Last minute New Years Eve Ideas to do with Kiddos.

Just a few hours until the ball drops in Times Square, New York city, to ring in 2015.  Times Square isn't how most people will be spending New Years Eve, unless watching it on TV counts.

I don't have any idea yet what I will be doing.......I am recently single and without plans for New Years. I will either be in bed early and skip the whole thing, or head to a friends house who lives about 8 minutes away. I am good with either plan!

Growing up we usually had a family celebration with a dance contest (It was a sad dance contest considering NONE of us could dance! Think "Elaine" from Seinfeld, only worse........) Mom would make fun celebratory foods & we would scratch off lottery tickets. Then we would do something similar to this.......

Looking back at 2014 & Looking ahead to 2015

At the time I did not enjoy having to sit with family and fill out forms and "dance".  It sure is fun to read them now that I am an adult and don't have the constant changes of my childhood years. 


These are a few other ideas I found on Pinterest that make me want to have a New Years Eve party at my house! Maybe next year......

Milk & Cookies

Balloon count-down with activities inside - you have to pop 

them to find out what you're doing next! 

Balloon drop! 

You don't have to do this at midnight where you are, you can pick a country (or state) and celebrate with their new year.  We did an Australian New Years one year.  All our foods were Australian favorites, we decorated with Australian themed items and celebrated with their New Years. 

Twelve Grapes at Midnight.

This is a favorite of mine......It's a Spanish tradition to eat twelve grapes at midnight.  Brings good luck for the coming year - one for each month. This is what I bring to New Years Eve parties and if it is an adult party I serve them in a glass of Champagne at Midnight.

 New Years Shakers 

These are always great fun and easy to make.

You can check out my complete New Years Eve board on Pinterest for more ideas.


Wishing you a very Happy New Years Eve - have a wonderfully safe time ringing in 2015!! See you next year.

Happy Holidays!

My sister just sent this to me.... Love this!!

I SOON want one of these vacuums but I can guarantee you my dog would NOT agree to this! 

Happy Holidays!!!

TWO days until Christmas.

This is the last day with kiddos this week, since it is the day before Christmas Eve we started the day out with some special activities.  Breakfast in front of the TV (Never happens here!) while watching a Christmas show. 

Elsa coloring poster from the $1 section at Target. Easy peasey. 

Next on the list is this adorable project from Crafty Morning.

I'll post pictures of our completed project later today.  This is an adorable and simple project that Middle can do with some help. 

Depending on how the rest of the morning goes we may, or may not, bake and decorate some cookies. We shall see how it goes.

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas week! 

Snow Play! San Diego Style.

Day one of Christmas / Winter break.  I have two littles today while their parents are out doing last minute Christmas shopping. We needed something fun & festive to keep us busy this morning.

This is today's project - SNOW! San Diego style.

Ingredients: Easy & Inexpensive

1) Can of shaving cream - this one is from the Dollar store.
2) Baking Soda. I had these small 8oz boxes and used one per child.

Starting with a cookie sheet that has edges, I sprayed about about half (?) the can of shaving cream one each tray. I used just shy of one can for the two kiddos. 

Next I added the baking soda, in small amounts until the mixture was the perfect consistency. It ended up being the whole 8oz box to a half can of shaving cream.

 

I mixed together with a fork, only because I didn't want to get my fingers dirty, ha!

  

Once it reaches a nice powdery consistency, that is still sticky, but not wet, it is time to have some fun and play with!

This is the "sit and stare" stage apparently.  They both just sat and stared and then looked at each other for a good three minutes before they decided to dig in.

This provided over an hour of play time - once they both decided it was ok to get their fingers dirty!  We built "snowmen", and made snow balls.  They also used a spoon to stir, and build "mountains". 

This was such an easy, and fun project for a warm day. We can pretend that we played with snow even though it is in the low 70's today.

I hope you enjoy day one of Christmas break - only three days until Christmas!!

Go follow 'The Baby Guy' on facebook!

If you have littles in the house or have friends with littles you should follow Jamie "The Baby Guy NYC" on facebook.

Jamie is the leading expert on baby gear, and your go-to-expert for car seat and stroller reviews/recommendations. He just started a newsletter and they did a really nice gift guide for the Holidays...........Well he is  now doing a HUGE giveaway and giving away all 60 items in the gift guide. 60 items & 60 winners!

He is also just a RAD human.......below is a picture of him "Simba'ing" my nephew at an event in Boston this summer.

1.  Go follow Jamie at https://www.facebook.com/TheBabyGuyNYC?fref=nf
2.  Enter the giveaway - follow directions.....if you want, that is.
3.  Be ready to be entertained and educated on all things baby!

Your welcome.

SIX days until Christmas, time for a comedy break.

Whoo hoo, it's Friday!!

It's also only SIX days until Christmas. I have much to do before Christmas morning, and Saturday - when my family will celebrate Christmas all together. I have two more people to shop for and then a lot baking and wrapping to do. Instead of being productive this morning before the kiddos arrived I got distracted by funny videos.....I thought I would share them with you incase you need a mental break from the stress of it only being SIX days until Christmas (if you celebrate that is.)

Life with children is never boring and mostly funny.  Sometimes I forget I am out with adults, sans children, and have found myself saying things like "Look a train!", or "I need to go potty".  Even better I find myself swaying back and forth like I am rocking a baby......happens ALL the time. It;s bad and probably not the best way to find Mr. Right :-)  Thank goodness we outgrow *some* of these behaviors as we mature (although I am pretty sure I know a few adults who revert to four year old behavior fairly regularly.)

If you have never seen the videos by 'Convos with my 2 year old' on YouTube you are missing out.  They are highly entertaining....and slightly disturbing.

This however is one of my favorites - because I have lived this one many, many times!! Anyone else love and loathe the potty training process??

Oldest is in the middle of potty training which means that this will become our new normal once she is finished with diapers.  Oh. the joys of potty training & small bladders!!

Ok, off to make "snow" with Oldest and Middle and hopefully be productive during nap time!

5 Tips for Making a Gingerbread Village!

 GINGERBREAD VILLAGE FUN!

My friend left us with three gingerbread village kits to work on while they were out of town this past weekend.  I "glued" all the pieces together with the provided royal icing and the kids went to town decorating with the 20 different kinds of candy.  There was plenty of tasting along the way.  

Here is what I learned:

1) Cover, and secure a plastic tablecloth to the table - this gets messy! 

2) "Glue" the houses together prior to decorating so the frosting has time to set.  This takes long enough that patience will run out before the frosting sets. 

3) Small bowls for each kind of candy helps keep everything organized.

4) The promise of eating candy when we finished decorating made them move fast!

5) Cardboard cake "trays" worked wonderfully for using as a base for the village. (I am sure there is a name for these, but I am not sure what they are!)

(no, the kiddos were not using this knife....I was to cut the Totsie Rolls into slices for the roof shingles on Santas House.)

 Making progress!

" Santa's House"

 Youngest wanted to make an entrance to the village.

 These peppermint trees were on clearance last year at the Crate & Barrel outlet store for 80% off their $25.00 original price tag.  They are perfect for our village!

 Ta Da!! Finished Christmas Magical Gingerbread Village.