Main Street Mommy

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the Vick’s Winter Warm-up event at Finale Desserterie and Bakery in Boston.  Finale makes the most amazing desserts and hot chocolate.  Vick’s is a brand I know and trust; their VapoRub is a must have in my house.  Combine the two, and I’m there.

I arrived to the event much later than anticipated due to traffic and parking challenges, so I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the incredible selection of treats laid out by Finale.  You’ll just have to trust me when I say, Finale is divine.

I did, however, get to listen to Dr. Meg Meeker, a down-to-earth pediatrician, author, and mother of four.  She won me over almost as soon as she opened her mouth by affirming that moms today put too much pressure on themselves.  We feel we must provide them with engaging extra-curricular opportunities, send them to the best schools, and feed them the most wholesome food, all while making sure we’re setting a good example by volunteering, working and trying to keep a household together.  In her words, “Kids don’t care if the brownies are made from scratch or out of a box.  They just want to eat them with you.”

I’m telling you,  this woman would be my pediatrician if she lived around here.  She doesn’t, but I did get a copy of her book, The 10 Habits of Successful Mothers.  I haven’t finished reading it, but so far I’m really enjoying it.

She shared some advice for moms, especially moms of young children, for getting through the dreaded cold & flu season.  Bottom line, kids are going to get sick despite your best efforts.  Don’t beat yourself up about it.  However, there are some steps you can take to reduce the discomfort when the nasty colds do strike.

• use saline drops in the nose to reduce congestion. (My husband swears by this stuff)
• hydrate – especially when a child has a fever.  Water is good, but they need electrolytes.  Use Pedialyte for children under 2. Gatorade is okay for children over 2.
• change your toothbrushes once a month. (I’ll admit, I don’t do this — but I won’t beat myself up about it)
• humidifiers can help keep you healthy. Homes kept at 40-60% relative humidity can reduce the survival of the flu virus on surfaces and in air.
• keep both acetaminophen and ibuprofen on hand. You can alternate the two to help bring fevers down faster.

Most importantly, you know your child best.  Trust your intuition.  If your child is sick, and the pediatrician doesn’t give you the answers you’re looking for, don’t be afraid to get a little pushy.

Before we left the event we were given a goody bag with tons of Vick’s products.  My favorite is the new Behind Ear Thermometer.  I haven’t had to use it yet, but I think it will quickly become one of my go to items.  It allows you to take a quick (as in one second) temperature from placing it in the hollow behind (not in) the child’s ear.  There is a color coded display to quickly tell if your child has a fever: green means no fever, yellow means fever has slightly elevated (it saves the last 8 measurements), red means your child has a fever.  I think this might be added to my gift list for new moms.

*Disclaimer – I was provided lunch and a gift bag with several Vick’s products as well as a book by Dr. Meg Meeker for attending this event.  The opinions are my own.

Well, somehow it happened.  My baby turned 5, and the Fancy Nancy soiree we planned went off without a hitch.  It was a splendid affair and relatively easy to pull off!  The girls were adorable, dressed to the nines, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  I’m sharing pictures, but I promise, the party looked much better in real life.

Table settings for each girl included a tiara (of course) and a “diamond” napkin ring.  We also put pink sugar on the rims of each glass (not shown).

Gift bags for each girl to make even fancier with stickers, markers, and glitter.

Decorating the gift bags with markers, stickers, and (of course) glitter.

We turned the mud room into a spa where each girl was treated to a manicure, thanks to my wonderful Mother in-law.

We had cupcakes and parfaits (that’s French for ice cream sundaes) for dessert.

The girls altogether – don’t they look tres chic?

And if that wasn’t enough, here’s the cake I made for the family party the next day.

My baby is turning 5 on Saturday!  Seriously, where does the time go?

Although I have to say, 5 year old girls are soooooo much fun!  Every day is filled with make believe, dress up, rainbows, ponies, and all things that sparkle — LOVE IT!

In honor of our little princess, we are throwing a soiree (that’s French for party) a la Fancy Nancy. In case you don’t know, Fancy Nancy is a children’s book character who adores all things fancy.  She dresses extravagantly, wearing boas, tutus, fairy wings, fuzzy slippers, sunglasses, and anything that sparkles.  She also adores using fancy words such as “iridescent”, “ecstatic”, “exquisite” or anything that is French. I love that little girls everywhere are increasing their vocabulary by reading these books.

To prepare for the event, I’ve been collecting anything pink, purple, glittery or covered with feathers. This is new territory for me, and I might be going a bit overboard.

Anyway, here are the invitations.  I think they turned out tres cute, and (more importantly) Mia was over-the-moon thrilled when she saw them!

They were super simple to put together.  I got the wording from several different invitations that I saw online.  If you want to copy – be my guest:

Ooh la la darling!
Fancy Mia is turning 5!
You are cordially invited to a Birthday Tea Soiree (That’s French for party. Everything sounds better in French)
Date
Time
Place
Dress in your most exquisite attire! (Exquisite is a fancy word for fancy)
Respondez s’il vous plait
(That’s French for let us know if you can make it)

If you have school aged children, you’ve probably had to bring something in at some point for a Thanksgiving Feast.  These events can be as simple as sharing cornbread while dressed as Pilgrims and Native Americans or as complex as an entire Thanksgiving meal.

My sons had an entire Thanksgiving Feast on Monday.  I had to make stuffing and pumpkin pie.

My daughter has her feast today.  I hadn’t seen the sign up sheet, so I told my husband to sign me up for something easy – a bag of baby carrots or a can of corn would be perfect.  He came home and said they didn’t need anything — YES!!! Procrastination paid off.

Then I picked Mia up from school.  I asked the teacher if they really were all set.  She said, “I was hoping you’d make something fun.”  They weren’t having a Thanksgiving dinner as they had in years past.  Instead, they were just having some fun seasonal snacks.  Dang!  Carrots and corn weren’t even an option.

Mia’s teacher is a friend of mine. She’s seen my crazy cakes, cookies, lunch boxes, etc.  So, I told her I would come up with something.

Aren’t these cute?! (Super easy too!) With just 3 ingredients and about 10 minutes, you can have a fun holiday treat.  Now, if you wanted to go really crazy, these little hats would make adorable cupcake toppers.  Really, you could impress a lot of people

First, unwrap peanut butter cups.  This is always a tedious task, so it helps to find an assistant. I recommend the dark chocolate ones.  I had them in my hand, but for some reason, I ended up with the milk chocolate – no big deal.

Recognize these? Fudge Stripe cookies were my FAVORITE as a child.

Just flip them over.

Use a dab of frosting to “glue” the peanut butter cup to the cookie base, pipe in a band of white and a yellow buckle.  That’s it!!

Like I said, super cute — also super sweet and full of things you may not want to give your children.  Yes, I felt slightly guilty for bringing this in to school.  So I made a second treat.

The directions for this guy can be found at the Family Fun website.  He went together just as quickly as the Pilgrim hats, and erased any guilt I had.  Life’s all about balance.

Happy Thanksgiving!