Sum- sum- summertime!

No matter what the calender says, Memorial Day weekend is the start of summer for me.  I love summer...there is just so much to see and do! It's hard to fit in everything before Labor Day (the end of summer in my mind), but we sure are going to try this year.  To keep us on track, I made a (Pinterest-inspired) kid-friendly summer fun list to keep track of our goals and plans. 

The list includes visits to three zoos, three festivals, two theme parks, several area attractions and one water park.  I also listed stuff to do, such as watch a movie in a theater, make snow cones, go for a bike ride, and more.  There's 25 things to do and places to go on that list. Summertime fun will be ours!

The kids' summer to-do list was so fun to make that I made a to-do list for me in the same style.  While most people might find their summer fun hampered by to-do's, accomplishing big projects gives me such a great feeling that I had to plan some for the summer.  My list includes painting rooms and furniture, tackling huge projects like the garage and basement workroom, and catching up on the kids' scrapbooks and photo albums.  My list isn't as long as the first one, but I'm sure as some projects are checked off, other ones will be added.   

With the start of summer, we already got to cross one thing off of the summertime fun to-do list...we watched the Memorial Day parade.  My Little Guy was more than happy to mark the occasion. 

Then Little Miss kicked off summer in her own way by putting her purse on her head.

That's just how she rolls, I guess.

What do you have planned for this summer?  Do you plan or do you just go with the flow?  Whatever your plans may be, I hope you have a fun (and safe) time.

Happy planning and happy summer!

Manda Monday--Now at Wheaton Park District!

Happy Monday, everyone!

I'm thrilled to announce that in addition to my summer classes at Waubonsee Community College, I'm now also at Wheaton Park District! I hope you can join me for one, or all, of my classes there.

Coupon Royalty

Coupon queens (and kings!) are able to cut their grocery and drug store bills in half and obtain products for free, and so can you! Become “coupon royalty” by making coupons work for you.   Learn the rules for spotting the best deals in stores; pairing coupons with sales, rebates, and customer loyalty programs; and using the best coupon web sites. Join Coupon Princess Amanda Grant (that's me!) in pursuit of the perfect balance of efficient and ethical couponing techniques.

Mondays, June 11-25, 7-8:30pm, Cost: $31 for residents, $39 for non-residents


The Ultimate Roadtrip: How to Survive (and enjoy!) a Family Vacation

Summer vacations are a great time to create memories with your family.  Make sure those memories are happy ones with surefire strategies that make “getting there” half the fun! Learn fun games suitable for all ages, techniques to get the best behavior from your travel buddies, and ways for each family member to participate in decision-making.   Tips for travelling on a budget with kids are included.  Happy travels!

Tuesday, June 12, 7-9pm, Cost: $29 for residents, $36 for non-residents

Saved by the Bell: Getting Your Family Organized in Time for School

The school bell will ring in a few weeks…is your family ready to make the transition from summer fun to school readiness? Start the process now with tips and techniques to get your family organized including:  strategies for getting ready for school the night before, how to get kids to complete housework and homework with minimal complaint, creating routines that get your family out of the door on time in the morning, and ideas for a family communication station to handle permission slips, sports schedules, family events and more. Make the transition from summer fun to school adventures a happy and calm one for your family.   

Thursday, July 12, 7-9pm, Cost: $29 for residents, $36 for non-residents

For more information, or to register, go here.  I hope to see you this summer!

Summer fun

Okay, it's still spring, but the free and fun family activities have already begun.  A few weeks ago, I took the kids to the Kane County Farm Bureau's Touch-A-Tractor event. Little Guy and Little Miss had a ton of fun (maybe too much fun--there were temper tantrums as we were leaving) and I was happy to have a free, family-friendly activity to share with the kids.

In the coming weeks, I'll be searching the web and newspapers for more fun, free family events to fill up our summer months.  As I found last summer, there is plenty to see and do around here. 

For tips on how to find free or low-cost events in your community, read this post on Living Well and Spending Less in the Summer.  Happy planning!

Cards and kids

I've been on a craft kick lately, and I'm trying to get my kids into the act.  Fortunately, they are happy to color, paint and draw, which makes for some fun art projects. 

We did some hand print cards for Valentine's Day:

The thumbs, fingers and sides of the palms are supposed to form the shape of a heart. We didn't quite get there, but that's okay because my kids had a lot of fun making these cards, and that's really all that matters.

Notice the entire roll of paper towels in the background. Just in case!

I like to buy plain white 5x7 cards/envelopes in 25- and 50-packs from JoAnn's and Michael's.  They make perfect canvasses for send-able artwork.

Here, Little Miss made a birthday card for the Big Guy:

I'd like to emphasize at this time that Crayola Washable markers are, in fact, truly washable.

The Little Guy used Crayola watercolors for his card for the Big Guy.  Also totally washable.

The kids really enjoy their craft projects, and I like being able to send their fun pictures to friends and family.  Plus, I'll never need to buy another birthday card again! 

Need a rainy day (or any day!) craft project for your kids? Pick up some plain white cards/envelopes at the craft store and let them do their thing!

A colorful Valentine's Day

Little Guy and Little Miss will be giving out these adorable crayon hearts for Valentine's Day:

Though it's been making the rounds on Pinterest, I first saw this idea in Family Fun a few years ago. Start by breaking up crayons. There's no need to buy new crayons for this project; I simply used all the crayon bits and pieces that my kids have broken over the past two years, as well as the crayons they get whenever we go to a restaurant. Between the crayon box, the diaper bag and the bottom of my purse, we had more than enough crayons to make 24 crayon hearts.  In fact, I could probably make 24 more!

Little Guy and Little Miss had a fun time filling the molds.  I broke each crayon into 3-4 pieces, and each heart-shaped cavity holds 6-8 pieces of crayon.  I always like craft projects that my kids can help with; not only is it fun for the family, but it also gives them a sense of ownership and pride in the finished product.

The baking molds went into a 230F oven for 10-15 minutes.  As you can see, some brand/type of crayons didn't melt well, but otherwise everything melted just fine. After the tins cooled, the crayons popped right out.

I decided to save a bit of time by using a pre-made cards for the crayons. I found this one, from The Long Thread, that prints out four to a page. Sweet!

Though it may look complicated, this Valentine's Day project is really easy to do and doesn't take a lot of time.  The hardest part might have been breaking the crayons!  Overall, this took less than an hour to do and it was a fun project for the kids.

And bonus: Little Guy's preschool friends will get a crayon, and not a sugary treat, for Valentine's Day.  That really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Spoon microphone

Sunday's Super Souper Bowl was a blast, and I tried to get some interviews with some of the contestants. I had been drinking a bit by the time these interviews started, and it shows: I accidentally stumble over my words and call my blog the Marsha Initiative. 

Which is weird, because I don't even know a Marsha.

But using a ladle as a microphone?  That just makes sense.

The background is kind of loud (there were eight kids, six of whom are under the age of 5) and I hadn't warned anyone about doing the on-camera interviews, but I think that only improves the content. Enjoy!

A trophy for the Titan of the Tureen

Our Second Annual Super Souper Bowl Party is right around the corner.  There's still a lot to be done (clean the house, rearrange furniture, make all the appetizers, bake desserts, stop the kids from destroying the house that I will have just finished cleaning, etc.) but I am totally ready with the trophy.

For those new to the blog, our Super Souper Bowl party is a contest: guests bring their prized chili, soup, or stew, everyone samples the fare, and we vote on our favorite.  The winner takes home a totally awesome trophy and bragging rights for the year. Last year's winner Michelle won with her version of Paula Deen's taco soup:

Just like last year, this year's trophy is hand-made from bits and pieces I found at a local resale shop.  The candlestick was $1.50 and the bowl was $0.90. Unbeknownst to me, both were half-off, so the cost for the materials was only $1.10. Score!

After cleaning both pieces, I used a hot glue gun to adhere the bowl to the candlestick.  Easy!  Side note: I love my glue gun but rarely use it. I need to find more opportunities to glue stuff together.

Once the glue was dry, I spray painted the whole thing gold.  It's gorgeous! Truly, this is a chalice worthy of a Queen of the Crockpot.  Or Titan of the Tureen.  Or King of the Cook-Off. 

Whatever we call the champ, and whoever that person may be, I think we all know who the real winner is:  ME.  Because people are bringing food to my house.  So that I can eat it. And award this awesome trophy. Score!

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" themed birthday

Last February, we attended a darling little boy's first birthday party with the theme The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it was adorable! 

Yes, as this same child's second birthday is looming over me, I am just now posting this.  I know, believe me, I know. 

The cake, cupcakes and centerpieces were all made by the birthday boy's mommy (Hi, Deena!) and she did a great job.  Take a look:

I was really baffled by how Deena shaped the cupcakes like real apples until I bit into one:  she frosted the cupcakes, put a mini-donut on top, and frosted some more. Brilliant!

For the centerpieces, Deena put the Caterpillar image on foam board, and placed it in a cute box with realistic grass and flowers.  These looked wonderful, and I was really impressed that such a professional-looking product could be home-made. Great job, Deena!

If you have a fun birthday or party theme you'd like me to feature on The Martha Initiative, then please invite me to the party.  I'll bring my camera and my appetite...like the hungry caterpillar, I'm always ready to eat!

Mag-neato!

Here's yet another great thing I saw on Pinterest and replicated: an oil drip pan magnet board for the kiddos.

Like most households with small children, we have a ridiculous amount of fun magnets.  My kids play with these a decent amount, but for some reason they played the most with the magnets just as I was starting to make dinner every night.  As you can imagine, having two small children parked in front of the refrigerator during meal preparation time was not convenient.  Especially when I am rushing to get a meal in the oven before those two small children turn into ravenous wolves.

In addition to battling the kids to stop playing with magnets long enough for me to get in and out of the fridge, the magnets themselves were tearing up my walls when the fridge door was completely open. Not cool.

Tee hee.  I said "cool" while talking about my refrigerator. See what I did there?!

Enter one oil drip pan. I bought this at my local Super-Walmart for $9.96--it was in the automotive section.  It had an oily coating (no doubt to make it easier to get actual oil off) but that came off easily with a de-greasing cleanser. 

Big Guy secured the drip pan to the wall with screws, and it is located under our huge cork board communication center. The kids can still play with their magnets in the kitchen, but now they are not directly underfoot.  Score!

This magnet board was an easy and inexpensive solution to a small but vexing problem.  And now that the kids' magnets are gone, my refrigerator front looks so much more organized and clean! 

Right?! Well, maybe not...the stuff that's left is mostly mine.  I'm working on it, okay?

Manda Monday--Merry? Very!

The television-turned-puppet-theater is a hit!  Little Guy performs productions using many of the 28 puppets the kids received yesterday, while Little Miss has commandeered it as her very own playhouse.  Project Sony was a total and complete success!

We had a great Christmas, and I hope you did, too!  

Puppet Masterpiece Theater

A year ago, Handy Freddy and Big Guy brought home a huge TV left on the street by a neighbor.  It didn't work very well, so it sat in our basement for quite some time.  My idea was to have Handy Freddy gut it and turn it into a puppet theater for the kids.

Fast forward to November: Little Guy was sick and laying on the couch and said to me, "Mom, do you know what would be cool? A television that I could climb inside and do puppet shows."

Jaw. Hit. The. Floor. "Wow, what a great idea! That would be really cool!"

Little Guy has actually been inside a huge television doing a puppet show before.  It was last November, when the Jim Henson exhibit came to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  The exhibit included a huge television that could fit a dozen or so kids, plenty of puppets, backgrounds and costumes, and small television monitors inside the larger stage television so the kids could see their production as the audience saw it.  It was an awesome exhibit and a fun experience. Little Guy talked about it for days.

Now, in all fairness, I might have mentioned the possibility of turning the broken television into a puppet theater once to the Little Guy over the summer.  I truly don't remember.  It could be that he remembered the Jim Henson exhibit and wanted to recreate the experience--after all, Little Guy is very into puppets and play acting.  I do know that I decided that this should be the big Santa gift sometime in the fall, and it certainly wasn't discussed with the kids past that. 

So whether Little Guy came up with the idea on his own, or remembered that I said something about it months ago, this gift is obviously going to be a hit.  He even asked the Blackberry Farm Santa for a "television he could climb inside and do a puppet show in."  Score!

Handy Freddy gutted the television last month, and I spray painted the inside over the past few weeks. It took several coats of white primer and a few coats of color to get it smooth and even.  MOM2 made cushions and curtains for the theater in coordinating fabrics.

The above picture shows the fabric, but the curtains aren't in yet. They'll be held up by a tension rod just inside the frame of the television. Everything will be fully assembled tonight. 

Little Guy has also been asking for elf and reindeer puppets.  Done and done!

The elf puppets are from the Fiesta Toy Company.  I looked all over for handmade elf puppets, but had no luck.  Luckily, I found some adorable reindeer puppets on Etsy.  These are from Val's Various Creations, and she did an amazing job with them.  Lovely Val even sent a nice note with the puppets, saying she hoped my kids enjoy them.  I am sure they will, Val!

Needless to say, I am so excited for this Christmas, maybe even more so than my kids!  Little Guy is going to get exactly what he asked for from Santa, and I am so happy that I can give it to him.  I realized this does leave Little Miss out a bit, though she loves playing with puppets just as much as Little Guy does.  Little Miss is still too young to understand everything, and since she is still mostly babbling she hasn't made any specific Christmas requests.  I hope that they both love this puppet theater, and maybe next year when Little Miss is speaking clearly I can make a wish come true for her as well.

And I owe a huge thanks to Handy Freddy and MOM2 for helping me make this very special request become a reality. Thank you! 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyful Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays to all.  Whatever you celebrate, I hope all of your dreams and wishes come true.  Have a wonderful holiday!