October 30th, 2011

Shutterfly Winners!

There were three winners for the Shutterfly giveaway! I hope you all enjoy your cards!

The winners are Audrey, Melissa, and Cheri. I will be emailing you! Thanks so much to everyone who entered. If you didn’t win, there are lots of these promotions going on right now. Keep your eye out!

October 27th, 2011

Vintage Halloween Hop

I had some trouble finding cute pictures for this. The ones I was thinking of were not in the box I thought they were and growing up before the digital age can make for slim pickings. Some were too dark, some were weird and one was mildly offensive. So, I bring you the year we were super heroes. Twice.

Our town had a costume 4th of July parade that, as girl scouts, my sister and I participated in every year. Depending on the theme, my mom would make us re-purpose the costumes for Halloween. Luckily, one year the theme was Super Heroes. I’m not sure why I was Mighty Mouse, but I do remember that my sister (and I) loved Wonder Woman. We both had the bathing suits. I love that she posed with her bracelets at the ready. Confession time: I know the Lasso of Truth, but did the bracelets have a name? I just remember her using them to boing away (technical term) bullets.

Be sure and check out Bebehblog’s post and link up your own Halloween post! It can be words or a picture. We don’t discriminate. And if you’re on twitter, tag your posts #VintageHalloween to make them easier to find. Yay!

October 25th, 2011

Surviving the toddler road trip with Stickers.

Spencer has logged quite a few miles for a tot not yet 3 years old, almost 10 thousand traveling miles, and that is excluding daily driving and local trips. He is a relatively easy car rider, but does get the car seat blues. We choose to make our car trips pretty low-fi; I don’t want to share my phone and I don’t have a safety case for the iPad. I worry he would toss it around a bit too hard in the car. Also, he uses you tube a lot and it isn’t 3G. I can only imagine that you tube not working would make the iPad more trouble than benefit. So, how on earth does a tech savvy toddler endure a road trip? The same way they did 10 years ago, the liberal application of books, toys and stickers. Lots and lots of stickers.

Cookie has some stickers on his bum.

I can’t stress the stickers enough. That is really what saved us the last few trips. Stickers are just so versatile, for just a few dollars or less, multiple sheet packs can be purchased at Target, Michael’s, Walmart or the dollar store. I particularly like the animal packs that Target carries in the party supply section.  Variety is key.

There are a bunch of different ways Spencer uses stickers in the car. Well, mostly sticking them on things, but DIFFERENT things: stuffed animals, books, faces, hair. My personal favorite is the desperation sticker attack. Toddler being fussy or just plain loud? Stick a sticker on him somewhere hard to get to, shoulder blade, back of the neck, upper arm behind the elbow and the toddler becomes magically quiet while trying to get the sticker. Also fun is just letting the toddler stick stickers on your hand or whatever.

You know when else stickers work great? Restaurants. Stick them to the table. Peel them off the table. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. After about the 3rd restaurant meal in a row, crayons and a paper menu don’t hold very much interest. Bonus: stickers are light. It is really easy to keep a sheet or two in my bag. And much better than crayons at a restaurant with tablecloths.

An easy way to build up a stash of stickers is to ask for them every time you are at a place that hands them out. Target gives them out, so does Trader Joes and sometimes other grocery stores. I found out that my Payless has them. TJs is the best because they normally give a strip with about 6 or 8 stickers, I rip it in half and give some to Spencer and stash the rest in my purse for an emergency.

Even if your child is difficult in the car, stickers are worth a shot. It might just buy you 5 minutes of peace. And sometimes, when driving in tricky traffic, a few minutes of quiet is a sanity saver.

October 23rd, 2011

Vintage Halloween Link-Up On Friday!

This is not an embarrassing picture:

It is a cute picture of my sister, me and my dad (left to right) carving pumpkins. I am saving the big guns for Friday. What is Friday you ask? A vintage Halloween link-up! What is a vintage Halloween link-up? It is a super fun, festive good time.

Suzanne from Bebehblog and I are hosting a linky starting friday for everyone to share their childhood Halloween memories with pictures and words. Or just pictures. Or words. It doesn’t matter how you want to play along. Just join in the fun.

My post will be interesting. I can’t find the right box of photo albums, so right now the only option is a picture from high school that involves a pumpkin, 2 smurfs and some sort of ghost. Have I mentioned that my friends and I werre decidedly not popular? This is geeky good times. I am hoping to find a cuter picture, but failing that, mortification will do.

Please join us on Friday! Look at all the advanced notice we are giving you. A week is plenty of time to dig through your garage or your parents garage and find something fun to share.