Magnolia Mamas

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Children's Book Club: The Great Easter Egg Scramble

There are tons of great Easter books for kids both young and old. Last year we shared some of the most popular amongst our little bunnies, and while those are still in constant rotation, this month's selection is one that has our kiddos constantly giggling. Each night when they choose their books this one somehow always makes it way into the rotation. Paired with the activity this will sure to be a hit for your little ones too.

March's Selection:

The Great Easter Egg Scramble by Timothy Knapman

From the Back Cover:
Oh dear, the Easter Bunny's in a bit of a muddle! He's been so busy preparing for his party that he's forgotten to deliver eggs to all of his friends. So off he scrambles at top speed. But when Mrs Duck hatches a baby croc and the Turtles become parents to a penguin chick, the Easter Bunny's muddle soon becomes clear. Let's hope it doesn't spoil the party!

Activity: Easter Egg Color Matching
This hilarious book focuses a lot on color recognition. What better way to reinforce that coupled with engaging those fine motor skills with a fun activity. We loved this Egg Color Matching one from Little Bins for Little Hands.

This super simple game is inexpensive to put together and provides fun with a no mess clean up. Our little ones love it, and it would lend for a great activity to pack and bring with you on your Easter travels, or to use in the classroom for party entertainment.

CHILDREN'S BOOK CLUB 2016

| January | February |

Happy Reading!

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Way to Goal {printable}

Spring sports have been in full swing here for a few weeks now, and we've been spending a good bit of time at the soccer fields. The weather has been ah-mazing lately, so we've happily enjoyed our time both on the fields and on the sidelines.

This past weekend I was in charge of the after game snack for Cute's team. We've been with the same team and coach for a few seasons now, so I decided my go-to printable for snack time needed a little refresh.

I let Cute pick out what he and his teammates would like for their post game refuel, and after steering clear of a snack entirely built on Easter candy (negotiations were fierce), the rest was easy.

I updated the printable with a new saying and to include his team name and colors.

Needless to say team Magic was super pumped both about their win, and their post game snack.

If anyone is interested in using the refresh for your own little soccer star HERE is a link to download a generic version I made.

What activities are your children participating in this spring?

Monday, March 14, 2016

St. Patrick's Day Marshmallow Pops

There is nothing we like more in this house than a reason to have a celebration. Celebrations mean yummy treats, and quite possibly a reason to bust out some theme wear. :)

This week, Cute's class is having a ton of events, and almost every day is packed with some fun. It marks his 100th day of school, and St. Patrick's Day. We knew we wanted to make some fun treats for each event, and Cute decided at least one of the events needed to be celebrated with marshmallows.

My question is...what event doesn't need a marshmallow?

We found the largest marshmallows either one of us have either laid eyes on, and came up with the idea of turning them into huge marshmallow pops.

These had three components that made these a no brainer: 1.) They are easy. 2.) They are quick. 3.) They are yummy!

Supplies:

- Marshmallows. (We found these huge Campfire ones.)

- Candy Melts

- Lollipop sticks

- Sprinkles (We used these, but rainbow sprinkles would be cute, or really even skittles or some fun candy.)

- Wax or parchment paper

- A microwaveable bowl

(Let's pause for a moment and let me note just how excited I was to find sparkly gold sprinkles. People, gold sprinkles that sparkle!!!)

Instructions:

Prep the marshmallows by placing the sticks in the center of the bottom and make sure it is secure.
Place chocolate in bowl and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between each restart. Repeat until smooth.
Once ready dip marshmallow carefully into chocolate. Cover as desired.
Sprinkle or top as desired.
Place on parchment paper to cool for approximately 30 to 45 minutes. (Depending on climate and temperature cooling times will vary. Wait until the chocolate is hardened to touch.)

Either enjoy or gift, but what ever you decide this yummy treat will be sure to be a huge hit with those silly leprechauns.

Check out some of our past St. Patrick's Day fun:

Leprechaun Lookout

Leprechaun Laquer

Lucky Print

Friday, March 11, 2016

Friday Favorites

Woo Hoo! Fridays are just my very favorite day of the week. The fun outlook of the entire weekend ahead is the best and we have some big plans for this weekend. I am SO excited to surprise my kids later today with a little trip to the sunshine state. It's a big secret and they are totally clueless, but be sure to check back next week to hear all about it.

For now though, I wanted to link up with some of our favorite bloggers to share my Friday Favorites from this week.

~ONE~
Like I mentioned above, this weekend we are making a quick trip down south to the sunshine state. While that has me really excited for warm weather and sunshine, I started thinking about wearing shorts and tank tops and took a little evaluation of my skin tone. Pale and white is pretty much what I saw. I'm all about protecting my skin with sunscreen and not being exposed to harmful rays, but let's be honest...we just all feel better with a little color, right? To do that safely, one of my favorite things to use leading up to spring and summer is this Jergen's Natural Glow.

I start out with the fair to medium skin tone and work my way up to the medium to tan skin tone bottle. I love it because it builds color gradually and you don't have to worry about streaking, lines, looking orange or any of that mess.

~TWO~
If you follow us on Instagram you might have seen this picture last week.

Jen and I both showed up to Chick-fil-a last Friday in our bright shoes! It was actually my first time wearing mine and I am so in love with them. I had just bought them earlier that week! My last pair of tennis shoes were about 3 years old so I was due for a new pair. I had really been wanting some hot pink ones and hadn't been able to find any that I liked. Then I came across this pair of Nike Flex and they were exactly what I had been looking for!

I love the bright pink and orange and I feel like not only will they keep me motivated to exercise and get in shape for summer, but they will also match a lot of my regular clothes for those days when I need to be on my feet a lot and on the go. I have not owned a pair of Nike's in probably 10 years. Recently the ones I tried on did not feel comfortable to me and didn't have enough support, but this style is very comfortable. I found that they ran a little small. I usually size up a 1/2 size in tennis shoes, but for these I went up a full size and they fit perfectly.

~THREE~
The weather we've been having has been nothing short of amazing. I'm hoping that this spring weather is here to stay and that it isn't just a tease. It makes me want to wear all of my fun spring colors and soak up the sunshine. This week I wore my Old Navy mint Rockstar skinny pants twice! This outfit keep me warm on the chilly morning, but was perfect for the warm afternoon and I felt like spring in this beautiful color.

Pants // Shirt // Belt // Shoes // Watch

I have these pants in lots of different colors and love them. I'm hoping they will come out with some more fun colors this spring. Right now there are not as many options. They are comfortable, stretchy and affordable.

My leopard belt is something I have worn way more than I thought I would when I first bought it. It's from Target (click HERE to see it) and it adds just a bit of fun to these basic pieces. I already blogged about it HERE when we shared our love of all things leopard. :-)

~FOUR~
I'm in my car a lot driving kids from one place to another and constantly running errands for my never ending to-do list. Because of this I listen to the radio a lot. I love all kinds of music from pop to country and oldies to hip hop. I don't discriminate when it come to music. I do have a very favorite song right now though...I love Zac Brown Band, Beautiful Drug.

Have y'all heard it? I'm obsessed and every time it comes on I crank it up and sing along!

~FIVE~
And my Friday Favorites would not be complete unless I mentioned my favorite and very best friend!!!

Jen is the sweetest, funniest, most caring and thoughtful friend a girl could ever wish for and I am so lucky to call her my best friend. She celebrated her birthday yesterday and we have a tradition of going to lunch together on each other's birthday. Well this just hasn't been the best week for her so we are going to postpone our lunch until next week, but I wanted to wish her her a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY and send her lots of birthday love via the blog today. :-)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

***This post contains affiliated links.***

Thursday, March 10, 2016

This is 33.

Today is my birthday. The big thirty-three. I remember back in the days when I thought, "Thirty is so old!". Now as I have skipped, hopped, and sailed past that milestone, from here forward I vow to only think 105 sounds old. :)

Growing up, in my family, we always made a huge deal out of celebrating everyone's birthday. We were awaken each birthday with some sort of surprise, and then throughout the day had multiple mini celebrations with family and friends (activities to be dictated by the birthday person of course), then to be commenced with the birthday person picking their choice of dinner location. My parents were super excited when I finally transitioned out of my Ryan's Steakhouse phase (Don't judge. It had an entire dessert bar. Dessert people!). As we became adults the tradition didn't stop, and now with my own little family I enforce these birthday rules upon everyone. I have yet to hear a complaint.

As this year's birthday approached, I expected to do pretty much the same.

However, life got in the way and I barely even knew what day it was let alone that I had some serious celebrating to do.

These last few weeks have been CRAZY. Now I know, most weeks feel as though we are speeding through life bouncing between work, school, extracurriculars, volunteer activities, etc. However there is crazy, and then there is crazy.

Last week, I alluded to Mr. Cute getting hurt during a workout. Well, fast forward to Sunday and that injury became exacerbated ten fold. He injured his back while doing a routine morning workout. All week he had been getting a little bit better each day, and by last weekend he felt he could at least do some small activities and even took the dog for a walk. Sunday afternoon he simply bent over and his back gave completely out. Like, couldn't even move gave out.

He had been seeing a chiropractor for his initial injury so first thing Monday morning we brought him in for an emergency appointment. It was so sad to witness. My poor husband needed 100% assistance in everything (and I mean everything). Any slight movement was crazy painful, and it took me 40 minutes just to carry him from our living room to our car, and placing him in our car. Keep in mind I am about a foot shorter and over a hundred pounds lighter. No wonder The Cutes hysterically laughed through the entire process as I am sure it looked all sorts of comical.

After what seemed like an extremely painful car ride, and eventful appointment to the chiro, things only seemed to get worse. His whole body he said was spasming. They gave me a Tens machine to hook up to him, but to be honest I was so nervous! I mean, the last thing my poor husband needed was for me to electrocute him on top everything else he was experiencing.

Fortunately he lived through potential electrocution, however, he progressively was getting worse and worse. By mid-afternoon somewhere after I had The Cutes reigning terror on anything in their path including the dog and each other, Baby Cute screaming because she was hangry, and I had lifted my husband enough times that I feared my own back might give out, I made the executive decision that we were ditching the chiropractor and were headed either to a Orthopedist or the ER - whoever could see us first.

Best. Decision. Ever.

Now while he was still in a crazy amount of pain, we at least had 1: crazy good drugs prescribed to us, 2: a plan of action other than "just give it time, and pray your wife doesn't electrocute you", and 3: realized it was nothing life altering long term.

So instead of celebrating mode leading up to my birthday, I kicked it into survival mode. Each day this week he's needed a little less assistance on my part and while I still have to help him in most tasks, drive him everywhere (because hello crazy good drugs), and I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Between managing that, trying to keep our lives as normal as possible with all other activities, and thankfully dodging what would have been my second ever speeding ticket, when I woke this morning if it hadn't been for the loving texts and phone calls, I would have flat forgotten it was my birthday.

Luckily, even through the chaos, all the special people in my life weren't about to let me forget.

I woke up to sweet kisses bright and early from this little guy.

The Cutes determined on the way to car pool drop off we needed a special birthday breakfast. I gave them all the options they could choose from and it was Chickfila biscuits for the win.

After carpool we came home and L.C. felt that she needed a mani and pedi to match her outfit. Who am I to turn down a little birthday pampering? She chose this fun blue color.

We did some tummy time with Baby Cute. Clearly she is a fan.

About this time I felt that Mr. Cute could use a rest so I wrangled the rest of us to the car for one of my least favorite birthday tasks...paying my car tag. Normally I do this more in advance but between giving birth and taking care of Mr. Cute it slipped my mind. The nice police officer who gave me a visit yesterday made sure to remind me though...

After carpool, I checked in with Mr. Cute and he was still okay without my assistance, so I took The Cutes to a local cupcake shop. What's a birthday without cupcakes?

It seriously is the cutest place, and even has mini tables and toys for the kids. We could have stayed there all day. But the sugar high kicked in and that is saying a lot with my two, so for the saftey of all other patrons we made our way home. Then three of the five of us could share in their highs together - cupcakes, Percocet...same thing!

I also brought a few for my sister who helped us out big time this week. Sharing is caring!

Once everyone's sugar rush wore off, I placed The Cutes down for naps and then we headed to the doctor's to get the results of my husbands MRI, and his treatment plan. This was pretty much his position since Monday. We found out that he has a herniated disc and with time and therapy it should be manageable soon.

The spine specialist we met with showed us various things on his MRI and when Mr. Cute asked if his bad disc would become healthy like the others again soon, point blank the doctor responded, "Welcome to old age. This isn't the fountain of youth."

Nope my good medical friend, and dear husband, that comes from the good plastic surgeon down the hall.

We arrived home close to dinner time and was surprised by dinner, flowers, and some fun presents from my family.

After receiving great news, I think why not begin a celebration?

So this is 33.

Life might be a little chaotic, we might be reminded that we are getting a little bit older, but at the end of the day it is always fun. I'll take it. :)

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Dinosaur Ridge and the Red Rocks {Denver, Colorado}

To read about the first two parts of our ski trip in Breckenridge click the links below:

Part 1

Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, our friends left in the morning to head back to Denver and catch their flight while we were in no rush. Our flight wasn't until that evening so we had the day to explore. After packing up and checking out of our condo we drove through Keystone, another neighboring ski resort and then started heading to Denver. Along the way we made a pit stop for lunch in Idaho Springs, Colorado. We ate at a Brewery/Restaurant called TommyKnocker and it was really good. The main street downtown area of Idaho Springs was really cute with lots of little shops and restaurants.

Then we continued on to Denver and stopped at Dinosaur Ridge. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it ended up being a super neat experience. It's one of the world's most famous dinosaur fossil locations.

You can take a guided tour or just park you car and walk along the trail to see different signs and information telling about the dinosaurs that once lived in this area.

See that red arrow pointing to what looks like the darker area of the rock. That is a real dinosaur bone! There were many successful excavations at Dinosaur Ridge that stocked many of the world's museums, but some traces are still there and just anyone can go touch them and learn about the history.

My little buddy was loving it and wanted his picture taken with every fossil we saw!

There were also tracks that were discovered in this area that had become stone and rock so we also got to see those.

The track has been painted a darker brown color to help average Joe's, like us, actually see what we are looking for.

There are trails for walking and biking in this area and the views are just gorgeous. It was a really warm day, so we could not have asked for better weather to explore some of the sights.

Literally across the street from Dinosaur Ridge is Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater. These giant rock formations are red in color, hence the name.

They are HUGE and so beautiful. It is so amazing to see from afar, but even more amazing to see up close. This area is a park, but also has a museum and an amphitheater were concerts and shows are played.

I can't imagine how cool it would be to attend a concert here! On this day there were tons of people just taking in the views, exercising up and down the steps, or sightseeing like us.

Although these next two pictures look like the same rock, they are different. There are so many of these huge rock formations and each is unique.

It was a great way to spend our afternoon and kill some time before heading to the airport. I would definitely recommend stopping by these two spots if you are ever in Denver and have a little extra time. After this we made our way to the airport, returned our rental car and started the whole airport process. The lines for security were super long, but thankfully a nice gentleman was directing families with kids to head to a special line that was much shorter, so we were thankful for that. We got the gate to learn our flight had been delayed for a few hours. By this point we were all tired and ready to get home, but the kids watched a movie on the iPad, I read my book, and we all just relaxed. By the time we got back to Atlanta it was after 1 AM and we were all beat. There were a few tears at different tines by the kids, but they were troopers and considering what a long day it had been, they did awesome. We finally got home just after 2 AM and all crashed. After such a fun trip, it felt good to be home and sleeping in our own beds. We're already talking about our next ski trip though and loved all of the memories we made!