Taking A Few Weeks Off...

...My grandmother is quite ill. Hospice has stepped in to help. We flew at a moments notice to ND to visit her one last time. She's never met Sadie. We'll probably be here for several weeks. The good news is that my brother and his wife are expecting a baby any day now, so I'll be here to welcome him into the world.

Our Favorite "Go-To" Activity

When the kids get bored, the first activity that comes to my mind is usually cleaning objects with a toothbrush. Ok, that's a total lie. It's usually going outside to play followed by putting on a video if I'm feeling particularly lazy. Luckily, they don't get "bored" too often yet. I don't know why the kids love washing things with a toothbrush so much, but they do. It involves water, soapsuds, a small tool and accomplishing a relatively easy task.
Here's the Sadester washing seashells that we collected from the river. This particular river is totally nasty, so the seashells really needed to be cleaned and probably should have been bleached too:Washing rocks in the pool:Eli's carwash, er' tonguewash:

Simple Shape Prints

If you are a Kid Craft Weekly subscriber, you will recognize this print project from this week's newsletter. If you are not a subscriber, you should be. It's free and the newletters come in the form of emails direct to your inbox. You don't even have to go outside to your mailbox; it's that easy. Kid Craft recommends that you use all sorts of different sized boxes (toilet paper roll, Toberlone Chocolate box, matchbox, etc.), but that just seemed like way too much work especially when you have one of those great Tupperware shape sorters. They wash up really easy too if you use washable paint.The kids actually did a pretty good job this time keeping each shape in it's own paint. That's a first, usually the colors get mixed up pretty quickly. Another first: Eli and Sadie enjoyed this project more than me! Yea!!!

A Mini Obstacle Course

We discovered a new way to waste time in our backyard: build an obstacle course. It's been a blast watching the kids create their own, theirs' usually being a lot more creative and difficult than mine. Please excuse the blurry shots. It's really hard to get good pictures of moving kids.
Here's the whole set up. You start at the tunnel and end at the basketball hoop (not pictured): Crawl through the tunnel:Over the table:Crawl under the pool:Go down the slide:Race across the lawn on the "bike":Finally, shoot (and make) a basket:
How have you been keeping busy in your yard this summer?

Muffin Tin Monday

Mommies all over blogland have been doing Muffin Tin Monday for forever. OK, maybe only since June, but in blog time that's forever. Well, yours truly finally hopped on the bandwagon last week and provided this meal for lunch on Monday, of course:
The meal included: Bug Bite cookies, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, black olives, grapes, letter-shaped pasta, mixed veggies, ranch dip, blueberries, marinara sauce, broccoli and cauliflower, and goldfish crackers.
Eli and Sadie thought that this was the coolest thing ever. They loved the choices. They loved that they could eat their cookies first. They loved that they could eat their entire meal with their fingers. They loved that their food was compartmentalized. I loved that they ate almost every single bite (except for the veggies for Eli as he won't go near those with a 10-foot pole).

Yesterdays meal was a little less healthy but we were finishing off leftovers from the party: yogurt, blueberries, pasta salad, tomatoes, corn, watermelon, hotdogs, black olives, potato chips, grapes, ketchup, and carrots.

Check out these blogs for more muffin tin inspiration: Sycamore Stirrings, Little White Schoolhouse, Mama Said..., Make and Takes, Muses of Megret.

Eli's Bug Themed Birthday Party

I survived yet another birthday party. You know how these parties make me a nervous wreck, but I can actually say that I remained quite calm, cool and collected at this party. I tried not to over-plan anything. I put "smile" as number one on my to-do list instead of the last thing and I think that made a world of difference. Hubby said he could actually see "Buddha Mom" coming into play as he knows I've been trying to take a whole new approach to my parenting and, well, life in general. But, I digress.

Let's talk about Bugs, Bugs, and more Bugs!

The invitation was made using Microsoft word and clip art. We (meaning Dennis and I; I told him what I wanted and he made it happen all while I was breathing down his neck.) put four invitations on one 8 1/2 x 11 card stock. We cut them into postcard size and mailed them.

The cake was a 9x13 cake (from a box) with green tinted frosting (again, bought). The dirt was crushed Oreos without the creme filling. The grass was made by tinting coconut using 2 T. milk tinted with food coloring added to 1 1/3 cups coconut and stirred together until it was the right color. (I thought this looked a little too much like lettuce.) The bugs and other decorations were made using marzipan tinted with food coloring and sculpted like you would with play-doh and then painted with corn syrup to stay glossy. The animals turned out cuter than I expected and were also much easier than I anticipated. The cake inspiration came from here, here, and here.
Party favors were bug keepers and nets purchased at the dollar store.I had several games planned, but it turns out that 3 year olds are not that into games so we only did one. We played "pin the antennae on the butterfly" our buggy version of "pin the tail on the donkey".
The highlight of the party was the caterpillar pinata lovingly made by my very talented neighbor who graciously volunteered to make one for Eli. Isn't it too beautiful to whack with a bat? We destroyed it anyways. It was a great day. The weather cooperated. We ate simple picnic food. The company was good. The kids played hard. And most importantly, Eli had a fabulous birthday.

I Should Not Be Blogging Right Now

My girlfriends told me on Tuesday night that they wanted my blog to be "more real" and "less super-mom". So, I'm going to work on that. I promise to blog more about my imperfections because everyone loves to hear about other peoples problems! I might even post a picture of my hall closet just for Jennie so she can see that there are parts of my life that are total chaos and a picture of my shower because it is the most neglected part of my house as the black will surely point out. Actually, my whole mind is in full chaos mode as I prepare for Eli's b'day party this weekend which is why I should not be blogging. I need to be putting glitter on a butterfly, making a grocery list, and making insects out of marzipan. Don't ask me how this is going to turn out, I've never made marzipan insects in my life, but I need them for the cake that I'm making, which is really why I'm freaking out. I should just buy a cake like a normal human being or make a cake and then put plastic bugs on the top (which is plan B if plan A fails). But, my mom made beautiful birthday cakes for me so I'm making them for my kids dammit!! Eli's fire truck birthday cake from last year was a complete disaster, but his fish cake was sort of a success if you forget about the melting frosting. Sadie's cat cake turned out real cute, but my mom helped with most of it. Maybe I should take a class. Anyways, I'll let you know how it goes on Monday. Now, I must go and put glitter on a butterfly...