Food Prep for Kids

I know you’ve all been there. You just sat down to finally eat YOUR pancakes after standing at the stove cooking them all day and all the kids can say is, “Mommy, can you cut my pancakes?” Five minutes later your own pancakes are cold (GROSS!) and the kid who you first cut up pancakes for is now done and ready for the next one. So, here’s the scoop on how to make things a little easier on ya:

Waffles:
My husband just discovered this method and I tried it this morning and FELL. IN. LOVE.

Use a pizza wheel. I still like to follow the straight lines of the waffle pattern. Shawn likes to cut waffles up like a pie. Follow your heart on that, but definitely pick up the pizza cutter to do it!
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My “Mother Letter”

If you didn’t get a chance to read the previous post below about this project, you might take a moment now to skim it, as it is the reason for the below letter. Enjoy!

 
Dear Mother,

I know that you will be reading this at Christmas time, but as I am sitting here writing, we are celebrating the Thanksgiving Holidays.  So, if you’ll forgive the obvious tribute to this season, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share the things for which I’m most grateful as a mother.

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Shawn & Kay Honored by Culture Shapers

Shawn and I were honored by Culture Shapers, the art contest that we helped start and have worked for over the past 10 years, at the Awards Ceremony earlier this week. Shawn wrote up a great post about it for his company’s site, since he’s provided all the graphics for it since it’s inception. Here’s a small portion of what he wrote:

Shawn & Kay Hesketh were honored for a decade of service to the high school art community of Houston during the 9th Annual Culture Shapers Visual Arts Awards Ceremony on Thursday, November 20th, 2008.

Ernie Fitzpatrick, co-founder of the art contest, along with his wife, Lyn, presented the award to the Heskeths in front of a live audience, as he credited Shawn with the original idea for the Culture Shapers art contest as the result of a series of brainstorming meetings in 1999.

Click here to read the rest of the article…

The Mother Letter Project

The Mother Letter Project is one of the most thoughtful things I’ve heard of in a while and I just had to share.

Instead of spending lots of money on each other for Christmas, a husband and wife have decided to make gifts for each other and donate the money they would have spent to a village in Africa they visited this summer. The husband decided it would be cool to do something to encourage his wife with a collection of letters from other mothers. So, he’s opened it up to the internet and asked mothers everywhere to send him letters of encouragement, tips, wisdom, etc that he can compile into a book to present to her for Christmas. Here’s a portion of what he’s said:

As you may already know, I am creating Christmas for my wife this year and this is the site devoted to her present. Simply stated, I am collecting a series of “open letters” from mothers, to mothers. I am asking you to share your stories — no matter how raw or difficult. Share you concerns or worries — no matter how foolish they may seem. Share your wisdom — no matter how you came by it. Share your mother story. The only request? Start the letter “Dear Mother” and sign it. I will compile all of the letters in a Christmas book for both my wife AND YOU. If you share a letter before Christmas you will receive a copy of the Mother Letters.

I know that I’ll be writing a letter soon (as soon as the kiddos go down for bedtime and I can think clearly again) because a mother of any level of experience has something valid, beautiful, and encouraging to say about motherhood. And consider this my challenge to you to do the same… In fact, I’ll write another post when I’ve finished my letter just to let you know I’ve done it and now it’s your turn.

So, are you on?? Leave me a comment and let me know if you’re up for it, too!

Not Enough Play Time?

I’ve been making an effort to listen in on my kids more during their independent play times recently. I’ve been truly amazed to hear them interact with each other in all sorts of pretend roles. They’re pirates, or puppies, or a family (and sometimes gender doesn’t dictate who’s the mommy or daddy, too!). I have to say that I’ve loved ‘eavesdropping’ on their creative play. It’s truly amazing to me what kids will do and think of and act out if just given a little time and space. And while I know that I’m a much different mom than some, I kind of like that my kids can play really well without me - even at such young ages. But, I’m also noticing that when I do interact in that time (and even get a little silly myself), I somehow wind up scoring HUGE points in their emotional banks. So, I’m trying to learn how to do both well.

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Amazon’s 4-Day Super Sales in November

Just found out about Amazon’s 4-Day Super Sales and it looks like there’s going to be some amazing deals throughout the month of November, much less on Black Friday.

Here’s a couple of ideas of the great bargains they’re offering:

• Sassy Baby’s First Toys 6 Piece Gift Set only $14.99*
• Eddie Bauer Deluxe 3 in 1 Car Seat sold by BabyAge at 50% off
• Great selection of high chairs (Anka, Chicco, Combi, Peg Perego, Svan) sold by Right Start at 20% off
• Save 10% on Britax car seats and strollers sold by Amazon.com for one week only, starting 11/17-11/23.
• Purchase $139 of select Philips Avent products sold by Amazon.com and receive a $40 Amazon gift certificate.

Be sure to check out the dates on all the promotions as each of them has different set of days that they are valid.

Happy Shopping! Be sure to brag here about all the money you saved, too!!

Books We Love: The Princess and the Pea

Since we go to the library on an almost weekly basis and have probably checked out hundreds of books at this point, I thought it would be fun to start a category of small posts about the books we’ve enjoyed the most. So, here’s your first glimpse at one of our favorite books of late. I hope you enjoy and also share with us some of your favorites, too!

A bit about the book…
The Princess and the Pea has long been a favorite fairy tale of mine, so when I saw this title, I just had to check it out. When we got home to read it, I realized that, while based on Hans Christian Anderson’s original tale, it was a version written and illustrated by Lauren Child, the author and illustrator of Charlie and Lola, a book series and one of our favorite cartoons on the Disney Channel.

Lauren’s artwork is really fascinating because she uses a mixture of photographed and hand-sketched elements together to make a very unique look. The kids enjoy it because it’s a bit whimsical and her characters are so funny. The parents love it because of the depth and detail of each picture. You’ll catch yourself saying, “Oh my gosh. Look! It’s a teeninesy little bowl of peas on the kitchen table.” “Wow! Look at the detail on the chandelier” and on and on…

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Wordless Wednesday: At the Gas Pump

I saw this sign at our local gas station and just had to take a pic…

 

Because there are a certain number of thefts that ARE necessary???

Kate, The Princess

A few weeks ago I went to pick up Ethan from Mother’s Day Out.  One of his teachers was sharing with me that he enjoyed the story of Peter Pan that day and was one of the few children in the class that recognized Tinker Bell.  I laughed as I told her that didn’t surprise me since his older sister is a ‘princess’, so at our house we know all about princesses and fairies and such.

His other teacher overheard our conversation and started to laugh with us.  She knew Kate from school last year and she added her take to the story.  She said,

 

Oh, yes.  Kate is most definitely a princess.  She’s always wearing her tiara.  You may not always see it, but it’s always there.

After laughing hysterically, I came home and told Shawn this story.  He also laughed his butt off.  We decided then and there that this was most definitely the best description of our daughter, ever.  She is always carrying herself like royalty, constantly reminding her siblings of how things ought to be done (she told Ethan that he wouldn’t be invited to her tea parties again because he was not using his manners), but also constantly generous to those around her.

So now, whenever Kate does something particularly ‘princess-y’, Shawn and I just look at eachother, laugh, and say, “You may not see the tiara, but it’s always there!”

My Hurricane Ike Addendum

Karis’ 2nd birthday was the Wednesday after Hurricane Ike hit.  (I know.  Happy Birthday to her, right?)  We had already decided long before Ike that we were going to have a low-key celebration with just our family and maybe an additional small playdate at a local park with a few friends.  So, Ike just confirmed those plans for us.

One of the traditions I like for my kids’ birthdays is to make a cake or cupcakes or cookies for them for their big day.  (Not because I’m good at it - I did NOT get the baking genes passed down from my grandma and mom - but just because it’s something special that I don’t normally do throughout the year.) With the entire city out of dairy products, though, that was going to be impossible.  Every cake mix requires eggs or milk or both.  Since I was already having a little bit of a difficult time accepting my baby becoming a toddler (I wouldn’t allow Shawn to even use the word toddler around me during that last week.), this just added to the emotion for me.

Somehow, my sweet mother-in-law found about my little breakdown and went to a store 20 minutes away that had dairy.  She bought me a cake mix, eggs, milk, and even the icing for on top.  That has to be one of the most thought-full things someone has done for me in a long time.  I made the cake with great thankfulness and didn’t even get upset when it broke a little coming out of the pan.  I iced it and then decorated it with mini-marshmallows from my pantry that I then colored with food coloring.

It was not the most beautiful cake I’ve ever made.  But, it was definitely filled with the most love.  Karis will probably not even remember anything about this birthday, but I will remember that someone special paid attention to the smallest of details to make it memorable for me.

Thank you, Brenda.  :)