We decided leftover streamers might be just the thing to create the look of fire.  All the kids had quite a bit of fun ripping, twisting and filling bottles with a variety of streamers to create different effects. It was a great impromptu craft session.

Streamers are definitely now added to my list of ‘must have’ craft supplies to keep year round. What’s on your ‘must have’ list for impromptu kid craft sessions?

This has quickly become one of our family’s favorite games. It’s especially handy for rainy days or if your summer has been like ours, those “heat advisory” days where it’s too hot to play outside and everyone has extra energy to burn. Not sure if it’s for your family? Be sure to check out my full review from last week.

For your first (mandatory) entry:

Visit Jumpstart to check out all three of their current Wii titles, return here and leave a comment for which you think your children would like the best. Please remember though, this giveaway is only for Get Moving – Family Fitness. I’m just curious to know which is most interesting to you. Please be sure to leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you are the winner!

For additional entries:

For one extra entry each:

• Follow @wistfulwrists on Twitter
• Like WistfulWrists on Facebook.
• Like JumpStart on Facebook.

Please come back here and leave a separate comment for each entry to let me know your name (First name and last initial acceptable for Facebook) who you followed and/or liked so I can verify your entry.

For one extra entry each day, you can tweet about the giveaway. Leave a comment Tweet must include @wistfulwrists and a direct link to this post so I can verify. Or you may choose to go the easy route and tweet this out:

I entered to win Jumpstart Get Moving Family Fitness Wii game @WistfulWrists. You can too: http://bit.ly/cqlWCn

For Twitter entries, leave a separate comment for each tweet, for example:

I’m @wistfulwrists and I tweeted today about the contest: http://twitter.com/WistfulWrists/statuses/20068480088

Note: to get the individual URL of each tweet, click on the timestamp at the bottom of each tweet. It opens a new page with only that tweet. Copy the URL from your browser bar and paste it into your comment.

Rules: Only one of each entry method listed per person, family or household. Use of multiple accounts or identities are not allowed. Contest ends Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Winner will be chosen via random number generator on Monday, August 9 and notified by e-mail. Any violation of these rules will result in disqualification from this and future giveaways on this blog.

I received a complimentary copy of this video game to play and review courtesy of JumpStart. These are my personal opinions, no other compensation was received for this post. JumpStart is providing the prize copy and distribution of the prize. For more information please see my Disclosure Policy.

This past weekend we did not celebrate one child’s birthday, no we celebrated the twins’ birthdays. It most certainly did not catch me by surprise.

Our Saturday morning did not start with an invitation to a movie night with our girl cousins, and if it had, I certainly would NOT have asked my husband to “sell” the idea to the twins in lieu of a friend birthday party, simply for my own convenience. I certainly would not have forgotten to bake the requested carrot cake on Saturday morning for Sunday’s post-church family dinner and party. That’s just not my style.

I absolutely did not throw myself out of bed early Sunday morning to bake the cakes before my workout. I would NEVER dream of yelling at my husband in bursts of breath in the most excruciating part of the workout “Cupcakes. Out. OVEN.” We never yell at one another at our house.

Even if our morning had started that way, we would not have had ZERO presents wrapped to present to the twins at the family party. That would be wrong. We certainly would not attempt to make it up to them by taking them on a shopping trip to Toys R Us and buying them the toys they wanted, sale or no.

That’s just not how this organized mom of four does it. < rolls eyes >

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

For the next few posts, I’ll share some of our valentine’s day fun.

I like to make my life easy, so we pick up premade paper cards for the kids. With 3 boys in school, we had 48 valentines (minimum) flying out of our house, I just don’t have the energy to do completely handmade. But, crafty as I am, I had to help my crafty kids add a unique touch. We love melting crayons in this house, so when I saw silicone ice cube trays in heart shapes at Target last month in the ‘dollar’ section (they were actually $2.50 for 2 trays), I knew what we had to do.

There are instructions for melting crayons all over the internet, so let me just share my tips.

• I like to melt at 250 degrees. It takes a bit, sometimes up to 10-15 minutes depending on your oven and the brand of crayon, but just keep an eye on it. I set the timer for 8 minutes to start, then check every 2-3 after until they have turned to liquid.
• The most difficult part of this project is prepping the crayons. I highly recommend using a craft (X-Acto) knife to slice the paper off and then to chop the crayons into appropriate size pieces for your mold.
• Don’t worry about gaps. I just place crayons inside the mold in a single layer, with a few gaps, so you get a nice flat result.
• Watch your brands! You can see in the photos we had a few restaurant crayons sneak their way in. Some brands just won’t melt. I only buy Crayola crayons for our house for many reasons, the easy way they melt is one of those. Don’t fret though, if you have bad crayons weasel their way in, it just makes for some unique texture.
• If you don’t have shaped molds, my favorite melting containers are individual silicone mini cupcake cups. With ridges that mimic paper liners, they create great edges the kids love to color with!
• We used hot glue to fix them to the paper valentines. This was tricky and may not be the best solution. I used a generous amount of hot glue, let it cool a bit (so it didn’t melt the wax too much), then pressed the flat side of the crayon into it. Some I didn’t let cool enough and they melted, some cooled too much and they popped off. At their best they removed easily, but it made them stick long enough to travel to school and make it into valentine boxes.

If you had fun, crafty ideas you used this year for classrooms, be sure to leave a description and link in the comments to share with me!

It’s hard to find the balance, especially during the holidays. I’m not sorry to say I spent it with people & not the computer. January arrived with a few days of hot tea, a blanket & my sofa. Then a day or two of whipping my house back into shape after the holidays once the kids returned to school and then the cold snap hit. A few inches of snow, wind chills below zero and no school due to “inclement weather”, and a blogging mom’s best hopes are de-railed. Kids went back to school Monday, and are currently completing their first FULL week of school in nearly two months. Notice how that correlates with how long it’s been since I’ve posted. Bad Dog, I know.

You know it’s cold when the kids will only play in the snow for 12 minutes. This photo is about 2 minutes into the outside time, and isn’t it telling? It’s a real chore to keep 4 kids busy inside the house for 4 days in a row. Exhausting!

Also of note, my husband, Mr. T turned the big 3-0 yesterday, with mild fanfare. That happens to be just the way he likes it.

Today I’m spending my day writing posts today to share with you in the upcoming days. Some crafts, gifts and projects that I couldn’t share with you in the midst of the holidays. So hopefully if you get snowed in like we did, you’ll have some fun ideas for your projects.

Stay tuned. I promise to return!

In 2005, Brandi Carlile arrived on the scene with her self-titled album. Her sophomore album, The Story, debuted in 2007. Brandi Carlile’s newest release is titled Give Up the Ghost. I admit, I nearly passed on the opportunity to review this album. When it comes to female vocalists, I’m a bit of a snob. Sure, I’ll sing along with whatever catchy song Britney has rising up radio charts, but it’s entirely different to add a song to my iPod playlist. They hooked me with: “If you like KT Tunstall, Indigo Girls, Missy Higgins and Rachael Yamagata then you will LOVE Brandi Carlile.” Love might be a bit light for my feelings about KT’s music.

This music grabbed me from the earliest notes and captivated me with a unique and intoxicating blend of music. I appreciate great musicianship; the instrumentals on this album do not dissapoint. The album has fun, fast songs blended artistically with quiet, soul stirring ballads. Listening to the entire album feels much like taking a road trip with Carlile as she pours her heart out.  It’s as if she is your new friend disclosing intimate details of her past that have shaped who she is today. She is transparent in a way listeners will identify with, maintaining your attention as you journey through to the stories woven in the lyrics.

It’s rather difficult to pick a favorite song or two from this album, so I’ll share with you what songs I found myself humming long after the iPod stopped. Caroline is a duet with Elton John, inspired by Carlile’s neice. It has a “strummy and playful beat” and I bet it won’t be long before you start singing the chorus right along with it. Carlile says that Elton John played a key a role in her evolution as an artist: “When I was 11, I started listening to country and western music and I was totally immersed in that Grand Ole Opry culture, wherein the entertainers are usually not the ones who wrote the music. But when I discovered Elton John, I realized that performers could write and perform their own songs, and I immediately went out and got a keyboard, and started writing.” She was too starstruck to tell him that when they recorded together. “I was just overwhelmed by the years, and by the influence that somebody can have on another person’s life without even knowing it.”

In That Year Carlile remembers a friend who committed suicide while they were both teenagers. A recent dream about her friend inspired her to write the delicate and heart-wrenching track.  Personally, I feel it’s the most powerful song on this album. So moving the song stayed with me for days after a single initial hearing. The lyrics and music blend beautifully to tell a haunting story in a beautiful, retrospective way.

Some of my other favorite heart-felt songs on this album are Dying Day and I Will.

I’d be remiss if I failed to share with you that Brandi’s band and fellow co-writers are twin brothers, Phil and Tim Hanseroth. I know those of you who follow me that are fellow mothers of twins will find that an interesting little fact.

Head over to iTunes to sample Brandi’s latest album and download a copy for yourself. You won’t be disappointed, and hopefully, you’ll be surprised beyond expectation like I was.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary digital copy of this album to listen to and review courtesy Sony Music Service via One2OneNetwork.

Before those of you within the multiples community hang me out to dry, I thought I’d share my thoughts about it. First, as you read yesterday in my back to school post, we take each kid on a case by case basis, and each year as a separate issue. There’s always room for re-evaluation and change. This is our families’ choice, guided by the kids, and the school professionals.

For those of you considering it, I know there are numerous articles and posts out there about keeping twins together, but let me share some of what we hope will be advantages of spliting them.

#1 We have BOYS. Have you ever spent any serious amount of time around 5 year old boys? Do you know what kind of mischief they can cook up? Then when you add the twin factor in… oh. my. goodness. Mario & Luigi (not real names, our family online names) are crafty. They do this incredibly accurate impersonation of the two-headed monster from Sesame Street. I kid you not. And when they decide something is funny, it’s like the never ending inside joke. Frat boys have nothing on my twins.

#2 They are identical. When discussing with the boys individually the potential benefits I asked them how they felt when they were called the other’s name, even when it was an accident. I was shocked at how much it bothered them both. Strangers do it all the time, family does it less often but it still occurs. And I, like any mom, frequently have to go down the list of names to get the right one. Heck, I’ve even called a child by the dog’s name while yelling before. With two separate classrooms comes a bit of space. Some of the kindergartners may not know for quite a while that they are even twins, helping them to establish their own identity.

Truthfully, like any twins, they get treated like a 2 for 1 package deal all the time. Sometimes even by myself. We try our best not to, but because they share the same room, are the same age, are both boys… there is quite a bit of this. My prayer for them is that they each find out who they are.

#3 They think differently. So why wouldn’t 2 different teachers be a good thing? The school has a system to place kids with the best teacher possible. We fill out a survey about who they are, games they play, strengths and weaknesses. If we insisted that they are together, one of our children could potentially get shortchanged and not end up with the best classroom teacher for their style of learning. How would we choose which child is sacrificed for the sake of togetherness?

Those are the major logical points, but it really came down to God’s intervention. I’d been praying for all the boys; for what was best for the coming school year; that God, who knows more than I, would lead our family. I spoke with the school counselor about considering splitting the boys, while it was uncertain whether the new teacher would be an AM or PM teacher. I expected a call if it would fall into our category, but the call I received was that they’d already been split. We of course had a few days to consider it and request a change. After more prayer and discussions with my husband, we opted to let it ride. We know we’ve been led to put our children into public schools, we know we were led to purchase this house in this district, we believe God knows what’s best and we are at peace that this is the right decision for our family.

I know this is a hot topic among parents of multiples, but I thought I’d share with you part of our family’s thoughts and processes. I’d love to hear about your choices and your reasons for them. Drop me a note in the comments and a link to your blog!