Hi Mommies, You have to go to this link! How long does your floor go between moppings? It is a pole - and I swear, it will make you feel so much better about your floors! hehe

http://www.babycenter.com/4_how-long-does-your-floor-go-between-moppings_1746250.bc

Just shoot me now and get it over with!

Here’s what we’re talking about:

Goal: have party

Challenges: children

Solution: activities!!!!!!

Girly:

• Blind Barbie: in pairs, the blindfolded person paints the partner’s face (whose hands are tied behind back). Then switch. Take pics for party favors. Winner gets a real makeup item!
• Custom hand Bags - Make simple bags out of tea towels or old jeans & decorative trim. Use art smocks and give them fabric paint. The “winner” gets to fill her bag with a real make up item!
• Airplane relay: pack into suitcase: oversized hat & dress, gloves, necklaces & heels.At starting line, girl throws on clothes from suitcase, takes suitcase with her. Runs to end, removes clothes, packs suitcase. Runs back to starting line, passes suitcase to the next girl.

• Older girls: Beauty rituals: invite the make-up sales lady in your neighbourhood to show the girls how to do pedicures or manicures. Send everyone home with nail polish.

Games:

• Air soccer. form teams or get a partner. Each member gets a straw. Teams face each other across a table. Mark a “goal” with masking tape on the table. Drop ping pong balls one at a time in the middle and see who can “score” without using their hands. ie: blowing through the straw.
• how many marbles can you get (with your toes) out of an ice-cold wading pool?
• Science experiment: who can build the highest tower with ice cubes and salt?
• balloon-popping contest
• clothes pegs relay: place clothes peg between the knees, run to end and ‘pee’ it into a container
• treasure hunt: make a list of crazy items (something smelly, something that sticks to a spoon, etc)
• young kids: the favorites: duck, duck, goose! London Bridges, Ring-a-round the Rosie, pin the candles on the cake, etc.
• Who am I? Place names of celebrities or tv show characters on labels. Stick one on each child’s head. they get a partner. And take turns asking questions to figure out who they are. First one to figure it out wins.
• Cloud 9: who can build the highest tower using only 20 large marshmallows and 10 toothpicks?
• Dress for success! Who can get the most clothes on in a minute? (use a pile of clothes from dad’s closet)
• Bobbing for candy: place candy in bottom of large container, cover with as many cotton balls as you can buy. Give them 20 seconds to ‘bob’ for candy each. No hands!
• pinata
• chocolate race: place frozen chocolate bars at one end, children must adorn oven mittens and apron, run to chocolate, use knife and fork and get as much as they can down in 1 minute
• blind pudding/ birthday cake: One kid is blindfolded and given a bowl of pudding and spoon. He must feed his partner who has hands tied behind back. then switch. Good picture op!

For those parents who prefer to fain ignorance on all things creative, here’s a searchable list of activities by child’s age and season! Activity Planner - ParentCenter

Here’s the ones that I’ve tried:

Ballooon Cake: A round cake with 3 rice crackers and licorice sticks = 3 balloons for the 3 year old!

Gift/ Present cake: my baby was born on christmas. Could there be anything more appropriate than a present cake? I wrapped a cookie sheet in wrapping paper, covered with plastic-wrap. squished 16 or so cupcakes together. Added icing, gf licorice strings, and smarties to make a cute present cake.
Ice cream cake - you know we didn’t get a pic of this one - but trust me, it was adorable! We put together the ice cream cake recipe (found here), and topped with blue-tinted cool whip. Put gumballs(beach balls) and gummy rings (that looked like life preservers) in the wavy “water”. And topped with “beach” umbrellas. The kids took home an inflatable beach ball as a party favor. And the beach balls made for a lot of fun at the pool party.

Popcorn cake: remember those old red and white striped boxes that theatre popcorn used to come in? How about white and red icing, with real popcorn spread on the top of the cake? My popcorn-addict hubby loved it!
This is a cute idea for a fire-less/ candle-less cake. For Haley’s birthday - 4th I think. We were at a barn, and they couldn’t risk candles/ fire. So they have these cute licorice sticks with marshmellows resting on top. Haley had to blow the marshmellows off the sticks. It was very cute. And she thought it was great!

I remember this as one of the toughest parts of my post-partum depression. Feeling as though my mothering was suffering. The birthday cake wasn’t intricate enough!! We are so hard on ourselves as mothers - and it needn’t be that way!! Emma was delighted with pudding cups & sprinkles! We defrosted purchased pastry shells, scooped chocolate pudding inside and topped with pink sprinkles. She loved it! And now, I look back and admire my tenacity for making something even when I would have preferred to be in bed.

Uggg, we are potty-training too. Or, er, we were potty-training.Until 2 weeks ago when she got a cold. Here’s how it went in our house,

Me: “Do you have to pee?”

Megan: “No. No pee.”

“Waaaaaah!” She peed.

Me: “Put your pee in the potty okay?”

Megan: “Okay mommy. Pee in pink potty.”

2 minutes later I hear her say calmly, “Oh dear.” This means she peed. And noticed! Usually, I ask,

“Do you have to pee?”

“No. No pee.” I check her pants - they’re wet. Yup. No pee. Left.

I LOVED finding this little diagram tonight. Sometimes it is just nice to know that crazy likes company!

Thank you Lee, for this great doodle!