Trial run with our new nanny is scheduled for tomorrow :)

I am excited to get to do a trial run with a new nanny tomorrow. She seems like she will be a good fit so far, but I would like to see her in action and give the kids a few hours with her to get to know her as well. I was originally planning on just leaving her at my home for a couple of hours and running to town, but I would kind of like to see her interact with the kids a little too. So maybe I can hang around while she does lunch and then leave for playtime before naptime and come home right before she lays the girls down for their nap. It seems foreign to me to interview and hire a sitter since I haven't done it more than twice before, without it being someone I knew really well or someone that was family. She has a CPR/First Aid certificate and is a certified lifeguard as well. She doesn't smoke, is studying at VT towards a pre-vet degree and already completed part of her schooling at her local community college in NJ. I really hope she ends up liking the family and we end up liking her just as much, but this time around I have been very cautious since the last two "regular sitters" that took care of Aiden left me with a bad taste in my mouth and the girls have never been watched by a sitter. I feel like there are questions that I am leaving unaswered, but have no idea what other things I should ask her about. She has given me references and I want to call them, but I really don't know what I should ask them. Can anyone give me some pointers? Is there something I am overlooking or am I just supposed to be paranoid?

We are currently in second place, can you help us take the lead again?

i have been working hard for the past few days to help promote my friend Kristen's new Facebook page. Yes, there is something in it for me, I have the chance to win a photo shoot for the whole family valued at $400 or a $50 GC or a $25 GC, any of which would be nice. As someone that has known Kristen since I was 6 I trust her to do a good job on any project she takes on and love the pictures I have seen so far. She definitely has a knack for taking photos. If you support my children in this contest you will also be liking her Facebook page and that will let you know when upcoming contests are coming around so that you have the chance to win one of her fabulous photo packages too. So to anyone that is willing to take a minute and like a couple of pages please go like these three pics and like each of them -- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=281004331971444&set=a.281001505305060.66147.216312631773948&type=3&theater -- Aiden https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=281004711971406&set=a.281001505305060.66147.216312631773948&type=3&theater -- Emma https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=281004815304729&set=a.281001505305060.66147.216312631773948&type=3&theater --- Isabella and then also make sure you like this page too --- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kristin-Gainey-Photography/216312631773948 We are trying to win a photo shoot that would include the whole family which would be a treat for us and a first since having the twins. :)

I would also love it if my friend Elizabeth could some votes for her children as they are adorable as well -- https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=281143945290816&set=a.281001505305060.66147.216312631773948&type=1&theater -- Peyton https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=281143938624150&set=a.281001505305060.66147.216312631773948&type=1&theater -- Austin

After you have submitted your votes please take the opportunity to look around and check out the sample photos Kristen has posted as well as her current Easter picture special.

Drumming up followers can be tricky :)

Drumming up followers can be tricky business. Take my friend Kristen Gainey for example. She started a photography page on Facebook and had managed to get 150 followers from mostly just people she knew. Then she had the awesome idea of having a cutest kid contest and her page now has 312 followers and counting. I am very excited that my pictures have the most votes right now, but I couldn't ever be greedy so if they happen to come in first second and third place I would definitely tell Kristen to go ahead and award the 2nd and 3rd place prizes to the next kids in line. I also really liked the pictures that my friend Elizabeth entered of her kids, so I shared the love and voted for them too. I learned a long time ago that you should never get overly competitive, it is better to lose a contest than to lose a friend. Good luck to all the kids in the contest! :)

Please help us win this photo contest :)

Another way to get things free is by entering into contests. I have found a local photography studio that is offering a family photo shoot worth over $400. It seems kinda complicated to some, but I would really love to win this so I will make it as simple as possible for everyone. First go to https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kristin-Gainey-Photography/216312631773948 and “Like” this page. Then go to this album: https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.281001505305060.66147.216312631773948&type=1 and like the pictures of my babies. Aiden is picture #2, Emma is picture #13 and Isabella is picture # 16. The picture with the most likes on March 4th, 2012 will win as long as the people that liked the picture also liked her page as well. Let’s all rally together and see if we can make this happen for my family. We appreciate all of the support we have gotten so far and send our thanks to everyone that takes the time to support us in this. :)

Do-it-yourself projects are the way to go :)

So I put in my notice at Liberty Medical today to prepare for my job at HSN. They were appreciative that I put in a two week notice and was professional in the way that I left. It is nice to leave a company knowing that if I want to go back in the future it is an option. You should always leave a company on good terms, in my opinion, so that you are not closing doors behind you, but instead leaving them open just in case you need to go back through them one day.

As soon as my notice made it from my pc at Liberty to the HR department, they told me I could go ahead and leave and I would not be required to actually work out the two weeks. So I made the most of the day and went out to get a new phone for my office and then came home and moved a phone line. I now have a phone jack near my desk and a new phone that is ready for a headset to be plugged into it as well. It was actually really easy to disconnect the jack and move the line and then reconnect it again, there are only two wires and neither of them are live so no power to shut off or anything. I was going to pull the line through the floor from it's original location and then re-route it, but even after taking the quarter-round out around it, I still couldn't get it to go back through the little tiny hole because of the paint that had been caked on it. So we cut it and then re-routed it instead. (I was trying to take on this project all on my own and would have been able to do it, but the hubby decided he needed to be involved to make sure I didn't jack it up... lol) I am glad that I was able to call my Daddy last week and find out just how simple the process was. It was well worth moving it myself instead of paying the phone company over $50 to do it for me. This is just another example of why do-it-yourself projects are the way to go.

Feeling a little conflicted :}

Tonight as I sit here and reflect on the past two weeks, I am glad that I gave Liberty Medical a chance. The services they provide to diabetes patients are awesome, and they make sure that their agents know that they are saving lives by making sure that people have their testing and injecting supplies. I have met some great people and some people that I won't miss, but I still think the work at home position for HSN is a better fit for my family and I. It will sadden me to put in a two week notice tomorrow, but I am very excited about getting started with HSN and finally getting to work from home. I have wanted to do this for a very long time and I am very thankful to have this opportunity presented to me. It is hard to be happy and sad at the same time, but I really do feel like I am headed in the right direction with my career choice at this time. :)

It never hurts to ask :)

Yesterday I was talking about Isabella snapping my glasses in half. I took them to my Daddy and we tried to solder them back together and the solder just would not wick across the break. My friend, Elizabeth, had given me an old set of her frames to try out and the lenses fit, but the slightest twist of the frame and they would pop right out. So taking a suggestion from my daddy I went to the optometrist office that I had gotten my glasses from after work today to see if there was anything they could do. My optometrist is Drs. Newman Blackstock and Associates in Salem VA, and today I want to give them a big shout out. I got my glasses from them in 2008 and I am well overdue for an eye exam at this point. They weren’t able to fix my original frames or make the lenses fit any better in the frames my friend had given me to try, but they were able to take my lenses to the back and fit them perfectly into a pair of sketchers frames from their junk box. Best of all it cost me absolutely nothing to get my lenses put into a different set of frames and now I will have a good pair of back-up glasses when I do get my new prescription. I will definitely be going back to Newman Blackstock and Associates for my eye care needs. They are # 1 in customer service in my book and I would recommend them to anyone that was looking for a good optometrist office. :)

Bad things come in three's

I have always been told bad things come in three's and I hope that this is true. A few days ago my husband spilled cream soda on his laptop and it has slowly gone beserk since then, Aiden and Emma broke the top off one of our lamps yesterday and today Isabella snapped my glasses in half. Luckily we have an insurance program on the pc, so we are going to be sending it back to Dell to get it repaired or replaced. My husband was lucky that he backed it up when it did since there is a key "pressed" as far as the laptop knows and it is being a paperweight at this point. We were able to repair the lamp with super glue, so that was good. My glasses, well they may just be done for. I took them to Mom and Dad's and solder didn't work, so for now I have my lenses in frames that are not quite the right size, but will have to do until I can figure something else out.

There's a lot going on, are you up to speed?

Sometimes when I sit here looking at the blank page before me, I just seem to draw a blank, not knowing where to start. There is a lot going on right now, the girls are starting to walk, slowly but surely, my husband is back in school for his third semester, Aiden is testing his boundaries like nobody's business, and I have been making career changes and setting up a home office, as well as interviewing nannies. Isabella took about 5 steps on Saturday and Emma brought up the rear today. With Aiden, it seemed like he started off running, but the girls are taking it slower. They started walking about two weeks ago with just 3 steps and refused to take any more than that at once. Now they seem to finally be making a little more progress. I have been trying to be as patient as possible with their progress, since I have been told that the longer they crawl the more coordinated they will be. Watching Aiden I believe this to be true, since that kid has run into more walls and doorframes than I can count, lol.

I have been spending a lot of my free time trying to put together an awesome birthday party for my kids. Last year the girls were born so close to Aiden's birthday that it felt as though we just skipped over it. He got presents and all, but really didn't get to have a real party like he had been given before. He really enjoyed the party at Chuck-E-Cheese that my brother put on for my nephew last year and the party he threw at McDonald's this year too. Even Emma got to have some fun at the McDonald's party this year. So with that in mind I started contacting the fast food places in the area that had an indoor play area. I had been to the one that I had chosen before, but it had been awhile. After talking to the manager on the phone, I started planning a party there and finally got to stop in this afternoon and check out the area and the space. I was very impressed with the cleanliness and spaciousness of the play area and can't wait to get in there with some decorations to turn it into a great party room. I am looking forward to getting both families together with a few of our friends that have young children, for one big party, instead of having to go here and there and everywhere to make sure the kids get to see all of their relatives and get the chance to play with some kids their age and get some social time in too. :)

Winter is here to stay a little longer :(

So, for those of you that thought that it was crazy to depend on a groundhog to predict the weather, I want you to all know that he has proven you wrong once again. Here in SW VA the weather has been crazy to say the least, yesterday it was almost 60 degrees outside, today we got from 3-8 inches of snow across the region, and tomorrow it's supposed to be 50 again. While it is beautiful outside, there are way too many people in VA that CANNOT drive in the snow. There are wrecks at almost every major intersection in Roanoke from what I have heard. I hope that everyone in the area that does not have to be out on the road is enjoying a nice night in with the family and that if you have lost power that it comes back a.s.a.p. I am not looking forward to an early morning drive to work, but I am happy know by the time quitting time rolls around everything will be good to go again.

I would love to see your pictures of the snow from across the area in the comments section. :)

Date Night - Blake Shelton Concert here we come !

My husband and I put ideas for dates into our date night box. At the beginning of each month one of us draws an idea out of the box and then we can either arrange a date around that idea or we can come up with one of our own. The other person is responsible for arranging childcare for our date. I have been getting more and more excited throughout the day, in anticipation of a long awaited date night with my man. Tonight my sweet and wonderful husband has gotten us tickets to the Blake Shelton/Justin Moore concert at Roanoke Civic Center. Since he arranged the date, I was responsible for getting the sitter. So taking the advice of a friend that had suggested a childcare swap, I have arranged for my friend, Elizabeth, to come over tonight at 6pm and stay with the kids until the concert is over. We are gonna get pizza for everyone so she won't have to cook dinner and once the kids go to bed she is just gonna hang out til we get home. In exchange I will be watching her kids one evening in the next month, so she can go out on a date as well. It works out perfect! We each get to go on a date with our respective husbands and don't have to worry about paying a sitter just so we can leave the house. It really helps to make things more affordable when you can trade services with a friend. Thanks again Elizabeth for the suggestion and the opportunity to go out on a date with my husband this weekend. :)

I've been brainstorming about cake designs :)

As a cake decorator I have put a lot of thought into the best way to do the birthdays cakes for the upcoming party. Since I chose the "prince & princess" theme for the party, I have been trying to come up with the best way to incorporate crowns into the cake. I also want to make sure the girls have their smash cake this year, but I don't want Aiden to feel neglected so I am going to make one for him too.

My most recent idea is to make the crowns out of sugar cookies and then pipe icing around the outer edges. Each crown will bear either a 1 or a 4, with the girl’s crowns matching and Aiden's being unique. The border and writing on the cake will bear a color pattern of green, pink and purple with a white base color. Each smash cake will be done in one of the three colors with a white base color as well. I am still undecided on where to put the candles, but it will all come together in the end.

I can't wait to show off pictures of my latest cake creation. I hope everyone is having a good night, my internet has been down for 11hrs, so I am a little behind checking in, but definitely didn't forget about y'all. :)

Handicap ramps aren't for everyone :)

So I am walking from my car to the building this morning before work, and surprisingly enough I am 5 minutes early for work when I arrive. Even though I am early i am still walking at a fast pace, as I normally do, and carrying all sorts of stuff into work. I have a coffee mug, a water bottle, a lunch box and my purse in my arms and as I approached the curb at the sidewalk I reached across my body from right to left to grab my badge off my purse. Apparently, I chose to do that at just the wrong moment and misjudged my steps. I was coming up to the sidewalk where there was a handicap ramp and my right foot caught the edge of the ramp and down I went. It is amazing how hard you fall when you are just walking fast. Everything flew out of my arms, my glasses went flying, coffee and water went everywhere, and to beat all when I rolled to my back to sit-up, the sidewalk, wet from the morning rain, soaked the butt of my pants. I managed to bruise my left hip, scrape my right palm, cut a couple of fingers and pull a muscle in my abdomen in one fowl swoop. Man what a start to my day. Other than being sore, I was lucky not to have, broken, fractured or sprained anything, but wow, enough people saw me bite the dust to hurt my pride nice and bad. Dr said I could go back to work tomorrow, so I will be looking forward to getting to be there for jeans day. I hope you all had a better day than I did and I hope to have a better day than today. :)

Sometimes art supplies are tough to find :(

As most of you already know arts & crafts are a passion of mine. I have found that it is a good way to express myself and to teach my son, while allowing him to express himself as well. He is always so proud to display his artwork and asks to do some sort of project every day.

Our current projects are based around repeating color patterns. As I mentioned yesterday, I have been trying to find ideas for decorating for the upcoming birthday party with crafts that Aiden does. Since the party is for three children, we are going to decorate with green, pink and purple, one color for each child. Most of the projects that I have found and designed involve colored paper. For a while I have been pulling from the leftovers I had from my days of scrapbooking, but I didn't have nearly enough purple, pink and green to decorate for a party. I checked at Wal-Mart with no luck, realized my next choice "If It's Paper" was gone and I didn't want to go to the crafts stores at the mall, so I decided to stop at a local party store "Fun Times Party Warehouse" on Colorado St. in Salem, VA. I had never been there before, but upon entering the store I was disappointed to find out that they did not carry construction paper. The clerk was very friendly, and she encouraged me to look around and see what they did have to offer so I would be familiar with what they did carry. I was in a hurry, since I was supposed to be headed to pick up the kids, so I was scanning everything as quick as I could. That's when I discovered a jewel in the rough, the store didn't carry construction paper, but they a had a really good deal on paper placemats in a variety of colors and I was able to get paper that was textured and available in awesome shades.

I have got flags cut out for the flag banner. There are two holes punched in the top of each flag to put yarn through and they will be strung up in the party area. Aiden will practice putting them into a pattern as he strings them and it will also give him practice with yarn and a yarn needle.

Tonight I found 3 needle point hoops that were the same size and used those for the crown bases. To make sure that the party does not appear too girly we made all 3 paper crowns out of green paper and then decorated them in color patterns using green, pink and purple pom poms. I let Aiden choose the placement of the pom poms. For each crown he chose a different level- top, middle and bottom, so they are all unique. We are going to add to the crowns another night and eventually they will become centerpieces that will hold the balloon bouquets. I will try to post some pictures of our progress tomorrow night. Have a great night everyone. :)

Our Pirince and Princess birthday party is coming together :)

I have come to discover it is a challenge to plan any child's birthday party, figure out how to make it fun and not go broke at the same time. This year it has been even more challenging since I have decided to throw a combo party for all of my children, one 4 year old boy and two 1 year old girls. Though it does save money to just have one party instead of two, it was tough to decide on a good location that would be suitable for all of the children. We decided that Burger King would be a good location. It has a built in activity for the kids, meals that come with toys (so no favor bags req), each child also gets a crown ot wear and the location was pretty much in the middle of all the places that our family and friends live.

Since I am a big fan of themed parties and arts & crafts time, I decided that a prince and princess theme would go good with Burger King. Over the past couple of weeks I have been finding and creating projects for Aiden that go with that theme. I have already gotten pink crowns that have a 1 on them for the girls and we are going to make a crown for Aiden that has a 4 on it. In our area a minimum of a $40 food order will get a free kids meal for the birthday kids. Plus since we are going to have so many adults there, they are going to see about us being able to get a reduced price on drinks for all the adult guests.

For our party decorations we are going with pink, green, and purple. Green is Aiden's favorite color and we added a girly color for each of the twins. I found some ideas that we are going to incorporate into arts and crafts time so that Aiden can participate in making most of the decorations. There is a flag banner project that we are going to do that will help him practice color patterns and sewing, we are going to make a few table toppers from colored paper crowns, pom poms and pipe cleaners and we are goiing to see if we can come up with any other creative ways to incorporate crowns into our decorations while we are at it.

I am excited to get to work on these projects and to share them with you so that you may be able to try them with your inspiring artists as well. :)

Happy almost Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all! I hope you have enjoyed seeing the Valentine's that my son and I have created and that maybe it sparked some creativitey in y'all as well. Over the next few weeks, we will be working on decorations for the kids' birthday party and St. Patrick's Day crafts too. I hope you all have a wonderful day and I will be posting a longer entry tomorrow that I have already started working on. :)

After a full day I am tired

Today has been a long day. I spent most of it trying to relax and encouraging Isabella to walk. She has made it to about 3 steps at a time in the play yard, but let her out and its straight to the knees since she is free, lol. Aiden worked in his preschool book a little today and practiced tracing diagonal lines. Josh went out and got us a load of wood from his wonderful Mom and her boyfriend, who was nice enough to split it and help to load it too. Then tonight around 8:30pm my best friend and her kids stopped in for an overnight stay on their way to PA. I am tired, but awake, in anticipation of starting a new job tomorrow. I think I am ready though, the coffe is ready to brew and the timer is set, I have an outfit picked out, now I just need to get some sleep, because 7am is going to come way to early.

Aiden and I have been being creative again :)

Aiden and I have been getting creative again today. We got to do a craft that included sewing and stickers.  Our craft project was a heart that has yarn sewn around the edges and then it’s decorated it with stickers. Sewing is a good co-ordination activity and helps to teach patterns. I took some pictures of the supplies we used – the foam heart stickers I found at the Dollar Store, a scrap piece of yarn, a heart cut out of pink construction paper (with holes punched around the outer edge with a hold punch), a yarn needle and a pair of scissors, and the finished product.

This project was easy enough for him to do with just a little instruction and it was simple enough that it kept his attention long enough for him to complete the project. Enjoy the pictures and I hope that you will take the time to enjoy this simple craft with your little one.

Our supplies

Aiden working on his craft project

Finished product

Diaper Rash ...what a pain in the *ss ;)

When my son was a baby, I thought that some of my friends must have been doing something wrong, like not changing diapers often enough or something. They were always having trouble with diaper rash. Even the baby girls that my husband’s grandmother watched seemed to always suffer from it after a weekend with their parents. Now I am convinced that little girls just have more sensitive skin than little boys do.

My girls seem to get diaper rash from everything. They are more sensitive to mangos, strawberries and tomatoes than other foods. Then once they get a rash nothing seems to help at all. We have tried miracle cream, A&D ointment, Baby Powder, Vaseline, and nothing has worked like it did for my son. With him, we just used Vaseline on his bottom each time we changed him and never had a worry. I have finally resorted to just plain corn starch and it seems to work better than anything else. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best ones you will find and the cheapest.

So in closing, to any of my friends that I was judgmental towards when I didn’t know better, I am truly sorry. I have tried to be less judgmental in general over the years, but I know that over the years I have definitely judged others with no personal experience to justify my feelings. For that I am sorry. Personally I do feel that each baby’s skin is different and it’s just finding the proper treatment for your child, but if nothing else seems to work you may want to try plain corn starch from the baking goods isle, it could really surprise you and save you lots of money at the same time.

Shopping for a Sitter :)

Today was a busy day for us. It has been a really long time since someone other than my husband and I have watched our children and we are coming to a point that we are going to have a sitter at least 2 days a week for a little while. I was fortunate to reconnect with a friend from high school that is currently a stay at home mom, who is willing to take them on two days a week for me until I can make other arrangements. I took the kids to visit and meet her and her family today, for a couple of hours, so that they wouldn’t be too shocked when I dropped them off and didn’t come back for like 9-10 hours. All of the children really seemed to enjoy themselves at her house. She was very good with them and even got to see me reach my limit and put Aiden in time out for being too rough. Even though he was put in the naughty chair he was having so much fun he just wanted to stay forever. I hope my permanent sitter has her patience and love of children.

My idea of the perfect situation, would be to have someone come into my home and watch my children here, that way I don't have to worry about waking them and getting them ready while I try to get ready for work, the only thing to forget is going to the store occasionally, and they have all their toys and germs here. I have talked to several different people and it seems that everyone does things a little different. Some people will charge by the day and some by the hour. In my case it wouldn’t be worth working if I had to pay hourly. One sitter I consulted said that $35 was reasonable per day, but I shouldn’t pay more than that. Considering I have 3 kids and two are under a year old, I feel like maybe I should pay more like $40 a day instead, but that is around ½ my pay before taxes, so I really don’t know. I don’t want to feel like I am taking advantage of someone, but at the same time, I don’t want to end up working just to pay a sitter. So to my babysitter friends, do you think $35 a day is reasonable for a 6-7 hour day twice a week?

I have found a few people through the local classifieds that I have reached out to, in hopes that one of them will be able to provide the support that I need. I want to make sure that I am treating them fairly and that I am paying enough to get quality care for my children.

A little about story time, A Valentine's Day card for Daddy, Love Bugs, and 11-12 mo transition from baby food to real food :)

Story time was good today. The theme was hippos and we even got to make one eating grass for an art project. Aiden loves to go to story time and really loves to do the art projects at the end. Since this was the last story time for this session, we went ahead and turned in his reading log for the winter reading program. He got a certificate to bring home and a really cute, high quality puppy dog finger puppet made, by Folkmanis puppets. It was a great start to his day and he can’t wait for the next story time session at Glenvar Branch Library for 2-5 year olds that starts on February 29th and goes thru March 15th on Wednesday and Thursday 10:30am to 11:15am.

Aiden and I also wanted to share some more of our Valentine’s Day projects with you all today. Aiden and I worked together to make his Daddy a cute Valentine’s Day card. First we took a white sheet of paper and put two handprints on it with the palms together in the middle and his fingers stretching out to each side. Then we took a piece of red paper and glued it to the back. We folded the paper in half between the handprints and cut it in the shape of ½ a heart. On the red side we wrote “Happy Valentine’s Day Daddy” then Aiden helped to write his name on the side with his handprints plus we added the year and “I am handing you my heart”. He is very proud of the Valentine’s Day card he has ready for his Daddy.

The project for home today was called Love Bugs. For this project you can use all types of media. If paper is all you have it will work just fine, to make love bugs like we did you will need pipe cleaners, giggly eyes, some red paper, pink paper, scissors, tape and glue. We cut out two large hearts from red paper for the bodies, two medium hearts for the heads and several small hearts to make “spots” with. We started by gluing the eyes to the medium hearts and then attaching the head to the body, then we decorated with our small hearts. After we had the head and body done we flipped our “love bugs” over ad cut out 6 legs for each bug and the 2 antennas we would need from 4 pipe cleaners. Then we taped the 6 legs and 2 antennas to the back side. I started with an idea of all paper love bugs I found on Pinterest and made them mine. Hope you like my spin on this Valentine’s Day craft.

On a different note, the girls are fast approaching 11 months, we have been introducing them to real food here and there. We started with Cheerios, small chunks of cheese, sliced avocadoes, canned peaches and pears. They seem to be intrigued by all of the unique tastes and textures. Today for lunch I made hot ham and cheese sandwiches and fed the girls ½ a sandwich a piece and half of their fruit baby food concoction. They did really good with the sandwich bites I made for them and I am excited to introduce them to even more real food as the month goes on. I would also like to wean them off their bottles soon and was wondering if anyone had a favorite sippy cup they used for the transition?

Winter reading programs available in Roanoke County and surrounding areas :)

The winter reading program is underway at all Roanoke County VA Libraries. All you have to do to get signed up is see the librarian and keep a log of the books you read to your child. It’s really just that simple. This program was designed to encourage and introduce literacy skills to your child between 0 and 5 years old. You set the goal and then read to your child between January 30th and February 29th. Once you have reached your goal, all you have to do is take your reading log back to the library, where your child will be rewarded with a prize. This year’s winter reading program reward sounds like it will be a dog finger puppet that is supposed to be adorable. What better way to reward your child for enjoying bonding while being read to, than to get a reward from the librarian. I hope all of you enjoy these programs as much as I do and I look forward to promoting the summer reading program as well.
Here are some other fun things coming up at Roanoke County Libraries:

Hollins Candy Land Carnival
February 10, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM @ Hollins Branch
Stop in for an evening of family fun with a sweet twist. Crafts, games, and sweet treats for parents and kids.

Vinton Candy Land Carnival
February 20, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM @ Vinton Branch
Stop in for an evening of family fun with a sweet twist. Crafts, games, and sweet treats for parents and kids.

South County Candy Land Carnival
February 23, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM @ South County Library
Stop in for an evening of family fun with a sweet twist. Crafts, games, and sweet treats for parents and kids.

For those of you in Bedford County VA and Roanoke City VA, your winter reading program looks very similar to the one in Roanoke County. The dates are Feb 1 to March 2nd and it is available at all Bedford County and all Roanoke City Libraries.

Do you attend any events at your local library or participate in any of their program? If so which ones?

What are the best things you can give your child on their birthday?

Today I have decided to take a break from the Valentine's Day theme. My son and I have already made other Valentine's Day crafts that we look forward to sharing with you, but today birthday presents have been on my mind.

As most of you know, my son will be turning 4 on March 4th and my daughters will be turning 1 on March 10th. I have decided when and where to have their party, created the guest list, and now I am working on what to buy for presents.

For Aiden I have decided that I want to go with an educational theme. He already has so many toys and though he enjoys them a lot, I really want to focus on getting him ready to go into kindergarten. I have found some book sets on E-bay that look very good and they are reasonably priced. They range anywhere from 25-60 books and focus on teaching him to read and recognize the most common words in the English language. I have also found a couple of books, like Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Spooky Wheels on the bus, Duck & Cover, Emily's Everyday Manners, and Big words for little people, that really look like fun books to add to his collection. I am on the fence over rather to buy him a whole collection or if I should go with individual books that he will be able to enjoy for years to come. I would also like to get him some more arts and crafts supplies since he really loves to paint and do craft projects. Maybe I should go with the CD "The best of the Laurie Beckner Band" to continue to spark his interest in music, since it has his favorite song "I know a chicken" on it. Decisions, decisions, decisions.... I HATE decisions... lol :)

For the girls I want to get them some functional presents. They seem to have enough toys, but I would really like to get them as interested in books as their big brother is, so I have thought about getting them some books as well. I have gotten each of them a pair of shoes, in hopes that it will help me to keep socks on them. It was a little shocking to see the difference in their feet, even though they each have some growing room, I got a size 5 for Isabella and a size 5 1/2 for Emma. Another idea I had for them was new sippy cups that have a softer spout to help in weaning them off their bottles. Clothes are another good option I think since they grow so fast, I have a good amount of 18 mos clothes in a winter style, but we don't seem to have many spring/summer pieces in 18 mos yet, so I am contemplating an outfit or two as well. Again, I HATE decisions, so I am glad to still have almost a month to finalize their presents.

Do you have a favorite idea out of the ones above? Do you think the parents should always buy a toy for birthdays?

Valentine's Day

Another cute gift idea for Valentine's Day is a coupon book full of special treats. The one I made for my husband this year only includes 4 coupons, but I think he will enjoy each of them. His coupons will include a 30 minute back rub, a 30 minute foot rub, sleeping in until 11am with breakfast ready when he gets up, and 1 hour of quiet time away from the kids.

This project can be made with things you have around the house. In my case I found 5 pieces of cardstock in my scrapbook supplies, some left over yarn, some Elmer's glue and I used the computer to print off the coupon's. I would say the whole project took less than 10 minutes to put together. Once I had printed off the coupons and the title page, I cut them down and glued them to the middle of each piece of cardstock. Once the glue dried I stacked the papers on top of one another and used the three-hole-punch to put two holes in the top. Finally I used some scrap yarn to tie the book together. It was quick and easy to put together and I know he will appreciate the thought I put into the project.

Here are some pictures of my project:

I hope you are enjoying my Valentine's Day gift ideas and I would love to hear about what other things you have created for someone special in your life :)

Garden of Love :)

I decided to continue with a Valentine's arts and crafts theme for a few days as the holiday of love is fast approaching. The first project that I did with my kids is called "Garden of Love".

You will need a piece of paper big enough to put a handprint from each child on, some paint and a wet wash rag. Preferably you will want green and some floral colors, we used red, blue and yellow paint and mixed some to also make green and purple.

I started by placing 3 blank pieces of paper on the table and having my son, the oldest, put a handprint on each one in blue, towards the top and kinda centered, then I added a handprint from Isabella in purple to each page and finally I added a handprint from Emma in red to each page. Depending on the age of your children and the level of co-operation you can get out of them, this could be more difficult than it sounds. Once I had all of my handprints done, I mixed some green paint and added stems and leaves to the bottom of each handprint turning them into flowers. I actually liked the pictures better plain, but for an added touch i also put a yellow sunshine in one of the upper corners. After they were dry I added the name of each child to the picture under their handprint.

Since my youngest children are less than a year old, it was challenging to get them to co-operate and open their hands to get a proper handprint, but we managed, kinda, lol. The main reason that I made three at once was so that I could pick the best picture for my husband and frame it so that he could display it for years to come. The other two were cute as well so once they dried I filed them away to save for possible gifts for others. Here are pictures of our masterpieces.

What kind of handprint art have you done with your children?

Arts and crafts on a budget :)

I have been working on creating Valentine's gifts for my husband this year and I have come across a lot of great ideas. So far my son and I have worked together on two presents and I have made a third out of things we already had in the house. I have a few other projects for Valentine’s Day and some just to be creative, that I wanted to do as well, so we made a trip to the Dollar Tree and picked up a few more supplies.

Arts and crafts can get very expensive to do if you are not a savvy shopper. I like to keep a supply on hand for whatever project ideas I come across, so that my son can show off his creativity on a regular basis. I will usually shop the back to school sales each year, where I will pick up Elmer's glue, glue sticks, crayons, markers and construction paper at a reasonable price. We will also make trips to the Dollar Tree periodically to pick up extras, like foam stickers some seasonal and some themed, finger paints, foam craft kits, baskets, pipe cleaners and whatever else we can find that sparks our creative side.

Today we found a selection of Valentine's themed foam stickers (200 to a pack), 3 different foam craft kits for Valentine's Day projects, a 4 pack of finger paints, a cute 5x5x5 gift box for my "Date Night" bucket project, and a huge selection of themed foam stickers (100 to a pack) - Aiden chose the dinosaurs this time. I spent a little over $6 and we were able to add 300 foam stickers, a kit to make 2 foam Valentine's door knob hangers, and 4 colors of finger paints to our art closet as well as getting a few other items. So remember, arts and crafts don't have to cost an arm and a leg, you just have to know where and when to shop for your supplies. Then just let your creative energy out and don't be afraid to express yourself.

Where do you find the best deals on arts and crafts supplies?

Maintaining Balance

I am struggling with trying to figure out how to maintain balance in my life as I get prepared to start working again. It is important to me to take time every day to spend with each of my children and to pay attention to my loving husband. I am fearful that once I go back to work I will have trouble maintaining balance in all these aspects of my life and continuing to help around the house as much as I have been lately. As I am preparing myself to go back into the workforce, we are also waiting to hear back on a job that my husband has interviewed for, to be able to make the best decision that we can about what schedules will go together the best.

So as I contemplate all the choices and hurdles in front of me I have been brainstorming and trying to think of different ways to make sure that my husband and I are prepared to take time for ourselves. Some people have suggested that a couple should have date night once a week, or at minimum once every two weeks. In our experience, we have managed to have a date night once every 3-4 months since we had our son almost 4 years ago and we have managed to go one real vacation and one visit to a out of town friend's home. So this year I am determined to get to go on more dates with my husband to make sure that we can stay connected and reconnect a little bit as well as go on a family vacation.

I am in the process of making us a date bucket. We will each write down some things we would like to do together, such as go bowling, go to a movie, go to dinner, etc. At the beginning of each month we will choose a slip of paper out of the bucket and then we will make sure to take the time to do the chosen activity before the end of the month. We have agreed to take turns making arrangements for the kids for our special night so that we are sharing the responsibility of making some time for us.

As far as the kids go, we are doing our best to take the kids out at least once a month to do something special geared towards children. This month we are going to go to Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke for the "Tons of Fun" event as a family and are going to have fun letting the kids play and ride carnival rides. We are also planning on taking them on a family vacation this year. So far we have picked out the weekend and are in the process of finalizing the plans for that trip.

How do you maintain a healthy balance at home with your spouse and kids?

When is working really worth it?

As I sit here thinking about the job opportunities I have been presented with I wonder "When is working really worth it?" I will definitely be starting a new job on March 12th as a work from home CSR and I get to work the evening shift. During training I will have to hire a babysitter two days a week for 6-8 hours each day, this will last for 4 weeks. Then once I change to my regular schedule I will only need a sitter one day a week for approximately 5 hours. To me this job is truly worth it, since I will be working from home 5 days a week and will only need a sitter 1 of those 5 days. Plus I will get to take my breaks and lunch with my family in the comfort of my home. I will never have to worry about forgetting my lunch or forgetting my badge. No longer will I wonder how far from the building I will have to park and what the weather is going to be like as I am walking across the parking lot. Now I finally get to have the job I have been dreaming of for the past 5 years.

With all that in mind, I have also been offered a job that starts on February 13th where I would also be in need of a babysitter 2 days a week and the training is 1st shift, not really my cup of tea at all. When I figured it up after paying for a sitter for two days and taxes the most I will bring home would be $296 a week. Out of that money I would have to deduct the gas I will be spending to get to and from work and the extra gas it will take my husband to get to and from school. I will have to take my children to a sitter which means I will be leaving my house at 7:00 in the morning and I will not get home until around 6 pm with them. This job will probably only last two weeks, since the training program is 5 weeks long and in order to give a two weeks’ notice to change to the job I really want, I would be giving notice 2 weeks into a 5 week training program and I would most likely be told I didn't have to come back once the notice was delivered. So is this job really worth it? Yeah it would bring in between $400-500 to our struggling household, but that's for two full weeks of work and it would be bringing home less than a minimum wage position. I am still on the fence over this decision. I do at least already have everything lined up, now I just have to convince myself to follow through and make the money. I do really wonder if I will be able to make myself do it if my husband is offered the job he interviewed for today...

Any thoughts or suggestions?