A New Way to Make Easter Eggs!...

We had a big event happen today!

No, it wasn't our visit to the Easter Bunny, although that was a big moment.  Last year, Brian was terrified (can't say I blame him) and wanted nothing to do with the bunny.

And, no, the big event wasn't Brian's great coloring job that he brought to bribe the bunny (Can't say I blame him there, either.  I wish I had thought of that years ago.)

The big event?  Mommy created a craft project with the boys.

Me.  I'm the Mommy.  I know...I can hardly believe it myself.

We decided to decorate Easter eggs and I discovered a new way to make the eggs.  In the OVEN!

I saw this circulating on Facebook and had to investigate.  Turns out the idea came from the chef, Alton Brown.   You can find the "recipe" here.

It only took 30 minutes and it was much simpler than watching a pot of boiling water.  But the coolest thing about this?  It didn't smell like eggs were cooking in the kitchen.  It smelled like we were baking a cake!!  How cool is that?

The other new idea I wanted to try was dyeing eggs with shaving cream and food coloring.  We sprayed shaving cream onto a cookie sheet...

...and then dripped all the colors on top.

They suggested using a toothpick to swirl the colors through the shaving cream - and I didn't.  I gave Brian a large chopstick.  

In hindsight, I wish I had used the toothpick.  The shaving cream was a little over-stirred and it kind of looked like one big color blob.  In a test of "nature" vs "nurture" - "nature" won.  I've never let on that I don't care to get dirty or do messy things so as not to influence the kids.  But Brian has always been that way on his own!  He is always asking me to wipe his face or get stuff off of his hands.  This egg craft was entirely too messy for him.  The photo below?  Totally staged to show him "rolling the egg through the cream" - he barely wanted to touch it!!  So, the rest of the egg rolling was left to me.  And I had dyed fingers for the rest of the day.

In other news - I have NO idea if Gavin is really my child or not.  He was completely out of control playing in the shaving cream.  Let's just say clean up involved Q-Tips.

This is what the eggs looked like after being rolled in the shaving cream...

...and ten minutes later, I toweled the shaving cream off to reveal these...

I think they would have been a lot more vibrant and marbled if we hadn't over mixed with the big chopstick.  But that's okay - I'm feeling pretty confident that this was a one time event.  Thank God.

We also did the traditional "Paas" Easter egg dyeing kit.

Poor Gavin had to be restrained when anything was put in front of him.  He literally would just grab any of these cups and throw them.  Not a great idea when there's food coloring involved!

Both boys had a good time, though!

Brian asked me why we make Easter eggs and, to be honest, I wasn't sure where that tradition came from.  Even when I looked it up, it wasn't entirely clear.  So I told him that, just like Daddy, the Easter Bunny likes hard boiled eggs.  We decorate them because he loves to see our artwork.  And then, when the bunny comes to our house, he has something to eat before he leaves gifts in their baskets and hops onto the next house!

My explanation conveniently solves my dilemma of how long I'll have to stare at these eggs.  Now I know the Easter Bunny will devour them before we wake up on Sunday!  Score!!

If any one of you is learning about the egg baking or the shaving cream trick from ME - please tell me so I can have a good laugh.  Talk about an unlikely source!!

My Funny Valentines...

First things first.  I owe America... maybe the world... a sincere and heartfelt apology.

I am not a Pinterest Mom.

Why an apology?  Because I can see what people search for on Google to land up on my blog.  Sometimes it's "Chasing Rainbows"... other times it's "Kate Leong" or some version of that name... "Cerebral Palsy"... "adorable children" (okay - I made that one up) and many other search terms that are quite curious.

But I get a TON of traffic from crafty Moms who search for the Chore Chart I made last year and even more traffic for last year's Valentines.  I gulp whenever I see them land here... because what they will find is not at all what they're searching for.  That chore chart?  We used it for maybe two weeks before it found it's home in the basement with all the other rejects from our playroom.  And the Valentines?  I felt so bad after making them last year.  Because that was just it - I made them.  The boys had very little to do with the Valentines for their friends.

So this year, the boys were very involved in the Valentines for their friends and family.

Brian took this very seriously.  The other day, the two of us sat down and he wrote his name and decorated the ten cards for his classmates, teachers, Daddy and Miss Sara.

He's getting really good at writing his name independently, so it was great practice!!

Then he dictated to me exactly what he wanted to say to each of his friends.  Like his friend, Josh. He likes holding hands and playing in the gym with him.

Some cards got a little... deep, shall we say.  But hey - the kid has a big capacity for love, what can I say?  I wasn't going to edit him - every card had a personal note from his heart.  You

won't find that on Pinterest.  It's too... simple.  And simple is what I do best.

I scrolled them up, put them in a dollar store bag with a Valentines pencil for each of his friends and VOILA!

Don't get me wrong, I love looking at Pinterest.  But I don't like to feel pressure to always have perfect crafts or perfect cupcakes or perfect birthdays... it's just not me.  

Getting Gavin to participate is not as easy.  He's not a fan of most things that seem like therapy.  So the hand over hand I'd have to do to write his cards or even help him draw on them is not fun for him.  So we went shopping!  Lucky for me, I have a spy in Gavin's classroom.  Miss Sara told me what Gavin's four other friends' favorite things were and we bought gifts accordingly for each of them.  One little girl got bubbles... a little boy got a truck... we  made it personal for each of them!

Tonight, my Valentine and I will be going out to dinner at the Capital Grille - courtesy of Miss Sara.  She gave us a Christmas gift for free babysitting and a gift card to this restaurant!

Thank you to all of you who continue to vote for me in the Parents Magazine Blog Competition!  It means so much to me to have your support.  The way I see it, the more exposure this little blog gets means the more exposure my little boy gets.  Wouldn't it just be the craziest thing if someone out there in the world saw Gavin and led us to a diagnosis for him?  Hey - my tagline is "A Mommy's Quest to Make the Impossible... Possible."  This is definitely true and why I am begging you so much for votes.  I am, as always, so grateful for the love and support from my readers!!

I'm feeling the love today!  Hope you are, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chores!...

I decided that the boys should start doing some simple chores. Little things like "Feed Fishie" or "Practice in your walker" or "Give Mommy a massage". Oh wait, that last one is from Ed's chore chart.

Well anyway, I couldn't find any charts online that I liked. Some of them seemed too "old" for the boys. And most were just for one child - not shared by two. So I made my own with poster board, post it letters, scrapbooking stick on bling for the icons, card stock and velcro dots. Oh and a black sharpie to make my pretty uneven squares. What can I say - I'm a chore chart rookie.

I thought Gavin and Brian could each have an "icon" that would represent them on the chart. I chose a smiley face for Gavin - no brainer.

And I chose a cupcake for Brian - pretty obvious as that's one of his favorite things.

I didn't want to make "permanent" chores - so with velcro and some card stock I created chore cards that could easily be switched with new cards down the road. Each day as the boys accomplish their tasks, they place an icon in the square for that day. And I stuck the icons (that come with a sticker on the back already) onto hard cardboard to make it easy for little hands (or big, arthritic hands like mine!) to pull them off the velcro.

Brian gets excited to do his chores because he loves getting to put his little cupcake in the square. And to be honest, Gavin's chores are really our's. It is sometimes easy to forget to work with him each day on the many things we need to do for him. This chart is a daily reminder to make time for putting him in his walker...having him try some solids at a meal...and doing an activity at the table. Today he worked on the iPad...

The chore chart isn't Pinterest Perfect, but I'm pretty proud of how it turned out! It's just how I wanted it for our purposes. Now...I just need to find the perfect place to keep it!

This morning we had a blast. Brian was off from school for President's Day so Miss Sara and I took the boys to the YMCA for Gavin's "Superstars" class! It's held on Mondays and Fridays in a special room that is FILLED with all types of special needs equipment. There's also other things like trampolines, padded gymnastic mats, a ball pit, a jump house, a balance beam and a few slides. They have several people supervising and at least one was a Physical Therapist that is there to help you with anything. We mostly did our own thing and had SO much fun. These are less than HALF of the photos I took. Don't underestimate the difficulty of bouncing on a trampoline and photographing your child at the same time!

Brian's favorite thing was the ball pit - he could have played in there all day!!

And Gavin's favorite activity was the swing. He was so happy and content!

I'm seriously going to look into the possibility of getting one for our house. I'm sure it's unlikely...but it can't hurt to look, right? I mean check out this video and you tell me if you wouldn't feel the same way!!!

Brian loved the swing, too, as you can see...

Gavin even sat up and held onto a swinging 'pony' and tried out a different type of gait trainer while we were there.

And Brian got out a LOT of energy. It really was so much fun.