St. Patrick's Day Toddler Play Date

Last year, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a Toddler Play Date with a bunch of our favorite friends.  While we may have missed the opportunity to post last year, it's so nice to catch up and share all of our activity ideas with you this year as the season of green has again rolled around.

We always try to keep things short and sweet, so we had some free play time, music, craft and snack.  I had a story ready and waiting - but the kids seemed a little too busy this time!  Our kids were all around 12-18 month toddlers for this play date but I think they'd even still enjoy most of the activities.  

We started with a sensory bin filled with lots of green things - blocks, shapes from our shape sorter, balls, glitter shamrocks and gold coins from the craft store.  We also included shamrock shaped Mardi Gras beads which the kids loved finding.  To make our sensory bin nice and green, we filled it with green split peas which were absolutely perfect!

While we played, we put on some good uptempo Irish music to keep things lively.  If you don't have any already, iheartradio offers a free Shamrock Radio station that would work very well!

We worked on our St. Patrick's Day craft, which was really simple to bring together.  We started with a piece of blue paper and cut a wide U shape from the center.  Folding the paper lightly in half makes this very easy.  We cut a matching sized piece of contact paper, peeled the backing, and applied it to the paper - leaving the adhesive "sticky" through the rainbow shaped window. 

We had cups of tissue paper squares in all of the colors.  Some kids needed some assistance, but for the most part, everyone had a good handle on this simple St. Patty's Day project.

Even a year later, our finished product still hangs on the white board in our kitchen.  This would also look great in front of a window giving a sun-catcher effect!

We finished our play date off with the traditional snack of leprechauns - Lucky Charms.  We're not one for formalities.  We pretty much pour it on the table and let them graze for the marshmallows. 

   

And while our kids were pretty played out, we had a great little story picked out to finish out the event.  Perfect for toddlers just learning their numbers, this festive book will have them counting along!

What other ideas for St. Patrick's Day play dates have you used in the past?  We'd love to hear from you!

Weekend Update

Just a little update from our little family.  We had such a nice weekend, I thought I'd share!

We started out with the babies much delayed Bubble Guppies Birthday party.  Having Christmas birthdays is such a tough thing and I haven't quite settled on the best way to navigate this.  A week earlier is Dan's birthday, so that makes an early party tough.  We've considered celebrating summer "half birthdays" but that doesn't sit right either.  It's tough for them to have to share a birthday - and then it be right on top of the holiday.  But despite, we thought we'd celebrate this year in February once all the other business and seasonal flu had cleared and we could focus our attention on throwing a fun party.  We'll be doing a whole post about our party details, but here's a sneak preview!

Saturday gave us a nice opportunity to enjoy Phipps Conservatory during their "We Love Our Members" free event for members of reciprocating museums.  While it was quite a bit crowded, it was an awesome day to spend indoors - while still allowing the beautiful sun and blue skies to shine down on us.  Look out for a post about our trip for an upcoming Field Trip Friday post!

Coming home from the conservatory, we decided to pull ourselves together and try to make it to church for the six o'clock service.  While Dan and I have been visiting this church for about a month and am loving almost everything about it, this was the very first time we'd be bringing the kids.  It is HUGE, and while it means we haven't had the opportunity to develop many personal relationships with other members, it means that there are fantastic children's programs, and lots of opportunities for fellowship and learning.  So I was terribly anxious - how would they react?  They've never been in anyone else's care other than family and a few specially chosen babysitters.  I prayed the whole way there that they'd handle it well.

At this point in my life, I should really have learned to stop "worrying" so much and trust that He always takes care of our needs.  Too many times I panic and become consumed by anxiety - only for God to come through and remind me that my worrying was all for nothing.  Saturday was no different.  We checked the kids in with their kiosks and headed to the 2-year-old room.  They opened the half door - and off my kids ran.  Straight to the train table, without looking back.  What an awesome blessing to avoid tears of separation.  We kept watching, but their numbers never came across the screens to alert us that they needed us.  They'd had their first successful church experience, and seemed to have really enjoyed it!  What a great experience and we're looking forward to many more.

So to end our update, I'll leave you with a few "Julie-isms."  Her words are just pouring out and we couldn't be happier.  I can't even list all the ones she uses, since she pop ups every day with new ones!  Here's a few things that have made me smile lately.

• Julie got a new princess dress - with "uh-punul" (Rapunzel) on it.  She is so stinking adorable in this dress, which Brayden likes to bring me to put on his sister.  I loved seeing the look in Dan's eyes when he came home from work and saw her wearing it (over her sleeper) for the first time.  She really looks like a little girl and no longer our baby.
• I just can't get enough of her little phrases - like "ah-hoo" which I believe is her word for "woo-hoo."  Whenever she's having a great time or riding her Rody Horse, she'll say "ah-hoo ah-hoo" and you know she's having a great time.  Interestingly - this is also the word she uses when pretending to sneeze.
• Finally, this little doll is loving to pretend to go to sleep - pulling the covers to her shoulders and "snoring." I just have to smile as I have distinct memories of doing the same as a kid.  I love seeing her discover and grow into this incredible little girl.

A St. Patricks Throw Back Thursday

St. Patrick's Day is coming and we're looking for new photography ideas for the babies.  We thought we'd celebrate this "throw back thursday" with a St. Patrick's Day picture from two years ago.  At three months old, we were inspired by the When My Baby Dreams photos and thought we'd snap our own version of our Irish babes.

Boy have they grown in two years!  I still see glimpses of the sweet babies they once were.  Happy Throw Back Thursday and St. Patrick's Day!

Swapping Kids Clothes with Swapdom

With twins, our closets are literally busting at the seams each season as we have racks (and piles) of clothes in two different genders, multiple seasons and numerous sizes.  We've told you a little bit about our consignment sale experiences, but we always have favorite outfits that we know would make someone very happy to find.

We'd dabbled in online trading before - but found the previous site we used to have a few problems.  Primarily, the person with a young child needing sizes we'd outgrown, had little to offer us when we were looking for larger sizes to grow into.  It was really a bummer to have to tell someone "no-go" and not clear out my clothing stash - and at the same time - not get what we needed!

I was thrilled then when I was introduced to Swapdom!  It's absolutely the perfect solution.  Here's the basics of how it works:
1 - You photograph and post items you no longer want.
2 - You browse to find the items that you love, and then indicate what items you see as a "fair trade" for the things you like.
3 - You sit back and wait as the awesomeness of Swapdom goes to work like a fabulous matchmaker.

You see, that's the magic of Swapdom.  Their algorithm connects the person who wants your stuff, with the person who has stuff you want - and creates a multi-person swap so that everyone wins!  This video does an excellent job at illustrating the process.



Swapdom - How it works from Swapdom on Vimeo.

They make it easy and affordable to get the things you want - while supporting a sustainable environment by encouraging reuse.  And as any mom with little ones knows, going shopping out of the house can be close to impossible.  This convenient system lets you shop from your couch!  Even when you ship your item to your trade partner, their relationship with UPS allows you to print your label from home, never having to wait in long post office lines.

Getting started, I've uploaded three little gems, and am excited to get my first connection for a swap!

The possibilities of what you can post are really endless.  Here's some things I'm looking forward to adding:

- Last year's kids coat's and swim suits

- Bottles from our baby days

- Hair bows from GiggleBuzz

- The huge box of "baby toys" we've accumulated

Swapdom just launched their kids division, so jump in now and ensure that your items will get tons of exposure as people discover the site.  And spread the word!  This is too cool not to share.  With all of our friends joining us, the variety for kids swaps will get even better.  In the meantime, you can always trade in that pile of outgrown kids clothes for some swanky sunglasses or a new necklace for yourself - we won't tell anyone!  Swapdom has been working with swapping fashionistas for a while so they've got tons of experience in creating happy swapers throughout the country.

As if you needed another reason to love Swapdom - they're giving away a top of the line Phil&Teds Stroller for their facebook fans and members!  Click here to like their page and enter the giveaway, ending 2/28.

Come on and connect with me on Swapdom - check out my profile and make a swap!  Your heaps of outgrowns will be shrinking, while your mailbox will be full of lots of lovelies to fit your little ones.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Swapdom but all photos, opinions and experiences are my own.

5 Tips for Fabulous Beach Pictures

I think you guys must be ready for summer, because lately, you've ALL been reading my post about bringing babies to the beach! Ever ask yourself "how to take pictures of kids at the beach" or look for "beach pictures with kids" or "kids beach photo ideas?"
I don't mind...  I'm right there with you!  While we might not be making it to the beach this summer (we're planning our first Disney Trip I believe), I am always glad to pass on some "lessons learned."  This past trip, I braved the sand a little more with my DSLR Camera, and the results were fantastic.  While I'm only an amateur photographer, I wanted to share some ideas with you for taking great pictures this summer as you take your own trips to the beach!