Another "Green" Idea!

Yesterday Alexa mentioned several things to make with your kiddos using items you may normally toss out. Here is something you can do with those mateless socks that emerge from your dryer!

My sons came home from Grandma and Grandpa's with these nifty wristbands!

My ever-creative mother-in-law simply took an old sock, cut off the cuff and drew two "buttons" on it. My boys have turned these into several things: Buzz Lightyear wing control, lasers, communication devices and on and on.

The great thing about these are:

a.) They were free!

b.) They provide hours of entertainment.

c.) I can make "new" ones if these are ever lost.

d.) They can be as simple or elaborate as my or my kids imagination wants them to be!

Here's another simple sock idea that can keep the "busiest" kids busy!

What items around the house have you or your kids turned into hours of enjoyment?

Earth Day - Projects and Movies

I am continually inspired by the easy love kids can show for their world - a love of nature and of life - and I have noticed that my kids are eager and willing to take small actions that can help our Earth. Since Earth Day is coming up in April, here are a few ideas to help you reuse, reduce and recycle:

-make bird feeders from empty milk cartons by cutting away two of the sides; you can paint these and hang them from the trees.

-make drums from empty coffee cans; a parent may want to spray paint these with a base coat first and then the kids can paint & collage on the sides. A spoon makes a great sound on the metal bottom and a rubber mallet makes a fun sound on the plastic top.

-make fun collages from old magazines; we like to pick a theme like animals or the color green. It's a great chance to practice cutting and pasting, as well as arranging pictures to make just the right final product.

-make sculptures from "junk" like old bottles and bottle caps, yogurt containers, milk cartons, and so on. These are especially great for spaceships, robots and machines! Older kids can use a low-temp glue gun to make building easier and more stable (my 6 year old loves this).

-make tin can luminaries by (carefully!) using a hammer and nail to poke holes around the sides of an empty tin can. Then add a candle inside and watch the glow!

Do you have any great Earth Day projects for kids? Please take a minute to share them with us!

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If you are looking for movies to help instill a sense of respect and awareness about Earth Day, try the new Schoolhouse Rock: Earth which is coming out tomorrow. My 6 yo son loved this collection of a dozen new songs and animations all about conserving, recycling and solar energy. You can watch one of the clips, "Trash Can Band," here. My kids loved learning about global warming from a polar bear's point of view and watching the digitally remastered original Schoolhouse Rock song, "The Energy Blues." There's even a brand-new version of "Three is a Magic Number," now called "The 3 Rs" and sung by Hannah Montana's Mitchel Musso.

Also out this week is Handy Manny: Manny's Green Team. My kids had never seen Handy Manny before but were thrilled with the fun cartoon and the Spanish and English conversations as well as the adorable songs and the talking tools! This dvd contains five green episodes including Saving the Turtles, Manny Goes Solar, Science Fair, Light Work and Bloomin' Tools. You can also explore Manny's workshop to discover which items can be reused or recycled, and there is a family go-green checklist included on the disc too. I think this is a great way to explore some of these issues with the youngest kids - and my son has had a sharp eye out for recycling, compact fluorescent bulbs, and solar panels since watching it!

We also reviewed a third movie coming to stores tomorrow - Marley and Me. This summer movie was taken from the book by John Grogan and stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston. My son had seen several trailers and commercials for the movie and was dying to see it. From the commercials, it looked like another in a long line of cute puppy movies this year (think Bolt, Space Buddies, Beverly Hills Chihuahua), so I agreed to review it with him. Although there are several cute and funny slapstick puppy scenes (crashing through screen doors, running away with the leash, eating mountains of food), this is really not a movie for kids. It's a look at John Grogan's life including things like his wife's miscarriage, his dissatisfaction at work and the eventual death of the family's beloved dog. It was a fine movie for me to watch - there were bright moments and love at the heart of the story - but I think several of the issues raised were too much for my kids. So, my advice is to choose a different puppy movie for your kids and watch this one after they've gone to bed!

These movies were provided to me by Click Communications for the purposes of this review.

Friday Food Fun: Go Mediterranean

Mealtime with kids can get a little monotonous. So let's mix it up a little today and go Mediterranean!

My husband is from Albania, on the Mediterranean Sea. Eating with his family has introduced a whole slew of great recipes to my repertoire that are not only deliciously different from everyday mac-n-cheese and PB&J, but are also super easy to make.

This meal is great for kids because it's all finger food and great for mom because there is NO COOKING involved.

Just slice up some ripe tomatoes, some feta cheese (or whatever kind you have on hand, mozzarella sticks work great too), and throw some olives on top. Now for the bread!

I'm a sucker for homemade bread, but a loaf of french bread torn or cut into thick slices works just fine too. We all know kids love to dip things, so here is a super easy recipe for some classic bread dip:

• In a small bowl, pour in some olive oil and add a few shakes of Italian seasoning.
• You could leave it at that or if you're a cheese fan like me, add a few shakes of grated Parmesan cheese.
• For an extra kick, add some garlic salt.
• S&P to taste.

Look Mom, no cooking! Just a little slicing and dicing and you're on your way to a mealtime Mediterranean adventure!

How does your family travel the world at mealtime?

Big March Movie Giveaway!

The winner of the pint of Haagen Dazs Five ice cream is Carol! Congrats, Carol!

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Welcome to our Big March Movie Giveaway! Just in time for Easter or spring birthdays, we have not one, not two but SEVEN dvds to give away to SEVEN lucky winners this week!

Two winners will each receive Alvin & the Chipmunks: Mystery of the Easter Chipmunk, which I reviewed earlier here. Alvin hops into another egg-citing adventure filled with music and mischief when he convinces his brothers that they are in the middle of an Easter mystery. Is their grandpa the original Easter Chipmunk? Our lively trio sets out to discover who really delivers all those Easter eggs in this scrambled caper that's fun for the entire family. Continuing the Chipmunk fun are four more fun-filled escapades that keep the musical adventures coming for over an hour, including "Snow Wrong," "Special Kind of Champion," "Thinking Cap Trap" and "Luck o' the Chipmunks."

Two more winners will each receive My Little Pony Live: The World's Biggest Tea Party, which my kids just got the chance to see! This dvd is a recorded show from the My Little Pony Live! Tour, featuring costumed actors playing the ponies and other characters. The ponies decide to put on the biggest tea party ever, and each pony is assigned something to bring. Kids can sing and dance along as they watch the ponies prepare for the party by sending invitations, finding fancy things to wear, and more. Everything seems to be going perfectly, until Pinkie Pie realizes that she forgot the tea! How will the ponies have a tea party with no tea? With friendship and teamwork, the ponies always find a way. This is a fun dvd with lots of bonus sing-along songs to replay. This special set even comes with a toy Pinkie Pie and a fold-out stage!

Now two movies for kids who are a little older...

Two more winners will each receive a copy of Secrets of the Furious Five. This dvd is being put out as a stand-alone option for people who already have enjoyed Kung Fu Panda. With more of the action and humor that made Kung Fu Panda a favorite, Secrets of the Furious Five goes on to tell the history of the Furious Five - how they became great - as Po struggles to teach the next generation of kung fu pupils! In the end, Po sees that he has taught his students more through these stories than he could have through physical exercises. This dvd includes tons of bonus material including "Which Style Are You?" "Learn the Panda Dance" and even learn-to-draw segments for each of the main characters. My son loved this sequel almost as much as he loved the original!

And one final winner will receive the new Hannah Montana: Keeping it Real (Vol. 5) dvd which includes five episodes from the hit Disney Channel tv show, including guest stars Dwayne Johnson and Corbin Bleu plus an exclusive bonus feature that lets you meet with Miley and her staff to learn about her "new look" - a breakaway into bold graphic styles from the early 80s! This is sure to be a popular dvd as Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus seem to be as hot as ever. I have to admit, though, this was the first time my kids & I had seen the show! It was cute in a kids' sitcom way, my kids laughed through it, but I have to say that the over-the-top antics reminded me of nothing more than Saved By the Bell, especially with the "new" fashions from the 80s! It was a fun chance to see what the Hannah hype is all about, and now one of you can find out too.

Want to win? Of course you do! Here's what you do:

• Leave a comment on this post, telling us which of these movies you'd like to win. We can't guarantee that each winner will get her first choice, but we can try! AND please tell us what other goodies you are choosing this spring for Easter baskets, birthday parties or other celebrations. We can all use a little gift-giving inspiration!

Once you have left your first comment, you can get extra entries. Here's how:

• Twitter/Stumble/Digg/Kirtsy or blog about this contest, and leave us a comment (with a link if appropriate) telling us you've done so.
• Subscribe to Mom's Marbles, and leave us a comment letting us know if you're a new or a regular subscriber.
• Add our button to your blog - just copy the code from our right sidebar into your sidebar - then leave a comment letting us know you've got our button up.

The winners of this contest will be announced next Thursday, April 2, so get busy and enter!

These movies were provided by Click Communications for the purposes of these reviews and contests.

Moms With Marbles: Sanity Straps

Today's Mom With Marbles is Beth from Confessions of a Mom. You can read her story here. She is going to share her sanity saving tip for those days when you don't think you can hang on to that last marble.

I utilize sanity straps to keep my marbles, do you? Sanity straps aren’t really new, but rather a series of previously used items we encounter throughout our day that can be used intentionally to bring sanity to a mother’s life. I’m talking about straps or seat belts located in high chairs, car seats, strollers, wagons, and swings. I also consider baby gates a perfect strapping-type device that allows my main floor to be baby safe. When used independent of each other, these items simply provide safety. When used in a well coordinated strategic plan, they can bring happiness and sanity to any mom about to lose her marbles on a rough day. Here’s how.

On a day when I feel I am going to lose my marbles, I can carefully plan activities to both satisfy the children and keep them, well, let’s use the word “focused”, aka contained. I am able to enjoy the morning news and a cup of coffee, knowing the baby gate is preventing the baby from crawling up our two-story flight of stairs. The two older children are becoming pros at scaling “the baby-gate wall”. When breakfast is upon us, the high chair is a lovely device with straps that allows me to repack any marbles threatening to disengage from my head. Moving from the high chair in the morning, we can go for a walk with the stroller which straps in my ever crawling baby. On school days, I strap backpacks to my older two and watch them board the bus. On non-school days, bike helmets with straps protect the older two, and off we go for some contained exercise. A ride in the wagon with the baby strapped in and the dog on a leash (also a form of strap) pulled by the older two, allows us a nice walk around the yard. Then some swinging on the swing set, where the baby can again be strapped in is wonderful. The other two might strap some rollerblades to their feet until we have lunch, and straps are again used with the high chair and booster seat. In order to prepare any meal I need to remove multiple straps, aka safety locks or sanity locks from the cabinet doors.

After lunch brings nap time, when the crib acts as a giant safety strap for two hours, when I use my time to search for any lost marbles. We have hard floors in the kitchen and dining room, so most marbles roll and collect in the sunken living room by the couch. I take a rest there. After nap is errands, where all three children can be securely strapped to their seats while I drive thru for a coffee. Ahhh…..My second coffee of the day. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. On such days where my marbles are in jeopardy, I will arrange my errands to include the maximum number of drive through services available: coffee, pharmacy, bank, post office, movie returns, etc. and save the Wal-mart or grocery store trip for a better day.

By the time we arrive home, my husband returns from work carrying a small object in his hand. He says, “I found this marble on the front step next to an ice cream bucket full of gold fish crackers, one golf club, and a hair brush. What were you up to today?”

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Would you like to share your marbles of mommy wisdom? Send an email to us at momsmarbles{at}hotmail{dot}com!

V is for Volcano!

In helping my sons learn their alphabet letters I tried to get them to associate objects or people with the letters and the sound it makes. For example, we took the letter B and turned it so the flat side was on top and made binoculars. With our "B"inoculars we went exploring for other "B" words.

Another fun letter we have explored was "V". We drew a brown V and turned it upside-down to look like a volcano. Then, we mixed some red paint (food coloring works too) and glue together inside the glue bottle. I gave my guys the bottle and let the lava flow! They had A LOT of fun with this one.

Review of BOLT & Activity Sheets for You

This week, Disney is releasing BOLT, last summer's animated hit, to Blu-Ray (with bonus DVD) yesterday, and on regular DVD tomorrow. My kids and I received a copy to review for you!

In case you haven't heard of it, here's the story: When BOLT, the super dog , is accidentally shipped to New York City and separated from Penny, his “person,” he springs into action to find his way home. With new sidekicks Rhino – Bolt’s #1 Fan, an adoring hamster in a ball – and a street-smart cat named Mittens who sees reality where Bolt doesn't, Bolt sets off on an amazing journey where he discovers he doesn’t need super powers to be a hero.

My family didn't see BOLT in the theater, but my son had seen plenty of previews for it and was thrilled to review it with me. He laughed out loud all through the movie, since there are plenty of slapstick scenes where Bolt thinks he can use a super-power or where Rhino and Mittens interact with comic results. It's sure to become a favorite around here!

The regular dvd includes a new animated short called Super Rhino, which my kids loved. The 2-disc dvd set and the Blu Ray discs contain even more bonus features, including behind-the-scenes videos, music videos and deleted scenes.

Here are some activity sheets that your kids might enjoy if they are BOLT fans! Just click on the images to see larger versions you can print.



Also out tomorrow is Disney's 2002 animated hit, Lilo & Stitch, being released as a new "2-Disc Big Wave Edition." The new edition includes lots of bonus features like an audio commentary, deleted scenes, music videos and my son's favorite: "A Stitch In Time - Follow Stitch through the Disney Years." He loves to see that little blue alien get into even more trouble!

If you haven't seen this movie, or if it's been a while, here's a quick overview. The movie follows an independent little Hawaiian girl named Lilo who adopts a "puppy" - a wild blue alien named Stitch. He's really a runaway genetic experiment from another planet, and several intergalactic bad guys have come to Earth to try and capture him. Stitch creates chaos wherever he goes, but along the way he learns about loyalty, friendship, and 'ohana, the Hawaiian tradition of family and love.

Watching the movie together to review it for you was the first time we'd seen it with my daughter, and I was very pleased with the pro-family, pro-adoption vibe (my daughter is adopted). Family and love can come where you find them, where you make them, and you don't have to look alike, act alike, or think alike to share in 'ohana.

Time for you to share! Have you seen these movies? What did you like or dislike about them? If you haven't seen them, do you think you will? What do you look for in a good kids' movie?

These movies were provided to me by Click Communications for the purposes of this review.

Saturday Sound Off: What Can We Do For You?

As you can see at the top of the page,our goal here at Mom's Marbles is to bring you "new ideas every day... so mom won't lose her marbles".

We want to know exactly what that means to you. Mary Ellen, Alexa and I strive to bring you a good mix of crafts, food ideas, games, reviews, chances to win items and ideas for mom.

Now it's your turn to sound off!

Are there any topics that you look forward to reading about? Which of these would you like to see more or less of? Is there something you'd like to see that we aren't covering?

We are open to any and all comments on this topic because our end goal is to help moms get through their days, no matter what they need!

Friday Food Fun: Meals by Color

Last week's Friday Food Fun suggested you make a colorful chart for the fridge and encourage your kids to Taste the Rainbow - choosing healthy foods by color.

My kids and I love to have weekly Muffin Tin meals (you can read about that here) - and several times we've had a color as a theme. Certainly the foods weren't all healthy, but serving the food this way was a great help in getting my kids to enjoy trying several new foods!

For ORANGE, we had: cheese doodles, shredded Cheddar cheese, baby carrots, Tangy Tomato Ranch Flat Earth chips, orange wedges, cantaloupe (two sections of each fruit), sweet potato chips, orange bell pepper, sliced American cheese, and those orange gummy fruit candies from the bulk food section.

For BLUE/PURPLE, we had: blue corn chips, purple jelly beans, purple grapes, blueberries, bleu cheese and eggplant. We also had Purple Cows to go with our lunch - milkshakes made with purple grape juice.

For YELLOW, we had yellow delicious apple chunks, yellow bell pepper strips, lemon wedges (the kids both think it is daring to suck on lemons), spaghetti squash with a pat of butter, scrambled eggs, and corn.

For GREEN, we had kiwi, green grapes, peas, green pepper, cucumber and pistachio pudding. We also had Hulk Shakes to drink, this time made with spinach, flax oil, orange juice and bananas.

Do you have more ideas for introducing healthy, brightly colored foods to your kids? We'd love to hear them!

Haagen Dazs Five!

The winner of last week's Bunnytown DVD was comment #3, Jolene! Congrats, Jolene!

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As you all read in our Saturday Sound Off, Sarah and I got the inside "scoop" on the new line of Haagen Dazs ice cream! It uses only 5 ingredients: milk, sugar, eggs, cream and then the flavor. And oh my goodness, flavors like coffee, brown sugar, passion fruit! SO GOOD.

I've used the ice cream as a bribe, yes a bribe, to get my son to eat all of his dinner. We have gotten very creative with his one scoop. We've turned it into a milkshake, made various sundaes, and just last night we took two half scoops and added them together to make a whole scoop. See ice cream can make my little guy eat his veggies and practice fractions!

Want to "practice fractions" with ice cream too? Here's your chance! We will give away a free pint of Haagen Dazs Five. All you have to do is one or all:
*Leave a comment suggesting a new flavor for the Haagen Dazs Five line, or tell us your favorite ice cream recipe or creation.
*Twitter this contest! and comment that you did so.
*Subscribe to us and let us know you did.
*E-mail a friend about Mom's Marbles and cc us at momsmarbles@hotmail.com

Thanks and good luck!

Moms With Marbles: Play With Your Food!

Today's Mom With Marbles is Sweetie Berry, She is a 44 year old WAHM who is known for her creative experiences. An educator now homeschooling the fourth of four children, she has over twenty years experience from PK-12 for all level learners. She is known as a Success Strategist for students, authors and small businesses who need to develop a plan for their success. Prescriptive Learning Solutions is an online educational strategies site where she and other consult with special needs parents, learners and other teachers. She and her husband Les, another great fan of family fun, have just begun a ministry to advocate the needs of blended and step families such as their own to church leadership and ministers. A Joyful Place Called Home’s mission is to remove the roadblocks Step and blended families face attending churches together, sharing their story of restoration and hope for churches who are facing the complexities of developing programs for the many new ways family’s are defined.

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Looking for a fun way to let your children giggle and feel awfully naughty without doing a single thing wrong? Nothing says fun loving like allowing a great big mess, your secret is, it’s all in the bag!

This family friendly fun is a cinch! Simply find a large container, big enough for your child to easily sit in. (I used plastic storage tubs or a metal planter that was 24” round) If it’s not water tight, line it with a plastic garbage sack to make it water worthy. White bags make this fun time party worthy and much more photogenic!

Go to your cabinet and pull out 6-8 large boxes of jello gelatins (any color but red, for red dyes!) and mix according to directions right up to the point where you put it in a pyrex or bowl, and substitute the tub container you are using. Now you have your medium for squishing and building. Let it set up for as long as it takes to cool and get firm. (1-2 hours if you make it deep) While that’s setting up, make the knox blocks recipe for gelatins on the back of the box and cut it up into cubes after it sets in your fridge. Add whipped cream in either spray bottle form, my favorite, or tubs and add lots of cookie cutters that are safely not pointed (plastic works better than metal ones)

Insert your child, dressed in a diaper if really young, in their swimsuit or old tshirt if older. Hand them the spoons, shapes, and little cars etc and let them go to town. Children 9 months to 8 years old will love playing while sitting in the jello, able to taste, touch, build and play with it! Spray whipped cream is another tactile way to build structures for the older toddlers up to about 8 year olds.

My children thought this was THE treat on warm summer days before pools were up and open, for weather only has to be warm enough to keep them warm, not swim in. The jello isn’t cold once set up like early spring water in the pools are.

The joy of this is if you line the container, when you are through, you can simply throw away the sack of used jello. If you are experiencing rain, do it in your bathtub, hot water melts the jello down the drain for a stress free mess! Your children and pets will love the fun of this and it simply is a delicious, safe treat to play in! Diabetic children can enjoy this one too by substituting sugar free jello gelatin!

Children with handicapping conditions are not limited even with posturing issues, you simply wrap their sitting helper or foam support in saran wrap first or another trash bag. I used to use shrink wrap for mine in a classroom simply because it made it easy to wipe down for any messy activity…it’s a fun for all experience.

This is a great activity for tactile sensitive children, they may wish to sit next to the tub but let them squish and try it out, who knows, your child with autistic spectrum disorder issues may just love it if the smell, flavor and texture is right. We found time and time again that flavors made all the difference!

Hurrah for inclusive ideas for all children!

Email us at momsmarbles at hotmail dot com if you are interested in sharing your mommy marbles!

Catch a Leprechaun!

This simple craft will help your little one dive head first into the festivities that are St. Patrick's Day! Everyone knows, or should be told, that when you catch a leprechaun he MUST give you his pot of gold. Tell your little one that you are going to try to catch a wee little leprechaun.

You need a few supplies:
a paper towel tube
green, white, and orange paint
glue
yarn or string
yellow crepe paper or gold foil tissue paper

First, cut the tube into three equal smaller tubes. Have your child paint each tube. One green, one white and one orange. When the paint dries, glue them together in that order to resemble the Irish flag. Once the glue dries, hole punch the green and orange tubes so a string can be tied for hanging. Use glue or a stapler to hang the crepe paper or gold tissue paper from each tube. We added a shamrock on the front for a little extra!

Explain that this will help entice the leprechaun up onto your porch (or where ever you place the windsock) because he or she will see the gold floating in the wind. The greedy little leprechaun will try to come and get the gold. Now ask your little one; "Once the leprechaun is here, how should we catch him?" Create a small little trap or cage and place it under the windsock. After you've had a chance to leave a little gold (Sacajawea dollar, chocolate gold coin, fool's gold, etc.) check back with your little one! I've even read of people leaving a little note that says "You'll never get me gold!" or "Better luck next time!"

Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day!!!

Encouraging Pretend Play and Review of Escape to Witch Mountain

My son loves to pretend, to try on different characters. He loves dressing up, and he really loves Halloween! Sometimes, though, he gets stuck in a rut, pretending to be a Pokemon ranger or the last of the Jedi. His imagination doesn't stretch its wings as much when he's a set character in a well-known world.

I do lots of things to encourage his pretend play to flourish, including:

• reading new books, especially fairy tales or Just-So Stories, which contain problems and unusual solutions, including magic and wishes
  
• giving him new items to dress-up with, including free-form items like playsilks and vests made from paper bags that he can decorate
• encouraging him to play with familiar items in new ways (a handful of kitchen utensils to build a house, a pile of shoes that we pretend to treat like little pets)
• telling cooperative stories, where I start ("Once upon a time, there was a tiny little boy who...") and then point to him ("...was so small that he could not be seen by anyone.") and we go back and forth until the story reaches some kind of conclusion!
• spending time gazing at the clouds or stars to see patterns, or making fold-over ink blot style paintings and deciding as they dry what we see in them
• telling him stories of our family that he might not have heard yet, helping him to see familiar people in a new light

Do you have any other fun ideas for encouraging more creative pretend play?

Sometimes a new movie can be just as eye-opening. This week, we were provided with a copy of Escape to Witch Mountain (and its sequel, Return from Witch Mountain) to review!

The original Escape to Witch Mountain came out in 1975 and was the story of a young brother and sister, orphaned and trying to find their place in the world - while also learning that they had marvelous magical abilities! My son's favorite part of the movie was Tony's ability to move and manipulate objects by playing his harmonica. As soon as we'd finished watching, my son's harmonica came out and he's spent lots of happy time creating his own magic world, in which the harmonica works the magic!



The sequel, Return from Witch Mountain, came out in 1978 and had the kids visiting Los Angeles and getting caught up in a wicked plot by two evil villains (Bette Davis and Christopher Lee) and cooperating with a rough-and-tumble young gang to try and battle the criminals. It doesn't quite have the charm of the original, but my son was laughing out loud at the continued magical hijinks!

These movies were released on March 10 in anticipation of the new movie, Race to Witch Mountain, which is coming to theaters. They were provided to me by Click Communications for the purposes of this review.

Saturday Sound Off: Reaching for a Frozen Treat

I'm not sure how many of you followed the Mom's Marbles team on Twitter Thursday afternoon, but if you did you may have seen that we were lucky enough to be invited to join in a live discussion with Haagen Dazs ice cream! Well, not with actual ice cream, but with a team of experts from Haagen Dazs.

Haagen Dazs has a new line of ice cream called Five. They only use 5 ingredients: milk, cream, eggs, sugar and a main ingredient such as coffee, brown sugar, vanilla bean, passion fruit and a few others. Haagen Dazs was aiming for "clean living", you know simple, natural, fresh! I'm telling you this stuff is DELICIOUS! Sarah and I sat in my dining room learning about the new product, taste testing, acquiring new tasty recipes you can try with the ice cream, and even had the opportunity to suggest new flavors to try!

We were very excited about this chat because, well, let's face it, we love ice cream! It's our first choice for a dessert or treat. What about you? It's your turn to sound off! Are you an ice cream kind of girl, or do you prefer something else like frozen yogurt or popsicles? What's your favorite flavor? Straight ice cream, blended into a milkshake or smothered with caramel goodness?

Stick around because later this week we will share those recipes and give away a free pint of Haagen Dazs Five!

Friday Food Fun: Taste The Rainbow

Getting our children to eat a wide variety of healthy foods isn't always the easiest thing in the world. So why not make it into a game!

Draw a rainbow with your child and post it on the refrigerator. Then challenge them to eat foods that are each of the different colors of the rainbow, like purple eggplant, blue blueberries, and yellow squash. You could also print off this fun rainbow food chart from KidsAndCooking!

Remind them of their rainbow when they make snack choices or when you eat out. This would be a great way to get them into the habit of choosing the salad bar instead of less healthy choices!

Use stickers, magnets or check marks to show which colors they have tried and which ones they have left to try.

Have picky eaters? Fun dip always helps when trying new food. A simple fruit dip can be made with sour cream and a little brown sugar. Click here for more fun dip ideas!

Have any tips for sneaking all the colors of the rainbow into your little one's menu? Be sure to leave a comment. We'd love to hear them!

Review & Giveaway: Bunnytown DVD

The winner of the Gratigories! game is Marcy from This is How We Do It! Congrats, Marcy!

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Click Communications has provided me with a copy of Disney Bunnytown: Hello Bunnies! to review - and one to give away!

BUNNYTOWN: HELLO BUNNIES is the first dvd release from the new Playhouse Disney series, and it will hit stores on March 17.


Bunnytown features rollicking music, hip bunny puppets, funny skits with live actors, and felt to me a little like Sesame Street in format without the emphasis on letters and numbers. The sketches are kept short but often recur - in the first of four episodes included on the dvd, for instance, some bunnies are trying to have a running race but first they are all sleeping, then jumping, and so on, a new action each time we return to them.

My 6 year old son felt Bunnytown was too "babyish" for him, although he did enjoy the sketches with live actors and lots of silly slapstick action. My 2 year old daughter loved the peppy music and had just about enough attention span to watch a whole episode in one sitting.

There are a couple bonus features on the disc, including a "Bunny Dance" segment to teach dance moves and a sneak peek at a new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse feature.

We thought Bunnytown: Hello Bunnies! was an entertaining, musical, funny show for the younger crowd, and we'd love to share it with you.

Here's how you can enter to win your own copy of the Bunnytown: Hello Bunnies! dvd:

• Leave a comment telling us your favorite shows for the younger crowd.
• Twitter/Stumble/Digg/Kirtsy this contest, and leave a separate comment for each one you do.
• Subscribe to Mom's Marbles and leave us a comment letting us know you did. If you're already a subscriber, leave a comment letting us know that!
• Add our button to your blog. Just copy the code in our right sidebar and paste it into yours, then comment to let us know.

Good luck! A winner will be chosen randomly next Thursday morning. Thanks for taking the time to stop by Mom's Marbles today!

What Is Moms With Marbles?

Our motto here at Mom's Marbles is to bring you new ideas every day... so mom won't lose her marbles.

Every Wednesday we like to celebrate all the great moms around the web who seem to have a good grip on their marbles.

Every mom is an expert in some aspect of parenting. Where is your area of expertise? How do you handle nap time? What games do you love playing with your children? What toys do you consider sanity savers? How do you make time for your family or yourself?

If you have a tip, recipe, game, craft or story you'd like to share just email us at momsmarbles{at}hotmail dot com. We would love to add you to the Moms With Marbles crew!

Here is a compilation of the marbles of wisdom from all of our Moms With Marbles:

• 5 Ways to Engage Your Kids in Grateful Giving


• Bargain Shopping with Kids


• Handling Temper Tantrums


• 5 Kid Friendly Valentine's Day Projects


• Are You a Sieve or a Wall?


• Just Say No...If You Need To


• Storage with Shelves and Bins


• Perspective


• 7 Shortcuts to Looking Good (Even Great!)


• New Year's Resolutions


• Tackling Christmas Gift Chaos


• The Perfection of Imperfection


• Dinner Prep Without Losing Your Marbles


• Christmas Lists


• Dyed Rice Fun


• Guilty Pleasures for Mom


• Starting Your Day Peacefully


• Sneaking in Time for You


• Mommy Break Day pt. 1


• Mommy Break Day pt. 2


• Mommy Break Day pt. 3

A Peek Inside The Wooden Chest: Foam Shapes

In my living room, you'll find a wooden chest. We use it as extra seating when company comes over and the rest of the time it usually catches backpacks and jackets when my boys come home from school.

But inside this chest are treasures beyond compare. You see, this is where I keep all of the wonderful things that buy me time to finish cooking dinner, make a semi-peaceful phone call, or perhaps even read a few blogs from time to time without interruption.


One item that is used almost daily was a $0.50 garage sale find that I didn't think much of when I first brought it home. It's a bag of foam shapes. Some are squares, some are circles, and they are all different colors. Here are just a few of the ways that these little guys have kept my little guys entertained and engaged in active play:

• Sorting: I'll pull out a handful and give the boys an ice cube tray. They can sort by shape, color, or number into the slots of the tray. (Here are a few more ideas for those trays!)

• Patterns: I used to make patterns for the boys to copy, but now they come up with fun ones all on their own.


• Building towers: Foam is so much quieter than wooden or plastic. And the tiny pieces help my guys perfect their fine motor skills.


• Counting: My oldest has been working on counting groups (5's, 10's, etc.) in school so I whipped out the foam shapes to reinforce the skill at home.


• And for the little ones? My 2 year old loves to see how quickly he can pick all the shapes and return them to their storage bag only to dump them and start all over.

What little sanity savers are you glad to have around your house?

Wish Upon a Star: Pinnochio Review and More

Sometimes wishes can get lost in the shuffle of our busy, busy world. Many of the moms I know feel like their daydreams have been put on hold as they tend to carpools and runny noses. Kids too can feel overbooked and missing that time to just imagine. We don't stop as often as we should to wish upon a star.

Although I write here about lots of fun activities - movies, books, crafts, cooking ideas, and more - I have been trying to be conscious about giving us all the time to daydream, to imagine, to create in our own way. For my son, this means time spent staring out the window at the birds and critters, and lots of time later talking to me about his thoughts. For me, it means spending those extra five minutes in the shower or walking around the block one extra time, letting the water or movement shut out the rest of the world, and letting my thoughts fly.

Do you carve out extra time and space for you and your kids to be dreamers? I'd love to hear how you honor that imaginative and creative opportunity in a world of soccer, scouts and supper.

Once you are done with your quiet time, though, and looking for a movie for a family movie night, you might have noticed that Disney just re-released Pinocchio, in a 70th anniversary edition. I was provided with a copy of the new Blu-Ray / DVD package, which I think is a great idea. We haven't bought an HD television or a Blu-Ray player yet, and so we obviously haven't been buying Blu-Ray discs either, although we're assuming that eventually we'll catch up with the Joneses! Disney packaged the Blu-Ray edition of Pinnochio with a standard DVD, so we have the Blu-Ray for later and the DVD for right away.

My kids had never seen Pinocchio before, although we'd read various versions of the classic tale. They were delighted with it, as they are with all of the classic Disney movies. I enjoyed some of the bonus features, including the "Pinnochio's Matter of Facts" which replays the movie while sharing fun facts about it. The Blu-Ray itself has even more great bonus features and games! Both versions will be in stores on Tuesday March 10.

Watching the movie and singing the song "When You Wish Upon A Star" had my son and I talking together about our dreams, about how we might want to change our world if we could, and about whether wishes do come true. Tonight, we'll be stargazing and letting our imaginations run wild!

This movie was provided to me by Click Communications for the purposes of this review.

Saturday Sound Off: The Economy and Your Family

With the unemployment rate and the number of foreclosures rising, it's only natural that the state of the economy would affect all families. It could just be that prices are going up and one is paying more for clothing, groceries, etc. Or it could mean that families have decided to pinch a few more pennies here and there, just to be on the safe side. Or it could mean your family was one of the many to receive the lovely news that someone who normally brings home the bacon has been laid off!

Unfortunately, my family falls into the last grouping up there. The Friday before Thanksgiving my husband was told, "Cost cutting measures means we don't need to see any of you back until at least April." Besides this lovely website, I teach preschool part time. With the dough I'd bring home I knew we'd be just fine. Actually, we did have to cut back on eating out, kept Christmas presents just to our immediate family and my visits to my local coffee shop became few and far between and we managed. Luckily for us, my husband received a call the end of January calling him back into work!

Now, it's your turn to sound off! What's your story? Lay-offs? Penny pinching? What are you going without? or do you feel pretty secure? Share your story, tips or triumphs!

Friday Food Fun: Artistic Toast

Kids love to paint, and they love to eat, and making Artistic Toast is the best of both worlds!

The quick-and-easy instructions:

1. In a small bowl, mix 1 Tbsp. of milk with 1 drop of food coloring. Do this for each color you'd like to use.

2. Give the kids brushes - basting brushes or unused paintbrushes - so they can paint on slices of bread (the color shows up best on white bread).

3. Toast - we usually make our Artistic Toast flat on a cookie sheet in a toaster oven or the broiler to avoid drips, but popping them in a regular toaster will work in a pinch too.

4. Enjoy!

If you'd like to take a little more time with this activity, here's a great variation.

Give each artist a 6-cup muffin tin. Put about 2 Tbsp. milk in three of the cups, and add 1-2 drops of food coloring to each, making the primary colors red, blue and yellow.

Now give the artists brushes as well as eyedroppers or small spoons. Encourage them to use the empty cups in the muffin tin as places to mix new colors! Add two spoonfuls of red and two spoonfuls of yellow and see orange appear, and so on.

This is a great way to talk about color mixing as well as to make more beautiful colors for your Artistic Toast.

If you and your kids make some Artistic Toast, we'd love to include the pictures in our photo album!

Painted toast image courtesy of coscurro at stock.xchng

Gratigories Game:A Giveaway!

Today's giveaway comes from yesterday's featured Mom With Marbles, LaSara Firefox. In her post she talked about getting your children engaged in grateful giving and today we are giving you the chance to win one of her amazing games that's all about gratitude!

It's called Gratigories! and it's all about being grateful for things we have been blessed with. Gratigories! comes with three sets of cards; basic, advanced, and adult. And, it can be played in three different ways.

And guess what! It's completely green! Not the color, but the way in which it has been designed and how it will be delivered. LaSara will send you a download code and the beautifully designed cards will be flying out of your printer in seconds. Click here to read their zero waste policy.

Here's how you can enter to win your own Gratigories! game :

• Leave a comment telling us something you are grateful for.


• Twitter/Stumble/Digg/Kirtsy this contest. Don't forget to leave a comment for each one you do!


• Subscribe to Mom's Marbles and leave a comment letting us know you did. If you're already a subscriber, let us know.


• Add our button to your blog. Just copy the code in our right sidebar and paste it into yours, then comment to let us know.

Good luck! A winner will be chosen randomly next Thursday morning. And just in case you're wondering what we're grateful for, it's you! We absolutely adore our readers. Thanks for taking the time to stop by Mom's Marbles today.

Moms With Marbles: 5 Ways to Engage Your Kids in Grateful Giving

Today's Mom With Marbles is LaSara Firefox, MPNLP. Lasara is a coach, educator, author and speaker. She helps her clients to find balance in their lives, and alignment with personal and family-held values.

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Even when funds are tight, giving reminds us of how much we have, and how fortunate we are.

While coming face to face with money-problems can be a challenging experience, being able to do something about it is a saving grace. This sense of empowerment is key to facing the global situation of "have and have-not" with compassion instead of fear.

The power to create solutions, even in small ways, is both a learning opportunity, and a healing act that serves both giver and receiver. Generosity is a balm that soothes the savage soul.

With our nation in the grasp of some hard financial times, many of us are holding back on the consumptive aspect of the season. What better way than giving, to remind us what we've got?

1. Cull/weed household belongings and take them to the local shelter or women's center. An easy starting point is to cull or weed your household goods. While you're at it, you can suggest that your kids do the same, and have them decide what they're willing to part with to help a kid in need.

Many shelters will take used toys, as well as clothes. Call your local shelter and see what they need, and what they're willing to take. If you're flush you can throw in some new items like toiletries and such. I am sure the shelter will be grateful.

If your kids are ready for the experience, they may want to participate in the delivery of items, too. My older daughter who's 11 asked me to bring her with on the next drop off that we do.

2. Host a Potlatch and take all left-over items to the charity or service of your choice. The potlatch ceremony is also called a give-away. Potlatch comes from the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coastline. In a potlatch, you give away your belongings as a celebration of your abundance.

In north-western native culture, the potlatch consisted of every home in the village putting belongings outside for the the taking. The one who gave the most, as opposed to the family who HAD the most, gained the highest status.

In native culture, this ceremony was undertaken for many reasons. All of them had to do with the redistribution of wealth. Wealth was not only measured in belongings, though. Not everyone in the community had material possessions to offer, and some offered dances or songs instead. These offerings were just as valued.

Invite your friends to bring belongings to offer, and to take what they need from what others are giving away.

In addition to being an achingly beautiful traditional ceremony, this is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. A give-away is a way to reduce waste, clean out storage and closets, and it saves each participant the money, time, and by-product of a shopping trip, by way of new-to-them belongings.

At the end of the potlatch, invite your friends to leave all extra items, and take them to your local shelter or favorite charity.

3. Help your kid come up with ways to help humanity.Food drives, clothing drives, penny drives, quilt drives, coat drives, and more. There are so many ways to help. What are some creative ways your child can come up with to gather resources together and offer them to those less-fortunate?

For maximum impact on your kids sense of service, allow him or her to offer ideas, and do your best to support them. The more empowered your kid is to participate in grateful giving, the more organic and integrated the experience becomes.

Recently, my 11 year old decided to bring her change jar - a huge pickle jar with a good start on coins - to her classroom for a change drive. It was fully her idea, start to finish.

She wasn't sure where the coins would go, once the jar is full. With a little encouragement from me, she decided that her classmates will all bring suggestions of different local charities or services, and the class as a whole will decide together where the money will go.

I suggested that she choose the parameters; local, national, international? And the other guidelines. A charity, a service, a fund? Buy items with the money and give them directly to the shelter? There are many options.

The by-product of this course of action is that my daughter and her classmates will research the local charities and services, and learn about the network of support that one can plug into to offer service.

4. Offer service at your local soup kitchen.Our local soup kitchen offers a family lunch service before the general lunch service. While the general service might be a little risky to take kids to, the family service is a great way for kids to come face to face with those they are helping.

Ask the kitchen if you can bring a dish, or home made cookies or something easy. Your child's sense of accomplishment and generosity will be even larger if they have had a hand in creating the food they're offering out.

5. Want to make it international, yet very personal? Microfinancing is a great option!Microfinancing is a great way to involve your family in the international picture of wealth distribution, resources, and generosity. Getting into microfinancing is a great opportunity to talk to your kids about currencies, and how an American dollar goes a lot farther in a third-world country.

It's also a great opportunity to illustrate the dire financial conditions in other countries, while still illustrating the fact that we are not powerless to create change.

Your family is unlikely to be able to fund an ecologically sound start-up for a poverty stricken American family. But, for example, $150 goes a long way in the Philippines. The listing below is from Kiva.org:

"Vicenta Duron is 52 years old ... She tills a small parcel of land, which she
inherited from her father. Her life is in farming and she loves growing crops,
especially rice. ...Vicenta needs a loan of $125 to purchase sacks of certified
seed and fertilizers. She also plans to open a store where she can sell her farm
produce, and increase her profits to support her family."-Kiva.org loan request

Kiva.org is designed so you can choose the project you most want to fund. And, you can make a loan of any amount and contribute to a larger fund, or choose a smaller one and make the whole loan yourselves. For information on other microfinancing options, check out www.microfinancegateway.org.

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Have a great recipe, tip, craft or game to share? You could be the next guest poster for our weekly Moms With Marbles feature! Just email us at momsmarbles at hotmail dot com.

Journaling at All Ages!

Journals sounds like something assigned in a junior high English class, but really it's for everyone.

As a new mom, we write down everything from weight and length to babbles and rolling over and first steps. And now, most of you reading this have your own blog as a way to journal your life as a mom and the day to day milestones of your little ones.

Why not get those little ones journal on their own? Even if they can't write, they can dictate. Have them draw a picture and then ask them about it . Write down word for word as they describe their masterpiece. This can be kept in their very own notebook or hole punch it and stick it in a binder.

Even if they aren't writing the words yet, this is a great vocabulary builder. If they reply "It's a cat." Pull more out of them. Ask "What kind of cat? or Say "Tell me about this cat." Pretty soon they will throw those describing words in there without any prodding.

After a while, look back at the journal entries and watch as the scribbles become actual pictures and the thoughts become more creative or deeper and you will realize you are in the midst of a budding writer!

Gone To The Dogs: A Pair of Canine Movie Reviews

Pets are a hot issue in our house! We don't have any at the moment, and my son and husband are both quite allergic to cats. It's possible that there is a dog in our future, and pictures of our friends' new puppy aren't helping matters! Dogs just seem irresistible to kids.

Do you have any pets? I'd love to hear how you think the animals do with the kids & if you have any tips for managing four-legged creatures while taking care of the two-legged kind!

On March 3rd, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment releases BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA on DVD and Blu-ray and AIR BUD: Special Edition on DVD, and my kids and I received copies to review for you!

It's no surprise that my kids loved both movies. Beverly Hills Chihuahua was in the theaters this summer and follows a pampered 90210 pooch as she gets dog-napped and lost on a Mexican vacation. The dogs have all been digitally altered to carry on conversations, and my kids got a huge kick out of the sassy Chihuahuas and the street-smart German Shepherd. There is plenty of danceable music and silly scenes (Cheech Marin as a con-rat) to entertain the family. My six-year-old enjoyed watching the bonus deleted scenes and talking about why the directors chose to leave certain things out, and both kids enjoyed the bonus animated short The Legend of the Chihuahua.

Although we recently reviewed Space Buddies, we had never seen the original Air Bud. I thought it was great that in this movie the dog was not digitally altered and did his own stunts - including being able to bounce a ball off his nose and into the basketball hoop! It was a fun story of friendship and teamwork, and my kids liked it enough to watch it twice in a row - the second time with the "Buddies Commentary" turned on. This new edition of the kids' classic also came with a Buddy dog-tag, which my son was excited to wear.

The movies will be released tomorrow, March 3, and you may be able to find a special coupon attached that gives you $6 off if you buy them both.

Have you seen these movies? What did your kids think? Are there other dog-loving movies my kids would enjoy?

These movies were provided to me by Click Communications for the purposes of this review.