DIY Leis and a Sandpaper Starfish Craft

We're soaking up the last bit of summer here before school starts, so last week some friends came over for a craft play date to make sandpaper starfish and Hawaiian leis.

This was the calm before the storm.

There were only 3 adults to 7 kids (6 of them under the age of 5) with open bottles of glue and tubes of glitter with unsecured caps... So, you do the math!

Or if you prefer a visual approach:

Haha! Absolutely priceless.

When the kiddos decided that they were over arts and crafts, we had a "fight" over a broken pretend piece of corn on the cob, and Kendall threw up not once, but twice; the second of which my friend Beth caught IN HER HANDS - total mommy move right there, we (the grownups) agreed. Once everybody was fed, though, things did simmer down a bit and all in all it was a pretty successful play date as everybody had a really great time.

Craft Play Date II over at Shauna's next week!

Lately, it's become a regular thing for McKenna, Kendall and I to do arts and crafts on Saturday mornings while Daddy is out doing his rounds at the garage sales; he's recently taken up flipping as a hobby, online business and all!

I thoroughly enjoy spending this time with my daughters; sipping coffee, still in our pjs, tummies full from breakfast, and enjoying each other's company with Disney radio on in the background while working away on beautiful little masterpieces that I will cherish forever. A very "happy Saturday" indeed; emphasis on "happy."

While I certainly plan on keeping round one of this little project, we gave it another go over the weekend; there was plenty of starfish and hole-punched Hawaiian flowers leftover from our play date.

Here's what you'll need:

Sandpaper 

Blue construction paper

Blue marker or crayon

Googly eyes

Glitter

Glue

Before you begin, cut starfish shapes out of your sandpaper. I found a pack of 12 sheets at the dollar store. 

Then, using a blue marker or crayon, create waves on your construction paper and glue on the starfish. Add more glue to the top of the starfish and sprinkle on some glitter, or you can leave it plain as the sandpaper gives the starfish a realistic texture. Finally, add googly eyes and a smile.

Now, the leis! These were so much fun to make and turned out really cute.

Here's what you'll need:

Hawaiian flowers

Straws

Yarn

Scissors

Hole punch

Tape

The Hawaiian flowers are actually table scatter that I purchased from the dollar store to make these Flip Flops Fridge Magnets. You can find them in the seasonal section.

Cut the yarn and straws, and hole punch the flowers.

String away!

*TIP: Wrap a small piece of tape around one end of the yarn because it will come apart as you are threading it through the straws and flowers. Also, tape the other end to the table while you are working so your straws and flowers don't fall off in the (very likely) event that your lei gets knocked or pulled off of your working space ;-)

Wordless Wednesday - I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

<3 <3 <3

Cardboard Princess Castle

Alex was starting to question my stash of cardboard rolls in the hall closet, so I did what any mother would do and went straight to Pinterest for some crafty inspiration so that the girls and I could put those babies to use. There were some really cool ideas like these binoculars, this Ring Toss Game and this super cute butterfly, but when I came across this carboard Castle and Loo Roll Men, I immediately pinned it and logged off -- my work was done here! You see, there comes a time in every little girl's life where they are utterly obsessed with princesses...

Normally, we do our arts and crafting during the week while Daddy is at work, but it was a particularly hot, humid and rainy Sunday last weekend, and Daddy had gotten caught up in a craft of his own.

McKenna and Kendall were over playing dress up and all movied out, so it was time to get this princess castle rolling.

Here's what you'll need:

Small cardboard box

4 paper towel rolls

4 toilet paper rolls

Masking tape

Felt

Scissors

Hot glue gun

Box cutter

Acrylic paint

Buttons, rhinestones, stickers, glitter, etc. to decorate

First, using a box cutter, VERY CAREFULLY carve out the crenellations on one end of all four of the paper towel rolls; these will be your turrets. Next, VERY CAREFULLY carve out the drawbridge, leaving the bottom intact. (Did I cut myself with the box cutter? No, why do you ask...) Using masking tape and the four toilet paper rolls, form the top tower. Then secure all of these pieces to the box with masking tape (turrets) and hot glue (top tower).

I couldn't get the paint out fast enough; the girls were ready to get to it!

Add glitter.

Some to the castle, too, if you like ;-)

Once the paint had dried, I cut out a semi-circle of felt and hot glued it to the top tower to form the pointed roof while the girls rummaged through the odds and ends in our crafts supplies for decoration. 

Ta-da!

20 Ways to Beat the Boredom Blues

Bored no more! Here are my go-to boredom blues busters (say that 5 times fast!):

1) Beach Day

2) Zoo Day

3) Farm Day

4) Library Day

5) Play dates

6) Picnics

7) Puzzles

8) Blocks

9) Books

10) Sidewalk chalk

11) Board games

12) Coloring books

13) Arts and crafts

14) The sandbox

15) The swing set

16) Dog walking

17) Bike riding

18) Puddle jumping

19) Cookie baking

20) Target.

What are your boredom blues busters? Do tell!

List your top 12 solutions for bored children.

Staycation, Sans Kids!

Three days. No kids. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO!?

Next week, Alex and I are dropping off the girls with his Mom for a few days and we're going to celebrate our 4-year Anniversary with a little staycation. We were originally toying with the idea of driving up to North Carolina to go kayaking, but then we thought, why not save the cash and explore what this little piece of paradise that we call home has to offer!

:-D I'm pretty frickin' excited. 

Wordless Wednesday - Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.

-Marc Riboud 

<3 <3 <3

Wordless Wednesday - Potty Time: It's a Team Effort

Apparently...

#momlife

Egg Mice and the "Magic Words"

McKenna and Kendall are pretty good about using their manners and Alex and I have never referred to "please," "thank you," and the like as magic words; it's just something that you do, a reflex like saying, "Bless you" when someone sneezes. One day, the girls and I were over at our friends' house for a tea party play date and when Miss Caroline was finished with her quiche and tea, she stayed in her seat and very politely asked, "May I be excused please, Mommy?" -- "Yes you may." She got up and I realized that Beth didn't have to hassle her AT ALL to stay at the table while we were eating. Liiight bulb!

Every single day for every single meal it was a battle to keep the girls in their seats while we were eating. I HATED having to repeat myself over and over and over again every breakfast, lunch and dinner for the girls to just sit the fuck down. Of course, I used my manners and didn't drop the F bomb around my little parrots... Other than maybe once or twice to myself under my breath as my eyes glossed over with tears of frustration.

I googled "How to keep toddlers at the dinner table." A lot.

I tried implementing the "When you get up, you're telling me that you're finished" rule, but that seemed to work better in their favor as lots of veggies and other "yucky" stuff was left uneaten.

I tried taking away snacks so that maybe by lunch and dinnertime they'd be so hungry that they would want to sit at the table and eat all of their food, but that backfired; we all ended up cranky and frustrated.

I tried the "Kids will eat when they're hungry; don't force it," way, but... THIS AIN'T DENNY'S!

Later that day when we were at home eating dinner and the girls got up, I told them, "Sit down. You were not excused; you didn't say the magic words."

"Magic words?!" they asked, grinning.

So I explained very matter-of-factly that if they wanted to get up from the table, they must first ask, "May I be excused, please?"

Eagerly they sat down; "MAY I BE EXCUSED, PLEASE!?" in unison with big fat smiles on their faces.

"No. You haven't finished your dinner yet."

And that was that! Magic words.

Whether or not they actually eat all or any of their dinner is a complete toss up, but "if they're hungry, they'll eat" and they have plenty of time to do so as we're all sitting down at the table together and enjoying our meal as a family. Huge victory. I'd say the "magic words" have about a 90% success rate.

One thing that I know McKenna will gobble up for sure is Egg Mice.

She loves hard-boiled eggs and picked this recipe out of one her kid-friendly cookbooks, which I modified slightly.

Egg Mice

Ingredients:

1 hard-boiled egg
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Salt, pepper to taste
Matchstick carrots
Slivered almonds

Directions:

Slice the hard-boiled egg in half and scoop out the yolk; mix with mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. Fill the yolk mixture back into the egg white and place the flat side down on the plate.

Then, poke one matchstick carrot into one end of the egg for the tail and on the opposite side, use a paring knife to make slits for the slivered almonds, which will be the ears.

Serve with cheese and fruit for a super fun, well-rounded meal for your toddler. :-D

NO PIZZA FOR YOU! A totally "Bizzarro" experience.

My mother-in-law came to visit the last time Alex was out of town for work.

I love having her here; she's great company and very hands-on with the kids -- FREE TIME!!! Even if it's only for 10 minutes at the end of the day while she happily takes over bath time duty. Sometimes, 10 minutes can feel like a freaking eternity in mom life. Daddy had already been gone for a week and we still had another to go, so I was especially grateful for this visit. I believe my response was a very enthusiastic, "YES!!! PLEASE DO!" when she texted me about possibly coming down to see us, depending on her work schedule. Military spouses, single parents, I applaud you.

On Grandma's last day here, we headed to the beach for a little sun and sand before grabbing dinner at Bizzarro's, a popular New York style pizzeria. I've heard tons of good things about Bizzarro's not only from the locals, but from anyone who has ever been in the area -- My husband's half-brother's now ex-girlfriend was raving about it the last time I saw her. We've lived in Melbourne going on two and a half years now (does that make us locals???), so I was eager to finally try this place out. 

THE Original Bizzarro Famous New York Pizza, or TOBFNYP for short? There are several around town, but rumor has it that there was some sort of family feud so they all have slight variations in name now, i.e. "The Original Bizzarro Famous New York Pizza," "Bizzarro's Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria," "Bizzarro Pizza Co," "Bizzarro Pizza Express," and "Bizzarro Pizza". I think that's all of them... What everybody failed to tell us, though, was that this is a straight up "Soup Nazi" kind of experience.

TOBFNYP is located on a busy street corner of the Indiatlantic with lines almost always out the door, hardly enough room for two people abreast upon entry and at the counter (difficult with kids) and very little seating in the "dining room" and out on the patio.

My mother-in-law waited in line while McKenna, Kendall and I looked for a table; there was nothing, so we were going to order a whole pie and get it to go. Mistakes 1 and 2. It is unwritten protocol that you come here to order by the slice from the case, or call ahead. We placed our order for a large half cheese-half black olives pizza and when my mother-in-law pulled out her debit card to pay, Mr. Mustache behind the counter screamed at her, "CASH ONLY! CASH ONLY! ATM IN THE BACK!". Mistake 3. So, she made her way through a few disgruntled, hungry and impatient customers a tap-tap-tapping their toes to the ATM in the back where she paid five dollars to use her own money and then made her way back up to the counter with cash.

"DRINKS!" Or, in other words, "what would you like to drink?" As we stepped out of the way with our $2 bottled waters instead of the cups of ice water that we had asked for, I spotted an open table. My mother-in-law went back to the counter to change our order from carryout to dining in.

Mistake 4. 

"10 minutes," he hissed. We made our way to our table outside with tails tucked between our legs and avoiding eye contact with both employees and patrons alike because it was painfully obvious that we were noobs! It was then that I noticed the "CASH ONL" sign on the exit door to the patio. 

Watching everybody come and go with their little slices of heaven, we finally mustered up enough courage to ask the server about our food, as it had been well over 10 minutes. This seemed to inconvenience him immensely.

"You ordered to go?" Server Guy asked when he came back from checking on our order.

"Yes, but we changed it to dining in since we found a table. We told him that," my mother-in-law explained politely.

Server Guy huffs and puffs away, throws open the door to the restaurant and hollers, "They want to eat here now!" I just laughed; I was actually living the Soup Nazi experience!

"It's on the oven. 10 minutes." Obviously, we were being punished. I imagined our uncooked half cheese-half black olives pizza sitting on top of the oven just inches away from a gross dusty ceiling.

We finally get our food; I wasn't sure if we were supposed to grab our own plates, napkins and utensils from inside or if that was Server Guy's job, but I just wanted to eat our food and get the heck out of there. I bravely made it in and out without being spotted, we quickly ate and then left. Whew!

So, is it good pizza? Eh, a lot on the greasy side for me, but apparently this is "as close as you're going to get to true New York style pizza around here"... New York style attitude and all, sheesh. Honestly, I'd rather skip the anxiety and grab a 5 dollar Hot-N-Ready around the corner at Little Caesar's! Pizza's pizza, man.