8 ways I got my kids to drink more WATER

I don't know about your kids but my kids love chocolate milk, pop, soda, punch and their favorite drink is JUICE. The last thing my kids want is water, and it has been a battle at our house for years, but lately it has been a battle I have been winning and I wanted to share my success and tips that might help you and your kids choose a healthier beverage.

1) Don't introduce other drinks into their regular diet- The kids that we delayed giving sugary drinks to, have been more accepting of water. I don't plan on never letting the younger kids drink sugary drinks but I think I will wait until they are older and have more self control and understanding.
2) Dilute what they are already drinking- With my oldest he could cry for hours for Juice, so I felt that diluting his juice was a good compromise. It also helped the wallet, only having to buy half the juice.
3) Let your stash run out- If my kids know there is another option in the house, they will throw a fit until they get their way, but if they can go to the fridge and the pantry and see that it is all gone, they are still sad but they accept water without a fight
4) Let special drinks be for special places- These days they only have Chocolate Milk when we visit their Oma, and they can only have Pop when we take them out to eat, which is only twice a month. If they ask for them through out the week I remind them the next time they get to have that drink.
5) Give them water to drink before they get to thirsty- I notice if I give them water before they ask me for a drink they will take it, but if I wait until they are thirsty and asking for a drink, they are already to irritable to negotiate.
6) Try different temperatures of water- My husband and I like our water different and so do our kids, it took me awhile to think about this, but when I gave my kids a few options I realized my oldest boy will drink more water if it is cold and my younger boy likes it better at room temperature.
7) Get a new exciting cup or water bottle that is only for water- When ever I was using a new water bottle or mug, my kids would be intrigued and want to drink from it. So I went and got some fun water bottles and told the kids they were only for water. Them instead of asking them what to drink, I would ask them what cup they would want, and they would go for the cool water bottles that we pre-determined were only for water
8) Let them pour their own water- I went to my sons preschool and noticed he was drinking only water, I thought it might be because there was no other option. But I realized how much he enjoyed pouring it by himself from a pitcher. So I brought that idea home and let them pour water from a plastic measuring cup... it is working great

Hope one of these tips help. Comment if you have any tips on how to get kids to drink more water.

Halloween Costume Theme - Apple Family

My husband works for apple and we have more apple products in our house then we have people to use them. This was the perfect Family Costume Idea for us.

Here is our Apple Family, I am the iPhone 4S, my husband is Steve Jobs, my littlest is a iPod Nano, my oldest is the Shuffle and my brother joined us one night as an Apple Genius!

THESE WERE NO SEW COSTUMES

my secret I used a hot glue gun. For my outfit and the kids out fits. I bought the cheaspest plain material I could find at walmart, cut into a square and glued on the top and the sides together. THEN I cut an opening for our heads.

For the boys control buttons and my app's. I just used felt cut out each shape and glued it together, my husband enjoyed helping me make apps.

For my brother I just pinned a white felt apple to his blue shirt, printed off an image of the Genius badge and hot glued it on white string!

*I wanted to use this theme again this year, but the new IOS came out, so I would have to change all my apps, I think we will just save it for a few years, and then we can be RETRO apple products or if I wait longer maybe even VINTAGE

Messy fun 2

Cornstarch and water. This mixture is CRAZY. If you put a lot of pressure on it, it gets hard. But if your soft it goes liquid again. A must play for all kids.... And ADULTS! Not going to lie, my husband and I played with it for quite awhile after we put the kids to bed.

Carstens Cartoon - Hair Crimper

I found my hair crimper from when I was in Jr High, I was playing with it and it fascinated My oldest

Carstens Cartoon - Conversation with my 3 year old

My 3 year old has really started talking a lot, and it is so much fun to have conversations with him!

This one made me laugh ;)

Check back tomorrow for my 3 year olds explanation of what a hair crimper does!

Beans and a box

My idea was let the kids play with beans. But keep the house clean by putting them and the beans in a big box with some trucks to drive through the beans.

It was a great idea until the 3rd or 4th time playing when they decided to make it rain beans. And no box could contain that!

Top 6 Free Toddler Apps- tested by my toddlers

my husband works for apple and so we have more apple products than we have people in the house, and our kids can navigate the iPhones, iPads, and iPods better than Grandma!

So from our iPad to yours, with love, here are our TOP 6

The ENDLESS ALPHABET app was recommended to me by a friend on facebook. This quickly made it to the top of my list. There are a list of things I love about this.

1. Teaches them puzzle skills

2. Teaches them the shape of CAPITAL alphabet letters

3. Teaches them the sound of each letter

4. Teaches them the meaning of big words, broadening their vocabulary

5. All the animations are so CUTE AND FUN

This ABC Alphabet Phonics-Preschool Kids Game Free App, really needs to have a shorter name ;) but I do love this app because it is very customizable

1. I could customize it to do LOWER CASE letters, a lot of alphabet games only do capital letters, but they will see more lower case letters in the reading so they need to know those too

2. I customized the prompts with my own voice, so when the kids play it they smile and giggle and say "Mommy!!!"

Shape Puzzle(Deluxe)-Kids Favorite Word Learning Game, is a winner here, let me tell you why

1) It is a great PUZZLE game, my youngest son at 18 month old learned to do puzzles on this app and impressed everyone who watched

2) It taught my kids a lot of vocabulary that they could use, and helped them communicate better with me. I was so impressed! I think this single reason should count as a hundred reasons to get it ;)

Ballonimals Lite is not educational but quite fun! The Lite version only does one animal, but my kids don't care, they will make this green dinosaur over and over again and giggle when he pops ;)

Toddler's Seek & Find: My Zoo Animals. This app is a fun interactive scene, you just have to try it ;)

Toddler Puzzle Shapes I love the background music to this app

1. helped the kids with PUZZLE skills

2 helped them identify and name SHAPES My oldest knew all his shapes by 2 years old

All these Apps are for free with the option to pay for upgrades. I just have the free ones on my phone, because I am to cheap to buy them.

Let me know if I missed any amazing apps! comment your favorite app and I will have my kids test them ;) ;)