We have had the best summer so far. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we are spending our days spent by the pool, nights by the bonfire, eating millions of tomatoes and generally just loving our long summer days. Last week, our little fam traveled down to Hilton Head, South Carolina to spend a few days at the beach. While Lu (at 2.5 years old) pretty much hated the beach (I get it... the scratchy sand, the crashing waves, the crazy wind- it can be a bit overwhelming!), HDawg absolutely loved the beach. We spent hours out there playing Frisbee and letting him run around, filling up his dump truck with sand. It was a ball! And, thanks to Children's Place, our kids were looking pretty stylish in their summer beach gear!

on HDawg: dino top, chino shorts

on Lu: polka dot top, fruit skort

on HDawg in family photo: button up (similar top here)

For more cute summer clothes ideas for the kiddos, check out these cute toddler girls shorts, toddler girl t-shirts and toddler boy t-shirts. What beaches have you guys visited this summer? I'm happy to share our Hilton Head recommendations if anyone is interested!

Is your toddler or kid a picky eater? Man, that can be tough. David and I are fortunate that God blessed us with two very easy eaters. We've obviously got to be picky when it comes to HDawg's food allergies, but, allergies aside, they'll eat pretty much anything you put in front of them.

I think a lot of that is what you feed them- don't give them options, just give them what you're eating. Whether it's a got a heavy flavor or it's green or it's different... that's their dinner, too. We don't cook H and L their own dishes nor do we cater to their preferences (usually). David and I certainly love to surprise them with typical kid friendly meals they love- mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, etc- but also want them to eat and be excited about the same "regular people" food we enjoy.

Also, I find that it's almost as important to pay attention to how you feed them. One of our favorite meals around our house is Mexican rice bowls. We layer our bowls with romaine lettuce, Mexican flavored brown rice, ground turkey cooked in Mexican seasonings, black or refried beans, salsa, shredded cheese, avocado slices, corn, sliced tomato, diced onions, sour cream, chopped jalepenos (for the adults)... the list of toppings is endless. (and now we're having that for dinner because my mouth is watering! insert taco emoji here!) But I'll bet that if we just handed the kids a bowl full of these delicious ingredients, they'd be less excited to eat it. Instead, we deconstruct the kids' dinner for them- separate the ingredients into little piles on their plates so they can not only see what they're eating item by item, but they feel like they have a choice about which items they are eating and what they eat first.  It's all about control when it comes to the little ones, right? Have you ever seen the "muffin tin snack tray" craze? Same theory! For us, deconstructing dinner is really win win! They're happy they have a lot of choices (in their mind) about dinner, we're happy they're eating the same thing as us.

A huge helper in deconstructing your dinner for the kids is a divided plate. Our favorites are these platters from Boon. Instead of just a divided plate with two sections for the food to go, this platter has FOUR little sections for us to fill up with the different dinner ingredients. But don't you get annoyed at having to hand wash specialty kids plates? Mmm yeah, whose got time for that?! These Boon platters (and most other Boon products) are top-rack dishwasher safe! SCORE. And Boon recently released a new product- the Span dishwasher net- that covers your tiny kid products on the top rack of the dishwasher so that the cups or lids don't flip and fill with gross water. Such a game changer, am I right?



And if you're like me and you have to basically pre-wash your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher (we have such a crappy dishwasher... the dishwasher in our next house will be like a top of the line $20,000 dishwasher if that's even a thing, mark my word!) or for those dishes that must be hand washed, Boon also just released the Forb Mini, a soap releasing dish brush. Convenient and cute, that's my kind of thing.


We are such a fan of Boon products- we've been using their grass drying rack for years now, it's a daily staple at our house! These are really good quality products that are designed with kids in mind and, just as importantly, with parents in mind, too. I'm glad someone out there realized that a) specialty plates with little sections and fun features are important to my kids' eating habits but b) I don't have time (or energy!) to handwash those speciality plates! Now thanks to the Span and the Forb (which you can pick up at your local Target or online, here and here for $9.99 each!), the cleaning process is made even easier. Thanks, Boon, someone's been paying attention!



Thanks to Boon for partnering with me on this post!

Psst! Like my white subway tile you see in the background of some of these photos? That's not real tile! It's peel and stick! No joke. Find out more in this post.

Let me just throw it out there... I throw a killer two-year-old birthday party. I'll have to say, we took the "easygoing" route for Little Lady June's second birthday and man, was that a good idea. Instead of inviting a million people over and worrying about all the food and all the cleaning and all the people and all the entertaining, David and I chose to host a tiny little shindig at our house. We invited our immediate family and three families who have little kids both Lu and HDawg's ages. And, honestly, it was perfect! The weather was amazing for late February in Georgia, so we hosted the entire day outside. We did a few Minnie Mouse themed things but overall just picked food LLJ loves (Chick-fil-A nuggets, blueberries and oranges, lemonade, chips and fruit snacks), stocked the fridge with beers for the adults and just let the kids play. And I'm so glad we did it that way, everyone had a blast! I made the cupcakes by simply adding Oreos as a cupcake topper and freehanding the Minnie hairbows with red candy melts (I melted the candy, put into a plastic baggie, cut the tip and squeezed out bow shapes on wax paper). The rest of the party sources are below! Happy second birthday to the sweetest little girl in all the land! I love you, my little lady!

Minnie invitations (not pictured)

Minnie Mouse birthday hat

Mickey and Minnie ears

black, red and silver tassel garland

Mickey and Minnie crayon favors

Mickey coloring books- Dollar Store

Minnie Mouse shirt

red tutu

stuffed Minnie Mouse

ear printable for plates

I know. Can you even with these two? HDawg and LLJ in the house (er, on the dining room table!), ladies and gentlemen. Spruced up in their finest red and pink, I'd say these two and their kissy faces are ready to go for Valentine's Day this year. This year, I thought I'd skip the matchy matchy and instead let the kids wear some fun not-so-Valentiney red and pink outfits.  Normally I wouldn't pair red pants with a blue + pink shirt but with a holiday, I think anything goes. And I sort of love the mismatchy red and pink- I think they look great! These cute toddler outfits show that you don't have to go too themey but can still have fun as you dress up your kids for the holidays. Happy Valentine's Day to my two love bugs!

chino pants

button up shirt

flare dress

*thanks to Children's Place for partnering up with me on this post!

Can you even believe that summer is almost upon us? Our neighborhood pool is opening this weekend and it's got me thinking about all of the must have items I need for my tots this summer. At 14 months and 2.5 years old, the kids are at a great age to enjoy the summer fun, as long as we are well-equipped! The round up I shared above lists all of my favorite baby summer items- and guess what? Everything you see is from the one and only Target!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we spend Saturday afternoon in the emergency room after HDawg had an allergic reaction to (we think) a pecan. He has a severe dairy allergy and we already carry an EpiPen for that, but have never had to use it. Apparently the pecan did the trick, though (even though he regularly eats almonds, peanuts and cashews!), and we landed in the ER. Thankfully the nurses administered the EpiPen and this frantic momma did not have to... but it was altogether a traumatic event.

Needless to say, I'm hugging my little family a little tighter today, grateful that everyone is well and that HDawg has just about completely recovered from the reaction.

Because of his dairy (and now tree nut?! will certainly be taking him to his allergy doctor this week for a new full panel test!) allergy, we closely monitor and exclude a lot of prepackaged foods for our family. That makes Christmas parties no fun for him a lot of the time, so I wanted to create a special gingerbread man baking/decorating time for him to eat all of the dairy-free goodies he wanted.

I purchased this gingerbread mix and used Earth Balance vegan butter to make the recipe. I also whipped up a batch of dairy free buttercream frosting with a standard homemade buttercream frosting recipe by subbing in soy milk and Earth Balance. Delicious. I picked up all of the other fun, dairy-free, sugar-high cookie decor in the holiday baking aisle at Target. Tiny little gingerbread men and Christmas trees? Check.

HDawg was so excited in his little mismatched pajamas that he kept yelling out- "GINNNNNGERBREADDDD!" Thus, all the blurry photos : )

The Santa tray, tiny Christmas tree, ornaments and "Merry Christmas" banner are also from Target. Thanks to Target for partnering up with me to share some of their fun holiday products!

If your name is HDawg, close your eyes (yes, my two-year-old reads his mom's blog, duh). Santa is about to divulge a few of his secrets from this year's Christmas list! 

HDawg has the VTech Go Go train set and it is one of his absolute favorite toys. I love this set because there are different sets that all link up together into one big track. Like a little village! This Christmas, he's getting a few add-ons like the airport and some extra cars. The amusement park and construction site look incredible too!

I will admit that we have a lotttt of books already at our house. But with my kids, "a lot" is not enough! We read so many books every day that H is at the point he can recite most of them. And he's outgrown the "baby" books and is ready for lengthier story books. So this Christmas, we stocked up on a bunch of new books like Harold and the Purple Crayon and The Snowy Day.

All little ones love balls and we're amping it up this year with a toddler appropriate soccer goal for H.

Lego Duplo toys are always a good idea for tots. There are so many cute sets available!

I am a huge Melissa and Doug fan. We have the wooden clock puzzle and farm puzzle, and I'm eyeing the food play set and the tea set. Santa may or may not be bringing H the latch board, as well!

There is nothing cuter than the Little People sets. Both of my kids love them! The Little People farm and nativity set are huge hits around here. And I think these sweet Little People Disney Princesses will pop up in someone's stocking this Christmas.

Check out lots more amazing toddler-friendly toys at Target. Don't forget, they have free shipping through the end of the year on all orders! Thanks to Target for partnering up with me to share some of my favorite toddler toys.

Back in September, I was asked to be part of a toddler busy bag exchange with a few other bloggers. Life got a little hectic and I never shared my tutorial for the busy bag I created. For those of you searching for some DIY inspiration for Christmas gifts for the toddler or baby in your life, I thought I'd share now! It's cute, it's simple and the kiddos love it- a popsicle color matching game.

Simply round up several colors of felt and cut two matching popsicle shapes from each piece. Also cut a tiny square from each color felt piece. Use fabric glue to connect each matching felt piece, but leave a space at the bottom unglued (along the straight edge) about two inches wide.

Next, glue each color felt square swatch to the bottom of a large popsicle stick. Once everything dries, you'll be able to match each popsicle stick to the popsicle through the opening you left unglued. Easy peasy! This will teach your toddler or baby their colors as well as a little hand-eye coordination and small motor skills as they attempt to put the pieces together. Store the kit in a cute pencil pouch (I got this one at Target) and you've got a fun game for the car or anytime momma needs a few minutes of quiet time! You can check out my busy bag in action over on Julia's blog.

Here are the girls who participated in the busy bag exchange. These are some fabulous blogging mommas, so make sure to check them out!

Erinn at Strawberry Swing and Other Things

Colleen at Meet the Sullivans

Emily at Dear Owen

Julia at My Life in Transition

Natalie at Nat Your Average Gal

Julie at The Girl in the Red Shoes

Vanessa at Sunflower State of Mind

Sara at Running from the Law

Natasha at Schue Love

Erin at Hello Erin

When you're a momma of little ones, one of your most valuable resources is other moms. There is truly nothing better than being able to call or email a friend who also has a two-year-old and an infant to get some of their sage advice or just to share war stories. 

I've been fortunate enough to find myself in an amazing group of momma bloggers with kids who are similarly aged. In the past, we've done some fun swaps for our kids like our Secret Santa swap. For this back-to-school fall season, we decided to do a homemade busy box swap. 

A busy box or bag is simply a little kit created to keep a toddler busy for about a ten minute period. Each busy box includes a learning concept designed to teach our little one while keeping them entertained. A busy box is perfect for a car trip or to keep HDawg busy while I'm nursing Little Lady June.

We each made a busy box for another little one in the group. Here are the gals who participated!

Erinn at Strawberry Swing and Other Things

Colleen at Meet the Sullivans

Emily at Dear Owen

Julia at My Life in Transition

Natalie at Nat Your Average Gal

Julie at The Girl in the Red Shoes

Vanessa at Sunflower State of Mind

Sara at Running from the Law

Natasha at Schue Love

Erin at Hello Erin

We were lucky enough to receive a busy box gift from my sweet friend Natasha and her little boy Ethan. HDawg got the perfect busy box for him... alphabet magnets in a tin camo box!

H is obsessed with the alphabet right now and is constantly pointing out in books, road signs, etc. his favorite letters. "MOMMMMMA! IT'S A 'D' FOR DADDYYYY! V FOR VEGGABLE! LOOK, IT'S S FOR SNAKESSSSS!" This cute little metal lunchbox not only holds the magnet letters but he can use the box itself as a magnet board! So cute. As he was playing with the box he kept yelling out "THANK YOU ETHAN!!!!" He was just so excited. This is going to be a great busy box for us to take on an upcoming road trip.

Head on over to Julia's blog, Life in Transition, to see the busy bag I made for her little girl!

Busy boxes are seriously so easy and fun and there are a ton of great ideas on Pinterest if you're interested in making one for your kids or their friends. Each of us will be sharing the tutorial for the busy box we made next Tuesday and I think we'll make it a fun little party with a blog link up. Whatcha think? Anyone interested in making and sharing a fun busy box idea?!

 There's something about a holiday that is way more fun with kids, right? I've shared before here on the old blog, but typically David and I are the ultimate Scrooges when it comes to Valentine's Day. We don't exchange gifts (although last year he surprised me with a Kindle, which kind of rocked!), we don't go out to a nice dinner, he doesn't buy me flowers... we actually just don't celebrate at all! Boo, I know. It's just not a holiday that's important to us. Me and my man celebrate our love every day of the year, if ya know what I mean. Wink wink.

But with kiddos? Way more fun. Makes me want to break out the the red + pink construction paper and start crafting up some paper hearts! I was still on maternity leave last year at this time, so this is HDawg's first year in a classroom on Valentine's Day. I'm pretty sure that 16 month old toddlers don't exchange Valentine's Day cards... but it's me and even though I'm not a big VDay fan, I want him to share a little something with his classmates!

I tried to think of something toddler friendly... ie. no candy, no inhalable small toys, no junk. So what does every young kid love these days? Squeezable fruit packs. Yum. It's one of HDawg's favs, that's for sure. And healthy, every mom's delight. Add a little play on words and boom... you have the perfect toddler Valentine's Day treat!

And I think I'm even more hilarious for buying the Buddy Fruits squeezables. Get it? Happy Valentine's Day, buddy!?! Har, har, har.

I created the little custom tag and simply tied around the fruit pack with some red and white bakers twine. Just print, cut, punch a hole at the top and add your little one's name after the "main squeeze" salutation and you've got a custom Valentine's Day card for your tot!

And of course I want to share my little creation with all of you. Click here to download the printable!

Please note: I've shared this free printable for personal use only. Please do not distribute for commercial use. If you share on your website or elsewhere, please link to this blog post and not simply to the PDF itself. As always, feel free to email me with any questions. Thanks for understanding!

 
Are you creating anything crafty and fun for Valentine's Day this year?!