Weekend Makes

This weekend is all about the big game. We're huge football fans in our house -- Cam actually loves to watch the game, Kane loves all the snacks and fanfare. But, any way you look at it, the Super Bowl is going to happen in our house this weekend. Here's what else I'm thinking of pulling together for Sunday.

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Valentine's Day Mocktail

Put some extra sparkle in your love's day! Our sweet little Valentine's Day mocktail is over 
at Honest to Nod today. It even has some fruit in it (shhh!). 

Project 52 - Week 4

I couldn't get a good one of the two of the kids together this week. Frankly, I keep forgetting until Wednesday and then I scramble to get a picture before Thursday's post. I grabbed these two in the morning and they represent each of their personalities so well. Cam is first at the breakfast table, but full of talk and silliness -- pretending to snap photos of me with her own "iPhone." I have to drag Kane out of his room, even at 6:45 a.m., where he's already listening to an audiobook (on the last Percy Jackson + the Olympians, finally) and building away.

Valentine Strawberry Marshmallows

We're really excited today to be sharing our Valentine Strawberry Marshmallows over at Little Hip Squeaks Blog! I've long loved Little Hip Squeaks' brightly colored and modern printed kids apparel, blankets, and accessories. A few months ago I had the chance to meet LHS' founder Amy Richardson-Golia at a Land of Nod event, who was totally lovely and very funny. So I'm super happy to be over at the LHS blog today sharing our YUMMY and fun marshmallow recipe. Go check 'em out!

Winter in Rock Creek Park

Grey, grey, grey. It's one of my absolute most favorite colors. But, man. I'm sick of grey winter already. The sun popped out for about an hour last week and warmed things up -- in fact, it melted all the snow that had fallen the previous day. So we didn't actually get any snow into our "winter" trip to our best spot in Rock Creek Park (see fall posts here and here). But you can still tell it's winter. The bare trees. The dark, cold water. It just looks quiet. Well, at least until we got there.

Weekend Makes

DC had a little break in cold weather yesterday and we happily rushed to our favorite trail after school to stretch our legs outdoors. Winter generally forces us to spend so much more time inside than we want, which makes us all very, very stir crazy. And since the weather continues to act in a bizarre manner, we are facing another weekend of cold weather. My go-to after the kids have been inside long enough to turn the entire house into an obstacle course? Bathtime! We'll art in the bath, turn it into a spa, play games, make a mess just so we can stretch playtime into clean-up time ... it's the perfect place to play in the winter and here's what's topping our list this weekend!

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Project 52 - Week 3

I snapped a pic of these two as we left for school in the morning. No matter how many times I tell them we're running late (usually true) and to get right in the car, these yahoos cannot help playing in the tiny bit of snow and ice along the alley. Because wet shoes are awesome about 5 minutes into the carpool ride.

A Day in the Life (January 2015)

January 12th was a pretty typical day for us. If you count typical dealing with "rain delays" (seriously) for the kids' schools, squeezing writing in between trying to pack up one house and plan another, and preparing the kids to interview their favorite radio host. That's how it's going lately. One random packed day after another. In fact, the tail end of the day got away from me a bit, so I didn't quite fit in 12 photos. After you've checked out our Monday, see what No Monsters in My Bed and Where the Watermelons Grow had goin' on!

7.45 am -- I pretty much go to sleep at night thinking about the coffee I'm going to get to have the next morning.

Interview with ABSOLUTELY MINDY!

I have lamented frequently enough about our new carpool commute this school year and my attempts to embrace it as quality family time. We do a variety of activities to place a positive spin on those miles, including, as I mentioned here, listening to Sirius XM's Kids Place Live channel. We particularly love listening to the morning kids show, "The Absolutely Mindy Show," which has the most incredibly clever, creative, and hysterically funny programming that helps our daily commute.

Weekend Makes

We love to celebrate all kinds of holidays in our house -- from the standard seasonal favorites to the super random to the absolutely made up. We just like to party. So I happen to know that this coming Monday, January 19th is National Popcorn Day! We also happen to LOVE popcorn, so we need no prompting to celebrate this particular festive day. But just in case, here's what's popping at Weekend Makes!

1 / My good friend Suzanne designed these awesome printable templates for our ol' blog. Still love 'em. And you can still download the printable for free!

2 / Fabulous recipes for these yummy treats from the sweet to the more refined.

3 / My kiddos would love to come up with fun flavors of seasoning.

4 / Make these colorful baked cotton balls and then POP 'EM!

5 / So, this painting project has nothing to do with popcorn. But we love this DIY Pop Art from Red Ted Art. 

Project 52 - Week 2

This week has been a total blur. The kids seem to have been moving in warp speed. In opposite directions. Needless to say, it's been incredibly difficult to get them together in one photo. Thanks to the second delayed school day this week though, yesterday we had a little morning time to art in pajamas. The kids drew as they listened carefully to their favorite morning radio show because they got a little shout out yesterday -- more on that next Monday!

Not-So-SAHM 2014 Favorites

Last year we shared our favorites of 2013 along with several other blogger friends. I so loved getting to hear the kids' favorite things -- they often reinforced interests of theirs I thought I nailed and, on occasion, they threw me for a total loop. So we decided to do another year of favorites along with No Monsters in My Bed and Where the Watermelons Grow. The kids were thin on explanations this year, (I tried not to prompt them as I do sometimes), but I still loved to hear their answers. And, like last year, I also gave my favorite kiddo-centered answers to the same categories. Plus, my favorite Instagrams of the year.

Hugs + Kisses Confetti Pancakes

One of my most favorite weekend breakfasts growing up was a batch of my mom's "Daisy's Griddle Cakes." I can't quite track down the source of the original recipe, but they are hands-down, the best. pancakes. ever. We've been making them a bunch in our own home and decided to put an extra sweet twist on them in anticipation of Valentine's Day. The kids cooked these from start to finish (with a little help from me reaching over the griddle to the furthest part) and the extra love at breakfast put a smile on everyone's face.

ps -- I can't wait for the natural light in our new house's kitchen!

DIY Craft Stick Puzzles

Looking for a simple and fun art project for these cold days indoors? Check out our DIY Craft Stick Puzzles that were over at Honest to Nod last Friday. Part art, part puzzle, part sneaky basic math, and lots and lots of fun.

Weekend Makes

If you follow us at all on Instagram (you can do so right here), you'd have seen that the kiddos have become totally obsessed with cooking lately. They're honing their knife skills (with kid-safe nylon knives, of course), working on measuring, and learning the safety basics of cooking. We've done plenty of kid-centered cooking projects before, but having them help with just regular meals on a regular basis is a new thing. At first I was a little hesitant -- I was worried it was going to take too much time (we already eat dinner on the late side) and, honestly, cooking time has always been a little bit of "mommy only" time. It's often the time when they get to watch a show and I get a little peace and quiet in the kitchen. And that's still the case, but I've actually found that the kids can be super helpful with lots of cooking tasks. Their Brunoise dice is nothing close to uniform, but neither is mine, so I don't care a bit.

That's a long-winded way of saying that we've got cooking on our brains, so this weekend's makes all revolve around that!

1 / I love this Donut Memory game from Oh Happy Day and it might come in handy while your dinner cooks (you can also use the printables for a slew of other projects, as shown on the blog).

2 / This table of kitchen skills by age is a great place to start if you're feeling a little lost.

3 / Let your littles "cook" on the go with this adorable DIY mini kitchen set from Made by Joel.

4 / My chefs need appropriate gear! Love this personalized dress-up chef's hat using coffee filter + cupcake wrapper flowers.

5 / A DIY donut apron from A Beautiful Mess is another obvious accessory!

Project 52 - Week 1

I'm notoriously bad at baby books. Meaning, I really haven't done them. But for Cameron's entire first year of life, I succeeded in deliberately snapping one photo of her a week. Kane had such a collection simply by virtue of being the first child, but I didn't put them together in one album quite the same way. It was so incredible to look back through all 52 photos at the end of the year and see how much she had changed. And as much as they grew in leaps and bounds the first year of their lives, it seems like they are growing insane amounts overnight these days. Cameron literally grew out of all of her pajamas just over holiday break. So I thought I'd try my hand at snapping one photo of the two of them each week (or one of each if I can't get them together, which sometimes happens) and sharing it each Thursday.

The photo this first week is from the New Year's Day polar bear plunge we did as a family in Brigantine, New Jersey. We pulled together a solid set of matching penguin costumes and shook our flippers on the beach in an attempt to stay warm. Both kids made the plunge (Kane went all the way under!) and I couldn't have been more proud. It's really too bad that they hate fun.

NYC's High Line in Winter

It'd been over a year since we'd visited one of my most favorite places in Manhattan: the High Line. Our last visit was during the scorching summer heat, so I was excited to see what a difference the seasonal timing made. While Kane ventured to the top of the Empire State building with his Uncle Steve (as a holiday present, their fabulous uncle takes each of them on a special date to a place they'd love. Cam got to go to tea at the Plaza this year and Kane suited up to take a trip to one of his architectural interests), we took Cameron to walk the High Line on chilly Christmas Day.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Our family obsession with all things Egypt is no secret. Over the past few months, we've become totally engulfed by Rick Riordan's "The Kane Chronicles," a series of novels based on Egyptian mythology. The books follow the adventures of siblings Carter and Sadie Kane who are forced to contend with Egyptian gods and goddesses in an effort to rescue their family. At 500 pages plus each, the books probably aren't meant to be read aloud. But we all love the subject and story so much, I haven't mind slogging through the first one a bit (although we did pick up the second one on audiobook!). I mean, an Egyptologist named Dr. Kane?! In any event, several parts of the first book take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which houses an enormous Egyptian collection. So when we decided to spend Christmas in New York, I knew immediately that was at the top of our to do list.

Weekend Makes

It happens every year. We get through the holidays and I start thinking about spring. And then I realize that the winter season is really barely starting and I need to check myself. So while I'm stockpiling swimsuits in my mind, we'll be embracing colder temperatures and working on these cold-weather makes this weekend!

1 / snow dough! 

2 / I love this snowman science activity.

3 / we've attempted winter tree silhouettes before, but these are much prettier. 

4 / I love ice lanterns and these hand painted ones are so colorful. 

5 / ice mandalas -- simple and so pretty.

New Year's Bucket List!

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but if you know our family at all, you know we love to make bucket lists. We've generally restricted our bucket list creating to summer break, but I thought it would be fun to come up with a list of family activities and goals for the New Year and check in quarterly to see how we're doing. Some simple, some ridiculous (the kids added whatever they wanted), some elaborate. 52 good things to strive for in 2015. Here's our collective list -- Happy New Year, all!