Free Rice

Did you know that 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related problems? Well, here's a small way you can help. Go to www.freerice.com and play a game. For each question you get right 20 grains of rice will be donated to the UN World Food Program. Excellent! My plan is every time I let my children play with food, I'm going to visit the site and answer a whole bunch of questions. Feed my mind and feed the World. What a great idea! You can read more about FreeRice and their mission here.

Yoga With Kids

I'm new to Yoga. It's a whole new world for me and I love it. I practice some at home in the afternoons and sometimes the kids are around to watch. Well, wouldn't you know that the kids just joined right in? Kids are naturals at this stuff. Eli makes up his own yoga moves and gives them silly names, but oftentimes they are actual yoga moves.As soon as the kids started showing interest, I frantically started searching for "Yoga for Kids" books. I found a really great book and dvd combination called Yogakids. It's a Yoga Program for kids developed by Marsha Wenig, a certified yoga instructor.

What I like about the Yogakids book is that it gives parents step-by-step directions to each pose, tells you why it is important, and gives you silly information and other activities to try while doing the pose. It also gives you helpful hints on ways to help your child with the pose, some dos and don'ts and more information on helping your child use yoga during more trying times in their lives. For example, taking deep breaths when you are feeling anxious, thumping their chest when they are feeling sluggish, etc. And Ms. Wenig wants it to be fun and admits that it can get kind of crazy and out of hand and that that is perfectly ok.We checked out the dvds from the library and they follow the book, and have some interesting songs. Eli and Sadie both join along and try the poses that they feel comfortable with and Sadie sings "Namaste, namaste, namaste". Kids learn so fast too. I can tell Eli to get into Cobra, Down Dog, or Lion and he can do it without batting an eye, though his favorite pose is the pose of the child. I have to admit that that's my favorite too.

A New Necklace

Every once in a while, a girl's gotta buy herself some jewelry. Funny thing is, I pretty much never wear jewelry, but I really wanted some kind of mommy necklace. So, I splurged and bought myself this necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs. She has many different pieces of jewelry to choose from but they are all hand-hammered and hand-stamped simple yet beautiful sterling silver pieces. I love my new necklace and I don't just admire it in the box, I actually wear it. Yea for jewelry. Yea for Lisa Leonard!

Sadie's Birthday

Sadie's second birthday has come and gone. I tell you, it's tough being the second child. Do you remember Eli's big birthday party. Well, Sadie only had 3 friends along with their parents over for pizza and **ahem** store-bought cake. And you know what? It was the best birthday party I've ever thrown. I got to enjoy Sadie, her friends and their parents and I was not the least bit stressed out. It was great. I don't think Sadie minded too much either.This is Sadie's birthday crown made from a pattern found in Soulemama's book The Creative Family. This is the second time I've made this little crown. You can see Eli's here. Let's just say that I like the crowns more than the kids do. Maybe next year, it'll be a winner. Every two year old girl needs a tea set, right? Problem is that they are either porcelain which breaks too easily, tin which dents too easily or thin plastic which cracks too easily. So, I looked and looked to find a cute, solid plastic tea set and this is what I found. It's made by a company in California called Green Toys Inc. which makes all of their toys out of recycled milk jugs. Very cool. Plus, I found it on Ebay for half-price, so I got a really good deal on it. I made little sugar cubes with a little help from a friend. She cut out 1/2 inch cubes for me and I painted them white, then added a glitter glaze as the last coat so they're all sparkly like real sugar cubes. I also made the little tea bags out of felt and ribbon. I stuffed them with poly-fill that had a little essential oil on them so they smelled a little bit like real tea. I made a lemon tea bag, mint tea bag, cinnamon tea bag and a berry tea bag. (Though at this point they all smell the same...) And the good news is, after all of that, Sadie loved it. Yea!!

Fall Activity #15: Making Applesauce

We had some apples left from our apple picking, but they were getting a little wrinkly and soft so we made applesauce with them. Eli helped cut the apples and Sadie put my cut apples into the pot. They also helped measure out the spices. I deviated from our usual applesauce recipe and we were all a little disappointed. It sounds good on paper, but is much too rich to eat plain, though I thought it would be really good on icecream. Eli wouldn't eat any, but Sadie ate two bowls full.

Chunky Chai Applesauce from Cooking Light (November 2008)
Ingredients
1/2 cup apple cider
2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
Dash of ground cloves
Dash of freshly ground black pepper

Preparation
1. Combine cider and apples in a large saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until apples are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in sugar and remaining ingredients; simmer 12 minutes, stirring occasionally until mixture is thick. Cover and chill.

Fall Activity #14: Halloween Counting Books

We got some cute little Halloween stamps from the Target One Spot (which is one of my favorite places to shop) and Eli wanted to stamp all over everything. I decided that it would be a great time to make an easy counting book. I took three half-sheets of paper, folded them in half, and stapled the edges to make a book. I named it a really original name "My Halloween Counting Book" and left a space so Eli could write his name. Then, on the next pages Eli picked the stamp he wanted to use and I wrote the number and whatever was on the stamp: 1 skeleton, 2 pumpkins, 3 ghosts, 4 cats, and 5 aliens. Eli stamped the corresponding number of stamps onto the page:When he was finished, he had a book that he could read all by himself. Plus, he got to do a little math: one-to-one correspondence with numbers, and number recognition. Yea!

Fall Activity #13: Homemade Puzzles

1. Google "Halloween Coloring Page" to find a coloring page. Print the coloring page onto card stock.
2. Color the picture.
3. Cut the picture into puzzle size pieces. This could be 3 or it could be 20 depending on ability.
4. Assemble the puzzle.