The photo you get...

... when you ask the kids to pose so you will have a keepsake of the super gigantic snowstorm, which was probably - but not definitely because we're still waiting for the official totals from the NWS - the biggest snowfall ever in your town in the history of ever, and while you are taking the photo one of the three kids gets bored and walks off so they aren't even in the photo, and the other two are actually posing with their arms around each other and smiling right when your husband decides to use his brand-new snowblower for the very first time which you probably don't need me to tell you this last part, but he does not even one little bit know how to use.

CLICK.

Five Ways to Have a Swell Snow Day

Clearly I do not live in Hawaii.

This year, if you live just about anywhere except Hawaii, you've had a lot of snow days A lot. Even our southern friends who don't usually get to spend one of these charming surprise vacation days with their kids have gotten one - and sometimes even more - this year.
With it looking more likely than not that another super-fun snow day will be happening this week for folks all over the East Coast, I'm sharing five super-fun ways to have a swell snow day... just in case you're running a little short on ways to entertain the kids.


1. Have a Yes Day. This is a day where you say yes to all of your children's outrageous demands, which luckily can't be too outrageous because you're housebound. We did this on a snow day last week, and while it did force me to live tweet my descent into madness, fighting amongst the offspring was at an all-time low due to their easy agreement that the day should follow this pattern: TV-candy-TV-candy-Wii-candy-TV.


2. Have a Backwards Day. Start the day with books in bed reading the back page first, then have dinner for breakfast, with dessert first of course! When you get dressed, put on your clothes backwards, walk backwards, write backwards, maybe even play some backwards games like seeing how many tries it takes to recite the alphabet Z to A. End with breakfast for dinner, and let the kids sleep in their clothes if they want to keep the game going until the last possible moment.


3. Have a "Perfect Mother" Day. This is one of my favorite strategies for surviving a snow day. I make a schedule for everything for the whole entire day, which includes games, crafts and snacks, and then stick to it as best I can. My kids usually love following a list if I make a big show of writing it all down and having them cross the items off one-by-one as we go along. For my "Perfect Mother" Day, I have projects planned (and supplies sourced the night before), a few good books that aren't overly-familiar ready for reading, and maybe a surprise or two I actually think-up beforehand. (A scavenger hunt outdoors in the snow or an obstacle course indoors are usual favorites.) I actually set the table for breakfast before the kids wake-up in the morning, and I pre-plan what we’ll eat for all three meals and the two snacks throughout the day so I don’t have to rush around figuring this out like I usually do when I'm having a normal "Regular Mother at Best" day. I even make the kids put away one toy before they take out another, all the while using the schedule as the reason why we need to finish one activity and cross it off so we can move on to the next one.


4. Have a Guest Mom Day. I have this day all the time. For this day, I beg my mother/best friend/distant cousin/neighbor to come over and help me out. If the roads are passable, I hire a babysitter. And if all else fails, I plead with my husband to take the day off, please.


5. Have a Be Yourself Day. Another favorite at our house, this day is not as easy as it sounds, but it’s a great option. Be yourself, even if that person is cranky, tired, and maybe even just a teensy bit impatient with her beloved children. Let your kid be himself, even if that person is whiny, fighty, or prone to saying repeatedly “I’m bored.” Just be glad there is no school to be on time for, no homework to do, no ballet class to go to, and my personal favorite, no lunches to pack.


And remember what people tell you all the time and you know deep down must be true, or why would people say it all the time… they’re only young once. Enjoy it. 


Even on the *$@* snow day this season.


Need a few more ideas for keeping kids entertained on the snow day? Check out:

• Lazy Mom's Guide to Snow Day Activities
• Snow Day Ice Cube Scavenger Hunt
• How to Make Snow Ice Cream
• How to Make Q-Tip Snowflakes

Q-Tip Snowflakes - Easy Craft with Kids

With so many people having snow and cold weather in the forecast this week, I'm sharing this craft from last year in case you need something easy and fun to do with the kids that should keep them occupied for 5-10 minutes, but don't worry, the clean-up will take much longer!
With just Q-tips, paper plates, watercolor paints and whatever else you have in your craft drawer, kids can create fun masterpieces like these made by my daughter Kay (age 7):

and this awesome snowflake:



For more fun snowflake crafts you can make with clever items like price tag stickers check out Simple & Striking Snowflake Crafts for Kids, and you can find directions for a handprint snowflake here.

Farewell Noel: The Greatest and Most Depressing Christmas Tree Video You'll Ever See

For anyone who has ever laid awake at night wondering what happens to all those New York City Christmas trees, this video reveals the sad truth.


Farewell, Noel.

With thanks to A.E., the genius behind Farewell Noel.

Snow Day Fun: Have an Ice Cube Scavenger Hunt in the Snow

A while back I read about this really cool ice cube scavenger hunt in the snow on Parents.com. With snow in our forecast I decided I would freeze a batch of red hearts for my kids to look for in the snow.

To have an ice cube scavenger hunt in your snowy yard all you need is:



Snow - we used the ones provided by nature, but if you have a snow maker, that would work fine, too.

Frozen Ice Cubes - we have heart shaped muffin trays, which were perfect, but regular ice cube trays are just as good. I used two different colors so each kid could search for their "own" hearts. I added a few drops of food coloring to water in a cup, then poured into the trays and froze.



Good Hiding Skills - while your kids aren't looking, go outside and hide the ice cubes for the scavenger hunt in the snow.



Depending on your kids ages, you might want to make them a map to use to find the ice cube hearts, or you could give them clues or riddles to solve to lead them to the hidden ice cubes.



Warm Clothes to Bundle-up - now go outside and enjoy your snow day ice cube scavenger hunt!

You can find some fun facts about ice to add an educational component to the ice cube scavenger hunt at Go on An Ice Cube Treasure Hunt on NWF.org.



What are your favorite things to do outside with the kids on a snow day?

If you're visiting from Pop Sugar a big hello, welcome and glad you're here!

Be sure to check out more crafts and fun on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

And for some serious laughs, check out my husband's grocery list and these reviews of Haribo Sugarless Gummy Bears.

World's Best Homemade Hot Chocolate

I've been obsessing over making homemade hot chocolate lately - and why not? With three little kids and winter weather, pretty much every day is a hot chocolate day around here. I've even gotten a little creative with our recipes.

After a lot of tries here in our Random Handprints test kitchen, here are our top three picks for the world's best homemade hot chocolate:

1. Nutella Hot Chocolate. This is a little time/effort intensive, but worth it if your kids are Nutella fans like mine are. All you need to do is heat milk in a pan on the stove, and stir in 2 tablespoons of Nutella per cup, until it dissolves. Amazing.

3. Authentic Mexican Hot Chocolate - made with fair-trade Taza chocolate, the recipe is on their website. Another one that involves some time dissolving chocolate on the stove, but so worth it for the yummy results.

2. Jacques Torres Hot Chocolate - ready to mix-and-go, and as the tagline on the tin reads "Better than you can remember." And it so is.

Do you have a favorite way to make hot chocolate? Share, please!

Crafts and Snowflakes with Q-Tips

My daughter Kay was home today with a hurt hand - an injury she received while crouching by the side of the ATM and invoking her favorite alternate persona, Baby Fish. Unfortunately for Kay Baby Fish, while crouched she nudged a big piece of marble that fell on her hand, er or would that actually be her fin?



Ironically enough, this all happened on the way to a well-child visit to the pediatrician. But instead we came into the waiting room like it was an ER with Kay (Baby Fish had swam away by now) sobbing hysterically and her hand already swelled up to the size and color of a boxing glove.



Anyway, the hand still isn't quite right (although thankfully an x-ray revealed no break) so she stayed home today with me. 



As you may recall, last time she was home from school we made toothpick art:

Not to be outdone, today I brought out the Q-tips.



She made a bunch of cool designs:

and this awesome snowflake:

And while I will admit I sorta think she should've gone to school, as long as Kay Baby Fish was home, I'm glad we got to spend some time together and make these q-tip crafts.



For more fun snowflake crafts you can make with clever items like price tag stickers check out Simple & Striking Snowflake Crafts for Kids.


And yes, you can learn how to make a handprint snowflake here.

Winter Vacation - The First Half

We are just about at the half-way point of the kids winter vacation, and while they have complained a bit of being bored,  it has been really fun.

Our family's Hanukkah celebration has come to an end, finally. Like many endings, it was bittersweet. The family gathering at the front bay window was an evening tradition I came to cherish - even as it came with squabbles over who was standing closer, whose turn it was to light the candles... you know, the usual holiday traditions.


Photo from American Vernacular Landscapes

My son brought home from preschool a homemade menorah I adore:

As for presents, we gave Kay, who is six, a rite-of-passage gift I was so happy to give her - a book light, signifying not only that she can read now but that now that she can read after lights-out. She beamed.

And for Magpie, who is eight, a literary upgrade as well - a reading chair from her grandma:

Big Duckie likes the chair, too:

Other things making the kids happy, Kay's new Huggie Pillow, "Peace-y"

And Magpie's new reading obsession, The Dork Diaries:

And Ziggy, he is loving Richard Scarry books and looking for Mr. Frumble's hat:

And I'm loving having gotten a couple of photos of all the kids together:

We've seen the holiday lights at the Turtle Back Zoo:

And we continued our annual Merry Zoo Day tradition, which is going on eight years now:

And already, I know there is one thing I'll be doing next year. I overheard Magpie whisper to her little sister on the last day of Hanukkah, "There's only one night left, I don't think there's much chance I'm getting that iTouch."

Sorry, kid. But I'm so planning on it for next year.
How is your winter vacation? Too long or too short? Or just right?

Winter Holiday Handprint Crafts - Christmas, Hanukkah and the Winter Solstice, too

Are you here from a search you just did for hand print arts and crafts for the holidays?

Whether you are looking for a Christmas tree, a handprint wreath,a Hannukah menorah or a non-denominational winter solstice craft .... you've come to the right place if you want to make it with handprints.

Image Source

Hanukkah menorah

And if you're just looking for a general collection of winter ideas, we have snowflakes,snowy trees and a polar bear:

And if you are here looking for a handprint craft project we don't have...just leave a comment and let me know, and I'll be sure to add it!

Happy holiday handprint crafting!

Looking for even more handprint crafts? Here's the full list.

Instructions for my Husband: Black Ice is Real. For Reals.

Photo from DJTrousdale.com

 

Yes, you are lucky enough to be married to my super-creative and incredibly imaginative self. And yet...

I did not personally make-up black ice. Black ice is real. And it is dangerous. For reals.

I "googled it" and found not only the awesome photo above from DJ Trousdale, but also this online proof taken directly from an update from the one-and-only NOAA:

Issued by The National Weather Service New York City, NY . . .

... AREAS OF DANGEROUS BLACK ICE EARLY THIS MORNING...
LIGHT WINDS AND MOISTURE LEFT OVER FROM YESTERDAY'S LIGHT RAIN HAS ALLOWED FOR THE FORMATION OF BLACK ICE OVERNIGHT AS TEMPERATURES HAVE FALLEN TO OR BELOW FREEZING. THIS THIN LAYER OF ICE THAT YOU'LL LIKELY FIRST NOTICE ON CARS PARKED OUTSIDE OVERNIGHT IS ALSO COVERING AT LEAST SOME ROADWAYS. THIS ICY CONDITION IS COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS BLACK ICE.
TRAVELERS SHOULD ALLOW EXTRA STOPPING DISTANCE AND BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR POSSIBLE ICY CONDITIONS THROUGH EARLY THIS MORNING. BLACK ICE IS MOSTLY LIKELY ON SECONDARY AND TERTIARY ROADWAYS AS WELL AS WALKWAYS... THOUGH PORTIONS OF LESS TRAVELED HIGHWAYS MAY BE ICY AS WELL.

Also, Black ice has its very own entry on Wikipedia, so it has to be real.

And last, there is no mention of a black ice myth anywhere on Snopes.

Is there something I'm missing? Is black ice a myth? A fad? A hoax?

This is my seventh post in my ongoing series of Instructions for My Husband.

Magpie goes to her first basketball game! Go Rutgers!

Twitter, the gift that keeps on giving. First, I won Pee-wee Herman tickets. And then, I won two tickets to the Rutgers Women's Basketball game against Syracuse from NJ.com.

The Rutgers tickets were perfect because they were for last Sunday's game, and I had hoped something super-fun was going to drop out of the sky (or in this case, the Internet) because my daughter Kay had a friend coming over and I just didn't see a lot of harmony going on between those two and Magpie. Also, at the ancient age of seven, I felt Magpie was well over-due for a basketball outing, and I had heard the college women's games were just perfect because you can sit really close to the court and see all the action.

Of course, my husband jumped at the chance to take Magpie. I'm sure this is because he had been secretly yearning for a special father-daughter outing, and had absolutely nothing to do with avoiding the alternative activity - supervising two five-year-olds and a toddler. Whatever the motivations, they had a blast at the game. I highly recommend catching a college basketball game with your kids, the tickets aren't very expensive (ranges from $10 for general admission up to $30 for reserved court side) and you may even be there on a fun giveaway day like ours:

In addition to watching the actual basketball game:

Magpie was the first to admit she also loved the cheerleaders:

And of course, the team's mascot, the Scarlet Knight:

The Rutgers regular season ends on Monday, February 28, with a 7pm game at Seton Hall in South Orange, NJ which I'm can only imagine is a big deal.

All photos taken by Magpie with her very own camera that she really wishes I would stop borrowing whenever I forget to charge my own.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday - Two Ways of Looking at a Snow Storm

When we get a big winter snow (or even worse, the dreaded wintry mix) this is what I see:

Our car needing to be dug out.

Our roof, with snow that needs to be removed from it.

Our gutters, which may (or may not) be suffering from ice damming.

And my daughter, Kay, this is what she sees:

Tunnels that need to be dug.

Hair that needs to be styled in snow-locks.

 Angels that need to be made.

What about you? Does winter weather bring out your inner-kid or your inner-grouch?

Fun Handprint Art Projects for February: Chinese New Year, Super Bowl Sunday and Endless Winter

With so many folks getting directed here from Search looking for Handprint Art Projects to do with kids, I've decided to start doing a round-up each month. Here's what I have for a fabulous February of handprints:

Chinese New Year starts this Thursday, February 3, ushering in the Year of the Rabbit.

Activity Village has a really fun dragon that is made from cut-out or painted handprints. This is a great project for a lot of kids, as you can just keep adding handprints to the dragon's body.

Picture from ActivityVilliage.co.uk

If you're looking for more crafts for Chinese New Year, including ones featuring rabbits, they have plenty to choose from here.

This Sunday, Feb. 6, brings The Superbowl which I hear from sportsball fans is a big game, maybe even The Big Game.

Play With Me has a great handprint football project. My husband reports that the teams playing are the Pittsburgh Steelers (Black and Gold) and the Green Bay Packers (Green and Yellow) if you want to tie those colors in, too.

Picture from Playtimewithmommy.blogspot.com

And last, a round-up of February wouldn't be complete without a mention of The Snow that has been particularly widespread this year. Where I live on the East Coast we haven't seen our lawn since December.  And with the snow coming down now, I don't think we'll be seeing it anytime soon.

Playtime with Mommy has some adorable Handprint Mittens, perfect for celebrating any wintry February day. She has a lot of other fun crafts too for making the most of these snowy days.

Picture from Playtimewithmommy.blogspot.com

What holidays did I forget? Tell me what other days you celebrate, and more importantly, do you celebrate with handprint crafts?

Happy February!

PS If you're looking for Handprint crafts for Valentines Day, they got their own post.

Wordless Wednesday: Day Off From School, Messy House, Happy Kids

Ziggy enjoying the splendid mess.

Kay and Rody, all dressed-up for the winter day.