What-a New Year

It's not a new year's resolution, but I know I need to drink more water throughout the day.

Tip for Mom:

Fill a cup with 15 oz. of water and bring it to drink on your way to drop the kids off at preschool. Resolve to drink it before you get back home.

Then, do the same thing with another 15 oz. on your way to pick the kids up from preschool.

Voila! There's 30 oz.

I've found that drinking water in a cup instead of one of those fancy, take-it-with you bottles that always leak on me, helps me.

My cup of choice?

An Auburn Tiger stadium cup because you know my husband is a National Champion, ahem, fan!

Gotta go, there's a baby boy calling my name!

Thankfulness

After being out of town for 10 days, we had an extremely large pile of mail to go through. What do you open first?

Anything personally addressed and handwritten, of course!

I was delighted to find a thank you note from my friend Emily regarding her and her husband Clay's recent visit to our new home. Having visitors helped me see all the positive aspects of where we live and gave me a glimpse into the future as we hope to host more and more friends and family here.

In Emily's thank you note, she included a few pictures from their visit:

I scanned these in, but I love this first one!

Cute of us dressed for church!

This one is hysterical!

I think it is a great picture of the guys, but...

who is the crazy lady watering the plants in the background?

Tip for mom: send pictures in your thank you notes. For a child's birthday party, a picture of your child enjoying the present would be great. Or how about a picture of the party guest?

Thanks, Em! And if you haven't stopped by Emily's blog to experience her experiment into the life of a 50s housewife, go there today! She is a published author AND an incredible writer!

Ever Done This?

All spoons in the house dirty? Plates, too?

Just use a leftover paper plate and stick a straw in the strawberry applesauce!

Just Call Me Mary Poppins

For Christmas, The Daddy bought the girls a super kite. Thankfully, it was easy to put together.

After watching Mary Poppins last week, one blustery afternoon I decided to make the short trek to the front of our little neighborhood park to give the flightless kite its first trip up into the atmosphere.

First thing AE does is take off running!

The little park is a big grassy area with a winding sidewalk encircling it. I can imagine teaching the girls to ride bikes there.

Also at the front of the park is a fountain, which HJ was drawn to immediately.

So then we got down to the business of setting the kite to flight.

And fly she did.

Both girls took turns, but ONE girl let go of the kite and it sailed up, up, up into a live oak. We retrieved it, and SHE lost interest.

But AE could have stood there all day holding on.

And SOMEONE else was ready to leave!

Tip for Mom: No matter what a pain it might be, any outing will undoubtably last only 20-30 minutes. JUST DO IT and take pictures!

(it will be over in a short blink of an eye!)

We Try

Yes. I've documented my girls eating problems here before. I've taken to finding new stores to shop in and new ways to getting some new HEALTHY food items in their diets.

Smoothies with SPINACH in them:

Y'all! The smoothies have SPINACH IN THEM!

I got the sneaky recipe from Simply Seleta, a very fashionable and chic mom living in Florida. She has a fabulous blog and the recipe can be found HERE.

Straight strawberry is better for us and doesn't have the RASPBERRY SEEDS that made it UNDRINKABLE to AE. I do advise against using a mixed berry version.

A couple ladies asked if I bought the protein powder that Seleta used in her smoothie recipe. I found the same brand at an awesome local health food store, but I don't think it's the exact same as she had in her link. I searched the link she had to find a store near me.

Here's a picture of what I bought:

I've even had it just mixed with milk. I'll warn you, it's green!

So, anyway...

My girls WILL eat fruit but they are obsessed with these two "dried" and "freeze dried" fruits. OBSESSED, I tell you!

Both are from Trader Joe's, and I sadly lament the fact that there is no Trader Joe's in our area. Last weekend when I made that short trip to Atlanta, you can bet I made a dash over there to pick up some rations!

Seriously. I can't drink it, but they are FOOLED.

One of my favorites. HJ's too.

Neither girl has gotten into these, but both have at least tried them. I like them. CRUNCHY!

THE BEST ONE YET:

Apple sauce with carrots hidden inside!

They love the packaging. You just twist off the top, squeeze and suck! (Also from Trader Joe's)

Here are a couple of losers:

I thought these might taste like our favorite All Natural White Cheddar Cheetos, but I was WRONG. HJ ate a whole bowl full after nap time one day. AE spit hers out and cried foul. I ate one and quickly put the bag away.

I've been on a sea salt kick lately, so I bought these. They're not bad, but the girls didn't go for them.

Thanks for stopping by!

How We Will Stay Thin This Easter Season

You're Welcome!

Four Days Later

No, it's not the start of some scary movie.

It's the most fabulous flower tip ever!

Remember last Saturday two darling girls and my man picked up some flowers for moi?

See photographic evidence:

NOW, see same flowers but four days later:

How do they stay so fresh and "macho"?

Take a closer look:

Pennies in the bottom of the vase.

I don't know how. I'm just sharing!

Red Tongues, Real Smiles

Day #16: Make them think they're baking cookies

AE's class is having a cookie exchange tomorrow at school as part of their Christmas celebration. So we baked cookies today.

Because we just moved, I made things as easy as possible. I bought a mix.

Let each girl mix.

So proud.

Gave each girl her own little "pat" of cookie batter.

Then they each went to town with the sprinkles.

My word, the sprinkles!

A few made it onto the cookies.

A few were left on the counter.

The top "cookie" is AE's.

The other "cookie" is HJ's.

We had so much fun! Those treats are waiting in the refrigerator for The Daddy.

After the girls had their fun, I baked the REAL cookies for the cookie exchange.

I added red coloring and rolled the balls in red sprinkles.

While the cookies baked, I unwrapped a few of these.

Each girl got one. Me, too.

Then I added those kisses to the cookies.

Only after I was done and cleaning up did I realize that the red sprinkles are cinnamon flavored. Yuck. Chocolate and cinnamon?

You decide: happy accident or disgusting disaster?

(I haven't found our real camera since we moved, so these high-quality phone pictures will have to do. I'm sure The Daddy knows where it is.)