Smile

Happy World Smile Day 2012!

World Smile Day was created by Harvey Ball of Worcester, Massachusetts, who, in 1963, designed the original smiley face logo.

He thought that we all should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world, regardless of politics, geography and religion.

World Smile Day® is the first Friday in October each year, people all around the planet perform acts of kindness and help others smile.

Here is a healthy treat from family go that’s sure to put a “smile” on anyone’s face. Even the youngest kiddos can help create these; an excellent cook together.

This week’s Recipe for Fun: False Teeth aka Apple Smiles.

Ingredients

• smooth peanut butter
• 1 red apple, cored and sliced into eighths
• squeeze of lemon juice
• miniature marshmallows

Directions

1. Spread peanut butter on one side of each apple slice (squeeze a little lemon juice over the apple if not serving immediately).
2. Place four miniature marshmallows on one apple slice and then lay another apple slice, peanut butter side down, on top.

Recipe for Fun

I think I’ll go eat worms. Would you care to join me?

Ingredients:

100 flexible plastic straws

(The straws with a bendable neck make the most realistic worms by adding ridges to the worm. Place bendable necks of straws at the bottom of the container).

An empty, cleaned 1-quart milk or orange juice carton to hold straws.

(The straws will fill up to the height of the container, the taller the better.)

1 package (6 ounces) raspberry or grape flavor gelatin
3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
3 cups boiling water
3/4 cup whipping cream
12 to 15 drops green food coloring

waxed paper

Instructions: Combine gelatins in a bowl and add boiling water; stir until gelatins completely dissolve. Chill until lukewarm, about 20 min.

Meanwhile, gently pull straws to extend to full length; place in tall container. Wrap together with a loose rubber band to hold straws together.

Blend cream and food coloring with the lukewarm gelatin mixture. Carefully pour into container, filling straws.

Chill until gelatin is firm, at least 8 hours, or cover and chill up to 2 days.

Pull straws from container or, if you’re using a carton, simply tear the carton away from the filled straws. Pull straws apart. Run hot tap water for about 2 seconds over 3 to 4 straws at a time. Starting at the empty ends, push worms from straws with rolling pin, or use your fingers.

Lay worms on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Cover and chill until ready to use, at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. Worms will hold at room temperature for about 2 hours.  And another grand plan from the IdeaRoom.

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I think I’ll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones,
Eensie weensy squeensy ones,
See how they wiggle and squirm!

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!

I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice,
And throw the skins away!
Nobody knows how fat I grow,
On worms three times a day!

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I think I’ll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones,
Eensie weensy squeensy ones,
See how they wiggle and squirm!

Mummy Monday

Wrap up some mummies and put them on your plate. Surprise the kiddos, a hot dog inside. The how to is found at Family Fun.

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Looking for a no brainer? This Mummy has no brain, just unwrap it and you will find Halloween Playdough. Another recipe from the Idea Room.

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Mummified Oreos could be your treat.

You may ask How She Does It, she will show you how to too.

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Mummy? No it’s a baby, well maybe a baby Mummy.

Babble claims all it takes is roll of gauze plus a cute baby and you’ll have your own baby Mummy.

All you Mummys and Daddys have fun with your babies on Halloween.

Recipe for Fun

Serve up Mummy’s Favorite Pizza a great way to get the kids to eat something good before they eat all that candy!  It’s also a good cook together recipe for fun eats.

Ingredients
English muffin bread
Pizza sauce
Black olives
Scallions
Red or green pepper
Cheese sticks or slices

Instructions
1. Heat the oven to 350º F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).
2. Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.
3. Lay strips of  pulled-apart cheese sticks across the muffin for the mummy?s wrappings.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

Bone Appetit! Ha ha ha ha…

Regular old pretend pizza you can slice enjoy everyday.

Marvel – ous

Our annual Wag-O-Ween Party is just two Saturdays away. The showroom is spookily decorated with pumpkins, bats, ghosts, spiders and lots of cobwebs, some faux and even many authentic spider spun left especially for the occasion.

Today, I am considering this way Marvel-ous costume. What do you think? How long would it actually take to accomplish that face?

Calling all dogs!

Put on your costumes and bring your people in to the Wag-O-Ween Party 2011. Join us Saturday, October 22 for fun games, prizes and treats. Professional photographer Gretchen Osowski will be with us for fun fotos for pooches and people.

Make some Marvelous Mummy Meatloaf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, anyway……

Here’s lookin’ at ya!

Oldies But Definitely Goodies

How much candy can you fit into a crisp ghostly white percale environmentally friendly pillowcase and how many houses with steep steps do you have to run up to and shout out “trick or treat” to fill it?

At our house, Bob was the revered king of Halloween, never stuffing one, but close to almost two pillowcases full of  candy year after year. Really no one else even needed to bother putting on a costume and venturing out on a chilly Halloween night as Bob brought home enough candy to keep the entire neighborhood in candy until the following Halloween. Not the case though, the challenge was on with everyone trying to top Bob’s record. This competition continued year after year and always with the same results, the Candy King was Bob. Looking back, Bob was the only one big and strong enough to carry home a nine pound bag filled with the spoils of Trick or Treating.

Then, the worst thing happened every year the day after Halloween. The mountains of candy would always disappear. Our cruel father would take the candy and donate it to the orphanage downtown.

Over the years we all came to forgive Dad from robbing us of weeks of sugar highs and sparing us from future trips to the dentist with rotting teeth. Dad was on to something and today there are others sharing his belief that there is a limit to after Halloween candy dilemma.

Phillip Done, author of “Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teacherhood,” suggests having the Candy Fairy visit your kids. Have your kids write a letter to her and leave most of their candy out before they go to bed at night. She’ll take the candy (for children who couldn’t go trick-or-treating) and leave your kids a gift. For parents, that could be a fair and fun trade. There is also the The Halloween Candy Buy-Back Program!

Quite possibly some of us may have found special spots to stash a few favorite goodies. Don’t tell Dad, Please…

What were your favorite Halloween candies as a kid? Do you remember any of these oldies but goodies? And there’s nothing like an old pillowcase – sturdy, voluminous, , and environmentally conscious – to hold your epic stash. But you must have wondered – exactly how much could you possibly collect i

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Rock Candy? Not quite, but No Time for Flashcards will show you how to create these rock Jack-O-Lanterns.

Dig up some scary bones with Frugal Family Fun. Sorry, you’ll have to resist gnawing on these bones.

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These Candy Corn Cookies you CAN eat!

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What do birds give out on Halloween?  Tweets.

Closing Time

Closing time, actually after closing time, the door was locked, lights turned off, sales team had all gone home, when Annie left her office to check out the loud banging sound coming from the front door. Even though it was after store hours, in the Nordstrom tradition, our GM, Annie, welcomed in the last guests of the day. Very nice of you Annie.

Standing outside were two men and a sweet little girl tapping and knocking on the front door. Eric, Jada’s dad was looking for beds and told us he had his eye on a race car bed, but there would be some jealousy issues bringing that bed home when it would not be for Jada. No new bed for that family on Sunday, but 6 year old Jana did go home ready for Halloween with a Policewoman costume.  Eric was surprised with his daughter’s selection telling us that she has always been a princess sort of a girl.

The Totally Kids team prides itself on exceptional customer service. So much can be learned from Nordstrom where they developed  management principles to achieving its #1 status for customer service in America, which are discussed in Robert Spector’s book, The Nordstrom Way (2005) :

• Provide your customer with choices
• Create an inviting place for your customers
• Hire nice, motivated people
• Empower employees to take ownership
• Dump the rules (tear down barriers to customer service)
• Commit 100% to customer service

Choices? Does Totally Kids ever provide customers with choices!  You’ll see when you visit www.shoptotallykids.com. If for some reason what you are dreaming of or searching for is not found,  there are knowledgeable personal shoppers and talented interior designers to assist you.

Inviting place? Stop in and you be the judge. Most adults comment over and over, “oh I wish that I had that when I was a child”.  Then, the kids, they have a real “kids in a toy store” experience, so good that many of them leave crying when their mean parents tell them it’s time to go home. Hot tip: do not leave the store without a trip to the restroom.

Nice? Our team could all be rated “Minnesota Nice” and motivated to help families have a pleasant experience on their visit to Totally Kids.

Ownership is brilliantly demonstrated with the ongoing efforts of Stephanie and Megan’s talent in displays and merchandising creating eye candy for all guests. Leaving the store with toys colorfully gift wrapped for Free puts a smile everyone’s face.

Commit 100% to customer service? Behind the scenes, during the week our customer care manager extraordinaire, Lisa works with factories, shipping companies and customers.  Her attention to detail and organizational skills maintains a very well oiled customer service machine.

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Halloween Food Ideas:

How about some sweet looking candy corn pizza?

Jack O Veggies Healthy Halloween Here.

Monster Cup Cakes from My little Mochi.

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Baby Food Jar Votives by Skip to My Lou

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How does a Jack-O-Lantern stop smoking? A: He wears a…pumpkin patch.

Making Halloween Less Orange and More Green

We took the message to the world this morning, or the world that is actually awake and watching NBC television before 6A.M. For those of you who have been following this blog, know all to well that we have a passion for Green, so it just made sense to make Halloween less orange and much more GREEN.

On September 23,  Hallow-Green was our big kick off that super intern Jenna put together. The initial message was of course teaching our children the importance of environmental consciousness with a fun Halloween Costume Exchange. Our team was blown away when folks did not just exchange a Halloween costume, but donated them. There is now a rack loaded with cute, cute costumes for infant to size 6 or 7 – ready and waiting for you to come in a swap for a “new to you” costume.

There is a HUGE National Costume Swap Day Party at Totally Kids this Saturday, October 9th from 11AM – 4PM. including  Storytime with Stephanie, contests, prizes, treats, hot cider, fun and games. Enter the Give-Away drawing for a FREE “green” (kid powered) no fuel needed kid size car. The costume swap will continue up until October 25 when the balance of Halloween costumes will be donated to families affected by Autism.

Keep the GREEN going!

Before you visit us, check under your beds and back of closets for any gently used toys that the kiddos are no longer playing with or need. The toys for Autism collection is a GREEN project that is ongoing year long.

WANTED: GENTLY USED TOY DONATIONS
All parents in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area! Totally Kids
is accepting all toy donations to benefit the locally headquartered group “Parents United Against Autism”. We’ll take the donated gently used toys to local families in need. Aside from helping our friends and neighbors, this is an excellent opportunity to clear out your closets a little and keep those unused toys from ending up on a landfill for the next 100 years. Please bring whatever you can.

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While at Kare11, again, so very too early in the morning,  I met kitchen scientist, Liz Heinecket, who had a rather remarkable way of inflating Halloween balloons. Her blog is The Kitchen Pantry Scientist where it appears that she is always stiring up lots of science fun.

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Scare up Some Halloween Food – No, I did not say throw up.

 

Spooky – Vegetarian Awareness Day

October 1st is Vegetarian Awareness Day and it continues all month.

Scare up some Vegetarian Halloween Food.

Monster Food -  Eyeball Caprese for brave of appetite.

Photo Credit: whitneymoss  for this edible Bony Maroney Skeleton. No meat on the bones here. Visually dissect the skeleton for a list of ingredients. Hint: hummus face.

Stuffed Roaches anyone?

Puking pumpkin…… What can I say?

If you’ve just gotta have your meat, disguise it in a Mummy Meatloaf and we won’t tell. Mum’s the word.

This is a little bit more advanced project, but Wow,  how fun would this be to surprise someone with the smashed wicked witches legs sticking out from under the bed?  Diary of a Crafty Lady will show you how.

Our work day ends as  Twins fan Devon throws on her jersey and heads off to the new stadium.  Lisa chooses to cross the  Mississippi  River to St. Paul for a Wild’s game.

Devon now reports on how she helped the Vikings win “we got out our Vikings blanket, and wore different outfits, and I painted my nails purple, which worked last year.” Do you know of others with these powers?

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What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Pumpkin pi.