Are you ready to win the Kings and Queens of the Forest CD? Kira Willey is giving a CD to one of my readers. Please make sure to check out my review of her fantastic music, and enter using the Rafflecopter form below.
This giveaway is open to residents of the US who are 18 or older. The winner will be randomly chosen by Rafflecopter. Giveaway ends at midnight EST on February 26.
***Disclosure: I have received a product or products in exchange for this review and giveaway. All opinions are my own.***
I shared last week that one of the struggles we have in our house full of little boys, is relaxation. As we have worked on tweaking our rest-time routines over the past several months, one thing has risen to the top of the boy's lists as a must-have in order to be ready for relaxing. That thing? Yoga. That's right. We do 1 song with yoga before nap and bed - right now it is the same song every time, because it is simple and slow. The boys like the "dance" moves and it makes their transition to the bed much simpler.
This is Manasseh during "Mama Nature" about a week ago. Although he does not look thrilled, both boys love the stretching routine as they slow their muscles down for a while.
Personal story: the very first time I tried this with the boys at nap time, Cassius climbed into his bed without any argument and was asleep within 10 minutes, he lay silent and still listening to the other songs on the CD as he drifted to sleep. Usually, Cassius tosses and turns, singing and playing for 1-2 HOURS before falling asleep. You had better believe that I took note of this!
"Lay down like a stick, straight and tall, put your hands to your sides and stretch out your legs long"... I try to convince them. Manasseh, however grows branches every time. Cassius is starting to get branches too.
They love that they can be creative with their bodies during these quiet, focused moments.
We fell in love with Kira Willey's music when Manasseh was an infant. The first time he heard a clip of the "Dance for the Sun" CD, he was crying (like a baby). Immediately he stopped crying and looked at the computer monitor. When it finished, he went back to crying. He did this multiple times. We decided that this must be his first favorite music - we bought the CD that day.
Now we listen to both "Dance for the Sun" and "Kings and Queens of the Forest". The boys love the variety of sounds in her music almost as much as they love dancing to it. They enjoy trying the many yoga moves that Kira has published in the booklet that comes with the CD. I enjoy watching them try new things. Randy and I frequently find ourselves singing the catchy tunes even when we are away from the music for a little while.
Have you heard of Fireflies Musical Yoga for Kids or Kira Willey? Make sure that you check them out. Consider these CDs, complete with instruction, as a way to help create calm in your home or preschool class. You can get one of each (that's 2 CDs) for just $22 right now on the website! Click HERE to listen to some samples of her songs and consider a purchase. It was worth it for us 4 years ago, and is worth it for us today!
***Disclosure: I have received a product or products in exchange for this review and giveaway. All opinions are my own.***
Creating Calm Linky
Link up below with your ideas about creating calm space in your life and family. Please add the linky code (found on the right column of the page) to your post or blog.
Okay, so this is hot cereal, but it's not boxed junk filled with sugar and other weird things that give you all kinds of ridiculous health problems that I just don't even want to think about my kids having...
Fruity Oatmeal
This is not hard folks - if you don't know how to make oatmeal, buy a canister and read the package. Then chuck a bunch of your favorite fruits in it. It was too hot for the boys, so I added some yogurt (seemed like a good change from milk). I also had some leftover banana puree, so I put that into the mix. Mama's oatmeal had peanut butter and banana, no other fruit or yogurt.
What a great way to start the day!
Do you like hot cereal? If so, what do you put in it?
A couple of weeks ago the boys and I went on a "vacation" - it wasn't a real vacation - we stayed at my parent's house for a few days because Monkey had a doctor's appointment in their area, and it was the best way we could work out transportation.
As I planned for our food needs, I was presented with the opportunity to try out Tyson's new Breakfast Bread Bowls. Now, they're not part of our typical diet at home - but we were going to be away, on "vacation" and they're still fairly healthy - certainly healthier than a trip to McDonalds.
We chose to do our shopping at Sam's Club in Indianapolis. My boys LOVE Sam's Club because there are often samples of foods. They were not disappointed by the samples this trip! We wandered the store and looked at some fun ideas for our yard, the boys were impressed by the video selection. We had a short but serious debate about whether or not we should buy some raised garden kits. To read about the whole shopping trip, check out Google +. Then we found the frozen foods. I'm always amazed at the variety of frozen foods that Sam's Club offers. We had a few on our shopping list, so we picked up what we needed for the week. All the staff were friendly and helpful. Our biggest problem? There was a puddle on the floor in front of some of the frozen chicken. If I hadn't been holding onto the shopping cart, I would have fallen down.
Once our cart was filled with all of the goodies on our list, we checked out and got a snack. Sam's Club is tricky like that, they put their nice little cafe right by the registers to entice families with small children. We had planned on getting a snack anyway, the boys always think it's fun to eat when we're in the store. We had pretzels and chatted about our plans for the day. What a fun time we have together when we shop. I hope my boys never grow out of their love for shopping!
I planned to serve our Tyson breakfast bowls with green beans and fresh fruit for dinner one night while we visited. BUT - I'm kind of a dork and prefer to serve the same meal to both of my big boys whenever possible - Crackers can't have eggs - so I had to share with just Monkey while Crackers slept as a lunch one afternoon. These were really good. I had one later that night as a snack... and another the next night... I had one for lunch the next day with green beans as a side while the boys napped. Seriously, the Tyson breakfast bowls were that good, and super easy to make!
My only complaint (other than that they disappeared too quickly) was the size of the bread bowl. It is significantly smaller than I expected based on the packaging. It is probably closer to what I should be eating in one sitting though. Breakfast for dinner became breakfast for lunch, and late night snack. Soon we'll buy some more and share them with Monkey for dinner - I just have to figure out what we'll make for Crackers when we do it!
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias all opinions are my own.
#Cbias
#TysonBreakfast
