I could really use a favor....

Greetings my lovely readers!  Do you see this banner below?  Would you mind clicking on it for me?  This is an ongoing contest for the best Mom blogs on the Internet.  Every time you click on the banner from my website, it gives me a vote. That's it.  You don't have to do anything special, just simply click on this banner below.  I used to be #2.  I've slipped to #15!  I would really like to get back up there because when I'm at the top I feel better about myself.  Haha just kidding.  Kind of.  So, would you do me a favor and click on this banner for me every time you visit my site?  I would be forever grateful!!!  :-)



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A Truly Easy and non-messy Way to Keep Kids Busy

The other day I picked my daughter up from preschool and when I got there, she was quietly coloring a castle.  I told her it looked beautiful and her teacher said, "Yes, she's been working on it for a really long time!"

I was a little shocked to hear this because normally at home I can't pay her to color with crayons.  We have dozens of coloring books around the house and she doesn't give them a second glance.  So, it occurred to me that maybe she would like to have a single sheet of paper instead of a whole book.  Thus, began a little experiment of mine.  I set out to find some free pages I could print and give to her.  Much to my surprise and delight, she loved this idea!  One afternoon we went into the office and I showed her various sites with coloring pages and she helped me pick out what she wanted.  Of course, she was thrilled about coloring Tinkerbell, Ariel, Strawberry Shortcake, etc.  We organized all her favorite pages into a big folder with her name on it, and her little brother got one too.

Coloring is such an easy, non-messy way to keep the kids busy and I'm thrilled to now be able to join the rest of society with a child who enjoys coloring!  It's amazing to me how one little change like that can affect the enjoyment of a project.  Think about it.  She is basically coloring the same thing.  Only now it's a single sheet of paper.  Yet she is thrilled.  Kids sure are strange.  In any case, I did find some good sites for free printables if you want to give it a shot:

Crayola
They do have some coloring pages, including some Disney-themed characters, but I found their site to be slow and a little difficult to navigate.
Coloring Castle
This page had mostly generic things like castles and unicorns, but was very easy to navigate and print

Educational Coloring Pages
This was by far my favorite.  They had every character you could imagine, both for boys and girls, and it was also very easy to navigate and print.  However, my tip is to make sure to click their printer button instead of the one on your browser or it doesn't print right. Here were some of our favorites from this site:

• Strawberry Shortcake
• Tinkerbell
• Little Mermaid

Even Little Buddy (2) enjoyed all the coloring pages!!




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Thanks to the following bloggers for their ideas on this!  These ladies all have great sites!

Creative Family Fun
Make Do and Friend
Creative Play House
Jamie's Jumble
Hands on as We Grow

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The Most Beautiful Art We've Ever Created

I always let my kids do their own artwork and even if they aren't doing it the way I envisioned, I never interfere and help them finish.  I do this for two reasons:

1.  Because I want them to be responsible and be proud of their own artwork
2.  Because I'm terrible at art and probably wouldn't do any better than they could.  I would illustrate this by posting a picture of my own artwork but I do have some pride.

However, I have recently found something that helps us create beautiful artwork: stencils!  Now, since I am art-challenged I will admit that when Cheri from Stencils Online contacted me about doing a review and a giveaway, I was stumped.  I had to ask her, "What exactly do I do with stencils?  Can my four year old do anything with them?  Or is this an adult project?"

Cheri assured me that my daughter could participate and would enjoy it and boy was she right!  To get started, I taped the stencil to some paper and at first, we used a paintbrush:


For paint projects, I always use an old egg carton to contain the paint and it works really well.  For those who have been reading my site for awhile, notice how Munchkin Girl (almost four) is doing a much better job holding the paintbrush?  Our work on fine motor skills is really paying off!

Next, we tried using a sponge to do the painting and that worked like a charm!  She really enjoyed dipping the paint and it took her a long time (20 minutes) to cover the entire butterfly.  I just put some paint on a paper plate and gave her a sponge.  Much to my surprise, this turned out to be really easy!


She was SOOO impressed with the final product when we pulled the tape and stencil off the paper.  She oohed and ahhhed and she deemed it, "The most beautiful project I've ever done!" (her words, not mine)



They have all different kinds of stencils.  We did a unicorn next and they even sent trucks, dinosaurs, and frogs for my little guy!


They have a full range of animal stencils and craft stencils.   I can envision using these stencils to create amazing gifts for teachers and grandparents, and I have to say, that I'm really glad they contacted me for this opportunity!  You should also visit their FB page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/iStencils/348831181793648.
 
They also offered to give one of my readers $50 to use for buying stencils!!  So, if you want to do this project at home, feel free to enter the sweepstakes below.  AND, they are offering 15% to all my readers.  If you order, enter the code "mommy" and you will get 15% off for the next two weeks.  Oh, and don't forget to vote for me below too pretty please!!




a Rafflecopter giveaway





**Note: I received this product free of charge in return for the review, and was paid to do a fair evaluation.  The opinion is 100% my own.  See the rest of the sweepstakes regulations in the Rafflecopter form.


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Why our trip to the ER was Fun

You know when your Hubby starts wrestling with the kids and chasing them all around the room and you start to realize that things are getting too wild?  You know what I'm talking about.  You stand with your arms crossed, smiling fondly, but suddenly you step in and say, "Okay, I think things are getting a little too crazy around here.  I'm afraid someone will get hurt.  Who wants to read a book?"

I'm sure we've all been there.  The problem with me is that Hubby is gone a lot so I'm often the one doing the wrestling.  This means that there is no one to monitor from afar and realize that the blanket-throwing chasing game might be dangerous, especially if encouraged and initiated by Mom.  So that's what happened the other night.  We were laughing and having so much fun and I was honestly even patting myself on the back for having enough energy to be wrestling with the kids at 6:00 at night and then, "BAM!"  Little Buddy lunged for me and missed my leg and smacked his right into the corner of one of our table.  The next twenty minutes can only be described as pure chaos.

I picked him up immediately.  He was wailing at the top of his lungs, Munchkin Girl was demanding that he stop crying so we could keep playing and I was giving every effort to keep it together and not scream at them.  Blood gushed from Little Buddy's head.  I knew immediately that he needed to go to the ER.  I called and they said it was a several hour wait.


I have to admit that I briefly considered not taking him.  Boys like cool scars right?  Hubby took one look at this pic and told me I had to take him.  It was almost bed time and I was home alone with the kids and I just flat out didn't want to make a trip to the ER.  This is a kid that can't even sit still for an hour during church, let alone for several hours in the ER.  It's also his bedtime and to say that he does poorly with lack of sleep is a severe understatement.  He usually makes me pay if I delay his bedtime by even an hour.   Visions of him running rampant and/or crying hysterically in a crowded, germ-filled ER filled my brain.  Now at this point, I admit that I broke down a bit.   Suddenly I found myself wishing I wasn't the responsible adult.  I sort of wished I was babysitting and I could call the parents and explain what happened and high-tail it out of there.  Here is what happened over the course of the next 7 hours:

6:00 p.m
I turned on Micky Mouse while attempting to stop the bleeding and not gag
6:15 p.m
I paged Hubby, who was in the Operating Room and so a nurse had to be the one who called back.  I could hear my husband yelling that he wouldn't be home anytime soon.  Once he's scrubbed in, it's a big ordeal to even touch the phone because then he has to get scrubbed again and apparently that takes awhile and is frowned upon.  So, I had to explain the situation to the nurse and then she told my husband.  Picture a game of telephone, but with real phones.  "Um," she said nervously.  "Dr. Mullen, your wife says your son needs to go to the ER and wants to know what she should do." Then the poor nurse had to explain to me that it was a big case and there was no one to relieve him and that he suggested that I take the little guy by myself and he would join me as soon as he could.  Fabulous.
7:00 p.m
My parents picked up Munchkin Girl and I set off for the ER with Little Buddy, hoping that Hubby would be there soon.
8 - 10:30 
Little Buddy and I sat in the ER, waiting for our name to be called and waiting for Daddy to arrive.  During this time, I received several more calls from nurses on behalf of my husband, promising he would be done soon.  This is where the fun comes in.  At first, I was beside myself that I was sitting in the ER alone with my two year old at 9:00 at night.   But my son surprised me.  Instead of shrieking and getting cranky, he was fun.  He blew kisses at the nurses.  He cuddled up next to me and watched Mickey Mouse on my iPad.  He hugged me repeatedly.  I found myself relaxing and even enjoying having my little guy all to myself.  He was usually too busy for me.  And frankly, I tended to be too busy for him too, especially with Munchkin Girl constantly needing to potty, needing something to eat, etc.  I couldn't believe it, but waiting for four hours in the ER ended up being fun.
10:30
Hubby finally arrived, just in time for us to wait in a room instead of in the waiting room
12:00 am 
Little Buddy received two stitches in his forehead
12:30 am 
Little Buddy was still going like a champ at this point.  He was totally thrilled by the entire situation, especially the ability to watch Mickey Mouse for five hours straight.  He was finally patched up and still hadn't slept a bit, yet he insisted on walking out of the ER by himself like he owned the place.  He sported a pink Band-Aid and waved to all the nurses, saying, "See ya.  Thanks.  See ya."  Every single person in the waiting room giggled as my boy strutted through the waiting room at 12:30am, looking ALL boy, despite his pink Band-Aid.  I've never been as proud of him as I was at that moment.
1:30 a.m
We made it home and went to bed
8:00 a.m. 
Little Buddy wakes up happy as a clam, pink Band-Aid still attached.  I will always have the memory of that night, and how I survived even though I was alone, and how my son rose to the challenge.

So that's our story.  When did your kids make their first trip to the ER?



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Using Egg Carton Boats to Learn About Gravity

I sure love free stuff and in my mind, egg cartons are a free toy so I'm always brainstorming new ways to use them around the house.  This week, we decided to do a little science experiment to learn about gravity, using egg cartons as boats.  First, I ran my egg cartons through the dishwasher before using them because I am a borderline OCD germa-phobe (Not really, but kinda).

For this experiment, we used:

1.  Egg cartons
2.  Large tupperware container
3.  Feathers
4.  Rocks (Purchased from the Dollar Store)
5.  Straws
6.  Lots of patience (keep reading, you'll see why I needed patience)

First, I filled up the tupper-ware bin full of water and gave them the boats and they each got a straw.  They used the air to move the boat around the water.  I explained about wind.  Since egg cartons are so light, they moved around easily from blowing air through the straw.



Next, we filled the boat up with feathers and the boat didn't sink.  We slowly started adding in rocks and finally, the boat finally sank under the weight of all the rocks.  This really illustrated to Munchkin Girl (almost four) the concept of heavy vs. light.  The feathers were so light that they didn't make the boat sink, but the rocks did.


After this, she literally spent 45 minutes filling up the boat with rocks over and over again until it sank.  We worked on using both sides of the boat to balance it so it wouldn't sink, and then she would move them all to one side because she loved watching it sink.



Now, some of you might be wondering what my darling rambunctious two year old boy was up to during this educational science experiment?  I'm not going to lie.  He was a total pest.  He kept coming over and tackling Munchkin Girl while she filled up the boat.  Then he would take the boats and rocks and throw them in the yard and run off laughing.  If I had it to do over again, we would do this while he was napping.  Of course I tried to include him but he couldn't understand weight, gravity, or balance, so I finally just gave him the hose to distract him from bothering us.  Luckily, that turns out to be a very fun and educational experience for a two year old:



It occurred to me to get a 2nd tupperware container and rocks for him, and then he played with those for awhile too


Tips for you: Get everything ready before-hand.  Find the tupperware container and wash it out if needed BEFORE you show it to them.  Consider filling it up with water first too so you can get right into what the boat is used for.  And of course, gather up all the materials and have them ready before you start.  Unfortunately I didn't do any of that, and let's just say I wish I had followed my own advice.  Maybe then Munchkin Girl wouldn't have taken off Little Buddy's shoes and used them as boats, causing them to cackle hysterically and almost ruin his shoes while I was still cutting up the egg cartons.  Oh well, I'm always learning and will do better next time!

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