Growing Up

Teal Pumpkin :: What It Means And Why It’s Important Halloween is a scary time for many families and children, but not because of ghosts and goblins, but because of peanuts and soy and dairy. For children with allergies Halloween can be a time fraught with danger and sadness. A candy and treat filled holiday is a minefield for parents of children with food allergies. Thankfully, the Teal Pumpkin Project was created to address this situation.  What it Means The idea behind the teal pumpkin is simple: it is a non-verbal signal to trick-or-treaters that you offer allergen free options like non-food trinkets. It allows children with severe allergies to participate in trick-or-treating without being “othered” and it offers some peace of...

Property Brothers :: Money, Mercy, and Monopoly Flashback to New Year’s Eve, 2021. That night, we stayed in as Covid cases had spiked and gifted us with the Omicron variant. I would eventually become well-acquainted with Omicron a few weeks later. But on this quiet and cozy evening playing board games, laughing, and enjoying the “Mini Sweet Tooth Buffet” I’d pulled together following a last-minute Target run, I looked around and felt better than I’d felt in months. I could have sworn I tasted a bit of sweet hope intermingled with the sour gummy worms. That night we played Monopoly as a family for the first time. It had been at least a decade since I’d opened the game, and pulling that...

Celebrating Big On A Budget :: Tips From A Mom Of Four I’m a mom of four. That means four birthdays, four times the Christmas gifts, four times the Easter basket stuffers, etc. You get where I’m going with this? It’s A LOT. If I were to have my way, I’d be super extravagant and holidays would be filled to the brim with every gift and experience imaginable but alas, in today’s economy expenses add up really fast and no matter how you look at it, four kids is EXPENSIVE. So in the spirit of keeping up with a somewhat manageable budget, here are some of my tips and tricks to keep cost at a minimum while still holding onto that...

World's Okayest Dance Mom Tis’ the season of tutus and tap shoes! A new season of dance has begun. My daughter started her fourth year of dance this year and I’m not afraid to admit that I still don’t know what a plié is. You see, I love that she loves dance. I love that I’m able to provide her with an opportunity to be involved in dance. I know NOTHING about dance. Every week she puts on her tights and leotard and gets dropped off for an hour. What goes on in that class is a mystery to me. Only on our twice a year parent watch nights, and at the rehearsal and recital do I actually see all the...

Help My Baby Turned Into A Tween And Needs Deodorant As mothers, watching our children grow and develop can be a rollercoaster of emotions. It feels like just yesterday you were changing their diapers, dressing them in their favorite cartoon character t-shirts, and wiping away the crumbs from around their smiling mouths. But as time goes by, our babies transform into young adults, and one of the first signs of this change is the need for deodorant. How many times do you ask yourself: "Is my child really growing up so quickly?" You might even pause to reminisce on the first day you smelled their sweet cheeks. Yet here we are, shopping for deodorant because they need it. Who knew there...