How to Blow Up a Gingerbread House

Reason #843 why I love my family-in-law:
Every New Year's Eve, they blow up a beautiful, lovingly crafted gingerbread house.  It's a tradition.
Of course, someone (heh heh) was sort of (heh heh) fast asleep that night when the Utah Branch of the Anderson Family did the annual gingerbread house explosion.  (Okay, it was me.  C'mon, I have a baby!)  So, although we don't have any video of that official New Year's Eve explosion, we DO have a brilliant, full-color version of a follow-up attempt with Chris and Adrienne's gingerbread house, along with a step-by-step guide for success. Enjoy!

Sometimes I Make an Effort.

Y'know what's hard about being a mom? (At the top of the list today, anyway?)  Coming up with activities.  And I mean actual, enriching, memory-making activities, as opposed to your child staring at an iPod or taking his 8,000th trip to Target; in other words, the kinds of things that all of your amazing, creative mom-friends organize for their kids seemingly all the time (and God bless you all for it).

If I can pat myself on the back for anything mom-related, it would probably be my insistence on having something planned for almost every single day.  I spend an embarrassing amount of time coordinating the daily kid-schedule (which takes place between the hours of 10 AM and 5 PM), such as researching local events, library storytimes, and free days at museums (...zoos, farms, aquariums, aviaries, arboretums...); checking prices at family fun centers (...swimming pools, bouncy places, bowling alleys, arcades, play areas...); coordinating play dates; and endlessly pondering what I might buy to justify a trip to Ikea for their supervised play area and free kid's lunch (next up is their $5.99 cake decorating set).

But what I struggle with is new ideas for stay-at-home activities.  Y'know that old saying, "Keeping up with the Joneses?"  Well, sometimes in my life it's more apt to say, "Keeping up with the Supermoms."  I am very talented at comparing my child-rearing to others, which leaves me feeling lame a lot of the time.  Honestly, I have pretty low standards when it comes to activities (and, at this point, Weston probably has pretty low expectations); he is thrilled, and I am mighty proud of myself, when there's something going on that doesn't involve staring at a glowing TV screen.  So, naturally, when I have bursts of inspiration (and motivation) to arrange fun, creative activities at home, I have to document it.  Not to make other people feel bad (believe me, this is NOT one of those "I suck" blog posts, and no one should feel like she has to "keep up" with anyone else, because truly, we are ALL Supermoms when you think about it!!), but to highlight the fact -- more for me than anyone else -- that a little effort can go a long way.

For instance: I've been meaning to start some sort of Valentine's Day tradition in our family (kid-wise, it's been a bit of a neglected holiday thus far).  So, the other night I made a little Valentine mailbox for Weston.  I used a mini mailbox and a Valentine photo frame kit (both in the dollar section at Target), and I'm putting a new Valentine card and a Hershey's kiss in there every day leading up to Valentine's Day.  Then on that day, he's going to get an extra-special treat (spoiler alert: it's a Little Debbie heart cake!).  Anyway, I am very proud of myself for instituting a little activity to celebrate V-day.

Another fun activity recently?  We opened the paint-your-own-dinosaurs kit that Kate and Jacob got for Weston for Christmas.  It was so fun to sit at the table, just me and Weston, and get our paint on!!!  He was very proud and pleased with his awesome creations:

Finally (and I'm super-extra-proud of this one): I let Weston play in chocolate pudding.  When I was a kid, my mom had to meet with my brother's first-grade teacher, and the teacher (obviously to keep me occupied) set up a tray with chocolate pudding for me to "finger paint."  I remember it being SO FUN!  So, the other morning I scooped out a couple of Snack Packs onto a cookie sheet and let Weston have at it.  At first he was pretty tentative, and he repeatedly reminded me that I would need to wipe off his hands afterwards:

Then he decided to have a little taste:

Eventually he let loose and embraced the messiness:

Aaaaand eventually he decided that "little tastes" were for the birds and that he could fit his whole chocolately finger into his mouth just as easily:

It was a great time!!  These little activities remind me that if I just stop and think, or look around, or take advantage of the great ideas on my mom-friends' blogs (instead of sulk and feel lame), then I can come up with some pretty fun things to do.  I'm hoping that these will make for very fond memories for Weston!!!  (Or, at least, that he'll know that every now and then I did turn off the TV in favor of something a little more interesting.)