Quick Date!

We meet our friends for lunch, or at chick-fil-a.

A lot of my friends who work meet over coffee.

How about taking time out for some hot chocolate and a sweet treat.

Some one on one (or in my case 5 to 2) time!

 I promise the conversations, and the $3.00 will be worth it!

I love these little moments and discussions that we have as a family.

Schedule for Toddlers - 11

On Mondays I am going to have tips on what has worked for me with my many kids.  I have received emails about my daily schedule and so I am going to go in order every Monday.  Please comment with anything that you do or don't do or if this has helped you so we all can benefit from everyone's experiences.

7-8                Breakfast, practicing letters and morning review of the day.

8-9                Morning Task Sheet, get ready basically tidy up and morning chores.

9-10              Free Play w/Mom - No chore time slot...you will be amazed how much your kids will love this!

10-11            Quiet Activities

11-11:30        Clean Up

11:30-12        Lunch

12-12:30       TV/Show

12:30-3:00    Nap/Rest Time 

3-3:30           Snack

3:30-4:00      Read Books

4:00-5:00      Shake Sillies Out

5:00-5:30      Wash Up and Set the Table, Quick Pick Up

5:30-6:15      Dinner

6:15ish - 8pm      Daddy Check List

I am fortunate enough to have a husband who helps.  He used to travel a lot and I would never have a break in my day.  Once he switched jobs and stopped traveling and was home at a reliable time we both decided that he would take the after dinner shift.

He told me it would be easier for him if I had a checklist for him to follow so he wouldn't have to ask me every 5 minutes what is next.  So I made a check list and the kids help him get everything done.  He usually takes this time to play cars or tea party with the kids during this time too.  

We both feel like it is important for the children to get Daddy play time and for him to help in the routine stuff too.  The kids love this time too and it usually involves a lot of laughter.

9/29/08

10/22/10

During this time I usually finish up my stuff - dishes, laundry and all that jazz uninterrupted so when the kids are finally down for the night we get 8-10 to just be together (me and hubster)

If you want a copy of the checklist please email me or leave a comment with your email address and I will sent it PRONTO! well - as close to pronto as possible! :)

hope that helps!

Schedule for Toddlers - 3

Sorry this is later than the others - my kids needed some much needed time with their cousins today! :)

So far we have: 

7-8 Breakfast, practicing letters and morning review of the day.

8-9 Morning Task Sheet, get ready basically tidy up and morning chores.

9 is our play time.  It is the only time I give them 100% of me.  We play or dance or read. They get a full hour of time with me and on the weekends we try to still schedule in free time with just Mommy and Daddy.

The best part of my day is this hour where they TELL ME what we are going to play or how we are going to play.  Here is one of my favorite times last Christmas - 

Last year being 2009 - wow time flies!

I hardly ever take pictures during our hour because I want them to remember how much fun we had and all of the giggles we shared. Seriously our lives can get so busy and our houses can get so messy but sometimes we need to just sit back and "play" with our children.  I hope I can keep this up as long as possible because it is secretly my most favorite time of day.   I hardly answer the phone when we are playing because I don't want it to come to an end.  Try it.  Even if you can't do it every day your kids will really benefit from you dropping everything just to play with them. :) Okay off the soapbox.

Mighty Minis

I have 3 small kids who love popsicles.  My youngest (almost 18 months) is just too slow at eating them and I hate the mess.  So I found these at Target for $2.30 and thought I would try them.  They are SLOW MELT popsicles!  They have a little bit of Gelatin in them and are made from fruit juice and they are DELICIOUS!  Plus, I don't have to worry about stains on clothes and they are perfect size for littler ones who are slow at eating freezing ice things!

So here are my younger kids enjoying them.  They are a lot smaller too in size and the sticks are bigger but you know what I didn't care...they were happy and didn't burn in the hot sun while eating them! Hahaha

Smores Nachos

My husband had the treat last night for FHE, of course he had to change a classic its something I love about him!

Here we go...

Basic S'mores ingredients.

Sporting new jammies! :)

Breaking up the crackers and stealing a few.

Laying them flat on the tray.

Adding the chocolate. Then bake for 6 minutes on 400 so the chocolate gets soft.

Now its marshmallow time. Don't touch the cookie sheet its hot!

Broil for 3 minutes until the marshmallows puff up and turn brown.

Dig in!

Ornament Week #1

Some are for kids...some are for adults.

This one is for Adults. Here is the How to on this ornament : HERE

We used Christmas paper and Voile!

Our theme this year for the tree is paper, so everything is made of paper.  At the end of next week I will show you the entire tree!