Pinterest Love: Apple Birthday Party

I am officially in full birthday party planning mode!  So exciting!  


Last year, Pre-Pinterest, to find inspiration, for Penelope's first birthday, I spent hours and hours and hours searching google and blogs to find ideas and tutorials.  Then I had to copy and save the link in a google document to refer back to it.


But, ah, my beloved Pineterest, has changed everything!  Now I have too many ideas! I need help narrowing it down.  The menu, the decor, I want it to be beautiful, but as always, I want to do things that are as easy and quick as possible.


Here are a few of my favorites from Penelope's Apple Theme Birthday board.  You can see the whole board here.

So what do you think is a must have menu item? Must have decor item?

By Best Kids Health Blog

Yosemite National Park Trip on Parenture

I had a guest post over on Parenture yesterday about our time at Yosemite National Park, when we went to California this summer.


Parenture is a pretty great family travel site, but it is not your average family travel site, where Disney is the main topic. This is a real travel site for travelers, who happen to have kids!   All kinds of cool and inspiring info.


Have you ever been to Yosemite?  Did you do tent camping or stay in Curry Village?  Or in a lodge?

By Best Kids Health Blog

Canvas Rainbow Playroom DIY

I had so much fun doing this project. It was time consuming, because I had to do several layers for each canvas.  But like the ABC wall art, I did it a little bit a time and went slowly, doing a bit when I could. I found this is the best way to do projects in my post-baby life.


Leave it all out and work on it when you can.  But of course, if you go this route, you have to be ok with a little bit of mess for awhile.  Which is hard for me, because I like a tidy house, with everything in its place.


My original inspiration came from the photo below.  You can see my full board here.  I loved this picture so much and wanted to do something as big as the picture.  But there was so much going on in Penelope's new playroom that I need to scale it down to make it work. And to make it more cost effective.  Big canvases like that are expensive!

I used plan old acrylic paint.  I had about half the bottles and bought the other half.  These bottles can be kind of expensive, almost $3 a bottle, but you will use them for a long time.

If I had bought all the bottles, I probably would have used different paint colors, but I am still pretty pleased with the color palate.

These mini canvases came in a pack of three.  So I bought 5 packs for a total of 15.  A friend of mine had the great idea, of using felt instead!

Once they were all painted and dried, I had fun rearranging them on the floor to figure out what configuration I liked best.

Almost there!

Finally, the final configuration!

Then I put them up on the wall with velcro.  I put them right over her art table. So she likes to get up on her table and then pull them down. Which honestly, makes my skin crawl, because its just one more thing to clean up. But it is so beautiful to look at it, and we use it as a learning tool to learn her colors, that it is so worth it!


What do you think?

By Best Kids Health Blog

Baby, Tot, & Tyke Yoga: Star Pose!

The other week when we went to the beach, we did a little yoga.  Miss Penelope and I love to do yoga outside spontaneously.  Yoga has so many benefits, but one of the reasons I love sharing it with Penelope is that it is a form of play.   And playing with your child is so important.  It shows them that they are important for one.  But it is also a way to work through any tension or stress from the day and reconnect.

Star pose is one of her favorites right now.  Especially, since she has been working on standing with her feet together and jumping in dance class.

For this pose, they start in mountain pose, with their feet as close together as possible and their hands in prayer position in front of their hearts.  Then they do an explosive jump and jump their feet into a wide angle and their arms out by their sides.

When you do it, to show them how, be very expressive, excited and always look them in the eye.  I am not sure why looking them in the eye helps them learn, but it does.  Say, Star Pose! As you jump into the pose and then wiggle your fingers as you say Twinkle! Twinkle!

Another variation is to move one hand up and one hand down, alternatively, as you rock from one foot to the other, all the while singing Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star, or the Itsy Bitsy Yoga version of it.

For babies or toddlers, you sit them in your lap or lay them on the floor on their backs and move their arms for them as you sing the song.

You can see a full list of all my yoga tutorials here.

What is your little one's favorite yoga pose right now?

You can find this yoga pose and more in the awesome book by Helen Garabedian.

By Best Kids Health Blog

Guest Post from Primrose Schools: Embrace Physical Activity with Your Children!

We all know children need to eat a variety of healthy foods and get regular exercise – at least 60 minutes every day – for optimal growth and development. But did you know the number of overweight and obese American children and adolescents has tripled since 1980?

Most parents want the best for their children, but obviously some of us are failing to give them the healthiest possible start. Consider the following statistics:

· Today, about one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese. (Source: American Heart Association)
· Approximately 13 million U.S. children and adolescents are obese, with a body mass index at or above the 95th percentile. (Source: Journal of the American Medical Association)

Acquiring basic physical skills such as catching and throwing, jumping, running and balance can positively impact both the mental and physical development of children.

The children of parents who embrace healthy diets and exercise are more likely to be healthy themselves. Sadly, our common modern model of two parents working full time can make following a regular fitness regimen appear to be out of reach. Luckily, it’s not as difficult as it may seem. Read on for some helpful tips to increase your family’s physical activity.

Tips for Getting Your Family Active:

Seek out safe, family-friendly indoor and outdoor play spaces in your home or neighborhood.

Stock up on safe and age-appropriate toys and exercise equipment, such as:

· Soft baseball bats and balls; sponge basketballs and hoops; soccer balls and goals; bikes or tricycles with matching pads and helmets; skipping ropes; bubble solution; paddling pools and lawn sprinklers for outdoor play.

Make fitness a family affair. Turn off the television and go outside before dinner or play music and dance while preparing the meal.

· Set a regular dinner time and take a daily walk after you eat; trade Friday “pizza night” for “softball night”; stroll around your local farmer’s market and enlist the children’s opinions in choosing fresh, seasonal and local produce; take advantage of longer summer evenings for family adventures outdoors.
· Use specific language to praise your children’s attempts and successes. Don’t be afraid to mix it up. If your child genuinely dislikes a certain activity, look for one he or she really enjoys. Taking outings to minor league sporting events can be an inexpensive way to foster a child’s love of regular exercise.

Incorporating exercise into your life doesn’t have to mean adding one more item to an already overstretched to-do list. It takes around 21 days to form a new habit, and people who exercise regularly report feeling more energized than people who do not. Make the time to play with your children and reap the rewards of a healthy and more fulfilling family life.

Submitted by Sarah Morris, on behalf of Primrose preschools- where people have a passion for educating children.

By Best Kids Health Blog

Pinterest Love: Candy Corn

I am having such fun curating boards on Pinterest, that I thought I would start posting them here, on Friday's.

Maybe I could even do a linky carnival and you all could link up your favorite boards too!  Would that be something ya'll want to do?

There are a million cute Halloween costumes and crafts on Pinterest right now, but I have really been inspired by Candy Corn.  Last year, I saw this wreath on a cover of a magazine and wanted to make one so bad!  I found some candy corn ribbon and wrapped it around the wreath instead, not exactly the same effect, but pretty cute.

Here are some of my favorites from the album, you can view the whole album here.

By Best Kids Health Blog

Breakfast Freezer Meals: Individual Quiche

I am a big fan of Weston A. Price and I make eggs and sausage or eggs and bacon, every single morning for myself and Penelope and sometimes Peter if he has enough time before work.  It gets pretty old.  Not the taste of it, pastured eggs from a local farm, are delicious, but the making a full meal, using the stove, cleaning up in the morning, is just time consuming.  

I was looking for a way to streamline my morning breakfast routine without giving in to eating something like cereal and milk.  I saw someone who had made and frozen breakfast burritos on Pinterest and then I remembered something my friend Bethany did years ago, I used both as inspiration and came up with my own little, frozen, breakfast meal idea.

I basically made a simplified version of my quiche.   I did 12 eggs, some raw milk, a package of sausage (from a local pork farmer, cooked and chopped before adding in), a little bit of cheese and salt and pepper. I didn't measure anything, I just eye-balled it.

Then I poured it into a cupcake cooking pan.  I made the HUGE mistake of not lining them with paper cups or at least buttering the pan.  I had to throw the pan out, after three days of soaking and scrubbing, I still could not get it clean.  Don't make my mistake!

I cooked them at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Actually, I am not too sure on the time, I check on them and when they look and smell done, I stick a knife in to see if any egg sticks to the knife. If the knife comes out clean, they are done.

And then you have little individual servings of an egg and sausage breakfast!  I froze them all after they cooled, I put them on a cookie sheet to freeze them, sort of like how I freeze blueberries.  Then after they were frozen a little bit, I bagged them into small, individual, freezer bags.

I pull two out the night before I want to eat them in the morning.  It is defrosted by the morning and then I zap them in the microwave for 30 seconds.  You could warm them in your toaster oven or regular oven if you wanted to avoid using a microwave.  You should if you can, it really is bad for you, to use your microwave, but I am lazy.

Enjoy!  If you have any questions let me know.

Ft. Walton and Destin Beach Trip

Last week, we went to go visit my husband Peter.  He has been living at a condo on the beach for three weeks.  It sounds luxurious, but he hasn't been able to go to the beach, pretty much, at all. He has been busting his butt, working 12 to 15 hours a day, digging through trash.  Yes, trash.  He is a engineer, and his firm is doing a pilot study (fancy word for experiment) in an attempt to make methane from bacteria in food trash (sort of like how fermentation works to grow good bacteria and enzymes).  It's a pretty cool experiment, if you can over look the whole digging-in-trash-all-day part.

Anyway, so we went to visit him and had some local fun. We, of course, spent lots of time at the beach.

We stayed at Destin West.  I was pretty impressed with how family friendly it was.  There was a lazy river and a family spa at the pool.  Almost everyone there was families with young children, so whenever we went to the pool, there was always a little tot for Penelope to make friends with.  Staying in Ft. Walton Beach, is way more affordable than staying in Destin, but the beach looks exactly the same!  And Destin is a short drive away, so you still have access to all the restaurants, shops and amenities.

We went to the Gulfarium.  And I pretty much felt like an asshole the whole time.  Ever since seeing the movie The Cove when I was pregnant, I swore I would never go to Sea World or anywhere that had captive dolphins again.    Penelope loved it, of course, and is now obsessed with dolphins even more than she already was. I am obsessed with dolphins too.  I spent many weekends of my childhood swimming with dolphins in Key Largo. When I was pregnant, I went to go feed and play with dolphins at the same place in Key Largo. I wanted to swim with them, but they don't allow pregnant women to do it (apparently the dolphins know that their is a baby inside and they are worried the dolphins will get too excited and head-butt you in the belly).  While there, we bought her a book about dolphins giving birth and nursing, and because of that book, she loves dolphins.  We also bought her a stuffed Mama and Baby dolphin that she adores.  In the gift shop, at the Gulfarium, I bought her a little plastic dolphin.  She calls him dolfy, and she clutches him in one hand and Mickey in the other.   She tells anyone who will listen about the "dolfies jumping in the wate."

Anyway, I once read, in a Doreen Virtue book, that dolphins like interacting with humans.  They see it as a higher calling, to be like earth angels and aid humans in their spiritual journey and help them remember their connection to Spirit.  And to the credit of the Gulfarium, the three dolphins that they had there, two were born there; a brother and sister and the mother was 28 years old, so they must be treating them well.  That is what I am going to keep repeating to myself, so I can sleep at night.

She also really loved the fish tank.

We went to the Air Force Armament Museum.  Penelope really liked looking at the airplanes and helicopters (panes and ah-ca-ca, as she calls them).  We couldn't really spend time reading or looking at the exhibits in depth, such is life with an almost 2 year old,  but she really got a kick out of getting into one of the cock pits and trying on pilot, bomber jackets. My Dad is a retired Air Force pilot, so it was cool to pay homage to all the past men and women who served in the Air Force.

There is a large area outside of planes and then regular museum exhibits inside.

And I can't go visit that area, without doing a little shopping at the outlet mall.  I didn't really need anything, but I got a cute long sleeve t-shirt for Penelope at Crew Cuts and some Micheal Kors sunglasses for me.

Have you ever vacationed in the area?  What is your favorite thing to do there?

By Best Kids Health Blog

ABC Playroom Wall Art

I was so inspired by Penelope loving learning her ABC's that I wanted to do something to keep that fire going.

I had a ton of fun making Penelope's ABC art for her newly redesigned playroom.  It was a little time consuming, and a tad logistically difficult, since the painted ones needed 2 to 4 coats of paint.  So I would have to paint a coat right at the beginning of nap time and then put everything away until bed time and had to repeat the process over several days, till everything was done.

I bought all these letters at Michael's.  I spent about $35 on everything. They have several different shapes and fonts, but it is not the same as my original inspiration where all the letters were larger and more different from each other.  But for the price, I am really happy with the way it came out.  I also like that it is smaller, so that with Rainbow Canvas Art, it is not too much for one wall.

When I was at Micheal's, I set up the letters on the floor, right in the middle of the isle.  I am a very visual learner and I needed to see exactly what it would like, with the different letters next to each other.  Somehow, I managed to forget the M and X.  Oh, I know how, her name is Penelope and she was having a princess sticker meltdown and I needed to get the hell out of the store before I bought her anything else to keep her quiet.

I used tape to mark off the lines of the Z, but I didn't measure.  If ya'll remember, I do things the Good Enough Stephanie Way.

I loved the button letters.  Penelope really likes them too.  She keeps asking to pull them off.

I wrapped the O, in scrap ribbon, did glitter on the T, wrapped the U in yarn (like my wreath) and wrapped the V in fabric from Penelope's 1st Birthday.

I got the inspiration for the letter B here.  I did all my crayons in the same direction, but she did hers going the opposite direction, I like hers better.  More wrapping scrap ribbon for C.  I am sure its obvious, but I used a hot glue gun for any letters that had things attached to it.

I attached them to the wall with velcro.  My original intention was do them lower so that Penelope could easily pull them off the wall and play with them.  But with the shelves, tent, and rainbow art, it needed to be higher up to make it all fit.  She can stand on her art table and reach several on the bottom row and she loves to do that.

She also likes to stand on her carpet and look at it and point to and shout out whichever letter.  I had my Goddaughter Ella, and her sister Ava over to last week.  Ava, who just turned 6, got inspired to make each letter with her body from looking at them.  It was really cute.  This is an X!  This is T! She would shout with excitement,  while her T looked like a drunken person trying to get into the back seat of a two-door car.  But it spurred some natural learning so I was pumped!

Have you done any ABC's in your kids' nursery or playroom?  I also like these from my Playroom Makeover board on Pinterest.   A full ABC's of these would be super cute!

Vote for me!

By Best Kids Health Blog