Chicken Enchiladas

Taco Tuesday getting dull? Spice things up with these super simple Enchiladas.

What You Need: 2 large chicken breasts diced and cooked,
1 cup shredded Mexican Blend Cheese,
1 cup picante sauce,
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
10 flour tortillas
1 small tomato, chopped
1 green onion, chopped



What To Do: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and picante sauce. Divide the mixture, combining 1 cup with the chicken and most of the cheese, saving some to sprinkle on top. Warm a tortilla, and fill with chicken mixture. Roll and place flap-down in a baking dish. Do the same for the remaining tortillas. (Don't be shy, let those enchiladas get cozy!) Pour the remaining Soup/Picante mix on top of all the enchiladas. Cover and bake for 35 minutes- sprinkle remaining cheese and onions. return to oven for 5-10 more minutes until dish is bubbling and cheese has melted. Top with tomatoes and serve.

Mommy Commencement Speech

          Now that all the children have headed back to school, I thought it was a perfect time for a Commencement Speech for Mommy's. A rally cry as we all go forth through the tears, the joys, the heartaches that come with a new school year. Whether it's sending our little ones off for the very first time or watching our almost adults begin the first year of college, there's something about this time of year that calls for Mommy Camaraderie.

       We tell ourselves this year is going to be different. I'm going to pack lunches the night before, I'm going to have home cooked meals every night, I'm going to volunteer more at the school, I'm going to have at least one date night a month, and I'm ABSOLUTELY going to start that Zumba class!! We make promises to ourselves and find ourselves remaking them by New Years and letting them fall to the waste side by spring break.

       It is very easy to tell you to relax. It's easy to give you the long list of Mommy-Feel-Good lines that are printed over and over. It is harder to make those words resound, make you take them to heart. It is nearly impossible to make you look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you're doing fine, especially when you feel like everything around you is in chaos. That feeling is normal. Every mom has it whether they admit it or not. So many of us try to portray perfection. even though TV & movies have been open to showing the "ugly-side' of motherhood- the no-make up, dinner from a can, messy living room, chasing after a 3 year old, miss-matched sock reality of it all. But even this does not ease the burden of actually raising children.

      So I say this to you: Be kind to yourself.  Please. There is only one you, no good substitute or replacement is available. You are your child parent- for better or worse. So do the things that make you happy. Be an example to them that life is about smiles and laughter, love and joy. Enstil in them a strong work ethic and an equally sense of self-worth by living it. The dishes won't complain about sitting in the sink for an our while you read bedtime stories and if you can learn to ignore your nagging inner voice the laundry will wait diligently until after your yoga class.

     It is still your life even though it sometimes may feel that you've given over control to Eris, the goddess of chaos. You deserve happiness, just as your children do. So give yourself a break (literally and figuratively) take a long walk and forgive yourself for ordering take out 3 nights in a row. Make a promise to relinquish some of that control, slack the reigns and enjoy the ride.

Summer Safety

It's summer and schools out. It's the time for kids to run and play in parks, on beaches and through backyards! But with all this heat, sun, and water, parents need to stay vigilant. Here are summers main concerns and ways to beat the heat, keep kids safe, and still have fun!



HEAT:
When the thermometer keeps rising there are many things parents need to be mindful of. Heat Exhaustion, Heat Stroke and Dehydration are the three big ones. It's hard for adults to make sure that they are getting enough  fluids, or to know how much their bodies are working, so kids need to have adults looking out for them.

• Avoid sun exposure between 11am and 3pm. This is the time of day when the sun is highest in the sky and its rays are the strongest. Avoid water play during this time of day as the water washes away sweat making it difficult to see how much fluid you or your child has lost. Do errands and outdoor play early or late in the day.
• Kids will not stop playing to get a drink of water until they are extremely thirsty and by then they've already lost too much fluid. Once thirsty, get kids out of the heat and have them drink plenty water to help their bodies replenish. Prevent dehydration, by drinking small amounts throughout the day as large amounts of water at one time does little to help keep you hydrated.
• DO NOT LEAVE KIDS IN CARS!! Not for 10 minutes, not for 2 minutes. The temperature in a car can rise over 20 degrees in less than 20 minutes. So on a 98 degree day, you car can go up to 118 in the time it takes you to run the ATM. It maybe inconvenient, but taking them with you is better than taking them to the hospital.

SUN
It wouldn't be summer without the sun, but too much sun exposure can be dangerous. Your body needs sun to make vitamin D, so make sure your kids do get 15 minutes of sunshine a day.

• Apply (and reapply) sunscreen. Kids of all skin tones and complexions should have on sun block when they go outside.  Apply before heading out and every two hours after.
• Play in the shade. Make use of the patio or covered deck. Kids will have fun playing in a tent or making one out of a blanket.
• Cover up. Encourage kids with particularly sensitive skin to wear sun coveralls, wide brimmed hats and sunglasses.
• Double Check Medications. Some medications have sun exposure warnings. Read carefully to be sure you're taking the proper precautions. Questions: talk to your doctor or pharmacist.

WATER
Water play is one of the best parts of summer time, but it can be dangerous if the right safety measures aren't taken.

• Teach your kids to swim! This is a great way to help them be safe.
• NO ONE SHOULD SWIM ALONE! This is true for adults and especially for children. Younger children and weak swimmers should always have an adult within arms reach. Bring the cordless phone outside, or ignore the phone altogether, don't multitask when watching the kids in the pool.
• Learn the signs of drowning.   Drowning doesn't look like what the TV and Movies portray it as so read up on Drowning and make sure your caregivers do to!
• Get a Coast Guard Certified life vest. Make sure it fits correctly.
• Know the waters. Ponds, lakes, beaches and can be unpredictable in many ways: undertows, rough surf, hidden drop-offs, rocks, broken glass, etc. Be aware of where your kids are swimming and playing. Keep them safe by giving them water shoes, life vests, etc. and teaching them to stay near the shore, not to have their backs to the waves, and to swim sideways in caught in an undertow. 

Read More on Sun Safety & Water Safety at the Kids Health website.

Shrimp Alfredo

What You Need:
2 tablespoons butter/margarine
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups heavy cream
3/4 cups of grated Parmesan cheese
Shrimp peeled & deveined
Pasta of your choice

What To Do:
Melt the butter in a large pan on medium high heat. Sweat (gently cook) the garlic for a minute. You want to smell garlic but you don't want it to turn brown, or burn. Stir in heavy cream and 1/4 cups of parmesan cheese. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Let simmer and stir frequently.

Meanwhile, cook pasta and drain.


Add shrimp and the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese to the sauce and stir. Let simmer until shrimp is fully cooked about 5 minutes.

Toss with pasta and serve.



VARIATIONS: Feel free to pre cook the shrimp and flavor with your favorite seasonings. In the picture, the shrimp was sauteed in a pan with butter, 1 tsp Sazon seasoning, 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp minced garlic and 1 tsp sugar.

Counting & Color Clock

I've recently gotten several packages that came with cardboard circles and decided to come up with creative ways to reuse them. The first was this Clock craft, that will help teach numbers, colors and time.

What You Need: A Cardboard Circle, plain white paper (2-3 sheets or enough to cover circle), construction paper, glue, scissor, two pipe cleaners

What to Do: Cover the cardboard circle with the white paper - one way to do this is to apply the glue directly to the circle then lay the white paper on the circle before cutting. This way you can line up edges and get full coverage. Cut out the numbers 1-12 from the construction paper or feel free to draw them directly on the white paper once it's completely dry.  Glue the numbers in place. Use the pipe cleaners - or scissor if cardboard is thick - to poke a hole in the center of the clock. Fold pipe cleaners to desired length and thread them through the hole trying them together in the back to keep them from sliding out of place.

April Fool's Pizza

I saw this on Kiboomu, and loved it so much that I thought I'd share it here!

What You Need: Yellow Cake Mix (and ingredients), Strawberry jelly/jam/preserves, white chocolate, red Fruit Roll-Ups, yellow and green gummy bears

What To Do: Bake cake according to box. Once cool level off the top of the cake. Spread strawberry jelly over the cake. Grate the chocolate and sprinkle on top of the jelly. Decorate with candy toppings.


Kiboomu has MANY MANY other fake food projects, from fish sticks and mashed potatoes, to spaghetti and meatballs!

Cardboard Box Robot Costume

Homemade costume for Halloween or anytime!

What You Need: A cardboard box, Silver spray paint, Razor/Box Cutter, silver pipe cleaners, roll of duct tape, brightly colored buttons & gems, glow sticks, anything else you can find, glue


What To Do:  ADULTS Measure and trim the cardboard box to fit your child, making sure to make arm and head holes that will not obstruct child's movements. You may need to cut the pieces and tape them back together to get the right fit. Once you have the right fit them spray paint it silver and let dry -  make sure you spray in a well ventilated area and away from children!! 

Once the base is dry, let children help you determine where the robot's buttons, knobs, screens, lights, and switches will go and glue the decorations in place. SOME MAY NEED TO BE HOT GLUED!  Also make sure you activate the glow sticks- if using them- before gluing them on.

Note: You can make the back with a slit, so that children can put it on without putting the box over their heads

The hat and shoes are a spray painted party hat and a shoe box top.

Valentines Day Cookies

Regular sugarcookies need not be boring. Have fun making and decorating these.

What You Need: SugarCookie recipe (coming soon) or store bought cookie dough, rolling pin, heart shaped cookie cutter or piece of cardboard, icing, red food coloring, sprinkles, baking sheet, a spatula and butter knife.

What To Do: Prepare cookie dough, flour countertop and rolling pin. Roll out dough and cut cookies. place on cookie sheet and bake.  Once cookies are baked and cool, ice them with icing of your choice, to make red just add a few drops of red food coloring to white icing. Then carefully add sprinkles on top.

if you don't have a cookie cutter draw a heart on a piece of heavy paper or cardboard and carefully cut it out. Use it to trace out heart shape cookies.

No rolling pin? Use a can of corn! or any other can you have in the pantry...

Happy Dragon/Lion Mask

Turn a Paper Plate into a fun Chinese New Year Mask!

 What You Need: A Paper Plate, Crayons/Markers, Colored Paper or Construction Paper, Scissors, Tape/Glue, other decorations

What To Do: Help your child create a Dragon face on the bottom (outside) of the paper plate. Since dragons are fictional let their imaginations run wild!

Adults: Cut out the eyes. 

Cut the construction paper into strips and glue or tape them on to the back of the paper plate. To create a curl like in the picture just roll the paper around your finger.

Use a hole punch and ribbon or glue a craft stick to complete your mask.

Dragon Stick Puppet

A simple and easy craft that you can make almost anywhere!

What You Need: Construction or Colored Paper, Scissors, Glue, Tape, 2 Straws, Crayons/Markers, Decorations

What to Do: ADULTS, draw and cut out the head, tail and body strip. Let child decorate with crayons, markers, glitter, feathers, etc. Fan fold the body strip like an accordion. Glue or tape the head on one end of the body strip and the tail on the opposite end. Turn over and tape the straws in the first fold of the body strip.


* You can use unsharpened pencils or craft sticks instead of the straws. And feel free to make any animal you kid likes. 

*We made this Dragon in honor of the Chinese New Year, but Lions, Tigers, Alligators even Kangaroos are fun to make!
 

Snake Decorations

This is a simple and easy craft activity that kids can make anytime and makes a wonder party craft because once they are done you can use them as decorations!

What You Need: Construction Paper, crayons/markers, decorations, ribbon

What To Do: Draw a large spiral on the construction paper at the end create an egg shape for the head. (If making decorations you needn't create the egg shape) Let children color and decorate BOTH SIDES how ever they choose. Don't forget the eyes. ADULTS carefully cutout the snake/spiral and put a small hole in its tail for the ribbon.

Hang & Enjoy!

Stocking Shaped Holidays Cookies

Regular sugar cookies need not be boring. Have fun making and decorating these.

What You Need: Sugar cookie recipe (coming soon) or store bought cookie dough, rolling pin, stocking shaped cookie cutter or piece of cardboard, white icing, red and green food coloring, red sugar sprinkles, baking sheet, a spatula, piping bag or ziplock bag and butter knife.

What To Do: Prepare cookie dough, flour countertop and rolling pin. Roll out dough and cut cookies. place on cookie sheet and bake. While cookies are baking separate white icing into three portions. Color one red, one green and keep on white. Once cookies are baked and cooled, ice them carefully red on the bottom and white on time just like a Christmas stocking. Then carefully add sprinkles on top of red section.


To personalize, use the piping bag (or a ziplock with the corner carefully snipped) to write names on the cookies.

If you don't have a cookie cutter draw a Christmas stocking on a piece of heavy paper or cardboard and carefully cut it out. Use it to trace out the cookies.

No rolling pin? Use a can of corn! or any other can you have in the pantry...

NOTE: If you're using the ziplock, BE VERY GENTLE when piping, as the bag will tear if you squeeze to hard!

The Family Turkey

Here's one activity that will allow the whole family to get involved in hunting for materials to make your turkey one of a kind.

What You Need: a turkey coloring page print out, glue and whatever you can find to decorate.

What To Do: As a family talk about what you want your turkey to look like: life-like, colorful, cartoonish, etc. then hunt for materials to decorate your turkey. (You can use grains of rice, stripes of material, leaves, tissue paper, crayons, glitter, ANYTHING that you can get to stick to the paper!! Ours has feathers, felt and a tissue paper beak)

Cornacopia: The Horn of Plenty

This is a super simple Thanksgiving craft that's great for small hands and older children. It's easily adaptable and can be made as simple or as complex as you (and your child) can imagine.

What You Need: A stripe of construction paper; glue, tissue paper, pom-poms, other small trinkets and decorations

What To Do: Roll the strip of construction paper into a cone shape that has a point (think waffle cone). Stuff the horn with colored tissue paper and then add pom poms and other decoration to be the "food" in the horn.

Math Monsters

These great homemade goblins are great for Halloween and also reinforce math skills. Use them to help teach shapes, colors, patterns, or even multiplication (3 sets of 2 arms equals 6 arms)

What You Need:  Construction Paper, glue, scissors, crayons and decorations if you have them: googly eyes, pompoms, feathers, yarn etc.

What to Do:  Cut out different shapes of various sizes and put them together to create a "monster". There really is no wrong way to do this, since it's a "monster".  Your child's monster can have three eyes, six legs, a mop of curly yarn hair. Let them be as creative as they want.

For older kids, use brass fasteners to hold the pieces together so that the monster can move. Younger kids can just glue their monsters together.

Mancala Game

This is the easiest homemade game ever! This is a popular game in Africa and Southeast Asia. It's popularity is due mostly to the fact that it cost next to nothing to make.

What You Need: A egg carton, 48 tokens (seeds, pebbles, pennies, dimes, buttons, paper clips, beads, etc), two small cups

What To Do: Carefully cut the top off the egg carton, leaving just the bottom. Put 4 tokens in each of the egg carton cups, or "houses". Place the egg carton between the two players with a cup at either end. The six houses closest to you are your houses.

The object of the game is to empty your houses  before the other player. Players alternate turns. On their turn each player picks up all the pebbles from one cup on their side of the board and places them one by one in the cups around the board in a counter-clockwise direction (to the right on your side, then to the left on the opponents side), including his cup, but not in the opponent’s cup.

BONUS:  You can have kids decorate the egg carton and cups before playing. 

There are many different ways to play this game so look some up or make up your own!

Wind Sock

This is another creative and fun craft to help your kids to enjoy the outdoors this summer. You can use up all that left over streamer/tissue paper that has been collecting from parties and gift wrapping.

What You Need: 
1 piece of card stock/heavy paper
Streamers or colorful tissue paper cut into strips
Glue/Tape
crayons/markers/glitter/etc
pipe cleaners

What To Do:
Have children decorate the card stock however they'd like. When they are finished help them construct their windsock by gluing/taping strips of streamer/tissue paper along the edge of the back of the cardstock. Roll the card stock into a tube so that the streamers hang from the inside and the decoration is on the outside. Glue/tape closed. Create a handle on the top of the windsock by twisting two pipecleaners together and taping them to the inside of the cardstock like a rainbow.

Foil Wrapped Pineapple Chicken

This quick lunch or dinner is great for parties and bar-b-ques  or anything else where time is not on your side. Plus kids will love the individual pouches.  Easy to make fun for kids!

It's also another way to utilize the Hoisin sauce from the Chinese Chicken recipe.

What You Need:
Chicken Breast cut into chunks
Pineapple chunks
Minced garlic 1 tsp
Soy Sauce 2 tbsp
Hoisin Sauce 4 tbsp
Onion Powder
Ground Ginger
Black Pepper
Chives 1/2 tsp
Corn Starch 1 tsp
Honey
aluminum foil

What To Do: In a bowl mix Soy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, minced garlic, cornstarch and chives. Sprinkle Onion powder, ginger, pepper, and a few squirts of honey into the mix. Mix well. Add chicken and pineapple chunks. Mix well and let marinate in the refrigerator at least 20 minutes -(the longer the better) Cut aluminum foil into squares so that when a pouch is formed it will sit in your palm.

Spoon chicken mixture into the center of the foil square and join the edges to make a pouch. Make sure to get some sauce in there, this will help keep chicken moist.

Place the pouches in a pan and cook for 40 mins in a 350 degree over.  Or Place them on a hot grill for 30 minutes.  Try not to over cook or the chicken will dry out.


Let cool and serve.

Felt Roads

Here is a simple way to help give your little ones Matchbox' and Hot Wheels a place to drive - that's not the edge of furniture, your leg, or expensive plastic track sets.

These customizable felt roads are easy to make and inexpensive. They can be arranged and re-arranged over and over in any combination your child can imagine.


What You Need: Black Felt, Yellow/White felt, scissor, craft glue, cardboard

What To Do: Cut the black felt into strips wide enough to drive a toy car on. Cut the yellow felt into thin strips and then cut those into strips about an inch long. Glue the small yellow strips onto the black felt roads and Viola! You're done. Use the cardboard as backing to make them extra durable. 

Tips: Because you're making them you can cut out whatever kind of roads you want: soft curves, corners, Y-shaped merges, 4 laned highway,  S-shaped zigzags. 

Store your roads in an hard pencil case or an old wipe container. 

Use them with train tracks, lincoln logs, plastic trees etc.

Getting Kids Going

Exercise is an important part of growing strong healthy kids. But exercising doesn't have to be the stringent regime and doesn't have to turn you into a Drill Sargent.
Kids who engage in regular physical activity are stronger, more confident, and have a better outlook on life.

Here is a simple guide to helping you little ones get moving and stay healthy.

This is a suggested Activity Chart from Kids Health

Age	Minimum Daily Activity	Comments
Infant	No specific requirements	Physical activity should encourage motor development
Toddler	1½ hours	30 minutes planned physical activity AND 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)
Preschooler	2 hours	60 minutes planned physical activity AND 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)
School Age	1 hour or more	Break up into bouts of 15 minutes or more

TEENS

Infants and young children should not be inactive for prolonged periods of time — no more than 1 hour unless they're sleeping. And school-age children should not be inactive for periods longer than 2 hours.

Listen

Raising a Fit Kid

Combining regular physical activity with a healthy diet is the key to a healthy lifestyle.
Here are some tips for raising fit kids:

• Help your child participate in a variety of activities that are age-appropriate.
• Establish a regular schedule for physical activity.
• Incorporate activity into daily routines, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Embrace a healthier lifestyle yourself, so you'll be a positive role model for your family.
• Keep it fun, so you can count on your child to come back for more.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD
Date reviewed: February 2009

Back

Planned play doesn't have to be gymnastics or little league, though those do qualify. It can be as simple as taking a walk, going for a bike ride, dancing, or playing catch. Free Play is just that where you don't guide a child's imagination, letting them climb, spin, run, play tag, whatever there little hearts (& legs) desire.

 Here are a few websites for more information and ideas for helping get your little one in a grove!

Kids Health
Let's Move Iniative
BAM! (Body and Mind) kids health by the CDC
Kids.Gov