The U.S. Postal System through the Eyes of a 5-Year-Old

So E's Uncle J was home from college over the weekend. After J had returned to campus, E's grandma realized that J had forgotten his retainer.

"We've got to go to the post office to send it to him," she told E.

"I'm not going in the post office, Meema!" he replied. "The mailman is gonna be SO mad at us for making him walk all the way to J's college. I'm not going in there. He will be angry."

Hahaha! I can't help but burst out laughing whenever I think about the story. I only wish I'd been there in person to hear the conversation unfold.

And, in addition to great amusement, this story also reminds me yet again of how much I love being a mom. E reminds me every day of a more simple and logical time in life when the only controversy was deciding which flavor of juice to drink or what stuffed animal to snuggle with at bedtime. So thank you, E! Mommy loves you sooo much.

Kids Love Salt

During supper this evening as I sprinkled a bit of salt on my son's chicken, he asked me, "Is that my salt?" With a chuckle I replied, "No, we all have the same salt now."

Let me explain...

When my son was younger and discovering his independence (and stubbornness) he always insisted on trying to salt his own food. In doing so, he usually wound up with more salt than food. After a few games of salt shaker tug-of-war, an idea hit me... RICE! That's right, plain old, white rice. I filled our otherwise-empty pepper shaker (no one in our household is big on black pepper) with white rice. Whenever he shook the salt shaker, it sounded like salt was pouring out when in reality there was nothing at all because the grains of rice were far too big to make it through the holes. He was happy, I was happy, and the food was still edible.

And with that, peace was restored at our family dinner table.

I Almost Forgot...

So there I was in my last post being all down on myself for not having done as many handmade elements as I would have liked... and I almost forgot two MAJOR projects that I did make!

The Invitations

These were made from a pack of colored card-making cardstock, white printer paper, some staple, my computer and my printer. All I pretty much did was find some cute clip art for the dinosaur and enlarged it in my word-processing software. (I formatted the document to have two columns in landscape format so I could fit two dinos per page.)

The trickiest part was getting the text on the back (not featured in the photos for privacy reasons) to align with the shape of the dinosaur. To do this I formatted another document with the same page settings listed above and then just played around with the spacing of each line. It was a little tricky but after a couple tries, I got it!

The egg was made by folding a piece of white computer paper in half the "hotdog" way and then again the "hamburger way. Then, starting at the folded edge, I cut curved up to form the sides of the egg. A little zig-zag action across the top and tah-dah! You've got two eggs. Now just staple up the sides, snuggle in your dino-invite and you're all set!

The Thank-You's

These thank you's are another simple, cost-efficient way to make cards in bulk. Again, I formatted my document into two columns and turned to trusty clip-art to find a dinosaur and a speech-bubble image. It took a bit of fussing around with the image property settings so that one image didn't cover up the other, but I figured it out eventually.

On the back (again not featured for privacy reasons) I had typed up a little blurb thanking each child for their gift and some details about the fun we've had playing with the toy/game thus far.

 To add some color (since I don't have a colored printer) I used a rubber stamp that said, "Thanks a million!" in green ink to fill in the speech bubble.

Then came my son's job. He colored ALL the dinosaurs (a couple with a little motivational help from me) AND wrote his name (all by himself) on EVERY SINGLE ONE. That's 18 cards to be exact.

Although I'll openly admit my primary motivation in taking this route with both sets of cards was a financial one (Those store bought cards are expensive!) both my son and I greatly enjoyed the process. Not only will these items be more meaningful to us but also more memorable to the guests. And hey, it's fun to have a chance to show off some creative flair too!

A Dino-mite Birthday Party!

Last weekend 18 ecstatic four and five-year-old's invaded my parents house to celebrate my son's birthday.

(Note the fact that this was happening at the grandparents home... Never have I been more grateful to have an apartment. It was the perfect excuse as to why I couldn't possibly host the party in my own home! Haha.)



Despite the obvious stress and insanity of hosting an at-home party with that many kids at that age, I was determined to have an old-fashioned at-home party. Although often quite fun, I just can't rationalize spending hundreds of dollars just for someone else to put up some generic decorations and entertain my child and his friends for a couple hours. Where's the fun in that? I don't get me decorate or plan anything!

THE DECORATIONS
As mentioned, I truly do enjoy the decorating part of parties. I don't, however, enjoy spending obscene amounts of money to make them happen. Originally I had the best of intentions to use hand-cut palm leaves and crepe paper to make a total jungle effect. Well, somewhere between the holidays, my senior year of college, work and mommyhood in general, those aspirations vanished.

Fortunately, I was still able to be thrifty and found this awesome dinosaur bulletin board set for about $10 at Oriental Trading. It worked great!

What would normally be a border around the bulletin board worked perfectly as a border around the doorway...

and the other pieces were scattered about the house as well. Only a few pieces of the entire set are pictured here.

This cute centerpiece was also found at Oriental Trading for under $4. I love how colorful it is! It made purchasing the rest of the tableware much easier since there was such a wide color pallet.

THE GAMES
Since there were so many kids, I had some activities set up in centers that they rotated between as well as some big group activities.

• Dinosaur Egg Hatch. The kids visited the "Dinosaur Hatching Grounds" (a.k.a the living room) where they found eggs (balloons) that needed to be hatched. To prepare this game yourself you'll need deflated balloons (one per child) and small plastic dinosaurs.

1. Place one plastic dinosaur inside each of the deflated balloons.
2. Blow up and knot the balloons.
3. Give them to the kids and laugh hysterically as the room is filled with their heads bobbing up and down as they try to "hatch their eggs." (Some will take a cautious approach to this... Others will do a total butt-first drop on the ground in the hopes that they will land on their balloon.)

• Dinosaur Safari. Using the dinosaur footprints that came in the bulletin board set discussed above (and pictured in the image that includes that giant blue dinosaur) we went on a "Dinosaur Safari" to try and find a nest of eggs left behind by the very rare Alphabetasaurus Rex.

1. Tape dinosaur footprints all around your party space.
2. Write each letter of the alphabet on a separate Post-It note.
3. Place one note on each of the dinosaur footprints. Try to do this in a logical way so that the kids will be able to easily find the letters in the correct order. And remember, you're going to want "Z" to end up near wherever your "dinosaur nest" is hidden.
4. Prepare your nest and eggs. For the nest, I just tore up some newsprint and placed it in a wooden bowl. For the eggs, I pulled out the Easter eggs and filled each with treats and goodies.
5. Tell the kids that they are going on a safari to find the mama Alphabetasaurus' nest, but the only way she'll let you steal her eggs is if you give her the entire alphabet in the correct order.
6. Let 'em loose! Depending on the age of the kids, gauge how much help they might need in remembering the order of the alphabet.

And then, finally, it was time for the always exciting  piñata! 

My son continuing to maul the poor T-Rex...

At first the candy was only coming out of Rex's mouth, which of course made the kids yell, "Look! It's puking up candy!" Haha.

Eventually it was bludgeoned enough that the head cracked open too.

• Dino Hats. Aren't these adorable!? And pretty darn easy too. Once the template is made for the head and tail (I cut my template out of an old piece of cardboard), all you need is some construction paper (in at least two different colors), staples/stapler and markers.

For more detailed instructions, go to Family Fun.

THE CAKE


Then it was cake time! I could have made one, but the SuperTarget that's 10 minutes from our house seemed like a much easier option. Creativity loses to convenience once again.






My little guy looking SO grown up...

Even though it wasn't as hand-crafted as I'd wanted, I've gotta admit, it went pretty darn well! E seemed pretty happy too (as you can't tell by the frosting-stained smile).

In Light of the New Year...

Since for many, the new year marks the time when we attempt to overhaul our lifestyle and vow to live a healthier, more fulfilling life, I wanted to share a nifty little recipe that will help aid those attempts. 

This is a simple, inexpensive, non-toxic recipe I found for a produce disinfecting spray to get rid of all the nasty pesticides and chemicals that coat non-organic fresh produce. So if your wallet doesn't have enough room for organic goodies or if organic just isn't your thing, at least this way your fruits and veggies are a bit less hazardous.

The vinegar in this spray has natural anti-bacterial properties, while the lemon juice is a natural astringent. The solution works to both breakdown and clean off pesticides.

Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp baking soda
1/2 of a lemon

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a large container. Transfer to a spray bottle with a pump. Spray mixture on produce and let sit for 5 minutes. Scrub and rinse.

From: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/clean-and-healthy-produce-spray