Why you should create a New Year’s Time Capsule with your kids

This time last year I sat down and thought about how I wanted to celebrate the New Year with my children. They love a reason to celebrate and over the last few years we’ve made lots of New Year crafts from New Year bells to a paper bell garland and little confetti boxes. On New Year’s Eve we usually have a nice family meal and play a board game – pretty low key but a lovely way to mark the end of a year.

Just like last year I’ll be printing out the Printable New Year’s Resolution for Kids 2018 from Thirty Handmade Days. It’s perfect and better than I could ever do. I love to keep these in the kid’s memory boxes, last years’ is already fun to look back over!

Why you should create a New Year’s Time Capsule with your kids

This time last year we started a new tradition. We found an empty jar, wrote the year 2017 on it and agreed to use it to hold important items from the year. We put in ticket stubs, the odd photograph, programmes and more.

I couldn’t wait to get our jar out and look through the things we had saved. I have a confession though. The jar was too small and quite quickly got replaced by an old shoe box. It’s a lovely tradition to create a New Year’s Time Capsule with your kids. They enjoyed it as much as I did and were always reminding me to put things in it.

We’ll be creating a New Year’s Time Capsule with the kids again this year. We’ll carefully store last year’s Time Capsule away and start creating lots more happy memories.

Looking back over 2017

Last year was a good year for my little family. I smashed my own little goals of getting a job, losing weight and generally being healthier. I thought it would be fun to take a quick look back over the year, and take a look at my most popular post that month”

January

In January we finished decorating the house, putting up gorgeous Orla Kiely wallpaper in the spare room. The children were busy at school and with their after school activities. We enjoyed a few trips into London for the Lego Batman Movie and the London Model Engineering Exhibition. My kids discovered a love of board games. The most popular post on my blog was our Chinese lantern sun catcher craft.

February

In February I signed up with Slimming World to finally lose some weight. We enjoyed half term away visiting family and my husband bought me a gorgeous Orla Kiely rucksack. Looking back over my photographs of the month I did a *lot* of paper cutting. The most popular post on my blog was 10 St David’s Day crafts.

March

March is birthday month and there were lots of parties and celebrations. With the warmer weather we had more weekends in London, visiting Art of the Brick and going on a Duck Tour. I had an interview for a part time job and loved my day at the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show. The most popular post on my blog was The best crafts for kids to celebrate Roald Dahl’s the BFG.

April

My daughter took her Rainbows Promise and we visited the Star Wars Identities exhibition at the O2. We fully embraced Easter and had fun making lots of Easter and Spring crafts. We had some visitors and spend Easter with my mum, visiting the Haynes Motor Museum and some beautiful National Trust properties. The most popular post on my blog was 10 Sylvanian Families crafts.

May

We finally visited the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and Montacute House. We got excited for Star Wars Day and crafted a bug hotel. Our crafts were definitely inspired by the season and we experimented with lavender shortbread and playdough. The most popular post on my blog was 10 Sylvanian Families crafts again.

June

In June we started upping our game on our YouTube channel. My kids love YouTube and suddenly wanted to make their own videos. They made videos of their favourite toys and unboxed every toy they were sent to review! The weather was amazing so we spent lots of time in our garden, as well as a trip to Wings and Wheels. The most popular post on my blog was How to build a mud kitchen.

July

July is one of my favourite months. I went to a few Christmas in July press shows and went to endless Sports Days and end of year assemblies. The children both achieved their Yellow belts in karate. We went to another air show, the Scale Weekend. The summer holidays started and we had some great days out at the Roald Dahl Museum, attended our first Prom and went to The Emoji Movie preview. The most popular post on my blog (again!) was our 10 Sylvanian Families crafts.

August

With the long summer holidays stretched before us we had lots of plans. We iced biscuits at The Biscuiteers, attended the screening of The Grossery Gang Movie, went to Legoland Windsor, saw Horrible Histories Live and watched Paw Patrol Live. I went to a fab biscuit decorating workshop at Tatty Devine. Autumn came early and we picked blackberries and played with sycamore seeds. We also visited a Lavender Farm and more beautiful National Trust houses. The most popular post on my blog was 15 crafts for celebrating Roald Dahl Day.

September

September came far too quickly and my children went back to school. We planned exciting adventures for our weekends, visiting Ickenham Miniature Railway, The Postal Museum and Mail Rail as well as riding on a steam train from Amersham to Ruislip. I had a great day at The Handmade Fair with my sister and got my hands on the iPhone 8 Plus. The most popular post on my blog was our 15 crafts for celebrating Roald Dahl Day  again.

October

In October I spent a day at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally with a friend. I browsed everything and brought some lovely fabrics for my stash. We had a busy half term visiting family and friends in Bristol, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight. We went to a pumpkin patch for the first time, which the children loved. The most popular post on my blog was our 5 pumpkin patches near London for families.

November

November passed in a bit of a blue. We went ice skating at Queen’s and tried out the latest family games at the Playstation Family Showcase. I was invited to the Mumsnet Influencer conference, the BritMums YouTube event and my daughter celebrated her birthday with an epic party. We watched The Gruffalo’s Child which was amazing. The most popular post on my blog was our post Creating silhouette wall art with Photoshop Elements 2018.

December

December started with a bang. Advent means Advent calendars and Elf on the Shelf. There were Christmas nativity plays, a carol concert, and Star Wars The Last Jedi. The most popular post on my blog was our 10 Sylvanian Families crafts.