Treat For Teacher

At the end of the school year last year I put on a fun Last Day Luau to help celebrate the beginning of the summer with our kids so this year I wanted to come up with an idea for the teachers in our kids lives. This was the fun, tasty treat idea that I came up with.

Supplies:

Confetti Cup Cake Batter

Vanilla Frosting

Cute Cup Cake Liners

Red Food Coloring

Green Jelly Beans 

Pretzel Sticks

 I mixed up and baked the cupcakes using the directions on the back of the box. While they were baking I put a bit of the vanilla frosting into a bowl then mixed in red food coloring until I got the color red that I wanted.

 After the cupcakes were cooled I covered them with the red frosting then stuck half a pretzel stick in the middle and a green leaf on the side of that. 

And there you have it some super cute apple cupcakes!

For a cute little cupcake holder I used some plastic tumbler cups and some red ribbon.

I carefully punched 2 holes on each side of each cup then I slid some of the red ribbon into the holes in half of the cups.

I placed a cupcake into the cup then slid the other end of each ribbon into the holes in the other cups then tied them making an adorable cup cake holder.

Happy Easter

I am very excited about Easter this year since my son and I get to spend it with my family in Oregon. Easter with my family has always been so much fun! We all get together at my grandparents house, color eggs, have an Easter egg hunt competition, stuff ourselves with a big dinner, over do it with sweet desserts then finish off the night playing board games and laughing our butts off...like I said fun! This is going to be my sons first Easter here in Oregon so I wanted to make it extra special.

When my son woke up this morning he was so surprised to see his bright green, toy filled Easter basket which the Easter Bunny had left for him. The Easter Bunny had also left some big bunny foot prints on my parents floor.

Easy! Self made stencil and some flour.

For lunch I made a cute Easter themed meal.

Supplies:

Foil

Red and Yellow Food Coloring

Crescent Rolls

I made a couple cone shapes out of foil then I wrapped the twisted up crescent roll pieces around the cones.

I mixed some red and yellow food coloring with a bit of water to create a dark orange color. I then brushed the food coloring mixture onto the crescent rolls and placed them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

After they were done baking I wiggled the foil out from inside of the crescent rolls making a small cavity in the middle of each roll which I filled with some egg salad.
This was such a fun, cute, creative, Easterish way to serve up lunch and most importantly my son loved it.

For a little sweet snack I made some Easter S'mores using bright colored, egg shaped marshmallows which I found at Walmart.

I made the s'mores in the oven which was set on broil. I left the s'mores open faced so the marshmallows would bake.

And bake they did! They looked just like they had been cooked over a camp fire.

The s'mores were so sticky good, everyone enjoyed them!

So far our Easter has been very special and its about to get even better because its time to head to my grandparents house...let the games begin!

 What are your plans for Easter?



Fun And Easy Easter Basket

My son turns into the Tasmanian Devil when he eats to much candy so you can imagine what our candy filled holidays, Halloween and Easter, are like. We are spending this Easter with my family in Oregon and I have a feeling that Great Grandma's Easter basket is going to spoil my son rotten so I thought it might be a good idea to make our Easter basket a fun, non edible one so I took a quick trip to The Dollar Tree.

The Dollar Tree had a couple aisles full of fun Easter themed gifts like the Easter sticker book, the blue stuffed rabbit, the awesome rabbit sun glasses and the chick book full of shapes.

I also found some great toys in the regular aisles as well. The spinning sound tube (I don't know the proper name for it obviously), the monster truck, Mickey and Minnie puzzle, number flash cards and the Mickey bubbles.
As you can see I did throw in a tiny green Easter Bunny that has some gum balls in it, I thought this might come in handy when we fly home. I give him a small piece of gum to chew on take off and landing to help his ears.

And instead of buying a regular Easter basket that will most likely end up broken or in our garage I decided to buy a canvas bag in my sons favorite color. This is something that he can use over and over again.

 

So here it is, my fun mostly non edible Easter basket! What will you be putting in your kids Easter Basket this year?!

 



Sick Toddler Solutions

There is some nasty stuff going around right now and of course I was the first person in our family to catch it. I spent two days in bed but I'm feeling a bit better now, good thing since my son just caught the cold. I do everything I can possibly do to help him feel better and get over the cold as fast as he can. I have a past post where I shared my Sick Baby Solutions but now that my son is older there are more medicines for him to take to help ease the pain and uncomfortableness that comes along with a cold. So I thought it would be a good idea to update my sick child solutions.

The most important thing is hydration! 

When my son is sick I give Mott's For Tots Immune Support Juice throughout the day and if his throat isn't hurting I will give him a small glass of orange juice to get some Vitamin C first thing in the morning.

And of course water, water and more water. 

Water helps your body heal and it will keep an irritated throat moist.

If his throat is really hurting him I make him a hot cup of decaffeinated green tea. I let it steep for 10 minutes with a small slice of orange in it. I add a bit of honey to sweeten it up and to help sooth his throat.

As far as medicines go I try to use more natural products, my favorite is Hyland's 4 Kids. During the day I give him Hyland's 4 Kids Cold 'n Cough and at night we use Hyland's 4 Kids Cold 'n Cough Nighttime. 

To see if he is running a fever I still use my favorite thermometer from Vicks. If he is running a fever then I give him a chewable children's ibuprofen. 

Some times if my sons throat is really bad and the hot tea and medicines aren't fully working I will give him half a Halls cough drop, he likes the strawberry flavor.

For my sons runny, stuffy nose I love to use these Cool Touch Kleenex. His little nose can get pretty red and raw from all the wiping and blowing but these leave his nose feeling cool.

Night time is the worst! 

So before I put him in bed I give him a nice warm bath. I fill the bath tub with hot water then close the door letting the bathroom fill up with steam and letting the water cool so it doesn't burn him. I also add Johnson's Baby Bath with Soothing Vapors. I love this stuff! He always feels a bit better after his bath and he is definitely less congested.

Before I get him dressed in his pj's I rub a bit of Vicks Vapor Rub on his chest, back and on the bottom of his feet. I then put on his cozy pajamas and slip on some socks. This definitely helps with his congestion and his cough.

To try and help him sleep more soundly I put a bit of Vicks Vapor Rub into my Potpourri Crock. The Vapor Rub melts filling his room with soothing vapors.
I also plug in our Vicks Warm Mist Humidifier to help put warm moisture in the air which helps relieve my sons cough and congestion.

Rest!
I try and keep my son in bed or on the couch as much as possible and if he falls asleep I let him sleep. But trying to keep a toddler calm and resting can be pretty impossible so I like to sit or lay down with him and watch his favorite animated movies. 

When my son catches a cold its never just a little cold. He has children's asthma so his colds often turn into bronchitis and when this happens we normally end up at the doctors and he ends up having to use a neutralizer to help clear and open up his lunges which he is not a fan of. I'm not a doctor by any means but I do what I can to prevent my sons colds from turning into bronchitis so I take the steps I take, all of the above, as soon as I see that he has gotten sick and they all seem to help out tremendously.

Go Diego Go Party

Every year I put together a themed party for my sons birthday, this year he picked Go Diego Go!

Just like his past parties my son dressed accordingly. I searched our thrift stores high and low for clothes to make a Diego outfit and this is what I came up with, he absolutely loved being Diego!

Just like my Mother-In-Law's Twilight Dinner Party, I made my son a Happy Birthday sign using two pieces of orange poster board and some blue Die-Cut Letters. 

I rolled up and scrunched a couple Jot Mailing Paper rolls from The Dollar Tree to make some long vines and my husband and I cut out a bunch of jungle leaves from a few different colored green poster boards. I taped the leaves onto the vines and tada....jungle vines!
I used my sons stuffed animals as decorates around the house. I hung a stuffed monkey from the vine over our table and used two stuffed hippos as the center piece on the table. 

I had covered the table with an orange table cloth and used a blue table cloth that was folded in half as a table runner, Diego colors. 

We had a few extra jungle leaves so I used them around the house to make everything a bit more colorful and jungle like.

 I also made a jungle vine to wrap around our staircase banister.

I set a few more stuffed animals on our coffee table and threw a giraffe print blanket over the side of the couch.

Every year I make a themed birthday sign for our front door.
(After the party is over I hang the sign from my sons bedroom door...its kind of our tradition now.)

A themed party of mine just wouldn't be the same without a scent to match the theme. I put some Rain Forest scented wax melts into my Potpourri Crock which made our whole house smell wonderful.

Of course I stuck with the jungle, animal theme for the snacks as well with...

Zebra Cakes

Pretzel Sticks

(Monkey Tails)

Chocolate Animal Cookies

Cheese Puffs

(Tiger Tails)

Gummy Worms

Banana Chips

Ants On A Log

Chips And Dip
(I know this has nothing to do with the jungle or animals but its my families favorite party snack)

Everyone ate off of these cute plates!

Of course no Go Diego Go party would be complete without a Rescue Center! 

I threw an old tan sheet over my sons Toy Story Pop Up Tent then taped the Rescue Center sign that I had drawn and colored over the Rescue Center door. The kids at the party loved this little fort and it kept them all entertained and busy pretty much the whole party.

I do have to say that my sons Go Diego Go party was a hit, it was his favorite themed birthday party so far. In the words of my Mother-In-Law "welp Lindsey, you did it again!"

Narayani: The Unicorn Of Nepal (Animal Conservation)

The Denver Zoo is a huge part of my families life, when the weather is nice you will find us there. We know the zoo like the back of our hands and we know most of the animals by name. My families favorite is the Pachyderms and spending as much time as we have in and around the Pachyderm house watching the giant gray creatures that live there we have gotten to know one of the zoo keepers, Dave Johnson. Dave is one amazing human being! When he isn't at the Denver Zoo taking care of our beloved hippos and rhinos he is traveling to Nepal to help with animal conservation. A few years ago Dave wrote a children's book called The Elephants Of Denver with all the proceeds from the sale of his book going to aid in the conservation efforts to save endangered animals in Nepal. Last year Dave wrote a new children's book called Narayani: The Unicorn Of Nepal to help raise more money for Nepal's conservation efforts.

We took our son to the Denver Zoo for his birthday and as a birthday gift Dave gave our son a copy of his new book. The story of Narayani is an amazing tale and the illustrations are so much fun to look at, they were all done using Dave's personal photos from Nepal. It has quickly become our families favorite book. I read it to my son almost every night and I often find him sitting in his chair looking at all the colorful pictures. 

The best part of this book is that every single penny of every single book that is purchased goes to the Rocky Mountain AAZK (American Association Of Zoo Keepers) and Nepal's Conservation.

You can find this special book in the Denver Zoo's gift shop. So if you live in Colorado or are just visiting please stop by and pick up your copy of Narayani: The Unicorn Of Nepal today and help save these majestic, endangered animals.

http://www.denverzoo.org/

Road Trip With A Toddler

At the end of August my son, my pup and I took a super long 1,288 mile road trip from Colorado to Oregon. I was pretty nervous because I had never done the drive by myself and because I was going to have to keep my very active, very hyper toddler strapped in his car seat for about two days straight. I jam packed the back seat of the car with everything I could think of to keep him entertained and happy. The trip went amazingly well and it ended up being a lot of fun, my son was so great and stayed pretty busy the whole time by exploring everything I had brought for him.

Since its Spring Break time I thought it might be helpful to post the tips and tricks I used to survive a long road trip with my toddler, just in case any of you are planning on doing the same thing.

Fun Interactive Map

 I made this map out of the top of a pizza box so my son could keep track of where we were. I made a little car that looked like ours and glued a magnet to the back of it. I put another magnet on the back side of the map to keep the car attached to the map while keeping it mobile so we would be able to move the car along the line of our route as we reached the towns that I had written on the map. He loved it and it was an amazing visual aid!

Box Full Of Goodies

This box was full of my sons toys and gadgets, I placed it on the seat next to his car seat so he could go through it and pick out what he wanted to play with.

A better look at what was in the box. 

 *A Crayola Mess Free Color Wonder coloring book with markers that can only color in the book. I didn't have to worry one bit about him marking up the back seat.  

*A LeapReader Jr and a few LeapReader Jr books. The LeaspReader Jr read to him while he followed along which he really enjoyed.  
*My iPad which I had filled with new games and some of his favorite shows and movies. 

*Head phones, that way he could listen to his movies and shows in peace. I had my music on pretty 

much the whole time to keep myself entertained!  

*I put a huge amount of my sons toys, old and new, in the box to keep him busy. 

*Our portable DVD player and a bunch of my sons DVDs. This was one of the things that kept him the most entertained.  

*A pail of Play-Doh for him to create fun things with. 

*To keep the Play-Doh in one place I packed a small cookie baking sheet that I bought from The Dollar Tree. It sat perfectly on his lap and made a perfect little table.

 Tummy Fillers

There was another box on the floor which was full of snacks, and next to this was a mini cooler full of juice and water. 
I didn't want to have to stop every time either of us got hungry or thirsty, our two day road trip would of been even longer if I would of done this, so these boxes really came in handy.

For Comfort

To keep the sun out of my sons eyes and to keep the car a bit cooler I bought two window shades on sale at Target for $2 each. I used them on the two back windows and they worked really well, I still use them today.

I also packed his pillow and a small warm blanket.

 Keeping Clean

I had anti bacterial hand gel and some wet wipes in the door for when my sons hands and face got dirty.

 I also had this little makeshift garbage can on the passenger floor in an attempt to keep the car clean. I would dump it out at the rest stops or gas stations that we stopped at as needed. It is a large plastic pitcher and a small garbage bag from The Dollar Tree.

Do Not Forget!

The car chargers to all the electronics you are bringing. These were my life savers on the trip!

A Couple Extra Tips

 Don't rush! 

Its so much less stressful if you just take your time!

Take breaks!

Every time we stopped to get gas or use the rest stop I had my son run around and play with our dog for a bit. It gave both of them a bit of exercise and gave both their little butts a break.  

Bring Some Books On CDs!

My mom came with me on the road trip back to Colorado and we passed the time by listening to some books on CD. The trip felt like it flew by because we were both so into the stories.

Have Fun!

Play I Spy or the Alphabet Game. This will keep you all entertained, the trip will feel like its going by faster and I'm sure it will put a smile on all your faces and bring you a bit closer together as a family. I know it did for my son and I!