Posts by Rachel Spoelhof
Indoor Family Fun
We have had some awesome, and much needed rain this week in Southern California. My girls love the rain and have really enjoyed splashing in puddles and wearing their new rain jackets they received for Christmas.
A change in the weather can be a fun opportunity to try new activities. My Facebook feed has been flooded (weather pun) with creative indoor activities. Here are a few of my favorites, some ideas from friends, and a handful of Pinterest fun!
Do a Puzzle or play a game.
We had a lot of fun with the “Impossipuzzle” and our new family favorite game is Qwirkle.
Make a fun snack.
Check out @superhealthykids or @planetbox for fun, healthy snack ideas that look cool too!
Visit the library. 
Cook up dinner in your crock pot.
If you are going to be inside might as well make the house smell amazing.
Try some of our favorite: Coq Au Vin, Tortilla Stack, and Curried Chick Pea and Chicken Stew.
Play in the rain!! 
Do an indoor workout!
One of my favorite YouTube channels is Fitness Blender. They have a lot of great workouts to choose from based on your time available and what you want to work out!
Watch Frozen and make Play Snow!
Recipe: 2 cups baking soda + 1/2 cup suave conditioner.
Bake!
Search our recipe tab for some of our family favorites!
Learn about weather.
My girls received the Treeschoolers dvds for Christmas and we love them. The learning is all science based and their is an episode all about rainy days.
Go on Pinterest. Just pick a few activities. PLAY INDOORS!
Search “Rainy Day Fun” for pins and boards of all sorts of fun things you can do with things in your house…
Now I’m off to play on …
Read MoreMerry Christmas!
Merry Christmas from the Growing Weisser family. We love you so much and hope that you are having a blessed day celebrating the birth of our Savior and Lord!
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Molasses Crisps
Every year I host a Christmas Cookie Exchange with my friends. It is a great way to connect over hot chocolate and goodies and I look forward to it all year long.
This year I decided to use a classic Baby Bear Stew recipe from our cookbook and it was a hit!
- ¾ cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar (plus extra for rolling)
- 1 egg
- 4 tsp molasses
- 1¾ cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp cloves
- 1½ tsp ginger
- Cream shortening and sugar.
- Add egg and molasses.
- Sift dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture.
- Roll into 1 inch balls or use a small cookie scoop and roll in sugar to coat balls.
- Place far apart and bake for 12-15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
What is your favorite holiday cookie?
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Best Christmas Movies for the Family
If you are like me I’m sure you have a few favorite Christmas movies. My girls are just starting to be old enough to enjoy some of my favorites, so I asked my friends to help me compile this list of our favorite Christmas movies for the whole family to enjoy.
Christmas Movies for the Family
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Arthur Christmas
Curious George Very Monkey Christmas
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Elf
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas
Frosty
Happy Holidays From Madagascar
Jingle All The Way
Merry Madagascar
Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mickey Mouse
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street
Muppet Christmas Carol
Polar Express
Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Rudolph
Santa Clause
Shrek’s Swamp Stories
Thomas &Friends: Santa’s Little Engine
Toy Story That Time Forgot
White Christmas
Winnie the Pooh. A Very Merry Pooh Year
If I’ve left one of your favorite off this list, please comment below!
Do you use a movie rating tool to help you decide what movies are appropriate for your kids? Here are a few I found:
“…gives parents an idea of what they will encounter when they take their kids to the movies. With that in mind, we look at a film’s violence, sexual content, profanities and substance use as well as both positive and negative themes included in the script.”
“We rate, educate, and advocate for kids, families, and schools”
“We enable adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for them or their children, according to their own criteria.”
Teaching Our Kids Compassion
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32
In light of the tragic shooting in San Bernadino this week, I am reminded of how lost we are without Jesus. In the midst of questions regarding why this happened only one thing stood out to me–that we serve a God that never falters, is always with us, and will never leave us. That is the only certainty in the world.
But what can we do?
As much as I want my kids to grow up in a world where they will always be safe and where I can protect them, I know that is not always the case. However, I can prepare their hearts and minds to be a light for God – to live their lives with compassion in a world filled with hate.
We just so happened to be watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” today and it brought up a lot of great conversations about “why the Grinch was mean.” We talked about how the other kids were not nice to him just because he looked different and how sad that made him feel. His sadness turned to anger and he became unkind. When we finish the movie I hope to talk about how Cindy Lou’s kindness and compassion made a difference in the Grinch’s life and how she taught him to be kind. I think this is the same way we can choose to react to this type of horror – to teach and show our children compassion in a hurting world. From small acts of compassion to the people in our lives, to global actions that first and foremost show God’s never-ending love.
I found this sermon by The Rock Church and World Outreach …
Read MoreHave Fun With Your Significant Other!
Do you have someone special to share your life with?! If you do, you know how important it is to carve out time together regularly.
A great way to spend time together is to do an activity. Pick something you have in common and join a group, club, gym, etc. to schedule that regular time doing something together.
My husband and I love fitness, so we bought a Groupon to take kettlebell classes together. The fun part about this is he has experience and I don’t–so he gets to be the “expert” of sorts, sharing something he enjoys as I learn the ropes (or should I say “swings” since we are talking about kettlebells).
It is fun to break out of the normal date routine of movies and dinner and share an experience together. I am getting to learn more about one of my husband’s passions, while also doing something I love–fitness!!
What do you and your husband do together? What activity would you choose?
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Celebrating 4
Today I am celebrating my first baby girl, Ellie. It is her 4th birthday this weekend.
One thing that she craves most of all is special alone time. Today, Ellie and I (along with our Disney best buds and their firstborns too!) are headed to Disneyland for an epic adventure.
Check out our instagram @growingweisser this weekend for some pictures!
Happy 4th Birthday, Ellie!
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Build Your Own Burrito Bowls – When Dinner Delights
I easily get stuck in a rut with meals. I forget that my three little mouths to feed need a change. Sometimes I get it right, and this week I had success with Build Your Own Burrito Bowls!
You can use any of your favorite Mexican foods – just place each food item in its own bowl with a serving utensil and let your family choose what they want and scoop it themselves into their bowl.
Here are the foods we had for our burrito bowl feast.
Build Your Own Burrito Bowls
Brown Rice
Black Beans
Pinto Beans
Sauteed Kale
Chicken
Grated Cheese
Cucumbers
Sliced Red Pepper
Salsa
Avocado
Tortilla Chips
The girls LOVED serving their own food and ate so many things they never eat! We actually had to stop dinner because they wouldn’t stop eating!
It can be fun to get your family excited about meals again just by changing the presentation of your meals. Try finger food lunch in muffin tins, use cookie cutters to make shape with your foods, make muffin pizza or mexican taco cupcakes.
How do you get your family excited about meal time?
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Pumpkin Workout
Let’s put those pumpkins to good use before we throw them away OR, get yourself to the store and buy one to do this fun workout by yourself or with a friend!
You will need a bench, a pumpkin, a jump rope (optional. you can jump rope with an imaginary rope), 4 cones (or an object to hold a space), water, and a towel
Warm-up 5 min
Circuit 1
- 20 Walking lunges holding pumpkin
- 20 Side shuffles R holding pumpkin
- 20 Reverse walking lunges holding pumpkin
- 20 Side shuffles L
Circuit 2
- 20 Alternating Toe Taps on pumpkin
- 15 Split Lunges per leg
- 15 Squat and Press
- Jump Rope 1 minute
- 30 Side step up with abduction and pumpkin press (15 Right, 15 L)
- 30 Alternating Step Ups
- 30 Tricep Dips
- Jump Rope 1 minute
Circuit 3 – Line Drills
Set up your 4 cones a good distance to do some line drills. You will want 4 cones set up in a line.
- Fast Feet (Holding your pumpkin, sprint to the first cone. Keep your body low and facing FORWARD as you run in a circle with fast feet around the cone to the R. Sprint to the second cone. Repeat the fast run this time to the L. Continue for cones 3 and 4. Sprint back to start.)
- 10 pumpkin burpees
- Line Sprint (Holding your pumpkin sprint to the first line. Back to start. Sprint to the second line. Back to start. Sprint to the third line. Back to start. Sprint to the fourth line. Back to start.)
- 10 pumpkin burpees
- Skip lunges (Holding your pumpkin forward lunge with the R leg. Skip the left leg up, forward, and down in to a lunge. Repeat this motion to the end of the line and back to start.)
- 10 pumpkin
Pumpkin Preschool Activities
I had the pleasure of teaching a pumpkin themed lesson today for our preschool coop. We had so much fun!
Here are some of the fun things we did today with pumpkins:
Pumpkin Sensory Bin
I filled a plastic bin with decorative pumpkins and gourds, pasta, and Fall foam characters. Hanna enjoyed scooping things out of the bin and putting them in other things. Ellie discovered that when you rubbed two pumpkins together they made a cool sound. We also measured some of the items in the bin.
Pumpkin Measuring
I put mini pumpkins out on the table with different kinds of measuring tapes and rulers so that the kids could measure. Ellie also had fun measuring the items in the sensory bin. We even measured one of our giant pumpkins.
Pumpkin Snack
I served pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins, cuties (because they look like pumpkins!), and pumpkin O’s from Trader Joe’s.
Pumpkin Painting Craft
Paper plates, red and yellow paint, paint brushes, green paper, green pipe cleaners, pencil, stapler.
I showed the kids how red and yellow mix to make orange then we painted our pumpkins with washable paints. I cut the center out of a paper plate to make a circle. After the kids painted their pumpkins I wrapped a green pipe cleaner around a pencil to make it curly and stapled the pipe cleaner and a green paper stem to the top of their pumpkin. The pumpkins were a perfect fit for silly pumpkin face pictures.
Pumpkin Observations
2 pumpkin pie pumpkins, an ice cream scooper, zip lock bag.
I precut and hollowed on pumpkin and put the seeds and pulp in a clear zip lock bag. I pre cut the top of the second pumpkin but did not scoop it out.
I asked the kids to …
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