ABC game

This is a game for uppercase/lowercase matching. You can seriously do ANY THEME that will interest your little ones. I made basketball back boards with the uppercase letters, and the balls are lowercase letters. The pockets (nets) are made out of packing tape; it was a pain and I'm sure there's a better way to do the pocket idea! Maybe those pocket strips from educational or craft stores. I've seen them at AC Moore and I always want to get them because I'm SURE I could think of something fun and educational to do with them!

My boys love some basketball.

How to Fix the End of the Chex Mix

So I don't know about any of you, but I cannot stand the pretzels in Chex mix. They're always either tossed to my dog or just thrown away. I've also become very disappointed in the ratio of rye chips to the rest of the mix, and the disappearance of those soft little crackers that held the flavor of the Bold Party Mix so well. Well, today I figured I'd check the ingredients and see if I could salvage the end of my bag. It was AMAZING.

Here's what I did:
Preheated the oven to 250.
I melted about half a tablespoon of butter, poured it over the end of the bag (still in the bag)
I shook some Worcestershire sauce over it, maybe three or four shakes
I mixed parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, Lawry's Seasoned Salt, and garlic salt, coarse Kosher salt, and poured THAT in the bag. (In order of amount used...I didn't measure anything though, sorry.)
Then I just shook the daylights out of it.
I spread it out on a baking sheet (jellyroll pan) and baked it at 250 for about ten minutes just to dry it out and bake those flavors together. Parmesan cheese burns really fast, too, so you really don't want to overdo it. Also, it's just a tiny bit, so it doesn't need the traditional hour that homemade Chex mix needs.

A tip: Make sure you have the oven preheated and ready to go before you pour the butter and sauce over it, or else it'll get mushy and we don't want that! You also may be tempted to eat it while it's just sitting there waiting for the oven, and then you'll have nothing left to bake. I don't know from experience, I'm just saying that COULD happen. I dunno.



Here's what I think Chex Mix should look like. I mean if you're gonna eat something, you might as well enjoy it, right?

Disclaimer: I am a dodo bird and just pressed the bake button on my oven and let it start itself, and by default my oven preheats to 350. It burned a tiny bit.



I understand people make their own chex mix all the time, but I just don't have room in my pantry for three boxes of cereal that I will only use for a party mix. I figured I might as well just doctor up the mix they already sell in one little bag.

Dream jobs

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do as far as "work" in the next few years when I get the boys into preschool and Kindergarten. I know a few of my friends and acquaintances do "lifestyle photography" and they all love it and the pictures are beautiful and it's a pretty good deal. HOWEVER, I am ANTI-photoshoots. They are SO unnatural. How is that LIFESTYLE photography? I don't hang out in sun kissed fields in a white cowl neck sweater and gold bracelets and feather earrings with my family, dressed in preppy outfits that we bought JUST for a photoshoot!!! (Speaking of which - these photographers telling people what to wear...no thanks!) Never ONCE have I done that! I mean sure they're beautiful pictures, but isn't there something to say for a memory that goes along with a picture? So I'VE decided that I'm going to start something different. I'm going to offer a service that gives a few hours of my day to come and just take pictures of everyone in their pajamas and glasses on Saturday morning, playing in the sunshine on the living room floor, or falling down with the most dramatic, red, screaming face, and then being scooped up by daddy, who is smiling and kissing their booboo. I also love the time of night when everyone's going nuts and mom's trying to make dinner and then daddy walks in from work and the kids are all excited, and daddy's excited to be home. Don't you wish you had pictures of that? Or walking into their room first thing in the morning and seeing how happy they are to see you? Sure, changing a diaper becomes tedious and annoying when you're doing it every couple of hours, but it's something you're going to end up spending a little chunk of your life doing. Why not document it? Especially if it's a stinky one. You know you and baby both make some fun faces for those! And the kids hanging on your legs while you're trying to cut vegetables for dinner...how cute is that? Annoying, yes, but also would make a super cute picture. And who doesn't love it when you're trying to sweep or vacuum and you've got a little one imitating you in the next room? I just think those are some great things to remember, and if not for the memory, to at least show your husband and child-less friends how much more work goes into "staying at home" with the kids than they think. ;) And then you can do it by just showing him beautiful pictures instead of what he may call nagging. Everybody wins.

I just think there are so many more precious moments and happenings that you can never recreate, and they don't happen naturally on that neat looking old cobblestone alley downtown where all the doors are painted different colors. Sorry.

Here are a few moments I've been lucky enough to capture with my little point and shoot, and tweak a little in Photoshop for fun. This is what I'm talking about though...I wish someone would just come to my house sometimes with a big fat fancy camera and snap these from better angles, and maybe even get me in the background so my kids will know I was around. That's the other thing...moms are never in the pictures! They're always behind the camera and it's not fair! Hmph. :(



Other dream jobs include: designing luxury treehouses/backyard forts or being a Pixar animator, but I think that requires some more schooling. Someday...

In my spare time...

I think about yard work, house work, and mainly how to improve both. This caught my eye. I'm going to need an area like this some day!

Cute Thank You Cards

Here's what you'll need:

- A Glue Stick

(I tried it with this and liquid glue, but the liquid glue will make more of a mess since it basically re-wets the finger paint, then it gets on your fingers, bla bla bla...glue stick wins!)

- Finger Painted artwork

- Card Stock

- Scissors for cutting the letters out

- Paper cutter, if you have one, for cutting the card stock in half

(my scissors and paper cutter are both just messy, so they are omitted from my picture.)

All you have to do is let your little one finger paint a sheet of card stock. Then once it's dry, cut the letters out. If you're not confident in your letter-shaping skills, you can always print out a sheet from your computer with your message (in large enough font), cut those out, and trace them. Then, fold plain white card stock in half, length-wise, so it's now a folded 11' x 4.25", and then cut that in half, width-wise, making two 5.5" x 4.25" folded note cards. Now just glue the letters in place!It is SO. EASY. Really, it can be for almost any occasion, but we needed thank you notes for his 2nd birthday gifts, and I wanted him to have a part in the message (but wanted something other than the scribbles all over the inside). This ended up being really cute and fun to make. What I really love about it is that it doesn't have to be perfect, they don't have to match, and it always turns out adorable! And what kid doesn't love painting!?

So here's the step by step:

1) fingerpaint, let dry

2) cut out the letters

3) fold and cut plain white card stock

4) glue letters on

5) write your message inside!

Has anyone else used this idea for anything? I wanna see!! Send me a picture and I'll post your good ideas in a follow-up!