More Fun Than Allowed…with Kids

Oops.  I joined the party and forgot to introduce myself…How Rude!  and Sorry.

I’m an over (barely) 40 Mom of two precious children.  Boogie will be 6 this summer and his sister Puddin’ Pop will be 3 next month.  I waited my whole life to have these kids (or so it felt…the waiting) and made the decision just before Boog turned one to be a SAHM.  I was a restaurant manager/GM for 17 years and I could no longer be away from my precious baby boy.  Then his sister came along and my decision to stay home was solidified.  My children are my life when I’m not busy having one of my own.

I enjoy spending time with my family, going out with the girls, drinking wine, cooking and so much more.  I’m adventurous and love to try new things.  I started blogging in June (08) and am absolutely hooked.  This particular blog is #4 and I am currently working on starting a 5th.  If you are interested in visiting my others they are:

Because Someone Cares, , Wine at Five and Letters. 

I’ve met some wonderful people through blogging as well as some things about myself.  It’s a great outlet to get your feelings out in print and getting comments to validate your hard work really makes one feel good, doesn’t it.

I think this blog party is one nifty idea and I look forward to meeting a lot of you and making some new friends.  Grab a beverage, and take a look around.  No one here bites.

My kids love to dress up.  We have a very attractive straight haired bright pink wig and another super cute curly blue hair wig that have been worn by my children and every child that has entered the house.  They were each $1 at the dollar store.

For the last 2 years I have been proactive with the Halloween costumes and ordered them plenty in advance, and then Boog wears his everyday for  the 3 weeks leading up to Halloween.  His Spiderman costume from this year, still gets some play about every 10 days.

Puddin Pop makes up her own costumes.  She finds miscellaneous pieces around the house and becomes a super hero

…or puts on a skirt and becomes a ballerina, twirling around the house.  For Christmas Mi-ma and Papa surprised her with a Tinkerbell costume that she just had to put on right away.  It was precious and will be missed when she outgrows it.  She wore that thing all day and has worn it several days since.  How can i say no to this…

Playing dress up is a great way for kids to use their imagination and become someone else.  If you’ve ever watched your child playing the parent to a beloved doll or stuffed animal, you’ll see a little of yourself in there.  It’s a good way to see what lessons and actions your children are being taught by watching and listening to you.

I recently became aware of a new music video site just for kids, although I rather enjoy it myself, (don’t tell the little ones).  Jitterbug.tv is a music community delivering classics from our favorite movies (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) as well as new pop songs by artists like Barenaked Ladies and Dan Zanes.

I had the opportunity to check out some videos with my 2 year old and she was all about Elmo and Chris Brown singing the Signs song.  I loved Elmo and Norah Jones.

The community allows you to join for free and suggest and rate videos for the site.  Instead of looking all over the internet, you can make Jitterbug.tv your one stop for new music videos to enjoy with your children..

There’s a great interview with one of the founders over at Out With the Kids.com.  Great insight into a vision of two parents to help make music for children more readily accessible.  Check out the interview, then go directly to Jitterbug.tv.  You won’t be disappointed.

Boog really wanted to learn the Twelve Days of Christmas and to help him out Hubby made a cheat sheet with pictures and numbers so he could remember.  He is not really fond of singing the song from the beginning, but instead likes to start at the end.  He’s been singing it for days.  When I asked how he got so good at remembering all twelve days he told me he had been practicing on the bus, at recess, and at bedtime.  He is very proud of himself, and so am I.  Maybe he can teach me the twelve days.

His sister is not so enthused with the spotlight not being on her, but she tolerates it, as you can see.

Enjoy!

I found an easy recipe for baked Ornaments and we spent the day, literally, decorating the two dozen I made the night before.

ornament recipe

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix together to form a dough.  Roll out to about 1/4 in thickness and use cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes. Use a straw to cut out a hole at the top for ribbon to hang.  Put 4-6 on a microwave safe plate and heat for 3-5 minutes (depending on microwave).  Repeat until all ornaments are cooked.  Decorate.

We used washable tempura paint, glitter glue, and sequins to decorate ours.  I made the ornament the night before after the kids were in bed.  Next time I’ll let them help cut them out.  I had the table set with the ornaments and all the supplies when they got up in the morning.  Boogie had school and Puddin’ Pop had 2 friends come over in the morning.  The girls spent about 45 minutes decorating before they moved on to something else.  They returned to the craft table just after lunch and worked for another 45 minutes.

When Boog got home from school, he and the neighbor girl came righ in for Hot chocolate and decorating.  They spent about an hour decorating theirs and it was quiet time for me.  Overall the project was a success.  All our guests for the day got to take home their ornaments and we will put ours on the tree and use some for gift tags.

I think it worked out well to have the table set up all day rather than a timed activity and the kids keep begging me to make more.

My children love to listen to music and dance.  Unfortunately, they usually get stuck on one or two songs and want them played over and over again.  While I’m making dinner, we usually put on music and dance around the kitchen, dining and living rooms.  We’ve done this since before Puddin’ Pop could walk.  I would put her in her Tigger Bounce (the one that attaches to a door frame) and we would watch her spin and bounce while Boogie and I would dance around her.

It’s a great mood lifter and gets us motivated to cook dinner and burns off any leftover calories from snack time to insure we have plemty of room for dinner. 

Here’s a little dance from my family to yours…Enjoy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Have you ever played with cornstarch?  It has the neatest texture and is easy to clean up.  Here’s a couple of ideas of what to do with it.

Mix equal parts cornstarch and water.  Add food coloring and voila…sidewalk paint.  The consistency is the same as real paint, and yet it washes away as easily as chalk does.  My kids love to paint the side walk and make hopscotch boards to play on.

Mix cornstarch with water(start with a little and add more to see what happens) in a bucket (or tub, we use our sand and water table) the kids love the way the mixture get dry and hard and then just melts in their hands.  I’m braver than most, and set up this activity in the kitchen on rainy days.  I then just get a damp cloth and wipe down any “splashes” on the floor, walls and cabinets.

If you have never really played with this, you should.  I love it!

You can also use cornstarch with baking soda and water to make a “dough” for those fun Christmas ornament projects.

2 cups baking soda

1 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup water

Heat on stove to desired consistency, let cool, start molding!

Another Rainy day Idea…Facepaint

1 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (white) add food coloring as needed.

You now have “greasepaint” like clowns wear

It’s easier said than done.  I try my best to give my kids the opportunity to have all the child hood experiences I had.  But things just aren’t the same.

My parents used to just let us run around the neighborhood with our friends and merely told us when to be home.  Yes, things were a lot safer for kids then, but why can’t our children have the same freedoms?  They can, it just takes more effort. 

We are fortunate to live on a cul de sac, so the kids do get to play outside with little supervision.  Either my husband and I, or the neighbors, are usually outside doing yard-work or just chatting with neighbors and the kids are riding their bikes, power wheels, scooters, and any other moving “vehicles” they may have.  Sometimes they play tag, or just run around playing super heroes.  They get to be kids.

We take them to the park, or indoor play areas at the mall in inclement weather, and let them run around.  At the park, the big one anyway, we tend to follow close behind, so as not to let them out of our sight, and this is the “effort” part.  We don’t avoid going because we might have to follow them around, we interact and play with them.  Or stand back and watch them make friends with other kids, and marvel in how quick they are growing up.

Bottom line.  Don’t insist that Kids have to grow up to quick because it’s easier to keep them safe that way.  Give them some “perceived” (by them) freedoms and watch them thrive.