Our Plates In The Dryer event is this evening and we are SO excited! Today Jamie will be running around picking up last minute things such as the cheesecake and coffee, Lindsi will be attempting to keep her kids in line, Julie and Stephanie from Color Me Mine will be setting up the studio, and Rod from The Imagery will be preparing his camera and other equipment. We wanted to take today's post to send a shout-out to the sponsors who have joined our Plates In The Dryer event since we did our first sponsor spotlight post on March 1st. If you haven't checked out our first sponsors, please do! As a reminder, here they are again: First, we're excited to be offering up a great prize in the giveaway! It's from Scentsy! Lindsi is an Independent Scentsy Consultant and she is offering one of our lucky guests a fabulous plug in and bar of wax. How cool is that? We sure hope you will swing by Lindsi's Scentsy page and check out the wonderful items that are available for purchase. Scentsy … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2012
15 Ideas for Getting Rid of the Mommy Grouchies
Let's face it, we all get cranky at times. You wake up thinking the day will be great and then find yourself constantly yelling at the kids. Nothing is going the way you think it should and you just want to pull your hair out. source of photo We've got 15 ideas that might help brighten your mood when you've got the Mommy Grouchies! 1) Get out of the house--Take your kids to the park, go to the mall, just take a drive somewhere...maybe your kids are feeling just as cooped up as you are. 2) Mommy time-out--Give yourself a time-out just like you do to your kids. Tell your kids that you are in a time-out because you are cranky. Sit in your room for 5-10 minutes and gather yourself together. 3) Chocolate--Chocolate can cheer anyone up! Run to the store and pick up your favorite chocolate treat! photo source 4) Listen to music/Have a Dance Party--Crank up the tunes. You'll be amazed at how your favorite song can cheer you up. Dance with your kids and you'll be … [Read more...]
The Myths About Signing With Your Baby
Today we are pleased to have Kristy from HearMyHandsASL.com guest posting for us. Hear My Hands recently became one of our sponsors and we are so thrilled to be working with her! Jamie has a special place in her heart for ASL (American Sign Language). She started learning it in First grade when her elementary school partnered with a school for the deaf a few miles down the road. Years later, Jamie took ASL as a second language in college. Unfortunately Jamie has not kept up with her ASL skills and has lost most of it. She was hoping to teach her girls sign language at a young age but her husband wouldn't let her due to popular myths. We now have Kristy guest posting for us so that others don't fall into those same myths! Check out Kristy's website HearMyHandsASL.com. She's got some GREAT info on there and has frequent signs for words up on her blog. If you're in her area, check out her classes! Without further ado, here is Kristy... The most common myths when … [Read more...]
Pipe Cleaner Dragonfly
I was inspired to have my girls make dragonflies when I came across a cute dragonfly craft activity while searching the internet. Unfortunately that webpage no longer exists so I can't link to it. The craft involved supplies that we did not have and also contained pins which I did not want my girls to play with... so...we adapted that idea with what we hand on hand...pipe cleaners, markers, and coffee filters! Yep, that's all you need (oh, and a little water and scissors) to make these super cute pipe cleaner dragonflies! Step 1) Have your kids color with non-permanent, water soluble markers on coffee filters. Step 2) Spray the coffee filters with water until the colors bleed. Don't spray too much or you'll dilute out the colors. If you don't have a spray bottle, you can sprinkle water onto the coffee filter with your fingers. Step 3) Let the coffee filters dry completely. If your kids are impatient like mine, use a hair dryer to get them to dry … [Read more...]
Chocolate-Peanut Butter "Dip"
Ok, this is going to seem like kind-of a cop-out post for a Tasty Treat, however, I kid you not, my girls (and I) LOVE this "dip"! One day when I was younger I was craving Reece's Peanut Butter Cups but couldn't go to the store to get them (because my mom wouldn't let me). I dug through our cupboards and found chocolate chips and peanut butter and decided that would be close enough. After a few times of simply eating a spoonful of peanut butter with some chocolate chips on top, I decided to actually mix them together. I took a spoonful (or two) of peanut butter and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. (Semi-sweet will work fine but milk chocolate is the best!) I put the peanut butter and chocolate chips in the microwave to melt the chocolate. My first attempt was a complete failure. WARNING: Chocolate chips will burn in the microwave! I learned my lesson the second time. (Put it in for 30 seconds or less. Just until the peanut butter starts to look runny. The … [Read more...]
Gardening with your kids
For Earth day the kids and I decided to plant our veggies for the summer! It was GREAT fun! Last year was our first year growing our own veggies and we learned a lot. We learned that weeding is VERY important, we learned that the deer will not leave our garden alone without a little electricity (insert evil snicker here) and we learned that we did not plant ENOUGH of anything. This year we decided to add a few more (OK actually 24 more) crowns of asparagus to our crop. This time next year we will have asparagus coming out of our ears and I cannot wait (and neither can my kids)! We just finished planting three varieties of lettuce, radishes, onions, red potatoes, green beans and peas....and to top it all off we have room left over for a few tomato plants! I am....oops I mean the kids are, SO excited! Source Gardening with my kids last year changed the way they looked at vegetables. They actually enjoy them now. There is something magical about plopping a few … [Read more...]
