Thanks to this post when Clara and I made up some goody bags to give to some of our friends who come over for play dates, we had many inquiries asking what exactly went into them…. Here’s a little peek!
Clockwise from top-left:
1. A small piece of unpopped bubble wrap rolled up and tied with some pretty ribbon.
2. Color coding labels!! We adore these!
3. A colorful tissue paper flower
4. Pasta necklace kit — everything you need to make your own!
5. Small bag of Goldfish crackers
And for the mommies….. you didn’t think we would let you go home empty-handed, did you?? Heavens, no!
Nothing like some Godiva dark chocolate truffles and a few tea bags of Numi organic tea to make your day a whole lot better! (These are some of my absolute favorite things!!)
Now the fun part — We’re giving away 3 fun goody bags just like these! So…. let’s have a virtual play date!! Leave a comment telling us about your favorite play date activity, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win. Giveaway is open to all US residents and ends Saturday, November 13th @ 6:30pm EST. Winners will be chosen by Mark, Emily, and me!
Good luck!!
Whenever we have good weather the playgroup host sets up an outdoor activity. Easter egg hunts, time on a swingset/jungle gym, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, etc. Anything outdoors is a big hit w/the kids and parents. Great giveaway – thanks for the goody bag ideas!
I love the goodie bags. You are the Frugal Queen. On our play dates we mostly go to the BIG playgound (in town) or the water park. 🙂 Or what everyone loves.. Is I do photoshoots with the kids. They get to take photos home to their family. That goes over nicely!!!
I wanted to tell you that Hannah and I are in the process of making the paper towel rolls Owls (she calls them CROWS?? I don’t know why – but I still laugh every time). LOL. Hannah marches to the beat of a different drum so her OWL CROWS are a bit different then your pretty ones. Last night we also used the markers and coffee filters. I have 3 little window that I need covered on our front door. I thought the coffee filter/markers would be cool. I will let you know how things went. 🙂
Thanks so much for all the FUN FRUGAL activities!!
My favorite playdate activity is when the kids do seasonal crafts that I can use to decorate with! Frugal and fun!
Our kids usually play freestyle in the backyard or the house, but we had a really great time decorating our own cookies and then eating them one time. 🙂
My favorite playdates are ones where we are in someone’s house or yard and the kids can really just make up their own activities and be kids. Mommies are there to make sure we’re all playing nice, but sometimes we actually get a chance to talk!
I love to visit other peoples houses. There are fun, fresh toys and play sets. I can see what my kiddos like and that gives me ideas for upcoming holiday gifts.
My favorite playdate is just one where I might get to enjoy some time to myself watching her play peacefully… that doesn’t happen often.
My favorite playdate has always been meeting at our local library for storytime. We pack a lunch and play at the adjoining park before or after our visit to the library. (and sometimes I’ll admit when the weather is super gorgeous we don’t always make it in for storytime :S )
I like coffee chats. There’s something for the moms and usually the kids just run around having a good time, nothing to plan beyond the coffee and a snack.
What a great idea. My fave playdates are at a friends house. We’re in a Mom group. My daughter & her friends like to play doctor. dramaqueensmum@gmail.com
We are a legos/board game fan team! Our favorites are Guess Who and Monopoly Junior, and any day we build a princess castle is a good day!
I love it when our girls and their friends make up their own ‘performances.’ They get all dolled up with the dress up clothes and do ‘amazing’ tricks, jokes or funny dancing while the parents ‘sit in the audience’. For my oldest daughter’s birthday next week I am going to have them perform the Three Little Pigs. I have made masks of the pig and the bears and also little houses to go along with them. Hoping that this will be added to our favorite playdate activity. I don’t have a website but will e-mail pictures next week.
oops not bears but the wolf!!
Those are soooo sweet! You must have an abundance of play dates.
It never would have occurred to me to send people home with gifts.
We usually just let the kids play on the play set or with the toys inside, but with the holidays coming up, I think it would be fun to make and decorate sugar cookies! 🙂
We don’t get out much, so our favorite play date is our weekly preschool co-op. We have one mama that reads a book and talks about a lesson that goes with it, another that does kindermusic sort of things, I do activities (with the help of you & no time for flash cards and chasing cheerios and a few others), and the other mamas fill in. So far it has been incredible!
Fun giveaway – thanks for the chance. :>)
We like to keep it simple so that both mamas and kids can just enjoy eachother’s company. My 3 year old has bunk beds and the top bunk is our special reading place. We have a huge basket of books up there along with all of his stuffed animal friends. His very favorite thing to do is to bring a friend up there so that they can play basketball with the stuffies. They try to throw the animals into the hamper. Tons of guaranteed laughter from the kids and the parents who have to supervise this…it doesn’t take too long for the kids to decide that mom is as good a target as the hamper. Fun. Thanks for the great playdate goodie bag idea!
If it is raining out door I will have my nephews make rice krispie treats and then make cutout shapes with cookie cutters.
Our favorite playdate acitivity (4 yo) covering the dining room floor (hardwood) with newsprint and going nuts with the craft supply bins. Anything goes! Giant tracings of the kids, glitter, stickers, yarn, googly eyes, markers, paints, etc. TONS of fun! Then we use it as the snack picnic table. Thanks for such a great site!!!!!
Swapping playdates are my favorites! Swap books, clothes, toys, a dozen cookies, or whatever. One mom’s trash, is another’s sanity saver!
Another fun playdate I went to allowed us to bring our dogs. The hostess even made homemade doggie snack goody bags!
Now that my son is getting older, cooking playdates are also fun. Make homemade pladoh, caramel apples, or pizza!
I like having all my mommy friends over to do a baking day with the kids. It’s so much fun watching them decorate cookies and to see the excitement on their faces. And of course it’s nice to sit around and chat and eat cookies with my friends while the kids play their cookie energy off. 🙂
We love to do a themed craft, story time, and snack, and we try to do these at the library so we can have as many kids as possible. We LOVE all the fun ideas you have. Thanks for all the inspiration!
When we can go outside we love to either do treasure hunts (where the moms hide some little treasures and the kids try to find them) or scavenger hunts. This also allows some exercise and lots of fun!
A favorite play date in our house includes a nature walk and mommies with cameras in hand. Simple and lots of laughter.
Our Homeschool coop meets every Friday and every other Friday instead of classes we have a play date. This year our play dates are with refugee children with the Sparrow project. Even through the language barrier children make friends and play and laugh.
Our favorite activities outside are rolling down the hill until kids are out of breath. Picking pine cones and pine needles for crafts later.
If inside we like to do art together, or play board games. Sometimes kids like to build a fort in the middle of the living room while moms are sipping tea and catching-up.
My latest favorite was making orange owls to decorate for Halloween. My daughter (3) thought it was great fun and loves seeing her art projects around the house!
Our favorite play date activity, especially this time of year, is baking and cookie decorating! My son especially loves to design cool cookies and my daughter loves the sprinkles. Their favorite play date friend enjoys all aspects of the endeavor.
They are so cute! I can definitely see lots of possibilities for adding other treats, like homemade play dough or pop up cards.
We just had a playdate this morning and broke out the shaving cream and food coloring for painting. It was a blast!
Those are great ideas. Special treats for your special visitors.
Fun goody bags! I think the pasta necklace kits would make great stocking stuffers for all our friends!
Our favorite playdate activity is a princess dance party. Everyone (boys included!) dresses up in a princess dress from our dress up stash and we crank up the music! We also like to do seasonal crafts and decorating sugar cookies is also always a hit.
As the weather cools down we have Pajama Playdates. Everyone comes dressed in pjs, moms included. We enjoy coffee cake, muffins, bagels, juice & coffee. The kids play and the moms chat. Something about fuzzy bunny slippers helps keep everything fun & relaxed.
I love the bubble wrap in your goodie bag!
One of my favorite playdate or party crafts is to make/decorate a photo frame. Then I put a photo inside from the event and use them as a “thank you” note later.
my favorite playdate activity to get the kids to simply dance. just have some feet tapping songs ready and we rock on!
I like getting out the recycling and letting the kids make something out of it. It is awesome watching their little brains at work.
Oh, thanks for answering my question! I think I get the idea…but I wouldn’t mind having an original! 🙂 My favorite playdate activity is just balloon play…batting them up in the air, playing “keep away” (I think some call it Monkey in the Middle), stomp pop…the kids come up with new things to do with them all the time. I also like to make little cute seasonal treats for the kids to make together and take home. (I usually don’t post them because not all parents take to having their kids photos on the net.)
We just got back from NYC (my husband ran the marathon) and I am trying to catch up on all of your fantastic posts that I missed while gone!
Those goody bags sound fantastic! Great idea. I especially like the pasta necklace kits.
I have never had Numi tea before.
Our favorite play date activity is making homemade play dough and having fun with it. If it is a lunch date, we usually make our own pizzas.
I love having outside playdates–no matter whether we’re having a good day or a bad day, it *always* improves when we go outside. If we *must* be inside, cooking, painting, and play-doh are always big hits around here…as well as all the fun and frugal ideas from this blog 🙂
My favorite play dates are in the winter when we can get out in the snow and have snowman building contests and snow ball fights and sledding all followed up with hot cocco and treats.
Playdates involving Moms are fun because it seems we never get enough time to chat. I usually don’t organize much for playdates from the play perspective we usually let our guest take the lead on what she wants to play since toys are always different at different houses.
my son has just started doing drop-off playdates, so i find that it’s always a good idea to have something planned for the boys in case they get ‘bored.’ we’ve made robots, flying saucers and pet rocks. i love doing things that are more ‘boyish’ with them!
I LOVED making sugar cookies with the kids….
I like all play dates. We try to have them often. How fun to have goody bags to hand out! I will be adopting this idea! Of course we would love to win also, so how about our favorite play date are either adventure…when they kids go exploring in the woods and creek, (There is not much water…but enough, that we have to be a bit careful for the little ones!) or Craft play dates. They prefer not to have a plan. They just get out the Craft bins…and begin to create!
My favorite playdate activity is chatting with other moms while the kids play it up! 😛 I’ve found that too much structure doesn’t work very well with our kids.
Swings, dressup and “play kitchen” are favorites here. And if my daughter can convince everyone to play tea party, she is in seventh heaven.
Thanks for this giveaway! My children and I love your blog. We have used many of your ideas. Our favorite playdate activity is hide-n-seek using the whole house and including the moms! It is so much fun, even the littlest ones get a kick out of it! We also like using your ideas for crafts with the kids.
Thanks for the goody bag idea!
Making play dough has to be my all-time favorite play date activity! I’ve done it with both large and small groups of kids, ranging in age from under one to five, and it’s always a hit – and they have something to take home at the end!
Look, I hate to be a killjoy here….but goodie bags after a playdate? Really? How is this frugal again?
Here’s the deal. I love my playgroup. The kids get along swimmingly and I get to chat with an outstanding group of women. I bake for these people, I like them so much. But the idea of passing out goodie bags after a playdate is just excessive. The idea is cute and surely very well-intentioned, but I’ll pass on this one.
I am pretty much in favor of 1:1 playdates, and my favorite thing to do with kiddos is to play board games.
I love our homeschool play dates where each month we take a field trip, then the following week we get together and all of the kids make 2 pages for their homeschool scrap book. I just love seeing all of the different ages working and playing together.
We love to have a craft time then playtime out in a backyard or park.
What a cute idea! My kids like to play Legos and dress up as play date activities.
I like to bake and decorate sugar cookies!
We adore having picnics in the park and a little wade in the stream that runs through it. Right now it is too cold so we enjoy running through and kicking all the leaves!
You know what ours is! Crafts of course. I wish oh wish we could have a real play date. There would be so much craftiness going on! I guess we will settle for a virtual one 🙂