penny carnival

Valentine's Day with kids is better than New Year's Eve without them

So, now that I write about throwing kids' parties for a living (or part of a living), I constantly have holidays on the brain. I've been busy writing about Valentine's Day lately, and I'm having some fun with it.

I've always thought Valentine's Day was a bit of a scam. Chocolates, cards, mass-produced teddy bears holding chocolates and cards. Just another money maker.

(I just wrote and deleted a little speech about over consumption. See the archives if you want to know my thoughts on that. See the giant bouncy castle in my basement if you want to know how we've been doing with that lately.)

Celebrating Valentine's Day is different with young kids, though. They understand love. They get that more than the reasons behind the other holidays. Hugs? Kisses? We're all over that in our house (hence the constant battle with colds).

And, oh, the crafts. Mmm ... I love it all. Here are a few tutorials I've posted so far ...

Easy heart garland made from kids' artwork and junk mail:

 

Hanging in our foyer right now:

 

A Valentines spinner craft:

 
 And I'm just wrapping up the tutorial for this party invitation:

You'll be able to find the link here tomorrow.

Here's the link for the hugging heart.

Normally I loathe googly eyes, but that little guy kind of had to have them, don't you think?

The idea there is that he's giving you a hug, and it's the invitation to a "Valentine's Day party with a cause," where kids do some sort of community service, like collecting food for shelter dogs or singing old-fashioned love songs at a nursing home.
 

Bo decided to make him a friend with legs and a buzz cut:

You can see the other Valentines party themes I've written up here.

In other news, my husband is a genius. For 8 years now, I have resisted every technological advance J has proposed for our house, insisting that things like wireless Internet access were ridiculous (!!!) and unnecessary. I have been wrong every time, including the latest addition. Somehow he made it possible for me to play iTunes through our living room stereo just by clicking a button on my computer.

I don't know how this happened, but it means two things: 

Journey's Greatest Hits anytime, anywhere. 

And podcasts where people read children's books aloud, like over at The Story Home. It's a great way to calm the kids down before bedtime, especially if they've just gone a few rounds in the bouncy castle or had to endure their mother singing "Don't Stop Believing" while the vegetables roasted.

I'm not sure life could get any better. 

Boredom busters and kid-made Christmas cards

I have this dream of one day running my family like a well-organized, stimulating boarding school. Each night after the kids go to bed, I'll lay out the fun and educational activities for the next day, prepare healthy meals and then have time for five miles on the treadmill, a bubble bath and an Ogilvie Home Perm. 

Or something like that.

I usually snap back to reality when the microwave beeper goes off letting me know the frozen burritos are ready to eat.

When I don't have time to put my long-lost degree in elementary education to use, these are a few of the no-brainer activities I fall back on when we need something to do:

-Freeze dancing. Play some '80s music, dance like mad, hit pause, freeze, rinse and repeat. It never gets old.

-Crafts. Of course. I always have the painting easel set up, a giant jar of Crayons on the kids' table in the kitchen, and plenty of blank paper on hand. Kid-friendly scissors go over big here, too. Lately Magpie will come up to me and ask, "Can I cut?"

-Play dough. This recipe for homemade play dough is way better than the stuff you buy in the store. 

-Baking cookies. This can be dangerous, but sometimes it's worth the extra calories when the girls are begging for something fun to do. When my willpower is strong, we bring the cookies to our neighbors.

-Cleaning. The girls love being put to work. They'll gladly spray and wipe down windows, put clothes away in drawers and wash walls. The house isn't always cleaner when they're done, but they have looks on their faces like they've just cured cancer or something. 

-Go to the library. They get so excited for this, you'd think they were going to Disneyland. Note: They've never been to Disneyland so maybe that's why it works? Keep the bar low when it comes to expectations for fun? Hmm ... Anyhow, I always make sure I have a diaper on library outings because there's something about that place that makes Magpie poop.

-Don't feel like getting in the car? Push the couches together in the living room to make one giant couch and call it the library. Pile up a stack of books and read them one by one. My sister and I did this for years when we were kids.

-Go for a walk.

-Clean out a closet.

-Watch home videos on the TV. Nothing thrills the girls more than seeing how they talked and looked six months ago.

-Have a picnic on the kitchen floor.

-Exercise. Pick out the cheesiest workout video from On Demand and press play. Avoid "strip tease." I made that mistake once.

-Give the girls a bath. It's like a playpen. The fewer toys in there the better. Just give them a couple of measuring cups and a washcloth and you've got a half hour of fun. Sometimes I dangle my feet in the tub and let them give me a foot massage. Brilliant, eh?

-Get fancy like Nancy. My mom (Nancy) used to be a makeup lady so I have a ton of old free cosmetics samples from her. This is a mess, of course, so you have to be in the right mood.

-Play school. Bo loves to "read" to her little sister. And boss her around.

OK, none of that was rocket science, but it helps us make the days fun. Care to add to the list? Let's get some ideas rolling.

For the record, we do watch TV here, especially during the cold months. We have one TV. It's in the basement, so have to make a bit of an effort to watch it. I wish I could say we're TV free. I think a child's imagination can be stymied when they're constantly fed images instead of being forced to come up with those pictures themselves after reading a book or listening to a parent tell a story. But TV--especially movies--can be fun. And it can buy me three of those five miles on the treadmill.

On a related note, one project they did today was to make Christmas cards for 10 kids around the world. We're going to take part in Kids Craft Weekly's annual card swap, where you send a handmade card to 10 children and receive 10 cards from 10 different kids from all over the globe. 

I figured we'd better make the cards before signing up since I'm kind of famous for not sending cards to people I actually know. It's always my New Year's resolution to be better about that. Maybe 2010 will be the year I set out a stack of stamped envelopes on the kitchen counter and make it a habit. 

Here are a few of the girls' creations:

That's a reindeer on the right and a pissy post-op snowman in the middle. 

Speaking of Kids Craft Weekly, I bought Amber's Christmas Crafts and Christmas Cards e-booklets last week. I love everything she does. Her projects are based in reality. I love that my kids can look at her examples and not feel like total failures because their crafts don't turn out like something you'd see in a Martha Stewart magazine, as is clearly demonstrated by the photo above.

Making time for music

I (heart) routine.

We are back in a lovely rhythm here, and it's doing us all some good. 

Morning: breakfast, coloring or simple crafts, dressed and out the door

9-1: preschool/day care for both girls. They come home with full bellies and I have 3.5 hours dedicated to work. That means, when the girls are back, I'm not constantly checking e-mails or trying to make quick phone calls (that never goes well). I can just focus on them.

On the drive home from school, there's a small treat waiting for them on their car seats.

1-1:45 or so: music! Oh, how I wished I played the guitar. Or the piano. Or anything. I gave up cello in the 10th grade. Was never very good at it anyway. Still, I've always tried to make music a big part of our lives.

When Bo was a baby, I sang to her constantly. At one point, J made the comment, "She's going to be really disappointed when she finds out life isn't a musical." I'm not a great singer, but I don't care.

I'd love to put the girls in Music Together classes, but they're so dang expensive.

So what we're doing lately is this: throw some blankets on the living room floor (we don't have a rug), pull out our basket o' instruments (tambourine, kazoo, harmonica, blocks, maracas), and dink around with them while something plays on the stereo in the background. The girls are loving Peter Yarrow's songbooks right now. I'm partial to Elizabeth Mitchell's "You Are My Little Bird" album.

Tutus are a must, of course:

And when the action slows down or moves to the couch, I know it's time for naps.

Does anyone else do something similar? Any other tips on how to make music with kids, especially for those of us who don't have the skillz?

After naps, I try to have some sort of craft or learning activity out and ready, in the hopes that this will be a precursor to homework time one day. And in the hopes that I'll be able to make dinner while they're preoccupied, but at some point (usually when they see me pull out the food processor) they always slide their little chairs up to the counter to "help."

Eat dinner. Go to the gym. Play outside (September has been absolutely gorgeous here). Sleep.

On a completely different topic, has anyone seen the October cover of Martha Stewart Living? It's not my favorite October issue ever, but the pumpkin "mushrooms" are awesome. 

Speaking of my magazine addiction, Cookie came in the mail today so I'm going to excuse myself now to read about "39 family vacations I'll never forget" (but probably can't afford) and find out if "acupuncture can save my sex life." (Kidding, J. Just reading the teasers on the cover.)

Gratitude

I was thinking recently about compliments, and some of the more memorable ones I've received over the years. When J and I were young and on our first round of dating (there was an extended break in the late '90s), he once told me I had pretty eyes. 

"They're really big, like a cow's," he said.

What can I say? He tries.

Another memorable compliment came from my Uncle Tommy, who passed away a couple years ago. He was a big-hearted man who I loved dearly. Big, strong football coach on the outside. Warm, tender peacemaker on the inside. 

When I called to tell him I was getting married, he told me my husband was the luckiest guy in the world because he was going to have a wife who would be upbeat and positive every day of the marriage.

Umm ... not so much today, Uncle Tommy. Talk about a grump! I might have actually stomped my feet at one point. Ooh. That's embarrassing to see in print.

There's nothing in particular to blame for my bad attitude. I had just had it. Had it with not being able to go pee without a child wanting to come into the bathroom and be with me. Had it with my coat being at the bottom of several layers of coats on the peg so that all of them fell when I tried to get mine. Had it with another day of cold weather.

It's so hard to talk myself out of that place when I'm there. It took me several hours, but I'm back to my happy place now (disclosure: the kids are sleeping. Could that be part of the reason?).

If anyone has an answer as to how to get out of that mood--or how to avoid it altogether--please chime in. The quickest route for me is to focus on what I'm grateful for, a list that ends up being quite long. I'm not saying that tactic always works, but it never hurts to try.

Last Thanksgiving, I suggested we put a jar on the kitchen shelf with slips of blank paper next to it. On the paper, throughout the year, we could write down the things we're thankful for as we think of them and then read everything during the following year's Thanksgiving dinner. 

I still need to set out that jar, but in the meantime, here's an excerpt from my gratitude list.

Making me smile lately:

-These body tracings of the girls, especially the quirky face Bo (left) drew on Magpie (right). Can you see the two round eyes and the grin?

-The Dixie Chicks' version of "The Rainbow Connection" on the "Mary Had a Little Amp" CD.

-This photo of homemade playdough from Hop Skip Jump and the recipe for it.

-My Friday night date with the girls making our own version of playdough--the edible variety! (Combine peanut butter, powdered milk, honey and flour.)

-Magpie's rump in these pants, which I made from the denim of an old pair of my jeans. The pockets are pieces from Klay's fabric donation. (Thanks again, Klay. It's the gift that keeps on giving.)

-This conversation between Bo and me tonight:

Bo: "I love tea."

Me: "Me, too! I love drinking tea at night. It quiets my body. It's warm so I have to drink it slowly, and that slows me down and gets me ready for bed. How about you?"

Bo: "No. Tea makes fast and it makes me scream!!!!!"

-This granny blanket, which I bought for $2.71 at a thrift shop last weekend.

-The health and happiness of my family and friends, including all of you.

-J's patience and love when dealing with my foot stomping today.

-And a children's music CD called "The Planet Sleeps," a compilation of lullabies in various languages and from various cultures. Incredibly soothing songs that might very well be a nightly routine for us to wind down to from now on.

The producer recorded the songs all over the world to "show the similarities that exist between widely different cultures, regardless of racial boundaries" in hopes that it "might in some small way help challenge the beginnings of prejudice, wherever it may exist." 

He adds, "no matter how old we get, we are all still children, we all need occasional refuge, and, most importantly, we all need each other."

Amen.