Chinese New Year Classroom Goodie Bag Ideas plus Printable Chopstick Race Game

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for providing Chinese New Year goodie bag items for this project.  All opinions expressed are our own.

Chinese New Year comes early this year!  Since our twins' birthdays fall in late January, I thought it would be fun to make Chinese New Year-themed goodie bags to send in for their classrooms.  I had a few ideas, but thought that I might have trouble finding enough items to fill our goodie bags.  I had no idea that Oriental Trading Company's Chinese New Year party supplies & decorations section would have so many classroom-friendly goodie bag options.

One of the ideas I had was to create a fun game the students could play during indoor recess.  Looking through the items on Oriental Trading sparked an idea to make a game using chopsticks.  It's super-easy to make.  Here's what you'll need . . .

Chopstick Race Game

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Mini Lucky Money Goody Bags

Decorated Wood Chopsticks

Mini Insect Erasers

Chopstick Race Printable (Below)

The object of the game is to pick up the various insects up with the chopsticks and move them one at a time to the jar.  These cute little insect erasers from Oriental Trading Company were the perfect size to use for this game.  The students can race against each other or try to beat their own best time.  It's a fun way to master the art of using chopsticks.

TO PRINT: Make sure your printer is on and ready to go.  Click on the image below to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

Clipart from 1001FreeDownloads.com

I found lots of fun things to include in these Chinese New Year goodie bags, but it occurred to me that some of them may seem random to the children.  This led to my making a basic label to attach to the outside of each bag.  If you're making a goodie bag like ours, then you can print these labels below.  Now the children will understand which items were included in the bag because they're considered symbols of good luck.

What's in our Chinese New Year goodie bags?

• (1) Chopstick Race Game
• (1) Laminated Jumbo Chinese Zodiac Bookmark
• (2) Chinese Zodiac Pencils
• (1) Fortune Cookie Eraser
• (3) Colorful Goldfish
• (3) Chinese New Year Goldtone Coins
• (1) Chinese New Year Sticker

To complete the presentation, I pasted a printable label to the outside of each bag.  I opted for brown paper lunch bags because they were the perfect size to hold the larger items, and they fit our label perfectly.  After filling each bag, I just folded the top of the bag down twice, holding it in place with a Chinese New Year sticker.  The stickers came in a roll of 100, so I had enough to include one inside and one on the outside of each goodie bag.

Like this idea?  Pin It for later . . . 

What other ideas do you have for celebrating Chinese New Year in the classroom?  Share them with us in a comment here.


Check out our other ideas for classroom-friendly goodie bags . . .

3G2S Turns 6 Years Old Today!

I realized only yesterday that 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires turns 6 years old today.  Shame on me for not planning something great for my wonderful readers.  I bow my head in shame . . . 

In all seriousness, I would not have stuck with blogging (and all the work that comes with it) if it weren't for my readers.  If it weren't for you, I would be just talking to myself, and that's not nearly as fun!

I need to give an enormous amount of credit to my family, who puts up with my working too many hours, working on nights and over the weekend, and my occasional stress-induced outbursts.

Also, Jerinda, Todd, and Jake all deserve much recognition for contributing quality content to 3G2S.  The success of this blog is definitely a group effort between them, our families, our readers, and myself.  This is most certainly not a one woman show!

I'm sure I'll blink and find myself composing a 7th year post soon enough.  Until then, I hope to continue to share content with you that is both engaging and fun.  Thanks so much for being a 3G2S reader!!

Surviving 3 January Birthdays with the Help of Hallmark #ValueCards & Party Supplies for $.97 and Under! (#shop #cbias)

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This value greeting cards shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser Hallmark.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Our son just turned 10 at the beginning of January!  I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around how our little baby turned into a young man overnight.  It used to be that we took his January birthday in stride, even though it takes place so close to Christmas.  Then, when the twins came along, we added two more January birthdays to the equation.  Even though they will be turning 7 later on this month, my stress level goes up when December approaches.  It's not just the amount of planning it takes to make both Christmas and the 3 birthdays special each year, it's also the amount of money it costs.  Over the years, I have fine tuned what works best for us to make our children's birthdays memorable, but also affordable.  My latest victory is discovering Hallmark value greeting cards, gift wrap, and other party supplies at Walmart for $.97 or less!

Checkout what I purchased on our recent trip to Walmart . . . 

• (A)  Luncheon party napkins for $.97
• (B)  Square party plates for $.97
• (C)  Hallmark birthday cards for $.47 and $.97 each
• (D)  Gift bags for $.97 each
• (E)  "Happy Birthday" Buttermint Creams for $.97
• (F)  Number birthday candles for $.97 each
• (G)  Sequin tissue paper for $.75

The best thing about these greeting cards and party supplies from Walmart are that they are part of the regular inventory in most store locations.  It's much different than shopping at a dollar store where you never know what you will find.  I was thrilled with the selection of Hallmark Value Cards available.  Not only were there birthday cards for children, pre-teens, Moms, Dads, and other members of the family, there were also Valentine's Day cards.  I was able to buy cards for each of our 3 January birthdays plus one for my grandmother's and my mother's birthdays coming up in February and March for just $3.85 total (not including sales tax)!  I would say the average price I normally pay for a greeting card is $3.99 to $4.99.  Compared to paying $3.99 each for 5 birthday cards, I saved $16.10.  What could $16.10 pay for? . . . A birthday cake, another birthday gift, or how about 2 or 3 dinners from the children's menu at your favorite family restaurant?

When I choose a card, I try to find something lighthearted and humorous.  Then I write a personal message inside.  I know my children take to heart what I write and they save all their cards as keepsakes.  Some people skip giving cards to save money, but I never do.  With the price of these Value Greeting Cards by Hallmark, you don't have to.

To add to the value of buying Hallmark Value Cards at Walmart, you can earn a reward for every 5 cards you purchase and report with the Hallmark Card Rewards Program!  It's free to register and it is a separate program from the Crown Rewards Program.

Reporting my purchased cards could not be any easier.  I just used the Hallmark Card Rewards app on my smartphone to scan the UPC bar code on the back of each card and selected the name of the retailer where I made my purchase.

I still cannot believe that I spent $3.85 on cards I needed to buy anyways, but now I get to choose a reward for doing so!  Some of the rewards currently available are $5 gift cards to retailers like Nike, Lands' End, and Starbucks or $10 promo codes to Shari's Berries and Omaha Steaks.  Which one would you choose?

Make sure you check out connectionsfromhallmark.com to sign up for Hallmark Rewards, and to see great content from other bloggers. You can also join in on the #valuecards conversation on Twitter!

3 Ways to Have Fun Food-Free Classroom Celebrations for Birthdays and Other Occasions

Thank you to Winning Moves for providing an educational board game to facilitate this post.  All opinions expressed are my own.

We're well into the month of December now, a time when most people are focused on their Holiday plans and finishing up their gift shopping.  For me, however, it is a time to think about how we will be celebrating our 3 children's January birthdays, the first of which is coming up in just a few weeks.  When the children were in preschool, we used to send in cupcakes and other treats to celebrate their birthdays, but now things are different.  In our health conscious grade school, cake and cookies and other sweets are not allowed in the classrooms, even for special occasions.  I am all for not giving our children sugar highs while they are supposed to be well-behaved and focused on learning.

Throughout the years, the school has slowly moved away from asking for healthy treats towards encouraging non-food celebrations for birthdays, the Holidays, and Valentine's Day.  This is actually a relief to me.  There were so many allergies to consider when providing treats for the class, including no eggs, no nuts, no dairy, and more.  I am in no way disappointed with this new trend.  If your school is encouraging non-food celebrations too, then here are three of my favorite ideas for celebrating food-free in the classrooms . . .

1.  Donate an educational game to the classroom.  This January in honor of their birthdays, all 3 of my children will be donating a fun game to each of their classrooms in addition to handing out multi-colored pens to each of their classmates.  I'm particularly excited about donating the game PayDay Classic Edition to our 4th grader's class.  Throughout the year, the class learns all about money, including earning classroom cash and paying fines for doing (or not doing) their homework, keeping a bankbook to track their balances, building and running a business, and more.  This board game is all about making and spending money and is just the perfect game to gift to my son's classroom.  There are many educational games out there that teach reading, counting, strategic thinking, problem solving, and more.  You just need to find the right one for your child's classroom.

2.  Send in a themed goodie bag for each student.  If you decide to go the goodie bag route, then why not put some thought into including items that really work together?  Random little items are fun, but items that can be used together for a particular activity can be even more fun.  For example, last year we sent goodie bags in for all the students in each twin's kindergarten class that contained a detective's pad, a pencil, and funny glasses (with attached nose and mustache) so the junior detectives could have disguises to wear when they were working undercover.  Those goodie bags were a huge hit!

3.  Do a fun craft with the whole class.  I think this is a fantastic idea, but I honestly have never done it.  If the thought of having to direct a group of 20 grade school children does not phase you (I don't know how teachers do it), then it would be a very cool celebration to have each student make something, which they can then keep.  Some easy ideas would be to make pencil cups for their desks, decorate notebooks, make magnets, or make bookmarks.  The possibilities are really endless and I'm certain that you will find some great ideas for low-mess kids crafts on Pinterest and at your local craft store.

What ideas do you have for non-food classroom celebrations?  Please do share your ideas because I have 3 children and many more birthday celebrations to plan in the coming years!

3G2S Turns 5 Today!

It is difficult to believe, but 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires turns 5 years old today.  At the beginning of each calendar year, I usually make at least one resolution involving my blog.  I did not make one this year.  It saves me the massive amount of guilt I usually feel when I break that resolution.  The truth is that, even after 5 years, my blog is still evolving.  What may be a great idea for my blog today, may not be a good idea for my blog in 6 months.

This is what I would like to see for our 6th year . . . 

• An increased focus on shopping and fashion for women, men, and children
• An increased frequency of posts sharing easy recipes and simple crafts
• Continued product reviews by our contributing writer Jerinda about Asperger's, homeschooling, living green, children's books, fun toys, and more.
• New content by contributing writer (and husband) Todd about tech tips, gadgets, pets, products for geeks, fatherhood, and more.
• Continued family-friendly reader giveaways

I very much look forward to another great year.  My blog would not have survived this many years without my family, my contributors, our readers, and the continued support of the MomDot blogging community.  For these I am very thankful.

My Photos: The Birthday Boy and Girl

Last week, our twins Luke and Makenzie turned 6 years old.  It was a school day (and a school night), so we just had a quiet dinner at home.  The twins had their favorite food . . . mac and cheese.  After dinner, they opened their gifts from some relatives, their big brother, me and my husband, and from each other.  It is so sweet to watch the children exchange gifts.  The are always so proud to present their handmade cards and so very excited for the gift they picked out to be opened.  They actually know each other better than anyone and they always put so much thought into what the perfect gift would be for each other.


Here are some photos from their gift exchange this year . . . 

Click here to view all my past favorite photos.

Our CoCo Key #Staycation: All About the Family Guest Rooms, Water Park, Arcade, Dining, and More

Although I have already shared many photos from our January family staycation at the CoCo Key Water Park located in Boston's North Shore, I would like to take the time to share more details about our weekend for those of you who may be considering CoCo Key as the location for your next family getaway.  It was the perfect place for my family of 5 (children ages 6, 6, and 9) to have some fun away from home without extensive traveling or the expense of a resort.  Our staycation consisted of 2 days of the Ultimate Water Park Package.

Our stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Boston North Shore began late on a Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday morning.  We picked the children up from school with our suitcases packed and made the drive to the hotel in Danvers.  We were pleased that there was plenty of free self-parking available at the hotel.  Checking in was a breeze and we even received warm chocolate chip walnut cookies to take back to our room, which was one of their newly renovated family-friendly guest rooms.


The Family-Friendly Guest Room . . . 

• Conveniently located in a wing close to the water park
• Clean and well-maintained
• 2 double beds and 2 junior twin beds worked out fine for the 5 of us

• There is a dividing wall between the double beds and the pair of junior twin beds
• The kids' side was decorated in a fun tropical theme
• The kids' side had its own TV
• Located between the beds is a nightlight and a flexible reading light
• The light switch on the wall glowed so that the children could turn on the ceiling light easily at night
• The 2 ottomans were perfect to sit on to watch TV, as well as to push up to the night stand for a place to draw or color

• Our bathroom was located between the adults' side and the kids' side of the room
• There were Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries (including mouthwash) and plenty of extra towels
• I liked that both trash receptacles in the room were divided to take recyclables in one half and regular trash in the other
• Our kindergartners could barely reach the faucet knobs, so a small stepstool would have come in very handy

By the time we checked in and got settled, we felt like everyone was too tired to go to the water park that evening, even though it would be open until 9pm.  We decided to go out to grab some dinner instead and then went to the arcade for a short time before returning to our room.  We went to bed with the plan to sleep in the next morning, go to the breakfast buffet at TradeWinds, and then head to the water park, where we would stay and have fun until the children were too tuckered out to play any longer.

When we entered the water park, we immediately noticed the climate change.  It is a temperature controlled area and is constantly 84 degrees.  You need to be prepared to dress for the tropical climate even if you are not planning on getting wet.  It is not only warm, but also very humid, just like the summers in Massachusetts.


The CoCo Key Water Park . . . 

• When we arrived around 11am Saturday morning, the water park was buzzing, but not overly crowded
• We stayed a total of 4 hours, which included a short break for food and drinks in the middle.  That was plenty of time for the children to explore and try out different parts of the park and then return to their favorite parts again and again.
• There were plenty of lifeguards posted all around the water park
• There was also plenty of tables and chairs in the center of the park.  We were able to claim a table and could leave our towels and shoes at our table.
• Be careful if you bring a phone or a camera into the park.  Most children (and even some adults) will get you wet without a second thought.  I saw many people dressed in street clothes get wet against their will that day.
• I very much liked that there were life vests provided for younger children
• There are lockers and cabanas available for rent, but because our room was not too far away, we really did not need either

• In the center of the park, there is a complex structure composed of multiple slides and chutes, some of which actually extend outside of the building, walkways, stairs, tipping buckets, and more.
• On the far side of this structure, there is a pool that is 3-1/2ft deep for older children and adults, where there is actual swimming, basketball, and more.  We did not spend any time in this pool because our children are still swim training.
• Also on this side is a fenced off hot tub for teens and adults, which is not monitored by lifeguards

• On the side closer to the entrance is the Dip In Theater, which is a pool for younger children that has a large sail that doubles as a movie screen.
• There were mostly Disney and Dreamworks animated films showing.  Although you can sit in the water to watch the film, you cannot really hear the movie.

• There were plenty of slides for both younger and older children.  There were some slides for which our kindergartners did not meet the height requirement.  There were even slides that I would only recommend for teens and adults.
• Although the water slides were fun and the children enjoyed floating in the Lazy River, I think all 3 of our children loved playing in the fountains the most.
• The Dip In Theater contained several types of fountains and tipping buckets and that is where my children spent about 2/3 of their time at the park.

• The water park is a great place to people watch
• By the time we left the park around 3pm that Saturday, it had gotten quite crowded
• Even when crowded, nobody seemed to get in anyone else's way and there was never longer than a short wait to go on a slide or ride the innertubes

The Key Quest Arcade is conveniently located between our hotel room and the water park.  We stopped by whenever we had time to fill and ended up going a total of 3 times during our 2-night stay.  This arcade does not use tokens or tickets, but rather reloadable arcade cards (like gift cards) that you can load with credits.  You just need to slide the card through each machine you want to play.  The card also keeps track of all the points you have earned from playing so that you can redeem them for prizes later.


The Key Quest Arcade . . . 

• There was only a small number of games designed for younger children
• Although the arcade had the classic games, it also had current favorites, such as Guitar Hero and Fruit Ninja
• I never found the arcade to be overcrowded and only remember my children having to wait once or twice to play a certain game
• The prizes were standard little toys you would expect to see at an arcade.  It would have been nice to be able to pay the difference to get an item when you do not necessarily have enough points.  That way your child could take home a CoCo Key plush or a t-shirt, which to me would have been preferable to the little gumball machine toys they chose. 

During our stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton, we had the chance to sample food at 2 out of the 4 dining options.  The two that we did not try were the Starbucks Coffee Shop located in the hotel lobby and the Wet Rooster Bar, which is located off to the side within the CoCo Key Water Park.  It is mostly for adults and serves alcoholic beverages.


Dining in CoCo Key . . . 

• Gator's Grab and Go serves kid-friendly food within the water park
• Some of the items offered are slushies, soft drinks (with free refills), chicken fingers, fries, and pizza
• One serving of chicken fingers and french fries cost us $5, which seems very reasonable for a water park
• The food was good quality and it was great not to have to leave the water park to go searching for food

In addition to eating at the water park, we also dined at the DoubleTree by Hilton's in-house restaurant twice for breakfast and once for dinner.  The TradeWinds restaurant offers a breakfast buffet each morning, which included (but was not limited to) breakfast cereal, bagels, croissants, toast, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, home fries, and fruit.  The food was great and our children never complained because they could pick and choose what they wanted to eat.


Dinner at TradeWinds . . . 

• Despite the dim lighting and elegant atmosphere for dinner, this turned out to be a very family-friendly restaurant
• They had a children's menu, crayons, activity placemats, and covered straw cups
• The type of food is mostly American
• The service was excellent
• Overall the food was very good.  You can read my review of TradeWinds here.
• The prices are slightly higher than your average family restaurant, but TradeWinds is slightly more upscale.

The idea to go to CoCo Key originated when I was trying to think of a fun, but different way to celebrate our 3 children's birthdays this year, which all fall in the month of January.  Although we did not book a birthday party at CoCo Key, we were able to experience some of the things a birthday boy or girl would during their party at the water park.


Birthdays . . .

• The management surprised our children with a chocolate cake topped with buttercream frosting from Montello's Nut Free Bakery.  It was delicious!
• I had the chance to meet the CoCo Key party planner, who seemed very nice to deal with, was professional and organized.

• We were greeted by CoCo, the water park's official mascot
• CoCo was so colorful and happy that the children were not afraid of him at all.  They shook his hand and happily cuddled up to CoCo for photos.

• We also had a chance to see a sampling of the house magician's magic tricks
• The children were extremely impressed by his card tricks (as were my husband and I)

By the time we left on Sunday morning, we had created some wonderful memories with our children.  You can read more about our staycation here and here.  You can also view all 91 of my photos here.

(I also need to mention how great it was that the front desk at the DoubleTree by Hilton had Pepsi for sale at 11pm when I was up working late and needed some caffeine!)


Suggestions for Improvements?

• Add nachos to the Gator's Grab and Go menu (a request from our 6 year old son)
• A better assortment of CoCo Key souvenirs
• A stepstool for the bathroom in the hotel room
• More kids channels on the hotel room TVs in addition to Disney Channel and Cartoon Network

If anyone has any questions about my family's experience at CoCo Key, please feel free to leave them in a comment below or use my contact form.  I will do my very best to answer them for you.


Thank you to the Coco Key Water Park and the DoubleTree by Hilton for providing us with complimentary accommodations, meals, arcade credits, and water park passes for us to base this review upon. All opinions are my own.

Gourmet Dipped Strawberries & Fudgy Cake Pops . . . Delicious Alternatives to Birthday Cake

For us, the month of January is pretty much a month-long birthday celebration.  Our oldest son's birthday comes at the beginning of the month.  Then our now 6 year old twins' birthdays come 2-1/2 weeks later.  We usually celebrate both birthdays with a special dinner for just our little family on the evening of each birthday.  Then somewhere in between there, we traditionally have a birthday dinner for all 3 children at my sister's house for close relatives.  This year, we even managed to fit in a weekend trip to the Coco Key Water Park, where the children were surprised with a special birthday cake.  As you can imagine, after all these birthday celebrations, we have had our fill of birthday cake by the time the twins' birthdays roll around.

This year, I found some wonderful alternatives to birthday cake with which to surprise the twins on ProFlowers.com.  On the day of their birthdays, UPS delivered a package to the house containing 3 Birthday Cake Pops and a Dozen Gourmet Dipped Fancy Strawberries along with a decorated vanilla birthday sugar cookie and a note printed with a special message from me and my husband.

I have to admit that the Shari's Berries gourmet strawberries were what caught my eye immediately while browsing the ProFlowers website.  They are available in various quantities, with different coatings, and paired with a variety of other treats.  In addition to the cake pops, you can also purchase the strawberries paired with cheesecake, cookies, floral bouquets, and more.  It actually took me forever to decide on what to order.

Ultimately, I was extremely happy with what I had decided upon.  The strawberries were large, juicy, and sweet.  I think both my husband and I would agree that the strawberries dipped in milk chocolate with a coating of almonds were our favorite.

All 3 children, on the other hand, reached right for the birthday cake pops.  They were chocolate coated and extremely fudgy inside.  Our 9 year old kept insisting that it was solid chocolate and fudge with zero cake inside.

During the checkout process on the ProFlowers website, I was given the opportunity to add-on some items. One of the choices was a decorated birthday cookie.  I thought it would make a nice treat for the children.  I would have added one for each child, but the website only allowed me to add one, which I thought was strange.  Regardless, the cookie was large enough for all 3 children to share.

Our children found the colorful sprinkles on the cake pops to be extremely fun, especially when they were scattered like confetti around their plates and the table.  Next time, I might decided to order the colorful Gourmet Birthday Strawberries for them instead.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with my ProFlowers.com experience.  I liked that I could specify a delivery date even though the package came via UPS.  The items were also very carefully packaged along with a non-toxic ice pack to keep the contents chilled in case you are not home to accept the delivery.

To view all the gourmet gift options available, visit ProFlowers.com.  Be sure to also check the ProFlowers coupons page for any discounts you may be able to use prior to placing your order.


Thank you to ProFlowers.com for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.