Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category
My daughter came home with a note a couple weeks ago saying that they were having a Valentine’s Day party in her Kindergarten class and that she needed to bring 31 Valentine’s for her class mates. My son’s preschool is also having a “friendship” party to celebrate and he needs 20 Valentines. The catch? The teachers requested that there be no candy in them. NO Problem! I’ve got this!
I’ve always preferred making Valentines to buying them and this year we get to be extra creative. Here are 10 Candy-free adorable Valentines for the kids to give to their friends. Some we came up with, and others were found on various blogs.
Peyton chose pencils and erasers for her classmates and we made these:
You’re Just “Write” for me!
I printed out the message on cardstock and used a cookie cutter to trace the heart around it. We cut out the hearts and used a hole-punch to make the holes for the pencils to slide it. Really easy!
Preston, the Cars fanatic, will be handing out these to his preschool friends:
You make my Heart race!
For these we used plain white cardstock cut into small squares and I drew the road with markers. Preston place the heart stickers on them so he could be a part in ‘making’ them.
And I made these little apple packs to send to school with the P’s for their snack:
You are the Apple of my eye!
Here are some other super cute Valentine gifts that I found:
“Doh” you want to be my Valentine? From The Wilson World
Happy Valentine’s Day Love Bug! From Dandee Designs
Our class would “knot” be the same without you! Also from Dandee Designs
You make my heart Glow! From The Teacher Wife
You make my heart bounce! From The Crafting Chicks
I’m Wild about you! From Disney’s Family Fun
Will you O’fish’ally be my Valentine? From Tammy Mitchell Photography
As the mom of three small children, (ages 1, 3, and 5) I have very little time to clean and organize my house. Add to that owning an online boutique, and a Non-Profit, and volunteering in various military and school programs, I REALLY have NO time. Any extra time that I do have I want to be spending with my children, not scrubbing the house. Between school, work,and sports, I’m sure you can all relate. But, a cluttered house that needs to be cleaned just adds to the craziness and I can’t have that!
These are my top tips for keeping the clean even with little ones and a busy schedule.
1. Have a Cleaning Schedule: Now, like any thing else, you have to find what works for you. Something that fits into your already busy life. I 
suggest heading over to Clean Mama where not only can you find her schedule (which is the basis for what I use) but you can also visit her etsy shop for printables. She has everything you need to keep you on pace from Cleaning kits to chore charts (which I also use)! There are few things on the schedule that I switched around or I do more than once a week, like vacumming because of the crumb monsters, but overall this keeps my house in check so that it does not get out of control.
2. Controlled Clutter: One of my favorite ways to keep the clutter under control is Baskets. They look pretty and you can just toss everything in.
Shoes…
Magazines…
Toys…
2. A load a day keeps the monster away: The laundry monster that is. We’ve all been there, the day that you realize there are no clean socks because they are all in the dirty clothes hampers. Then you spend all day washing, drying, and folding and the laundry monster takes over your house! It’s on the couches, the beds, the dining room table, and since you’ve spent all day washing you have no time left to put it away. To solve the problem, just do one (or two) loads a day, fold it immediately and put it away. It takes some forcing but I try and make it a point to put a load in as soon as I wake up in the morning. It helps cut down on the amount of dirty laundry and the clean laundry that piles up in unwanted places.
4. The Laundry Basket Round-Up: To get out of place items picked up quickly, I like this method. Grab a laudry basket and go from room to room putting anything that doesn’t belong there into the basket. Continue around the house until everything in the basket is put away. My house is two story so I start on the bottom floor gathering everything there and then head upstairs. I put everything away and then grab anything up stairs that needs to go down and finish up. This cuts down on the amount of time it takes to put it all in it’s place and cuts down on the number of trips you make up and down or back and forth.
5. Clorox Wipes: Keep a can of disinfecting wipes in every bathroom. At any time you can easily wipe down the counter top or sink. My kids are famous for smearing soap on the counters or leaving toothpaste in the sink. This way I can quickly and efficiently keep the bathrooms up inbetween my weekly cleaning.
I am a Mother. To three beautifully energetic, independent, happy children.
I am a Wife. To an amazing husband and father. I devote myself to him and to his Corps.
I am a Friend. To wonderful people all over the country that I have had the pirvelage of knowing.
I am a Daughter and Sister. To my best of friends.
These are the words that Describe me but they do not Define me. Many women hold these titles, but the difference is what we choose to do with them. Our actions and effort towards these titles that describe us are what define our true selves.
The biggest roles that I play in this world are Wife and Mother. This is what makes up the core of my being. I am a perfecitonist, often to a fault, but in many cases I believe it drives me to be the best of who I am for everyone. Do I fail? of course. Nobody is perfect. But, what makes the diffenece is the time that you have tried and whether or not you will continue to try after failure. I love what Thomas Edison said; “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that will not work“. So much of that applies to motherhood and marriage. Both of which are life long journeys with people growing and changing. The effort we put in and how we manage ourselves after failure it what determines the outcome.
As a military wife I am faced with a whole new version of the word ‘Wife‘. They weren’t joking when someone said “If the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife they would’ve issued you one“. As wives, our needs are often set aside and we have to be able to deal with that. Just as the military is not just a job but a way of life, I am not just married to my husband I am married to the Corps. He follows orders and I follow him, supporting the whole way. I am a lover and a friend to my husband. Together we go through life and together we raise our children. It means long days and nights without him, sudden changes in our ’plan’ and when he leaves I am left here to wait. I am here to take over and continue our lives with him in the distance. Keeping him in my heart the whole time and waiting for him to come home so that we can pick up right where we left off. It is not a life of sacrifice, although sometimes hard, it is a life of pride. No matter where life leads us I will be here to be the person he laughs with and shares his frustrations with. The person he can be himself with. I am his wife and his home.
As a Mother I am a caregiver, a friend, a teacher, a confidant, a disciplinarian. I am a shoulder to cry on, and a hand to hold. I don’t like to put limitations on myself with the label of ”mom“. I devote myself to raising them. To teaching them and encouraging them to Do and Be better. I want to show them the world and give them experiences and memories that will last a lifetime. I want them to grow up to not just be adults but to be responsible, respectful, happy and successful. I want them to contribute to society and not just take from it. It is my job and my duty to give them the tools to be able to do this. So I try, and I try again. And when I fail I will certainly do my best to make up for it. Their futures lie in my hands and as much as I’d like to I cannot hold them forever. I can just take the time to be with them now, teach them all that I know, and show them all the love that is in my heart.
These are the words that Define ME…that make me who I am. Nothing else. I am not just a mom or just a wife. Those are simply words that give me the inspiration to do all that I do.
This morning when I was getting my daughter ready for school she requested a “Tangled” braid. We did 3 braids total. With her hair parted just to the side (her natural part) I braided two small ‘half’ braids. I then gathered the two small braids in the back together with the rest of her hair and did one long braid down her back. We decorated with flower clips that are part of my hair accessory line from Too Tutu Cute.
Yes, this mom of three, who hasn’t thought about herself before anyone in a LONG time, is celebrating her very own day. ME! MOI! MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE! (okay, I’ll stop now)
Yes, it is MY day. My day to be featured by one of THE most fabulous group devoted to female bloggers. It’s my SITS day!
What you ask? SITS! The Secret is in Support! A group of THOUSANDS of femail bloggers all supporting one another. How awesome is that?! Now…GO CHECK THEM OUT!
AND, for all of you that have come on over to visit little ol’ me from SITS, I am truly honored!
I began blogging over two years ago (yikes! where does time go?) and almost simultaniously found The SITS girls. They really opened my eyes to the world of blogging and gave me the confidence to continue writing and sharing my experiences. Needless to say, I was so surprise and super excited when I finally got the email saying that it was my turn!
WELCOME! and thank you for coming over to check out my little piece of the World Wide Web…I hope you’re wearing your Tutu!
I just can’t get away from it…one more post of my baby girl going off to Kindergarten. Last one I promise. She picked out her outfit herself.
To read more about her first day check out:
Okay, I know the P’s Birthday was in April but I figured this post is just in time for Football Season. If you have any Football/Cheerleader fans in the house you may want to read on 
P1 and P2 have Birthdays just weeks apart and after throwing a huge Easter Birthday Bash followed by an Earthday Birthday Party two weeks later last year, I decided to have a double birthday party for them this year. Being only two years apart they have most of the same friends anyway. The tricky part was coming up with a theme that they would both be happy with. We decided on a Football/Cheerleader theme and chose the color RED for their favorite team, the AZ Cardinals.
I outfitted P2 with a RED football Jersey from www.teamsportswear.com/ and had his name and age put on the back by a local screen printing shop. P1 got her very own RED Cheerleading uniform from www.cheerleading.com/.
The Balloon Arch was made by my Mom and I and really gave the party that Homecoming Football game feel.
I ordered the Football toss game pictured above and Party Favors from Oriental Trading Company. I loved the personalized megaphones that say “Happy Birthday Peyton and Preston.”
Each child took home a Megaphone, Pom pom, and a mini football (these I found at the Dollar Tree.)
I used extra megaphones, along with Pom poms we had here, as decorations throughout the house.
For entrtainment we had the Football Toss pictured above and I bought lots of outdoor toys like balls, jumpropes and hoolahoops. I covered the back patio table with white paper for the kids to color.
We had the sand box out filled with tiny treasures hidden in it.
The football pinata ( which I always try to fill with more trinkets than candy) was from Party City. And almost impossible to break!
The cake we ordered from Vons and was a simple Football Field design with their names on it.
And a youth football game isn’t complete without a Breakthrough, so before singing happy birthday and cutting the cake they all lined up and tore through the paper.
When the day was over I had two very tired and happy P’s. They LOVED their football birthday party.
Our family has a first day of school tradtion that involves donuts but this year my daughter started Kindergarten and she is in the afternoon class. That means she doesn’t go to school until 1150am. With a lunch time start, getting up a little early and going to a donut shoppe didn’t make much sense so I asked her what special breakfast she would like me to make. Pancakes!
Pancakes are by far her favorite but they are such a dull food. I asked if she’d like me to put chocolate chips in them…she said “no, just plain”. Seriously? who doesn’t like chocolate chips in their pancakes? So to make them a little more fun for the first day of Kindergarten I decided to do “school shapes”. We did numbers 1-2-3 and letters A-B-C and then she decided she’d like to see some shapes so we made a circle, square, and triangle. To make the shapes I poured the batter into the pan (already hot and on medium heat) using a large spoon to draw them. Then traced back over them where needed.
She loved them and ate the whole plate… 1-2 & 3!
If you have read my review of Boogie Wipes then you know that I love them! They are so great to carry around for the littes ones or stick in your childs backpack for school.
Now, I’m here to tell you that they are searching for a child to be featured on the Boogie Wipes Canister. Not just any child, they want someone whose ‘Snot Your Average Kid. Has your Boogie Kid done something extroardinary? Enter the Contest!
Boogie Wipes is looking for a child between the ages of 2-10 that has done something that has
“possitively impacted family, friends, and comunity”. Head over to the contest link and be prepared to write 100 words or less on why your child is ‘Snot Your Average Kid. You will also need to upload a photo. A Youtube video of your childs version of the story is helpful but not required to win.
Good Luck!
*All opinions in this post are solely my own. I was not compensated in any way for this information.
