Wordless Wednesday – Working Up a Sweat

For more Wordless Wednesday entries, visit:

Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom

Mouthwatering Monday – Easy Mexican Pasta Bake

While I love Mexican food, I can never get my boys to eat anything other than cheese quesadillas.  Not wanting to make separate dinners for the adults and the children, I discovered away to make it work – Mexican pasta bake. This twist on tacos let’s me enjoy the flavors I love, while also meeting the approval of my boys.

INGREDIENTS

• 1lb lean ground beef
• 1 can Red Gold Petite Diced Tomatoes w/ Chipotle (Ro*tel tomatoes w/green chili’s would work too)
• 1.5 cups shredded cheese – nacho/Mexican variety works best
• 1 box spiral/penne/elbow noodles (your choice)
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced

DIRECTIONS

Prepare the ground beef, adding your diced bell pepper when the beef is about 1/2 way done.  After browning, add taco seasoning, following directions on the packet. On another burner, prepare your pasta according to the directions and drain.  Add both the ground beef mixture and the pasta to an oven safe casserole dish.  Mix in the diced tomatoes and the cheese.  Place in over for 20 minutes at 325.

This post is part of Mouthwatering Monday. Click on the link and check out more great recipes!

Just because.. I need some sunshine

I must admit things around our house have been pretty boring this past week. With SM developing a weird rash at the beginning of the week and with the B-man not feeling well we’ve been hunkered down, trying to get everyone better and keep the rest of us healthy.

So I could wax poetic about mysterious polka dots, ear infections, sinus infections and doctors appointments, or I could just share some cute photos of the kids… Hmmmmm

PS. Please send healthy vibes our way. We need them!

Very Important Update

Wooo Hooo ~ It’s official. This blogger will be at BlogHer10!

For those of you who are not familiar, BlogHer10 is a blogging conference taking place August 6 & 7 in New York City. I’ve been attending since 2007 and have to say it’s my favorite of all the blogger conferences. If you’re thinking about going you better hustle over and get your ticket. Today is the LAST DAY for early bird pricing. The cost goes up tomorrow! Here’s the BlogHer10 Conference Eventbrite page.

For more on BlogHer you can check out any of my past posts:

• Why BlogHer is so Special
• A “Tasty Treat” at Blogher (Rocco D…..)
• BlogHer – 4 Things
• BlogHer – The Parties
• Cincinnati BlogHer Group
• BlogHer Annual Lunch Meetup

PS. My Twitter account isn’t working. Will only show me tweets from last night (and not the Tweets From Last Night you think, lol)

Help a Girl Out – Please Vote

My Friend Tricia at Once a Month Mom is participating in a contest with The Mushroom Channel. She submitted a photo of mushrooms she took and now people are voting on their favorite photo.  1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd place prizes awarded with 1^st place getting $100!  Voting ends THIS FRIDAY (FEB 26) so please click the link above and vote for Tricia. No registering is needed, just click “J” and voila.  It’s that easy.

Science Experiments for Kids

I am not really sure where it came from (perhaps Grandma D) but B-Man has been getting issues of National Geographic Little Kids in the mail for a few months now.  The publication is great – filled with information not only on animals, but also about the world.  One of the things I really like is that it includes activities that get kids using their minds, like matching images, crafts and experiments.

Most recently, the January/February included an experiment called Dancing Raisins that the B-man (and his older brother) was so excited about we just had to do it.

Here’s what you’ll need to get your raisins dancing:

• 1 tall glass filled 1/3 with water
• 4 tablespoons of vinegar
• 3 teaspoons of baking soda
• 5 raisins

Here’s a video of us doing the experiment. You’ll notice that I miss understood the directions and did 3 TABLESPOONS of baking soda, causing our mixture to overflow (opps!) and I think it also made our raisins dance like they were in their 90’s……  Regardless, if you have these ingredients at home, I’d def. recommend you give this a whirl. While our raisins didn’t get their groove on as much as we would have liked, the boys had a blast and they learned about buoyancy at the same time!

So here’s my question for you guys. Since we had so much fun with this experiment, I want to find more to do with the boys. If you have any suggestions or sites that you go to for fun experiences for 4-7 year olds, I’d love to hear about them!

Circus Time in Cincinnati! Zing Zang Zoom Ticket Giveaway

CONTEST CLOSED.

The circus is returning to Cincinnati and I’ve got a 4-pack of tickets to giveaway!  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus returns to Cincinnati Wednesday March 10 – Sunday, March 14 with their latest show, ZING ZANG ZOOM.

My boys always love going to the circus when it’s in town, it’s sort of a family tradition. It’s an opportunity for them to see and experience things they might not otherwise be able to, living in the city.  From lions jumping through hoops to acrobats flying through the air, they’re usually either laughing so hard they could cry, or on the edge of their seats with suspense.  So when Mom Central offered me a 4-pack of tickets to take my family, and a 4-pack to giveaway through my blog, it was a no-brainer. We wouldn’t miss the circus for the world!

What Zing Zang Zoom is about:
Magical Zingmaster Alex and his assistant, the alluring Levitytia, lead audiences through a kaleidoscope of color and imagery revealing extraordinary worlds of fantasy, flight and phenomena that celebrates the uplifting spirit of the circus and wards off a cynical Mr. Gravity and his team of “heavies” who try to bring everyone down.

Fun-filled magic merges with traditional circus arts to create a world of infinite possibilities where apprentice illusionists levitate their parents with a wave of a wand, and audience spirits keep rising as the high flying circus is (literally) turned upside down.

You can visit their website for a sneak peak of Zing Zang Zoom.

In addition to providing me with the tickets to giveaway (more on that in a moment) Mom Central also gave me a special code for my readers to use when they go to buy their tickets:

Purchase a 4-pack of tickets for weekday shows for only $44, or receive $4 off any weekend ticket by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com and entering the coupon code: MOM.

In Cincinnati the show times are:

• Wednesday March 10: 7:00pm
• Thursday March 11: 7:00pm
• Friday March 12: 7:00 pm
• Saturday March 13: 11:00am, 3:00pm, 7:00pm
• Sunday March 14: 11:00am, 3:00pm, 7:00pm

Alrighty, so on to the giveaway……..

WIN IT

One lucky Mommy Bits reader will win 4-pack of tickets to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s ZING ZANG ZOOM at US Bank Arena. Tickets are for opening night: Wednesday, March 10 at 7pm

There are several ways to enter, you can do one or all of them for additional chances:

1. Leave a comment sharing one of your favorite circus acts or performances.
2. Add my blog to your blogroll and leave a comment letting me know you did so.
3. Follow the Mommy Bits blog on Facebook’s Networked blogs (left side bar, click follow this blog) and leave a comment letting me know you did so.
4. Post a Status Update about my giveaway on Facebook and tag me on your post (Shannan Boyer)
5. Subscribe to my blog, and leave a comment letting me know you did so.
6. Tweet  about this giveaway (include @mommybits) and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

Submissions are due by 5 pm on Sunday, February 28, 2010. Winner will be selected using a random number generator. Contest open to greater Cincinnati residents only. Winners will have 48 hours to respond.

DISCLAIMER: Tickets to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Zing Zang Zoom! were provided to me by Mom Central. I received a 4-pack for my family and a 4-pack to giveaway.

UPDATE: Want more chances to win tickets? These local bloggers are also giving them away:

• Andrea @ Mommy Snacks
• April @ Doin’ The Working Mom Thing
• Becky @ Nickels N Dimes

My Little “Angels”

The boys popped out onto the back deck to play in the snow.  Who doesn’t love to make snow angels?

Trying New Things

Earlier this week we celebrated my birthday at a local sushi restaurant.  While the boys will go to just about any restaurant in town, normally they are hesitant to try new foods. Typically we end up  going with generic foods like grilled chicken, chicken nuggets, veggies, etc.

Well on this particular evening, something happened.  I am not sure what it was, but both boys decided that they were going to try some of the traditional items on the menu.

WHAT?? My children?

Yup, and they loved it all!! I was so proud of them. I can’t wait to see how it goes the next time we go out to eat. I am hoping this is a trend I’ll continue to see!

If any of you are dealing with, or have dealt with, this same issue,  I ‘d love to know how you are encouraging your children to try new foods?  The night of my birthday we used the opportunity to talk about the Japanese culture and related the items to what children in Japan eat. It seemed to work – they thought it was cool to be eating the same foods as children from another country.

Mommy Bits on Fox 19

If you live in Cincinnati and watch Fox19 news, you may have seen me on their 10 o’clock news last night. PS. It is so weird to see yourself on TV…

A reporter with the station contacted me a few weeks ago after reading about my weight loss efforts both here and on the weight loss blog I contribute to, Cincinnati Losers.  During the interview we talked about my efforts and the MAJOR role that social media (the people — you guys!) has played in my success.

A big shout out to my Cincinnati Losers co-bloggers who are my weight loss rocks!