July 2013 - Page 2 of 2 - Rave & Review

Name Art makes personalized art as unique as your little one

With four siblings growing up, you would have thought we’d have a lot of personalized items to help keep everything straight. But, instead of items with our names or monograms, we each had a specific color we always used to help us find our stuff. While the color-coded system was practical, it wasn’t always fun.

After over a decade eating off the blue placemat, out of the blue cup, and hanging my stuff on the blue hook, I really longed for something that was a little more… personal. Because of this, I have made a point to get my kids special items that have their names and truly reflect who they are as often as I can.

Name Art is a New York based company that was started for this very reason. They specialize in truly one-of-a-kind items that help you celebrate each child with unique and personalized gifts. From placemats to fine art prints, Name Art has a great selection of gifts and art that would be perfect presents for your little one.

Our new pets: praying mantis babies

Unable to resist any opportunity for growing things, playing with bugs, or learning about things in the garden, my daughter talked us into buying two praying mantis {or praying mantid} egg cases at the Sorticulture garden festival this year. They were supposed to hatch within a week or two, and quite honestly we had given … Read more

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.

Avocados make everything better {recipes & more}

Anyone who knows my son also knows that he can be a picky eater. Happy to eat only carbs and pureed foods, I have to beg him to try new things at each meal unless I make one of his "approved" foods. But, one item on the approved list that might be a surprise to … Read more