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Babies to Big Boys Room Makeover!

June 1, 2011 By 8 Comments

Oh.My.Gosh.  I can not believe that my twins, my babies, the “little’s” have turned five years old and will be starting kindergarten in the Fall.  I just can NOT believe it!  Where has the time gone?

Instead of being weepy about it, I got the harebrained idea of celebrating this milestone with a bed room makeover.  I’m just cool like that!

Or crazy.

The jury is still out…

Anyhow, we moved into this house three and a half years ago.  Before we lived here, my mom and dad did.  Many, many years ago, I helped my mom paint the grand kids’ room with teddy bears and it was really cute.  My mom had lots of cute Bernstein Bear decorations and it was a great room for visiting grand kids.  Unfortunately, it did not take long for my monsters boys to start ripping the cute baby bear wall paper trim off the walls.  And now, three years later, it looks pretty bad.

Also, when we first moved in, the twins were still sleeping in toddler beds.  They quickly outgrew those tiny beds and I found myself desperately searching for beds on Craigslist.  I found a decent set of “triple bunks” for only $100!  It was a DEAL!  But as you can imagine, a set of three beds for only $100 came with a few issues.  These past three years we have made the beds work even with missing screws and questionable base boards.

Here is a peek at what I’m working with…I really should have thought to make the beds before taking the pictures….

click to enlarge

The beds are missing screws, the base boards are broken on two of them and Nate’s is held together with a few pieces of scrap wood.  It is to the point that I actually worry about the safety of the beds and I know we desperately need new ones.

My babies need a new room!

Lucky for me, Hayneedle and My Wonderful Walls have come to my rescue!

Over the next month, I will be painting and stenciling my little heart out making room for some new beautiful beds.  I can’t wait to share all the fun with you!    In addition, if you happen to be a business owner who might have some wicked cute “outer space” themed items that you want featured here, please let me know!  I’m still scouring the web for fun accent pieces and bedding to complete the room.  Either way…it is going to be a MAJOR improvement!  I might even have a giveaway or two.  So stick around and check back because I will be posting progress updates throughout the month of June!

Let the painting begin!

Filed Under: Product Reviews, Twins Tagged With: , , , ,
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Looky What Landed On Our Doorstep!

May 18, 2011 By 8 Comments

Oh YEAH Baby!  That’s our very own, personal, keep it forever Inflatable Bouncer!  The kids could not be more excited.  We spent all day on Monday bouncing like bunnies and having a blast.  Unfortunately, San Diego got a little cold wet blast these past two days and we had to put it away (surprisingly easy to do, too!).  Hopefully tomorrow it will be warm again and we can bust it out for more fun.

Rock Crawler Bouncer and Ball Pit by Blast Zone

The Blast Zone Rock Crawler combo bouncer is ready to rumble! Crawl on in through the Rock Crawler Bouncer’s front wheel, and get ready for a rocking good time! Up to 6 Kids can play safely with the Rock Crawler Bouncer at once.

The Rock Crawler combo has tons of fun features to keep boys and girls entertained for hours: a ball pit in the engine compartment area, a crawl tunnel tire, a large bouncer in the cab and a 2-kid-wide tailgate slide.

A large bounce floor, ball pit/play area and a low height make the Rock Crawler an excellent choice for indoor and outdoor use. Kids go nuts for the active theme of this Blast Zone Combo Jumper, and adults love the easy setup and compact design.

 

I am so excited to have this for the summer.  It’s going to be a fabulous way to keep the boys off the Playstation and outside burning up their energy.  I will have a full review coming soon!!  In the meantime, go check out the huge selection of Bounce Houses available.  Your kids will love you forever.

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Jambu Shoes: My Most Favorite Shoes EVER!

May 10, 2011 By 11 Comments

Have you ever heard of Jambu Adventure Designs?  I had not either until just recently, but looking at their website I couldn’t help but think, CUTE shoes!  And when my box arrived at my door and I opened it up, I literally squealed (not something that I admit to doing very often).  I’m always hesitant to accept shoes for review because I have giant feet.  Most cute designs don’t go up to my size 11 wides and I’m always disappointed in the fit and comfort.  But not these shoes.  My Jambu’s are fabulous!

About Jambu Adventure Designs:

Jambu™ is the original outdoor adventure brand. Jambu’s™ sporty‐ feminine shoes are ultra comfortable and perfect for the women on the go. Collections include styles like Sporty Wedge, Metro, All Terra, Bare Feet and Vegan Designs; making our shoes perfect for the adventurous soul inside every woman.  Unlike other outdoor brands, Jambu™ shoes are designed by women for women, therefore, details such as floral motifs, contrast stitching and materials keep Jambu a step ahead creating an outdoor fashion feel.  JAMBU™ uses only 100% recycled, recyclable and re‐usable packaging. Jambu™ outsoles are made with partially recycled and re‐usable compressed rubber. In this small way, we hope to preserve our great outdoors for future generations.

I chose to test out the Jambu Touring, which is in their Sporty Wedge category.

The Sporty Wedge Designs™ are 10 oz. with a heel height of 2 ½. All styles have non‐slip, partially recycled/recyclable rubber outsole and a contoured memory foam footbed for support and comfort. Jambu offers a wide variety of Sporty Wedge styles perfect for Spring or Summer such as sandals, mules, clogs, and Mary Jane’s

Aren’t they to DIE FOR CUTE?

These are the bottoms.  I was hesitant to walk on them because I didn’t want to mess up their cuteness!  But, after I got over my hesitance and put them on, man were they comfortable!  Honestly, I was a little shocked.  Cute shoes are never comfortable…but these are.  VERY.  I immediately headed next door to show them off to my mom and within 10 minutes she had asked my dad to get her a pair for Mothers Day.  They are THAT cute.

I wore them to a party at my Aunt’s house and everyone there commented on how adorable my shoes were.  I happily told everyone where they came from and how to buy Jambu for themselves.  I would absolutely buy these as a gift and I would certainly buy another pair for myself.  They are fabulous.  And I LOVE that they are environmentally friendly with several Vegan designs to choose from.

My Touring’s retail for about $115.00 dollars but prices vary depending which store your purchase at.  Several Jambu styles are available at Macy’s, too.


 

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Neer Location Application

April 7, 2011 By 4 Comments

I’ve mentioned how I think most location apps are stupid.  I think it’s really unsafe to post to the world where you are throughout the day.  Well today I learned about Neer.

Neer is COOL!

There is this bread outlet store down the hill (where I live…everything good is “down the hill”).  Well, it takes 45 minutes to drive down the hill and I’m not going to make a special trip to the bread store just because.  But the bread store has Home Pride bread for $1.67 and it’s normally over $4.00 in the grocery store.  HUGE difference, right?

So, I tell myself, “next time you go down the hill, don’t forget to go pick up bread.”

Next time I go into town…do you think I remember to stop by the bread store?

That would be a big fat “no.”  It never fails though, as soon as I walk in the door to my house I think, “Damn!  I forgot the bread!”

Well, Neer will let you give yourself a location reminder.  I can enter in the bread store address and next time I am “neer” that location…it will remind me to get bread!

Brilliant!

But Neer really does so much more than that.  Check out the video to see a demo:

The only big fat bummer I see here is this:  I don’t have an iPhone 4.  So sad for me, I can’t even use this FREE app even though it would be PERFECT for me and saving mucho bucks on my bread.

Oh…Bob!!???


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Creating a Perfect Picnic

April 4, 2011 By 8 Comments

A fun and cheap way to entertain the kids this summer is to take them on a picnic!  I really had no idea just how excited the boys would be when we got a new picnic basket.  It was like Christmas!  It was really funny.  They started jumping up and down and running around planning our perfect picnic.  When I gathered them up to go to Wal Mart for our picnic items, they bounced off the walls!

Really amusing.

I have weird children.

Better Homes and Garden’s sent me a wicked cute picnic basket, a quilt (that folds up into a matching tote), some springy plates and plastic goblets to get me started.  And then, for less than $25 bucks at Wal Mart I was able to get everything else I needed for a fun little, very simple, kid friendly picnic.

  • Bread
  • Peanut butter
  • Jelly
  • Spring snack cakes
  • Sun Chips
  • Extra paper plates
  • Cuties (tangerines…or are they oranges?  I never know)
  • Lemonade
  • Lemon-lime soda
  • napkins
  • Wine (for the mommy!)

It is so easy to make PB&J sandwiches special just by simply cutting them into shapes with some fun cookie cutters.  I chose flowers to keep with our spring-time theme.

We took the boys to the park yesterday.  It was a partly sunny day, perfect for spending time outdoors (not too hot…not too cold).  The park had recently watered the grass, so we set up on a picnic table.  It was perfect!

mmmm…yummy!

Bob was trying to teach Gabriel how to make noise using a blade of grass.  Gabe was super impressed!

Naming cloud shapes with Nathan.

We ended up cutting the outing short because Gabe was having some “intestinal issues.”  It was much safer for him to be near home…if you know what I mean.  But, for really really cheap, we had a fabulous family picnic at the park.  I can’t wait to go to the beach this summer now that I have a basket and blanket all handy to make taking our lunches so much easier.

Now, I need YOU to do me a favor!  This is actually a Perfect Picnic CONTEST that is being hosted at the Better Homes and Garden’s Live Better Facebook page.  I would love you more than anything if you would visit their page and VOTE FOR MOMMY23MONKEYS!  Please?

1st:  “LIKE” BHG Live Better on Facebook

2nd:  On the left menu, click “Perfect Picnic,” find Mommy23Monkeys (Rhea Tabler) and Vote.  My picnic is titled: “Kid Friendly Picnic.” (You should be able to click on the pink banner above to go directly to my entry)

Voting BEGINS on April 5th (afternoon) and ENDS on April 20th at 5pm EST.  The winner (ME) will receive a $200.00 Walmart card.  Woot!  So thanks in advance for voting for me.

 

Filed Under: Adventure, Product Reviews Tagged With: ,
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