Chalk Paint

 Chalk Paint!!
All you need is:
Corn Starch
Water
Food Coloring
Paint brushes and sponges

I filled the baking cups with about a quarter of the way full with corn starch

Then add water, and stir carefully, add food coloring, and stir again!

Xander a little grumpy and not in the mood to play :(

It was so hot outside, we had to sit on some towels.

The paint dries pastel! It looks really neat!

7 Healthy Snacks

1/4 Cup Frozen Grapes These are one of Savannah's and Court's favorite snacks!

Cut bananas in half, peal, and stick the stick in at least half way.

Place bananas in the freezer, and you have Frozen Banana Pops! Bananas and watermelon are Xander's favorite fruit. If he could that is all that he would ever eat.

Watermelon sticks

Cucumber Watermelon Cups ( you could put any kind of fruit or veggie salad in these!) Savannah loves them and Xander just tries his best to steal all of the watermelon, leaving the cucumbers. He loves watermelon!

I really wanted to make some kind of treat that the kids could have instead of a Popsicle or ice cream so this is what I came up with. It's so simple! Just put your fresh watermelon in your blender. Puree, pour into cups, and freeze!

They really are good! Savannah and Xander love these! I do too!

Frozen Chocolate Almond Coconut Bites Recipe Found HERE

I couldn't believe how much Savannah liked these! These will be Savannah and Xander's snacks in place when others are having cake, cookies, or cupcakes.

Savannah and Xander love frozen Vegetables! Peas, corn, and mixed. I was making dinner and Xander stole a carrot! Is it weird that that made my day! LOL!

Ice Painting

I've had these in the freezer for a while waiting for one of these supper hot days, so one Sunday while Court tried to get a cranky Xander down for a nap Savannah and I went outside to paint!

Supplies:
Silicone cups
water
food coloring
Popsicle sticks
I had the silicone cup cake pan on a cookie sheet in case of spills, and I placed the Popsicle sticks in the cups after about an hour in the freezer so that they would stand up some :) 

 It was a very sunny and hot day and our ice paints melted quickly.

We tried to make rainbow flowers! I think that we needed more food coloring though. The colors didn't show very well, but we had fun anyway!

This would also be a great fun way to teach toddlers like Xander colors!!

Day 2 & 3 Potty Training Savannah

(Day 2)
Potty training Savannah went really well! She only had 3 accidents! She even went to her Bridges sports class for an hour in a pull up and when we got home it was still dry! Savannah and Xander had so much fun with their cousin! We made crafts, the girls played board games, and Elafun ( Savannah and Xander's favorite!)  We set an alarm for every 20 minutes to take her to go potty. The only thing was that she still never once told me when she needed to go.  She always says, "no I'm dry!", every time I asked her if she needed to go potty or if she wanted to go between the 20 minute potty brakes. I don't even know why I keep asking. I guess I am always hoping that she will say YES.  Her first accident wasn't until 2:45 PM!! We were so proud of her! Yesterday, our hopes were high with Savannah's only 3 accidents!

 (Day 3)
 She had her first accident at around 10 AM. All day she was very emotional, and would have little meltdowns whenever she was done with doing something, wanted milk, or was hungry, when she didn't want to sit on the potty... Then, around 3PM just after having to take a potty brake she started crying because she wanted a diaper, she just wanted a diaper...  :(  With big tears in her eyes, and after trying and trying to get her to tell me why she didn't want to wear her big girl panties and why she wanted a diaper, She just cried harder the more I tried to talk to her. So, I put a diaper on her and told her to keep it dry and we will go potty again in 20 minutes. 
I really had a hard time with this. After we had worked so hard the last few days. After all of the attempts to potty train her over the years and failing again and again. At that moment I couldn't see us succeeding. Am I not telling her the right things, am I not giving her the right motivation? What am I doing wrong? How many times can a mother fail at this. Is this just a normal set back and the fun of it just wearing off on her? Or, dose she really not know when she needs to go and so she can't hold it because she doesn't know how or when she needs to and all of this is just stressing her out? I feel like she wants to stay dry and everything involving potty training wants so much to do, but she just can't do it because her body really isn't telling her and it is frustrating to her because she wants to be a big girl so badly. I just wish I could know. I wish she could tell me so badly. It breaks my heart that my little girl can't tell me how she feels. 

After talking with my sister-in-law, seeking some kind of help or guidance on what to do and where to go from there I decided to try to stay positive and see if she would go potty again and put panties back on but, if not, it would have to be okay, and we would just try again tomorrow, and then in 6 months. But, to mine and my nieces disbelief she was happy to! We were so excited and happy for her!! Maybe she just needed a brake from the stress. She followed the 20 minute alarm potty break system we had for the rest of the night! Then, When she had her last accident, it was followed by finishing on the potty and a bath. After the bath, panties, bathroom break, pullups, then our amazing helper had to leave us. :( She was such a great help! Savannah and Xander had so much fun having a friend to play with them all the time! We love her! Savannah was so sad she wasn't here tonight when she went to bed, (in a diaper) She wanted her cousin, but in the end she settled with Savannah in brown bed and daddy on the floor.  This is so much harder than I remember, and such an emotional roller coaster. Hopefully tomorrow will get better!  Tomorrow is a new day and we will start again and see how she does.

Potty Training Savannah, Day 1

 

Today, was day one of potty training. When I told Savannah no diapers she would say "diapers are for babies!"

She's so cute! We took her to pick out her own princess panties, the other day, and of course she picked Rapunzel!  She picked out a prize, (princess stickers and princess paper to make mail for one of her cousins) She loves to make letters "mail", for her cousin! I also got a calender for her to put a sticker on each day she goes all day with no diapers!

 The morning went pretty well! Until, just after cleaning up Xander's blow out and giving him a much needed bath, She had her first accident around 10AM. I had her go potty and then take a bath, then just after she had gotten dressed accident #2. She just stood there and I told her she was wet and she looked down and said her feet were in water. I sent her to the potty, thinking that she could get on it with the stool, but when I got in there, well... it wasn't pretty. When Savannah goes potty, she goes a lot. I also don't think she knows when she needs to go. It's always hit or miss, and she usually won't tell you that she is stinky or wet. I have to tell her that she is.

 Thank heaven for Vision walk T shirts!! She has been in them all day! She loves them because they are blue and yellow, her favorite colors! We went through a lot today :) About the party hat, it was a motivation! LOL! I remembered that one of my sister-in-laws had told me that they would have a "potty party" to make it a more positive experience for them. So yes, When I took Savannah to the potty we wore party hats and I had some whistles that we blew and we yelled, "GO SAVAHHAH!" and clapped! I'm sure we looked really silly! But, Savannah loved it! :) All day, if Savannah was on carpet, we always made sure she had a towel under her.
My angle niece came!! She is 9 and is awesome! Savannah and Xander just love her! She is staying with us for a few days to help me out with Savannah's potty training! Our hopes are that Savannah will listen to her and have more motivation! She was one of Savannah's cheer leaders! LOL! She really saved me today!

 For lunch, we had hamburger lettuce wraps! They are so good!

 We took Savannah to the bathroom about every 15 to 20 minutes.

 

We made these fun little clothes pins. The 2 cute pink and purple ones on the left are my nieces! I'm planning on making a birthday calender with the ones I made, so I have one for each month!

  

Snack Time! Pureed watermelon slushie cups!

We watched a couple more shows, read some books, did some laundry, and played out back, with lots of bathroom brakes! The kids made up a game of throwing these foam fish into the bath tub and catching them with the fish hook. It kept them busy for a while! Savannah went through  9 pairs of underwear and 5 Vision Walk T shirts today.

  

The kids helped me make dinner! They were awesome helpers, especially my niece! We used our first fresh vegetables from our garden! I tried to use the foremen grill because I don't know how to turn on the grill outside, (sad I know) but Court always does the grilling. After, dinner we cleaned up, had another bathroom brake, and then we played out back for a bit. After dinner, Savannah had no more accidents!! I'm so proud of her!

Blue Facials! Savannah even let me put a little on her this time, and I put a smudge on Xander's nose because he felt left out!

Blue Monsters!

Savannah did awesome today! We had a lot of accidents but we kept at it! I put a diaper back on Savannah for bedtime but first thing tomorrow, we will start again! I'm so thankful I have my little helper! I think that we might hire her full time! LOL! I'm just kidding! but, that would be awesome! We love her! 

We made it through our first day and  we are ready for tomorrow! I just need to keep telling myself to stay positive and that I can do hard things!!

Day One!!

13 Healthy Lunches For Kids

Ham & Provolone Romain Lettuce Wraps with Half a mango

Whole Wheat Tortillas with Almond Butter & Carrot and Watermelon Sticks

Banana and Almond Butter Kabobs With Carrots and Celery

Make your own Apple and chick pea Romaine Lettuce Wraps with Cucumber Watermelon cups
Savannah loves lettuce wraps, but Xander will eat everything but the lettuce.

Ham, Lettuce and cheese wraps with Carrots circles

It is also a rare thing for Xander to eat any vegetables. He usually just chooses to not eat. :(

Banana and Peanut butter kabobs with cucumbers and celery

Tuna Fish Celery Salad with red grapes and cucumber sticks

Make your own mini Pizzas Picnic ( Sauce is puree tomatoes) with peaches

Homemade mini Turkey and Cheese with whole wheat tortilla Lunchables Picnic

These are one of the kids favorite lunches! But, because of the Paleo diet that we are starting they won't be able to have tortillas and cheese anymore.

Almond butter whole wheat sandwiches with Apple and green grape kabobs with carrot sticks

Mandarin Orange Chicken

Muffin Cup Picnic! This is so much fun and it helps clean out the fridge!

The kids read books while mom chops up lunch and then we clean up and watch a fun movie and have an indoor picnic! It's perfect on a rainy day!

Some of my little tricks for getting my kids to eat healthy food is presentation! They love bright colored cups and bowls! They love eating with cute picks and kabob sticks! I love making things like mini healthy lunables that they can assemble themselves.  We love using cookie cutters and fondant cutters on everything! We have cute names like circle carrots, watermelon sticks, flower or star apples, and we call a lot of things pizza just so they know it's yummy before they try it! I love using silicone cupcake cups and muffin tins for lunches and healthy snacks. Sometimes we even have tea party lunches just to mix it up a little with Savannah's tea cups and plates. We love our girly stuff! Let me just say it! It's FUN!!  One way that I get them to drink more water is I try to usually have a fun cup with a straw out for them with water all the time! And Ice makes everything better according to them! We love to have lots of picnics outside or go to a park to have a picnic. Savannah and Xander love be in the kitchen with mommy and help me cook! A few of these lunches are Paleo but others aren't. Right now we are trying to do mostly Paleo but we still have some dairy's and grains in our fridge that we have to use, so we aren't just throwing it all away. The kids favorite lunches are the ones that they get to assemble themselves!