Muffin Tin Monday- Construction Equipment After Party Snack

 

JDaniel had his birthday party on Friday. He chose a construction machine theme. It was a lot of fun to put it together. All his pals were given construction hats to wear while they played. JDaniel received a construction hat with a light from my husband and I to wear in the salt mine he created upstairs. I bet you can guess which hat everyone wanted to wear.

When you have a construction machine themed party, you have to have construction site cake. Tammy of Tammy's Two Cents came up the the idea for this cake. We were e-mail chatting a few weeks ago about her son's birthday and I shared with her JDaniel's birthday theme. Literally she walked me through how to create the cake. It is just a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Crushed oreos were placed on the cake along with three construction vehicles. Traffic cone candy corns edge the sides of the cake. It was the hit of the party.

JDaniel was so wound up after the party. He really didn't want to take a nap. I promised that if he took a nap of any length he could have a construction machine muffin tin snack. It took about thirty minute for him to fall asleep, but he eventually did.

The top row of the muffin tin was inhaled quickly and the second row was dismissed. I don't blame him. The health things are in the second row and the fun foods we don't have often are in the top row.

The tortilla chips, candy corn, and oreos disappeared faster than you can say front end loader. The salsa was deemed too spicy. The cucumbers and carrots were left without mention and teeth marks.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Mom.    

Yoplait Kids Yogurt Giveaway

JDaniel loves yogurt. I would eat it for every meal and snack if he could. Due to the fact that  Yoplait Kids Yogurt now has 25% less sugar than other leading brands of yogurt for kids. I feel more comfortable giving it to him than other brands that are high in sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors. I really try to find products that are healthy for him and fun to eat.

He loves to search the dairy case when we go to the store and select his own yogurt. Yoplait Kids is one that he selects often. He has no idea who the characters on the packages are. He does know that he really likes the taste.

This wonderful gift pack not only comes with a coupon for Yoplait. It also comes with cool toy and learning aids. One of you will have very happy child at your house.

Yoplait Kids Pack includes the following:

Coupon for Free Yoplait Kids yogurt

Foldable travel cooler

Four piece spoon set

Power magnet picture frame

Alphabet-Shaped “Silly Bands”- I am going to use these are teaching tool.

Bounce Ball

“My First Scavenger Hunt” card game


How to win:

Tell me what is the most challenging food to get your kids to eat. (1 entry)


For additional entries you can do any of the following:

*Follow me on Facebook or Networked Blogs (3 entries for each)

*Write a blog post about this giveaway. (3 entries)

*Enter another giveaway I am hosting. ( 1 entry for each giveaway)

*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site.(3 entries)

*Add me to your blogroll. Please leave a link to your site. ( 3 entries)

*Leave comment on non-giveaway blog post. (1 entry per day)

*Tweet about this giveaway. (Up to three times a day)


This giveaway begins March 6th and ends March 21st.That is 11 ways to win. The winner will be selected randomly using Random.org. This giveaway is open to people with U.S. addresses.


Disclaimer: Coupon, information, prize pack and giveaway opportunity were all provided to me by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark. My opinions are my own.

Glow Crazy Distance Doodler Winner

Taj and Amy won the Glow Crazy Distance Doodler. I have contacted them via e-mail.

   



Enjoying The Box While Waiting For The Table

JDaniel received a water table in the mail from my mom for his birthday. He was so excited when UPS delivered it that he danced in the hall and shouted, “It’s here! It’s here!”

It took a few days for my husband to have the time to put the table to together. He has been working long hours. 

 By last Saturday night he just had to get as close to the water table as he could.

He spread out with his treasures from the Target Dr. Seuss Event and looked through them.

                                       

When he discovered crayons in his Target treasure bag, he had to color on the water table’s box and do some Dr. Seuss activities.



Finally on Sunday afternoon the water table was put together and he got to play with it.
He was in toddler heaven.

I put the box away.
He may just want to hang out with it later on.
They seem to have bonded.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Dr. Seuss and the Zoo

Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

• Link your activity below.

• Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.
  
  
                                                        
  
  
  <center><a href="http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/"><img alt="Shibley Smiles" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-wYnCaxCjpQ/TIbl9KccMVI/AAAAAAAAB98/vjalStjjb-I/s1600/ReadExploreLearn.jpg" alt="jdaniel4smom" width="150" height="150" /></a></center>

• Please try to visit at  least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

• If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
• I would love a comment too.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:  





JDaniel loves If I Ran the Zoo. It is about a little boy who has grand ideas about the animals he would have in his zoo. He would let go of all the common animals that everyone has heard of and find the most unique and usual animals he can. JDaniel loves all the fun animals and the rhymes in this book.


The main character in Put Me in the Zoo really wants to be in the zoo. He spents the whole book sharing with two children why he belongs there. By the end of the book he finds he really doesn't belong in the zoo. He belongs in the circus.



What did we do?



Field Trip to the Zoo


We went to Zoo Atlanta last Friday and had the best time. JDaniel really stopped to look at the animals and what they were doing. He asked questions about many of them. Usually he walks right past the animals and heads for the play areas at zoo.




The apes had him on his tip toes.






 Curious George had a whole episode on visiting a dragon at the zoo. We needed to see one too.





 This pigeon was his favorite animal off all.


Field Trip to Target




Last Saturday we went to the Target Dr. Seuss Event. JDaniel and my nephew Kevin had a great time listening to stories and enjoying the items in the goodie bags they received.

This post is also linked to Feed Me Friday.

How Has The Blog Changed In A Year?

This time last year JDaniel4’ Mom was in a totally different place than it is this year. Just has JDaniel has grown and learned new things since he turned two this time last year the blog has done that too.

When I started the blog, I really hadn’t spent time exploring other blogs and setting measurable goals for its success. I just started blogging to build community with other people. I wrote to a weekly theme because as a teacher I had taught to one. Posts were about great deals I found of the web, lessons I was learning as a mom, finger plays, craft, recipes, and anything else that came into my mind. This time last year the blog was nine months old and I was still in blogging niche limbo.

I did finally find a couple of memes to join. I visited everyone that linked to each of them. Visiting people’s blog would draw traffic I had read so I visited. Most of JDaniel’s naptime was spent visiting.

After awhile I sought a group that I could interact with and grow as a writer by being a part of it. Thank goodness I came across posts linked to Jenny Matlock’s Alphabe-Thursday, The Writer’s Workshop and a few other writing workshop type memes. I joined them and it has really changed what I post about each week. It has encouraged me as a writer. I have learned by reading others wonderful posts.

It has also allowed me more time to write. Knowing the Matlockians and other great blogging friends will stop by has me less panicked about whether people will stop to read what I have written.

I am not a big time blogger with tons of comments and amazing stats. Thank goodness! It would take me forever to respond to all those comments.

I do have the best set of commenters in blogdom! Many have been with me since the beginning cheering me on. You really are the best!

I couldn’t end this post without mentioning the wonderful societies that I have discovered in the past year. The blog has grown due to lessons the bloggers in the have taught me. I hesitate to list them for fear that one of you may comment that they haven’t really done that for me. You can view them on the left hand side of the blog.

I will mention the Mom Loop Community on BlogFrog. When I was asked to be a co-community leader at Mom Loop last spring, it totally changed the way I viewed my blog. I really try and think about Mom Loop when I make decisions about the blog. Being a positive and contributing member of the leadership team is really important to me. I really don't want people scratch their heads and wonder how I ended up getting to work with the rest of the amazing bloggers that are on the team.

There is no question in my mind why each of the other leaders was selected to be a part of team. Have I told you why I was asked to be a part of it? It is because of you. My main asset is the ability to meet and stay blogging friends with amazing people. Actually I said that wrong. It is your ability to stay friends with a blogger who is still growing and evolving. The community support you share with me on my blog and I try to give on yours is my best blogging attribute.

JDaniel4’s Mom is still evolving. There are fewer giveaways and reviews. I don’t post deals any more. I have moved all crafts and most learning activities to Read.Explore.Learn. the reading meme I started last fall. Great Post of the Week appeared on Saturdays for seven months and has disappeared. It may return.

There are several exciting things coming up. I will be sharing the blog with several amazing guest posters who have agreed to be part of a series starting next week called Pausing Life for a Moment. Each hosts an amazing blog. I am so excited that they will be sharing their thoughts with you. Another virtual event for April is in the planning stages for Earth Day. I hope you will join the Tissue Box Challenge.

I am not sure where the next year will take the blog. I do hope you will stay with me and see where it goes.

Is there anything you miss from last year?

This post is the answer to the Writing Workshop prompt- What were you blogging about last year at this time? What has changed?

   

Until There Was You

Being an aunt is one of my very favorite things to be. I just love my nieces and nephews. They were for a long time my surrogate children. I was the last of my sisters to get married and the last to start a family. My sister’s children were the children I loved to spoil, sent cards to, bragged about, and displayed pictures of on my desk at work.

For the longest time there was just Jason to spoil and love. My sister Michelle was the first get married and start a family. We all spoiled him and loved on him. There were three years between the births of her first son and her second son. Jason was the center of our family gathering and celebrations.

When he was about two we all met in Charlottesville, VA around Thanksgiving. We walked around the Lawn (the grassy located behind the main building on campus) following Jason around. Where he wandered we wandered. A man walked up to my mom after we had been strolling a few minutes and commented that there really needed to be another little one added to the mix. It looked so funny to him to have five adults trailing behind one small boy.

It took another year for my sister to have her second son and two years for my sister Kate to start her family. As each new child joined the family, they were loved on and spoiled almost as much as Jason had been.

It wasn’t until my sister Kate had her son Charlie that my sister Michelle got to experience deep aunt love. She told me that it had taken root when she had arrived to help with Charlie shortly after he was born. It was profound and taken a special place in her heart.

Michelle had thought it had happened to me due to the fact that I didn’t have children. I remember her telling me she had always thought it was a little odd that I loved Jason so much. Looking down at little Charlie in his isolette had instantly created in her that special connection that you are blessed to can with your sibling’s children.

It wasn’t until JDaniel was born that I got to experience a mother’s love for her child. I am so thankful that I learned about aunt love first. My sister’s children helped prepare me for the magical love that I have for JDaniel.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe Thursday. 

On The Day That You Were Born

It was so quiet in the hospital room the evening JDaniel was born. My husband and I were staring down at our little bundle of joy. JDaniel laid wrapped in a soft blanket in an isolette looking back at us. He was the most beautiful baby either of us had ever seen. We could have looked at him for hours and hours. We did look at him for hours.

Things had been busy earlier in the day. My mom had stopped by along with my husband’s brother’s family to see our little wonder. They had all enjoyed getting to meet JDaniel and hold him for the first time.

It was wonderful share him with others but, there was something so special about our being here just the three of us. It was just our family. JDaniel was the baby we had hoped and prayed for when we decided to start a family a year earlier.

Out of nowhere my husband started singing On the Day That Your Were born to our little man.


Why do birds suddenly appear,

Everytime you are near?

Just like me, they long to be,

Close to you......



Why do stars fall down from the sky,

Every time you walk by?

Just like me, they long to be,

close to you.........



On the day that you were born the angels got together,

And decided to create a dream come true,

So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair

And golden starlight in your eyes of blue...



That is why, all the girls in town,

Follow you, all around,

Just like me, they long to be,

Close to you.......



On the day that you were born the angels got together,

And decided to create a dream come true,

So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair

And golden starlight in your eyes of blue...



That is why, all the girls in town,

Follow you, all around,

Just like me, they long to be,

Close to you.........

Just like me, they long to be,

Close to you.........

I hadn’t heard the song in years. It was perfect for that moment. It encompassed everything we both were thinking and feeling.

It will be a memory that stays with me forever.

This post is linked to Remembered.