My Two Year Old... The Tattoo Artist...

My two year old has recently discovered my friend's tattoo. Since she first saw it, she has become obsessed to the point where she will randomly go over to my friend, pull up her pant leg and pull down her sock so that she can see the kitty cat.

The other day, I was changing my daughter into her pajamas when I noticed that she had gotten into the markers. I gasped and asked her, "What is this?"
She proudly exclaimed, "It's my kitty cat, mom!"

How could I get mad?

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Reindeer Food {Guest Post: Laura}

My son and me on the first day of school this year.

I'm Laura over at Now Things are Cookin', where I'm learning to cook all over again, and A Special Den Leader, where I discuss activities we do with my 8 year old son's Wolf Scout den.  It's so nice to be visiting Susie's blog again.  She featured me in her Searching for Super-Mom series a few months ago.  I'd like to thank Susie for having me here again to share with you a Christmas tradition my son and I enjoy.

Measuring ingredients.  Check out his tongue.  Is that not the cutest thing ever?

A few years ago when my son was really starting to really get into the whole idea of Santa, he wanted to know what we could fix for Santa's reindeer.  It was Christmas Eve and we had no carrots in the house, which was my first thought.  My son didn't think that was a very good idea anyway.  Probably because he hasn't met a vegetable yet that he likes.  So rather than making a frenzied dash to the grocery store for carrots, I turned to my good friend Google.

By typing in "reindeer food," we came up with several recipes for a yummy, easy treat for Santa's reindeer when they stopped by on Christmas Eve.  The ingredients are simple and it's friendly for any other critters, like my YorkiePoo, who might happen upon the leftovers.

Stirring.  And still the tongue is sticking out in concentration.

Even though this year my son "knows" who Santa is, (anyone who has love, goodness, kindness, and generosity in their hearts, of course), he still wants to make reindeer food.  In fact the other day he told me "Mom, reindeer are just like regular deer, except they can fly.  When can we make reindeer food this year?" I felt a little sad that he mistakenly thought all reindeer could fly, but very happy he would like to continue our little tradition a little bit longer.

Here's the original recipe for reindeer food that we found on Google.

1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup decorators sugar, your color of choice

Mix all ingredients together and sprinkle on lawn.

Finished.  He had to make sure I got the shot.

It's a perfectly fine recipe, but lets be honest for a moment, mommas.  Chances are, your dog, your neighbor's cat, or some random squirrel is going to end up eating the reindeer food.  Frankly, I'm not interested in feeding any of those creatures that much sugar.  So we have traditionally cut both sugars by half.  We used quick cooking oats when we made the batch for this post because I had some on hand to make my own instant oatmeal packets.  Regular oats are fine too.  And because my 8 year old marches to the beat of a drum no one else can hear, he also added some rainbow sprinkles.

The red decorators sugar is more important than the brown sugar.  It sparkles under the moonlight streetlights so the reindeer can see it and come down off the roof for their little snack while Santa is inside.  And truly any color will do.

Close up of the reindeer food.  Don't you think Rudolf will love this?

I have seen recipes for reindeer food that include real glitter.  I do not recommend using real glitter because it's made of mica or plastic particles that could injure digestive systems of wildlife or neighboring animals.  Decorator sugar may not sparkle as much, but it's surprising how much it does sparkle once you get it in the pale light of the moon or streetlight.


Thank you so much, Laura, for this awesome guest post!
You can visit Laura at Now Things are Cookin', A Special Den Leader, Facebook , Google+, and Pinterest.

Traveling With Kids: Part 2- Hotel Tips

In Part 1 of Traveling with Kids, I talked about using Milestone Packs to keep the kids occupied and happy during a long trip. Well, once you survive that, you will need to survive the hotel! There are a few things that you can do ahead of time to make sure your hotel stay is nice and hassle-free.

One thing that makes a hotel stay better is to make a couple of checklists. One checklist can be used when making your reservation, and the other can be for preparing for your stay. I've compiled a couple of lists to get you started. These are things that I've learned over the years, and we use whenever we travel.

A Lesson in Flexibility

I've always known that it is important to be able to be flexible with things.
Sometimes things just happen and we have to adapt. This is one of the reasons that we don't keep to strict daily schedules for things.

Flexibility also comes in handy for chronic procrastinators.
This is a lesson that I have learned many times.
Like the other day.
The very day before Halloween, to be exact.
The day evening (procrastinator, remember?) that I went to Walmart to buy a pumpkin for the kids to carve (more on that, later), pair of yellow sweat pants and a yellow sweatshirt for my 2 year old's "Pikachu-chu" costume, and a piece of brown felt (to make the 2 stripes on the back) to complete it. I had already crocheted the hat/ears and tail. Easy, right?
WRONG!
Walmart did not have anything yellow.
Nothing.
I looked in the toddler department. I looked in the girl's and boy's departments too. Nothing. Not a plain yellow shirt of any kind. Not a pair of yellow pants to be seen anywhere. I even looked for tights! Nope.

I had to be flexible.
I had to adapt.
I finally settled on buying a yard and a half  of bright yellow fabric and 3 inches of brown fabric. Yes. That's right. 3 inches. I looked at the little felt squares, and they were completely out of brown. I refused to but a whole yard, or even half of a yard, so three inches, it was. I bought a little package of elastic, and I knew I had some Stitch Witchery at home.
Can you guess what I spent most of Halloween day doing?

Crochet hat and tail pattern coming soon! :-)

Now... about that pumpkin...

I See Faces, Fun

Do you see faces in things?
Yesterday, when I toasted an English Muffin for breakfast, I spread some Smart Balance on it, and I swear it made a smiley face as the spread melted. haha!

Later, I was eating chips.
I saw this:

 Do you see it?
My oldest son didn't.
He laughed at me.

Wonder Box: Review, Discount Code, & Giveaway!

Have you ever visited Education.com?
I have.
A LOT!
It's been one of my favorite go-to educational sites since I first discovered it a few years ago. I love everything from the printable worksheets to the fun kids' activities!
You can imagine how excited I was when I got an email asking if I would like to try out and review one of their new products, the Wonder Box.  In fact, I may or may not have (mostly may) used the word "giddy" in my email response. Education.com's representative, Kat, is super cool and she sent me one right away!
Pretty Awesome, right?

It gets better!
Kat is offering all of my readers a $10 discount on any Wonder Box purchase! Just use the code: CAPE10 at checkout for the discount! (Code expires 10/01/12)
She is also providing a FREE Wonder Box to one lucky winner! Make sure you enter my Rafflecopter Giveaway for your chance to win!
Before we go any further, I want to disclose to you now, that I can sit here and tell you good things about education.com all day long. It is a wonderful resource for parents and homeschoolers, so make sure you bookmark it.
I'll wait....
I want to assure you that I will not let my love for my opinion of the site affect my honest review of the Wonder Box.

Wonder Box. 
The name says it all! From the moment we got it, my youngest kids were curious to see what was in it. As I opened it, we first noticed the cute packaging and the fun, and (I am assuming) friendly little Otter. As we explored further, we uncovered an array of neat little packages with tags and instructions. I have to admit, I was just as excited to see what all was in there as the kids were! After further investigation, I learned that we got the Once Upon a Time box!
The Once Upon a Time Wonder Box included 4 fun activities: a Story Cape, Build Your Own Puppet, Story Cards, and a Stone Soup book!

We decided to start with the Story Cards.
As I laid them out on the table, the kids were already getting ideas for their story. Once we began, they took turns choosing a card and making up their story. There was a nice variety of cards with many possibilities of how they can relate together for story, after story, after story! My kids have been playing with them every day since we got them. They use them on their own as well as using them to tell stories to each other. The more practice they have with the cards, the more elaborate and creative their stories are. I am impressed!

 

Next up was the Story Cape.
I spread the cape out onto the craft table and asked my girls for design ideas. They decided that it should be a Shape Cape, and they would decorate it with colorful shapes. They also wanted to write Up, up, and away! on it. My 5 and 7 year olds worked on it, and my toddler was able to get her hand in there to add her artistic touches to it as well. When they were finished, I ironed on the design to set it, then they took turns trying it on and "flying" across the room! It seems like someone is always wearing that cape! My 5 year old even tried to wear it to bed.
My girls wanted to make the Puppet next.
They sorted the shapes and colors on the craft table, then worked together to decide how to make their puppet. Okay, it wasn't that easy. They both started with different ideas. I used that opportunity to reinforce the concept of cooperation and to work on their negotiation skills. It ended up going smoothly and they soon had the puppet the way they wanted it. The only problem was that they were too impatient to let the glue dry completely and some of the shapes ended up falling off. I solved that issue with my glue gun. A few minutes later, they were playing with their puppet, now known as Mr. Funny- the Joke Telling Dragon.
We saved the book, Stone Soup, for last.
We read it and had a nice little discussion afterward. We talked about making our own stone soup and the kids shared which foods they would donate to the pot. They even decided that Mr. Funny would bring the beef, salt, and pepper! After that, they got to color the pages of the book!
We really enjoyed all of the activities. We had fun creating the cape and Mr. Funny. We explored many skills, including storytelling, imagination, shapes and colors. The kids had a blast with everything in the Wonder Box. Aside from the obvious educational benefits the Wonder Box offers for kids, it is a great value to parents. This isn't one of those things that the kids do, then it gets put aside. After initially spending a few hours working on the projects, my kids have been playing with everything since!

Here's what my kids have to say about it:
My 5 year old- "My favorite was making Mr. Funny"
My 7 year old-"I liked the Wonder Box so much that I just want to play with everything in it all day long! My favorite thing was making Mr. Funny!"
My 12 year old- "Okay, I admit it, I used the story cards too."
My almost 2 year old enjoys wearing the cape, looking at the story cards, and listening to the Stone Soup story.

Enter to win your own Wonder Box Below!

*For shipping purposes, the giveaway is open to residents of the contiguous US states only.*
Don't forget to use the code CAPE10 to receive $10 off of any Wonder Box Purchase!
(Code expires 10/01/12)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click here to see which super parties I link up to!

9/11: Never Forget

If you ask me what I was doing at 11:45am any day last month (last week, for that matter) I probably couldn't tell you. But ask me what I was doing at 11:45 am on 9/11/2001, I can tell you exactly what I was doing.

A couple weeks or so earlier, we had decided to drastically cut out tv time. We decided that we would allow ourselves to watch the morning news, then turn the tv off at noon. I'm not sure of all of the events that happened in out house that morning. I'm sure they included breakfast, and other small tasks with the kids. I do remember looking up at the clock and seeing that it was 11:45 am. I immediately thought, "Great! I have 15 minutes of tv to watch... even if it is just the news."

I turned on the tube and just stood there... confused and horrified. I tried to comprehend the basics of what was going on, then I went into the other room to tell my husband. At that point, even though it was all over every channel, I still couldn't believe that we had actually been attacked. As my husband and I sat there watching, I had to ask him what happened... as if it wasn't real to me until I heard him say it.

We kept the tv on all day that day... and all night... and all through the next day... I don't really remember when we turned it off. Our hearts broke as we watched children and other family members holding photos of loved ones that they were desperately searching for, even days later.

One of the first nights... I really can't recall if it was the 11th or the 12th... we attended a candlelight vigil in our town. I was handed a poem on a plain white sheet of paper. I still get goosebumps every time I read it.
I posted it on here before, but here it is again.

Homeschool vs. Traditional School

There are many reasons that families choose to educate their kids at home and just as many for those who chose traditional school. I decided to highlight 10 common topics that are argued by both sides. Let's see if you can guess which side makes each of the following arguments:

OK... are you ready to see who said what?

Got Stress? Act Like a One Year Old!

This is my friend Cassondra's handsome
 little man, Logan! Isn't he a cutie?

Yup! You read that correctly!
The thought occurred to me the other night... or was it morning?
Either way, I was lying in bed and I remembered something that needed to be done. I looked over at my peacefully sleeping 1 1/2 year old and marveled over the stress-free life she has.
Ahhh... to feel like that.
Then I thought to myself, "what am I complaining about? I do feel like that... most of the time" and at that very moment, I realized why.
I act like a one year old.
There. I admitted it!
It's not a bad thing, though, if you think about it.
I mean, what does a one year old do when she gets upset?

The 20-30 Minute Workout: Exposed!

credit

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I saw these someecards lurking around online, and I love them!!! I thought they fit in well with this topic!

I've been working this post out in my head over the past few weeks because I think the truth should be told:

20-30 minute workouts are a joke!!!

There. I said it!
It's true.
You've all seen it.
Just 20 minutes a day to exercise.
Or...
Anyone can get fit only 30 minutes a day.

Can you believe it?
I don't.
I mean, if it really only took 20-30 minutes... yeah... sure... piece of cake! Mmmm.... cake... but I digress...
My 20-30 minute workouts NEVER turn out like that, though.
As a mom, here's what a 20-30 minute workout looks like:

Mythbusting: Quiet a Nighttime Cough

So.. have you heard the one about the Vicks Vapor Rub relieving kids' coughs at night?
It is said that if you rub a layer of it on their feet and cover them with socks, they won't cough at night.

I first heard this a few years ago, and I was pretty skeptical. I read online about others trying it and swearing by it. They all say it works.
I was STILL skeptical.

Well, we've been battling a cold virus in our household for the past week, and my five year old was up all night coughing.
The next night, before bed, I was dealing with my 1 1/2 year old's "snotterfall" (a term coined by my 18 year old, used to describe a seemingly continual flowing runny nose) and I was about to put some Vicks Baby Rub on her chest to help her sleep when my five year old insisted that she needed some too. That's when I remembered the feet thing! I was about to find out once and for all, first-hand, if this crazy home remedy really worked.

I got her a pair of clean socks and grabbed her feet... the look on her face as I started slathering the goop on them was priceless. I am pretty sure she was convinced that I had completely lost my marbles!

I got her socks on her and as she drifted off to sleep, I was already drafting this post in my mind. I was preparing to tell you all that this old wives tale was just that... a tale.
Totally false.
Myth busted.

Throughout the night, I listened. I waited for her to get up and have a little coughing fit.
I listened...
And I waited...

I didn't hear her cough once all night long!

She did cough when she woke up, and she coughed more off and on throughout the day. But that night... not a peep.

It actually worked!

Go figure!

Sometimes I Hate It When I'm Right!!!

Don't get me wrong... I do LOVE to be right most of the time. I mean, come on... who doesn't? It's just that there are a few times now and then that I really, really wish I wasn't right.
Like the other day, for instance. I went against my better judgement and allowed my 5 year old to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... at the coffee table... while my (almost) 18 month old was running around playing. Now there are sooo many things that can go bad in this situation, and I knew it was not a good idea. Did that stop me form allowing it? No. Did the fact that I knew it would end badly stop the misfortune that was bound to happen? No.
I guess the sight of the almost full jar of yummy blackberry jam was just too much for a toddler to resist...

Yup. She stuck her whole hand in the jam!!! She proceeded to lick it off of her hand while somehow simultaneously getting it all over her face, belly, hair, legs, MY arm, and the phone that I was using to take a picture (OK, I probably deserved that one). I started out holding her over the sink... I ended up just giving her a bath. It was that bad.

You'd think I would learn my lesson from that, right? Wrong. The very next day, I was by the table. There was a container of pancake syrup sitting there. I told myself that my toddler can reach the table now, and I should move the syrup back farther. I decided I would do that right after I finished whatever it was that was so much more important at the time than moving sticky syrup out of her reach. Yeah... whatever it was... NOT more important. Sure enough, she got to it. One more trip to the bathtub.

Now for the big reason that I hate when I'm right.

Yesterday, my 5 year old took a nap. Normally, one would think nothing of a 5 year old taking a nap. BUT, she stopped napping when she was 2.
She grabbed her pillow and her blanket and went to the couch. She was asleep within five minutes. I said to my oldest daughter, " Oh no! She's asleep! I HOPE she isn't sick!" My oldest daughter took a more optimistic look at it. She reminded me that her sister had stayed up late the night before and she got up earlier in the morning than she normally does. She was probably just tired. Wanting so much for that to be true, I agreed and went on with what I was doing.
Well, she woke up right before dinner and seemed fine. She ate part of her dinner, then  plopped herself back onto the couch. I told her to go back and finish eating. She took a couple more bites, then back to the couch. As I was clearing some dishes, I hear a commotion! My poor baby was sick! She tried her hardest to make it into the bathroom in time, but didn't quite get there fast enough. Poor girl got sick all over the floor. Looks like I was right, after all.
After I got her in the tub and cleaned up the bathroom, I went and scrubbed the carpet. I hate carpet... I really, really hate carpet... (but that's another post). Once I finished scrubbing, I got her settled in bed with a bucket next to her.

Today, my toddler took an hour and a half long nap... she hasn't been napping much for the past month. When she does nap, it is usually later in the evening and only about 30-45 minutes. I am worried. Please, please, let me be WRONG!!!!

Delusions of Grandeur

(My geek friends will "get" the
Star Wars reference.)

Well, I did it again.
I think I bit off a little more than I can chew.
I don't know why I do this.

I do it all the time. It usually centers around one of the kids' birthdays. I get an idea, and in my brain, it sounds like a really great idea that doesn't take much time at all, and turns out perfectly. In reality... not so much.
I most recently did it when my 7 year old was about to have her birthday in January. I wanted to make her a perfect pretty Neapolitan Birthday Cake. It took hours, and it still didn't turn out as beautiful as I had pictured in my mind. Oh, and did I mention... this was the day before her birthday, and I had only finished half of my present shopping and wrapping?
Yes. Procrastination is definitely my strong point.

I've been on a crocheting kick lately, so  this time, my delusion is in the form of crochet project.... for my almost 5 year old's birthday... in less than a week...
Not to mention the fact that I haven't even started shopping for birthday presents or party favors yet... yeah... I'm a glutton for punishment!

I decided over the weekend that I wanted to crochet a new blanket for her. I chose the colors- they look brighter in person, and look awesome together!

Red Heart Super Saver Solids

Needless to say, this will likely be a slow blogging week for me. *sigh*