I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
Archive for family
4 Categories : Around Our House
The girls are always creating images out of found objects. They are very creative and can turn anything they find into something else. I had never thought of it in the terms of a game and that is just what Morphology is!
Morphology consists of objects, word cards, a timer and a die. You just divide into teams, then one person draws a card from the deck. They then have to create the word with the objects that are provided. Then your team mates have to guess what it is in the time that is allotted. If your team guesses correctly you get to move your team frog forwards on the lily pads! The first team to reach the finish wins!
The items below are what comes with the game. The kids thought it was so fun! We just teamed up the non readers with a reader helper to make it where they could still play the game. They are so creative and they were fantastic at the game.
This is a game that can be enjoyed as a family or with friends. I could see it being even more fun with a few drinks added in!
Morphology can be purchased at Barnes & Noble! You can also order online!
I received Morphology to facilitate this review. No compensation was received and all opinions are my own.
1 Categories : Did You Know?
I have been working even harder than usual lately. Busy busy! The girls surprised me with a tea party to have some down time and just hang out! I needed it! My girls are great! We had tea and clementine oranges! I hope you take a break from the busyness of the holidays!
11 Categories : Around Our House
Bust mom, like that is a question…all mom’s are busy! Well, every mom I know is busy! So having some good snacks on hand are a must.
Have you checked out Farm Rich? Recently we tried their Cheese Sticks. The kids LOVED them! I think it would be great to keep in the freezer for a quick snack, or as a side with dinner.
So what’s a busy parent to do? Farm Rich talked to moms across the country recently to discover their real-life tips for working wholesome snacks into the chaotic schedules of school-age kids and their families.
- Start the Week Off Right. For Bethanne Latkso of Worchester, Mass., organization is the key. “I have two kids, a busy husband, and I’m designing my own jewelry line, so I don’t have time for frequent trips to the grocery store. Instead, every Saturday, I map out the week’s activities and plan our meals and snacks around that.” Latkso says in addition to saving time during the week, planning also helps eliminate poor food choices. “Because I’m eliminating impulse buying, I make better food choices – everything from buying more fresh fruits and vegetables, to buying better snacks for my kids.”
- Mini-Meal Replacement. For Leah Welch of Brandon, Fla., a mother of two boys ages 10 and 12, snacks that serve as a mini-meal are a lifesaver. “We are constantly going between baseball, soccer and chess,” explains Welch. “Just before I drive them to an activity, I’ll pop something like Farm Rich Mini Quesadillas into the microwave. They eat them on the way to the game and they’re good to go until we can get home for dinner. It’s a much better choice than fast food.”
- Sneak in Wholesome Snacks When They Least Expect It. “When my teens are having a study group or a sleepover, instead of letting them load up on sugary soda and potato chips, I try to sneak in a snack that’s more nutritionally sound and the brain food they need,” says Nicole Mills, an Atlanta mom of three. If teens balk at serving friends fresh veggies and dip, parents can try Farm Rich Cheese Sticks or Mozzarella Bites made with real mozzarella cheese. Real mozzarella cheese is a good source of calcium and protein, but they don’t have to know that!
- Make Healthy Snacking Convenient. Kim Griffin, a business owner with two teenagers, says because her children are at the age where they can prepare snacks for themselves, “I stock the freezer with things that are easy to heat and eat. They like being able to reach into the freezer to grab a snack they can heat in the microwave and be ready to eat in just minutes.” With frozen appetizers like Farm Rich Mini Bacon Cheeseburgers or Mini Philly Cheese Steaks, they can have a filling and better-for-you snack in just minutes. Or, suggests Griffin, put some Farm Rich Meatballs in the Crock-Pot, let simmer all day and bowl the kids over with the aroma when they walk in the door from school.
In light of last year’s snacking study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tips like these are important for helping give kids snack choices that are better for them, despite the chaos of an active lifestyle. According to the UNC study, kids are snacking more than ever before – in fact, nearly 98 percent of children 2-18 snack between meals.
“Kids still eat three meals a day, but they’re also loading up on high-calorie junk food that contains little or no nutritional value,” said study leader Barry Popkin, Ph.D. He also noted that salty, fatty snacks, such as chips and crackers, accounted for the largest increase in the types of snacks children were eating during the three-decade period reviewed in the study.
About Farm Rich
A leading brand of Rich Products Corporation, Farm Rich (www.farmrich.com) is based in St. Simons Island, Ga., and features a successful portfolio of frozen snack and appetizer products sold at grocery and club stores nationwide. Featuring the tagline, “Keep ‘em Happy,” Farm Rich makes wholesome, great-tasting snacks that are sure to please family and friends. Visit www.farmrich.com or the brand’s Facebookpage at http://www.facebook.com/FarmRichSnacks. Follow on Twitter at @farmrichsnacks. Video is available on YouTube athttp://www.youtube.com/farmrichsnacks.
1 Categories : Did You Know?
Weekends are a great time to eat pizza and watch a movie. We usually pick up a family friendly movie (as well as a mommy and daddy movie for after the kiddo’s head to bed) from Redbox. You just can not beat the price of a Redbox rental, well…unless of course you get a free Redbox rental!
Right now on specially marked boxes of Totino´s Pizza Rolls and Party Pizzas, when you purchase 4 Totino´s Party Pizzas or 2 Totino´s 40 count Pizza Rolls to receive a free one-day redbox DVD promo code that can be redeemed at the following:
Today is the last day of the promotion, so grab those pizzas today to cash in on those free Redbox Rentals! Totino’s are great to keep on hand for a last minute meal! We love the Pizza Rolls best! Great for sleepovers for sure!
Did you know there are more than 27,800 Redbox locations? Find the closest redbox kiosk by checking redbox.com/locations. I love to reserve online so I can be sure to get the movie we want. Just simply swipe your card at the Redbox kiosk and you’ve got your reserved movie! Easy!
Our favorite Totino’s Party Pizza is Pepperoni!
The Giveaway!
One Not So Average Mama reader will win 2 VIP coupons, Free one-day redbox DVD promo code, 2 pizza slice plates, 1 popcorn bucket and 1 pizza cutter!
This Giveaway will end on November 18th, 2011!
Disclosure: The VIP coupons, prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by Totino´s through MyBlogSpark.
They are sisters, they are best friends! They get a long so well and I hope they stay this close! They do bicker at each other once in awhile, which is to be expected, but they LOVE to be together! Makes my life a whole lot easier that’s for sure!
This is from the same day that we went to the Pumpkin Patch. The photos below were taking at “Goat Man’s Bridge” or it’s proper name, Old Alton Bridge. It’s a pretty nice place to go, with a very long walking trail! Sometimes you will see some horses on the trail, this day we were following horse tracks, trying to track them down haha!
Oh and we learned something that day! Never kick a cactus! There was a group of kids hiking the trail and one of the boys kicked a cactus and it went right through his shoe and into his skin! Ouch!
20 Categories : Around Our House
Oct
23
23
by Brandy
When Daddy’s away, these girls party!
So what would be better than Pizza, homemade slime, popcorn, candy and a movie? Oh, a sleepover in the living room of course!
Friday we headed to Walmart to get our supplies for an evening of Mother and Daughter fun! Me and my 3 girls! First stop was the Redbox…which at our Walmart happens to be blue now…why is that? Anyhow we decided on RIO! Even though birds scare me in real life, I can hang with some animated birds.
Our trips to Walmart are never in and out or even quick. We have to browse everything. There is so much to see and my girls have so much fun browsing the items and asking me questions. Lots and lots of questions…
You can view photos from our fun shopping trip in my Google+ album!
So to start off the fun we made some pizza! Normally we would make homemade pizza, but this time I had a coupon and we picked up a DiGiorno Pizza that came with Chocolate Chip Cookies….we were going all out!
After we had our Pizza and Cookies it was time for a fun project! A project that combines science, fun and even something oooooooey goooooey for October spookiness! We made SLIME! This is a very fun project and I encourage you to make it with your own children. My girls are ages 5, 7 and 13 and they all loved it! Heck, I loved it!
What you need:
- Elmer’s School Glue
- Borax
- Food Coloring (optional)
- Warm Water
The first step is to empty one bottle of Elmer’s School Glue into a bowl as Emma is doing in the photo below.
Once you have it empty, refill the bottle with warm water. Replace the cap and shake. Then empty this into the bowl of glue that you already have. Add a few drops of food coloring if you like.
Mix it well!
Set this aside and grab the Borax.
Now you need a 1/2 cup of warm water and about a teaspoon of Borax. Mix this up, don’t worry about the powder being dissolved.
Now for the fun part! While one person stirs the glue mixture, another person will slowly pour a little of the Borax mixture into the glue. Just a little! Now as the glue mixture is stirred you will see the molecules binding together and it getting stringy and slimy looking! This is so cool! See in the photo below how it is starting to pull with the spoon?
Add a tiny bit more Borax solution and keep mixing….now let your kids dig in with their hands!
Now this was a bit too slimy for continued play, so we added some more Borax solution. At this point you will definitely need to mix it well with your hands! Knead it in well. Be sure to only add a little at a time, but do not stop mixing!
We got it to the perfect play consistency!
Store in an air tight container! We put ours in the containers you see in the photo above. The lids screw on. You could also use ziploc bags if you want. We ended up making two batches and the Borax solution was enough to make both batches. We just needed another bottle of glue. We left that one white by not adding any food coloring.
Talk about cheap fun that will last for days!
Next it was movie time! We popped the popcorn, poured our Clear American drinks ( I LOVE the Pineapple Coconut! Emma loved the Honey Dew, Lauren loved the Raspberry and Morgan loved the Black Cherry!), grabbed our yummy chocolate candy and made pallets in the living room.
Rio was such a cute movie! The girls were cracking up laughing and absolutely loved it. The bird dance club was hilarious! Definitely a great movie for family movie night! I think if daddy had been here he would have liked it as well. I think I’ll add it to the Christmas shopping list for sure! A birdie love story…awwwwwwww
We had so much fun and are planning on inviting some of our friends over to make slime with us! It would be a fun project for a kids party and they could take home the slime as party favors!
#DontBeTheDarkHouse and #ClearAmerican
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All opinions are my own.
12 Categories : Around Our House, Homeschool
It’s day 2 of October! We are anxiously waiting for Halloween! I can’t believe all the creepy children running around in my yard!
There are Zombies, Vampires, Ghosts and more!
Today we went on a spooky walk down on the lake trails. There were Spiders and Lizards running everywhere. Sadly we didn’t see any snakes! We did see a cute little bunny, well it appeared cute from a distance…but the girls and I are convinced it was a vampire bunny!
Ohhhhhh…a scary scary Glamour Zombie!!!
0 Categories : Around Our House
Master Lock has some really cool things now! Seriously, when I hear Master Lock I think of my old combination locks that I had on my lockers in school. I had no idea that they made all this other cool stuff. I will be doing a few reviews and giveaways here very soon! In the mean time please check out these tips below.
Master Lock offers these five key guidelines to help balance family safety with a busy schedule:
1. Embrace the key safe. If your children will be coming home to an empty house after school, or you need to provide secure access to your home for the family dog walker, a key safe such as the 5400D will safely store your house key for easy entry, and eliminate the risk of family members or authorized visitors losing a copy of your key while in transit. Simply set your own easy-to-remember combination on a key safe, and have peace of mind that family members and authorized visitors can enter your home safely when needed.
2. Talk to your children about a “home alone” routine. If your child gets home from school while you are still at work, or if your family is involved in a variety of activities on weekends, it’s important to have guidelines for your children to follow when home alone, including locking the door immediately behind them after entering the house, not spending time outside without a parent home and not answering the door for any visitors.
3. Share schedules. Be sure that your family is aware of each other’s schedules including work, school and extracurricular activities. Keeping a calendar updated with everyone’s activities in a common room such as the kitchen will prevent miscommunication about who will be home and when.
4. Lock up while on the go. We carry valuables with us at all times. Encourage your children to store cash, jewelry, cell phones or other small valuables in a secure container such as theSafeSpace® (5900D) or MiniSafe™ (5408D) when at sports practice or other after school and weekend activities. Parents should also secure similar valuables when watching their children’s games, heading out for a Saturday morning walk at the local forest preserve or going for coffee on the weekends. These products safely hold your valuables and can also be secured to a fixed object, allowing you or your children to enjoy various activities carefree.
5. Stay safe in the digital space. Use secure passwords and store them well. As your virtual world continues to grow, it’s tempting to utilize one, easy-to-remember password for access to all of your important on-line accounts; however, this puts you at a greater risk for a security breach. Instead, create more secure passwords by varying the code for each of your accounts, and using a combination of letters and numbers in each of your passwords. Then, store all your confidential data including these user names and passwords in the Master Lock Vault. By remembering one user name and one password for your Vault, you will have 24/7 secure access to your confidential information through the website or smart phone app. With the highest level of on-line security available today, the Master Lock Vault ensures your important information is safe and secure, and available to you anytime, anywhere.
0 Categories : Did You Know?
I love Fall soooo much! The girls have been outside so much over the last few weeks! Summer was so bad this year!
Now it’s time to drink Hot Spiced Apple Cider and begin collecting a stash of firewood!
One of our favorite things to do for the seasons is to create! This is just a small portion on our to do list.
If you have any to share please link them in the linky below.
I hope you enjoy!
Apple from Old Book Pages from NoBiggie
Mini Caramel Apples from CraftZine
Apple Garland from Roots and Wings Co.
Apple Cupcakes from Martha Stewart
Apple Print Backpack from AlphaMom
Apple from Recycled Box from No Time For Flash Cards
Shrunken Heads in Cider from Martha Stewart
Apple Votive Candle Holders from Quick & Simple
Scary Mouth Apple Bites from Family Fun Magazine
Raw Apple Pie from Not So Average Mama (ME!)
3 Categories : Around Our House
Ha…um…well, probably not! You know what they say…once you break a hip you die…
I totally tried though! I swear I did! I don’t know what crazy state I was in that made me think I could possibly pull it off. Maybe it was the old school skater girl in me…the very very old school. I’m not that young skater girl anymore and I must have taken too many meds the day I signed up and said “Oh yea! I can skate in Heelys. Make a video? No problem!”
At first I beat myself up over it. You know, the fact that I never moved away from being able to fall on the couch while wearing them. I watched videos that other women made of them cruising on the concrete like pros in their stylin’ Heelys. But then I came back to the reality that there is no reason to beat myself up. I have RSD. I tried! but falling with RSD is nothing to shrug off. Risking a fall could put me out of commission from extreme pain for weeks.
I did try though…That’s what counts right? RIGHT?
The awesome thing is, they fit Morgan! She has always wanted a pair of Heelys, but I didn’t know they made them in adult sizes until this review came about. Also, my sporty girl Lauren who is only 7 is cruising around the house in these Heelys (right this moment) that are a hundred sizes too big and she is pulling it off like she’s headed to the X Games!
Morgan loves the shoes! It took her a bit to get the hang of it, but now it’s like second nature to her. I was so impressed with how cool they look! The pair I picked looked more like a pair of skater shoes, therefore very appealing to me since that is what I normally wear. Look, here is me near the safety of the couch!
So here is the plan, I’ll share the shoes with Morgan! The wheels come out…this is how I will wear them. Put the wheels back in and it’s all teenage angst girl. She can have them, because my gimpy self is not qualified for it!
They have a guide with videos to help you learn to use them, there is even some fancy tricks you (not me) can do in them. Oh and don’t forget the Playbook!
Atleast I know what to get Lauren for her birthday next Spring! You guessed it, Heelys that are her size! You’ll see her at the X Games! Wait…do they have Heelys in the X Games?
So my opinion? Well, as much as I want to be all cool and fly around the grocery store in Heelys…it just ain’t happening! But…they are super cool and my kids love them! I only wish I had them like 30 years ago!
Be sure to like Heelys on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!
Disclosure: I was sent the pair of Heelys shown above by Business2Blogger to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
9 Categories : Around Our House
I know you come and read my posts! I see the numbers climbing up showing me just how many people read each post. Thing is, a lot of you never say anything. Well, that’s ok! I read blogs sometimes and don’t comment either, I try to most of the time though. BUT…I want to know you!
If you have an extra second while reading posts, please leave me a comment…even if you just say Hi! My blog is one of the things that keeps me going besides my family. I want to know you! If you have something in common with me, let me know that too! If you have a blog post you want me to read, then link it up here in the comments and I will come visit you!
Have a great day! Today is Volleyball for us!
4 Categories : Around Our House
That is what I was saying when I was first asked to go check out the site Bnter.com. At first I was a little confused, but after browsing around I was thinking “how brilliant is this?”
I’ll tell you how brilliant it is…super brilliant! I have never seen a site like this. Something new and exciting. Something else to spend time on! Read More→
0 Categories : Did You Know?
I hope to all of you that have fathers, husbands and children take time today to tell them how important they are to you and to let them know you love them.
I am so grateful to have my dad. Even though he lives very far away (he needs to get his butt to Texas!) I hope that he knows how much we love him. I’m thankful that I have parents that are still married. It’s pretty awesome considering most people my age have parents that are divorced. Read More→
0 Categories : Around Our House
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Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved
