kids

Opening Gifts is FUN! Giveaway’s are FUN!

by Lucky Red Hen on February 18, 2011

This ALMOST became a gift for a far away friend. A Texas themed armadillo stapler! But we decided to just take a picture of it instead. Aren’t we nice? :)

Around here, the birthday person picks whatever dessert their heart desires… hot fudge sundae with sprinkles, bananas and whipped cream (in a can).

The birthday boy hoped for a box from Amazon.com arriving ON his birthday, and that’s EXACTLY what he got (with something inside, of course)! See his excitement over a BOX?!?

And today we get to announce another Giveaway winner! Woot woot! Another gift giving :) My internet was down this morning, so this should’ve happened sooner (sorry about the delay). With only two entries (where my people at?) the odds were high (better than the lottery, that’s for sure)… 50% chance of winning :)

* TIFFANY *

Send me an email to claim your Nie Nie Dialogues Calendar PRIZE! Wee!

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Collecting Rocks at Golden Gardens Beach, 520 Bridge and NieNie Calendar Giveaway

by Lucky Red Hen on February 14, 2011

After getting my zombie post all typed up, photos added, and ABC checked (isn’t that cuter than “spell”?), I realized it was TOO HEAVY to post on such a light holiday, especially with the NieNie Dialogues Calendar giveaway. But the good news is that I already have a full post ready with photos and stories!

Saturday we braved the crummy Seattle weather to beach comb for the Conversation Love Rocks, um, rocks (I couldn’t just say Rocks rocks, could I?) Traffic was a BEAST (pouring rain, even though Seattle is used to it, isn’t fun to drive through, and being a passenger in it is stressful) and I-520, the floating bridge, was packed as cars slowed because of the gusts of wind that made the bridge sway and threw water onto the eastbound traffic.

The calm north end of the lake vs. the choppy south side never ceases to amaze me. Rarely is the scene on each side the same, smooth calm. When it is, you’ll see kayaks, paddle boards, row boats, and standing surf paddling.

Luckily the rain let up long enough for us to find the rocks the kids needed for their Valentine’s. The far end of the beach area had lots for us to choose from as well as barnacled stones to inspect, giant climbing boulders, and photo ops.

Our time spent at the beach was little, so we hope to go more often when the weather is more comfortable for hanging out on the sand and in the water. Hopefully that will be sooner than later.

MONDAY GIVEAWAY!
How about this week we giveaway NieNie’s 2011 Wall Calendar?!? Yay! I ended up with an extra calendar, so I’ll pass along my goof ;) If you don’t already have a 2011 calendar or want another, leave a comment to this post telling me what your FAVORITE MONTH is! Mine is October, because I dig fall and Halloween. Here’s a photo of the actual calendar (and shipping envelope). This will be shipping from a Seattle, WA, USA area post office, so make sure I can ship it to you for under 5 bucks, ok? I don’t have advertisers or sponsors paying for shipping. This is coming from my sweet little home (and wallet) to yours :) Winner will be announced Thursday and with the this Saturday night as the deadline to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen (so come back, mkay?)

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Alternative to Boxed Valentine Cards: Conversation Love Rocks!

by Lucky Red Hen on February 10, 2011

Oh! how I love to happen upon a blog that brings me joy! That’s how I found Color Me Katie (fun, colorful, happenings that she creates in her city and photographs to share), Another Lunch (think Bento box for kidlets) and Michael Naples (complicatedly simple still life small paintings almost daily).

[We announce the Monday Giveaway winner today, at the end of this post!]

Today’s side track brought me quickish, kidlet-friendly projects at Red Bird Crafts as well as a brief heart warming read about her Nanny Ruth’s legacy. Wish I was as diligent as Ruth about documenting life so that one day it may be a treasure to those who read it. Some day, perhaps. [sigh]

When I saw her Conversation Love Rocks post, I just KNEW my daughter might want to make them instead of the Dr. Seuss Valentine’s in a Box we were going to buy. Surprise to me when my 11 year old son wanted to make them too! Psst, parents/friends at my kidlets school, please don’t spoil their Valentine surprise, mkaythanks :)

Our plan is to hunt for the perfect rocks this Saturday. My kidlets have already decided on what fabric they want to use for this friend and that friend. The 7yo has been creating poems, too! [squeal, she's really good at it, but even if she wasn't it'd still be precious!]

Thanks to our quilty neighbor down the street, Laura, for giving us free range on your scrap stash!

[Side note: Laura and I were at a service project Tuesday night, making lap quilts for some assisted-living elderly folks, when she tried laughing at me for stock piling the scraps. In my defense, we needed some big enough pieces to hand embroider each recipients name to make labels/tags for the quilts... but I DO love me little pieces of fabric/paper swatches. When we got down to it, she admitted that she, too, keeps little bits, figuring that one day she'll sew them to each other to make a true Scrap Quilt. She offered to let us come pilfer through her stash whenever we want!]

And now, on to our Monday Giveaway winner of Elena’s 3-Day Green Smoothie eGuide is…

wait, I should also mention that
for the next 48 hours (until Saturday afternoon)
my Lucky Red Hen readers can use code
3DGSLUCKY
for 20% off the eGuide in Elena’s store

* AUBREY *

Congratulations, Aubrey! Send me your email (click on the envelope in the upper right of my blog) so Elena can get you your FREE eGUIDE… WOOT! I hope you like the smoothies as much as I do… actually, I’m going to go make one now for an afternoon snacky snack :) On hand I have apples, frozen bananas (always have those in the freezer), frozen blueberries, grapefruit, spinach, hemp seed and aloe juice. I haven’t used grapefruit before, don’t really eat it by itself, but it’s good for me and smells delicious so I’m going to give it a try!

P.S. Need a wall calendar (I remember one year going two months without a wall calendar because I couldn’t find THE PERFECT one; maybe you don’t have one yet or want/need another)? Like reading NieNie Dialogues ? Next Monday’s Giveaway is NieNie’s calendar, brand new, never been used, still in celophane wrap in case you want to gift it to someone else! (I happen to have an extra one; this giveaway is in no way endorsed by NieNie or her peeples, in case I need to say that for some reason… and it will be shipped/delivered from me.)

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Despicable Me Minion Treats & FREE Giveaway

by Lucky Red Hen on February 8, 2011

[edit: I wrote this yesterday on my fancy smart phone with my index fingers but it doesn't look so smart now that I can't get it to post and have to REWRITE all that work. Hmf.]

My SIL’s bday is today (Sunday; I’m barely getting this post written before midnight [11:58pm], so I hope this counts as me remembering her; especially since I’m writing this on my phone and I just realized I can’t upload the picture from here)… happy birthday, Britanny :)

Last Sunday, the extended family celebrated the February birthday’s at grandma and grandpa’s house. We had another obligation with the youngest, so our oldest (and the Feb. birthday boy) got picked up by his aunt and uncle to enjoy the bday festivities without us. He said he didn’t care that we weren’t coming, since he’d be getting gifts and have Carte Blanche dessert without his sugar-intake-police mom there to decrease/monitor his portion :p

They had yummy dinner, watched Despicable Me on the big screen, and partook of miniature, edible minion’s made by Britanny (she says she found them on the internet somewhere).

The base is a Twinkie (you know those things NEVER deteriorate naturally, hurl); the blue is dyed frosting; black licorice whips for the mouth, goggle straps, and hair; sour, gummy worms for arms; and Sweet Tarts for goggles.

We shared them with some dinner guests. ED couldn’t stop laughing when we presented him his dessert. He has had only ONE Twinkie in his whole life and didn’t remember what it tasted like! That’s probably for the best, don’t cha think?

Speaking of Twinkies… how about a 3-DAY GREEN SMOOTHIE EGUIDE for our Monday Giveaway?!? Well, not actually smoothies, you make them yourself, but a intuitive guide to Green Smoothie’s from my friend Elena at her Eat Healthy, Be Happy blog. She won a FREE BLOG HEADERlast week from my wondrous blog designer, The Blog Fairy, and wanted to pay it forward. Paying it forward is what all the cool kids are doing ;)

Here’s my experiencewith Elena’s 3-DAY GREEN SMOOTHIE CHALLENGE eguide. WARNING: your smoothie doesn’t have to look so green (I swear it doesn’t taste green), but it does in the beginning when you’re learning about the program and following her recipes. The bright green coloring has been replaced by purple hues since I’ve been using red, blue and purple colored fruits. Spinach in the raw/uncooked form tastes like nothing, so you’re tasting the banana, apple, orange and whatever other fruit you use instead :)

Trust me.

The 3-DAY GREEN SMOOTHIE EGUIDE Giveaway Rules:

Internationally friendly giveaway (it’s an eGuide, so it will be delivered via email)
Leave a comment on this post with your feeling about Green Smoothies
The winner must claim their prize by coming back this Thursday and sending me an email so I can forward the info to Elena
For extra entries, you can subscribe to Elena’s newsletter and/or subscribe to her blog RSS feed as well as subscribe to mine :)

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Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox

by Lucky Red Hen on November 1, 2008

7YO: Mom, when you was a little girl and you touched the giraffe… did you get green spots or red spots?

Me: Red (and it’s when I was pregnant with her, not so little of a girl, haha)

7YO: Oh, okay. Did they itch or not?

Me: Yes, they itched very much.

(she runs off to her room, pausing at the doorway to turn and tell me something)

7YO: Wait JUST one SECOND (pointing her finger in the air like she just had an idea.)

(she runs further toward her room and paused again, this time out of sight but within ear shot)

7YO: I mean, maybe not one SECOND but maybe ten minutes.

She was back within 10 seconds after finding the book she thought of, Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox, by Erin Dealey and illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama. Kids have interesting minds.

We will be reading it after lunch :)

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Ebonics

by Lucky Red Hen on October 8, 2008

(psst… thanks BruceBruceBruce for the 24-70… here are my first images from my new/used lens)

This boy of mine cracks me up. All. The. Time. And he wants to crack up his classmates. All. The. Time. Because of the latter, we’ve been getting notes from the teacher on a regular basis. His latest offense is sharpening his pencil… he breaks it so that he’ll have to get up and sharpen it. That’s not the problem (so much), but on his return to his desk, he fake-trips down the aisle. Not once, not twice, but three times in ONE trip, causing disruption of the class with giggles and guffaws. That’s my boy, my funny little boy.

So the teacher gives the kids warnings up on the board. You’d think this was embarrassing, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. [For those who don't know him, I should explain that he's a gooood kid, not violent, kind and helpful, talks cleanly and is a favorite among his peers and leaders. He's a sweet boy who loves to snuggle, draw, create and explore.] At a certain point he’ll have to suffer some minutes from recess to stay in class and be put to work (which he LOVES doing) and writes up his own note about his behavior for us to sign and return.

Today’s read (spelling intact):

I owed recess because
I cept draking my pencil
(his b’s and d’s get mixed up).

I think I can improve by
not having to get this sheet ever agian.

(His previous couple notes home read:
I think I can improve by
not doing it agian.)

We’ve emailed the teacher and I stopped by the school and talked to her AND his last year’s teacher to show that we’re committed to nipping this in the bud and finding a way for him to express his personality without disrupting the class and causing havoc for the teacher.

Another funny about him today was his spelling test practice.

Instead of DIDN’T he spelled
DI N’T and I couldn’t help but
go into Ebonics and say
with some sass,
“Oh NO you DI N’T!”

We laughed and he eventually got the proper spelling down pat :)

And this little girl, she just warms my heart. I’m going to have a handful of somethin’ with her later, but so far she’s happy as a clam at 1/2 day kindergarten. As she gets off the bus at the end of her day, the entire bus of her classmates shout their farewell’s and she pops her hand up in the air in a quick traditional princess wave without looking back :)
THIS little stinker on the other hand… she’s REAL cute, but REALLY noisy when she spies something move outside our windows. She’ll perch herself at the back door and tennis-style watch for runners or dog walkers (the occasional horses too) to pass on the trail that runs behind our house. Her freak out bark pierces our ears instead of her intent of warning the passersby. We try telling her that they can’t hear her, but she just won’t listen :p
We’re decked out for Halloween, far sooner than anyone else we’ve seen in the neighborhood. We [heart] Halloween!
I thought this was a funny image… our German armoire that’s stuffed with craft supplies and the rack next to it that houses the leftovers. So many projects, so little time. When I look at this picture, I can see so many stories in such a small, little space. The two bunnies, apron, watermelon fabric, glass rocks, two packs of twistable crayons (God’s gift to mothers everywhere), ME pin cushion chair, Longaberger sewing basket, the purple cup, the two tiny containers on top of the paper storage and the chunk of fabric on the top shelf. Oh the stories.
Hey, look… proof that I [heart] Target too!

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Christmas Photos

by Lucky Red Hen on April 17, 2008

We’re way past Christmas (has it really been that long?) and I’m trying to organize this house. Seems that the places I thought would work for things aren’t so I’m rearranging. Don’t even get me started on the garage (looking forward to Ben making shelves so we can find stuff). We still haven’t unpacked everything, so I wonder if my attempts to organize will be shot once we open the rest of the boxes.

Anywho… as I’ve been shuffling, I came across my precious Christmas photo cards and pictures that friends and family send every year.

For the record: I LOVE getting photos from friends and family, anytime of year.

But now I wonder what to do with them. They’ll certainly not go in the trash (I don’t throw friends and family in the trash, thank you). I’d rather them not spend the year in a box somewhere. There are too many for frames (although they all DESERVE a coveted spot in a frame, but I don’t have the space to then put those frames). Not being a fan, the traditional peel and stick albums aren’t an option, especially because I’d like to have them alphabetized then add to them each year.

Ooh, that reminds me of something that might work… but I still wanna know if you have ideas.

I diiiiid see a cutecutecute album thingy that a friend at church made for each of her girls. It was a SUUUPER simple idea, although she did WAY more than my short-attention-span could handle (in a scrapbooky sort of way). Right about now would be perfect for a visual aid, but I don’t have one so you’ll have to use your imagination.

It’s an A to Z book. Each letter has it’s own page. Each page has a picture of the subject of honor doing the particular letter, like: asleep for Sleeping, laughing for Joy, looking cute for Cute, holding a ball for Ball. Then each page had simple lettering added such as “S is for sleeping” applied with the S being a die cut. To finish, each page is laminated (thickly), hole-punched and attached using a simple binder ring (kinda like a skinny metal shower curtain ring) with matching ribbons knotted to it. SOOO cute!

Q: So do YOU have any ideas for the Christmas pictures?

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