Modern Parents Messy Kids

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Simple Print Making

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I can't believe it's already Wednesday, short weeks always seem to wreak havoc on my schedule. Plus today was C's last day of preschool (Aggh! He must stop growing. Right. This. Minute.)   Anyway, no more school means it's time to start stocking up on ways to engage the kids over the summer. Kaley's gorgeous DIY play dough post was a good start and I'm at eHow this week posting on another kid art classic: bubble wrap print making.  Did you ever try this when you were young? The results … [Read more...]

Good Coffee

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Happy memorial day weekend!  How are you spending your day off?  The family and I are working outside on the yard as much as possible.  Now that summer is officially here, I wanted to quickly pop in and share my new favorite summer drink - iced coffee via the Keurig.   I know the newest version of the Keurig has an iced coffee setting but mine doesn't and, honestly, even if it did I probably couldn't be bothered to think far enough ahead to buy the special iced coffee k-cups. Instead I go … [Read more...]

Playgrounds Gone Natural: Play Gardens

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photos counter clockwise from top: The Imagination Tree, Pinterest, Paint on the Ceiling   After first writing about playgrounds and backyards going natural, I was so excited to hear you all wanted to come along on my journey in building S and C their own natural play space.  I've thought a lot about how best to approach this new series and I think the simplest route is to use each post to spotlight a different possible element.  Today we're talking about play … [Read more...]

What to Wear: Building Your Modern Mom Wardrobe

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I have a confession to make, I've sort of (OK I've really) let myself go in the fashion department since having kids.  At first it was because of the post-baby bod... then it was because of my need for everything to be breastfeeding-friendly... when that was done I was pregnant again and the cycle started all over.   But no more, I'm finally excited about getting my cute back!  The problem is I still don't know exactly what to wear.  So I've enlisted the help of MPMK's newest contributor … [Read more...]

What Is a Ritual?

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From the time I became a parent, it seems I've heard from everyone (family, parent educators, etc.) how important family traditions are.  I've already talked about how much I like the idea of starting birthday traditions but now that C is nearly 4 (gulp), I'm really starting to realize the value of the little rituals that make our family unique - our everyday traditions. That's why I asked Meg Cox, a journalist, author, and family traditions guru, with the rather impressive credentials of … [Read more...]

Pinned

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Happy Friday everyone.  You may have noticed I've been playing around with sharing some of my favorite pins lately.  I wasn't sure if I'd keep it up (it's surprisingly hard to pick a few finds out of all my boards) but then Pinterest did something kind of wonderful.  They sent me an email highlighting my most popular pins.  So here are this week's road tested and approved picks:Pretty fish station via my Design with Kids in Mind board - the perfect meeting of form for mom and function for the … [Read more...]

POYEL: Decluttering Weekend

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Two Fridays ago I told you we were shipping the kids off to the grandparents for the weekend with the goal of decluttering pretty much the entire house while they were away.  Today I thought I'd give you the quick and dirty on how it all went down.  We didn't quite cover the entire house, our office and a few random drawers remain, but overall we were very pleased with our progress.      My husband almost completely cleaned out our garage (previously known as the black hole) and I … [Read more...]