Did you do it?

Did anyone try any (or all) of the activities in the Barrel of Chipmunks Holiday Newsletter?

Was it fun? Did it help keep boredom at bay? Were your kids entertained? Do you love us??

Please let me know if you have ANY feedback at all on what your experience was...we are all ears!

Holiday Issue of Barrel of Chipmunks Newsletter

Esther and I just finished up the first issue of the Barrel of Chipmunks Newsletter.

Download your FREE copy here. We hope that you can use these ideas to entertain your little Chipmunks during the long long (long) winter break.

Let us know what you think...is there too much? Not enough? Too hard? Too easy? We'd love to know what you think. Comment here or send me an e-mail. Any feedback would be MUCH appreciated!

All the best!

And the winner is...

Here's our logo...what do you think??

Getting better...

The chipmunks are improving.

I am significantly less frightened of them than before.

Not sure about the sneaky one behind the dot of the "i". He still seems like he's up to no good. What's he doing back there??

Why so scary?

We are working on a logo for "Barrel of Chipmunks", and the chipmunks are coming out way scary. This guy's little eyes have somewhat of a deranged look in them and his very very long teeth and freaking me right out.

The first iterations were profoundly squirrel-ish. Or hamster-ish. Hard to get those cartoon rodents just right.

So my instructions to the logo folks will be "friendlier eyes" and "less menacing teeth". I am having flashbacks to when I worked at the Franklin Mint and we had to discuss the expression on the face of the sculptured Betty Boop...

And I totally love that this is actually "work".

Some fun reading...

Until Barrel of Chipmunks gets off the ground (we are targeting the Spring), and while Stuff for Sprouts is up for sale (Know anyone who wants their own skin care business for kids? Great opportunity...call me!) I have been looking for other options to provide some income around here.

I have a book called Will Work from Home: Earn the Cash--Without the Commute, which seemed promising. There are some ideas for being a virtual concierge, or a cyber customer service rep. Nothing I am dying to be...but options...until I found out that none of these things work with a Mac. And buying a new computer doesn't seem like the first thing I should be doing to improve cash flow. Although I guess there are cheapish ones out there...

I found this blog: Notes from a Wannabe WAHM, which does a nice job of offering up some possibilities. And this one: Making a Happy Life, which is less about finding the work, and more about making sure you get it done and live to tell the tale.

I have lists of freelance writing assignments, which are fun to contemplate. And yet sort of intimidating.

I have searched part-time jobs on Monster and Career Builder. Apparently there is a part time opening for a Flight Surgeon. And I should have been a nurse.

I am beating the bushes for freelance assignments, but nothing so far.

What is an MBA-educated, business owning, business starting, and yet painfully unemployed person to do? Ideas??

Making Plans

Esther and I met this morning over a very yummy breakfast to discuss plans for A Barrel of Chipmunks, the activities newsletter that we are planning to start.

We are going to take what we've learned from my summer experiment and put together a newsletter that will give, on a weekly basis, a list of 3-5 activities to do with kids, all fitted to a theme-of-the-week.

We are thinking that this would be helpful for parents at home with kids (especially over the summer!), folks who run small daycare centers, nannies, grandparents, and really anyone who is looking to have stress-free fun with kids in the 4-10 age group.

We are all fired up to get this baby going...so stay tuned!

The Fun Mommies

Hello world!

We are Esther and Kristen and we are "The Fun Mommies"!! Very soon we are going to bring you a product called "Barrel of Chipmunks" (more fun than a barrel of monkeys!)

As working Mom's we always longed for more time with our kids. But then when faced with blocks of time with them we were at a loss for what to do that would be fun, engaging, and memorable.

We had stacks of books with craft ideas, activity ideas, recipes. But to sit down and sift through them and find a good one, organize the materials, etc was more effort than we could bear.

But we wondered, what if it was easier...what if we knew what we were going to do and could focus on just having fun with the kids. Isn't that the whole point!?