New Year, New Plans

I am a big fan of New Year's celebrations.  Now that we have kids we celebrate in different ways, but no matter how you celebrate it's a fresh start!  January 1st comes and there are endless possibilities for the new year.  Whether you are a person that makes resolutions or not, it's a good feeling.

  I was on Pinterest trying to come up with fun New Year's activities for the girls and I came across this really fun blog with printable parent & child date cards.  Our family is going to be going through some big changes in 2014.  Happy changes, but changes that will affect our kids and our time spent with them.  The Hubby and I decided that getting some one-on-one time with our girls could be a really great transitional tool for them and us.

Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle

I always thought that Elf on the Shelf looked like so much fun, but I never could see us adopting a tricky little Elf that is going to make more messes for me to clean up.  Don't get me wrong, I love seeing all the pictures of these little Elves and the creative mischief they get into!  For our family we really strive to do character building activities and that's when I started to think that the Elf might just be able to help us out with that!

Santa must have read my mind because yesterday, an Elf showed up!!  The Princess was excited but a little leery at first.  (Is four when you start to lose your belief in magic already?  Boy I hope not.)  But when her little friend came over and started talking about her own magic Elf that really got her excited!  She went to bed super quick last night just to look for Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle the next morning. Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle.  Jingle for short. What a great name, right?  Reminds me of a preschooler of mine whose mom was having a baby and she desperately wanted to name her Snowflake Cupcake!  Ah, four year olds.  Love them.

So just where did Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle end up?  Keep checking the blog as I will be adding pictures all through December!

Day 1:

A Greener Yoga Mat

I went through three yoga mats in one week.  I've always just bought a cheap mat at any old store without paying much attention.  THIS week,  my husband picked one up for me, but it was bumpy and I would rather have smooth so I picked up a cheap one from Walmart.  

Took it out to use it and I noticed it smelled pretty bad.  Very much like chemicals.  It was pretty gross to have my face so close to it at times.  I thought I would just let it air out, so on my way to the garage (it smelled that bad) I grabbed the cardboard that came with it and noticed this:

Warning:  This mat contains chemicals (recognized by the state of California) known to cause Cancer and/or birth defects/fertility issues.

Happy November! Crafts!

Last year we decided to make a Thankfulness Tree. (pictured below)  I had enough leaves for each day of November and everyday the three of us would write what we were thankful for.  (We just said out loud what we thought Hammie was thankful for because she was so little)  Everyone had such a great time filling it in that it was a requested project this year.  New tradition?  I think so!

Each year I have sloppily tried to draw a tree. . . the girls seem to know what it is so that's all that matters!  (Plus you get to cover it up with lots of leaves!)  This year I decided to make enough leaves for everyone to have their own leaf each day.  We even added some little birds this year, I think it makes the tree really fun!  Check out #4 on this cute Blog to find the leaf/bird templates

Before You Bake. . .

If you've ever read the ingredients list on your Baking Powder you would find the following:  Cornstarch, Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda), Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, and Monocalcium Phosphate.

Let's look at Sodium Aluminum Sulfate.  Here is an excerpt from livestrong.com about this food additive:

A Healthier Halloween

I've had some inquiries about what has been happening in my kitchen this apple season. . . I promise, I will get to that. . . but this is not that post.  Since Halloween is right around the corner it is only right to discuss all that candy!  

I will start with a few questions I've gotten about our own family's Halloween traditions:

Freezer Smoothies

We just had the most productive 3 hours!  So productive that I am able to start this blog post before the kids go to bed!  We had a fun weekend, but the house suffered. . . and for three hours we suffered. BUT laundry is well in hand, rooms and floors are picked up, dishes are done, and Smoothies are made!

With Fall officially here and preschool already underway, I am especially looking for something to give my girls immune system a little boost.  (We have already been through a round of antibiotics this season).  Our girls love smoothies.  And it is super easy to hide some veggies in those!  

I wanted to be sure that my girls got a good dose of fruit/veggies in them at least once a day.  Sometimes we just run out of willpower. . . time to eat clean.  After talking to my friend about freezer meals and getting a few tips I decided I would get some canning jars and make smoothies once a week and stick them in the freezer so I could always have them on hand.