About That Contest I Promised...

Here it is! We got our games in the mail a few days ago. Giraffalaff Limbo, and Scatterpillar Scramble. Now, I have to be really honest and review these games in the way that our own family interacted with them, and how we were able to play with them and whatnot.

I'll start with Scatterpillar Scramble, as that is the one we started with. We got the game set up pretty easily once I found where the baby had hid the batteries. So that part is pretty straightforward. The goal of the game is that up to four people get to use a set of tongs to place marbles on the moving hands that are stacked 7 high. They send you two extra marbles too, in case you lose some, and we lost one within the first few minutes of the game. We spent more time chasing marbles than actually playing the game. Now, some of that could be the manual dexterity of my children, or the fact that we played on a table instead of on the floor, or any number of factors. But the kids weren't too thrilled with having to spend time chasing after the flying marbles, so for us, it didn't go as well as we'd have liked. But again, that could be just our family dynamics, so don't necessarily take my word for it.

Now, Giraffalaff Limbo was pretty cute, but took a while to set up. We were able to figure it out fairly quickly, and got it set up and running. One thing I noticed though, was that even my smallest kid couldn't have possibly fit under the giraffe without knocking him down, and yet the goal is to do just that. To me, that didn't make sense. I couldn't even fit under the highest level, and I'm not that big. So it's pretty much just for the kids. The younger ones had a lot of trouble understanding that there were different ways to go under (you get a little spinner to pick which move you get to make to get under the limbo bar). The older kids thought it was alright, but it wore out quickly for us. Again though, don't just take my word for it. We don't play those types of games as often, so perhaps we're just not used to it.

All that said, the games had the potential to be a lot of fun, and you can enter to win your own set of games right here, right now! Just leave a comment and make sure that I can contact you either through your blog (if you have one), or an email, and when the contest ends on Thursday, October 22nd, (my best friend's birthday!), the winner will be notified, and then your address will be sent to MyBlogSpark so that you can receive your games. Good luck!

Feeling The Love

Thanks so much to Jacquie over at Joy Made Full for sending me this lovely award :)

And now I get to send this on to a few more blogs that I like. I don't get to do as much blog reading as I used to, so my list is a little short. I have been spending some time on a few food blogs, looking for ideas and inspiration, and lately I haven't been doing as much of that as I'd like either. Such is life with 6 littles underfoot. But, I wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe a nap), and even though I don't get to do this as much as I'd like, I still try to get to it as often as I can :)

1. Needle N' Thread
2. Bake at 350
3. Salt and Chocolate

So I will pass this along too, and hope everyone has a great day :)

How Do You Dress Up Your Hot Cereals?

Maybe I'm the only one, but around here we make large pots of some sort of hot cereal for breakfast. Usually it's either Malto-Meal or oatmeal, but I fill my big dutch oven pretty fill with whatever I'm making that day. Since it's usually fairly plain tasting, I've found some ways to help my kids learn to love these hot cereals, with just a few additions.

Like today, to my massive pot of Malto-Meal (about 10 servings worth), I added somewhere around 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, about 1 cup of brown sugar, and roughly a cup of milk. Other days I've done plain cinnamon and brown sugar, and sometimes I add nuts and/or raisins as well, depending on what I have on hand and what the kids are in the mood for. The nice thing about cinnamon, is that it has a lot of good properties, one of which being that it helps control blood sugar to a degree, so that the kids don't go on a sugar high from all the carbs. I love that about cinnamon, among other things. And my kids love the extra flavor.

Other flavors I've done are apple pie spice, as well as just a mix of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg (sort of like ginger snaps). They really liked that one. I have also added vanilla extract in the past (homemade of course), and honey in varying amounts.

While they weren't too thrilled about the plain hot cereals at first, after a few trial and errors, they seem to love it now, especially as the weather starts growing colder. Even the baby loves it now, with all the yummy flavors.

Another Contest Is Coming, But While You're Waiting....

Check out this coupon for $4 off any Elefun & Friends game. The coupon is available for download through October 31st, and good for use until December 31st. So while you're waiting for this giveaway, you can get a really great coupon to use for some fun games for your kids. The giveaway will involve two new games from Elefun, and I will let you know as soon as I can start it :)

They Want To Inject My Kids With What?

This is a link to an article containing several videos discussing the dangers of vaccines.

Watch the first one especially, if you have a daughter nearing the age of getting the Gardasil Vaccine.

They Want To Inject My Kids With What?

Lemon Ginger Cookies with Boysenberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This is my first entry in Bake at 350's Flavor Of The Month carnival. I missed out on the last one, which was pie, due to, well, life. But, I made it this time, and I'm excited to participate in the theme of lemon and/or lime. I chose lemon, mostly because I can't stand lime, but also because I have some good recipes with lemon in them. The following recipe is one I stumbled across recently, and fell in love with it. The frosting was something I concocted because I was in a crazy mood that day, and thought I'd be adventurous. I'm not sure how the adventure turned out, but the cookies are very good, and the frosting, while tasty, doesn't necessarily add to the cookie, though it doesn't take away from it by any stretch. As my husband put it, he's ambivalent about the frosting. But, it does make it look pretty :)

So, go check out the carnival over at Bake at 350, and if you have any lemon and/or lime recipes, go turn them in :)

Lemon Ginger Cookies

1 c. butter

2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1/3 c. dairy sour cream

1 tsp. lemon extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 1/2 c. sifted flour

2 tsp. soda

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. ground ginger

Cream together first 7 ingredients until fluffy. Sift remaining ingredients together and add to creamed mixture, blending thoroughly. Drop from teaspoon 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 12 minutes or until done. Remove at once from pan. Delicious!! Yields: 6 dozen.

Boysenberry Cream Cheese Frosting

I took a half recipe of my favorite cream cheese frosting, and then melted down some boysenberry jam until it was runny. I then blended that into the frosting until it looked about right and I could taste the jam. I think I used only a few tablespoons.

The frosting is completely optional, you could even use a plain cream cheese frosting for these. I ended up topping them with some coarse sugar too, just to make them pretty.

Hair

I've been making some changes to my hair routine, and so far they're going well. On Monday, I washed my hair with a baking soda rinse, and followed it up with an apple cider vinegar rinse. Then, I didn't wash my hair for 3 days. It's insane, I know. Usually by the end of the second day my scalp is begging for mercy from the itching, but I didn't have that this time. Today, I get to wash my hair again with the baking soda, but no ACV rinse. I've made a rosemary rinse though, so we'll see how that feels. It's too hot to use it yet, but I'll be doing that in a little bit. I was surprised at the 'rosy' color of the tea though. I simmered a sprig of rosemary in some water for about 15 minutes, and it turned out a really pretty rosy color. I can't wait to use it, it smells so good.

Here are the sites where I got my ideas from:

Babyslime

and

Rosemary

I am hoping that the rosemary will help with my hair strength, since after 6 kids my hair has gone a bit brittle. Wish me luck :)