Use What You Got Salad

Having a toddler at home means we ALWAYS have grapes and string cheese on hand. Here is a simple salad using what you already have in your fridge!

Use What You Got Salad

• Lettuce - use spring mix or add some spinach to fancy it up
• String Cheese - cut it in half or in quarters before slicing to disguise the string
• Grapes - Red grapes add some nice color. If you have never had grapes on salad you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much flavor it adds... you may not even want to use dressing!

My husband likes balsamic vinaigrette on this salad, but for me the grapes are enough. This salad is VERY kids friendly, as they already love 2 out of 3 ingredients.

Easy Peel Sticker Tip

My son loves stickers but has lots of trouble peeling them from the sticker sheet. He gets flustered and a fun color time can quickly turn into a hissy fit.

I started peeling off the sticker space around the actual stickers and he is able to peel the stickers off "all by himself!!"

Blueberry Blend...

Another one of my simple baby food concoctions!

Blueberry Blend

• 1 container of blueberries - I used 6oz
• 1 banana
• Puree in the blender till it is completely liquefied. Use rice cereal if it needs to be thickened up. Use applesauce or water if it needs to be thinned down.

Cora gobbling down the Blueberry Blend!!



About blueberries: Blueberries are loaded with vitamin C, manganese, fiber and vitamin E. They can help prevent cataracts, glaucoma, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, peptic ulcers, heart disease and cancer. AND, improve structures in the veins and vascular system. Tufts University analyzed 60 fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capability. Blueberries, rated highest in their capacity to destroy free radicals.
Information from The World's Healthiest Foods: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=8

Poop Explosion...

Toddler + Lots of Raisins = Poop Explosion!

The website is coming!

It's official (kinda), the website should be up sometime in September! Here are some of my favorite silly pictures from our photo shoot last week. All the truly amazing ones will be on http://www.elislids.com/ soon... we hope :)

Eli and I sporting our Lids, Dark Grey and Light Grey. We are wearing the same size!!!







Ella looking up toward the M & M's wearing the Reversible Heart and Skull Lid




Eli's silly face in the Light Grey Snowboarder Lid.







Bella showing off the reversible Black and Red Surfer Lid.

Cole trying to explain to me that Anakin Skywalker turns into Darth Vader wearing the Red Snowboarder lid.








Sophia showing us her attitude in the Limited Quantity Blue Lid w/ Navy Open Star.

Jonas can't sit up yet so I'm trying to prop him up. He is wearing the reversible Yellow and Skull Lid.







Creative Iris wearing the Brown Snowboarder Lid with an orange and yellow bow added.

Hannah playing peek-a-boo in the Lavender Snowboarder Lid








Eli doing the "happy dance" after I brought out M&M's as bribery to smile! Wearing the Dark Grey Snowboarder Lid

Ethan is ready to walk off the set wearing the reversible Blue and Skull Lid.







Cora holding on for dear life wearing the Pink Argyle Tee with her over sized bling binky.

Hayden imitating his little sister Sophia's (above) attitude. He is wearing the Limited Quantity Blue Lid w/ Black closed Star & Vintage Tie Tee.








Hats off to JP for wearing the
reversible Thermal Green and Skull Lid!!!!









Thank you to all our Friends who made this photo shoot happen. We are so blessed to have you in our lives... and that you have such beautiful children!!!

~KN

The Sock Mop

I mop wearing socks! I'm not sure where I got this tip, but it is super handy while mopping. Throw on a pair of old (clean) socks and mop your heart out. Use the socks to rub out those stubborn spots and get into corners easily.

I cut it off...

I finally cut my hair! Over a foot, to donate to Locks of Love. I'm hoping to start a Locks of Love donation tradition with Cora. I got the idea from one of my Aunt's friends, her and her daughter grow out their (beautiful) hair and then as soon as it is long enough they cut it and donate it. What a great way to teach our daughters about giving what we have to people who really need it.


For more information and inspiring stories go to http://www.locksoflove.org/

Fuel for Mommy

Cora has decided that sleeping through the night is for the birds so we had a lot of "quality" Mommy/Daughter time last night. This morning was a little rough, but I was able to go on a morning beach walk with my best friend and her son, Isaac. After the walk, and with no hope for a mommy nap, I stopped by McDonald's to try their new iced coffee. I decided to get the large because it was only $2.09. It was 32 oz of pure bliss! Did you catch that? 32 ounces!!!!! Iced coffee is fuel for this mommy.

Here is a picture of my fuel and the homemade Tastes Like Pie Carrots (I reuse the store bought containers to keep track of portions easily).

Spice up baby food...

Typical of most stay-at-home moms, it is one of my main "jobs" to save money for the family. One way (of many) is to make my own baby food. With Eli I bought a baby food cook book and tried the recipes. I found the process to be very time consuming... ug! Now that Cora is ready for food I'm going at it again... my way! Here is a "recipe" I made up today that you can do while you are feeding lunch to your toddler and getting dinner started and switching over the laundry and...

Tastes Like Pie Carrots

• 
  
  Throw peeled carrots into a pot (you can buy the peeled baby carrots so you don't have to peel and it will cook faster)
  
  
  
• 
  
  Fill the pot about 1/4 full of water (not too much because nutrients boil out of the carrots into the water so you will want to salvage as much as you can)
  
  
  
• 
  
  Cover and put on a low heat till the carrots are soft (this gives you plenty of time to do stuff, just check on them and stir every 15 minutes or so)
  
  
  
• 
  
  Smash with a potato masher
  
  
  
• 
  
  Puree in a blender (you may need to add more water, be sure to use all the water from the pot!!)
  
  
  
• 
  
  Add cinnamon to taste. The cinnamon will make the carrots taste like pumpkin pie... REALLY it is yummy. Only spice a portion of your mix so you can mix up the tastes for your little one.
  
  
  

Enjoy,

KN

Biter Biscuits of Death

I discovered with my first child, Eli, that Biter Biscuits can be pretty dangerous. Let me elaborate...

Excited to try new foods with my son, I gave him a Biter Biscuit and after about 30 slobbery seconds of gumming the thing he "bites" off a bit and starts choking. I then went and got the net pacifier thing (pretty cool invention) and it worked but was still a TOTAL mess.

Today my son (now 2) finished a piece of pizza and left the crust so I gave it to my 6 month old, Cora, and it was a total hit!!! And the hard outside was strong enough to hold the whole thing together as she gummed the soft inside. I think I'm on to something. Here is a flashback picture of Eli with a killer biscuit... I mean biter biscuit. And a picture of Cora gumming the pizza crust :)

Oxiclean vs. Hand Soap

We just received the Eli's Lids tee shirts and they are fabulous! Of course I had to have Eli wear one out to a family dinner at Home Town Buffet (yes, my family goes there, with 20+ people's likes to cater to... we love that place). Eli proceeded to get jello, beans, spaghetti sauce, chocolate, mac & cheese and so much more on the shirt. We got home and I scrubbed the heck out of it and then let it sit in a sink of oxiclean overnight, but many of the spots were still there. I then scrubbed it more, to no avail. After breaking a sweat and using a few choice words I noticed the hand soap...mmmm. A squirt of that and a few scrubs and the shirt was as good as new.

The shirt has passed the Home Town Buffet test!!!

Hand Soap Wins :)

Here is a picture of Eli (and his beautiful cousin Hannah) in the shirt right after dinner.

The Kids in Lids...

Here are my kids in their Lids!!!!

Eli at 16 months &

Cora Jane at 1 month

OK Lidy, I'm blogging...

It seems I have been on a 8 month hiatus... that is what having another baby will do to you!! I'm now the proud mama of 2 kids. Eli will be 2 in September and Cora Jane, born Valentine's Day '08 (9 days late!!) is 5 1/2 months old.
Business is chugging along and I'm proud to announce that Eli's Lids will be launching some adorable tee shirts next month.
Now if I can just figure out how to add pictures...