DIY Wall Murals Review

DIY Wall Murals by Elephants of the Wall are paint by numbers for grown –ups! Create hand painted murals for your new baby or your children’s bedrooms. Anyone can do this.  Very easy to use – just tape, trace and paint. Each wall art mural kit includes the paper pattern (design), transfer paper, directions and a color guide. You will need to buy the paints, a couple of paint brushes and painters tape. There are so many designs to choose from: trucks, princesses, jungle themes, owls and so many more.

As seen in the March 2012 issue of Kalamazoo Parent Magazine.

Here are some pictures from our owl mural that we painted on the kids bedroom wall. Super easy to do and I even let me daughter help a bit also. She had lots of fun. We finished it in one evening.

Blank Canvas (Wall)

Tracing the design. I had to go back over where my daughter traced (but she doesn't know that and thinks she helped, which is really what counts).

Painted the tree and leaves.

Added owls

Like I said, this was really easy to do and I began it and finished it on a Friday night. It would have been easier on lighter walls, but the kids bedroom walls were already painted and worked with what we had. Everyone that has seen it has been very impressed. Check out their HUGE selection of murals to choose from. Highly recommend.

7 Best Buys in February

As February unfolds into a bouquet of overpriced flowers, take solace in knowing the whole month need not be dedicated to sonnets and sappy romantic comedies. There are several best buys to be had this month with an extra day to rake in the savings on February 29.


Take a break from all things pink and peruse The Best Time to Buy Guide from FreeShipping.org to score some serious savings. Here are seven such items to get you started.

1. Boats

Wakeboarding season is still a few months off -- for most of us, anyway -- but winter represents one of the best times to buy a boat. New models are often available in early spring, so boat dealerships are eager to empty their lots for new inventory. Experts suggest shopping dealerships to avoid paying boat-show expenses.

2. Cameras

Kodak may be going under but that doesn't mean your best moments should go uncaptured. Last year's camera models can be found at reduced prices on the cusp of new releases. In fact, you can get Best Buy free shipping plus discounts on select digital cameras and camcorders through Feb. 4.

3. Prom Dresses

Your teenage daughter's most anticipated dance of the year is just a few months away, and retailers are eager to outfit her in the latest styles. Since it's, like, so lame to wear the same dress more than once, encourage your budding fashionista to sell her current stock of formal wear to a consignment shop for money to put toward a new garment.

4. Home Theaters

If you're looking to upgrade your big screen, February is one of the best months to justify the expense. Thanks to Super Bowl hype and the introduction of new models to the market, home theater systems are at their best prices of the year.

5. Weddings

If you haven't picked a wedding date yet, consider a time outside the peak season of May to October for substantial savings. February weddings offer an intrinsically romantic feel, but beware of inflated red-rose prices. Opt for a different flower species to keep yourself in the black. For other money-saving tips on weddings, check out this article from Seattle PI.

6. Winter Coats

Winter coats and other cold-weather attire become increasingly cheaper as spring approaches, but selection will continue to diminish. Unless you want to be stuck with last year's orange Muppet-fur parka, stock up now on discounted outerwear for next season.

7. Cauliflower

Cruciferous veggie fans, unite! Cauliflower and broccoli are in season at winter farmer's markets, representing one of the few available fresh produce items in February. If supermarkets are more your bag, you can still find great deals on citrus including oranges, lemons and grapefruit.

Yes, I bought my 1 Year old a Spinning Toothrush

I will admit it. I bought my 1 1/2 year old a Thomas the Train Spinning Toothbrush. Does he care, or even know who Thomas the Train is? No, but he was fighting me more and more about brushing his teeth and I was searching for something that would make it more interesting and less of a daily fight and thought maybe the toothbrush would help.

I apologize to the mom in the toothbrush aisle that happened upon us as we were shopping for the perfect new toothbrush with her little one. I heard you tell your child that they could not have the big toothbrush because it was too big for them. Which may be true, or it could be you didn't want to spend the money. Either way, I respect that. I hope you did the same.

Did I really want to buy a spinning toothbrush for my toddler? No. Did I want something new and exciting that would make brushing his teeth an easier job? Absolutely!

The difference between him locking his mouth closed and my trying to pry open his mouth with his plain, regular toothbrush or him opening his mouth, laughing, letting me brush his teeth a little and he wants to help - that is priceless. I will buy him the more expensive toothbrush every time, but I don't think I will have to. After 6 kids, I know that this will only last a short time and he will move on to something else. By then I hope he has accepted that brushing his teeth is just a part of getting ready in the morning to start his day and getting ready at night before going to bed.

I still buy the the Little Bear training toothpaste for my 4 year old. I have tried and wasted money on many other children's toothpastes and she just doesn't like them. When she is ready, she will move on to another toothpaste, but for now her and little bear meet at least twice a day and she brushes her teeth with little to know problem at all.



I don't think it is that different than the children's dentists that have movies to watch while the kids are getting their teeth cleaned and examined or the token they get at the end of their appointment for the prize machine. The ultimate goal is good dental hygiene when they are little, so as they get older, things will be just part of their normal everyday life.

Happy Brushing!

Back To school

It is time to start thinking back to school. I know many homeschoolers and many parents that are just looking for some great extra help to give their kids. Have you checked out Education.com? They have a great selection of worksheets that can be used for a variety of subjects, for a wide range of abilities. Check them out. I will be using them for the OASIS Science Club I am leading for pre-k through 4th grade in Paw Paw. There are still openings and will meet every other Tuesday afternoon starting mid-September.

Troll of Mackinac Book Review

The Troll of Mackinac

By: K.C. Thorne
Illustrated by: Vickie Johnson

The author, Kevin Thorne lives in Kalamazoo, but he grew up just north of the Mackinac Bridge and his love for the area is evident in his book The Troll of Mackinac. It is a delightful story of 2 children camping with their family in northern Michigan and how one morning they meet a troll. At first they are scared of the troll, but they soon learn that he is a kind creature who is over 400 years old! The troll shares with them the story of his life which is full of Michigan history. The gentle rhyming story reminds me of the gentle waves hitting the rocks along many Michigan shorelines.

The illustrations by Vickie Johnson are the perfect companion to the troll’s adventure. Be sure to look for the troll hidden in each picture throughout the story. I couldn’t help but remember my childhood trips to northern Michigan and the Mackinac Bridge as I looked at the illustrations.

Highly recommend this book. Great family book and great if your child is studying Michigan history.

Also written by K.C. Thorne:

Family Treasure Hunting

FAMILY TREASURE HUNTING
3 Easy Steps to Summertime Fun

As seen in the July issue of Kalamazoo Parent Magazine

Geocaching.com helps launch a family-friendly summer adventure by combining the outdoors, exercise and technology. Geocaching is a free, rapidly growing game that engages kids in the outdoor world through a technology-based treasure hunt. Geocaching offers kids and parents a fun and challenging way to exercise, problem solve (caches are often cleverly hidden) and learn cardinal directions, basic math and spatial concepts.

Finding your family’s first geocache is just three easy steps away:


- Register for a free account on Geocaching.com


- Power up a GPS device or a purchase a Geocaching.com app for the iPhone, Android platform or Windows Phone 7 for $9.99


- Step out your front door and begin your family’s treasure hunting adventure!

A geocache is typically a hidden container holding small trinkets for trade and a log book. A geocacher hides the cache, plots its location and uploads the GPS coordinates, along with a description and hint, to Geocaching.com. There are more than 1.3 million geocaches hidden around the world, with hundreds of thousands of geocaches in the United States.

There are more than 20,000 geocaches listed on Geocaching.com for the state of Michigan. That's one family-friendly treasure hunting adventure every two square miles! Even the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary in Augusta, MI has 4 geocaches, including a multi-cache that takes you throughout the Bird Sanctuary.

The Battle Creek/Calhoun County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) has a Geocaching Contest that runs now through 10/31/2011. There are 3 different series of courses in Calhoun County (Battle Creek, Marshall and Albion). On each hidden cache is a special code. Write down each code. After you have completed a series, take the codes into the Calhoun County Visitors Bureau on E. Michigan Ave in Battle Creek for your prize! If you complete all three in the series, you will be registered to win a grand prize of a weekend getaway to Battle Creek/Calhoun County. You can download the brochure and all the information at http://www.cachecalhouncounty.org/ .

Geocaching is very popular in the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek area. Tara and her family geocache around town and they even love to hunt for caches while on vacation. They once found one in Door County, WI that took them to a beautiful bluff overlooking Lake Michigan that she says was absolutely breathtaking, “We would have never seen this special spot if it hadn’t been for geocaching.”

When asked about her family’s favorite geocaching memory, Tara shares that it was her daughter’s first geocache adventure in the winter 2008 when she was just about to turn 2 and they went on a geocache hunt through a cemetery. It was one they could easily drive close to where the cache was hidden and her daughter was very excited to be able to pick something from the “treasure box” as she called it. A bonus was her excitement about finding some bunnies hiding in some bushes nearby.  

Tara offers these tips for families with young children:
1) Always go for the geocaches that are at least "regular" size, anything smaller may not keep their interest and it may be too hard for them to find.

2) Bring along a bag of trinkets so that if the geocache has little toys or trinkets that you can let your child pick one out to keep. The geocaching motto for leaving trinkets is "trade up, trade even, or don't trade". Leave something of equally good or better value in its place.

3) Another motto of geocaching is "cache in, trash out." Bring a trash bag along with you on your walks and pick up any trash along your way. It is a great way to teach children about taking care of the earth while having fun!

Keith and his family have been geocaching around Kalamazoo and the United States for just over 2 ½ years and have racked up an impressive 6000 geocaches. His kids (11 & 14) agreed their best caching memory was the E.T. Highway in Nevada this past Christmas. Keith explains that “It was a power trail that had 1,021 caches on it, one cache about every 1/10 of a mile for over 110 miles.” Even though it was raining their first day, they still managed to find 552 caches!

When Keith and his family were first starting out they looked for caches along the bike paths in the area. They would ride their bikes or roller blades to the caches. He also recommends when first starting out, finding the larger caches. You can tell the size of the cache if you look at the top of the cache page listing on http://www.geocaching.com/ . He also suggests looking at the logs and seeing if it has been found recently, “if there is a few Did Not Finds I would stay away from it.”

What are you waiting for? It was easy to register for a free account at http://www.geocaching.com/ . We downloaded an application to our cell phones (our cell phones have GPS) and we were off. Now every time we go to the park where we found our first “cache” our daughter talks about the treasure we found there and she is ready to go on another treasure hunt.

Connecting Friends of KalamazooParent.com: Laundry Tips

Connecting Friends of KalamazooParent.com: Laundry Tips