Mommy Octopus

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Growing Plants With The Kids!

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For one of my daughter’s homeschool projects, she’s had to learn about plants and how they grow.  Target made this super easy by having these cute little pots with soil and seeds for just $1 in the Dollar section.  They had a variety of flowers and even herbs and strawberries.  The kids each got one in their Easter baskets since I thought they were so neat.  My in-laws must have thought they were neat too since they gave my kids one for Easter as well.

They were so super easy to do – just add water!  Next time you’re in Target, be sure to check these out for just $1!

Tasty Tuesday: Make A Carrot Cake!

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So I have had some carrots sitting in my fridge from a Bountiful Basket from a few weeks ago.  For Easter I decided to make a carrot cake from scratch.  No boxed mixes here due to my son’s allergy.  And since I’m using carrots, it’s going to be healthy right?

I went on over to All Recipes on the hunt for a recipe.  I ended up using this recipe only with a few tweaks.  Below is the recipe with my changes.  It actually turned out FABULOUS!  Best carrot cake ever and really wasn’t hard to do at all.  So moist, it was just incredible.  Everyone loved it and my father in law even had seconds.  I highly recommend giving this cake a whirl.

Carrot Cake:
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup raisins

Icing:
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
  • In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in raisins. Pour into prepared pan.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool.
  • To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Frost the cooled cake.  Top with chopped pecans.

Stranger Danger

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This week and next, I’ve decided to discuss Stranger Danger with my kids.  My oldest is easily frightened so I’ve tried to come up with a way to discuss it without making her afraid.

After talking with several friends, I decided to purchase The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers from Amazon.  I read it with my older 2 this morning and they liked it.  It had a great example of an odd looking apple being great inside and a beautiful apple being filled with worms inside.  This was definitely what they needed to hear since earlier I asked the kids what a bad person looks like and my son said a bad person has a grumpy face.  Most definitely not true.

There is also a video that I just ordered called The Safe Side: Stranger Safety.  It is put out by America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh and Baby Einstein creator Julie Clark.  Can’t wait to get it to go along with this topic.  There is a printable home study guide available on their website to use as well.

Here are some links to printables I’ve found along this topic:

Do you have any book or reference suggestions?  How did you teach your kids about strangers?

Easter Activities, Printables, and Coloring Pages

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With Easter in just a few days, I’ve been printing some activities and fun things to incorporate into our homeschool week.  One of my favorite sites to check out for holiday activites is First School.  They even have an entire section devoted to Easter.

Veggie Tales has a free printable as well that goes along with their Twas The Night Before Easter movie.  You can find that HERE.

Family Fun also has recipes, activities, and more.

Let me know if you have any other sites with great and fun (and FREE!) Easter ideas.

Has Couponing Changed?

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A year or so ago, couponing was in full swing.  Everywhere you looked in the stores, you saw many people trying to coupon, or even extreme coupon.  Lately I’m noticing that couponing seems to be wearing off.  Sale items aren’t disappearing from the shelves as quickly and couponers aren’t so prevalent in the stores.

Is it because people are realizing that what is shown on Extreme Couponining isn’t real?  Is it because the Extreme Couponing show is now turning into extreme coupon fraud?  The Coupon Information Center has even issued a Retailer Alert alerting retailers to the violations on the show. If you are couponing so you can be like the people on the show, you’ve probably become very discouraged.  Couponing like that isn’t real.  Numerous counterfeit coupons were used on several episodes in order to get the discounts.

Is it because the coupon policies at the stores have gotten stricter?  This unfortunately is a side effect of coupon abuse.

Is it because the coupons aren’t as great lately or due to stores such as Aldi popping up offering lower prices but no coupon acceptance?  I have no clue.

For me, I haven’t stopped couponing.  Honestly, my stockpile is established and so I’m able to shop infrequently to just replenish my stockpile.  Also since finding out about my son’s soy allergy last fall, I haven’t been able to buy as many processed foods, which really is great for our family.  I often say his soy allergy was the best thing to happen to our family.

Do you think couponing has changed in your area?  Have you changed the way you coupon?  Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts.

Tasty Tuesday: Make Jam In Your Bread Machine!

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Many bread machines come with a jam cycle now!  With the beautiful strawberries that we received from our Bountiful Basket, the kids were begging to try making strawberry jam!  After seeing how simple the recipe was, we decided to give it a try!

I will be making this using my Zojirushi Bread Machine. I got it from Amazon during the Gold Box Deal sale and I LOVE it!  It makes a nice rectangle loaf instead of the tall ones the other machines make.  Of course it also has a jam cycle and that’s what we will be using today.

For starters, the recipe only requires 3 ingredients.  See what I mean?  Super simple!  Here goes:

  • 2 Cups of Crushed Strawberries
  • 3/4 Cup Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

That’s it!  Look how beautiful these strawberries were before we started squashing. Mmmm…

Since I have a nice strong boy to help out, he did the squashing.  He loved it.  Strawberry bits were flying everywhere!  If you look closely, you can see my bananas that are turning brown.  I will have to do something about that tomorrow.  I see yummy banana bread in my future!

Looking good!

Then we just added in the other ingredients and put it in the bread machine on the jam cycle.  When it’s done, put in it a container after it cools and store in the fridge.  It will thicken as it cools.

Mmmm…. it’s so perfect over vanilla icecream!  Words can’t describe how delicious this is!

Athens, GA: What Can We Do With Our Infant or Toddler?

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Below is an article written by reader Kaitlin Bevis.  She writes for the Toddler Town Column in the Athens Parent magazine.  

As a childcare provider specializing in infant care, I frequently interview new parents. At some point in the interview, they confide they don’t know anyone else with kids and have no idea how to keep their child busy. I remember that feeling. In Atlanta I knew other moms, and every infant friendly activity, but then I moved to Athens. I was lost until I discovered the Athens Mommies Group. Now I’m their infant organizer.

So what is there to do in Athens for infants and toddlers?

Story Time: Infant story time is offered at most Athens Library branches. My daughter has been attending since she was three months old and loves catching the bubbles, singing songs, and playing with toys. They also offer toddler story time, puppet shows, baby music time, and

The Learning Express and Barns and Noble offer a story time every Monday and Wednesday respectively. Learning Express is an incredible store, but it gets crowded and is difficult to navigate in a stroller. The merchandise is also tantalizingly close to little hands.

Barns and Noble has a big children’s section, with a train set, toys, and board books to keep those little hands busy. They also offer a Saturday storytime.The children listen to three stories, color, and eat a snack. The six month old I watch loves listening to the story and tearing up paper at coloring time. My daughter loves running around on the stage after story time and pictures. This one’s a win for everyone.

Go to the park: Our favorite is Memorial Park. We picnic by the lake and feed the ducks, play on the playground, and explore Bear Hollow. I plan my visits close to nap time, so when the kids get tuckered out I can put them in the stroller and walk around the lake. We go to the World Of Wonder playground because they have a playground for toddlers. Barrett Shoals Park is fun for any water-loving toddler, though their playground makes me nervous for any but the steadiest walkers. Sandy Creek Park offers a beach but charges admission. Bishop Park has a variety of toddler sized equipment intermixed with their regular equipment and is the best place for a picnic. At Memorial Park my daughter wanders off chasing puppies, but at Bishop Park I can close the gate to one of the sports fields, bring a ball or a kite, and let the kids run wild. The parks also offer events for children of all ages. Outdoor parties, babies and beasties story time, tours of the zoo, and much more are available.

Take a class: St. Mary’s Hospital offers a Bundles of Joy class, which supports breast-feeding mothers, and a Toddle Time class. Both Athens Regional Mind and Body Clinic and Full Bloom offer mommy-baby yoga. Athens Regional only offers classes until your child can crawl, but Full Bloom takes them all the way up and out of toddlerhood. Full Bloom also offers pregnancy classes, a new mothers class, baby wearing, and cloth diapering classes. The Natural Baby offers cloth diapering classes and a baby sign class.

The YMCA offers toddler swimming lessons, and Kindermusik classes. Dancefx studio offers a mommy and me ballet class for children 18 months old and up.

The Georgia Elite Gymnastics Center accepts children from eighteen months to three years. I was nervous about such a large age gap, but the class was structured in such a way it wasn’t a problem. The gym is crowded on Saturdays, so I recommend their weekday classes.

The Oconee Gymnastics Center accepts infants who can crawl and up. The class is much smaller than Georgia Elites, but the registration fee made it a bit pricier. Athens Clarke County Gymnastics class offers separate classes for infants less than eighteen months old called diaper gym, a class for older toddlers, and another class for threes and up. They offer the lowest price, but if you don’t want to commit to a full season, check out their fantastic Friday events for ages ten months and up. The kids are led through a fun obstacle course in the Bishop Park Gym.

Canopy Studio’s offers a parent child trapeze workshop every Sunday morning for children a year and up. My daughter loves pushing the swings around and running on their padded mats, and the two year old I watch has a great time swinging.

Have Some Fun: If you’re not looking for a structured class, 1-2-3 Jump, and Pump it Up, has toddler friendly spaces, if you can get there when they aren’t crowded. Good Dirt has a family day so you can all play in the mud. My daughter had a blast picking berries and pumpkins at Washington Farms. If you’re willing to travel, Babyland General Hospital offers free admission to see where the cabbage patch babies are “born.”

Join a mom’s group: The Athens Mothers Center meets once a week; the Athens Mommies Group has play dates, meet ups, moms’ night out, and more. There’s even a moms group for Jackson County and Barrow County. Not only will you find lots of child friendly events, but you’ll also meet more moms. Not only do I keep my eighteen month old busy seven days a week, but most of the activities are appropriate for the infant and the two year old I babysit. There is a hidden wealth of infant and toddler activities in Athens, Georgia.

Where can I find the dates and times of these events?

Athens Clarke County Gymnastics: http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=596

Athens Leisure Services: http://ga-athensclarkecounty.civicplus.com/index.aspx?NID=535

Athens Libraries: http://www.clarke.public.lib.ga.us/, select events and classes, and select your library.

Or stop by your library and look at your Childrens brochure.

Athen’s Mommies Group: http://www.meetup.com/Athens-Mommies/

Athens Mother’s Center: http://athensga.motherscenter.org

Athens Regional Medical Center: https://web1.armc.org/body.cfm?id=221

Full Bloom: http://fullbloomparent.com/resources.php

Jackson County Mom’s: http://www.meetup.com/jackson-county-moms/

Kindermusik: http://www.athensymca.org/special-programs

Natural Baby: http://www.thenaturalbaby.com Select view events

Mom’s In Barrow County, Ga: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116398065063726

St. Mary’s Hospital: http://www.stmarysathens.com/programs/ Search support groups for the bundles of joy and toddle time programs.

YMCA Swimming Lessons: http://www.athensymca.org/youth-aquatics

For all other businesses I recommend calling because they’re online calendar often include classes that have been cancelled due to lack of interest.

Canopy Studios:
160 Tracy Street
(706) 549-8501

Dance FX:
1260 South Milledge Avenue
706-355-3078

Georgia Elite Gymnastics Center:
Georgia Elite Gymnastics – Place page
1235 Cedar Shoals Drive
(706) 549-0160

Oconee Gymnastics Center:
1071 Jamestown Blvd. Suite E1, Watkinsville
(706) 769-1239

Are you a local business that offers infant and toddler friendly activities to Athens Locals? Contact us and tell us all about it!

We’re Back From Disney!

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I know I told my facebook fans the other day that we’re back, but wanted to make it official 🙂 We had a great time in Disney and made lots of great memories.  It was much too short and now I’m suffering from the post-Disney blues and headache of tons of laundry, tired kids, emails, etc, but slowly things are finally getting caught back up.  We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and managed to do a couple character breakfasts which were a ton of fun.  My kids loved meeting the characters.  The look on my 2 year old’s face when she saw Minnie Mouse made the entire trip worth it.

We even had a little surprise at the Magic Kingdom.  We were walking to go toward the teacups and suddenly found ourselves surrounded by cast members!  They told us that Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs were just in the icecream shop playing around and told them to give us this big bowl of icecream goodness!  It had a brownie, strawberry shortcake, ice cream cone, and a cookie along with tons of ice cream, whipped cream, and fruit.  What a surprise!  The kids loved it and it made the day super special!   (By the way, my daughter is wearing a sock on her hand to remind her not to suck her fingers.  It’s hard trying to break this habit!)

The crowds actually weren’t too bad and we were able to ride almost everything we wanted to at the Magic Kingdom.  We also went to Hollywood Studios and that was super packed.  We caught a few shows, did the Toy Story Mania, Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playset and my older kids did the Jedi Knight Training.  That was pretty neat!

We also spent a little time at Downtown Disney window shopping and visiting with friends and relatives in the area.  All in all, a successful trip!  And a huge thanks to my assistant Edith for keeping things running while I was gone!

Weekend Boredom Buster: Re-Purposing Frames!

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This week’s Weekend Boredom Buster is brought to us by my friend Torri of Southern Traditions Boutique.  Torri tells us below how to re-purpose those old frames!

Lately I’ve been looking for frames at yard sales and thrift stores. You can leave them as is or paint them. There’s so many wonderful things you can put in them as well, or you can leave them blank!

I’ve seen pretty pictures of walls decked out in just the skeleton of the frame, all painted the same color. Some of them are done in the same color hue, or completely different. Above a mantel, going up the stairway, greeting you in the foyer, the ideas are endless!

About a year ago I got these frames for $2.00 each. They are BIG, and I love the color. Even the black and white romantic pictures are very nice, just not my style. I got them because I knew there was something I could put in them!

All I did was take off the back of the frame (I have to admit, they were kind of a pain in the rear, but after taking off the tape and bending back the staples, I eventually got to the picture, WHEW!). I didn’t realize that the picture and mat were one in the same, but no problem! The 12″ x 12″ piece of scrapbook paper fit just perfectly over the picture. All I used was tape on the backside of the paper to make sure it didn’t go anywhere.

Next, I had already decided what pictures I wanted of the kids. I printed both of them on regular 8×10 photo paper (did you know that Dollar Tree has photo paper? It really is good and so much cheaper!). I have a photo editing program that changed the color photos to the sepia ones that you see, which I thought matched the damask paper perfectly! I did an 8″ square of the photo that allowed 2″ on each side, which made a nice mat around the photo.

Then I placed it back into the frame and VOILA! New custom-looking photo frames for a FRACTION of what it would cost at the big craft/frame stores. I think all total, I spent $6.00 for this project! They are hanging up in our bedroom and look lovely with our newly painted “Caffe colache” walls.

Try your hand at reframing something. It really does give new life and leaves these things out of the landfills! 🙂 ENJOY!

Tasty Tuesday: Make Valentine’s Cookies!

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My original plan was to make these yesterday with the kids so I could have the post up early this morning.  We pulled everything out, started gathering the ingredients and realized we didn’t have eggs!  Normally a quick run to the store would have gotten us back on track, but my husband’s car was in the shop so he had my van.  He brought us some eggs home last night and we made the cookies today, so I apologize for the late posting.

This recipe, I pulled out of my Good Housekeeping The Great Christmas Cookie Swap Cookbook.  Even though it’s not Christmas, it has a great sugar cookie recipe that turns out great every time.

Cookie Ingredients:

  • 6 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups butter (4 sticks), softened
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

First up, beat the butter and sugar until blended and then add in the eggs and vanilla.  This is where having a good, strong boy comes in handy!

Next in a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt until blended.  Slowly add this to the butter/sugar/vanilla/egg mixture.

When it is well blended, you may have to get your hands in and shape it into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight preferably (or at least for several hours!)

When you’re ready to start cutting, roll the dough out on a well floured surface until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.  I rolled ours out in sections so I didn’t have all of the dough used at once.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out your cookies and place on cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.  Preheat oven to 350 and bake about 12 minutes.

 When they are done, transfer them to a cooling rack and start working on your icing!

Buttercream Icing:

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter softened
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons milk (or to desired consistancy)

Mix all of these together with a spoon and add in desired food coloring.  I chose pink!

 When the cookies have cooled, spread or pipe the frosting onto them.  I like using a sturdy ziplock baggie with a hole in it for the frosting tip.  One of these days I’ll actually go get decorating bags!

 Decorate as you see fit and add sprinkles for the fun of it!  Eat and enjoy!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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