Day 18 of 31 days of Pinterest

OK, I admit it I am a fun mom. As many moms I know who are organic, no sugar, no dye, special diet yada yada moms that is just not me (well not all the time anyway). I do follow healthy eating plans most of the time but I allow for special food treats more than I should I am sure. While this particular treat sounds awful to me I just knew it was something my girls would love when I was taken via pinterest to this blog (when I say awful don't take that wrong I just dislike artificial fruit flavors other than banana) but these colorful treats are to cute not to make.

They are just cute, fun and colorful. You even could use something other than trix like the organic version of these that are pretty yummy or even fruity cheerios which I happen to like more than most artificial fruit. things. This blogger gave a great photo tutorial on how she made these and its basically the same as making rice crispy treats.

Day 11 of 31 days of Pinterest

I often see these really elaborate cupcakes and cakes that Moms make for birthday parties and holidays. I drool over their fondant skills and precision. It's just not a skill I have. I would likely spend a small fortune on the proper supplies and tools then do it once and watch the supplies collect dust. I began seeking out easy cupcakes and cakes a few years ago.

This was the cake I made for my then 7 year olds birthday

It was pretty simple I made a two layer square cake, and stacked them together, frosted with pink dyed frosting. I took 4 sugar cones and spread chocolate frosting on them and rolled them in colored sugar. The "blocks" around the cake are sugar cubes and the windows and doors are wafer cookies. I found the fancy candles at a local no name dollar store. It was far from "professional" but she loved it and every time her birthday rolls around she talks about it.

Now the pin that inspired me to start planing for my soon to be 4 year olds party is this



The pin unfortunately only linked to the photo and not directions but from the photo it looks like both regular and mini Neilla wafers and some gel for the mouth and eyes on chocolate frosting. Looks simple enough for me to try. She is all about monkeys and "Georgie" aka curious George. These should be a big hit with her and is in my skill set. win!

*if you are the owner of this idea & photo please contact me so I may give you proper credit

Fun Food Friday

I often see these adorable lunches made by other moms. I usually sigh, and say to myself "some people have too much time on their hands" Then, I started showing my kiddos some of this food art and saw their little faces light up and realized nope, these are just moms coming up with creative ways to get their little ones to eat healthy. While I certainly don't have the time to do this daily I aim for once a week and "Fun Food Friday" was born.

My youngest little sweety going gaga for fruit kabobs

Snack system

I sometimes dream of going back in time and never introducing the idea or the word "snack" into my children's vocabulary. Its treated as a entitlement anymore and they feel its something that should have no limit. I have tried a few systems to monitor snacks and most of them have failed. Yes, partly my fault for not keeping on top of it feeling like a mean mom for not indulging their hunger pains and the futile attempts of claiming "starving children in Africa....." You get the jest of it. Now what started happening more recently after I was down and out after gallbladder surgery is that I just answered "yes" when ever a snack request was made. Yes, again my fault I didn't want to deal with tantrums or being bothered much with requests. Then, a day or two later I would hear "we don't have anything to eat" then, I was puzzled but I just bought two 18 packs of granola bars, 8 cracker packs, 2 bags of grapes...etc. and its all gone...yep. Lord help me! what I saw in my head as two weeks of snacks where gone in two days. Now with 4 kids with their hand in the cookie jar so to speak I have learned to expect things like 1 pint of strawberries equals 1 snack, or a bag of apples will last 2.5 snacks (assuming its a bag of 10) So my solution (while time consuming to a degree is this)
you get 2 snacks per day. period. no exceptions. (well one exception which i will explain)