Source: Kid's Birthday Parties

One of the pluses of having children at different preschools is the variety. For a myriad of reasons, my three children attended four different preschools. Each preschool adhered to the preschool calendar of projects tied in to holiday traditions and celebrations. Even though all three preschools celebrated seasonal events, each had different lesson plans for the children to do. I was always surprised when I peaked in my preschooler’s bag around holiday time. In the words of Forrest Gump, I never knew what I was gonna get.

My oldest attended a private preschool for 2s before transferring to another private preschool for 3s and 4s. She was taught about celebrations near and far. Her preschool was not church-based so the staf were careful to include all celebrations. She already knew about Hanukkah, but learned about Kwanzaa and other festivals.

My favorite craft from my oldest’s preschool years was the Halloween skeleton craft. I don’t have a pic of it…no digital cameras back then. I’ll scan it when I get a moment. But, picture if you will a sheet of black construction paper and Q-tips. The Q-tips were loosely arranged on the paper to approximate a skeleton. I could tell that my daughter had drizzled the glue on the paper all by her self. On one side there was hardly any glue, the other side was caked with glue. The head and legs of the skeleton were obvious, but the body and arms were just a jumble of cut up Q-tips arranged willy-nilly on the paper.

I absolutely loved that the teachers let the kids do the skeleton craft themselves. In stark contrast is the same craft from my Preteen-now-Teen’s preschool. Same idea of a skeleton made with Q-tips stuck to a piece of black construction paper. While my Teen’s skeleton was haphazard arrangement on paper, my Preteen-now-Teen’s skeleton was arranged with precise lines and angles. The teacher must have held each of the children’s hands as they were placing the Q-tips on the black construction paper. Not a Q-tip was out of place. Every Q-tip was arranged to look like a skeleton.

I love both crafts. My daughters both poured their little selves in to all crafts that came home from preschool. Both girls and their younger brother LOVED showing me the day’s preschool craft project. My son was a little less eager to do the project as there were cars and blocks to play with, but once he got in to it he enjoyed creating crafts. My son’s school was a preschool based in a large Methodist church nearby. Many of his crafts from school were inspired from the Bible verse of the day.

This past Halloween I displayed a number of the kids crafts in the kitchen. I taped the projects on to the kitchen window frame. We had many dinner table conversations about who did what craft.

What was the preschool craft project you loved the most?

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Look at the wall. Locate a photo. Evaluate the frame. Do I like it? Does the frame match the photo and vice versa? Would this photo look better in the living room? Take the frame of the wall. Switch out the photo. Insert the photo in a different frame. Hang on wall. Admire. Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat.

Photos. Portraits. Frames. Mattes. This past month all I have done is frame, reframe, and rearrange all the family portraits on my walls. My goal was to place a framed photo on the wall of every family portrait session, every school photo, and every significant family event.

Over the years we have taken many family portraits. Whether the grouping was one adult and one child, or two adults and two children, or two adults and three children. In a studio. In a fire station. In a church basement. At home. At Grandma’s house. At Williamsburg. At LegoLand. At a First Holy Communion. All family photos have one thing in common — all are completely precious and priceless to me.

Yes, the focus is offcenter. And yes, I look like I am photobombing this adorable family. But, it's a photo of all us at this summer's Manchester United v. Barcelona game. Good times!

With a kid, a preteen, and a teen, I have gleaned knowledge through trial and error, smiles and tears on how to stage a family portrait. I may not always “get” the best pic, but I never give up.

I’d like to share my knowledge with you. Let’s call it the Musings from Me Guide to Family Portaits:

• Make a commitment to take the family photo. I know this sounds silly. How could you not take the pic of you, dad, and the newborn? Or you and the kids at the preschool Mother’s Day Tea? But, as your children move from the toddler years to the elementary school years, your lives will get exponentially busy. Trust me, I know of what I speak. Take time to take that photo. Are all of you — mom, dad, big sister, little brother, and the baby gathered at soccer? Toss your camera to a friend and capture the grins, the mud-stained knees, and yes the baby covered in goldfish, cheerios, and juice!

• Choose outfits…wisely. For my son’s first 3 photos at elementary school and even one of his preschool pics, he was wearing a blue shirt…with a blue photo background. On one of the pics he almost fades in to the background. Whether you go matchy matchy with all of you in denim shirts and jeans or try your hand at the complementary style with mom and dad in black and the kids in red, choose outfits that c0ntrast, but in a good way! If you are all at church for a Baptism, ask a friend to take your family photo. Chances are good that both you and your spouse are wearing formal attire and the kids are wearing dresses or skirts for girls, and polo shirts or buttoned down shirts for boys. Just stepped out of the Shamu Show at Sea World drenched, bedraggled, and oh so wet? Grab a camera to take a memorable family pic!
• Be prepared…for everything! The saying goes that you can never predict the behavior of kids, animals, and of course the same is true of tweens and teens. So be ready. Arrive at the portrait studio with a change of clothes for the baby and to be safe have a change of clothes for any child under the age of 5. Don’t eat or drink anything before the family photo. Make sure the babies/toddlers in your group have napped. Bring a favorite stuffed toy for the toddler to hold. Grab a crazy toy from the photographers’s bag of toys and ask him to wave it to get the best smile.

Did you know about Family Photo Days? Check out Shutterfly’s new site for tips on taking the best pic or download the digital toolkit. Shutterfly wants to make it easy for you to take that amazing family photo to share with family and friends this holiday season.

I was compensated for this post. I will be receiving a 50 free Shutterfly cards. The views expressed in this post are my own. I follow the tenets of Blog With Integrity.

Halloween is an evolving holiday in our house. From the earliest days when I placed my baby in the infant car seat so that I could be near the front door to give out the Halloween candy to the year when my tween decided she wasn’t going trick-or-treating until about 8:55 p.m., which meant we had to run to a few houses before all the candy was gone.

What is your Halloween tradition? Do you eat dinner as a family? Do you make a special dinner for your family before everyone heads out trick-or-treating? We love eating dinner as a family. On most nights, we scarcely all sit down to eat together due to afterschool sports and activities. But, when Halloween falls on a weeknight we hope we are blessed by teachers who don’t give homework and activities that are canceled.

On those nights we gather and talk about Halloweens past and present and even future! My teen — when she was little — knew what she wanted to be the next Halloween! I would laugh and say “But, we haven’t even gone out trick-or-treating yet!”

With Halloween just a few days away, it’s time to think about what to have for dinner on Halloween night. Methinks we’ll have something easy. Filling and easy. Pizza might be a good choice. Do you like Tombstone Pizza?

Do you want to win a couple of Tombstone Pizza coupons? Well, you came to the right place! Just leave a comment or two or three below. I’ll choose a winner very soon. Until then Happy Halloween!

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I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Tombstone Pizza and received coupons and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate. Giveaway ends November 6, 2011. Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada.

How can you NOT laugh at this photo?

Do you ever go back to your online photo albums and search for a photo? I searched and found this photo. I search in the October 2006 folder and found a true Halloween memory!

Let me tell you the back story on this beauty… The photo is from 2006. I was in a “my kids eat too much candy phase and I will not buy candy for Halloween.” Mean Moms of the World Unite! My kids were NOT happy when I told them I would hand out PlayDoh instead of candy. I purchased a huge bag of tiny Play Doh tubs to give out. Note: The tubs were a hit with young and old and were the topic of conversation for months.

Anyway back to the photo. While trick-or-treating my then 10-year-old, 8-year-old, and 3-year-old went to a house where they were given marshmallow eye balls. My husband said that the kids talked about the eye balls all the way home. 

Once home it was like a science experiment as Play Doh met eye ball to create weird eye prosthesis??? The kids had the best time placing the Play Doh on different parts of the body. My 8-year-old walked in to a wall while wearing both eye prosthesis. Ouch!  

With Halloween literally around-the-corner, the need to brush, floss, and practice good mouth care becomes an essential of our day here at the Musings from Me house. I can’t stop the kids from eating candy, but I can ensure that they thoroughly brush their teeth.

Since the times the children were 3 to 6 months I would wipe their gums or use a tiny flexible tooth brush that I placed on the end of my finger. I hoped to instill in the children the fundamentals of good hygiene. At some point — around 18 months — the children started taking fluride drops. We have well water and the kids needed the fluoride drops for continued healthy teeth. 

My kids are good at remembering to brush. My husband is a little tyranical when one of the kids forgets. He’s been known to take money away from kids or toys. In our house it is better to brush than risk losing a dollar!

We were proud to be part of the Listerine Oral Challenge for the past couple of weeks. We tried a variety of mouth care products from Listerine and Reach: mouth wash, toothbrushes, flossers, and even a pre-bursh rinse, Agent Cool Blue. The pre-brush rinse was a hit with the 6-year-old. He felt grownup using the same type of mouthwash that Daddy uses. If you want to participate in the Challenge, go to www.listerinekids.com and sign up! 

My kids get super excited when the dentist gives them another toothbrush. Do your kids get excited? They loved using the Reach toothbrushes. The Reach Access Flossers were a new experience for my kids — we’re sued to stringed dental floss.

As part of the Listerine Oral Challenge, we were given a calendar and cute tooth stickers to make sure we stayed up-to-date on our flossing and brushing and gargling. This was awesome! Yes, I used the word awesome to describe a chart, but the chart reminded me to floss. I’ve got to admit the tooth stickers were cute, too!  

Did you know that 6- through 8-year-olds should brush, floss with parental supervision, and rinse? Whereas, kids 9 and older can manage their own oral care. I like the idea of supervising a 6- to 8-year-old as the last thing you need is cavities on the next dental visit!

Tips from Dr. Kanetta Lott, a leading pediatric dentist, including insights such as:

• Show, don’t tell. Lead by example, as kids will imitate your behavior and make oral hygiene feel less like a “kid thing.” I agree – my kids learnt to floss by watching me floss first. 
• Reward healthy behavior. Offer rewards for achieving brushing, flossing, and rinsing goals. Reward kids with a sticker for each day of great oral care. Kids love reward charts of any kind!

Have you heard about the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation — http://www.ncohf.org – an organization committed to delivering comprehensive oral healthcare to economically disadvantaged children. I’m saddened that in the U.S. we need an organization like this, but it is needed as there are children without adequate dental care.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by MomCentral on behalf of Listerine and Reach and received Listerine and Reach products for the Oral Care Challenge and a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

My super quick giveaway is over. My winner was contacted and responded in record time! I will ship the DVD today!

Just in time for Halloween this coming Saturday, here’s a final spooky Halloween e-card:

Boo

There are only a few days left before the Spookiest Day of the Year — and that means a limited amount of time to pick up your Mad Monster Party –the beloved Halloween classic! The stop-motion movie comes from the team who created “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman” and other classic holiday specials and was a major inspiration for Tim Burton in his creation of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

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You know that I write here about Preteens and here about raising kids int he DC Metro area. But, did you know that I occasionaly write here about just about anything. Today I’m lamenting that shopping for Halloween costumes is not easy.

I’m also a Mom Rep for Yoursphere. Yoursphere.com is the Teen Internet Site That Puts Safety First. Do you have kids who are 9 up through 18? Yoursphere is a safe alternative to the murky waters of Facebook and MySpace.

At Halloweentime my son announced that he wanted to be Darth Vader. I found this odd since he had not seen any of the Star Wars films, nor expressed much interest in Star Wars. In the weeks before Halloween he talked more and more about Darth Vader and Luke and Anakin. He still had not seen any of the films.

At Party_City he was adamant that he wanted to be Darth Vader, black flowing robe, mask, and all. I asked him several times if he was sure he wanted to wear the mask at night and in the school parade. He said “Yes” on both counts.

To be on the safe side, I rented Star Wars IV – the original Star wars movie from my childhood. I have to say that the movie has stood the test of time. As Darth Vader started doing his thing I braced myself for the inevitable scared looks from my son. I assumed that he would change his mind about being Lord Vader. No, he was more convinced than ever that this is who he wanted to be.

At the school Halloween party, I could see why he was obsessed. Among his kindergarten friends we had a Queen Amidala, a Princess Leia, an Anakin, a Luke, an Obi Wan Kenobi, and a couple of stormtroopers. Clearly this was a group that were using the Force.

Last Saturday we drove to Party City to pick out some Halloween costumes. As I drove, one of my kids asked what she “was” last year. This led to a free-for-all conversation about what each of the kids wore going back as far as 1996 when my oldest daughter was a 9-month-old clown. My middle daughter, our list maker, kept track of the costume by year list.

It was not as easy to remember each costume as we have had years where a child wore the same costume two years in a row. Who could forget my oldest daughter as Winnie the Pooh at age 2 and 3? Or, my middle daughter as a furry horse for K and 1st grade?

I think of these costumes as more than thread and fabric, but as memories. The thought of my son in his fuzzy lion costume reminds me of how he was so desperate to stand up although he was only 6 months old. With two older sisters he was and still is frantic to get in on the action.

The Winnie the Pooh costume reminds me of watching my 2-year-old wearing the costume while squatting on a chair to “poo” in her diaper. I recall looking over at her and thinking “Oh look, Pooh is poo-ing?” Lovely…

How about my middle daughter in her purple shirt, black pants, floppy hat, and American Idol microphone. She was an American Idol contestant who was unfortunately mistaken for a purple witch. Oh well…

Or, what about my then-2nd grader who wanted to be a spy? We got her an army costume to go with her spy gear, but the army costume was glittery and covered in sequins. She did not mind when people thought she was an army girl. To her it was a spy costume.

We finished the “costume by year list” as we pulled in to the parking lot of Party City to find the perfect Halloween costume memory.