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Do You Love House Hunters? Here’s Why it is Such a Great Mental Break.

by Carolyn 6 Comments

Sometimes you just need a mental break. If it has been a long week or I am stressed out with a long to do list I just need to sit down for few minutes and regroup. This is when I find I am turning on House Hunters over and over. Why is this?

I love to watch House Hunters. It gives me such a good mental break that I started wondering why it is such a pick me up. Here are 3 reasons why.

I find myself even using it as motivation to get a dreaded chore completed. Such as, if I clean the kitchen as quickly as possible I will allow myself 1 House Hunters. When I really thought about this the other day it struck me as odd. I have watched so many that I can barely find any that I haven’t already seen. I even like lots of other shows much better so why is it this particular show that helps me regroup? This is when I started to look at it and see why it is so mentally relaxing.

  1. It has the same format each show. Every time you watch, you know that they are going to be introduced, you look at 3 homes and then they decide which home is their favorite and then there is a short segment where they show the family after they move in.
  2. There is always a happy ending. They may have been saving for a new and bigger house or just moving to a different area but everyone always ends up with a house.
  3. It is short. I DVR these shows so I never watch commercials. This means it is only 20 mins to watch it. This is a perfect amount of time to regroup and be mentally ready for my next task.

This show has been on for 13 seasons. This must mean that I am not the only one who watches it. I even remember when they had the other female host and the doorbell would ring whenever the next house would be shown. 🙂 Anyone else remember that? They certainly have improved and perfected the show and even my kids are now willing to watch it. This makes me super happy when I am tired of cartoons.

Anyone else watch these to decompress or find them very relaxing like I do?

Filed Under: Raising Kids

Preschool Drop-off With a Clingy Child. Tips to Stop The Crying.

by Carolyn 18 Comments

Do you have a child that just can’t handle preschool drop-off? I have 3 children and my youngest is what is known as “Mommy’s Girl” which is otherwise known to me as “She Won’t Go to Anyone Else if Mommy is Around”. It can be tiring and draining especially when school drop-offs become so difficult that you consider just not even taking her. Or leaving her with a trusted babysitter is so difficult that you find yourself not scheduling as many date nights.

Clingy Child | Preschool Drop-off | 3 tips that helped my clingy daughter handle preschool drop-off. Whenever she starts to cry at drop-off I remember these steps and it goes back to a hug and a wave. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Raising Kids

How to Make a Girls $5 Dress Look Boutique

by Carolyn 3 Comments

Here in the south we love monograms. There is nothing like a monogram to make clothing look expensive. For years, I have always kept my eye out for inexpensive clothes that would look good with a monogram.

The places I look for these clothes are Walmart, Old Navy and Target. If you keep your eye out you can find shirts and dresses that just take a little dressing up to look boutique.

Here are two dresses I purchased last week at Walmart and took to my friend that monograms.

I purchased a dress for less than $5 and made it look like it came from a boutique.

Can you believe these were $4.97? I think they now look much more expensive.

I bought this dress for less than $5 and made it look like it was from an expensive boutique.

Usually you can find someone that does embroidery out of their home if you ask friends or local Facebook groups. I find they are a little less expensive than a retail store and they actually have more options in fabrics and colors. Plus, I always need a little help with creativity. I ask her for ideas of good colors and fonts and this time I just said “Surprise Me”.

I can’t wait for summer to break these out. Because they are so inexpensive, I let her wear them just as an everyday dress and we will, for sure, get our moneys worth out of them.

So keep your eye out at the big box stores and dress up your finds.

I bought this dress for less than $5 and made it look like it was from an expensive boutique.

Filed Under: Fashion

The Best Potty Training Tip that Can Involve Siblings Too!

by Carolyn 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

Getting through the potty training stage can seem like an insurmountable challenge. You read a ton of books and information about how best to introduce your child to the potty. While all my kids had different methods of learning to go on the potty, this method of positive reinforcement worked on all of them.

I came up with this way of rewarding my kids because I had twins but it works for any kid especially if they have siblings. Everyone always talks about using MnM’s as a training tool. When your child pees or poops you give them one or a couple and they are happy and hopefully (keep your fingers crosses) they want to keep earning more candy and do it again and again. Sometimes it works and sometimes it backfires.

The Best Potty Training Tip that Siblings can get Involved Too! I came up with this when I had twin boys and wanted everyone to be happy when either one of them had success.

This was going to be a problem for me when I had twins training at the same time. I didn’t like having one kid eating MnMs and the other one not getting any treat and being upset. I also wanted to avoid any competitiveness in who could earn more. One of my sons I could tell would be discouraged if he saw his brother get more than him or having success faster and probably wouldn’t want to try anymore. I think the problem is the same with any sibling watching this situation. They get jealous and upset that one kids is earning candy and they aren’t. Enter my solution…

The Lollipop Party!

When the child that is training goes pee or poop, everyone in the house gets a treat and we all make it a really big deal. That child earns everyone in the house a Lollipop Party, even Mom and Dad. We all dance around and thank the child that earned them and everyone in the house is thrilled. This makes the child that is training so proud of themselves. Immediately the other siblings jump in the potty training game become very involved in the training process. You should see the siblings the next time it is time to “try to go potty”, they all gather around cheering.

At first I thought having lollipops was a bit excessive but it worked for us. My youngest didn’t go more than 4 times a day and usually the other kids were only home for 1 or 2 of them. Plus this “party every time” only happened the first 2 – 3 days of training. It was so worth it to see how proud they were for earning everyone a lollipop. I would have that child pass out the lollipops. For some reason it was especially a big deal to give Daddy a lollipop and watch him eat it. My husband is not a lollipop lover but I made him pretend to enjoy it. It was his role in supporting potty training in our house to actually eat the lollipop that was offered…so difficult Honey, glad you could help us… Ha!

Obviously this could work with any treat you come up with besides lollipops. I used the small Dum Dum lollipops so it was like having a very small piece of candy. This can also work with a child that doesn’t have siblings. It is amazing how giving children are and how it makes it such a bigger deal to them to earn candy for you and for them rather than just for themselves. Instead of saying, please just go potty for me to make my life easier, you can say “OMG, Mommy is dying for some candy, can you earn some for me? Please!”. 🙂

If you are about to potty train a child, think of having them earn the treat not just for themselves but for everyone in the house. Make it a party!

In case you are interested, we used the Bjorn Potty Seat. This worked great for little boys especially due to the front lip on the seat.

And my daughter was obsessed with this book and it is still nightly reading 2 years later…potty humor never gets old I guess!

 

Filed Under: Raising Kids

Mommy’s Favorite Board Game Where Everyone Wins and Nobody is Crying at the End!

by Carolyn 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosure here.

Normally I am against the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality but sometimes I just can’t handle the crying involved in board games with siblings. Anyone else with me? 🙂 Someone is always crying at the end because they aren’t the winner. It is just so tiring that sometimes I avoid playing at all. Until…I found Mommy’s Favorite Board Game where everyone wins and nobody is crying at the end. A Miracle!

Mommy's Favorite Board Game Where Everyone Wins and Nobody is Crying at the End

Now, we don’t play this every time we play board games because I do believe in teaching the lesson that not everyone can win. But, sometimes there are nights that I am just too tired to be teaching life lessons and I want us to all have a good experience together.

Enter, Richard Scarry’s Busytown Game.

Favorite Board Game Where Everyone Wins

There is a little bit of individual movement but the only way to win is to all work together and all win together. Let’s say the educational aspect of this game is team work but the real deal is that everyone is happy.

Mommy's Favorite Board Game Where We are all Winners

It is actually a fun game and I am extremely picky when it comes to games. My kids like it to and they are 8 year old twin boys and a 4 year old girl. So if you are tired of the tears from someone not being the winner, then I would highly suggest this one. Do you know of any others? Please share.

Filed Under: Raising Kids

DIY Cardboard Box Horse Stable

by Carolyn

DIY Cardboard Box Stable to fit American Girl Horse

I am always so impressed with my husband’s creativity. Britton has been asking for a stable for her AG-style horse which is pretty large. We both received new bikes as Christmas presents so after he assembled our bikes he thought the box would make a great DIY cardboard box horse stable.

Daddy Cardboard Box Stable

Isn’t he a good Dad? I am thankful we have at least one creative parent in this family.

Here is what he did. He cut the box on the top so he could tape it together to make a pitched roof. Don’t worry about the kind of tape you use as it will be covered up later with paper shingles. He used a box cutter. Then he cut the side and cut it in half to make a barn door that swings open on the top or bottom.

DIY Cardboard Box Stable

He decided to paint it white because that is what we had on hand (we weren’t going to spend any money on this thing) and he told her that afterwards she could put stickers all over it. What little girl doesn’t love to decorate with stickers? 🙂

Painted DIY Cardboard Box Stable

The next day, once it dried, I let her take over and add shingles. I just cut construction paper into thirds and let her use a glue stick to put them on the roof. This was the fun part for her to put her touch on the stable. Matt drew the barn door and window.

Roofing DIY Cardboard Box Stable

It has been a huge hit. She has played with it for hours already. I am thrilled for her. One day she may get the real toy stable but for right now this is so fun for her. I like showing our daughter that you can make your own toys out of cardboard boxes. Not everything has to be brand new and perfect.

What have your kids made out of boxes?

 

Filed Under: Crafts

How to set Parental Controls on NetFlix – Learned After a Big Mommy Fail

by Carolyn 3 Comments

So it happened! The big mommy fail yesterday. One of my children woke up at 6:05 am on a weekend morning and after having him poke me in the back a hundred times I just handed over my iPad and told him to go entertain himself in the family room while the rest of us all slept. Over an hour later, I come out and just heard cartoon type voices so think nothing of it until…Bam…all sorts of inappropriate jokes. I find out he is watching American Dad. An adult cartoon. This one is about women who work the pole (I don’t even want to type the name here due to internet searches) and there are lots of jokes about crabs and other totally inappropriate things.

OMG!!!

How to Set Parental Controls on Netflix - After a Big Mommy Fail

I completely freak out but try to hold myself under some control because it is my fault. I never set up the parental controls on his Netflix profile and I have been meaning to do it. A few months ago he was watching a teen movie that I didn’t really like but it wasn’t as completely inappropriate like the show yesterday. It had made me think I needed to set up the controls but of course I never got around to it.

So this morning I started my research on how to get the controls set. Turns out you must be on a computer, not a mobile device to do it. Probably reason number 1 why this wasn’t done before now because we only watch Netflix on our mobile devices.

It was very simple once I figured out my password. I can never remember them so I had to have them email me to reset it.

How to set Parental Controls on Netflix

  1. Be on a computer, not a mobile device.
  2. Sign in and go to My Account
  3. Click My Profile – Manage Profiles
  4. Click on the Profile you want to change the controls. Everyone in my family has their own profile. So I clicked on my 2 boys and made their choice for Older Kids and Below. My daughters I selected Little Kids Only.
  5. Then hit Complete

I feel so much better!!

Here are the 4 choices you have as control options

Movies:

Little KidsOlder KidsTeensAdults
GPGPG-13, TV-14R, NC-17, NR, UR

TV:

Little KidsOlder KidsTeensAdults
TV-Y, TV-GTV-Y7, TV-Y7-FV, TV-PGTV-14TV-MA

Go take the time to do it for your kids and save yourself the awkward conversation I had to have with my almost 8 year old about what he saw.

By the way, want to know the show my kids are obsessed with lately? The Little Couple! I am thrilled they want to watch a show that I also like to watch. I am so tired of Curious George and Doc McStuffins.

Filed Under: Raising Kids

Fun and Easy Way to Keep Your Preschooler Learning this Winter

by Carolyn 2 Comments

As you are starting to learn, I am all about short-cuts. 🙂 When my boys were 3 years old I was running out of ideas of how to keep them busy during the winter months. I am not a crafty person so I used to read homeschooling blogs to get some ideas of easy crafts and fun educational things to do with the kids. Some of the crafts I had a hard time doing because I just don’t keep a lot of craft supplies on hand.

Fun and Easy Way to Keep Your Preschooler Learning this Winter

One day I was reading a blog that is no longer in existence and she was not a home school mom but had purchased a month of home school curriculum from a company called The Learning Box. From her pictures I figured out that it was just what I needed. It has a book that walks you through each days activities like you are a preschool teacher and best of all…..it has all the crafts and craft supplies ready in individual packets! No need to pre-cut or gather a ton of supplies. On Day 1 is all of Day 1 activities in individual bags, even the craft. Go to the site and look at the sample pages. It is amazing.

I bought 1 month and it lasted me about 3 months because I didn’t do it every day and honestly I would skip around a bit and do the activities that I wanted to do and skipped some others. It was great for a person like me who needs things spelled out for them and needs the craft supplies pre-cut and all ready in one packet.

Learning Box

This company really does everything for you and the kids have so much fun with the activities. It may seem a bit pricey but not having to buy tons of craft supplies that would just sit in my closet helped justify the price. This Learning Box is a full curriculum such as the whole month is based on one theme. I think this January is a Polar Bear theme so the box will come with a book about Polar Bears and the songs, activities and crafts every day will all be based around the theme.

If you just want crafts I also recommend the Alex Busy Box of Crafts. I love that box too for having everything right there ready for you. I talk a little more about it in this post of gifts my 3 year old received and my thoughts.

Please share any ideas that you have with me too? I am always looking for easy crafts to do with the kids.

This post is not sponsored by the Learning Box. I just really loved the product and wanted to share. 

Filed Under: Raising Kids

5 Tips for Taking Your Kids Skiing for the First Time

by Carolyn 2 Comments

Since we just got back from our first family ski trip, I thought it would be helpful to share what worked for us and made our trip a success.

We went to Gatlinburg, TN for our first trip. I have 3 kids, twin boys who are almost 8, a daughter that is 4 and my husband who is a beginner as well. It was a little intimidating planning the trip and worrying how everyone would handle learning a new skill. Especially because I was the only one in our immediate family that is an experienced skier. I really wanted them to all have a good experience and love it.

5 Tips for Taking Your Kids Skiing for the First Time

Here are the top 5 tips for taking your kids skiing for the first time.

  1. Book your lessons before you get there. Let the experts teach them the proper technique for their first time on skis. I am an experienced skier but I am not at the level to teach others. Plus, I am not the most patient person in the world (both my sisters are cracking up right now if they are reading about me talking about patience).
  2. Get a locker for your shoes and extras. Don’t think your kids will walk from the car to the slopes in their ski boots like you have in the past. The first time they are in the ski boots they have a very difficult time walking. Have them walk as close as you can to the slopes then put their ski boots on and we have one adult take all the shoes back to the locker.
  3. Get to the slopes early. Most people don’t show up until about 11:00am. My kids are early risers so it was no problem for us to get there right when the slopes opened at 9:00am. This means we had over an hour with hardly anyone on the slopes. This helps make the whole situation less stressful and intimidating. If we had a bunch of people around like I saw in the afternoon it would have been very distracting.
  4. Plan on an early lunch. My kids were hungry at 11:00am. The first day they had their lesson at 9:00 am and then had worked on the bunny slope for another hour and after 2 hours of really using their brains and bodies they were ready for a break. I find eating at the real restaurant with servers is a good idea for our crew. It is too stressful for me to try to deal with carrying trays of food and drinks for a lot of people. Plus we needed a break so actually sitting down at a table was a good idea.
  5. Leave them wanting more. Isn’t that a classic saying? 🙂 But it is true! Be sure to leave when you hear the first “I’m cold” or “I’m tired” statement. Don’t push beginners past the point of exhaustion. We made sure to only do about an hour more after lunch and then went tubing. This made them really excited to go back the next morning.

Using all these tips helped make our trip way more successful than I expected. I had planned to only have them ski 2 days and they ended up begging to ski all 3 days. I just love ski trips so am looking forward to having a new family activity.

Any recommendations on where we should go for our next ski trip?

For my post on our thoughts of Gatlinburg as a ski destination. Click Here.

This post will be shared at my favorite linky parties.

Filed Under: Let's Travel, Raising Kids

Fennell Family Life

by Carolyn Leave a Comment

Has anyone else had so much fun with the lottery being so high? I love the conversations we have of what we would do, where we would buy a vacation home (beach vs mountains), etc. It is worth the price of the tickets just for hearing my boys funny ideas. One wants 365 footballs so he won’t get yelled at for leaving them outside, everyday he can just get a new one. My husband wants 365 pairs of new underwear. Too funny!

Lottery

A couple weeks ago I mentioned freshening up our family room decor. It is such a slow process. I found this basket when I was rushing through HomeGoods for something else and it will be perfect to go above our fireplace. We have these weird nooks 2 stories high that I have no clue what to do to make them look good. I have found a couple random pieces to throw up there and need to find more.

Basket

We are doing something fun this weekend since it is MLK so this blog may be a little quiet. I’ll tell you all about it next week.

Let’s test out a video to see if I can get it working. Click Here. 🙂 We found the boys old balance bike and Britton immediately loved it. She is getting pretty good and will probably be riding her regular bike without training wheels soon. I love these things.

 

 

Filed Under: Family Updates

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Welcome to Fennell Seeds. I am Carolyn Fennell and I have twin boys and a little girl. Do you feel like you are struggling to keep up with your house, life and all the little things? Let's figure out short cuts and helpful tips together. Welcome! Read more...

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