The BePe Baby Contest has ended, but don’t forget to purchase these wonderful slippers for the little ones in your life and save another 20% by using the code: BP20%OFF! My babies adore these slippers!
#18 - Dawn
Congratulations Dawn - Remember everyone, there’s always great contests going on here and at www.FroggyReviews.com!
A very fun Walt Disney movie collection has been released just in time for Cinco de Mayo! The Classic Caballeros Collection includes Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros plus plenty of bonus features that all introduce children to South America, Mexico and the “music, beauty and excitement Lating America has to offer”.
I was thrilled when I was contacted with the opportunity to preview it - I received it just as we were packing up to leave for our fishing weekend away. As you know this wasn’t just any trip either, it meant 4 hours on the road just to get there, with 6 boys in a Yukon. Yup - we needed to have plenty of things to entertain them and a new movie was just the ticket!
About an hour into the trip I put in the movie and I have to tell you I was impressed - it was silent in the back. Well, other than the frequent outbursts of laughter as Donald (it’s always Donald isn’t it?) I’m sure was doing something incredibly silly - even in the opinion of an 8 year old :) It really was fun for me to hear them talking about the movie and enjoying it so much. They watched it many times during the trip and were amused by it each time - as a mom I have to love that!
I have a fun little clip from the movie below, but better yet, you can visit www.FroggyReviews.com and LEAVE A COMMENT TO WIN ONE OF THREE COPIES OF THIS DVD :)
The time has come for a little bloggy organization. As more and more great products, sites, movies, books and more are brought to my attention I needed a place for it all to go so that A Frog In My Soup could continue following it’s original path - chronicaling my journey as the mom of 6 boys, supporting and encouraging moms, sharing my journals as well as some great information and resources I have found.
So, I’m very excited to introduce all of you to Froggy Reviews! Simply hop on over to www.FroggyReviews.com to see what’s going on. I’ll be offering many contests there as well as lots more great reviews and discounts! It’s truly all the same information in a new location. You can subscribe to it easily via email or any reader by following the various links offered on the site 
I have already posted some great information and resources and today I am featuring a fun first contest that I’ll tell you more about later. I think this will be a great resource and it is very exciting to have a better way to introduce all of these great shops and products to you!
This contest has ended - thank you all for your participation! Don’t forget to click on the links in the left sidebar to enter all the current contests!!
Bella’s Blessings is a fun online boutique that specializes in affordable hair accessories and children’s jewelry. When they say affordable they mean it! Bella’s Blessings offers a variety of stylish children’s accessories such as: adhesive infant hair bows, stylish and affordable hair clips in a range of sizes for infants, babies, toddlers, and older children, decorative hair clips holders, and jewelry for the entire family.
They offer bracelets for infants, babies, toddlers and older children that range from pearl to crystal to personalized sterling silver. They also offer Mother & Grandmother bracelets that can be personalized with the names of their children/grandchildren. These bracelets make excellent gifts.
Lori’s favorite hairbows for her daughter when she was a newborn were kept in with a special gel, but they were very difficult to find so she started making them herself. As her daughter began to get hair she ran into another dilemma, none of the bows she found would stay in and the ones she did find were too expensive. So yet again she found a solution and began creating her own bows for her daughter. People began asking her where she purchased the bows and how they could get some so she decided to bless others by offering these bows at very affordable prices.
She also began making jewelry after her mother-in-law purchased a little bracelet for little Isabella and she wore it home from the hospital. Lori loved having her little girl wear these bracelets and again found that they were simply too expensive so she began making them herself and even giving them to friends.
It is really amazing that this business was created solely to bless others! I love that they name all of their clips after the children of friends and customers. Lori sent me a few clips for my niece and we were so excited! She even named one after her, but the part I loved most was that she personalizes the tags on each clip’s package! It really makes it a custom gift that the recipient will love. My niece was tickled!
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the clips really do stay in hair! My niece has beautiful golden hair, but it is SUPER straight and it can be challenging to find clips or holders that will stay in - these work perfectly and our “Little Princess” wears them almost every day to school .
Lori has generously offered all of my readers a 10% discount through May 31st if you enter the code frog during checkout.
She has also offered a great giveaway: The winner may choose any combination of hair accessory items (infant hair bows or small, medium or large hair clips) up to a value of $15.00! Entering is really quite simple:
~ Go to Bella’s Blessings and take a look around.
~ Come back here and leave a comment mentioning your favorite product/style.
This contest will be open for comments through May 8th.
Today is my birthday. I am … hang on I’m thinking … 36 … whew - I had to do the math. Honestly, and sadly that took a while. Mom brain - blame everything on mom brain. The day hasn’t really even technically begun, so I’ll have to tell you all if it was exciting or not (don’t plan on it) later. Just thought I’d share though.
After our crazy weekend away I have decided that I like the idea of a boring birthday LOL (remember if you want to read the “Our Life is Never Boring” Post just email me for the password). So in honor of keeping it boring I plan to lay a little low today, so there won’t be grand fanfare or a multi-gifty-giveaway (though I reserve the right to do something like that next year), just peace and quiet and rest - I HOPE!
But in honor of the fact that this is Mommy Realities Monday I will offer up a little reality for you:
Life is short - so make the most of it. It is NOT a cliche, it is reality. Even when you don’t feel like it (not even a little bit), even when things are difficult and you just want to run away and hide. Stick it out, pray, rebel against that feeling and best of all, pray and ask for help.
If I sound like I’m speaking from experience it might be because I am. I’ve been there - sadly I still go there sometimes, and I’ve learned a thing or two from it. So, on my birthday, this is my wish for all of you … that you see the little things in life and value them for what they are … the vital part of our existence. Your child wanting to hold your hand, Your tween still always giving you a hug before bed, A 4 year old singing a little song as they play, your spouse giving you a wink or a peck on the cheek - just because. This is the sweetest part of life, don’t miss it!
This post has been given many titles throughout the weekend … seriously! By the time we arrived at our cabin Friday night the title was Two Year Olds & Tradition by the time we checked out on Sunday the title had changed to What to Do When Tradition Goes Awry then upon return and having a moment of peace for the first time all weekend I realized that I had simply had A Little Two Much Reality.
I can honestly say it was an adventure and a learning experience. Outside of that I’m not really sure … tradition still rates super high in my book, but I’m the first to admit that your traditions still need to fit within the reasonable limits of your sanity.
Friday night we made it about 2 1/2 hours without incident. Dinner time rolled around as we rolled into the last large town on our way to the final destination. One of the Twinkies was stinky, so we stopped at a family restaurant to have dinner. It is always an eye opening event as the boys really do behave quite well when we go out to eat a nice sit-down dinner like this. We don’t do it all that often, but it is nice to see them behave so well.
Unfortunately things didn’t progress quite so nicely for the rest of the trip. The Twinkies weren’t at all happy about being loaded back into the car and their little cups from the restaurant could only entertain them for so long … then the screaming began. In order to help calm the chaos CJ would occasionally hand each of them a cracker, after a while though Bug was just D-O-N-E. Problem was we were still quite a ways from our final destination.
About a half-hour before we were there Bug got sick … Car sick … not just the turn green and need air type, the full out oh-my-goodness-did-he-really-eat-that-much kind! Yup - that kind! He was covered, it was so awful (side note: Monkey historically is the one to have car-sickness, but he was absolutely fine in that department, Bug has never gotten car-sick). As a mom this was the last straw, my baby was so upset about being covered in “yuck” and kept trying to clean himself up. It was the saddest, most pitiful thing I have ever seen and I began to cry!!!
We were towing our fishing boat behind the Yukon and were in such a rural area there wasn’t even a side of the road, let alone anywhere to stop. By the time we got to the cabins to check in he had fallen asleep. As Hubby checked us in I quickly stripped him down to his diaper and asked CJ to donate his favorite Football Sweatshirt to the cause - he happily did, blessed boy!
Whew, we were finally there, drama was dealt with and were into the cabin. Now for the marathon of getting crazy-excited little boys to bed. We let them explore the cabin and get the wiggles out for a little bit as they worked out the sleeping arrangements amongst themselves. It was decided that CJ would have the downstairs bedroom all to himself. I have no idea how he managed to get that, but he was thrilled!
The next morning the boys were up at the crack of dawn (literally) and I was exhausted. It had taken a couple hours between hubby and me to get the babies to go to sleep. But we got up, showered, made breakfast and were somehow out the door with everyone and everything in tow by 9:00(ish) am. In “regular life” that would be almost a miracle, so I have no idea how we pulled it off there.
A quick stop at an espresso stand (thank goodness for something civilized) and off to the lake we went. Hubby launched the fishing boat with CJ’s help and as soon as the car was parked he and the 4 oldest boys were off fishing in the lake. There I was … all alone (well, except for my MIL) … with the twins … and my in-law’s rv.
No toys to play on anymore, aparently the state decided it needed to be torn out, but I did the best I could. I grabbed a couple of balls out of the back of the car, which entertained them for about 5 minutes - maybe 10! That is all!!! Then we ran around, but the problem isn’t that they are active two year olds, it is that they love to go the opposite direction from one another and they will NOT stop when asked. We have worked and worked on this, even when there didn’t seem to be a reason to work on it, but ………
Anyway, I took them to the sand pit - another 10 minutes. Then I decided to try snack-time, another 5 minutes. Hmmmmm, considering that the other guys would be out on the boat for hours I was in a bit of a pickle! So I contained them in the RV for a while. Trying to get them to color or play with play dough or something. Finally naptime rolled around and then I had another dilemma … I had been thinking I would take them back to the cabin, but with hubby on the lake and the boat trailer still hooked up to the SUV I wasn’t going anywhere. OK, plan B (or K as the case may be) - put them to sleep in the trailer. So, MIL kicked FIL out of the rv so that I could try and put them to sleep - it was a long and grueling process, but just as they were about to drift off to dreamland the boys came back in - ha.
Which plan am I onto now???? Well, they did finally take their nap, the boys eventually finished fishing for the night (poor things, only Lion caught a fish and they all tried so hard) so we went back to the cabin for dinner and bed. Things went a lot more smoothly Saturday night. Our cabin was beautiful! It was a little scary with the stairwell and the twins, but other than that I enjoyed it so much.
The story to beat all stories is being posted very soon, but it will be protected so if you want to read it send me an email and I’ll give you the password
We made it home in one piece, but not without a few thoughts about future trips (I’ll share those another time too - no password required). It was honestly the first time I had a chance to relax all weekend. Not to say that it was absolutely terrible, but it was very challenging and I was on edge the whole time trying to anticipate (and thwart) any life-threatening decisions the twins made. On the up-side, the older four were a dream (well, outside of the bickering in the car that is)! Even LION - who still had to be watched like a hawk and is apparently smitten with 3 year old girls with curls - heehee! He loves to fish with all the big boys and could be trusted to be in the boat or on the shore (with an adult nearby of course) without incident.
So here I am finally able to breathe and hoping you’re still awake as I am pondering my double dose of reality this weekend. I can honestly say that I hope your weekend was a little less eventful than mine
I love Compassion International and all they do around the globe, and I’m excited to share a great opportunity with all of you! I know that sometimes finances are very limited and although you may want to sponsor a child in need you may not be able to, so I want to tell you about another opportunity to help - Bite Back.
Malaria is a HUGE problem in Africa and one of the simplest things that can mean the difference between life and death for a child costs us $10. A mosquito net can change lives, something so simple, but so big all at the same time. We don’t think much about diseases like Malaria, in fact many of us know little about it, but it takes the lives of 750,000 children each year (that’s one every 30 seconds).
The use of mosquito nets has proven to be effective against these horrible disease spreading mosquitos, so if you have the resources, please join me and Bite Back by participating in this campaign to purchase 300,000 mosquito nets for poor families in Africa.
Subscribe in a reader
Add this to your site |
Latest at Froggy Reviews Latest at SNS Blog Design
