It’s time to shop for those fun-loving, curious girls on your Holiday Shopping list. Whether she loves to cook, craft or create she’ll love these gift ideas that allow her to express herself. Here are our picks for those creative 7 – 12 year old girls from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. (My 9 year old daughter helped me pick and totally approve the list!)

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Playful Chef Kids Cooking Kits
The Playful Chef Kids Cooking Kits will help you tap into your kids’ eagerness to help in the kitchen. These kids cooking kits provide the nutritional know-how, kid-sized cooking tools, and fun recipes you’ll need to get your little one cooking! We can’t think of a better Chocolate Cake Moment than to have fun in the kitchen making Chocolate Mountain Lava Cakes (recipe included in kit.)

FF79   $39.95

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

It’s hard to shop for gifts for boys who are still young at heart but creeping up towards those tween years. They crave the action of video games but they still like to play with toys and build things. We think we’ve put together a list of Holiday gifts for boys that are low-tech but still exciting enough to make them smile. Here are our picks for those picky 7 – 12 year old boys in your life from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. (My 11 year old son helped me pick and approve the list!)

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Be Amazing Big Bag of Science
I know we all want our kids to be smart so parents love the idea of science kits as “toys.” Your kids may not jump up and down when they see this however, once the bag is open, they go nuts for the fun experiments they can do. There are over 70 unique hands-on activities to experiment with. You will be able to make water disappear, have liquid flow uphill, grow fake snow instantly, create a 30′ soda geyser, and so much more we can’t list them all.

TY159     $39.95

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

There’s a little girl on your Holiday Shopping List that needs a very special gift, right? We can help! We’ve picked some truly unique gifts for that special 5-6 year old girl in your life from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We searched high and low for high-quality, unique gifts with a lot of Wow! factor. Make his Holiday extra special with these gifts. Check the Guide for ideas for the other kids on your list.

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Schleich Animal Rescue Center
This Animal Nursery is the perfect play accessory for all you animal lovers. The versatile toy has divided rooms, movable shutters and doors, and realistic details for you to turn this structure into anything you imagine like an animal hospital, animal shelter and rescue center, or animal training center. The possibilities are endless for a creative imagination. Special promotion: Purchase the Animal Rescue Center and we’ll include 5 animal figures for FREE – Zebra, Elephant, Elephant Calf, Giraffe, and Cheetah. That’s a savings of $31.00!

TY161   $169.95

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

Got a little boy on your Holiday Shopping List that you want to impress with a cool Holiday gift? We’ve picked some truly unique gifts for that special 5-6 year old boy in your life from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We searched high and low for high-quality, unique gifts with a lot of Wow! factor. Make his Holiday extra special with these gifts.

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Schleich Knights Castle
This collector’s quality Knight’s Castle is the perfect battleground for heroic toys to duel it out and conquer the land. Create a moat, pull up the draw bridge, protect the king from disaster! Best yet, buy the castle and get a FREE Knight on Horse and Soldier action figure. That’s $24.00 in savings. Your child will play with this toy for years.

TY160   $169.95

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

If you are looking for a truly unique gift for that special 3-4 year old, toddler girl in your life, check out our top picks from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We searched high and low for high-quality, unique gifts with a lot of Wow! factor. Make a little girls’s Holiday extra special with these gifts.

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Butterfly Kids Rolling Suitcase
Your excited traveler will love this rolling suitcase to take on vacation or just overnight to a friend’s house. The luggage bag is large enough for a few changes of clothing, or any special items your child needs to take on a trip. The luggage bag has multiple pockets for safe-keeping, extendable handle, and is ideal height for little travelers. Don’t forget to personalize the bag and grab the matching butterfly toiletry bag. Also available in other designs.

OG912   $39.99

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

If you are looking for a truly unique gift for that special 3-4 year old boy in your life, check out our top picks from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We searched high and low for high-quality, unique gifts with a lot of Wow! factor. Make a little boy’s Holiday extra special with these gifts.

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Green Camouflage Build a Fort
Tired of trying to build a fort and your blanket never stays where it is supposed to? This green camouflage fort kit has everything you need to build your fort, inside or out. Set up the fort in your bedroom or almost any room using the included suctions cups that attach the fort to a mirror or use the clips to hang it from your curtains. Even includes glow in the dark wands to light up your secret fort. Great gift that kids will play with for many years.

TY158   $38.00

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

If you are looking for a truly unique gift for that special 1 – 2 year old, toddler girl in your life, check out our top picks from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We searched high and low for high-quality, unique gifts with a lot of Wow! factor. Make a little girls’s Holiday extra special with these gifts.

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Trunki Ride-On Toddler Suitcase
The Trunki Ride-On Suitcase is essential for traveling with toddlers. It’s a pull-along suitcase that kids can pull themselves or it’s a seat in a crowded busy airport, or it’s a pull-along kid carrier for parents. Genius! Kids will have fun traveling with their very own cute and colorful suitcase but parents will love that kids can ride on it and get pulled through the airport or train station.

OG915   $39.99

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

If you are looking for a truly unique gift for that special 1 – 2 year old, toddler boy in your life, check out our top picks from our e-boutique ChocolateCakeClub.com’s 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We searched high and low for high-quality, unique gifts with a lot of Wow! factor. Make a little boy’s Holiday extra special with these gifts.

Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

Trunki Ride-On Toddler Suitcase
The Trunki Ride-On Suitcase is essential for traveling with toddlers. It’s a pull-along suitcase that kids can pull themselves or it’s a seat in a crowded busy airport, or it’s a pull-along kid carrier for parents. Genius! Kids will have fun traveling with their very own cute and colorful suitcase but parents will love that kids can ride on it and get pulled through the airport or train station.

OG914   $39.99

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

It’s baby’s first Christmas! To make life a little easier for all of you busy gift buyers out there, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite gift ideas to make baby (and baby’s parents) smile all year. All of these gifts are available at our e-boutique, ChocolateCakeClub.com. Psst – Shopping at ChocolateCakeClub.com helps fund this blog so we can continue to bring you unique, simple and creative ideas to have more fun with your family. Please support a small, Mom-owned business this year and let us help you take care of all of the special kids and grand kids on your Holiday shopping list. Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver.

First Adventures of You Customized Book
This award-winning, and totally unique personalized children’s book makes a perfect keepsake baby gift as well as favorite bedtime story. The customized book proceeds from the incredible day the child arrived on earth through many exciting adventures the child is sure to experience in his or her first few years of life. By adding the names of special people and places in the child’s life to these universal experiences, the special child in your life will believe book was written especially for him or her.

CM350   $39.95

 

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

The ChocolateCakeClub.com 2011 Holiday Gift Guide is done! Yippee! Over at our e-boutique, we have been feverishly working on our list of top gifts for babies and kids that will really distinguish you as an awesome gift-giver this year. The Holiday Gift Guide is divided by age and gender to hopefully make it super-easy for you to choose that extra special gift.

So for all of you savvy Aunts and totally cool Grandmas out there who want to delight those kiddos and impress their parents, read on! Shopping with us is easy and we’ll make you look like an amazing gift-giver. Gift wrapping is one of our specialties and only $1.95! We’ll ship the gifts directly to your nieces, nephews, or grand kids to give you some extra time to relax this Holiday Season.

By the way, we have a Holiday Deal of the Day going on over at the Chocolate Cake Club Fan Page. Every day we feature a hot Holiday gift at 25-50% Off to make getting those sweet gifts on your list a little easier this year. “Like” our page so you don’t miss any of our deals.

Psst! Buying from our store helps support the blog and allow us to keep giving you great family fun ideas. Please support a fun Mom business owner (me) and shop with us.

Have fun shopping!

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

School is almost out so the question on every Mom’s mind is “What do we get for the kids’ teachers?” Every year I try to be creative and come up with something unique but most years I end up giving them what they say they really need. I am fortunate enough to have 6 teachers living in my neighborhood so I asked them what they like to get at the end of the year from their students. Here were the top answers, hands down.

1. Book Gift Cards – many teachers have to buy their own books for the classroom so gift cards help to cover that expense for them.

2. Coffee Gift Cards – We’re in a room with 28 loud children every day, need we say more?

3. Target Gift Cards – Hey, many teachers are Moms, too. (This applies for movie ticket certificates, restaurant certificates, and anything that you would appreciate as a gift.)

4. Anything Homemade by the student, especially if they had a nice bond throughout the school year. Notes, photos collages, or a written story were appreciated.

Want some more ideas? Here are some additional gift ideas I’ve come up with and found on various Mom sites.

5. The Mother Huddle blog had some ideas that were nice and most importantly easy to do. I really liked the Joyful Hands soap idea.

6. The Skip to My Lou blog had some great simple ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week that would also work as nice year end gifts. I like the Gift Certificate for a Massage idea.

7. If you have an artist at home, frame one of their masterpieces. My daughter’s teacher is retiring at the end of year so she is going to draw a picture of the teacher’s classroom so she’ll remember it.

8. How about a plant? They last longer than flowers and can be used to lighten up the classroom next year.

9. A box of pretty Thank You Notes. The teachers may want to send a thank you to all of the students for their year end gifts so why not make it easier for them to do so. If you don’t want to make your own, Sincerely Yours by Tracy has some beautiful, unique Thank You Notes and Teacher Cards.

10. A movie night package. Grab a recently released DVD, popcorn and some candy so your teacher can have a fun night at home with her or his family.

Care to add to the list? We’d love to hear more ideas!

[Read more →]

Tags: Back to School Tips · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions · Mom's Corner · Parenting Tips

It’s no secret that every day should be Mother’s Day. I wish I were lavished with flowers, homemade cards, and a pants-busting brunch every day. However, that might not be good for my mental or physical health. (I’d be willing to make the sacrifice and try it out on behalf of all Moms though.) So, I try to make the most out of the one official day each year where I’m the guest of honor in our house. We seem to have developed some Mother’s Day traditions that I look forward to each year.

First, we always go to brunch. I love the smell of pastries in the morning. How could you not like brunch? You get breakfast food and savory lunch food all at the same time. I have developed a brunch-eating process. First, I get a plate of breakfast type food, then a plate of lunch type food, then maybe a plate of my favorites from the first two plates. If I can still walk I then go get a dessert plate. Don’t be embarrassed to keep getting up and getting a little food. Every time you walk up there you burn calories and can then eat more. Also, someone else is doing the dishes!

Second, I call my Mommy and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. Since she lives in another state, Mom gets a mail package and phone call. While I wish I could do more for the wonderful woman who raised me, at least I can train my son on the importance of calling your Mom on Mother’s Day. (He’s going to need at least 20 something years of reminders for this.)

Our third tradition started from my desire to work off the food coma induced by my overeating at brunch. Mother’s Day is my flower gardening day. Since we live in the Midwest, it’s not safe to plant flowers anytime before Mother’s Day. You don’t want to go through all of that hard work digging, planting, bending, and yanking and then watch the flowers die during an overnight cold snap. So I use this day to go to the nursery, pick my beautiful flowers for the summer, and as a family, we go home and plant. I love it! The kids make their own flower pots to water and care for. My husband does the heavy lifting, digging and fertilizing, and I get to decorate my house with beautiful flowers.

What if it rains, you ask? Well, then I plan to take a nap and play Guitar Hero the rest of the day.

At the end of the day I feel great because we spent time together working on a project that’s important to me, our house is decorated for all of the summer parties we plan to have, and I worked off the brunch calories. Now, I’ve got a year to rest up until next time.

What traditions do you have for Mother’s Day? I’d love to hear how other Moms spend their special day.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Mom's Corner

Do your kids have a birthday coming up? Want to throw a unique, awesome party for them? Watch my appearance on WCIU Chicago where I share tips on Throwing a Kids Birthday Party at home as well as suggestions for popular and timely party theme activities. We’ve got you covered with Princess, Slumber, Pirate and Race Car party ideas.

All of the kids birthday party products you see featured in the video clip are available at ChocolateCakeClub.com. Let us know if we can help make your kid’s birthday party a huge success.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Kids Birthday Party Ideas · Kids Parties

I know Easter is over. And I hope you had a fabulous Holiday with your family. My kids and I have one last Easter treat idea to share. You can change the theme, easily. Check out this Easter Kit Kat Cake that I made with my daughter, having fun in the kitchen together.

We were inspired by this post for a Kit Kat Cake from Made in Melissa’s Kitchen.

The cake looked great but we wanted to give ours an Easter flair. Here’s our version, using Peeps:

You need:

Chocolate Cake Mix
Chocolate Frosting
6 Kit Kat bars (4 pieces each)
Bag of Shredded Coconut
Green food coloring
Peeps, robins egg, or jelly bean Easter candy
Ribbon

First we baked a Chocolate Cake using 2 round cake pans. We used our knife to even off the top of one cake so that the top layer would sit a little nicer on the bottom layer. We generously frosted the bottom layer of the cake, then added the top layer and frosted it. We finished up by frosting the sides.
(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Easter Recipes & Activities · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Party Ideas

I hope everyone has a safe and fun time with their family on Easter! My daughter wanted to share her Easter art with everyone.

[Read more →]

Tags: Easter Recipes & Activities · Family Celebrations

There are so many great posts out there about how your family can do some simple things to Go Green for Earth Day … and every day frankly. I like this one from Savvy Sassy Moms. However, I wanted to write a post about how you can have FUN Going Green.

1. Kill the Vampires. Play a game and have the kids go room to room looking for any appliances that are plugged in and running but aren’t being used. That includes unplugging your cell phone when it is fully charged. In my office for example, we had a scanner, three printers, and three computers plugged in. These appliances were still sucking electricity even though they were in sleep mode. Turn them off! Kill the vampires.

2. This Friday Night have a Family No Electricity Night. Light a fire in the fireplace, add some candles, and then play board games by candlelight. The kids will think it is so cool. It’s a great way to spend some quality time together talking and playing games without all of the distractions. In today’s uber, fast-paced world, unplugging seems like a great way to relax and bond while also conserving energy.

3. Bike Ride to Dinner. Plan on going out for dinner this weekend? Why not pick a restaurant that can be part of family bike ride. Save gas and burn off that dessert. Bonus!

4. Walk to your local Farmers Market. If you live in the Midwest, it seems like Farmers Market Season will never come. However, for many other parts of the country take the kids to the Farmers Market and support your local farmers. The benefits? Organic food, no chemical fertilizers to harm the environment or you, less gas used for distribution, and very little packaging to clutter up our landfills. Here are some ideas on Games and Activities to do with the kids at the Farmers Market.

5. Spend an evening at your Local Library. Libraries are the original reuse and recycle centers! Save the trees (truffula or others) – don’t buy new books when you can get them from the library. Everyone in my family loves to read so we enjoy going to the library and spending some time alone and together discovering favorite books or new authors. We can sit on the comfy chairs in the library and read to the kids. Read The Lorax. This way the lights are all off at our house, too.

If you turn your Go Green efforts into FAMILY FUN, they’ll probably get done more often and become a habit for your family. After you have done all of these activities, have your kids write and send a letter to The Lorax and let him know that your family cares and is doing its part. Here are some additional tips on what families can do to protect the environment.

“Unless someone like you CARES a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Any other ideas on how your family can have fun AND protect the environment?

[Read more →]

Tags: Celebrate Earth Day with Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Parenting Tips · Spring Family Fun Activities

IT’S NOT TOO LATE! There is still time to get an order in to our sister site, ChocolateCakeClub.com before noon Monday and get some fabulous Easter gifts for the special kids in your life. All of these gifts are “experience” gifts meaning you get to spend some special time with the kids enjoying the gift together. In my opinion, those are the best kinds of gifts. Best yet, all of these gifts are under $25!

Do the kids like to cook?

The Tie Dye Cupcake Kit is the perfect way to celebrate Spring with fun rainbow colors in the cupcake batter. It’s like decorating Easter Eggs but with cupcakes.

Like your dessert to be a little more gross? Try the Gummy Worm Mini Dirt Pudding Kit. Nothing says Spring like worms!
(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Fun Time · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

How do you follow up a post about Angry Birds Cake Pops? Well, with Peeps Cupcake Push Pops, of course.

Christi over at the Love From the Oven blog made these incredibly cute cupcake pops with Peeps. What an impressive Easter dessert to thrill the kids and amaze the adults.

Now, you will have to buy the plastic push pop containers to get the same effect. Or you could just make regular cupcakes and use the Peeps as decoration. They would still look stunning displayed on an Easter theme serving plate.

(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Easter Recipes & Activities · Entertaining at Home · Family Celebrations · Holiday Party Ideas

I have been collecting what I think are the best of the best Easter craft and recipe ideas to delight and have fun with your kids. I’ll kick things off with this Easter Cupcake Topiary created by Christy from the Girl Who Ate Everything blog.

Is it a recipe or is it a craft? It’s both! I just loved the idea for showing off your cupcakes in such a unique way. It’s THE perfect centerpiece for Easter or for an upcoming baby shower.

While I was checking out the recipes on her site, I found this recipe for Angry Bird Cake Pops. Now you can literally feed your obsession. I LOVE it! My kids were so psyched to see this! As she says in the post, it’s a little complicated to make so I’m just going to look at the picture and drool.

If you have a kid-friendly recipe or craft idea for Easter that you’d like us to share, please send it in! We’d love to feature your creativity and if you have a blog site, we’re happy to give a link back. If you can, take a second and vote for us in the Leading Moms in Business contest. It only takes a click!

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Entertaining at Home · Family Celebrations · Holiday Party Ideas

I had the pleasure of talking with Jerome Hopkins, founder of the site BabiesFirstPuzzle.com, who called to introduce me to his unique gift idea – puzzles made out of photos of your kids’ or special occasions. I thought it was an interesting and unique gift idea so I wanted to give it a shout out.

The company’s mission is to provide quality customizable children’s educational toys that enhance critical thinking skills and sight association for children ages 0-5 years of age, while providing a unique way to capture special moments in your life. Puzzles are great for helping kids work on their manual dexterity. So it’s not only a great keepsake, but an educational toy as well! They also offer opportunities for day care or school fund raisers.

Here’s how it works:

Go to the Babies First Puzzle site and choose the puzzle size you want. For kids under the age of 5, they recommend sticking to puzzles with 24 pieces or less. Pay for your puzzle with Paypal and you’ll get a confirmation number. You’ll be rerouted back to the site to upload your photo. The puzzle should arrive in 5-7 days. Puzzles range anywhere from $16.99 to $35.99 depending on the size and number of puzzle pieces.

While I have not created a puzzle myself, I thought it would make a great gift for a variety of occasions:

• Baby’s First Birthday
• Unique Kids Birthday Gift
• Mother’s Day Gift
• Grandmother’s Gift
• Turn your kids’ team photo from their winning season into a puzzle
• Favorite family vacation photo
• Family Reunion – give every family who attended their own keepsake of the event!
• School graduation gifts
• A Dance Recital gift – take a photo of your little dancer and give it to her after her first dance recital

What do you think? For what other occasions would this photo puzzle make a great gift?

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

Easter is coming and if you have a new baby or grandbaby in the family, you might want to do put something a little special in their Easter Basket to celebrate their first Holiday. (Especially if the gifts can help you take some smashing Holiday photos!) Here are some of our top picks for Baby’s First Easter Gifts that we sell over at ChocolateCakeClub.com.

A Dry Bunny is a Happy Bunny

Check out this super-soft, Bunny Hooded Bath Towel that is perfect for keeping baby warm and dry after a bath or trip to the pool this summer. We really like this towel because it is larger and thicker than most of the hooded towels for baby on the market. Sewn by a fellow Mompreneur, it’s crafted from a regular towel so the cotton material is super-soft, absorbent, and thick to keep baby warm and dry. It’s also pretty darn cute. Who wouldn’t love to see a photo of baby wearing these floppy ears for their first Easter photo. The towel can be personalized with baby’s name to make it an extra special Easter gift.

Soft & Cuddlies

What better way to say “Happy Easter, Baby!” than with these adorable, soft baby lovey blankets and bootie sets. Available in a White Bunny or Yellow Ducky design. Until baby can eat Peeps, these loveys will definitely add some cuteness to celebrate the Holiday. These lovey blankets can be embroidered with baby’s name, too!

A Traveling Bunny

If baby is traveling to see family this Easter season, give him or her the perfect travel buddy. We love the 3-in-1 Zoobie Pet Goodnight Moon Bunny. It’s a cuddly travel friend, blanket and pillow to make traveling a whole lot easier for your little one. Pair it with the Goodnight Moon board book and it’s the perfect First Easter Gift.

All of these gifts look smashing sitting in an Easter Basket so which one are you going to buy?

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

It’s not too late! Still haven’t thought of something fun to do tomorrow with the kids to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Well, the luck of the Irish be with you. Here are some last-minute, but worth-the-wait, ideas.

Funky Green Food

I’m totally making the Picky Palate’s Lucky Green Velvet Baby Cakes for tomorrow.
(more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Traditions · Spring Family Fun Activities · St. Patrick's Day

Looking for something a little different and very fun to do this weekend with the family? Why not host an Oscar Party? Whether you invite another family over to help celebrate or keep the fun to yourselves, read my Family Friendly Oscar Party Ideas over at Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA)’s blog.

So, which movie would get your vote for Best Animated Movie this year? Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, or The Illusionist? I’m sticking with dragons.

Would you rather skip the Oscars and just watch a movie? Then check out my video on how to make movie night more fun.

[Read more →]

Tags: Entertaining at Home · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Family Movie Night · Family Party Ideas

Here in Chicago we are going to celebrate Groundhog Day with 12 -20 inches of snow. Yippee! (Note to self: Get gas for the snowblower today!) I don’t foresee any Groundhogs popping out in the blizzard to look for a shadow. However, since we might be trapped indoors, I went on the hunt for some Groundhog day fun for the kids.

Cook Up Some Fun

Check out these incredibly creative Groundhog Day inspired recipes are from the Gourmet Mom on the Go blog. I love the Groundhog sticking up out of the hot chocolate!

FamilyFun.com had some cute Groundhog Day Cupcakes.

Finally, you can buy these Groundhog cookie cutters. Use your favorite cut-out cookie recipe and ice them in brown. Yum!

Pure Fun

Groundhog Day Shadow Fun
Since the day is all about seeing a shadow, why not play shadow puppets? Set up a white sheet a few feet away from a wall. Place a lamp behind the sheet near the wall. Have your kids take turns going behind the sheet and casting shadow puppets. Here’s a post I found on making a Shadow Puppet Theater that looks super fun.

Here are some Groundhog Day Activities to do with the kids from the official Punxatawney Phil website. I’m all over the Groundhog ornaments to print out and hang from a chandelier or indoor tree but the Word Searches and coloring pages are cute, too.


If your kids are a little older, watch the Groundhog Day movie. My kids think it is hilarious. “Don’t drive angry!”

What do you do to celebrate Groundhog Day with your kids?

You Might Also Like:
Yummy Groundhog Day Pancakes

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Family Movie Night · Holiday Fun · Ideas for family projects

Here’s an idea for some family fun. Does your family like to play games? Do you know other “gaming” families? Why not start a Game Night Club? I have been trying to start a Gourmet Club with some friends in my area where we would get together every other month to cook, gnosh, and have fun over fabulous food. It would be a great excuse to actually start making those recipes I pull out of my food “porn” magazines. But it got me thinking about a Game Night Club as well. It would save you money since you wouldn’t be going out, you can include the kids so no sitter needed, and you can use the games you already have in your closet. Well, put like that, what are you waiting for?

Here’s how it would work:

Find 2 or 3 other families to join and pick a consistent date to get together like the third Sunday of every month or the first Saturday of every quarter so that it is easier for people to keep their calendars clear. Consistency makes it easier to plan and creates anticipation.

Choose a host for the first Game Night. You can rotate houses going forward so you only have to clean your house every now and then. The host family provides drinks and a snack. Other families bring a snack to share, as well. Set up a kids game table and an adult game table, if you want, especially if you have big age gaps in the attendees where you need more age-appropriate games. You can also have several tables set up around the house with different games and adults and kids alike can travel from table to table as the games are completed. Try to make sure that no one is sitting out at any time. That leads to boredom which leads to unruliness which leads to a ruined evening. (You know I’m talking about the adults here, right?)

Get some prizes for the winners or inexpensive little trinkets for everyone to get in a festive mood. Candy bars, ribbons or medals, and small drink umbrellas seem to make everyone feel like a winner.

Finally, the host family gets to pick the games. Not everyone will like every game but that is part of the experience – trying new games or playing a game you never would have chosen yourself. When you host, it’s your choice. However, the guests do get some veto power. Anyone can ask to stop a game, but at least one or two others have to agree that the game is lame and then you can move on. Over time you’ll start to recognize the types of games that work well for the personalities and preferences of the group.

Most importantly, have a good time.

Stay tuned, on Friday, we are going to announce a Family Game Night Giveaway. It will be the perfect prize to get your Family Game Night Club started.

You may also like:
How to Choose the Most Fun Game for Family Game Night
5 Ways to Make Family Game Night More Fun
Spice Up Family Game Night with Some Awesome Food

[Read more →]

Tags: Entertaining at Home · Family Fun Ideas · Family Game Night · Friday Night Fun · Games

To make your Family Game Night extra special, you need to add some great food. Really, that rule applies to anything but there are some special considerations for choosing the best Game Night food offerings. Are you eating dinner while playing or just looking for some snacks? Are you going to take breaks during game play to eat or gnosh while playing? If you are eating while playing, make sure your food offerings are easy to eat with your hands and are non-greasy. The last thing you want is to get grease stains all over the cards or have your favorite game smell like buffalo sauce for the next 12 years. If you are going to take a break between games to eat, then anything goes.

Here are some suggestions for spicing up your Game Night with the perfect food pairings.

Keep it Simple
If Family Game Night is on Friday after a long work week and you are just looking to unwind, keep it low maintenance by ordering in pizza, making chocolate chip cookie bars, or setting up an ice cream sundae bar. (Read my post on how to set up an awe-inspiring ice cream sundae bar.) Indulge in your favorite munchies like popcorn, Chex Mix, or movie theater style candy boxes. Grab some of those gourmet popcorn toppings to literally spice up your snacks.

If I am out and about on Game Night day I like to stop by my favorite Mexican restaurant and get some guacamole and chips and salsa to go. Nothing says Fiesta! like chips and salsa.

If you are inviting friends over, keep it simple by having everyone bring either a dessert or snack to share.

A Little Extra Effort
If you are feeling more inspired, try out some of those appetizer recipes you keep marking in food magazines and then never making. Game Night is the perfect excuse. Here are some recipes I’m dying to try:

Barbara Beery always offers some great kid-inspired and easy-to-make recipes. I’m dying to try these Popcorn Cupcakes for some baking fun with my kids. Check out her blog for other kid-friendly recipes.

Guy Fieri’s Ham & Swiss Pretzels look awesome and could count as dinner.

Rachel Ray’s Spicy Pigs in Blankets with Chimichurri Dip.

Finally, Giada’s Shrimp and Beef Skewers with Soy, Scallion Butter looked so delish.

Do you have a killer appetizer recipe that you always make when you are invited to a party where you need to bring a dish? It’s easy, everyone raves about it and asks for the recipe but you only get to make it once a year because NO ONE EVER INVITES YOU ANYWHERE! (Hint, hint people!) Well, Game Night is the perfect excuse to make it just for yourself. Here’s my “Go To” appetizer recipe that people always rave about.

Don’t Forget the Drinks
For the adults, have some beer in the fridge, make a pitcher of margaritas, or try out that new drink recipe you’ve been oogling. (See Rachel Ray’s site for some great drink recipes.) Don’t leave the kids out, though. Make non-alcoholic versions of the new drink recipes for the kids. Or, let them have a special drink they don’t normally get. My kids rarely get juice boxes or soda so Game Night is special to them because they can have these high-calorie drinks. Or, make homemade milk shakes. Always a kid pleaser.

What is your favorite recipe for Family Game Night? Please leave us a comment and share.

You May Also Like:5 Ways to Make Family Game Night More Fun
How to Choose the Most Fun Game for Family Game Night

[Read more →]

Tags: Entertaining at Home · Family Game Night · Family Party Ideas · Games

Is your Family Game Night feeling a little stale? The kids aren’t that excited about it anymore? Or, do you have a hard time convincing the family to even have a Game Night? Here are 5 ideas to inject a little more fun and creativity into your family’s special evening. (By the way, to help spice up your Family Game Night, we’re offering a 20% discount on all family games at www.ChocolateCakeClub.com. Sale ends January 31, 2011. Grab some today and be ready to play next weekend!) (more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Fun Ideas · Family Game Night · Games · Holiday Traditions

Looking for something fun to do this weekend with the family? How about hosting a good, old-fashioned Family Game Night? You can take turns with each member of your family picking their favorite game. Or invite friends and neighbors over for a casual, inexpensive, and very fun evening.

Whether you plan a big game event or just spontaneously pull some games out of the closet, Game Night is an easy way to have fun together. Depending on the games you play, the night could be challenging, educational, silly, relaxing, competitive and most importantly fun. It’s the perfect excuse to try out those games you got as gifts over the Holidays.

In a new series of posts, I’ll share some ideas on how to make family game night even more fun with a little planning and creativity. I’ll review some new games we’re selling or that we discovered at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair. I’ll be sure to share my family’s top picks for games in this series, as well.

Finally to kick off your Family Game Night, we’re offering a 20% discount on all family games at www.ChocolateCakeClub.com between now and January 31, 2011. Grab some today and be ready to play next weekend!

Pick the Right Game.

To pick the right game for Family Game Night, you need to take a few things into consideration like the competitive level, playing time, age range of the players, and mood.

Competitive Level
How competitive are your friends and family? Does the adrenaline kick in when the competition is fierce? Do you have little ones (or big ones) who get mad when they lose? Do you like games where everyone wins? Deciding on how competitive the players are will help you pick the right game. There are some games where there still is a winner or loser, but it’s based purely on chance. A game like Dog Dice where the winner is chosen based on the roll of the dice may be one where the youngest players will win often enough to avoid tears or meltdowns.

Also, for safety reasons, if you have a hyper-competitive group you might want to steer clear of more physical games. I remember a not-too-distant Holiday where a teen cousin got thrown to the floor playing the card game Spoons. While she was part of instigating the “scrum” to grab the spoon, it still shouldn’t have happened. (Although it is a good family story and fun to bring up again and again.)



Some good non-competitive games are The Ungame or conversation games like Family Dinner Box of Questions or Chat Pack for Kids.

Game Time
How much time do you have to play games? If you have little ones, do you only have an hour before bedtime? Do you want to play several games in one evening or really sink your teeth into one good strategy game? If you have guests over, you might want to set up several games on different tables and everyone can get up and switch periodically. If that is the case, don’t pick a game that feels more like a marathon that never ends. Pick one that ends in 20 – 30 minutes. Take a break, grab a snack, and move onto the next challenge. Read the game box to see the estimated game playing time. I still like to play Trivial Pursuit (because I’m good at it) but that can go on for hours and people get sick of me pulling random trivia out of my … head.


Check out Beat the Parents or Cash Cab for a faster moving trivia-based game.

Age Range of the Players
If you have a mixed age range of players, you either need to find a very simple game that is fun for all or pick a game that can be modified for the littlest one at the table. For example, we recently had some friends over for dinner and I wanted to try a new game I bought at the Chicago Toy & Game Fair. It’s called 5 Second Rule. We had an 8-year-old, 10-year-old and 4 crazy adults playing. Although the game suggests ages 10-years-old and up, we were able to modify the game so the youngest could play and win, too. In the game you have 5 seconds to blurt out 3 possible answers to a question. The adults had to name 3, the 10 year old only had to name 2 and the youngest only had to name one answer to win that hand. This worked perfectly to keep it “fair.”

Some games that we really like that are suitable for 3 or 4-year-olds, but won’t bore the heck out of the rest of the family are:


The Zoo I Drew

Birds, Bugs and Beans

Dog Dice



Card games like Go Fish or Crazy 8′s with the Little Hands Deluxe Card Holder Game Set

Take the Cake

Mood
Finally, gauge the mood of the players. Is everyone tired? Sit on the couch and play a kid-friendly version of Scene It. All you need to do is yell at the TV. Are you in the mood to be active? Get everyone moving by bowling or playing Wipe Out on the Wii. Does everyone need a good laugh after a long week? Some of our favorite silly games are Flapdoodle and Snorta. (I hate recommending Snorta because the Out-of-the-Box Game people were so rude to me when I was starting my company, but we do really love to play the game. It’s also a fabulous drinking game, but you didn’t hear that from me.) Do you want your game to be educational, like Spanish Bingo or even Scrambled States of America? Our kids love Mexican Train Dominoes for the silly train sound effects but we secretly like it because it helped my daughter learn to count.

Check back for more posts on Family Game Night. What is your absolutely favorite family game?

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Fun Ideas · Family Game Night · Games

My kids were positively gloom and doom this morning when they had to go back to school. (Why does school start so early? Why do I even have to go to school? Ninjas don’t need to learn math. Why don’t you ever buy me any decent pants?) Insert your kids’ favorite whining here.

Now I like a good wine, I mean whine, when it’s me doing the whining. I certainly don’t want to condone the kids’ whiny behavior, but I was thinking of doing something special for the kids this evening to “celebrate” or “ease the pain” of going back to school after the Holiday Break. My plan? Chocolate Fondue! What better way to create a Chocolate Cake Moment than with hot, gooey chocolate?

You can certainly surprise the kids with this treat after school today or maybe on Friday after school to celebrate them getting back into the swing of homework.

Kirchner’s Chocolate Fondue

1 lb. of your favorite milk chocolate bar (we like Ghirardellis)
4 oz. dark chocolate bar
3/4 cup heavy cream (you can use half and half for less calories)
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Break the chocolate bars into pieces and place in your fondue, hot pot, or double boiler. Keep on a low setting. (If you don’t have any of those, just use a regular pot on very low setting and make sure you keep stirring.) Add cream and stir constantly until chocolate is melted and smooth. (If you are melting this on a stove top, watch the heat. Don’t walk away or the chocolate will boil and be ruined.) Stir in the vanilla right before serving. Then dip away!

Dipping Suggestions (In order of our kids preference):

• Large marshmallows
• Sliced bananas
• Salted pretzel sticks
• Cubed pound cake
• Angel food cake
• Stem strawberries
• Hazelnut or almond biscotti (more for the adults)

Serves 6

Have fun! What do you do to ease the pain of going back to school for your kids?

[Read more →]

Tags: Back to School Tips · Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun

Still not sure what to do today or tonight to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the kids? Here are some last minute suggestions to bring on the fun.

If you live in the Chicagoland area and have little kids, head on over to Make A Messterpiece today for their New Year’s Eve Kiddie Countdown Celebration. From 9 a.m – 1 p.m., they will be having all kinds of fun activities to help you and your little ones ring in the New Year with a mess. It’s $18 for the celebration this morning which includes all activities and a balloon drop at noon. Get dressed and head on over now. (more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Holiday Fun · Kids Birthday Party Ideas

I love to entertain! Whether it is a small dinner party, a casual pizza party with the neighbors, a family celebration, or cool kids party, I love to plan, host and most importantly have some party fun. But I’m a busy Mom so although I want my party preparations to be memorable, I want them easy as well. I want to spend more time having fun at the party than planning it!

So, I was thrilled when my friend Debra Delaney-Kavalos announced that her fabulous site MemorableEntertaining.com was now free to all. I have had a subscription for her home entertaining site for over a year now and it is my Go-To source for ideas on recipes, party themes, or simple, but Wow! decorations. She has some wonderful recipe contributions from local and national chefs. I was excited when she asked me to submit some Kids’ Parties last year because it challenged me to come up with some unique ideas.

Head on over to MemorableEntertaining.com and register to become a user. It’s now a free resource site, but you do need to register. Then check out my Kids’ Sledding Party here.

Does the idea of entertaining at home make you break out in hives? Relax! Read my post on 5 Fun, Easy Ways to Entertain Friends, Even If You Are Afraid of Entertaining.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Entertaining at Home · Family Celebrations

I was thrilled to be invited to WGN-TV today to share my ideas for a Kid-Friendly New Year’s Eve Party. Watch the video and let me know what you think. What do you normally do for New Year’s Eve? If you stay home with the kids, how do you celebrate?

 

For more information on my party ideas, check the write-up on the WGN site or my last blog post.

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Family Celebrations · Family Game Night · Family Party Ideas · Holiday Traditions · Kids Birthday Party Ideas

For those of you who live in the Chicagoland area, I will be conducting a workshop at Make A Messterpiece in Glenview tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. and next Wednesday, December 15th at 6 p.m. on How to Create Fun & Enduring Family Holiday Traditions.

Here’s what I will be covering:

The Holidays are a great opportunity to start new family traditions or rediscover long-held family Holiday traditions that you and your kids will look forward to every year. Traditions are the glue that bind a family together but more importantly, provide opportunities for fun.

Sue Kirchner, Family Fun Coach, will share ideas on how to strengthen existing and start new family Holiday Traditions to create memories and laughter. She’ll share tips on conducting research on your family’s Holiday traditions, identifying which traditions mean the most to you and your kids, and ideas on updating long-held family traditions. She’ll also share some great ideas for new Holiday Traditions as well as favorite Holiday activities that the Chicagoland area has to offer.

Workshops are about 30 minutes long, free and you can bring your kids. If you haven’t been in to see Make A Messterpiece yet, definitely come and check it out. Your kids will have a blast in the various creative studio stations.

Contact me at sue (at) chocolatecakeclub.com for more details. Hope to see you there. It will be fun!

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Family Celebrations · Holiday Traditions

To make a holiday tradition more fun and memorable, don’t forget to “Make it a Party.” No one said that you have to limit family traditions to just family. Some of our favorite Holiday traditions involve our best friends or neighbors:

• Every Christmas, we have a gift exchange with some of our closest friends. It’s like Christmas Eve Lite.
• We always try to invite friends to our Holiday meals who might be home alone that year.



• We also meet our best friends every year for the Fourth Presbyterian Church Holiday Concert (http://www.fourthchurch.org/concerts.html#december)in downtown Chicago. We have gone for several years now and the kids love it. We head down to the Church for their Tower Brass concert and then walk around Michigan Ave. looking at the lights before grabbing dinner. It’s the perfect way to celebrate the season and experience the beauty of the city during the Holidays. (This year the concert is Dec. 18th at 5 p.m.)
• Our neighborhood had a tradition of having a house decorating contest with a snowman theme. Each house on our block tries to decorate with as many snowmen as possible. We would all meet for a party at a neighbor’s house. During the party the whole group would put on their coats and march around the block in the dark and the cold, voting on which house had the best snowman “spirit.” Try it with your neighbors this year and let the competition and laughter begin.
• Last year, one of the neighbors organized a Caroling party for some Holiday fun.
• Every year two friends and I meet up for a Girls Night Out Holiday Tea at a swanky hotel downtown. While we might not pull it off every year, it does get us talking and reminiscing during December, so we don’t lose touch. I look forward to the thought of Holiday Tea just as much as actually having it. (more…)

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

Looking for a way to spice up your family’s Holiday Traditions this year? I suggest you Be Creative and Try Something New to add a little variety to your Holiday Season and make it more fun this year.

While we all love traditions and look forward to them every year because they provide a foundation for the family’s Holiday activities, it doesn’t mean you can’t adapt or update the tradition or try something new entirely. Variety is the spice of life! What’s the worst that could happen? You don’t like the new activity and you don’t do it again next year.

So, instead of putting on your Santa Hat, put on your thinking caps and get the whole family to brainstorm some creative ways to amp up your existing Holiday Traditions. If your family has a tradition of cutting down a real tree every year, try wearing Santa Hats or dressing like lumberjacks this year to give the event a little silliness and flair. If you all bake Holiday cookies together, be adventurous and try a new recipe or one that sounds really wild. Do all the girls in your family get together for Holiday Tea? Ask everyone to wear an audacious hat to make the affair more elegant and/or goofy.

If your family seems a little burned out on the tried and true family traditions, be adventurous this year and try a new activity that you’ve heard or read about. Who knows? It may become a new favorite. So, if you always go to see the Christmas Carol play, try the Nutcracker Ballet this year. If you’ve never had a real Christmas tree, try cutting one down this year and see if you like the difference. If your kids are a little older now, try going to Midnight Mass. Invite other people to your Hannukah celebration to teach them about your traditions. Try making your menorah this year instead of using the family favorite. Or, buy a candle making set and have the whole family make candles this year for the Celebration of Light. (I’m not Jewish but I asked my friends about their traditions and looked and online for ideas. I found a really nice article on Hannukah traditions to do with your kids. Let me know what you think.)

For inspiration, check out the article I wrote for TheFamilyGroove.com where I share 7 fun Holiday Tradition ideas.

What are your family Holiday Traditions? Leave me a comment and let’s see if together we can brainstorm ways to spice it up this year.

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Family Celebrations · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

Here is another family Holiday tradition sent to us from Erin B. in IL. She shares her family’s tradition where the kids got to open one present after Church on Christmas Eve, ending hours of anticipation. She always remembers these “first” presents of the Holiday because they were from her Great Grandmother, they were handmade, and they were the first gift they were allowed to open on Christmas Eve. Thanks for sharing the story and the photo Erin!

As a child growing up in Round Lake Beach, IL, our house was the center for family on Christmas. Those who had traveled from out of town (Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles) found themselves sleeping in my bed or on the sofa sleeper. Many children today would be mortified to be resorted to sleeping in the same bed as a sibling. However, my brother and I couldn’t have been happier. We knew that no matter how much we fought with each other throughout the year, we could contain ourselves for that one glorious day when we would awake to find the tree adorned with presents underneath.

Weeks before the big day, our house would be flooded with packages of presents from family members who could not make the trek to our house. It took a lot of patience on the part of my brother and myself not to sneak a peek at those colorfully decorated boxes. On Christmas Eve, following the 7pm church service, we were allowed to open the present from our Great Grandmother. This present was never anything too extravagant as her funds were limited, but rather it was something that was handmade by her. The fact that this gift was handmade was of course special to us but it was because it was the “first” present that I truly believe it meant more to us. To this day, I still have those handmade presents, though my Great Grandmother is long gone.

As a new mother of two, I intend to carry this tradition over to my young children as I believe every child should remember their “first” present every Christmas.

Did your family have a tradition of opening certain gifts first? Please send us your Holiday Traditions stories. We’d love to post them and share the fun.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

I have asked some friends and family to tell me about their Holiday Traditions or their favorite memories of the Holidays. This first post is from my mother, Roberta, and her Holiday Tradition of Tinsel on the Tree.

We had 4 children in our family and always spent Christmas Eve with my maternal grandparents and all our cousins. My grandparents lived in Oak Park, IL. in a big house or so I thought at the time. They had a side driveway and portico. When you entered on Christmas Eve the dining room glass doors were shut with a drape on them. In the living room in front of the fireplace, was a very tall unadorned Christmas tree and a ladder.

My grandfather would call each of his grandchildren to help him decorate the tree. Depending on your age, dexterity and patience, you either placed an ornament on the tree or an icicle one by one. No throwing or bunching of the icicles. This whole project could take quite some time and get very boring but I loved the tinsel. That was my job and I thought I did it the best. When we were finished, the dining room doors were opened for food and drink. My parents, aunts and uncles were starving by this time but my grandfather didn’t care. The tree was important. It reminded him of Germany.

To this day more than 50 years later, we put tinsel or some type of “one by one” shimmer on the tree.

I do remember that we always had tinsel on our tree growing up. Gold, it had to be gold. I tried to continue the tradition in my house but sadly we have cats. You know, they eat the tinsel and you find it later in a very unsavory state.

So, friends, please send me your favorite Holiday traditions and photos. I would love to start a collection of memories.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Fun with Grandma & Grandpa · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

Thanksgiving dinner is over and everyone has finished grazing. It was dead silent during the meal because you just can’t shovel that great food in fast enough. But now, everyone is too tired or stuffed to get up from the table. No one wants to stand up first and show the group that they had to unbutton their pants to make room for more stuffing. (Come on! I’m not the only one who does this, right.) so, you’re staring at each other with nothing to do. Don’t panic! Start a conversation game.

Prior to dinner, write a couple of fun questions down on pieces of paper. Put them in a hat and start picking random questions to ask everyone at the table. Even though you think you know everything about your relatives, trust me, you don’t. We learn more about each other playing these conversation games and it’s fun. (Tip: Have someone write these memories down in a special notebook or video tape it. It’s a great way to preserve some of the grandma and grandpa’s memories.)

Here are some suggestions for questions that should appeal to all ages:

1. Who was your favorite teacher and why?
2. What is your favorite book?
3. What is your favorite movie?
4. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
5. If you could invite anyone to dinner, who would it be?
6. What is your favorite Holiday tradition and why?
7. What was your very first job?
8. What was/is your favorite kids show?
9. What is the one thing you like most about the person sitting next to you?
10. What are you most thankful for this year?

You can also buy the Family Dinner Conversation Game we sell at ChocolateCakeClub.com to play during any dinner occasion – weeknights, while you are waiting in restaurants, or traveling.

What question would you add to my list?

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Dinner Time Fun · Games · Holiday Traditions

It Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead today. It’s a wonderful Holiday that reminds us to remember and cherish the memories of those we have lost. We built our family’s Day of the Dead shrine and tonight at dinner we will have fun talking about what we like most and miss most about our family, pets and friends who are no longer with us.

Read Why I Love Day of the Dead and then read How to Teach Your Kids About Day of the Dead.

Whoever you are remembering tonight, have fun and remind your kids that you are never gone from this earth, if someone remembers you.

[Read more →]

Tags: Fall Season Family Fun Activities · Family Celebrations · Halloween Family Fun Ideas

I met another Mom a week or so ago who is following her passion and living out loud. Allow me to introduce Lori Radun of Momnificent.com, who is our FIRST EVER guest blogger. We found over coffee that we have several similarities, most importantly that we are both passionate about the importance of family time. Here is her very convincing take on why it’s so important:

The Benefits of Family Recreation

With more and more structured activities taking up our children’s time, this leaves little time for family recreation. Linda has two girls; one is eight years old and the other is ten. Each girl can be involved in up to three different extracurricular activities during the school year. Whether it is music lessons, gymnastics or swimming, there is hardly time to do anything together as a family. Sure, mom and dad juggle the responsibilities of getting each child to their respective activities and they stay to watch the practices or meets, but they are not truly interacting with their girls. Competitive activities such as these have replaced family recreation.

Family recreation would be defined as a pleasurable or relaxing activity done together as a family. Examples would be having a picnic together at a local park, going on a hike together in the woods, or exploring a fun museum together on a Saturday afternoon. You don’t have to leave the house to enjoy family recreation. You can play board games together, kick the soccer ball around in the backyard, or blow bubbles on the front porch. These activities in a child’s life, I would venture to say, are far more important than any structured extracurricular activity, primarily because they are spent with us, but for many other reasons as well.

Family recreation teaches life skills. Children learn a number of life skills from hanging together as a family. They learn how to solve problems and cooperate with one another. Any time you have two or more people together, each with their own personalities and ideas, compromise must be practiced. We have to learn to take turns and consider the needs of other people. Children learn to cope with their frustration when they don’t get their way or they are learning something new. And family recreation allows us to teach our children about having a positive attitude. When we play a game together as a family, we don’t allow our children to be poor sports. We use the opportunity to teach them how to lose gracefully and congratulate the winners. We show them that playing a game is not always about winning and losing, but more about having fun.

Family recreation builds positive character. When we spend time together as a family, children learn a number of positive character traits. They learn to respect everyone in the family. If you’re playing a game together, they are learning to be honest. Cheating is not allowed. Children have the opportunity to develop their creativity especially during imaginative play. And they learn to be flexible because everyone is different. When Donna decided to start a family night in her family, she gave each member of the family an opportunity to pick a fun family activity. Mom, Dad and the two children took turns choosing something fun to do. When it wasn’t your turn, you were not allowed to complain about the activity because they were trying to teach fairness.

Family recreation promotes physical, emotional, mental and social development. We all need recreation in our lives. Active activities exercise our bodies. Games that require us to think or activities that encourage learning promote healthy mental development. Spending time together as a family and interacting in relationship with one another develops our children socially. Emotionally, we receive love, companionship and the release of stressful feelings when we engage in recreational activities.

Family recreation strengthens family bonds. Spending time together builds intimacy in our lives. For children to feel loved, we need to spend quality time with them. This helps them feel valued and worthy of attention. The more time we spend together, the more we get to know one another. This helps us feel closer as a family. When we play together, we laugh and enjoy life together. These emotional feelings strengthen our family bonds.

Family recreation relieves stress. We all know adults need to release stress, but so do children. Believe it or not, children are stressed by school work, peer relationships and other normal childhood stressors. Playing and engaging in relaxing activities is a great way to blow off steam. Run around and play hide and seek, plunge into cool water at your local pool, or play a silly game of charades. Laugh and have fun.

Family recreation builds family memories. What are some of the best memories you have from your childhood? When I divorced my older son’s father, my son lost some of his favorite memories with his dad. He and his dad used to play basketball on a little basketball hoop in the house. They would run around in a little small area of his bedroom, acting crazy and shooting baskets. My ex-husband instilled some great memories with his son by engaging in family recreation with him. Fun times always stick in a person’s mind so enjoy life with your children.

Lori Radun is life coach, inspirational speaker and author of The Momnificent! Life – Healthy and Balanced Living for Busy Moms. Her website, www.momnificent.com is a place where moms go for unconditional support and expert advice on making positive, healthy choices on modern motherhood challenges.

Thanks Lori!

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Moms Living Out Loud · Parenting Tips

Whether you fall into the camp that believes kids birthday parties are out of control and way to extravagant or not, here are some ideas on how to spend less on your child’s birthday party, so that you can spend that money on something else …. like taking the family to a show or a buying a puppy. (OK, maybe not that.)

1. A Scribble is Fine. I like a beautiful invitation as much as the next person but let’s face it, it’s going into the garbage as soon as the party date has passed. For adults, a party invitation sets the mood for the event. For kids, it just tells Mom when and where to bring her child. So, why not take one of your kids drawings, write the party particulars on the bottom, make copies, and call it a day. Or save even more money and a tree by sending an evite. Above you can see the invitation my daughter made for her Spa Birthday party.

2. Stand Up for the Cake. For every one of my kids’ birthday, I just make a chocolate cake and then put their toys on the top of the cake to decorate it. Plastic horses, fairies, Star War or Lego guys are all perfect to decorate a cake and make it fit the party “theme.” The kids think it is so cool to show off their favorite toys on the cake. The cake cost me $5.00.

3. More Does Not Equal Better. Limit the number of kids. Don’t feel like you need to invite every kid in your child’s class or on their sports team or who talked to your child at the playground. More does not equal better for either Mom or the birthday child. Too many kids is overwhelming for all. Only invite the number you are comfortable supervising. My rule of thumb is if I’ve never met the other child’s Mom, I am certainly not going to ask them to plunk $20 down for a gift for my kid. They aren’t invited. I certainly don’t like buying a gift for a kid I’ve never heard of, so why would they. “Stephen, who?”

4. Kill Two Birds With One Stone. (No birds were harmed in the creation of this tip.) Make sure one of your birthday party activities is also the take home favor for the party guests. If you tie dye T-shirts at the party, the T-shirt is their party favor. If you decorate pirate chests, the kids takes home a nice pirate chest. If you have a cookie decorating party, the kids take home a bunch of cookies. Don’t buy an extra goodie bag! You’re covered already.

5. Don’t feed the animals. If you plan your party time right, you don’t have to feed the guests a full meal. Plan your party from 2 – 4 p.m. and you only need to serve cake and some munchies. Don’t spend the money on pizza or hot dogs.

6. Reuse and Recycle. Use the games, toys, and activites you already have at home to entertain the kids at the party. Have a tent? Set it up in the backyard or the dining room and they’ll play for hours. Have a Wii? Host a Wii tournament. Have a karioke machine? Throw a Diva party. Have a lot of tea sets? Host a Teddy Bear tea party. Have a cool telescope? Stargazing party! Have a million loose Lego pieces? Throw a Lego Party where you just dump all of those miscellaneous pieces on a table and tell the kids to have at it. (Actually, this is a great goodie bag idea. Collect all of those extra Lego pieces laying around that you can’t match up with any kits and put them in a baggie to give out as party favors. The kids love it and you can walk on your carpet again.)

7. Treat Bags are for Landfills. I’m sorry but when my kids bring home one of those plastic bags filled with candy, pencils and plastic spider rings, they immediately go in the recycle bin. Moms, you don’t have to give anything – there is no rule or birthday fairy who punishes those without treat bags. Don’t waste your money. If you didn’t do an activity where the kids could take something home already (see #4) and you do want a parting gift, keep it low key. Just buy a big candy bar and tie a ribbon around it. Or go to Half Price Books, buy old comic books and hand those out. (This was a HUGE, HUGE hit at my son’s last party.) Or I like taking a photo of the guest with the birthday child and either having someone print it during the party to take home or send it to them in the thank you note. That is something that will get saved.

I hope these tips have helped you keep the kids birthday party budget from spirally out of control and convinced you to get a puppy. (Adopt don’t buy, and you’ll save even more money.)

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Kids Birthday Party Ideas

Happy Birthday! Did you know that today is the most popular birthdate in America? According to quite few sites, October 5th is the most popular day to have a baby. Why? It’s exactly 9 months after New Year’s Eve. So, I guess we are really celebrating the memory of two parties.

I don’t know about you but New Years Eve was never a “lucky” night for me. Even before we had kids we never really celebrated that much on New Years Eve. After we had kids, well, we can’t even stay up long enough to watch the ball drop. But cheers to the over 968,000 people who celebrate their birthday today and to over 12,500 new celebrants who are born each year!

Some other fun birthday facts:

• Among the ancient Greeks the big celebrations were for the birthdays of the gods. Only important family heads (men only) celebrated personal birthdays. The Greeks started the tradition of lighted candles on cakes. (Source: Ralph and Adelin Linton (1952). The Lore of Birthdays. New York: Henry Schuman)
• The modern children’s birthday party came from Germany (kinderfeste) in the early 19th century, an era when the individual person was seen as important and when childhood was “discovered” as a special stage of life. These celebrations then spread to the U.S.
  (Source: Elizabeth H. Pleck (2000). Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture, and Family Rituals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.)

In an article in the University of Illinois Liberal Arts & Science Alumni Magazine, Elizabeth Pleck, a family life historian, tells us this about birthday parties:

In the early 1800s, well-heeled Victorians seized on the notion of a children’s party as a way to showcase their wealth by simultaneously indulging their children and instructing them in etiquette. Even party games had a socializing function, such as teaching the boys how to lead in formal dance. Party gifts were from parents to child, and significantly, sometimes from child to the servants. The unmistakable intention of the party “was to teach children the manners they would need to assume their place of privilege in society.” Consequently, birthdays were large and extravagant, orchestrated by the mother, usually with the help of a sizable staff.

And we complain about how birthday parties are outrageous and extravagant these days! Which reminds me, have you heard about our Kids Birthday Party Entertainment Kits? We wanted to help busy Moms throw a stress-free birthday party for their kids at home, without losing their sanity and all for under $200! We’ve done the legwork to provide Moms with our pick for the easiest and most fun activities and goodies for a kids’ party. Each kit has everything Mom needs to throw a fun 2-hour party, including a Planning Guide with simple tips and ideas for decorations, additional games, and food. Check out our Pirate Birthday Party Entertainment Kit and Garden Party Entertainment Kits.

Watch the video of my appearance on WGN with more tips and ideas on How to Throw a Kids Birthday Party at Home for Under $200!

What is your favorite birthday party memory?

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Kids Birthday Party Ideas

It’s October 1st and Halloween is coming. Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are some of my favoritest Holidays. We are going to decorate this weekend to get everyone in the mood.

I saw this great post about Halloween Fun for Families and thought I would share. We’ll be starting our Halloween posts later today too. Let the spooky fun begin!

You might also like …
10 Family Fun Ideas to Celebrate the Fall Season
Halloween Crafting Fun this Weekend

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun

Did I convince you to host your child’s next birthday party at home with our post on 11 Reasons to Have Your Kid’s Birthday Party at Home? If so, you need to decide on how to keep these kids amused for 2 hours. The entertainment is THE most important part of the party. No, really. Kids could care less about how cool the decorations are. They don’t care that you followed Martha Stewart’s instructions to the letter … and it only took you 8 hours. (It is so sobering when you are feeling so proud of your crafting accomplishments and your kids say “What decorations?”) Save those cool decorations for an adult party where the guests will appreciate the time and effort you put in.

As for food, don’t stress about it. I like to make all kinds of themed party food because it amuses me. The kids don’t care. Kids like pizza. Or, they’d really prefer you skip the pizza and just serve extra cake. Make your life easy and give them what they want, if an elaborate, themed menu makes you break out into a cold sweat.

So how do you choose the entertainment for the party?
Depending on how much time, energy and money you want to invest, you could hire the talent, do the research and plan it yourself, or purchase a party entertainment kit.

1. Hire the entertainment. If you look in the back of your local Family Magazines, you’ll see hundreds of little ads for kids birthday party entertainment. You can find all kinds of fun options from magicians to reptile shows to science parties where things explode to music to tween spa treatments. You can hire a party planner who will do everything for you from the food and decorations to the entertainment. Obviously, that costs the most money but it’s stress-free for Mom. Or you can just hire someone to come in and do their “act.” There are a lot of birthday party entertainers out there, so I would suggest asking your friends who they recommend. If you and your child have already decided on a theme for the party then it makes it a little easier to narrow down the options.

However, don’t overlook thinking outside of the box for your birthday party entertainment. I know someone who just received her massage therapy license. Even though she isn’t a kids birthday entertainer, she was thrilled to go to a friends house and give shoulder massages during a kids party. I’ve been to another party where someone’s Dad is a carpenter and he was hired to show the boys how to build a birdhouse. (Obviously, the person you are asking to entertain the kids should be good with children. Don’t ask Uncle Phil who swears like a sailor. Even if he can make the coolest paper airplanes on the planet.) Call your local beauty school and see if they would send over some students to practice by giving some little girls “up-dos”.

2. Entertain them yourself. If you like to do a little research and plan out games and activities for parties (like I do) then knock yourself out. There are so many great party books or search online to find some terrific ideas on ways to have fun at a kids birthday party. Keep in mind that you’ll need probably 4 activities for a 2-hour party. Create an agenda to make it easier for you to see how much time to assign to each activity. If you are going to plan and run the entertainment yourself, definitely have at least one other adult helping you. There’s no way you can manage the activity, supervise the kids, get the next activity ready, and take pictures all by yourself.

3. Purchase a Kids Birthday Party Entertainment Kit. Wouldn’t it be great to purchase a kit that had everything you needed for a 2-hour party? That’s exactly why I created two, new Kids Birthday Party Entertainment Kits – Garden Party or Pirate Party – to make it easy for busy parents to throw a great kids party by providing everything you need to keep kids amused. For under $200, no less. Each kit has:

• invitations and thank you notes
• goodie bags
• a craft activity
• a game
• an additional activity like music for freeze dance or a cooking kit to make cookies
• a Party Planning Guide that I wrote that has simple tips on planning the party, food ideas, decorations, additional themed games, and party favors (worth it’s weight in gold, if I do say so myself)

In the Guide, I’ve even broken the party activities down into an agenda, so you know how much time to spend on each activity! I also give you enough ideas for other games so you can plug in the activities that appeal most to your child or age group, or to have as back-pocket, extra activities if needed. Pull all of the pieces out of the box, buy some snacks and you are done. It’s easy peasy.

There are other “Birthday Party in a Box” packages online but double check to see if they include activities or just the party decorations. Remember, the hard part is keeping these kids entertained!

If you need more inspiration or are looking for a different theme, check out the great birthday party games, craft activities, goodie bags, and favors we sell at ChocolateCakeClub.com. We’ve got great items for Slumber Parties, Halloween Parties, as well as Race Car, Train, Princess, and Fairy themes.

Have fun planning your party! What entertainment has worked best at your kids’ party?

You might also like …
11 Reasons to Have Your Kid’s Birthday Party at Home
Throw a Kids Birthday Party at Home for Under $200
Family Slumber Party

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Kids Birthday Party Ideas

Today is National Family Day! Hurray! Created by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children™ is a national movement to inform parents that interacting with your kids during frequent family dinners is an effective tool to help keep America’s kids substance free. Research shows the simple act of eating dinner together as a family can have a major impact on the happiness and well-being of both parents and children. I know my family is much happier when we are talking about the best parts of our day, how to solve a challenge or planning our next Family Fun activity.

We have always been a big proponent that Family Mealtime = more Chocolate Cake Moments. Read my articles on Bringing the Family Mealtime Back, Family Mealtime Fun: It’s Not About the Food, Getting Your Kids to Pitch In at Dinner, and Want to Have Dinner Together More? Make a Date.

At the National Center on Addiction’s site, you can download their annual study on the Importance of Family Dinners and how that impacts your teen’s happiness, health and self-esteem. You can also download some fun dinnertime games and conversation starters.

We sell some great Conversation Starter Games at ChocolateCakeClub.com. Our favorites are the Family Dinner Box of Questions and Chat Pack for Kids, which is the perfect size to throw in your purse and use when traveling or going out for dinner.

Have fun with your family at dinner tonight!

You might also like …

6 Ideas To Get Your Kids To Talk More About Their Day
How to Cook More with the Kids

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Dinner Time Fun

Kids love their birthdays and especially look forward to their parties with great anticipation. (As opposed to us adults who get cranky every time someone mentioned their impending birthday. What? I’m the only one?) However, you don’t need to spend a fortune at a birthday party mill where your kid is just a name on a party room door. Consider having a really cool, really fun party right at home. Here’s 11 reasons why we think you should host your child’s birthday party at home.

1. Your won’t just be a number on a party room door. I have been to so many birthday party places where the minimal staff only cares about getting you in and out of your party room on time and with no hassle to them. They don’t even bother to learn your kid’s name. It’s your kid’s big day! Don’t make it feel like you are being herded. Especially for the amount of money you just dropped.

2. Big impact, for less. Sure, you can spend $1,000 on a kids birthday party at home without even trying hard, (especially if you rent gold plates and a band), but you don’t have to. You can throw an awesome and more importantly memorable party in your house for under $200. Get a little creative, do a little homework, and concentrate on what matters to your kid – the activities, not the decorations.

3. It will force you to clean your house. Thank goodness we entertain often or our house would never get cleaned. A party forces you to pick up the clutter and purge. While it’s a little bit of work, everyone in the house will reap the benefits of clutter-free living. For a month. OK, a day. OK, maybe a few hours.

4. It will distinguish you as a superhero. Other Mother’s will envy your courage for allowing 10 kids into your home … at one time. At the end of the party you may be tired but you will be victorious. “They came. They played. They ate. They left in one piece.” Success! More importantly, when your child looks at you at the end of the day and says “Thanks Mom! I had fun at my party.” You’ll feel invincible.

5. Chance to get your Creativity on. If you’ve been hankering to do some of the cool craft or entertaining projects you’ve seen in magazines or online, this is your chance. Don’t be a party planning wannabe – exercise the noodle and have fun working on your child’s party. If your child is old enough, get them involved. Have them help you make invitations, cook the food, or decorate. It’s a nice way to spend time together and teach your kids party planning skills.

6. Make new friends. When you have a kids birthday party at your house, it’s nice to invite the parents to stay and not only help out (YES!) but also to socialize. I’ve met some great new friends at kids’ birthday parties. Parents seem more inclined to stay if the party is at a home, than in a party place. I guess since there are “workers” at the party places the parents don’t feel like they have to stay and supervise.

7. Kids like to show off their toys. What’s the first thing kids do when a new friend comes over. “Come look at my room!” “Come look at my toys!” “Come see the dead frog in the backyard we just found.” They love to show off their “stuff” and a birthday party is a perfect chance to show off to many.

8. Backyard, back-up plans. Have you been to a birthday party place and the activity or entertainment took a lot less time than you thought? One year, we had my daughter’s party at a Chocolate Shop. The kids made chocolate candy and treats. It was a big hit … for 30 minutes. I thought they would spend at least an hour making their treats. So, we were in a small party room with nothing to do for 30 minutes before the pizza arrived. Fortunately, I had some back up games, but this could have been a nightmare. If you need to kill time, it’s easier to do so at home. You can pull out a movie, send the kids to the basement to play with their toys, or go play on the swingset in the backyard.

9. It’s more memorable. Think back. Which parties do you remember the most? I remember the ones my parent’s threw for me at home. I asked my kids which parties they’ve liked the best and they chose the ones we had at home. Why? They stand out more. They are unique. Kids get tired of going to the same places all the time for their friend’s birthday parties. It got to the point where my kids were turning down invitations depending on where the party was to be held. “Chuck E. Cheese, again? No thanks!” “Pump It Up? Been there, done that.” Wow! How bored do these kids have to be before they start turning down free candy and cake?

10. Not tied to the most popular party themes. Maybe your child doesn’t want a princess/ pirate/ racecar/ fairy party. Most party places and entertainers offer what’s most popular, understandably. However, if your child loves cowboys or owls or puppets or making sushi, you might not be able to find that kind of party pre-made at one of the party places. Host it at home and use your creativity to throw a totally unique party.

11. You waited too long and everything decent is booked. I can’t be the only one this has happened to, can I?

Hey, I’m a busy Mom. I understand that some years you are just not going to have the time to plan and throw your child’s birthday party at home. Or your son is just dying to play Laser Tag. No problem. Have the party at a party place and make your life less stressful. However, I strongly believe that you should throw some of these parties at home to shake up the variety and create stronger memories for you and your child.

We offer Kids Birthday Party Entertainment Kits that make it easy for Moms to throw a super-duper, memorable birthday party for their kids at home, without losing their sanity and for under $200. Check them out. We’re adding more themes as we go and we are going to be sharing Kids Birthday Party Ideas for the next few weeks on the blog.

You might also like these videos …
Tips for Planning a Kids Birthday Party at Home for Under $200
Throw a Kids Birthday Party at Home

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas

I was a guest on WGN TV Chicago yesterday, sharing tips on how to throw a fun, unique kids birthday party at home without losing your sanity and best yet, for under $200! Watch the video and see if you can figure out which kids are mine.

Watch the WGN TV Clip.

Click to see the Kids Pirate Birthday Party Entertainment Kit featured in the segment as well as all of our great kids birthday party goodie bags, games and activities.

You might also like:

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Kids Birthday Party Ideas

Get the kids up and moving with our next Summer Fun Challenge idea – Host an Olympics Game in your backyard. Look through your garage to find some games and “obstacles” that you can use to create challenges for your kids and their friends.

What’s great about this family fun idea is you can spend a lot of time setting up and thinking about the challenges or you can just use what’s in your backyard already. Use your creativity and make the games as silly as you want. (I think one of the challenges should be to wash the dog but the dog gave me the evil eye.)

If you want to make it more educational for the kids, have them each choose a country too compete as and have them draw that country’s flag on a piece of paper that they “parade” around at the beginning of the games.

Outdoor Games
Depending on your child’s interest or athletic abilities you can design a variety of challenges around speed, endurance, and special talents. If your child loves gymnastics, make sure you have some balance beam, cartwheel, or tumbling challenges. If your child loves basketball, get some hoops games going. The idea is to provide a variety of games that everyone will enjoy and have a chance at a medal.

Race Challenges -

• Run to the end of the driveway and back the fastest
• Run around the cul de sac
• Sack race
• Egg and spoon race
• Three legged race
• Race against the dog – who can run down the block the fastest
• Wheelbarrel races
• Baton races
• Suitcase Relay – You’ll need at least two teams. Each team gets a suitcase with articles of clothing like a hat, scarf, mittens, sweater, robe, wig, pants, boots, etc. Then have the kids get in a line each with a suitcase full of clothes. First child on each team runs with the suitcase to a designated spot. Opens the suitcase and puts on all of the clothes. They run back to the start with the empty suitcase, take the clothes off and hand it to the next team member. Whichever team finishes first, wins.
• Triathalon – Bike around the block, run around the block, skate around the block.

Frisbee throwing discus challenge – who can throw the farthest or who can get the frisbee closest to a target

Long jump – grab your tape measure!

Obstacle course – We like to set up obstacles to run around but also have the kids stop every now and then and do something silly. Run to the tree and give me 6 jumping jacks, then climb over the hill and roll down, walk like a duck, jump over every crack in the sidewalk, yodel, and then run through the hula hoops without missing one.

Mini Golf Course – Read our post on how to set up a mini golf course in your backyard

Baggo Game – most points wins

Croquet Slalom Race – instead of going through the hoops, you have to go around them

Paddle Ball Competition – team with the most hits before ball drops wins

Trampoline – how many sit jumps can you do in a minute? Can you do a splits kick? Can you jump and sit, then knees, then twist all in one move? Who can jump the longest without losing balance?

Basketball Hoop – HORSE contest, knock-out, or 3-point shoot-out games

Paper Airplane Throw – make a paper airplane and see who’s flies the farthest

Here are some other great game ideas from AtoZ Kids Stuff.

At the end of the day, give out medals to the winners. Make sure everyone wins a medal for something. You can buy inexpensive medals at a craft store or make some with aluminum foil and ribbon. Check out our post on Celebrating the Winter Olympics Games with your kids. There are some good ideas for crafts, food, and party decorations.

Good luck and may the best team win! Send us some photos of your Olympic Games at sue@chocolatecakeclub.com. We’d love to feature them on the blog.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Games · Summer Family Activities

It’s Friday Night, you don’t have any plans, no babysitter, and you’re sick of movie night. It’s the perfect opportunity to host a Neighborhood Firepit Party. It’s a simple, fun, and easy way to be sociable and amuse the kids, no matter what age.

Our neighborhood is pretty friendly so if you build a firepit, they will come. Before it gets dark, we put the firepit out on the driveway, set up some chairs around the fire and that’s all the invitation the neighbors need. If that won’t work in your neighborhood, type up a quick flyer and have the kids hand it out to the neighbors or spread the word as you walk the dog around the block.

Tell everyone to bring their own drinks and bring some munchies to share. If you start planning earlier in the morning or the day before, people might have time to whip up something, otherwise I love seeing what people have in their fridge or pantry to share at a moment’s notice. Run to the corner store and buy supplies for s’mores. Tell the odd numbered houses to bring the appetizers and the even numbered houses to bring dessert. Our “go to” dish to bring – Guacamole and Chips. We keep our favorite guacamole in the freezer and can thaw it out for any occasion. Costco has some good pre-made guac.

When you have little kids, these parties are great because everyone will keep an eye on the kids. Or the bigger kids in the neighborhood will take them in hand and run some games. Sweet! You can go inside and put them to bed when needed.

The older kids can run around playing hide ‘n seek, ghost in the graveyard, or get a flashlight flag football game going. Set up a tent and let the kids play in the tent. Get out the baggo, bocce or Super Parachute Party Game. If there is a big sporting event on that evening, bring a radio or TV outside. We’ve got a large telescope so it’s fun to bring that out and let the kids take turns looking at the moon.

I love to do these parties right before school starts. The parents talk about who got which teacher, who’s going to be at the bus stop, and what to look forward to this school year. If your child is going into kindergarten, it’s a perfect time to pair him or her up with an older kid to help them on the bus.

Tell us about your neighborhood parties or your “go to” dish.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Family Party Ideas · Friday Night Fun · Summer Family Activities

It happens. We love our husbands and Dads to death and want to show them appreciation and give them a fun day to remember on Father’s Day. But some years you wake up on a Saturday morning in a cold sweat and say, “What? It’s tomorrow!?! How did that happen?”

It’s not that we don’t love you, sweeties. We want only the best for these men of ours. But life interferes. Kids need attention. (Yes, I am going to cop out and blame it on the kids.)

So, ladies, here are some last minute Father’s Day ideas that will make it look like you have been planning a special day for months.

1. Breakfast in Bed. The classic. Why not make his favorite dish and have the kids help you present it to him in bed? Or relaxing out on the patio? Breakfast Burritos are a huge hit in our house and easy to make. Scramble eggs, saute some onions and red peppers. Warm some tortillas and your favorite salsa. Add a side of grated cheddar and sour cream. Viola!

2. Bake his favorite cookies. My hubby loves Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies so the kids and I make them for him on special occasions – his birthday, Christmas, and now Father’s Day. (Make sure the kids don’t eat too many kisses so you run out of them by the time the last batch is ready.)

3. An afternoon of golf. If your whole family plays golf, set up a tee time and spend the day outside. If not, call one of his best buddies and set up a play date for Dad.

4. Act like a tourist. Some of our best Father’s Days have been where we just headed into downtown Chicago and hit some of the big tourist attractions. It’s something we rarely do as a family and it makes us feel like we “traveled” somewhere for the day.

5. Pampering. Every Dad likes quiet and relaxation, right? Well, why not give him a massage. He’ll get an hour of peace and quiet and come home relaxed and jelly like. (Ready to start work again on Monday. Right!)

6. Cook together. Do you both like to cook? Why not take the day to make one of those all day recipes that you have been dying to try. Make homemade pasta. Make paella. Slow cook ribs or a BBQ brisket. You’ll have a relaxing day spending time together in the kitchen and then eating a fabulous, rarely cooked meal.

Read our post on Father’s Day Activities from last year.

Give that important man in your life some Chocolate Cake Moments. He deserves them. Happy Fathers Day, everyone!

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Help Mom Stay Organized · Holiday Fun

It’s going to be nice outside in Chicago this Memorial Day weekend – Yeah!!! So, I’ve been trying to put together a few ideas of things we can do outside as a family. We’re going to ride our bikes over to watch our local Memorial Day Parade. (Psst! Like how my daughter turned her bike into a horse? We sell the Handlebar Horse Bike Accessory at www.ChocolateCakeClub.com.)

Then, we’re definitely going to go for a bike ride/ picnic through the forest preserve to feed the new duckies.

We’re going to meet up with another family for dinner one night where we can eat al fresco. (I’m going to finally get to see Iron Man 2, but that has nothing to do with outside. I’m just really looking forward to finally seeing a grown-up movie.)

My daughter built a toad cottage and wants to hunt for toads but I don’t know how successful we’ll be. Toads seem to have this magic ability to only be found when you don’t want to find one. Darn you, Toads!

But as I was cruising around the web this morning I came across this post on the TeachMama blog that I had to share as a great outside fun idea. Amy, the author, calls it a Backyard Rainbow Hunt and I call it a great way to spend time outside enjoying nature and making something together.

What are you going to do for fun this weekend? Whatever you decide to do, have fun with your family! Happy Memorial Day!

Can I ask a favor? If you like this blog, could you please vote for me in the Leading Moms in Business Contest? It only takes a click. Thank you!

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun

At a loss for ideas this weekend to have fun with your family? Memorial Day is in two weeks but that’s just too long to wait. We want something to look forward to NOW. Why not create your own Family Holiday? We all love holidays right? Special foods, special activities, time spent with people we love (or at least like.) Maybe you don’t get to take off of work for your own invented Holiday, but any reason to celebrate ranks high on the family fun meter.

Check out the post we wrote on How to Create Your Own Family Holiday.

Some new ideas I have this year are:

Chocolate Festival – Have chocolate at every meal. Figure out how to add chocolate to every dish you eat that day. Search for recipes online for inspiration.

Our Family Gives Back Day – Spend the day helping out various charities. Call some of your local charities and ask if there is something you can do as a family to help out.

Family Adventure Day – Grab a map with a 2 hour driving radius from where you live. Have one of the kids close their eyes and stick a pin into the map. You now have a destination for your adventure. Look up the town on Google and see what interesting things or restaurants there might be in that town and head out to discover a new place.

Maybe if your family holiday idea really takes off, Hallmark will start creating greeting cards for it.

What ideas do you have for creating your own Family Holiday? They can be funny. We like funny.

[Read more →]

Tags: Adventures · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Traditions

Mother’s Day is coming up and I’m looking forward to it. I have to admit, I didn’t use to. For a couple of years when my kids were toddlers, without fail my children would act their absolute worst on Mother’s Day or my birthday. The minute we walked into a restaurant to celebrate or tried to have a nice, relaxing breakfast at home, my kids would decide to explore and hone their obnoxious, whiny skills. Because really, what better day to bring your “A game” or what better way to really test how much your Mother loves you, than to act like a poop on Mother’s Day?

However, we’ve grown out of that stage and I really do like having fun with my kids on Mother’s Day. We have a tradition at our house that I love. Read about My Mother’s Day Tradition to get some ideas on how to have fun with the family on your very Special Day! While you are reading, I’m going to go find some paper and start a petition to get every day declared Mother’s Day. Wish me luck!

What do you like to do on Mother’s Day?

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

April Showers Bring Funny Baby Showers
Do you have a love/ hate relationship with Baby Showers? Sure, it’s wonderful to celebrate a new life coming into the world and a major life change for one of your friends or family members, but they can also be mind-numbingly boring. In my easily-bored opinion, there needs to be more entertainment and laughter at these events. Eating finger sandwiches and watching M2B (Mom-to-Be) open yet another onesie gift is not cool for anyone. The best way to show your love and support is to show the guest of honor a good time. She’s feeling large, overwhelmed, scared, and puffy. (It’s not the itching and the scratching, but the chafing that gets you cranky.)

So, how do you throw a Baby Shower that will have everyone in smiles? We have some fun ideas on how to make it a memorable occasion for Mom-to-Be and all of the attendees.

Games:
They have some very funny games at www.BabyShowerStuff.com.

In addition, they listed some of these games to play on their site:

Baby Limbo: Strap a pillow around your waist and see who can bend the farthest (not recommended for mom to be)

Bottles Up: Especially if you are throwing a couples shower, fill some baby bottles up with beer, and see whcih guy can “suck” the fastest. Women can certainly play too or use tropical fruit juice.

My Water Broke: Hand out an ice cube to each couple and let them use their imagination to see how fast they can get their water to “break.”

At my baby shower, we played Name The Baby Food. The hostess bought a bunch of baby food jars and took the labels off. Everyone had to guess what was in them. Let me tell you how hard it is to guess whether the green mush is peas or green beans. Loser has to eat the food. (Some of it is not bad!)

If you like conversation games, we sell this Box Girls’ Mini Baby Shower Box of Questions Game. The questions will have you laughing and doubting your friend’s parenting abilities.

Design Your Own Baby: Have the guests split into teams and give each 3 baby magazines, scissors, glue and paper. Have them cut out pieces of different baby qualities and put together a picture of what they think the Mother-To-Be’s baby will look like. Have the Mother-To-Be pick which baby would possibly look like hers the best! Give prizes to the winning team! One of the top baby shower games! Of course, you can make this “collage” very funny depending on which pictures you use and how you “put” the baby together on paper.

Pin the Sperm on the Egg Game is pretty darn funny.

If you are going to sit and watch the M2B open gifts, get her something funny to lighten the mood. Here are some of the gifts we sell that not only get people smiling, but also get a lot of “oohs” and “aahs”.

Mommy Needs Sleep Sleep Shirt

Beep Beep Car Seat Cover

Little Monster Hooded Bath Towel

Note: This has nothing to do with funny but I liked them. If you are in a crafty mood, these baby shower favors from DesignerGirl007, are wonderful.

Have any tips on how to make a Baby Shower more fun? Tell us. We’d love to hear some new ideas.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

Wednesday is St. Patrick’s Day. Normally, I would have said “So, what?” I’m not Irish, I don’t look good in green, and I was never very much into hanging out in a bar all day and getting blasted in the name of a Saint. However, slowly there seems to be a clever Leprechaun in charge of PR for the Holiday who has been building awareness of the fun you can have on this day with your kids. So, now I’m into it … for the kids. I’m still not Irish, wearing green or getting blasted in the middle of the work week.

Kids, at least my kids, seem to love the idea of the tiny, green being tricksters. You can have a lot of family fun and be really creative with the idea that leprechauns playing tricks on kids. At my daughter’s day care a few years ago, her very clever day care teacher decided to have the kids decorate the room for St. Patrick’s Day. When they came back the next morning, the “Leprechaun” had played a trick on them and shrunken all of the decorations to a tiny size. A year later, on St. Patrick’s Day, the kids found the Leprechaun’s pants, coat and underwear in the sandbox. In first grade, her class made “traps” or little houses to catch the Leprechaun. However, “he” was too clever and replaced all of their traps with green hats.

My daughter wrote a note to a Leprechaun this year and put it outside by the mailbox. She was thrilled when “he” answered her letter and left a gold, half dollar coin.

Here are some other cool ideas to have fun with the kids on Wednesday.

Scavenger Hunt to look for Gold

Printable Download – Clues for a Scavenger Hunt

Fill the kids shoes with Chocolate Gold Coins

Make a Papercraft Leprechaun

Learn more about Leprechauns

Build a Leprechaun Trap. Check out these photos of creative leprechaun traps. More ideas for traps.

Leprechaun costume

Food



Make and Take’s Rainbow Cupcakes

Shamrock Soda

Irish Food

Cupcake Decorating Ideas

Green Desserts

Have fun! If you make a leprechaun trap, send us a photo. We’d love to post it.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun

We interupt our Spring Break Family Travel Tips series to throw out an idea for Family Fun this weekend. Going to watch the Oscars this weekend with the kids? Why not make it a party or add more fun to the evening? Celebrate with your kids or invite some friends or neighbors over for some star-studded fun.

Sit and Score
Don’t want to have a party but don’t want to sit like lumps on the couch either? Try some Oscar themed games! A lovely site I just discovered called How About Orange has an Oscar Bingo card that you can download to play. You can also keep score with this beautifully designed Oscar Ballot from Twig & Thistle. Download it for free and thank Kathleen on her site for making it available to us family fun lovers.

Get Up, Get Ready
If you have little kids they probably aren’t that excited since they haven’t seen most of the movies and might have to go to bed early. But you can still celebrate a little earlier in the evening by watching Pixar’s Up movie, which has been nominated for Best Picture.

Puttin’ on the Ritz
Don’t let the stars on the Red Carpte have all the fun! Your kids will love getting all glammed up to watch the telecast. Put some make-up on your little girls and they’ll be thrilled. Have your son be the photographer. Give him an inexpensive instant camera or flip camera and he can film the “stars” during your party.

Eat, Decorate, and Be Merry
As I mentioned earlier in the post, the beautiful Twig and Thistle site has some free downloads to make invitations, popcorn bags, and candy bags for your family and guests. The kids would love making these beautiful, inexpensive party pieces with you.

Then, check out these Oscar Statuette Cookies. Bakerella has come up with an incredibly clever Oscar themed cookie. While there is no chocolate involved, I think eating one would be a Chocolate Cake Moment.

If you are in the mood for a casual party, Celebrations.com has a variety of party themes to throw the perfect Oscar Party. You’ll find games, menus, and decorating ideas. Personally, I like their vintage Oscar party theme.

Finally, every time I have a party now I head over to MemorableEntertaining.com for some great party menus. It is a subscription site but if you love to entertain, as I do, you’ll find some incredible menus that are simple, tasty and memorable. It’s well worth the annual fee. They do offer a lot of free information on the site so don’t be afraid to explore. Debra, the hostess with the mostest, who creates the menus and entertaining tips is amazing at creating impressive centerpieces that are super easy. Why not have some fun with your daughter this weekend, and make one?

I hope these fun ideas have inspired you to spice up the way you watch the Oscars with your family Sunday night. Roll the fun …

Send us some photos of your party, we’d love to post them and share.

Don’t forget to enter our Spring Break Kids Travel Gear Giveaway. Click here to win $120 worth of must-have kids travel essentials and have a blast on your Spring Break trip.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Family Movie Night · Family Party Ideas

My son and I loved watching the Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe competition the other night. Shaun White is just amazing. I can’t believe how high in the air he went on his first pass. If you didn’t see it, you can see the video of Shaun White’s victory run here. Of course, my son thought it was cool that Shaun was playing a little air guitar during the national anthem when he was on the medal podium, but hey, that’s boys for ya.

Being a fellow Chicago suburbs denizen, way to go Evan! My husband could actually watch Evan’s performance last night without making some reference to Blaze of Glory. That’s saying something. (I’m not sure what but I felt the need to point it out.)

To keep the Olympic Winter Games fun rolling, we’ve found another fun idea. We just stumbled across the instructions for making a Mini-Luge Run with your kids at the education.com site. It seems pretty simple and lots of fun, so we wanted to share. If you make one, please send us a photo and we’ll post it on the site.

* Photo from the vancouver2010.com site.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Fun Ideas · Games · Ideas for family projects

Tomorrow night is a big night for my son and I. The winter games start and The Lightening Thief is out in theaters. Hmm. Thank goodness for the DVR. We’ll have to tape the opening ceremony and go munch popcorn at the movies. I’ll write about the movie after we go see it opening night. In the meantime, Let the Games Begin!

My kids love the Olympics and since my son is a huge Shaun White fan, I’ve been looking for little things to do to get them excited about the event. My son has been playing Mario vs. Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games on the Wii. He has also logged in some good time playing Wii Ski with his friends. He wants to wear his Shaun White T-shirt every other day so I’m logging in some extra laundry time.

My daughter on the other hand, enjoys playing the games at the Official Winter Games site for kids. She loves the little mascot characters.

She Sparkles had some great ideas about how to celebrate the Winter Olympic Games with your kids.

Brian Boitano, the ex- Olympic ice skater and now Food Network host, created some good party ideas for kids.

You can even make your own Olympic Torch so the kids can reenact the passing of the torch by running around the house or the neighborhood. Seriously kids, go run outside!

I tried to get the kids to do their chores Olympic-style, with medals for the fastest dish clearer, the best technique in bed making, or the fastest dismount from their bed in the morning. They didn’t go for it.

What I really like about sharing the Olympics with my kids is the idea of perserverence and the desire to work hard at something. With such short attention spans these days and so much flash and entertainment bombarding us constantly, it is hard to get our kids to see the value in working hard at something. So many things come easy to them and there are so many tools out there to make life easier. While Iim all about making life easier, being able to focus on one thing that they love and strive to be the best at it is a valuable life skill and I like to use the Olympics as a focal point for that discussion. So as we watch the stories of the athletes on TV and all that they went through to make it to the games, I’m hoping the messages are sinking into their brains.

Other than that, my husband and I are going to watch the nightly Stephen Colbert coverage of the Winter Olympics and his sponsored Speed Skating team.

Are you kids into the Winter Olympic Games? How do you celebrate?

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Family Party Ideas · Games

In our family, we keep Valentine’s Day low key. I used to get roses but after the cats knocked them over and ate them several times, I no longer receive floral tokens of love. (Rotten cats! Although, when I begin to wonder what value the cats add to our family, I look into their cute little blank eyes and remind myself that every family needs a daily shot of cuteness. However, I like to remind the cats that I can now get my cute cat fixes on the internet, so beware.)

OK, back to Valentine’s Day. We like to celebrate as a family instead of getting a babysitter and we have fun doing little things for each other that say I Love You. Hopefully they will inspire you to do the same.

1. My daughter gets 1 rose from her Dad, which puts the biggest smile on her face. Read our post about the Power of a Flower for your little girl.

2. Can’t find a babysitter for Valentine’s Day this year? No problem. Read about how you can still have some romance at home, with the kids by cooking together dinner and having the kids serve you as waiters with a romantic, candle lit feast. Read how to make it happen.

My husband and I like to cook so this year we are making Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Crumbles and Red Wine Sauce, Cauliflower and Gruyere, and twice baked potatoes. Yummy! Unfortunately, the kids have discovered the joy that is beef tenderloin. I guess we’ll have to share. The days of distracting them with chicken nuggets are gone.

3. We like to try out a new dessert recipe since my family seems to be obsessed with sweets. (Personally I have a salty tooth.) This year we are going to make Red Velvet Heart Cakes.

4. Buy your kids a little gift to go with the mounds of chocolate. A cool necklace like the Itty Bitty Blocks or a new Garfield book seem to do the trick. For younger kids little toys are always a hit and for older kids gift cards for iTunes or the movie theater are always well received.

5. Let the kids eat dessert first on Valentine’s Day. It’s truly a treat that delights.

6. Leave love notes for your kids around the house. I like to tape a Hershey’s kiss or some other candy to a small index card and hide it around the house where the kids will find it. *Handy Tip: Write down where you hid them all so you don’t get ants in your family room a few weeks from now. Although, that might distract the cats from the flowers. Hmmm.

What small acts of love are you going to share with your family this Valentine’s Day?
Awesome free vector art from www.design-freebies.com.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Valentine's Day Family Fun Ideas

I was on WGN News a week back talking about some inexpensive ideas for having fun at home on a Friday Night. I was able to showcase some of our favorite Friday Night Family Fun products on the segment. Check out the clip and let me know what you think.

Hint: There is a coupon code in the segment for 20% off some of our Family Fun favorites.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Family Fun Ideas · Family Game Night · Family Movie Night · Friday Night Fun · Games

I was looking up recipes for something special to make for the family for Valentine’s Day and came across this blog post at the Mother Huddle. In their post today, she made Red Velvet Heart Cakes and I thought it looked fabulous enough to share. It looks like a good, easy recipe to cook with the kids so we’re going to try it out this weekend.

What are you going to make as a special treat for your family?

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Valentine's Day Family Fun Ideas

Today is a very special day for us for two reasons. First, it’s my son’s birthday. He turned 10 and is in the double digits now. Scary. In 6 more years he is going to be driving and he still can’t tie his shoes properly! I guess we need to hunker down and look into finding a shoe-tying tutor.

We have a tradition in our house where we set up our kids “guys” or “animals” at the table on the morning of their birthday. Their toys wish them a Happy Birthday and the kids love it. This morning, Star Wars Clones and Jedi wished him a Happy Birthday, while guarding his precious birthday chocolate donut.

Today is also a great day because it is National Chocolate Cake Day which for us, is on the same level as Halloween or Valentine’s Day. You know, a day to be celebrated … heavily, and with lots of ooey gooey treats!

Here’s our new favorite recipe for Molten Chocolate Cake, that we found over at the Pioneer Woman site.

Have a favorite recipe for Chocolate Cake or a fun way to celebrate this all important day? Please share! May your day be filled with Chocolate Cake Moments.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Cool Finds · Family Celebrations · Holiday Traditions

I don’t know about your kids but mine were positively gloom and doom this morning when they had to go back to school. (Why does school start so early … at 9 a.m.? Why do I have to go to school? Reading is for others! Why don’t you ever buy me any decent pants?) Insert your kids’ favorite whining here.

While I don’t condone whining (unless it’s me doing it, of course) I was thinking of doing something special for the kids this evening to “celebrate” going back to school after the Holiday Break. My plan? Chocolate Fondue! What better way to create a Chocolate Cake Moment than with hot, gooey chocolate?

You can certainly surprise the kids with this treat after school today or maybe on Friday after school to celebrate them getting back into the swing of homework. Or, I think I’ll make it for dessert tonight for Dad to participate in the celebration. He would be upset if there was chocolate around and he didn’t get any.

Kirchner’s Chocolate Fondue
1 lb. of your favorite milk chocolate bar (we like Ghirardellis)
4 oz. dark chocolate bar
3/4 cup heavy cream (you can use half and half for less calories)
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Break the chocolate bars into pieces and place in your fondue or hot pot. Keep on a low setting. Add cream and stir constantly until chocolate is melted and smooth. (If you are melting this on a stove top, watch the heat. Don’t walk away or the chocolate will boil and be ruined.) Stir in the vanilla right before serving. Then dip away!

Dipping Suggestions (In order of our kids preference):

Large marshmallows

Sliced bananas

Salted pretzel sticks

Cubed pound cake

Angel food cake

Stem strawberries

Hazelnut or almond biscotti (more for the adults)

Serves 6

Don’t really like Chocolate Fondue? Here’s another Chocolatey Treat we told you about last winter – Hot Chocolate Mug Cakes.

Have fun! What do you do to ease the pain of going back to school for your kids?

[Read more →]

Tags: Back to School Tips · Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas

Looking to ring in 2010 with some fun for your family? Personally, I prefer to go to bed early and sleep in on New Year’s Day to recover from the Holiday season. My kids however, do like the idea of celebrating the arrival of the new year. So, party on we must. Since the crowds are a bit much on New Year’s Eve and I’m usually running on empty, I’ve put together some fun and yet low-key ideas for staying home and celebrating in your family room with the kids.

GENERAL TIPS:

Keep it low-key. You don’t need to go crazy cleaning the house, buying party favors, and cooking to have a fun New Year’s celebration. Read on to see how you can make the food preparation be the evening’s entertainment, keep the decorations easy, and add some inexpensive noise makers. Even if you just end up watching the countdown shows on TV with the kids, they’ll appreciate it.

Make it a party. Definitely invite neighbors, family and friends with kids about the same age over to help celebrate. This keeps everyone off of the road, you can all watch the kids together, and it saves on babysitter money. But keep it casual and easy. Have everyone bring a dish to share. Start the party later so you don’t need to cook dinner, just have snacks and desserts. Invite the kids to come over in their pajamas so it’s casual, and parents won’t have to change their kids’ clothes if they fall asleep before going home.

Time is all relative. Even if you have small children, you can still have fun together as a family to ring in the new decade. Here’s a trick if you have small children who might not make it to midnight. Change the clocks in the house so that “midnight” hits around 9 or 10 p.m. The kids will feel like they got to stay up and celebrate and you will still be able to put them to bed at a decent time. Or have the kids at the party bring sleeping bags so they can go to sleep while the parents still stay up and party a little more.

DECORATIONS:

Decorate a New Year’s Tree
We loved this idea from a Mom who wrote it in to familyfun.com. She had her children help her take the ornaments off the Christmas tree so that they could make a “New Year’s tree.” They took all of the Christmas ornaments off of the tree but left the lights on. They then added curled ribbon, party horns, balloons — basically everything needed for a New Year’s Eve party for the children. What a fun and festive idea and you get a second use out of your Christmas tree! If you are planning on having people over to help celebrate New Year’s Eve, this is a perfect idea on how to decorate.

Pop in the Fun
Kids love noise makers on New Year’s Eve. You can grab some at your local Dollar Store or another idea is to buy a roll of large bubble wrap. Give each kid a piece and let them “Pop it Up” at midnight while the adults pop open the champagne. Skip any confetti or streamers unless you want to spend the next day cleaning. Remember, we said keep it simple.

MAKING TOASTS:

Make a non-alcoholic punch and serve it to the kids in your good champagne glasses or for younger kids get some plastic ones. This makes them feel grown up. If you are really dragging after the Holidays or if you had to work all day, some non-alcoholic punch for the grown ups is good, too. Sparkling grape juice is always good kids to make a toast, as well.

ACTIVITIES:

Pizza Party
Why not have fun cooking together and sharing some laughs in the kitchen by making homemade pizza? Start the new year off with something truly new by trying some unusual pizza toppings. Who knows? It may become a new family favorite. If you have a killer pizza recipe and a pizza stone, you are good to go. If not, we sell a Kids Pizza Making Kit to help with a recipe and the necessary utensils. If you want to cook but are intimidated by making the dough, buy some Boboli pizza crusts and add the toppings or use the Pillsbury Pizza Crust and a cookie sheet. Some fun topping ideas:

• Taco pizza – This pizza is huge hit with my husband and his family. It’s basically taco meat, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, taco sauce, sour cream, and crushed Doritos. Here’s a highly rated recipe for Taco Pizza I found online.
• Hawaiian pizza – pineapple bits and Canadian bacon
• Goat cheese, plum tomatoes, pesto, and sundried tomatoes (believe it or not, my 7 year old daughter likes this)
• Candy pizza – why not? Let the kids add some candy to the pizza for some sweetness. See if anyone likes it. Or melt some chocolate chips and spread it on the pizza dough. Then add white chocolate chips as the “cheese” or tiny marshmallows.

Game Night
Get out the new games that your kids got for Christmas or Hanukkah and play. Give out prizes for the winners. We like movie theater size candy for prizes. Click here for more ideas on planning a Family Game Night.

Record the Year for Posterity
Why not spend the evening capturing your favorite moments of the last year in a scrapbook? Print out some of the best photos of the year and everyone can work together to make a scrapbook of 2009’s family fun. Gather photos, postcards, and travel mementos to use on the pages. By involving the whole family in making the pages, maybe that scrapbook will actually get done instead of having your photos sit in a box or on the computer. While you are scrapbooking, you can talk about things you want to do or places you want to go as a family in 2010.

Dance Party
You don’t have to go to a club to hear the latest bands and dance on New Years. Turn the New Year’s countdowns on the TV and let the kids dance along to the featured bands. Or set up an area in the house as a dance floor and spin the tunes. Create a playlist of the top dance hits of 2009 and groove those holiday feeding-frenzy calories away.

Whatever you decide to do, have a safe and wonderful New Year’s Eve with your family. We look forward to sharing more Family Fun ideas with you in 2010 so we can all have more Chocolate Cake Moments.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Family Party Ideas · Holiday Fun

We created a pdf file of our Recipe for Creating Fun Family Holiday Traditions to make it easier for you to download and print for future reference. This “Recipe” includes on:

Tips on how to be more creative with your existing traditions

Planning advice to make sure these fun ideas get on your calendar

Questions to ask to help you pick the perfect Holiday tradition for your family

A blank monthly calendar for you to print and fill in a month’s worth of family fun or traditions

Finally, we give you our 10 Fun Family Holiday Traditions ideas to inspire you to create activities that your family will look forward to every year and remember forever. It’s all about creating more of those Chocolate Cake Moments when you are smiling, relaxed, and loving parenthood. Enjoy!

Download our Recipe for Creating Fun Family Holiday Traditions here. – Chocolate Cake Moment’s Creating Fun Family Holiday Traditions

Tell us about your favorite family traditions. We’d love to include your ideas in our next “Recipe.”

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

Here’s another day’s worth of fun ideas to do with your family this Holiday Season. Good tidings we wish to you, but no figgy pudding.

Watch: It’s Friday night and the kids can stay up so you can watch a longer Christmas show, so let’s start with a classic – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Nothing reminds me more of Christmas as a kid then sitting in front of the TV waiting for the theme music saying that a special presentation was coming up and then watching Rudolph. In today’s age of DVDs and DVRs, kids don’t feel the same sense of “need” that we did growing up to not miss when the show was airing on TV. We had to stay home and be glued in front of the TV when this all important show was on. I think I can recite all of the lines to this one. My favorite character is Yukon Cornelius, of course. “Put some heart into it boy!” But I also love the Burl Ives score as he sings Silver and Gold. Leave a comment below and tell me about your favorite scene is.

Read: The Grinch. Enough said. (We’ll recommend watching it too in a different post but it is definitely worth reading the book as well.)

Bake: My second favorite Christmas cookies, that also remind me so much of my youth, were Spritz Cookie-Gun Cookies. (They call them cookie presses now but we always called it a cookie gun growing up.) My mother made these every year and I love them. However, I haven’t made them as an adult because I can never find a good cookie press. My brother made them last year when our family visited last Christmas and I think I must have eaten 4 dozen of them they just reminded me so much of childhood. We loved decorating them as kids. My favorites were the little flowers with the cinnamon hearts in the center. Grab a cookie press, check out this recipe and introduce your kids to the magic of squeezing tasty dough out of a tube into shapes. They are muy tasty.

Craft:Make these adorable Penguin Christmas ornaments, which we found over at Kaboose. http://crafts.kaboose.com/penguin-pals-ornaments.html

Pure Fun: More computer fun for the kids. Go to http://www.northpole.com/ and see all of the games and Christmas related activities. We liked the dancing Santa.

Leave us your ideas on how to have fun with your family during the Holidays or tell us what your remember about your childhood Christmas.

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

OK, I missed getting this post out yesterday and I apologize profusely. We were slammed with orders yesterday and then I had a Holiday party to go to in the evening, which is when I usually have the time to write. I had a few glasses of wine at the party and when I got home I decided to follow the wise advice of “Don’t drink and blog.” I think we are all safer that way. Anyway, here are my ideas for today.

DAY 3 – Holiday Family Fun Ideas

Watch: Another favorite of ours is Santa vs. the Snowman. Whether we watch this funny movie with 3-D glasses or not, I love the pop culture references in the movie. Elves battling snowmen with super jets in the North Pole appeals to the goof ball kid in me. I love Jonathan Winters and he makes a great Santa. Note: We took my son to see this movie in 3-D at an Omnimax theater when my son was 3. Big mistake. He freaked at the enormity of the screen and the 3-D objects hurtling at him in the movie. Watch it at home without the 3-D glasses if you think your kids might get a little nervous.

Read: We read Russell’s Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton before bed last night. The illustrations are so cute in these books. The red color for Santa and the “fixed-up sleigh” just jump off the page. Even though this is more of a toddler book, my kids still love to read it just for the illustrations.

Bake: When I was a kid I loved it when my Mom made Cornflake Marshmallow Wreath Cookies. They were gooey, had cinnamon hearts and turned your tongue green. Loved every bite! Here’s the recipe for these ultra-fun, kid-friendly, Cornflake Wreath Cookies from Kellogg’s.

Note: Send us your favorite Holiday cookie recipe and we’ll include it in one of our future posts.

Craft: How about this Stuffed Felt Santa Ornament, that we found over at Kaboose. This would be a cute gift for Grandma and Grandpa, friends at school, or even teachers.

Pure Fun: In today’s day and age of GPS and microchip tracking technology, you’ll be glad to know that even Santa can’t stay off of the grid. Have fun with your kids tracking Santa as he makes his way across the globe at www.noradsanta.org. You can play games online and even check the weather at the North Pole. Want even more? Sign up for Facebook or Twitter updates of what Santa is doing. Now who’s who to see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice?

Send us your favorite ideas and we may include them in one of our future posts. Check back later tonight for Day 4!

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

I hope you were inspired by our ideas yesterday to start some Holiday Family Fun at your house. Here are some more ideas to get the family smiling and saying “Wow, you are the coolest Mom on the planet!” (OK, maybe that’s a stretch but the Holidays are for dreams, right?)

DAY 2 Holiday Family Fun Ideas

Read: Tonight we read Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner. This fun board book is not only cute, but inspires some ideas for outdoor, snowy fun. Who wouldn’t love to see snowmen come to life at night and cruise around town?

Note: We just came across a great idea at another Mom’s blog site and thought we would share. Over at This Girl Loves to Talk, their family has a tradition of wrapping 24 Christmas themed books. Starting December 1st, every night the kids get to unwrap a book and read together. Pure genius!

Watch: We didn’t have time to watch any Holiday shows tonight but if we did, we would have watched A Charlie Brown’s Christmas. The dance scene is too funny, (come on, do your Linus Dance!) but the best part is when Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas. In fact, this year since our house is all ripped up for renovations, we have no room to put up our Christmas tree. The kids were really bummed until I went out and got the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. We now have it sitting in our family room waiting to be dwarfed by wrapped presents.

Bake: Our most requested cookie in the Kirchner household for the Holidays are classic Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies or Peanut Blossoms. (I personally don’t eat them, but sometimes you have to bake one for the team.) There are a million recipes out there for this cookie but our family seems to prefer the one in the Gooseberry Patch Old Fashioned Country Cookie Recipe Book. Definitely get the kids involved in baking these. They love doing the stuff that I find mind-numbing like unwrapping the kisses and rolling the dough into little balls.

Craft: AmazingMoms.com has a very cute idea to make Reindeer Candy Holders. Very cute and you can immediately fill them with Chocolate when you are done for a truly Chocolate Cake Moment with the kids.

Pure Fun: If you live in a fun neighborhood, organize a Neighborhood Decorating Contest/ Party. One of our neighbors came up with the idea a few years ago of encouraging everyone to decorate the outsides of their houses with Snowmen. Then they threw a party inviting all of the neighbors. The night of the party, we all had to walk around the block in the cold and vote on which houses had the most “Snowman Spirit”. It was a blast and we continue to do it every year. It’s so funny to see a neighbor put out a new snowman decoration and everyone runs over to check it out and ask where they got it. True Holiday bonding.

Please share your ideas or other great ideas you have seen on other sites. We love to see them and share. Check in tomorrow for Day 3.

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions · Reading with the Kids

There are so many ways to have fun with your family around the Holidays. However, it’s very easy to get caught up in the stress and crazy-busy schedules during the Holidays that we forget to stop and have some fun. (What do you mean we forgot to get a present for your Spanish teacher? Why has the cat eaten all of the curling ribbon? I can’t wait for that gift to come out. Where did I put the Christmas cards that I bought last January on sale?) So, as a way to remind myself to plan some fun for the family every day during the Holiday Season and not become the Grinch, I will be sharing some fun ideas every day. From reading Holiday-themed books before bedtime to watching your favorite Christmas specials to finding that perfect craft or cookie recipe, I hope I can inspire you to do something every day to keep your family smiling during December. Smile and wave kids … smile and wave.

DAY 1 Holiday Family Fun Ideas

Read: Tonight we read Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. While my kids are a little too old for this picture book, it is still a Holiday favorite. The illustrations are too cute and the rhyming words are perfect for lulling everyone to sleep. (I want some of the cookies that Bear makes his friends!)

Watch: We didn’t have a lot of time to watch anything after dinner and homework but we snuck in one of my all time favorite Christmas shows – Ziggy’s Gift. I was a huge Ziggy fan growing up and the first time I saw this Christmas special I was bawling. Guess what?After watching again tonight, I’m still tearing up. I love this story about the true meaning of giving and forgiveness at Christmas. My kids love the thief. Go figure.

Bake: We are in the process of renovating our kitchen and haven’t had an oven for about 6 weeks now. Because I can’t bake, I have been dreaming about homemade Holiday cookies for several nights now. But if you have an oven, go ahead and make these with your kids. They love rolling the cookies into a ball and then rolling them in powdered sugar. Sure, it makes a mess. Sure, these cookies are pure butter. But that’s why I love them. Here’s a recipe that is close to how we make them, only we use ground pecans because the kids don’t like the texture of nut pieces in the cookie.

Craft: I’ve been on the hunt for some really cute but really easy Holiday crafts to do with the kids. You know the kind where I don’t need to spend all day shopping for supplies, doesn’t take three days of drying time to complete, and actually looks cute when finished. Well I found a fun site called Homemaking Fun and I liked their idea for making Magical Reindeer Food to sprinkle in the snow. If you are lucky, you’ll have everything you need in the house already.

Pure Fun: If your family has adopted an Elf on the Shelf, tonight is the night to start. At least in our house it is. (Some people start the day after Thanksgiving, some on December 6th which is St. Nicholas Day, and some on the 15th because they only want to hide the Elf for 10 nights.) You choose. Never heard of Elf on the Shelf? Well, this post explains it all.

We’ll be sharing ideas every day for 25 days but we’d love to hear your favorite way to have fun during the Holidays. Please share them by leaving a comment here. Check back tomorrow!

[Read more →]

Tags: 25 Days of Christmas Family Fun · Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions · Reading with the Kids

Looking for some great ideas for Holiday gifts, activities, ways to stay fit, and even ways to make money during the Holiday Season? Check out the Work at Home Woman’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. Holly, the editor of www.workathomewoman.com calls it a Holiday Gift Guide but after reading through it, I call it a Holiday Survival Guide.

There are some great tips and articles in the guide that will help you work at home Moms keep working, stay sane and have fun during the Holidays. Holly was kind enough to let me contribute an article on a Stimulus Package for Family Fun this Holiday Season. You’ll find it on page 11 of the guide. There is also a 15% off coupon code for our www.chocolatecakeclub.com site on page 6. I’m drooling over the Pumpkin Spice Magic Bar recipe in the guide. Please share the article, coupon and guide with your friends and family so there will be a lot more smiles this Holiday Season.

Happy Reading!

[Read more →]

Tags: Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions · Moms Living Out Loud

A Stimulus Package for Fun Family Holiday Traditions – 10 Ideas to Banish the Bah Humbugs!

Here’s a list of ideas to stimulate you into creating or adding enduring Holiday Traditions for your family. Have fun!

1. Holiday Tea Party. Mother & daughter, sisters, friends, Grandma & Granddaughters. Check out your favorite place or host one yourself.

2. Hide ‘n Seek Traditions. A fun way to usher in the Holiday Season is with Holiday hide and seek traditions like Elf on the Shelf , which we sell at www.ChocolateCakeClub.com because we love it so much, or the Christmas Pickle.

3. Bake Holiday Cookies. There is no better way to spend quality time with your family than in the kitchen cooking, eating and talking. Or, try a new cake recipe each year. Everyone at the table gets to vote on their favorite recipe. Check out our post on making Gingerbread Houses.

4. Create a Holiday Scrapbook. Together as a family, create a scrapbook of the previous Holiday family gathering. Everyone can decorate their own page and it’s a nice way to sit and talk about what you enjoyed last year.

5. Holiday Movie Marathon. Pick a day, keep your jammies on, and watch your favorite Christmas specials or movies. Everyone can choose their favorite show and you can watch them back-to-back together. If you have any home movies of Holidays past, this is the perfect time to watch.

6. The Competitive Holiday Spirit. Why not organize a Holiday Olympics to get the competitive juices flowing? If you have a Nintendo Wii console, your family can see who’s the best at bowling, tennis, or 3-Point Shoot-Out. Or, make a contest out of the Holiday tasks you need to do – Who can wrap a present the fastest? Who can untangle the first string of lights?

7. Extreme Gift Exchange. Sometimes the weirdest gifts are the most memorable. Why not inspire some creativity in your family by creating an oddball gift exchange? Have everyone in the family come up with some silly ideas for a gift theme and then sit back and laugh as the gifts are opened. Some ideas we have done in our family include:

Give a piece of funny (or incredibly ugly) artwork (kids and adults can draw pictures for their contribution, too)

Funny T-shirts

Socks (the uglier the better)

Pick a country out of a hat and buy a funny gift that represents that country

Choose a letter out of a hat and the gift must start with that letter

8. Have Fun Giving Back. Teach your kids the importance of helping others. Help pack Christmas Care Packages for the troops. Buy gifts from the giving trees at local libraries and YMCA for kids in need. Have a wrapping party where everyone in the family wraps their “giving” gift. Create cookie care packages for a local nursing home. Make bird seed “ornaments” with Styrofoam, peanut butter, and bird seed to decorate trees outside and feed the birds in winter.

9. Make the Annual Ornament. Every year, pick an ornament that everyone will make together. Put them on the tree or give them as gifts. Don’t forget to mark the year.

10. Create a Neighborhood Decorating Contest, Progressive Dinner or Tree Looking. Get all of your neighbors to put out Snowmen each year. Then have a party and ask everyone to vote on who has the best “themed” decorations. Or have a progressive dinner where people get to go “tree looking” and see everyone’s Holiday decorations.

Help us add to this list. Tell about some of your favorite Family Holiday Traditions.

Read all of our posts on the ingredients of our Recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions.
Part One – Book It!
Part Two – Prepare Now!
Part Three – Spice It Up!
Part Four – Make it a Party!
10 Ideas for Family Holiday Traditions

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

Here is our last list of “ingredients” to help you brainstorm, plan and enjoy family Holiday traditions. To make your holiday traditions more fun and memorable, don’t forget to add these: “Make it a Party,” “Rediscover Your Family Room” and “Ask the Experts.”

Make it a Party. No one said that you have to limit family traditions to just family. (Some families need to bring in some ringers to add more fun to the proceedings. Hey, I’m just saying. Not every family is a barrel of monkeys.) Some of our favorite traditions involve our best friends or neighbors. Every Christmas, we have a gift exchange with some of our closest friends. We always try to invite friends to our Holiday meals who might be home alone that year. We also meet our best friends every year for the Fourth Presbyterian Church Holiday Concert in downtown Chicago. We have gone for several years now and the kids love it. We head down to the Church for the concert, performed by the Tower Brass, and then walk around Michigan Ave. looking at the lights before grabbing dinner. It’s the perfect way to celebrate the season and experience the beauty of the city during the Holidays. (FYI-This year the concert is Dec. 19th at 5 p.m.)

Our neighborhood has a tradition of having a house decorating contest with a snowman theme. Each house on our block tries to decorate with as many snowmen as possible. We then all meet for a party at a neighbor’s house. During the party the whole group puts on their coats and marches around the block in the dark and the cold, voting on which house has the best snowman “spirit.” Try it with your neighbors this year and let the competition and laughter begin. (If anyone knows how to create a giant snowman to put up on our roof, let me know. We really want to win this year.)

Rediscover Your Family Room. There are so many activities around the Holidays like plays, concerts, and parties to keep your family in the fun. But don’t forget to stay home. It can be so nice to just relax, maybe light a fire, admire your decorations, and have fun in your home. Stay in and watch Holiday movies. Bake Christmas cookies one night and listen to your favorite Holiday music. Invite some friends over to see your tree, try a new recipe, or see your handmade Menorah. Best year, wear your Holiday PJ’s while you are doing it all. It’s your house after all.

Ask the Experts. The final ingredient to planning on having more fun this Holiday season is to ask the experts – other families – what traditions they enjoy during the Holidays. I recently started speaking at various Moms groups on “How to Create Family Holiday Traditions” and I love listening to the ideas that they share with me on what their family does to create memories. (I have to admit, I love the silly and funny traditions the best.) So, ask your extended family, neighbors, and friends what they do each year and see if you can find some inspiration. Don’t forget to check out the local websites that list what Holiday activities are going on in your area for events you might want to check out. Your local newspaper or local parenting sites like www.kidwinks.com here in Chicago are perfect for ideas. Or check back tomorrow when we’ll start our series “Stimulus Package for Fun Family Traditions – 10 Ideas to Banish the Bah Humbugs!”

Do you have any Holiday Traditions that involve more than just your family? We’d love to hear about them.

Read all of our posts on the ingredients of our Recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions.
Part One – Book It!
Part Two – Prepare Now!
Part Three – Spice It Up!
Part Four – Make it a Party!
10 Ideas for Family Holiday Traditions

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

In the third part of our recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions, two additional ingredients we suggest for “spicing” up the family fun is Be Creative and Try Something New.

Instead of putting on your Santa Hat, try putting on your creativity/imagination hat and think about ways to amp up your existing Holiday Traditions. If your family has a tradition of cutting down a real tree every year, try wearing Santa Hats or dressing like lumberjacks this year to give the event a little silliness and flair. (Oh yes, I’ve seen Office Space and know that “flair” has a negative connotation but in this case changing up the way you do your traditions can be good.) Every year, ask the kids to come up with a new twist on a favorite tradition and you may be amazed at how fun it can be just brainstorming ideas. If you all bake Holiday cookies together, try a new recipe or one that sounds really wild to be adventurous. If your family runs in a local Turkey Trot or 5K race before Thanksgiving dinner, make T-shirts with a funny saying so you look like a team running together. If you talk about what makes your thankful at the Thanksgiving dinner, this year try bringing something to show everyone instead of just talking.

The other ingredient to creating family Holiday traditions is to Try Something New this year. Be adventurous and try a new activity that you’ve heard or read about. If you love it, do it again year after year. So, if you always go to see the Christmas Carol play, try the Nutcracker Ballet this year. If you have never had a real Christmas tree, try cutting one down this year and see if you like the difference. If your kids are a little older now, try going to Midnight Mass. Invite other people to your Hannukah celebration to teach them about your traditions. Try making your menorah this year instead of using the family favorite. Or, buy a candle making set and have the whole family make candles this year for the Celebration of Light. (I’m not Jewish but I asked my friends about their traditions and looked and online for ideas. I found a really nice article on Hannukah traditions to do with your kids.)

Check back for our next post in our series for How to Create Family Holiday Traditions. Missed the first two – Recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions and Plan Now?

How would you add a little more spice to a Family Holiday Tradition? We’d love to hear your stories.

Read all of our posts on the ingredients of our Recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions.
Part One – Book It!
Part Two – Prepare Now!
Part Three – Spice It Up!
Part Four – Make it a Party!
10 Ideas for Family Holiday Traditions

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

The second ingredient in our recipe for how to create and enjoy more Family Holiday Traditions is to Prepare Now! If there are any tasks that need to be completed to schedule or prepare for the tradition, do them now while it’s not so busy. Send out invitations, buy tickets, call Grandma to get that cookie recipe, check on Holiday Tea Times, or investigate volunteer opportunities with your favorite local charity. If you take care of all of the details now, you won’t be scrambling and making more stress for yourself in December.

So, if you are planning a Holiday party – buy the invitations, invite people now to get on their busy calendars early, plan the menu (you can check out MemorableEntertaining.com for some great Holiday entertaining tips and menus), even do some of the baking now and freeze it for later. If you want to go to the theater for a Holiday event like the Christmas Carol or Nutcracker Ballet, call now and get the tickets.

If you want to check out what Holiday activities are available in your town, like ice sculpture contest or gingerbreadhouse displays, check your local paper, museum sites, or parent-friendly activity sites like www.gocitykids.com or if you are in the Chicago area, check our favorite site www.kidwinks.com.

If you have a tradition of sending out a family newsletter with your Holiday cards – don’t do what I do and wait until the last minute so I end up sending New Year’s cards – get it written and printed now. If your kids are old enough, have them each write their own section of the newsletter to make it a little easier for you.

I spoke at a Newcomer’s Club meeting last night for a terrific group of Mom’s about Creating Family Holiday Traditions and one of the Moms shared that her family goes to see “It’s a Wonderful Life” every year at a local movie theater, for a charity event the theater holds every year. If you are interested in something like that, call your local theaters to see if they are doing any special screenings of some of your favorite holiday movies.

Bottomline, do yourself a favor and get all of the details taken care of now so when the Holiday Season hits in earnest, you’ll be ready to just enjoy and smile. Check back for the next ingredient in our guide on how to create and enjoy more Family Holiday Traditions.

Read all of our posts on the ingredients of our Recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions.
Part One – Book It!
Part Two – Prepare Now!
Part Three – Spice It Up!
Part Four – Make it a Party!
10 Ideas for Family Holiday Traditions

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Fun · Holiday Traditions

The Holidays are a great opportunity to have fun with your family. However, the season is short and there is a lot to do – gift buying, baking, wrapping, Holiday parties, decorating, and writing and addressing cards, to name a few. Agh! Don’t let the stress of the Holiday Season overwhelm you where you forget to have fun. After all, the Holidays are all about family.

You may already have a few traditions in place. There are so many activities around the Holidays like plays, concerts, and parties to keep your family in the fun. But it’s also nice to just relax, stay in, maybe light a fire, admire your decorations, and have fun in your home. This week we will share some guidelines on how to create some new Family Holiday Traditions. Next week we’ll share some creative ideas to stimulate you to try some new activities this year.

The first ingredient is Book It! Spontaneity is great, but it’s passive. You can’t leave fun to chance. If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t get done. So, sit down with your family one night at dinner and ask what types of activities they would like to do this Holiday Season. Each person can pick one activity. Or, if your kids are young, Mom and Dad can do the planning. Then pick a date for each and write them down in the master family calendar. Now it is booked so everyone can look forward to their activity. Anticipation makes it great.

Stay tuned for the next ingredient!

Read all of our posts on the ingredients of our Recipe for Creating Family Holiday Traditions.
Part Two – Prepare Now!
Part Three – Spice It Up!
Part Four – Make it a Party!
10 Ideas for Family Holiday Traditions

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Family Fun Ideas · Holiday Traditions

Hosting a Halloween party can be great fun for you and your children and their friends. Looking for some last minute activities to keep the little goblins and ghouls entertained? We’ve got your back. Here are a few of our favorite activities for kids ages 2 to 12. As the good party host knows, you need to have a few tricks up your sleeve, especially when children are involved.

Pin the Stem on the Pumpkin – Similar to Pin the Tail on the Donkey, cut out a large pumpkin out of oversized orange construction paper. You could also draw one on a 3M Sticky White Pad, like we use at work for meetings, and that way it will stick the wall by itself. Cut stems out of green construction paper and write each child’s name on the back so you know who’s closest. Use a bandana or scarf as a blindfold, turn each child around 3 times and let them at the pumpkin. Whoever sticks the stem closest to the correct spot wins a prize. (Suitable for ages 2-6 years old.)

Spooky Glow in the Dark T-shirts – Head over to the craft store and grab some black T-shirts and glow in the dark paint tubes for the party guests. Let them draw and create a luminous masterpiece. Make sure you do this activity early on in the party so the paint has a chance to dry. Kids will have fun taking turns in the bathroom with the lights out, checking their spooky designs. (Suitable for ages 5 and up).

Catch the Donut Game – We prefer this game to bobbing for apples since there is less mess and no one ruins their costume or makeup with splashing water. Tie a string or yarn around some cider donuts and then hang them from the ceiling, spaced about 2-3 feet apart. (If you can’t hang them from the ceiling, you can tie the donuts to a broomstick and have two volunteers stand on chairs to hold the stick up.) The first child to eat the whole donut without using their hands wins. Note: Don’t use donuts with powdered sugar or heavy amounts of sugar coating. You’ll just create a mess on the floor and on the kid’s costumes, which as we have said is no good. Really, it’s no good. (Suitable for kids ages 5-12 years old)

If you have some other ideas up your sleeve, please, do share. Have fun at your party! Happy Halloween with your family.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Fun Ideas · Family Party Ideas · Games

Are you hosting Thanksgiving for your family this year? Planning a Holiday Party for the Neighbors? Looking to throw the ultimate Kids Halloween Party? Do you dream of hosting the party that sets the bar for all family parties to come? (Am I the only one who wants to go down in family lore as the best Thanksgiving hostess?) Well, if you are throwing some parties this year, and I hope you are, we have the ultimate resource for you. MemorableEntertaining.com is a wonderful membership site for those who are passionate about creating memorable occasions.

Debra Kavalos-Delaney is the publisher and boy, does she help make entertaining easy and memorable for busy people like me. I love to entertain but the Holiday season is such a chaotic time with my e-tail business, the kids schedules, and work/ family commitments. I still entertain but find that I don’t have enough time to really plan things out and try new recipes or decorating ideas. In a pinch, I just fall back on the same old same old, which leaves me feeling unsatisfied as a hostess with the mostest.

After cruising around the Memorable Entertaining site, I found all of the inspiration that I need to add some more pizazz to my entertaining. And, it saved me time by having everything planned out for me. Signing up and joining her membership site is better than buying more magazines, or trying to dig through your piles of cookbooks for inspiration. Simply go to the site, pick your theme, and all the information you need is at your fingertips. Even better than the magazines, she has plenty of videos on how to create the ultimate tablescapes, recipes, theme party ideas, and more. The site is a lifesaver.

There is plenty of “How To” information and inspiring ideas on everything from how to stock your bar, to creating unique invitations, to finding the best mood music, recipes, and even party games. I was thrilled when Debra asked me to create a Kids Halloween Party for the site. I had so much fun with my kids coming up with ideas on memorable invitations, decorations, activities, recipes, and party goodie bags. Definitely check out how to make Scarrots!

There are a lot of great free resources and ideas on the site but to fully experience the wealth of inspiration (including my Halloween Party write-up, which I modestly think is spooktacular), you’ll need to join. Debra is graciously giving Chocolate Cake Moments readers $10 off of their membership with coupon code 54612941. Sign up for yourself or give the gift of membership to someone you know who loves to entertain.

This Thanksgiving or Holiday Season, knock the socks off of your friends and family with an outstanding party. The awe-inspired look on your mother or sister-in-law’s face is well worth the membership fee.

Tell us, where do you get your ideas for entertaining?

[Read more →]

Tags: Cool Finds · Family Celebrations · Family Party Ideas

This Sunday is Grandparent’s Day, so what are you going to do to have fun? I’ve seen some posts lately about ways to honor your grandparents by videotaping their stories about growing up or tagging old pictures together, which are all nice activities, but shouldn’t Grandparent’s Day be about having fun and making new “Chocolate Cake Moment” memories with the grandkids. As my Grandmother used to say, “All that talk about the past makes me feel old. What fun is that?” So, here are some ideas on how the grandkids and grandparents can have some fun and create new memories. Parents, it’s up to you whether you tag along or just let the Grandparents and Grandkids go on their own. But this day is about the Grand Connection between them.

Brunch – Everyone loves Brunch. It’s not just for Mother’s Day, anymore. Take Grandma and Grandpa out for a big stack of flapjacks and get extra whip cream on the side.

Movie time – Pick a family friendly movie and go see it together. Go for ice cream afterwards. Or, ask your Grandma or Grandpa what their favorite movie is. Go rent it and set up your family room like a movie theater. Your kids could make tickets, usher Grandma and Grandpa to their “seats” and serve them popcorn.

Cook Together – Invite Grandma and Grandpa over to show the kids how to bake their favorite meal or something they loved as kids. Everyone will spend time in the kitchen “tasting” and sharing stories. Or, have everyone bake their favorite cookies and then share them for an assortment of sweet treats.

Share Their Hobby – If your grandparents have a big hobby – ours is photography – plan a day to share it with them. Give the kids disposable cameras or have them bring their own and go out and shoot photos of the grandparents and kids together in fun locations – local Museum, botanical garden, or forest preserve. If they like gardening, plan a visit to the local Arboretum, park, or Botanical Garden. If they like to travel, pick a nearby destination for a day trip. If they like to cook, see if you can take a cooking class together. If they love to read, find a unique, independent bookstore to explore. Share the day together doing something that Grandma and Grandpa are passionate about. They’ll love sharing that passion with the kids.

Craft time! – Get everyone to work on a craft together. Make a scrapbook of last Christmas together with everyone designing a page, build birdhouses to put in Grandma’s garden, or create coupon books where the kids make coupons for hugs, kisses, chores, or day trips with Grandma and Grandpa, while they make coupons for the kids to redeem for lunch outings, movie nights, or other fun activities together.

Still at a loss for ideas? Go to www.grandparents.com and download their free report on “100 Free Things to Do with Your Grandkids.”

If you have any other ideas we’d love to hear them. Please share with us how you plan to have fun on Grandparent’s Day.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations · Fun with Grandma & Grandpa · Ideas for family projects

While Mom you may be jumping for joy that the kids are finally going back to school, the kids might be a little bummed that summer is over. Just because summer is almost over doesn’t mean you can’t have one last day in the sun. Help your kids to see the last day of summer as something to look forward to by creating a tradition where you do something fun as a family to celebrate. Mom and Dad, see if you can take the day off of work so you can do something fun together.

1. Hit the pool one last time.Your kids have probably been swimming all summer but that’s no reason not to go again. Enjoy the sun and get that last tan of the season.

2. Have a block party. Invite the neighborhood kids and parents over. Share your summer vacation highlights as well as talk about who has which teacher, new outfits, bus schedules, etc. The kindergarten kids can ask the older kids for help with getting on the bus.

3. Run Around. It’s still summer, so go outside. Be active and enjoy the outdoors on this last day. Your kids are going to be sitting in a class room for the next 9 months so release as much energy as you can. Go to the local forest preserve and play games, hit the theme park one last time, go for a long bike ride in another part of town, or go horseback riding if it’s available near you.

4. Go see a movie during the day. If your outdoor activities get rained out or you just want to relax, this will be the last time to take advantage of that early bird, weekday discounts to see the latest family flick. It will be a rare pleasure for the kids to see a movie during the day, just because you can.

5. Cook your kid’s favorite meal. Ask your kids what they want as a celebratory meal and have fun making it together. Make cookies in the shape of a school bus or apple that they get to take to school on the first day. Make homemade trail mix or snack mix that they can take the first week of school. Simple, but fun.

Click here to see tips for getting ready to go back to school!

[Read more →]

Tags: Back to School Tips · Cooking with the Kids · Family Celebrations

We’d like to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July weekend. We are going to celebrate with a large family gathering with lots of food, Baggos, Missouri Horseshoes, and pool time. We hope you create many Chocolate Cake Moments with your family, and stay safe!

Sue Kirchner
Publisher
Chocolate Cake Moments Blog

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations

If you are looking for some fun ideas to keep your kids amused while they are home during the summer or for some weekend family fun, I wrote an article on Make the Most of Summer, In Your Own Backyard for Artistic Sensation’s blog. Head on over there to read it and check out some other interesting articles, like the Internet and Your Children.

We’ll be adding more ideas all summer so check back often. What do you and your family like to do for fun?

[Read more →]

Tags: Adventures · Family Celebrations

After being cooped up all winter, everybody is anxious to get out and enjoy the outdoors again. Liberated of our heavy winter coats, it’s hard not to feel happier, lighter, and more energetic. The longer days and warmer nights are terrific opportunities to get out of the house and enjoy nature again.

As a parent with two kids of my own, I’ve discovered that summer can be as challenging for adults as it is liberating for kids. Once the charm of sleeping in wears off, I know it’s not long before I’m hearing the dreaded refrain of “Mommy, I’m bored!” Even if they go to summer day camp, the novelty of an unstructured day will eventually wear off, too.

In my experience, preparation is the best way to avoid the B-word. With a little creativity and planning, you can stockpile an arsenal of fun activities to throw at your kids before they can even say “bored.” None of these activities should include sitting in front of the computer, video game, or television; the whole idea is to get them outside and enjoying the sunshine while it lasts (giving you a little well-deserved space in the process).

Here are just a few outdoor activities to get you started:

1. Invest in the Super Parachute Kids Party Game. Kids love parachutes, and I’ll bet all the neighborhood Moms will love you for having this super-fun game!

2. Camp out in the backyard – pitch a tent, grab some sleeping bags, pillows, flashlights (and bug spray!). If you have a fire pit, do it up right with some S’mores.

3. Most libraries have a summer reading program, so take advantage of it. Walk to the local library to check out some fabulous summer reading. Then, set up outdoor reading stations in the backyard with umbrellas, beach towels, and frozen grapes to snack on.

4. Organize Family or Neighborhood Olympics that includes events like hula hoop competition, 3-legged races, water balloon toss, or egg and spoon races (you can buy an Egg and Spoon Race Game and save yourself an eggy yard or kid).

5. Set up a miniature golf course right in your own backyard. The Mini Golf Set has everything you need to get your toddler’s golf career started (or just to keep the little ones occupied for a few hours).

Share your favorite activities that get your kids out of the house and having fun.

[Read more →]

Tags: Cool Finds · Family Celebrations · Games · Reading with the Kids

The last day of school is a major unofficial holiday for my kids – it ranks right up there with Christmas and their birthdays. And who can blame them? Even though we Moms don’t get our summers off, we can still appreciate all the excitement the season has to offer. So take a cue from the little guys and get pumped up!

Turning the last day of school into a celebration is a great way to score major “cool” points with your kids and have some fun together while the thrill of summer is still fresh. Here’s a few suggestions on how to pull it off:

*Make the day special from the get-go. Surprise your kids with an out-of-the-ordinary breakfast that doesn’t come from a box. Chocolate chip pancakes never fail to make the day look a little brighter. Add an ice cold smoothie made with fresh summer fruits, and you’ll send ‘em off to school smiling.

*If you can, take a half day off of work or work from home that day. You and your kids will appreciate it!

*When school lets out, tell the kids to get their walking shoes, rollerblades, or bikes ready and take a trip to the ice cream shop for celebratory sundaes.

*If it’s really nice outside, head to the pool or beach for the first “official” day of summer. Make it an extra-special occasion with some fun new beach towels, like the totally cute Yikes Twins hooded towels (I especially love the black masked Batman towel!).

*Nothing says summer like a picnic, so grab some chips and sandwiches from the neighborhood deli and head to the playground, forest preserve, or zoo for some serious outdoor fun.

*Rainy day? Don’t let it dampen your spirits. Check out the new Night at the Museum or Up movies and tell the kids to invite a friend or two (because summer is all about hanging out with your pals, ya know). Or rent some family flicks to watch at home, and let the kids make their own Boboli pizza in between showings.

Whatever you decide to do, have fun! Does your family have any traditions for celebrating the last day of school or the first day of summer? Share them with us, we’d love to hear about them!

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Holiday Traditions

Part Two – Gift IdeasWhen it comes to a great Father’s Day gift, keep it simple and from the heart. Sure, you can get him ties, chocolate, golf balls, or we found the coolest Stormtrooper Cuff Links, but these really don’t mean anything special. No matter how macho the guy, every Dad has some sentimental bones in his body. Help your kids put together a Daddy-and-Me scrapbook of their favorite memories or create personalized picture frames. (You can find plain cardboard frames and craft supplies at any craft store). Tell Dad to go out golfing or to the hardware store and while he’s gone for hours, work on the scrapbook with the kids.

Inspired Generations has a really cool product along these lines. Their ABC’s of Life Wooden PhotoBlocks are a cute gift that Dad can put on his desk at work or in the home office. These PhotoBlocks have words on each side so the kids can leave messages for Dad while showcasing photos of the kids. If you are really ambitious, create a slide show on the computer and set it to Dad’s favorite tunes. My daugher and I are creating a show in ProShow Gold that features photos of Daddy and Daughter. We are using Dad’s favorite Ralph’s World song – Bedtime Girl - about a Daddy saying goodnight to his little girl.

A friend told me that her kids made a book of coupons that Dad could redeem for chores, favors, and hugs. It was a huge hit because it allowed her husband to get “gifts” from the kids long after Father’s Day. (Psst: Remind your kids that they need to honor the chore coupons. My kids seem to have a problem with the redemption part.)

For new and expecting Dads, think practical. How about a diaper bag that doesn’t compromise his masculinity. (Dads do have an image to uphold, after all.) The Fleurville DJ Diaper Bag is a manly, yet functional diaper bag designed specifically for Dads. It’s available in ballistic black or khaki camo. How’s that for testosterone marketing?

On the cheekier side, check out “The GoodFather” line of t-shirts, or “The GoodFather” gift CD-Rom by Dr. Moz that features humorous, gangster-inspired interactive lessons that will have new Dad smiling (and learning) in no time. The CD-Rom is funny. Dad can plug it into the computer on those nights when he has the midnight feeding. Feed baby and learn at the same time, what more could a modern multi-tasking Dad ask for these days?

What are you and your kids getting Dad this year? Tell us what gift your Dad appreciated most?

See Also:
Make Father’s Day a Piece of (Chocolate) Cake – Planning Activities

[Read more →]

Tags: Ideas for family projects · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

Part One: Planning Activities

In my experience, Mother’s Day is so much easier to plan than Father’s Day (and I’m not just saying that because I am the Mom and I think it’s incredibly easy to figure out what I like). After all, what woman doesn’t appreciate a pretty bouquet of flowers, an assortment of gourmet chocolate, a spa appointment, or breakfast in bed? But when it comes to the men in our lives, it can be a lot trickier to plan that perfect day that says “I love you, you’re the best, but no, you can’t leave the house without us.”

So, how to plan the perfect Father’s Day? First of all, remember that Father’s Day isn’t all about the gift – it’s about the day. My husband works hard for his family, and he deserves a day that’s all about him. That means no obligations, no stress, and a whole lot of fun! While some Dads may want to spend the day away from their families, we say No Way! Let’s have fun together.

If you’re scratching your head over what to do, ask yourself what does Dad like to do? Cook, golf, play sports, watch sports, or go on adventures? Then ask yourself, is there a way the whole family can do this together? If he likes to golf, take the family to the driving range to hit some balls. If he likes to cook, plan a meal that takes all day to cook like ribs, paella, or homemade pasta. Everyone can help. If he likes adventures, take the family to see that cool new Museum exhibit.

This Father’s Day, we are going to try something new this year. We are going to break up the day so everyone plans their own special activity for Dad, and gets some fabulous one-on-one time with him. We are going to break the day up. I will cook Dad a great breakfast that we eat in our backyard gazebo while he reads the paper. (I’m going to make my kids play waiter and waitress.) My son will then pick an activity to do with Dad, like playing catch. My daughter will take him on a bike ride. And then at the end of the day Dad gets to choose what he wants (and if that activity happens to be a long nap, then get the man a pillow!)

Here are a few suggestions to get you started to plan the perfect Father’s Day: play catch for an hour, watch his favorite movie together, clean out his sock drawer for him, cook breakfast while he reads the paper, give him a back massage, or go to a minor league baseball game together. The possibilities are endless with a little thought and creativity.

We want to know how your family plans to spend Dad’s big day. Share your favorite Father’s Day activities with us, and stay tuned for some great Father’s Day gift ideas in Part Two.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations

We were cruising through some Mom blog sites and found this fun posting on Creating Your Own Family Holiday. The ladies over at RookieMoms.com have challenged and inspired us to make up some special days that mean something to our family.

Think about it. Creating your own Holiday! How fun is that!?! And, what a great opportunity to use your imagination and creativity. Here’s our take on the idea – Why not let each person in the family come up with an idea and you can vote on it. Or, put the ideas in a hat each January 1st and draw one idea to be celebrated that year. If you love celebrations and silliness, why not let each person in the family get their own Holiday?

If all of your family birthdays seem to come at the same time of year, this is a perfect opportunity to spread out your family celebrations. Here are some of my ideas for a family Holiday:

1. Enchanted Fairy or Troll Day. On the first really nice day in Spring, declare it Fairy or Troll day. Then the whole family can spend the day outside building a fairy or troll house so that the little creatures have a place to stay at your house all summer. Your kids will love building the houses out of sticks, leaves, and any other creative materials. You can put out Fairy food for them (I heard they love pink sprinkles) or Troll food (black licorice ropes and reeses peanut butter cups.) Don’t ask me why they eat that. I asked my kids and that’s what they said they eat. Everyone in the family can write a letter to the creatures asking for good luck for the season. Then before bed, read your favorite fairy or troll books.

2. Family Movie Festival. In the fall on a yucky Saturday or Sunday, pick a day for a family movie festival. Everyone in the family get to pick their favorite movie to watch. Lounge the day away in your pajamas and watch these classic movies with plenty of snacks. End the day by watching some of your favorite home movies or ask Grandma and Grandpa to come over with movies of you when you were a kid. The kids will love it!

3. Curl Up With a Good Book Day. I love to read and there is nothing greater than finding a good book that you can’t put down. However, I always feel guilty when I sit down and just read during the middle of the day. I always feel like I should be doing something else. So, I would love a day where everyone gets a book, finds a comfy nook, and spends the day reading. We love to encourage our kids to read so this would help them discover the joy of reading. At the end of the day we can each talk about what we read.

4. Eat the Salsa in the Refrigerator Day. OK, this one is hardly worthy of a Holiday but I was going through the fridge last week and found 5 open jars of salsa in the fridge. How does this happen? Wouldn’t it be great if one day we just ate salsa all day and FREED UP SPACE IN THE FRIDGE? Sigh. A Mom can dream can’t she?

What are some of your ideas for a Holiday? I hope they involve Chocolate. We’d love to hear them so please share!

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Holiday Traditions · Ideas for family projects

It’s no secret that every day should be Mother’s Day. I wish I were lavished with flowers, homemade cards, and a pants-busting brunch every day. However, that might not be good for my mental or physical health. (I’d be willing to make the sacrifice and try it out on behalf of all Moms though.) So, I try to make the most out of the one official day each year where I’m the guest of honor in our house. We seem to have developed some Mother’s Day traditions that I look forward to each year.

First, we always go to brunch. I love the smell of pastries in the morning. How could you not like brunch? You get breakfast food and savory lunch food all at the same time. I have developed a brunch-eating process. First, I get a plate of breakfast type food, then a plate of lunch type food, then maybe a plate of my favorites from the first two plates. If I can still walk I then go get a dessert plate. Tip for any brunch newbies out there – don’t let the breakfast food touch your lunch food. Ick! Since someone else is washing the dishes, take as many plates as you want and give your food its appropriate breathing space. Don’t be embarrassed to keep getting up and getting a little food. Every time you walk up there you burn calories and can then eat more.

Second, I call my Mommy and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. Since she lives in another state, Mom gets a mail package and phone call. While I wish I could do more for the wonderful woman who raised me, at least I can train my son on the importance of calling your Mom on Mother’s Day. (He’s going to need at least 20 something years of reminders for this.)

Our third tradition started from my desire to work off the food coma induced by my overeating at brunch. Mother’s Day is my flower gardening day. Since we live in the Midwest, it’s not safe to plant flowers anytime before Mother’s Day. You don’t want to go through all of that hard work digging, planting, bending, and yanking and then watch the flowers die during an overnight cold snap. So I use this day to go to the nursery, pick my beautiful flowers for the summer, and as a family, we go home and plant. I love it! The kids make their own flower pots to water and care for. My husband does the heavy lifting, digging and fertilizing, and I get to decorate my house with beautiful flowers.

What if it rains, you ask? Well, then I plan to take a nap and play Guitar Hero the rest of the day.

At the end of the day I feel great because we spent time together working on a project that’s important to me, our house is decorated for all of the summer parties we plan to have, and I worked off the brunch calories. Now, I’ve got a year to rest up until next time.

What traditions do you have for Mother’s Day? We’d love to hear how other Moms spend their special day.

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations

This contest is now closed. Please check out our next contest where you could win a fun, rainy day arts & craft package for kids with our popular Alex Toys craft kits. Congratulations to Cindi for winning the Playful Chef kids cooking sets!

To help the Chocolate Cake Club celebrate their third birthday, we are giving away some of our new or top-selling items to lucky winners every three days until the end of April. Our first givewaway was The Birthday Interview Box, our second giveaway featured some fabulous momAgenda Planners and Calendars, and our last giveaway included a few of the new Playful Chef Kids Cooking Sets.

Our fourth contest this Birthday Season makes a great Mother’s Day Gift. The brand new, stylish and yet incredibly functional, Mrs. Smith’s Diaper Bags are designed and manufactured by a fellow Mom entrepreneur. We wish these diaper bags were around when we needed them.

One lucky winner will receive the Pink Polka Dot Mrs. Smith’s Diaper Bag. She will not only look tres chic when she’s out and about, but she will just love the pull-out drawer and how easy she’ll be able to find things in the bag.

The Mrs. Smith’s Diaper Bags by WhodaThought are designed by Rachel Palmateer Smith, a mother of two, who was frustrated by the lack of functionality in most diaper bags. After several accidents with bottles leaking on clothes and never being able to find something in her old diaper bag, she sat down and sketched a bag that would make life easier for busy Moms – especially a Mom who is on the go and wants a bag that works with her lifestyle. We love these stylish bags in fun florals, metallics, camo and zebra prints. But we go gaga for the pull out drawer in the bottom of all of the Mrs. Smith’s diaper bags. It’s a joy to pull out a clean set of clothes and not have cheerios stuck to them.

So, how do you enter? Just leave us a comment on this post about who gave you the diaper bag you used the most – Mom, friend, hospital, co-worker, sister, husband, yourself, etc. Don’t forget to include your email address so we can contact you, if you win. We respect your privacy and your email address will never be sold. One lucky winner will be chosen at random. Must be 18 or older to enter. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only. One entry per contest, please. If winner fails to respond in three days a new winner will be chosen. This contest ends at Midnight CST on Sunday, April 26, 2009. Next contest begins on Monday, April 27th so check back to win again.

Good luck and tell all of your friends to enter!

[Read more →]

Tags: Contests · Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

This Easter we decided not to travel and see family but stay home and relax. We invited some friends over for a non-traditional Easter dinner of Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Breadcrumb Crust and Red Wine Sauce. If you read our post on 5 Easter Family Traditions to Start This Year you’ll know that one of our traditions is to try something new. No ham for us this year.

I asked my daughter, the artist in residence, if she would decorate the table for Easter. She loves to do this and since my mother, who is the master in table decorating, taught her how to do it well, she was thrilled. Did I mention that she is 6 and can decorate a dinner table better than I can? Anyway, she decided that we needed to make birds’ nests to complete her vision for the table. We found an idea in Family Fun Magazine.

Our blue Easter egg nest was very easy to make although neither of ours turned out looking as good as the magazine’s version. The suggested modeling clay wasn’t that great. I would probably use playdoh or some other softer modeling clay to get the shape right. The crayola stuff was not that pliable. We had plenty of sticks in the yards so I just used our gardening clippers to cut them down to size. The craft instructions say to use blue yarn inside the nest but we found a bag of blue feathers that worked better. Here is how our nests and the decorated table turned out. Click on the photos to see them larger.

My daughter and I had a lot of fun working together to make our nests. It had all the right ingredients for success – simple project, didn’t take a lot of time, only had to buy two materials, and we had a goal – decorate the Easter dinner table. Our colored eggs were displayed fabulously in our blue birds nests.

Tip: If you have cats, don’t put the nests out until right before dinner. Our indoor-only cats were extremely interested in the “live” twigs and proceeded to lay their fat down on top of our nests to be closer to nature, I guess. They also started chewing the twigs and pulling them out of the clay. Bad kitties!

Did you do any craft projects with your kids this Easter? If so, leave us a comment and please share!

[Read more →]

Tags: Family Celebrations · Ideas for family projects · Spring Family Fun Activities

Family traditions are so important and Easter is a great time of year to celebrate and have fun with loved ones. But Easter can mean more than just a ham dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt. Here are 5 ideas to start a fun, family Easter tradition this year.

1. Color Easter Eggs – Well, duh! This is easy right, we all know you color Easter eggs at this time of year. But, why not add to the Easter Egg coloring experience? Every year, color the eggs in a different way. Family Fun magazine, Martha Stewart Living, and Celebrations.com provide you with ideas on how to decorate Easter Eggs. Start a tradition where every year you take turns deciding how you are going to decorate the eggs that year – stickers, decopage, tie dye, googly eyes, themes, etc. Or, start a tradition where you take some of the decorated eggs to a nearby nursing home. They would love to see your artwork. Another idea is to paint wooden eggs. Every year, everyone in the family gets to decorate one wooden egg. Put their name and the date on the bottom, save them and you have some artwork to look back on.

2. Hunting for Practical Jokes. Funny-up the Easter Egg Hunt by putting weird items in the plastic eggs. Our family has put in everything from grass, dog food, candy wrappers, dirt, shaving cream, and lego guys in the eggs. The kids look forward to opening the eggs and finding weird stuff in them. Lots of giggles.

3. Feed the Bunny. You leave cookies and milk for Santa, right? Well, what about the Bunny? He has to travel all night and he has to hop it! He doesn’t get a cool sleigh ride. I’m sure he’s hungry. Leave out a plate of carrots and a bowl of water for the Easter Bunny. (Maybe leave a can of Red Bull. I think he’s going to need the extra energy.) It’s up to your kids if they also want to leave some “white dip.” This forces Mom and Dad to eat a healthy snack before dinner, as well. Take it a step further and have the kids create a special plate and bowl just for the Easter Bunny.

4. Hunting for Fun. Why do the kids get all the fun on Easter Day at the Easter Egg Hunt? My husband has a huge family and every Easter the adults have fun hiding the eggs for the kids. The eggs get hid in some weird places and you get points for hiding the egg that doesn’t get found until Labor Day. Bonus point