Farmer's Market

It's that time of year again when the farmer's market opens! This is a great time to get your children involved in the process of meal planning, shopping, and trying new foods. These practical life skills are immeasurable in value and can often turn picky eaters into young foodies. The farmer's market is a fantastic place to showcase new produce to your child. Let them explore the looks, smells, and tastes that the market has to offer!

This is my approach to exploring the market and new foods. Please feel free to tailor it to your family's needs.

With each trip to the market, my son gets to choose a new fruit or veggie to try. I allow him to take his time to look over everything so he can make an informed decision, helping him to explore his options. Once he makes his selection, I will give him the money to pay for it, letting him hand the money over to the vendor. Although he gets shy about this part, it's a good practice in independence and taking responsibility for his purchase. This may seem like a minor step in the processes, but it helps him feel ownership over his selection, making him less inclined to snub the produce later when it comes to eating it. My son can be a picky eater. But when he has taken the time to choose, buy, and prepare his fruit or veggie, he is far more willing to give it a taste. He worked hard for it!

Once we take the produce home, I then help him figure out how he wants to prepare his produce. He can either wash it and eat it raw, or we can look up a recipe to showcase his produce selection. For example: if he chose apples, he can either have a fresh apple for snack, or he can make applesauce or apple pancakes. (I suggest offering only a select number of options when it comes to recipes. Limited options will help save you a headache in the long run!) If he chooses to use his produce in a recipe, I usually have him still try a taste of the produce raw before cooking. This allows him to explore the before and after taste of the produce, seeing how much flavors can change when preparing the food in different ways. It helps him to become more familiar with the produce he has selected.

After he is done preparing his dish/snack, we will sit down to share and enjoy the food he has prepared. Again, this gives him ownership in the process of preparing his own food, and it celebrates his accomplishment of trying something new. Even if, in the end, he decides he does not like the food at all, I still applaud him for buying, preparing, and trying something new. It is something to be proud of!

Book Themed Meal

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie...It's a classic story that almost every parents has heard of at some point. A cyclical story that starts and ends with a cookie; what kid wouldn't love a story like that? But what if you could bump the fun up a notch by actually making cookies to enjoy while reading the story? Your parental bonus points would multiply! There also a lot of great benefits to cooking with your child. Some of the payoffs include:

-Your children get to feel the joy of contributing and can gain a sense of accomplishment when helping to prepare a meal/snack.

-Kids are more likely to sit down to a family meal/snack when they helped to prepare it.

-By helping out in the kitchen, your children are spending less time in front of a TV or computer.

-When assisting in the kitchen, kids can be encourages to try healthier foods (even if you are making cookies, you can show them how to make healthy substitutions such as using raisins in place of chocolate chips).

-Parents get to spend more quality time with their kids when they cook together.

-Allowing your child to participate in preparing a meal/snack can teach them great practical life skills including set up and clean up of a meal/snack.

-Kids who help out in the kitchen get a great introduction to mathematics in a practical application such as measuring out ingredients.

In our family, we are big fans of the Laura Numeroff classics: If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, If You Give A Pig A Pancake, If You Give A Mouse A Muffin, and many more. If you have any of these fun stories, I highly recommend bringing a part of the story to life by partaking in a little baking with your child and watch their excitement sky-rocket through the roof when they get to enjoy a cookie, pancake, or muffin they helped make while cuddling up and listening to a wonderful story. Because chances are, if they read about a cookie, they're going to want a real cookie to go along with it. ;)

Gardening

It's almost Spring time! While you get outside to clean up your yard and plant your garden, don't forget to involve your kids.--Target and the dollar store have adorable children size garden tools that I highly recommend.--Whether it's helping to dig in the dirt, move rocks, or rake the yard; you will be surprised at how much you and your child will get a kick out of working together in the yard. Working in the yard can build muscles, reinforce hand-eye coordination, encourage problem solving skills, and it helps to fill their lungs with good ol' fresh air. There is a great benefit to getting outside and encouraging our children to engage in nature. By assisting in the responsibility of tending to your yard, they get a first hand look at what it takes to care for plant life while discovering everything nature has to offer.

Remember to take time to explore. The backyard is a whole new world filled with plants, bugs, worms, birds, and more! Use all your senses and see what you can discover together.

Felt Board

Felt boards are really easy to set up and are a great QUIET way to keep your child entertained. So if you need a break from all the flashing, squawking, squeaking, ringing, clanging, screeching toys; you should look into creating a felt board. It doesn't even really require a board. All you need is a large piece of felt, tack it up onto the wall, and some felt characters. You can either get crafty and make your own felt characters or you can find felt characters at the craft store (such as Micheal's). I made my felt characters using felt, hot glue, and fabric markers. I have done felt boards for the holidays including Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter. It's a fun way to get the kids into the holiday spirit while enjoying some creative quiet play. You can also take turns creating stories with the felt characters too, encouraging your child's imagination and creativity.

For the Christmas felt board, I just made a tree with ornaments for the kids to decorate the tree with.

Recyclable Kitchen

Does your kid like to pretend to cook? Do you have a little master chef in the making? Well the good news is, if you want to make a fun pretend kitchen for your child, you don't have to brake the bank to do so. In fact, you don't even have to spend a dime! All you need to do is raid your recycle bin. Empty bottles, old cereal boxes, empty spice containers, you name it! If you really want to be generous, you can also add some canned goods (not from the recycling though! Please don't give your child empty tin cans since they can have very sharp edges!) and unopened bags of dried beans. Before you know it, your child will have a well stocked pantry of play food that can help feed their imagination!

Ideas of what you can use:

-recycled plastic bottles--thoroughly washed out. If you have a younger child, use a hot glue gun to secure the lid onto the bottle so it does not become a choking hazard. Before gluing the lid on, you can also add some colored water for fun to create "drinks" they can serve. But again, make sure to glue on the lid so it doesn't become a big mess.

-empty cereal boxes--tape the top shut.

-empty oatmeal containers

-unopened canned goods

-unopened bags of dried beans--these are really fun because of the sound they make plus the added weight they have from being full bags. Both the sound and feel create a bonus sensory element to the kitchen play. Moving around a heavy bag full of beans can also be muscle building for little ones.

-empty spice containers--I didn't actually wash these out so that they still held the sent of the spices. My son had a blast sniffing all the empty spice containers! It helped to enhance his pretend cooking experience, teaching him that part of the joy of cooking is exploring new smells.

-bowls, large spoons, rubber spatulas, etc.--Any old cooking utensils you can add to the cause only helps to round out the kitchen fun. I had recently cleaned out my tupperware drawer and gave all the mismatched lids and containers to my son for his kitchen. It worked perfectly.

Find a special place to set up your child's kitchen and let the cooking begin!

Stuffed Animal Dinner Party

If you have little kids, make dinner time a fun one tonight. Let them choose their favorite stuffed animals and invite them to dinner. It might seem silly, but getting involved in your child's imagination can go a long ways. Showing interest in the things they love and taking time to be a little silly with them can add up to a lifetime of wonderful memories they will cherish. Hosting a stuffed animal dinner might not seem like much, but trust me when I say: you might be surprised how much fun this can be for everyone involved.

Valentine Rewind -- A few ideas for next year

I realize Valentines Day has already come and gone, but here are a few ideas you can pocket for next year.

Since I live in a house full of guys, I went off of the old standby: "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." But rather than feed my boys unpleasant chalky candies or other sugary treats that would leave them scaling the walls, I took things in a different direction. Pictured up above is the bento lunch I made for my eldest son. Every day for lunch I make him a bento and for Valentines Day I wanted to make him a special themed lunch. Inspired by the look of classic candy hearts, I placed a heart shaped cookie cutter in the middle of the bento box and filled it with strawberry yogurt (you can use whatever kind you like but strawberry or blueberry make for a fun pink or purple color which fit the theme). Next, I cut out Xs and Os from some cantaloupe. On the side I made kiwi hearts and strawberry roses (you can find the tutorial for the roses here: http://www.joyzz.com/article-1514.html ). I was truly surprised by how touched my son was by this. As soon as he came to the table, he looked at it and exclaimed "Hearts and flowers? For Valentines Day? For me? Thank you mommy! I love it!!!" His response was even better that I had hoped for!

Next we made a rainbow heart pizza for dinner. I'm sorry to say I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of it before it was devoured, but the experience was wonderful! I cut up a rainbow of toppings: purple onion, pink Canadian bacon, orange bell pepper, yellow pineapple, fresh green spinach leaves, and red cherry tomatoes. I rolled out and shaped the pizza dough into a heart, added the sauce and cheese, and then allowed my boys to toss on as many rainbow toppings as they wanted. They were thrilled with all the different colors! After it was cooked up, the whole family enjoyed a delicious Valentines Day dinner of rainbow heart pizza.

Lastly, for arts & crafts day with our friends, I created a little Valentines Day game for the kids to play called "Catch the Love Bug." I had some spare material in my craft box so I whipped up these cute, only slightly creepy looking, love bugs. Using the biggest cooking pot I had (although you could use a basket, bowl, or bag) we had one kid move around the room with the pot while the other kids tried to toss the love bugs into it. They had a blast! In the end, they each got to choose one love bug to take home with them too. It was another fun way to celebrate Valentines Day without the need for copious amounts of sweets.

Chinese New Year -- Year of the Ram

For the past couple of years, my friend and I have put together some fun crafts for the kids to do in honor of the Chinese New Year. It's a fun way to learn about another culture and honor their celebrations. This year, since it is the year of the ram for the Chinese zodiac, we decided to make ram horns for the kids to wear! It was a simple craft that cost all of $3 dollars to do, it was quick to put together, and the kids had a blast wearing their ram horns all day long!

If you really want to go above and beyond, you could also read your kids the story of the Chinese zodiac while they work on making their ram horns.
Here is a link to the story: http://www.topmarks.co.uk/ChineseNewYear/ZodiacStory.aspx

Also, if you go to the grocery store and look in the Asian food section, you can find a fun selection of sweet treats like rice paper candies, Pocky, or even fortune cookies if you want to serve a Chinese themed treat. Lychee fruit is another fun treat, or you can serve pot stickers or dim sum if you'd rather take the savory route. And you can never go wrong with serving up some nice tea!

As for making the ram horns, here's what you'll need (you can find most of this already in your home or at the dollar store):

2 paper plates
clear tape
crayons
1 headband
scissors
hot glue

Let your kids color the outer rim of the plates (the ribbed part) with crayons.

Once they are done, depending on their age, either they can cut or you can cut off the outside of the plates.

Next, cut a point on the end of each "horn".

Then, curl the horn in on itself.

Let the horn uncurl. It is now ready to attach to the headband.

Fold the bottom base of the horn over the headband and tape it to itself.

Lastly, put a little hot glue into the hole where the headband goes through the base of the horn. This will keep the horns from sliding around.

And there you have it, ram horns!

Valentines Day Breakfast Idea

A really simple but fun Valentines Day breakfast idea is: heart-shaped pancakes and pink milk! If you don't have a heart-shaped pancake mold (which I do not have), you can simply make pancakes and use a heart-shaped cookie cutter on them to cut out heart shapes.

As for pink milk, just add a few drops of red food coloring to milk and mix it it. Tada! Pink milk! My son liked the heart-shaped pancakes, but it was the pink milk that was really magical to him. It was so simple to do but it was a huge hit!

Valentines for our handsome little guys

Unfortunately, Valentines Day seems to have gone to the women. More often than not, it is celebrated by giving women chocolates and flowers, or going out to some fancy Italian restaurant for dinner. In the schools, kids might make disposable heart-shaped mailboxes and hand out Valentine cards complete with monkeys that say: "I'm bananas for you!" or purple puppies with heart-shaped spots that say: "I wuff you!" But while jewelry stores, chocolatiers, and florists might try to have you convinced that Valentines Day is for women only, I'm hear to say they are gravely mistaken. Now, I could easily go into a huge lecture about my true thoughts about Valentines Day and how grossly over commercialized it is, how completely materialistic it has always been, and how ridiculous I think our celebrations are for it. But, rather than ramble on about the negatives, I'd rather call to attention what I really see Valentines Day as: an excuse for people to say "I love you." And regardless of the cliche and probable cheesy way most people might go about doing so on Valentines Day, what's really wrong with taking a day to show a little extra love to the ones who matter most?

So how did a day to celebrate our love for one another turn into a day to spoil women only? In several different families, I have seen girlfriends, wives, mother's, and daughters all doted on for Valentines Day. Dads who want their daughters to feel like princesses, husbands who want their wives to feel romanced, and so on and so forth. But what about my sons? Am I supposed to ignore them on Valentines Day? Just because they are boys doesn't mean they don't want to be shown a little love. It doesn't mean they don't want to be spoiled or made to feel special. In fact, I've even come to find that they enjoy some of the cutesy heart-shaped fun that a lot of people associate more as a "girly thing" for Valentines Day. But who ever said girls held ownership over heart shapes? My boys like hearts and even the color pink (gasp!). And I can guarantee you they would LOVE a box of chocolates.

Even though I admittedly have some hopes of some romantic surprises for Valentines day for myself, I most certainly do not believe that the holiday should be celebrated for women only. I see Valentines Day as an excuse to show a little extra love to everyone, guys and gals alike, that you care about. So if you have a son, please don't forget to show him some Valentines Day sweetness as well. Just because little boys might not always be into the same "lovey dovey" stuff as some little girls, it doesn't mean they wouldn't enjoy a little something special. Maybe make them their favorite breakfast. Maybe give them a special sweet treat. Perhaps play their favorite video game with them. Or maybe just take a minute to give them a hug and a kiss and tell them how much you love them. Whatever you do, don't let commercialism get the best of you and convince you not to consider your sons on Valentines Day. As I said before: girls don't own heart-shapes, nor do they own exclusive rights to pink, purple, flowers, or chocolates. Boys need to know they are loved too!

Pictured below is a little "love monster" Valentine I made for my son a few years back. I put it in his mailbox to find on Valentines Day morning. He absolutely adored that little monster! The picture of my son is a little blurry but only because he wouldn't stop dancing around with his Valentine monster.

No matter how silly it may seem, it's the little things (like silly homemade Valentines Day cards) that can mean the most to your kids. Whether you have sons or daughters, it's important to take any opportunity you can to show them that you care, even on a corny holiday like Valentines Day. ;)

Valentines Day Sun Catchers

Valentines Day is coming up, so if you are looking for an easy but festive craft to do with your kids, look no further. For this activity you'll need the following:

-scissors
-clear contact paper
-construction paper--cut into hear shaped frames (see pic below)
-tissue paper (we used colors like red and purple, but it really doesn't matter. Use whatever color your kids like.)--cut or ripped into 1 inch squares

First, take a good size piece of contact paper and tape it down to the table, sticky side up. (Taping it down will keep it from sliding everywhere while your kid is working.)

Next, stick on the cutout heart frames you made from the construction paper.

After that, let your kid slap, sprinkle, dump, gently place as many of the tissue paper pieces as they want within the heart frames. It doesn't matter if they stick tissue paper outside of heart shapes. You'll be cutting the excess away later anyway.

Once your kids are done, take another piece of clear construction paper and place it on top of the other, sandwiching the sticky sides together to "laminate" their work.

Lastly, cut out the hearts, leaving about 1/2 inch around the outside boarder of the heart. Tape up on the window and enjoy!

Tattoos

Fake tattoos are a great way to have fun with your kid. It doesn't cost much to get fake tattoos from the store and it can be a great way to bond with your child as you help them decorate themselves with their choice of tattoos. If you don't want to buy fake tattoos but you have washable markers, take turns decorating each others arms (or legs if you really want to get silly) with tattoos that you draw on one another. Ask them what they want and draw them a custom tattoo. You don't have to be a great artist, but taking time to be silly with your kids and do something as scandalous as drawing on your arms can make a great memory! Put on some music, decorate each others arms with tattoos and then have a fun photo shoot displaying your new tattoos. You might be surprised with how much fun your kids will have with this activity.

Carseat Sun Shade

We live in the Northwest so, consequently, we don't have to deal with the sun very often. But when the sun does come out, my poor Washingtonian kids desperately try to shield their eyes from the great flaming orb in the sky. Normally I can help them manage while we play in the yard. But when we are in the car, I can't exactly drive and cover their eyes at the same time. My eldest son can wear his sunglasses but my little guy absolutely HATES having anything on his face. For little Hayden, sunglasses are out of the question! Hats don't offer enough shade for his eyes, and the pull-down shade cover on his carseat only goes so far. When the sun is in the right spot, his poor little face gets blasted with sunlight and I'm left with one pissed off baby. And if you have a kid, I don't have to explain to you why a screaming child in the backseat of the car is extremely stressful and why you'd go to any length to get them to stop!

When Hayden was really little, I sewed this cute little blanket cover that worked brilliantly in the beginning.

Get the pattern here: http://cally-cruze.blogspot.com/2009/10/infant-carseat-blanket.html

But as he got older, Hayden started to push the blanket aside, or grab the bottom of the blanket cover and pull it up onto his face which I was not very comfortable with. So we said goodbye to this design and tried to figure out something else. We tried draping big blankets over the carseat but we still had the same problem of him pulling the blanket down, not to mention, it made it very hot for him under the blanket. But after a few trial and errors we finally found something that worked perfectly: a fitted crib sheet! We took a fitted crib sheet, hooked one end around the back of the carseat, and the other end around the back headrest of the seat of the car and ta-da! A perfect sunshade that didn't pull down (since it was hooked onto his seat and the back seat of the car) and it didn't over-heat him because of the thin sheet and the open sides. It also allowed him to still see his brother from the sides so he wasn't completely closed in (which helped to keep him entertained). It might look a little silly, but it kept the sun out of our kid's eyes, it stayed off of his face and couldn't be pulled down, and all in all it kept our kid happy. I call it a win!

Bath Paints

Sure, you could go to Target or ToysRus and buy a set of bath paints for your kid. But that's only if you want to spend money on something that you could make with items you probably already have in your home. Not to mention, we have used the store bought bath paints before and, honestly, they were kinda sad. It was basically a colored gel that, when painted on the tub, looked more like lumpy goop that hardly had any color to it at all. We have also tried store bought bath crayons which have great color and are a lot of fun, but they are a pain in the butt to wash off!

I just so happen to have a solution: homemade bath paints! It's inexpensive and easy to make, and it is super easy to wash off your tub (or your kid) when you are done! Here is what you need:

• Conditioner--I always use up my shampoo before my conditioner is all gone, so admittedly I have a few half bottles of conditioner stashed away. These worked perfectly for this project! You could also just buy a bottle at the dollar store if you're not a conditioner hoarder like me.
• Food coloring
• A squeeze bottle--You can typically find these at the dollar store. Or you can always wash out an old ketchup or mustard bottle and use that instead.

Simply mix the conditioner and food coloring in a squeeze bottle and let your kid go to town! My son had a blast squirting "paint" all over the tub and himself. I also gave him a paintbrush to use so he could paint all round the bathtub walls. So simple. So much fun. And in the end, his skin was silky soft from all the conditioner! ^_^