Blog Posts by Charlene Prince Birkeland, Shine staff

What will you do on Mother's Day?I sympathize with husbands and kids who are trying to plan the perfect Mother's Day for their respective celebrants. I'm a daughter. I help organize my mom's day with my siblings, and the pressure is high to orchestrate a blissfully wonderful day.

I'm also a mom to two boys. And I have no expectations for Mother's Day. Okay, I do have one expectation: a simple card that my boys make on their own. But my kids are really generous with their hugs, kisses and words of thanks every day. On Mother's Day, I really feel like I should be celebrating my kids because even in their messiest, tantrum-y, emotional moments, they are plain awesome and make me smile every single day.

So when the boys and their Dad are planning a Mother's Day celebration for me, I always make sure that they know the only thing I want -- besides the card -- is to spend the entire day with them.

Who plans Mother's Day at your house? And what are your expectations?

Share your Spring photos and any other fun,

Do your kids love to grab your camera and pretend their photographers? Encourage them to develop a keen eye for great shots by giving them this spring photo challenge designed especially for kids.

Share your Spring photos and any other fun, embarrassing or incredible moments that you have captured on the Moments of Motherhood Flickr Group. While you are here take part in discussions with other moms.

Is family dinner a part of your routine?

So how to do parents do it? How do they manage to juggle work, taking the kids to their various activities at the end of the day, and pulling together a family dinner? It's a mix of advanced meal planning and quick thinking (because no how matter how good you are at meal

Enjoy spring!We're one month into spring but the weather already feels like summer! We don't mind at all. Happy to see that April showers have moved on their merry way, we'll just take our spring celebrations outdoors. We'll add a little summer spice to it, too.

Celebrate spring with your kids by adding one of these 10 activities to your weekend fun:


-Blow bubbles.
-Plant flowers. (Herbs and other edibles are fun for kids to grow because they can enjoy their bounty!)
-Make homemade lemonade. Let the kids host a lemonade stand!
-Have a picnic at the beach.
-Climb trees.
-Grab a blanket and some books and hit the local park for outdoor story time.
-Go for a hike.
-Have an outdoor movie night.
-S'more party, anyone?
-Take an evening stroll and listen to the birds as they end their day.

Share your Spring photos and any other fun, embarrassing or incredible moments that you have captured on the Moments of Motherhood Flickr Group. While you are here take part in discussions with other moms.

We love everything about spring, even if it brings April showers. The gorgeous flowers in bloom, the scent of fresh Jasmine flowers in the air, the sight of our kids running around the park on a bright, sunny day. (Yes, we'll also admit that we love that spring means summer is rapidly approaching.)

While you're celebrating spring, make sure you snap photos of your family enjoying the awesomeness of the season. And we have five photos you'll want to capture.

Share your Spring photos and any other fun, embarrassing or incredible moments that you have captured on the Moments of Motherhood Flickr Group. While you are here take part in discussions with other moms.

Looking for a way to add some fun to breakfast with the kids? Whip up a batch of waffles and decorate them with the silliest faces you can make. Better yet? Let the kids get their creative juices flowing and they can design their own funny waffle faces. Use all sorts of fruit and whipped cream (if you want). Turn it into a competition! Game on.

Share photos of your child and any other fun, embarrassing or incredible moments that you have captured on the Moments of Motherhood Flickr Group. While you are here take part in discussions with other moms.

Family breakfast or family chaos?As much as I love having dinner as a family, breakfast time is my favorite moment of the day. My kids straggle into the dining room with bed head, in their pajamas and toting a book (or several books). They sit at the table and get ready to eat their breakfast. And read. My husband and I serve up eats and sit down with our boys. And it's either a quiet morning meal or one full of chatter. And it does always end with a little bit of chaos.

I'm a big believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I notice a huge difference in my kids' behavior if they have a less healthy breakfast or a breakfast that's rushed. So I'll always make the extra effort to ensure that we always sit down for our morning meal.

As a kid, I used to eat breakfast at our kitchen counter with my mom or dad. I'd scan the newspaper while keeping an eye on the morning television news. And my brothers and sister, much older than me, would float in and out depending on their schedules. For all of us,

Does your morning look this calm?I always find it ironic that I've got my family's weekday morning routine down to a science when they only have a few months of school left. It's also comforting to know that the mornings will (hopefully) continue to run smoothly because we've established a pattern that works for all of us. Well, at least until summer break.

If you're eager to make your morning rush a little less hectic, there's still time. I've tested many tips over the past five years with my boys. What's worked so far?

-Tidy up the house each night. A clean kitchen and breakfast table makes for a smooth transition when the kids wake up and sit down for their morning eats. If you take a few minutes each night to organize your kitchen and eating area, you'll find that the next morning, you can focus on making breakfast (and lunch!) and prepping to get out the door instead of cleaning up from the previous night's mess.

-Wake up and get ready before the kids are awake. This single action, which sounds so simple and