A new year!

Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments: Gifts & Indoor Entertainment in One

When it's dark around 5:00, and cold and blustery outside, I find that having a few indoor activities for kids is a good idea.  Math may not be my strong suit, but even I can do this one:
Energetic kids + nothing to do = no good can come of this.

photo credit: Erin B.

Despite my complete lack of craft skills, I enjoyed making ornaments to give as gifts when I was a kid.  Now my kids enjoy it, too.  If you find yourself in need of indoor entertainment, you can take advantage of this idea and cross a few small gifts off your list at the same time.

There are lots of Salt-Dough Ornament recipes on the Internet.  Basically, you need:

1/2 c salt
1 c flour
1/2 c water

Beyond ingredients, one of the best descriptions I found for how to make salt dough ornaments was here, at katy's blog.  She also has beautiful photos and great tips for baking and decorating the ornaments.

Cheap, easy, fun:  it's the perfect indoor winter activity!

smores anyone?

Our family's accidental Chicago outing

Well, the summer is finally upon us. Our family's summer will mostly be taken up by a trip to Brazil, visiting my husband's family. Our baby is 10-months-old now and hasn't been baptized. Oh, who am I kidding, forget sacraments -- she hasn't even met her grandmother or her aunts and uncle and cousins on her Dad's side yet! So our venture into summer will quickly transition into the last preparations for our trip.

If you've ever traveled abroad, especially with kids, you know that it's a little different from traveling to Disney World. Just for a minor to get a US passport (both of my girls need one), you have to have both parents present when you apply for the thing. When you add another country into the mix, there's even more work. In our family, with respect to Brazil and the US, no two people have the same residency status in the two countries. This means that the documents involved to get from here to there and back can get quite overwhelming. The only thing that makes it more complicated is that the closest Brazilian consulate to us is in Chicago. More than 250 miles away.

We've visited the Consulate General three times this past year. The last visit was this past weekend. It was a quick in and out to pick up the baby's Brazilian passport. That was a relief after the last visit which took over 3 hours.

So there we were, 11:45a, at the NBC Tower on Michigan Avenue, just next to the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River. The possibilities were endless.

Stop and take a token picture in front of the Wrigley Building.


Then it was time for lunch at Ed Debevic's on Wells Street. Good, greasy diner food, rock music, lots of silly antics, and a "world's smallest sundae" for dessert. My oldest daughter took the complimentary sundae cup with us as a souvenir.

Then we took a quick stroll back to Michigan Avenue for window shopping up the Magnificent Mile. (Helped us work off the "food coma" that we were risking after all those burgers and ice cream sodas!) Niketown (to check out the World Cup wear for each country's team), the Apple Store (to check out the new iPad), Tiffany's (to check out the bling), and Border's (to rest and catch our breath).

We finally made it to Water Tower Place and to the new location of American Girl Place, where Lord & Taylor used to be. My oldest daughter Grace introduced the baby to all that is American Girl and then tried to convince us that the baby loved the Josefina doll most of all. I think we'll wait a few more years before entering into that roller coaster ride of consumerism again!

Time was running out and we were realizing we would need to move on or face the worst of Friday rush hour out of the city. The car was parked six blocks south back at Northbridge, so we had time for one last stop before ending our day out. OK, then, Garrett Popcorn it was. After a few minutes of contemplation, we decided on a medium bag of caramel crisp popcorn and a bottle of cold water.

All said and done, the whole day cost us about $100, including 6+ hours of parking.

That was the best trip to the Office of the Consulate General I ever made.

The Peace of Nature

Even before I had kids, I loved to visit botanical gardens.  There's something about the flowers and trees and pure feeling of nature that puts me at ease.  Although my kids love to visit them now, too, sometimes I still go alone, on days that I need the peace sitting among the palms and blossoms brings me.

photo credit:  mbaylor

When I was pregnant with my first son, my husband surprised me with a trip to the Mitchell Park Conservatory in Milwaukee.  As a recent transplant to the bitter cold of Green Bay, WI, a visit to the domes took me worlds away and help ease the "I'm pregnant and living in an icebox" feeling that consumed me.

After we moved, we continued to visit Botanical gardens in different places.  Some, naturally, are spectacular and others are smaller and more, ummm, cozy.  But even the little guys exude the peace of nature; I think all of us can use that from time to time, don't you?

Here's a link  (and another) to some gardens in the Midwest.  I've found that many have reciprocal privileges for members--either allowing free entrance or a discount at their location, which makes membership really worth the price.

Do you have a favorite that we could visit when we're passing through?

simply fun

last week my oldest kids turned 5.  in the era of over the top birthday parties, [don't get me started on that topic] we had a simple birthday party at woodlake nature center.

the first half was with a naturalist who helped them make plaster animal tracks to take home

and then she led them on an outdoor excursion to look for animal tracks or scat (animal poop) outside.

 

then cupcakes, cookies & water. [my kids don't get nor like juice]

i typically don't like party favors because it's always candy.  candy my kids can't have.  i ended up finding $1 sand pails at target.  the kids helped me load them with recycled paper shreds for filler, a bottle of bubbles, a personalized notepad [compliments of my business], a pencil made of recycled products and a squishy lizard [my kids insisted]

when we left i asked what their favorite part of their party was.  "ALL OF IT!" that is really all that matters. friends. family. nature. and some cake.

Another Snow Day

For more photos visit Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Mom made the best chocolate chip cookies ever! No fooling! She could make them perfectly, my friends would argue they were store bought cause they were always the same size and shape. She would make this huge batches and store them in the large coffee cans or ice cream pails. Of course, she would also hide them all over the house so we couldn't snitch them between meals. We always found them, and man, you were lucky if you could find one of the cans and re-hide it and not have to share with the older brothers.

These cookies were coveted... and as we all got older and moved away from home, Mom would send us a batch for our birthdays, usually in an ice cream pail. One year, she sent my brother a birthday card without cookies. He marked the card - "return to sender - no cookies" and dropped it back in the mail box. So, please don't tell my family I am sharing this well kept secret; I amy not get Christmas presents this year if you do.

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 cup shortening (Mom used butter flavored)

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix well on medium speed

2 1/3 - 2/1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

Sift together and add to creamed mixture

Add 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Bake on greased cookie sheet

350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. I usually take them out at 12.

I apologize for not including pictures like my co-bloggers did in their recipe posts. The cookies didn't make it to the camera session.

Best Entertainment for the Money

Every June, I spend $25. I have been doing it in the State of Minnesota for the last 6 years (since I moved here). For that $25 I have watched eagles soar before my eyes, listened to rivers run wild, met people from all over and watched the seasons change. What did I spend that $25 on - an annual pass to the Minnesota State Parks.

My family and I enjoy being in the parks and exploring. We have gone on hikes, had picnics, and camped. All for $25 annually - and guess what, I can go to the parks as much as I want. Camping is extra... but the memories are free. My daughter knows many birds by the song they sing, or the way they look. She has an appreciation for nature and conserving it for the generations to follow. We have seen trees formed in interesting shapes, paid our respects at Indian Burial Mounds, and been amazed at how water has carved out bluffs.

My daughter likes fly fishing, standing in water and trying to master the cast, and catch a fish. We have yet to be successful, but can't wait for my son to be older to join us. We have stood on the bluffs along the Mississippi and had bald eagles soar past us, close enough that we could only stare in awe at their majestic presence. We have had many discussions over what new trails to explore or conquering the "Five Boot" hikes.

In the future we want to try canoeing or kayaking. Most of the parks have geo-caching where you can borrow GPS units and go find hidden treasures that are left by others. The parks have done a great job of setting up great locations for the treasures that are a challenge and give everyone a sense of accomplishment when there are all found.

At the end of the day, we are all tired, yet relaxed from a day outside. We have gotten great exercise, spent time as a family enjoying nature, learned a few things along the way and marveled at all that being outside has to offer. In today's world of electronics, television, computers and ipods, I treasure those moments where we can explore in the woods. We all enjoy the quiet, the sounds of the wind in the trees, the birds singing and our time together. We have never left a state park wishing we had done something else. $25 well spent...

Pizza and a Movie

A long time ago, more than a decade ago, one of my dearest friends introduced me to Friday Night Pizza and a Movie Night. She had three children at the time, 5 years, 2 years and newborn. Every Friday night their whole family would watch a movie together and enjoy homemade pizza. It was always a kids movie that the children would enjoy. We found out about it because my daughter and I came by one Friday night to visit. My friend welcomed us in, gave my daughter a piece of pizza and a spot on the floor, and pulled me into the kitchen to visit while the children were happily occupied. At the time I thought, I wish our family could have something like this.

Since then, I've divorced my oldest daughter's father, been a single parent, remarried and had a second daughter. It was a few months ago, when I was in my last trimester of pregnancy, that I suggested to my husband we give the idea of Friday Night Pizza and a Movie Night a try in our family. I was on medical leave because my pregnancy had become very stressful to my body. My husband had just returned from South America after losing his father to a sudden death. My teenage daughter had been away for a month with her father and hadn't been home much at all. We were all a bit fatigued, drained, and generally in need of downtime to reconnect. We desperately needed to have some quiet family time.

We started with some movies we had around the house on DVD or recorded on DVR. Freaky Friday (the remake with Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis), Men In Black and Beetlejuice. We loved it. It was great to get to laugh together.

The baby was born, the school year started for both my daughter and my husband. Things felt hectic again. So we continued to set aside Friday night for pizza and a movie.

We starting going for some serious films. Lean On Me with Morgan Freeman. I love the opening sequence, seeing the pristine school of the 1960s fade into the inner city graffitied school of 1987. To this day I think the use of the song "Welcome to the Jungle" in that scene is one of the best uses of a musical piece in film. While watching the violence and chaos ensuing at Eastside High in 1987, backed by Axl Rose screaming to cacophonic metal rock, my daughter couldn't take her eyes off the screen. After about half a minute, she said, 'OK, that is SO unrealistic. That would never happen in a high school." It was then that I realized that even though she had spent her entire educational career in Washington, DC and close to Detroit, she had no idea about the reality of inner city schools and neighborhoods.

My husband picked out Rabbit-Proof Fence. It's a 2002 film directed by Phillip Noyce (of Dead Calm and The Saint) depicting the true story of three girls journeying across the Australian Outback back to their home and their mother. The girls are journeying back because they have been forcibly removed by the government, a government who believes that mixed race people, half-aborigine half-white in this case, are members of an unwanted race, nature gone wrong. Such children were removed from their families and trained to be domestic servants -- until 1970. The movie is a bit too subtle for young children and maybe too complex of a topic for them to understand. But for my teenage daughter, it was perfect.

The next movie night was Baby Mama. The following week was my pick, a classic that I adore, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. For both of these flicks, we all laughed out loud through the comedy and antics of the SNL alums.

Aside from the selection of movie itself, our family has benefited so much since starting Friday Night Pizza and a Movie Night. Having a fixed time in the week set aside for family gives us a place to reconnect. Even more important, it's much better than a night out for so many reasons.

• It has a minimal cost, just the price of renting a movie, about $10 tops for a couple frozen pizzas ($15 is we order out, pick it up and use a coupon), and a few more bucks for the sodas bought in bulk and a salad made from scratch. I guess that the top price tag for the whole evening has never been more than $30 and sometimes that includes milkshakes and dessert.
• The night can go on into bedtime without the crankiness of still being out. If someone gets sleepy, they can just snuggle up on the couch with a warm afghan. The worst thing that happens is they doze off and watch the rest of the movie later in the weekend.
• Above all, the best advantage to being at home rather than being out is that we don't have the distraction of being in a crowd, having to interact with strangers, and interacting with the rest of the world. We get enough of all that during the week. By staying at home we get to focus on each other and enjoy each other's company.

For the time being, the planning involved is minimal. We order a pizza for take out or throw a few frozen ones in the microwave. The choice of movie just needs to entertain two adults and a teenager and not have a soundtrack that would upset an infant. As time passes, it may take a little more planning and tolerance. When the infant gets older, we'll have to change the movie selections to ones that are age appropriate for toddlers and preschoolers. Pizza will need to be cut up in small bite-size pieces and accompanied by carrots or some other nutritious side suitable for smaller kids. Eventually, I hope Friday Night Pizza and a Movie Night will become such a fixture in our family life that when friends stop by unexpectedly, we can easily fit them right into our festivities. Fix up a plate of pizza for each child and find a spot on the floor for them while we adults enjoy the end of another week in relaxed conversation.

Gardening with Kids: An Easy Guide

Gardening with Kids: An Easy Guide by Julia Kelly (Midwest Mom)

Gardening with your children is an easy thing to do. At our house, we involve our kids in as many aspects of tending our family garden as we can. Gardening together provides us with high-quality time together outdoors and away from the television (a good thing in my book!) It gives me the opportunity to teach them about plant ecology and bugs and the environment. And honestly, my kids are great helpers.

Spring Planting

Spring in the Midwest is for planting. It is the most work-intensive time in the garden, and the dirtiest. But the work you and your kids put in now to plant the garden right will make the late-Spring and Summer a lot more carefree.

If you are planting seeds, keep your children’s needs in mind. Larger seeds are easy for small hands to manipulate. Seeds like beans and peas can be soaked ahead of time in a glass filled with moist paper toweling. Once softened, they will germinate more quickly. Or, you can leave them in the glass and watch them sprout. What a great way to teach your children how a seed works its magic.

Smaller seeds are great for scattering and gently raking into the soil. Lettuce seeds or flowers like Cosmos are easily planted this way. Both make a big impact once they germinate, too.
If you have a flower garden, try letting your children plant sunflowers. Again, the larger seeds are easy for little ones to handle, and they will be amazed at how tall they grow. Your family can sign up with children across the country to participate in the Great Sunflower Project. The Great Sunflower Project encourages families to grow sunflowers at home to help chart the health of the bee population. Our family is participating. Yours can, too.

If you prefer to plant seedlings from your local garden center, focus on varieties that grow well in your area. Let your children help choose what colors of flowers to plant. Talk about what kind of vegetables your family likes to eat or would like to try. Make a list and play “veggie hide-and-seek”, letting your children search the garden tags for the right plants.

Know the dimensions of your garden space and pay attention to the space, light, soil and watering needs of the plants you purchase. If your child is a reader, have him read the planting instructions and measure the size of the hole with a ruler. Be sure to dig an adequately large hole for each plant. Fill the hole with water, and once it has drained completely, place the seedling inside, backfilling to make the base of the plant even with the surrounding soil level. Press the earth gently and water again.

Water Games

Kids love to help with the watering. When the weather gets hot, they can’t get enough of it. But the key to successful gardening is to water correctly. So, my first rule of watering may be: make it fun. But my next rule is: do it right.

Spring rains can sometimes be enough to get the garden going. But when the weather is dry, it is a good idea to keep the garden evenly moist until seedlings emerge. I let my children take turns with the hose. There are three of them, so once everyone has had a turn, our garden is well-watered. Using a hose with a spray-selector works well; I set the nozzle to ‘shower’ or the setting that most closely resembles raindrops, so seeds and seedlings won’t be dislodged or broken.

Once the weather gets warmer, our watering turns to water-play. I like to fill 5-gallon buckets and arm my crew with plastic watering cans. They water each plant individually and watch as the ground eagerly soaks up the water. From time to time, they wind up watering themselves as much as the plants. But it is cooling play that is fun for us all.

We like to water in the early evening, to give our plants a chance to soak in the moisture when the night turns cool. But watering in the morning works just as well. The key is to be consistent.

Measuring Progress

A great way to help your children maintain their enthusiasm for the family garden is to regularly measure its progress.

We keep a calendar of our planting dates and count the days until we can expect to harvest. Other families may enjoy keeping a garden journal with measurements, drawings, and photos. What a great project for homeschoolers!

We stop and check our garden a few times a week and mark the way the plants are changing. We encourage the children to find the creatures that live in the garden, from butterflies to grasshoppers to bees (and even, unfortunately for last year’s crop of peas, the occasional bunny. This year we have a better fence.) At the end of the season, the flowers and produce are the best reward we could ask for.

Our home garden is a place for us to teach our kids about life, about caring for something other than themselves, about the value of work and enjoying the fruits of one’s labor. It is a natural classroom that brings our family closer together.
I hope you will try planting a garden with your own children, even if you just begin with a plant or two. You just might find, as we have, that you love it.

- Midwest Mom

Julia Kelly (aka Midwest Mom) lives in Central Illinois and is the mother of three, wife of one. As the chief cook and bottle-washer for her brood, she has a thing or two to say about living life with a healthy sense of perspective and a good sense of humor. You can read more of her writing on her blog, Midwest Moms.

Friday Fun

What? You are not used to seeing a post here on Friday?

Well.....SURPRISE!

Here I am with a couple of fun ideas for you on this rainy Friday. Maybe one of these recipes can add some FUN into an otherwise gloomy day. Also, my kids are about to be on Spring Break next week, so I am trying to get myself geared up for a week of things to keep them busy & these two are the TOP of their list(s) right now.



Easy Homemade Playdough

3 cups flour
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup oil
food coloring - optional (be careful with this step - you may want to mix this in to keep it off of the kids! Once mixed in, I have never had the kids get any on them)
*add more flour if too sticky


Fun Flubber

In 2 separate ziplock baggies mix:

bag 1: 3/4 cup warm water
1 cup school glue (this is about 1 small bottle)
food coloring
bag 2: 2 tsp borax (found with detergent)
1/2 cup warm water

mix each bag well, then pour the contents of bag 1 into bag 2, working it together while still in the bag until it forms a solid blob. This is a fun experiment for the older kids - they love to see how this all comes together, and then have fun playing with it too!


Both of these can be kept for quite a few days in a ziplock bag or container. The last batch of flubber we made kept getting "wet" in the bag, so I pitched it sooner - but the first batch lasted so long, I finally threw it away - just because :)

Inexpensive Family Fun

One of the things I quickly learned after relocating to the Midwest is that people who live here have an affinity for the state of Florida. I’ve lived on both coasts, north and south, and have never known so many who make an annual pilgrimage to our orange juice capital.

After giving this some thought, I’ve decided it’s a combination of factors that create this phenomenon: Midwesterners tend to be down-to-earth (St. Barts where?) and frugal (flights cost how much?). Add to these traits the long winters we endlessly endure, and suddenly appeal of driving to Florida becomes clear.

However, even if we drive, we still have to pay for gas, hotels, food, and probably some dreadful theme park. And this is a tough fiscal year—most of us are trying to keep more money in our pockets and give less of it to Shell stations and Holiday Inns.

So if we’re not jaunting off on a big holiday, how can we find fun closer to home? For starters, you can check out the blog of one of our other writers, minnemom. Her blog has tons of tips and ideas for Travel with Children. Because they live in Minnesota, many of her day trips aren’t accessible to those of us in other Midwestern states. But get creative! The ideas are good—put them to use in your own town. If she does an article on taking her kids to a puppet show, for example, and you think, “Hey, I wish we had that here,” do a little research. Maybe you do.

Even if you don’t, there are still plenty of creative, inexpensive ways to have fun with your family. We tend to enjoy three types: inside fun, outside fun, and fun-at-home.

Inside fun away from home

· Peruse books and music and Barnes & Noble. Spring for treats at the end, or make some when you get home.

· Walk in the warmth of an indoor horticulture garden. Pretend you’re far, far away among the palms and coconuts.

· Visit an aquarium. Look for buy one/get one entrance tickets before you go.

· Museums often run weekly specials. Find out which ones offer a discount on certain days or nights & visit them then.

· Play Mario Andretti at an indoor race track. The kids will easily beat you, so don’t take it personally.

Fun-at-home

· Game Night. The trick here is to change the scenery. Make popcorn, serve cream soda, light the fire—do a few things you usually don’t, to make the night feel special. A few of our favorites: Yahtzee, Rummikub, Life, Blokus, Clue, Monopoly. (Remember, we're currently a Wii-free family.) Sometimes we have to pair our youngest up with one of us for a “team,” but he gets to make the decisions.

· Darts. I have long been fearful of sharp, pointed objects flying around our home. But my younger brother has no such fear. For Christmas, he bought the boys a fancy dart board, complete with aforementioned sharp objects. And guess what? They love it! We love it! Everyone can do it. Sometimes younger brothers are right, I guess.

· Homemade Pictionary and Charades. Not my fave, but the kids love it. Enough said.

· Cooking night: Make homemade pizza together, including the dough. Our kids absolutely love this and can’t wait for these nights. Sometimes we make cookies, too. We're crazy like that.

· Movie night: Every now and then we rent two—one for us to watch with the kids, and one for us to watch after they’re in bed. My husband is a much bigger movie-buff than I am, so he loves these nights.

Outdoor Fun

· Tubing. Look for specials or this won’t be inexpensive. Sometimes the Entertainment book or local magazines have a buy 1 get 1 free for this kind of place. It’s worth looking around.

· Sledding. To make this an adventure, get out of your backyard. We drove 35 minutes, which seemed like an eternity to me, to try out a hill at a state park. It was huge! The kids absolutely loved it & the fact that it was new to us made it an adventure. Whip up a batch of hot cocoa when you get home and you’ve had a lot of fun for a few dollars in gas.

· Ice-skating. Each winter, our downtown creates an outdoor rink at one of the parks. If we bring our own skates, it’s free; or, we can rent them for $2 a pair. Totally fun. Check for something like this in your area. Sometimes the indoor rinks have special rates, too. Ask!

· Winter hike. Hit a nature trail at a park you don’t typically visit. Take time to search for tracks, berries, and other signs of winter life. Watch out for bears!

· Cookout. This sounds crazy, right? We used to live in Wisconsin, and the winters were nearly unbearable, especially for a girl who spent her high school years in North Carolina. But every December, we headed out to the Nicolet National Forest with a group of about 15-20 friends. Somebody brought a grill, we brought burgers and hot dogs, fruit salad, pasta salad, warm beverages in thermoses, and all sorts of games: footballs, Frisbees, etc. The kids loved it and, truly, the parents did too. It’s a bit out of the ordinary, but isn’t that just the right ingredient for creating lasting family memories?

Summer will come again, thank goodness. In the meantime, enjoy creating winter memories with your family!

photo credits: Jenah Crump, LinksmanJD