Spending Quality Time With Your Kids

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Ever wonder how to spend quality time with your kids, toddlers, preteens, and teen all at the same time?

It’s really not fair; the older our daughters get, the harder it is to get them to spend time with you.  Suddenly, mom isn’t as important as she once was, and friends and boys suddenly end up at the top of their lists.  My children range from 2 all the way up to 14 years old; spending quality time with my girls can be difficult or even dangerous if they start fighting.  It’s hard to find activities that involve spending quality time with your teen, preteen, and toddler all at the same time.

Spending Quality Time With Your Kids

It seems like my oldest and my toddler are best friends, and my poor middle daughter fights with both of them.  It’s not funny, lol.  Okay, so really it is, but she wouldn’t think so.  I don’t think she believes that I was her age once and can relate.  Finding something that we can all do together without fighting, smart remarks, evil looks, breathing on each other, pulling hair, crying, poking, pinching, or kicking is a little difficult.  Okay, it’s a lot difficult, but it can be done.  Yes, seriously, I have done it…  Only once, haha, not really.  We do it all the time—okay, only four times—and here are the four fun activities I did to spend quality time with my teen, preteen, and toddler girls all at the same time.

Planning a special dinner or activity for dad

It seems like if I tell my girls, “Let’s do something special for dad because he worked very hard today and is not feeling well,” they are all over it.  Everyone gets along, jokes, laughs, and makes dad have an awesome, fun dinner.  Doing something special for their father is always something that will grab their attention and make them work together as a team and have fun.  Yes, they even let Mom play too.  They are not allowed to cook without me around; they might burn down the house.  I do let them run the show, from what we will make to how we surprise dad.  This is not only an awesome way to bond with them but also to help them work together as a team.

Picnic Date

Now that it’s summer, we can start our dates again.  We try to go once a week to the park, river, or explore.  Grab something for lunch, or let the kids make something, and head for a day of fun.  You don’t have to do anything.  We never take fishing poles or anything that involves being competitive.  The last thing I want to hear is how Vayda caught more fish than Catie. I know that will end in Catie getting mad and Vayda crying, lol.  Nothing competitive, just food, kids, and making the rest up as you go.  Letting the kids lead the show always keeps them too busy to fight, lol.

Taking a Drive

Jumping in the car suddenly because you have nothing else to do can be another great way to spend quality time with your teen, preteen, or toddler girl.  It’s too sudden for them to argue much; they all want to get out of the house; exploring is fun; and it’s perfect for mom.  Everyone is locked in the car and forced to talk. It’s a great way to have some laughs, get lost, and enjoy your time with your kids.

Game Night

Another fun way to spend quality time with your teen, preteen, and toddler girls is to have family game night.  Let them pick the game; if they cannot agree on the game, a nice game of rock, paper, and scissors is a great way to choose.  That’s how we settle things in our house; it’s nonviolent, and someone always ends up laughing anyway.  Game night is a great way to spend time with all your kids and have some laughs as a family.

Nails, Nails, Nails

I was recently asked to review some nail polish from Piggy Paint and decided this would be a great time to have a girl’s night.  I received my Piggy Pain nail polish while I was at work, and when I got home, I ran into my girl’s room screaming, “GIRLS NIGHT!”  They have been asking if we could have a girls night for a while and what’s more fun than hanging with the girls and nail polish.  UMMM, nothing!

I was really excited about using Piggy Paint with my girls; it’s something all of us can use.  I don’t have to worry about my toddler because it’s a safe line of nail polish for kids, teens, moms, aunts, grandmas, and everything else.  As Piggy Paint says, “Its Natural as Mud!”  It’s a non-toxic, kid-friendly, virtually odorless, water-based nail polish.  No more worrying about my toddler or other girls being exposed to chemicals, and you know those fumes cannot be good for them.

Piggy Paint was developed by a mom named Melanie Hurley, who wanted a safe and healthy polish to use on her two daughters.  She did a fabulous job. The nail polish has tons of great “natural as mud” features, such as:

• Water-based
• Virtually odorless
• Hypoallergenic
• Non-flammable
• Safe to use when you’re pregnant
• Made in the USA
• Free of harsh chemicals: no formaldehyde, toluene, phthalates, biphenyl A, ethyl acetate or acetone

It gets better than mud too!  The colors are bright and fun, with names such as PINKie Promise, Girls Rule, Sea-quin, and Mac-n-Cheese Please. They are so fun.  Check out the colors that I received:

My girls were so excited that they made dinner and sent my brother and dad to bed by 8:00 !  Yes, they sure did and even got along.  My oldest daughter picked out a movie, and with the help of my toddler, we watched My Little Pony!  The perfect setting for some bright Piggy Paint nail polish, if you ask me, will set the mood for a fun night with the gals.

My toddler (Mattie) and 7-year-old (Vayda) were the first ones to dig into the Piggy Paint nail polish and have them all nice and set up for mom to snap a shot.  Before I knew it, they were off painting away, lol.  There’s nothing I love more than watching my kids have fun, smile, and laugh together.  I honestly sat back and watched for a bit. I probably had a smile on my face from ear to ear.  Then my oldest said, “Mom, I thought this was girls night!  What are you doing?” Opps, I was busted, lol.

I quickly grabbed the piggy paint and started painting.  I was surprised at how well the Piggy Paint went on and how easy it was for my younger daughter, Maddie, to use.  Remember, she’s two; check out her nails, and she did them all by herself.  Dang, she’s a natural Piggy Painter, isn’t she?!?!

We had a blast, and I ended up with a different color on every single nail, thanks to my oldest daughter.  Yea, I was the Piggy that got to try all the colors so she could find which one she liked best.  My 7-year-old Vayda, well, I honestly cannot tell you how many layers she added.  I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun spending time with my teen, preteen, and toddler.

Since Catie was last to go and wanted to only use her favorite color, we tried the hair dryer trick with her.  Oh, did I forget to tell you?  If you use a hair dryer to dry the polish for one minute with a warm to low heat setting or make it fun and sing the ABC’s twice,.  Yes, I had my 14-year-old sing her ABC’s twice rather than look at her phone.  So what does the hair dryer trick do?  It makes the Piggy Paint help ensure maximum dryness and chip resistance!  Yes, and I have to say Catie’s nails didn’t chip or smudge; we did make fun of her because she messed up on her ABC’s.

I can honestly say I don’t have a favorite color; my toddler doesn’t either; she’s like mom. We love it all!  Vayda liked Jazz It Up, and Catie took off with Dragon Tears.  Every time I turn around, I’m trying to kick someone out of my nail polish, lol.  Sure, it’s safe, but this is what happens to my toddler if she doesn’t paint with supervision.  There’s only a few spots because I was only getting a drink, thank goodness.  I wish I had a picture of her from yesterday; she had nail polish on her ear!  She told me to look at her earrings, lol.  I swear, you don’t look for three seconds, and they can have so much done!  Darn kids, one has to love them!

Spending quality time with your teen, preteen, or toddler is important and can be difficult!  Why not get creative and do something everyone loves and call it Girls Night?  Thanks so much, Piggy Paint I have another girls night planned, and yes, we are going to bring the piggy paint!  Only this time, we’re going to focus on our poor toes!

I cannot recommend Piggy Paint enough; we had a blast and discovered a new product.  My oldest daughter is all about the Piggy Paint; her friends are even buying it.  You know how teens are; they love cute, awesome products!  Her group of friends is buying Piggy Paint, and we’re buying it too!

You can pick up Piggy Paint at Wal-Mart, and to make things even better right now, you can swing by PiggyPaint.com and get it for 15% off!

If you’re looking for a fun way to spend quality time with your teen, preteen, and toddler all at the same time, swing by PiggyPaint.com and grab you’re bright, natural-looking mud nail polish.  If you’re looking for things to do with your teen, preteen, toddler, or even paint your puppy’s toes right now, you can enjoy 15% off Piggy Paint nail polish!  If you want to try Piggy Paint, use “PiggyFun” at checkout. Better hurry! This discount is only good until April 30^th, 2013.

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Piggy Paints.  I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.