DYI bracelets for kids

I am always in the lookout for something fun for my daughters, and here is something that can be enjoyed while they make, and gift it to a special friend. For kids, they have lots of best friends meaning best one at school, at home, in the community, and the list goes on. These make cute gifts that can be given on birthdays, graduation, play date, or any occasion to your kids friends.

All you need is:

- Elastic thread, I bought mine at walmart, but all craft and dollar stores have them too.

- Lots of beads, could be wooden, plastic or anything. Mine is from Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Stringing-Bead-Kit

Busy working on the bracelet

A little gift for a special fren

Reading to Kids

The best way to become a reader is to read more.

- Allington

It is never too late to start reading to kids, and that starts from the day you know you are pregnant. If your kids are big enough to read by them, listening to them also equally helps. Reading is another way to explore the world and the life outside you, see places where you cannot go. It also lets you imagine, and imagine beyond what humans minds can do. There is no limit to it...so I call a reader, a limitless person.

Today Nishka and I visited the book fair organised by scholastic. The best part was the story time celebrating Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday. She has this amazing picture book on ABC which is fun to read to kids, and is a different take on ABC's. Another great book was on moral science called the

Please Mr, Panda. 

Read this to your kid and they will understand about "Please", and use it often, but reminding them helps. 

Nishka also checked out some books at the fair and loved LEGO FRIENDS book. Her love for LEGO has been tremendous recently. I will share more in my future post on the LEGO saga. 

Reading is the best habit to keep for life 

Viral Fever and foods that work for my kids

A mom's nightmare is having a sick kid at home, and for working moms, how worst can life get. With 2 kids at daycare, and the numerous occurrence of cough, cold, fever, ear infections and the ongoing flu season, I have been trying a few things that works for me. Not all kids are same, and I don't believe a sick kid is one solution fits all problem.

Here are my goto list and hope this helps you too.

•  Jello, I keep a good stock of this at home. Kids love jello, so save it for the time they get sick.
• Fluids are always good, so I courage lots of any fluid, 100% natural juice, homemade squeezed juice, milk, buttermilk.
• My kids love soups, specially the home chicken soups.
• Yakult - this is one of my favourites with lots of probiotic goodness. This is a drink that I give everyday to preserve the good bacteria when kids are on antibiotics.
• Icecream, specially popscicles provides all the sugar to keep them energized, and also gives them lots of fluid.

Even a small bowl of chicken soup goes a long way

The best one on my list is pedialyte freezer pops, as they are life savers for all kids with all the minerals, salt and sugar that they need to keep them going when they don't feel well. I have my freezer always stocked with it, because you never know when the bug comes home.

Yakult and a short walk after fever

Silly kids at the doc

However, my mantra is "Keep food that kids love, even if they are unhealthy, for the times they are sick". They will eat them for sure.

In between jobs - Wacky Wednesday

Most days are not perfect and as does no flow as you planned for it, and since we have no control over what we cannot do, we just move on. This quote by an Unknown Author just reflects on how my Wednesday was.  "The best revenge is always to just happily move on and let karma do the rest."

After a busy morning breakfast and prepping for kids school, lunch boxes,  I had sometime to play with Navya before dropping her off to school. Memory card game is one of our favorites and can be played in a very short time. Even 5 minutes can do wonders.

Nishka had an early day which mean she gets off school at 11:30, and we wanted to go get her passport done, just incase we plan any travels this years. The office opens at 1:00pm, and we were there at 12:30 and the lines are already long. Had we known about it, we could have gone earlier. Kids have a hard time to stand in line, so I let her read the greeting cards that are on sale at the post office. After 30 minutes in line, we were no lucky enough to get a token to make the passport, seems the lines are more than what the post office can accommodate. Sad face and we are out of the door.

After a stroll, we headed for out tax appointment. Unfortunately the lady who does our tax had to leave for something that was urgent. Nishka played at the office on what they had setup for kids, some toys and books were a life saver. In the mean while we handed our documents and headed home. Another bummer the same day.

All I wanted to do was sip my coffee and call it a day. I watched kids play as I refelected on my day which was not what I had planned for. The small joys of life, I would say.

I cooked dinner for the family, and a close friend visited. We all ate together, and kids enjoyed a lot. Togetherness is what divides sadness and doubles all happiness.

In between jobs, Mission-Magical Monday

An idle mind is a devils workshop, and I did not want that to happen when I had some time in between jobs. Taking 1 day at a time is all the plan I had. However the thought of doing something that I had not had time to do was top priority for me.

Dropping Nishka to school on the first day of kindergarten was fun. The excitement she had then still prevails and I got to see and enjoy that when walking her to school today. She had more friends than before and feels more confident.

I rode my bike after a long time. With the onset of winter, even though we are in California, it is near to impossible to bike in shorter days. Biking along trails with lust green backdrop was amazing. The yellow mustard flowers are such a sight to see, however do watch for "No trespassing signs" in case you would like to take pictures. The flowers remind me of the epic scene of bollywood movie "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge".  

Enjoying the 75F warm sun was another thing I wanted to do. With nothing in my mind, soaking up the sun and drinking my "pineapple mint aloe slush" was a perfect afternoon.

The day ended with a perfect home-made dinner with my family by my side. The Avocado-pasta is inspired from a really good friend, and tasted great, recipe coming soon. Stay tuned for a Terrific Tuesday update.

DIY valentine pencil gifts to school

With a 5 year and a 3 year going to school, and ofcourse Valentines Day near the corner, they are super excited to share anything at school with their friends. Looking at how many I needed, 36 is a big number, Nishka has 23 class mates and Navya has 11. I also did not want to make them feel they don't have one for themselves, I gave them one each, so that makes a total of 36 of something. I gave some thought and finally said, nothing is better than pencils to make little kids happy...oh I should have said, making parents happy. Another alternative, incase you would like to please the kids, lollypops instead of the pencil work great. 

It is ~1.5 hr of work, keeping in mind how long kids take to do small things. I also split the times into 2 halves of 45mins, as kids have a hard time focusing for longer periods of time. I helped Nishka with cutting the heart shapes, and Navya with cutting and writing(she is too little to write on her own yet.) I love the times when we all get together to do something that is fun. What did you and your kids do together for Valentines day? Remember the mantra 

Happy Kids = Happy Moms

 

All you need is
Pencils 
scotch tape/cello tape,
any printing paper
marker (Any color)
red poster board or poster paper