Now, identification has to take place.  I have used several different name label/sticker companies in the past and have been pleased with them.  But I have just discovered Name Bubbles.   I first noticed that they were cute, then affordable, then I was really sold when I discovered I could include more information on a sticker than just my child’s name.  I bought a “pack” of stickers, including my customizing them with all three of our phone numbers (home, mommy cell, daddy cell).  I love this feature, as we have been in a scary instance before where my oldest son, gratefully, knew our phone number…but he didn’t know our cell numbers for sure.  The situation could have been completely prevented had he just had our cell number with him.  So, I am thrilled to put the labels with our phone numbers on everything that leaves the house…lunch box, backpack, baseball bat, batting helmet, Nintendo DS and if I have to, I will stick one in their shoe!  This way, my boys can always have our phone numbers handy.  As we learned, even if they know our numbers, sometimes in a scary situation, they can forget. 

Beyond safety, the name tags mark our property.  I have three boys.  While I love to be organized, I have yet to see my organized gene show up “loudly” in either of my boys.  What this means, is lost articles!  My boys are responsible boys, but things sometimes get left if they aren’t reminded to pick up EVERYTHING.

Cute, of course, is a great quality of these labels that will quickly fade from my boys’ priority list, but they are cute.  The labels are dishwasher safe, laundry safe, waterproof, etc etc when used properly.  I can’t say enough about Name Bubbles!  I even ordered some for myself to stick on my camera or on a dish that I take to potlucks.  So many uses and great ways not to lose your things.   Click the link below to check out all the fun packages and assortments you can choose for your kiddos.  School has begun.  Time to label everything you own!

When I contacted Tommie, at Oh My Gluestick, she was wonderful to work with.  I found a card I liked and she worked with me on customizing it and “Voila!!”  Her cards are darling…even beyond the Sock Monkey theme.  The best part was that she sent me the PDF and I had it printed myself.  No worrying about shipping and arriving on time…especially since I was already running late with getting the invitations out. You just order from her Etsy shop and a couple days later, your design is in your inbox.  What a breeze!  It just might have been my easiest invitations, yet.  Not only does she make cute invitations, but all the accessories to go along with a great party…party hats, thank-you notes and more!

More exciting to me is that Oh My Gluestick is based in the Houston, Texas area.  On September 11, 18, and 25th, she will be at Arts in the Park in The Woodlands, Creekside with all her cute things.  If you are local, come out and support her and all the local artists!

Just because I worked hard on my Sock Monkey cake, inspired by Oh My Gluestick, I am sharing it with you here…

The things I make myself do!  I can appreciate a good challenge, but sometimes things are just out of my reach.  This one was borderline, but I feel a sense of accomplishment.  At least it’s identifiable…right?

Today, I have what I thought would be something very simple to find…but it wasn’t.  If you are a mom of a child with ear tubes, swim ear, any ear issue, lend me your ear.  After 2 1/2 years of having tubes in my son’s ears I have become well-aquainted with ear plugs.  I know every doctor has different rules, but our ENT told us that we needed ear plugs post ear tube surgery only for the lake and the ocean.  He only wanted protection from all that dirty water.  Last summer, I spent a fortune at our local drug and grocery stores trying to find the perfect ear plugs that stayed in my son’s ears and didn’t fall out.  By the end of the summer, I still did not have success.  Nothing worked!  

This summer, I found Putty Buddies!  These handy little plugs are made of silicone and mold perfectly to your child’s ear and they aren’t coming out.  Two plugs come in each container, but I even tear each plug in half to get four re-usable plugs out of each container.  Yes, they are re-usable.  The only reason we had multiple plugs used over the past week is due to color preference.  If you gotta wear ear plugs, it is 100% necessary to have a choice in color, don’t you think? 

My 4 year-old son loved these plugs.  I rolled them in a ball and gently pushed them in his ear until they easily molded to his sweet little ear.  They stayed in, he picked his color each time and we were all happy.  Take it from me.  I have been thru almost all choices in children’s ear plugs and these…these are the best!

I bought this portable hook-on chair, not for my home, but for everywhere BUT home. I was disgusted on a regular basis at the high chairs I encountered at restaurants. I knew they weren’t cleaned between uses and I spent too much time wiping high chairs down in restaurants…they should have paid me for my cleaning prowess. Highchairs in restaurants have caked-on food, layers of dried slobber, and who-knows-what-else.  On top of cleanliness, I found that many industrial high chairs weren’t very safe for my babies.  They could slide out, slide through, or even climb out, as the seat belts never seemed to be functioning.  I couldn’t take it anymore! So, the Hippo Chair entered our family.

There are certainly pros and cons to this chair, but the pros outweigh the cons for our purposes. It does take extra hands to put the seat on the table….a set to hold baby and a set to attach the chair. We also don’t take the chair apart and return it to its bag. I just fold it up and throw it in the back of our car so we have it on the road at all times. We sometimes get weird looks as we carry in our own chair to the restaurant, but more often than not, our meals are kindly interrupted by admiring parents asking us where we got our cool chair.

I amcertain I have increased Chicco sales of the Hippo Chair single-handedly.  On top of that, I am no longer squeamish about putting my child in restaurant high chair.  It’s always clean, safe and fits my baby perfectly.  Amen! and Amen!

Here’s the lowdown.  First, it’s organic food.  We don’t eat all organic foods, but we have certainly made strides in that direction.  For my precious baby, that is most of what he gets.  It just feels better knowing he’s getting the good stuff.  Second, the flavors are different and amazing.  My son’s favorite by a mile is “Pumpkin Banana.”  Super foods to boot!  He is a good eater and has been, but when he sees the package of this baby food coming, he goes nuts!  He kicks, he jumps and he squeals.  He. Loves. It.  It’s amazing how he already recognizes packages.

Finally, the most amazing part is the packaging.  Yes, the packaging was created with Mom’s in mind!  They are actually pouches so they squish and fit in a diaper bag on the go…no squishing OUT and spilling everywhere.  Each pouch has a screwtop lid.  Why didn’t anyone think of this before?  If baby doesn’t want anymore, you simply screw the lid back on and that’s it!  No huge mess…at all.  So, get ready for it.  The top of the pouch is actually straw-like.  The first time I even saw one of these babies was IN the grocery store as a mother was squeezing the food in to her babies mouth.  My son sees the package and grabs it and sucks it like a straw.  Talk about neat and tidy.  Before he knew how to even to this, I loved it, as I could very easily squeeze a bit on the spoon (typically at my older son’s T-Ball games) and there was no sticky mess to clean up.

Moms, ladies, friends of moms and friends of ladies.  I know it sounds crazy to give baby food as a gift, but I guarantee you that your mommy friends will love it and love you for it.  If it is not in your grocery store, you can buy it by boxes of 6  HERE and HERE.  Trust me.  Your child will love it. Even more so, Mommies will love this.

They have really great ideas for how to gift these bags…to grandparents, bridesmaids, friends.  Such a great way to capture a moment and make the memory last by printing it on a bag.  I think my favorites are the coin purse and cosmetic bags.  I know our grandparents would love to have one of these.  Mother’s Day, Birthday, Christmas…every occasion would scream for one of these.

Darling picture on a cosmetic bag…

Two cutie boys on a wristlet…

Fabulous idea for a Bridesmaid’s gift!

I love these bags.  They are so cute and a perfect gift for someone who has it all!  Who wouldn’t want a picture of your cutie-pies on a bag to carry with them everywhere they go?  You might check out the give-aways today….you might like it!

The book takes on a subject for each letter of the alphabet, written in a poem, that covers little people issues.  For example, “A is for Asking….” and each thought has a Bible verse, and a picture to support it with questions about the picture.  What I love the most is that we can read straight thru the book with my 3-year-old simply by reading the poems.  My 6-year-old can look at the picture and answer the ethical questions that go along with each page.  The supporting Bible verses are also great kid-friendly verses for memorization.  The book can be used in so many ways.  It is also a great resource.  Instead of reading it thru A-Z, you can discuss an important topic and reference the book with your kids, as well.

So, I am a fan of Kenneth Taylor.  The funniest part is that I pulled out a children’s devotional book that my parents used to read to me.  I started reading it to my boys last week.  When I put it on the night stand, the very 70′s looking book said, “Kenneth Taylor.”  Could it be?  It WAS!  He has now reprinted and updated the cover, but it is another great book by him, Devotions for the Children’s hour.

Love them both.  Would highly recommend them as good, thought provoking reading for you and your little ones!

The Remote Controlled Shark…for the swimming pool!  May I never step foot in a dark-bottomed pool again…

Combining my niece’s love of anatomy and nephew’s love of sharks…a really cool look at shark anatomy…

 And this cute cute shark hat/puppet….

(I bought this for my nephew to wear to his party, which he ended up wearing for his school report on sharks ) 

How about the look of this cool kite flying in the sky?

And if you have never seen this amazing pop-up book, you are really missing out.  It takes Pop-Up books to a whole new level!!!

Now you have a few good shark ideas for the shark-lover in your life.  Hope you enjoy!

Wynne’s Day…

Did you ever wonder where to get a cool 80′s t-shirt or a fun vintage style shirt or every Star Wars shirt known to man?  Zazzle has it all and if you don’t see what you want, you can design your own.  A friend of mine got t-shirts for birthday party favors!  Once you have checked out all the t-shirts, scroll down to see what else you can customize.  They even do shoes!  You can make cool custom binders for your kids at school – the choices are endless! Check out Zazzle and see what you can do!

Thanks, Wynne.  I love Zazzle, too.  The possibilities are endless at Zazzle, truly endless.  Sit back, relax, and spend some time checking out all they have to offer…

Today’s post comes from Alli…

My friend, Kinzie, created the cutest personalized book! It’s called “Find Me.” Think “I Spy” but you’re hunting for your own pictures. I ordered one for my daughter’s 3rd birthday, but it turns out that my 8 and 11 year olds love it too! It was very easy to create…just go to her website, and follow the directions! You upload 6 pictures and choose 11 backgrounds. Your pictures are hidden in the scenes you choose! And, of course, you have a chance to review the scenes with your pictures in them before you order. This was great for me because I had originally chosen some scenes that might have proven to be too challenging for my 3 year old (the big kids would have loved them though). My favorite scene is the one with dollar bills all over it because it made my husband have funny Andrew Jackson hair. The book itself is a very high quality hardback with beautiful, colorful pages (and, really, how fun is it to have your picture on the cover of a book!). My daughter absolutely adores it and shouts “hooway!”   she finds a picture. I have to agree! Hooway for the Find Me Book!

These are so cool!  Thanks, Alli, for sharing.  What an incredibly fun gift to give to your children!  It doesn’t get better than finding pictures of yourself!