24Apr
This past weekend while I was in Atlanta with my sister, I noticed a sticker on her front windshield that made me gasp, “That’s BRILLIANT!”
I can’t count how many times during one of my pregnancies I’d come out to my car, only to find someone had parked so close to me that I couldn’t fit between the cars to get in! It’s embarrassing and frustrating and downright rude! Which begs the question, WHY HAS NO ONE DONE THIS SOONER?!?!
As I was squealing and shrieking about the sticker in Ginny’s driveway, she did me one better and handed me two stickers to put on my own car.
Again, BRILLIANT! How many times have I had to squish between two cars to try to get one of my kids into the backseat?!?! I came home and slapped those puppies on the backseat windows right away. Then I tried to take a picture and realized that it wasn’t smart to try to take a picture of a window as the sun was setting. Sorry, guys.
These cute little stickers are called Mommy Stickers from a company called Bud to Bloom and come in a set of three (one pregnancy and two kiddos) or a set of two (two kiddos) and are so reasonably priced at $6 and $5 per set. What a fun little something to send a pregnant friend! Or throw into a shower gift bag! Or enclose in a new mommy card! Such a great, thoughtful, practical gift idea!
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Be sure to check out the Eric Carle lacing cards post for the winner announcement!
** WINNER!! WINNER!! #88: Maryellen – Congratulations! Contact me at katie@marriageconfessions.com to claim your prize! Thanks to everyone for entering! **
I debated whether to review this product because I’ve already reviewed an Eric Carle product recently, but it’s too darn good not to share. For Gracie’s birthday, my mother-in-law, Jackie, brought Bean a few little goodies, too. One of them were these fabulous Eric Carle lacing cards.
The box set comes with 10 cardboard lacing cards, each with a Eric Carle drawing on it, and 10 different colored strings. (Only 6 are pictured here because the other four were up in Bean’s room and I was too lazy to go get them…)
Like the Eric Carle flashcards, these lacing cards are beautiful. The colors are vivid and rich, and the animals are just unique enough to not be the standard animals in all kids toys.
Not only are these beautiful, but the activity is perfect right now for Bean’s age. He is getting more patient and has a much longer attention span, so I’ve been looking for more activities for him that require some more thought. These lacing cards keep him busy for 20-30 minutes at a time right now.
I also like them because they promote fine motor skills. It requires excellent eye/hand coordination. But I like it most because it helps Bean practice PATIENCE! As a two-and-a-half year old, patience is in short order in Bean’s world. Surprisingly though, Bean is very patient when he is engaged in this activity.
I keep this set in my diaper bag (or Bean’s backpack, whatever we have with us) and pull it out when I need him to sit quietly for a while. I used them last week at the doctors office when we had to sit and wait for 15 minutes while Bean had a breathing treatment. He sat there the whole time working on his cards while he got his treatment. I also pulled them out yesterday when I took both kids to the grocery store with me (I was desperate!). I gave Gracie two strings to wave around, and Bean sat next to her and laced the cards while I shopped.
I can’t recommend this activity enough for toddler/preschool aged kids. It’s educational, creative, and engaging. What more could you want from an activity?
Today I’m giving away a set of the Eric Carle flashcards TO YOU! To be entered to win, leave a comment below telling me what your favorite activity or game was as a child. What did YOU like to do? For me, it was playing pretend with my sister. We’d pretend to be fairies, dogs, monkeys, adults, teachers, ballerinas…pretty much anything you can imagine. I can’t ever remember playing inside or watching TV. I just remember being up in trees or in creeks or in our cul-de-sac, pretending to be something and bossing my sister around. We may not have worked our eye/hand coordination necessarily, but we KILLED the creativity skills!
Good luck!
In the next few weeks, I’m going to be previewing some of the websites and products that are my go-to gift resources for friends and family this year. Hopefully, you’ll get some good ideas for those last minute Christmas gifts.
I can’t talk about go-to gifts without talking about handmade camera straps from Broward Patch. I have a Broward Patch strap on my camera and I love it.
For one thing, the padded strap is much more comfortable to carry around (and a lot more fashionable, too!) than the standard strap that comes with the camera.
I also really like it because everyone in my family has the same camera, so when we all get together and our cameras get thrown together onto tables or wherever, our individual camera straps help us tell them apart.
A couple years ago, I gave everyone in my family monogrammed Broward Patch straps for Christmas and birthdays. It was a huge hit! I think they make such nice gifts because they are unique, original, and thoughtful. Not just something generic you pick up at the mall. They really take people by surprise and everyone I’ve given them to has loved them!
The best part about the Broward Patch, though, are the prices. Her DSL straps are only $27 for patchwork and $18 for solid prints. Her smaller wrist straps are $8 and she even makes cute keychains (which I have on my key ring and love!) are $6. She can even monogram, too!
Jen just moved to a lovely new website at Thanksgiving, so if you’ve seen me blog about her before, be sure you click the new link to see her new digs. Also, if you’re not already a fan, be sure to “like” her Facebook fan page. She sometimes puts killer coupon codes there (at Thanksgiving it was a 25% off coupon!). I can’t say enough about what a sweet person Jen is and what a fun product she has! It is a great Christmas or birthday gift…and be sure to pick up something for yourself, too!
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This is not a paid advertisement. I just wanted to share.
I’m getting ready to share an obnoxiously simple idea. The fact that I find this blogworthy might actually lower your respect for me. But I don’t care. It’s changing my life. Or, at least my summer.
Let me at least start at the very beginning and share a cheeky little story so that you feel like you get something minimally interesting out of this post. When I left Connecticut, a co-worker gave me a Dove gift basket as a going away present because we were going to be uprooted and homeless for a few days and I kept worrying I’d lose my toiletries. Inside that gift basket was a little bottle of Dove body spray.
It smelled incredible. Clean. Fresh. Like I’d just stepped out of the shower. But it was still a real light scent, too, so it wasn’t over powering. I’d douse myself in it before I left for work and by the time I got there, it was just a gentle scent that had almost worn off. I loved it.
Now that it’s summer here in Florida…well…I’m sweating like a pig. There’s just no other way to say that. Anytime I step outside, it feels like I wrap myself in an electric blanket. It’s so stinking hot! I’m on the go so much with the kids that I got this brilliant idea to fight the heat. I keep my body splash in my diaper bag now and when I’m feeling hot and sweaty, I just spray myself down. Because it’s not a very powerful scent and because it doesn’t stay on real heavily all day, I can use it several times and it doesn’t ever overwhelm me. Plus, it’s such a cool breeze that it’s like stepping into a cold shower on a hot day.
Seriously. I am in love.
Sadly, I’m almost out of my Refreshing scent, so when I went to Target last week, I decided to branch out and try something new. This time, I have the Revive one and I might love it even more than the Refresh.
This one is a pomegranate and lemon scent, which makes it so summery. I must use it 10 times a day.
So. If you’re overheating a bit (or if you’re smoldering in central Florida…) this summer, throw one of these beauties in your bag. It’s the best pick-me-up $3.97 can buy you.
(Even though I am so oddly excited about this, it is not a paid advertisement or review. I’m just oddly excitable.)
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