Top Five Craft Rules

My daughter is at the perfect age for preschool crafts! We’ve been spending a lot of time gluing, cutting, coloring, and generally having a great time. There are some lessons I’ve learned the hard way.

Here are the top five rules (I’ve found) when doing preschooler “projects” (as Leah likes to call them):

Rule Number Five:

5. Hair Up
My daughter has shoulder length hair. I always pull it back in barrettes but it’s not enough. You must pull it all the way back in a pony tail. Don’t even try to get away with pigtails.

Here’s why, when she puts her head down to look at what she’s doing, all the hair falls forward. She then has to use her messy hands to brush it out of her face.

Messy hands on hair = messy hair.

And forget hands, have you seen a preschooler with a paint brush? Um, they are crazy. That paint brush can go anywhere but seems to have a magnetic attraction to hair.

Rule Number Four:

4. Cover Surfaces
Always cover your work area. No matter what you are doing, cover the work area. This has been a hard lesson for me. Don’t believe me, check our patio table. We did a craft out there with what I thought were washable paints.

I figured it was outside and I could hose any mess off the metal table. Um, no. There is still paint out there – it’s stronger than our mail lady…hanging on through rain, sleet, and snow!

Rule Number Three

3. Cover Clothes
Similar to the rule above, cover their clothes and if possible yours! I’m starting to use a big, old t-shirt with all sleeves rolled up. This has been a tough one for me too. I’ve been lucky with the paint that’s gotten on our clothes, it’s all come off. I haven’t been as lucky with play doh stuck in her tights.

Just cover them up – it only takes a second and is so worth it.

Rule Number Two:

2. Let Them Do It
The three rules above are the more obvious ones (even though they are tough for me). This one is a bit harder. I have a tendency to want the projects to look perfect. I don’t like it when the googly eyes are off center, let alone not even in the eye area! I tend to try and…take over.

Luckily my daughter is very independent and doesn’t appreciate my help. I found it hard to believe too but once I stopped feeling indignant, I realized it was a good thing.

It’s their project, it’s their fun – let them do it!

Rule Number One:

1. Don’t be Afraid
Following Rule Number Four is scary. Letting go is scary. Not having a perfect, completed project is scary. But it’s also fun. It’s fun to be a little scared and when you see how much fun your preschooler is having, you’ll be glad you did.

So as with everything in life,

be fearless and have fun! 

Do you have any rules I’ve missed? Let me know!

Snowman Craft Day

It has been unseasonable warm in the Northeast. We got one day of snow in November. No snow in December and one yucky, slushy snow day in January.

I’m not really complaining, I actually love it. But, we haven’t been able to make any snowmen or wear “our” new Hello Kitty snow boots. To fix the situation, we decided to make snowmen inside. This craft is so simple but we enjoyed it.

STEP ONE: 

We took three white paper plates. Then we cut off the ridges (snowmen don’t have ridges). I drew a line so Leah could practice her cutting. We cut two of the plates the same size and the third plate a bit smaller.

Side note: Her preschool teacher told us she needs to work on her fine-motor skills and cutting helps. All three of my kids have had preschool trouble with fine-motor skills, what’s up with that? I really thought Leah was going to break the cycle but not so…

STEP TWO:

I drew xxx’s on the top of the two biggest plates. Leah put glue on the xxx’s and we glued the top of one plate to the bottom of another and the top of those two plates to the bottom of the smallest plate.

STEP THREE:

We practiced counting as we held the plates together so they could dry.

Side note: We did have newspaper under our work area, which was a good idea. Some times I get lazy and don’t feel like finding newspaper or something else to put under our work surface. Big mistake, as evident from our patio table, which is now stained with yellow and green paint that refused to come off. I’m hoping I’ve learned my lesson for good now!

STEP FOUR:

Leah got some new paints for the holidays so we then painted faces on each and painted their bodies.

STEP FIVE:

After leaving them dry for a sufficient amount of time, I cut ribbon and tied it around their necks as scarfs. This came out better than I thought.

We made four of them. When they were all done, Leah was so excited! I wasn’t sure where to hang them up but Leah suggested we put one on the back of each person’s chair at the dinner table. What an awesome idea! So we did it.

Here is Leah with the final work (and check out the Hello Kitty boots!).

Happy New Year (no, I’m not 3 weeks late!)

I swear, I’m not late! We’re celebrating the Chinese New Year!

So, Happy New Year!

The official date is Monday, January 23. It’s the year of the dragon.
Here’s what we’re doing.

Decorations:

• Chinese Dragons (see below)

Main Menu:

• Steamed Dumplings (store-bought)
• Sesame Soy Noodles with Mixed Veggies (my own recipe)
• Pickled Cabbage Slaw (my own recipe)

Dessert:

• Pineapple Tarts (recipe here)

Fun:

• Horoscope Printouts (found here)
• Fake Fortune Cookies (found here)

Chinese Dragons

For our celebration, we decided to make Chinese dragons. I’ve been collecting empty toilet paper rolls for months. Finally, I had a craft we could use them for, yippee!

Here is the final dragon:

Here are the steps to make the dragon.

1. Paint toilet paper rolls green:

2. Let the paint dry (this is by far the hardest step, for a three year-old). No picture needed.

3. Cut orange and yellow tissue paper into thin strips. This was great for Leah to practice her cutting.

4. Throw in a little extra learning and let your helper count the strips. You can then distribute them evenly for your dragons.

5. Once the toilet paper rolls are dry, gather the tissue paper in various yellow and orange strips (I used about five strips), fan them out a bit, then staple them inside the end of one of the tubes. Sorry, no picture.

6. Draw eyes and nose on the toilet paper rolls. You can see the ones I drew and the ones Leah drew. The concept of just drawing eyes on a face is lost on Leah. When you draw eyes you obviously have to draw a whole face.

Leah with her angry dragon face!

Leah with her happy dragon face!

The final product was strung up on gold ribbon and hung across our island counter area. This was Leah’s idea and I think a good one. Here she is!

PS – Don’t you just love that full on leopard print outfit!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

24 Hours in Baltimore – Part 2

You can read Part 1 here.

We made our way to our hotel, the Residence Inn Baltimore/Inner Harbor (check my review here). We were able to check in early so we dropped our bags and went right out. The Inner Harbor is about three blocks from the hotel (not too far!).

The kids enjoyed playing on the huge anchors at the USS Constellation.

Then it was on to the Paddle Boats.

Side note: My husband and son think these are called Pedal Boats because you actually have to pedal them to make them go but I looked it up, they are called Paddle Boats.

I think it was about $18 for 30 minutes. We didn’t last 30 minutes.
It was a bit chilly – but we still had fun.

We walked through some of the shops and took the most time at It’s Sugar, as my daughter walked around smelling most of the candy (weird, but true).

Then it was back to the hotel, just as it started to shower. I stopped at the CVS on the way to get us some water (and ice cream for later). We wanted crabs and had done a bunch of research on good places close by but we couldn’t choose.

My husband decided to ask the front desk clerk, who suggested Mo’s Crab and Pasta Factory. And the best part, the restaurant offers a shuttle there and back! A shuttle, who knew? That sold it for us.

We weren’t disappointed either. I mean the shuttle was a little yucky but not too bad. The place didn’t have a lot of atmosphere but our waitress was so nice. She entertained Leah the whole time, even when she wasn’t at the table, she was giving her little waves across the room – Leah loved it.

We had a bunch of crabs, which we cracked and loved (sorry no pictures because when I realized we needed a picture, my fingers were covered with old bay seasoning!).

We got the shuttle home, had our ice cream, and put Leah to bed. The three of us watched football in the living room area. My husband’s fantasy football season was riding on this last game and…he won! I know, you were holding your breath. Needless to say, he was VERY excited!

The next morning we made our way to the free breakfast downstairs and then out into the rain to get to the Aquarium. I’ve been there before with Matt but it was even better than we remembered. They have a lot of amazing fish and great viewing areas.

My favorite part was in the rain forest area. There are these spitting fish. The worker puts a stick into a container full of crickets until one hops on the stick. She then holds the stick over the pool of fish and they spit a stream of water knocking the cricket off the stick and into the water. The fish then eat the cricket! A-mazing!

All the workers at the aquarium were really friendly and helpful. They have lockers to store your stuff (they do require tokens so be sure to have change or bear the wrath of walking around with $1 coins jangling around in your pocket).

We loved the huge tank with all the big fish, especially Calypso – the three-finned turtle (who has his own facebook page, of course). He swam in too cold water and he got an infection. They had to amputate the fin to save his life. And, now he lives in Baltimore because I don’t know if you’ve guessed this but three-finned turtles don’t do well in the wild.

We also loved the jellyfish exhibit.

So many cool creatures!

We spent about two hours in the aquarium. Actually my husband and daughter could have stayed longer but my son and I were done. We made a quick run to Chipotle’s for lunch.

Michael then ran back to the hotel in the rain, got the car (he’s so sweet) and we headed home for our lonnnng drive. Wet roads and lots of traffic. Ugh! But, good news, Leah didn’t throw up going back either!

Put this trip in the success column!

baltimore

24 Hours in Baltimore – Part 1

In December we decided to take a quick road trip!

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaa…..road trip! 
(Leah’s reaction to a road trip!)

We decided to go to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s only about a two hour drive so not too bad as road trips go. We left the day after Christmas around 10am. Of course, we wanted to leave around 9am but you know how that goes. We weren’t on any strict schedule so it wasn’t a big deal.

But we were prepared!

Leah has been known to get car sick. We always have our “Go” bag in the back seat. It is a plastic bag and it contains two additional plastic bags, some old hand towels (that can be thrown out if needed) and a bunch of paper towels folded up together. We take this when we fly too because eventually we end up in a car and we’ve found no rhyme or reason to her car sickness (meaning it could strike at any time: 15 minutes, 60 minutes or two hours into the ride).

We’re ready!

Our plan was to drive to Fells Point, stop for lunch at the Blue Moon Cafe, and walk around the piers a bit. This plan started because I’d heard about the Blue Moon Cafe (I can’t remember where from) and when I saw the menu and read the owner’s story, I couldn’t resist.

We made good time getting down there. There was no traffic and the weather was beautiful! We drove by the Blue Moon Cafe and it seemed like there were people waiting outside. Okay, there were people waiting outside, it was obvious but I didn’t want to believe it. We found a parking spot on the street and paid the meter (or kiosk, meters are so 1990s).

We walked to the restaurant and went in…it was packed! The host told us it would be a 45-60 minute wait. The place is really, really small and although the weather was quite nice, it wasn’t nice enough to wait outside for an hour. Boo! My plan was ruined.

Two travel tips here:

1. Don’t be too attached to your plan, it will only create a sense of disappoint and nobody needs that disappointment on a fun trip.

2. Have a plan B.

The second point comes into play because without a Plan B, you may be walking around aimlessly for a while, until you find a new place to eat that works for your family…like we did! The worst part is I know this tip…I’ve posted it before!

Anyway, we decided on Jimmy’s Restaurant. They don’t offer a website (can you believe it?) so I can’t link to them. It was a breakfast place too and crowded but we only waited about five minutes for a table. It’s more like a greasy spoon but it was good. I got creamed chipped beef on toast, which most people find yucky but I LOVE it. And, Jimmy’s didn’t disappoint.

After eating, we walked around the pier a bit, which was fun. I imagine this place in the summer great for people watching!

Love this pic!

Next stop, our hotel at the Inner Harbor…

Residence Inn Baltimore Downtown/ Inner Harbor Review

My husband travels quite a bit for work. He received a certificate from Marriott for a free night. We realized in November the expiration was the end of 2011. We quickly came up with a road trip so we could use that free night!

We decided on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. It’s only about a two-hour drive and there is a Residence Inn close to the Harbor – perfect. You can read about the whole trip here. But here’s the lowdown on just the hotel.

Here are the things we liked:

1. Residence Inn always offers a separate bedroom, which is great when you have little ones who go to bed earlier than you. You get to put them to bed in one room and stay awake in the other…although on some trips, you might want to go to sleep by 8pm.
2. The rooms at this Residence Inn seems newly remodeled. The furniture, kitchen area, and accessories were all new and very nice.
3. Breakfast is included. I love when breakfast is included, especially at Residence Inns. They really offer a variety of things (eggs, sausage, cereal, oatmeal, etc.). They also offer those make-your-own waffles. I love those.
4. They offered valet parking.*
5. It’s really close to the Harbor, only about three quick walking blocks away.
6. About one block away is a CVS where you can get waters or late-night ice cream.

Here are the things we didn’t love:

1. The elevator requires your room key to be swiped before you can go upstairs. Okay, maybe I should like it from a security perspective but it was a pain. Also, one of the elevator’s swiper was broken so you didn’t need to swipe it – I mean I liked that I didn’t have to swipe but if I’m supposed to swipe, shouldn’t it work?
2. This is really silly to complain about but…you know how I said above I love those make-your-own waffles, well, although they had them, the waffle maker was in a different area from the rest of the food. I saw it when I came in but by the time I got my little one situated with breakfast, I’d forgotten about them, until I walked out. Then I was upset that I’d missed them!
3. The pullout sofa was uncomfortable but I don’t think I’ve ever met a comfortable pullout sofa.
4. *Valet parking is the only option for your car and it’s $32 per day.

I didn’t take any pictures in the room before we actually stayed there (and messed it up!).

But here is one picture of the kids in the hallway as we’re leaving.

And here’s one of Leah playing in the lounge area while Matt chills on the huge couch…

The bottom line…

the Residence Inn Baltimore/Inner Harbor at 17 Light Street
is a great place to stay if you’re visiting Baltimore Inner Harbor,
especially if you have kids!

Sheraton in Syracuse

This weekend we had a wedding in New York, outside of Syracuse.  It was a lovely affair and we had a great time.  We stayed at the Sheraton in Syracuse, right on University Avenue.

Here’s what I liked about the place:

• very friendly staff
• really nice room decor (masculine, which is quite different from my style)
• great smelling shampoo and conditioner

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• major construction outside the hotel
• room key needed in the elevator to get to ANY floor
• shuttle bus lost its shocks in 1980

And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures:

If you go, enjoy and let me know your favorites!

Social Media Changed Me

Thank you to BING Social Search for sponsoring my post about social media. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Social media has such a broad impact on all of us.  Yes, us…you are included.  I can say that with certainty because if you are reading this blog post, you found it through some sort of social media.  For me, the most significant way it has changed my life is allowing me to pursue writing with more passion.  I have an audience without having to be published on actual paper (side note to any publishers or literary agents:  I still really, really want to published on paper!).  It lets me write what I want, when I want, and get pretty immediate feedback on my writing.  There’s never been anything like it and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Social media offers the world at your fingertips, literally.  You can meet people from all over the world just by punching in a few key strokes on any number of social media outlets – people you may never have had even the slightest chance to talk to previously.  This is a great help to me with traveling.  Advice on new destinations are easily answered with great passion.

One really great way social media impacted my life very recently was during my birthday this year.  Many of my friends on these social media sites offer me fantastic birthday wishes.  They came in from all over the world for a number of days.  It was so heartwarming.  It was the most birthday wishes I’d ever received and I LOVED it.  Thank you to every single person who was so kind to wish me well on my “big” day!

It makes me want to reach out to everyone on their birthday and give them that same special feeling!  So, let me know when yours is so I can put you on my list!!

Strawberries are ready…

The strawberries are ready, are you?  This weekend is the time to find out.  Strawberry festivals are going on all over our area.

Click here to find out all the details! 

Article posted through Examiner.com, the inside source for everything local. Examiner.com provide unique and original content to enhance life in your local city.

May Fair Fun

Are you headed to a Memorial Day party this weekend?  There are certain to be a lot this weekend.  But, if you find yourself with some free time on your schedule, you should check out the Collingswood May Fair.

Click here to find out all the details!

Article posted through Examiner.com, the inside source for everything local. Examiner.com provide unique and original content to enhance life in your local city.