Thanksgiving Favorite: Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats

Chocolate, marshmallows, and fudge-striped cookies all rolled into one little pilgrim hat? Now that's something to be thankful for!!!

I found this idea on FamilyFun a few years ago, and we have been making them every Thanksgiving since - so good! Of course, melted chocolate + kiddos can get a little messy...but it's totally worth it!

Making the Most of Those Pesky Sick Days

Cold and flu season is in full swing around these parts! Those rotten germs invaded our house at the beginning of October and have been hanging around ever since.  

My poor little girl had to stay home from school for a couple of days this week - a pretty big deal since she absolutely LOVES school. Of course, I hate when my kiddos are sick, but on the flip side, it's nice to   have that extra one-on-one time, even if it involves sniffles and sneezes.

Over the last few days, Abby and I snuggled up on the couch, watched a little Phantom of the Opera (her first time - with editing), introduced her to my grandma's famous warm rice and milk, picked up Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer (just finished the book!) and the latest Scooby Doo movie at the pharmacy along with vapor rub, cough drops, cold medicine, vitamin C...and then made a quick doughnut run on the way back home. Before bedtime, we've been enjoying our own vaporized  "steam room" using those effervescent shower tablets as Abby draws all over the bathroom mirror. (Note to self: Pick up more glass cleaner.)

A major highlight for me? Abby's comment: "Staying home with you is fun, Mom!"

Awww...music to my ears.


*Have any sick days tips or surefire cold remedies to share? We could definitely use them. Cold and flu season still has a long way to go.

BKids Review: Stack 'n Link Pal & Peek-A-Boo Blocks

I am one of those sappy moms who still has a huge plastic bin full of baby toys that I just can't part with (and two more of favorite baby clothes), even though my kids are now five and seven years old. Thank goodness for having tiny nieces and a nephew who inherited the other half dozen bins that used to line the walls of my garage.

Another perk to having a brand new baby niece is shopping for cute little outfits and spoiling her with the latest in baby-sized entertainment like this BKids Stack 'n Link Pal...

Now these are not your ordinary stacking rings. The new "bebee and friends" line has chunky rings with raised animal shapes, miniature music notes, and polka dots which will make for extra sense-stimulating-fun when Vivi grabs on or chomps down with her gums. When she gets a little older, she can link the rings together and pull them apart again. I'm sure she'll love spinning bebee monkey's head round and round too.

The Soft Peek-A-Boo Blocks also have all kinds of raised shapes and textures just right for her little fingertips, and six of them are squeezy too! The other three blocks are super easy to open and close, and the soft blocks fit right inside. The blocks are numbered 1 through 9 which encourages number sense development, and, of course, stacking those colorful blocks will build early hand-eye coordination.

My niece is only three months old right now, so by Christmas time, she will have reached the toy's age recommendation for 6+ months. Perfect timing, huh? I may have to break them out a little early though since we are visiting at Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to stack rings and play Peek-A-Boo blocks with her. I'm sure my two-year-old niece, Ami, will want to join in too. I am really looking forward to it!


*Thanks to BKids for sending the toys my way. I received these products in exchange for my honest review. For more info on baby stages of development and/or how to pick an age appropriate toy, click on over to the "Tips for Mom" portion of the BKids site (written by yours truly).

Thankful Turkeys

Hey everyone! Forgive the intrusion. I first wanted to give a big "thank you" to Kelli for inviting me to do a guest post on her super-cool blog. This woman is kind of my hero. So seriously, I'm honored.

Before I had children, I had all these really great ideas about how I was going to raise well-mannered, grateful, loving, selfless children. They would delight in raking leaves for the elderly, giving their toys to children in need, and never fight with each other. I know, isn't it cute that I thought that might happen? We live in a very materialistic society, and it can sometimes be a struggle to teach our families to be grateful for the things that we have, instead of focusing so hard on all the things we want.

With the holidays fast approaching, it's a wonderful time of year to focus on our blessings. To jump start our Thanksgiving month, we created a "thankful turkey". (Confession: I kind of have a little thing for turkeys. They are so goofy and cute.) I was super excited to have a turkey for our family gratitude mascot.


This guy was so easy to make. I drew him on a piece of cardstock, colored him, and cut him out. Then came the real fun...naming him. Of course, everyone in the house had a different name in mind, so we settled things the diplomatic way...we played rock paper scissors. Our turkey ended up with the name "Jacob".

After hanging Jacob in the window of our breakfast nook, we cut out construction paper feathers, and each took turns writing something we were thankful for. We have tried to add new feathers regularly. This has been a great reminder of our many blessings, and it's so fun to see the different things that our family members are grateful for. I was even pleasantly surprised to see that my name showed up on a few feathers. Hey, every mom likes to be appreciated! ;)

Tis the Season To Be Thankful

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, the kids and I made a Grateful Sayings poster - one of my favorite Fishful Thinking activities.  Being that they were only 3 and 5 years old at the time, we kept it pretty basic...

Still, it became a permanent fixture in our kitchen up until we moved this past summer. Seeing it on a daily basis was a constant reminder to be grateful even for the simplest things.

Last November, we each made individual posters as a family night activity and then added to it throughout the month - using these questions to spark ideas and help inspire an ongoing attitude of gratitude.

Now that November has rolled around again, it's time to continue the tradition and reflect on the many things we have been blessed with in our lives. The kids are currently debating between making a "Thankful Tree"- where you write what you are grateful for on a paper leaf and add to it each day - or a "Thankful Turkey" - where you add paper feathers - a clever little idea that my friend, Jenny, shared with us. Their family's turkey is already adorned with plenty of feathers which she'll be posting about this week right here!


*Does your family have a special way of showing gratitude during the holiday season or throughout the year? Thanks for sharing!

A Halloween First - Our SNOW GHOST!

With a record-breaking winter/FALL storm TWO days before Halloween, making a snowman just didn't seem quite right...

Yes, we made a SNOW GHOST - complete with Oreo eyes!!! And I am happy to report that he lasted through Halloween night - just had to replace his soggy cookie eyes with milk jug caps covered with black duct tape.  Whatever works, right? 

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!! :)

Halloween Math Idea: Make a CANDY Bar Graph!

Here's another idea from last year that was a lot of fun (and a sneaky way to reinforce those math skills):

When I was a kid, I loved sorting through my stash of Halloween candy after a night of trick-or-treating. I'd count out all of my Snickers, Crunches, lollipops, etc...and then try to hide my bucket in my bedroom so I could dip into anytime I wanted to. Oh, that sweet tooth of mine. Must be in the DNA because now those childhood traditions have been passed on to my kids. Sure enough, as soon as we walked in from our Trunk-or-Treat on Weds. night, Abby dumped out her bucket in the middle of the living room floor and took inventory. She even counted Noah's loot. Then my inherited-sweet-tooth boy hid his bucket in his closet for two days before I realized it was missing. No wonder Noah was spending so much time in his room. Geez...

Since we're doing the homeschool thing this year, I thought I'd use the candy to our "educational advantage" and do a math activity with Abby. On Thursday morning, I had her sort through her candy again, create categories, and helped her make a simple bar graph on large tablet paper. As she sorted through those 67 pieces (which she counted exactly), we talked about words to describe the candy & wrote them on index cards for our "Adjective Word Wall" - chewy, sticky, sweet, hard, crunchy... - a little twist on the Savoring Food activity from Fishful Thinking that helps promote Emotional Awareness and Optimism:

Select various food/snacks... Eat one of the items you selected and notice all the different tastes and textures. Take turns naming out loud something you notice...Repeat this with the other foods. Take an index card and list as many attributes of the food as you can.

An activity using Halloween candy that builds math, language, and positive-thinking skills all at the same time, and it was fun too! If only all of our school activities could be like this...

Next up, I think we may need to do a lesson about SHARING Halloween candy. I swear, it was like pulling teeth to get the kids to give Mom and Dad a measly little Hershey bar.


*As for the sharing issue - this year I'll be stashing away a handful of snack-size Snickers from our candy bowl just for me!