Last-Minute Valentines: Free Printable!

We actually did not wait until the last minute to make and address Valentines this year...but I thought I'd share the printable template I made, because it's pretty versatile. You can have your kids make construction-paper heart animals like we did, or if you're really pressed for time, they can just draw pictures.

I printed these on cardstock, turning them upside-down and re-feeding them through the printer (the sides matched up perfectly). Just cut the sheets in half after they're printed, fill in the blanks, fold on the lines, and close it up with tape or a sticker.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Print Valentine Inside

Print Valentine Outside

Hey, Selfies Are Fun!

Here's what we did the other day with an app on my laptop called Photo Booth. Good times!

My First Fondant Cake: The Pigtrooper

After years of wanting to attempt decorating a cake with rolled fondant, I finally, finally did it. I wanted to make my oldest, who just turned six, a birthday cake in the shape of a Pigtrooper (you know--a storm trooper a la Angry Birds Star Wars). I wanted to show myself that I could improve on my last cake--Orange Bird, who was coated in canned frosting dyed in a shade I'm sure doesn't exist in nature and detailed in black gel icing that literally dripped everywhere--which my little boy loved, but was laughably bad.

The result?  I wouldn't consider my Pigtrooper an Orange Bird-level cake disaster. In fact, I think I did a pretty good job for my fondant debut.

The part of the project I'm most proud of, I think, is that I let the boys work with the extra fondant, even though it was upsetting to know how much sugar, food coloring, and horse hooves (I mean melted marshmallows) they were going to be ingesting. I knew they would have fun with it...and I was touched that they wanted to copy what I had done (i.e., imitation is the sincerest form of flattery).

I'd consider this cake-decorating project an all-around success.

Here's a quick shout-out to blog posts I turned to for help:

• Easy Marshmallow Fondant (Cakeulator.com)
• Photo Tutorial: How to Cover the Cake (Funcheaporfree.com)

I'm Afraid of Art

(Scroll down for this week's Sunday Parenting Party.)

I know I'm not alone in being a mom who heads for the hills at the very mention of doing a potentially messy or open-ended art or craft project with young children. In fact, I know I've read more than a few blog posts on the subject.

The completely embarrassing element of my mortal fear of kids plus art materials is this: I'm an artist.

I want to be creative with my kids -- I do. I even have a Pinterest board filled with the projects I'd like to do with the boys. I would love to sit in the front yard with Bug and Pie and do pastel sketches of the flowers. But I can't do it.

Just the thought of the mess and all the unknown variables sends me running for the Xanax. Bright colors all mixed together into a muffin tin full of muddy brown. Paint all over pants. Brand-new pots of Play-Doh smushed into a glob of smoky gray (but naturally not the same shade of gray of the carpet it will eventually be ground in to).

I can't even do my own artwork because I don't know what I would do when the kids started to grab at -- or even asked politely to use -- my pastels or charcoal pencils or sketchbook paper. I don't know what I'd do ... so I just don't do it. Every year my husband plants an award-winning entryway garden, and every year I want to paint pictures of it. But I can't, because I'm afraid of the potential mess.

This afternoon, my four-year-old asked if we could paint rocks. We saw some painted rocks last week while we were camping, and he's been asking almost every day if we could make our own. I would have liked to put it off indefinitely (even though I knew he really wanted to paint rocks). I recently read a great post on another mom blog about how to contain the mess when painting with littles ... I didn't have all the supplies to carry it out, but I did the best I could. Pie and I portioned the paint in a muffin tin. He helped me mix the primaries to make the secondaries. I showed him how to wash his brush before changing colors, and he paid attention. And we painted rocks out in the driveway. My five-year-old bundle of energy even ended up joining us (and I cringed as he decided to mix colors in our communal palette and proceeded to add black pinstripes to his rock, Jackson Pollock style). But it worked out. I didn't panic. I didn't necessarily like the twelve different shades of green that we ended up with, or Bug's action-packed brush handling, but we did it, and the boys were happy.

I guess I am capable of surviving a mess. If Mommy is an artist, I have to assume that at least one of my kids has talent, too, and I should be nurturing that talent. I just have to keep reminding myself of days like today when the boys and I made art and lived to tell about it.

Welcome to The Sunday Parenting Party! This week's hosts are denoted by the word {host} behind their link’s title in the list below. The SPP is place for readers to find ideas on nurturing, educating, developing and caring for children, as well as honest posts on the stresses of being a parent or caregiver. Reviews and giveaways are welcome as long as they are relevant to the topic. All parenting philosophies are welcome with one exception: please do not link posts promoting physical discipline, as this is something we would feel uncomfortable having on our blogs. (P.S. By linking up you agree that your post and photos are Pinterest, Sulia, G+ and FB friendly. We will be showcasing ideas on The Sunday Parenting Party Pinterest board.)

Some of my favorite submissions from last week's SPP:

• Kids Stuff World: Slash summer stress by staying home
• Connecting Family and Seoul: Finding your own happiness

That's It ... No More Carnivals

It's times like this that make me think of a classic episode of The Simpsons, in which Homer, upon the family's return from their latest disastrous outing, states something along the lines of, "I think we should all agree to disband as a family."

Totally.

Of course, I'm not serious. I love Prickly Dad. I love Bug and Pie. I love this little family we have built. But I have to be blunt about one thing: I can't do carnivals. I, the mom, have a meltdown. Then one or both kids have a meltdown. Then Prickly Dad gets angry. This is the way it goes pretty much every time.

Why does this happen to me? There are too many variables and too many snap decisions that have to be made. Where is the ticket booth? How long is the line? How much are the tickets? How many tickets am I going to need? Do I buy a whole sheet now and risk having a bunch of leftovers, or do we buy a few now and a few later? Why is my 40" tall kid not allowed to go on the swing ride at this carnival when he was allowed to go on the same, exact ride at the other carnival, and how am I supposed to explain it to him? Why does this ride cost two tickets and this other ride cost three tickets? Why are none of the entrances to the rides clearly marked? Where do you line up? Where is the food truck that has plain hot dogs for the kids? How do I tell the boys they can't keep playing the carnival games because they're fixed and overpriced, and we could just as easily stop at the dollar store to get a cheap stuffed duck? Why don't they put lids on the lemonade (isn't this chaotic cluster-eff supposed to be for kids? Kids need lids)? And where the hell are the porta-potties?

On top of all this chaos, my boys, as is to be expected, want to do everything now, now, now ... and I can't respond to them properly because I'm having a meltdown myself.

I'm a "Highly Sensitive Person" (someone who, these days, might be diagnosed with a sensory processing issue). I don't do loud well. I don't do chaos well. I don't do over-stimulation well. I have a hard time making decisions under normal circumstances, let alone amidst the sensory bedlam of a carnival.

Prickly Dad tried to placate me last month at the State Fair with a deep-fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on a stick (I have to admit, it was heavenly), and I tried my best to stay calm. (Sidebar: I have to give a major shout-out to Wade Shows, the outfit that ran the carnival at this summer's fair -- they replaced the ticket system with swipe-cards and had excellent signage throughout the midway that clearly showed prices and entrance and exit points for each ride. They obviously understand frazzled parents.)

I wish I liked going to carnivals, but I just don't -- and we're going to have to figure out a way to be okay with that. Prickly Dad can take the kids on his own if he really wants to go. Or if he absolutely needs me to go, I can take a time-out and sit under a tree until I calm down if I need to (I had to do this recently with Bug -- he's been mentioning lately that he doesn't care for carnivals either). Everybody can't like everything, right?

That way, we don't have to disband as a family. Yet.

Some helpful links:
Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People
10 Tips for Highly Sensitive People
Planning a Disney Trip with Sensory Processing Precautions
SPD Kids and Amusement Parks

And now to the Sunday Parenting Party!

Last week was my debut as a co-hostess of one of my favorite blog linkups, and I was happy to discover another great mom blogger, Hannah, from Paint on the Ceiling, who submitted a post called "9 Things I've Changed My Mind About." Chelsea, from Moments a Day (who I discovered through Pinterest a few weeks ago), submitted "10 Life Lessons for Kids," which is also applicable to grown-ups. Thanks for posting, ladies!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hey Kids: Here's How to Get on the Roof!

Status update ...

This morning, Prickly Dad and I had to climb out the window onto the roof to fix one of the gutters. How many years (months...weeks...days...hours...) until the boys try to do the same thing?

Bringing Apps to Life

First of all, I want to begin by admitting I let my kids have too much screen time. They're 3- and 5 years old, and they know what Netflix is and that the TV has to be on Input 6 to use the PlayStation. We have multiple Kindles and each of my boys has his own Leapster and/or iXL handheld.

Prickly Dad and I both grew up with a lot of TV (he tells me about doing his homework while watching Godzilla movies) as well as the various other "screens" of the time period (Pong, the many incarnations of Atari, the Commodore 64, followed by all the Nintendos). I've always been a connoisseur of vintage television as well as being fascinated by the capability of computers--and ended up working in the digital media industry before becoming a stay-at-home mom (so my workstation always included at least two computers, a double-monitor, and a TV).

So being a no-screen family was probably never in the cards for us.

Anyhoo, my children's TV-watching habits are a whole 'nother topic...but I have to admit that I actually like some of the Android apps meant for grown-ups, and don't mind my little guys playing. Of course we have Angry Birds and all its incarnations (and even a spin-off, Bad Piggies), but we also like Cut the Rope, Where's My Water?, and now the grocery-packing game Bag It. In my opinion, all these games teach kids not only fine motor skills, but concepts like cause-and-effect ("I have to cut this rope at this time to get the candy to fall into Om Nom's mouth"), simple physics ("I need to pull the Angry Bird down lower in the slingshot to get him to go higher in the air"), or spatial skills ("if I stack these cereal boxes horizontally instead of upright, I can fit more of them in the grocery bag").

Yes, my boys talk and obviously think about these games a lot, but instead of playing on the Kindle for too long a time (which we do not let them do), my little guys take these games into the realm of reality. Yesterday afternoon, to my delight and amazement, Bug and Pie sat on the kitchen floor for almost two hours with the groceries I hadn't had time to put away yet (along with an empty egg carton I happened to have) and played their own grocery-stacking game, experimenting with different ways to balance cans and boxes, learning that heavy items do better on the bottom and lighter ones can balance on top. They practiced sharing, teamwork, and perseverance, and had fun doing it. I really enjoyed watching how their little minds worked (and had the added bonus of being able to get some housework done while they occupied themselves).

It just goes to show that screen time for the little ones isn't all bad, right?

The Long Weekend: Is It Over Yet?

The stars totally misaligned this past week. There was a major booger-fest (with a cough) that began last weekend and kept Bug and Pie home from school Monday and Tuesday. I had a brief kid-less respite Wednesday and Thursday to get some bare-bones housework and shopping done (as well as some bare-bones "me time" to veg out in front of CourtTV and the ridiculous Jodi Arias testimony and stuff my face with Valentine's Day chocolate). Then it was all over: I was face to face with a four-day weekend (what the boys' school calls "Mid-Winter Break"). To make matters worse, Prickly Dad is working this weekend...and now we're feeling under the weather.

As of right now (Saturday night), Prickly Family has made it halfway through! I wanted to share some of the things I've done with the boys during the past 48 hours (because I'm sure there are many other moms out there running out of ideas).

Prickly Mom's Long Weekend Time-Wasters

• Spend four hours at the nearest Chick-fil-A play-land
• Take the covers off the couch cushions (to wash them), and tell the kids they have to sit on clouds now (my cushions are covered with fluffy white batting)
• Let them take a 45-minute shower
• Let the kids comb and style your hair (especially if you have boys)
• Read the same book as many times as your little guy wants (today it was The Monster at the End of this Book, and it was four times)
• DJ a bedroom dance party (they dance around, you get to sit down) (FYI, according to Pie, "Locked Out of Heaven" is cool. "Diamonds in the Sky" is not cool)
• Show them Devo's "Whip It" video (circa 1980) and tell them how you and your siblings used to put on un-folded turtlenecks and flower-pot hats and rock out.

So that leaves 48 hours to go. What are you and your littles doing this weekend? Please share!

(P.S. We'd totally be making this super slide if I hadn't just thrown out the huge cardboard box that my new boot tray came in. I need to order something else big. Hmmm...a kitchen table?)

It's the Hand of Christmas!

(...you have to say that is a low, ominous-yet-goofy voice...)

I have a crafty aunt who has made many of the cherished ornaments I hang on the tree each year. Her creations are fabulous--my all-time favorites include an angel made from various macaroni shapes hot-glued together and an elf with a jingle-bell for an abdomen.

As one would expect, considering the sheer number of different ornaments my aunt has crafted through the years, there have been some duds. And in our house, the most famous dud of all is...the Hand of Christmas!

It's a knit white winter glove stuffed with poly-fill and decorated with felt and other doodads to look like Santa. As far as ornaments go, it's huge. Too huge for any Christmas tree that I'll ever have.

But of course, the boys loved it, and thus it has inadvertently become the centerpiece of a Prickly Family holiday tradition. When Bug hung it on the tree a couple years ago (when he was three), I plucked it off and started chasing him around the house with it, declaring, "oooooooo! It's the Hand of Christmas!" (and of course, the object of the game it to get away from it and avoid a fluffy love-spank!)

This year, Bug is constantly begging me to play (so much so that I'm actually looking forward to taking the tree down so I can pack the Hand of Christmas away until next year). I'm not usually a fan of chasing games, but my little guys love this one so much that I feel like I have to give in and play a few times a day.

'Tis the season to be silly with the kids, right? Merry Christmas!

Mommy's Sensory Bin

Seriously...this is a good stress-buster!

Politics for Preschoolers

The other morning on the way to school, my almost-five-year-old innocently asked, "Mom, where does Mitt Romney sleep?"

These are the moments I would love to just climb inside his little head and get a glimpse of how my little Bug is processing the world around him.

I told him that Mitt Romney is busy traveling the country right now, so he probably sleeps in a lot of hotels or on a big, fancy bus with beds in it. Bug then wanted to know where the mayor slept (I figured he meant the President), so after telling him the mayor sleeps in his house in Wilmington, I told him about the White House--a special building that the American President lives in, down in Washington D.C. (my kids just happen to know about D.C. because that's where Prickly Aunt lives).

The boys know Prickly Dad and I are big into politics and patriotism (Pie sometimes tries to emulate us by insisting he likes to watch the news): we change the flag outside our house for holidays and elections, and usually have someone's campaign sign out in the yard. We've taken them into the voting booth with us for every election since birth...but I know that what we're doing and the concept of government in general has to be confusing.


But it's never too early to start teaching civics, right? I, myself, don't remember learning about presidential elections until fifth grade (I will totally date myself by saying it was Carter vs. Reagan vs. Anderson--who I voted for in the mock election...I've always been a rebel). There aren't many truly authentic ideas out there for preschool election-themed lessons and activities, but I did find a few that I thought might work for my family.

"Your Vote Counts": This early childhood/primary-age unit focuses on the "one person, one vote" concept rather than simply asking little ones which of the actual candidates they would choose (which is meaningless to the kids--they'll just let you in on who their parents are voting for). This lesson plan features a campaign between Cookie Monster and the Count--fictional characters who want the job as classroom helper/arbitrator. This is a really well thought-out unit, and definitely worth a look.

Duck for President: In this cute children's book, a duck is tired of his farm chores and decides to campaign for change. It provides a good and lighthearted introduction to civics (and coincidentally, someone just gave me a free copy, Yay!)

Rights and Responsibilities: BrainPopJr (which seems to be a subscription-based educational site with some free videos and games) has some good ideas about teaching preschoolers about rights and responsibilities. Encourage your child to think about their responsibilities as a member of a group: the family, their class at school, an American, a human being.

Have you seen any good election-themed ideas for the little ones? I'm all ears (elephant or donkey ears...tee-hee!)

TeachPreschool.org: Blogging On Demand!

I have been following (and admiring) Deborah from www.teachpreschool.org for several weeks now. She has written about the "discovery table" in her classroom: a place where her students can explore materials on their own without the usual grownup-imposed restrictions.

I've been wanting to use my kitchen table for "discovery" projects, as I find myself stressing out a lot when the boys want to be with me--but I have cooking or chores to do (and their "helping" isn't really helping). I want to set up her tin cans and magnets activity as well as "what's inside a gourd?" (I just saw bags of weird-looking gourds at the grocery store this morning...perfect!).

So, last night I left a comment on Deborah's blog asking about the thought process behind the discovery table and how she chooses activities. And this morning I found she'd written the best reply ever--it was like getting an "On Demand" blog post with just the information I was looking for! Now that's what I call service (tee-hee)!

Check out the question and answer at the bottom of this page. It's really good stuff.

Delaware the Beautiful

During tuck-in tonight, Bug asked me to sing him to sleep.

I don't know any lullabies (seriously--how have I made it through five years of motherhood without learning the words to any lullabies?), so I decided to sing "America the Beautiful." Then "The Star-Spangled Banner," followed by "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

As soon as the last note of my patriotic super-set passed through my lips, Bug asked, "can you sing a song about another country now?"

Being a lifelong hockey fan, I do happen to know most of the words to "Oh, Canada." But when I told Bug, he said, "no, I mean a different country...like Delaware?"

After reminding him that Delaware was our state, I explained that all the states share the same American national anthem, and that I didn't think each state had its own individual song. But he wasn't satisfied with that answer...and insisted that I sing the Delaware national anthem.

So I did. Unfortunately I'm no Francis Scott Key, and just ended up singing most of the words to one of the other songs, substituting colors and scenery from the Brandywine Valley for the amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesty (I did squeeze the Atlantic seashore in there somewhere, too, but I probably should have mentioned poultry farms, corporate P.O. boxes, and Punkin' Chunkin', and maybe something about Ryan Phillippe. Or the Vice President. Oh well).

The poignant part of all of this was that Bug truly had no idea why I laughed through the whole crazy song. In his little five-year-old mind, they were all songs about loving the place you live. And that is why I admire my patriotic little Delawarean.

If I Were the Mom from "Caution! Twins at Play"...

...I would be wheeling a cart full of $5 behind-the-door dorm room mirrors from Target out to the car so I could build a mega-mirror play area inspired by this mom-blog post.

I grew up in Buffalo, home of gratuitous school field trips to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the ever-popular Mirrored Room exhibit, where you'd line up, take off your shoes, and carefully walk through in your stockinged feet as slowly as possible (in an attempt to stay inside as long as possible).

Lucas Samaras (American, born Greece 1936). Room No. 2 (popularly known as the Mirrored Room), 1966. Mirror on wood, 96 x 96 x 120 inches (243.8 x 243.8 x 304.8 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1966.

These days, Prickly Family has a large walk-in shower stall--that we almost never use--that would make the perfect mirrored play area (but my inner cheapskate won't let me drop $50 on mirrors, and my inner procrastinator won't let me do anything, period).

So I'm giving you all permission to steal my idea. If you do, POST PICTURES!

I Hate LEGOs

Last night, exasperated, I updated my Facebook status: "I hate LEGOs."

No, I didn't step on one, as one of my friends asked. I just don't get them. I do like the basic concept: build something based on imagination. Take it apart. Make it better. Repeat. But now Bug is totally into LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, which, I have to admit, is pretty darn entertaining as a mini-movie and video game, but as a toy (or increasingly-expensive series of toys), I'm confused. You buy a pile of LEGOs that Daddy has to put together. Then...do they really expect an almost-five-year-old to just look at it? He wants to play! Then, one by one, the components come apart and Mommy doesn't have the patience to fix them. Then everything ends up as a pile of LEGOs on the floor.

We could have just bypassed all of this and dumped the brand-new box of pieces directly on the family room floor, you know?

The reality is: I have little boys, and little boys like building with LEGOs. This means it's my duty as their mom to figure out some way to play with them that we can all enjoy. Here's what I'm finding so far:

• Build a marble maze, test structural stability
• LEGO balloon cars
• LEGO bingo (and other ideas)
• And when all else fails...LEGO boards on Pinterest

(P.S. Above all, as an editor, I can't stand when companies insist their product name appear in all capital letters when it is not an acronym. And we wonder why kids don't understand the proper usage of caps and lowercase letters. Just one of my many pet peeves. Grr.)

Lavender Sparkle Play Dough

I've been making an effort to actually do some of the activities I've pinned on my "Stuff to Do with the Kids" board on Pinterest...on Monday we made sidewalk paint, yesterday we did some sorting activities, and today we made play dough.

My last batch of homemade play dough was of the Kool-Aid variety. It was bright blue and smelled of raspberries--but it didn't match our neutral family-room carpet. (We need a new carpet up there, so I'm not that upset about the ground-in globs.) I decided it might behoove me to color the play dough bluish-gray this time; so to make up for the boring color, I added some soothing essential oil and glitter and introduced it to the boys as "Lavender Sparkle." They're loving it!

Lavender Sparkle Play Dough Recipe
2 c flour
2 c water
1/2 c salt
4 t cream of tartar
2 T vegetable oil
10 drops each blue and red food coloring
1 t lavender essential oil
2 T glitter

Mix all ingredients except essential oil and glitter in a medium saucepan. Whisk over low heat until mixture forms a ball (about five minutes), remove from heat. Turn mixture onto a cookie sheet, let cool slightly, then knead until smooth. Knead in essential oil and glitter. Store in airtight container once cool.

Happy Mud Day!

Only a mom of little ones desperate for something to do on a summer weekday would know that today is International Mud Day, right? We hosted a play date here at Prickly House this morning with a mud pool, a clean pool, and unlimited access to the hose. A good time was had by all--plus, Prickly Dad commended us on the noticeable absence of mud in the house!

Here is my contribution to the worldwide celebration (I served it with pretzels, apple slices, and strawberries):

Dyngus Day for Kids (What? No Alcohol?)

Roll out the barrel...and don't forget the pussy willows and squirt guns. It's Dyngus Day! 

I was born and raised in the Buffalo, NY area, and am half Polish, so I grew up celebrating Dyngus Day (well, at least being cognizant of it). This holiday, apparently, is unknown (and bizarre-sounding) to the rest of the country (with the exception of Michigan and possibly Cleveland). I guess you could call it the Polish-American St. Patrick's Day. In Western New York, which boasts the biggest Dyngus Day celebration in the country, party-goers show off their Warsaw Falcon tattoos and drink until they puke. And you wonder: why in the world would anybody want to celebrate this with their kids? Well, in my case, the Easter season is one of the only times I celebrate my Polish heritage, which I would like to pass on to the boys.

When you get down to it, Dyngus Day, or Easter Monday, has historically been a day in Poland for the faithful to let their hair down after the solemnity and fasting of Lent and Easter weekend. In the "old country," girls traditionally chase and swat their sweethearts with pussy willows, while the boys retaliate by dumping buckets of water on the swatters.

Unfortunately, it's too cold and windy here today to celebrate properly...but here are some ideas for celebrating with preschoolers:

• Pussy Willow Tag: (You can usually find them at a florist shop or in the floral department of the grocery store.) The child who is "It" tags the others by touching them with a pussy willow. I'd recommend playing the variation of tag in which there are multiple "Its" (each kid who is tagged gets his own pussy willow and becomes another "It") so that evryone has a pussy willow by the end of the game.
• The Ol' Run-n-Squirt: My boys, at least, would be content simply chasing each other around the yard with squirt guns (in fact, Mommy and Daddy love to join in). Give each kid her own water gun and let 'em loose. I usually provide a big soup-pot of water for easy refills: just submerge the squirt gun until all the bubbles come to the surface.
• Learn to Polka: Watch some basic how-to videos (here's what I found on YouTube) and dance with the kids. Or, something I think would be more fun, would be to cut out some paper footprints and tape them to the floor/ground and let the children try to do the steps in order (you could write numbers on the footprints). Check out this Web page for a Polka tutorial complete with footprints.
• Music: As far as what to Polka to, there's actually a song about Dyngus Day (buy the "Everybody's Polish on Dyngus Day" mp3 or search for other polkas). If polka music is just too crazy for your taste, play some Chopin. He was Polish.

More playdate ideas to come. Miłego dnia!

Fun with a Cookie Sheet

In a room full of Christmas toys, what do the boys decide to play with? Their old toy cars, packing cardboard, and a cookie sheet. I'm actually happy to see them use their imaginations and their reasoning skills! If the cookie sheet ramp is propped up too low, the jump is too boring. If you add too much cardboard and make the incline too high, the pull-back cars won't make it over. When you race the cars down the ramp, the heavier ones go further...and all of them go further when you move the whole setup off the carpet and onto a smooth surface!

Wow--who knew a cheapo cookie sheet could be such a useful learning tool?