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Taking the time to Cherish Childhood

Best Friends Cherish Childhood
As you can see in the progression above, my children are growing up the best of friends. The kind of friends that every parent wishes their children to be, with very little fighting but gales and fits of laughter with just about every interaction. A friendship that makes me want to cry happy tears and hug them both so tight so as to never let them ever grow out of this stage… this closeness… this love of family.

But, with two kids spaced close together, I will admit that oftentimes I am so stuck on my to-do list that I am not very present in the moment. With a daughter like mine who thrives on the spontaneous, I try and make sure we slow down at least a few times a day to enjoy the little things. Because the little things are anything but little to her – to her, they are everything.

I have to keep reminding myself that we will never get these days back and my children won't get another childhood. I need to give them as much love and happiness as I can while I still have them here with me to take them through their own stress and hard times ahead. Here's just a couple of "rules" I created for myself to help me live in the moment and #cherishchildhood.

Ready or not, here comes the first day of Kindergarten

I vividly remember every year before the first day of school when I was young I would spend all night tossing and turning with butterflies in my stomach. Unlike most people, I didn’t dread school, in fact for me it was quite the opposite. I was so excited to see everyone and catch up after three months apart that I was simply too wound up to sleep.

Would all my friends be back this year? Would I like my teacher? Did I remember to grab a drink for my lunch? What kinds of stories would everyone have from vacation? Checking the clock a million times and begging myself to sleep, I finally would fall into a restless slumber, simply exhausted from all the scenarios running through my mind.

As my daughter is nearing starting elementary school, I find myself with butterflies all over again – but this time I have so much worry and doubt in addition to being excited. It’s not that I don’t think she will do well; she always has been a fast learner, an eager pupil, and has excelled in her years in pre-school. Mostly, it’s me.

Verde chicken enchiladas made simple with Kraft Recipe Makers

Are you looking for a simple weeknight dinner that's perfect for back to school? I love enchiladas because they are so easy to make, but Kraft went and made them even easier with the new chicken verde enchiladas Kraft Recipe Makers. Seriously, only a few ingredients are needed and you will feel like a hero … Read more

Chicago event introduces new expanded Bitty Baby line from American Girl

At American Girl, the message is about celebrating oneself and all the things that make us unique and special. In fact, they have a whole line of customizable 18” My American Girl dolls that are a perfect example of this. For the past few years they have been offering the award-winning My American Girl customizable doll experience where you can choose from different skin, eye, and hair colors and styles to best match your child’s unique features.

But, until this August, the Bitty Baby line was far less customizable. With only 7 options available to choose from up until now, the line was not all-encompassing by any means. There were many children, my daughter included, that didn’t have a Bitty Baby option for them.

My daughter has light hair, light skin and brown eyes, which I have realized doesn’t really exist in the doll world. Dolls with brown eyes have dark hair and oftentimes darker skin as well, and blonde haired dolls almost always have blue eyes.

Or, at least they did. On August 27th, the new Bitty Baby dolls will come in 11 options with all sorts of combinations of light and dark skin and eyes, which makes it far more likely that you will find that perfect doll as unique as your child. Like their My American Girl line, now you can pick skin tone, eye color, and hair color to customize your child’s Bitty Baby experience.

Disney’s Planes races into theaters on Friday

Are you super excited about Disney’s new movie, Planes? We were counting down the days to the Seattle press screening with the excitement that you only see at Christmastime. But, with a son that is fascinated with all types of transportation, a movie about planes is just about as cool as a film can get. … Read more

VTech InnoTab 3S available for presale now

Remember our review of the InnoTab 2S? My kids are crazy into their MePad {Daddy has an iPad, so my two year old decided the VTech InnoTab 2S was a “MePad”} and it was a lifesaver on our recent two day train trip home from Chicago as well as our Idaho vacation. So, of course … Read more

Need a new phone? Try the Best Buy Mobile Specialty Stores trade-in program

In this day of electronic upgrades every other week, tech gadgets are dating themselves faster than ever before. This means that most of us have piles of old electronics filling our junk drawers and offices. I will admit that hubby and I have a sizable collection of old cell phones, PDAs, and more that are really just taking up space in our house.

Some of these gadgets are now glorified paperweights with 1997 technology and no ability to charge and I’ve needed to get rid of them for quite a while now. If you read my Best Buy post about their awesome recycling program, you know how much I love that they help you recycle old electronics responsibly for free, and I’ve been meaning to take them to the recycling station for quite some time.

But, what you may not know is that they have a great trade-in and buy-back program that you can utilize if you have old electronics that might be worth a little money. Best Buy Mobile Specialty Stores are popping up all over {typically at malls or shopping centers} and I happen to have one near me at the Northgate Mall, so I stopped in last weekend to see what they could do with my 15lbs of excess technology.

Gymboree Play & Music classes are a hit {free class thru 8/31!}

Everyone who has ever said “throw like a girl” was probably referring to me. I’ve never actually seen myself throw a ball, but I imagine it looks somewhat like this Volkswagen commercial that makes me laugh hysterically every time it comes on.

Since my lack of athletic prowess is something I hope to not pass on to my kids, I took the first preventative step this summer and signed them up for sports classes at our local Gymboree Play and Music center with a complimentary month-long membership. While they aren’t in the big leagues, or even in Little League for that matter, I love that they are learning the basics of different sports in a cooperative and fun environment with other little kids.

The class is a little over 45 minutes one day a week, but even in that short amount of time I have seen a huge improvements over the past three weeks. Not just with athletic ability, but also with confidence and a desire to be more active.

Disney Social Media Moms Seattle Event

During every school break, my Facebook stream is full of friends taking their kids to Disney parks. I can’t help but be a teeny bit jealous because it really hasn’t been possible for us to do a Disney vacation. Of course, I know I will eventually make it there with the kiddos, it just might not be as soon as I would like.

And, then I saw a little blurb on one of my friend’s Facebook feed who was at the Disney Social Media Moms event last year. It was something to the effect of how you only have 18 summers to take your kids to Disney, and it made me panic a bit.

Picture taken from DisneyParksBlog.com

My parents took all of us kids to Disneyland when I was 6 months old. I’m sure it was a blast, but I don’t remember a single thing from the trip. My husband has a similar story as first his family was waiting for him and his sister to be able to ride on the rides, and then their younger cousins. Long story short, they never made it to any of the Disney parks.

In 1999, we finally made it to Walt Disney World together, and we still talk about how magical the trip was. We went on every rollercoaster together, indulged in all the Disney treats and goodies, and spent our evenings at Pleasure Island doing what we could since I was underage at the time.

Circa 1999 in Disney World. I'm second from the left and hubby is on the right. Those two beautiful girls with us are my sisters. Aren't we adorable?

But, it’s been 14 years since that Disney trip and I’m very ready to go again, this time with our kiddos. I am so excited to be able to share that magic with the kids and experience it again through their eyes, as well as all the new attractions that have gone in since 1999 {which, apparently, is A LOT}.

While I can appreciate the idea of waiting until the kids are older and can go on all the rides, I also think there's something really special about a kid growing up Disney. It's like they say, "there's something for everyone" and I don't want to miss taking them in the stage of awe and wonder just because they might not be able to do every single thing at the parks.

And, I’m looking forward to it all: pictures with the princesses, the obligatory Mickey/Minnie ears, kid’s rides and grownup coasters and the magic that happens when the sun goes down and the castle comes alive for the evening. Every. Single. Thing. I don't want to try and find that magical "perfect age" for Disney parks that you hear so much about and instead want to see it as a great excuse to go as many times as we can while the kids are still under our roof.

Last week I got a chance to get in on the Disney action, albeit briefly, when Disney Social Media Moms came to the Seattle area as part of their Disney on the Road tour and now I’m even more excited to get to the Disney parks… any of them… all of them… or even a Disney cruise. I'm not picky.

Ditching the grocery store with Zaycon Foods

Back when I was pregnant with my youngest, I began to detest grocery shopping. It wasn’t that I was too lazy to go to the grocery store; it had to do more with time than anything else. Whenever I did have time in my already busy days of hospitals, doctors, preschool, and work, the last thing I wanted to do was take my almost 2 year old to the grocery store {which always took way longer than it should}.

I was thinking of trying grocery delivery services but was worried about what kind of prices I would be forced to pay as well as quality with someone else picking my food. I was incredibly worried I would be paying premium prices and getting the items they couldn’t push in retail, making delivery not worth it in the end.

Even though I’m not pregnant now, I still don’t get excited about loading both kids into the car and spending an hour grocery shopping, so I was really excited when I first heard of Zaycon Foods on Good Morning America.

Zaycon Foods is a fairly new company started here in Washington State two years ago as a means of offering natural, hormone free meats at bulk prices all across the US. Instead of traditional delivery services, Zaycon calls itself a “drive thru” meat market that allows you to order online and then pick up during one of their many events across the US in a matter of minutes – no unloading kids or searching through the grocery store to find the best deals.