Try This!

35 Years of Adventure Party

2012-01-06T11:18:00.002-07:00

This year my hubby turned 35. We keep his parties pretty low key, at his request. He is certainly the adventuresome type, though having a young family and a busy job have really limited his adventures lately. He is also an avid fan of National Geographic. I put these all together to make the theme for his birthday celebration.

Here is the invite I sent out to let everyone know when to stop by. I used my photoshop skills on this one, but there are websites out there where you can add your own photo to a magazine cover if you want to make your own.

We kept the food simple- a doughnut tower for a "cake" and hot chocolate & wassail for drinks.

I used neutrals with Nat. Geo Yellow to accent. Thank heavens for scrapbook paper! On the wood wall I hung paper with sticky tack, and the little banner across the table front is jute, clothespins, and squares of paper.

The party was held in a partially finished basement, which gave quite a blank slate for a backdrop. The rest of the decor also doubled as the party activity. I found pictures of his adventures from when he was a little guy up to now. I hadn't planned on how heavy 100+ pictures and clothespins could be. I had to tack in little finishing nails to hold the jute I clipped them to.

When our guests arrived they enjoyed their food while browsing the photos and keeping the Birthday Boy busy answering questions and telling stories about the pictures that caught their interest. It was really fun!

I didn't want all the memories to leave him longing for the adventures of the past, so for his gift I made him up a set of adventure passes. He can redeem these throughout the year for fun activities he wants to enjoy.

Nesting Jute Candycorn Topiaries

2011-10-24T15:37:00.002-06:00

Here is the tutorial I promised you on making Jute Candycorn. I looked around the craft store, the dollar store, and the internet for ideas on making the forms. I was not about to pay for foam forms, they were too pricey for me. I have seen people making cone topiaries with rolled paper cones as the form, but that was too fragile for us. My girls love to handle and rearrange all the fun holiday decor. That is when I came across my stash of plastic grid in the garage. This stuff is cheap, flexible, and sturdy. It was perfect.

I grabbed a sheet and rolled it to the basic width I had in mind. I threaded a pipe cleaner though the overlapping pieces and twisted it tight to hold the shape while I glued and trimmed. I trimmed the top and bottom so whey would sit flat. I sealed the edge using hot glue. Be careful on this part, glue oozes through the squares of the grid. Next I cut a circle out to fit flat on top, and glued it in place as well. Repeat for each cone, making them gradually smaller. Now you have cone forms that are sturdy and flexible, and will nest for storage! A definite bonus.

Keep that hot glue gun on, it is time to wrap the jute. This will take a little while, but doing it while watching a show or something proved too distracting to me, and I have the hot glue burns to prove it.

Begin by gluing the end of your Jute to the top of the cone. Lay it right across the circle and glue it in the middle. Then twist the jute around the center glue to form a tight loop. From here, continue looping and gluing

Keep wrapping and gluing all the way down. I glued every 3 or 4 rows with a dab of glue.

Once the jute is glued on, debate as to whether or not you should even paint them, because they look so cute plain, too! Or just make another set. :)

Then I got out sponge brushes and craft paint. I put very little paint on my brush, then dabbed it onto the jute to avoid a caked on appearance. Here are the brands and colors I used. I got all these paints from Hobby Lobby. Click the image to enlarge.

Halloween Decor 2011

2011-10-03T09:37:00.000-06:00

It turns out my 4 year old loves Halloween. We have been crafting and decorating for a couple of weeks. I am excited about how the decor turned out this year. Last year's Halloween tree got thrown out, much to the pleasure of my husband (who was always bumping into it while it was out and having to shuffle it around the shed in the off season. ) This year's replacement is so much better!
I got some curly willow from someones spring pruning, thank you online classifieds. I put them in an urn, filled the base with gravel, and topped with stringy moss. Add three dollar store ravens and the tree is done.

My aunt posted her halloween decor pictures and at first glance I thought her giant candycorn looked to be made out of jute. I was excited, I am loving natural textures these days. It turns out her's were not, but once the idea was in my mind, I couldn't get it out. Here are the ones I made, and they have a space saving secret! I'll post a tutorial soon.

This spooky bug display is just a re-purposed frame, burlap background, hot glue, and dollar store bugs. I did have to buy 2 bags to get enough black bugs.

The spooky eye artwork was one of our favorites! I found out about the graphics fairy and downloaded a bunch of pictures. Then did a few google searches for antique portraits for the rest. I had them printed, bought some googly eyes, and got out my scrapbooking sticky dots. They were so easy, my 6 year old made some of them. We added them to frames from around the house and they were ready to go.

What decor have you made this year?

Birthday Bash Beach Party

2011-09-05T09:36:00.000-06:00

Wow! I really got carried away from blogging this summer, but we have been having lots of fun. Today I am sharing some pictures and details from the Beach Bash Birthday party we hosted last month. I love seeing all the party ideas out there and finding inspiration for planning my own.

The Decor

The dessert table had the bulk of the decor. I hung paper lanterns from the patio umbrella and trees, and made a backdrop out of ruffled plastic tablecloths.

The table was laid with a caramel colored tablecloth, Squares of burlap layered as a runner, and dollar store seashells arranged by my 4 year old. :)

The Activities
These are also part of the decor, I can't resist getting the biggest bang for my buck and most things at this party served a dual purpose. We put our sand table behind the treat table with pails and shovels. You can't have a beach bash without sand! This allowed the ruffle streamers to backdrop the sand play and the colors helped set the ambiance.

We had almost one dozen beach balls to add to the color and the fun. We sent them home as party favors.

The Food

Of course, the food served as decor too. I used the Nordicware Castle Pan to make a sandcastle cake. I mixed a vanilla cake mix and a spice cake. Next time I will just stick with the vanilla. It got a bit darker than I'd anticipated in the bundt pan. It was perfect inside, however.

I invested in a starfish shaped chocolate mold to decorate the sandcastle cake and some of the cupcakes. I used peanut butter chips to fill the molds. I frosted all the cupcakes with a basic vanilla icing and then rolled them in crushed graham crackers. I tried to leave the very top of the starfish cupcakes free of crumbs to help the starfish stick. If you are going to transport them consider mounting them to toothpicks to help them stay in place. We did use 1/2 toothpicks on the other cupcakes to keep the gumballs in place. My kids had a lot of fun helping decorate these. I love that they are foolproof enough that the kids can help and I am still happy with the end result.

If you do a party using any of these ideas, I would love to see it!

Fun Lunch Ideas- All About Bento

2011-08-22T08:49:00.000-06:00

I did a little display of fun lunch ideas for the ladies in my church group at our back to school night activity. I wanted to post the handout I made to show you how the basics can be done quite easily and quickly.

The term bento as I understand it is a Japanese lunch form, where foods are packed snugly and tidily into lunch containers. Containers often have compartments or use dividers to keep foods separate. The bonus of the bento idea is that foods are made too look like shapes, characters, etc, to enhance their appeal. If that doesn't help brown bag lunches to have more success, I don't know what will!

First, check out this video of some of the fun bento style lunches we have made this summer.

Now, check out the info I handed out to explain it all and give ideas.

fun lunch tips

Lunch Trick #1 Make it Neat and Tidy

Stack crackers and cheese. Alternate foods in a pattern. Use lunch containers with compartments or make your own compartments with empty baby food cups or silicon cupcake cups.

Lunch Trick #2 Cut Shapes

Use cookie cutters to shape cheese, sandwiches, breads, baked treats, veggies, and fruit slices. You can even to cut the core out of apple slices with small cutters. Use a melon baller for any soft produce like melon, cucumbers, bananas, or kiwi.

Lunch Trick #3 Roll ups & Kabobs

Use toothpicks, cupcake picks, and party picks to create mini kabobs out of lunch elements such as fruit, cheese, meats, cubed anything! One of the most popular at our house is leftover pizza cut into squares and stacked with olives and pineapple. Picks can also serve as a small utensil in place of plastic forks.

Roll up layers of deli meat and cheese, either in flattened bread, tortillas, or without. Add flavored cream cheese for some zip. with Try flattened bread spread with pb&j, nutella, pb& honey, or any of your favorite spreads.

Lunch Trick #4 Mix it up

Try swapping out favorite sandwich breads for something new like one slice white and one slice wheat, bagels, flatbread, biscuits, tortillas, etc. Find other ways to introduce small portions of new foods. Remember to serve foods from all food groups for balanced nutrition.

fun lunch resources

http://www.easylunchboxes.com/neat_ideas/fan_sites/index.htm A long list of idea sites.

http://www.easylunchboxes.com/neat_ideas/index.htm click on “Yummy lunch gallery”

http://pinterest.com/keling/lunchbox-foods/

http://cookiecutterlunch.blogspot.com/

http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/

http://www.anotherlunch.com/

Any internet search for “bento” or “Muffin Tin Meal”

menu ideas

Main Dish Ideas	Sides	Treats
Tortilla roll ups Cheesy tortilla shapes & salsa Bagel sandwiches Flatbread sandwiches Pita sandwiches Pita & Veggies with Hummus Sandwich on a stick Yogurt w/ sides of fruit and granola Pizza Pizza rolls Two toned sandwiches Pasta salad Boiled egg Meat, cheese, crackers Grilled chicken Quiche Quesadillas Hawaiian kebab: ham, cheddar, pineapple Brunch scones Croissant sandwiches Meat & Cheese cubes PB Rollups	Carrot sticks & dip Celery sticks & dip Baby carrots & dip Cucumber ribbons Broccoli florets & dip Grapes Berries Craisins Apple wedges Orange sections Mandarin oranges Melon chunks Kiwi slices Canned fruit Goldfish crackers Club crackers Wheat crackers Mini muffins Almonds Applesauce Breadsticks Pretzels Babybel cheese String cheese	Honey straw Cookie Brownie Marshmallow skewer Holiday candy Mints Mini candy bar Trail mix Pudding Jello cup Fruit snacks

Summer of Storytime Fun - Dinosaurumpus

2011-07-08T11:15:00.002-06:00

By: Tony Mitton

Theme & tie to book	Activity	Details
Trip	Dinosaur Park	Dinosaur fruit snacks
Sensory and counting	Dino Dig	Dig for toy dinosaurs in sand or homemade playdough
Meal-	MTM- Lunch	Dinosaur Eggs (meatballs, cherry tomatoes or grapes) in a Nest (shredded lettuce) Dino Nuggets dino cheese sandwich cadbury mini eggs watermelon mountains
Art & Sensory	Paper Mache Dino Egg
Science & Snack	Bake Dino Bone & Egg Sugar Cookies	Use measuring and counting skills to mix and bake sugar cookies.

Links for more ideas	Dino Eggs Oatmeal

Measure up- Yardstick Projects

2011-06-22T11:49:00.001-06:00

I am in the process of collecting vintage yardsticks. Here are some of the fun ideas I have come across:

Yardstick clad tables

Country Living

Reclaimed Crafts

Patina White

Yardstick Stair Tread-

Poppy Talk

Funky Junk Interiors

Yardstick Stars- I could totally see these as part of my Christmas decor!

Lampshades

Sunburst Mirrors

Summer of Storytime Fun - Giggle, Giggle, Quack

2011-06-14T07:23:00.001-06:00

By Doreen Cronin

Lunch

Theme & tie to book	Activity	Details
Reading	Watch story video	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfontHcnZ_s&feature=related
Meal	Fun Lunch	Farmhouse sandwich with white bread bottom and wheat bread roof, pretzel square window; pretzel rod tree with broccoli top; lunchmeat grass; Garden plot: pudding with cookie crumbs, green licorice plants. Duck pick: printed and cut out from internet search, surrounded by petite celery sticks . baby carrots, and dill dip.
Meal, Days of the week recognition	Pizza Night (Tuesday)	Order pizza for dinner
Bubble Bath Sensory activity Day of week	Take a bubble bath or give toys a bubble bath (Wednesday)
Movie Night Day of the week	Movie Night (Thursday)	Watch a movie with popcorn
Writing Skills	Write notes like duck	Write notes to mail out or give to someone at home.
Trip	Visit a farm	Go meet all the animals on a farm.
Links for more ideas

Summer of Storytime Fun - If You Give Pig A Party

2011-06-06T09:40:00.003-06:00

My birthday is this week, so this book was a perfect fit.

If You Give A Pig A Party by Laura Numeroff

Theme & tie to book	Activity	Details
Number & color recognition	Coloring Activity Page	http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/activities/pdfs/pickthecorrectpig.pdf
Party & ice cream	Party
Pigs	Themed Meal	Piggy Sandwich: open flatbread bun, w/slice of turkey face & circle of bologna nose, olive eyes and nostrils Pig in the mud: Chocolate pudding, 1/2 pink marshmallow w/licorice tail. Fruit pick: bananas and kiwi on plastic pick with paper pig topper made on silhouette machine. Watermelon pig: slice of watermelon with impression from vintage cookie cutter.
Activity	Hide and Seek	Play Hide and Seek
Activity	Blanket fort & Sleepover	Build a blanket fort and sleep in it!
	Online Matching Game	http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/games/matching/
Links for more ideas	http://geekettebits.com/for-kids-parents-educators/if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie-laura-numeroff-felicia-bond-activities/ http://www.bakingandboys.com/2009/05/z-for-zebra-cookies-and-p-for-pig.html http://cuteyummytime.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/cute-piggy-bentos-teddy-bear-breads-kids-school-lunches/

Summer of Storytime Fun

2011-05-31T08:49:00.003-06:00

I bumped into my neighbor at the grocery store today. We chatted about our summer plans. Me: swimming lessons and speech class. Her: She is thrilled to be finished working away from home and she and her kids will be living up their time together. She mentioned field-trip Fridays as one example. That got me thinking. Why don't we do something fun daily each week centered around a storybook. (inspired by this post over at Oopsey-Daisey- she will be posting a new theme every Friday.)

School gets out this week, so next week the fun will begin. We will pick one storybook a week, read it, and then each weekday we will do some activity that fits the theme of the story. I am going to try to integrate a field trip of some sort every week, as well as a fun themed lunch. The other days will have an art, math, or science learning activity. I will try to post them as soon as they are planned. If I wait till we do it all and take pictures, things could get pretty behind! Stay tuned to see how it all plays out!

Baby "Shower"

2011-05-20T15:27:00.000-06:00

We held a baby shower for my sister-in-law last weekend. I put my silhouette machine to work. Thanks to my wonderful mother and sisters-in-law who made it happen. (And if you girls have any pictures of the whole patio, I didn't get one in all the stir! Send it over and I'll add it.)

This is the entry to the patio,

Guests signed in by leaving their advice for the Mommy-to-be.

The buffet table:

It was a little breezy- the raindrops dangled and twirled- they looked great, the photos don't really do them justice.

Little cloud picks in the sandwiches.

Thanks for "dropping" by!

Creative kid's lunches

2011-04-29T19:38:00.001-06:00

Little Miss S was talking about getting to eat lunch at school next year. She is under the impression she can try the hot lunch every day and bring a backup cold lunch in case she doesn't like it. I am inspired to find some creative cold lunch options for her.

I love the ideas served up by Kristen over at Cookie Cutter Lunch.

We'll have to give some of her ideas a try this summer. Here are links from the store where she buys her containers. There are tons of mommy bloggers making bento style lunches.

Check out cutefoodforkids for tons of cute ideas, including this one little Miss T just called "hungry birds." Appropriate, no?

Check out these other fun ideas:
MuffinTinMom

AnotherLunch

What's for Lunch at our house

Kitchen fun with my 3 sons

School Lunch ideas .com Family Fun has some great ideas, including this one for a sandwich on a stick.

I also remember the idea to collect cute and fun paper napkins to tuck into school lunches. And with that writing notes on the napkin from time to time.

My Fabric Rosettes

2011-03-15T14:57:00.001-06:00

I have been loving the rolled/twisted fabric rosette tutorials and singed posie tutorials around the web. I have been making them for everything! They fit the vintage taste I am developing.

Here are some tutorials to get you started:
Posie Style:

Make It and Love It
Grace Laced
I attached my layers and decorated the centers by stitching "X's" on my posies. I wanted to avoid any small parts for use on baby items.

Rosette Style:

My Sparkle
Studio 5
House of 3
I used parts of different tutorials. I folded the strip lengthwise and tied a knot for the centers, hot glued to a felt circle (or a spare piece of the same fabric) and maintained the fold while rolling and folding around the center. I hot glued as I went, attaching it to the base. Try these with satin type fabric for a fancy sheen and good fray, or jersey knit for a softer, more casual look.

Satin

Jersey Knit

ThickMuslin

What to do with them? This batch is for baby headbands. I made mine with velcro dots to make them easily interchangeable. Plus, no hard clips to scrape or poke little baby heads. I have also seen them for bib necklaces (like on the Studio 5 link,) as pins to decorate scarves, purses, etc., made out of muslin and glued around lampshades, or to decorate pillowcases,the sky is the limit. My first batch went to personalize my diaper bag, to help me discern it from my Sister's, since we both fell in love with the same one.

If you make some, I would love to hear how you used them.

Labeled Laundry Bins

2011-01-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

I am trying to get our laundry system back in order before the new baby comes. It helps a lot having a kindergartner who is learning to read! This is my most recent project with my Silhouette machine. I love it. Each bin is the perfect size for a load, so when one is full, we just dump it in. What laundry tricks do you use?

Thrift Store Cherubs

2011-01-24T21:49:00.001-07:00

I have been working on my Valentines decor for the Hutch. I thought some kind of little cherub or cupid statue would be great, but didn't want to fork out the money to buy one. I don't go to the thrift store often, but found myself there one random day. And I spent 50 cents a piece on these beauties.

Why yes, that is some gold leaf type finish on there.

Out came the spray paint. Love that stuff!

The one on the left has been painted and glazed. The right one has only been painted.

One of the best days of my craft shopping career? The day I came across this can of mistinted glaze at the building supply store.

See the tannish gold color? that is what it was. I talked the guy at the paint counter into re-tinting it for me. A nice shade of gray. It has been the perfect color for all my antiquing. And nothing beats a whole can for $2.50!

In the end, these two came out perfectly, and will make their grand appearance on an upcoming post of my Valentine hutch decor.

Cutting Shelf Liner (Contact Paper) on Silhouette

2011-01-05T10:52:00.001-07:00

If you can get by with adhesive shelf liner instead of vinyl-it is much less expensive! The roll I bought is 18 inches (twice as wide) by 24 feet (more than twice as long). For the same price or less than the average vinyl roll.

Some tips I am learning along the way:

The less intricate, the better. It is too thin to do fine work on.
Set the blade at 1
If the paper is curling, use a mat or bend it to help it straighten, otherwise it will fold under the blade as the machine cuts.
Transfer tape is too strong for the adhesive on my paper. I get suitable, but not perfect results using press n' seal food wrap
More tips are coming as I learn them...

Christmas Decor 2010

2010-12-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

I had my nativity scene in mind when I picked the paint color for the Hutch, so I was quite excited to set up my Christmas Hutch!

And we finally got all the knobs on.

Plus, my handy man came through with an awesome way to display our stockings! (And no, the number of stockings is not a hint, they just display better in even numbers!)

Our little nativity toys end up exploring the whole house. We are lucky when they all make it back.

What could be more festive than an extended family of giant gingerbread people about to devastate a little gingerbread town?

That is what I thought! Merry Christmas!

Autumn & Halloween - Hutch Style

2010-12-30T11:07:00.001-07:00

I have been having a lot of fun decorating my hutch with every season. It is great actually having a place to decorate! Here are the layouts from Halloween & Autumn of 2010, plus the other decor we had in the living room.

Halloween

Autumn

There will be vinyl everywhere!

2010-12-30T10:23:00.003-07:00

Santa surprised me with a Silhouette machine for Christmas. I love that guy! My Hubby helped me play with it the other day. His design software skills come in quite handy. We printed off a little image for my beat up phone...

and then we worked out a design of our own for the laptop. We had seen some pretty cool decals for laptops, this was the style I wanted. We found a swatch of fabric online that had the basic pattern, and my dear converted it and dressed it up to fit just right. I love it.

I am sure there will be many posts to follow!

*Note to self: Check out this site for ordering vinyl

*Note to self: When cutting on contact paper, use thickness 1, blue blade, and speed around 5. Cut paper to 9 inches wide to fit under feed rollers.

Tutorial: Homemade Maternity Pillow

2010-12-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I had my first good night's sleep in weeks. Trying to arrange pillows comfortably around a pregnant body and not push the husband out of the bed in the process is something I have yet to master.

I was not willing to buy a big, expensive maternity pillow, though I am sure they work great. Instead I took two old flatty pillows that were hanging around my linen closet, sat down at my sewing machine, and this project was born. Here's how I did it.

You will need:

2 old flat pillows.
A sewing machine and heavy duty thread, or a good needle, thread, and some patience.
A jersey knit pillowcase(great because it stretches) or other large pillowcase/sham, or sew yourself a case if you are crafty! Whichever you choose, you just need room for your two pillow rolls to fit in and leave a gap in the middle for you.

Step 1
Select pillows. You could use one big fluffier pillow or just a bunch of batting in a pinch, but that requires more sewing, splitting the stuffing and making them their own pillow forms. It worked for me to get out thin old pillows that no one wanted to use. They were the perfect size for this as well.

Step 2
Fold in half the long way, to form a skinny roll, and pin the edges. This may get a bit tough in places, try to push the batting away from the seam and then pin it.

Step 3
Thread your machine with heavy duty thread. Mine may have been a bit too thick, I had a tough time getting the machine threaded, not to mention the fun it gave me while sewing. You could give it two passes with regular thread.

Sew down your new seam, removing the pins as you go. I ended up pulling my fabric taught from each side of the machine to help smooth the fabric and direct it under the foot. It still looks a little rough, but it will certainly do!

Step 4
Repeat with second pillow.

Get your pillowcase and put those babies in there! I put the seams facing each other

See how there is a good bit of slack between the two pillow rolls?

Enough that I could fold it up like this:

I couldn't model the pillow and take a picture at the same time, so I substituted two pillows for the pregnant body. Just lay on the center space and let the rolls support your back and belly. Plus, they won't shift in the night, because you are laying on the pillowcase and holding them right in place.

Enjoy your good nights rest and tell me how it worked for you!

Christmas Shopping Links

2010-11-17T11:20:00.001-07:00

If you love to shop online, these are some good resources I have been using:

with their trials to prime shipping, and the even better trial through the Amazon Mom promotion, this has been a handy resource. Even better next week when the good Lightning Deals start.

If you are gearing up for the Black Friday madness, BFADS.NET shows all the ads that are out early. A great resource for planning ahead.

I also check the deal sites, that list the best deals:

http://slickdeals.net/

http://www.zappdeals.com/

http://www.utahshoppingsecrets.com

And to verify I am getting a good price I often search the item by name here:

Google.com

thefind.com

See my post from last year with more links to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

An important note! Sometimes you can deal search all day and still find a far better deal at the big box store in person. Example: I was shopping for a certain item that was cheapest on the web at $24.50 on Amazon with free shipping. I couldn't find it online in any box stores. So I ordered it at this price. It is due to arrive today, so of course, this morning while at Wally I found the item for $10. The kicker? It rang up at $8! If only it didn't cost me to ship the other one back.

Christmas Crafting Links

2010-11-07T21:31:00.002-07:00

Keep checking back with the I heart naptime blog, where there is a month long Christmas Crafting Event going on! Keep your eye on the Saturday link parties, there is sure to be something you love!

Tip Junkie has nearly endless collections of ideas here.

Skip To My Lou has a great set of tutorials for homemade gifts

I will be adding to this post as I come across other posts & blogs with fabulous Christmas ideas. Check back!

Halloween Dinner

2010-10-29T09:45:00.000-06:00

Our Halloween traditions take place on the Monday night before Halloween. We have a spooky dinner and carve our pumpkins. This is what we served this year.

A Spooky Meatloaf with blood dipping sauce

Mashed Potato Ghosts

and Slimey Bog Punch

Happy Haunting!

BOO your neighbors!

2010-10-14T00:48:00.001-06:00

This is a fun neighborhood tradition. We were "Boo"ed tonight. The hard part is finding a copy of the poem/ghost that you like. So here is the one I made up.

Click to enlarge and print. It is a Jpeg, so take care to preview before printing to make sure it is the size you want. I just insert my boo gram into a Word Document to make sure it fits one whole page.

Time for a Fire Drill

2010-10-07T10:04:00.000-06:00

Today I ran out to the mailbox, stopped to pick a few long-ignored weeds, and came right back inside. My little three year old told me, "Mom, I heard a beep. I heard the phone." I showed no missed calls and dismissed her announcement. That is until my CO2/Smoke Detector went off 30 seconds later. I love that it talks, but I didn't understand what it said from the other room. Don't make the mistake of waiting underneath it if it has a high decibel output, my ears are still ringing from the next alarm. It was time to change the batteries.

Here are some tricks I have learned from today:
1- Keep the manual nearby! We have a hall closet just a few feet away from our main floor alarm. It was so nice to be able to pull it out and get right to the solution. I would not have known how to remove the alarm without it. My alarm also asked for a specific brand of battery, so that was good to know.

2- Keep some earplugs with the manual! I wish I had put these in before I waited below the blasted thing. They were very handy while changing and testing the batteries. (Plus, you are supposed to test often, weekly or monthly depending on the model.)
3- Bring a sturdy step stool. Luckily I had one nearby, I didn't have to learn this one the hard way!
4- A pen. My manual has to blank pages in the back that are a perfect place to write down the date I changed the batteries last.
5- Put it on your calendar. I had it on mine for last week but ignored it. Next time I hope to change them before they run out.
6- Make sure you have them in all the proper places. At least one per level of your home and one near or in all sleeping areas. Specific instructions can be found in the manual.

If you are interested in knowing more about fire alarms, including the latest recall information, go to the U.S. Fire Administration Website

We will be holding a fire drill sometime soon. We will make a fun night of it with activities from the US Fire Administration's Website for Kids.

What do you do to practice fire safety in your home?