Help your little super hero get ready to save the world with this DIY Captain America shield tutorial from Tales Of The Scotts I found at the M&T Spotlight.

More Kid’s Crafts Here:

• Silly Shape Drawing Game
• Marshmallows and Toothpicks
• Scrap Busting Friendship Trees

*Submit your post to the M&T Spotlight for a chance to be featured on Make and Takes

Sunday brunch is a well honored tradition in my household. Among the rotation of pancakes and hash browns is an often requested spread consisting of waffles and fruit with a side of sausage. When brunch rolled around this week, I began cooking up our favored meal. After the sausage was cooked and the waffle iron was heated up, my friend suggested combining the two to create an “ultimate waffle.” At first, I found the idea a bit strange, but after reflecting over how much I enjoyed soaking up extra syrup with slices of sausage, the idea quickly grew on me.

I sliced up the sausage, dumped it in the waffle batter, and the rest is history.

Sausage Waffles walk the line between sweet and salty, lending a great balance of flavors. A whole wheat waffle batter is given a boost when smoked Polish sausage is sliced up and mixed into the batter. With a bit of butter and a necessary dose of maple syrup, the waffles are complete. I found that the saltiness of the sausage contrasted beautifully with the sweetness of maple syrup, giving a real variety to each bite.

As a bonus, extra waffles can be heated up with a toaster the next morning for a quick meal. Since the sausage is already in the waffles, the mixture of carbohydrates and protein can give you a balanced breakfast as you rush out the door.

While I much preferred the flavor profile of a good Polish sausage, you could certainly substitute in another favorite to suit your own tastes.

Sausage Waffles

Yields 3-4 servings

1 cup (120 grams) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 1/2 pound (225 grams) Polish sausage, fully cooked and diced

Preheat waffle iron.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until just incorporated (the batter may be a bit lumpy and that’s okay). Stir in the cooked sausage pieces.

Cook the waffles in the waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Serve warm, topped with butter and maple syrup.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-chalkboard, oh yeah! A good chalkboard wall is always awesome, I especially like this framed chalkboard wall by I Dig Pinterest spotted at the Make and Takes Spotlight. Looks easy enough don’t you think?

More chalkboard links below:

• DIY chalkboard wreath
• Name boards for your child’s door
• Celebration chalkboard

*Submit your project to the M&T Spotlight for a chance to get featured on Make and Takes!

Summer break is coming, so here’s a great project to tuck away for a hot afternoon. We all enjoyed making these abstract positive/negative shape cut-out pictures. This is a great project for a mixed-age group – younger kids can cut simple shapes, and older kids and adults can try for more intricate designs and shapes.

No fancy supplies needed for this project – just grab two contrasting colors of construction paper, scissors, and a glue stick. These cut-outs look especially striking with black paper for the background, so that’s what we used.

Set your background paper aside, and cut a 5″ square from your other piece. Start cutting small shapes around the edges of your square. Save all your pieces! Start cutting simple shapes, like triangles, squares, and half circles. Also try zig-zags, abstract wavy shapes, half-hearts, arrows, or swirls. Anything goes!

We tried to keep our cut-outs on the small side, no more than 1-2″ into the square.

When you are done cutting shapes, glue the square to the background paper. Now, grab your pile of cut-out shapes and start matching them to their spots. Lay each shape in its spot, then flip it over and glue it down to the background.

Continue matching, flipping, and gluing all around your square. My girls were oohing and aahing over the symmetry effect as they worked.

Here’s a look at our finished projects. Aren’t those fun?! Natalie thinks her green one looks like a two-faced monster.

If your kids enjoy this project, try again with a different shape – a triangle, circle, heart, or even a butterfly would look amazing!

If you want to throw some fancy art language into your craft time, the shapes you cut out are the positive shapes, and the spaces they left behind are the negative shapes.

Happy crafting!

This simple little paper craft is just the thing to get you excited for spring. I found these Rockin’ Peeps from Crafty Journal at the Make and Takes Spotlight and think these are exactly the kind of chicks I want pecking around.

More fun links for Spring below:

• Popsicle stick flowers
• Hanging paper pockets for Spring
• Miniature Flower Pots

*Submit your project to the M&T Spotlight for a chance to get featured on Make and Takes!

We love to garden. Planting and growing is one thing my kids love to do with me that doesn’t feel like a chore. I don’t know if it’s the dirt they get to put their hands in or watching our vegetables grow, but it’s something we all can do together.

I’m happy to partner with Miracle-Gro today, an M&T sponsor, to help you get inspired to “Gro” as well! If you visit their Gro Project facebook page, you’ll see some perfect planting ideas for your home: Toyrarium, Ukulele Garden, Origami Planter.

There are all kinds of things to grow and garden with kids. Planting and growing a vegetable garden is our favorite. My kids love to watch the plants grow, as it seems they grow a few inches everyday. But since we’ve already planted our veggies for the season a month or so ago, today it’s time to get a couple of flower pots ready to display on our deck.

For helping in the garden, here are a few tips I’ve come across as I garden with my kids:

1. Growing Supplies: You’ll want a pot - preferably something plastic for kids so it’s light, potting soil, and your flowers. The outside of our house is green, so we chose some bright colors to accent our home for the planter. Dahlias, purple violas and yellow violas.

We chose the purple viola because they look like mini “pansies touched with yellow gold”, a song my grandma sang to me and I sing to my girls! It’s fun to plant something that has meaning for your family! It makes it all the more fun.

2. Good Gloves: I’ve purchased all the wrong gloves in the past. I used to buy the basic brown gloves that were cheap, but they never fit and didn’t last. I love a glove that has rubber material or grip to the inside, as it helps keep traction on tools and keeps away the prickly plants from pricking. Pictured below are both kid-size gloves. The blue ones are good for little ones to help water and plant flowers. But I love the rubber-ish green ones when my kids help with bigger yard work jobs like weeding or raking.

3. Sunscreen: Those sweet little faces, shoulders, and arms definitely need protection from the sun. We keep our sunscreen right at the back door, making it easy to lotion up before we head out the door. It always helps prevent those sad little red sunburned cheeks and noses from appearing. And gardening might seem like a simple activity, but beware, the sun can get you from almost anywhere.

4. Chairs: It’s a good idea to have a few chairs nearby, sometimes gardeing can be hard work. Or maybe instead of a few helpers, you end up with “supervisors”! It’s also good to have a garden kneeling pad as well, if you plan to stick yourself in one spot for a length of time.

5. Watering Can: My kids can’t get enough of the watering can. We’ve now had to buy one for each, just little $1 size, so they each can have a turn. They divide up the vegetables and flowers in our garden, who can water the tomatoes or the carrots! Even if you have a watering system set up, it’s still fun to have a watering can around for the kids to be a part of the watering process.

What fun projects are you “gro-ing” this season? Well, Miracle-Gro would love for you to “gro” something this summer too with a giveaway for one $250 Amex gift card to get the supplies you need to grow something together! Enter below for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I recently returned from the sunny sandy beaches of California, Laguna Beach to be exact, where I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit. This is one of my favorite conferences, good blogging panels, good sponsors, and good people. I’ve talked about the reasons I go to blog conference and they are still the same. I love to connect in real life. It makes such a difference to be able to high five or hug someone you’ve been social with online and take it offline. And sandy beaches made it all the more sweet. It was conference bliss.

Shout out to roomies and a few fabulous friends: Allison Petit Elefant, Alissa Rags to Stitches, Andrea For the Love of, Jeannett Life Rearranged, Asha Parent Hacks, Christine Boston Mamas, Heather & Whitney Rookie Moms, Amy Teach Mama, Rachel Handmade Charlotte, Kristen Rage Against the Minivan, Sarah Whoorl.

The most anticipated part of the conference for me was the Run 2.0 that is held on the first morning. I’ve been running it for the last 5 years and helping organize. This year, they brought on MinuteClinic as the run sponsor. I was lucky enough to be partnered up with MinuteClinic and they sponsored me to the conference. I was able to help consult on the run and rally folks to come out for the race. I have to say it was the most fun the run has ever been.

It was right along the beach on a paved path. It can’t get much better than that. MinuteClinic provided fabulous t-shirts, the really good running kind that are slick and moisture wicking! And they had fun prizes and challenges along the way.

Here’s a little video of the run:

Nurse practioners were there to ask us questions about our health and common health related myths. Allergies was one answer – me sneezing, and Whitney and I are breaking free from the health myths!

My favorite part of the run was getting to pal up with my two favorite running girls, Christine and Heather. If you don’t already know, we write the Eat. Blog. Run website together. They are my running souls sisters! It was fun to partner with MinuteClinic on this event, run along the beach, and sport our Team Sparkle skirts!!

All in all, it was conference bliss. I love blogging and having the opportunity to share inspiration. Big thanks to my readers to allow me to keep up this amazing gig!

Do your kids love dipping? Mine sure do! From our standard veggies with ranch to a more decadent chocolate fondue dessert, my girls are always game for a snack with a dip. Here is a tasty and simple chocolate yogurt dip that kids can whip up on their own – and it’s healthy enough to have for breakfast! If you’re looking for an extra protein boost, be sure to use Greek yogurt.

Ingredients for Chocolate Yogurt Dip:

• 1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (Greek yogurt makes a nice thick dip)
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (or to taste)
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup (more or less to taste, depending on the sweetness of your yogurt)

There are not many steps to this recipe – just dump your ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. We found a wire whisk worked the best for getting out all the lumps. Mix and mix till smooth, then taste for sweetness and chocolatey-ness.

Grab some goodies for dipping and get snacking! We had pretzel twists and sliced apples this time. Bananas, pineapple, or strawberries would be tasty, too. We’re thinking this chocolate yogurt would add a fun twist to yogurt, granola, fruit parfaits, too!

Bon appetit!

Oh sweet Mamas (and crafty Papas) out in the blogosphere, am I getting too esoteric? Perhaps in my quests to get a little greener, I may forget that it really is the little things that count. So it’s back to basics. So here’s my list of three EASY things you can implement NOW to make a HUGE impact for Mother Earth (I mean, sure Mother’s Day was Sunday, but we’re still celebrating all types of M-O-M-S right?)

WATER BOTTLES: My four year old kicked off spring with beehive soccer. From his experience, it was painfully apparent to me that we’re teaching our kids to be irresponsible about waste. “If just two out of three sports fans refilled a water bottle rather than buying a new one, it would save about as many plastic bottles as there are people in the United States,” (The Green Book, Three Rivers Press 2007). Now imagine if the athletes took advantage of water bottles, verses paper cups or (gasp!) “fruit drinks.” We know our kids are better off with water. Let’s teach them a game plan for success on and off the field.

FRUITS & VEGGIES: I say this now because it’s an easy time of year to do it; and as we approach summer it’s just going to keep getting easier. Opt for fresh fruits and veggies as opposed to canned or frozen. “The process involved with canning fruit is at least ten times more energy intensive than picking fresh fruit. If every U.S. household replaced just one pound of canned or jarred fruit with one pound of fresh fruit during each of the three summer months, the total energy saved could operate the kitchen appliances of over twenty-one thousand households for an entire year,” (The Green Book).

TEXT MORE, EMAIL LESS: OK, this is kind of a quirky one, but I said I was giving you easy things, right? Sending a text message from a mobile or smartphone, instead of a computer saves more than thirty-times the electricity per message. After all, brevity is the key to good communication – so just make sure you’ve got a good data plan. (Emoticon, wink, wink.) And yes, this factoid came by way of the “The Green Book” as well. It’s really become my Bible of practical and world-changing habits that are super easy to adopt. I highly suggest checking it out!

Sometimes a tasty treat is just what you need at the end (or in the middle) of a long day, you feel me? I spotted these Nutella Cookie Bars from Food Fanatic at the Make and Takes Spotlight and have been waiting for an excuse to whip up a batch, maybe I don’t need one!

More tasty treat links below:

• Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Oreo Monkey Bread Muffins
• Pear Muffins With Honey Oat Toppings

*Submit your project to the M&T Spotlight for a chance to get featured on Make and Takes!