Author Archives: themercadoproject

DIY Easter Decorations

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I love making my own decorations for the holidays, especially when there’s a ton of ideas online.  I’m currently decorating for Easter and found a great banner idea as well as adorable DIY paper carrots.  I combined those ideas and included some plastic eggs and created this banner for the hallway outside my door.

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You can see the instructions and printable template for the easter egg banner here http://www.creationsbykara.com/2012/03/easter-craft-easy-easter-egg-banner.html and pictures of the paper carrots here http://www2.fiskars.com/Crafting/Projects/Holiday/Easter/Easter-Egg-Hunt#.UUiNKlqMHUM

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I used card stock to print out the template for the easter egg banner.  I then used several decorative papers for the banner and used construction paper for the carrots.  To hang these up I used pink and white baker’s twine.

At nickjr.com, there’s a whole bunch of crafting projects and I made the peter rabbit holiday garland (http://www.nickjr.com/printables/peter-rabbit-holiday-garlands.jhtml) because my youngest likes Peter Rabbit.  I also printed out egg holders (http://www.nickjr.com/printables/peter-rabbit-easter-eggs.jhtml) and an egg basket (http://www.nickjr.com/crafts/peter-rabbit-egg-basket.jhtml) for when we start dyeing our easter eggs at home.  Since my daughter dyed her first eggs at school, she’s super excited to do it again.

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When I picked her up from school yesterday I brought her a basket so she could carry home her masterpiece dyed eggs.  She’s in love with them and wants to keep them forever.  🙂

There’s definitely more egg stories to come.  I’m also planning my youngest daughter’s birthday at a snail’s pace.  So far, I only have a theme, Nickelodeon’s Bubble Guppies, and I’m planning on using the free printables on nickjr.com to decorate.  Again, I’m leaving everything for the last minute, but isn’t that how it’s really done?

Take good care all.

Until next time…

30 Day Spring Cleaning Plan

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Thanks for stopping by my blog and taking a look.  I really appreciate it, especially when you guys LIKE a post or leave a comment.  It’s quite addicting I have to admit so thanks, for the likes, that is. 🙂

It’s springtime and you know what that means: SPRING CLEANING.  I know, “Ugh,” but it has to be done (in my case for the sake of my children and the air they’re breathing in) and I’ve been looking for plans on how to spring clean my home little by little because that’s how I like to do things.  I tackle one big thing, one day at a time or maybe two days.  It depends on my mood or level of laziness.  Luckily, I received an email from homemadesimple.com with a great 30 Day Spring Cleaning plan that looks pretty good and I’m going to try to check things off day by day.

If you want to take a glance at this plan, check it out here: http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-US/Cleaning/Pages/30-day-spring-cleaning-plan.aspx?utm_source=email&utm_medium=single%2Bfocus&utm_campaign=30%2BDay%2BSpring%2BCleaning

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Welcome Spring!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

Some mornings are very hectic in my household even when I try to have things laid out already.  Time is a sneaky little monster that jumps out horribly at you when you’re trying to put shoes on, zip up sweaters, wrap scarves around, and place hats on two little girls with ants in their pants.  Oh, and don’t forget bundling yourself up.  Today was a good day.  I was able to leave the house on time and actually walk my daughter to school instead of jogging/running with her there before they slam close the doors.  She doesn’t mind the fast pace though because in her case she BOUNCES her way to school with excitement practically every day.  My kid doesn’t do walking, unless there’s three feet of snow in which then she wants to drag her feet and bask in the glory of snow heaven.  Other than that, it’s all running everywhere.

This morning my daughter was EXTRA excited because they were going to dye eggs in her classroom.  Her teacher asked that the kids bring in two hard-boiled eggs and I was brainstorming yesterday night on how I was going to transport these eggs without them cracking in her bag.  I thought, “Why not use the egg carton itself?” so I cut off one of the ends of the styrofoam carton and placed the eggs like this:

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Then I put it into a food storage container that fit perfectly and off to school she went with her eggs safely in her backpack.  I don’t really remember if I ever dyed Easter eggs with my mom or even in school, but this year we’re definitely going to be dyeing some eggs come Easter week-end.  I just have to remember to be patient and have fun, no matter what messes occur.  Let the cracked eggs and spilled paint fall where they may.  That’s what brooms and paper towels are made for, but just in case I will repeat silently this little mantra, “Just let go and make sweet memories.  That’s all that matters!”

Today is the start of Spring so lets welcome it with open arms even if we’re still bundled up over here in Brooklyn.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Hippity Hop, Easter’s on its way!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Next week is spring recess (schools are closed), but before that happens my daughter’s class is going to have an Easter celebration this Friday coming.  Her teacher asked for students to bring in a treat to share.  I decided to do the same thing I did for Valentine’s Day.  I just changed it to Easter.  I went online and googled easter bunny coloring page and picked this image:

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http://www.ikidspage.com/55-happy-easter-from-bunny

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I printed out six bunnies to a page and cut them out.  I inserted one bunny and a pack of mixed fruit gummies into a treat bag for my daughter’s classmates.  Now they can enjoy a treat and color a cute bunny with an Easter egg.  Simple and hopefully everyone will enjoy!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

I don’t want to see you, love sis

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Yesterday, it happened!  I’ve heard stories about this, but didn’t think that it was going to happen for a while, but yesterday it did.  It went down in the Mercado household.  My daughter wrote her first “I’m mad at you” note to her little sister!  It’s not funny, (but it actually is a tiny bit) because my daughter was serious.  They were playing in our hallway, but then little sis didn’t want to listen to big sis so she went into her room furious.  A couple of minutes later you heard big sis asking us, “How do you spell blah, blah, blah?”  My husband and I were in the kitchen and we looked at each other and said, “Uh oh.”  He went off to assist her.  A few minutes later, my serious daughter came into the kitchen and handed me this:

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These words convey so much emotion (that’s why technically it’s not funny, but I did giggle to myself in private because it’s amazing how she thought about doing this on her own, writing out her feelings) and her drawings as she explained to me were of herself and her little sister, sad and crying.  She was sad and crying because little sis didn’t want to listen to her and little sis was sad and crying because she didn’t want to listen to big sis.  I’m simply astounded with my daughter and how she felt it necessary to let her sister know exactly what she was feeling, even though little sis can’t read at the moment.  She just wanted to get her point across because as she tells me, “she has to listen to me because I’m the big sister.”  RESPECT!  Of course I HAD to take a picture of her note so she can see it in the future and hopefully laugh about it and little sis can finally read it in case it gets misplaced.  Everyday is something new, whether a funny or serious sentence is said or written.  I love this part of parenthood.  The little, but meaningful surprises that children gift us.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Encourage artistry

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I wanted to share a great book with you that I purchased for my daughter to encourage and develop her drawing skills.

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It’s called 501 Things to Draw and the price is wonderful.  It makes a great gift so if you’re looking for something to give kids 5 years and older get it before it goes out of stock.  On the website there’s only one picture of the book, but I’m going to show you more.  The book is like a binder, but you can’t take the pages out and there are eight themes to choose from.  They are separated by dividers and there are about 32 pages, 2 drawings per page, in each theme.

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Original artwork by Olivia

You can purchase this book here: http://www.lakeside.com/Toys-%2B-Sports/Books/Activity/501-Things-To-Draw-Book/prod30741.jmp?navAction=jump&fm=search

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Age appropriate

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Hello everybody!   I hope you guys are well.

Not so long ago, my daughter uttered two words that sent chills down my back as well as my husbands’.  They weren’t good chills and the words that she said were Justin Bieber.  Ugh!  She’s five years old.  Why is she inquiring about him?  Well, she told me that her friends at school watched him on TV.  I simply told her that they were watching him because he was a singer and left it at that.  Yes, she’s curious, but I don’t want her in the realm of these young teen celebrity’s shenanigans.  I don’t want her screaming her head off and crying her eyes out in admiration for someone.  That drives me nuts when I see little girls doing that.  It’s just not age appropriate and we as parents have to understand that they only have one childhood.  Why would you want to take that away from them?

Just like a toy that has age guidelines that we should adhere to, we should do the same when it comes to entertainment.  I don’t want her to know about One Direction, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, etc.  She’s five.  Yes, they got the Gangnam style fever only because we introduced it to them so we have to really think about what we want to expose our children to.  Yesterday, I had a conversation about this with my daughter’s teacher at school.  It was parent/teacher night.  My daughter’s report card was excellent and I’m very proud of her.  She has advanced in several subjects and her teacher mentioned how she shows a great interest in reading and writing.  I wish we had more time to speak because her teacher mentioned how parents are their children’s first teachers.  I told her that I had written that same comment on my blog and felt wholeheartedly that we have to teach them, but also try to keep them young and not advance them too much where they lose their innocence.  We, as a whole society, need to see this and understand it.  It’s for our children’s benefit.

Even a manicure, for example, which my daughter has been asking to do, may seem like a small matter, no big deal for some, but it is a big deal for me.  I feel she’s still too young for that and I know that there are toddlers out there wobbling around with little pink nails, but that’s their parent’s choice and just because that child has painted nails doesn’t mean that I have to paint my daughter’s nails as well.  I have my own opinion, my own view and I know what’s right for my child at this moment.  Once you open that door, even just a sliver, into adulthood, you can’t go back.  I don’t want my daughter singing a Justin Bieber song.  I want to hear her singing, the “Star, Spangled Banner” and “America, the beautiful”, which she’s currently singing and beautifully, I might add, because she learned them in school.  That’s what she’s supposed to be singing as well as silly songs that her teacher has taught her.  I have nothing against the above mentioned celebrities.  I just want to protect my child and let her enjoy her childhood.  I know, believe me I know that one day she’s going to grow up and enter that world, it’s just not going to be today!

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I gifted my daughter this book, pen, and eraser at her school’s book fair for her wonderful report card.  She picked everything out and was very happy.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Guilt

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Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

I want to talk about guilt.  Nowadays, I feel guilty pretty much about anything.  Yesterday, I felt guilty because my daughter wasn’t feeling well and I was trying my best to make her better.  Plus, she was missing school.  Now today, she’s still missing school.   We didn’t make it.  There’s a snowstorm outside and I was determined to take her to school because she woke up feeling better.  I was fortunate enough to be able to leave my youngest with my friend downstairs.  We made it halfway to the school before my daughter tripped and fell, body forward, on wet snow.  I was even holding her hand at the time, but she still fell over and her pants and coat got completely drenched.  I couldn’t take her to school and leave her like that.  I would be at home feeling guilty as heck because her pants were soaking wet and who knows how long it would have taken to dry.  We had to turn around and go back home and once we did, with time ticking away making us late for school and my friend not being able to stay longer with my youngest, I made the decision to stay home.

Guilt.

It squats in my mind and travels down and pangs at my heart repeatedly.  I try to brush it off.  I tell myself, “It happens to a lot of people.  It’s not the end of the world.”   But even if I let it go, it only last for mere seconds and then I’m right back to feeling guilty.  So I try to figure out why the guilt?  Well, in this instance, it’s because other kids made it to school, in the snowstorm.  Other parents were able to take their children, in the snowstorm.  I failed.  That’s how I feel at the moment.  I can definitely wallow in it, but I really don’t want to so instead I go online and print out several worksheets for my daughter to work on at home.  We also read books and we practice her sight words.  It’s the least that I can do and I always include these worksheets in her folder so her teacher can see them.  This makes me feel better, but the guilt is always going to be there.  It’s part of being a mom.  I don’t particularly like it and I wish that I could just switch it off in my brain, but it’s just not who I am.  I wish things could fall into place perfectly.  Wishful thinking, I know, but then maybe guilt wouldn’t seep in.  Or does guilt serve a purpose?  I don’t know.  I just want the best for my daughter and I don’t want to fail her.  It is my responsibility to take good care of her and make sure that she’s in school learning.  I don’t want to mess her future up so since I can’t do away with guilt completely, I can at least try to give it all I’ve got and when things just don’t work out, find ways to calm the guilt down and know in my heart that it’s ok.

It’s really ok.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

When will it end?

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Hello everybody.  I hope you guys are well.

I currently have two cute, snot faces at home.

Here we go again, and again, and yup, again.  My oldest is miserable because she’s missing school and her nose and upper lip are red and swollen from blowing and wiping away boogers.  Fun times!  When will this insanity end?  We’ve been sick before, but this is ridiculous.  We’ve even been to the pediatrician twice!  I’m giving medicine every four hours, applying Vick’s vapor rub, going through numerous tissue boxes, and the current phrase being declared in the house every ten minutes is, “I have boogies!”

I’m also very conflicted with the fact that I’m keeping her home from school.  I hate that she’s missing her lessons, but at the same time I don’t want her to be miserable and spreading germs in her class.  She knows how to fully blow and wipe her nose, but as soon as she steps into school she starts doing things differently like blowing softy into the tissue and constantly wiping at her nose, hence why when I went to pick her up yesterday (mind you she didn’t leave the house with a runny nose in the morning and I was shocked to see how she looked in the afternoon) her nose and upper lip were RAW.  Today, she woke up the same way and I thought it best to let her clear out as much boogies as she can at home.  It’s amazing how much keeps coming out and I can’t see the light at the end of the snot tunnel.  How much can there be left?

My youngest is faring better.   She doesn’t let a stuffed up or runny nose stop her from playing, torturing her sister, ignoring my demands to stop making a mess, or sleeping.  She’s currently walking around the house with her magnifying glass telling me that she’s looking for dinosaur footprints.  I just want to scoop her up and give her a thousand kisses, but I don’t want to get sick again, or in my case, again!!

Here’s hoping that I can QUIT writing about us being sick (please!) and banish all yucky snot away from my household.

Take good care all.

Until next time…