Playing With Food

We are a Cheez-It family! In this house we all prefer Cheez-Its over Cheese Nips. When a new flavor or a limited edition of Cheez-It shows up on the shelf at our favorite grocery store, we will generally test it. Most of the time we are not surprised to find that Cheez-It has received our household seal of approval. This of course happens to be the case for the new Scrabble Junior Cheez-It Crackers that I just bought. I had a coupon for this new Scrabble version of Cheez-It Crackers, so of course I had to get them. The thing that my kids really liked was being able to play with their food. Before eating the crackers both of my children were lining them up on the table spelling words. Since the Cheez-It Crackers are baked they are not nearly as messy and greasy as potato chips, so this is one of the few times that I don’t mind when my kids are playing and handling their food.

We are fans of their Facebook fan page. There are always fun things being posted on there. Aside from promotions and announcements, on occasion they have given coupons on their Facebook fan page as well.

This review was written by me based on my own opinion. I was not compensated in any way for the statements made in this post.

Leaving A Mark

It’s funny and not funny all at the same time. Lately Joshua has been leaving his mark all over the house. On everything! In permanent, Sharpie ink! We have talked to him about it and he is still not sure how in the world we are figuring out that it is him. He has been leaving his mark on everything. Trophies, toys, books, notebooks, magazines. Mostly things that belong to him, but still. Hello? Dude! If you are going to leave graffiti all over the house you might want to use a pen name or symbol that isn’t your actual name for a little anonymity. Just sayin! 

So here is some of the evidence that I managed to photograph.

 

I don’t know why in the world I would blame the boy for these things, it was obviously some stranger that came to our house while he was away and tagged everything in sight, with his name and with a SHARPIE! No worries… Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to the rescue. Note to self: Keep these magic tools in stock. I didn’t get any photos of this. In hind sight I wish that I had b/c I was rather impressed that the name came off of the trophy without ruining the words that were pre-printed on the tags. I am also thrilled that the eraser removed the ink from the wooden toys – even though there is an indent from the pressure of the pen left behind, the ink is all gone. SWEET!

Wooden Beaded Necklace Craft

We found these really cute wooden beaded necklace craft kits in the dollar bin at Michaels a while back. We grabbed about a dozen various style necklace kits with plans to include them in goodie bags at Isabelle’s birthday party. So here we are on a rainy day and nothing fun to do so out of the craft stash comes the necklaces. I was so surprised that Josh was remotely interested in creating one because it’s a necklace and kind of girl-ish.

That didn’t stop him, he picked a flower themed necklace, while Isabelle picked a mermaid one. The kits are in tiny packets since they have small pieces, so there is a concern of choking hazard for young children. My kids are old enough not to try eating the pretty little beads. I cut open the packets and hand the kids the pieces. 

Isabelle immediately started stringing beads randomly on the necklace string. She soon found out that a knot was needed on one end to prevent the beads from slipping off. Once a knot was tied on one end she began again randomly putting beads on the string. 

Josh on the other hand was looking at the picture instructions on the back of the necklace package. He paid close attention to the pattern suggestion on the package and followed it extra precisely. He first laid out the beads in the order he wanted to place them on the necklace while I tied a knot in one of the string. Isabelle quickly realized that she needed to follow a pattern and took the beads off the string and started over, following the same idea as her brother, lining the beads in order on the table before adding to the string. The kids were done with the necklace in less than ten minutes. 

If you are looking for a quick craft this is definitely it! The end result is one cute necklace, which of course makes both of my kids happy. Quick craft or not, it is certainly a win!

Overall this was a super cheap and really cute craft that my kids enjoyed from beginning to end!

Kid In Mind

I am a big fan of Kim Komando. She is the genius behind all things tech related: websites, e-mail, software, gadgets, you name it – she has covered it. So in today’s newsletter she covers a free site that is peaked my interest. We are fans of movies and enjoy streaming things on Netflix. Yes, I am THAT mother, the one that swore I would never let a TV babysit my kids. GAH! While I am not one that allows my kids to watch TV 24/7, still there is the occasional time that the good ole boob tube is a much needed distraction. Examples: waiting in line at a restaurant or the dread grocery store trip.

In regard to streaming, or watching a movie in general, there are the obvious choices that you know are for the adult audience and that the kids are not allowed to watch, but then there are some movies/shows that are either questionable or that you might possibly be on the fence about. Kim has introduced me to a site that goes beyond the generalization of the move rating system. The site I am referring to is Kids In Mind. This site enables me to make an informed decision about a movie choice based on criteria that matters most to me. I like Kids In Mind  because I can find out about movie content and decide if it is a family friendly movie with ease.

The criteria for a good family movie that matters most to me may not rank that high in importance to others. That is where this site comes in handy. For example, my son is 5yo and is quite impressionable when it comes to destruction. He does not quite pick up on any of the verbiage during a film being more interested in the action. After seeing only two episodes of the TV series The Dukes of Hazard (it may not be nudity, but it sure is on the raunchy side) it became quite clear that jumping over bridges in cars was not for him. In a matter of only a few days he has managed to destroy more than a dozen Hot Wheels metal diecast cars and dinged up the paint on at least half of the cars/trucks in his ginormous stash. We have since talked about fantasy vs. reality, but he is only five so time will tell. Back to the movie rating, we now look for movies with less violence since this is a trait of which we wish to steer clear.

Okay, that is certainly enough from me on the subject of movies.