Sandra

Our Fun Disney Kids Preschool Playdate

December 9, 2014 by Sandra 6 Comments

Thanks to Walt Disney World Resort and MomSelect for the fantastic party kit I received to create a truly memorable Disney Kids Preschool Playdate. #DisneyKids #DisneySide

There are two things that I love — getting together with family and talking about Disney World!

So we were incredibly excited to host a little preschool playdate and invite my sister over with her two preschool-aged children. 🙂

Even though Sarah (my sister) and I live close by, we both work from home, have kids that keep us busy, and simply don’t have time to get together as often as we’d like to.

Disney Kids Preschool Playdate

For the playdate, Disney sent us a kit that turned a simple playdate into an amazing day to remember. It was filled with Jake and the Never Land Pirates themed items that made our time together fun and extra-special.

Toys, Snacks, Lunch, and Games

The playdate started with the kids making sure they each had a few small pirate toys to play with. For easy locating, we made sure to put each child’s toys on their plate at the table.

This was followed by delicious, kid-friendly snacks. My kids were elated to have fruit snacks, because they’re a rare treat in our home. They loved the chocolate chip protein bars, too.

The Crunchmaster crackers were gone in sixty seconds. Well, not literally, but they didn’t last long! Seriously, good! 🙂

The kids enjoyed a super simple lunch of popcorn chicken and fries, and at some point, I remember giving them all their very own Disney luggage tags. 😉

The luggage tags were a hit and went along well with the Disney World video we had going during the playdate.

We did a variety of things for fun and games. But I think the favorite activities had to be playing Disney bingo, building a Mega Bloks truck, and creating with Kinetic Sand!

By the way, out of all the different “sands” we’ve tried over the years, Kinetic Sand is my favorite. It’s EASY to clean up and doesn’t make a huge mess like the other ones we’ve used in the past.

While the kids played, it was great to be able to catch up with my sister and talk about my family’s Disney trips.

Sarah has never been to Disney World (my first visit there was when I was 29-years-old), but she wants to take her little ones sometime soon. I shared some of my best tips with her and talked about what an awesome vacation spot Disney is for families.

The preschool playdate turned out ~~to be like five hours long~~ better than I’d expected.

Judging from all the smiles, I think everyone involved had a fabulous time. 🙂

Who would you invite to a Disney Preschool Playdate? What’s your favorite Disney memory?

Thanks again to Disney and MomSelect for the fantastic party kit I received for our #DisneyKids playdate.

How I’m Using the InStyler Max 2-Way Rotating Iron to Straighten My Hair (Before and After Pictures)

December 5, 2014 by Sandra 2 Comments

Thanks to Vocalpoint for the InStyler tools and for partnering with me on this review.

When it comes to my hair, I keep it simple.

If you’ve watched any of my YouTube videos, you know this is true. 😉

It’s not that I don’t want to spent a lot of time fixing my hair every day – it’s just that as a mom of five, ~~kids start banging on the door~~ I don’t have the time to spare. But I don’t use that as an excuse to walk around looking frumpy day-in and day-out. (And I KNOW my husband appreciates this!) Nope. After I wake up, I get ball rolling, put on some makeup, and fix my hair.

InStyler Hair Tools

Most recently, I’ve started using the InStyler MAX 2-Way Rotating Iron to straighten my hair. Someday, I’ll learn how to curl my hair like a pro. For now, I love the ease of straightening my hair and having a put together look in a short amount of time.

InStyler actually offers three different hair tools: the TULIP Auto Curler, the Ionic Styler Pro, and (my favorite) the MAX 2-Way Rotating Iron.

Back to the MAX 2-Way Rotating Iron, you can see that it has a built-in brush, and the barrel easily rotates in two directions depending on which side of your hair you happen to be working on. You can even curl your hair with the MAX, but I’m sticking to its straightening features for now. Of them, I like that the InStyler MAX straightens my hair while giving it body and volume.

It doesn’t leave my hair super flat like some flat irons do.

Extra Features on the InStyler MAX

While you can certainly use the MAX 2-Way Rotating Iron out-of-the-box, it comes with two additional pieces that I definitely recommend using. First, there’s the removable cool tip, which allows you more control as you use the InStyler MAX.

Then there’s the thermal guard. It protects your scalp and fingers from the hot barrel. At one point, I decided to use the MAX without the thermal guard. Bad idea! Lesson learned, and I won’t be doing that again! 😉

The Part Where I Step Out of My Comfort Zone

So… I don’t normally post pictures of myself like this here on the blog, but I want to show what the InStyler MAX can do. However, I wish I would’ve taken these BEFORE Thanksgiving and the five extra pounds that have decided to stick around. That’s what I get for procrastinating!

Even so, I think they turned out okay. 😉

Here’s what my hair looked like BEFORE I used the InStyler MAX 2-Way Rotating Iron:

And here’s what it looked like AFTER:

I liked the ‘after’ so much so that I decided to switch out the profile picture on all of my social media accounts to that image.

And now I’ve crossed one more thing off my to-do list. 🙂

Which one of the InStyler hair tools would you be most likely to try? Or, straight or curly, which do you prefer for your everyday look?

P.S. You can visit the InStyler website and enter the code SAVE30 for a 30% discount on the line of InStyler tools. This code is good for the purchase of two tools through 1/31/15.

10 Goals for the Week

December 1, 2014 by Sandra 8 Comments

I hope you had a fun-filled Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Our family spent Thanksgiving just taking it easy, enjoying good food, and talking about what we’re thankful for. It was great. 🙂

As for my goals, I failed at getting up early most days, and I didn’t finish and post my DIY hair conditioner video here on the blog. But otherwise, I did pretty well.

Here’s what I accomplished last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. ~~Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family~~

2. ~~Take time as a family to tell each other what we’re thankful for~~

Personal Goals:

3. ~~Do resistance band exercises 3x~~

4. ~~Walk a total of 90 minutes on the treadmill~~

5. ~~Read 20 pages of The Most Important Place on Earth (affiliate link) by Robert Wolgemuth~~

6. Wake up by 7:00am

Home Management Goals:

7. ~~Vacuum upstairs~~ — I’m thankful for a husband who reads my goals post every week and vacuumed for me. 🙂

8. ~~List one thing to sell on ebay~~

Business Goals:

9. Post the DIY video on how to make homemade hair conditioner — I’m almost finished with this post.

10. ~~Photograph a product that’ll be featured in an upcoming blog post~~

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Continue to work on memorizing two verses of scripture as a family

2. Plan a fun family day

Personal Goals:

3. Do resistance band exercises 3x

4. Walk a total of 90 minutes on the treadmill

5. Read 20 pages of The Most Important Place on Earth (affiliate link) by Robert Wolgemuth

6. Wake up by 7:00am

Home Management Goals:

7. Go through a box of Christmas stuff and take out the things we’ll use this year

8. List one thing to sell on ebay — I made over $60 last week!

Business Goals:

9. Post the DIY video on how to make homemade hair conditioner

10. Photograph a product that’ll be featured in an upcoming blog post

What are your goals for this week?

Peep and the Big Wide World (Plus a Fun Science Activity!)

November 28, 2014 by Sandra 3 Comments

This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with PEEP and Latina Bloggers Connect.

Homeschooling my 5-year-old son, David, is not easy.

He’s always been my strong-willed child and lets me know right away when he doesn’t like something. Whether it’s coloring or working with flashcards, if he’s not interested in it, well, school can turn into the “low part” of his day in a hurry. 😉

As his mother and teacher, I don’t want that for him. I want him to be excited about school and learning. So you can imagine how excited I was to have discovered an entire website full of educational activities that David actually loves!

Peep and the Big Wide World

The website is called Peep and the Big Wide World. It’s named after the series by the same name that appears on public television. Maybe your kids have watched an episode already?

The Peep and the Big Wide World series stars a wide-eyed chicken named Peep, a robin named Chirp, and an endearing duck named Quack. They live in a large urban park — a place of endless wonder, adventure, and mystery – perfect for learning science and math concepts each and every day!

David and my other kids have been getting to know Peep and his friends, and amazingly, David and Isaac, my 7-year-old son, are learning even as they watch.

They learned how to “Mississippi count” the other day. 🙂

They’re learning even more from the Peep and the Big Wide World educational apps that we installed on some of our electronic devices. As a mom, I’m a huge fan of apps that teach my kids rather than simply entertain them.

The mobile-friendly digital hub gets preschoolers engaged using fun activities and helps parents be ready and confident to facilitate the exploration of math and science with their child.

Pour and Squirt Water Activity

One of my favorite parts of the Peep and the Big Wide World website is the educators area where you can find a number of different activities to engage your child and encourage their curiosity.

My three youngest kids loved this pour and squirt water activity that I came across on the website.

We basically filled different sized bowls with water, and then they used a variety of household items to pour, squirt, and play.

Mentos Science Activity

Seeing some of the different activities on the Peep and the Big Wide World website made me think about a science experiment we’ve been wanting to try as a family, but kept putting off for one reason or another.

We’ve been wanting to try a fun and easy science activity that involves dropping a bunch of mentos candies into different kinds of pop.

There’s an incredible chemical reaction that occurs between the pop and the mentos, and you really must see it to believe it!

So, we created a video. 🙂

We finally carved out time, gathered the supplies, put on our jackets, and had a GREAT time experiencing such a crazy experiment first-hand!

Below is the video we created for the mentos science activity. The results might surprise you!

I’m so glad we took the time to finally try the mentos experiment.

It is as fun as it looks. 🙂

But, you know, I’m even happier to know that I have another resource when it comes to teaching and homeschooling my kids. I’m certain that I’ll be going back to the Peep and the Big Wide World website again and again. I love that there’s even a Spanish version of the site available – perfect for when I start introducing my kids to more español!

Are your children familiar with Peep and the Big Wide World? Do your children enjoy doing science activities at home?

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