PSA or IBMM (Irresponsible Bad Mommy Moment)

Call it what you will. If you know me personally you know that I am a bit on the overprotective side. I know this. It was also how I was raised by my great grandmother so why wouldn't I be the same? My kids aren't the "cool" kids, they are the ones who have to play it safe because "My Mom won't let me." Bummer right? Recently I learned a very valuable lesson. Being overprotective isn't all that bad.

Last week a friend invited us to their community pool to swim. I am a nervous wreck in pool situations. Like until this season I have made our 5 year old wear a swim vest (insert *eyeroll* from 5 year old here). I don't let our girls outside of our fence without a life vest on because we live on the lake. Our water isn't even over their heads but still it is a "wear it or don't go!" Period.

My friend, Steph, and I decided to order pizza for the families and Ruby asked to take off her vest. I have never let her do this. After a few times of her asking I let her. Where was my head? What was I thinking? I didn't want to hear her whine? Plus we were eating away from the pool. Everyone was told not to go in the water and to let their stomachs settle. While Steph and I were cleaning up the table Violet yelled "Mama, Ruby isn't wearing her life vest and she's sinking!" Oh.My.Gosh! My heart stopped. Thankfully Steph was already running and jumped in and got her. She was fine and was holding her breath trying to doggie paddle but definitely under water. That fast. Steph was shaking. I was shaking. Our baby loves the water and just wanted to put her life vest on and get back in not even realizing how dangerous of a situation she was in. 3 year olds don't understand drowning and I failed her by allowing her to wear me down and take her vest off. Again, what the heck was I thinking?



I know my child will never get to take her vest off again. We have all probably heard a similar story before. It can happen in an instant. There was no splash, there was no struggle, my girl just basically sunk even trying to swim. I have beat myself up so many times over the past few days over this. I have cried over it. I have major guilt over it. It was the first and ONLY time that I ever let one of my kids around water without their vest and my girl almost drowned. Water should not be feared but it should be respected. Valuable lesson learned the hard way!

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Pony Royale Review #CleverPonyRoyale

This post is sponsored by Pony Royale. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Pony Royale, a new toy line starring beautiful princess ponies, brings a fresh new approach to princess play in the fashion doll category. Pony Royale combines favorite play patterns - hair play, fashion play and nurturing play – to give children endless hours of open-ended creative play with a fun and easy fashion system. The full collection, featuring 12 Princess Ponies, all with the ability to mix-and-match their manes, tails and fashion pieces, will hit store shelves in late July at Toys R Us.



My girls were lucky enough to play with the ponies before they get to Toys R Us! We received Harmony and Sienna. I couldn't get the package opened soon enough for our pony lovers. The twelve Princess Ponies are pony action figure dolls with names, personalities, and changeable hair and outfits. With two Pony Royale dolls, make over 60 fashion styles! Each pony comes with a jeweled birthstone blaze, two sets of Change-It-Up Hair and hair brush included!



The week that Sienna and Harmony arrived was hot. Let me rephrase, H.O.T.! Afternoons were spent indoors to escape the 100+ degree temps. The new Pony Royale Princess Ponies gave them hours of imaginative play. Our lucky Princess Pony's were treated to their hair being braided, taken out, brushed, and braided again.





Our little Ruby loved them right away. Although she is only 3 she was able to remove the hair and change it as easily as the older two. She thought it was fun to use one color of hair for the mane and another for the tail. She liked her Princess Pony so much in fact that she didn't want to share her with the others. Thankfully Ruby naps occasionally because that allowed Piper and Violet time to play together.



Piper read to her sisters about the other Princess Ponies in the Pony Royale stable which were quickly added to their wish lists. A map of the Princess Pony's land sent them on adventures throughout our house ending in the living room where the girls changed out their pony's hair, switched up costumes, and got them ready to go again. The Pony Royale website tells you about each Princess Pony. Fun girlie things like who her BFF is, what her favorite drink is, and gives a brief description of her personality. Cute right? Piper was all over that!





A beautiful Princess Pony with her birthstone blaze would make an excellent birthday gift for that special princess in your life. Piper wants Starfire when they become available to the public this month since she just celebrated her birthday. It will give each of our girls their own Princess Pony to play with and many more hair options. Pony Royale will also be selling Fashion Sets and Hair Packs to dress your Princess Pony for the beach or maybe a day chasing butterflies. A girl needs a lot of options!

Visit the Pony Royale website for more information. Look for Princess Ponies in stores starting late July! Meanwhile, be sure to check out Pony Royale’s Facebook page and follow them on Twitter!

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Anticipation

Sometimes during our lives we build up an event so much in our heads that we become crazy with emotion anticipating how good or bad it will be. This is me right now. The weeks leading up to what would have been Milo's due date have been some of my worst since we lost him. I wish that I could stop the bad dreams at night or the sad memories that replay in my head during the day. There have been some very grateful distractions but even with them my heart is broken most days.

I feel different inside and I am still pissed off. This is obviously seeping into my everyday. Sometimes I feel like my joy is gone and wonder if it will ever return. None of this is fair to our family, I know this, but even on days that I get up trying so hard it just takes one small thing to throw me all the way back down into that very sad spot. Sad and angry feel a lot alike to me with both leaving me very empty.

I have still been taking my iPhone pics every day and one day (maybe even soon) I will post them. For now I will try and concentrate on Piper's birthday coming up and all the fun we will have when our Ohio family comes to stay with us. Maybe the great weight I feel will ease after I get through Sunday. I can only hope.

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Another school year in the books

I am now the mama of a rising 2nd grader AND a rising Kinder! Here are the 1st & last day side by sides. They are getting so big!

and this one actually didn't go to school but she will go 2 days a week next year.


These girls. I swear each of them have grown 2 inches. When you look at them from just 9 months ago you can see the changes. I should have made them get out the chalkboards again. Something to remember next year :)

Haven't participated in a long time!

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School's Out! My COOL WHIP Everyday Celebration! #FMcoolwhipmoms #spon

Quick, easy, and delicious. COOL WHIP Whipped Topping finds itself on our family's table all year round. I can remember back to being a kid and at every family event someone made Pistachio Fluff, did you ever have that or was it just our house? COOL WHIP was served every Thanksgiving and Christmas with delicious pumpkin or pecan pie and also summer's apple and berry pies. COOL WHIP isn't just for pies though. I enjoy a little dollop on my fresh berries. Sweet summer berries make an easy dessert during the week and our family can't get enough of them!



In true zoo style we celebrate everything so the first day of summer break deserved it's own little party. I am going to share a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie recipe that I really love. Super easy to make and it is a hit with the kiddos. It was rainy and yucky outside and the girls didn't get to play like they wanted to but knowing the pie was coming for "bessert" that night gave them something to look forward to.

Ingredients

COOL WHIP Whipped Topping - mostly softened
Chocolate Ice Cream - mostly melted
Peanut Butter Chips
Chocolate Pie Crust

Then assemble the pie - first up most of the peanut butter chips


On to the mostly melted chocolate ice cream


Top it off with COOL WHIP Whipped Topping and the rest of the peanut butter chips


Now freeze! Sometimes I freeze it overnight sometimes (like this time) I freeze it for the day (approximately 5 hours). And Enjoy!



Prep time on the pie was about 5 minutes. The hard part is waiting until it refreezes to dive into it! Chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream, and COOL WHIP - it doesn't get any better than that! You can mix and match chips and ice cream to make up your own personal COOL WHIP pie. I saw mint chips at the store that would be fantastic with a mint chocolate chip ice cream. COOL WHIP also has 2 flavored Season's Delight varieties, Sweet Cinnamon and French Vanilla, that you could get really creative with. I could just dunk a wafer cookie in the Sweet Cinnamon and my sweet craving would be satisfied.

Yummy treats don't have to be difficult or time consuming and COOL WHIP helps you make them easily. COOL WHIP Whipped Topping has a ton of recipes on their website that you can try out tonight for your family. Or maybe you have a special dessert you'd like to share? Enter COOL WHIP's Fan Dessert of the Month Contest for a chance to win $500! Simply make a COOL WHIP dessert, take a photo, and upload it here. Enter now!

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

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Project 366 - Week 22

Summer, summer, summertime
Time to sit back and unwind

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We had some friends of ours over. It was a very good day!


And I think that they were all worn out. Want to know why?

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This was taken at almost 9am the next day - diva!


It was also Daddy's birthday on Monday so we had a surprise party for him.

We decorated


and the girls were in charge of his cake


Old Man!



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Oh Burning Love Burger how I love thee. Dinner out with the fam to celebrate Daddy's 42nd year on this earth.

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Why didn't I plant cucumbers? Ah well, here is hoping that my friend has too many of them and takes pity on this cukeless mama. This one in fact was part of a salad last week. Yum!

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Who is this grown up looking girl with the sassy new hairdo? Her little friends got their hair cut and baby girl decided she wanted hers done too. It is absolutely adorable on her!

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It's official school's out and summer is here! 2 musts are ice cream


and lots of fun nights hanging out on our deck. I love lazy summers like this.

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I told the girls to give the poor (literally) tooth fairy a break and not wiggle for the rest of June, at least!


We teach them all the important life skills here


and to be able to laugh at each other and have lots of fun!


But most of all love each other


and eat chocolate. Daily.

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Project 366 - Week 21

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A wonderful day spent with the family. I love Sundays - especially during the summer!

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Just like that - dos!

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The summer program at the little library near our house is going to be a ton of fun this summer! They have music, story times, and them a whole bunch of activities for our older kiddos. Love that library!

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New bling for our Rhubarb from the Value Village's 1/2 off day.

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Decisions, decisions. Goodwill on Thursday had 3 BRAND NEW pair of flip flops for me to choose from. I left the Haviannas because they felt like they would hurt my toes.

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Where oh where did the Lucas girls go?

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I let them stay up too late on the weekends. Here we are on our deck and she has my Kindle reading a book. Nights here in NC are gorgeous and my kids should get to experience them once in awhile :) Plus they are awesome company - love me some Lucas girls!

This is the only posts that I seem to be able to publish these days. I don't love what starts coming out when I type so I delete most things I write. There have been too many bad anniversaries swirling through my head. Too much sadness inside me and with my "due date" quickly approaching it is a dark time in my heart right now and that's all I am going to say about that.

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