My last baby food post was for vegetables.  You really can’t get any easier than veggies, but of course your precious needs fruits too!  So, here’s a step-by-step guide to making fruit.

What you need to get started

• saucepan
• apples (or fruit of choice)
• magic bullet or other blender or food processor
• large ziplock freezer bag
• ice tray

saucepan, apples (or fruit of choice), magic bullet or other blender or food processor, large ziplock freezer bag, and ice tray

Directions

• Peel and core as many apples (or other fruit) as you would like to use (don’t mind my coring job, my corer is awful)
• Cut up the apples a little more
• Throw them in the saucepan with water just covering the apples
• boil until soft (it took mine about 8 minutes)
• Put apples in magic bullet (I saved some out and will tell you why in a minute)
• Take some of the water from the sauce pan and put it in with apples in your blender
• Blend away (add water if they are too thick)
• Pour into ice cube tray
• Freeze and then pour into a ziplock bag with name and date on it

Here are my apples boiling. They smell SO good!

If you read my veggie post, I described a little bit of my love for the magic bullet. It seriously makes it so perfect.

I didn't quite fill up the ice cube tray because I saved some of the apples. Read below!

They always say “variety is the spice of life”.  So, I got ideas from walking down the baby aisle and seeing all of the different mixes they used.  We had some bananas so I took the rest of the apples and a banana and threw them in the bullet.  Wahlaaaaaa again, now we have apple-banana food too!

It's as easy as this!

Next, I might try some blueberry apples or some banana berry.  Yummm!  Be creative and have fun!!

Giving haircuts at home is really easy!  I have never been trained to cut hair in anyway, but through practice the last several years I have learned how to cut a decent haircut in just a few simple steps!  You don’t even need an expensive fancy set of buzzers.  I paid $29 for mine on Amazon.com and it came with all the guides and some scissors.QUICK MONEY FACT:  Cutting hair at home can save you hundreds per year.  If you consider that a typical boys haircut costs about $20 with tip and they need their cut every 6 weeks, you are looking at about 9 haircuts a year, or $180 per year.  I have three little guys, plus my hubby, so by cutting hair at home I am essentially saving about $720 per year.

Here is a quick tutorial using my almost 4 year old, Tyson, and my 2 year old, Andy.

Step 1:  Shape the top of the Head
Start with a larger sized guide comb.  I usually pick the largest or second largest.  Remember, you can always go shorter, but once you have cut it short there is no going back.  Cut just the top and around the crown of the head for now.

Cutting the top of Tyson’s hair

Andy after step one

Step 2:  Cut the sides, back, and around the ears
Use one of the smaller sized guide combs.  I usually start with the second or third smallest and go from there.  Cut the sides, back, and around the ears.  You should see a line of hair around the top of the head from where you used the longer guide comb.

Notice the hair line across Andy’s head showing the length of the different guide combs

Cutting Tyson’s Hair – Step 2

Step 3:  Blending
I found that it is completely unnecessary to use a blending guide comb for this part.  Just pick a mid size guide comb.  I pick one that is just 2 sizes up from what I used on the back and sides.  Start at the bottom of the head and and go straight up, crossing over the line made from using the larger guide.  DO NOT round the buzzers to follow the shape of the head, just go straight up.  If you let the buzzers follow the round part of the head you will end up having to buzz all of the hair on the top to match and will end up with a very short military buzz.  Just keep moving the buzzers straight through the hair line made previously, going from one side of the head to the other until you can know longer see a line and the hair is completely blended.  You might need to switch to a bigger or smaller guide comb to get the hair line completely blended.  This all depends on how large the guide comb you used on the top was.

Move the buzzers straight up across the longer hair line, but not around the head.  Notice the M&M’s in the background….  bribery goes a long way!!!

***Once you get some practice in blending you can use an even smaller guide comb on the sides and back.  I can now use the largest comb guide on the top and the very smallest on the sides and back and get it blending perfectly… it took lots of haircuts before I got to this point though, so don’t get discouraged.

Step 4:  Trim around the ears, back of the neck, and bangs
Take off the guide comb.  Make sure the handle on your buzzers is down so that the blade is at its shortest so you can get the cleanest cut.  Carefully (these are sharp with out the guide combs on) trim the hair around the ears by gently pressing buzzers down on desired part.  Do the same for the side burns.  Trim a straight line across the back of the neck.  Do not trim to high up on the back of the neck.  I did this once and my hubby was not very happy  :).  You can trim the bangs the same way with the buzzers, or if you are more comfortable you can use regular hair cutting scissors.    PLEASE NOTE:  I do not do any of this step with very young kids, including my two year old.  They just wiggle too much and I feel like it is way to dangerous.   It also seems unnecessary to me since their hair is still mostly light fuzz at the back of the neck anyway.

Hold buzzers in a straight line and press gently to make a straight horizontal cut

Trim a straight horizontal line across the back of the neck

That’s it!  You’re done!  Don’t worry, you really do get better with each haircut.  The best part about cutting boys hair is that it grows back so fast!  If you accidentally cut to short you can always just buzz it all one length and try again in a few weeks when it grows back.  So don’t get yourself to syked out… you will get better with each cut!

If you have any questions before you get started, let me know!  In the meantime, here are some before and after pics of the boys.

Andy, before his big hair cut

Tyson, before his cute hair cut

Handsome Andy after the big cut

Handsome Tyson after his hair cut

Andy, profile view before his haircut

Tyson, profile view before haircut

Andy – After profile view

Tyson – After profile view

After today I decided that I’m no longer shopping in stores for clothes or toys for the girls.  Of course I say that now, but I found so many amazing deals at a local church’s twice a year consignment sale today.  You need it for a child, they had it.  They only accept things that are great condition.  If anything looks even slightly worn then they put it on a special rack that says “worn or out of season”.

When I say they had everything, they had tons and tons of shoes, clothes, walkers, high chairs, strollers, potties, books, DVDs, cribs, rockers, toys, bikes, coats, snow suits, pack n plays, exersaucers, bjorns, jumpers, socks, and even tons of Halloween costumes.  If you are having a baby or you want a nice treat for your child, this is what you so need to do.

I will save the clothing for later when my girls are in a great mood to model it for you and after it’s washed.  I even went back for more clothes later in the day because they have a “dollar dash” which is everything that is left is $1.  Obviously, this stuff was more picked over, but I did get a jean skirt, sweater and pajamas for Anna and I picked up my friend’s son two shirts.

Here are two things that I bought my girls:

Anna with her consignment item, retails for $39.99, I paid $10

Ella did watch the neighbor play with a scooter and wanted one. I couldn't pass this up. This scooter retails for $25 and I paid $6.

So for $16, they had a great day and I have this to show for it.

I think the sweetness of this picture alone is worth $16. I love that they both have a sister 🙂

Now, go find a local consignment near you and then feel the awesomeness with me!

l’m almost embarrassed to write this post because I’m on my 2nd child and I just learned the easiest thing ever how to make baby food.  I often see posts on Facebook of people wanting advice and that they’ve read up on it.  Well, it’s.so.dang.easy.

What you need to make baby food

Here’s what you need:

• Magic Bullet – okay, I’m super partial to my bullet because it’s such an inexpensive small blender (I should be the lady in the pink dress in the crazy infomercial below… and yes you need to watch it for comic relief) Seriously though, it’s everything that they say it lives up to. OR you can use any blender or food processor. They also have a baby bullet, for me it’s not necessary when I can use the regular bullet for many things.
• Ice Cube Tray(s)
• Large Ziploc Freezer Bags
• Frozen Veggies to Steam
• Water to create the thickness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtpKjgwi4Sc

Directions

Steam your veggies according to package
Throw as many veggies in your blender that you can
Add a bit water (remember you can always add more)
Mix it up
Add more water if it’s too thick and mix again

Mixed Veggies in the Bullet, looks perfect, huh?!

Pour into your ice tray, but make sure you don’t go over the dividers (we did that before and it’s so hard to get them out once they are frozen).

So simple!  Throw this in the freezer!

Freeze the veggies
Dump them into a labeled freezer bag
Pull out as many as you need at the time
I do put mine in the microwave before I feed it to Anna, but I make sure I mix is really well so there aren’t any hot spots.

AND you’re done!  So easy, so cheap and for me, I feel like I accomplished something healthy for my little one.

It’s WAY cheaper

I figured out the cost too.  The bag of veggies is 99¢ and you get at least one full ice cube tray out of them.  Approximately two cubes = one container of baby food.  There are two containers (of Gerber, which I found is the cheapest) together for approximately $1 (at a well-priced grocery store). Therefore, you are cutting the price by at least 67%.

As the warm weather has drifted away I have had to come to terms with the fact that camping season has also come and gone.  I love camping season though, and am not ready to give up all its fun completely.

So what is the best part of camping?  The S’mores of course!

I found this genius s’more cookie recipe on a food blog I just started following.  They turned out so great!  The kids couldn’t get enough of them.  The neighbor kids came over and had some too.  The kids sat outside on the deck eating them with their friends talking about different camping trips we took this past summer.  Love it!  Camping lives on!

Here you can see I averaged between 1 and 2 Tablespoons per scoop

Almost done... just need the hershey piece to melt into the cookie a little more

 
S’more Cookies
Source:  The-girl-who-ate-everything.com

11 Tb. unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. sea salt
2 ½ cups flour
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars (I ended up needing 4)
1-2 package graham crackers, broken into squares (I ended up using 1 entire box, I also used the cinnamon graham crackers to give it an extra cinnamon taste)

• Preheat over to 375 degrees and line 2 backing sheets with parchment paper.
• Put graham crackers side by side so they are touching across pan.  How many graham crackers you use really depends on how much cookie dough you use on each cracker.
• Whisk flour, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl; set aside
• Beat butter and both sugars together until fluffy
• Add eggs and vanilla until combined
• Using low speed, combine the flour mixture with butter mixture
• Gently stir in chocolate chips and marshmallows
• Place 1 to 2 Tb of dough on each graham cracker square and press down lightly with fingertips
• Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from oven and press Hershey’s bar piece in each cookie
• Bake for 5 to 7 minutes more then cool on wire rack
• Cut cookies with a sharp knife to separate after cookies are completely cool

I stored my cookies in an airtight container and the stayed perfectly soft and were delicious even days later.  Loved this recipe and would definitely make these again.

Isn't this so cute... and it's SO easy to make!

I just love planning for my girls birthday parties far in advance!  I have SO much fun finding ideas!  Although, let me just tell you that I’m not a theme type of person.  My house and my clothes are all boring neutral.  So, when it comes to planning my kids birthday parties, it’s hard.  Like many soon to be two year olds, Ella had her favorite character.  At that time, it was Elmo.

I can’t say that I find it cute.  I’m not one of those women that like cartoon characters at an older age (in fact, I’m total opposite).  Because of this, I had to find something that incorporated simplicity along with her Elmo.

I knew I had to give a little.  Nevermind the fact that I (and mostly all moms) would do anything for my kids.  She sang all of Elmo’s songs and watched him on the iPad every chance we allowed her.  How could I not give her an Elmo themed party?  So, I did.  I gave her a zebra print party with Elmo accent.  I got the idea when I found the shirt below on etsy.

This shirt gave me the idea for Ella's party

Now, you’re probably reading this post so you can learn how to make the cupcake cake.  So here you go!

You will need:

• cake flavor of your choice
• two white icings (I wouldn’t use a creamy or whipped)
• pink cake coloring for icing (you can get this from any craft store in the cake aisle)
• cupcake cake pan
• black wilton sparkle gel (I found mine at party city, but I also saw that they sold it in grocery stores)
• star cake tip
• large ziplock bag to squeeze icing

This is the cupcake cake pan that I have

Directions

• cook cake according to the box and cupcake cake pan directions (the cupcake pan will tell you cooking instructions)
• Let cake completely cool
• Put white icing all over cake bottom and top so that it looks smooth
• Put the top piece on the bottom piece
• Mix the pink icing coloring with the icing with a mixer to make it really pink (remember: a little of this goes a long way and you can always add more)
• Put the pink icing in the ziplock bags and do stars all over the top of the cake
• Use the black sparkly gel to make lines all over the bottom of the cake (just random zebra lines)

I even had a friend design her invitations according to her shirt.

***  Side note.  I just love cupcake cakes.  I also used the pan for her 1st birthday party smash cake.  It was really cute and a big hit!  So, I will probably let the tradition continue each year for Ella.

If I look at sugar, it goes straight to my butt.  The End.

So, I’ve gotten pretty good at modifying recipes so they are South Beach friendly.  This definitely fulfills my sweet tooth, it is such a great alternative to Paula Dean’s regular recipe.  You have to think that it’s all mental and that you have to modify food choices to get/stay slim.

Looks Delicious, huh?! Goes great with a glass of skim milk!

I’ve italicized and bolded my changes

Ingredients

• 1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy 1 cup all natural peanut butter (only ingredients are peanuts and oil), creamy or crunchy 
• 1 1/3 cups baking sugar replacement (recommended: Splenda)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla extract, two eggs, all natural peanut butter and granulated splenda (I doubled my recipe, that's why there are two eggs in the picture)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter (make sure you stir the natural peanut butter first), 1 cup sugar replacement, the egg, and vanilla, and stir well with a spoon. Roll the dough into balls the size of walnuts. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet. With a fork, dipped in sugar replacement to prevent sticking, press a crisscross design on each cookie. Bake for 12 minutes I baked for 11, it is SO important to not overbake cookies (they will become hard), remove from the oven, and sprinkle the cookies with some of the remaining sugar replacement. Cool slightly before removing from pan.

Bammmmm…. that wasn’t too hard to modify and you have a great sweet treat that won’t go to your butt!

Creativity and imagination are the most cherished parts of childhood.  I love watching my little monkeys in their moments of crazy make believe games and stories.

My six year old came home from school today with a story he wrote about warriors and dragons.  It was about him and his best friend using their super powers to battle the dragons and rescue both of their little brothers from the dungeon.  He was so proud of his story.  At dinner I asked what his favorite part of his day was.  He said it was bringing his “book” home to show me.  Oh how I love that little guy!

This post is in honor of encouraging and developing creativity.  The idea is to pick a project, tell the kids what they are making, and then give them all of the supplies they need.  Then, let them go to town with it.  DO NOT guide them in anyway.  Sure, if they need help squeezing the glue give them a little help, but make sure they are placing each piece where they want it.  If they want a mouth on the forehead and seven eyes on the chin, let them.  This is their creation.

There are times when you are doing projects where you might guide your child to using the correct color or putting the pieces in the correct place because you want to teach them about that specific object you are making.  This is not one of those times.  Let them have fun with this and create their own masterpiece.  Some kids may want to put the parts in the right place and that is okay too.  If anything, it can teach us to recognize and embrace the sweet and unique personalities each child has.

I decided to do clowns because they are already silly to begin with.  I pre-cut different shapes that could be used for parts of the clown face, put out a pile of googly eyes and a couple bottles of glue and let the kids create their masterpieces.

One of my favorite childhood books was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  I loved reading it and looking at all the colorful illustrations.  It just so happened that I was assigned to teach the letter C for my co-op preschool program my 3 year old participates in. Ah ha!  Perfect reason to pull out my old book!

We learned about caterpillars, pretended we were caterpillars, and painted caterpillars!  It was a fun day!  The paintings turned out so cute I had to post them!

I gave all the kids cotton rounds and paint and let them have at it.  I wouldn’t recommend doing this project without layering the table with newspaper first.  The kids sort of went nuts painting the newspaper after they ran out of cotton rounds. 

Another great trick that helps with clean up is to mix soap in the paint.  It can be dish soap or even hand soap.  I use it even if the paint is washable; it just makes spills and hand washing that much easier to clean.

Materials:  I used cotton rounds for the body, yarn for the smile, and googly eyes.  These items could be switched out for pretty much anything similar you have around the house.

I had the kids color with greens and browns for the backround.  I am a little biased, but they turned out great!

Check out this Clown craft for another letter C activity!

Got 20 minutes?  I’ve been searching around to find some fun Halloween crafts for my 2 year old.  This was perfect for her attention span and it is something great for me to keep and do every year for memories!

Here is Ella’s Footprint Ghosts!

Both Handprints for Spider

Supplies Needed:

Paper towels, black paint, white paint, 2 big brushes, 2 little brushes, two pieces of contruction paper (you can choose colors)

• Paper Towels: I wet like 5 of them to clean off paint from hand and foot right away
• Black Paint: used for handprint spider, ghosts eyes and mouths and for spider eyes
• White Paint: used for ghosts footprints and spider eyes
• Two big paintbrushes: used to paint feet and hands
• Two small paintbrushes: used to paint eyes and mouths
• Two pieces of construction paper: used for base

Ghosts Directions

Paint feet white with brush

Ella’s foot painted white

Put foot directly on construction paper, repeat with other foot.

Here is the base of your ghosts

Paint Eyes and Mouth on your Ghosts (I also put Ella’s name and year on it, for memory sake) and you’re done!

Spider Directions

Paint hand black minus the thumb

Ella’s hand painted black minus her thumb

Put one hand on the paper and clean hand
Paint other hand and do it the opposite way

Ella’s handprint spider before eyes

Paint white circles with black dots in them.

You’re done!!  Such an easy and fun project!!