Chores For Hire- Magnet Board

I'm a mean mom...I do not believe in paying my kids to do chores that contribute to our every day living. BUT, I do believe in giving them an opportunity to learn the power of working hard and earning money when they want to contribute in an extra way. For instance, my 14 year old son will probably not have many chances to babysit to earn money, but my daughter will.

B's Winter Clothes

I think we all have them. Photos taken by our mothers, when they let us choose what we wanted to wear. When I first saw these pictures, I remember saying, "Mom! How could you have let me out of the house in that?!" She would say something about a battle she didn't want to fight.

I now have 6 kids. I go through this every school day. Telling them what the weather forecast is, persuading my 3rd grader that by noon she won't need a jacket, or telling my 6th grader that he might need more than a hoodie sweatshirt when it is snowing outside.

I have to say though, I am highly entertained by the clothes first graders pick for themselves. I am a mother of a first grade boy. I try to let him pick his own clothes, develop his independence and self confidence.. but some days I have to veto his choices.

This is one of those days. We were running late for school and he comes walking up the stairs telling me e is ready. It was supposed to be like 80 degrees that day (thus the shorts) but he LOVES his boots. He is very Napoleon Dynomite. You may be wondering where on earth one might get a hat like that. You have to spend a winter in Russia... no really it was my Grandpa's hat, and winters in Vernal, UT can be cold.

We all have photos like this. Dig em out- have a good giggle. I KNOW you want to!

Bento Boxes

So I have a new product I am in love with! Bento Boxes!

This one is orange, and it is a 2 tiered container to hold goodies, kind of like Gladware, but better.

I was cruising through some blogs a few weeks ago and came across this gal Jill Dubien, she seems very talented from what I have seen. Then, I saw her posts on Bento Boxes. AMAZING! If you know me, this stuff is up my alley. I love to create in any form, and put food with it, and it is even better. Here is the link to her Flickr page that shows photos of all of her lunchbox ideas.

My boxes, and cutters came yesterday and the timing couldn't be more perfect! My daughters had an Activity Days Mother- Daughter Tea Party last night. Our assignment was to bring 30 tea party size ham sandwiches. Little sandwiches are a lot of fun as it is, but make them FLOWER sandwiches and we have pure awesomeness!

I used their cute cutters to make these sandwiches. They had ham, provolone cheese, and cucumbers on the inside. On top I used the smaller cutter to cut fruit leather into these flowers.

Jill's Blog referred me to the site where I can purchase these cool little "toys", it is All Things For Sale. Here are a few things that I was interested in:

Okay, so now you have the scoop. Let me know if you buy, cause I wanna see what you all create!