Be Stinky, A Mom’s Blog

Still haven’t decided what to be for Halloween? Well maybe some of these quick and easy throw together costume ideas will help get those juices flowing and the ideas a coming.

Start with a particular time period, something not too current like the 80’s.

This year my 14 year old had his first teen Halloween party to attend and really wasn’t into dressing up so we thought of the Greatest American Hero costume.  We made it very simple.  I bought him a long sleeved red shirt and printed out the Greatest American Hero logo from his costume and printed it out on iron on fabric paper.  The reds were hard to match up so I cut on the black round circle and just had the red shirt serve as the outside box.  He just wore jeans so he felt cool enough but he also had a costume type shirt on.  Then my husband went online and downloaded the Greatest American Hero pilot and burned it on a DVD and then watched it with our son so he would know what the show and character were.  They had a blast watching the shows and it was some good, clean quality time together as guys.

My 9 year old, my husband and I chose to go trick or treating using a group costume idea.  We decided ot be The Bad News Bears from the original series in the 80’s. I went to our local sporting good store that sold team uniforms and ordered three baseball warm up shirts, white with golden yellow sleeves and trim around the neck. then printed out the Bad News Bears logo on iron on fabric paper and ironed the logos on the shirts. We just wore jeans because that is what they wore sometimes in the original series.  The three shirts combined were the same or less then one Halloween costume for just my son.  Each shirt was only $8.89 and the cost was low and its a shirt we can all wear again instead of just a costume for one day only. And this way he got to be something with my husband and I and it made for a cute family photo opportunity.  My son loved it.

Another idea is just to wear a shirt with your favorite 80’s superhero logo or sign on it. Nothing too major but enough to be something.

I hope this helped you come up with something if you are still stressing over your costume.  If you have any neat ideas, please share them.

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I just started creating a new line of shirts for Bstiny Moms.  Go to CafePress.com/bstinky and take a look at them.  I have two samples on there so, a white long sleeve tee and a white tank top.  I am still working on the black long sleeve tee shirt.  I think it is a really cute idea.  I added my kids names on the shirts to personalize them more.  If anyone would like one please email me at JenK@bstinky.com and tell me the number of names and the names with correct spelling and I can personalize a shirt for you.  If this becomes a hit I will definitely expand and use more colored tees and switch up the designs to offer more of a variety.  I hope you like what you see there.

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Teen Pregnancy

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The time is here for kids to begin their holiday seasons of crafting.  Kids love making special crafts for the entire family.  It’s a great opportunity for parents to spend time with their kids and create a memory they both can look back on and remember with fondness.  I came up with some of the following ideas and some I stumbled across on a some crafting websites. Thought I would share them with you and your families.  I hope you enjoy them.

1) THE THANKFUL BOX!

This Thanksgiving season, ask your child to share their thoughts by writing one sentence on each slip of paper (3 slips per child) about what they are “Thankful for”. Your child will practice his/her sentence development, and may get a whole new appreciation of the holiday season! Then the kids decorate their “Thankful” box and put the slips inside. When they get home they can have the rest of their family add to the “Thankful” box with what they are thankful for. You can open the box at Thanksgiving dinner and each person take a turn reading one of the sentences out loud. This will be a good family activity and the kids will appreciate the true meaning of Thanksgiving. You can use any little plain gift box that you can find at your local craft store and have the kids decorate it however they want.  You can be decorate your box as creative as you want. You could use decorative scrap booking paper, ribbons, glitter, markers, stickers or whatever else your child can come up with.

2) PUMPKIN HANGING

This project is easy for school aged kids to craft, is lots of fun and adds a warm fall look to your home. The hand-stitching give it an additional country charm. A fun idea is to find an interesting tree branch outdoors and insert this in a vase and hang your pumpkin on it along with other fall and Halloween motifs. You can also glue a green painted wooden skewer to the backside to create a plant poke

Supplies needed:

- orange, black and green card stock
- orange, black and green sewing thread
- piercing tool with mat
- 2 white sequins and 2 white seed beads
- orange raffia
- wire for hanging
- craft glue
- pinking shears or decorative edged scissors with zig-zag
edge

3) PAPER MACHE PUMPKIN

Blow up a balloon and cover it with strips of orange tissue paper using paper mache glue. Leaving the top area opened to when the pumpkin is completed your children can use it as a little nick knack bowl or something like that.  After the shape of the pumpkin has formed and hardened, pop the balloon and your kids will have a hallow pumpkin to decorate and display  in your home. Again with the pumpkin decorations they can get as detailed as they like. You could even take it a step further and cover the balloon all most all the way leaving only a small slit opened at the top of the balloon like a coin bank opening.  Also leaving a small round opening at the base of the pumpkin to place a plug of some sort there to hold  the change inside it. This hole will allow you to remove the balloon pieces after you popped it and your child would have made their very own pumpkin piggy bank.

I hope some of these ideas were interesting and helpful to you during this holiday season. You can always change some of the ideas around and make them suitable for Christmas as well. Just by changing the colors of paper and decorations that you choose to use.

Let me know how your crafts turn out and if you have any craft ideas for kids, please feel free to share them.

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I was in one of my favorite stores at the mall a while back and my 6 1/2 month old (then he was 3 months) was getting really worked up and hungry. I had tried to hold him off a little longer to finish in the store and then I was planning on finding a quiet place to nurse him or go to Nordstrom where they have a great mother and baby area to feed and change the babies. But he wasn’t going to be able to wait. I felt bad so I went to the dressing room and asked nicely if she wouldn’t mind if I used one of the dressing rooms quickly to nurse my son? She was not very receptive. She paused for a long time meanwhile my infant was screaming by this point. She did not look like she was going to say yes so I finally out of frustration told her that was fine, I didn’t have to nurse my son there, but if I did leave to do it elsewhere I had planned on filing suit against the store immediately. She rolled her eyes and pointed to a dressing room. I just think so many people still think of nursing as this dirty thing. Where are we expected to nurse our children in a bathroom stall? Would you eat your meals in a bathroom stall? Ignorance is still so evident when it comes to nursing in public or in general for that matter. The I was in another store at the same mall about two weeks ago and that store was awesome. She even gave me one of the larger stalls because she said no on uses it that often and for me to take my time. She was so polite and respectful of what I was doing. And no I don’t think a women should just whip it out there for everyone to see but there are ways of being discrete about it and not infringing on anyone else. I also try to wear layers so that when I pull one shirt up to nurse the bottom shirt still remains down and covers my stomach and back. So you never see anything but the back of my baby’s head. And all three of my sons that I have nursed have been very small eaters. They maybe nurse a few minutes at a time instead of 20 minutes on each side like a lot of babies. So it would take longer for me to walk to the other end of a mall to find a designated area then to just feed him and be done. And if you weren’t staring right at me you would think he was just asleep wit me holding him. I think it’s only a big deal when someone makes it a big deal. For me it is the easiest most natural thing a woman’s body was meant to do. It is a bonding time between mother and baby and it’s lasting effects are healthy for mom and baby.

I actually went online and there are specific laws for each state protecting nursing moms and babies rights. Check it out. I found it to be very educational.

Have any of you out there had any bad experiences with nursing in public?

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As a mom of three, my interests are very wide spread as a results of having all boys of all different ages, 14, 9 and 6 months old.  I am dealing with the teenage years with my oldest son Tyler and the very independent age of 9 with my middle son Hunter and all of the baby stages all over again with my youngest son Jordy.  I love having the boys so spread out that I am able to share something different with each of them that is special and unique to only them and not having to share everything with each other as brothers.  I think it is very important to spend quality time with each of my children individually and as a whole family.

Tyler is very artistic and a  big collector of anything that has to do with Godzilla.  He has collected just about everything he can find from the oldest black and white Godzilla movies in Japanese to action figures and drawings.  Tyler and I both share in our artistic talents.  So I enjoy him showing me all his drawings that he does on a daily basis.  He’s really really good.

Hunter is my outdoor, always on the move kids. He plays baseball Spring and Fall every year. The Orioles and Yankees are his favorite teams. I think the Yankees a little more though.  He actually got to meet Cal Ripkin for his birthday last January.  He received a signed ball from Cal and got the chance to have several photos taken with him. He tried basketball one season but it wasn’t his thing.  We both share the love of sports and the outdoors.  He’s now getting into football. One sport I’m not too interested in. My sport has always been fast pitch softball so I’m glad he’s more into baseball. He’s always wanting to go, go, go. I often joke with him that if I said I was going to park to pick up poop he would still want to go. He hates staying home.

Then there is my newest little one.  It’s amazing how much you forget from baby to baby but then how quickly it all comes back to you also.  Jordy is a lot like Hunter. He loves being outside.  His little face just lights up in the fresh air.  He’s always a happy little guy full of energy.  I just wish he would stay a little baby for longer. He seems to want to do everything faster then he should.

Our new family activity we are enjoying right now is the Rock Band PS2. The boys love it. Jordy even gets into it when I do the singing part. I think mainly because I look and sound so silly. What more could a baby ask for, right. I just wish they offered some better songs. Some of them are really hard and not to mention a little out there as far as content for the boys. But they are concentrating so hard on the instruments that the words usually don’t even get heard. Heavy metal is definitely not our thing but the band in general is really cool. They also really enjoy play Boogie on the Wii.

So what are your interests and hobbies? What do you as moms really want to read about? Suggestions are encouraged and very welcomed.

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