April 26, 2012

Talking Pizza

It's one of the best times when everyone is helping to prepare dinner together (plus, it makes less work for you).  It's also one of the best times to talk with your kids.

When your preparing a meal together with your kids, they naturally start communicating with you about the task at hand (what step comes next, what else needs to be done, etc.) or asking questions.  It feels good as parent to have your children, no matter what age, look to you for help and guidance or to simply open up and communicate!  That's why I'm excited to post about "talking" pizza.


Pizza is definitely one of our family favs.  Whenever my kids ask what we're having for dinner and I say, "pizza," I always get a big smile.  (Kinda makes you feel like mom of the year, sweet!)  Although it's quick and easy to pick up a pizza on your way home from work, it's more fun to have homemade pizza.  Homemade pizza is yummy, affordable, and you can add as toppings as you want!

*Pizza also is a great party food.  So, if you want to create a fun "party" atmosphere for your family or even just you and your husband, pizza is perfect!  Pizza is fun to have at the dinner table or while watching a family movie together.

Here is the pizza dough recipe that we used (from Boche):

Pizza Dough
3 cups hot tap water
1 TBS. Saf yeast
 2 TBS. honey
1 TBS salt
6-8 cups flour
1 TBS dough enhancer

Put water, honey, and 3 cups of flour in a mixing bowl.  Mix until paste consistency.  Add yeast and salt.    Add flour 1 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from sides of the bowl.  We used whole wheat flour and kneaded it for 10 min.  If you are using white flour knead for 5 min. (depending on mixer it may vary).  Add the dough enhancer the last 2 minutes of kneading.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Roll crust, add toppings, and bake for 7 minutes (or until crust is light brown and cheese is melted). In my oven, it took me approx. 12 minutes to cook a large pizza.

*Note: This recipe makes A LOT of dough, so you might want to half the recipe.  Or you can save half in the fridge for bread sticks or rolls to go with tomorrow's dinner. 


We opted to use the Hunt's tomato sauce  and mozzarella cheese.  Then we added lots of veggies and pepperoni to top off our pizza.

Our favorite drink to have with pizza is root beer, and homemade is the BEST! Here is the root beer recipe that we use:

Root Beer
 6 cups white sugar
3 1/3 gallons of cold water
1 (2 ounce) bottle of root beer extract
4 pds. Dry ice

Enjoy your own family "talking" pizza. Bon appetite!

April 24, 2012

{Tuesday's Tip} Fun in the Yard

To along with our earth week theme, I wanted to share another great way to bond as a family: gardening! 

Working out in the yard together can be both work and play.  For instance, try planting a garden together.  It's so fun to watch something you planted grow and then reap the benefits too!  Plus, we all know that home grown is always so much tastier than store bought.

 
You don't even need to have a big yard or a lot of space to plant a garden, you can use pots or other raised garden beds.  Also, not far from where we live there are community garden plots that you can rent for spring and summer, and they are pretty inexpensive considering how much produce you can harvest later in the season!  It's worth checking out to see if your community has a garden or garden plots too.

Here's how you can get the whole family involved in your garden.  First, get everyone involved from the beginning.  When your planning your garden, let each person pick something they would like to grow.  Pumpkins, zucchini, and large sun flowers are a few fun plants our family likes to grow.  Other plants that are really fun to harvest are cherry tomatoes, carrots, peas, strawberries, etc.  because you can simply pick the fruit or veggie, rinse, and eat!  No prep!

*This could also be a cool science project for kids to plant a small seed and watch it grow.  They can also simultaneously learn responsibility as they take care of their plants to water, and weed them.

The most exciting part of gardening when the plants start producing!

*Or, instead of a vegetable garden, you could plan a flower garden.  It's also fun to see the beautiful flowers altogether or experiment with new varieties like those that attract butterflies or humming birds.  It makes for a very relaxing atmosphere to have a little bit of nature in your very own yard.

Of course there are lots of our things for kids to discover and learn about as they are helping out in the yard.  For instance, if you can convince your kids to help you weed, they could discover all kinds of cool little bugs hiding near the plants.  What kid can't resist looking at snails, rolly pollies, or worms!  It is fun to learn about insects.  In the past when we've found caterpillars, we'll look it up on the internet to find out what it will look like when it turns into a butterfly.  It can be a great learning opportunity for both you and your kids.  You can easily look up some quick info about praying mantis, ants, butterflies, spiders or any other bugs your child finds or really likes.


Working in the yard and discovering bugs is also a good time to teach children respect for nature and other living things.  As adults, it's good advice to not over react when we find less than pleasant creepy crawlys outside like, try not to scream, act scared, hurt or squish the bugs.  They are there for a reason and, for the most part, are more good than bad.  For instance, many people don't like spiders (my sister included).  But spiders help eat other bad insects from killing our plants, so they are actually great for our gardens. 

There is so much fun you can have outside in the garden. Enjoy it together!

April 23, 2012

Dirt Cup Dessert

We are still celebrating earth week here at our house.  To help us celebrate I planned a special dessert for our dinner tonight. 

We don't have dessert very often at our house. So when we do, its a BIG deal!


To set the mood for dinner, I had the kids help me decorate the table.  A few simple decorations can really make a HUGE difference in the atmosphere in your home or at dinner time.  Pretty soon everyone is happy and excited because things are different and therefore more "special."  All I did to set the mood was display a couple packs of flowers I bought for our garden and then added some gummy worms (that's where the helpers came in handy). The gummy worms were not just for decoration, however, they were part of our dessert later.

For dessert we made dirt cups with worms (sounds yummy, right!).  There are lots of variations on this dessert out there, but here is how I did it.  I used chocolate ice cream for the bottom layer then crushed cookies and sprinkled them on top to look like dirt on the ground. We used Oreo cookies but you can choose any kind of cookie, really.  Then we added a few more gummy worms to look like they were digging in the "dirt." 


To make it more fun for everyone, I had some help crushing the cookies.  Before dinner started, I gave everyone a small baggie with cookies.  I recommend using ziplock bags, but sandwich bags would work too if you're not too messy.  I gave everyone about 3 cookies.  Then while we waited for everyone to gather around the dinner table, we crushed our own bag of cookies.  We just set our crushed cookies aside until dinner was finished.

When we finished our meal, I scooped the ice cream and everyone added their cookies on top and grabbed some gummy worms. (The gummy worms were already cleverly placed on the table, remember?)  Then our dessert was ready to eat. Yum! I must say, that was some of the best dirt I've ever had! :)

Afterwards we had time to go out in the garden and plant the flowers I bought.  I love marigolds, they look so perky in my yard!

April 21, 2012

Celebrate Earth Day

Tomorrow is Earth Day!


During the next week we are dedicating our posts to help celebrate Earth Day.  It will help provide fun times for the family!

We have been blessed with beautiful nature all around us and we need to take good care of it and add to the beauty.  The first place to start is in your very own home.

Tomorrow I am going to leave a flower in each family members bedroom (including my husband).


I'm going to include this cute note that says:

I have the power
with this flower
to shower 
you with love!

{click here to print your flower power love note}

Later in the day we will go outside and plant them together.


 How do you plan to celebrate Earth Day?

April 19, 2012

Wet & Rainy Wednesday


We woke up yesterday morning and it was RAINING!

After I sent my kids off to school I thought it would be fun to have a "Rain Day" planned for them when they got home.

My "Rain Day" activity was super simple. I had the song "Singing in the Rain" playing as the kids came in the door.  I also had our boots and umbrellas laid out with this Umbrella Time poem.  

Yes, I wrote the poem myself. And, no. I'm not a professional poet. :)



Then we simply put on rain our gear and went out to PLAY!  

We sang, danced, and jumped, jumped, jumped! 


 When we were good and wet (and a little chilly) we came in for some hot chocolate and grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for dinner.


It was so fun to interact with my kids and enjoy the beauty of Spring!

April 17, 2012

{Tuesday's Tip} Working Together

Children learn by doing. Letting them help you in the kitchen is a great way to teach responsibility, independence, and nutrition. Start by giving every child a job to help out with dinner time preparation. I've listed a few ideas below of how to get your kids more involved in the kitchen. Hopefully these ideas will start you thinking about how your family can work together in the kitchen:
  • Give your child a wash rag and let him/her clean the table or counter
  • Allow your child to set the table. If possible, put plastic dinnerware (cups, plates, bowls, etc.) on lower shelves so the dishes are easily accessible for your child to set the table
  • Let your child help wash and put away the dishes after dinner is over
  • Have everyone be responsible to rinse their own dishes and put in the sink or dishwasher
  • Have your child help with simple food items that can be mixed, stirred, poured, etc.
  • Let your child choose the fruit or vegetable sides for dinner

Working in the kitchen together is a great time to talk and listen, plus it prepares everyone for family dinner.

What a wonderful time to be together!!

April 16, 2012

Just Keep Swimming

When was the last time you went swimming??


During the winter months it is hard to bundle up and go out sometimes.  But, now that Spring is here why not celebrate by swimming!!

First, check out the pool scheduled near you and any possible discounts.  Our local indoor swimming pool has a discount family night once a week.  Also, make sure to check the pool schedule at your local high school, gyms, or rec center that also have a pool.  They may have specific hours when the pool is open to the public like nights or weekends.

{As your finding more summertime activities, print out this cute Summer 2012 Calendar over at Brown Paper Packages. What a time saver -- thanks Kierste!}

So I planned a day for our family swimming activity and the morning of I posted this note on the inside of our front door.


It says, "Why don't you grab your fins and We'll go swimming Tonight!!!"

Everyone saw the note as they were leaving in the morning for work or school so they knew we had something fun to look forward to later.

*You could also use this swimming activity as a family incentive or reward for being obedient, being helpful, being kind, etc.

Print your own "Grab Your Fins" swim sign:

{click here to print 5 x 7" sign}

{click here to print 8.5 x 11" sign}

For my family, I purchased a couple of small toys to take along with us to the pool.  I found a little beach ball and some diving rings, just a little something to make it different!  This made it fun and easy to include everyone while swimming in the pool.  The diving rings worked well in the shallower end.  We had fun having diving races, pretending to be dolphins, and playing hot potato.

April 11, 2012

Make Your Own Muddled Madlib


My husband and I love to play games together; we both came from game-playing families.

When we get together with my husband's family, one of their favorite go-to activities is Madlibs.  They usually pull out the games just before or after dinner, while everyone is gathered together.

Madlibs make a great activity because they are easy, portable, and fun for any age.  They also provide a great opportunity to have a little grammar lesson too!

For those who don't know, Madlibs are silly little stories with blanks that the reader has to fill-in. For instance, one Madlib sentence might look like: 

"The other day, Sally walked    (adverb)    to school with her favorite      (noun)     ."

So, in this sentence, your job would be to think of one adverb (like lazily) and one noun (like trumpet).  Sometimes the sentences end up a little awkward, but most times they are hilarious because your story will take on very unexpected twists and turns.

The more creative you are with filling in the blanks, the more wacky and crazy your story will be! 

You can buy inexpensive Madlib booklets at the store (in the puzzle book section).  If you write the filler words in pencil or on a separate sheet of paper, you can even reuse the same Madlib booklet over and over - and create a new story every time!

Madlibs can be done individually or in a group.  If they are done as a group, each person takes a turn filling in a blank so that everyone has a chance to contribute.  We always brainstorm and write in all the missing words first and then someone reads the story out loud for everyone to enjoy.

*We also had the idea of creating our own Madlibs out of some of the children's stories that we already have.

{free activity + fun for the kids = happy mommy & daddy!} 

We chose stories that we've read over and over before.  Even our favorite bedtime stories can get a little dull sometimes so it was fun to mix it up a little. 

If you want to try creating your own Madlib simply choose a story you've read before and take out one word in each sentence.  To keep it simple you can remove only nouns or verbs.  If your kids are old enough, they can help you think of the replacement words, or you can make them up as you read along.

If you brainstorm the replacement words in advance, one suggestion is to write them on post-it notes and stick them to the pages rather than retyping the entire story.

April 10, 2012

{Tuesday's Tip} Sit Down & Eat

Having dinner at the table together is important for families to connect.



There has been a lot of research done on the importance and the impact that family dinner has on children.  Children that participate in family dinner are more likely to have good self-esteem, less likely to have early sexual relationships, and less likely to use drugs or alcohol, just to name a few.

Recently there was a study done in my home town about this very topic.  Over the past two years, the number of underage drinking has gone down significantly.  Part of this decrease in underage drinking has been in response to the Most Don't campaign.  However, the study found that when family dinner was held more frequently in the home that children were less likely to start early age drinking. 

Family dinner also helps to lower childhood obesity.  The primary reason for this is that families naturally cook and eat more healthy meals when they eat at home instead of eating out.  Also, families that eat dinner at the table are less likely to over eat.  It is easier for families to pay attention to how much they are eating (and listen and respond to their bodies) when they eat at the dinner table instead of in front of the TV or computer where they easily get distracted.

Family dinner is a time for families to connect.  It is a time when families can share with each other about their feelings and daily events; it is a time when everyone can laugh or engage in spiritual conversation.  These communications can be casual.  No need to preach or lecture.  Just be together and talk.

As you make family dinners a greater priority in the home, you will enjoy the benefits of spending time with your children.  You will make lasting memories and form (or continue) a great tradition that your children will (hopefully) want to continue in their homes someday.

April 9, 2012

Muppet Puppets

Who doesn't LOVE The Muppets?  Well, we do!!

My family's all-time favorite Muppet show is the Christmas Carol.  We also have a few seasons of the old  Muppet TV series on DVD.  They're short and silly, and my daughter loves them!  So when the new Muppet Movie came out on DVD, I figured it would make a perfect activity for our family.

{our homemade sock puppet "muppets"}

I thought it would be fun to make our own Muppets and put on our own show.  First I chose a Muppet script for us to perform. I went to this website http://www.puppetresources.com/.  This website has tons of puppet scripts for puppet plays.  I did a search for "Muppet" and found a list of Muppet scripts from the old Muppet TV series.  I chose the Bunny script for our Muppet play.  I printed off a copy of the script for each family member to read from while we performed the play (or practice, if they wanted to).

 Then, together we each made our own sock puppet.  I found this website with a pattern to make the sock puppets www.daniellesplace.com.  We used large socks, felt, yarn, and cardboard to make our sock puppets.  But you could also use brown lunch sacks and draw on the faces to make quick and inexpensive puppets.  We made Nurse Piggy, Doctor Bob, and Nurse Janice (to go along with our Bunny script).

To set the stage, I set up a curtain for us to hide behind.  For simplicity, you could also try sitting behind the couch or kitchen table.  Either way, I recommend trying to hide yourself a little because afterall, the fun of puppets is that you can't see the puppeteer, right?

I also setup our video recorder so that we could watch our performance afterwards. (You can try using a webcam, iPad, camera, etc.) I highly recommend taping your puppet performance.  We didn't have a live audience to perform for so it was hilarious to play back our little muppet play. So fun when the entire family is involved!

Afterwards we popped popcorn, snuggled in, and watched The Muppets movie together as a family.

April 6, 2012

You Lift Me UP


We all love receiving special notes of appreciation!!

This is a quick and easy dinner activity idea to make the whole family feel appreciated.  

At everyone's plate I put a can of 7-Up with a simple label taped around it that said, "You Lift Me UP!"

Click here to print your own labels
{labels fit easily around 12 oz. soda cans} 

Then I personalized each label by writing something that I liked about each person and I tied a balloon to the top of each can.  The balloons added a fun, colorful twist to our dinner drink!  

During dinner we talked about something or someone who had lifted us up during the week.  This was very insightful and inspiring to hear all of the positive events that happened in the lives of my family.  Also, my children really enjoyed the simple note that I wrote about each of them.  It was simple and unique way to express my love for them.


*If you want, a fun family activity would be to watch the Disney Pixar movie UP after dinner!

*Another fun variation would be to leave a can of 7-Up in each family member's room as a thoughtful surprise when they came home from school or work - a welcome treat after a long day!

April 4, 2012

Easter Scavenger Hunt



I wanted to do a fun Easter activity that would also help our family to remember Jesus Christ and his life.  The atonement of Christ is the greatest gift given to us!  If we receive it and use that gift, then we will be filled with joy and hope.

The supplies needed for this activity include:
  • Bible
  • Plastic Easter eggs {at least 1 dozen}
  • Easter basket or bag
  • Scavenger hunt clues {click here to print}
  • Glow sticks *optional

For the Easter scavenger hunt, I incorporated several Bible verses (using the King James version) describing Christ's ministry.  With a scripture clue in each egg, I hid the eggs throughout the house.  The scripture verses were the actual clues to find the next egg.  With each clue I also gave 2 hints.  The first hint gave the word or phrase to pay attention to in the scripture.  The second hint gave which room or specific location to look for the next egg.  


{Click here to print the scavenger hunt scripture clues & hints}

Here are the instructions for hiding the Easter eggs:

{Clue #1} We started with the egg with Clue #1

{Clue #2} Hide by the stereo (or other music player or instrument)

{Clue #3} Hide by the first aid kit or in the medicine cabinet.

{Clue #4} Hide in the children's play area

{Clue #5} Hide by the book shelf or the reading area

{Clue #6} Hide in the kitchen

{Clue #7} Hide in the garden

{Clue #8} Hide in the master bedroom

{Clue #9} Hide by the tools

{Clue #10} Hide in the basement

*I set up Clue #10 a little differently.  I used small glow sticks, put them inside several Easter eggs (this might require larger plastic eggs), and then hid the eggs throughout the basement.  I also added one jellybean to each glowing egg.  (The idea for the glowing eggs came from pinterest.) We left the lights off as we searched for the glowing eggs.  We spent 3 minutes gathering the glowing Easter eggs because this clue symbolizes the 3 hours of darkness while Christ hung on the cross.  I also had the next clue taped to the wall (typed larger) rather than hiding it inside one of the glowing eggs, but either way would be fun.

{Clue #11} Hide in the food cellar or the pantry

{Last Clue} Hide outside in the yard
*This clue is hidden outside where everything is sunny and growing because it symbolizes the fact that Jesus Christ lives!  The resurrection of Christ is so wonderful.

*For the last clue, I had everyone meet me outside and I read the last two scriptures.  I had a few candles going to emphasize that Jesus Christ is the Light of the World.

Afterwards, we had time to discuss our own thoughts and feelings about Christ. Then we ate the strawberry shortcake I had made for our Easter treat.


Happy Easter!

April 1, 2012

Lego My Lego Dinner


In my family we love LEGOs!!  So I decided to do a Lego activity dinner night. I wanted something fun that we could do and talk about during dinner.


We have lots of Legos at our house, so this was a quick and easy activity to put together. 

{dollar store finds}

I wanted to create some cute place settings for dinner, so I set off to the dollar store to buy a few additional supplies.  I found some cute, bright colored baskets and a sink drainer that looked "Lego'y" as part of our table decoration.  I bought enough baskets and sink drainers for every person in the family.

The first thing I did was paint the sink drainer with some acrylic paint I already had on hand.  My daughter helped me with the painting and had loads of fun.  But, if you wanted to surprise your family with this Lego dinner, you could easily do the painting yourself in ten minutes (or less).

{dinner table Lego display}

To set the table, I filled my dollar store baskets with Legos.  I used the painted sink drainers as a table runner in the middle of the table and used some colorful dinnerware that matched our Lego colors.  I  also added a "Lego my Lego Creation" sign {mimicking the logo from the Ego Waffle commercials, ha ha!}.

Click here to print your own Lego sign
{fits in 4 x 6" frame}

I planned two Lego activities for our dinner time event!!

Activity #1 - Just before dinner was ready, everyone picked a Lego basket from the table.  The rule was to make any Lego creation of your choice in five minutes or less.  This requires\d some creativity depending on what Legos we had in our baskets.  When everyone was finished, we place our Lego creations in the center of the table.

As we sat down to dinner, our Lego creations made for a great conversation piece as we tried to guess each others creations.  This activity was so fun and easy going, it kept everyone engaged in the conversation.  Everyone enjoyed the attention as the others gave compliments and made guesses about their Lego creation!!

{our Lego creations}

Here are our creations...can you guess what they are supposed to be?  {I'll give you a hint.....Perry the Platapuse, house boat and a tractor.}

Activity #2 - After we were done eating (and guessing), we moved on to the second activity.  The only rule for the second activity was that you had to use every Lego in your basket.  So, we each built a Lego statue. 

{our Lego statues}

When we were done building our statues, we assigned each one a number {I used some 3 x 5" index card I already had}.  Then we individually brainstormed a unique name for each statue.  We wrote down our  ideas then took turns sharing them and voted on the name that we all liked best.  After we voted, I wrote down the statue name on the index cards.

These two activities added a little variety to our normal dinner time routine!!
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