And now...what's for Dinner?

How many times have you been running errands in the afternoon or playing with the kids in the park when suddenly the question: "What's for dinner?" comes up to your mind. I'm sure it has happened several times since you became a mom...as moms, we are always busy, it doesn't matter if you are a working mom or a SAHM, we all face the same question sooner or later!

Sometimes you might be tempted to just run to the closest Fast Food Chain but we all know this is something that we cannot be doing continuously if we want to raise Healthy Children.

So I thought I would share this link I got from the Food Network with easy and Healthy recipes to prepare at home: Healthy Recipes

If you have any recipes you would like to share feel free to post them.

Have a happy and healthy cooking!

Toddler Birthday Party

We just had my daughter's birthday party, originally we had planned to have it on a park in the city, but the forecast didn't help and we had to move it indoors...I guess some of you have dealt with the same issue or if not there is a chance you might have to deal with it some day.

You can imagine that as the idea was to have the birthday at a Park, we already had the food and the decorations (that would have been very simple: Table cloth, napkins, tableware) ready. And as they are toddlers and they love playing at the parks we didn't have to worry about extra activities. But with the change of plans, we had to move indoors so we had to make a last minute trip to Target and the Party Store, where we found different fun activities we thought the kids would have liked. I could tell you all the things we got, but at the end the simple things were the ones that they were interested in:

• Balloons (we bought an Helium tank)

• Arts & Crafts (Drawings, Crayons, Foam crafts for the kids to create art)
• Music

As you can see it didn't take much, those activities and lots of space for them to be running all over the place where enough to have 16 toddlers happy until the cake time arrived!

So if you are planning a party and have to make a last minute change to go indoors, don't stress out, you don't need to worry about getting several things to entertain them, it is really amazing how they have a good time with the simple stuff!

In terms of food, we had both mini cupcakes and a cake... if you are wondering which one would be better to have, 90% of the kids preferred to have a mini-cupcake (I made some with bright colored frosting (blue, yellow and red) and the blue ones were the winners!

Race to Nowhere Film

To continue with the school subject, I got this link to watch the preview of a documentary called "Race to Nowhere" and that will be on the Screen Nationwide starting on October 26th.

The documentary is about the struggles that students are facing these days at schools, the saturated after school schedules, the pressure they are feeling and that comes from everywhere (classmates, teachers, parents), and the competitive environment in which they are leaving.

If you have a few minutes watch the trailer it looks very interesting. 

http://www.racetonowhere.com

If you get to see it, share your thoughts I'd love to hear them!

School years ahead of us...

It seems as if this week I'm getting information about our current educational system from everywhere. Some people say that they want the system to change the entry date so their kids can go to school one year later while some others don't agree with this change ... the truth is that everyone has their own opinion on this and at the end it we as parents will have to make the final decision on when to send them to school and to which type of school.

Let's face it sometimes we (the parents) are the ones who are not ready to see our kids start the journey that will lead them to be independent and it is not that the child is not ready for life, we did it and our parents did it and I'm sure that once my child is enroll in a kindergarten, elementary school and all the way to college she will be able to survive no matter the entry date as long as I give her the guidance and support needed on each stage. What are your thoughts about this?

Heat Wave in the area, what to do when I have to stay home with my child?

Many times I have heard other moms say "Help! I'm having my kids at home, what should I do with them if we can't get out?" On the last few days, I've been staying at home in that situation and although I didn't know what to expect it hasn't been as chaotic as I expected.

We start the day by reading some books, then we would dance or sing some of her favorite songs. Now that she is a toddler, she is enjoying doing craft projects, everything can get really messy by I'm sure both of you will have a great time!

Another  activity I like to encourage her to do is "pretend play" at her age she enjoys pretending she is an animal, a zookeeper or even a princess this type of play can have her busy or a long time, I just need to give her some direction or "ideas" so she starts developing a complete story around the situation.

I found this pretend play to be a great way to develop her imagination and for me to notice all the things she has been learning on these years.

Do you have any other ideas on what to do when you have to stay at home with your kids?