Inspiration

This post is all about how to make kid friendly green smoothies. Key word being “kid friendly!”

These blended, frozen drinks are definitely my “go-to” whenever I want to give Eli and Georgia something that’s quick, healthy and drama-free.

Today, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes for a nutritious and tasty green smoothie that I hope your kids (and you!) will love. I’ve even included some simple tips on how to make green smoothies kid friendly. They’ll forget they’re drinking kale in no time!

Green Smoothie Recipe aka “Little Greenie”

1 cup packed kale (discard stems and tear into pieces)
1/2 banana
1/2 cup mangos (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup pineapple (fresh or frozen)
1 teaspoon raw honey (or agave nectar)
3/4 cup orange juice

Blend until smooth, serves 2

*Coconut water is a great alternative to orange juice and makes the drink that much more tropical. My kids prefer the taste with orange juice because it adds sweetness, but I opt for mine with coconut water. If you’re using fresh fruit just add a few ice cubes to your blender.

How to Make Kid Friendly Green Smoothies

Add a Little Flair
Fancy straws are a big hit in my house, especially with my four-year old daughter. I got the ones above at Target and I only break them out when I have something I really want them to drink. With these straws, my nutritious green smoothie instantly becomes a special treat. You can also try floating fruit on the top or serving them in a new, fun glass.

Give it a Name
I called this one “Little Greenie”. I got the name from one of our favorite books, I Love You Stinky Face. In the book, the imaginative son turns into all sorts of undesirable creatures and questions his mom about her unconditional love. When he pretends to turn into a Green Alien from Mars she reassures him she will still love him, feed him green grasshoppers, and call him “Little Greenie”.

Sweeten It!
Pineapple and orange juice both add sweetness to your smoothie and soften any bitter taste of the greens. Bananas also help neutralize and sweeten bitter flavors. A touch of agave, raw honey, vanilla extract and cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder will also do the trick.

Make your Green Smoothie Purple
If all else fails just change the color of the smoothie. Red and purple fruit will take the green out of your smoothie without draining it of its nutrients. Fruits such as red grapes, cherries, raspberries, or blueberries work wonders. The recipe below is a must try for any kid (or adult) that has an aversion to green food/drink.

Purple Smoothie Recipe aka “Berrylicious”

2 cups frozen fruit (I usually go with a blend of berries)
Blueberry greek yogurt
1 banana
1 cup fresh spinach leaves
2 splashes of milk

Blend until smooth, serves 2

If you’re looking for more tips on how to adjust the flavor or consistency of your smoothie click here. Vitamix’s website has all the answers on easy smoothie fixes.

Enjoy!

Here are 5 Teacher Appreciation Gift Ideas to help you plan a week of sweet ideas to show your teachers just how much you love and appreciate them. Do you have any more ideas to share? Comment below!

Day One: Berry Cute

Make a basket using a strawberry basket or another sort of container and attach this free printable from eighteen25 that says, “I couldn’t have picked a better teacher!” Then fill with berry-themed scented Bath & Body Works soaps and lotions or even a basket of fresh strawberries. Berry sweet!

Day Two: You deserve a hand! 

Trace your child’s handprint, cut out, and write something like, “You deserve a hand!” or “Bravo!” and affix hands to make them look like they are clapping to a bottle of hand lotion.

 Day Three: We need s’more teachers like you!

Download this free s’more printable from domesticated lady and attach to a packet of s’more materials. Yummy AND cute! Want s’more?

Day Four: I heart my teacher

This idea was from a guest blog by featured on PB&J Stories by Stephanie of Life Created. Fill up a mason jar with a variety of tea bags and attach with a tag that says, “I heart my teacher” with the tea in bold and another color. Oh my gosh, is that too adorable, or what?!

Day Five: Thank you for helping me grow

I love the sentiment of this one, because that is exactly what teachers are all about ~ helping kids grow! You can attach this free printable from Living Locurto to any potted plant. Inexpensive AND thoughtful. Click here for another awesome post with 8 cute free teacher appreciation printables.

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to share my favorite finds for unique Mother’s Day gifts. Isn’t it remarkable how after becoming a mother, you instantly appreciate your own mother that much more? Because if anyone deserves something special, it’s definitely mom!

Here are some of my favorite unique Mother’s Day gift ideas…

Mother & Daughter Letter Book

In a world filled with emails, texts and facebook messages, the gift of a hand written letter is more meaningful than ever before. I love this mother daughter letter book because along with the set of 40 cards and envelopes, it also includes hundreds of inspirational ideas that encourage you to share tidbits about your life that you may not have thought to include. It’s a perfect gift for any mom, especially one that you may not get to see everyday. $38

Morse Code Necklaces

How cool are these morse code necklaces by jewelry studio COATT? The dots and dashes make up a word of your choice such as “Love”, “Luck” or, “Mom”. Necklaces are available in three different lengths and six different colors. Also offered as a bracelet. I’m totally hooked! $80

Plan a Picnic Date

I’ve always loved to give (or receive) an experience rather than a material gift. With this Rattan Picnic Basket from Pottery Barn you can do both. Fill this picnic basket with your mom’s favorite goodies and head off on a picnic date. If you need some ideas on what to pack, check out our Tiny Oranges summer picnic board on pinterest. $89

The Gift of Cozy

Do you want to let the special mom in your life know she deserves to kick back and relax? These pajamas from The Marigot Collection are the perfect way to do it. The line offers luxury cotton and cashmere options. I’d happily spend my Sunday mornings lounging around in any of these pretty prints. $120

Something to Make Her Laugh

Last but not least, there’s nothing better than giving your mom a chuckle and I guarantee this funny mug will make her smile! $14

What do you think, would you like to give or receive any of these? Do you have any Mother’s Day plans or traditions you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them.

Last night I was staring down my week and wondering how I was going to cram in everything that needed to get done.  I love being busy.  I love my kiddos being busy. But, lately I’ve felt my weeks getting away from me by the time Tuesday evening rolls around.  It’s TIRING being a mama, right?!

So, as I was trying to make sense of the 51 Post-it note reminders I had strewn on my desk (together with my “perky” phone “beep” reminders going off every couple of hours) I decided to take a moment.  And breathe.

Then I jotted down some ways I could help myself have a better, more productive, and less stressful week – a “Note to Self,” if you will, so I decided it might be helpful to share these tips in case they might be helpful to you, too!

1. I will plan for the next day the night before. 

I will take five to 10 minutes each night, look at my calendar for the next day and lay out anything special I may need, make any reminder notes and organize my thoughts so that when my munchkins wake me up and my day is going full speed ahead at dawn, I already feel on top of it.

2. I will plan my food menus for the week.

This will help tremendously and will help me with my shopping (staying on budget and on task), making healthy, nutritious choices, and not panicking when I am completely exhausted and have to come up with a family dinner.

3. I will schedule time for myself to work out. 

Whether it’s a walk around the neighborhood with my kiddos, a jog, a favorite class at my gym, or even a workout DVD in my living room.  I will schedule my workouts like I would picking up my kids from school or being on time for a doctor’s appointment – otherwise a million and one things will come up and invade my time.

4. I will plan at least one fun thing I can do with my kids today. 

Sometimes the day can get away from me and I don’t want to forget to enjoy my children. It can be an outing, a play date, a simple game of Candyland, playing at the park, reading a book…whatever we feel like doing together.

5. I will go to sleep at a reasonable hour. 

Yes, it is sooooo tempting to use my evening and nighttime to catch up on…well, whatever I didn’t have time for during the day.  Or even veg in front of the TV with my favorite DVR’ed show.  But, what I’ve learned?  My kiddos are up at the same time, EVERY morning, no matter how late I stay up.  This is another way I need to take care of myself, so I can better take care of everyone else.

What tips do you have, mamas?  Any great advice or time-saving ideas?  I’d love to hear from you! 

How many of you are like me and can’t stop taking pictures of your kids? I’m definitely guilty of being overly snap happy when it comes to my little ones. And, since there’s no end to the amount of iphone shots, instagram photos and “real” camera photos I can rack up, I’ve quickly fallen behind with actually printing any of the photos you see above.

This year, I’ve made it a priority to “spring clean” my digital photos and finally take my bazillion photos off my computer and put them onto something both beautiful and tangible that we can enjoy for years to come. And, I’m excited to share what I’ve found with all of you!

First, I wanted to quickly highlight my two favorite sources for tips on organizing your photos which you can read here at PC Magazine  and Clickin’ Mom.

For me, the biggest issue was going through years of photos and deleting ones that I wouldn’t want printed (or were duplicates) and then categorizing them in a way that makes it easy to find what I’m looking for quickly. I followed this simple format:

Pictures > Year > Month > Activity

I promise you that once you take the effort to organize your old photos, you’ll be so much more conscious of how you import and catalog your new ones, making next year’s spring cleaning much easier!

Printing your digital photos

Now here’s the fun part – finding great resources to print your photos!

I’m so excited to try Artificat Uprising. They have the most beautiful albums offered in both hard and soft cover and the layouts are not overly designed, which I like. I think I’m going to start with their instagram books using a few of the photos you see above.

Blurb is another fabulous resource for printing photo books, or any other books for that matter. How fun would it be to make your own cookbook of your family’s favorite dishes? I love the variety of options this site offers and will definitely be using them in the future.

Unique Photo Gifts

Lastly, I am in love with this idea from Pinhole Press of creating a personalized memory game using family photos.

You just choose 12 favorite photos (of friends, family, pets, vacations, whatever you’d like), and Pinhole puts them on thick cards with graphic backgrounds. This is definitely a game everyone would love to play at your next family get together!

Are you guys good about capturing and printing life’s little moments? I’d love to hear how you do it and what methods you use for staying digitally organized. I can definitely use the help!