This made me laugh today.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOKuSQIJlog

Thanks Maria

I wish I could take credit for the following adorableness, but I have to give all credit to my friend Susan who is truly and out-of-the-box creative mom. The best part is that she doesn’t even realize just how cool she is, but she comes up with some really neat things for her four boys to do. It’s like year-round summer camp at her house.

Yesterday, K and I joined our friends at a Christmas in July party complete with decorations, projects, a gift exchange and an indoor snowball fight! We had such a fantastic time, I had to share some ideas to throw your own Christmas in July party. Follow these simple, but creative steps for a Christmasy good time in July!

1. Invites – With your evite invitations invite the kids to bring a present for a gift exchange from the Target $1 spot. Invite moms to bring cookies to share.
2. Food – Serve all your favorite Christmas cookies. To keep the kids busy, make plain butter cookies in various Christmas shapes and create a cookie decorating station (outside) for the “big” kids.
3. Decor – Give your Christmas decorations a break from storage. Decorate a tree with beach themed items from around the house – flip flips, shovels, pool toys, sunglasses, etc. Pull out Christmas books for reading/decoration, and play all of your favorite Christmas carols. You can even bust out the Christmas-themed toys that only see play once a year.
4. Art project – Cover your kitchen table with giant sheets of paper and draw Christmas-themed shapes and characters creating a giant Christmas coloring book for the kids. (It totally helps to be able to draw here, but you could always Google Christmas images, print them out and tape the sheets all over your table.)
5. Snowball fight – This is where my jaw hit the floor. At some point during the party, Susan started an all-out snowball war in her living room! With snowballs made from nylon filled balls of stuffing, these snowballs were softer than the real thing. Even my timid toddler got into the act of collecting and tossing snowballs. It was all out fun with lots of laughter.
6. Finally the gift exchange. As each child arrived, have them deposit their packages in a basket, and as each child leaves allow them to select a present to go. We took an Elmo book and received an animal puzzle. Each gift only cost $1, but it brought HUGE smiles!

In between the Christmas fun, the kids ran around and had a typical play date while the moms caught up. It was a fun day filled with several creative extras that made it extra special. So, if you are planning to have some little ones over, throw convention out the window and create Christmas in July (or August or whenever) party. The kids will love and the moms will be in awe of your creativity!

K’s 1st Lollipop

When planning for our wedding, my father often joked that he should sell sponsorships for the wedding. After all, if we were going to have 150 people in one place, wouldn’t an advertiser love to be in front of that captive audience? At least that was my dad’s joking theory.

Years later, and I am involved in all kinds of grassroots marketing campaigns. When a DiGiorno Pizza campaign became available for the same day we planned my daughter’s 2nd birthday, I made my dad’s joke a reality. That’s right DiGiorno Pizza really did sponsor my daughter’s party – at least in part.

Through House Party, I learned that DiGiorno Pizza was looking for people to host a party to share with their friends DiGiorno’s new pizza and breadstick combos. I was extactic when I was chosen. DiGiorno sent me coupons for 6 free pizza and breadstick combo boxes, an apron, a clip magnet, a pizza slicer, $4 off coupons to share with my friends, party beads for all and some games.

Since the pizza and breadstick combos are a new product, it was a little frustrating finding it… Not all stores are carrying it yet. I had to make several trips, but I finally found them at Super Walmart. On the day of the party, my husband played chef and rotated the pizzas and breadsticks in and out of the oven to feed all. It was a lot to rotate that many pizzas and breadsticks in and out, but he was a trooper.

The best part… it was DELISH! It was so fun to tell all of my friends that I was having the pizza for the party sponsored and to share the coupons with them, and the kids loved the beads.

Thanks House Party for the opporunity, and thanks DiGiorno for yummy food. Oh, and in case you want to try the combo, the price tag on these combo boxes at Walmart is only $6.25. A great deal for pizza and eight breadsticks, much cheaper than delivery.

Check out House Party for opportunities to have your next party sponsored. If you live in my area, be sure to invite me!

From the moment a friend told me about this opportunity, I knew this is how K would experience her first haircut.

Tucked into a corner on Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom is a Barber shop. It is a small shop, and even with the large barber pole out front most visitors don’t even notice that it exists. But those who do notice the small shop, are happy to wait in line for this precious attraction. Patrons young and old wait in line to have Disney barbers cut their hair, but it is the parents of the littlest ones who hold this shop so dear to their hearts.

It was my daughter’s second birthday, and we made this trip to the Magic Kingdom to celebrate this special day with her first haircut. I was surprised to find myself a bit teary-eyed over a few snips of hair, but as we stood waiting in line with other parents I became increasingly excited. I also became increasingly nervous about how my shy toddler would handle the situation, but it was her turn the experience barber showed her Disney Magic. She started by covering my daughter in stickers, then sprinkling her with glitter confetti and entertaining her with a spinning Minnie toy. K was so busy with the distractions, she didn’t even flinch as the barber made quick snips.

I was only ready for a little trim, but the inch-long lock of her hair is enough for me to save, and I will always remember this special trim at Disney. In addition to the memories and photos, we received a first haircut certificate and a pair of Mickey ears embroidered with “first haircut.”

It was a wonderful celebration for her birthday and of her first haircut.

In so many ways, my daughter is a beautiful reflection of me. She makes me smile when I catch her doing something just like I once did or enjoying things I once enjoyed – like wanting to wipe her hands as soon as they get messy, but every once in a while I appreciate her for being her.  She is a toddler, but she is growing into her own little person.

Tonight I had to take a deep breath, hold back my own quirks and smile at her being her own person. Several months ago I gave my daughter several of my Bennie Babies. In order to understand the next part, you have to know about a quirk I have had since I was a child. I like to leave the tags on my stuffed animals. I don’t know, I realize it is strange, but I have always left my tags on (well, at least since I was old enough to stop my mom). So, when I gave her the Bennie Babies, they of course still had their tags on. I prepared myself for something to happen to the Bennie Babies in the hands of a toddler, but I didn’t really expect her to specifically bring them to me and ask to have me take them off.

First she brought me a cat – “eh eh eh” – pulling on the tag and holding it out for me. I asked her if she wanted me to take the tag off, she said yes. I asked her what she should say and she said, “Peas tag.” I took a deep breath and pulled off the tag. A few minutes later, she brought me the bear, “Peas tag.” So, I pulled the tag off the bear too. It hurt a bit, like a band-aid, but I pulled quickly and the smile on her face and the “Anx” she gave me were enough to get me past the removal of the tags from my old buddies…

To Whom It May Concern:

We are huge Disney fans in my family. When I received the email about the “Mickey Sing-Along and Storytime,” I immediately called our Disney store to make sure it was participating and marked the calendar to go. With my toddler dressed in her favorite Minnie Mouse tee shirt and Princess light-up shoes, she tucked her Mickey Mouse under her arm, and we headed out for the I Heart Mickey event.

To say that we were disappointed with the event is beyond an understatement. I was embarrassed for the Disney brand.

I expected high-energy, happy singing, a cute video and lots of happy kids. I even planned to go back with several moms and tots later in the week. What I got was a pathetic attempt to bring people into the store with a terrible video, bored associates and a cute book that wasn’t even for sale.

We arrived about 20 minutes prior to the event start, and there were several families milling about the store talking excitedly about the pending event. After doing a little shopping, we parked my daughter in front of the screen to watch some TV (Beauty and the Beast was on). Sitting on the floor with my daughter, I didn’t even realize the event started…

Suddenly, the screen changed to a very OLD sing-along video of M-I-C-K-E-Y…            Having overheard one cast member telling another about the video earlier, I knew this was it. Several other children were gathered on the floor behind us, and I overheard a cast member passing out Valentine’s characters to snuggle with during the video. (Cute, but no one brought my daughter one…)

Once the song was over – the song that NO CAST members participated in singing… the next video was a vintage Mickey cartoon – my favorite. But to my dismay, this wasn’t a cute lovey Mickey cartoon – for an event about loving Mickey; it was a cartoon about Mickey KILLING bugs. Ummm death and Valentine’s day – WHAT were you thinking?

After sitting through this painful toon, the final song was an ‘80s sing-along filmed at River Country – an old favorite of mine. Too bad it was mostly about Donald, no cast members sang and it was not very catchy…

Finally, the “event” concluded with the reading of a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Valentine’s book. My daughter LOVES to be read to, so this was a highlight. We gathered round to read the story, which was adorable. I asked to purchase the book, only to be told the book wasn’t available in the store… Ummm gee, great – bring me into the store show my daughter a great book, but don’t sell it to me. Thanks.

My husband looked at me and said, “That was pathetic.” I knew he was annoyed that I dragged him to the mall for that. I was annoyed too!

This was not the kind of thing I expect from Disney, this is the kind of thing I expect from a community library. Needless to say, we will not be going back with friends – in fact, I told friends NOT to go.

I am sorry Disney; this was the first Disney event I didn’t like because it was terrible.

Your Biggest Fan,

Jennifer Burg

www.TheSuburbanMom.com

Once upon a time, before kids, my husband and I both worked full-time jobs out of the house. Back then we ran the dishwasher (usually only 1/2 full) about once a week. (My husband once bought the dishwasher soap, that I hated, BOGO from Costco and it lasted about 3 years!)

Now, we run the dishwasher (completely full) about every other day! Seriously, I could almost run the thing every day. I feel like we are always emptying the stupid thing. We have this routine of drying the sippy cups and other plastic things that retain water even through the drying cycle on the counter, by the time I get around to putting those away it is almost time to run it again!

Does anyone else feel like this? How often do you run your dishwasher?

It seemed like a cute, innocent idea when the balloon-animal girl at Chili’s came by the table. “Sure, she would love a balloon animal.” Silly Mom didn’t think about the dinner ramifications of this soon-to-be monkey. Logically, Mom should have known better, but we were having such a good day…

I believe the initial decision of accepting the balloon animal was magnified tenfold by the inane idea that she should have a pink monkey to match her shirt. Monkey’s, you see, have long tails…

As our delighted daughter watched the creation of her very own monkey, it still seemed like a good idea – bringing joy to our daughter. Unfortunately, when dinner came, the full picture of the monkey became clear.

Toddler rules – even if I am ok with putting down “puppy” or “baby” for dinner at home, I will cry in loud protest at the idea of my new pink monkey sitting across the table from me. We are in a public place, you will give into me.

Clutched under one arm, K began to eat, but monkey seemed to get even more exciting as dinner went on. As Mom foolishly continued her quest to put the monkey down, K decided she must not only hold monkey, but sit in Mom’s lap to do so.

By now, the back end of the monkey had unraveled, so the monkey was now just a head with a really long tail. And Mom spent the rest of dinner ducking and weaving to avoid being bopped in the eye with the bouncing monkey.  Not only did Mom loose the monkey battle, the eating battle, and the sitting in her own chair battle, but she had to endure her husband and daughter’s laughter as monkey’s tail slapped her face continually.

Dear Chili’s,

Next time we come, please hide the balloon girl.

Thanks,

Mom