Hello Hal!

We had a new addition to our household yesterday. Hal Moose™, from the folks at Build-A-Bear Workshop®. What a treat! Plushy soft, he also hides a surprise. When your child squeezes his (paw? hoof?) the Christmas lights laced in his antlers light up! Hal arrived in his own decorated box "house" with a copy of Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure - a debut storybook starring Hal and his sister Holly.

Currently Holly and Hal Moose™ are being offered together, for a price of $24 and you receive the storybook for free ($15.99 value, while quantities last.) Individual Moose are $12. Just a quick turn around their website shows store locations, an online shop and a virtual community at buildabearville.com™. A dizzying array of options are on display from choosing just the right furry friend for an occasion, to dressing them up with clothes, accessories and even sounds.

Daniel, like most kids around this time of year, is quite tickled with all things Christmas. Hal currently has a place of honor tucked in with him in his race car bed.

Win it!
I have a gift card of $10 in Bear Buck$ to give away to some lucky reader.

The Rules:
1. Stop by the Build-A-Bear Workshop website and take a look around. Come back here to this post and tell me your favorite stuffed animal. Maybe it's Hal? Chilly Cheeks Penguin?

2. Extra Credit: Get another entry into this giveaway by subscribing to Relishing the Dirt.

3. Winner to be determined by the Random Number Generator at Random.org.

Contest Ends: January 15th; winner announced January 16th.

Willy Wonka I Am Not

I do not cook. Oh, I try and my family gets fed, but I am certainly not known for my cooking. I indulge in foodie blogs, and have grand ambitions sometimes... But my longtime favorite has always been baking. For an absolutely yummilicious blog check out Bakerella.

H adores homemade caramels. We visit my parents, and there is usually a basketful at the checkout of the local market. I purchase a couple, and usually find out that he has been making detours on his own to the market and nabbing some more on the sly...

Last weekend I made a first attempt at candy-making with the Better Homes and Gardens recipe for shortcut caramels. They taste quite yummy, but I have discovered that handling them isn't the easiest. Despite buttering everything (pan, foil, knife, my hands) I couldn't seem to get them to not stick to everything in sight. So - lots of good-tasting caramel, uh blops to eat. Any recommendations from any candy makers out there? I'd like them to look a little prettier, as well as be easier to deal with. Recipe is below:

Ingredients
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup butter
1 16-ounce package (2-1/4 cups) packed brown sugar
2 cups half-and-half or light cream
1 cup light-colored corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
1. Line an 8x8x2- or 9x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Butter the foil. If desired, sprinkle walnuts onto bottom of pan. Set pan aside.

2. In a heavy 3-quart saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add brown sugar, half-and-half or cream, and corn syrup; mix well. Cook and stir over medium-high heat till mixture boils. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Reduce heat to medium; continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring frequently, till the thermometer registers 248 degree F, firm-ball stage (45 to 60 minutes).

3. Remove saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Stir in vanilla. Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan. When caramel mixture is firm, use foil to lift it out of pan. Use a buttered knife to cut into 1-inch squares. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Makes about 2 pounds (64 pieces).

Shortcut Caramels: Prepare as above, except substitute one 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk for the cream. This mixture will take less time to reach 248 degree F (about 15 to 20 minutes instead of 45 to 60 minutes).

We have a Winner!

After consulting the great Random.org, the winner of the Yoplait Prize Pack from my first giveaway is #36, Kelly Roncas.

She had this great tip: I like to cut my kids sandwiches in shapes. Dinosaurs are a huge favorite!! For the holidays, we have holiday themed sandwiches. They love peanut butter, so I sprinkle wheat germ on it. They don't know!! It gives them an extra iron boost. I also serve carrots and ranch dip and fruit on the table BEFORE our dinner. Usually, they are starving by dinner time and will pick at whatever is out, just to eat. It works out for both of us: the kids get a snack before dinner to stave off the hungries and I know they got a serving of fruit and a serving of vegetables!

Thank you all for joining in!

Christmas in, well October?

While I lament every year the earlier and earlier appearance of the Christmas stuff in stores, (There is an aisle of tinsel-bedecked items hanging out already next to the pumpkins and goblins in my local department store.) it does serve the purpose of kick-starting my hunt for holiday deals and goodness. I will go on record as saying that I can't stand the stores the closer we get to Christmas. The crowds and the jostling and the circling for parking just make me twitchy.

I've already written about great websites like Etsy, and hope to support independent artists again this year to find some unique gifts for those on my list. The site 5 Minutes for Mom, which is just chock-full of resources also lists some interesting Mom-owned stores. Isn't this the best pedal car/fire truck? Daniel still has a thing for fire trucks... My grandparents had a pedal car for us kids when we came to visit in Wisconsin. Nothing so fancy (this one actually pumps water?!) - but we spent endless amounts of time cranking that thing up and down the sidewalks in front of their house. I'll have to see if I can find it - there's a great picture of me sitting in the thing in nothing but a diaper with blond curls flying.

As we swing full force into the Holidays, I'll continue to post websites and deals that I think might be interesting. I'm always on the quest for the perfect gift. And I love recommendations too!

Last Call!

Win a yoplait kids prize pack! Contest ends tomorrow, October 16th at 5pm EST.

My First Giveaway!

We are still deep in "picky preschooler" territory around our house. This can range from what to wear each day (the season changes are killers - how late can one wear "summer" crocs around outside?) to the inevitable food battles. We're eating a lot of peanut butter and mac-n-cheese. Daniel does OK with the standard fruits like bananas and apples and grapes, but tends to turn up his nose at anything too exotic. And a vegetable would cry for some recognition around here. I make sure he gets a multivitamin, and try not to stress too much about it.

So when Yoplait offered a chance to try their kids yogurt, I was definitely on board. Yoplait Kids Yogurt provides:

- 16 mg. of naturally sourced Omega-3 DHA per serving
- Excellent souce of calcium
- No artificial sweeteners or flavors
- Good source of vitamins A and D
- With protein
- 25 percent less sugar than the leading kid's yogurt

My guy who is a picky eater will drink lots of things, and he dove into the Mixed Berry yogurt drink with gusto. He also found a picture of the yogurt I had lying around on our computer desk and came running saying: "I want this."

I need to get back to the grocery store!

I am also excited to present my very first giveaway! Win a prize pack from Yoplait: A cooler, a coupon for Yoplait Kids Yogurt and a Brain Quest game.

The rules:
1) Leave a comment on this post to enter. (Make sure I have an email, or some way to get in touch!) Just say hi, or just for fun leave me a tip that helped your picky eater get on with eating.
2) Visit my blog Dirt Makes Fat and subscribe to get an extra entry. Tabs at the top will keep you in touch with us here at Relishing the Dirt as well.

Contest ends October 16th.

Where's that instruction manual?

Lorilee Craker’s book The Wide-Eyed Wonder Years: A Mommy Guide to Preschool Daze couldn’t have arrived at a better time for me and my just-turned-three-year-old son. Daniel has been existing on a diet of peanut-butter crackers and macaroni and cheese. On the good days I can get an occasional banana, or a cup of yogurt in there. Daniel has boundless energy, and can usually be found bouncing on my bed or somersaulting from the couch. I try not to fret about it.

Enter Ms. Craker’s book. Written in an engaging, easy to read style reminiscent of gabbing with your Mommy group about raising kids - she tackles issues like picky eaters and more. This book can be read cover to cover, or there are fifteen chapters with amusing titles such as: "I Can’t Believe He Said That!"(kids say anything and everything, usually at the most inconvenient time) and "If You’re Going to Kill Each Other, Do It in the Basement!"(what to do about sibling squabbles). So if you like, you can jump to a particular area of interest.

Each chapter is liberally sprinkled with anecdotes from her "preschool panel" as well as stories from her own life, and examples as to what some Moms did when their little one, say, wanted to wear shorts in January. It was also nice to see a few chapters devoted to Moms such as: "Mom and Dad Got It Goin’ On" and "Mommy Minispas" to name a few.

On those days when your best buds aren’t around, this book is a nice portable way to remind yourself about the wonders of raising our little ones.