Saturday, May 14, 2011

A Little Teaser for My Upcoming Wordless Wednesday

Mica had to have this hat! It was only $4.00 at Target:


He's so stinking cute and knows it!

Tropical Traditions Canadian Raw Honey Review and Giveaway!

Tropical Traditions sent me Canadian Raw Honey to review and giveaway! This giveaway is open to US and Canada.


Grandpa Spiehs has talked about raw honey; I have never tried it until Tropical Traditions sent me some! I'm a fan!

This morning I made Oat Meal Gems. It's a recipe I grew up with. The boy's and I like it best served with honey on top!


The recipe is super easy! Set your oven to 350 degrees. You combine the first 1/2 of the ingredients listed. Stir and set it aside.



 The you combine the second set of ingredients. Stir and combine both together.


Then pour in a greased {I use Olive Oil spray} 9x12 pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted, and comes out clean.

Spread with Tropical Tradition's Canadian Raw Honey and you are set! YUMMY!


About Tropical Tradition's Canadian Raw Honey:

  • It is only harvested during a 6-week period in the summer and comes from the frontier areas of Canada.
  • Most commercial honeys on the market come from bee farms, where the bees are controlled and get their pollen from one kind of flower. The flowers are usually grown with pesticides and fertilizers. This removes the beneficial enzymes and nutrients. This is not how this honey is processed. The honey I reviewed has live yeast and enzymes. It's pure, smooth and creamy.
  • In order for honey to be certified organic, the beehives must be placed in an isolated area. Far from huge populated areas. Bee's flying range is determined by their instinct. Finding areas that a clear of population is becoming more and more challenging.
You can win what Tropical Traditions sent me! A 17.6 ounce jar of Canadian Raw Honey. A $19.50 value!

You can enter if you are not a blogger. Leave a separate entry for each. Make sure the first entry is filled out before all others.
  1. For your first mandatory entry, check out Tropical Traditions and tell me a recipe you would like to try! Leave your email address only with this first entry. one entry
The other entries are optional. Be sure to leave a new comment for each.

  1. Google Friend this blog. one entry
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  5. Leave a comment on one of my other posts. Just leave the title. one entry
  6. Blog about this giveaway. Link back to this post and Tropical Traditions. Leave a link. five entries
  7. Vote for me on We're on the Fence! Just click on the button to the side to vote. one entry
  8. Subscribe to Tropical Traditions Email Sales Newsletter here: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/subscribe_for_special_sales.cfm. one entry
You do not need to enter all of the entries to be qualified, just the first mandatory entry.
Remember to leave your email address if it is not public in your profile.
This contest closes in 2 weeks, May 28 at 10 pm.
The winner will be chosen using random.org.

Disclaimer:

The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so choose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

Friday, May 13, 2011

Storyteller Mica - Cowboy Travis Carl

  • We were in a tent set up in our living room. We were having what we call, "Circle Time." It's just a time to talk.
  • Daddy was trying to get Mica to understand the difference between what we need and what we want. He sort of got it. 
  • Isaak doesn't really participate in circle time yet. You ask him any questions and he doesn't really answer you with too much. He's happy to cuddle though.
Then Mica said he wanted to tell us a story:
  • The story was about a cowboy named Travis Carl. Daddy and I both looked at each other and started cracking up! Travis is Daddy's name. 
  • Cowboy Travis Carl rode around the earth on his horse once to find a flower, another time to meet another cowboy and a third time to see a tree with an owl in it. There was lots of information in the mix of all that.
  • When Cowboy Travis Carl met the owl, the owl said, "Who are you?" The story ends with the cowboy saying, "I'm Travis Carl." 
Circle time ended with...
  • Both boys blowing raspberries on our tummy's. 
  • They were each laughing so hard!

What Elijah Said

Irmasen
  • On Monday cousin Elijah was eating his breakfast when I went to drop off Mica and Isaak.
  • Somehow we started talking about babies. I asked Elijah if he had a baby in his tummy? I of course was totally teasing him. He giggled and said, "No Mommy has baby Irmasen in her belly!" 
  • For the record Aunt Terra has a baby Emerson in her belly.
Lovey's
  • I was getting ready to leave for work Wednesday morning. Mica was playing with cousin Evan and Isaak was playing with cousin Elijah. 
  • I shouted out to Isaak and Elijah, "Goodbye Lovey's"! I know "Lovey's" isn't really a word. 
  • Elijah started cracking up! He said, "Isaak she just called us 'Lovey's!'" 
 Penis Talk
  • We went to go pick up the boy's from Aunt Terra's house. Isaak and Elijah were in the back bedroom playing.
  • I went to go see Isaak. I crept down the hallway. Then I heard Elijah say to Isaak, "See this is his penis." I peeked my head in. Isaak said, "I know that does look like his penis." 
  • These two tot's were talking about a naked Cabbage Patch Kid. The penis that they were talking about was the outie belly button. I just had to laugh. 
  • Later on I corrected them. Elijah looked up at me and said, "Well where is his penis then?" I told him that dolls don't always come with a penis.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Process of Wheat

Mica was telling us the process of what happens to wheat. It was pretty elaborate for a five year old.

Playing the Music!

When we play music our kids and we {parents} get into it! LOL

Here's Mica dancing and later in the short flick is Isaak drumming. Mica's dance style changes with the kind of music playing. Here he looks, well funny!


Mica really getting into playing his guitar.


Oh, we make fools of ourselves too! I'm behind the camera, but I was playing Mica's guitar, throwing the boys up in the air and flying a blanket around the room. Here's Daddy playing a mop like a guitar and wearing an empty Kleenex box for a hat, which he does often. Unfortunately this one was captured compact, so in other words low resolution. That gets me most every time with one video! Isaak's playing the drums on the love seat with foam bowling pins.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Indiana Jones AKA Mica Apel


Mica got mad when I called him, "Indiana Jones." He looked like him to me. I said, "Why don't you want to be called Indiana Jones Mica?" He said, "Because I don't know who he is!" 


We watched a few action scene's on YouTube, and he said, "Mommy you can call me Indiana Jones now!" We have an Indiana Jones fan in our house! 






 He's been humming the theme song around our house.


Monday, May 9, 2011

I Finally Figured Out Why Mica is Scared to Go See Great Grandma Kent

I mentioned to Mica that Great Grandma Kent moved to a new home now. she was kicked out of the other home. She just needs more care. She has Alzheimer's disease. She was really nice and forgetful. She used to sit and watch the kids with a smile on her face. Our boy's LOVED her! Mica even walked up to her at age 2 and said, "WOW I really love all the bubbles in your hair!" The bubbles were perm curls. I imagine with white hair curls do look like bubbles.

Now she has a blank stare much of the time. She gets snappy when you try and prevent her from doing things like: Hand washing a whole stack of paper plates, leaving out an outside door and steeling chocolate eggs, which she managed to stuff a lot of eggs in her pockets.

Mica didn't want to get out of the car to go into her home shortly before Easter. I was totally not expecting him to act the way he did. It used to be that Mica was Great Grandma Kent's best friend, visa versa.

This weekend he finally told me why he doesn't like going to see her. He's afraid he's going to catch what he calls, "Elder's disease." I reassured him that he can not catch Alzheimer's disease. I also told him that older people just love when young people, like himself come to see them. We'll see how the next visit goes.

I found a site that talks about how to talk to your kids about Alzheimer's disease here. Warning! They have a short film on the site that depicts a 13 year old girl dealing with her mother's Alzheimer's, I just lost it {started crying}. I'll admit it, the older I get the more of a sap I've become. This video won best short film on YouTube in 2007, drawing the attention of millions.

Here's the video. Watch at your own risk. It might make you cry.


School in the Fall Coming Right Up

In some way I'm so ready for Mica to be in Kindergarten, in other ways I'm a little sad that he's growing up so fast. Last year I was upset that he was the only kid not graduating from his old preschool class. They all went on to graduation {with robes and craziness}, while Mica sat out. I actually didn't have him attend at all. I felt like he'll have the rest of his life to experience being left out. Why torment him at such a young age, when he doesn't understand? I still feel like preschool graduations with robes and such are too much! what happened to the simple kool-aid and cookie farewell? He'll be on the older end for kindergarten. He starts just right after he turns 6 years old. He's really ready. The boy has known his letters since he was 2 1/2 years old. But last year at this time he was unwilling to cut and color much of anything. His preschool teachers actually thought that there might be something wrong in the muscles in his hands. Now he's a cutting, coloring fool! Meaning he does it all the time.

Tomorrow we're going to eat lunch at Mica's soon to be school. We get to eat with the existing kindergarten class.

Then Isaak starts preschool. I was a little worried about him because he's so stinking shy! He's a leg clinger. In the last two weeks he's started to be a little more friendly to the outside world. He actually says, "Hi" to random people in stores. That's both good and bad. Good that he's not as shy; bad that you shouldn't talk to strangers. What's your opinion, is it ok for kid's to talk to strangers when they are with their parents? Isaak's just been saying, "Hi" to everyone, and I started thinking about that. He's all into drawing, painting, playing with Play Doh. Not too into letters yet. I swear Mica learned his letters from Wheel of Fortune. We have the TV off at that time of day now. He does know how to spell his name thanks to the book I won around Christmas from Freckle Box!

Go Graham Go! is hosting a giveaway for one winner to win a backpack from Kidorable. Go Graham Go! even has a 20% discount code on her site for Kidorable. I won an umbrella from them, it's pretty sweet! Seeing that I have two kids about to start new schools, I want to win this.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day readers!

I don't expect to get anything for Mother's Day. I kind of think Birthday's and Christmas is plenty. Mica did make me a frame at school with a photo of himself in the center. Daddy took the boy's out last night to get me earrings, lotion and good smelling sample size hand sanitizer.


I set the boy's clothes out and Mica did not want to wear this shirt. I was an evil mom and told him that it would be nice for him to wear this shirt for me on Mother's Day.


To the left below the boy's were getting ready to fight over a leaf. To the right below Mica was trying to pose with his arm around Isaak; Isaak was being a punk, and was running away.


I knew one of our grocery stores was giving away a free breakfast with the purchase of any other breakfast, so we went there. Isaak gobbled down a ton of food! Mica said it was the best breakfast he had ever had.

Now I'm attempting to make homemade crayons. I've been saving the drip wax from the printers at the school I work at. I'm melting the wax in a tin can, and pouring it in candy molds. If this works I'll buy better candy molds. Something a little more fun for the kids. I only have typical chocolate candy looking ones. I want to see if it works though. I'll also post about it if it's a success! The only thing is, is that the wax is dark in color. It colors green, black or blue, but looks black. I'm recycling something that would be thrown away anyhow.

I thought making crayon's would be fun for the kids, but Mica cranking about wanting to watch a movie, and Isaak's had 2 time-outs for hitting and spitting. It might be a trying day. We will see. Maybe I'll give in and let them watch a movie while the wax is melting. I can get their patches they earned at the Lowes Kid's Clinic sewn on their apron's from yesterday.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

If you have any questions about this blog, or want to get in contact with me please email me at: anapeladay@gmail.com