Recipe- Make you own Soda!

I know that it is way cooler, and even more delicious(if you get it right) to make your own goodies.  Well, here's a goodie that MANY people consume on a daily basis, but is also something that you can create in your own home!

Ingredients
1/8 tbsp yeast (champagne yeast from a brew or wine shop or regular Red Star or Fleischmann’s yeast)
Coffee cup of warm water (98-110 degrees)
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 tbsp+1tsp soda flavor extract
A little less than 1 gallon of water 
1 gallon jug
2 2 liter bottles

Dissolve 1/8 teaspoon of yeast in a coffee cup of warm water for about 5 minutes. Yeast should be fresh. Too little yeast will not yield enough carbonation, too much will give the soda a "yeasty" taste and might burst your soda bottles. Water too hot or too cold will have the same effect as not enough yeast because in cold water it will stay dormant and in too hot water it will be killed off.
Then mix 2 ¼ cups of white sugar, 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of flavoring extract, the dissolved yeast and enough extra water to make 1 gallon together in the gallon jug. Shake to mix for about 2 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved in the water. Pour ½ the mix into each of the two 2 liter bottles, cap tightly and wait 4-6 days. You can tell how your carbonation is coming along by just squeezing the bottles. If they get too firm open the cap and let off a little of the carbonation.

Craft- Christmas Cards

Santa Card
-What you will need
    White Construction Paper
    Scissors
     Glue
     Crayons/Markers
     Cotton Balls
Take the paper and fold it in half, "hamburger style".  Draw on a Santa, to where the left side of his head is on the crease of the paper, to form the card.  Color his hat red, cheeks pink, and skin orange, peach, or which ever color you have that is close to skin tone.  Now, cut Santa out, on both sides of the crease, so you have a Santa shaped card.  Next, cover his beard, mustache, and trim and ball of his hat lightly with glue, and cover it with cotton.  Now, write your personalized message inside.

Present
-What you need
     Green and red construction paper
     Scissors
     Glue
Choose whether you want the present to be red or green.  Now, take that color of paper and fold it in half, "hamburger style", to where the card opens upward.  Now, fold the other color of paper in half the same way, and cut a strip longways, making 2 strips.  Glue one strip midway down the card, horizontally, to make ribbon.  Cut the other strip to match the height of the card, and glue it midway, vertically, to finish the ribbon.
Cut out a small piece of white paper for the gift tag, and write "To: person's name, From: Your name".  Now, on the "ribbon colored" paper, and cut very thin strips, about half an inch wide.  Make a swoop, similar to the "Cause" ribbons.  Do this three times, and glue all three together to make the bow.  Now, glue the bow on the top of the card.  Now, write you personal message on the inside

Kid's Christmas Craft- Paper Plate Banner

This one is a fun craft that your kids will love!  And, what's great about this idea is that you can use it for any holiday, with just a few simple changes.

What You Need:
Paper Plates
Large Google Eyes
Paints, Markers, or Crayons
Pom Poms
Construction Paper

Reindeer
First, paint or color a paper plate brown.  Glue on the google eyes, and a red or black pom pom for the nose.  Color or paint the mouth in a nice little smile.  Then, trace your child's hands on the construction paper, cut them out and glue them onto the plate for the antlers.  Then, on the construction paper, cut triangles for the ears.

Snowman
Take two paper plates and glue them together, one on top of the other.  Cut out a black top hat from the construction paper and glue it on the "head".  Glue on the google eyes, and use black pom poms for the mouth and buttons.  For the nose, you can use orange construction paper cut into a triangle(carrot) or another black pom pom.
For a little added touch, instead of just having the white of the paper plates as the "snow", you can cover the plates with cotton balls.  You can also sprinkle some fine glitter onto the cotton to add a little glisten.

Wreath
First, cut a circle in the middle of the paper plate out.  Color or paint the rest green.  Add red pom poms around the wreath.  Use construction paper and cut out a bow, and glue it to the bottom of the wreath.

Santa
This one is slightly more difficult.  Paint or color the plate a peach or pink color.  Glue on the google eyes.  Draw or paint a nose and mouth.  Now, with construction paper, cut out a triangle, or "hat" shape.  Glue on top of Santa's head, and line the bottom with cotton balls.  Glue a few cotton balls at the top corner of the hat as well.  Now, cut out a rounded triangle shape, for the beard.  Glue it on the bottom of the face, and cover with cotton balls, bringing it up around his mouth for his mustache.

Now, to make a nice holiday banner, use yarn, twine, or construction paper to stick them all together.  You can glue, tape, or string them all together.

The BEST Chocolate Fudge! Cheap and Easy!!

This recipe was handed down from my Grandma to my mom, and now to me.  It is very tasty fudge for the whole family, and SUPER easy to make, if you can open a can, turn on a stove and stir!!!

Ingredients
    * 3 cups (18 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
    * 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
    * Dash salt
    * 1/2 to 1 cups chopped nuts (optional)
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions 
 * LINE 8- or 9-inch square pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan.
    * MELT chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in heavy saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in nuts and vanilla. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
    * CHILL 2 hours or until firm. Remove from pan by lifting edges of foil. Cut into squares.
    MICROWAVE METHOD
    * COMBINE chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in 1-quart glass measure. Cook on HIGH (100% power) 3 minutes or until chips are melted, stirring after 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Proceed as above.
    VARIATIONS
    * CREAMY DARK CHOCOLATE FUDGE: MELT 2 cups miniature marshmallows with chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Proceed as above.
    * MILK CHOCOLATE FUDGE: OMIT 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Add 1 cup milk chocolate chips. Proceed as above.
    * CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CHIP GLAZED FUDGE: FOLLOW above recipe using 3/4 cup peanut butter chips instead of nuts. For glaze, melt 1/2 cup peanut butter chips with 1/2 cup heavy cream. Stir until thick and smooth. Spread over chilled fudge.

Craft: Hug and Kiss Pillows

This is a good craft to do with you child!  It's great to make two, one for the child, and one for someone like Grandma, Grandpa, or another friend or relative.

What You Need:
4 pieces of felt, which ever size you'd like the pillows to be(enough for 2 pillows)
2 or more pieces of felt, for names
Tacky Glue
Polyester stuffing

Take the two pieces of felt meant to be the main colors of the pillow.  Glue three of the sides together, leaving one open for stuffing, which will be the last step.  With the other pieces, cut out letters for each of the names that will go on the pillows, and glue them onto the pillows.  You can also add things like xoxo, hearts, or any other cute things that your child wants to add.
Wait about an hour for everything to dry, and then stuff the pillow with the stuffing, and glue the final side closed, and clamp it together.  I used potato chips clamps.

These pillows are great because you can chose any colors or designs that you want!  Be as creative as you and your child want to be with them!

Face Painting: Four Step Kitty (pic included)

Step One: Ears
First, right above the eye brows, paint two triangular-shaped black outlines.  Fill each in with white face paint, using the eyebrow as a bottom line.  After the white paint dries, use a light pink paint and make two, filled-in, smaller triangles.  They represent the inside of the cat ear.

Step Two: Nose
Paint the entire nose white.  Once it dries, paint only the tip of the nose light pink.  Then, take black paint and make a line across the nostrils.

Step Three: Mouth
First, paint the area between the top lip and nose white, extending slightly beyond the corners of the mouth.  Then, paint two small circles on the cheeks, for a little touch of cuteness.  With black paint, make a small line down the septum all the way to the top of the lip, thickening it at the bottom.

Step Four: Whiskers
This one is easy.  Make three black lines extending from the center of the white paint outwards.  Add a few little black spots around the base of the whiskers.

There. you're done and you have an adorable little kitty

Snack For Kids: Fruit Kababs

What you'll need:
Shishkabab skewers
Your or your child's favorite fruits(Watermelon chunks, strawberries, apples, bananas, pears, kiwi, grapes, orange slices, etc)
Yogurt

Ok, so this one is super easy, and is a good one to have the kids help out with.  First, make sure the fruits are cut up in slices, or are able to be stuck on the skewers.  Then, simply put the fruit on however you would like to.  Use the yogurt to dip these sweet skewers in.  The kids will love helping to make these, and eating their delicious, healthy snack.  Much better than any cookie or candy!!!

Dress-Up: Puppy

This is an easy one that my daughter LOVES!  It's easy to do, and easy to undo.  We all know that every kid loves to play dress up; just look at halloween.  For the puppy dress-up, simply get 2 socks and an eyeliner pencil or liquid eyeliner.  For girls, put her hair in two ponytails, put a sock over each ponytail, and secure it with a hair tie.  Then, paint the puppy nose and the "whiskers" (as 5 would look on dice).

I hope you and your puppy have a great time with this!

Clean Your Room!

Why is it that a child will argue with you for hours about cleaning their room, instead of just cleaning it and being done with it?  I have yet to figure out how to get Alex to clean her room.  We have been arguing about it all day, and she has still yet to clean it.  I have tried it all.   I have taken some of her toys that were not cleaned up last time, I have taken away her snack time that we have every day after dinner.  I have taken away her Nintendo and her VCR.  And she refuses to clean her toys! I'm at such a loss!

Parenting- Challenge Your Baby!!!

I am not an expert.  I didn't go to school for child care or child psychology.  However, I am the mother of a VERY intelligent, well spoken 3 year old little girl.  My daughter, Alex, can spell her name and several 3 letter words, she knows simple addition, she has a very high vocabulary, can write several letters without seeing them before hand, and can figure out several problems by herself.

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, like most soon-to-be moms, I began planning EVERYTHING.  Little did I know, all that went out the window when my 7lb. 8oz. angel came into this world.  I instantly saw the potential of this little tiny newborn.  So, as many parents so, I talked to her, played classical music while she slept, and covered the sides of her cribs with those black and white pictures of blocks and diagonal lines and such.  By the time she began lifting her head, I became to challenge her.  I would show her a toy and put it just out of her reach.  And wouldn't you know, she found a way to get to it.  At 4 1/2 months, Alex started to crawl, even before she sat up.  Then, I was SHOCKED when my daughter took her first 3 steps... at 7 1/2 months old.
After that, I began teaching her things that everyone around me said she was too young to learn.  I started with sign language.  I taught her simple things at first, like eat and milk, and as she got older, I taught her things like more, several different animals, and then, enough for her to tell me things that she needed.  She could sign to me that she wanted more milk please, or more to eat please, etc.
When she began talking, I talked to her all the time, like she was an adult.  Now granted, I did do the baby talk from time to time, but usually, I would use proper grammar, and bigger words than most people use around a child.  She picked it all up very easily.

My point in all this being, even if everyone around you says your baby is too young to learn something, challenge them anyways.  If they get something wrong, still encourage them, and reward them if they get it right.  Children are so smart, and their parents need to learn to challenge them more.  Let's make this next generation the smartest of them all!

Quotes about Children

Harry S. Truman
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
A. P. Gouthey
If life were measured by accomplishments, most of us would die in infancy.
Robert A Heinlein
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Walt Disney
Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.
Goethe
Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.
B C Forbes
Upon our children -- how they are taught -- rests the fate -- or fortune -- of tomorrow's world.
Abigail Van Buren
If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
Haim Ginott
If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
Zig Ziglar
Kids go where there is excitement. They stay where there is love.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.
Heraclitus
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

The Angel of my Life

Here is a video that I made, documenting my daughter from age 2 to 3.  She is such a spunky little princess.