Mommin' It Up!

June 24, 2013June 22, 2013

Jonah Wears the (swim) Pants in the Family

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Huggies, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #HuggiesSwimmers http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.”

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that one of my summer survival strategies this year was joining a new pool, and now I’m here to say it was a great decision! Thus far, the extra money we forked out to have room to move and er, swim at the pool has been SO worth it! It is never crowded. We pretty much had the place to ourselves on Monday last week, see?

We are having an amazing time at the pool this summer! The big kids are making friends (despite the fact that there are none present at the pool in the above photo), and Jonah is learning to love the water.

We’re having a blast, but before we leave the pool, I have to endure the arduous process of getting us all ready to go…not my favorite part. It takes me nearly all morning to get us all dressed, sunscreened, and ready to go. And of course, there’s also the packing of the POOL BAG:

One thing that makes our pool-time routine easier is my favorite swim diaper, Huggies Little Swimmers. I’ve been a mom for over nine years and I can honestly say I have never bought another brand. Between great Huggies coupons and sales, they are always the absolute best price. My most recent package of Huggies Little Swimmers came from Target, where I saved an extra $1.50 with this Target printable coupon you can print here. I was able to combine it with a manufacturer’s coupon for even more savings! You know mama likes THAT!! (And you also know that mama does NOT need to have an excuse to go to Target! Wheee!)

Untitled — Found ’em in the diaper aisle, top shelf at Target.

And they work! They keep Jonah’s baby business where it needs to be so EVERYONE at the pool can enjoy swimming with us! And Jonah himself feels quite comfy in his Little Swimmers. I love how they are so easy and quick to get on him so we can get in the water!

He likes to wear them above his swim trunks so everyone knows he's got something special on underneath... — He likes to wear them above his swim trunks so everyone knows he’s got something special on underneath…

I love how easy they are to to take off when he’s had enough swimming for the day. The tear-away sides make removal extra-quick!

sacked out 2 — He’s worn out at the end of every pool day. Being so cute at the pool is hard work!

Huggies Little Swimmers are the swim diaper solution that works for us! So far this summer they’ve already been to the water park, the splash park, and the pool, and next month they are hitting the beach! We can’t wait!
We love our Little Swimmers! Where will you take your baby in them this summer?

June 22, 2013June 30, 2013

Get your fuel points on! Kroger $100 gift card giveaway!

Last month I posted about how I wasn’t sure what we should do this summer for our family vacation; we were planning on visiting my parents in Viriginia as usual but wanted to take a side trip as well. Many of you had helpful comments and after some help from my bargain-hunting mom (I come by it honestly) I am excited to say that we are beach bound!! We’re heading to Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina next month. WOOHOO! I can’t wait to take these babies to the beach!!

So in just a couple of weeks, we will be gassing up the Toyota Sienna and heading first to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and then to the beaches of North Carolina. We are SO excited! But, our van runs on premium gas (per my mechanic hubby), and gas isn’t exactly el cheap-o these days. Which is why before we leave for our trip, we’ll be fueling up our summer with gas from Kroger. I almost always get gas at Kroger because I can use the fuel points I earn buying groceries there to get a discount on gas. Generally you earn 1 point per $1 spent at Kroger, and you can see your points totaled up at the bottom of your receipt.

Happily, this summer Kroger has made it even easier to rack up those fuel points! Using this digital coupon that you can load to your Kroger Plus card, you can get 2x the fuel points on everything you buy on the weekend all summer long. You have until June 30th to load the digital coupon to your card, so click here and do it now!! After you have loaded it to your card, you will see it on your receipt when you shop on the weekends!

The Summer Fuel promo has already been working for me! I loaded the coupon to my card as soon as it came out, and last time I filled up I got 40 cents off a gallon!! You can redeem up to 1,000 fuel points at a time to earn up to $1 off each gallon of gas. Wow!

Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m headed out to Kroger to shop their most recent mega-event one more time (it’s the last day for it where I live) and rack up some more fuel points for my next fill-up. I’ll be earning double fuel points for buying all the things my family uses all the time that are on the mega-event: baby wipes, Capri Sun, Cheez-Its, and my favorite Gevalia coffee. WOOT WOOT! Of course I have plenty of coupons to take with me, too!

Thanks to the most recent mega-event at Kroger I have 12 brand new tubs of baby wipes, which I got for 49 cents each. 🙂

To help you get a jump start on fueling YOUR summer, Kroger was kind enough to give me a $100 Kroger gift card to give away to one lucky winner! Yeee-haaa! Wouldn’t it be fun to earn double fuel points on groceries bought with a gift card? I think so! Here’s how to enter to win:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me how Kroger is going to fuel your summer. Do you have a road trip planned, or just lots of driving to do during the week?

2) Optional: Facebook fans of Mommin’ It Up get an extra entry. If you are a Mommin’ It Up Facebook page fan, leave us a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you are.

3) Optional: If you follow Jenny on Instagram and Emily on Instagram, you’ll get an extra entry. Leave a separate comment on this post letting us know that you follow us BOTH for an extra entry!

One winner will be drawn at random on Saturday, June 29th at 6 pm EST. Good luck and go fuel your summer with Kroger!

June 21, 2013June 20, 2013

In which I did NOT super-glue my fingers together

I am not the most, um, coordinated person you’ll ever meet, as I have waxed eloquently about before (ahem, more than once).

It should not surprise you then, when I admit that I have had more than one mishap with super glue. Being a cheapskate, of course, I purchased the cheapest super glue I could find, which as it turns out, may not have been the *best* choice. The first unfortunate incident happened when I tried to glue some of Joshua’s Awana patches on his Awana vest when he was a Cubbie (you know, the kind of patches you’re supposed to sew on. But since I can’t even sew a button…). The other incident occurred when I was trying to fix Sophie’s favorite board game (which we’ll get back to in a minute). Both episodes resulted in my fingers being stuck together and me panicking and losing some skin trying to get them apart. Neither episode resulted in the items being fixed. LE SIGH.

Set that cute little story aside for a minute and fast-forward to a sunny California morning when Emily and I sat down at breakfast at Mom 2.0 next to a very cool (and totally adorable) public relations professional named Tanya. We hit it off and after a phone call a week later, I found myself agreeing to take part in another super-glue inspired escapade. That’s right, Super Glue: the Sequel. But this time, with a Super (see what I did there?) Hero to my Dummy in Distress: LocTite!!

The first project I tackled with LocTite: Sophie’s hair flowers. There were a few that I’d left in my purse that came off the clip and one that Minnie Mouse tried to escape from.

For this project, I chose LocTite’s All-Purpose GO2 Glue. Fixing hair-bows seems pretty all-purpose to me, plus it is extra-durable and shock resistant, which are two attributes necessary to exist on my daughter’s head. Just sayin’. It worked perfectly! The bottle design made it impossible for me to get it on my fingers during the application.

After 30 minutes, the hair clips were totally set and fixed. It’s been about 3 weeks since I fixed them, Sophie’s worn them each a couple of times, and they are all still in perfect shape. Yay!

For my next trick, I decided to attempt to fix Sophie’s very favorite board game – the one I had previously tried (and failed) to fix with cheap-o super glue. It totally did not work at all on the board game but it DID totally glue my fingers together because it was such a mess to apply! This game is special to me because it’s the second game she ever really loved and was instrumental in her speech therapy progress. So I really wanted to see it fixed up and play-able again.

I decide to fix it on video for you so you could actually SEE how quick and easy it was to do with LocTite’s Extra Time Control Super Glue! Check it out!

I know in the video I said I’d let the game sit for 20 minutes, but I got a little impatient, sooo…these pictures were taken only FIVE minutes later!

Sophie was THA-RILLED when she came down to breakfast the next morning and found her fixed game sitting at her place!

Sophie loves this game! — Happy girl, ready to play!

I have to say my experience with LocTite was more than…wait for it…SUPER. It was awesome! Definitely the most successful super glue experience I’ve ever had. I love that I could just exactly the right type for the specific projects I was working on, and I love how EASY it was to apply. No drips, spills, messes, or mishaps.

In short, LocTite is Jenny-proof! Next time you’ve got something you REALLY need to fix, don’t waste your time or money on anythign else. Pick up some LocTite!

Thanks for the fix (and all the future fixes!), LocTite, and thanks for supporting Mommin’ It Up!