The Magic of Santa

While we all know the real reason for celebrating Christmas...pondering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ...I also love the magic and thrill of Santa Claus. I loved it as a kid but I love it even more as a mom. Here are some fun activities to add to the magic...

Last year we tracked Santa all during Christmas Eve to see where he was dropping off gifts. Once we saw him getting closer and closer we knew we better hurry and get to bed. The kids were very excited! You can track Santa's movements HERE.

This year, my husband also had a personalized message from Santa sent to each child. Aside from telling them they've been good and giving specific information unique to each child Santa also let them in on a fun (and magical) secret...like how his reindeer fly or what he does during his summer break. You can get Santa to email your child by going HERE.

Sleepovers

What is your take on sleepovers? When I was younger sleepovers were very special and very frequent. I can't remember exactly the first time I participated in a sleepover but I believe I was around 6 or 7 years old.

I have mixed emotions about sleepovers but for the most part I am against them. I've heard stories of abuse that have occurred during a sleepover even in "religious" or "stable" homes by an older brother or their friends. I think sleepovers were (for the most part) a fun part of my childhood and maybe I'm being overly protective but I'd really like my children home for the sleeping part. What do you think of them? At what age would you let your child sleepover at a friends house?

Luckily, I haven't had to really decide our stance yet since my oldest is only 4. I would be fine hosting a sleepover in my home but I know that's not fair to other families and it would send mixed messages to our children. The only answer I have for now is to allow my child to attend the sleepover party but always have an "excuse" to pick them up at around 11pm and bring them back home. Am I a party pooper?!

Jelly Bean Bracelets

If you're looking for a last minute Easter activity or something to do with all those jelly beans, this was a fun one! My kids and I made these jelly bean bracelets. I actually decided it would have been a better idea for me to do them myself and stick in their Easter baskets because it was kind of hard for the kids to stick the needle through the jelly bean and they ended up just handing me what one they wanted to go on next instead. But they were very happy with the result, and had very sticky arms the rest of the day! :)

I got this idea from here: JELLY BEAN BRACELETS

Happy Easter!!

Play Dough!

Today my daughter and I wanted to try something different. We've been stuck inside for pretty much the last 6 months, and needless to say, we're going crazy! I thought it would be fun to make some play dough. I've never done it before, so I went online to find a good recipe (Brielle still loves to put things in her mouth) that would be safe to eat.

I found this great recipe, and it is supposed to be one that keeps the dough nice and soft.

I made it today and Brielle and I had a blast! She loved to squish the play dough between her fingers and say "Ewww!"

I found the recipe on Lovely Design (she's got some really fun ideas!) and it turned out great! I made the yellow one first, and I think that one turned out the best. My one caution is this: put the flour in a little bit at a time! With the yellow one I did just that because I didn't know how much I needed. But with the red one (the second one I did) I got cocky and thought I knew what I was doing. Well, that one turned out hard and grainy. So my third one, the blue one, I did the flour slowly and it turned out great again! I used a wire wisk at first while putting the flour in so that it didn't stay all clumpy. Then used a spoon when it was too thick.

Here's the recipe (it's also on the link above):

2 c water
1 c salt
food coloring
4 tsp cream of tartar
4 TBSP oil
2 c flour
(I didn't have enough salt to do even one batch, so I quartered the batch and got 3 colors! And it's the perfect amount for Brielle's little hands!)

- Combine water, salt, cream of tartar and food coloring (.5 tsp for pastel color and 1.5 tbsp for vivid color) in a large saucepan.

- Cook on low heat and stir. As the mixture heats up, stir in the oil and then the flour slowly.

- Keep Stirring the mixture until it starts looking dry and pulling away from the pan. Remove from heat and pinch a piece between two fingers. If it is not sticky, it is done. Otherwise, continue stirring over low heat.

- Place the dough on counter and knead until smooth. Children will enjoy kneading the warm dough when it cools enough for them, too!

- When finished playing, store playclay in an airtight container or plastic bag to re-use again and again. Do not refrigerate.

* For children who cannot tolerate gluten or food colouring, you may subsitute rice flour for flour and use natural beet (red), spinach (green) or carrot (orange) juice for colour.

Enjoy!!

Conference Fun

I'm sure many of you are like me and really look forward to General Conference -- except for wondering how you're going to entertain the troops and still enjoy conference, and hopefully *fingers crossed* help them to get something out of it, too! My little people are still rather little, but I thought I'd post a few thoughts, and ask for yours, too! Some are for younger kids and some are for older, but it's fun to have options! Last session I did the following things:

* I gave my daughter printouts of ties and had her color them to look like the speakers
* I made a flip chart of the Apostles and she sat tried to find them each in her 'book'
* We had a 'home primary' in the break between conferences
* We always make special treats to have in the morning (like cinnamon rolls, etc.) session
* We made a picnic lunch to eat while we were watching the second session.

This year there are some other things we'll try:

* A 'remake' of King Mosiah's story
(there are a lot of other great ideas at this site, but many of them are too old for my children. I printed them out and will use them later, though!)
* I also found some great ideas in March's Ensign.
* I'm going to cut out pictures of temples, scriptures, people praying, and some of the members of the Twelve -- just church-related things and put them on a poster board, and everytime they hear them use one of those words, or see one of those people talking, they get a 'treat'.
* April 2009 Conference Packet

Do any of you have fun things you do for conference?

Party Ideas

We have 3 kids with birthday's on Aug 10-11, so we do big parties. To make them all feel special, I did three separate themes that they chose. Each got their own decorated table and cake. They really loved feeling special. We also sang to them separately.

Pinatas are always a hit!

Fun cupcakes

Thanks for all the advice on dental stuff. Very helpful. We always make sure Charlie watches my husband and I brushing our teeth and we have a "family teeth brushing party" as often as we can. I just let Charlie chew on the tooth brush and he is even getting the back and forth movement.


However, this post has nothing to do with good dental hygiene practice. In fact, just the opposite. But we all can use a little treat now and then. I made these for a cub scout cake auction last week and they were a hit. My husband and I spent some time "wrapping" the roses but they were well worth it in the end. I got the idea from Family Fun, however their recipe calls for MINI cupcakes which I didn't read until after I had already made normal sized ones. But it still worked. Make sure you get the fruit-by-the-foot with the wavy perforated line instead of all the other crazy design that are available. We had to search for a box in the back that showed on the front that it was, in fact, the wavy design, which, I think, only comes in Cherry Rage or Strawberry flavors. We wrapped a cereal box in foil and taped the cupcakes down for a nice presentation. Sold for $27!

Peanut Butter Sushi

Ok one more peanut butter post to finish off the week.

I saw this on Rachael Ray (I really don't watch it that often!) and Parker was really excited about it because he loves bananas with peanut butter. And it's healthy and so easy! All you do is flatten 2 pieces of bread together with a rolling pin, spread peanut butter, lay down a banana, roll up and slice into like 4 or 5 sushi pieces!

Now Parker wants to make this every day! For more detailed instructions go here:

Banana Sushi

Fun Turkeys

MIke and I are the Nursery Leaders in our ward. We are in charge of the Sr. Nursery too. These are the snacks I made for Nursery tomorrow. The kids will love them. Its fudge striped shortbread cookies, mini reeses pieces, candy corn, graham crackers and chocolate frosting to glue it together. You may think it looks like a lot and it is, there are 15 turkeys, we actually have 18 names on the roll (for sr. nursery alone). We generally have between 10 and 12 show up, but just in case there's more I'm prepared.

Some of our favorite Indoor activities

This is in regard to the Cabin Fever post. One of our favorite indoor things to do is to build a fort with lots of blankets then we bring in books and toys and a flashlight and read and play. Sometimes we'll even watch a movie and eat popcorn. Another favorite is to have a picnic in the family room, of course on a blanket. We'll also turn up the music and have a dance!! Both the girls love it.

Nature Walk

One of Mikelle's favorite things to do right now is go on nature walks. We walk around our complex and she finds leaves of different colors and sizes, pine needles along with pine cones. Then she loves to glue them on construction paper and hang them on the fridge and show them off to Dad when he gets home. It was so fun and kept her occupied while I made dinner.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

We made this turkey with Kara the other night and it was really fun! I love that it uses both her hands and her feet. I have never been good at crafts like this but this one was really fun!

GHOST TOES

I did this with Will and we had a lot of fun. We hung them up by his little table and he loves to look at them and say "ghost toes!" or he'll shake his head no and say "mommy, paint toes" - he wasn't too fond of the paint, but he liked the finished product. It only took us a few minutes, and I thought this would make a great Halloween card for grandparents who live far away, as well as a great keepsake to see how your kids grow throughout the years!!

What You'll Need:

white craft paint

black construction paper

foam paint brush

little feet :)

black permanent marker

Here's How:

Paint the bottom of your youngsters feet. Firmly "plant" them - one at a time - on the black paper, repeat with the other foot. After they are dry, color eyes and a spooky mouth on them. I also wrote their name, age, and date on them with a silver pen (it just doesn't show up).

PS - I think this would be SO fun to do on a black tote bag for a trick-or-treat bag, then it would be a keepsake for years!!!

Homemade Finger Paints

My friend Martha Stewart gave me this recipe and we had a blast this morning finger painting. I have to admit half the fun is making it together with your little one.

4 TBSP. Sugar
1/2 cup Cornstarch
2 cups Cold Water
Food Coloring

Stir sugar and cornstarch together and add cold water. Heat on stove on medium heat (stir constantly) until thickened (only a couple minutes) and then separate into bowls and add food coloring for desired color. I just bought finger painting paper at Target for a few bucks. So easy and so fun!!

Remembering Family Jokes

Kara's awesome idea reminded me of something that we've been working on this year. A while ago I read about a family that had a little box (they used a shoebox) with a notepad close by. Whenever a kid said a funny line or some funny event happened, they would jot it down (with the date) and put it in the box. Then each New Year's Day they would sit around as a family and read all the funny events and quotes. So, we've been trying it this year and I'm already excited to start 2008 off with a bang and remember all the hilarious things our daughter (and Justin) has done and said and all of the mostly absent-minded things that I've done that have turned out pretty funny in the end. Then, the plan is to type them all up and keep a journal of these family jokes (there's always room for another project, right?).

Our Favorite Things

For this post I thought I would put some of our favorite things. Maybe it will give some other mom's some good ideas for their own families.

Our favorite:

1. place to go out for dinner- 2 very family friendly places here in MN are Bonfire and the St. Clair Broiler. Bonfire is already loud so you don't feel bad if your kids are making noise. And if they order the kids pizza they get to go back and help make it. This is a big hit with Parker. St Clair Broiler has good food and doesn't cost too much. They also have a family friendly environment. Definitely order a chocolate milkshake!

2. fast food- Our fav is Little Caesars. Not exactly the closest place to us but worth the $5 yummy pizza. And they have a pretty good 2 pizza special on the weekends.

3. place to shop for groceries- we've found that the cheapest and easiest place to buy groceries... and everything else... is Super Target! And now if you go to one that has the updated carts you can find the gigantic "2-kid-carts" on the grocery side of the store. These are great because we can put both our kids in the seats and still have the original cart seat for the baby carrier and then we have a whole cart for groceries!

4. place to shop for clothes- KOHLS! Oh how i love Kohls! Their original prices are horrible but they always have sales and they're usually awesome sales. And if you browse the clearance racks you can find some really good deals!

5. books- My kids love Sandra Boynton! But even more then that lately they have been really into these "How Do Dinosaurs ___?" books by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. What cute books, we read all of them several times a day and right now you can get them at Kohls for only $5!

6. mommy-desperately-needs-a-break movie- Curious George! Fun, cute, and one of those movies that both of my kids will watch all the way through! Even I don't mind watching it over and over again!

7. car ride accessories- The Doodle Pro. We have a big one of these that my kids always fight over so we bought 2 little ones for the car and they work really well.

8. church bribes- color by number coloring books or activity books work really well for Parker. Also the quiet game where you give the person who was the "quietest" a prize after church (works better for older kids). We have no idea how to make Mayli be good during church... any suggestions?

9. child scripture stories- The "Who's Your Hero?" books by David Bowman. So cute and funny. Makes the stories fun for the little ones. Just try and get your hands on the board book versions because our paperback copy has already been ripped a few times!

10. going-to-bed-good bribe- we have 2 little chairs next to the kids beds and if they have a night where they both go to bed without crying or whining for something then we put a treat on their chair for them to find the next morning. We get our supply of treats from the dollar spot at Target... another great feature of Target!

11. FHE source- the church now has a great FHE section online where you can access lessons and get age appropriate activities to go along with them.

12. stain removal method- Shout pads go with me everywhere. And when I'm at home Spray-n-Wash and my Clorox pen are my best friends! I almost prefer my kids wear white because I know I can get those stains out.

13. things to do when you're stuck at home- Crayola's Color Wonder products are great fun for kids and are mess free. Parker does well with markers but Mayli gets ink all over. With color wonder she can color or paint wherever she wants and it doesn't matter.

14. potty rewards- of course every child is different so what works for one might not work for another. But the most successful for us have been: computer games (links on the sidebar), sticker charts, candy, and walking around the apartment banging pans together and yelling "(Child's name) went peepee in the potty HOORAY"!!

15. things to watch after the kids go to bed- Heroes, LOST, House, 24, So You Think You Can Dance, and Supernatural (Brian's fav). If you haven't checked out these shows you should! And if you know of any good girly shows let me know! Since Gilmore Girls was cancelled I definitely need a new girl show to watch!

That's the end of my super long post. I hope it's helpful

Top 5 easy (and cheesy) things we did recently

5. Put a blanket down in your living room and eat lunch on it. My daughter loves picnics!

4. Pull a chair up to the kitchen sink and let the kiddos help with the (plastic!) dishes...beware water will get everywhere!

3. Send your child an email from a sesame street character...or help them send one to dad (he's sure to send one back) and check your email together.

2. Blow bubbles while they are taking their bath.

1. Turn the music up and dance around the house with them (and on their bed!)