Milkshakes and Margaritas — a blog for the modern mom

Happy Halloween Everyone

A Gingerbread House for Every Season

In our house, we love gingerbread houses in any form. So when we found a kit for a haunted mansion gingerbread house at Cost Plus, Cash and I were ecstatic.

It comes complete with the pre-cut gingerbread pieces, frosting mix, and candy decorations. Cash drew a cool spider and web on the roof and made adorable skeletons with the candies.

With a little research, you can find a gingerbread house idea for any holiday, including Easter, Valentine's Day and even St. Patrick's Day. The I found a great selection of inspiration on about.com

For the Christmas season, check out the Wonka Gingerbread Kit, or if you are a real do-it-yourself-er, check out The Gingerbread Architect.

And the best thing about gingerbread houses, of course, is that you eat them at the end!

It's Almost Halloween

Witches are brewing and eyeballs are rotting. Time to get in the mood. One of my favorite ways is to have a movie night with The Nightmare Before Christmas with my boys.

 And don't forget all the great halloween stories out there. Check out our Halloween book round up up for ideas.

The Lovely Ladies of Glug

Kristen Pena and her husband Luis started the Glug Collection of clothing after their daughter Sadie was born, seeing it as an opportunity to channel their creative energy into something that would allow them to spend more time with her. The two, who both worked in advertising, started out selling their eclectic designs at a few boutiques around town and they are now sold around the world and have been pictured on celebrity babies in magazines. As the business (and her family) grew, Kristen invited her friend, Meredith Ashworth, to join the company. The women, who each have two young children, work side-by-side and help each other juggle the demands of work and parenting.

Read on to hear how they got started, what inspires them and where the name "Glug" came from.

Vegetables, Vegetables, Vegetables Everywhere

I always feel guilty whenever I turn to the freezer to feed my two sons but so often we are running to or from something that it is hard to make a fresh meal even though I usually have vegetables in the crisper. The biggest hurdle for me seems to be chopping. So this weekend, I diced a bunch of different vegetables and put them in glass containers in the fridge. If I don't use them all, I will move some to the freezer in baby food jars. That way I can thaw them out in one portion at a time.

This time, I included yellow, red and green peppers, zucchini, onions and butternut squash. But it could be anything, asparagus, beets, parsnips, whatever. I figure I can throw them quickly into a little olive oil and saute them to put into mini frittatas, fold into a crepe or quesadilla, or throw into a quick omelet. They will also go well with macaroni and cheese or even pasta. It seems like a quick and easy way to get a variety of vegetables into dishes all week and easily whip up a fresh meal.

Delicious and Spooky

If you are having a little halloween gathering this year. Try out this easy cake decorating tip from Country Living. Simply cut out the shape on the stencil, lay on top of your cake, and sprinkle colored sugar.

Art They'll Grow Into

If you are looking for some great prints for your child's (or your) room — check out the art of Wayne Pate. He has several charming prints for $35. They are all standard sizes so you can easily pick up a frame from ikea or aaron brothers... and voila! I love the sea gull, it'd be super cute in a nautical themed room.

Etsy Halloween Round Up

Clockwise from top left: Reversible Super Hero Capes, Ogre Toes (cookies), Skeleton Baby Leggings, Glow in the dark kids tie

Fast Food for Babies

My baby Catcher loves to eat. But in juggling his six-year-old brother's busy schedule, I don't always get time to sit him down in his high chair to eat every meal. And if I give him a container of food to hold in the stroller, he'll just dump it out. Yesterday I made the greatest discovery -- if I put food in the scoop of his Kiddopotamus "Bibbity" he can eat directly out of it! I tried it first with banana pieces and he reached right into the bib's pocket and gobbled them up. Brilliant!

 As I was running with the stroller to pick up a book at the library for my older son, I joked to Catcher that he had fast food. His mouth was too full to laugh.

I love the Kiddopotamus line of feeding accessories anyway. We made one trip to a local spaghetti restaurant without one and left nearly an entire plateful of dropped pasta (with sauce!) on the floor. But when we went back with the combo of the Kiddopotamus place mat and bib, Catcher barely lost any food.

Both items are made of BPA-free plastic, are easy to clean up and roll up compactly. In addition, they are harder for kids to pull off because they have a little knob that fits into a hole to fasten it.

hmmm...

No Room for My Boobs

I just got back last night from a work trip to Washington, DC, without the baby and my boobs were the size of Pamela Anderson's and as hard as a rock. I had been pumping all along during breaks in my meetings but I didn't get a chance to do a last pumping session before I headed to the airport with my bag full of milk bottles. Because San Francisco International Airport has a nursing room, I figured that I could at least find a family restroom where I could hook up. Nope. No such thing, at least in the United terminal of Dulles airport. And I was turned away when in desperation I went to the elite traveler's "Red Carpet Club" to ask if they had a private bathroom or area where I could pump. The woman at the front desk had no sympathy. "This is a club for paying members," she sneered at me. So my pumping options were to sit on the floor in the terminal and pump in front of everyone or to stand at a sink in the shared bathroom and pump. After walking through the entire terminal in an attempt to find just a corner of privacy, I had only a few minutes left before boarding. So I opted to go for the big boobs.

http://www.peta.org/crueltydoesntfly/default.asp

You can bet that the officials at United Airlines and Dulles International Airport are going to hear from me tomorrow!

Alternatives to Candy

We live on a "halloween safe street" in San Francisco. This means that the street is blocked off from cars, police are present and hundreds of kids come to trick or treat. It's fun, but can be a little overwhelming and expensive — if you're buying peanut butter cups and milky way bars. Plus, my kids end up with a lot of candy that is either eaten by me, or it get's thrown away. 

So in an effort to keep costs and waste down, I've been on the hunt for halloween goodies that are an alternative to candy. Here are a few favorites:

glow in the dark tattoos, scratch n sniff stickers, game books, pencils, bouncy balls, organic fruit snacks, mini bags of apple chips or twisted fruit.

When Mommy is Sick

It's so hard, when mommy is sick. It seems the whole house falls apart. Baths get skipped, lunches go unmade, clothes stay dirty. Or do they? Do we do it all anyway even though we need to rest. Partly because we have to. They need lunch, right! So I have an idea. Anyone want to take it on? How about a service for sick mommies. They come in, clean, make lunches, pick up the milk, whatever you need. And when you are all better, poof they are gone. Any takers?

End the Breakfast Battles

I am always starving when I wake up but my six-year-old son Cash doesn't seem to care about breakfast at all. Actually, he doesn't much care for lunch either. It seems like he is a bit of a food camel because he survives on literally almost nothing all day and then he usually will eat a hearty dinner. But that doesn't stop me from trying to cram something down his throat in the morning.

Because he often says he wants a certain thing and then rejects it when it is placed before him: "I didn't say I wanted THAT! You misunderstood," I decided to make up a menu. Now, every morning, I place the laminated menu before him and make him choose from the eight items. Most of them are things he sort of likes (he doesn't REALLY like any food), but I also put a few "trying" items on the list. I figure it can't hurt for him to at least see it on the menu. Of course, I'm not talking real adventurous stuff here. His trying list includes cereal and milk. He'll eat cereal dry and he loves milk but he literally runs from the room when you try to combine the two.

Anyway, my experiment seems to be working pretty well. He now eats at least part of one of his menu items most mornings.

Read on for Cash's Breakfast Menu

Admiring San Fran Artist Georgianne Fastia

I have been admiring Georgianne Fastia's work from afar for some time now. She holds a studio space where my husband used to paint, and I've always been drawn to her paintings. There is a sweet but eerie quality to each work that I find captivating. 

Read on to read what inspires her and how she got her start.