Free downloads and free photo printing at Walgreens... can't beat that!

By now, the blog world has been littered with the free offers that Walgreens has offered.  They probably expire soon, so jump on it while you can! 

And I thought I'd offer some free printables I made.  Yeah, based off of ones I found on pinterest, I made my own. Feel free to download, print, etc.

Here's one for a little fun... and because I LOVE me some cupcakes!

And this one is because I've been trying to incorporate teal and orange in the same room, but it's hard when you have hardly any orange items in your house.

 
The codes for the 2 free 8x10s are FREEONE and 1PRINT. Also, you will have to make 2 separate orders as they only allow one of these codes per order.  Good luck and have fun!

My little diva

Yeah, I definitely go the extra mile when dressing my kids.  You don't(?!?!) match your kids' outfits to their carseats?

Sad.

I usually don't either, but thought she looked especially cute.  On a typical day, her hair is falling in her eyes, her bow is crumpled on the ground, the glasses are being thrown around the backseat, and I realize halfway to my destination that her outfit doesn't actually match.

But today was a wild exception, right down to the accessories.  I was just so proud of my accomplishment I had to have proof, and share that proof, and brag about that proof.

I do think it is hard to dress little girls though.  There are only about 529 different shades of pink out there, and my brain has decided that none of them go together well so I pretend they're all the same shade.

I realize it is probably a problem related only to me and my complete lack of style, but hey, I can still turn out a cute outfit once in awhile!

We don't mess around in this house.

You may be under the impression I might be talking about a mess. Or a discipline tactic. Or cleaning.

But, it's all about whipped cream.

 

Yeah, it's kind of a staple in our house.  Especially when Safeway sells it as BOGO free.

So my kids are "potty training" right now (yes, that was in quotes... no, you may not ask why). We have fully implemented gummy bears as the sugary incentive.  Caution: this plan does backfire once you run out of said gummy bears.  And instead of packing up the kids, heading to Costco to fight my way past the hordes, sweat about a pound of water as I say "excuse me" (cause I'm polite like that) and "excuse you" (yeah, I say that to the rude ones... but quietly so they can barely hear) while wrenching my cart in a hundred different directions, and making my way to the candy aisle only to then have to enter into a 7 person, 8 cart line while my kids tell me it's too late.  Not worth it.

So off I go in search of some sort of candy in our house.  Chocolate doesn't work. I imagine it actually would, but I don't like to share. Ummm, oooo, is that whipped cream I spot?

Perfection.

Worked like a charm.  After my chicklets used the potty chair and cleaned their lil hands, they barely gave themselves time to get fully dressed before they were at the fridge with their mouths open.

I finally made it back to Costco (much to the dismay of my kids), and although they like the gummy bears, one of my little chicklets is potty trained while the other is **sigh** "potty training".

Hair Chopping

I tend to get asked a lot about Queso's hair.  The most popular question at this time happens to be: "When are you going to cut his hair?"  NE-VER!   Well maybe, but not now while I'm still trying to grow it out.  It's about 4 inches long right now... if I straightened it, it'd probably be about half way down his back.

Being one of those women who had never had:
1. a professional hair stylist cut my hair until I was in my 20s; and
2. layers added in (also not until my 20s),
you might expect that I would be the wrong one to take on the challenge of having my son grow out his african hair.

You'd be right.

UNTIL it got long enough for me to work with and inspiration hit.  I no longer have to cart him off to the Beauty School to throw away money to have cornrows that last less than a week.  YouTube has been my friend, and I have educated myself quite a bit on his hair.  I can now do semi-decent cornrows, and have had fun trying some new designs.  It's not great, but he loves them!

I'll journey through the process of his hair, tips and tricks for african boys' hairstyles, etc.  My simple google searches produced very little options in terms of ideas for longer, african hair on boys so I'll create my version of what I think is lacking.


Here's a picture back from when Queso was 1... and the huge volume of hair I had to work with.

If you'll notice, there were slight bald spots.  I wasn't ever quite sure if those would grow out evenly.  At this point in time, you'll notice how fuzzy his hair always was.  His hair is usually last priority as we race out the door to get somewhere 5 minutes late.


But this span of time gave me the opportunity to really look into what it takes to maintain a healthy head of african hair.  That's my mantra when I see pictures with no shine to his hair.  I will justify my lack of knowledge, energy, and ability....


To start (and I fail at this all the time), never let your little boy out of the house without a good spritz of oil/sheen/shine/etc.  African hair will look dried out and unmanaged if it doesn't gleam in the sunlight.


Next up, bonding over braids.

Advertising Failure

Well then, I saw this ad on tv.

I very professionally added in some arrows to direct you to the tag line.

If you're trying to sell a pain relief item, maybe it wouldn't help to make the claim that "Nothing's been proven to beat the relief."  Sooo, nothing will help.  Don't bother buying this product.

They should have run this campaign through a consumer panel first for feedback on just how negative this makes their product look.


Dear Salanpas,
FIRE YOUR ADVERTISING AGENCY!
Sincerely, Me (a consumer who now would never buy your product)