GUEST POST: Tips for the Perfect Staycation

I recently did a guest post exchange with Michele over at Mommy Blogger Directory :)

Tips for the Perfect Staycation

Vacations are a great way to spend time with your family, but they can be expensive. Staycations have become an increasingly popular alternative for families on tight budgets who want to spend some quality time together. Ready to start planning your staycation? Keep these tips in mind.

1. Turn off your real life. During a staycation at home, it's incredibly easy to let "real" life get in the way of spending time with your family. During your staycation, turn off your laptop, and don't make work-related calls.

2. Be a tourist in your own town. A staycation is the perfect time to view your very own city in a different way. Take the kids to a museum they've never been to. Explore a cute new boutique that recently opened. Just because you haven't left home doesn't mean you can't enjoy something new.

3. Use your space in a different way. Even if you're not prepared to pitch a tent in the back yard, you can still turn your house on its head. Allow the whole family to "camp out" in the living room to watch old movies until the wee hours of the morning. Let the kids turn your dining room into a giant pillow fort. If you have a fireplace, use it to make s'mores. Be creative.

4. Take pictures. Just like on a traditional travel vacation, you'll make memories during your staycation that you'll want to cherish for years to come - so don't forget to snap a few pictures

(healthy) homemade fruit popsicles!

Ever since the warmer weather has hit us, cool treats have been abundant at our home, usually after dinner as a sweet treat. The hot weather combined with teething has really been a winning combination for my daughter. She absolutely loves popsicles and freeze pops, and looks forward to them after she eats her dinner. I don't mind giving them to her, but in the back of my mind I knew there had to be a less sugary, healthier (and cheaper!) option out there. They do have real fruit bars, which I could have easily purchased, but I decided to try and make my own. That way, I knew exactly what was going into her sweet treats :)

A couple of weeks ago while at Ikea, I spotted these and decided to pick them up. They cost $1.99 which is extremely pocket friendly, and I like that they are the perfect size for my 18 month old. Also, they come with a little tray which makes it easy to pop them in the freezer while your homemade pops are freezing.

I googled a few recipes, but ultimately decided to come up with my own. We buy strawberries a lot, but they don't always get eaten before they start to ripen, so I will cut them up and store them in our freezer to use later for things like smoothies, or in this case, popsicles. I also had some bananas that needed to be used, so I quickly decided on some strawberry banana fruit pops. I also added in a layer of nonfat plain yogurt for an added boost of calcium :)

If you're interested in making your own homemade popsicles for your little ones, or even yourself..read on!

The obligatory "ingredient" photo. I used:

- 1 cup ripe strawberries
- 2 bananas
- 2 tbsp honey
- 6 tsp yogurt (you can use any kind, I happened to have some plain in my fridge)
- 1/2 cup juice (I used orange strawberry banana from TJ's)
- blender or food processor

First you'll start making the purees. While I was doing this step, it totally took me back to my days of making homemade baby food. Oh how I miss those days. I was one of those weird ones that took joy and excitement in making my own baby food!

Anyway, I digress. So you'll start by putting your strawberries in your blender. Add 1 tbsp and about 1/4 cup of juice (I kinda eye balled the juice portion) blend until a nice puree consistency. Set the strawberry puree aside in a separate bowl, and rinse your blender out.

Next, you'll do the same with your bananas. Slice your bananas into coin sized circles, add 1 tbsp of honey and about 1/4 cup of juice. Blend until smooth.

Now comes the fun part...layering it all up! I started by adding 1 tsp of each and went in layers. So, 1 tsp strawberries, 1 tsp yogurt and 1 tsp bananas..rinse and repeat until you reach (almost) the top of the container. Don't layer to the very top because when you put the stick in, the puree's WILL squeeze out and make a mess. I know from experience ;) Once you've completed this step, put all the sticks in as far as they can go and pop the tray right in the freezer to get nice and...frozen.

I let them freeze about 3-ish hours and they were done! Just run the plastic part under hot water for a few seconds and it should slide right off.

Toddler tested, and mother approved ;)

midweek randoms

Linking up with Megan today for the "Midweek Randoms" post.

- Yesterday morning we found ourselves at the pediatricians office after waking up with a swollen, crusty eye. Diagnosis: pink eye :( Luckily, it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, though by the end of the day it had spread to both eyes and she just looked sick. She is on an antibiotic eye drop for 7 days. Already this morning it looks much better!

- Today I went to Old Navy to return a couple jersey knit dresses I had bought over the weekend. I got home and tried them on, and didn't like the fit. I planned to just put the money back in our account, but of course I checked out the clearance rack and found another shirt for Audrey. I have a problem! I did pass up on an adorable stars & stripes bikini though. It was $6 and so, so cute..but what 17 month old needs 4 bathing suits? And its nearly August. Self control, I has it ;)

- This morning was a lazy morning. Little girl wanted to just cuddle on the couch for a long time. I am okay with that :) We watched some cartoons, and even had a lazy breakfast of cheerios and leftover fruit & spinach smoothies.

- I was a complete sloth this afternoon during nap time. I had planned to use it to fold some laundry, but instead I spent it on my butt, browsing the internet. Good times. Now, I have a big basket of laundry to fold, and it sure ain't gonna fold itself!

- We got barbecue for takeout tonight from Pittsburgh Barbecue Company. Ryan got a good deal on some vouchers through work, so we decided to use one. I'm not a huge BBQ fan, but Ryan is, and their food IS delicious. PLUS, it means I don't have to cook..win-win! Audrey loved it! We gave her a little rib and she was chowing down like a champ. Daddy was proud :)

- I think I am contracting a cold myself. I am getting stuffy and my throat is a little itchy. Lovely! I really, really hope I do not catch pink eye. That would not be fun.

- Has anyone ever tried the ready made salad's from Trader Joe's? I bought a couple over the weekend to try, and just cracked one open today -- delicious!! Pretty healthy too, and all you need is a fork since the dressing is included. We used to never shop at TJ's because we were under the assumption that it was pricey and out of our budget. We were so wrong! The meat is a little more than we like to spend (though we get Audrey's turkey/chicken hot dogs from there) because we like to buy in bulk. But everything else is very comparable to other grocery stores! We try and get a lot of Audrey's "snack" foods there like cereal bars, corn puffs and yogurt. If you've never been and you have one nearby, I urge you to check it out!

- Wednesdays might be a favorite for some, considering its "middle of the week" or "hump day"..but not for me! Wednesdays are actually my Mondays, and in fact, I don't really like them at all!

toddler smoothie!

For quite a while, my little one would never turn down her fruits or her vegetables. I could serve her almost any type of veggie with her meal, and she'd eat it with no problems. As of lately though, she's been much pickier. She may eat a few pieces, if I'm lucky. The ones that were always a home run? No go. Obviously, this is not ideal considering she needs to eat her veggies!

So, I decided to be sneaky and make her a smoothie -- with spinach blended in!

She has been feeling under the weather the past few days and was diagnosed with pink eye today, so I wanted her to have an extra boost of nutrition. I didn't follow any sort of recipe, just kinda threw together what I had on hand. I used the basics -- spinach leaves (stem removed), plain nonfat yogurt, frozen fruit I had in the freezer (mango, strawberries and peach), half a banana and carrot juice (not pictured).

I blended to a thinner consistency because I put it in her straw sippy and if it were too thick, she wouldn't have been able to drink it. The beauty of smoothies is that you can literally make tons and tons of combinations! I would suggest "sweeter" fruits if you are blending with spinach though to help mask it, as the spinach can give it a bitter taste. The possibilities are truly endless!

And yes, it was toddler approved :)

my dearest little girl..

Sometimes, the words to a song speak directly to your heart and can say perfectly, exactly what you are feeling. This is one of those times.

Rascal Flatts "My Wish"

beating the heat!

Linking up with Heather @ My Tales with Two today!

These past few days here have been awful, weather wise. Complete scorchers between the 95 degree temperatures and humidity...plain awful! As if you couldn't tell already, I am not a fan of the heat. I never have been. Fall is where its at just a couple short months away! Meanwhile, my husband seems to think he's going to get me to move to Florida, with similar weather, but basically year round...but that's a story for another time.

To beat the heat, we've been trying to do activities to keep cool. We have central air in our home, and in all honesty, I'd be completely okay with hunkering down and hibernating in our cool house all week...but, with an antsy toddler, that's just not possible!

Early on in the week we ventured out to the local Cinemark to catch a $1 movie with my friend Heather and her munchkins. Happy Feet was playing, and it was perfect because Audrey totally prefers 3D animation movies over 2D (who doesn't?). It was also her first movie experience, so I wasn't even sure what to expect. Surprisingly, she did pretty well! She sat on my lap for about 20 minutes and actually watched the movie. It probably helped that she had popcorn to munch on and distract her, but hey. She started getting wiggly, so I put her in the seat next to me, and she really seemed to enjoy that and being a "big girl" She did start to get antsy and started walking up and down the row (which, luckily, was empty) but she was quiet. Eventually, we decided to pack up and let the kids run off some energy at the mall play area (also air conditioned!)

We hit up the Troy Hill Spray Park this week too. I wore a sun dress in anticipation of the hot weather, and I was STILL dying. I didn't wear my swimsuit, which I wish I had. But, Audrey had fun. She wasn't all too interested in playing IN the water, but she had fun running around and trying to be one of the big kids :p

And finally on Friday, we decided to check out a different pool in the area. I packed a bag with pool supplies, lunch, snacks & drinks and off we went! This time, we went to the Robinson pool. It was heated, which is nice, but the kiddie pool was not what I was looking for. The steps were shallow, but beyond that, the rest was 2.5 feet, which is obviously too deep for Audrey. She likes to be independent and walk around/splash around by herself. They do have a cute little water table area, which she seemed to enjoy. We'll continue checking out other pools in the area, but so far the winner is still the Cranberry pool & Waterpark!

I'm not sure what the weather forecast holds for next week hopefully much cooler, but if its anything like this past week, you'll be finding us in the water or air conditioning somewhere!

What fun things do you do to beat the heat??

balancing chaos

I would never consider myself a fully organized person, but I am by no means messy or disorganized. I like things in order and clutter free (just don't look in my closets). But, with a toddler and a husband running around, that is next to impossible.

I thought that by being a "stay at home mom" (technically, I am also a working mom by night) my house would always be clean and organized, dinner would be on the table every night, and life would be chaos free. Wrong. In fact, I think its almost worse at times. Probably because we are home way more often than we would be if I were working full time during the week. I sweep up crumbs all over the floor, 5 minutes later, crumbs magically appear on the floor again. I clean and disinfect the counters, shortly after, husband comes downstairs to make a snack and somehow misses a whole patch of crumbs or dribble of some type of liquid. I put away and straighten up all of my daughter's toys, when she wakes up from her nap, they are all over the living room again. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you!

I try to keep things in order, but somehow, chaos always ensues. My house is not dirty by any means, but cluttered at times? Absolutely. There are so many..things just all over the house, that I wish I could just throw away. I won't say I am a packrat, but I definitely have a hard time parting with certain things. A lot of times, its just things from my child hood, little memories, etc. Most recently, its baby things. Can anyone else relate with me on this? My child has SO MANY clothes. I haven't given away a single piece of her clothing since birth, and I have about 6 giant diaper boxes packed with clothes. I know I could sell half of them, and still have a decent collection "just in case"...but, I just can't do it. I've even put clothes aside, taken photos of them to list on a local flea market page..and I can't bring myself to put them up for sale. I keep asking myself "but what if you have another girl within the same season??" just to reason with my insanity. But who am I kidding? Even if I do have another daughter, Lord knows I'll continue to buy HER clothes. Girl clothes are hard to resist, you can't blame me for that one.

This week, I was finally able to get Audrey's room in semi order. Laundry is the one thing that does get done in a semi timely fashion around here. It may not get folded right away (guilty.) but, it gets washed. There was A LOT of laundry when it was just Ryan and I (mostly his, not mine). Add a little person to the mix and laundry multiplies...by five. The worst part about doing laundry is putting it away. I hate it. And, I can't even attempt to try and do it while the little one is awake because she finds it absolutely hilarious to wreck my piles of folded clothes, dragging them across the floor. So, clothes get folded in piles by person (except Ryan's work clothes, I do hang those up...Begrudgingly). Audrey's clothes get put in her clothes basket in her room because I just don't feel like putting them all away in drawers and closets. But, THIS WEEK, I did. I hung everything up that needed hung and put everything away in drawers where they are supposed to go. What a great feeling! I know I'll have that feeling again next month, when I do that whole putting away process again ;)

Many things make me happy, but one of them is the look of freshly vacuumed carpets. You know what I'm talking about! We bit the bullet on Black Friday last year and finally purchased a Dyson...and we love it. That thing has amazing suction power, and can get the smallest cheerio crumbs from the depths of the Berber fibers (and trust, there are A LOT of those these days!) The carpets probably get vacuumed at least once a week, usually more. And of course, Audrey likes to "help" by pushing the vacuum. I can't wait until she's strong enough to push it on her own -- put her to work! ;)

I try and keep the bathrooms cleaned and the beds made. The floor swept and the counters wiped down.

But there are days where I feel like I can't keep up. Even the days I DO clean, and by the end of the day, my home looks like I hadn't lifted a finger all day. Dinner is less than impressive, and the dishwasher is still loaded with the dishes from the last clean cycle.

At the end of the day though, I have to remind myself that these things are trivial. I might not be getting the house straightened up in a timely fashion, because I am too busy. I am too busy doing the most important job in the world, which is raising my daughter. I get to be with her all day, every day. I get to be there for her when she's happy and when she's sad, when she's excited and even mad. I get to teach her new things, watch her grow and learn. I get to spend my time cuddling and hugging her, reading her stories and letting her explore new things. I get to experience the world, for the first time through her eyes. The past year and a half has been the quickest 18 months of my life, and they are only little once.

As long as she is happy, I am happy...and the laundry can wait.