Free Paper Animal Rings Printable

Mini-confession here: I am slightly obsessed over printables, specifically kids' printable activities. Ok, not really obsessed-obsessed, but more like I-am-a-HUGE-fan-obsessed. You see, we've had a lot of sickness going on in our household over the past 3 months or so. (It's a really long story. I'll spare you the details, but we've been through lots of probiotics, Emergen-C, and other stuff. I'm pretty sure we're on the up-swing now.) Basically, what I'm saying is that we've had a rough season, as far as our health is concerned. (We're getting better, though). There have been so many days where I was sick or everybody was sick and I needed a quick activity to keep the boys entertained while I laid on the couch and blew my nose. I had days where Mac was quarantined in his room and was in need of a quiet activity to keep him entertained while he recovered from another cold. During these moments, I have realized that printable kids activities are a mom's best resource. It's been so nice to print out an activity on a sheet of paper and allow it to entertain my boys. Amazing...and oh-so-easy.

So, today I bring you yet another printable kids' activity. I know...I've been making a lot of these lately, but there's just so much to like about them.  1. They're FREE.  2. The kids are enthusiastic about a new activity 3. When they're done, you can toss it in the recycling bin (easy clean up) and 4. It's EASY! Seriously, what is there not to like about printable kids' activities?

Yesterday, we printed and cut out these fun little animal rings and spent quite a while playing with them. Today, at lunch Cheese sat in his high chair and played with one of the rings while I made his lunch. (This is actually a pretty amazing accomplishment, due to the fact that he assumes he will immediately be fed once he is seated in the high chair. #foodie - oh wait...can you use hashtags on a blog? Just Kidding.) So anyway, these rings have been a big hit in our house and have been unintentionally dispersed throughout the rest of the house, because the boys have played with them continuously. If your kids are anything like mine, they will love them.

So, are you ready to print out your own set of animal rings? Here you go:

Get the animal rings right here!

I recommend printing these rings on card stock. After printing, cut the rings out and tape the ends together to make each ring.

Please keep in mind that you are always more than welcome to use these as much as you like for personal use. You are also free to feature and pin these too, but link to this page, instead of linking to the PDF. :)

Get PDF Here!

Interested in more printable kids' activities? Check out the Silly Shape Finger Puppets, Miniature Jack-in-the-box, Printable Roads, and the Printable Train Tracks.

5 Inexpensive Activities to do with Your Family On Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! In honor of the Great Day of Thanks, I have 5 ideas to do with your family while you enjoy your time together:

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1. Netflix - If don't have a subscription to Netflix, this is the perfect time to sign up. Here's the best part - when you sign up for Netflix, you get a FREE 30 day subscription. So, even if you don't want to commit to paying for another service, you can totally take advantage of the trial period and watch a bunch of cool movies during the Holidays (and the trial will even last you until after Christmas).

Here's a couple of family holiday movie suggestions:

- Miracle on 34th Street
- White Christmas
- Peanuts cartoons - The Mayflower Voyagers & I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown
- A Christmas Carol
- The Polar Express

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2. Wii Hula hoop Tournament - We did this at my in-laws house several years ago. Best. Time. Ever. And hysterical. And it's an activity suitable and enjoyable for just about every age. The Xbox Kinect also has a Hula hoop game, if you don't have a Wii.

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3. Impromptu Family Photos - who says family pictures need to be a planned event? Find a nearby park or scenic area and click away. It doesn't have to be a serious session. Be different and fun. Try things and poses you normally wouldn't do. My favorite photos are always the unplanned ones.

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4. Create a Thankful Banner - What a perfect way to honor the purpose of this holiday, right? This banner is pretty to display and also provides a free printable.

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5. Hold a "Leftover Dessert Creations Contest" - Now that you've had your fill of Thanksgiving food and dessert, you're stuck with the leftovers...not that this is a problem. I mean, who doesn't enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers??? Here's a way to keep things entertaining - Hold a contest to see who can come up with the most creative (and tasty) dessert with the dessert leftovers. (Hint - pumpkin pie milkshakes are SO overdone). Votes are cast for each entry and the winner gets to choose the movie for the family to watch.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Halloween Festivities

Do you want to know what I've been up to over the past several days? Lots! We've visited a pumpkin patch, Dressed up the toddler for various Halloween Events, taken him Trick or Treating and I even sprained my ankle! That's right, I sprained my ankle. Boo!

On Friday, we went with our mom's group to visit a pumpkin patch. Innocent enough, right??

There was a petting zoo with a cute little pony who adored the kids and stood next to the fence so all the little ones could pet him.

And we went on a hayride, where I forced my son to take a picture with me. See how happy he is to get his picture taken? (p.s. I'm wearing my mom's shirt from the 70's. My dad bought it for her when they were engaged. vintage. yes)

And The Toddler was allowed to pick out his very own pumpkin. This is the one he chose. He carries it around the house too, because he is so proud of it.

But there was this one slide at the pumpkin patch. This is the top of the slide in the picture - that big black tube. It was a bad slide. I went down it with my son and his friend. The slide was steep, and I was holding 50+ pounds of extra weight going down the slide. I couldn't slow myself down in time. So I slammed into the ground at the bottom. But I didn't drop the 2 toddlers. Just so you know. My ankle twisted outward really far. Fortunately I was wearing my cowboy boots (love those) and they have extra support around the ankles. I'm confident that if it wasn't for my boots, my ankle would be broken. It took me a couple of minutes before I could stand up. We did a couple more activities at the pumpkin patch before the pain began to really set in and we had to go home.

And now I get to wear this. Isn't that great? Not so much. Pretty certain it's a sprain and not a break - just by the way it feels. (I've had breaks and sprains before). I haven't gone to the doctor, but mostly because I'm pretty certain it's only a sprain - but there is definitely no walking on it. So the boot is my next best option. And this is how I spent the next several days - when we weren't doing other fun things.

We also went to the Zoo Boo and the Toddler chose to dress like Superman. See how excited he is to take a picture here too? I tried to convince him to wear his cute monkey costume, but he wasn't interested. Whatever. We stayed at the zoo until it became unbelievable crowded and my ankle started to ache, and I felt the need to mow people down for not moving out of the way for a lady with a gimpy leg. (aka me)

My parents also came to into town to visit us. My mom and I checked out a couple of antique shops. Because we like that sort thing - even if we don't buy anything. It's always fun to look at the unique stuff. Here are a couple of things I liked and a couple of things I found amusing.

Check out this scooter! How awesome is this???

This circley wire thing is a vintage flower holder. This would be an awesome DIY project.

I'm not so sure I understand the outfit on his manikin...hmm....

Halloween costume anyone? Nice.

So to end it all, we dressed up the Toddler in his awesome monkey costume took him trick or treating to a couple of neighbor's houses, and then took him to a Trunk or Treat at our church.

I forgot to take more pictures of his cute costume. I was busy having a sprained ankle. Ha.

We had lots of fun over the past several days (except for the sprained ankle part. That wasn't very fun), but I am glad the festivities are over. Now, onto Thanksgiving. :)

Marble/Ball Ramp

We found this idea on Pinterest a couple of days ago and did this while my son was sick. It was a fun activity that involved relatively quiet play - which I find ideal for a sick toddler. You can find the detailed instructions on the blog Made by Joel. (p.s. this blog has so many fun children's activities). It was originally intended to be a "Marble Run" made from a cereal box, but we don't have marbles in our house - not when you have a toddler who puts everything in is his mouth. (Case in point - while I am writing this, he is playing with Play-Doh, and I just caught him putting it in his mouth. Of course I made him spit it out....in case you were wondering). So instead of using marbles, we used larger balls - about the size of a golf ball.

This only took about 5 minutes to make - cut one panel out of the cereal box, cut that panel into 3 strips, and then tape them to the inside to create ramps (and make sure to cut holes at the bottom of each ramp so the ball can roll to the ramp below).

My son thought this was such a fun toy. After using it to roll balls down, he used it for a car ramp for his Hot Wheel Cars. It's funny to see what ideas your kids come up with.

Bead sorting.

My husband and son have both been sick over the last couple of days so we've done lots of projects. I did one this morning that was lots of fun. We used two of my son's favorite things - a container of multicolored beads and an ice cube tray with fun shapes. (He is constantly rummaging through my cabinets to find the fun ice cube trays - which I find annoying because the rest of the contents in the cabinet end up all over the floor.)

My son is still not that great at recognizing colors, so I wanted to do an activity to work on colors. So I had him sort the beads into different colors using the ice cube tray and we talked about the colors as he did it.

He was fascinated by all the different colors of the beads at first. I had to explain it to him a couple of times before he understood what to do. He wanted to grab the beads by the fistful and dump them into the tray. But eventually he figured it out, and enjoyed himself.

 

 But after a while, his impatient nature took over and he decided that picking up beads one by one was a little too time consuming. So instead he started picking the beads up with his mouth and dropping them into the different categories. I made him stop after a while. It was too gross....and I kept thinking about how those beads would stink after we finished.

 

So then he decided that he was done. Oh well. I know he enjoyed it.

This was as far as he got - not bad for a 2.5 year old....at least my 2.5 year old. :) I think we will do this activity several more times. It was entertaining for him even though he lacked the patience to finish sorting the beads....maybe larger objects next time?