Tag Archives: parenting

Crafts for Kids: Story for the day today: You Can Do It, Sam

7 Dec

Today I posted a recipe for my brother’s favorite cookies, Brown Eyed Susans and I talked about how each of us in our family has a favorite cookie on the trays so that you can’t ever think of leaving one out or someone will be disappointed.

As a kid, we lived on a “country road” where the houses were kind of spread apart and our neighbors were sometimes down a long and winding road, or in a house we couldn’t see, even though they were nearby. On Christmas Eve each year, my brother and I would walk up and down the road, up and down the long, winding driveways for hours, delivering our trays of cookies to our neighbors. Some of these people we wouldn’t see very often during the year, even though we were neighbors, but everyone knew that on Christmas Eve Chris and I would be coming around with the cookie trays.

Elephant Ears were always Mr. Lussier's favorite.

It would take us hours because it wasn’t just a drop and run, it was a stop, stay and chat, and watch as the neighbors would exclaim over the cookie trays because they’d been waiting all year for their favorite cookie. I remember our one neighbor, Mr. Lussier, his favorites were Elephant Ears, and my mom only made just so many of those so each tray would get ONE Elephant Ear. The Lussiers knew that one cookie belonged to Mr. Lussier. As labor-intensive as those were, we could never leave them out or Mr. Lussier would be disappointed.

These memories of delivering the cookies are so, so special to me, I almost get choked up as I type this. Many of those people are now long gone, and my parents have since moved as well, but the memories…they stay forever and every single year when I make my cookies, I think of them fondly. It gets me through those moments at midnight the week before Christmas when I think to myself, “Why the heck am I doing this again?” Then I remember how much these cookies mean to the people we give them to, and how much the memories mean to me as well.

Today’s story is one that was given to my kids for Christmas in 2008 by my brother Chris and his wife, Nina, so I thought it was only appropriate to share today. It’s called “You Can Do It, Sam,” by Amy Hest and illustrated by Anita Jeram. Ours even came with a plush of the main character, courtesy of the Kohl’s Cares for Kids program that year. It’s about a mother bear and her baby bear, Sam. Together they make many cakes for their neighbors on Plum Street. Together they bake and together they wait as the cakes finish. And then, together, they put the cakes into bags for their neighbors. Sam is now old enough to deliver the cakes to the neighbors himself, as his mom waits in the truck for him as he delivers all twelve cakes to his neighbors.

It’s such a special story and it is so special that it was given to us by my brother and his wife, because whether they knew it at the time or not, it invokes such special memories for me of our days together, delivering our cookies to our neighbors. It’s a book to teach my kids about the special meaning behind baking for others, behind giving a piece of yourself to others, and creating memories of our own as a family during a crazy holiday season.

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Crafts for Kids: Snowball Snowmen

6 Dec

Yesterday’s post was a recipe for Chocolate Chip Butterballs, oftentimes known as Chocolate Chip Snowballs. It was a recipe that the kids could help out with, by rolling the batter or even by doing some of the measuring of the ingredients or by dumping in the ENTIRE BAG of chocolate chips for the batter. When I bake with my kids I try to find at least one thing for each of the three of them to do.

For today’s kid’s activities, I thought I’d capitalize on the “snowball” aspect of these cookies. Last year another mom, Theresa and I ran the “Brown Baggers” book club for our daughters’ second grade classes. It was a group that met during lunch and recess once a month to hear a story and do a craft related to that story.

This is a great story that leads to endless hours of building "snowmen" inside your home!

We used to alternate planning the activities, each taking a month. One of the months the book that my friend chose was called “Snowballs” by Lois Ehlert. You can find it here on Amazon.com if you’d like to purchase it. (And no, in case you are wondering, I have no connection to Amazon.com at all.) I had actually not seen the book before, but she had it at her house, her kids loved it and it was perfect for the season. She came up with a simple, fun activity for the kids to do to go along with it and they loved it. That’s the activity I’m sharing with you today.

Alexandra and her friend Graycee recently made some snowmen at our house, reminiscent of the ones in "Snowballs."

The storyline in the book will encourage your children to find ordinary objects around your house to turn their “snowballs” into snowmen. They can use paper plates for their snowballs or you can cut white circles (or if they’re old enough, they can.) Some of the items you might want to provide for them for decorations (depending on their ages for choking hazards): buttons, popping corn, stickers, pom poms, sunflower seeds, scraps of paper, rubber stamps and inks, pipe cleaners, feathers, artificial flower petals bottle caps…the possibilities are endless! Your children can make a snowman or woman or an entire snow family, depending on how long you want them to be crafting.

The second graders that we worked with had tons of fun with this story and the super-easy snowman craft that went with it. I hope your children will too! And thanks again to Theresa, for coming up with this activity last year!

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Big Announcement for December Cookie and Craft Lovers

30 Nov

December is coming!

Christmas is coming!!!

Holidays are coming!!!!

Family is coming!!!!!

Stressed yet? Don’t be!

This time of year can either be really awful or really special. For most of us, myself included, it’s a little bit of both. I love to bake and I’m always so proud of my cookies for my trays, but it’s hard to find time to carve out to make them all when you have little kids running around. Therefore, many of the recipes I will be posting will be recipes your kids can help you with (aka rolled cookies) so that it keeps them occupied when you’re baking and it cuts your prep time in half. No, all the rolled cookies may not be exactly the same size or shape, but really does that matter? (And if it does, just kind of re-roll them a little bit when you take them to put them on the tray. I’ve done that!)

However, so often you don’t just want them to be occupied, but you want what they are doing to be something they enjoy too, something meaningful for them. Therefore, I’m going to alternate my recipe postings with seasonal activities for the kids as well. They will be things like crafts, special stories to read, gifts to make, things like that which often coordinate somehow with the cookie recipes I’m posting (okay, once a teacher, always a teacher, clearly!) Some of the crafts will be things I’ve done with my kids in the past or things they’ve done at school and brought home that I loved, or even gifts I’ve received that were handmade that I loved. Times are tight for all of us, so any handmade gifts they can make is one less thing we need to buy! The stories I post are just the ones we have at our house, but my kid always love when I pull out the seasonal stories each December. (I always wish I did that every season, but I don’t ever think of it any other time of year!)

So are you ready? If so, be sure to check out the first recipe on December 1! The coordinating book and craft will be featured on December 2! And no…no hints!

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When can I……

17 Nov

“When can I have a cell phone?”

“Can I get my ears pierced?”

“Can I get them double pierced?”

“When do I get to sleep on the top bunk?”

“How come I have to put my own laundry away and they don’t?”

Sound familiar? As soon as our kids are old enough to ask for something, it starts….and it never ends. We realized very early on that we needed to set up House Rules for the kids who lived in our house and stick by them no matter what “everyone else” was doing and no matter what the rules in their houses were.

The rules were basically set by our experiences with our oldest, since she is the one who approached every benchmark in life first, whether it was sleeping on the top bunk, or having a cell phone, or whatever the case may be. However, by setting the rules for her, and making them known to the next two girls, it’s stopped a lot of the questioning. The rules are set, they know what they are, and there’s no question. We’ve only had to make an exception on one rule, one time, which I’ll explain later.

Having set rules not only helps us stay consistent in our parenting from kid to kid in our house, but it helps us have a ready answer when confronted with a question from another parent, and gives our kids a ready answer as well, when they’re asked if they can do something, by one of their peers. They may not like the answer, and their friends may not either, but at least they can blame us and say, “That’s the rule in our house,” if they want to.

Obviously we know that nothing can be written in stone and exceptions may have to be made along the way, and things may come up that we have no rules for and need to make a split decision on, but we have our baseline set of rules and we do our best to stick by them. We also know that our rules may be different than other families’ rules.

Clearly, we’ve only gotten up to the rules for twelve years old and sixth grade since our oldest is only that far along, but it makes me curious:  what the rules are in other people’s houses? Do you have rules set up beforehand and stick by them or do you make them up as you go? Do you have rules that you’ve found helpful beyond the ones we have here?

Comment back and let me know.

Here’s a look at our House Rules

Age 5 allowed to have their first friend birthday party, at home, five friends

Age 6 allowed to have their first friend birthday party out of the house

Age 6 first time sleeping in the top bunk  (*This is a safety rule told to us by the furniture store where we bought the beds, so there was no question here.)

Age 8 ears pierced

Age 9 last big friend party out of the house

Age 10 the almost sleepover birthday party (Three friends can be invited. Kids arrive with pjs, pillows, sleeping bags and stay late but not sleep over night.)

Age 10 Bedtime is moved to 9pm

Age 10 Responsible for putting away all of their own laundry

Age 10 first time sleeping at someone else’s house other than family (This is the one we had to make an exception for. Our second daughter got a birthday party sleepover invite from a family we’re very close to and we allowed it so she didn’t miss the party or have to leave the party. However, it was just an exception for the one night.)

Age 11 allowed to have an email address

Age 11 able to stay home alone for very short periods of time on an as-needed basis only

Age 12 sixth grade we allowed a laptop (our oldest “worked” all summer before her 12th birthday as a Mother’s Helper to save her own money in order to purchase a 10″ notebook laptop)

Age 12 or end of sixth grade can get a second earring hole if they want one (Sixth grade for us is the last year of elementary school.)

Age 13 or entering seventh grade can have an emergency-only cell phone

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Reminder! Don’t forget to enter the Good Night book set giveaway!

15 Nov

You can win a set of the Good Night books!

There is one more week left to enter our Good Night book set giveaway! You can learn more about this giveaway by clicking on the Current Giveaways tab or the What I am Reading Right Now tab at the top of this page. Be sure to enter before the winner is drawn next Wednesday! Fore more information about the GoodParentGoodChild company, check out their website!

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“No is not an option.”

10 Nov

I put the title of my post today in quotes because it’s something that was said to me, a phrase I heard years and years ago when I was a new teacher, but I think of it often, and I actually use it often as a parent, as well. Let me explain what I mean.

When I was a new teacher we lived out of state. There was a principal in our district who was known for his unique leadership style, and although not everyone agreed with everything he said or did, he was still known for his philosophies.

One of the first things he said during a meeting was when dealing with the students, “No is not an option.” As in, they were not allowed to say no to you. “That’s crazy,” I thought. “That could never work. Of course they’re going to say no. Who are we to tell them they can’t say no to us?” I was a new teacher, not yet a parent, and wouldn’t be for nearly four years, so my experience with kids was still limited at that time.

About two years later, I was at a family party in the summertime and my cousin’s little girl, who was about two years old, was out in the sandbox in the back yard. My cousin asked me to go out and get her and bring her in. I went out to see her, told her it was time to go in, and she told me that she didn’t want to go in. So, I went back and relayed the message to my cousin, to which she basically said to me, “No is not an option, go back and tell her she doesn’t have that choice and that it is time to get out of the sandbox and come in.” Hmmmm….there it was again. Out I went and relayed my cousin’s message to her daughter and up she came, out of the sandbox and into the house. It had worked and I had witnessed it with my own eyes.

Approximately two or three years later, we had our own daughter and then two more daughters in the years to follow. I cannot tell you how many times we have used that mantra in our house (and outside of our house, wherever we are) and how well it works, especially once our kids knew that we meant what we said and we would not back down. No was just never an option. They’re not allowed to say it in response to a directive from us, and if they do (and they have tried,) consequences for not listening do follow, whether it’s leaving somewhere immediately or taking away a privilege later on, depending on what we deem necessary at the time.

This came to me recently as I was shopping in a store, and heard an interaction behind me between a parent and a child where the child outright said no to their parent and was allowed to do so with no reprimand or reaction other than the proverbial throwing of the hands into the air by the parent and shaking of the head. I wanted to turn around (but I promise, I didn’t,) and say to the child, “You can’t say no to her. No is not an option.”  And then, I wanted to turn around to the parent and whisper my secret to her as well, “You know, they can’t say no to you, it’s not allowed.”

So instead, I’m telling my secret to you. So often, people ask us why our kids are so well-behaved, and that, my friends, is one of the reasons, learned way back in 1996: No is just not an option.

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Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

3 Nov

I’ve posted this on my personal FB page before, but I chose to move it onto my blog today because I love the simplicity of it. The recipe is easy and the cookies are delish!  Enjoy!

I love this recipe! I found it years ago. I always double it. Below is the single recipe.  Batter is safe to taste– no eggs.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips ( I never have mini, I used regular. To double, I only use 1 1/2 cups chips. 2 is too many.)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.

Beat in vanilla.

Add in flour and salt. Beat until well combined.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide dough in half and press each half into an ungreased 8″ round cake pan. (I don’t have those so I use a cookie sheet and I roll it onto that.)

Bake 12 minutes or until golden brown (It takes longer for a double recipe, almost double the time. Just keep an eye on them.)

Score shortbread with sharp knife and cut or break into triangles (for round pan, and square for cookie sheet.)

Let pans stand on wire rack for 10 minutes.

*photo of chocolate chips from Google Images Editor at Large

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Life lessons learned from Halloween

1 Nov

I just uploaded some pictures of my kids from Halloween onto my personal Facebook page. As I looked at the pictures, I was feeling so proud of the girls, I just had to share.

Here is the one particular picture I uploaded that got me thinking…

This year's costumes: a dancer, a doctor and a Face Book

The reason this picture got me thinking is this:  it may sound terrible, but we won’t go out and buy Halloween costumes. We outright refuse. Our reason is that our kids all take dance and have for ten years, eight years and five years, respectively. That means we have A TON of costumes in our basement, very beautiful but very expensive costumes. We average about six costumes per dance year, one year I think we had eight or nine. We also have costumes from dress-up clothes (we have several of the princess costumes) and costumes that people have handed down to us (and no we don’t have a costume bin, if you read my prior post about our bins!) Basically our basement could be a costume shop itself. So a few years ago, we decided that we would no longer spend money in the fall on costumes. They had to be whatever they could be with whatever we already had down there. One year my oldest daughter, Caroline, made her jazz costume into a poodle skirt. Last year, Elizabeth was a ballerina in a gorgeous dress combined with the bright blue Airbender mask and matching blue swords, an interesting combination, but she liked it, while Alex was something different every Halloween party or event we went to. Each time, she’d just pick something off the hook down there and put it on.

Halloween 2010 an Airbender Ballerina, a witch and a blue jay

This year, Caroline decided she didn’t want to wear something we had, and in all fairness to her, a lot of what we have down there no longer fits her since it was already hers in the past. She’d already done the witch costume a couple of times, and nothing from dance this year appealed to her. But, she didn’t ask for something new. She didn’t even tell us she wasn’t wearing something we had. She went on- line, Googled “Homemade Halloween Costumes,” saw the Face Book costume on a website that came up, and she was off and running. Between her and Don, they got the materials they needed and he helped her make the costume. I loved it!

She wore the costume to the “Lock In” at dance earlier this month and she was absolutely beaming when she came home with “Most Creative” out of all the costumes there. I was nervous that she might not want to wear her costume, being that it was homemade, (and I have to admit that although we stay strong on this, I was in fact, feeling guilty) but she brought it and won. I was so proud of her!

Times are hard and we tell our kids all the time that they will be older and remember these days when people were losing their houses and their jobs, when restaurants and stores were closing and empty, and I know that some day they will be telling their kids, “My parents wouldn’t buy us costumes for Halloween,” but hopefully when they do, there will be some good memories and life lessons learned, attached to that sentence.

Trick or Treat!


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Are we *that* family?

31 Oct

Today is Halloween. Each year we struggle with the same decision many other families struggle with. No, it’s not what to wear, the kids are pretty creative on that end. The question we struggle with: what to give out for our “treats.”

We get about 100 trick or treaters in our neighborhood, so whatever we give out, we have to stock up on quite a few of it. We knew right away we were not the “full sized treats” kind of house. We have to give out too many to be able to afford a full sized anything for anyone. We’ve done mini treats before, and last year I bought Dum Dum Lollipops and three boxes of tissues and the girls and I wrapped every lollipop in tissue, tied a ribbon and drew a face, making little ghosts.

This year earlier in October, I happened to be walking through Aldi’s, one of our local discount grocery stores (I *LOVE* Aldi’s by the way,) when I came across these and I knew I’d found this year’s treats:

Mmm.... Halloween Fruit Snacks...right?

I thought this would be the perfect treat, a little bit healthy and even better if there were treats left over, I wouldn’t want them myself the way I would a bowl of peanut M&Ms but I did think they’d be a perfect lunchbox snack for school for weeks to come. I was so proud of myself, I think I even gave myself a pat on the back.

Until…we watched a recent episode of one of the girls’ favorite shows: “Good Luck Charlie” on the Disney Channel. On this particular episode the family was getting ready for Halloween and Teddy, the oldest sister, had decided that this year her family was going to give out a healthy snack: carrot sticks.

“Oh, so you’re going to be *that* family,” her friend commented to her.

And that’s when it hit me: Were we going to be *that* family too? Is our treat fun enough, “cool” enough and healthy enough without being too healthy? All week I have been wondering. I mean it’s NOT carrot sticks (and no, I never even considered that,) but it’s not a full sized Twix bar either!!

So it made me wonder…what are YOU giving out for Halloween treats this year? Are you a full sized family, a ghost lollipop family, a popcorn ball family or a carrot stick family? Comment and let me know!

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My love-hate relationship with The Bins

29 Oct

The Bins

Today’s the day. I knew it was coming as the season began to change this month. Three weeks ago, it was Columbus Day Weekend and it was almost 90 degrees; my kids were in bathing suits. Two nights ago I was putting away laundry and there were still shorts and t shirts in the piles of clothes I was putting away. But, I knew it was coming.

One of my aunts calls the fall and the spring “The Black Holes of Fashion” because you never know how to dress. It might be chilly in the morning and hot by afternoon or cold at night and warm all day. It’s a constant game of layering outfits when I get my kids dressed each day or even myself: short sleeves and sweatshirts or long sleeves and leggings but no jacket.

Usually I look for a long weekend to do my bins, to switch my closets over, but judging from last night’s weather forecast for this weekend prior to Halloween, I told my husband, “It’s time,” and up into the attic he went last night so that when I arrived home there were stacks of bins halfway to the ceiling, full of clothing.

I am grateful that we have three girls and lots of girl cousins because get lots of hand-me-downs and we hand everything down after we’re done, to pay it forward. I can’t even imagine having to buy all new clothes for a boy and a girl for example, every single year, as my mom must have had to do. When you have “one of each” you can’t hand anything down from one to the other. But, having three girls and so many hand-me-downs to store, presents an issue: where do you store all those clothes for years and years, and how?

Originally when we had one daughter and no idea who was going to be born next, we saved everything and we had one stack of bins in our garage. I stored them labeled with a Sharpie marker by size and by season since here in New England we are lucky enough to have all four seasons. I narrow it down to Winter and Summer, lumping spring and fall in there as well. As we had more and more daughters however, and acquired more and more clothes (the outfits seem to multiply like the proverbial rabbits) we had to come up with a better way to store it.

Our solution was to have someone come in and access our attic for us. We were unable to do a pull-down stairway method, so every spring and fall my husband brings in a ladder from outside, sets it up in our bedroom and up he goes to take down the bins. Then I sort through all of the clothes, sending off anything that we’ve grown out of for good to the next lucky girls, and then sending him back up into the attic with the bins re-labeled for next year’s season. It’s a whole weekend process at least.

Currently we have ten bins and three bags of assorted clothing ready to be sorted this weekend. It’s a grueling process, but I will say this: I have an odd attachment to their clothes. I get very sentimental as I put them away each year and I get a slight thrill each fall and spring as I take the clothes out of the bins. I find myself saying, “Oh I loved this outfit on your sister!” as I pass it down to the next daughter. I love to hear them be excited when a certain outfit is now theirs, something that they always admired on their older sister. Or, as I pass down the special occasion dresses, I remember the photos they took or an event they attended in a particular dress, and I do get somewhat misty-eyed, I must admit. In fact, when it came time to give away my baby clothes for good (only saving the dearest and most special pieces) I photographed every single one. I have a folder with 42 pictures of baby clothing in it on my Kodak Easyshare site.

So as much as I am dreading my task this weekend, I am thankful to have the abundance of clothing to pass down to my girls, thankful I only have my oldest daughter to outfit each season, and I am looking forward to seeing what clothing is going into the drawers this year that we’ll be oohing and aahhing over this time around.

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