Bath crayons - an awesome and super messy invention

T loves to be silly

There are a ton of products on the market for bath time fun. We have used, abused, and recently trashed some ABC foam letters that got a little too mildewy for my taste, and T does love her rubber duckies, who by the looks of it will soon join their ABC friends. However, I would like to share with you T’s favorite bath toy – bath crayons! Now, please be warned, these are beloved by my daughter and loathed by whomever is tasked to clean the bathtub… but T is totally obsessed.

We got the crayons from a friend of mine for T’s 1^st birthday and we are down to the crayon nubs at this point. We love to color in general, but to color on walls is especially thrilling to T. She stays in the bath until her fingers and toes look like raisins and the water is cold. So… if your little on doesn’t really like the bath I suggest getting these to keep them entertained. Of course, T has always loved bath time and we still need these crayons, bubbles and some crazy frog that sprouts water from its mouth, but that’s what being a toddler in 2013 is all about. 

Still being silly... and yes, we color too!

Now, please don't forget that these "washable" crayons need some scrubbing to remove the mess and the little duck eraser is a bad joke, but we still love them. My favorite part is trying to find images in what T draws. What do you see in this photo? My husband and I see a man riding a camel, and that is pretty darn impressive for a 1 year old! 

What do you see? 

Here is where you can get the crayons - http://www.amazon.com/ALEX%C2%AE-Toys-Bathtime-Fun-Draw/dp/B00004U3FX/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1384983149&sr=8-2&keywords=alex+bath+crayons

but they are cheaper at target and toys r us if you time to make it outside... hahaha. 

Tilapia Even a Toddler Will Eat

I have a strangely picky eater on my hands; T loves to eat crazy strong flavors but has some issues with textures. She will keep meat or chicken in her mouth for a while and then gift me a lovely pile of mush; if I’m lucky it will end up in my hands and not on the floor! I think it’s rather odd that my kid will pound Indian food but won’t eat a chicken cutlet. However, I have discovered that she will eat my tilapia – yup, she will chew it and swallow it! The added bonus is that my husband and I love this quick meal as well.

mustard and mayo / prepared crumb topping

1lb of tilapia fillet

2 tbsp French’s honey mustard

2 tbsp mayo

1 cup French’s fried onions (I highly suggest you buy the gigantic bag of these at Costco- so delish)

1 cup of corn flake crumbs

Onion powder, garlic powder and salt to taste

The prep for this is super easy… 

Mix together the mustard and mayo and coat the fillets

In a separate bowl crush up the French’s fried onions and mix with the corn flake crumbs

Now you can hand coat each piece of fish with the fried onion and crumb topping -or take the lazy way out like me… I spray my baking pan with oil and then coat the bottom of my pan with the crumb mixture. I then layer the fish and put the rest of the crumb mixture on top! So much easier and just as crunchy!! I then sprinkle the fish with onion powder, garlic powder, a tad of salt, and a spritz of oil.

Layering crumbs: the much more efficient way to bread anything!

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Viola, fish my kid will eat! I think that is worth celebrating!

See, you can't even tell I breaded the fish the lazy way!

** I have made this exact same recipe on chicken cutlets too, it is a hit (just not with T) 

Party On!

Our Hasbro Birthday House Party

This past Saturday night we celebrated my husband’s birthday with an awesome Hasbro Game Night Birthday House Party. People asked, what exactly does that mean? What is a House Party? Was it actually sponsored by Hasbro? Why, yes it was just that – we hosted a HouseParty sponsored by Hasbro!

About a year and a half ago I joined this wonderful website called HouseParty.com. The idea of the website is to promote products through parties. This is not a Tupperware party style where you receive free products and guilt your friends into coming to your home to dish out money to get their own.  House Parties are advertisements for the company, the host gets free products and is obligated to show off the brand at a house party while friends just need to come and have a good time. Sometimes friends even get a free giveaway too- and they always leave with coupons!

I apply to host tons of parties and am selected infrequently, about 1 party every 6 months. I just checked my stats; I have applied to host a total of 24 parties and was chosen for 3! Not too Shabby, especially considering how awesome these parties are. Applying to host a party takes minimal effort, you fill out a quick questionnaire, post about how excite you are and share your applications with friends on Facebook and/or Twitter. You can also do extra stuff to increase your chances of being chosen as a host, like upload photos, videos or conversations. I am pretty sure that you are chosen based on luck and demographic, rather than the extras but why not, just in case!

Back to our most recent house party - My husband Dave’s birthday is at the beginning of November and he had a Golden Weekend (both Sat and Sun off). Dave is a General Surgery Residency Intern and this means that he practically never has off, so we really lucked out with this party. This was actually the second Hasbro Game Night we were chosen for and we LOVE games so we were psyched. We invited guest and then once we found out Dave was going to be off we morphed our Game Night into Dave’s Bday Bash as well.

House Party then sent us our party pack that came with four awesome Hasbro games – Catchphrase, Taboo, Funny or Die, and Draw Something. They also sent a box of Cheetos new product –a kosher cheddar puffed corn snack, some winner crowns, Hsabro cups, and coupons.   Now between the amazing party pack and all of the snacks, candy, beer, spiked punch and bean dip I made for the party, I am sure you are thinking I wish I went to that party… but it gets even better. The PR department for Hasbro reached out to me and arranged to send their Hasbro PARTY BUS to our already rocking party! Yes, I already thought hosting these parties was super cool and this just blew me away! All of our guests had a truly memorable night, and my husband is going to have a tough time topping this when my birthday rolls around in January!

Playing Catch Phrase on the party bus

Soooo cool! 

I love HouseParty.com and if you sign up and are chosen to host we want an invitation! My sister in law is hosting her very first House Party in less than two weeks and we can’t wait to see her Duplo Lego Party Pack and play at her party. 

I even made this cute Sponsorship sign for our door