When I was a kid birthday parties were at one of three places: home, the bowling alley or McDonald’s play place. That’s it.
March is National Nutrition Month. This year’s theme is “go further with food”. As a mom and a dietitian I am always looking for ways to make each bite as nutritious as it can be. Perhaps you can relate. If so, here are a few ways that you can take the food you already serving in your home one step further towards optimal nutrition.
Both my daughters are April babies so this is the time of year when our thoughts turn to birthday parties. Valentine’s Day is over, Christmas is a distant memory and now the sole focus of life is figuring out how to celebrate another year on planet earth, and with whom.
At risk of sounding my mid 40s age, there are many things that have changed about birthday parties since I was a kid. I have many fond memories of both my birthday parties and being a guest at friends’ parties – the anticipation, hanging out with friends, games, activities and more.
The party activities were fun but the present part was always very exciting. Whether you were the birthday girl or boy or a party guest, many of us have memories of being surrounded by a mountain of wrapping paper and ribbons, cards strewn about the floor and the circle of friends becoming increasingly smaller and smaller around the birthday boy or girl as the presents were opened.
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I’m no gourmet chef. I’ll be the first to admit that. But every once in awhile I make a meal that my hubby raves about for a couple of days. This Chicken Enchilada recipe is one of those meals. It’s by far one of his favourite meals in our rotation. If you were to ask him, he would likely say we don’t make them enough. He’s probably right.
My son wandered the store examining each item carefully. He held up a sweater and said “Maybe he will like this?” It came out more of a question than a statement. “Do you think he will like it?” I asked “You know more than me” He shook his head and kept looking. We were out shopping for a birthday gift to bring to the party he was invited to later in the day. You won’t ever find me shopping for birthday gifts by myself. It’s really important to me that my kids pick the birthday gifts that they bring to their friends party. They have become quite good at gift giving. They pay attention to what their friends enjoy and what they don’t enjoy. As we wander through the store I learn about their friends likes and dislikes; which one is into Minecraft, which one loves to read, which one…
As parents, we accumulate A LOT of stuff. Sometimes it feels like the house is being taken over by kid’s toys, clothes, shoes, backpacks, electronics, homework and in the case of our house…random socks. Most people apparently lose socks, but I keep finding socks all over our house. I found one the other day IN the couch AND in the middle of the bathroom floor. I didn’t even ask my son for an explanation. (Did he not realize he was missing a sock?!) I didn’t even ask WHICH son! We all have that ONE child, right?
The point is, kids have a lot of stuff, and we’re forever trying to find homes for everything. They get new stuff as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, Easter gifts – you name it! So, when it comes to gifts for
The deep, dark days of winter are still upon us and most of us just want to curl up with a good book and something warm. But sadly, the kids still expect to be fed. And the snacks! Oh my goodness the never-ending snacks.
Fortunately, if you have a blender and you stock ice cubes (and if you don’t I’m questioning our friendship) you’re about a third of the way towards putting together a healthy and delicious snack.
If you’ve read pretty much ANY of my articles on The Mabelhood Blog, you know we’re all about family time in this house! To us, doing things as a family is super important. Our kids are only young for so long, and we want to make sure we make memories with them, spend time with them, and show them how important family really is. Plus, whatever we do always ends up being a whole lot of fun!