BlogginMomma.com

I’ve been on a quest recently to find rechargable batteries. Not only does it kill me to always be buying the little buggers for almost every toy we own. Ya know the $$ but also the environmental impact! We do not have a place locally to recycle regular batteries (if they are even recyclable….not sure on that one.) so they wind up getting tossed in the trash. I’ve recently come across batteries made by Sanyo that are AA and AAA, with adapters for the C and Ds! While most of our toys require AA batteries, Vincent’s swings use C and D batteries so why not get re-chargable ones. Check out their website for more info or go directly to Amazon.com! The rave reviews on Amazon’s site is the final icing on the cake for me. I’ll post a review on them after I receive them.

Editors’ Closet is a private online club that organizes confidential sales for members only. Referral information is below if you’d like to join. The two sales they currently have going on are Penelope PeaPod and Lucy Skyes New York. Both sales are geared towards girls so nothing for me this go round, but definately check it out and see what you can get!

I especially like the PP doll and bassinet combo and they are a whopping $20 (normally $40 so 50% off). Great birthday or Christmas present! Unfortunately my niece is too old to be wowed by them anymore.

And as an extra bonus to the savings you get a “feel good” feeling…. 10% of the sales proceeds will go directly to Sanctuary for Families. Sanctuary for Families is the largest nonprofit agency in New York State dedicated exclusively to addressing the multiple needs of domestic violence victims and their children. For more information about Sanctuary for Families, please visit their website at www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org.

Referal information: Editors’ Closet will credit your account and your referrals’ account with $5. To join please use my email address cassie @ nouturn . com (no spaces). There is a blinking “become a member” button on the top left.

Are you a coupon clipper? Do you just toss coupons in the recycling bin? Ever wonder what to do with the ones you don’t use or want? I have a perfect answer for you!

Our troops and their families can use expired coupons for up to 6 months AFTER (yes after) they’ve expired! What a great way to help them out with saving money and keep the paper out of our landfill. For the price of a little time and a couple of $$ you can send coupons overseas and make a world of difference for people that are making a difference for you! You can even encourage a few friends or family members to join in and split the cost of shipping.

Please separate the coupons into two piles “Food” and “Non-Food” and put theminto a labeled baggie. And, whenever possible, please send coupons that are not more than 2 months expired to allow the time for the coupons to be mailed, received and sorted, distributed, and still give the families plenty of time to actually use them.

The two overseas bases that I will be sending my cpns to are: Menwith Hill in the U.K. and Ansbach in Germany.

Menwith Hill
Family Support Center
ATTN: Coupon Connection Program
PSC 45, Bldg 20
APO, AE 09468

Ansbach
CAFAPACS
235th BSB
Unit 28614
APO, AE 09177

Here’s a list of overseas bases that accept coupon donations: http://www.ocpnet.org/

Letting all you bag-a-holics know that the Kate Spade sale is going on now at Rue LaLa. I just signed up myself for a peek and there isn’t a lot left so put your “online sneakers” on and RUN girls! It is a site similar to Regents Secret, so if you sign up, please use my email address, cassie @ nouturn . com (no spaces), or email me for an invitation. They are also having a Fendi sale starting on the 22nd and have an opt-in reminder email to boot!

Ok so I had to do birthday favor bags for Anthony’s 2nd birthday. But only because my girlfriend reminded me. Duh! Thanks Jody!!

I took advantage of the sales they’ve had recently and spent about $5 per “bag”. Yes, that is a steep price but since I only had to make 4 of them (one being Anthony’s) I was ok with doing it. So now you are dying to know what is in them aren’t you??

Well…..first I didn’t use a bag. Why be wasteful, right? Instead I bought pencil cases at Target a couple of weeks ago – blue for the boys and pink for the girls. I then wrote their name on the top of the box so they feel super special. My mom had the brilliant idea of using a sharpie instead of painting it on, which was my first thought. Thanks mom! Thank god for other people and their brains

So now the filler:

• a box of Crayola crayons for 22 cents
• a box of primary colored modeling clay for $1
• 2-3 sheets of stickers ($1 per package but some packages had 2 in there and were broken up)
• a box of Crayola colored pencils for 88 cents
• a package of Crayola model magic (bought a package of 6 for 6.99 and had 2 left over for Ant to play with)

If Anthony is any judge than the other kids will love it! And for the icing on the cake, they’ll get to take a balloon home too.

Anthony is the lucky recipient of not one but TWO parties this year. We held one last weekend so Nick’s niece could attend (before she went back to college) as well as the rest of his family. It turned out to be rather fun with just a small group of people and everyone got to spend time with Anthony instead of watching him run off with other people. He seemed to enjoy it a lot also all the one-on-one time. He didn’t really understand it was a party until we got out our sticker-decorated party hats (great way to save some $$ btw). And he loved his cake although he was a bit intimidated when everyone started yelling at him to blow out the candle. He gets rather flustered when he receives a lot of instructions, like most kids.

This weekend will be the party with my side of the fam, our friends and all of Ant’s friends. It promises to be a good time for all! I can’t wait for him to blow out his candle again this weekend, hopefully it won’t be such a new experience for him and he’ll blow like crazy I asked my mom to get some Winnie the Pooh mylar balloons and since he LOVES balloons I can’t wait to see his face when Granny walks in with 10 balloons. How fun!

The themes of the parties are Winnie the Pooh and adorable just doesn’t describe it! We went to the party store and bought Winnie Pooh napkins and plates for the cake and then just colored napkins, plates and plastic table clothes in cooresponding colors. Believe it or not this did save us quite a bundle doing it that way. And I can use the colored items for other parties at other times. Anthony was really set on having hats but they didn’t have any in stock so we bought plain blue ones (his choice) and some Winnie Pooh stickers and decorated the hats ourselves. He found that to be the greatest of fun and I think I’ll do that from now on. I also got 2 citronella candle pails in pink for Piglet. lol (Mosquitoes are really bad right now around here.) A few more hanging decorations and some Winnie balloons and we are all set.

Originally submitted at One Step Ahead

These shoes have a snugger fit than others in our collection. Please be sure to find the perfect size with our printable Shoe Sizing Chart

Easy-On Leather Sandal

Perfect for Chunky Feet

By Blogginmomma.com from Bradenton, FL on 8/13/2008

4out of 5

Sizing: Feels true to size

Width: Feels true to width

Pros: Comfortable

Best Uses: Going Out, Everyday Wear

Describe Yourself: Casual

I bought the light colored ones and unfortunately they are borderline too small for my darling but that is only because of the size I ordered, not the products fault. I like that you can adjust the fit for their feet with the velcro strap over the foot itself and the back strap around their ankle. These work really well for chunky feet! The pink interior seem a little girly to me for a boy but that is a minor complaint since their foot basically covers it.

(legalese)

Originally submitted at One Step Ahead

Cool Toy

By Blogginmomma.com from Bradenton, FL on 8/11/2008

4out of 5

Pros: Durable, Good Value

We bought the toy at the clearance price so the little quirks it has are ok for the price I paid. Had I paid full price I wouldn’t be nearly as satisfied. The concept of the toolbox is great and my 2 yr old loves playing with it. The tools are very realistic and are a big hit, especially the hammer and flashlight. My complaint: I wish that the drawers had a “stop” on them that stops them from flying out onto the floor and creating a mess, not to mention the hazard of hitting little feet.

(legalese)

I heard about this about a year ago and had forgotten about this “remedy” until recently when Anthony was sick. “What?”, you say. If your child has a cold and/or cough rub vick’s vapor rub on their feet and then put socks on. It’ll help relieve the cough. It sounds rather kooky but when you have a toddler coughing up a storm in the middle of the night you’re game for anything. Well, I can say I tried it and it works! I understand the principal of why but am still rather amazed. The skin on your feet is very thin and easily absords what is applied to it, therefore making it easy for the vicks to “do it’s thing”. I don’t understand why it seems to help more being applied to their feet than their chest though.

I’m contemplating applying it to Vince’s feet to see if that helps with his stuffiness. Unfortunately, he caught his brother’s cold, mainly because Anthony loves him so much he wouldn’t stop kissing all over him when he was sick. Vince is a tad young to be using the Vick’s Babyrub (he’s only 2 mo and they recommend 3) but he is “large” for his age so I think I may give it a try. I was using eucalyptus in the warm humidifier but we ran out of it tonight and I’d like him to sleep!

Not at all related to kids or babies other than the saying “if momma ain’t happy then nobodys happy”. I finally have REAL, grown-up knives Nick’s parents went to Macys last weekend and were telling us they had a bunch of J.A. Henkel knives on sale plus some really nice ones by Martha Stewart. I figured the sale would end on that Sunday so I placed an order on Saturday night.

We got the knives yesterday and OMG do they rock! You see, I LOVE cooking, nothing fancy smanchy just good ol’ yummy food. BUT our knives used to stink. Eating a steak was a pain and not enjoyable sawing our way through it, and that was just one complaint. Now at the age of 30 I can proudly say my knife collection has grown-up and I’m one happy mama. LOL