Blogger Spotlight: Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid

As I've mentioned before, getting in touch with my local mamas has been a huge drive for me in 2014 and Erin from Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid has been a huge help in that area! I'll let her give you the details, but she is an awesome resource for my little part of the world in finding family friendly activities and sharing fun articles weekly. You can also find me sharing our local experiences in her newsletter now and again too! If you are a Seattle based parent and haven't signed up for a Macaroni Kid Newsletter yet, read on and see what the hype is about!

~Bianca

Hello, everyone! I am excited to be invited by Bianca to guest post on The Pierogie Mama. My name is Erin Chamberlain, and I am a 35 year old mama of a soon-to-be 2 year old daughter, Ada. I am also a City Council member in the small town of Carnation, Washington, a SAHM, self-proclaimed Radical Homemaker and the Publisher of Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid! And way busier than I ever was pre-kids, but loving it.

My husband, Brian and I have lived in the Snoqualmie Valley for nearly 12 years and landed here by way of Missouri, where we both grew up. We met in college and both attended The Missouri University of Science & Technology, a small engineering school. Brian and I enjoy hiking and camping, visiting local breweries and brewing a bit ourselves when we can find the time. We’ve been enjoying introducing Ada to the Northwest outdoors – everything from our backyard vegetable garden to camping in eastern Washington. One day there will be a road trip to Alaska…

Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid has become my “wobby” since starting the site last June – a mix of work and hobby, and has been a great outlet for me after becoming a mom. Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid is your best source for the scoop on all kid activities and family fun in northeast King County and south Snohomish County. I am here for Carnation, Duvall, Redmond Ridge, Cottage Lake, Monroe and Sultan area moms and dads, grandparents and caretakers too, who love finding fun, local things to do with their kids!

Every Thursday morning, I send my 500+ email subscribers a FREE newsletter jam-packed with activities, local information, articles, recipes, crafts, and great giveaways. Make sure you subscribe to get your fresh copy delivered right to your inbox each week! As a local mom who lives in this community, it is important to me to connect with other local parents and bring you the best resources our area has to offer. Each month I feature other local parent experts offering amazing organization tips, parenting advice, movie reviews and more!

Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid also features a Business Directory, which is a wonderful resource for finding great local businesses to meet the needs of your family. From Preschools, Summer Camps, Enrichment Activities & Classes, Family Services, or Birthday Party Ideas - it's got that and much more!

Be sure to follow Macaroni Kid Cherry Valley on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for all the in-between newsletter news. Macaroni Kid also has 15 sister sites throughout Washington more than 600 all across the world! Check out nearby sites for Snoqualmie Valley - Issaquah, The Eastside, Marysville-Lake Stevens-Everett-Snohomish, South Puget Sound, NW Seattle, North Sound, and find others by using the drop down box on the left side of our National Macaroni Kid page. It’s great for exploring nearby towns, or if you’re headed on vacation to a new spot – check to see if there is a Macaroni Kid for your destination!

I really hope you enjoy Macaroni Kid and that it becomes your go-to resource for family fun in our http://cherryvalley.macaronikid.com/ and get the scoop on upcoming events right to your inbox. Think you might know someone who could use some Macaroni in their life? Be sure to tell them about us too! Questions, comments, just want to say hello or have a fun idea you would like to share? Contact me via email at erinch@macaronikid.com.
community. As a mom, I know how hard and time-consuming it can be to find things to do as a family. So let me do the work for you! Sign up for the weekly e-newsletter at Cherry Valley Macaroni Kid.

Peace. Love. Macaroni!

The Pierogie Babies: 40 weeks - where's my kid? & someone turns 2

Ruby

Well, here we are at full term and I am shocked - no baby. I had Penny at exactly 39 weeks and for this entire pregnancy I was positive that I'd have Ruby on the same week. Well, 39 came and went without anything to write home about. It feels so weird to wait on a baby, because as Penny's birth story went, we were caught by surprise when she was born. I was expecting to go over 40 weeks with Penny and so I never had that anticipation feeling. This time I set myself up and was expecting an early baby so I've been on watch since 38 weeks - I would have never imagined still being pregnant 2 weeks later! 

So this girl continues to bake away and although I'm just ready to hold her in my arms, I count my blessings. I'm not in any extraordinary amounts of discomfort. My hips ache but a good chiropractic adjustment this week did the trick. My stomach skin feels stretched and itchy; but no stretch marks and my regimen of organic coconut oil during the day and having hubby rub down the belly with Motherlove Pregnant Belly Salve in the evenings has kept my skin nice and soft. Penny got to keep her birthday as her own. Ruby's due date was 3/4 and Penny's birthday is 3/3 so there was a chance for them to share a birthday. It didn't happen and we got to celebrate in a small, special way. I feel pretty prepared for this baby to come. The cloth diaper laundry is kept up on, I have lots of extra food stored in the freezer, our birth bag is in the car and I have labor food at the ready in the fridge. The blessings keep pouring in but one little blessing in particular is taking her sweet time and I just have to be patient and let her come when she is ready! :)

Penny

My big girl turned 2 on Monday but we kept it pretty quiet. Her paternal grandparents came over for dinner and cake on Sunday. We are postponing her big, fun birthday party until mid April and piggybacking a "meet the baby" event along with it.

When I remind myself about where we were 2 weeks ago in my last Pierogie Babies update, I'm again impressed at just how quickly children grow and change. Penny seems to have a good grasp on the concept of "turns" (even though she doesn't always agree with them) and is transitioning to consistently saying "please" and "thank you" rather than signing them. She working on 3 and sometimes 4 word sentences and surprises me daily with things that she picks up on. We were visiting a cousin yesterday and she pulled out a Finding Nemo book and asks me to read the Nemo book...but I haven't introduced her to Nemo yet. How did she know this? She's also become much more social at library time and at the bouncy house that we visit; which was a struggle until lately because of her shyness. We haven't been going to our MOPS group regularly due to battles with the crud or avoiding the crud so I'm not sure how she would do when she's put into a situation where I leave her but overall if she knows I'm around she appears to be totally fine leaving me and playing independently. That wasn't anywhere close to being an option 2 months ago, so I'm proud of her burgeoning courage and curiosity to play with other children.  

Monthly Its: October

So over the last 3 months I've been sharing some of my experiences with handmade soaps by StarGazer Soaps. Today Nicole will be sharing with you a boiled down explanation of how she makes her soaps! Read through to the end, because there's a surprise in store for you :)

Pre-Order here!

It took a long time to develop my soap recipes.  I have several tried and true that are a part of my main lines, but I am always looking for ways to improve them.  In fact, recently I added cream and cocoa butter to my silk soap, and LOVE the change!  My soap is even silkier than before!  So why cream?  Why do I use the ingredients I do?  I can't make claims about what my soap or any of my ingredients in my soap will do for a person.  But I use pure oils like olive, coconut, avocado, and butters like shea, cocoa, mango.  I also use silk & cream.  Each ingredient has a benefit, and adds to the luxury feel of the soap.  I choose each ingredient with great care, and test everything extensively before offering it to you.

When I make soap, I sit with my children and we smell my fragrance supply.  We chose which one inspires us, and then choose the color scheme.  Sometimes we decide on a design, but usually I have no idea what I am going to do until I am ready to pour my batter in the mold!  All soap starts the same way – Lye solution and oils.  When the Lye solution and oils meet, the magic begins.  I have some time to play with scent, color, and design.  Then the next 24 hours saponification takes place. This is the process where the Lye solution and the oils work together to make soap!  Within 24 hours, the Lye disappears, and glycerin is formed.  While safe to handle and use at this point, it really takes 6 weeks for the soap to fully cure.  Soap is like wine – it gets better with time!

If you haven’t tried handmade soap yet, now is the time!  
Visit StarGazerSoaps.com and use coupon code NATURAL
for 10% off your order until November 30th.  
Feel the difference.  
Handmade soap has honestly changed the lives of my family in more ways than one.  
I for one will never have commercial soap in my home again. 

Thank you Nicole for sharing that awesome discount with Pierogie Mama readers! Don't forget to check out my review of StarGazer soaps (my favorite has been pure and natural grapefruit, but I've definitely got my eye on a few to check out this holiday season!)

And now on to some more awesome reads :)

This Pierogie family loves their pooches, Romeo and Squirt. Though when we first had Penelope, we were a little anxious to see how the dogs would react to the new baby. Green Mommas outlines a few important points on your child's safety as well as your pet's comfort in mind when introducing each other.

I didn't give Penny a bath for a week after she was born. Yup. The vernix that covers a newborn is extremely moisturizing and goes along with my belief that a healthy body wouldn't produce something 'gross' or harmful for the baby. The result? Never any skin issues, cradle cap and oh my gosh the most intoxicating smell in the world resting upon my newborn daughter's head. Here's some more scientific reasons on why not to wash the vernix off your newborn, by Raising Natural Kids.

How to be a Supermom pretty much took away any guilt I had with my toddler and her level of screen time.

I read this the day of our ultrasound. I had a case of the mommy-worries, which are so destructive. This post came on a day I needed it. Trusting our children to God is not an easy feat.

Doesn't Pioneer Woman have a way with making you eat a bunch of stuff that is so freaking delicious but you know is just so bad for you? Well, in this case, she puts together a 'carb buster' breakfast that for all intents and purposes covers some pretty important food groups. It's on my to-do list for one of these weekend mornings.

Want an easy, fun and educational way to keep your toddler entertained for hours? That Mama Gretchen shares a water pouring activity.

And finally.. this one resonated deeply with me. I'd like to call myself a 'natural' and 'attachment' parent but Lord knows there has never been such thing as 'the perfect parent,' well except for the Lord himself ;) LOL! So this made me feel better one day when I was at my very own wits end and just wanted Penny to nap, and was on the verge of losing my own shit.

What to do when your kids are bored - Guest post by Charis by Design

Guess what I'm doing today? You got it. Tearing apart my house. Today I'd like to welcome Dannellys from Charis by Design. She shares great activities to do with your kids that can be done inside or outside when they are needing some new direction. 

What to do when your kids are bored? 

Summer is coming to an end and so are all the fun activities of playing in the pool, park, and eating BBQ.  It was raining all day yesterday and my little ones were just dying to go outside and play.  What could I possibly do to keep the kids entertained? I literally sat down and started thinking of games that I used to play when I was a kid; so why not have them do the same?  If you are looking for ideas on what to do, then here is a few things that I have done in the past with my kids that they have enjoyed.

1. Finger painting is always my favorite.  It’s a time when you see their little imagination come to life.  My little ones can stay there for hours if you let them.  Don’t worry about the mess until after they are finished.  Otherwise, they will not enjoy themselves if you are always concerned about them spilling paint on the floor.  Just make sure to place newspapers everywhere and use washable paint; and you will see how much fun they have playing.

2. Building their own little home.  For his birthday, he got a cardboard house where he can actually draw on the house itself and they both loved it.  He loved to write on it but she loved playing house.  We brought snacks, drinks, and flashlights.  They were so excited about having their own little home.

3.  Drawing with chalks on the sidewalk.  They had so much fun writing on the sidewalk and just drawing whatever they wanted.  It was fun to see them get excited over alphabets and numbers. 

4.  Making music together.  My kids absolutely love music so when I was able to get a hold of a guitar and maracas it was like celebrating Christmas in the Summer.  They were singing and dancing and just being silly.  It was great to see them create their own music and to see them make up songs. 

5.  Collecting leaves or flowers is always fun when we go on little walks.  They are always fascinated with leaves, rocks, and flowers; so why not let them pick them up and make a project out of it.  You can just take whatever leaves or flowers were collected and glue them to a piece of paper.  That could be their artwork for the day.

6.  Spotlight your kids and see how well they perform.  My kids love to put on a show for mommy and daddy.  My son is all about putting on a magic show or playing an instrument.  And my daughter is about dancing and singing so let them perform for you and see how well they do under the spotlight.

7.  Cooking together makes magic.  Whenever I feel like baking, I always involve my kids.  They love to help mommy cook.  It’s just so much fun to put the ingredients together and seeing how it tastes after it is finished.

8.  Playing with boxes can really come in handy.  These boxes can be used to push them around or just pretend that they are climbing into a rocket ship. 

9.  Write your own book.  This can be so exciting because they always have lots of stories to tell. To be able to write it down and have their own book, makes them feel special. 

10.  Reading a book together.  At the end of the day, I always like to finish with reading a story.  It’s the best part of my day when I get to sit down with them and talk about the whole day and share a great story.  That’s the best way to end a day in my book, lol!

Kids that are under five have so much imagination and so much to say.  This is the best time to enjoy them and cuddle with them when you can.  I like to do simple things with them because they really do enjoy the simple things in life.  Parenting can be complicated but if you really take the time to listen to your kids then it can get a little easier.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

About me:
My name is Dannellys Rosario and I am the creator of Charis by Design.  I want to take the time to share a little bit about myself.  I worked as a Marketer for a Fashion Magazine and Assistant Buyer to two well-known Fashion Companies.  I am a mother of two and married to a loving husband.

I created this blog to be an inspiration to those that have faced the same questions and challenges that I have personally experienced.  It could be a range of topics anywhere from being a mom, fashion, celebrities, life, arts, culture, health and more.  I want to share everything that I love!

Hope you enjoy my blog at http://www.charisbydesign.com

Epic Playdates at the Woodland Park Zoo

This summer we've been hitting the zoo almost every two weeks. My annual pass gets myself and two adults in, and kids under age 2 free! We've taken advantage of this deal several times with friends and family who have kids of similar age to Penny.

Why is the zoo an epic playdate for toddlers and little kids?

In Seattle, with the likelihood of rain so high (as a torrential downpour occurs outside), the Woodland Park Zoo is set up to be a great playdate idea even if it's drizzly. Many of the exhibits feature indoor structures that give you a closer peek into the exhibit.

Zoos are getting better about being accommodating to patrons of all sizes and abilities, especially toddlers. Our zoo features windows and activities at eye level for toddlers.

For older kids, many zoos offer day camps and themed days (such as treasure hunts) that get them involved with animal and habitat activism.

One of the greatest benefits of zoos (and you know I'm a mom when I say this) is that the variety of animals, excitement of climbing over different structures, and general running around is that kids are tired by the end of the day! That makes this mama feel good when a day of play with Penny's friends is both a highly physical and educational experience.

As Penny gets older, our playdates will evolve to her abilities (though will always include trips to the zoo!). As a pretty outdoorsy family, we've talked about taking the "all American family road trip"for several years and have been holding off until our kids will be old enough to appreciate it. Gosh, I feel so old saying that. When we do get there, I'm keeping Dooce's trip to Moab in mind because A) geology is awesome and B)...geology is awesome! It's funny seeing the family walk around these normally very hot parks in their winter gear, because this Washington girl pulls out the shorts and a t-shirt when it hits 55 degrees.

What is your epic playdate plan for this summer? Will you be taking trips to the zoo, fun camping trips, signing the kids up for cooking classes, or zip lining in Costa Rica? Ps, if you are, please don't let me know, because I'll start whining about how I wanna go zip lining in Costa Rica!!)

See what zoos The Pierogie Mama has written about

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter with #EpicPlaydate #CGC hashtags.

Hyundai's Epic Playdate: Encouraging Sprouting Foodies Through Play

One of my dream playdates? I'd love to encourage Penelope to have an interest in cooking. So introducing her at a young age and making it fun is a great way to start! Our dream playdate would be creating a dish that makes it easy and fun at whatever level Penny and her friends are at. It could be simple sensory play by filling a tub full of Jello and letting the kids go at it, a one or two step dish or going a little more complex and making a whole meal out of it!

Having your toddler be a part of the meal making process helps her begin to develop an understanding and respect for where food comes from (you mean it doesn't just magically appear??) and sets the stage for a healthy lifestyle and autonomy.

Some fun ideas for various abilities:

• Greek Yogurt parfaits
• mini pancake cinnamon rolls 
• Snickerdoodle cookies - let the kids make the balls in their hands and roll the ball around in a bowl of cinnamon/sugar.
• Chocolate dipped pretzels or mashmallows (on a stick). Be sure to dip the pretzels or marshmllows in the chocolate yourself, as it could be hot! But kids will love sprinkling different toppings.
• Fruit and Cheese kabobs - cut up your toddler's favorite fruits and cheeses and help them spear the pieces with a long kabob stick (you can cut off the pointy ends ahead of time).

Of course, it goes without saying, always supervise your child and make sure they can safely play to their abilities! Some of my suggestions are not a good idea for all development levels.

Do you have any meals that your toddler can help you make?

Hyundai’s Epic Playdate Weekend is on April 27 from 9am-5pm in Santa Barbara, CA. Warm up  (#Washingtongirlforlife) Chill out with familiar bloggers (like Dooce, Mighty Girl, Oh Happy Day, Oh Joy, Say Yes To Hoboken, Girls Gone Child, BoingBoing, and How To Be A Dad) on the beach and check out their awesome workshops for kids, like an ice cream sundae bar, paint fight, kids’ photography class, and hula-hooping workshop!

The awesome part? Enter to win a trip for four to the event! The grand prize includes..

Round-trip transportation to Los Angeles for the winners and their families

A two-night stay at a Los Angeles hotel

One night of camping in Shelter Co Luxury tents (that include a camp butler) at Rancho Dos Pueblo in Santa Barbara

Access to family fun activities including making s’mores and building compressed air rockets

$270 in spending money

Some of the rules:

• Readers must have a Pinterest account to enter (see here for complete details)
• Because this is an invite only event, you will need to select The Clever Girl Collective under "How did you hear about us?"

So what are you waiting for?
Enter to win, or comment below and tell me what your epic playdate would be!

 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective,

and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.