First Time Mom and Losing It

**I received the product below free for my review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be a good fit for my readers. All opinions are 100% my own.


When I went to Blogger Bash in July one of my favorite booths at Sweet Suite was Educational Insights. Being a teacher made me appreciate how every one of their toys has some educational aspect to them. They create toys that are not only educational but extremely well made and fun. The amazing people at Educational Insights sent us some toys to play and learn with. My daughter was so excited to play with the big box of toys.


First we played with the Magic Moves® RainbowJam™. You just take the wand and press it onto whatever color you want. Every time you press on a color it will tell you what color it is and play a song to go with the color. It has different musical styles like Latin and jazz. It comes with a 16-page musical activity book. My daughter loved playing the songs with the colors and singing to them. She had the most fun running around the house clicking on every color she could find.


Next was the Puppet-on-a-Stick™ Rainbow Prancers, Set of 3. My daughter is a huge fan of ponies and unicorns are even better! I love that the Prancers had hair she could comb and stickers she could decorate with. First we played pretend with them by just moving the wands around. Then I taught her how to use the lever to move the mouth. It took her a few tries to do it but when she got the hang of it she had so much fun making them talk and sing.


Her favorite of the bunch was the Design & Drill® Flower Power Studio™. I love how cute the floral design was and the bright colors. Having the base fold and close was a big plus to contain all of the little pieces. Once I put the batteries into the drill my daughter was in love! She felt like a big girl using the drill and got the hang of it pretty quickly. She wouldn't stop until each nut was drilled in place. I love how it came with a booklet of designs to try.


We also got the GeoSafari® Jr. Jungle Crew Lab Set™. It is a 6-piece, animal-themed science set. I love that it comes with 10 hands-on activity cards with fun and easy experiments to try. I will be adding this set to our science curriculum and will be posting pictures soon of them in action.


Which one of the bunch is your favorite? 

My daughter had a great summer playing with her cousins. School is almost back and my niece will be starting Pre-K and my nephew will be starting Kindergarten. Since they live in a different boroughs my daughter won't be seeing her cousins as often as she did in the summer. She was kind of blue that she didn't get to go to school so I got her a book bag and school supplies for us to use while I home-school her for the year. I also got her excited about collecting Box Tops for her cousins.

Since my sister has two kids going to school and I have one going in next year we know how important and easy it is to collect Box Tops to help get much need money. For each little Box Top that you collect and give to your school you will be giving them $0.10 in spending money that they can use for whatever they need. As my sister and I were collecting them we wanted to find a way to keep the Box Tops safe while the kids transferred them to their schools. I came up with a cute little pouch that could go right into the binder and not get lost.


All I did was get a little binder pouch that they could easily clip into their binders. I printed this LOGO resized it and cut it out. Then I used some packing tape and pressed two layers on top to fully cover with the edges of tape going outside of the logo. Then I centered it onto the binder pouch and pressed it on. Now the kids know that this binder pouch is just for Box Tops.


It is super easy to just go to Walmart and pick up the items like the ones for General Mills® that participate with the Box Tops program. Now you can collect even more with Bonus Box Tops in select items like the General Mills® Cookie CrispsTM, Lucky CharmsTM and Cocoa PuffsTM. To get 5 Box Tops for your school with one item all you have to do is purchase the products with the logo below. Then you cut out the regular box top and then cut out the 4 bonus points certificate in the back of the cereal and you get $0.50 for your school.


How do you keep your Box Tops Organized? 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills®. The opinions and text are all mine.

“This post is sponsored by Everywhere Agency; however, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.“


It is that time of year where it's time to get ready for back to school! I remember the excitement of going clothes shopping when I was kid. My older sister would always steer me the right way on fashion. It felt nice to have a complete new outfit to start the school year right. Now that my daughter is older she has outgrown the cute baby clothes and is looking at more stylish clothes. She is such a girly girl and always goes for the pinks, purples and anything Disney Princess related. I could totally see her rocking that Elsa shirt and cute jeans below.


Since Macy's is a one-stop destination for hip school fashion it makes it easy on parents. It saves so much time when you can just find everything in one store especially when you have more than one child. I love that you can find all the latest styles and brands in just one place and with the huge stores there is something for every taste. There are about 800 locations in the states alone so you are bound to find a Macy's conveniently located to you.

To celebrate back to school, Macy's is inviting everyone for an afternoon of crafts and activities including Disney Princess and Star Wars coloring books! I know my daughter is going to enjoy making her own Princess crown too. Kids will also get the chance to pose for a picture in the Disney Princess and Star Wars-themed photo booths.


If you are in the Bronx or NYC area, join me on Saturday, August 15 at 4PM at Macy's in the Bay Plaza Mall, Bronx N.Y. for a fun filled day at the Macy's Back To School Event. If you are outside of this area you can click on the link to find an event near you.

What are your kid's back to school style?