Trying to be active as a family can be daunting!  I have not been great at it in the past, but have set my goals much higher this year!  Previously, we would all work on being active on our own;  I would take kickboxing and zumba classes at the gym, Danny would run, and the kids would play sports during different seasons.  It isn’t that we dont still do these things on our own, because we absolutely do, it’s just that now we would like to also incorporate having active lifestyles into our family activities as well.

It takes more effort and planning, but is way more fun and rewarding!  We have made a lot of changes to how we spend our free time and you can to!  It doesn’t matter how old or young your kids are.  These ideas will work for all families with old and young kids alike!

1.  Sign up for a race.  Start off easy, like the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving or another 5k or shorter.  Have your kids train with you!  My kids loved wearing a kids pedometer as they ran/walked.  It was still a bit hard on my five year old so he road his scooter beside us as we trained.  Fun and non competitive races are great for younger kids and for getting started.

We just ran the Color Me Rad Run this past weekend.  They have these all over the country.  They basically spray or throw paint at you as you run by so at the end of the race you are tie-dyed!  The kids loved it!  It was very laid back as far as the run goes.  It wasn’t timed, it was just a good time out getting exercise with the family.  There were lots of kids and even parents pushing strollers.

My niece, me, and my 7 year old getting ready to start the Color Me Rad race.

Here we all are at the finish line covered in paint!  I didn’t bring my younger boys to this one as this was the first time running this one and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I will for sure bring them next time!

2.  Plan active things to do on the weekends.  Instead of the usual dinner and/or movie, we try to plan more active outings.  We go to the beach, the pool, hiking, fishing, roller skating, ice skating, the park, the zoo, camping, bowling, … it doesn’t matter as long as it is an activity that keeps your family having fun and on their feet.  It was hard to detour from our typical weekends of eating out and sitting at movies.  We still do these things from time to time, but as a general rule we try to make more ACTIVE plans.

3.  Invite friends over to play games rather than just to eat and sit around.  Meet at a park or plan to be in the backyard playing wiffle ball.  Set up a slip’n slide for the kiddos to play on while you BBQ.  We recently went to our church with some friends in the evening when there were no other activities going on and played freeze tag using the entire building where  adults and kids together would run, hide, and take turns being it.  It was a blast!  Even my three year loved it… he thought he was pretty cool going and unfreezing all the big kids!

4.  Get a basketball hoop!  This is a great way to have something active to do each night!  It doesn’t count if you just send your kids out there to shoot hoops (not that there is anything wrong with this).  The goal is to be active as a family, so go out there and play some HORSE and elimination with the kiddos.  We even set up a mini Little Tikes hoop for our three year right next to the big hoop so he can be part of the game too!

5.  Support your kids in their own sports!  We try to have each of our three boys pick a sport to sign up for each season (as much as funds permit).  We bring the entire family to each game to watch and cheer as much as possible.  Sometimes their games overlap and we have to split up, but more often than not we spend our Saturday mornings going from one game to the next.  It is really important that the kids know we feel what they are doing is important and that we are all there to watch and support their hard work!

6.  Take walks or go on a bike ride after dinner.  This is hit or miss for us because we often have practices on weeknights, but we love to just walk around the neighborhood and talk while the boys ride their bikes beside us.  Taking family walks are never overrated!

7.  Bring back the old school games!  We recently taught our kids how to play Kick the Can.  It was a huge hit!  They are obsessed with it and have all the neighborhood kids coming over after school to play it!  Not a fan of Kick the Can… try dodgeball in the backyard, capture the flag, SPUD, wiffle ball, or even a good old fashioned water fight!  Bring back all those games you use to play around the neighborhood before iPads, wiis, and xboxes ruled the world!  You might feel silly playing these along side the kids at first, but after the first round you will be in it to win it!  Our kids will spend their lives trying to beat us!

8.  Start a garden!  The kids love this!  They are all about weeding, planting, and of course watering!  Gardening helps them take pride in eating healthy home grown produce as well as taking care of the yard.  Each weekend we bring the kids out to help clean up, water, and take care of the garden and yard.  My littlest guy loves pushing around his toy lawnmower while my husband mows the lawn.

9.  Sign up for some adult co-ed sport leagues.  They have everything these days!  You can do softball, volleyball, kickball, flag football, etc…  Bring the whole family to the games to watch and cheer!  It is fun for them to see their parents participating in the same type of organized sports they do!  Last year I did softball.  It was a blast.  We brought Grandma along with us to the games to keep an eye on the kiddos while we played.    The kids loved going to the games and running around with their cousins (whose parents played on the team).  I think we will sign up for kickball next!

10.  Take up tennis!  Tennis is easy because most communities have courts you can play on for free.  These days, you can also get a decent racket for $20.  We like to take the whole family to the courts and play around.  The younger kids mostly just run around the courts throwing tennis balls around while the rest of us practice.  Either way, it is a fun and a free way to be active with your family.

These are just a few ideas and I would LOVE to hear what you do with your family to stay active and healthy! Change takes time, effort, and planning, but this change is so rewarding that it is really worth the fuss!

An active family is a happy family!

Casey and his Daddy after the race!

I couldn’t resist posting this one was well! It is not often that we get a cute picture like this! Thanks to my seven year old for taking it.  Maybe he will be a famous photographer one day or maybe he is just particularly skilled with the iPhone!  🙂

I’m writing this post because I’m once again 5 months pregnant. We will have three girls in less than four years (my poor, poor, poor husband).  With this said, my oldest two are only 21 months apart and I lost every pound (by working SO hard) in between them and I lost every pound plus four more within six months of giving birth to my second.  NO, I’M NOT TOOTING MY HORN BECAUSE YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!!  Sidenote: I gained 40 pounds with my 2nd.  I was huge and you would have to kill me before I would publicly share a photo of how bad I looked right before I had her.  I had zero ankles if you know what I mean.

BUT…. Here’s a picture of me in a bikini with my two girls (so it’s proven!).

I even had a little bit of abs!

I’ve got some tips for how you can do it too!  I know, I know, diets suck, but YOU CAN DO IT.  I swear once you get past the first two weeks, you’ll be golden because you’ll see how much weight you’re losing and will be too addicted to stop.  Here’s what I have for you:

1.  Pick a diet and stick to it.  DIET IS 90% OF THE BATTLE.  I chose South Beach Diet, but I pretty much started with phase two because I was breastfeeding.  Once I stopped breastfeeding around nine months, I switched to Paleo.  I felt SO DANG GOOD.  Of course it was hard at first, especially after I ate whatever in site while I was pregnant, but I actually felt really good and energized.

2.  Breastfeed!  I’ve heard that this doesn’t work for everyone, but for me it really did!  I used that extra 500 calories to my advantage and did not just consume them with food.  Side note: I HATE bf, but I knew in my mind it was good for them and the calories just gave me that much more of a boost.

3.  The minute you can start working out, do it!  Get into that workout routine right after your six week check-up.  Spend one hour per day doing something active.  If you don’t want to leave your child with someone at a gym, leave him/her with your husband.  No excuses.  Look for a good gym with good classes.  I LOVE my gym (thank you Lifetime Fitness, Dulles) and all the classes that they offer.  I also love the kids place there.  With this being said, get your baby used to it early.  They will learn to like it, I promise!  It’s also good for mommy to get away for a bit!

4.  Avoid anything with sugar.  I am kind of repeating myself with the whole diet thing, but you have to let go of it.  Remember white carbohydrates turn to sugar.  My favorite snack is a banana with all natural peanut butter (it’s the stuff you have to stir that only contains peanuts and oil).  It’s hard at first, but once you’re used to it, you’ll love the feeling.  I don’t even crave potatoes at all anymore, I have zero desire to ever order a baked potato.  Plus my skin is clear, SO much more clear!

5.  Weigh yourself often.  It keeps me on track.  I’m seriously obsessed,  it keeps me motivated and have self control.  I have this scale and I couldn’t recommend it more.  I use it everyday.  I know I know, experts say to only weigh yourself once a week, but I do it every morning.  It’s what works for me.  It might not work for you, but you need to do it so you can keep track of your success.

6.  This sounds crazy, but put a pre-pregnancy picture of yourself up.  It never hurts to get more motivation.  Before I had kids, I worked dang hard to be skinny and I wasn’t going to let people say “man, she let herself go after kids”.  Instead, I wanted the opposite.

Lastly, I want to let you know that I did have to work really hard to get my weight off and that I’m not naturally a “small” person.  I don’t want people to think that it just comes natural for some and that it’s not worth trying.  I do believe that some people are naturally small, but they aren’t naturally fit.  Once you lose the weight, work extra hard to firm it all up.  I know you can do it too.  It’s never too late to start (even if your last baby was 5 years ago).  I’m already stoked to go at it again.  I just know how good I feel when I’m small verses feeling big all over. In fact, this time around, post baby of course, I’m doing a little challenge with a friend so we keep each other accountable.  That could easily be another motivating tool for some people.

So, with all this said, please try this and let me know how it works for you!  You will feel so awesome.  Happy dieting and working out!  Here’s part of my motivation!  I have so much fun with them and I can because I have ENERGY.

Our crazy family!

Happy New Year again!

Happy Thanksgiving!  It is my favorite time of year and I am loving spending it in beautiful Florida this year!  The weather is warm and beautiful and makes us all smile!

This year we did our first Turkey Trot 5k.  It is one of our goals to be more active as a family.  Today we ran with my big sister and 1st grade niece.  We have also signed up our 7 year old to run in his first 5k in Miami in February!  He is really excited to get to race with us next time and has committed to practice and train with us for his race.

Here we are in all our glory! So glad we are running this in Florida with out our sweats and ear warmers!

I wanted to give a shout out to my big sis for her example of getting her family (and mine!) up and out to do fun and active things!  She has a new blog that has so many ideas on how to get your family outside and involved in projects together.  It is really a pretty awesome and inspiring thing she has going.  Check it out at www.littleyellowshack.com

My beautiful sister and niece getting ready for the race! They are so cool and ran in their five finger shoes!

She even has us signed up for paddle boarding next month!  It is never to late to make a change in your life and make being active together as a family your lifestyle!

I am especially thankful this year to see measurable progress on our goals from where we were last year at this time!  Physically, spiritually, temporally, and financially we have been able to progress and accomplish our family and personal goals!  We love each other and have great blessings for fighting through the difficult times together.  From paying off the car loan this year to transforming our life into a more active lifestyle we have really made some great changes this year!

I am also thankful for our church for pushing us to set family goals in all of these area at the beginning of this year and pushing us meet them.  I love inspiration like that!

Happy Turkey Day!!!!!!!!!!

As a math teacher I saw first hand how debilitating it is when children do not know their multiplication tables.  Multiplication is the building block for everything in math.  It can really hold a child back if they do not get this down pat…  the goal is for them to be able to spout them off without even thinking.  Once they have this down it will be much easier for them to understand and learn higher math.

The key is to make sure your  child understands the ideas behind multiplication before starting to memorize the tables.  Conceptual learning should always be the foundation.  It takes a bit more effort to learn on a conceptual level rather than to just memorize math algorithms and formulas, but conceptual thinking is a skill that will benefit your kids through out their academics.

Steps to Teaching Multiplication:

1.   Teach them what multiplication is.  Example:  4 x 3 = 4 + 4 + 4  or 3 + 3 + 3 + 3.  Do not have them start memorizing until you are sure they conceptually understand what multiplication is and how it is used.

2.  Make it fun!  Turn their memorization into a game.  Make or buy some flash guards and give them points or rewards.  Time them and have them compete against their own time.  Have them memorize all the way up to 12 x 12.

3.  Go in order so they are not overwhelmed.  Start with 2’s, then 3’s, etc…

We decided to do an ice cream cone.  Each time my little guy can quickly shout out each answer from the flashcards he passes that “scoop” level.  Once he has earned all 12 scoops the whole family will go get ice cream together.

In order for him to pass a new “scoop” level he also has to have retained all the previous “scoop” levels.  Basically this means that I mix in the current “scoop” flash cards with all the previously passed ones and make him pass all of them in order to get a new scoop on the wall.

My niece decided to make a turkey and put in a new feather for each new multiplication table she passes.  You could also make snowballs on a snowman, pepperoni on a pizza, etc..  whatever you think will motivate your child and make it fun for them.

Wait for it, wait for it….. It’s a ketchup packet!   They work perfect.

Use a ketchup packet as an ice pack.

It doesn’t completely freeze so you can still squish it around and mold it to their boo boo.  Look at my sweet one being the model.

It’s the right size for those little hands and bumps!

Thanks Parenting Magazine for the tip found here.

At Ella’s 3 year check-up, the doctor said it was time for the dentist!  I had no idea what to expect.  We immediately let her watch some positive YouTube videos of the dentist.  But, I think the best thing that we did was allow her to go to the dentist with me for a check-up.  Trust me, I know all kids aren’t the same, but this helped her.  She sat in the chair the whole time and was intrigued with every tool.  We’ve also always said positive things about the dentist.  Here she is, all ready!

She's SO ready to get her teeth cleaned!

I have some tips!

1.  Choose a family friendly dentist!  The hygienist at our dentist office has a 2 1/2 year old girl and knew exactly how to talk to her.  Ours was not a pediatric dentist, but they are very kind hearted, so I knew they would be great with her.

She looks so big!

2.  Prepare, prepare, prepare!  Talk about how much you love the dentist and how great your teeth feel.  You gotta coach them into it!

3.  Take them with you! When she went with me, the hygienist explained everything to her.

They cleaned and counted her teeth.  They even let her choose chocolate toothpaste!  Look at my sweet babe all grown up!

My little princess!

Make sure you take your child to the dentist, I would say definitely by 4.  If you haven’t, now is a good time.  I can definitely recommend a good one in NoVa!

Not only did she have her first trip to the dentist, but she also had her first day of preschool.

Ella's 1st day of school!

Does anybody remember this ad? It’s that time of year again…the most wonderful time of the year for parents who have tons to get done and kiddos with too much energy! 

Getting my kids prepared to go anywhere can be a challenge –  Even though they’re younger, I want to make sure that they’re ready for whatever they might be learning and help them as much as possible at home so that they will be successful in the classroom.We’re a pretty busy, active family so we try to do some lessons at home and get out to museums and parks for learning in action. I can handle teaching them the basics, but once it’s actually time to pack up their pencils for elementary school, I get a bit sentimental.

More than anything, I want my children to be able to learn how to be independent learners who are confident in the classroom. I want them to take an interest in learning and feel comfortable asking questions. While I can provide guidance and assistance in some areas, I understand that school provides a complete learning experience, both educationally and socially.

When preparing for the first day of school, here are a few things our family does:

• Purchase all the school supplies early.  I hate waiting to the last minute and fighting with other parents for that last eraser at Target. 
• Continually build my children’s wardrobe.   Even though my children grow quickly, I like to buy their clothes through out the summer.
• Complete Summer reading.  We help “motivate” our children with summer reading so that their brain keeps working at some level through the summer months
• Start early bed-times a few weeks early.  There is nothing worse than fighting your children the night before the first day of school about if it’s time to go to sleep or not.

One of the things I’ve thought about doing this year is bringing in a tutor for a few hours to give my children a “boost” session.  Maybe for just an hour or so to see if they’re really ready for school, or at a minimum to help me see where I should spend time with them the first month or so of school.  The DC area has a number of tutoring services that each have their own unique approach.  For example, I remember seeing on the news details about a tutoring company, Ashley Tutors, providing specific in-home services to residence in the DC area.

I think this year we’ll work on a few topics before school starts and see how the children react to it.  We may call in the re-enforcements later in the year if they struggle to listen to mom and dad’s advice.

My husband works in online marketing and, as part of that, creates some pretty interesting infographics from time-to-time.  Generally, they aren’t the type of thing that fit in well with the posts we have on Enchanted Mommy, but this one is the exception.

Academic Advantage Infographic by InfoCarnivore.com.

I began to think that I should take more videos of my kids.  I often (or always) forget.  So, I found some questions that I could ask my kids on each of their birthdays and see how much the answers change each year.  I found some cool questions here.  Here is a video of my girl answering her questions!

http://youtu.be/4b3us-8rwa0

Here are the questions and her answers:
What is your name? Ella
When were you born? June 8
How old are you? Three
Who is your mommy? Dana
What does your mommy do? does she play with you? Yeah
Who is your daddy? Brian
What does your daddy do? play with me all day
What is your favorite color? Purple not pink
What do you want to be when you grow up? A cat
What is your favorite food? Mac n cheese no I don’t like mac n cheese I like macaroni and cheese
What food do you not like? Mushrooms on pizza
What is your favorite animal? cows
Where do you want to live when you grow up? Home Depot is 22
What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? Work Out
What does daddy say? Can you please go to bed
What does mommy say? Can you please go to bed right now
What is your favorite song? she sang Jesus Loves Me
What is your favorite movie? Tangled even Linlegh likes Tangled
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate
Where is your favorite place to eat? outside
Who is your favorite person? Anna is but she makes a lot of mess
Who is your best friend? Linleigh and Sarah
What is your favorite book? Spider book
Who are your sister? Anna
Where did Anna come from? The old house
What is your favorite thing to do? Clean up the blocks (she’s so off on this one)

Lastly, here’s a sneak peak of us and Ella at her 3rd birthday party!  It was such a great party, post coming soon!

A fun 3rd birthday party!

So I have to consider myself an expert in wall cleaning… mostly because I have 3 crazy boys and babysit 2 more boys full time (this equals a lot of fingerprints!!!!), but also because I have moved A LOT.

We are just getting ready to move again this week (to Florida this time Yahooo!) and this will be our 11th move in the almost ten years we have been married.  Crazy right!  I should tell you that the first 6 moves happened before we had kids .

Anyway, I have gotten pretty good at doing my move out check list and have discovered the best overall way to clean walls.  It will keep even your white walls looking perfect (even when you have 5 crazy boys running around your house like I do!).

The only supplies you need!

1.  So the first step to cleaning your walls is to dust them.  Sounds silly I know, but if you start cleaning your walls when there is dust on them already you end up smearing the dust across the wall and giving yourself a bigger mess to clean.

2.  After you dust, go over all the spots that stand out with a magic eraser.  Those things are golden!  I practically buy target out of the generic version every time I move. Ha!  They clean pretty much anything (crayon, marker, scuffs, you name it).  Soak your magic eraser in water, squeeze it out, and just start scrubbing.  The magic eraser can often leave a water dripping marks down the wall, but don’t worry about this just yet.

3.  Now  get a box of wet Swiffer’s Sweepers and wipe down the whole wall.  The Swiffers really work awesome and make your walls smell nice and fresh!  You can always just fill up a bucket with a multipurpose cleaner and use a wash rag to wipe down the wall too.  I use the Swiffers because it is so fast and easy… makes an obnoxious job up a cinch!  This will clean up any water marks left from the magic erasers.

4.  Last step is to use some bounce dryer sheets to dust the base boards.  I just started using the dryer sheets and I can tell you it makes all the difference!  The dryer sheets don’t just clean your baseboards, but they prevent dust and hair from getting stuck to them in the future.  Win!  Then you rarely even have to clean your baseboards.  (The dryer sheets also work great on the bottom of your stair railings and prevent build up there as well).

There you go… some moving advice from a moving professional!  Ha!