Prima Princessa's TutuZone

Treasure Hunt!

My children love to play hide-and-go seek but most of all they love treasure hunts. Yesteday my five year old daughter took it upon herself to gather up all of the random pieces of colorful chalk throughout the house and put them into an Easter basket.

She then had my 3 year old son hide in one room of the house while she carefully hid each piece of chalk throughout the house, yard, and bushes! Then my 1st grader and 3rd grader came home from school and were all too excited to join in on the fun. They each rumaged through my kitchen to get a bowl or basket for gathering chalk and then they all began the "Great Easter-Chalk Hunt in JUNE!"

The afternoon festivities ended, of course, in a group chalk drawing on our back walkway... quickly proceeded by buckets of water being dumped on their fine works of art, converting them into something more reminiscent of an impressionist painting. All good fun in chalk!

-Stephanie-
Prima Princessa chalk Provider

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

  This Sunday I'll be served breakfast in bed by my husband and kids. Following that magnificent event we'll head out to the Van Vleck Gardens. The Van Vleck is a gorgeous estate which long ago was donated to the town of Montclair. Every year on Mother's Day they have a jazz band on the terrace where they serve cookies and lemonade. The wisteria is in full bloom and wraps elegantly around the outside pillars of the house. We make sure to take a family picture in front of the wisteria every year.

This year in honor of Mothers Day my dinner club which is meeting Saturday will be cooking a selection of favorite recipes from our mothers. A neighbor started the dinner club a few years back. We alternate houses and gather about every other month. The host couple chooses the theme and assigns recipes. It's tons of fun trying out new recipes and much less overwhelming than having to cook an entire meal for 10 people. This month's hostess came up with the lovely idea to cook our mothers' recipes. Our assignment is to bring the first course.

After consulting with my own mom, I'll be bringing gazpacho and mini crab meat melt sandwiches. Here is my mom's recipe for crab melt sandwiches:

Jane's Crab Melt Sandwiches

1 large can flaked crab meat (Most expensive they have. I go to Trader Joes)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 finely chopped onion

1/2 finely chopped green pepper

Mix in enough Mayo to blend

Pre-toast English muffins. Scoop mixture on top of muffins and put under the broiler until hot and bubbles.

Thanks to Katherine F. for the great photo!

Mary Kate

www.PrimaPrincessa.com

Fiesta San Antonio

We just recently returned from Spring Break which was spent visiting family in Dallas with a side trip to San Antonio, Tx. If you have not been to San Antonio it is a great place to go with kids. We were there for part of Fiesta. Fiesta is a week long city wide celebration which grew out an annual parade in honor of the Alamo.

The week kicks off with the Texas Caviler's River Parade. This festive parade actually takes place floating through San Antonio's river walk. Hey, how often do you get to see an actual floating parade? And one with a "King Antonio" as well as lots of princesses! Pretty cool! This is a very family friendly event. You can purchase tickets to sit in the chairs along the river walk or a few blocks from the center of town you can join the many families with young kids sitting on blankets along the river banks. If you've got little kids try and find spot close to the start of the parade as it runs 2 hours. I did not find the crowds at this event to be too much. From what I can gather there is another parade towards the end of the week going through the town which can get much more crowded.

Even if you do not make it for Fiesta there is still tons to do in San Antonio with children. Make sure to stay in a hotel on the river walk. It is gorgeous and tons of fun for kids. My kids loved strolling down the river looking at ducks, little water falls and more. We had some lovely meals dining outside along the river as well. There is a nice 30 minute boat tour we all took which I'd highly recommend as they point out many points of historical interest.

The Alamo is not to be missed. It's a very moving experience. The grounds around the Alamo have recently been redone and they are exquisite. San Antonio has lots of wonderful museums, a fabulous zoo and some truly stunning botanical gardens. An old cement quarry was miraculously transformed into Japanese style gardens at the Botanical Gardens.

Just outside of San Antonio is Sea World as well as some interesting Hill Country attractions. We did the caverns in New Braunfels. They are massive and by guided tour only. My 5 year old princess and 9 year old son were equally impressed and mesmerized during the entire hour plus tour. Make sure to wear sneakers! Also make sure to check the Sea World schedule. We just assumed it would be open when we were in town but it was actually only open from Thursday through the weekend. Luckily, the kids had had such a great time at the zoo, they did not even complain about missing it.

We stayed at very kid friendly hotel. Popcorn in the lobby every afternoon, roof-top pool, self-serve complimentary breakfast and great location. We had a 2 1/2 room suite (2 bedrooms and kitchen area with sink, fridge) for under $200. It was called the Drury. (They have 2 Drurys in town. We stayed at the old fashioned one as opposed to the modern one in a former bank. I feel it was better located.) If you are looking for a more elegant hotel try the La Mansion del Rio.

Mary Kate

www.PrimaPrincessa.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you Irish out there. My husband is working late tonight so we celebrated on Sunday with the traditional meal of corn beef, cabbage and potatoes. Both my paternal grandparents were Irish so it's a special day for my family.

Most of you all have probably heard of the sensational step dance show "River Dance." They are on their farewell tour and will be swinging through Newark, NJ in April. I'm hoping to go, but the show is the day after we get back from a Spring Break trip. I know my dance loving little princess would go bananas for the show. Hate to think of her missing it.

-Mary Kate- O'Dance-Lover

www.PrimaPrincessa.com

Has your little darling become a little terror?

Is your little prince or princess perfect? Life is not always perfect here at Primaprincessa.comI knew I was in trouble when, at the grocery store with one of my little darlings; I refused to let him have a pack of gum. A level 4 tantrum of hurricane magnitude occurred. Arms flailing around, screams filled with spit and froth spewing from his mouth. The entire store screeched to a dead halt, all eyes were on us as I, in slow motion, tried desperately to reach him before he could pull the entire candy stand by the cash register down. Too late. Gum and chocolate bars everywhere, and only the quiet rolling sound of a single pack of life-saves could be heard amongst the throngs of horrified shoppers staring right at me! All right, all right, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but it sure felt like all that happened when I just could not get my kid to stop screaming.

We came home and I knew we had to make a change. I took a tip from my son's Kindergarten teacher Mrs. McKnight, and we created the “Cards”. We have used the Cards on our children who range from 3 to 8 years of age (the older the child the quicker the success). Anyone tells you that a 3 year old can not understand discipline or the consequence of their actions is in my humble opinion dead wrong.

Anyhow, what are the cards? Well, first you take a piece of 8 ½ x 11 paper, and draw a grid with six squares going across and six up and down, 36 total for you math wiz’s. Then you buy a whole bunch of really fun stickers. Each kid then gets their own card with 36 squares on it, and then colors their own individualized card.

Now comes the fun part. The title on top is “Acts of Kindness Card”. Each time your little princess does an act of kindness they receive a sticker. When the entire grid is full they get a small yet meaningful prize, like a pack of baseball cards, squishy gooey slimy rubber insect that sticks to the ceiling and leaves a permanent mark, or a new pack of their favorite bubble gum, which by the way also leaves a permanent mark when stuck to the ceiling.

The wonder of the “Acts of Kindness Cards” is that you can tailor it to the issue of the moment. If your kids just will not clean up after themselves, leaves toys all over the place, etc. then give them cleanliness as their focus. If one child has a tendency to be really mean to one of your kids, then explain to them that for every nice thing they do or say to their sibling they get a sticker. If they behave in a kind way, give ‘em a hug and then a sticker. Usually after a week or two of one focus we switch to something else so that their actions remain sincere and the goals are achievable.

Remember never ever take away stickers that have been previously earned. That type of negativity will sabotage any progress that you make. They will not always do the right thing, and you just gotta go with the flow and keep working towards improvement, not perfection. To this day, 4 years later, from time to time as a family we do “The Cards”. Actually, when things start getting out of hand, my kids are the first ones who ask for them!

-Stephanie- ballerina de jour

Valentine's Day Prep

Been very busy getting ready for Valentine's Day. I hosted a Valentine Making Party for every little ballerina on our block last weekend. All the children crowded around the kitchen table gluing, cutting and drawing. The dollies were a big hit. Today I was back at the craft store replenishing my stock. Unfortunately, they were all out of felt hearts, so I stocked up on small red and white pom poms and packs of assorted sequins fit for a princess. I'm taking in all the crafty loot this Thursday morning to my daughters kindergarten class for another round of valentine making.

After the craft store, it was on to the grocery store to get stuff for making cupcakes for my son's class Valentine Day Party. I'm not much of a baker so I grabbed some cake mix and pre-made icing. I'll top each cupcake with a Chocolate Kiss and some red sprinkles. You can't make a candy much cuter than a Chocolate Kiss!

Fortunately, we all picked up class Valentine Cards awhile back at the drugstore. I Just need to get  my kids to sign them all.

- Mary Kate

Ooops!

Dont' Let minor mishaps get you down over the Holidays! We spent all day decorating our Christmas tree, holiday music in the background, warm fire crackling in the fireplace, wonderful family day. Once the tree was perfect my husband and I sent all the kids upstairs for bath and pajamas, when it happened.

My husband took two steps back to admire our work when a dinstinct "ping" noise came from the tree stand. In an instant 8 hours of hard work came crashing down as the spring in the stand broke.

After the shock of the moment passed, my husband went back outside at 9 PM to get another stand and rescue Christmas, or at leaste our poor broken-glass covered tree. And he did. All was good and happy again, we read stories by the fire of princesses and magical ballerinas and sugar plubs, and tucked the kids in for the night, and smiled in amazement that we made such a speedy and painless recovery.

-Stephanie- the somewhat tired ballerina princess

Day One of Pumpkin Carving

As per our family tradition, my husband Scott dutifully took out the enormous supply of pumplkin carving tools that we have acquired over the years, only after an all day trip to the pumpkin farm to pick out our prime specimines for this year. No, it's not a ballerina upside down in the dark, and it's not a princess either, but a good old fashioned black bat! Booo!

Although we carved them (and I use the Royal "We" for Scott did the vast majority of carving) all in one night, I will share them with you over the next few days. Nice to build up to Halloween. I know my kids look forward to it with terrific anticipation each and every year.

-Stephanie- Halloween princess