California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) recently started CPK Market at the chain’s restaurant locations nationwide. This all-new offering will provide high-quality specialty meal kit solutions and individual pantry, fruit, vegetable, and meat items to guests in cities across the country. The six fun, fast and family-friendly specialty meal kits include feature foods for Cinco de Mayo and other Spring meals.
Comprised of a few CPK classics as well as tried-and-true kitchen staples boxed-up and ready to make whenever is most convenient, these kits include everything you need to create a delicious meal.
The Cinco de Mayo Specialty Taco Kit (also available with a pitcher of Fresh Agave Lime Margaritas made with Milagro Silver Tequila!) features cilantro, limes, roma tomatoes, serrano peppers, yellow onion, vegetarian black beans, shredded cheese, tortillas and a choice of flap steak, mahi/ono, or chicken. Kits cost $15 – $24 depending on meat selection for 4 servings of Taco Kit only; $35 for Margarita pitcher only; $32 for Margarita pitcher when bought with Taco Kit.
CPK’s Spring Meal Kits are perfect for Mother’s Day. They feature your choice of pan-roasted chicken, roasted salmon or grilled ribeye with a side of spinach artichoke dip, sourdough baguette, caesar salad, fingerling potatoes and butter cake with vanilla Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Kits cost $40 – $120 depending on meat selection for 2 or 4 servings.
And if you need to celebrate Mom from afar, CPK patrons can now send their Mom’s a special Mother’s Day eGift Card with a personalized message.
After a long day of working from home and distance learning, you and your kids deserve an ice cream party. Walmart now has new varieties that will satisfy everyone. The flavors include Margarita Lemon-Lime Sherbet, Root Beer & Vanilla Float Ice Cream, nostalgic Circus Cookie Ice Cream, and Mango Habanero Coconut Ice Cream.
Depending on location, all four flavors are available for pickup and delivery via the Walmart Grocery app and retail for about $3.
I developed the Sneaky Tag Cleanup Game in my classes with Child’s Play NY. We use this technique to clean up crafts, props, and snacks, but it’s actually fun to play it as a game in and of itself. And my experience as a mom has led me to realize it translates equally great as a game you can play around the house to get things done. As a matter of fact, the Sneaky Tag Cleanup Game is the best way to kick-off spring cleaning!
Get into characters:
KIDS: Spirited, wily, do-gooders who love to clean up/restore-order/right a wrong.
YOU: A grumpy, evil curmudgeon who is desperately sleepy doesn’t see well and loves a mess.
Find the Drama:
Kids try to get objects cleaned up
You are snoozing but then…
You wake up and notice something awry! (things are missing/cleaner)
Kids have to freeze.
Play around with not noticing the kids in their frozen state, or thinking that they are new statues in your garden/trees in your woods.
Tell a great story beforehand. Use Story Clap or read a fairy tale where wily characters get the upper-hand. Tom Thumb, Jack, and the Beanstalk and Anansi are the trickster characters who are favorites in my house.
Be a character—but not too scary. I like to make my bad-guy persona someone who is not too clever and a little slower paced to let the kids feel empowered even though they also may feel scared (depending on their age). Working through their fear and strengthening their courage when faced with a scary character is actually a great bonus to this game.
Other games to play to get the kids in on the clean-up action:
Sometimes you just have to focus on getting the job done and play The Super Speed Clean Up game. Kids are motivated, through play, to get their toys or mess put away. Although it is a game, it is completely purposeful. Here’s how to play:
Wind up your child
Wind up yourself
Enjoy the super-speed clean-up
Play with slowing down
Recharge with another wind-up, a hug or bite of fruit (for example)
Continue cleaning until the mess is gone!
There is a joyful energy that goes hand-in-hand with this game. Even though the mess might be enormous, kids love the playful premise when tackling it. Kids assume a character or a cleaning up machine, and with this role comes liberation and empowerment. Furthermore, they love the “breaking down” process where the gears slow and they need to be wound up again. Customize the with the way you re-charge: Is it a hug? A wind-up? A fruit snack?
Jumpstart Chores: If you’ve been reluctant or unclear about how to start delegating chores in your house, use spring cleaning as the kickstart you need. Julie Lythcott-Haims author of How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Over-parenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, says, “Even if our child’s sweat equity is not needed to ensure the smooth running of our home, they must contribute know how to contribute, and feel the rewards of contributing in order to have the right approach to hard work when they head out into the workplace and become citizens of the community.”
Here are some examples of chores for our youngest kids (not including pet or yard related chores—add ‘em if you’ve got ‘em). P.S. Until you feel like your child can do these on their own, these chores should all be done with adult supervision.
Use small hand-vacuum on furniture and their own room
Load and empty washer/dryer for personal clothes
Empty indoor trash bins
Take out recycling
Cleaning Up with Mindfulness
As you clean up and discover items to give away, talk about the younger kids in your life (siblings, cousins, family friends) who you will hand things off too. Have your child mindfully separate the clothing/toys into piles for the people depending on their ages and interests.
Donate to a shelter. For New York-based readers, I love Little Essentials
Have your child write a note to the people who will get their things. “I wore these snow pants last year and they kept me warm and dry on snow days! I hope you love them too!” While this seems like a simple exercise, it strengthens your child’s gratitude muscles enormously. By doing this, whether they write words or draw a picture, it will make them appreciate what they had and feel great about passing it on.
Extend your cleaning to the street and make it a point to pick up trash on your block or in your neighborhood. You can even make a day of it and use one of those fun trash grabber things!
Maybe one day I’ll be able to do the KonMarie method correctly! Until then, I’ll be enjoying the simple pleasures of clean-up games with Nathaniel.
Jocelyn Greene is a Brooklyn based educator, director and mom. With her company, Child's Play NY, she teaches hundreds of kids a year and is equally joyous adapting fairytales for 4s as she is staging Shakespaere with the teens. Check out http://www.childsplayinaction.com/ for video tutorials on game-based play to do at home!
What do you call a Twizzler that isn’t filled with twists and turns? Now, you’ll be able to find out. Hershey’s Twizzlers just released Izzlers, a strawberry-flavored chewy candy shaped like a rope.
These new candies are listed on Walmart’s website. The 16-ounce bag will cost you around $2, depending on location.
The packaging states that Izzlers are only available for a limited time, so be sure to grab a package to see if the taste experience differs without the twists!
It’s always tempting to grab a handful of Andes mints when paying your bill at a restaurant. Now you don’t have to leave a stack of green wrappers at your seat. With the Andes Snap Bar XL, you get 12 individual mints that are easily snapped-off for when one (or two or three) just isn’t enough.
The Andes Snap Bar XL is available at convenience stores, Dollar General, Walgreens and Walmart nationwide and retails for $1.68-$2.00 depending on location.
Chocolate bunnies are a popular Easter basket staple. Now you can enjoy your favorite treat at breakfast time too. Reese’s Puffs Bunnies cereal is returning to shelves in March.
The bunny shaped cereal is made with real Reese’s peanut butter and Hershey’s Cocoa. This limited edition cereal is the perfect springtime treat for Reese’s lovers.
Reese’s Puffs Bunnies will be available on shelves nationwide beginning March 2020 and will retail for $2.50 or $3.99, depending on size.
If you can’t get enough Baby Yoda merch, you are in luck. Now you can outfit your little one in looks featuring your favorite little green guy. Freshly Picked just announced “The Child” Moccs, which are available for pre-order.
Mandalorian fans have had a busy week, with the announcement of new Baby Yoda toys and Build-A-Bear’s The Child plush, available later this spring. Now the littlest Star Wars fans can wear these itty bitty shoes adorned with this beloved character.
The bottoms of the Moccs feature the Star Wars logo. These shoes retail between $45 and $65 depending on size.
Depending on how you view parenthood, for some it could be considered a job. Whether you work or stay home or a little of both, parenting adds a whole laundry list of other duties and roles––including laundry. Now there’s a parenting salary calculator that tells you how much you should be paid for all that time spent being a parent!
Funky Pigeon set to answer the question: if you were to be paid for every job you do as a parent, just how much would you be earning? The website chose eight tasks in which parents spend the most time caring for their kids and then matched those tasks to real-world jobs, like teaching, cooking and nursing.
The site then gathered salary data on each job in all 50 states to create the final calculator. All you have to do is enter the city you live in and the hours you spend on the jobs each week. The calculator then adds everything up and spits out your annual parenting salary, as well as the earnings per job and the average hourly rate per job in your city.
Now, if only a parenting salary was a real thing. You can calculate your own salary using the calculator here.
Santa’s arrival is swiftly growing closer, but is your shopping list cleared? If not, there’s still time to score a great deal at Build-A-Bear’s storewide sale.
For the first time during this holiday season, everything in stores at Build-A-Bear Workshop locations is on sale. The 2 Furry Friends, 1 Great Price deal gives shoppers a great deal when they purchase two stuffed, furry friends.
The entire selection is included in this discount, including Frozen 2, Pokémon, Merry Mission and Rainbow Friends.
Depending on the collection, you can get two furry friends for either $35 or $45. This offer is only available for a limited time and it’s only good on in-store purchases, not online, so act fast if a new stuffed friend is on your little one’s wish list. You can find your nearest Build-A-Bear Workshop location here.
Forgot the rolls or cranberry sauce? Before you hop in the car for a last-minute Thanksgiving ingredient, check out our list of all the stores that are open and closed this holiday. We’ve found 17 stores that are here to save the day, as well as six that are closed on the big day.
