HP ENVY 5530 e-All-in-One Printer

In some ways, I feel like I’m “outing” myself here, but in reality, I’m sure my readers have cottoned onto me a long time ago: I’m THAT mom.

I’m that mom who cringes when asked to look after a friend’s kids. Some days, I can barely stand my own offspring, leave alone kids that I’m forced to be nice to in an effort to appear like a normal, caring maternal figure. The truth is, I like children in small doses. Say, 10-minute doses.

I’m that mom who sighs when her child asks for another bedtime story. I’ve got a gazillion things on my mind right now, and if I have to read about an inane rabbit in an inane wonderland one more time, I may hurt myself. Every time I turn the dog-eared pages of my son’s favourite story, I make a mental note to search for a nanny-for-hire service.

I’m that mom who ushers the kids in front of the television while I cook dinner, hollering threats from time to time as the boys jump on the couch while the pasta sauce bubbles on the stove. But then I quickly look on the bright side – the fact that I have two boys who mostly amuse each other and give me a hall pass from parenting, at least before bedtime. It’s a well known fact that the only reason I had Reid is so that Ryder would leave me alone. Score 1 – Me.

I’m that mom who loves her kids fiercely, but on the whole, has a hard time connecting with them. Perhaps it’s a lack of patience, or a sensitivity chip that was programmed incorrectly. Maybe I’m just better with adults, and when my boys grow and mature and I can understand their world better, our relationship will take off from there.

I’m THAT mom. But I’m also that much more determined to be better. So I became this mom:

The mom who takes her children on family adventures that help to create lifelong memories.
The mom who works her butt off to show her children that ambition has limitless potential.
The mom who created a career that allows her to be present to kiss every boo-boo and unwrap every popsicle.
The mom who makes learning a priority – and makes it fun.

So I guess you can say, I’m that mom… and I’m this mom… and I’m just being perfectly me. And that’s that.

Now if we’re being honest, what types of family activities do I love? Simple – the ones that keep the kids challenged, entertained and out of trouble… and allow me to be off the hook after brief togetherness.

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to the HP ENVY Rove 20 Mobile All-in-One Desktop PC and HP ENVY 5530 e-All-in-One Printer. (Read my posts here and here.) And now, just in time for Halloween, I’m pleased to introduce you to the HP Snapfish portal, an amazing online resource chock full of fun activity templates for kids and décor ideas. HP Snapfish provides a free, fully-printable party décor kit, pumpkin carving templates, decorations and colouring pages. It’s so easy- just click on the activity you want and hit “Print”!

And so #HPFamilyTime just got even more awesome. Last night, I sat together with the boys and they selected a few colouring pages, in addition to a hanging decoration, straight from the HP Snapfish portal. As advertised, all we had to do was hit “Print” – of course, we printed our fun activities on our HP ENVY 5530 e-All-in-One Printer. …

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Last week, I let y’all know that I’ve had the pleasure of testing out some brand new electronic toys this season. Courtesy of HP, we received the new HP ENVY Rove 20 Mobile All-in-One Desktop PC – read my review here – and the snazzy HP ENVY 5530 e-All-in-One Printer.

In addition to the super sleek tech gadgets, HP also sent us a copy of Creative IQ: Giving Young Learners the Creative Edge in a Competitive World. The book offers over one hundred activities contained within ten-themed chapters to help parents and teachers develop children’s Creative IQ; a concept they have defined as the ability to confidently develop and express creative, out-of-the-box solutions to challenges relating to every aspect of life. The activities involve art, music, drama, creative movement, cooking, science, mathematics and fitness.

Well, since I have two little guys who love to learn, we dove right into some of the Brain Training Challenges, including “My Dream Bedroom”, which fosters Design and Categorization Skills.

“This activity will allow kids to draw their ideal bedroom with a pencil, black marker, or crayon. Photocopy the bedroom design several times with the ENVY 5530 e-All-in-One so that young learners can experiment with different colours to see which combination looks best. Challenge: Ask the children to identify each of the colours used as a primary, secondary or tertiary colour, thus helping to build their classification skills.”

Well, since Ryder was recently treated to a dream bedroom makeover, I thought it was only fair that Reid had a chance to create his own ideal bedroom too. However, we ran into the first roadblock right from the start; (1) Reid can’t actually create an intelligible design and (2) neither can I. Seriously, when God was handing out artistic talent he skipped over me completely. (Guess I’ll just have to rely on my wit and charm, eh?) Hence, after a few futile attempts that proved mildly embarrassing and majorly annoying, I turned to my good friend, MS PowerPoint….

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