Ready for Fall with our Joovy Tricycoo Tricycle #Review

My children love to spend time outside playing. They like to climb on our climber, play house in the playhouse, and they absolutely love to ride around the neighborhood on their bikes. My oldest child rides a big boy bike and loves it. My younger son however cannot reach the pedals on his brother’s hand me down tricycle and is usually forced to just run alongside when the bikes come out to play. Kind of sad, isn’t it?

I have tried a couple different ride-on toy options for my little nugget, but none of them have really worked out. He seems to be in that awkward in between size that makes the push/ride-on toys too small for him and the full size trikes and bikes too big. Joovy sent me the Tricycoo Tricycle to review and I could not be happier with how this tricycle has worked out for my son.

Bathroom Artwork Continued #FreePrintable

I have recently gotten a lot of emails and private messages asking about changing the background colors on my DIY Bathroom Subway Art #FreePrintable post that I created. According to you {my wonderful readers}, the pink needed to be changed. Some of you are not a fan of the pink and/or do not have a little lady in the house have requested either a gray or orange background to replace the pink. After an hour of tinkering I was able to find a solution! Hooray!!!

BabyWearing with the BABYBJÖRN Baby Carrier One {Review & Giveaway}

I am a huge fan of babywearing. I have been babywearing since I had my first child back in 2009. Though back then I didn’t know any better and my baby carrier was a very inexpensive one that was literally a pain in my back.  Since then I have become quite the babywearing buff and like to educate others on the joys of babywearing.

When BabyBjörn offered to send me the BabyBjörn Baby Carrier One to test out and review before it was even available for purchase I was ecstatic. As this is the first BabyBjörn baby carrier to offer a back carry position. Not to mention the fact that it is one sleek looking carrier that my husband - or mother-in-law - will happily wear. My mother-in-law even came over to give the BabyBjörn Baby Carrier One a test run!

Garage Organization Solution

As many of you know I love having things nice neat clean and organized. When my children allow it, I like to have a place for everything and everything in its place. While this is what I like, it is not always the reality. With little ones comes tons of stuff for the little ones and pretty soon my husband and I found ourselves overrun with kid stuff.

One particular area in our home that needed serious attention was our garage. The garage is where all of the clothing bins go to hang out. My out of season clothing takes up a few bins as does the children’s clothing that they have outgrown. Then there is the seasonal decoration bins… those take up quite a few too. Not to mention the nuggets toys that have to get stored during the winter so that they do not get damaged. Needless to say, there are a lot of storage and organizational needs for out garage. Thank goodness my husband is handy.

Thai Inspired Grilled Chicken #Recipe

My family eats a lot of chicken. Since my husband cut red meat from his diet, the whole family tends to avoid eating red meat as well. This means that if I want to keep my meals from feeling stale or repetitive I have to get experimental in the kitchen… This usually mean that I have to be open to trying new things in the spice aisle, in this case I spent about 30 minutes scoping out the ethnic aisle at my grocery store {I may have gotten a little sidetracked running into a friend. I may have stopped to chat for about 15 of those 30 minutes}.

I had a lot of fun scoping out the different sauces and spices in the ethnic food aisle. Seriously… that is a very complicated aisle and there are about a gazillion different oils, sauces, and pastes there that look like they could be either very fun or very scary. I took a chance and grabbed a few of these and a few of those and got to work testing them out in my kitchen. After a few failed attempts I stumbled upon a very delicious marinade that my ENTIRE family enjoys {yes, my kids love this chicken too!}. Needless to say, this is a recipe that will definitely be repeated.

Homemade Fabric Pacifier Clips #DIY

We are taking a break today from the play tray craft series, as I am awaiting a piece that I ordered for my final play tray craft to arrive. So instead this week I took out my sewing machine a whipped up a few fabric pacifier clips. I like to make my own because I am not a fan of a lot of the clips out there.

My children use different pacifiers, so I like a pacifier clip that works for all of them. That means that the pacifier clip needs to have a clip to connect the pacifier to things on one side and a simple ribbon on the other to attach to the pacifier. I have seen Bella Tunno sell these for $8.00 a clip {that does not include shipping and handling}. While this is very reasonably priced, I thought it was something I could make on my own.

I Bundoo, Do you?

This is a sponsored post; regardless, all opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from others.

As a mother of three children all under four years-old I am constantly looking for answers to my parenting questions. Each and every one of my children is different and as a result I have to learn new ways to tackle situations. I have to learn different techniques to help deal with what used to be tried and true. I have already learned that just because I have three children does not mean that I know everything.

While I may not know everything {shhh don’t tell my children, they think I have eyes in the back of my head and that I have a direct line to Santa.}, I do know a great place to help me find the answers I seek, Bundoo. I Bundoo my parenting questions. What is Bundoo? Bundoo is a community of parents, pediatricians, child care experts that have come together on a website that is dedicated to helping parents navigate parenthood.

Going Home

I love going home to see my family. This last weekend I took all three kiddos with me to spend the weekend at my parent’s house. My brother and sister-in-law were having their daughter Violet baptized and I did not want to miss it!

Baby Violet was born in April {just two months before baby Julia}, so it was a treat to be able to get the girls together to play… or roll around on a play mat together. They are so cute together and I can already see them being lifelong pals!

Go! Go! Smart Wheels Garage! Review and Giveaway

There are certain toys that my children tend to gravitate towards and want to play with daily. A tried and true favorite are cars. My children love to play with cars, they play with them on our car mat, on the coffee table, under the kitchen table, and now they play with them on the VTech Go Go Smart Wheels Garage.

VTech sent us a Go Go Smart Wheels Garage to help facilitate this review, regardless all thoughts and opinions expressed here are completely my own and may vary from others. As a mother of two little boys, I am a firm believer that you can never have too many cars. We play with cars everywhere. 

HALO SleepSack Swaddle Review and Giveaway

I have always swaddled my babies. Both of my boys loved being swaddled from the day they were born until they outgrew their sleep sacks. Baby Julia on the other hand prefers to have her arms free while sleeping, so my old swaddle blankets and traditional sleep sacks were a no go for my newest bundle of joy. She wanted nothing to do with them. So when HALO offered to send me the HALO SleepSack Swaddle for review I was excited, as this product allows for my baby to have her arms free while still being safely swaddled.

Learning the art of swaddling can be a bit tricky and each person seems to do it differently. I was flabbergasted the first time I saw a nurse swaddle my baby, they turned him into a little blanket burrito and I was absolutely sure that there was no wary on God’s green Earth I would be able to replicate it. While I was eventually able to figure out the whole swaddling thing I was also super excited to figure out that there were products out there that took the guesswork out of traditional swaddling.

Homemade Magnetic Matching Play Tray #DIY #CraftsForKids

Let the play tray craft series continue! Today I decided that I would create a magnetic matching play tray.  I made this play tray in a day using paint and store bought magnets, but you could get even craftier and make your own magnets to use with this. My son is at the age where he is working on letter, shape, and number recognition. So I decided to make a matching play tray for him to play with where he would also be working on recognizing and matching his letters… I think I will do another soon with shapes and numbers.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center

I enjoy doing activities with my whole family. I was raised with the mentality of the more the merrier and I rather enjoy activities that embrace that mindset as well. Thanks to USFamilyGuide for providing me tickets, I was able to take my family to LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Schaumberg IL for the day and we could not have had a better time. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting there to be so much to do!

They opened the doors on Labor Day at 9am and we were ready to check things out as soon as the doors swung open. To greet us was a life size Batman made out of LEGOS! This was a huge hit with my youngest that is all about all things superhero right now.

A Trip to Brookfield Zoo!

One of my all time favorite things to do with my children is to walk around a zoo. We like to check out the different animals and talk about them. We like to make the animal noises and sometimes we even like to pretend to be the animals we see. It is a very entertaining experience for everyone involved.

Chocolate Almond Butter Croissants #Recipe

Chocolate croissants are delicious. In fact thanks to my local farmers market I had the pleasure of tasting my very first one this summer and quickly found myself addicted. Unfortunately as life would have it I was unable to get back to my farmers market to get the card from the very nice lady who sold me this tasty treat. So I had to come up with a way to try to replicate it at home.

I went the quick and easy way this time around, although I think I will try making my own dough the next time I make these to see if I can make really big flaky croissants. But in a pinch and on a time constraint these are fabulous both hot out of the oven or as a room temperature mid-afternoon snack… yes my 4 year old and I polished these off at nap time.

Taggies Swing 'N Go Portable Swing Review

Traveling with a baby can make you feel like you are traveling with a three ring circus if you try to bring everything with you. Depending on what age your baby is, you may want to take a lot of baby gear with you on the road. As a mom of three little ones all under 4 years old I am used to feeling like I am the ringmaster of my own little three ring circus. Needless to say that when I get my hands on baby gear that is perfect for traveling I tend to do a little happy dance.

A good baby swing is one of the first must have baby items I discuss with friends and family when assisting them with registering for a baby shower. They are perfect for when you need to get things done and cannot do them while holding a baby. For example, I use my swing most when caring for one of the older children and when I need to prepare family meals. Having a safe place that my baby can relax and be entertained while I get things done is very important to me. Thank you Double Duty Divas and Kids II for providing the Taggies Swing ‘N Go for the purposes of this review. Baby Julia loves her Taggies Swing!

Homemade Magnetic Chalkboard Trays #DIY #CraftsForKids

Continuing my tray craft series today is the magnetic chalkboard tray. I made this play tray in a day using my own chalkboard paint I created. Yes it is black chalkboard paint… but that is only because I just ordered a whole heap of colored chalk off Amazon and I want the chalk to pop! *Confession* - I also ordered adorable little chalkboard erasers too.

My children love to play pretend. Usually they are pretending to be mommy and daddy, but now they have started pretending to be teachers too. So having their own little chalkboards is another great creative outlet for them to use. They can use it to draw on or incorporate it into their “classroom”. Either way, it is a really fun project that both of the boys LOVE!

End of Summer Perfection

We said goodbye to summer last week. We did so by filling up the ball pit {a little inflatable pool} with water and playing outside all day. We even pulled over our little tikes climber and created a little water slide for a little while. We ran and jumped and splashed until we could run, jump, and splash no more. We thoroughly wore ourselves out while trying to soak up as much sun as possible.