Magazine Monday

These ideas are compliments of Parents (March 2012), Parenting (May 2012), and Family Circle (May 2012).  Wow!  I'm actually on top of reading this month's magazines!  (The secret is that I still have some from previous months sitting on my bedside table...but who's really keeping count???)

Food

1. Cheap cupcake decorations:  have kids sandwich a toothpick between 2 matching stickers.  Uses up stickers, is cheap, and works on hand-eye coordination:  a triple play!
2. Let a kid use a cheese spreader to cut food.  Safe and lets them practice cutting up their own food!
3. Cooking baby artichokes:  peel until you expose the light green leaves, then trim stems/tops. Quarter them and toss in juice of 1 lemon.  Heat 2 tbsp EVOO, saute artichokes until lightly browned (approx. 7 min).  Mix in 1-2 tbsp freshly chopped mint (yeah!!  the hubs just planted some in our garden last week!), 1/2 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.  Mmmm....sounds tasty for the summer!

Crafts

1. Use a lint roller to pick up small pieces (glitter, paper, etc.) when cleaning up from a craft project--GENIUS!!!
2. Hanging yarn decorations (popular on Pinterest right now and oh-so-cute!!!  Yarn chandelier tutorial here:

Medical

1. Put a superhero band-aid (such as Spiderman) on a bottle of spray pain reliever and call it Spiderman Spray.  Helps with getting kids to let you put on medicine--at least that's what they said!

Travel

1. I really want to travel on Route 66 one day.  Here's a blog of sights to see/do on the trip!