10 Things To Do With Your Kids This St. Patty's Day





For those of us with kids, St. Patrick's Day isn't usually about getting wasted on green beer.  But sometimes, it's hard to think of 'family friendly' ways to include the kids in on this fun holiday, beyond wearing green. 

Here are 10 ways that you can celebrate with your kids that will have everyone feeling Lucky!


1. Catch the Crazy Leprechaun!  Legend has it that the Leprechaun always comes during the night on St. Patty's day.  It's fun to let the kids make a trap for him and try to catch him.  (At our house, though, the tricky leprechaun manages to never get caught...)

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2. Wake Up to a Green Mess!  When the Leprechaun comes in the night, he always makes a complete mess of the house!  Some things he might do are: leave green toilet water, turn the furniture around, leave toys all over the floor, hang socks up on the walls, and turn pictures around.  I'm pretty sure the leprechaun can get very creative!

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3. Show Your Shamrock Pride!  It's always fun to find creative ways to wear green.  Sometimes it's with hair accessories, sometimes a green shirt, pants or socks.  Or you could go all out and wear all green on this fun day!

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4. Have a Top O' The Morning Breakfast!  This year, we're going with Lucky Charms and green milk, (this idea I found on Pinterest!).  You could also do green colored eggs, green pancakes or even green sprinkled donuts. 

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5. Find Your Treasure on a Scavenger Hunt!  You can start by giving them the first clue at breakfast.  Then have the kids follow clues until they find the treasure, (maybe chocolate coins or a special toy!)

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6. Make a Clover Craft!  There are a TON of crafts all over the web for this fun day!  I think we are going to try this one.  Be sure to check out my Pinterest Board for lots of craft ideas, (as well as recipes etc.!)

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7.  Dance a Jig!  Find some fun Irish music, (think Riverdance), and have a family dance party. 

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8.  Watch a Lucky Movie!  A few movie's that are family friendly for St. Patrick's day are: Leapin Leprechaun's, A Very Unlucky Leprechaun, The Magical Land of Leprechauns, The Luck of The Irish, and The Secret of Roan Inish.

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9.  Have a Potluck Supper!  Everyone gets to pick one dish to include in the evening meal.  You might end up with all desserts, but it'll be a fun time for everyone!

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10.  Tell an Irish Tale!  This is a great way to end your Lucky Day!  Find a great St. Patty's Day story to share with your kids, and they'll be dreaming of Rainbows and Treasures for the rest of the night!

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I hope you all have a great St. Patrick's Day Celebration with your family!

I will be linking up with Many Little Blessings for Top Ten Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.  Be sure to check it out!

Do You Like Changes?



You may not have noticed, but I made a change on the blog.

It's not the colors or layout I'm talking about, (but I did change those, too).

It's that I'm no longer using different fonts, and limiting the size changes of the text.

I made the change because several people told me that they preferred that I stick to one size and font.  Some because it tended to run together on their screen, and others because they just preferred the look of it.

I took their advice and started making the changes...but it's been MUCH harder than I thought it would be.

You see, I tend to write like I talk.  And when I talk, I am very expressive! 

It's like someone telling me not to use my hands when I talk...I would feel awkward and I don't think it would work.

That's kinda how I feel not using all my font changes and text sizes. 

But I'm sticking to it because I want to make my readers happy.  Although, I have been noticing that I am using the bold and italic buttons a lot to make up for it :)

So tell me, are changes hard for you, too?  Do you like that I'm using one font and one size (mostly)? 

Who's Ready For Easter Baskets? {Hershey's GIVEAWAY}

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I am!

I'm ready for pastel colors, baby chicks, peeps, chocolate bunnies, and the decorated eggs.

I love Easter and especially The Easter Baskets!

For our girls, we fill them with eggs, toys, books, and a little candy, too.

Because, after all, what's an Easter basket without candy?

And Hershey's is the perfect candy for Easter!  The Peanut Butter Eggs, (MY FAVE!), the Chocolate Bunnies, The Hershey's Kisses, Twizzlers...It's everything your kids want!

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And I am Giving Away A Hershey's Easter Basket filled with these yummy treats to Celebrate!  It's a Green Basket with green grass, (gender neutral!), with all the Hershey's goodness you can imagine!

Want to Win?

Here's How: (And Don't Forget, you can enter as many times as you like!! Just leave a comment for each entry!)

-Sign up to Follow my blog and leave a comment below!
-Like Family Fun Mom on Facebook (see the Like button on the right?) and leave a comment below!
-Follow Family Fun Mom on Twitter (also on the right) and leave a comment below
-Like Hershey's on Facebook and leave a comment below
-Follow Hershey's on Twitter and leave a comment below
-Leave a comment telling me what you like in your Easter Baskets!
-Visit The Celebrate With Hershey's site, look around, and come back here and comment on what your favorite products/ideas are!

But HURRY!  The winner will be announced on the blog Next Wednesday, March 14th!  (Plenty of time for me to get it to you before The Big Day!)

Happy Easter, and I'll see ya on the bunny trail :)

I have received this basket as a promotion from Hershey's.  Read my full disclosure policy here.

Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy

This is a recipe I came up with after the family started complaining of too many slow cooker chicken dishes.

{Which, BTW, I feel is not even possible!}

Anyhow, it may not look that pretty, but it tastes GREAT, is easy to make, and easy on the budget, too!

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
2 Lbs. Pork Chops (I use boneless loin, but you can use which ever cut you like) 
1 can condensed golden mushroom soup
1 can condensed french onion soup
1/2 C. Water
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 C. All Purpose Flour

Place pork chops in the bottom of your slow cooker. 

 In a large bowl, combine both cans of soup, water, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Pour over the pork chops and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until pork chops are tender.

Remove the chops from the liquid and set aside.  Stir flour into hot liquid.  (I temper mine but mixing some of the hot liquid with the flour in a bowl or cup and then adding that mixture into the rest of the liquid in the slow cooker.  It just assures I will have less lumpy gravy...).

Set the slow cooker to high and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes or until gravy thickens.  Add the Pork Chops back into the slow cooker and serve.

We like ours with mashed potatoes or stuffing, (because the mushroom gravy is really good over them!), but I think they would be good with rice or noodles as well. 

I hope you enjoy this super easy and super tasty recipe!

I will be linking up with We Are THAT Family for Work For Me Wednesday.  Be surew to check it out!

Things I Learn From Reality TV

As you all know, I am a reality show junkie.

My husband may say that it's all trash, (and he may be right...), but I think I actually learn a lot from these shows. 

So today, I am sharing some of my reality-show-found-wisdom with you.

No thanks required :)

10.  Spray tans don't look good on anyone.  If you think they make you look good, you're kidding yourself.  You look orange.  And nobody is fooled.  It's winter.  In Michigan. The jig is up.

9.  Giving Yourself A Nickname Isn't Cool.  In fact, names like "The Situation" and "JWOW" just make you sound ridiculous.  And if you must give yourself a name, make it something that actually describes you, like "No Class Jenny" or "Drunk and Dumb Mike".

8.  Lots of Women Call Themselves Housewives, and they Aren't Even Married.  It's weird because 'wife' is even in the title, but somehow, some women don't seem to catch on...

7.  Who Needs Talent?  All you need to be famous is a naughty little video tape and rich parents!  In fact, after your infamous tape, your whole family can be reality TV stars!  It really is the land where anything is possible...

6.  Teach your boys that life is about more than GTL.  If you don't know what that means, good for you!  You just earned several points in my book.  Unfortunately, I do know what it means.  It's Gym, Tan, Laundry.  Apparently, to lots of young men, this is a productive day.

5.  Getting Married After Three Weeks Isn't A Good Idea.  Imagine if your daughter came home and said she met a hot guy a few weeks ago, and while he was dating her, he was also dating twenty other women.  But now, after lots of drinking, group dates and spending a night in a 'fantasy suite', he's chosen her, so they're getting married.  Nope, doesn't sound good now, huh?

4.  Mob Life Isn't What We Thought.  We all watched movies like The Godfather and GoodFella's and thought that Mob life looked kind of glamorous.  But apparently, being a Mob Wife just means you like to drink, curse and fight.  We have another name for that in the Midwest.  It's called white trash.  (was that over the line?...)

3.  If You Go On A Show Called 'Survivor', You Might Want To Know A Little Bit About Surviving.  At least learn to build a fire.  Surely they had *some* warning that they were going to be on the show...

2.  I Could Never Be A Sister Wife.  I mean, all that help with the kids, cooking, etc. sounds great.  But if 'sister' wants to join my husband in bed, we're gonna have issues.

1.  Pay For College!  If I've learned anything from Reality TV, it's that I don't want my daughter's on it!

Hope you enjoyed Today's Top Tuesday :)  Hop on Over to Many Little Blessings and check out all the other Top Ten's from Today!

Is Your Baby Keeping You Awake?

I have lots of friends who have babies. 

We are past that point, (our girls are 8 and 5), but I remember just how hard those days were.

Little sleep, no free time, lots of crying.  And that was a good day.

Often, I find myself encouraging these young moms that even though it seems like this time will never end, it will.

But I know that for those in the thick of it, it is hard to imagine. 

And one of the very hardest things is the lack of sleep.  Simply put, it makes everything ten times worse.  But how do you get around it?  How do you get baby to sleep?

First, let me say that there is no easy solution that will take in one easy step.  It's going to take work.  Both on your part, and on your baby's.

But we did have success.  Addy was sleeping through the night at five weeks and soothing herself back to sleep when she would wake up in the night! 

Here's how we did it:

Someone had given me the 'On Becoming Baby Wise' book when I was pregnant.  I knew it was a controversial book, but decided to read it anyhow.

Basically, the Baby Wise method is one in which parents direct the baby's sleep, eat and play pattern.  For example, baby's generally like to fall asleep while eating.  Once asleep, they wake to either a) eat, or b) play.  Once baby is fed again, he/she will return to sleep.  The problem is that if a baby falls asleep before finishing, they are likely to wake from hunger, which means that they are not getting the amount of sleep they need, which will lead to a fussy baby.

Using the Baby Wise method, a baby would sleep, then when they wake, they would have a feeding time.  You would continue to try and keep the baby awake during the entire feeding time, (even waking them if necessary), and then having play time, (again, keeping them awake).   Once it is time for sleep, the parent would put the baby in the crib AWAKE.  This way, babies learn to put themselves to sleep. 

Now, I know what you're thinking.  "My baby would scream his/her head off".  And you're right.  Most babies don't take well to this in the beginning.  And it's even harder for mom and dad.  But by allowing baby to cry, you teach them to self soothe. 

Now you're beginning to see the controversial part, right?

Please hear me when I say that I know this method is not right for everyone! 

But some moms, (and dad's), are dying from lack of sleep.  And this just might be the answer they're looking for.

And you can't be afraid to take the method and adjust it to make it work for your needs.

Our oldest, Addy, took very quickly to the process.  But Faith was different.  They both shared a room and it was hard for me to allow her to cry for too long because I didn't want her to wake up her sister.  So, instead, I did a modified method.  I would allow her to cry for a little while, (maybe 10 minutes), and then get her up, soothe her, but NOT allow her to fall asleep in my arms, and place her back into her crib awake.  It took longer, but eventually she got it.

And we got sleep.  Much needed sleep.

If you want to know more about the Baby Wise method, you can check out the Parent-Wise Solutions site, or a great blog that helps parents with the method, Chronicles Of A Babywise Mom.

Are you a Mom or Dad struggling to get your baby/toddler to sleep?  Or do you have a great method to share?  Please comment and tell us your story!

White Bean, Chicken and Sausage Soup

I have this thing for soups.  I can't get enough of them!  And there are so many different kinds, which is nice because I can eat them all the time and not feel like I'm eating the same ones.

Plus, they're a great go-to for simple family meals. (And they Freeze well!)

One of my favorite things to do is find a base recipe I like, and experiment with it until I get something I LOVE.

Today I want to share a recipe I did just that with!

I found a recipe for a sausage and spinach stew on Pinterest.  I made it and it was good, but I knew I could do more to make it my own...something that would be more to my family's liking.

I hope you'll try it and tell me what you think.  And don't be afraid to make your own changes too!

Ingredients:

3 cans (15 oz.) of Great White Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (14.5oz.) of diced tomatoes
5 cups chicken broth
1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced into rounds
2 chicken breasts
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. onion powder
salt and pepper to taste.

Place the chicken breast (I used frozen), in the bottom of your crock pot.  Place beans, tomatoes, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and smoked sausage on top.

 Pour chicken broth over the mixture and cook over low for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through.

 Remove chicken breasts and shred and then return to crock pot.  Stir and allow mixture to simmer for another 30 minutes or so.

I serve mine with hot, crusty bread for a complete meal.  You'll notice that there was no spinach in this recipe.  My kids didn't like the texture of it in soup.  But I must say, if I were making it just for me, I would definitely add the spinach again!  And the next time I make it, I may try sneaking some other veggies like carrots and celery in just so my kids get some extra.  And if you like some heat, try adding some red pepper flakes or using a hotter sausage as well.  I would love extra heat, but my family isn't a fan...

NOTE:  If you are not a fan of canned beans or tomatoes, you can use raw.  Just be sure to soak your bean overnight before cooking, and you will have to adjust the cooking time because raw beans take MUCH longer to cook.  And I would wait to add fresh tomatoes until just before the soup is done because otherwise they will pretty much cook away. 

Do you have a favorite soup?  Let us know what it is!!