The Mom Crowd

I am preparing to celebrate the Fourth of July by looking up ideas for crafts, food, and fun around the web. I love ideas that are practical, easy, and can be prepared in a short time frame. I am NOT Martha Stewart and I don’t aspire to be. So here is what I have found to help all of us party in style this Friday!

History

• Brush up on your American history by checking out PBS’s short history of the Fourth of July.

• Use Earthcam and see Statue of Liberty welcoming people to the USA at this very second. (yes, I know this may seem so 1999, but I think it is cool.)

Food

• Macaroniandpeas.com offers up some tips on grilling hot dogs (and dealing with any guilt about it.)

• Who doesn’t love Trifle? Here is a holiday version that will wow everyone. Other variations are also listed.

• Really cool cupcake ideas at HankandWillie.wordpress.com.

• Fourth of July Fruit Kabobs at Citruslist.blogspot.com.

• Arranging colored cupcakes in a flag pattern. Not original, but certainly easy!

• This Red, White, and Blue IS the bomb! You have to check out how to make it at Chocolate on my Cranium.
  

Games and Crafts

• Amazingmoms.com lists 5 different relay races you can play this Summer with your kids.

• Alphamom.com does a nice round up of 5 great looking crafts.
  

• Here is link to 12 different printable coloring pages for the artistic kids in your family.

• Dress up your teddy bears for Independence Day. Then keep your bear around as a mascot for USA during the Olympics in August.

• Printable USA paper airplanes.
  

• I am usually lacking in appropriate holiday decor and I found these cute Uncle Sam Hat Treat Holders at crafts.kaboose.com.
  

What about the rest of the weekend?

• Independence Day is only on Friday, what about the the rest of the weekend? What to do then? Macy’s Three Day Sale, of course!

Do you do anything special for the Fourth of July? Will hot dogs be involved? Will your kids cry during the fireworks?

The blogosphere starting club hopping on Friday with 5minutesformom.com’s Ultimate Blog Party. Moms all around the web are introducing themselves and trying not to spill their drinks on each other’s blogs.

We have opened our doors here at The Mom Crowd to welcome you! Please come in, grab a drink from the open bar, and stay a while.

Here is a fabulous video introducing ourselves.

Pull up a comfy booth and enjoy some of our favorite treats:

• 30 Ways to Encourage Your Mom Friends

• What’s In Your Pantry?

• Who’s Your Favorite Celebrity Mom?

• Are you “letting yourself go”?

• Marilla Cuthbert: A Wonderful Maternal Figure

• What to Expect for Your Child’s Surgery

Please leave a comment and let us know that you have been by!

Thanks for coming!

• 10 Things I’ve Learned from Being a Mom - Jaimee wrote a wonderful post describing all the things we can relate to about being a mom. Every word of it is true. Especially #4.

• Tales from Labor and Delivery Blog - Have you seen this blog yet? Seriously, great stuff. The blog is written by a Labor and Delivery nurse and she shares her experiences and stories. I really find people’s birth stories interesting. If you have a sense of humor - Check it out!

• Share Baby Einstein with your baby and get moving! - My Readable Feast shares their thoughts on the controversy of Baby Einstein videos. I think she makes a valid point about using them as a tool rather than a constant babysitter.

• 5 Foods to Rejuvenate Your Body - Wellness Junction shares five foods to help your energy level. I know I need all the energy I can get to keep chasing my baby now that she is on the move. This also gives me another reason to put garlic in everything I eat. My husband loves that. Ha!

• Oprah’s Big Joke…oh I mean Give - Firemans_wife on CafeMom.com explains her passionate take on Oprah’s new reality show, The Big Give.. I haven’t seen the show. I only saw bits of them talking about it on Oprah the next day. From Firemans_wife’s perspective the show really isn’t helping those in need and the motives of the contestants are all wrong.

• Top 10 Things Not to Say to New Mothers - This article is mostly for new dads, but we can all get a laugh out of it. I have so experienced the first point, ” When you come home from work and your wife is sitting on the couch with your newborn in the exact same position you last saw her nine hours ago, don’t ask ‘What did you do all day? How come you didn’t take a shower yet?’ ” Ha!

• The Ultimate Blog Party! - The Ultimate Blog Party hosted by 5MinutesforMoms.com begins this Friday. It is being held March 7 - 14. Be sure to come by Monday and check out our party post. We’ll have some great food on the grill and music pumping. Maybe some karaoke (just kidding!). For more details check out their instructions.

• ‘DwellStudio For Target’ on Tutus & Turtles

I LOVE Dwell Baby nursery stuff. I couldn’t afford Dwell items when Ace was born, so we came up with our own Ikea version. I am super excited that DwellStudio is coming to Target. Where was this nine months ago?

• ‘Birth, The American Way’ on Newsweek

I read this article in my Newsweek last week. The article is review of the controversial documentary,”The Business of Being Born.”

• ‘7 Qualities You Need to Be a Great Parent to Preschoolers’ on CNN

Earlier this week we had a discussion on preschools. Here is an article to give you more tools in your Mom Toolbelt to help you parent your independent Preschooler.

• ‘Cold Meds Send 7,000 U.S. Kids to ER Each Year’ on Yahoo

The article states that the majority of the cases is from children taking the medicine unsupervised. Be sure to keep your medicines out of reach!

• ‘Love you friends, hate their kids’ on CNN

What do you do when you don’t agree with your friends’ kid’s behavior? The article explores how different parents responses. Interesting thought. Luckily I don’t think any my friends’ kids are monsters!

• An Interview with Laura Bennett from Season 3 of Project Runway on Parents.com

Laura Bennett is a mother of six, an architect and a fashion designer in the Big Apple. Yes, this article is a little dated! There was not a new episode of Project Runway tonight. I need my fix!

Bonus Link

A mom delivers her baby in her driveway on CNN

• Young Pregnant Women Need to Take More Folic Acid

There are new reports stating that women between the ages of 18 to 24 are not taking enough folic acid supplements. Last week was Folic Acid Awareness week with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I think I had enough folic acid in my prenatal vitamin and I tried to eat veggies rich in folic acid. I remember my dentist telling me to take supplements, because it saved the lives of his twin girls.

• Letting Newborns Sleep in Their Car Seat

There is interesting discussion going on over at Parenthacks about the safety of allowing your newborn sleep in their car seat. I know many moms (including myself) who have let their newborn snooze away in their car seat.

• Fisher Price Stack & Rolls Balls

Our friend Dawn wrote a review about one of her new favorite toys the Fisher Price Stack & Roll Balls on her blog ‘Against the Window Pane*’.

• Pregnant and Unemployed

One of my favorite bloggers, Miss Zoot, started her own parenting blog titled ‘Pregnant and Unemployed.’ I love her honesty about parenting.