Contract Law

Next week my daughter, Sprout, and I are going to a orientation meeting for Middle School.

I need a moment to get my head around that.  OK, I am better now.

Like I said, Middle School.  As in, no longer Elementary School.  As in, one of the more traumatic experiences of many pre-teen lives.  My baby is going into the belly of the beast.

Earlier this week we were talking about this big transition, and Mike said something about "soon she'll be leaving home".  At which point, Sprout looked at us with panic in her eyes and said, "But we still have the contract, right?"

Ah, yes.  The contract.

Walk with me down memory lane to about 5 1/2 years ago.   Little Sprout was just turning 5 and in Kindergarten.  And, being the oh-so-funny Mommy that I am, I looked into her big green eyes and said, "Pretty soon you'll have to get a job and your own apartment."  Ha ha ha!  I am FUNNY!

The next day, the Kindergarten teacher reported that Sprout had spent much of their naptime crying.  Something about how she didn't want to have to get a job and move out?

Doh!

Of course I reassured her that I had been TOTALLY KIDDING about the whole job/apartment thing.  Totally!  And that she could always, ALWAYS live with us. 

But a mere verbal contract was not sufficient to re-assure her.  So we drew up an official document showing that she could always live with us.  Signed and everything. 

Not notarized.  We might need that loophole later with this whole contract thing comes back to haunt us.

This official document has now been filed away for all of those years.  But when faced with the impending (like, 8 years from now!) end of life-at-home, Sprout went and dug it out and put it on the counter.  Just so we won't forget that we promised.

We won't forget.  I am in no hurry to get rid of her permanently.

I am assuming that by the time she is able to leave, she'll want to.  She probably will choose a college far far away.  (Sob.)  She'll probably seek her fortune in a big city somewhere. (Sob.)

But I am happy for her to have this piece of mind that if ever the road points her back toward home, there will be room at the inn for her.  Always.

Fun with Egg Cartons

Since we haven't done anything fun in a long time, I am digging back into old things I never managed to write about.

Which brings us to this guy.

Tater did this almost entirely on his own.  He found the idea in some book, I wish I could credit it properly, but it was months ago, so I have no idea where it came from.

He cut out a little cup from an egg carton.  Well, actually I did that part because he tried and it kept coming out the wrong shape and I was afraid he was going to start throwing things (like scissors) around the kitchen.  So I intervened.

I don't like it when people throw scissors.

Once we got the body to be the right shape, he used a permanent market to draw on the face and stripes.  We glued googly eyes on the face and cut another little piece of foam from the egg carton and glued it on for a tail. 

Voila - raccoon!

The book showed a cardboard-type egg carton, and that might work even better.  We had the foam kind and I wasn't going to buy some different kind of eggs just for the carton.  Stubborn, yes.

This could work for little cats, dogs, cows, pigs...really any animal if you embellish it properly.  Tater was really happy with the end result and proud of himself for doing it (almost) all by himself.

Inspiration

I apologize in a huge way for being MIA around here.  I have stumbled into some freelance projects that have kept me busy along with working on my resolutions project. 

I have a little pile of activity ideas that is growing on the counter, but we just haven't gotten ourselves together to do any of them in a while.  We are planning on some really fun Easter Eggs, but we can't do that just yet!

Today is a rainy day and the kids are home from school, so we are trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.  Tater says he wants to go shopping and buy a Spongebob Lego Set and that will be his "craft".

I don't think he is the spirit of things.

I was just checking out a website, which I think saw in Woman's Day Magazine - Instructables.com.  It seems like a great resource with wide gamut of different projects.  I just haven't figured out which one to do.  The magazine suggested Vegan Marshmallows, but the instructions include a bunch of ingredients that I a) don't have and b) don't know where to get.  So that's not going to happen.

I will have to come up with something stunningly original and exciting and reclaim my Fun Mommy title!

Stay tuned!

Aqua Sand Review

Check out our experience with Aqua Sand on the Review page.

Olympic Bead Projects

My friend, Jen, who is a far funner Mommy than I, just sent me this link to some Olympic themed fuse bead patterns.

This could be a way to salvage our third snow day in a row!

Thanks, Jen!

Snow Day

We, like most of the East Coast, are in the midst of a big big BIG blizzard.  So Tater and Sprout are home from school.  Again.

We had our traditional Snow Storm French Toast for breakfast.  I assume that's what everyone makes with the eggs, milk and bread that they hoard pre-storm.

We have watched a ridiculous amount of TV.  Again.

The snow is blowing sideways and so I am hesitant to let them go outside to play.  Not to mention that Sprout has a "boot" on her broken foot and therefore can't wear a snow boot.  Seems like frozen toes would be unavoidable if she goes out.

Right now they are playing with a mixture of cornstarch and water and food coloring (3/4 cup cornstarch + 1/3 cup of water + a few drops of food coloring = weird slime).  I fear that they will have blue hands for several days. Smurf-like.

Yesterday, during my pre-storm preparations, I bought this new Pillsbury cookie dough.  It has only the ingredients that you would actually put in cookies if you were motivated enough to bake them from scratch.  So when I asked the kids if they wanted to bake the cookies they said, "YES!" Of course.

So Sprout said, "Can I mix them?" as she grabbed the whisk.  Um...there's no actual mixing involved.

Then Tater said, "Can I measure things?" as he went to get the measuring spoons.  Nope...no measuring either.

Sprout: "Can I scoop them out and roll the little balls?"

Nope - pre-formed.

Sprout: "These cookies are NO FUN."

Sorry.

We put them on the tray and did the little fork crosses on top and they are in the oven now.  I am guessing they'll think they're more fun in about 15 minutes.

There are a bunch of coupons available on the Pillsbury site (for other products, too) and if you Google for Pillsbury Simply Cookie Dough there seem to be some coupons there, too.

Happy sort of baking.

Kideos

My kids love to play on the computer.  And I have bookmarked all sorts of kid-appropriate sites for them.

PBSKids

Disney Channel

Nickelodeon

But my friend just found this kid version of YouTube and I think the kids will love it.  It's called Kideos and they have kid safe videos filtered out from YouTube.  Nothing rude or inappropriate, just a bunch of funny animals and cartoons.  The videos are divided up by age group, and go from baby to 10+. 

I think Sprout would like this one of the crowd at the Oprah show dancing to the Black Eyed Peas.

Tater would probably enjoy this one with a dog riding on a skateboard.

Of course they spent last night laughing hysterically at this guy - which is probably not at all appropriate.  Somehow he didn't get filtered into Kideo. 

Hmmmm...