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I have this theory, that if the kids eat more protein, they will whine less, sleep better, and be more relaxed. My kids don’t eat enough protein. Still, I’m teaching them what protein is, how much they should eat, and the wide variety of ways there is to find protein. For example, I just learned from the Yoplait Kids website, that if your child weighs 44 pounds, he needs 19g of protein per day. If you’re wondering, Yoplait Kids provides 5 grams of protein per cup of yogurt and 2 grams of protein per bottle of yogurt drink.

Yogurt is the one stand-by high-protein food I always have in the fridge so the kids can give themselves a quick burst of protein whenever they need one. Yogurt is such a great, easy convenient snack food for kids.

I just learned from the Parent Bloggers Network that Yoplait Kids yogurt contains 25% less sugar than other kids’ yogurts, and it contains that vital omega-3 DHA brain-power combination nutrients. DHA can be found in fish and eggs; but whenever I serve that, the kids run away. Now, serving those high-quality nutrients to my kids is as easy as dipping a spoon. Plus, yogurt contains live and active cultures to help kids maintain a healthy digestive tracks.

My kids are very picky about lumps in their yogurt; nor do they want their yogurt to be too watery. Yoplait Kids is creamy and thick enough to stick to the spoon without a dripping mess… and no mess.

PBN asked me to try out Yoplait Kids and they also sent me a Yoplait Kids cooler, a My First Brain Quest game, and a coupon for a free six-pack of Yoplait Kids. If you’d like to win this, just leave a comment here, and I’ll draw the winner on September 8, 2008.

Plus right now, you can go to the Yoplait Kids website and print off your very own $1.50 off coupon — go click, and see.

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One of the greatest joys about having little boys around the house, is that they are still young enough to enjoy the sweet videos from the Playhouse Disney Series.  No guns, no violence, no harsh music. Charlie Pino, from Special Ops Media sent me two of the latest Playhouse Disney Series DVDs to pass on to you. If you’d like to win these, just leave a comment, and I’ll draw a winner by September 10, 2008.

The first one is Disney Little Einsteins - Flight of the Instrument Fairies The Little Einsteins star in four adventure-filled stories including a special never-before-seen episode – a must-see for Little Einsteins everywhere.  With a little music, singing and dancing YOU can help the gang on their quests – so come along on their latest mission of discovery.

The second is Handy Manny - Manny’s Pet Roundup:Click to see the preview here. The pets of Sheetrock Hills are on the loose – and it’s up to Manny and the gang to save the day!  From the popular Playhouse Disney series, Manny’s pet Roundup features adventures and excitement from Manny and his gang of talking tools, including a never before-seen episode with an “a-mazing” game!

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The best thing about Veggie Tales is that when your kids watch them, they have a new sudden interest in vegetables.  Especially, Zucchini.  Soon, I’m standing in the produce department while the kids load my cart with cucumbers, zucchini’s and tomatoes.

Here’s a tip to take advantage of their new-found interest: at home, cut off the fresh veggies and add some salt. They’ll love it, and you’ll have a new veggie convert.

This week, I’m giving away the newest Veggie Tale DVD, VeggieTales®: Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry’s Big River Rescue. Not only will your kids find a new passion for veggies, but they’ll also learn that “while helping others may not be the easiest thing to do, it’s always the right thing to do.”

Full of adventure, Tom and Huck look forward to owning their own land, building a home and opening Huck’s Jerkyland and Tom’s Tax Preparation. (I know… kids and taxes?) When they meet a mysterious stranger who is on the run and trying to find his mama, they have to choose: help someone and risk all they’ve worked for, or leave the stranger on his own. Tough choices.

To win, just leave a comment here, and I’ll draw a winner on September 3, 2008. US Residents only. Thanks to Loni Berman, from Special Ops Media for the DVD.

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I’m always willing to direct my friends to my favorite meal planning website, soscuisine, but only when I’m asked, “What are you doing for dinner?” I love soscuisine for three good reasons:

1. The menus are constantly updated to take advantage of produce that’s currently in-season. This does save money, but the real plus is that this guarantees that I won’t miss out on anything each season. Like, I’d hate to miss fresh peaches.
2. It uses fresh foods; no broccoli casseroles.
3. It’s French… actually it’s Canadian… but French. (Sometimes I like to have a little fun with myself and see how far I can go deciphering the whole site in French. Then I realize I have four boys to take care of, and I don’t have time for this, so I click that “ENGLISH” button in the very, very top right hand corner, and move on.

Tonight, I followed the farmer’s market menu and had pork chops marinated in brown sugar, garlic, and soy sauce, with plain basmati rice, FRESH apples and a tomato basil salad… which I amazingly grew myself.

But sometimes, I improvise… A lot. First, I will explain that I pay very close attention to the grocery list. I buy everything listed that I don’t have. Then, when figuring out what to make for dinner, I scan the menus looking for anything that strikes my fancy. For example, I’m looking at the roasted red pepper soup. I have the red peppers in my fridge, but there is no way my kids will eat that soup, no matter how good it is.

So my mind starts whirring, and soon, I have a meal in my head, based on the red pepper, and a few of the other items on the soscuisine grocery list for the week. Here goes:

1. Cook pasta
2. Cut red peppers and red onions into small pieces
3. Sauté red peppers and onions in olive oil and salt in skillet on stove until perfectly browned – just a tad charred.
4. Add black pepper.
5. Drain pasta; reserve one half of pasta and cover with fresh parmesan cheese.
6. Pour the other half of pasta into the skillet with the red peppers and onions.
7. Add feta and parmesans cheese to skillet… maybe some fresh herbs too.
8. Cut up any fresh fruit available in fridge and put in bowl.
9. Serve plain pasta to the kids; but demand they taste the red pepper onion mixture.

So, instead of red pepper soup that my kids would have hated… we had red pepper pasta. I should probably be a little more cautions about sending people to a meal planning website that I don’t technically use as a meal-planning website. I use soscuisine simply for inspiration. And sometimes, that little spark is all we need in the afternoon.

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I picked up this book at the library, right before we left for the lake, and the facts inside have turned out to be our most used tool, besides our marshmallow sticks, that we use up here. Of course, I never anticipated this much interest in frogs; who could have predicted the lake would have been so abundant with amphibians? Did you know that if a frog’s eardrum is smaller than her eye, she’s a female. Vice versa for a male.

If I had to put my finger on my most valuable, money-saving resource as a Mom, it would have to be our library card. Our family’s first child librarian, Sam, was always quick to set aside books he knew my sons would love. Of course Sam got to know us so well because we did spend quite a bit of time there – sometimes we’d go two times a week for a new pile of “adventures” to plow through. Of course, there was the weekly story times – a built-in playgroup that never leaves your own house dirty. There were the mountains of parenting books, cookbooks and how-to books I’ve devoured — actually books, I still devour. The library has faithfully carried me through each phase of Motherhood.

Children go through a frenzy of fads as they work their way through adulthood. From trains, to Buzz Lightyear and Woody, Batman, Star Wars, and even Madeline, the library has abundantly supplied all the “eye candy” to feed my kids’ curiosity and hunger to know more. The DK books, with their generous diagrams and pictures, have entertained the boys for long stretches of time in the afternoon as they poured over their pages. How awesome that those books never collected dust on my book shelves; because the frenzy for Buzz was all too quickly replaced by an obsession for Pirate Ships. The books are still available at the library, for another child’s obession. If pressed, I don’t think I could put a dollar amount on the books that have passed through our hands at home.

For me, there’s always a movie, a juicy novel, or a magazine to pour over when they kids give me a break. Sometimes, I pinch myself: it’s all free. Still, I do my part to support our local library with our fines — very abundantly.

Of course, you can always pick up some hot blueberries to save your family some money, but be sure to back up your adventure with this great book, Blueberries for Sal.

Still, families need lot of help saving money today. The Parent Bloggers Network is introducing Couponers.com, a tailored on-line coupon service that gives you constant updates for the products you buy the most, at the stores you love the most. Check that site out, and then, grab the kids and head to the library. And, if you’re a blogger, you can join the PBN blog blast too. Thanks PBN, last week, I won $250.

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Quentins, by Maeve Binchy, is a restaurant that serves as a meeting place in many Binchy novels. In this book, Binchy uncovers some of the clandestine meetings, heartbreaks, and stories of love and loss that have taken place in Quentins. The main character, Ella Brady, pulled me in, and I found Maeve to be a talented novelist, who know how to entertain and delight. Quentins, is nothing short of a delicious, saucy, plot-twisting great book.

For my recent trip to the lake, I picked up Firefly Summer, hoping to pull in the same penetrating characters, drama, and resolution as I found in Quentins.

The story in Firefly summer is also filled with dramatic characters, and Maeve is a master at giving us all the details of a lifetime in just two sentences. But the story here is much harder to bear.. this has been a tough read, full of hearbreak. My husband, watching some tears fall from my face as I read, asked, “Why do you keep reading it if it’s so depressing.”

“Because,” I said, “Maeve delivers not only the heartbreak, but also the lessons, the healing and the transformation that eventually comes as life continues to play itself out. For me, I must wait a lifetime for my own heartbreaks to be healed. Here, I can see almost instantly that time does bring healing, in surprising ways.”

It’s a lovely, lovely read.

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Some parents, just to avoid a scene, must avoid the toy aisle when they’re shopping with the kids. Not me… I have to avoid the “underwear aisle.”

True, one may assume, that because I have boys, clothes would not be such a big “issue.” Well, it is a big deal to these boys. Some mornings they ponder over which underwear to wear… and beg me to take them to the store for a bigger selection. I can’t make it out of Kohl’s without one of them finding their way to the underwear section, carefully selecting their attire. As toddlers, my boys were quick to understand that a well-dressed man included one who was well-dressed “underneath.” They quickly discerned the difference between plain white briefs versus the colorful characters of Buzz, Woody, Batman and Power Rangers. Generally, the underwear often became the costume of the day, as they ran around in their underwear and capes.

But when it comes to actually wearing the underwear under clothes, my kids go through a phase where they will just no longer wear underwear. “They’re too tight,” or “They itch,” or “They hurt me,” are common complaints. So they just wriggle them right off, and pull on their pants, and they’re off and running.

PBN asked me to get my boys to try out the new Hanes Comfort-Fit Underwear for Kids, and specifically Hanes No Ride Up Briefs. This was quite a challenge… no one wanted to wear the “whities, as they are truly “boxers only” kind of guys. That was until I proposed the wedgie challenge. “Hanes says these are wedgie proof,” I said. Soon, they were grabbing the package, fighting over who was going to put the pair first.

They tried to wedgie themselves first… no luck. It was only a matter of time before hands were down everyone else’s pants trying to pull up on the underwear… that truly did not “ride up.” After three washings now, the underwear is still tight and snug… I’m amazed and surprised.

Hanes also sent us three pairs of their “will not fly gap” boxers. The plaid colors were just what my sons love. The fabric is a poly-cotton blend, that withstands lots of washing. The waistband is thick and heavy, without digging into the sides. And, because the fly is made with a generous amount of fabric, there is no gap. No embarrassment in the locker room.

Both the briefs and boxers are snug without being too tight, and uncomfortable. No whining about wearing underwear for a change. The underwear is tag-less, eliminating that big complaint of the “itch.” Because of the snug waistband and quality construction, Hanes has lessened my challenge of trying to wrestle with them to get their underwear on in the morning. Hanes is opening up a whole new world to us. Plus, did you know that Hanes offers a guarantee on their underwear. Whether you buy them at the store, or on-line, Hanes will refund your money or replace the item, if you’re own tough customers are not completely satisfied.

On August 22, you’ll have a chance to win Hanes for your own kids. PBN will be holding a blog blast, on that day with all the details.

We also received three pair of the Hanes shaped to fit crew socks. The socks are made with premium yarns, and are knitted tighter to hug the foot, with a better defined heel, to keep that heel from slipping off and sliding right down into the shoe. Soft, tough a durable. How durable? One night, my son wore them outside, without shoes, to catch frogs. Not only did it protect his feet and keep them dry from the dew, but the socks soon became a not-so-lovely shade of dark brown and green. Even after walking on rocks, twigs and mud, there were no holes in the socks. I popped them in the washer for a long soak, and they did not shrink; nor thin out.

I’ll be heading to the underwear department soon to stock up on more Hanes underwear, now that school is starting. The kids are discussing what to get… should they go with the wedige proof whities? It’s a good time to go shopping, as Hanes underwear and socks are offering a free pair — just look for the specially marked packages. You’ll see me there, with the boys who just can’t decide which ones to take to the check-out counter.

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Apparently, there is something highly unusual about a Mom walking around the art museum, baby in sling, with three other little boys at her side.  Never mind the fact that the current exhibit just happened to be $10,000 - $3 million glass Chihuly Vases, standing, uncased, on glass podiums.  There was a hands-on educational program for the kids in the first floor of the art museum.  Part of the assignment was to go upstairs to view the current Chihuly exhibit.  At one moment, I looked up and noticed there were no less than four security guards circling our midst.  One of them, apparently the chief, stood back and talked into his walkie talkie, and said, “I’ve got them covered.”  We had no less than a four-ringed security escort through our entire visit.

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp.

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You know I’m crazy for any tip I can find that will minimize my trips to Wal-mart at the lake. My kids love fresh spinach, bananas, organs and sweet potatoes. However, they barely last a week in the high humid conditions in the lake house.

While shopping for our last batch of produce, my son pulled out a box of Debbie Meyer Green Bags, “As Seen On TV,” from the produce section and said, “Mom, this will help us keep our food fresher.”

Intrigued, I threw the bags in the cart, and took them home. While I unloaded the car, my son read the instructions on the box: The box contained 20 bags, large and small.

• Don’t wash the produce until it’s ready for use.
• Put produce in bag.
• Fold bag over to close – twist teas create holes in the bag.
• Re-use bag 8-10 times.
• Wipe moisture out of the bag as it accumulates.

So far, so good. The bananas are still green after one week. The onions have a strong odor, so I began storing them in the bags, in the refrigerator.

The biggest hassle is wiping out the moisture as it accumulates – almost every day. I came out with a fast solution – I take the produce out, and wipe it dry with a dishtowel. Then, I turn the bag inside out, so that the dry-side is against the fruit, and put the produce back inside.

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When I do manage to pull myself and the boys away from the lake… as late as possible, we’ll be checking out the new movie, Fly Me To the Moon, which opens August 15. A rated-G family movie, full of adventure. Just the thing to keep my 4-year-old from asking if I’ll take him to see the new Batman Movie… which isn’t an option.

I just watched the trailer for Fly Me To the Moon, and I am in love with this movie. Insects are flying to the moon, but they must keep it a secret from their Mom. The lines are based on the actual transcripts and the original blueprints from NASA, which adds “The Right Stuff” Drama to the entire insect mission. I won’t give away all the details… you can read more about them here.

This is the first animated film shot in 3-D for 3-D.

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