This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Disney’s Frozen items are becoming rather hard to find, but you can find them right now on Zulily!
There’s items for girls, juniors, and boys!
Frozen – up to 65% off at zulily
This post contains affiliate links.
Right now, Amazon has some amazing prices on awesome outdoor toys!
Little Tikes Deluxe 2-1 Cozy Roadster $38.99 (List Price $62.99)
Little Tikes EasyScore Basketball Set $22.49 (List Price $36.99)
Little Tikes Cozy Coupe 30th Anniversary Car $38.00 (List Price $58.99)
Little Tikes Princess Cozy Coupe Ride-On $38.00 (List Price $58.99)
Step2 Neat & Tidy Cottage $149.99 (List Price $199.99)
Step2 Naturally Playful Sand & Water Center $69.09 (List Price $99.99)
All of these will ship free with Amazon Prime or with a purchase over $35.
These prices are as of 9:00am today. As always, Amazon prices may change, so check your prices before you check out.
Although Wearever is known for their reusable incontinence underwear for men and women, they also carry 100% cotton diabetic socks made by Buster Brown, for maximum comfort and durability. Although these are designed for those with poor circulation, easily irritated skin, or diabetes; Buster Brown 100% cotton socks are great for anyone’s everyday use. They contain no elastic or synthetics.
Look for the chance to win below!
Like any birthday, there was plenty of fun and games. Charlie is really into playing any kind of game right now. When I asked him what kind of games he wanted to play at his party, he said “racing game”. So we had a piñata, a “racing game”, a decorate your own ninja headband, decorate a ninja cookie, and “Sensei Says”.
I received this dragon piñata from Oriental Trading for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.
The Dragon Piñata from Oriental Trading was a hit, of course! The kids loved it and everyone loved watching them take a whack at it. I had read a few reviews that people said they couldn’t fit much candy in this dragon piñata, but I have no idea what they’re talking about. We fit PLENTY of candy in this; you just need to shake it around so it spreads out throughout the dragon’s body. I will say this is not an easy piñata to break. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. I think it’s somewhere in-between: I hate a piñata that can’t take a whack, but even when the 11 year old got ahold of it to knock it open, we still needed to tear it apart to really open it up.
When each boy turns 3, we’ll be asking them these 20 questions on their birthday. We’ll be doing this every year until I decide to stop. Maybe 12? I guess we’ll see. Here’s the first set!
1. What is your favorite color? Red
2. What is your favorite toy? blocks
3. What is your favorite fruit? bananas
To the little boy that made me a mommy, Happy Birthday! I can’t believe you’re already 3!
This post contains affiliate links.
You’ll see pictures of the boys in their shirts at the party, but I did want to share a preview of their shirts.
I found Owen’s on clearance at Crazy 8.
I looked everywhere for a cute ninja shirt for Charlie. I found one on Etsy that was perfect. It was a size 3T ninja shirt! For $9.99 plus $3.00 s/h it’s totally worth it. The shirt is a Garanimals shirt, soft fabric, and the fabric and stitching outline is adorable. Check out Lil Ladybug Creations, she has shirts for just about everything and will custom design them!
I love having themed outfits for themed parties! I’m in love with both the shirts and they were both a great buy! Sure, I could’ve made Charlie’s myself, but this was so much easier and for the price- totally worth it!
This post contains affiliate links.
We read (at least 1 book) to Charlie every night. I think it is very important to develop a love of reading in a child from the beginning. For Charlie’s baby shower, everyone brought us a book. Some of these were included and some we picked up along the way.
The Going-To-Bed Book – Sandra Boynton
Disney Bedtime Favorites (Storybook Collection)
Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown
I’ll See You in the Morning – Mike Jolley
Time for Bed – Mem Fox
On the Night You Were Born – Nancy Tillman
This post includes affiliate links.
Did you earn Gymbucks from Gymboree recently?
Now through May 4th, you can redeem your Gymbucks! You can redeem $25 worth of Gymbucks for every $50 they spend - for savings of up to 50% off! Make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to redeem!
I have $25 worth of Gymbucks, now I just have to decide what to get!
This post contains affiliate links.
Last year we decided to get rid of cable during the spring and summer months. We figured we could save some money and spend more time outside anyway. In our house, the tv is pretty much always on, even if no one is really watching anything. I guess we have it for background noise and something to catch your eye every now and then. Most of the shows we follow are fall shows and we watch football in the fall, so we thought it wouldn’t be too hard to give cable up for awhile.
I just participated in my first blogger swap. Apparently, these kind of things happen all the time! This was an Easter Basket swap. Each blogger is assigned two other bloggers, one to give to and one to receive from. Basically, you stalk your partners and see what you can find out about them.
I sent to Momma Lew and received from Modded Momma.
This post contains affiliate links.
If you ask Charlie what he wants for his 3rd Birthday, this is what you get.
I received product to facilitate this review. Opinions expressed are my own.
It’s finally that time of year where we can get outside and play! Charlie wants to do a craft every day and the Pain-n-Fly Glider is perfect.
The really awesome part about the Paint-n-Fly glider is that kids can put it together, paint it, fly it, peel the paint off, then REPAINT it however they’d like! With kids, this is a great idea because we all know how quickly they can change their mind about something.
Influenster sent me a complimentary coupon to try an Annie’s Homegrown Family Size Frozen Entrée. These are easily found at Target, with choices including: Butternut Squash Macaroni & Cheese, Shells & White Cheddar with Chicken, Classic Macaroni & Cheese, and Lasagna with Meat Sauce.
I am very curious about the Butternut Squash Macaroni & Cheese, but I’m often scared to really try something completely different. I make macaroni and cheese and lasagna often, so I decided to grab the Shells & White Cheddar with Chicken. It sounded delicious and looked fantastic on the package.
I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend with their families. I know we did!
Friday we had an Easter party with the MOMS club. Charlie had a great time eating, running around being a crazy boy, and hunting eggs. Owen enjoyed watching the craziness. I don’t think I took any pictures there, but here’s a couple from our egg hunt and hayride on Monday with the MOMS club.
The Purex brand provided me with a sample in exchange for a product review. All opinions expressed are my own.
As a busy mom, I want laundry to be as quick and painless as possible. When you’re tired, you just want to toss clothes into the washer and be done with it. Purex No Sort for Colors detergent has changed the rules on sorting laundry!
With regular detergent, dyes can bleed onto other fabrics in wash. With Purex No Sort for Colors, the detergent traps loose dyes and reduces color bleeding accidents.
I’m not a tea drinker, but my husband is. Tom will try just about any kind of tea (at least once). He’s had white tea before, so I figured this would be okay by his standards. Apparently it’s a rare, high grade tea with no additives or preservatives.
This post contains affiliate links.
Citrus Lane is having it’s Semi-Annual sale starting today (4/17) and ending Wednesday (4/23)! You will save up to 44% on a subscription:
3 Month Subscription: $56 (save 36%)
6 Month Subscription: $105 (save 40%)
12 Month Subscription: $196 (save 44%)
This is an awesome sale and a great time to start a subscription or give one as a gift!
Of course, if you’d like to just get a single box (it will auto-renew each month if you don’t cancel), it’s $29/month. You can still use code SAVEHALF through 4/30 to save 50% off your first box.
If you’d like to see a sample box, here’s our review of January’s Citrus Lane box.
Charlie’s 3rd birthday is less than 2 weeks away! I still can’t believe my little boy is going to be 3! At his request, he’s having a Ninja Party. Ninjago is very popular right now, but he picked a regular Ninja party. While looking for Ninja invites, I found a Ninja image at Rook no. 17 and I decided to make my own.
This was super simple to make using PicMonkey. If you’re not familiar with PicMonkey, go play around with it now! You can do so much for free, but if you decide to upgrade, it’s only $33/year.
I then added the date, time, location, and RSVP information.
Using HP Photo Card Paper, I printed these out at home on 5x7 cards and off they went!
Stay tuned for all our Ninja Birthday Party fun: Games/Activities, Food, Goodie Bags, Decorations!
I have a friend that is having surgery next week. She’ll be in the hospital for a few days, so she recently asked for suggestions of what to watch on Netflix. This made me think of the end of my pregnancy with Owen. I really went crazy on Netflix, but that’s not hard to do with all the awesome shows (new & old) that are on there.
Pretty Little Liars
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Drop Dead Diva
Parenthood
Breaking Bad
Scandal
Burn Notice
One Tree Hill
The Walking Dead
Yes, I realize that this is a rather wide range of shows, but I love them all. If you start watching any of these, chances are you’ll get sucked in and lose hours of your day (or week).
Enjoy!
(This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.)
Did you know that Blurb might give you $2,500 to read about your favorite person? All you have to do is make a book about a loved one filled with all sorts of kind words, creativity and insight, and if selected, you could win the grand prize!
As a mom, there’s so many things that we try (need) to fit into our schedules. There’s days that all I accomplish is getting the kids dressed. Getting myself dressed counts as bonus points. This Mom Planner from Tools4Wisdom can help any mom get organized, while setting goals. If you set goals, you can achieve them!
I know that the old-school way of doing everything is always hard to break, but we tried this time. With Charlie, he had his first cereal the day before he turned 4 months old. Looking back, this was way too early. The boy had heart surgery at 7 weeks old and was just starting to really grow. Mommy milk was enough for him. With Owen, we decided we would wait until he was 6 months. Well, we gave him his first solids this weekend, two weeks before 6 months.
I’m pretty sure I’ve decided to skip cereal completely this time around. We barely gave Charlie cereal and since it has practically no nutritional value, we skipped right to bananas for Owen. I mixed about 1/4 of a banana with some breastmilk and mushed it all up.
I’m so glad we waited this long because not only is it better for him, but he caught on much quicker, meaning slightly less-mess!
He loved it!
Charlie loves helping Mommy in the kitchen. Well, our kitchen is actually gated off, so he really gets to help me at the dining room table. He is always trying to get “treats”, so I like to kill two birds with one stone and let him help me make “treats”.
*I received the Squeeze & Teethe Lamb from Infantino to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.*
Owen is 5 months old now and he is desperately trying to break a couple teeth through. When Infantino posted on their Facebook page about a Test & Tell program for the Squeeze & Teethe, I knew I had to apply.
*This post is sponsored by Seventh Generation. I was compensated, but opinions are my own.*
As a mom with a child who has a Congenital Heart Defect, I can’t help but be concerned with the amount of toxic chemicals in our environment. These toxic chemicals are found in our everyday products. Think about what you use to clean your child’s toys, sheets, dishes, or your kitchen counters. Do you know what is in them? Did you know that of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals introduces into the market since the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed in 1976, the EPA has required testing on less than 10%?
FTC Disclosure Statement: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
Warmer weather is quickly approaching, but not as quickly as your kids grew out of last year's clothes! It's time to start stocking up on this season's styles for spring.
Luckily, starting tomorrow, you can get 20% off markdowns, up to 60% off at Crazy 8 so your kids can get everything they need (and some they don't!) without cleaning out your wallet. That's up to 60% off! The sale starts tomorrow (4/11) for a limited time, so hurry before it's gone!
Charlie loves to help out with his brother! We try to make him feel as though we need his help, but don’t pressure him into helping. Make sure not to rush your toddler while they are helping or they might resent you or the baby. From the beginning, we made sure Charlie knew that Owen loved him and loves when Charlie helps. Though toddlers might not be able to completely do a task on their own yet, they can certainly get involved and feel important in taking care of their new baby sibling.
This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you purchase through these links.
Have you heard of Blurb? If you haven’t, now’s the perfect time to go check out what they have!
You can save 15% on all printed orders through April 30th!
Ideas for books to make right now:
Charlie had Little League pictures taken Saturday morning. While waiting to get pictures taken, he walks up to a little girl that he just met, talked to her for about 2 minutes, gave her a big hug, and said “you’re my best friend”. While this is adorable to watch and retell, it makes you wonder when we lose that. When did it become difficult to make friends?
When we’re young children, we can walk up to anyone and instantly connect and become friends. In school you start to form cliques and that clique is your lifeline for friends. In college, you have roommates, clubs, and classes to connect with friends. Once you’re in adulthood, how do you make friends?
I actually saw Moms’ Night Out back in February at an Advanced Screening and it was awesome!
Being a mom is the hardest job of all, but sometimes moms need a break too! That’s why Purex is celebrating Mother’s Day and the release of Sony’s new motion picture, Moms’ Night Out, by giving away a night out for you and up to five friends.
So get your BFFs together for a night out on the town, courtesy of the laundry BFFs from Purex, and enter for your chance to win today!
Myrtle Beach has remained one of my favorite vacation spots. We went with my family when I was younger and now my husband and I take our own family.
When we visit Myrtle Beach this year, we’ll be visiting the Ripley’s Aquarium. When we went in 2012, Charlie was too young to enjoy it, but this year- he’ll be 3.5 when we go. There’s definitely something for everyone in Myrtle Beach.
This is my husband and Charlie in 2012. I can’t believe this year there will be two of them running (or tottering) on that beach.
This weekend was crazy! We had so much to do and I love it!
Friday night was Opening Night for Little League.
We’re having a rainy day here today, but it’s 100000000x better than another snow day. We were lucky enough to hit the zoo yesterday, so an inside day today is okay by me.
Here’s a rainy day activity that allows a child to feel like they’re being messy, but it doesn’t really create much mess for mom (or dad) to clean up when they’re done.
It’s that time of year for Spring Consignment Sales! For our family, we LOVE shopping our local consignment sales.
At any consignment sale, please check all items for stains, tears, and excessive wear.
At seasonal sales, you’ll be limited to the upcoming season. Know what sizes your child(ren) will wear through that season. I also suggest shopping a size up just incase there is a growth spurt during the season. Don’t forget about knowing how much they weigh, this comes in handy for things like swim floaties and suits.
My area also has an “All-Season” sale. This is when I can stock up on the next season. Write down ahead of time what sizes you think your child(ren) will wear during each season so you can keep that in mind while shopping ahead a season.
*I received product to facilitate this review, but opinions expressed are my own.*
I was recently given the opportunity to review a something new to the US called Heroes of the City. Going off of the name alone, I knew it would be a hit in my house.
This special deal ends at 11:59pm PT tonight!
Who will you send a card to?
If you have children, you know how important it is to have a snack available at all times. Whether that means goldfish, cheerios, or dried fruit; you need something to store those snacks in. If you use a plastic baggie, they tend to end up crushed. You will not have that problem with this stainless steel lunch box set by MIRA.
The message at our church service this week was about not avoiding our fears. Sometimes the biggest lessons and blessings come from things we would have rather avoided (job loss, death, financial issues, illness, etc.). We need to remember to let go of our worries and know that God has a greater plan.
After the message, this video played. I’ve heard it before, but seeing the words at the same time really hit home.
“Blessings” by Laura Story
I know we haven’t had it easy, but we have an amazing little family and so much to be grateful for. I’m working on letting go and trusting God.
I hope this song and video find you well and remind you that sometimes “blessings come through raindrops”.
What blessing have you had come to you “through raindrops”?
