I looked through Pinterest and found all of these amazing ways to color eggs. I show my 5 year old and she says, “Mommy, can’t we just do it the normal way please?” YES absolutely kid. (I love Pinterest, don’t get me wrong, but there are so many extravagant projects, kids don’t care about that stuff. It becomes more if a status symbol for moms)
So we busted out the food coloring, water, and vinegar the old fashioned way and had a blast!
My trick I want to share is to use a whisk to hold the eggs in the dye. It is much easier for the kids to hold than those silly wire things that come in a kit. Plus it can’t roll away. The whisk is like a tiny little Easter egg cage! Even my 2 year old could do it.
So have fun and have a blessed Easter!
My girls have been sick for the past week. So day 7 of pretty much not leaving the house, we were all going crazy. So I decided to put them in the tub, with a little shaving cream, so they could finally have some fun!
I stuck the girls in the tub. I filled a muffin tin with shaving cream then put food coloring in each one. Then I gave them each a paint brush. I let them go crazy in the bath tub.
Here is the muffin tin full of our colorful paint!
I cannot tell you how much fun they had painting the walls with shaving cream! They even got excited that the water was changing colors too.
It kept my sick girls busy for almost an hour and was SO easy and cheap.
The only downside is that it turns the white grout in the tile colors. It doesn’t wipe off so easily, but I am sure with a little scrubbing it will come off. I figure if we do that a few times a month, I can get hours of entertainment for a little bit of scrubbing once a month.
The finished masterpiece, completed by my 2 year old and 5 year old. Who by the way BEGGED me to do it again soon.
If you don’t want to put them in the tub to play with shaving cream you can easily use a table. Another day I put plain white shaving cream all over a little play table I have for the girls. My 5 year old was able to practice her spelling words in the shaving cream, and the 2 year old attempted to practice shapes! It was a great educational experience, where they were learning while having fun. I put aprons on them so that they didn’t cover their clothes with stuff. BUT I did have to put them in the tub when we were finished…they got a little too excited and there was shaving cream EVERYWHERE! Upside…my house smelled amazing!
I learned this trick a few years ago and thought every single mom in the world knew it too. But the other day one of my Mommy friends had never heard of this. So for the few people that are not doing this for their kids, I had to do a blog post.
My girls love snacks, especially popsicles, but that gets SO unhealthy. So I have found a healthier alternative. We take the squeeze yogurts (like Yoplait Go-Gurt or the organic kind Horizon Tuberz) and I put them right in the freezer. Then when my kids want a snack, I cut the frozen one in half and I have the perfect little popsicle.
I then wrap a paper towel around it to keep their little hands from getting cold. It is not messy, doesn’t usually drip and they LOVE them. Now I know those are still full of sugar and not exactly the healthiest snack, but they are a heck of a lot better than most popsicles, plus the make ZERO mess!
I found these reusable tubes (here for link) on Amazon where you can fill your own up with whatever you want. This may be a much healthier alternative. The only down side is the convenience factor…I have to take the time to fill them up! But maybe I can stick left over smoothie (click here for the recipe) in them and the girls can eat that frozen too.
What we want but hardly ever get…no not sex…DATE NIGHT!
I am not sure about you but hubby and I don’t get a date night near as often as I would like. Not only is it difficult to find the time to go out, but when we do have the time, it is EXPENSIVE! We were spoiled for so long with free babysitters (thank you both Grandmas!). Now that we are not living right next to family we actually have to pay for a sitter. After the price of the baby sitter, the price of dinner at a decent restaurant (because let’s face it…if I am going out without the kids, it is going to be worth it), the price of movie tickets, I can’t afford to grocery shop the next week! HAHA
In all honesty I have found a few things that make date night a little more affordable.
Date Days- We sometimes go on date days instead of date nights. This way we go to lunch (cheaper meal, but still nice) and go to a matinee movie for about half the cost. Or if you don’t want a movie, there are other daytime activities that are so much fun! Hubby and I went to a trampoline gym one day…we got to act like kids without having to watch them! Then we went had only dessert for lunch…YUMMY! I also like this because my girls (especially the little one) are terrible to put to bed for a babysitter. So they are much happier with a sitter who can just play with them instead of do bedtime.
Baby Swap- We have done baby swaps with some friends and neighbors. We watch their kids on Friday night for free and they watch mine on Saturday night for free. This way we don’t have to pay for a sitter and when we are gone the kids love it because they get to have a playdate with friends. Total win win!
Dates at home- More often than not we have at home mini dates when the girls are asleep. It isn’t ideal, but works in a pinch. We watch movies, eat dessert, make popcorn, lay a blanket down and have a picnic in the bedroom (something we don’t let the kids do). All it takes is just some quality time together, where we aren’t doing laundry, aren’t cleaning house, aren’t discussing the kids, and simply focusing on us.
Maybe I should make that my New Year’s resolution…more Date Nights!
So I have been working on this post for a couple of days, (It takes forever for me to find time to sit and type as you can imagine). I thought I would share my great tip with all of you about keeping bibs and wipes right where you need them. Well of course as I get ready to post this, my “Great tip” backfires on me. More on that later…first let me share my great tip.
If your kids are anything like mine, the word messy does not even begin to describe mealtime! I found that I always was in need of a bib and of course extra wipes. I stored my bibs in a drawer in my kitchen folded neatly (ok ok, they were just shoved in there any which way and the drawer was completely overflowing!). Then I would forget to grab one, have to leave the baby in the highchair and get up to get one. By the time I got back the baby had food everywhere, my food was cold, or better yet, the kid is screaming and is too mad to even eat. Something had to change!
Then I turned by brain on and started storing my bibs on the highchair. Makes perfect sense…why oh why did it take me until the 2nd kid to figure this out!
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When they are stored here I always have one right there. If she messes it totally up, I just grab another one. If she wants a pink one instead of a purple one, no worries, it isn’t worth the fight. I just grab a different one. Much happier mom and baby.
Now on to the baby wipe situation. We have babywipes in no joke…every room in the house! I have to say my favorite place is again, on the back of the highchair! A napkin just doesn’t cut it. Sometimes you just need to clean up with a wipe.
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It is also perfect because now that both girls are walking around, they can get a wipe when they need one. If their hands are sticky or they finish a snack, they know where the wipes are, get one themselves and even (only on the good days) throw it away!
NOW to how this lovely idea backfired on me. I go to take a picture of the bibs on the highchair so neatly hung up, and what do my surprise do I see? YES bibs everywhere…all over the floor along with babywipes! OY VEY…I should have known. Maybe now that it is out of her system, my little monkey will leave them alone. (Who am I kidding…I am so going to be picking these up 15 thousand times a day)
I can never seem to keep up with the dishes! It seems as if the dishwasher is always running and my sink is always full!
The other day I was doing the dishes and Kares wanted me to play with her while Kailani was napping. I told her not now, I had to finish the dishes. She then said to me, “Mommy, the dishes can wait, I am ready to play with you now.” WOW little girl…play right into that Mommy guilt. But she was right, the dishes can wait. She was ready and to her, at that moment, playing with me was all that mattered. So of course I stop the dishes and play with my oldest baby. She will remember that her mommy played with her, not that the kitchen was spotless.
But here is my dilemma. When do the dishes get done? I can’t have them piled up to the ceiling. The kids are always wanting to play and the dishes never seem to end!
Here is the solution I found. I read somewhere (I can’t remember where and if anyone knows please comment and I will provide a link) that a mom uses a kitchen timer. She tells her kids to set it for however many minutes. When the timer goes off, she stops with cleaning (even if she isn’t done) and is completely free to play with her kids. What a great idea! My kids understand the timer, they can hold it, they can count down, and they know if they let me get 5 minutes of work done, I am all theirs to play with later.
I am totally going to try this! Maybe I can finally find a way to keep up with the dishes.
Post it notes…they are one of the most important items in my diaper bag! If you have small children you know that loud noises are scary. As a woman you know that public restrooms are scary. Taking my very small girls to the public restroom…down right terrifying! So it is post it notes to the rescue!
Kares hates when the toilet flushes in a public restroom, it is loud and scares her being so close. Most restrooms have the automatic flushers and she is so small when she sits, the toilet often flushes while she is going potty. After more than a few bathroom trips ending in tears…I knew something had to change.
I use a small post it note and put it over the sensor for the automatic flushers. This way she can go potty, relax and take her time without worrying about it flushing on her! When she is all done, wiped, and clothed, we open the door and I rip off the note as we run out of the stall. It has made the miserable task of taking two children to a public restroom much easier.
Only Little Once 