02.15.07

EXTREME Birthday Parties

Posted in Mom Tips, Great sites at 9:59 pm by Cristina

Jennifer and I often joke about how everything these days is “Extreme”.  Extreme Pizza.  Extreme Skydiving.  Extreme Driving.  Extreme Fried Chicken.  And this year, I had an Extreme Birthday Party with a friend for our 4 year old girls. 

It was a lot of fun, but I’ll admit it was pretty over the top.  My friend makes these gorgeous 3-D cakes. She made an entire barnyard scene complete with barn, animals, grass, a pathway, a pond, and a silo.  We had a petting zoo at her house, pony rides, abour 40 kids, and a lot of games.  Did I mention we had beer for the parents?  Yep.  It was, as I said, a lot of fun.  It was also Extreme. 

That being said, Jennifer took great joy in sending me this website link:  http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org/.  Not only is the test fun to take, but it offers great suggestions for kids parties.  So test yourself.  See if you’re as crazy as I am. 

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02.05.07

Adding happy thoughts to tasks you despise

Posted in Mom Tips at 1:15 pm by Cristina

We are always looking for tips and tricks from other moms we know, and our friend Cherie recently sent us this note:

My children both shared a Winnie the Pooh picture in their respective nurseries.  It was just a “happy, bring a smile to your face” picture that they both loved.  They’ve gotten older and have outgrown Pooh (for now, I’m waiting until they are older to introduce them to the Tao of Pooh.)  So, since the picture still brings a smile to my face I hung it in my laundry closet.  Believe it or not, it really does make doing laundry not so awful, as every time I open the doors and see that picture, I’m reminded of walking into the nursery and seeing both kids at different stages in their nursery.  Standing for the first time in their cribs, bouncing for the first time like Tigger, etc . . .

Cherie, by the way, knows a thing or two about maintaining sanity.  Her husband was deployed to Iraq for an extended period of time, so she was basically a single working other of two children.  She’s our hero.  I loved her idea of putting something like her Poo picture in an area where you might not be thrilled to spend time - in her case, the laundry room.  I know it might be hard to find a way to put a remembrance of happy times inside my toilet bowl (my least favorite task), but maybe some cool stuff ABOVE it would work. 

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02.01.07

Cooking . . . Not So Much.

Posted in Great Products at 11:12 am by Cristina

Those who know me, know that I don’t love to cook after working all day.  Add to the mix two children who are picky and half the time don’t like today what they liked yesterday, and I REALLY don’t like to cook.
 

Thankfully, I have a business partner who is the Queen of the Internet when it comes to research and ideas. No, not the Queen - The Master.  The Ruler. The High Priestess of Internet Research.  She came across The Six O’Clock Scramble (www.thescramble.com), and it will revolutionize your life if you are like me!My big isssues with cooking during the week are my inability to plan for meals, not knowing what to cook, and the fact that the majority of my recipes are from my mother, which means that you have to be Martha Freakin’ Stewart to make them and everything is from scratch.  It would be no surprise to you then that my mother was a stay-at-home-mom, and enjoyed making things for me, like toast with smiley faces cut out of them and eggs poached to perfection in delicate cups.  She’s crazy that way. 

The Six O’Clock Scramble solves all of my problems.  For a small fee, you get a shopping list of raw ingredients, tons of menus to choose from, family-friendly meals, and best of all, they are health conscious (i.e., you can do them on Weight Watchers or any other plan).  It rocks! 

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