Happy Halloween!! (and Day-after Sale tomorrow!)

Whooo! We had a successful Halloween this year. My lil guy had a much better understanding of the concept of trick-or-treating at 27 months. It was so cute to hear him say the words and also show off his costume to the neighbors. When we got home, they were allowed to eat ONE candy of their choice. But then I pulled out a bag of fruit snacks and offered it to my lil guy instead and he went for it. Hehe. He has the rest of his life to pig out on candy.

Funny thing is, I’m trying hard to keep the sugar intake low for my kids, but then I turn around and eat all the candy myself! I’m soooo bad at work – notorious for raiding all the candy bowls around the office. Geez. I do like the option of all the “candy buybacks” that I have seen pop up. I think I will look into doing perhaps my own “buyback” for the kids later… when we realize that taking my money is better than keeping the candy. Cha-Ching!

Anyhow, besides Halloween….. what I’m REALLY excited about is TOMORROW – The Day-after-Halloween discounts at Target. Holla! This is where I will load up on some costumes for the kids to play dress-up in and also potentially use for next year’s Halloween (assuming they don’t start getting all picky). I’ll also be loading up on the goody bag toys (pencils, tattoos, etc) for both the kids classrooms gifts next year and also for the pinata for my daughter’s birthday party in May. If I get lucky, I find candy for cheap that is also used for the pinata (depending on the expiration date of course!). Ahhhhhh. I love you day-after-holiday sale at Target. See you bright and early tomorrow morning!

Pumpkin Festivities

There’s just something about October that really kicks off the holiday mood. Perhaps its the change in Starbucks menu, or the chilly mornings that start off each day… I dunno… but whatever it is – I like it.

Living in San Diego, we make use of our SeaWorld passes and hit up their Halloween Spooktacular theme every year. It’s pretty fun to take the kids in thei costumes and let them go around to the different treat stations for candy. It was really chilly this year when we went, so we left the costumes at home. Beware – its SUPER crowded the weekend before Halloween. I made that mistake once. So we usually go the second weekend in the month. This one was actually a photo from last year’s SeaWorld Halloween. They are currently remodeling the front of the park right now so it’s a little cramped so we didn’t take a whole lot of photos this year.

Then of course you gotta venture to a pumpkin patch right? All the actual “farms” that grow pumpkins are a little further away from our house (and the kids each had field trips with their schools to them). So as a family, we just went one evening to one of the mobile sites: Pumpkin Station.  The rides are totally over-rated and over-priced. Fortunately, the kids are still small so they had just as much fun just getting out of the house for a bit to check it out.  The kids paint their pumpkins (instead of carving) every year, so they were able to pick out a little one for our annual carving party.

Later that week we had our annual Pumpkin Carving/Painting party. My friend hosted it this year – whooo hooo. Less clean up for me. heehee The adults carved pumpkins and all the little ones got to paint their pumpkins and add stickers, etc for decoration. They loved it. This was the first year my lil’ guy got to paint since he was too young for it last year.  They were all so proud of their work!

As we approach Halloween next week, the kids are getting all amped up. We still have another pumpkin patch field trip to go on and another visit to Disneyland before the big 31st!

Damn October rocks!

Preparing for cold season

Yikes! Cold season is coming up! Besides the annual flu shots for the kids, I have been stocking our medicine cabinet with the following products for when the kids do get the minor cold. I really do hate giving medicine often, so most of what I use are natural medicines. I’ll keep knocking on wood because when my kids haven’t gotten sick, it’s never lasted more than a couple days – always staying on the minor side. Whew. Who really knows what keeps their immune systems up… could be a number of factors: being breastfed, genetics, healthy diet, or just plain ol’ good luck.

I have come to really like Target’s Up & Up brand. The generic version of the Infant’s Tylenol has actually worked well for my kids. And I like how it dispenses in a syringe – My kids prefer to take their meds this way versus in a spoon.

For that darn cough that takes forever to go away after a cold, I give the kids Elderberry Syrup. It takes some bribing with my 4yo, but my son takes it like a champ. I’ve also alternated that with a homemade cough syrup recipe that I found on Pinterest that uses honey and lemon.

Ahhhh, good ol’ Echinacea for defense. I love this stuff. There is no harm in building up the defense! The kids have no problem taking this one. Sometimes, I just put a drop in the kids breakfast oatmeal, but otherwise, they usually can take it right from the dropper. I don’t actually give this to them on a daily basis or anything – only when it seems like a cold is coming on, or someone else around the house is sick and I’m hoping it doesn’t pass along.

These Sniffles ‘n Sneezes tablets are really easy to give to the kids. Although, I haven’t determined yet if its really effective. I usually use it in combination with the Up & Up generic Tylenol and bundling up the little ones so that they aren’t chilly. However, considering it’s natural, I continue to give it a shot when the kids start a sniffle and sneezing frenzy that isn’t allergy related.

Last but not least, don’t forget your humidifier! Really helps my little ones (and myself) sleep better at night. I love the Crane ones – they are so cute. We have the frog and the owl (not pictured). Hello Kitty was too expensive for my taste. But you can get the filters on Drugstore.come for about $10.

 

Oh – in fact – I buy ALL of these products (except the Up & Up) from Drugstore.com. Can’t beat the prices, especially when Ebates has the 12% cash back days on it. Seriously, if you aren’t online shopping through Ebates right now, you are missing out! Use my referral code dammit: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=d1WP3PcGkOO6zQmkJBydXg%3D%3D

Mommy does Vegas

Yup. That’s right. I conquered Vegas last weekend with the girls. Ahhhhh… Seriously, I had not done a girls trip anywhere in 4 years. Yes, FOUR years. Sad, but true.

So considering the infant and half of the toddler stage behind me…. I decided to finally enjoy myself dammit. And enjoy I did! Besides, when girls go to Vegas – its pretty affordable. One of the benefits of having boobs I guess.

Southwest Airfare deal: $97 Roundtrip

Luxor hotel via Orbitz: $204 split against 4 girls (holla!)

Upgraded room to a suite: $20 (Thanks www.frontdesktip.com !)

Outside of those basics, I spent $50 on cab/tips, and $100 on food. Yeeehawww. I think I spent like $7 on ONE drink the entire weekend. Thank goodness for those promoters wandering the streets looking for hot chicks to come to their club.

I give a thumbs down to Surrender on a Thursday night – music was heart-breakingly horrible. Fortunately that was our “relaxed” night. Marquee Day Club was good, but suprisingly smaller than what I imagined it to be. Highlight of the weekend: seeing Steve Aoki perform at Hakkasan. Amazing venue and off the chain music. The sore feet and lost voice were all worth it. Oh. and Did I mention that my BFF was one of his Cake Girls? Apparently, he likes to throw cake into the audience at chicks. Well, what an honor my friend, let me tell you…. I just crossed cake smash off my bucket list!

Steve Aoki’s CAKE GIRL

So I had a little over 2 days away from reality. No kids. No work. No responsibilities. Damn it was nice.  Yeah, I missed the kids. Not a WHOLE lot, to be honest – Probably because it was only 2 days. But by the time I made it back home, it was nice to have two little rugrats screaming and running towards me with open arms.

One of those days

Ugh. I’m having “one of those days”. One of those days where you just feel out of it. One of those days where you just want to crawl into a hole and hide from the world.  I’m tired. I’ve been stressed. I’m lost. I’m confused. I’m anxious. I’m…. all of the above.

And thus… that’s why its “one of those days”.

The only thing is,  even though I’m having one of those days, I still need to hold up the mommy front (as best as I can). Which actually can be really hard sometimes!

Ugh… trying to keep it together today.  And I feel guilty that I have not been blogging. But I’ve been bombaded with something called Life.

Hello October! A “Kids Free” kinda month in San Diego!

Ahhhh… mornings are starting off chilly, the sun is setting a little earlier and…. October is here!!!!

Even more exciting is this list of 100+ KIDS FREE deals. Yay. Time to get out and about, explore and grub. Check out the extensive list here: http://www.sandiego.org/promotions/kids-free.aspx