be “students” watching a school assembly, and Mike McMurtry plays all of the ridiculous characters, including a Bieber-obsessed teenage girl, a cranky custodian and a cop who secretly dreams of being a kids’ entertainer. His interaction with the crowd makes this already extremely entertaining show even more awesome.

CALGARY

What: Fire & Ice

When: Friday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Olympic Plaza

Price: free  Read more...

New Year’s Eve doesn’t have to mean scrambling to find a babysitter or skipping a night of partying. With a bit of planning ahead, kids and New Year’s can be seamlessly combined to create a fun night for the whole family, full of activities you’ll all look back on.

At a loss for how to pull this off? Presenting the Bunchland Guide to New Year’s Eve, our collection of ideas for having the best lead-up to midnight (and the most relaxing New Year’s Day) ever.

For starters, night tobogganing is a perfect multi-family activity. Round up some friends and neighbours and head for the hills. Enjoy the crisp winter air and the shrieking of your kids as they coast along at lightning speed. With some preparation, you can avoid your tobogganing sesh being cut short because everyone’s too cold. We recommend lots of layers and a thermos filled with hot chocolate or another hot beverage.  Read more...

Why not countdown to a paper mâché ball of candy?

Countdowns are fun. Candy is fun. Countdowns with candy at the end are superfun. (If you don’t like that much sugar, glitter is also fun. Messy, but fun.)

For a kid-friendly countdown, make a disco ball piñata. Note: this needs to be done two days before New Year’s Eve to ensure your paper mâché creation dries.

You will need:  Read more...

• A large balloon
• Strips of newspaper
• Some sort of paste (either pre-mixed wallpaper paste, or flour-and-water)
• Shiny paper OR paint and sequins/sparkles
• Candy

1. Blow up balloon and start covering with newspaper strips and paste.
2. After a solid layer, set aside to dry.
3. When balloon is dry cut a hole and fill with candy (or whatever you like.)
4. Patch hole with more newspaper and paste.

A collaborative art project sharing memories and resolutions makes for a great party activity

Kids and parents can all take part sharing their favourite memories of the last year as well as their hopes for 2011.

Establish an art corner for this particular party activity. (We can’t even tell you how many times we’ve accidentally dipped a chip and realized we just ate paste rather than some sort of sour cream-based concoction. Kidding! But wouldn’t that be awful? Don’t let it happen at your party.)  Read more...

• Spread out a sheet of mural paper (postal paper will do) on a table
• We’re also way into the idea of using dozens of mini canvases (You can find 1″x1″ or 2″x2″ at your favourite craft supply store)
• While we would never dream of stifling anyone’s creativity, we suggest coming up with a palette and offering your guests four colours that compliment the mood of the party. (playful primaries? sophisticated charcoal and eggplant? gold and silver uberglamour?)

The best family entertainment for this lazy, lazy day

Presenting Bunchland’s Guide to New Year’s Day. You ready? Got a pen? Okay, here it is:

1. Sleep in.

2. When you eventually wake up, with the help of no alarms whatsoever, make pancakes.

3. Eat the pancakes.

4. Do not, repeat, do not change out of your pajamas.

5. Watch DVDs. For the rest of the day.

New Year’s Day is the perfect time tear into a TV show or movie box set for a marathon session in front of the tube. A box set is a beautiful thing: no commercials, no planning your life around a TV schedule, and best of all, you can watch as many episodes as you want in one sitting.  Read more...

Make some noise in the new year with one of these New Year’s Eve noisemakers

Generally, you want your kids to stop making so much noise, but on New Year’s Eve, they are certainly exempt from the quiet rule. We’ve rounded up some of our favourite DIY noisemakers from craft blogs to help your kids blare in 2011.

The Go Green Blog has a funky way to recycle your water bottles.

Kaboose has a funky, bejeweled paper plate version.

And Disney’s Family Fun says that this paper noisemaker takes an hour to make, but looks to us like it’s easier than that.

Photo by sean dreilinger via Flickr.

Catherine Romano blogs about crafty projects for kids and parents

This New Year’s Day, my family will mark the end of 2010 and the start of 2011 by creating a time capsule. A time capsule is a fun, simple, and kid-friendly way to celebrate (and reflect on) the past year.

Since we recently made the move from NYC to T.O., we want to include things that reflect our life (and times) in both cities.

These are a few items we will include:  Read more...

• NYC MTA subway map and metrocard (we never owned a car in NYC, so the MTA was our ride to daily adventures – and my son’s favourite thing to do!)
• TTC subway map and metropass (not quite as elaborate as the NYC transit system, but still my son’s favourite thing to do in Toronto)

New Year’s Eve outfits for kids

New Year’s Eve is the best time to dress up your kids in fancy-pants outfits, because how often do you get to do that sort of thing? Sure, there’s the occasional wedding or birthday party. But New Year’s Eve is a time when you can get away with tops hats, tiny tuxes and more sequins than you can shake a stick at.

Tuxedo T-shirt, $20.99. Patent leather dress shoes, $35. Bow tie, $8.95. Red rose boutonniere, $15. Top hat (a must), $3.99.

Tiara, $2.99. Party shoes, $16.75. Nail polish, $10 for set of 3. Sequin party dress, $14. Gold purse, $14.

Photo by Geoff LMV via Flickr.

Sometimes a quick slide down your neighbourhood hill is the best way to ring in the New Year

If dance floors and cocktail conversations aren’t for you, we suggest a little bit of night tobogganing. There’s something almost other worldly about looking down from the top of a hill, hearing only the scrape of your sled as it glides down, with the moon-reflecting snow lighting up the sky. With the rest of the city dancing, dozing or curling up with a movie indoors, New Year’s Eve is a good opportunity to claim ownership of your local tobogganing hill.  Read more...

Catherine Romano blogs about crafty projects for kids and parents

When hosting a holiday party, creating an invitation is usually the first step. The party invite sets the theme and mood for the festivities and sparks excitement and anticipation for guests.

Because this is our first holiday in our new home, I wanted to do something special for our family-friendly New Year’s Eve party invitations. The invite had to be festive and playful, yet still design-savvy and affordable. I made a quick trip the dollar store, and found some fantastic materials.

My materials:

A natural wood, cylindrical container ($1.25)
Party popper ($1 for 3)
Party horns ($1 for 4)
Bubbles ($1 for 4)
Sheet of paper to write out the party details (date, time, location)
Fine-tip marker

My process:

Fill each container with the materials, include the party details.

Label the invite and deliver to your guests.  Read more...