*GIVEAWAY* Personalized Games for the Kiddos

Kids LOVE personalized things.  Zach loves anything with his name on it.  And both boys LOVE looking at pictures, especially of themselves, of course ;).  That's why I was sooo excited when my cousin Angela offered to do a giveaway for one of her AWESOME custom kids' games.  Angela runs an Etsy shop called Angela's Images, where she has personalized games and items that are created using pictures you send her.  She also has some handcrafted things like camera straps, and crayon rolls, and nursing covers.  In short, she is spectacularly crafty :).

She is giving away reader's choice of EITHER her personalized Memory game or the personalized dominoes.

Here is her description of the Memory Game:

Make photos a part of your child's everyday fun! Create a "Memor-ME" game of your favorite photographs! A great way to introduce family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) that children don't see often! Available in a 28 piece (1.25"x3" rectangular pieces) 30 or 40 piece game (2" square pieces), it's sure to be a hit around the household! 

These Games make great gifts! Choose 14 photos and send them to me and I will create your very own Memory Game! 28 pieces, ages 3 and up. Kids love these games and play with them for hours! Made from photgraphs and wood, sealed with a non-toxic coating and packaged in its own vinyl pouch for storing with your very own customized label, these games are sure to be a hit with everyone who sees them!

And here is the Domino Game:

Make photos a part of your child's everyday fun! Create a Domino game of your favorite photographs! Available in a 28 piece game (1.25"x3" rectangular pieces), it's sure to be a hit around the household! 

These Games make great gifts! Choose 7 photos and send them to me and I will create your very own Domino Game! 28 pieces, ages 3 and up. Kids love these games and play with them for hours! Made from photgraphs and wood, sealed with a non-toxic coating and packaged in its own vinyl pouch for storing with your very own customized label, these games are sure to be a hit with everyone who sees them!

Zach has the Memory game and he plays with it all the time.  Not only does he love doing memory-type games, but he LOVES looking at all the old pictures of himself.  He got it shortly after his first birthday, so they are all pictures of him when he was a baby.  

How awesome would it be to give one of these games as a gift?  Or even just keep it for your kiddo?  Entering this giveaway is EASY.  If you win you will get to choose which game you want.  Shipping to the U.S. lower 48 is covered, but Canada, AK/HI are welcome to enter, you will just have to cover shipping.  The winner MUST send pictures via email to Angela within 10 days of contest end.

*Disclaimer: I did not receive either of these games for this post.  I did receive the Memory game as a gift a couple of years ago.  All opinions are my own and not compensated. 

Enter via Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*FREE* Youth Football Clinic

I'm always on the look-out for cheap, fun things to do with the kiddos.  So, when Ashley from the Fiesta Bowl contacted me to tell me about a *FREE* Youth Football clinic that they are putting on for boys and girls ages 9-14, I was more than happy to share it with you guys :).

Here is some information:

As one of the Valley’s most exhilarating experiences in youth football, the Fiesta Bowl Youth Football Clinic promotes more than just the fundamentals of the game. Boys and girls, ages 9-14, are invited to participate in this free, non-contact clinic led by trained athletes and experienced coaches. Young competitors walk away with the perseverance, discipline and determination necessary to achieve their maximum potential both on and off the field.  There will be two separate clinics to accommodate participants in both the East and West Valley.

The camps are from 9AM-1PM. Registration for either clinic is required, but again, it is completely free!

More information:
West Valley - February 16, 2013

Glendale Youth Sports Complex
6221 N. 91st Ave., Glendale, AZ 85305

Registration Link - http://www.fiestabowl.org/events/fiesta-bowl-youth-football-clinic/register-west-valley.php

East Valley - February 17, 2013

Benedict Sports Complex

490 W. Guadalupe Rd., Tempe, AZ 85283

Registration Link - http://www.fiestabowl.org/events/fiesta-bowl-youth-football-clinic/register-east-valley.php

Healthy, Delicious, Lentil Soup

I LOVE the cold(er) weather months.  I'm fully aware it doesn't *actually* get cold here in AZ, but I'll take what I can get.  It's an excuse to wear long pants, long sleeved shirts, maybe even a jacket or sweater.  At night we can cozy up under a blanket, maybe even around a fire pit if we're lucky.  And it's a great excuse to make some soup!
Soups are the EASIEST, and CHEAPEST way to feed your family IMHO.  AND they are healthy, assuming you don't pick the soups with loads of cream or cheese and no actual veggies.  This post is about a pretty healthy soup I love to eat and make, and it's so very easy to do. You can make it vegetarian by withholding the pork products I mention, it will still be tasty, but the pork does make it extra delicious. I make mine veggie heavy, and hearty because Mr. G thang enjoys the veggies straight from the soup and he's not quite ready to feed himself with a spoon :).  So, take inspiration from this recipe and tweak as necessary for your own needs.

chopped up carrots

- 8 large carrots chopped approx. 1/4 inch thick pieces
- 1 stalk of celery chopped, approx 1/4 inch pieces
- 1 full bulb of garlic minced (it's a lot of soup and I like to taste the garlic, if you don't, then use less or none, it's up to you!)
- 1 medium/large onion chopped
- 1 bag of lentils
- 1 bag of prewashed spinach leaves
- optional, either ~6 slices of bacon, chopped or 1 ham bone you smartly threw in the freezer after Christmas dinner :)
- olive oil, salt, pepper

Get out your large stock pot, if you're like me, you don't know how to make a little bit of soup.  Add some olive oil* to the bottom and saute up your garlic and onion until the onion is translucent.  

sauteing the garlic and onions

Add your celery and carrots.  Saute all that for about 5 minutes.  Add your ham bone and lentils, salt and pepper as you see fit.  Add water to coat the lentils.  

the beginnings of a great soup

Bring to a boil and let that pot of yum simmer all afternoon, checking on it 
frequently, adding more water if necessary, stopping when the lentils and carrots are tender.  Throw in the spinach leaves at the very end and take out the ham bone.  

the finished product!

Scarf it down with some crusty bread and save the leftovers in the freezer for that day when you need an edible hug.

*If you go the bacon route, then cook up the bacon on your stock pot, remove the bacon, leave the delicious grease.  Use the grease to saute your garlic and onion, put the bacon back in when you get to the part where you add the lentils

Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday Party!

The last year went by insanely fast.  Gavin has turned ONE already people!  I have no idea how that happened.  We decided to celebrate with a party because that's what we do around here when the kids have a birthday.  We have a party, the kids give mommy a theme and mommy runs with said theme.
Gavin is a HUGE fan of Mickey Mouse. He doesn't watch a lot of TV, just snippets of what Zach watches here and there, but apparently Mickey has a lot of charisma because he was saying "ICK-EEE!!" when he saw the mouse on TV at like 9 months old (he's an early talker, errr, chatterbox). So naturally, we went with a Mickey theme for his birthday party.  
As with Zach, I tried to do some stuff DIY so it wasn't *all* matchy matchy party store deluxe.  The only difference is, babies don't play a lot of party games, so it was pretty much just decorations and cake.

Use the googles people!  I found some super cute Mickey/Disney themed fonts that I used the heck out of for party decorations.  The banner was just super-sized "Mickey Ears" font and then I cut out circles and glued to some construction paper.  I used one of the magazines that Gavin had "overly-loved" (aka torn most of the pages out of) and cut out some pictures of Mickey from that and glued them on.  

I made some signs and decorations for around the house with the fonts I downloaded and some Mickey pictures I found on the interwebs.  Thoroughly using my recently discovered poster-printing abilities.  

This was on our front door welcoming the guests to the party

   

Really proud of my cornball humor here, put this sign by the hot dogs we served :)

Everybody always asks where the bathroom is so I labeled it :)

And what's a party without some goodie bags? I had the epiphany (because I forgot to order the bags for the goodie bags) that I could just print on some paper lunch sacks and get some customized goodie bags for super cheap!

Lastly the cake and cupcakes.  We all know I am NOT a baker by any stretch of the imagination. So, I got myself some boxed cake mix from Trader Joe's and used that to make cupcakes.  Then I made a sheet-type cake and enlisted the help of my very talented friend/neighbor Rena to make the smash cake.  She did a FANTASTIC job, and as she knows, she's now hired to decorate our birthday cakes ;).

The kids and babies had a blast, Gavin is still pointing at the decorations and saying "ICK-EEE!!!". So Imma call it a win :).

Resolutions 2013

It's a fresh, brand-new year again already!  I can't believe how fast 2012 went by, a lot changed in our lives, and all for the better.  I'm looking forward to making 2013 our best year yet as a family :).  
Of course I have the obligatory resolutions, I prefer to think of them as "goals" for the year, mostly because resolutions sound so cliche! 

1)  Cut the crap.  Meaning cut the crap out of our lives.  Make a more concerted effort to NOT buy more STUFF.  We don't need it, our family is very fortunate in that we want for nothing.  We need to take several steps back and appreciate our good fortune and stop wanting and accumulating so much stuff.  And it's a good lesson for the boys too, only get what you really need or want and then you value what you have more.

2) Along the lines of cutting the crap, make more of an effort to re-use and re-purpose.  If I need some storage I can use one of the thousand cardboard amazon boxes we have and gussy that up a bit with some modge podge or something.  Or be more creative with artwork and frames.  Just generally be more conscious of whether I can make something we already have work, rather than getting something new.

3)  Focus on healthy eating.  I'd like to eat more vegetarian meals, less meat, and generally more healthy food.  We've been doing ok on this, sometimes convenience gets the better of us lately, especially with the baby.  But Gavin is eating "real" food now, so even more reason to make sure what we eat is healthy for everyone.

4) Exercise regularly some how, some way.  I was doing SO good with this, I would run in the morning and then shower during Gavin's morning nap and feel great.  Then Gavin stopped napping in the morning and got very erratic with his afternoon naps, so I stopped running.  I would LOVE to get back to this, I just need to be ok in my head with being a little sweaty all day after I run.  I'd like to FINALLY run a 5k this year.

5)  Get our memories out of the damn digital world.  We have LOADS of pictures on memory cards, in digital storage, lots of places we can't see them regularly.  I want to do a family photo year book every year, it'd be a lot easier if I could gather pictures as we take them instead of one big undertaking at the end of the year.

6) Focus on the people.  This follows the same vein as the first two things.  Life is about experiences you have with other people, not stuff.  So let's focus more on people.  Date nights with the hubs, even if it's a date night in of pizza, beer, and a dvd.  Mommy-son dates with each of my boys to give them 1:1 time, even just to the park or zoo. And this is important too, cut the people that don't make me happy out of my life.  I've made a good effort towards this last year, but I want a reminder for this year.  Those friends that only call you when they want something, see-ya later!  Those people that constantly bitch and are full of drama, don't let the door hitcha! I want positive people that make me smile around me, life's too short to waste it on anyone else.

7) And lastly, the cliche mom goal, focus more on me.  Go out by myself 1x/month and get some coffee, use my (3 year old) gift certificates for a pedi.  Browse a book store.  Hell just go to Target by myself!  And be ok with doing things for me, like reading, knitting, sewing, BLOG, all those things I never have time for even if it's just for an hour on a weekend.

They're goals, not entirely quantifiable, but still, good reminders of the way I'd like to live my life for the next year.  What are your goals and how do you plan on achieving them?

Nothing like some Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Today was cold (by AZ standards) and rainy.  And after yesterday's events with the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, it seemed like a good day to hunker down with the family and just enjoy each other.  
I love the colder weather, coming in from outside to some hot chocolate and eating some warm soup for dinner.  Nothing says love and family like homemade chicken noodle soup.  And since the kiddos have the sniffles (again!) it was the perfect meal for everyone.  
It is SOO easy to make and SO much better than that canned stuff.  I'm sure everyone has their own special way of making it, here's mine.

Get yourself a whole roasted chicken, either roast it yourself, like we did this time, or buy one of those roasters in the store if you're looking for a short cut.  Enjoy 75% of the meat off of that bird, but SAVE THE BONES!  And save a bit of meat to throw in the soup too.

I tend to make A LOT of soup, some to eat now and some to stash away in the freezer for when we need some soup but have no time to make it.

1 whole roasted chicken, 75% consumed, bones and last 25% of meat saved
6-7 garlic cloves, minced
2 small shallots, minced
1 stalk of celery chopped, about 1/4 inch thick pieces
8 medium carrots chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper

In a stock pot with the bottom coated in olive oil, saute the garlic and shallots until the shallots are tender.  Add the carrots and celery, saute until the celery just starts to get tender.  Add about 12 cups of water and the chicken bones, the best way I've found to do this is to get a brewing bag and throw the bones in that, and then put the bag in the water.  This way you don't have to hunt for the bones when the soup is done.  Tried this when the hubs was into brewing beer, it worked wonderfully :).  Bring this all to a boil and let it cook for about 2-3 hours.
Taste the broth, add salt as needed.  When you're satisfied with the broth, add the chicken pieces and some noodles.  I use some fideo noodles my aunt sends from Spain, IMHO they *make* the soup, but some angel hair noodles broken up would work too.  Throw in the chopped parsley at this point.

Eat with some crusty bread and freeze the leftovers.  So easy, so cheap, and tastes like home.

And do me a favor, hug your babies tight, and appreciate them.  Even when they are exhausting and you are exhausted, you just never know.

P.S. I know it's been AGES since my last post, I promise I didn't forget about you.  My baby thinks napping is optional these days unless he does it in mama's lap after nursing.  This does not lend itself to lots of mama time to be doing the blogging.

Easy Thanksgiving Turkey Kid Craft

You gots to respect the TURKEY people.  I can't believe how early we saw Christmas stuff in the stores, I think it was after Labor Day.  I love the Christmas season but that is just effing ridiculous.  In all honestly, Thanksgiving is far from my favorite holiday.  I'm not a fan of most of the food, and the day itself doesn't contain memories of anything fun and exciting for me as a kid.  But nevertheless it *is* the holiday between Halloween and Christmas and it deserves respect as such. 
Since Z has been in the mood to do crafty things on his full days home with me I knew I was going to have to come up with something for him to do.  He's VERY interested in all the holidays and things coming on the calendar lately.  And he says he "LOVES turkey", so I went with a turkey craft. This one is all mine, inspired from a variety of posts on Pinterest, but I came up with this one on my own.
This, as usual, is super easy, and kid friendly.  I used 2 toilet paper rolls, one whole one, for the body, and one I cut in half for the head.  I had him paint them brown completely, mostly to keep him busy.  

Then I took some rectangles of craft foam, I got these at the dollar store, you could use construction paper instead, whatever you have around the house.  I traced Z's hands on the rectangles, we used orange, red, yellow, and green.  We both cut out the hands (Z wanted to do it all himself and then after one hand declared it "too much work" and asked for help).  By the time we got the hands cut out, I used 8 rectangles because Z's hands are kind of big, the paint was dry.

Z glued the hands on the back of the "body", kind of spread out to look like the turkey feathers.  Then we used our jar of googly eye balls and glued a couple of those and a beak I cut out of yellow card stock to the "head".  I saved a small strip of red craft foam to be the waddle of the turkey. And Z insisted that the turkey also have feet, so I used the yellow card stock and free hand cut out some feet.

 As soon as the glue was dry on those pieces we glued them together to complete the turkey.  Super cute Thanksgiving decoration!  Z is very proud of himself, and I am too, he did a great job!

An Inspirational Movie - Little Red Wagon

I recently had the opportunity to watch a screener for an incredibly inspirational movie.  It's called "Little Red Wagon" and here's a short synopsis:

LITTLE RED WAGON is based on the inspirational true story of eight-year-old Zach Bonner on his quest to change the world with nothing more than his beat-up red wagon and a blazing spirit of philanthropy. When Zach sets out to help homeless children in America in the wake of Hurricane Charley, by walking from his house in Tampa, Florida to the White House, he must overcome bureaucrats and blisters, and capture the hearts of his fractured family and the entire nation.

I was very interested in watching this since I'm from Florida and my family lives in the Tampa area.  I remember when Charley was approaching and they were right in the path.  Thankfully as the movie shows, the storm veered, but it still had a huge impact on those it hit head-on.  That impact was the inspiration for Zach (in the movie, not my kiddo ;)).  
The movie sends such a great message.  Anybody, at any age, can make a difference.  It's a great movie to watch with your kids, it teaches them compassion for others, and the true spirit of philanthropy.  And it's a real story that touches on the trials and tribulations that doing a work of this magnitude imposes on a family.  Truly a feel-good type movie :).
If you're looking for a great family movie that also teaches your kids a little something about caring for their fellow man, please check it out!
Locally Little Red Wagon opens in theaters this Friday, Nov 2 at the Harkins Superstition Springs in Mesa.  Check your listings for when it might play in your area!

Wks 2 and 3 are done, with some challenges

Whew! It took more than 2 weeks, but weeks 2 and 3 of c25k are done.  Week 2 went off fairly uneventful, I ran, sucked some wind the first couple of days, LOVED the third day without the stroller.  Week 3 however was a different story.  The first day was rough, running for 3 minutes straight is no joke.  I was REALLY ready to hear Sheila by the 90 second mark, for the first 3 minute run.  Week 3 consists of 4 runs, 90 sec, 3 min, 90 sec, 3 min.  By the second 3 minute run I was in much better shape though.  Maybe I just need some warm-up time to get into my groove?
I knew week 3 would be tough, but I was ready for it.  I usually run on Tues and Thurs mornings, and then again on Sunday morning, so 3x/wk.  This week Gavin had his 9 month check-up Thurs morning, so my plan was to run at night.  And then our house got struck by a horrible plague. So I went over a week between runs.  I was bummed, but thankfully STILL motivated.  Life happens.  And after a week of being cooped up in the house with a bunch of sickies, I was MORE than ready to get out and run.  I ran Thursday morning with G in the stroller, he promptly passed out, I'm guessing his little body was just exhausted from fighting the sickies all week.  So I did my run, it kicked my ass, as expected.  I sucked wind, tried to use the force to convince Sheila to talk to me sooner, but I did it, and I felt great afterward.  And I got a lengthy cool-down session to let G catch some Z's as we strolled around the neighborhood.
Sunday morning it was nice and cool out, I went out mostly solo, I did take Reecey, but she's a good running companion.  And it was AWESOME.  I totally could have run longer.
So the moral of the story? Shit happens, life gets in the way.  But that is NOT an excuse to quit!  Take time, do what you need to do to get yourself together, and then hop back on the running train.  You know you'll feel better for it :).

Da Plague has hit!

What.A.Week. It started Thursday. I picked Z up from school and Ms. Donna told me "He just wasn't himself today.  He looked a little pale".  Hmmm... this sounds bad I thought.  We got home and he took a looong nap, very, very long for Z, 3+ hours.  I thought maybe he was just growing or something because he seemed ok when we got home.  We had dinner, he had been a little whiny since he woke up, and then it happened.  The one thing I can absolutely NOT handle as a mommy, the pukes started.  I high-tailed it away from Z as soon as that shiznit began because I'm a sympathetic puker in the WORST way, and Daddy really doesn't need that much to clean up.  Evidently Z did it 3x poor kiddo.  He also had a fever, lucky kid :p.  He was down for 2 days, thankfully only once incident of puking.

And then DOWN went the mama! No puking thank GAWD, but I had a fever for 2.5 days and the body aches, OMG the body aches, I was curled up in bed with my comforter pulled high over my shoulders, it was pathetic.

It hit B too, but not as bad.

Worst of all, it hit poor little G.  It hit him the absolute hardest :(.  He had a fever from Saturday til yesterday mid-day.  We took him in to the Dr because I was SURE at that point it had to be an ear infection or something, but no, poor little guy.  So cranky, so clingy, little man just slept, screamed, nursed, slept.  ONLY mama was allowed to hold him, feed him, or even look in his general direction,  He was a HOT MESS.  

The fever has broke for G, but the runny nose remains, and I'm pretty sure he's cutting two teeth, so he's not all sunshine and smiles, but we have happy little G back for the most part.

It was a HELLUVA week though.  Hoping to get some more time to myself so I can get a couple of posts written that have been brewing in my head.  

One is going to be discussing the idea of friendships as an adult, kind of inspired by this post because holy HELL can I relate.. 

5 little pumpkins... Halloween craft for the kiddos

I apologize in advance if you have an aversion to scissors, glue, and cuteness.  You're just going to have to look away for a bit.  Zach has been insistent on making stuff for Halloween lately.  So I've been pressed to come up with things for him to do.  This time I was *not* inspired by Pinterest, but by the Halloween book we've been reading at bedtime lately.  It's the five little pumpkins rhyme:

5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate

The first one said "oh my it's getting late"

The second one said "there are witches in the air"

The third one said "but we don't care!"

The fourth one said let's run and run and run"

The fifth one said "We're ready for some fun!"

ooooooo when the wind! And OUT went the light!

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

All caught up now?  I decided what more festive thing to do than to have him make the five little pumpkins sitting on a gate?  I have a bag of popsicle sticks, I cut 5 of them in half and used that to make the gate.  Zach glued it on some blue background paper.

And then I cut out five little pumpkins for him to decorate and glue on the gate.  Easy peasy.  He LOVED it, and embellished with a "spooky spider" and other scary(?) drawings.

Cutting out eyes and mouths for the pumpkins

Using excessive amounts of glue to secure the pumpkin faces

TA-DA! The finished product

A day in the life

Today I decided to do something a bit different.  A while ago I saw a post from Jill of Baby Rabies, where she took a picture every hour to document an "ordinary day".  I thought it'd be interesting to see what a day actually looks like for us, it usually goes by so fast without having any idea what we actually did.  I took a picture every hour from 8am to 8pm.  I'm nowhere near the photographer she is, but it still gives a pretty good picture of our lives.

8am - the boys are playing in their playroom.  Formerly the adult gameroom that used to house a pool table, kegerator, and arcade, now houses legos, a batcave and a jumperoo.  Z is STILL in his jammies, G is dressed.  Z up since 6, G since 630, both have had breakfast.  It's morning chill time.

 

9am - G is getting angsty, getting ready to feed him and put him down for morning nap.  Z took our pic, he is going to play spiderman game on the computer.  G falls asleep nursing covering his face with the blanket.

 10am - Just finished steam mopping the floors.  Z is hanging on the couch playing with some duplos. G is napping.

 11am - Headed to the park to burn off some energy in hopes for good afternoon naps from both boys.

 12pm - lunch time, Z is feasting on mickey nuggets and apples, G is having peas, squash, pears, and puffs.  G just had an epic ear-splitting meltdown

1pm - Z is napping.  G is having the time of his life emptying the laundry basket full of clean diapers.

2pm - G is napping. Z's turn for a meltdown.  He woke up with a cramp in his calf.

3pm - Everybody's awake! Snack time :).  Z is watching Phineas and Ferb on the ipad, G is apparently looking on as well.

4pm - Decided to spend time in the backyard since Z's calf still hurts.  G is not in favor of this, he really should have napped longer this afternoon. Zach is showing me "acorns" he brought home from the playground at school, yay?

5pm - Making dinner, I was going to make a brown rice stir-fry type thing, but I forgot to start brown rice earlier, so rice noodles it is!  Z loves to help in the kitchen.

6pm - Winding down in the playroom before bedtime.  Z got a new magazine in the mail. G is obsessed with all sports balls.

 7pm - Getting ready for bath time, G is soooo tired and cranky from teething.

8pm - Kids are asleep, settling down for some picture editing at the computer.

So, I learned we're not very exciting.  But that wasn't the point of this exercise.  This is an ordinary day in our lives.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  Sometimes we are having fun and sometimes we... are not.