Rock, Paper, Scissors: Party Preparation

For Ranger's birthday party, we wanted a no tears craft that would engage kids from toddler through 5th grade. After considering at a number of very clever projects, we decided to stick with what we know.

I printed off the crown template I use for fabric play crowns. The day before the party, I traced six of them onto each of five sheets of white posterboard ($0.70 x 5= $3.50+ sales tax for 30 crowns). A wonderful friends brought loads of crayons. An adult sized and stapled the finished crowns. (Hint: Staple from the inside of the crown so the flat side of the staple is against the wearer's hair and the points are on the exterior.)

The levels of interest varied greatly. Some kids put major effort into their crowns and wore them throughout the party. Other kids (Ranger among them) were more interested in getting back to the dance floor and playroom.

That brings us to the Rock. Jim put together a party mix from some of Ranger's favorite tunes:

1. I'm So Happy You're Here Blue’s Clues
2. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song the Flaming Lips
3. Mahna Mahna Cake
4. Stayin' Alive the Bee Gees
5. I Am a Paleontologist They Might Be Giants (w/ Danny Weinkauf) [free download- thanks, TMBG & Girlie Action! Thanks for the tip, Spare the Rock! *pre-order this great new album for the bargain rate of $9.99 on Amazon]
   
6. The Hoppity Song Five for Fighting
7. Mix Tape Jim’s Big Ego [free download courtesy of Jim's Big Ego!]
   
8. A Little Less Conversation JXL Remix
9. All the Small Things Blink 182
10. Gotta Be Me Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
11. Music Farm Xtatik
12. Rockin' Robin Bryan White
13. My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors Moxy Fruvous
14. Family Tree Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
15. Lovely Rita The Beatles
16. Go Down Emmanuel Road Dan Zanes & the Rocketship Revue
17. Silly Hat Blue’s Clues
18. Flying Machine Father Goose
19. King of Spain Moxy Fruvous
20. Come Together The Beatles
21. So Glad I'm Here Elizabeth Mitchell
22. All Night Long Dan Zanes & Friends
23. I'm Yours Jason Mraz
24. So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh Dan Zanes & Friends

Feel free to don a crown and break out your boogie shoes.

Tableware Designer: Make-A-Plate Kits

Today, the UPS man delivered a some Make-A-Plate classroom kits for my mom.

Every year her fifth grade, students get to design melamine plates. Uncle Punk, Jim, Ranger, and I are always invited to make a plate of our own.

When Ranger was one, he was not interested in coloring but he was obsessed with letters, numbers, and shapes. It was fun to give him a plate that integrated his burgeoning interests.

Ranger (at two) made a plate of his own which we labeled with his name and the year.

With the classroom kit (~$11 with shipping) and free early bird shipping (templates submitted before November 31st), the plates cost $5.95 each. This is a good option if you want to go in with some friends on a bulk order. Otherwise individual kits are available for around $15.99 (online and at craft stores like Hobby Lobby).

The plates are dishwasher safe, but not microwavable. There are also kits to make bowls, trays, and mugs if melamine plates don't hold much appeal.

With bulk ordering and free shipping, these plates can make durable and inexpensive custom gifts for grandparents and friends of the family.

What kind of custom and/or homemade gifts does your family make?

Related posts:

• Give 'Em a Smile: Calendars as Holiday Gifts
• Sign of the Times: Kids Name Signs

Our Hobo Kitchen: Reusing Everyday Objects

Play kitchens can be loads of fun for toddlers, but new ones can cost a small fortune.

You can build a kitchen from cardboard or score one at a yard sale (like our $10 kitchen), for nominal costs. Really lucky folks may get hand-me-down kitchens from friends or family.

Our kitchen was bare bones when we bought it. It lacked any utensils or fake food. I was way too lazy to buy the food and utensil sets, so Ranger found it stocked with real kitchen items (duplicates, cast-offs, and rarely used items) and clean, empty food tins and boxes.

While Ranger isn't a dedicated junior chef (probably due to a lack of kitchen role models), all our young visitors gravitate to our pell-mell kitchenette. It actually gets so busy at times that I have to unearth a second phone handset so more of the junior chefs can make important calls.

Jim dubbed it the hobo kitchen because its cookware is primarily old food cans which had their lids removed with a smooth edge can opener.

The idea of a hobo kitchen charms me immensely, as my adoptive grandfather Lonz (Alonzo) used to tell me stories of riding the rails looking for work during the Depression so he could support his young family. I'm sure he cooked over his old tins in far less hospitable settings, but I like to think he'd be proud that those lessons he taught me about thrift and conservation are ones I value enough to share with the next generation.

Current contents of kitchen:

• plastic travel mugs that I do not like using in the dishwasher
• some polycarbonate food bowls with lids
• silicone ice cube trays
• empty tea and cookie tins
• clean, empty food cans
• empty salt shaker
• plastic drink mix container
• pot holders I made on a loom during childhood and a random promotional pot holder
  
• duplicate set of measuring cups
• canning funnel
• manual juicer
• potato masher
• baby food jar spatula

What kinds of things do you repurpose as toys?

Not So Tiny Bubbles: Cheap Wands and DIY Solution

If you're not reading Mom Advice, you're probably missing out on some great ideas. I don't know how Amy does it all, but her frugal living site has a great breadth of coverage. I particularly look forward to her Thursday Amy's Notebook posts that highlight lots of great ideas from around the web.

Her post on bubble wands from Target's Dollar Spot and link to a DIY bubble solution recipe inspired a lot of fun here.

After a trip to Target's Dollar Spot for some giant bubble wands and glycerin ($2.69 for 4 ounces; they hold it behind the pharmacy counter at our Target so you have to ask for it; CVS puts it with the scar treatment ointments), we mixed up a gallon of Sparkle Power's homemade bubbles in an empty milk jug (tip to avoid a frothy mess while filling: first fill the jug with warm water; then add the dish soap and glycerin; roll or shake sealed jug gently to mix. Label the jug lest your family mistake the substance for beverages).

For our playgroup at the local spray park, Ranger and I loaded the car with two Target bubble wands ($1/each), a gallon of bubble mix, and a third giant SuperBubble wand from Toys R Us ($3, and don't bother- it's awful). The bubble wands were so easy to use that the toddlers (2 & 3 year olds) spent as much time playing with the bubbles as running through the water sprayers.

The glycerin makes the bubbles rather easy to produce and resilient. The wands have many openings, so they produce many bubbles with one swipe of the arm. We found that the yellow flower wand tended to produce a single giant cluster bubble, while the orange wand with the hearts and star border made lots of small to mid-sized individual bubbles.

The bubble solution has easily won the admiration of playgroup families and Ranger's grandparents.

I can't wait to try it with our Klutz Giant Bubble Maker. It might inspire us to make Mentor Mom's DIY mega bubble wand.

Thanks, Amy, for the great recommendations!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Farm Teams, Minors, and Independent Leagues Offer Summer Fun

When I was growing up, I loved the nights when our family went to see the Evansville Triplets play. After those magic years of sitting in Dad's employer's box seats behind the dugout, I was sad to see the team leave town and the beautiful historic ball field fall dark on summer nights. My baseball glove (autographed by my favorite player Mark Fidrych) became a permanent resident of the hall closet, and thus ended my brief infatuation with baseball.

Twenty plus years later while I was pregnant with Ranger, my dear college friend and her baseball-loving family came to visit. Partially motivated by nostalgia, I planned a night at the Evansville Otters so my friend's husband could visit one of the locations from A League of Their Own.

While I spent most of that evening talking with my friend, the mesmerizing effect the game had on her children (and our spouses) was undeniable. The allure of ballpark hot dogs and CrackerJacks were irresistible, and, like the ticket prices, everything was pretty reasonably priced. The boys were most delighted to get on the field and run the bases after the game.

Almost three years after our friends' visit, we regularly head to the ball park on hot summer nights to cheer for the local team and soak up the Norman Rockwell ambiance. Ranger has loved baseball since his first visit, so much that Jim is actually learning the rules of the game after 30+ years of sheer indifference. Ranger loves watching the action on the field and reading numbers off the scoreboard to us.

I can't say that I watch that much baseball at the games; I'm more of a people watcher, so the crowds have more allure.

Between innings local businesses sponsor strange audience participation games (inflatable sumo wrestling and hula hoop tosses), so there's plenty to see even if you don't watch one minute of the actual game.

Ranger's grandparents often join us at games. My parents both have a love for sports that entirely skipped my brother and I, so I know they find in kinship in the next generation's sports enthusiasm.

So, even if you don't like baseball, it may be worth looking into affordable sports tickets in your area. It's funny how kids can help you appreciate something you've unknowingly been missing.

Our friends are coming back to town next week, and we're planning another night with the Otters. They'll get to see our favorite new inning switch game ("Pluck the Polyp," a tong and bucket game sponsored by a local colo-rectal practice).

This time an almost 3-year-old Ranger will get to the run the bases for the first time ever. I suspect it will be worth every minute of those 7 long innings to see the smile on his face.

Easy Bake in a "Jiffy:" Mixing Things Up For Less

I spied a "Jiffy" [s.i.c. since 1930] brand baking mix on my friend's counter and was immediately transported back to the 1970s and thoughts of my Easy Bake Oven on the kitchen counter. While my brother ran through the woods beating things with sticks ala Lord of the Flies, I built a culinary education that would serve me well should I ever be trapped in a incandescent-bulb-lit, well-stocked pantry hungry for miniature baked goods.

The Easy Bake mixes, sold in the toy section, exceeded my allowance and my frugal family's sense of economy. So Mom figured out that 1/2 of a Jiffy Mix substituted nicely for an Easy Bake mix. So, if your little light-bulb baker is begging for the $5 Hasbro Betty Crocker cake mix (that has to be bought in toys rather than at the grocery), swing by the baking aisle and grab a 67 cent box of "Jiffy" cake mix and a 67 cent box of frosting mix instead ($1.34 total). Both make and frost two Easy Bake cakes, but (GEEK BONUS) "Jiffy" offers the practical math experience of dividing a recipe by two.

Amazon sells "Jiffy" mixes in bulk (24 box multi-packs) if you want to avoid the store all together or start a Easy Bake supply store for the whole neighborhood.

But, in the wonderous age of the Internet, you can also make your own mixes for pennies on dollar while building valuable math and (dare I say it) actual cooking skills. The nice folks over at Budget 101 have started a registry for Easy Bake and Queasy Bake mix recipes.

Tired of the same old cake mix? Well, you can spice up "Jiffy" mixes with their FREE recipes (online or in booklet form) that transform Banana Nut Muffin mix into Banana-Berry Tarts and Crust and Frosting Mix into their celebrated Easy Coconut Cookies.

In searching for images of my model of Easy Bake Oven, I stumbled upon a most amazing Easy Bake Oven cookbook issued in 2003 honoring Easy Bake's 40th birthday (and I didn't even send a card!):

I kid you not, The Easy Bake Oven Gourmet is a serious gourmet cookbook with contributions from the hungry minds of Mollie Katzen, Mark Bittman, Rick Bayless, Bobby Flay, and others. You can bet that a copy will soon be arriving here at Baby Toolkit Headquarters (even though I no longer have an Easy Bake Oven and Ranger is a few years away from using one).

Maybe I can just cook these on my dashboard during mid-summer [Thanks, Kevin Kelly via street use!].


***This is the independent and often odd opinion of the geek parents at Baby Toolkit. We have no relationships with and have received no compensation from Hasbro, Running Press Publishing, David Hoffman, "Jiffy," or Chelsea Milling Company. Chelsea Milling Company sent us a free copy of their fascinating "Jiffy" mixes recipes booklet but they'll do that for anyone in the United States.

I, Bag Lady: Plastic Bags

Some years ago Jim and I volunteered for a river cleanup on the White River where it meanders through suburban and rural Indiana. It sounded like a fun way to spend a day canoing through the countryside. The White River is known locally for some very severe industrial fishkills, so no one really ever plans on going into it above the knee.

Needless to say, our group ended up filling all the canoes as well as a large flat raft with everything from washing machines to spare tires to every kind of plastic implement ever made so everyone was walking their canoes down the river- and then the river got deeper and deeper (before we were near our final destination), so we all ended up swimming and pushing our barely-above-water garbage skiffs. If Ranger ever develops a third eye it won't be a real mystery.

When we got on the school bus to head to a picnic, the conversation turned to one thing- plastic bags. How had so many of them ended up in the river? Was there a community-wide initiative to dam the river using only Wal-Mart bags? Every volunteer had spent just a little too much time disentangling their own share of thousands of plastic bags from our local flora and fauna.

I've never looked at disposable plastic bags the same way since that river trip.

We became dedicated users of cloth bags overnight. Sure, we still end up with a plastic bag every now and then, but we've substantially reduced our plastic bags consumed. We also try to reuse any plastic bags that make their way into our home.

So here are some of our household's favorite plastic bag tips:

• KNOT THE BAGS: For bags being stored bunch the bag at the base in one hand and pull it with your other hand toward the handles to push out all the air and make a rope. Then tie it once in the middle. This makes the bag less of an entrapment and choking hazard. It also keeps them more compact in storage. It's good to tie a knot even in bags you're throwing away because it keeps them from blowing into the local landscape.
  
• USE A BAG HOLDER: We used to use a cheap plastic one from IKEA that looked pretty bad when the bags eeked their way out the holes. My friend's mom saw fit to make us a very cute cloth one out of a tea towel and some ribbons similar to this. Lifehacker even has an extraordinarily utilitarian one made from a used plastic bottle. Amazon has some sleek steel and plastic ones.
  
• MANAGE TRASH STINK: We're notorious for letting take-out move into our fridge on a semi-permanent basis. It gets past the safe consumption zone and I forget to put it out on trash day. So we'll double bag it before putting it in the trash. If you don't live in a hot climate this can buy you a few stink free days. If it's hot here I double bag the hazardous waste and put it in back in the fridge until trash day. That way Ranger's cottage cheese doesn't have to smell like lo mein.
  
• MANAGE DIAPER PAIL STINK: Ghastly diapers double bagged do less olfactory damage in even a floundering Diaper Champ.
• Stow a few in your car for wet clothes, dirty shoes, emergency barf bags, or use as vehicle trash bags.
• Shopping bags make great liners for small trash cans.
• Clean plastic shopping bags are usually welcome donations at thrift stores and food banks.

I strongly recommend cloth bags or durable, reusable plastic bags (IKEA and Trader Joes both sell great ones) for every family. Yes, it takes a little bit of time to get used to taking them to the store, but it's well worth the effort. For each ton of plastic bags not used 11 barrels of oil are conserved.

That doesn't sound like much but each plastic bag used ALSO consumes fossil fuels in transportation, storage costs for manufacturers and retailers, more fossil fuels in transportation to landfills, and landfill space. Often these bags are only used once.

Plastic bag recycling is problematic. The EPA estimates that only 1% of America's plastic bags were recycled in 2000. I learned from someone in the recycling industry that a lot of the store shopping bag bins end up contaminated and can't be recycled. It turns out that there are subtle differences in the plastics (including dyes) that make it impossible to recycle say a Target (white with red), a Wal-Mart (blue with multi-color), and a Best Buy bag (yellow with black) in the same lot. Long story short- most of those grocery store plastic recycling barrels are there to ease consumers' consciouses rather than actually recycle. The contents of those plastic bag collection barrels frequently end up in landfills.

To make your own cloth bags (and some friends), see the tutorials at morsbag.com (social guerrilla bagging) or craftster.org.

Building Blocks: A Recycler's Do It Yourself Project

As a kid Jim loved playing with those cardboard blocks with the somewhat inexplicable brick pattern printed on them (bricks made of mini bricks?). He had dreams of owning so many of them he could build a big, somewhat perilous ediface. That dream lives on today.

So, I started looking for cheap blocks to build "Ranger" (in this case- Jim) a huge collection of architectural materials. Amazon has quite a few options, but they were all too pricey for a cheapskate like me.


Google led me to the always helpful Berkeley Parents Network and their commentary on brick acquisition. Their advice on purchasing bricks through Lillian Vernon's catalog look great, but the June 1999 tip for making cardboard bricks with old milk cardboard cartons captured my imagination.

We had to buy half-gallon milk cartons because our local stores only carried organic milk in that packaging. My vegan parents had ample soy milk cartons and we love acid free orange juice (again, a beverage only sold in half gallons here).

So we rinse, cut, and wash our empty cartons, and then assemble them into individual blocks. The process is pretty easy, but cutting the cartons evenly can take a bit of technique.

Start by piercing the container on the side opposite the pour spout at approximately the location of the pour spout. This lets you have a jagged entry mark without marring the clean cut of the carton.

Cut downward at angle to sneak up on the fold line. When you reach the fold line, cut along it for a nice, even edge. It you happen to screw up an edge monumentally, make that the inside carton when you pair them.


Slide two cartons together, and presto- one water resistant building block! Soon you'll have enough for a whole playgroup. Don't like the patterns? You could cover them with contact paper or standard paper that your kids can decorate. Me- I'm lazy, so my son will get to appreciate the joy and value of reuse.

Jim recommends creasing the long sides of the carton to flatten the sides of the block- making it more stable for stacking.

Pennies from Heaven: $15 PayPal Rebate on a $30 Purchase

Wow. I stopped by wantnot.net which is a great site that always makes me want to shop (so I try not to visit too often).

Anyway, there's an awesome PayPal $15 rebate on a $30 (or $34.50 CAD) offer going on now through March 31.

It looks like it requires pre-registration of the email account and the payment must be to a business account through an American or Canadian business site that uses PayPal or through the US or Canadian versions of ebay. You must log in to your PayPal account when you make the purchase. (So if you're checking out somewhere that PayPal handles the transactions, use their log me in to my PayPal account button when you hit that option. There's some other small print, and I always recommend reading such stuff before signing up for any free offer (something may be important to you that isn't relevant to me and thus not summarized here). The rebate will be paid into PayPal accounts on May 28, 2007.

Visit http://paypal.promotionexpert.com/greatshopping/signup/index.html for all the small print and to register for the rebate.

Maybe now you can buy the Diaper Valet you've had your eye on! Have you seen our new Elvis Lives Valet? Elvis is everywhere indeed.

Happy shopping!

photo credit: babytoolkit.blogspot.com. Reuse allowed with attribution.
Thanks, wantnot.net!

Shower Me With Dumplings: The Best Baby Shower Ever

While I couldn't wait for the opportunity to hit the keyboard, BabyGeek is busy sleeping off the excitement from this morning. Two of our fabulous Tuesday Mommas are expecting in the next month, and we're all excited so we had the Best Baby Shower Ever. Since we all met after the birth of our babies, it seemed really fun to share a shower with new friends.

But what do you get for a family that already has kids? Diaper showers lack excitement ("Think of all the poo!") and second-timer (or more seasoned) parents typically already have a house full of stuff to stub their toes on.

Joy, one of the expectant moms who claims to have baby brain (but is still brilliant), mentioned that she'd heard about a "Cooking Shower"and would find one quite useful. A Google search for "cooking shower" apparently returns things like a "kitchen shower" for brides-to-be. New spatulas were definitely not what we were thinking of. So let's call it a Dinner Shower for now. If you have a better term in mind, please add it to the comments- this is a killer meme and it deserves a great and distinctive name.

The Dinner Shower (hosted at Joy's house because she has a great play area at her house for the passel of babies who accompany the Tuesday Mommas and a great kitchen) entailed everyone bringing a prepared, freezable dish. Since we had two expecting moms, we all brought enough food for two families and spent time looking like an infomercial while Cathy demonstrated her Food Saver. ("So how does it vacuum-seal soup?")

We split our prepared food into portions for both expectant moms' families (in a shower for just one mom this wouldn't be necessary). Joy's went right in the freezer while Amy's went into a cooler for the ride home.

Some people made a breakfast casserole while all this was going on (which we then divided and froze), and we all pitched in on clean up so everyone who brought food for repackaging took home clean dishes.

We had pizza and got to spend some quality time together.

The moms each received seven carefully prepared and delicious looking homemade entrees (all in portions large enough for multiple meals). What a great resource for those first tiring weeks of new baby's life.

No one needs to prepare expensive or elaborate meals, so everyone can give according to the time and funds they have available. Plus, the frozen meals mean the giver can plan ahead despite the random nature of birth and the family can control the timing of the meals.

This wonderful time together also honors community. My mom reminds me that in previous generations people always used to give prepared meals to families with new arrivals. This type of shower reinforces community in a way that shares and acknowledges the dualistic joy and difficulty of family life.

The shower's positive energy has made me realize the simple abundance in a well-timed gift of a good meal. It's enough to get me excitedly planning ahead for the hot meals I'll be dropping off after the babies are home a few weeks.


....but, if you must buy a traditional shower gift, let me suggest the Diaper Valet. It's handy.

What type of baby showers have you actually enjoyed?

How can we improve the Dinner Shower idea (including the name)?

Who has good freezable recipes? (Please share!)

The Big Muddy: Keeping Stroller Gunk Out of Car Upholstery

As a huge fan of Bryce Courtenay's novel Power of One, it slightly pleases me that there has been an atypical amount of rain in our sometimes drought-prone region since BabyGeek's birth. The symbolism is pleasant until I have to put a wet, muddy, or otherwise gross stroller into my car.

After a few months of stroller use, I found that mud and black wheel tracks had become regular additions to my station wagon's tan interior. On snowy and rainy days, the carpet got damp, so loading in groceries or other clean and dry items became an exercise in peril.

There are rubber cargo area mats for many vehicles, but I couldn't find one shaped for my specific late-90s vehicle. An ill-fitting universal mat seemed like it could be more inconvenient than helpful.

At a rummage sale, I found a Thanksgiving themed flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth. It was large, oval, and in like-new condition. And it was kind of hideous. It was essentially free because they were having a bag sale, and I had room in my bag. These factors made it the perfect test subject.

I laid the tablecloth in the back of my car and traced the outline of my cargo area on it with a Sharpie (I keep two in the glove compartment- a fine and a regular). The desired portion only took half of the tablecloth, so I folded it in half and cut out two floor coverings using household scissors.

Originally, I had planned to sew the edges on a serger, but they seemed to have plenty of integrity without the extra work, so I decided to take my chances. Plus, the Thanksgiving design wasn't exactly something I wanted to keep forever. I bought two lovely solid colored replacements for the Thanksgiving cargo area liner. They both sit untouched in a closet.

The Thanksgiving liner has been in my car for over 9 months and shows no sign of wear. Dry matter (dirt, sand, Cheerios, etc.) is easily brushed or shaken off. Wet, mucky stuff cleans off easily with a sponge, paper towel, or baby wipe.

Out of laziness rather than insight, I stacked both Thanksgiving liners in the cargo area. This turned out to be quite helpful. When one get wet, it's easy to pull it out or fold it around around the icky item (leaving the other liner to cover the carpet).

Vinyl tablecloths are easy to find at big box retailers, discount stores, dollar stores, and thrift shops. They come in a huge range of styles, prints, and solid colors. They are reasonably indestructible (if the Thanksgiving liner is any indicator). Even at full-price, they cost only a small fraction of the price of a commercially produced cargo area or trunk liner.

Please add your own clean car hacks to this post. My car is a perpetual mess since BabyGeek's arrival, and I can use all help I can get.

BabyGeek (at 16 months) actively despises going through the car wash (not alone, of couse; I'm in the car too). Is that normal? Can I hope it's a phase?