Budget Friendly Halloween Activities For The Family!

I really love making the holidays special for my family. I think it is so easy to get sucked into the mundane, so I love that holidays provide us with an opportunity to just be out of our ordinary! Plus, I love candy. So, it's easy to see why I'm a big Halloween fan. Kids love to dress up and go run around, I love the fall colors, and the list just goes on and on! Place your holds at…

Our day trip to St. Helens, Oregon–Visit Halloweentown!

Today, we took a thirty minute trip to St. Helens, Oregon.  It was a beautiful fall day, and we went to see the Spirit of Halloweentown.  [Get their full 2018 itinerary here.] This was such a neat day, it was cute to see where one of my favorite fall movies had been shot. We also learned on our adventure that Twilight and parks of the show, Grimm were shot here too!  We always try to make our day trips as…

Halloween 2021 Movie Suggestions!

The boys and I spent some time this morning looking at some titles for our October movie nights. Planning ahead is an easy way to not stress and keep expenses low! Here’s what we are watching: On 10/1 Disney+ is going to premiere LEGO® Star Wars Terrifying Tales. Really excited to watch this one with the boys! We haven’t watched the Addams Family as a family yet, so we are going to watch that one. I also noticed Netflix is…

Video Game Birthday Party!

I really took the summer off from posting on this platform. That is one of the best parts of being a business owner, I do have the luxury of doing that. When I first started blogging, I felt a lot of pressure to create near daily and often would end up burnt out. It is nice to be able to step back and recharge a little more these days! Both of my boys have summer birthdays, so I thought I'd…

Back To School With Tyson!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. The opinions and text are all mine. #CreateYourOwnRules Seems like since March 2020 life has just been unpredictable, watching my boys navigate the shifts and changes so gracefully has been awe inspiring. We are currently rounding down from an amazing summer-- we packed it full of adventures at home but also many other activities. I'm starting to look ahead to the upcoming school year, ordering school…

Editor’s Notes: August 2021

When my boys were babies/toddlers/before the school years. My morning routine consisted of waking up intentionally early and writing on this blog. I wrote a blog post nearly daily, we'd eat breakfast and go to the gym. We'd come and do an educational activity or meet friends at a playdate and then go back for lunch and naps. During nap, I'd take reading or quiet time for myself to recharge for an afternoon of parenting, we'd play outside, make dinner,…

Back To School Checklist

I fully realize that many of you may not be ready to even think about back to school, but alas, here we are. For us, it has been a really sad week. We sad goodbye to our foster daughter exactly a week ago, so I've busied myself the last seven days by cleaning my house from top to bottom, having the kids try on every item of clothing they own, and labeling school supplies. It's hard for me to fathom…

Finding Encouragement in a new place with California Psychics!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of California Psychics.I have walked through a pretty difficult year-- between my appendectomy, the financial toil ofthe pandemic on my tiny business, and then the shooting my family was recently involved in.My creativity has been virtually non- existent. I can't tell you the times I've sat down to writeand words wouldn't string together for me. I worried my writing career was over, the trauma stunted my words. Usually when I…

Budget Friendly Back To School Favorites!

This post contains affiliate links, thanks for supporting my blog! At no cost to you, when you shop using my links, I earn a small commission. It is unbelievable to me in many ways how quickly this summer went by. My oldest son is going into third grade, so I feel like I've got some experience now as it relates to shopping for school. Where to splurge vs. where to skip. I also find that I'm very protective of my…