cookies and salsa

Today I made crappy gingerbread cookies! Yay!

But, thankfully, we all know cream cheese frosting makes everything delicious.

 After cleaning up the aftermath of rolling out the dough/cutting the cookies on the table I was not really  wanting to deal with kids+frosting+sprinkles at that moment.

SO. We treated the cookies as chips and the frosting as salsa and had a partay!

Highly recommend!

rainbow magic

So remember how over the 4th of July my older two girls had the roseola virus? (weird virus that just gives kids 0-4 yrs old crazy high temps and a non-itchy rash, for about a 5-8 days)...well looks like Mags is taking her turn with it. What the lame?!

Wouldn't it be nice to be super mom and have creative crafts/activites all planned out for my older girls while I tend to my sickie...instead of what really happened: me holding and nursing to sleep a very fussy baby ALL DAY and the girls sitting in front of the tv watching Ponies or Strawberry Shortcake. This too shall pass, I know, I know, but still...not awesome.

We did break it up a little bit, we played with barbies or ponies for a little bit until Maggie was freaking. And luckily, we buy our baking soda and vinegar in bulk, cause the girls have been doing this for the past half hour: 9x13 full of baking soda and colored vinegar to spoon in aka: "making rainbow magic!"

Now if you will excuse me, I have a baby to hold and kiss, and another episode of ponies to turn on.

ps-- seen any good movies lately?? Chad and I have a sitter and saturday night dedicated to us going to see a movie, I would love a good recommendation. And FYI the last time we went and saw a movie was HP 7.1.....so it's been a few years....

naked no more

I basically had a nudest colony of barbies running around the house.

I was rather sick of seeing boobies. I mean I breastfeed my baby, I see them enough as it is.

My friend inspired me.

I came out with a new swim wear line for our barbies:

AKA I painted on swimsuits with nail polish.

I went for a vintage inspired look, available in tankini and one-piece. 

So you just paint it on, and once it's, dry take a q-tip with nail polish remover on it to smooth any edges that need some help and wallah! Ready for the beach! Or sink!

Now, if we can just get my real girls to wear clothes, we'll be in real business! 

last night:

We were waiting for Chad to come home from work.

Which means it was that awful bewitching hour where all children go rotten.

I was able to dodge it by make a nest:

And I fed my baby birdies "wormies" (aka noodles) until their daddy birdie came home.

Some times they would have to preform birdie tricks in order to be fed a wormie, or would have to try and fly. Great distraction for us all.

cheap mom/monkey trick:

Need to entertain kids while driving?

Do this:

Stuff an animal in the steering wheel and narrate what they say when they spin around turning corners.

My girls thought it was the funniest thing ever. 

My voice is almost hoarse from all the monkey screeching. 

elepark

This isn't the first time we have done this, and I know we're not the only ones who do this,

but our newest "cheap mom trick" is:

bring a cool toy to join in on the play ground fun.

We brought our elephant yesterday and let me tell you, he sure had a blast. For some reason putting that elephant down the slide was quite the entertainment.

Highly recommend it.

I do not recommend wearing jeans and a sweater (Lily) when its still 90*F out daily, she didn't care, but I was sweating just looking at her. Suffer to be adorable I guess?

big fat phone purge

This morning we discovered a cricket inside (INSIDE?!!!) the joy/entertainment this tiny creature created, was amazing. Why do my girls love bugs so much?

Any way. We lead him out the front door, Lily looked down at the mat and saw a pebble where he landed (and had now jumped away) and gasped: "Oh no! The cricket turned into a rock!"

Wow I love her.

CHEAP MOM TRICK:

Go to Krispy Kremes ANY time you see that light on saying that they have hot donuts. You get a free donut. And you can watch the donuts on the conveyer belt for 20 minutes like we did. And the best part is when they go through the "nummy shower" aka the glaze.

You know that awesome thing you can do with freezer paper? 

(See what I mean HERE.)

WELL. I have been trying to find a place that actually sells the dang stuff. Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby, AND the local grocery store did not have a single roll. I was so annoyed. But determined. So I called and bugged business until finally I found a local butcher. Who not only had the cursed paper, but gave me a few feet of it for free. It pays to be determined and annoying I guess. And, we found a rad little local old school butcher shop by doing so.

Yesterday, the girls and I were playing on the porch. Like we do basically all day.

Then all of a sudden we were at our second home: the library. 

Specifically the library's cafe. We all shared an Italian soda, and bag of skittles. Happiness and rainbow drool everywhere.

"spin meeeee!"

one office chair=

hours or entertainment

ps- I cant stop listening to Florence + the Machine. 
One of my favorites HERE.
What can I say? I love chicks that rock...and that are kinda weird. 

needs vs wants

One of the first sentences out of Lily's mouth this morning was:

"Mommy, I need to paint."

Not just wanted, but needed. We didn't have any good paint paper...but we did have a big scrap piece of wood waiting to be thrown away.

We had some friends come over for an early morning paint party in our back yard.

 Kainoa tried really hard not to get dirty...Lily I think, tried the exact opposite. You should have seen her after...basically painted black head to toe with not much skin showing.

Painting outside is the way to go. You don't have to worry about getting it all over your house, and you can just hose your kids off after.

swimming

"Mommy, ducky needs to go swimming."

Do this if you ever need several minutes.

cheap mom trick:

Go to the park, or where ever puddles congregate after the rain,

 and play in them,

then go home completely soaked and muddy, and extremely happy.

a few saturday snapshots+a cheap mom trick

Saturdays are like any other day in our house. Chad wakes up around 5 am, hops on his bike and is off to work. We ladies sleep for little while longer and start our day. I decided to document some of our Saturday:

The girls eat, get down from their chairs and enter the kitchen as "PUPPIESSSSSS!!!!!"

 I feed them "puppy food" aka cheerios while I make two slices of french toast for me and myself.

 All the while Jack Johnson pandora is work'n it while we do all this and "getreddytago" as Lils says. This means, getting snacks and sippies ready for our first adventure, mommy getting her running clothes on, and the girls getting more clothes on.

 First off, I must say, the South in the spring in celestial. No other way of saying it. It smells amazing, it's the perfect temperature (70's-80's daily) with always a light breeze, just the right about of humidity, very few bugs, and the birds are really musical, peonies are in full bloom and everything is exploding in green leafy goodness. Seriously, you gotta experience this for yourself. 

Anywho, we ladies go for a few mile run, and half way we make it to a park and get nice and sweaty.

 Eden falls asleep in the stroller on the way home, Lily and I watch Ducktales and Rescue Rangers on youtube while eating lunch.

Eden wakes up extra spicy, she gets fed and then its off for adventure numba two.

Today our second adventure is filling our baskets with rocks, sticks and any other yard debris to throw off a near by bridge. Logically.

Note: I am still sweaty, in my running clothes, I keep my lens cap and phone in my sports bra. Consider yourself fairly warned next time you ask to use my phone.

 Both girls are HUGE fans. In fact, lets call this a Cheap Mom Trick shall we???

After our baskets are empty, we walk over to "our" park.

Our park has a sand volley ball pit, aka huge sandbox. We kick off our shoes and play in the warm sand until Lily claims she is: "allll sweaty" and we trek it back home in time for Chad to get home and then we tackle him. And eventually we make and eat way too much pizza.

And that my friends, in a Saturday for us.

distraction #1

cardboard box+paint=masterpiece

 It's titled: "Hurry Home Summer!"

My little arteeeest. 

Who has eaten about a pack of gum today. 

Hurrah!

Thanks for the awesome ideas shared thus far for kid distractions, brilliant! Keep'em coming!!

a cheap mom trick

Find a storm drain and drop stuff through the cracks.

Do you remember doing this when you were little?

Still magical.

ps- check out this RAD stay-at-home-dad's blog.

crocodile lake

Lily is at the age where her magical imagination is starting to really shine.

I often find myself making the mistake thinking that she just "knows" how to play.

When really, I think it's my job to teach her how to have adventures, well, at least get started on them.

 Well, there are perks to never putting laundry away. This morning laundry, diapers and books were the stepping stones on crocodile lake (thank you Dora). We were jumping from one stone to the next, screaming and saving "baby fish" (aka balloons) from the crocodiles.

What was really magical was when she "got it". When she would scream if she or me touched the ground. Or when she figured out how to put the books down and then walk. And when she would pull me up on our boats (red couches).

Make your own crocodile lake today, or dragon lake, or hot-lava-monster (thanks Kels!).

welcome to the jungle

I specifically remember my mom saying to me when I was little:

"I AM NOT A JUNGLE GYM"

Well, apparently, I am.

(the "mommy slide")

(the wrap-your-kid-in-a-blanket-and-spin")

(the homemade hammock)

get your match on

Its cold out. Like, I checked the weather this morning and its colder here than it is in Rexburg ID, AKA Narnia, (you know, always winter but never Christmas). And that is just wrong. Needless to say, we haven't really been outside much.

My bag of tricks is shrinking. 

I don't want my kids to watch movies all day...

but how many times can we play hide-and-seek before we all go crazy?

So this morning we made a matching puzzle out of a random box and a cheerio box.

How did we do it?

1. cut out shapes from the cheerio box (thinner cardboard, so my hand wouldn't die trying to cut out all of them)
2. trace shapes on box 
3. get your match on!

Now we just need to paint the shapes and it will be even more exciting.

I win.

My kids simultaneously have become disgusted by vegetables.

They will not win.

Here's how we do spaghetti:

• chop of up whatever is in the fridge (I used: brocoli, peas, carrots, zuccini, tomatoes, onion) 
• saute them until soft 
• add your regular speghetti sauce and blend if you dont want any chunks 
• pour into your sauce bottle

And they ate it like no tomorrow.

I win.

it's that time of year!, part 2

On to the ornaments!

What do you need?: 

• diaper box (any cardboard works)
• random paints
• paint brush
• thread
• scissors

Another reason to do decorations out of your recylcing bin?

You do not have to care what your kids do to the tree.

Lily has already taken to decorating, de-decorating, decorating (repeat and repeat) and I don't care.

Really the only thing I have to watch out for is Eden snacking on some light bulbs. Zappy YUM!

Other December tips:

• When listening to Pandora select: Frank Sinatra (holiday) and then click "add variety" and add Mormon Tabernacle Choir (holiday). Best mix ever. What Christmas music is supposed to sound like. No Maria to worry about.
• Make your hot chocolate like this: Almond milk, cocoa, sugar, and a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, & cloves. Basically a dream in a mug.

ps-  The star: TP roll, and star cut-out, taped together.

 

it's that time of year!, part 1

I have a sneaky feeling we are not the 

only ones "tight" this Christmas.

And my tight, I don't mean awesome. 

Although, we are awesome.

Our Christmas decor has to be 100% 

from what we already have.

AKA: recycling bin, craft box, yard debris

I plan on sharing what we are making. 

Our first project was our "tinsel strips" 

 cut long strips of news paper (or your junk mail like me!),
and snip them so they are frayed.

 tape the long strips together and then crinkle them.

Hang them on the tree!

(preferably with a wedgie in your "magical-yeyow-swim-suit!!!!")

....More to come my cheap friends!