It was all Gracie wanted. A real tea party with her friends and everyone’s American Girl dolls!
Everyone wore their party dresses and brought their American Girl dolls. We made matching bracelets for the girls and their dolls…
Then we did some flower arranging
And then we ate. And ate. And YUMMM!
It was a super day!
And for favors… a candy bar!!! YUM!
Next week is my birthday!!! I though I’d be super helpful and make a list for you to make shopping easier.
For awhile now, the top of my wish list has been a Michael Kors watch. Which I got this summer at a shopping event at Lord & Taylor with Lifetime Moms. It was awesome.
SO now I have a few little other dreams brewing…
Like Tory Burch flats:
I’m obsessed with this top…
I could use a nice pair of boots that I can actually wear in the snow..
And a scarf!
Or, as long as I’m really dreaming…
Feel free to shop! đ
Last week we went away for a weekend.We left our computers and work at home and went away together. Somehow, that three days was more relaxing than our last week-long vacation where were were answering emails and phone calls and (basically) still working while we were there. It reminded me how important it is for us to get away from it all.
At BlogHer, I attended a lovely event hosted by Trumpting Media in New York City that had Beaches Resorts as one of the sponsors. And as I chatted with friends about our trip to Beaches Negril⌠I was immediately dreaming about going back and unwinding for a few days.
Doesn’t that look heavenly?
I could so go for some relaxing on a beach right now. Or some eating in yummy restaurants every day. Or some swimming with dolphins. Or getting tucked in my Elmo. We cannot recommend Beaches Resorts highly enough!
Next time we want to head to Beaches Turks and Caicos. We fell in love with snorkeling in Negril and weâve heard that Turks and Caicos has some of the best snorkeling in the world! My newly certified scuba diver husband found out that Beaches Turks & Caicos vacation puts you at the epicenter of a collection of world-famous dive sites that are ranked among the top two in the world by Scuba Dive magazine. Now he is DYING to go there!
Part of me wants to go back just with my husband, for a romantic getaway. But we had so SO much fun with our kids that I can hardly imagine going back without them! It was amazing to just relax and unwind with our kids. The kids kept saying how much fun we were being â its incredible how freeing it is to not have to worry about those details that we parents constantly have on our minds. We were able to just enjoy our kids and enjoy being together as a family.
Someday soon…
disclosure: i attended this event and received a gift bag as a thank you. we visited beaches negril as part of a press trip and had a portion of our expenses covered.
Just when we were sad that our last day at the beach got rained out… we noticed not everyone was stuck inside the hotel. A pod of at least 20 dolphins was having a grand old time frolicking in the waves outside the hotel.
Its the first week of school. (Didn’t we just do this?) Time to get back into the swing of things making lunches for everyone every night. Last year, I decided that our lunches were not only boring, but wasteful. My kids like lunches with lots of variety. But that meant a small bag of grapes, a small bag of blueberries, a small bag of crackers, a small bag of cheese, a small bag of cookies… That’s a lot of plastic bags getting thrown away every day. So I decided to switch to reusable containers. I considered bento boxes, but there were so expensive and I wanted to have at least 2 per kid, so I could work ahead when we’re extra busy.
I started using Glad storage containers and silicone muffin cups – instead of spending $100+ on bento boxes, I had enough for two days of lunches for three kids for around $25. My kids love their lunches – I pack them up the night or two before and every day they get something new and different. They’ve even told me their friends are jealous – and that they’ve convinced their moms to make lunches like this!
Every other night, I set up an assembly line of fruit, veggies and lunch supplies and go to town!
My oldest is a huge fan of wraps. Her favorites are turkey and cheese and veggie. She is a huge veggie lover, so her lunch always has lots to munch on. Sometimes I put a small container of ranch dressing for her to dip veggies in, as well.
turkey and cheese wrap, celery sticks, yellow pepper strips, raspberries, cucumbers & grape tomatoes
My other daughter hates sandwiches. Her favorite things to bring are salad or leftovers, like soup or chili. She has a little insulated thermos for leftovers and we use a small snack container for her salads – they’re the perfect size for her appetite. This is one of her favorite Quinoa Salad, which I paired with some fruits and veggies. When she brings things like chili, her box contains things like shredded cheese and a few tortilla chips as well.
quinoa salad, celery sticks, yellow pepper strips, bing cherries, cucumbers, grape tomatoes and raspberries
My son loves either salami sandwiches or cheese and crackers for school (since school is a no peanut butter zone). And his favorite “cheese sticks”.
salami sandwich on whole wheat, cucumbers, celery sticks, yellow pepper strips, blackberries, grape tomatoes and string cheese
My kids love their fancy lunches – they really don’t take any longer to make. I usually stop at the farmer’s market once a week to stock up on fresh veggies and fruit and spend a bit of time before the school week starts washing and chopping so everything is ready to go for lunches that week. Glad makes my food prep and storage and transport easy as pie! I love how easy it is – I can just throw everything in the dishwasher – and they are so inexpensive that its not a big deal if one gets misplaced at school. And they’re BPA-free to boot!
Do you have great tips and tricks for getting healthy lunches into your kids every day? Share your Back to School recipes, tips and ideas on the “Mom Made” promotion on the Glad Facebook page before August 31st and you’ll be eligible to win a lunch kit for your kids’ entire class!
I have partnered with The Glad Products Company through DailyBuzz Moms to help promote their Food Storage products. I have been compensated for my time commitment to review this product. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you GLAD!
Happy birthday to my little “Mini-Me.” I love you so much. I love your kind heart. Your sweetness. Your laugh.
I love that you want to be a ballerina fashion blogger when you grow up.
Don’t ever lose your sparkle.
Happy Almost-Fall!! Can you believe it?? My kids start school on Monday, we are scrambling around, shopping for school supplies, finding backpacks and other fun activities. By the way, WHY are glue sticks so expensive? Seriously?
So anyway… here are some lovely finds for this week!
How cute is this striped dress? Its on sale at Old Navy and I actually already own those shoes….
This blue sweater is fabulous. What a great color!
I am completely in love with this dress… I wonder how long it would be on me…
Maybe I need this for spring. What do you think?
Happy fall!!
A few weeks ago, my coffeemaker broke. Let’s just say is was a rough couple of days. I was in mourning. It had been with me through sleepless nights, 60-hour work weeks and jet-lag. I even brought my coffeemaker ON VACATION WITH ME. No joke.
My relationship with coffee is deep and its real. I make at least 5 cups a day. But I don’t drink that much.
Let me explain.
I always make a cup of coffee first thing every morning. But I usually only get through half that cup before misplacing it somewhere as I try to get the family out of the house. Then I make another cup, that I’m drinking as I do some chores. Which I then misplace. Then I sit down at my desk to work. Typically I can keep track of this cup, since I’m not moving and all. Then I get my afternoon cup of flavored coffee (My fav is Dunkin’ Donuts Mocha!)
I find coffee cups in the strangest places… the windowsill of the bathroom, on the bookshelf in the family room, my son’s dresser, outside on the front steps, on the shelf over the washing machine, in the waiting room of music lessons… Ask my husband, as this is one of his favorite things about me and it doesn’t drive him crazy AT ALL. I did a quick spin around the house and found three mugs this morning:
Its really bad when he travels for work and there isn’t a helpful spouse to go around and collect my half-finished coffee cups that are sprinkled around the house and load them in the dishwasher. Then I have that horrible moment when I go to make my afternoon-pick-me-up-cup-of-coffee and there are no more mugs left. Then I have to go around and try to find them or resort to using a Christmas travel mug in August.
Do you have a favorite mug? Now through August 26, Dunkinâ Donuts coffee fans are invited to enter the Dunkinâ Donuts Mug Up Promotion – you can upload a picture of you and your favorite mug and win some fabulous prizes!! Mug Up Promotion by uploading a photo of themselves with their mug of coffee to www.dunkinathome.com. All eligible entries will be entered in six weekly and one Grand Prize drawings… win a one-year supply of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee or Dunkin’ Donuts coffee mugs or grocery gift cards!! (Which I would totally use to buy more coffee. Did I mention I drink a lot of coffee??)
I will totally enter as soon as I find my coffee mug! Now where did it go…..
disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Dunkinâ Donuts packaged coffee and received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.â
We love New York!
You know how much we love Elmo! So we were excited to head up to NYC last week to see a screening of the new DVD, Elmoâs Alphabet Challenge. How excited? THIS EXCITED!
The new 45 minute video was completely adorable and the kids were laughing hysterically. So fun. Elmo, Abby & Telly are transported into Abbyâs “Fly Padâ (iPad) â and must conquer and win a series of Alphabet Challenges in order to safely return to Sesame Street. Parents will appreciate the humor of each of the video games too – they work their way through Angry Birds (“Angry Words”), Pacman, MarioKart and even Just Dance. So funny!
Kids will LOVE Elmo’s Alphabet Challenge
! And you can download the FREE Elmoâs Alphabet Challenge app too! Play games and your DVD will activate other features of the app too.
Then, THEN we got a special performance by Elmo and Abby! We played the Alphabet Game and sang songs!
We were so excited to meet Elmo and Abby:
Even Mommy and Daddy got to get in on the action!
It was such a fabulous event – the kids had a blast. We had hardly walked in the door of our house when they were begging to watch the âAlphabet Challengeâ again! This is great for preschool kids, like Colin, who are learning letters and letter sounds. I’ve been working on this with his over the summer – and a love that he can practice what he’s learning by watching Alphabet Challenge!!
disclosure: thank you to sesame street for inviting us to this preview screening event. we received a free copy of the movie to bring home. as always, all thoughts and opinions are our own.