FREE Christmas Board Game

Games are a pretty big deal in our house.  It's one of the few things that trumps the TV.  I wanted to create an easy board game that my 5 year old and 3 year old can play by themselves and this does the trick!  Use whatever game piece you want!  My kids love using a small piece of candy so even if they lose the game they get to eat the candy at the end and everyone wins!  We've also used Lego pieces and other little toys or figurines we have around the house. More holiday game boards to come!
You can download the gameboard HERE

The One Little Trick That Stopped The Night Terrors

Night terrors can be such a traumatizing experience for a parent.  I used to think that nightmares and night terrors were the same thing.  It wasn't until my second child that I got a full sampling of what night terrors were all about.  My son used to wake up screaming for me.  The first time it happened I rushed into his bedroom expecting to find blood everywhere.  He screamed and screamed.  I couldn't get him to stop.  He wasn't fully awake and I couldn't get him to wake up.  It usually would take him about ten minutes or so to calm down and go back to bed.
I started to research night terrors.  I found some fascinating information.  Did you know that while children are having their night terrors they aren't awake?  They may be walking around with their eyes open and still be asleep, much like when people sleepwalk?  Or that you can tell it's a night terror if they don't remember the episode when it's over?  One site said that one way to tell if it was a nightmare or night terror was to see who seemed more disturbed by it, the child or the parent.  If the child was more disturbed, it was a nightmare.  If it was the parent who was more disturbed, it was a night terror.  Fascinating, right?!  (sorry, my geekness is showing through)
According to many sites night terrors are caused due to a disruption in the sleep cycle and can be more common when your child has been through stressful life events, had a fever, is overly tired, from medicines they may be on, and a few others.
Unfortunately all of the sites I found said that when your child is in the middle of a night terror there's nothing you can do other than to let them get through it.

So what can you do?

Here's the trick that helped us!

I didn't figure this trick out myself.  In fact, I don't think I ever would have made this connection.  I was at church one day and had mentioned our trouble with night terrors.  One of the ladies in my ward said that her son used to have trouble with night terrors as well, but they figured out a solution.

Make your child go to the bathroom right before bed.  And I mean RIGHT before bed.

I know, it sounds so simple that it's silly.  Isn't that normal bedtime routine?  I honestly didn't think it would work.  But when I started to pay attention to when he was having his night terrors it was usually when he went to the bathroom a half hour or more before bedtime, or when he had a lot of liquid before bed.  Ever since we started making him go to the bathroom right before he climbed in bed we haven't had a single night terror!

Now, I obviously can't say that this will work for every child who has night terrors, but it worked for us, and it's such a simple thing to do!  It's worth a shot, right?!  I hope it can help your little one too.  And if you have any other helpful tips please share!!

Carmelized Onion and Mushroom Swiss Panini with Au Jus

Paninis have become a staple in our house lately.  It all started because we realized we couldn't keep up our Zupas habit and still send our children to college.  We discovered a great copycat recipe for their basil pesto chicken sandwich, but have loved coming up with new creations. 
This one is a new favorite for me.  I love a good steak, but I don't always like to have meat for every meal.  This one is delicious, filling and still tastes nice and meaty!  It is so easy to make and it is incredible with the Au Jus!

Carmelized Onion and Mushroom Swiss Panini

• 2 Small Onions or 1 Large Onion, thinly sliced
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• Swiss Cheese
• Olive Oil
• Mayonaise
• Ciabatta Bread

Au Jus Sauce

•  2 C Water
• 1 tsp Beef Bouillon
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/4 tsp Onion Powder
• Pepper to taste  

 Instructions:
    Heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet.  Add the onion and mushrooms. 

Assemble the sandwiches.  Spread a layer of mayonaise on each slice of bread.  Add a slice of swiss cheese.  Top with carmelized onion and mushroom and the other slice of bread.  Place in panini press for approximately 5 minutes.
    For the au jus put all of the ingredients in a small pot.  I like to use the Better than Bouillon from Costco.  It's seriously the best.

Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes.  Let cool and serve with the paninis.  Enjoy!!!

If you don't love Au Jus like I do, I suggest adding some Garlic Aioli with the mayonaise.  I love adding this to many of our paninis.  Here's what we use.  Try it both ways!!

Disneyland with toddlers

I realized something about myself this week.  I'm a closet Disneyland lover.  I mean the kind that wants to buy all the things.  The ears, hats, shirts, the pins...everything.  I don't, though, because I'm too cheap.  But I want to.  

There is something truly magical about being at Disneyland.  It was our first time going with the kids and I knew they would love it.  I just didn't know I would love it as much as them.  This surprises me because I used to work at Disney World and thought I knew where I stood on the Disney fanaticism spectrum.  I was wrong.  I'm definitely above average on the spectrum.  

I was hesitant to take our kids to Disneyland this young.  My mom thought we were crazy for attempting it.  I knew it would be a lot of work and we'd have our fair share of meltdowns but I'm so glad we did.  It was worth it!  It's such a magical experience at this age.  There are a few things I'd do differently and a few things that worked really well and I wanted to share those.  Hopefully they help you in your Disneyland planning adventures!!

General tips and tricks:

• Bring snacks.  

Lost and lots or snacks.  We brought fruit snacks, granola bars, apple slices, cucumber slices, applesauce pouches (great for the baby!  You don't have to worry about spoons!), jerky, trail mix, protein bars, goldfish

• Get a good night sleep!  

We drove from Utah through the night and went straight to the park when we got there.  It wasn't a horrible experience but we were all exhausted and weren't very well prepared the first day.  We only stayed until about 3 pm that first day and if we had just gotten a room for the night before we could have done a lot more. On the bright side the kids were able to spend some time in the pool at the hotel, which they loved.

• Bring ponchos!!  

 We actually had great weather for the most part.  Our days at California adventure were a bit cold and occasionally drizzly, but never enough that we needed ponchos for rain.  They did end up being EXTREMELY handy for the rushing river ride.  My daughter would have been miserable after getting drenched on the ride and would have been rough to deal with after had we not had the ponchos.  Instead she giggled and laughed the whole time.  It ended up being her favorite ride and she rode it three or four times a day!  

• Play games in line.  

 


Along with snack, games were very helpful!  We played a lot of "I spy" and I brought Mickey Mouse "Go fish" cards that helped pass the time.  I also saw a lot of people playing the headbands/20 questions game on their phone, which is an option if your kids can read.  

 
 
 
 

• Shuttle transportation.  

If your hotel is not within reasonable child walking distance, but is still relatively close to Disneyland I would highly recommend the ART shuttle service.  We got a 3 day pass for around $15 per adult and it ended up being a lot faster than parking at Disneyland.  The only thing is that on the magic morning day the shuttle was a little late so we ended up getting there right at 8.  But overall it was so easy to use.  

• Riding "It's a Small World"

If you plan to watch the Electric Parade and also want to ride "It's a Small World" then a good time to ride it is right after the parade.  If you watch the parade as close to Small World as possible you'll not only see the parade right as the floats come out, but you'll also be one of the first in line for Small World after the parade!  We saved ourselves about a half hour wait time doing this!

•  Do FantasyLand first!

I recommend going through Fantasyland first if you need to do that one with littles.  Lines seem to be slightly shorter in the morning!

• Use fastpasses!!!!  I'll go into more details later ;)

CHARACTERS 

if you have a little one who adores the princesses or Mickey and his friends then waiting in line to get your picture with them is a must!  This can end up taking a significant amount of time, and it's important to plan accordingly.  There are a few tricks, though, to spend less time in character lines.  Here is my favorite tip:

Get the Disneyland app!!!  

This one is so import for rides as well as characters.  It's not perfect, but it gives you a good idea of wait times for rides and it will tell you what characters are where in the parks.  More importantly than that, though, is that they tell you WHEN then characters will be there.  When I first looked at the app I thought it was telling me where all the characters were that were out and about right then.  I was wrong and spent a small amount of time looking for characters that weren't there.  Click on the character and it will tell you when each character will be around and where they will be.  I preferred looking at the list view, so I could see them all at once.  I also noticed that if I checked back on the app a few additional characters had popped up.  

When you look at the app you may see a few characters that will show up at the fantasy faire courtyard.  Sometimes the app will show them only appearing for 5 minutes.  Don't fret!  They're usually there for quite a while.  We missed seeing Rapunzel because I thought we didn't have time to see her.  They let you form a line to see them and are usually there about an hour at a time.  Then a new princess will come.  There are also princesses that show up there without being on the app, so use the app but don't totally rely on it.

You can see three princesses by only waiting in one line if you go to the royal hall.  Who you see will sometimes change but they will usually tell you at least two of them that are there.  For example we saw Cinderella, Ariel and a "special friend" (Snow White was there during our visit).  *I have talked to others who were there on different days who also saw these three.*  The line can sometimes be long but you can get three out of the way at once if you're willing to wait. (We waited about a half hour to see the three princesses in the Royal Hall.  I'm sure wait times are longer during busier seasons.)

They have the same thing at California adventure where you can meet Anna, Elsa and Christoff inside the Animation building.  I'm not sure if Olaf is always there with Christoff but he was when we went.  

Here are the characters we saw and where we founds them:

California Adventure 

Anna, Elsa, Christoff and Olaf- animation building 

Spider-Man and Captain America- sunset boulevard 

Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and goofy - carthay circle 

Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins - Hollywood boulevard 

Disneyland park 

Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella - royal hall

Belle, jasmine & Aladdin, sleeping beauty, Rapunzel & Flynn Rider - fantasy faire courtyard 

Tiana - on the mark remain boat near New Orleans square.  She's a little trickier to see unless you know where she is, but I believe she's usually there on the boat

Pocahontas - we didn't have time to go see her, but she was by big thunder mountain. 

We also did a character breakfast that I talk about in another blog post.  

FASTPASSES

Okay guys. Fastpasses are the bomb.  If you haven't learned how to use them yet then you need to!  They will save you SO MUCH TIME!  Decide which big ride is the most import.  Not all rides have fastpasses so I'll provide you a list for each park.  The first thing you should do when you get in the park is to give all your park tickets to one person (your runner) and have them go pick up fastpasses to the ride you choose.  The past pass will tell you a time to come back (1:55-2:55 for example) and then you can go into a shorter line to ride that ride.  Once the time comes for you to use your fastpass you can go get another fastpass for a different ride.  But what if you go get the fastpass at 9:30 and it doesn't say to come back until 1:55?  That's a long time to wait for another fastpass.  In that case you can get another pass after two hours.  It will tell you on your fastpass ticket what time you can get your next ticket.  We didn't do the standby line for any rides that had fastpasses unless their wait time was under 20-25 minutes.  We would send our runner to get another fastpass as soon as our ride return time came.  This saved so much time!  Seriously.

Another line timesaver that is a must if you have small kids is the RIDER SWAP.  We especially loved this in California Adventure because it was so easy to do.  With a small baby we usually always had to have one person stay behind to watch the baby and any other small kids who didn't want to ride.  When you're in line ask the cast member for a rider swap pass.  In California Adventure most of them have you the rider swap before you get on the ride. At Disneyland they usually have you ask for it right after you get off the ride.  And I mean RIGHT after. Like as you are stepping off the ride. But always ask because unfortunately every ride seems to be different at Disneyland.  The rider swap pass lets you take two additional riders with you and puts you through the fastpass line.  It's truly amazing.  

We only had one bad experience with it when we tried to get the rider swap on space mountain.  STORY TIME!  After having such an amazing experience with the rider swap at California Adventure we tried to do it the same way at space mountain.  I stayed back and fed the baby while everyone else went on the ride.  They kept telling my mom to get the pass when she got off the ride.  Then when she asked the cast member at the end for a pass she was told to take a picture of the ride photo (you know, the one where you're supposed to have your hands in the air while they snap your photo on the ride) and that because I'm not in the picture that would prove I was with the baby 🙄. Right. So we sent the rest of the crew off to splash mountain and my mom and I went to get in line.  The guy at the front said that wouldn't work.  He said I had to prove that I had a baby.  They needed me to bring the baby back up to the line.  He was not kind about it at all.  We had already had a bit of a rough morning with the shuttle being 25 minutes late and dumbo breaking down right as we were supposed to get on so I was mad.  And I mean mad.  Luckily I only came off as being extremely annoyed.  I think.  But seriously.  I was about ready to show him my nursing bra as proof that I had a baby.  Or maybe I should have let him smell the spit up all over me.  😂.   But other than that the rider swap was fantastic.  

DIY Diaper Cake

If you don't know me, I'm the type of person that loves to be social, but I thrive best when I have two or three really good friends.  You know the kind I mean?  The bosom buddy, call you in the middle of the night, doesn't care if you see them ugly cry, friend.  I have one such friend that recently had a baby.  When I asked her what she needed she immediately replied, "diapers!"  That's the kind of friends we are.  Not afraid to ask for something she actually needs, rather than something "cute". 

But if you really know me, you know that I couldn't just wrap up a box of diapers and call it good.  It still had to be cute.  Enter the diaper cake.  What better way to offer such an unattractive gift?!  I also knew that she would need formula, and that I also wanted to be able to give her that "cute" thing that she wouldn't ask me for.  So this worked out perfectly!

To make the diaper cake I used about 100 size 1 diapers.  I rolled up each diaper and put a little girl rubber hair tie around it, though that step isn't necessarily required.  I put a layer of rolled diapers around the formula container and held it in place with a regular rubberband.  I kept adding layers until I felt it was big enough for a base. 

For the next layer I started with three diapers in the middle and added more around the edge until, again, it was big enough to be the next layer.  Anytime I felt like the diapers were too much for me to hold on to I added a rubberband. 

For the top layer I wanted to give her a cute outfit, so I rolled it up to look loosely like a cake topper.  I surrounded it with rolled diapers until it was big enough for the top layer of a cake and secured it with a rubberband. 

I had some burlap ribbon lying around so I wrapped each layer with that, gluing the ends together.  I topped that with some cute ribbon, gluing those ends together.  That's it!  It's pretty simple and really doesn't take too long!  And it showed that there was more thought behind it than giving a box of diapers.  I'd love to see any of your fabulous diaper cake ideas!

FREE Sight Word Worksheets!!

Hey!  Remember me?  I've to get real here for a minute.  I have been so busy with life that the blog sort of fell by the wayside.  It wasn't until about a month or so that I noticed that my preschool pin had been repinned over 50 THOUSAND times!  I was in shock.  I knew something must be wrong with that, so I checked the blog and sure enough, there were over 78 thousand views!  The majority of those are for my preschool post.  The blog will hit over 100 thousand views in the next day or two and so I thought it was only fitting that I add another preschool help!

My daughter is starting to learn to read and I wanted to give her some worksheets to work on.  She loves the "finding games", so I thought she'd like something like this.  Each time she circles a word, I have her repeat the word, to help her be able to recognize the word later.  We also work on that word when we read books together.
 I believe it's so important that we have all the help we can get when we're trying to educate our children, so I wanted to share these with you!  Enjoy!

**NOTE: When you print, choose landscape so that it fills the whole page.

Beginning Sight Words

Gardening on the cheap for the not-so-green thumbed!

 I know.  I know.  It has been AGES since I have written.  Between getting my photography/videography business up and going, and it being winter, I haven't actually done much craft/food/creative-wise.  So sad!


A new sort of energy has overcome me in the last couple weeks.  You know what it is?  SPRING!  I wasn't aware of how tired I was of winter until the weather started to warm up.  And now I've got projects on my mind!!!  Most of these projects belong outdoors, but that will likely change when the heat of summer drives me back inside with the air conditioner.  But for now, I hope you're ready for some gardening projects!

I was going to wait to post about this after I had begun and things were (hopefully) coming along nicely.  Then I realized this post really wouldn't be good for anyone until next year.  So hopefully you guys are prepared to follow along to get your gardens going this year!

We've tried gardens in the past, only to not have much success.  This is going to be the year of change.  I am determined to have a good garden.  It's a bit pathetic that I can't seem to grow a garden and here's why....Please don't judge.  I graduated college in landscape management...and I spent 3 1/2 years working in a greenhouse growing plants...and I even worked in the greenhouses at Disneyworld.   Sad, huh.  In my defense, there is a huge difference in growing plants in a greenhouse where you can control the environment and many of the pest.  Not to mention...little to no weeds. 

I've always blamed our soil or my lack of time and money.  There's a little truth to that, but let's be honest...I've been lazy.  It's too hot to weed...It's too hot to go out and water. (Lame one, right?  I mean, I've got cold water. In the hose.  Right in my hand...)

Not only do I have a tendency to be lazy about it, but starting a garden can also get expensive.  And of course money is always tight.  So this year I'm doing things as cheap as possible.  Here's my game plan...

FIRST:
I built a raised garden bed for FREE (except the dirt and plants that go in it).  Our fence blew down in a super heavy rain/snowstorm a few weeks ago.  Silver Lining!! I could use those slats and screws and some leftover 2X4 blocks we had and build myself a new, albeit somewhat trashy looking, raised bed. 

Now, if you didn't have the great luck of having your fence blown over, don't worry.  You can still build a raised bed for super cheap using fence slats from your local home improvement store.  There's a tutorial here if you need an idea to get you started. 

SECOND:
From here on out these are things I plan to do to get my garden going.  I'll update as I go along.

• Put cardboard as the base of my garden bed.  This will help keep weeds out and will eventually decompose
• Start gathering compost (whether from my own pile, though it's looking pretty shabby) to mix with my own soil.  Note: It's important that you don't only use potting soil or compost.  These are things to amend the soil, not be  the soil.  You need to have predominately real soil to have success.  
• Gather material from around the house to start seeds
• I've been collecting cardboard egg cartons, toiletpaper rolls (empty, of course), yogurt containers (my daughter eats an individual yogurt every day, so I'm hoping they'll make good seed starters).  Basically anything I can find that I think might be good for either starting seed or transplanting seedlings.
• I've also been collecting our tin cans from dinner.  My daughter wants to have a garden of her own, so I'm going to let her paint the cans and then plant flowers or something in them.
• Start gathering scraps for our compost pile.  I know it's too late for our spring compost, but I'm hoping our left over scraps of fruits and veggies (banana peels, eggshells, etc.) will help with our fall compost 

Hopefully this helps you get ideas to get started with your own garden on the cheap this year!!