An open letter to the makers of kids stuff

Dear Maker of Kid Stuff:

I know we have never met formally, but over the last several months you have been a serious thorn in my side.

Lets start this discussion with a terrible event that occurred about 4 months ago. My kids begged and pleaded and begged some more for these text messengers. With all the lovely fundraisers that happen at school with the promises of big winnings (junky toys and the like) if you sell the most wrapping paper or chocolate bars, my boys had seen these text messengers often. Not being good sales people (and having parents that won't take the junk to work and sell for them) they kept falling short of being the "big winner" at school. Maybe you could say it was our parental guilt for not having helped them sell a ton of this junk to our friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers that caused the moment of weakness, but we all piled in the car one evening and drove to our closest Toys-R-Us store and picked out the text messengers for a small price of $25.00. These are the junkiest and most cheaply made things I have ever spent $25 bucks on (and when I say "I" I really mean my innocent kids; my husband and I only agreed to let them buy them if they spent their saved up allowance! More parental guilt now.) These text messengers only work if you are standing within 4 feet of the other unit and both units are pointed at each other. Seriously? Seriously. I would have expected this from a dollar store item, but not a well known toy store.

More recently, we allowed the boys to once again use their hard earned allowance money to buy a digital camera. These cameras proudly advertised on the packaging how you could take up to 152 pictures and then play games with your photos and make jigsaw puzzles from these photos. Guess what you Makers of Kid Stuff, you can, more accurately, only take about 100 photos and that is if you set the resolution to "Lo", which translates to fuzzy, crappy pictures that are not worth saving. For the better resolution (and I use that term very loosely) you can only get 20 pictures before you must download to the computer. These cameras were only $12 dollars, but still, my kids expected so much more for what they paid for. I guess you Makers of Kid Stuff might say it is a lesson well learned, but you didn't have to see their sad little faces when the cameras did not live up to their expectations. We bought these cameras just before a camping trip and they couldn't even use them. Highly disappointing for us all! Again I tell you, that we would have expected this poor quality from a dollar store item.

How can you sleep at night knowing that there are thousands of children highly disappointed in the product you so sloppily make and advertise gearing it towards young children. I am sick of being the "bad guy" always telling my kids "no" because they don't understand that this stuff is junk and the ol' saying "You get what you pay for" doesn't necessarily apply here. The kids are spending a decent amount of money (especially for a kid who only gets $3-$4 a week in allowance) and getting junk that doesn't live up to it's colorful advertising.

So, I would appreciate you either making the product more worth the amount spent (for example, making the text messengers $5 bucks instead of $25 and those cameras were really worth more like $5 also, not $12) or improve the quality of the product for the amount of money charged!

Thank you for your time, of which you must have a lot because you certainly aren't spending the time in making good, quality items for children.

Sincerely,
A mom who is fed up

Friday Recipe - Our 4th of July menu

With the 4th of July being only week away, I thought I would post about our 4th of July menu along with some decorating ideas. There are no pictures here, but I promise after the big shindig I will have pictures to post!

First let's start with the menu:

Grilled hamburgers (with all the fixins - lettuce, tomato slices, sliced onions, pickles, etc)
Marinated cucumber slices
Calico Beans
Cornbread
Cole Slaw
Potato Salad
Frog Eye Salad
Patriotic Cupcakes
Sparkling punch
Watermelon Pops (I've never tried these before, but they look too cute not to try them out!)
I always have some bags of chips on hand to go with the burgers too.

Now on to the decorations:

I took empty cans (from beans and other miscellaneous food items) and covered them with scrapbook paper and ribbon to hold utensils and other items that will be on the table. I will be wrapping up red, white and blue napkins with utensils and standing them in one of my taller decorated cans.

From here, I got the idea to make personalized cups for us. I used 12 oz cups we already had that are red. I embellished them with ribbon and stars and wrote names of the people I know will be here that day! I think they turned out pretty cute!

Oh and I bought some glow-in-the-dark paint and the kids and I are going to make shirts with stars on them this weekend (Thanks to my good friend at Lions, Tigers and Boys, Oh My! for the idea!)

I can't wait to post pictures next weekend!

The Lazy Days of Summer

The kids had all disappeared outside the other day. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. Sunshine bright overhead. I went looking for them and through the window I spotted them.

Each one in the tree. The boys had taken their journals out there to write. I thought it was really cool and made me wish my fat butt would fit in the tree and I could sit there and write too.

I feel so special

I got off work a little early to take my sister to the airport. My sister had our car yesterday so she, Mr. Man and Lady Bug picked me up from work about an hour before I normally leave the office. We laughed all the way to the airport, in horrible traffic, but hardly noticing the traffic because we were having so much fun!

After hugs and kisses we watched her go inside the terminal and I got weepy.

THEN, back at home as we are pulling in our driveway I notice my big blue planter is missing from the front of the house but before I can ask Mr. Man if he knows where it is Lady Bug is inside the house screaming with excitement! There was a new outfit (complete with new shoes too) for her. I get inside and notice that our table is all set for dinner. There is our red "You are special today" plate sitting in the middle of the table covered in chocolate dipped strawberries and a note that says:

Thanks so much for your hospitality! Your house is so cute and comfortable!

There is chicken marinating in the refrigerator for grilling tonight and I also made a salad.

Enjoy and I will talk to you soon. Love you!

I cried. She is so sweet to do have done all that. But just then, Mr. Man goes out to start up the grill and he hollers for me to come quickly. She planted flowers for me on my deck. Last week, I mentioned to her that I wanted to plant flowers and was hoping to do it in my time off last week, but we just never got around to it. I cried again.

Monday morning miscellaneous

My sister will be heading home this evening. I am so sad to see her go, but I suppose it will be good to get back to our regular routine. Our visit has been a whole lot of fun, although we didn't do anything all that spectacular it was just plain fun to visit and laugh and eat and watch movies!

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So, last night Lady Bug is writing on a piece of paper and she hands it to Lefty and asks him what it says. Here is what she wrote:

HeaHRALReaL

Lefty - sort of laughing: "It says He-a-Hurl-Real"

Lady Bug: "Noooooooo it doesn't say that. Look at it closer."

Lefty: "I don't know what that says. Go ask mom."

Lady Bug - in a very annoyed tone of voice: "Mom doesn't know how to read."

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We still only have one car. Our van, apparently, is fixable but a costly fix. The van is older and I am not sure I want to sink a bunch of money into it and then have something else break next week. So we did a little car shopping last week, but not much since we had out of town company. It seemed a little rude to drag her all over to look at cars with us. Although she probably would have gone.

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My boys are camping this week with some cousins and grandma & grandpa. They should have fun. Lefty is feeling very nervous because he still has nights where he wets the bed. I sent him with some pull-ups and lots of extra clothes. He was almost in tears this morning, which makes me feel like the worst mom E.V.E.R. My MIL was re-assuring Lefty this morning that it would all be ok and not to worry. At home, we have been setting his alarm clock for 2:00 am so he will wake up to go potty. This has helped -- but obviously when camping in a tent the alarm clock was not an option (plus I would feel rude asking grandma to get up at 2 every morning to take him to the potty.)

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We were trying to save some money on daycare costs this summer so the boys will be doing a lot of camping out or overnight visits with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., which will be fun for them....lonesome for momma! This week, the boys will only be gone until Wednesday though. Then on Thursday and Friday my MIL will watch them during the day, but they will be home at nights with us!

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Today is my first full day back at work since last Wednesday's half day. I am sort of ready and sort wish I had more time off.

Friday Recipe - Carrot slaw with a twist

I always disliked carrot slaw (sometimes called carrot raisin salad) until my aunt made it for a party several years ago. It was SO yummy. I asked how she made it and she said she put in some granny smith apple. Ever since then, I make mine this way. Recently, I saw a magazine recipe that added jicama to carrot salad. I used my regular recipe and then added in some jicama - It is so yummy!

Carrot Slaw

INGREDIENTS:
3 T lemon juice
3 T mayonnaise
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 lrg carrots, peeled and shredded (about 3 cups)
1 lrg Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and shredded (about 1 cup)
1/3 c dark raisins
1/2 lb jicama, peeled and shredded

Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate until chilled.

** You can make this lower in calories by using low-fat mayo.**

It's like a vacation

Since leaving work yesterday at noon, I haven't done much of anything. I feel like I am on a vacation!

I picked my sis up at the airport, then we went to lunch. Then we went to a movie, did a little shopping, came home to lay around and do nothing. Then this morning we slept in and are getting ready to go eat brunch somewhere and probably go walk around our downtown area.

Good times! I love just relaxing! (Bad news, my boss asked me to come in for an hour or so this afternoon...Boo!!Hoo!!!)