Leap Day!

How did you spend your extra day this year?

We made the most of it and didn't waste a minute. Here are some of the highlights :)

We greeted the day with this little guy....

We exchanged backwards notes (and spoke in backwards speak)....

We got creative with marshmallows and toothpicks....

We had a fierce tin foil boat competition where you construct boats out of tin foil and then set them afloat in the bath tub, toss marbles in them and see whose boat sinks first....

And finally we made a very special dessert out of these....

That looked a little something like this....

I found the recipe here.

Hope you took some time to enjoy your extra day this year. Happy Leap Day 2012!

15 Minutes

So yesterday, with piles of shoes and toys mounting, groceries that had been unpacked onto the counter, but not put away, and a play date looming for later in the afternoon something had to be done.  However, the last thing I felt like doing after returning from the grocery store and getting the littlest munchkin down for a nap was cleaning house. I had warned "A" earlier that he would have to help but he seemed less than enthusiastic.

I've heard this tip a few times but never actually put it into practice until now. I really can't remember where I first saw it, but quite frankly, I wish I had done it sooner! I have never seen such a big smile on a little face when faced with the task of cleaning up. Here's my version of it....

The idea = You set a timer for a designated amount of time (in our case 15min...do whatever seems age appropriate for those helping you) and then everyone in the house does their assigned cleaning/pick-up tasks until the timer expires. We called it 'Beat the Clock Cleaning' or 'Speed Cleaning'. Dub it whatever you want as long you get everyone to buy in :) In my case 'Beat the Clock' works great with my seven year old. He just simply can not turn down a challenge, especially when he's being timed. Whoever finishes first is crowned the "winner".  However, we all know Mom is the real winner here ;)

What happens if someone finishes before the timer expires you ask? Well you can either just let them be done and be thankful for the help or, if you have a child who can't resist over achieving then.... that's the bonus round. Assign more tasks...genius! See if they can complete their bonus round before both the timer expires and/or others finish their tasks. In our case Addison was onto his triple bonus round before our fifteen minutes expired. When the timer finally went off he immediately asked if we could play again!

The reward = Everyone, including mom, gets to go do whatever they want (set the timer again) for the exact amount of time that was spent cleaning.... extra video game time, computer time, reading, rest, whatever it may be! I must confess that I did let "A" talk me into an extra five minutes of reward time since he had, after all, entered his triple bonus round. I was anxious to get a little "me" time anyway so sure, I'll take the extra five! Bonus for Mom....I was not bothered for a thing during our reward time because he was so into the idea of having twenty minutes to do whatever he wanted by himself.

In the end, what I'm most grateful for is the tidied up house and the little extra fifteen minutes we had bonding over (of all things) cleaning.  It was actually fun for both of us! We will definitely be using this method of getting things done again.

Flip Flops

Isn't funny how certain things can make us think of certain people? Even silly old things like flip-flops. Over vacation last week I had a day out with the steps. A rare occurrence where all the stars align and I get to spend the day with just them (well...just them and the munchkin man anyway). We went pottery painting, shopping, grabbed pretzels at the mall etc. Loads of fun! In fact, I hope they had as much fun as I did.

One of my missions at the mall was a pair of flip flops I discovered on Pinterest, sold at Abercrombie. I just had to have these flip flops (nope! not the ones in the picture). To my dismay they did not have my size. Imagine my disappointment.  Well, K suggested I try on these. I was hesitant because I REALLY wanted the other pair - you know how that is. So glad she did! What can I say, at nine years old, the girl has style. They are adorable! Much cuter on than on the shelf. If it's possible to be in l-o-v-e with flip flops, I think I am! Nothing like a pair of flip flops to freshen up a girl's perspective. How one single pair of flip flops can make you feel cute, hip and oh-so fresh is beyond me.

I'm getting side-tracked....the main idea here, is that if I had gone in and been able to quickly get the pair of sandals I was looking for I may not have had this wonderful memory of shopping with the kiddos. Now, I'm lucky enough to not only have a fabulous pair, of what I'm dubbing, the world's most adorable flip flops, but a great memory to go along with them. Sometimes it really is just the small things the make every day fabulous. Every time I wear these flip flops I'm sure to remember that outing.

Oh, and in case your wondering about the original pair of flip flops....the clerk DID manage to find my size, so (upon Miss K's suggestion) I walked out of there with both pair! Even better.

Hello World!

Hello world! Welcome to my blog :) I'm really hoping we become great friends. We have so much to talk about!

Meet C,

Cutiest patootiest 6 month old there ever was if I do say so myself! Sure to be the source of much inspiration.










Meet Mr. A,

He's seven (and desperately in need of a haircut). Again, source of much inspiration as well as keeps me on my toes. For example, as I'm writing this in walks Mr. A with a handful of splinters (literally). ahhh...seven year old boys. Gotta luv 'em! Taking a break to pull splinters. If I discover any great tips for extracting splinters I'll be sure to share.

ok..crisis over...


These are my two boys. My two loves. The reason I traded in suit pants for yoga pants and nine to five for 24-7 :) They are the reason I finally got my first DSLR camera and started dabbling in photography. The reason I have forced myself to get crafty, and partly the reason I have decided to blog. I want to make every plain [vanilla] day fabulous for them! And so...Plain Vanilla Mom is born.

Meet M & K,

My two bonus kids (aka: steps), and two of Mr. A's best friends. M is eleven and K is nine.  As you can see...they love each other very much!














Oh, and I can't forget about Buster, Harriet and Shadow,

Well meet Buster anyway.... I can't find a good picture of Harriet and Shadow (the cats) and quite frankly the cats are pretty mellow. Buster however tends to find his way into pictures so he may make an appearance here from time to time. The cats will more than likely just lay low.

Finally there's me and the hubby,

Not necessarily our best picture, but it gives you a little peek into our personalities. We like to have fun. He's the kind of guy that brings flowers for no reason (and on occasion jewelry). Yes ladies, we like that kind of man! So glad he's mine :) Date night is big at our house. I would love to share some ideas with you. With four kids, date night is a big deal!!



So what do we do? What will I blog about? Well, we are just coming off school vacations. During which, we tried:

Indoor Rock Climbing...



Pottery Painting




Snowflake Making

(Remind me to post the how-to's for the the snowflakes in another post). Most awesome snowflake you will ever make! You can make great ornament style decorations out of them too. I will show you how.














and Cupcake Baking.

Ok, now I know your saying, "Jen, those aren't cupcakes. Those are whoopee pies". You are right! We made these too, and they were delish...recipe to come in a later post.






Here are the cupcakes. I call them the grown-up cupcakes....They are a chocolate Guinness stout cupcake (one of the best chocolate cakes this girl has tasted), with a irish whiskey, chocolate ganache center and a Bailey's buttercream frosting. I found the recipe for them here in case you are interested. They were a little time consuming but very much worth the effort! Everyone raved about them, and I don't think anyone ate just one!

So hopefully that gives you a little idea as to who I am, who WE are and what you might find here. I have no idea where this road will take us, but I'm pretty sure it will be interesting along the way; at least for me! If nothing else, I will have a great place for my family to look to, to see what our story looks like when told this way. Not to sound cliche, but to this, plain vanilla mom, that alone is "priceless".


So any-who....thanks for stopping by! If you have a minute say hi! I'd love to hear from you and get to know you too. It was nice to meet you :) See you soon....