High Maintenance Mom - Holidays/Celebrations

Easter comes early-good ideas for kids

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:10:35 -0800

Easter comes early this year, March 23rd, so I am thinking ahead about how I will spend it with my husband, 2 year old daughter and 4 month old son. I have decided that instead of an Easter basket full of chocolate (since I will be the only one eating it all) I will fill it with books. My daughter can not seem to get enough books in her hands and she does need a few new "big girl books" as I call them.

Magazines - a great gift that lasts all year

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:32:09 -0800

Magazines are a fun gift for kids because they come in the mail throughout the year. Our kids see our magazines come and they watch us read them. In turn, we enjoy watching our kids get excited about their magazines. I have not read every kids magazine but I do have some favorites. If you are interested in knowing more about a magazine, I recommend checking out the magazine web site and looking for them at a local library or bookstore. Here are some of our favorites...

Two Favorite Father's Day Gifts

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:20:45 -0700

My husband likes to read about and analyze electronics long before purchasing so I generally let him pick his own gifts. His most recent are loved by the whole family. The Samsung YP-K5JAB 4 GB Audio Player with Built-in Speakers (Black) was bought around Mother's Day and the Sony MDR-IF540RK Wireless Headphone System with Rechargeable Battery were bought in time for Father's Day...

Pictures of your kids make great Mother's Day gifts

Sun, 07 May 2006 22:08:01 -0700

There's less than one week until Mother's Day and if you haven't done anything yet for your mom, now is a good time to send a card. It's holidays like Mother's Day when I realize that I have it easier than my brother, who doesn't have kids, because I can send pictures of my kids. Today we went to the zoo with the plan to get one picture of the kids together...

Valentine's Day preparations

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 22:26:21 -0800

Another Valentine's Day will be celebrated on Tuesday. Many moms have spouses/significant others who continue to participate in this holiday as if we were still single and childless, the rest of us either don't care or have to find another way to compensate. I changed my toenail color to a deep red, bought valentines for my kids' friends that I would like to receive, and I bought a few fun items for myself....

Holiday cards

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 22:24:53 -0800

After traveling for almost two weeks, I'm still working on our holiday cards. I've sent some, but not all. The one helpful thing I've been doing is to collect all the cards from each year along with the addresses. After I have hung them up, made appropriate "ooo" or "isn't she cute" noises, and let the kids play with them, I dump them into a manila envelope with the year on them. Throughout the next year I add any "change of address" information I receive...

Costco - Holiday items and more

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 11:01:08 -0700

It's always fun to go through the Costco holiday selection and I often wish I had bought more as the holidays approach. Who knew we'd be invited to a baby shower and asked to bring a bath toy after passing on the Elmo bath set last year? There are a few items I was really excited about this weekend so I thought I would mention them (Leap Frog videos, beading sets, puppets, etc.). There are also a few Halloween costumes ($12.99 - we bought B the cow one) and Dr Seuss books on CD (about $5.99 for a paperback book and CD)...

Items of the month - October

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 11:09:08 -0700

B loves this book. We bought it for him when he was 18 months old for his second Halloween. I thought it would be fun but I didn't realize it was going to be a favorite. We enjoy talking about the costumes and what is going to happen next. A great Halloween choice...

Back-to-school photo books

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:47:54 -0700

Because I live so far away from my family, I try to keep my family up-to-date with cards and photobooks of my kids. My favorite program for creating cards, sending pictures, and digital scrapbooking is Shutterfly.com. There are lots of services out there but Shutterfly is one of the only ones that lets your friends view your images without having to register for an account and if anyone wants to purchase a picture, they can easily order prints...

Happy Canada Day

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 15:46:33 -0700

Happy Canada Day to our great northern neighbour!

The first celebration was on July 1, 1868 when "a proclamation signed by the Governor General, Lord Monck, called upon all Her Majesty's loving subjects throughout Canada to join in the celebration of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada..."

Father's Day traditions

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 07:12:08 -0700

Father's Day is one of two days during the year when I try not to comment on the little things like who makes the bed or the level of difficulty for getting a piece of clothing into the laundry basket. Since I am preparing for a day of "focusing on the good", I will save a list of all the other things I can't believe I haven't been able to change in 12 years for another day (it's 10 PM and I have to finish this so I can clear the dinner table and start the dishwasher).

I created a checklist before Mother's Day for Making Mother's Day special. Now that Father's Day is approaching, I'm thinking about our traditions for this Hallmark holiday as well. Here are a few items I'm trying to figure out for our family tradition...

no-hassle book returns?

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 10:25:01 -0700

I recently bought some books for a 1-yr old’s birthday party at Border’s bookstore. When I asked for a gift receipt the clerk said they didn’t give them out, but the parent could return the books to them without a receipt as long as they were in good condition. Does this mean that you can return any book’s your child receives that you don’t want/need to Borders? We’re several months away from my child’s first birthday, but I’m going to try and file this one away in my memory, since it would be worth trying.