Craft Failing... Again!

Thanks to Robyn and Craft Fail for featuring my son's latest creation, Home Tweet Home Improvement.

Here's an example of the first of many outtakes, but for it's fully craft fail glory head over to Craft Fail.

Spoiler Alert: the bird house turns out spectacularly!

Bye, Summer.

I realized that today is the last (official) day of summer. So to say goodbye to what is by far my most favorite of the seasons, here is an amazing video from mon chere Liz, who came all the way from Paris to share in a summer that was much too fun, and much too short.

 

And because the director is missing from her film, here's Liz:

 

Bye summer 2013. Thanks for the memories.

The last night of summer vacation

It seems like just yesterday it was the last day of school.

And yet, already, another summer is now in the family history books.

 

 

 

 

The kids go back to school tomorrow.

 

 

 

And as it does every year, the summer just went by much too fast.

Mom's Ultimate Summer Bucket List

It seems everywhere I look - including the handwritten list in my own kitchen - I see a list of awesome things to do with your kids before summer ends, usually given a jaunty title like Ultimate Summer Bucket List.

Favorite must-dos that I see appear over and over again on these lists include:

• Catch lightening bugs
• Make s'mores
• Go out for ice cream
• Have a sleepover under the stars

I will note that these activities involve late nights and disrupted bedtimes, sugar overloads, and me needing to light a real-live actual fire.

In short, while these may be great, memorable activities for my kids there's not so much in it for me.

Which is why I've decided to spend less time making sure we check everything off a kid-centric Ultimate Summer Bucket List and spend more time getting to the items on my newly created Mom's Ultimate Summer Bucket List.

In no particular order, here are 20 things I plan to do before summer 2013 kicks the bucket.

1. Sleep-in to 9:00 am. Just once.

2. Pee alone. This includes not talking to me through the closed door.

3. Shower alone. Again, I'm not alone if someone is talking to me.

4. Drink one full cup of coffee, while still hot, completely uninterrupted.

5. Read a novel in the backyard hammock.

6. Eat a grown-up dinner at a nice restaurant with my husband. After 8:00 pm.

7. Mother-daughter trip to the mall. (Note: the mother referred to here is my mom, and I'm the daughter.)

8. Eat hard-shelled crabs on the deck. With beer. Lots of beer.

9. Take a family hike. Bonus request: no whining.

10. See the sunrise - by choice, not as an unfortunate result of getting-up with early risers.

11. Have power of selection over the TV for an entire night.

12. Ladies lunch in Manhattan with my mom and daughters. I choose the restaurant.

13. Mother-son outing to the dog park. Admire the canines, but none of them have to be taken care of by me.

14. Watch a Rated R movie.

15. One entire day when no one - including me - requests to use the computer or the iPad or to check "just one quick thing" on the phone.

16.  Enjoy the sweet sounds of my children playing for more than 10 minutes before fighting ensues.

17. Visit our old neighborhood in Manhattan while the kids listen with rapt attention to stories about when they were babies.

18. One good celebrity sighting.

19. Spend a day at the beach and no one gets sunburned.

20. Go to sleep at 9:00 pm. Just once.

What about you? What's on your Summer Bucket List?

An Easy Way to Entertain a Toddler on a Hot Summer Day

This project is from last summer. In honor of too many 90+ degree days lately, I'm re-posting it for anyone who has hot weather, and a toddler, and needs a fun idea.

Any toddler age two and over will enjoy poking around in a block of ice that is filled with tiny toys.

For my son, I just froze some of the toys he already owned (sequins, beads, little plastic guys) but you could make this project really exciting and freeze some not-yet-seen items.

All you need to do is take a plastic container fill it about 3/4 full with water and throw in the toys. If your child is doing this with you, my cousin Patsy pointed-out you could play "sink or float" while you do it.

Then pop the whole container of water and toys into the freezer and enjoy listening to your toddler ask "is it ready yet?" for the next several hours.

Once completely frozen (or semi-frozen works, too), head outdoors and let your child enjoy going on an icy treasure hunt to get the toys out of the frozen block.

I gave my son a plastic knife to explore and excavate with, but more safety-minded parents might want to find something less sharp to arm their toddlers with for this portion of the activity.

It was really fun when the ice block split into two pieces, but was still attached via the strand of broken Mardi Gras beads.

Ziggy came up with the fun idea of using our wet hands to make handprints on the steps. Which obviously, I loved.

We used the chunks of ice that broke off to make drawings, and at his prompting, I wrote our names.

And while I would be lying if I said I wouldn't have minded it being a few degrees cooler, it was a really fun way to spend a summer's day with my son.

Hello to everyone here from Pinterest! I have lots more ideas for summer fun with kids on my Summer Pinterest Board. You can follow me on Pinterest here and on Facebook at Facebook.com/RandomHandprints.

Do you have a favorite way to entertain a toddler on a hot summer day? Please share!

Who Wore It Best - The July Fourth Dress

My daughter Kay is a big fan of hand-me-downs, which is perfect since I'm a big fan of her wearing them as much as possible.

This year Kay wore big sister Magpie's dress on July Fourth, so of course, I need to pose the question... who wore it best?

Magpie is on the left and Kay is on the right if you want to weigh-in with your pick US Weekly style in the comments.

Next up, I want to recreate this photo of my son and me which was taken two years ago on July Fourth.

It's been my Facebook icon ever since, but I think two years may be the limit of its shelf life.

 

Hope everyone had a Happy July Fourth!

Month In Review: It's July Already?!

How is it already July?! It seems like just yesterday the blank slate of June was in front of me, and all of my good intentions to scritch scratch my entire to do list off during my self-declared Being a Grown-Up Month.

Being a Grown-Up Month was an epic fail: I got nothing done. But in my defense, Being a Grown-Up Month's success was stymied by all the things I had to do because I am in fact already a grown-up, so I'm giving up on the idea - at least for now. July and August are no time for being a grown-up in general, let alone for tackling endless lists of things to do. (Unless your my husband, in which case you should feel free to get on all those home repair projects I like to nag you about right away.)

Last week, we took our annual family vacation to Delmarva which was great as it always is, photographic evidence here:

You may notice the absence of any photos of Magpie - she missed our trip because she is at sleep away camp, and while I want to think she is sad to have missed it the numerous photos from camp say otherwise, as does this letter in which she spends the entirety of it making her case to stay at camp longer.

 

In case you can't read it, the last line is "I miss you... sarcastic font."

In addition to taking a vacation, I also wrote some stuff, including:

Golf Courses About in the Westfield Area - public and private courses as well as where to mini-golf!

Music, Movies and More - Summertime Fun in and Around Westfield - so many fabulous events and things to do for families, most of them free!

Great Stationery for Sleepaway Camp - there are tons of awesome ideas for camp stationery, but not so many ideas on how to get your kids to actually use it.

And last, but not least, I won a VOTY! If you aren't a blogger, this will definitely mean nothing to you (and if you are a blogger, it probably still doesn't mean anything to you) but all the same, getting the email that my post I'd Like to Thank the Academy was one of twenty selected by BlogHer as a "Voice of the Year" in the humor category was better than another email from a Nigerian Prince about my riches that never seem to materialize. Way better.

Click here to read the full list of VOTY winners.

And Happy July!

Giving the People What They Want: Six Flags Hurricane Harbor

This week's Giving the People What They Want didn't come from a Google Analytics Search.

No, this week it's a real-life example of Giving the People What They Want.

My husband and I left work behind on Friday and took our six- and eight-year-old on a summer's-almost-over outing to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor.

Can you tell how much I love water parks?

We had a blast, and it sure beat working. Or, as my husband put it, "we're participating in an important on-site client meeting."

Albeit a client meeting with a lazy river, a wave pool and water slides. And the next day, for me, a sunburn.

I was not compensated for this post, which is the case in most things I do in life as well as on this blog.

You can read a full-review of our day at Hurricane Harbor on BaristaKids.com.

Kay and Big Duckie

When we were on vacation at the beach we had one particularly long rainy day, so we spent part of the afternoon taking photos of Kay and Big Duckie (don't ask how that guy got to come along on our family vacation).

She's emulating a once (very) popular website, which I think goes back as far as the 1990s. I don't think we called it a blog back then, but that's what it was.

I just checked and the site is still alive, although the last two updates were once in 2008 and once in 2006. Let's hope he (or she) has gone on to bigger and better things.

Does anyone else remember this site, or am I the only one who was a fan?

Linking-up to Finding the Funny at Kelley's Breakroom and My Life and Kids. Check it out, you'll laugh (not cry).



At the Playground: Ocean View, Delaware

Every summer we vacation in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

In addition to all the other great things about the place, there is a really fantastic - and shady - playground in Ocean View, the next town over.

This year my two older kids spent their mornings at tennis camp, which meant Ziggy got to spend his mornings at the playground.

Which of course, meant I got to spend my mornings at the playground, too.

But I'm not complaining, because I know all too soon he'll be at tennis camp, too.


All photos taken by my brother at John West Park, Ocean View, Delaware.

Just a Boy and His Bear Taking a Boardwalk Stroll

This post is from last summer, but I was reminded of it when we made our annual trip to the shore, and this same boardwalk, last week.

I took my urban-living, tie-wearing, stroller-pushing, toddler son to the Delaware shore.

And found out that what is a totally common not-worth-noticing sight in Manhattan, ain't so in this small shore town.

But conformity aside, just watch this 14-second video, and you'll see this is one very happy urban-living, tie-wearing, stroller-pushing toddler.

And for him, it's just another night strolling on the boardwalk, a boy and his bear.

Linking-up to Finding the Funny at Kelley's Break Room and My Life and Kids.

Rookie USA: Great Clothing from Head to Toe for My Little Rookie

There's a new kids clothing store Rookie USA, and it's coming soon to New York City.

I'm thrilled to be working with Collective Bias to spread the word about Rookie USA, which will feature "kids' favorite brands, head to toe."

As part of the #RookieUSA campaign, my daughter Kay received a package of clothes from Rookie USA, which included incredible brands like Levi's, Converse and Nike.

Kay loves sports, and gym is her favorite thing about school.While she has always participated in a lot of sports from tennis to ice skating, it wasn't until this spring that she played her first team sport, softball.

Here she is on the last day of the softball season, wearing her participation medal with pride and enjoying her little brother's admiration of it.

However, even though Kay is very active, she also cares a lot about what she wears so I was interested to see what she would think of clothes that she didn't pick out herself, since she has been choosing her clothes and getting dressed by herself since she was a toddler.

I'm happy to be able to say that Kay was a big fan of all the clothing, but she especially loved this outfit - a Nike 6.0 tank top and Levi's Skimmer Shorts. It's a great summer outfit, but I think it's also perfect for back-to-school for those still-warm fall days.

These sports shorts from Nike 6.0 were also a hit with Kay, as was the pink tee from Converse.

These Levi's jeans and tee were another fantastic outfit, and will be ideal for school and the fall weather.

Makes you want to get some clothes for your Rookie, doesn't it?

The bad news is that Rookie USA isn't open yet.

But... the good news is you can go to the Rookie USA homepage at RookieUSA.com, and sign up to receive a free $20 gift card that is good for your first in-store purchase. Just enter your email address and choose a password of at least eight characters, click "join" and you're done.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Rookie USA. My little Rookie and I can't wait to go shopping.

For more photos of the clothes from Rookie USA, please visit my Google+ photo album.

To learn more about Rookie USA, follow them on Twitter @RookieUSA and via the hashtag #RookieUSA. You can also like them on Facebook.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Rookie USA. #CBias #SocialFabric

As always, all opinions are my own.

Oops! I Forgot to Post an Old Photo Friday!

It's true, Friday came and went and I forgot it was old photo day on my blog.

In my defense, I was on vacation. And everyone knows on any good vacation you forget what day it is.

So here on a back-to-reality Monday, a retroactive Old Photo Friday of our family beach vacation in 1970-something:

And our family beach vacation last week. More or less the same location and same people, though our generational position has shifted:

And yes, that is my six-year-old so engrossed in reading her first issue ever of Us Weekly that she can't be bothered to put it down for family photos.

Old Photo Friday: Down the Shore on July Fourth

Every year for July Fourth, we head to our family house down the shore as I call it since moving to Jersey. I think prior to moving to New Jersey I just said we were going to the beach.

I went through the photos from three and four years ago, and here are a few favorites from summer's past.

And here's are photos from last year, so Ziggy isn't left out of any old photo fun.



There are some photos I think we must recreate this year, assuming I can get willing participation.

I would so love a re-do of the pillow on Magpie's head, the Uncle and Kelly leg lift, and Ziggy and his tie-wearing, stroller pushing walk on the boardwalk.

And of course, we'll be taking old timey photos like this one of Ziggy from last year.

Happy July Fourth!!

If you're looking for craft and cooking ideas for celebrating the Fourth of July, or random photos of my family celebrating the holiday, check out the July Fourth archive.

This is my weekly installment of Old Photo Friday. If you have an old photo of your own to share, leave a comment below and I'll come by and visit!

Somebody's Ready For Summer!

Happy Summer! Are your toes summer ready?

We have summer guests!

I would really like to tell the whole, long story of the badger (who turned out to be a woodhuck, which I later learned is just a more fun way of saying groundhog) who we knew lived under our porch, but only recently decided to start living on our porch, and to make sure we didn't go anywhere near it.

I would really like to tell how he spent the whole winter fat and lazy, only to wake-up this spring svelte and apparently, according to Animal Control, somehow now a woman. I was sure he was a he.

I would really like to tell how the new mom is doing a great job of protecting her babies. Doing such a great job in fact that we have ceded all porch and backyard use to her and her offspring until she notifies us otherwise.

But for now, I'll just leave you with these photos of our summer guests.

And in case you're wondering, should you have similar guests this summer, their favorite food is carrots. And they know how to whistle. Loudly.  And it is because of this that they are sometimes called whistle pigs.

Note: If you are supposed to come for a barbecue at our house, we may want to reschedule.

Old Photo Friday: The Memorial Day Beach Special

I will admit: I do love digging around the old photos on Fridays.

Tonight, I found this gem.

Me, around age 6, wearing a red, white and blue bathing suit.  How perfect for Memorial Day weekend!

This awesome, arty photo was taken by my brother who was all of about eight at the time.

And here we are, enjoying a nice summer day at the beach.

Nice visor, bro.

__________________________

I post old photos on Fridays. I'm not quite sure why. Happy Weekend everyone!