Mompreneur was a term I hadn’t even heard of before having kids, but through a series of life events I’ve found myself with this title and all of the perks and challenges that come with it. Balancing being a small-business-owner and work-from-home mom is a constant work in progress, but this year, as my business has grown, I’ve come up with some pretty good systems to keep me on track. 

I get asked all the time how I manage to get everything done. That question always makes me laugh, because as a working mom there is really no such thing as getting everything done, but I can share some time management tips that I’ve learned along the way.

These tips are helpful year-round, but during Q4 and the holiday season, they are the keys to my sanity! I also couldn’t do it all without the help of brands I can count on, like Office Depot and OfficeMax.

1. CREATE A DEDICATED HOME OFFICE SPACE TO SEPARATE WORK & FAMILY

Moms are the queens of multitasking, and while this is an essential and valuable skill for keeping the train on the track most days, when it comes to running a business from home, there is great value in separating work and family as much as possible.

For years, I did most of my work sitting at the kitchen table or on the couch, but all the while I knew this wasn’t the best for my productivity, or for my family. I needed a better place to focus on my work, and to create boundaries between work and family time.

The good news is that you don’t have to have a home office, or even a lot of space. What’s important is to designate a dedicated work zone, even if it’s just a corner of a room.

Earlier this year, I claimed the mini nightstand-desk in our guest room as my “office,” and I was able to pack tons of function into this small space. I have plans to convert a basement bedroom into a larger office for myself in the future, but for now, this little desk gives me everything I need.

Creating this dedicated work space helps me be more productive and helps my kids to understand that when I am sitting at that desk, I need to focus on my work, but that when I’m not at that desk, they can have my full attention.

2. EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY TO WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

Years ago, I left my legal practice because I had always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. Along the way, I started my blog which then turned into a full-blown business, and I now provide decor and organizing services to many clients as well. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is my desire to keep my schedule flexible enough that I can be very involved in all things the kids have going on – so involved in fact, that this year I’m the PTA President {which is often like a full time job in and of itself}.

Running a small business while trying to maintain all the perks of stay-at-home mom life has required that I learn to work smarter, not harder, and embracing technology has been the number one key to balancing all of my home, life, and business responsibilities.

I rely on to technology keep me organized, track my client and consulting projects, stay on top of my finances, and even plan out my holiday shopping and gift gifting.  

There are a few business websites that are pretty much always open in tabs on both my iPad and my laptop, because they help me meet all of my business and personal needs during this busiest time of the year.

As a work from home mom, I get a lot of work done outside of standard business hours. I often hop on officedepot.com after the kids go to bed to order the large format photo prints that I’ll be framing a for a client decor project, order copies of a PTA event poster I need for my boys’ school, and re-order business cards for an upcoming conference I’ll be attending. 

And now that I’m in holiday prep mode, I’ll also be relying on the Office Depot and OfficeMax print and copy services for many of my holiday needs, like creating personalized photo gifts for the grandparents and ordering our holiday cards to mail to friends and family near and far. The ability to hop online and get all of my business and personal to-dos checked off my list in one place definitely helps me to be more efficient and relieves some of the fourth quarter/holiday rush stress!

3. MAKE REALISTIC WEEKLY AND DAILY TO DO LISTS

I’ve always been a list maker, but these days, as a small-business owner, PTA President, and mom, I live and die by my lists! If I don’t write it down, there’s a very real possibility it won’t get done on time, or I’ll forget about it all together. 

I use an app on my phone to keep track of everything I need to-do (categorized by business, school, and home). I’m constantly adding things to it constantly throughout each day. Of course, this list is totally overwhelming, but if I don’t input it on my master list, I’m likely to forget. 

Each Sunday night I go through that long list of everything, and prioritize the tasks that must be done during that week. After making my weekly to-do list, I consult my calendar and begin to plan out what tasks I need to accomplish each day. 

While I rely on my app to keep my master to-do list and prioritize my weekly action items, I still find it very helpful to hand write my daily to-do list. At the end of the night, I sit down with pen and paper and create my list for the following day. The act of writing it down helps me to think through what I can realistically get done, and to focus on those tasks separately from everything else on my longer to-do list.

The to-do list pad in the front of my TUL Discbound Notebook gives me the perfect place to create my daily list, and I get so much satisfaction when I check those little boxes throughout the day. It’s like giving myself a little high five for each task I check off. 

This notebook system is also great because I can easily add and remove pages, and I can even punch just about any document to slip inside. 

At the end of day, I pull out that day’s list and add anything that I didn’t accomplish to a new list for the next day. Starting a new handwritten list for each new day gives me the feeling of a fresh start and ensures that I don’t lose track of anything.

4. CREATE AN ON-THE-GO WORK BAG

Now that both of my boys are in school full time, I’ve started to take on more client work. On any given week, I’m spending time at multiple clients’ houses working on a variety of decor and organizing projects.

Mornings with kids get pretty hectic, and most days I’m doing good just to get breakfast in their stomachs, lunches packed, and the boys out the door with backpacks on their backs and shoes on their feet. Trying to also make sure I packed what I needed for my client projects on any given day was more than I could handle in the mornings.

Finally, I created an on-the-go work bag for myself that I filled with all the basics that I use for client projects. I still have to add a few things now and then depending on the project, but having a prepacked bag has cut down on a lot of morning stress. 

My on-the-go work bag includes things like my label maker and label making tape refills, pens, markers {a variety of colors for hand-written labels, scissors, picture hanging strips, various sizes of nails, a hammer, a measuring tape, and a level, among other things. I also keep my TUL Discbound Notebook in my work bag, with my project notes organized behind colored tabs, and graph paper for sketching out space plans.

5. PLAN AND CONSOLIDATE ERRANDS

Keeping up with business, school, and family life on a weekly basis not only requires a solid plan, it also requires some major time management skills. Having a dedicated work space at home has helped me to focus and make better use of my work hours at home, and I’ve learned to plan carefully and to consolidate my errands so that I can make as few stops as possible. 

While there are other places that I could handle my printing and copying needs, I choose Office Depot or OfficeMax because I can also restock my work bag, grab school supplies, and even pick up holiday gifts for my tech-loving husband, art-loving kids, and hard-working teachers all in one place!

And since I’m always in a hurry, I really appreciate that I can hop on my iPad or laptop and order everything on officedepot.com for free store pickup.

My online orders are ready at my local Office Depot store in just an hour, but I often place my orders the night before or first thing in the morning, and then swing past the store after I finish up with a client and on my way to pick the kids up from school. Knowing that I’ll be in and out of the store quickly allows me to fit in this errand in without having to drag the kids out to a store after dinner.

With the holidays upon us, I’ll also be taking advantage of pack and ship services at Office Depot and OfficeMax. I don’t have time to stand in long lines at the post office, so being able shipping all of my holiday gifts via FedEx or USPS without making an extra stop is a huge time-saving win for this mompreneur!You can buy stamps there for your greeting cards, and ship via USPS, FedEx Ground or FedEx Express, and they ship to both national and international military locations seven days a week. Talk about making holiday prep easier!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Office Depot, but all ideas and opinions are, as always, my own.

The post Time Management Tips for Busy Mompreneurs appeared first on Blue i Style.

HOUSE FIRE PREVENTION TIPS

• Never leave cooking unattended
  • Never store cooking oil near the stove where it could overheat and ignite
  • When cooking with oil, keep a pan lid and a container of baking soda near by to suffocate the flames if a fire were to start; never put water on a grease fire
  • Make sure that combustible items, like dishtowels and pot holders, are a safe distance away from the cooking surfaces
  • Ensure that the stove, oven, and all other heating elements are completely off before leaving the room
• Clean the dryer lint trap after each load, and clean out of the dryer vent twice a year
• Clean the chimney flue at the beginning of each fall
• Don’t store flammable liquids, like gasoline, cleaning agents, and paints, near a heating source; keep them in cool, ventilated areas
  • Read my post on how and where to safely store different kinds of paint
• Keep candles at least a foot away from anything that could ignite and never leave candles unattended
• Don’t let anything rest against a light bulb where it can overheat and ignite
  • Keep stacks of clothes and linens on upper shelves should be kept away from closet light fixtures
  • Don’t use lampshades that are too big for your lamp and could cause it to tip over, leaving the bulb resting against something flammable
• Keep lighters, candles and matches out of reach of children
• Use caution with real Christmas trees and make sure they get plenty of water, and if you opt for a fake tree, make sure it’s flame retardant
  • Check your strings of Christmas lights to make sure there are no frays or broken bulbs that could have an exposed elements
  • Don’t leave Christmas lights unattended
• Store piles of firewood well away from the house – if a fire starts nearby, these could easily become kindling

FAMILY FIRE SAFETY TIPS

Over 100 million homes in the US are not protected with smoke alarms, and 3 out of 5 home fire deaths occur in homes with no working smoke alarms. Additionally, carbon monoxide is the number one cause of accidental death, yet 40% of homes do not have a single CO alarm.

You might be thinking that you don’t need to worry because your house has smoke and CO alarms, but pause for a moment and ask yourself:

• Do you have enough smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and are they in the right places?
• When was the last time you replaced the batteries in your alarms?
• Do you have fire extinguishers, and do you know how to use them?

Taking inventory of your smoke alarms, CO alarms, and fire extinguishers is a great way to get the kid involved.

My kids used to be terrified of our smoke alarms and cried anytime we said we needed to test them. It makes sense – that sound is pretty loud and scary, and it forces you to imagine the possibility of a real fire. With our boys, we’ve tried to emphasize that smoke and CO alarms are our friends and work hard to keep us safe!

We recently installed a First Alert’s Onelink Safe & Sound smart smoke detector and carbon monoxide alarm in the boys’ room. The Onelink has an Alexa enabled speaker and a nightlight built in, so it immediately won the kids over. The kids really just love that they can ask it to play the music they want for their dance parties, but I rest easier knowing it keeps the kids safe. In the event of a fire or CO emergency, the Onelink sends push notifications directly mom and dad’s phones, and provides the kids with verbal directions to leave the house. This has been a game changer for us in terms of alleviate the kids’ fear. {Read all about our Onelink fire and CO alarm in this post.}

Now that the kids aren’t so scared of our alarms anymore, we wanted involve them in making sure our whole house is properly equipped. Our First Alert Fire Safety Kit came with a coloring and activity book full of information presented in a way the kids were drawn to {pardon the pun}. You can download the same printable fire safety activity pages for your kids.

After they colored the superheros and warmed up to the idea of talking more about fire safety, we turned to the page that showed all the places in the house that you should have smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, and fire extinguishers. Then we walked around the house and the looked for alarms in all the right places.

Do the same with your family. Take a tour of your house and make sure that you have:

• At least one fire alarm on each floor, one in each bedroom, and one outside each sleeping area
• At least one carbon monoxide alarm on each floor of the home
• Always have at least one fire extinguisher in the kitchen, in the laundry room, and at least one on each floor of the home

Keep in mind that smoke and carbon monoxide alarms don’t last forever. Alarms need to be replaced every 5 to 10 years, depending on the model. And the batteries in your alarms need to be replaced twice a year. Replacing batteries each spring and fall with the time change is an easy way to remember. Or, better yet, eliminate the need to replace batteries by upgrading to First Alert’s 10-year sealed battery alarms.

Read more in this post: How to Protect Your Family From Carbon Monoxide

FAMILY FIRE SAFETY PLANNING

After talking with our boys about the steps we can take to prevent a house fire, and ensuring that our house is properly equipped with alarms, we were ready to make our family emergency plan.

Before we had kids, a lot of our parent friends warned us that having the master bedroom on a different floor than the kids rooms would be problematic someday. Thanks to video monitors that allow us to hear the kids if they need us, and our home security system that gives me peace of mind, having the master bedroom a floor above the kids has really never been an issue for our family.


However, there is one aspect of the distance between our bedrooms that does give me a bit of anxiety. If we were to have an emergency at night, will the kids remember what to do? What if I’m not able to get down the stairs to their room?


For years we’ve been talking about our family safety plan. We’ve told the kids that if they hear the security alarm at night, they should come directly upstairs to our bedroom, but if they hear the fire alarm or carbon monoxide alarm, they should leave the house and go straight to our designated family meeting place across the street. 


We’ve made sure the kids know the different sounds of each alarm, and the OneLink in their room helps a lot since it verbally states if smoke or carbon monoxide are detected. We’ve even had a few drills. But I still worry that if there were a fire at night, the boys would be scared or confused and try to come upstairs to look for us rather than just getting out of the house to safety.

Now that Beckett is a strong reader, and Cooper is learning to read, we decided we should put our family emergency plan in writing and place it on the back of the boys’ bedroom door.

Fire safety should be a family affair, so be sure to get the kids involved. First Alert’s “Super Prepared Family” of superheros helped us start the conversation with our boys, and they have a ton of great online resources for kids. This video is a great introduction to the importance of fire safety:

I’d love to hear your tips, too! What else have you done to prevent fires and make sure your family is safe in the event of a fire or carbon monoxide emergency? Please share your tips in the comments.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

The post How to Make a Family Fire Safety Plan + Free Printable appeared first on Blue i Style.

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Melatonin is the hormone that helps to regulate your body’s internal clock. As it gets dark in the evenings, melatonin increases and helps to induce sleep, and then it decreases when it becomes light outside again to incease wakefulness and alertness. Of course, when daylight savings kicks in each spring, and we start asking kids to go to bed when it’s still light out and often wake up before the sun, we are fighting against that natural cycle.

If you’re a regular blog reader, then you know that we’ve been using Hive Active Light bulbs to set schedules and control lights all throughout our home for about a year now.

In the fall, when it was getting dark early, I set a schedule for the lamp in the boys’ bedroom to come on at the time they normally start getting ready for bed, so that they’d never have to go upstairs to a dark room. And, because our Hive smart home products integrate with Amazon Echo, I loved being able to ask Alexa to turn on the lights upstairs if the kids wanted to head up early to read or play before bedtime.

Now that we’ll be dealing with the opposite problem – getting the kids ready for bed when it’s still light outside – I’m setting a new schedule for the Hive Active Light bulb in the boys’ bedroom. I’m scheduling the lamp to come on 45 minutes before their 8 pm bedtime, and to gradually dim by 30% every 15 minutes. That way, it will gradually get darker in their room as we read books and go through the regular bedtime routine.

We typically leave their lamp on with the bulb dimmed to 30% all night as a nightlight, but I’m dropping that down to 20% for the coming weeks to make it just a little darker in their room, and hopefully help them to fall asleep a bit easier during the daylight savings transition period.

Using the Hive app on my phone, it’s so quick and easy to set exactly the schedule we want, and to make adjustments to it as needed. And I love that I can set a different schedule for the weekends when we typically let the boys stay up a little later.

Here’s the schedule I’ve created to automatically dim the Hive Active Light bulb in the boys’ bedroom for daylight savings:

Make it Lighter in the Morning. Dimming the lights as bedtime approaches is a great way to ease the transition at night, but we need a little help in the mornings as well.

One of my sons is a morning person, but the other… not so much! He’s a pretty happy kid if he wakes up naturally on his own, but if I have to wake him up, there’s a lot of crankiness and complaining to deal with. To make our mornings a little easier, I’ve also set the Hive Active Light bulb in their room to brighten from 20% to 60% at 7 am each morning. By gradually brightening the light in the room at the time he’s used to waking up, it will help keep the morning schedule the same and let him wake up naturally.

These light bulbs allow you to set schedules to control the brightness as well as adjust the warmth of the light automatically, so you could set a schedule with warmer light at night to help the kids relax and get ready for bed, and then adjust it to a cooler light temperature in the morning to help kids feel more alert as they get ready for school.

Light is obviously one of the best natural cues for our kids to know when it’s time to sleep and when to wake up, but there are other cues that can help as well. Our boys used to fall asleep to white noise, but now prefer quiet music at night. Since they’ll need to start waking up when it’s still dark out, I’m going to also use music to help gently wake them in the mornings {because no kid wakes up happy to an alarm clock!}.

At night, we plug the boys iPad in to charge and turn on Pandora with a sleep timer set for 30 minutes. I’m also going to start setting an alarm for 7 am – but rather than an obnoxious sound, music will begin playing at the same soft volume they fell asleep to. The music, combined with the lamp in the room getting brighter, should help them wake up naturally.

Of course, it only takes a few hours for the iPad to fully charge, and then it’s plugged in the rest of the night for no reason. Since we are always looking for ways to save energy, I decided to add a Hive Active Plug and I’ve set a schedule so the plug is only on from 8 pm, when the boys go to bed, until 1 am, when the iPad will be fully charged.

In addition to saving money on the electric bill, setting Hive Active Plugs on a schedule is also a great way to prevent overcharging the battery on older devices with batteries that aren’t designed to stop taking charge once they are full.

• MAKE GRADUAL CHANGES IN ADVANCE: Doctors suggest that in the days leading up to the time change, you should gradually adjust bedtime. In the spring, when we lose an hour of sleep, you can start putting kids to bed about 15 minutes earlier each night, so that when the time change rolls around, you’ve adjusted them to going to bed an hour earlier to make up for the hour we lose. Then, on Sunday, when we move forward an hour, bedtime can return to its normal time.
• DON’T SKIP NAPS: If your kids still nap, don’t skip naptime in an effort to make them extra tired. Rather than making bedtime easier, this will likely make bedtime harder because overly tired kids get grumpy, and can then be harder to settle down to sleep.
• STICK TO YOUR ROUTINE: Kids get confused when the daily order of things changes, and the time change will likely make their naturally rhythms feel “off.” Help counteract this by keeping your bedtime routine consistent and doing everything in exactly the same order that you normally would. The fewer things that change, the easier the transition will be on your kids.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hive. The opinions and text are all mine. Comments submitted may be displayed on other websites owned by the sponsoring brand.

The post How to Make the Daylight Savings Time Change Easier on Kids appeared first on Blue i Style.

My friend Melissa came to visit last month, and when she asked me for our WiFi password, she was met with a blank stare. Since it’s saved on both my computer and phone, I never have to type it in and honestly had no clue what it was. I assured her that when Scott got home, he’d be able to tell her. Well, Scott came home from work, and about 10 guesses later he had to go and reset the password. About an hour later we were finally able to get her online so she could finish some work, and I realized that we need to make it easier on us and our guests.

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Real Mail, of course! 
Getting real mail is always the best! Cards, letters, postcards. A handwritten note from a friend or family member always makes my day. I’ll admit though, that I’m not good at this myself! I want to make a genuine effort to be on the sending end more often. Fortunately I already have all of my stationary and cards organized on the back of the guest room door – so I have no excuse not to be better at sending some happy mail to others.

This post contains some affiliate links. If you buy something I recommend, you pay the same price but I may receive a small commission.

Dinner!

I didn’t get what all the fuss was about with meal prep kits… until we tried Blue Apron. For the first time, I actually enjoyed cooking. Turns out it’s the meal planning that I don’t like. Having two new recipes and all the ingredients delivered to our doorstep each week made cooking fun again. After about two years of getting Blue Apron every week, we decided to mix it up and try out another meal kit service, so we tried out Hello Fresh. After comparing the two, each has its pros and cons.

All around, Blue Apron remains my favorite because it offers a much wider variety of recipes with lots of new and interesting ingredients. Scott and I both really enjoy trying new things, and love ethnic foods, so this is a great fit for us. We alternate between cooking Blue Apron for the family when we think it’s a meal the kids will enjoy (they have pretty wide palettes), and cooking after the kids go to bed when we want a bit of an at-home-date-night.

On the downside, Blue Apron recipes are a bit more time consuming. We kept thinking we eventually get more proficient at chopping and prep and be able to prepare the meals in the time estimated on the recipe cards, but even years later, they meals consistently take us longer than expected. We know this, so we can plan accordingly, but Blue Apron is more of a treat for us – a restaurant quality meal without going out – rather than a quick and easy dinner.

Hello Fresh, on the other hand, offers much more basic recipes that are typically quicker and easier. In generally, the Hello Fresh recipes are probably a better fit for family dinners, especially if your kids (or you) are on the pickier side. For us, Hello Fresh just don’t quite offer the excitement that we get from Blue Apron. The recipes and ingredients are much more straight forward, and often don’t feel that different than what we’d make on our own. Of course, it still has the benefit of being delivered right to your door ready to be cooked without the planning and shopping… but it doesn’t make us excited to cook the way Blue Apron does. But a lot of people I know prefer Hello Fresh for all the reasons that I don’t. It’s all about what fits your lifestyle best!

If you want to give either meal kit service a try, you can get a great deal on your first order! Use this Blue Apron link for 3 free meals, or this Hello Fresh link for $30 off!

Fun Surprises!

If you’ve never tried a subscription box, I highly recommend it as a special treat for yourself, even if it’s just once in a while! There are few things that brighten my day like receiving a box full of surprises in the mail – and the POPSUGAR Must Have Box is always my favorite to open!Each month, Lisa Sugar curates her and her team of editors favorite items, and this month’s POPSUGAR box is extra special because it’s celebrating the 5th birthday of POPSUGAR Must Have. This special birthday box was packed with super fun surprises, including a few items that are perfect for the “Back to School Year Eve” tradition that we are starting this year with our big kindergartner! How fun is the “Cheers” lacquered tray and Meri Meri gold colored candles?! I think we’ll let the kids enjoy the Goodie Girl Chocolate Cookies as an appetizer, and then put the candles in some cupcakes for dessert!

This months box also included lots of specials treats just for mom – including a beauty mask, a rose-colored journal, a pretty bracelet, and a Shotiques gift card!

If you’ve ever thought about treating yourself to a fun subscription box, this month is a great time to try out POPSUGAR Must Haves! Use discount code PARTY to get $10 off your first box (expires 8/31). There are also lots of weekly giveaways going on that all Must Have subscribers (current subscribers and those who sign up before the end of August) are eligible to win!

Wine!

Some family members signed us up for a year subscription to Wine.com as a wedding gift, and we enjoyed it so much that we have since gifted it to lots of other friends for their weddings! We enjoy wine, but tend to not open a bottle when it’s just the two of us. But we do like having a nice bottle to open when we have company over for dinner, and getting two bottles in the mail every month allowed us to have a great wine collection and introduced us to some favorites that we now buy time and again!

My Happy Mail Wish List

Of course, losing weight also means that I have a lot of clothes (pretty much all of them) that no longer fit. I have a lot of items that are still in great shape and in style, so I think I’m going to try out dthe ThredUp Clean Out Kit option. All I’ll have to do is fill up the provided boxes with on-trend clothes and ship them back to ThredUp. I’ll make a little extra cash for the items they accept to resell, and anything else will be donated to a variety of community organizations. Win/win!

Pictures of My Favorite People!

My husband and kids have taken to calling me the Mom-arazzi because I pretty much never put my camera down. But my boys are so darn cute, how can I help myself?! But I’m am so not good at getting photos printed! I have the best of intentions, but there just aren’t enough hours in my day. That’s why I’m putting Chatbooks on my happy mail wish list! I’d like to use their custom book option to quickly and easily print photo books for the past few years that I need to catch up on, and then I’m planning to sign up for a the plan that will automatically print and mail me a new book every time I have 60 new photos ready to go!If Chatbooks is also on your happy mail wish, get your first book in a Series FREE with code CBHEAT!

Mystery Craft Supplies!

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If there is one thing that I have learned in all of our travels – especially our international travels – it’s that it is inevitable that something will go wrong on any trip. It might be a lost bag, it might be a reservation snafu, it might be a technology failure. But it’s bound to be something.

I’ve also learned, however, that a little bit of planning and preparation in advance can ensure that whatever challenge arises can be more easily dealt with and you can be back to enjoying your vacation with much less stress!  That’s where my organized travel binders and my free printable planning pages come in…

ITINERARY

My travel binders always start with the most important part, the itinerary! I use the same format every time, and I continue adding to it as we plan our trip. Download an editable version of my Itinerary as a simple Word document.

My itinerary planning page starts with a “General Info” section. This is where I include a few basics that will prove very helpful for you, and for family or friends that may need to reach you while you are away:

• Primary phone number (usually a cell phone) where you can be reached. 
• Instructions for calling the destination country from the US {this is helpful if your flight gets cancelled and you need to call to change a reservation, or if someone at home needs to reach you at a hotel}
• Instructions for calling the US from the destination country. 
• Time Difference – If you are making an international call, you’ll need to know the time difference, so I always include the time zone and how many hours it is ahead of or behind home.
• Exchange rate – I update right before we leave on the trip

Below the “General Info” is a section for each day of the trip. I always include both the day of the week and the date, because it can be become hard to keep track of the date when you are traveling.

My itinerary template includes five sections for each day. I copy and paste these five sections for each day of the trip, and then as our travel plans come together, I delete any unused sections under each date.

• FLIGHTS/TRAVEL:
• Airline Name(s)
• Fight Numbers
• Arrival and Departure Times {noting time zones}
• HOTELS: 
• Hotel Name
• Address
• Phone/Fax
• Email Address
• Confirmation Number or Confirmation Details {I only list this on the day of check in}
• I copy and paste the hotel info for each day of our stay. This might seem like overkill, but if someone back home needs to reach you in an emergency {something always on my mind when I traveling without my kids}, it’s much easier for them to have all of your info in one spot for each day.
• TRANSPORTATION: This is where I add notes about:
• Hotel Transfers {whom to look for; will they have a board with our name, etc.}
• Rental Car Pick Ups {rental company name; reservation number; car type}
• Taxi Notes {I always research the expected rate from airport to hotel in advance, as you may get overcharged as a tourist if you don’t know the reasonable rate and confirm it up front}
• Any Public Transportation Info {which train to take, etc}
• TOURS & ACTIVITIES: In this section include:
• Tours:
• Tour Company Name
• Departure & Return Times
• Location or Pick Up/Transfer Info
• Contact Info (including a day of cell number for the guide, if available}
• Confirmation Number or Booking Details
• Activities (such as sights, monuments, museums, etc.)
• Destination Address
• Hours of Operation
• Admission Cost
• REMINDERS: This is the section were I make reminder notes to myself, such as: 
• Check in for a flight 24 hours ahead
• Call to confirm a flight in advance {especially important on very small airlines}
• Call to confirm a tour/activities {often required for activities that are weather dependent} 

LIST OF IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS

After the itinerary for our trip is complete, I always put together a list of important phone numbers. Download the editable phone list template as a Word document.

On this phone list, I include every number we might need while traveling,  as well as numbers that friends and family back home might need in order to assist us, or in case of an emergency. You can read all of the notes in the template above, but I’ll highlight a few important points:

• US EMBASSIES: If you passport were lost or stolen while you are traveling abroad {or if you were the victim of another crime}, you would have to contact the nearest US Embassy or Consulate for assistance. Most embassies have a daytime phone number, as well as an after hours emergency number, so be sure to note both.
• In the event that your passport needed to be replaced, you would also need copies of several documents, including a copy of your drivers license and your passport. I always travel with a copy in my binder and leave a copy, a copy in my email {or Google Drive}, and a copy at home with a family member who could fax it to me. Here is a full list of requirements from the Department of State.
• AIRLINES: Many airlines have different numbers to call for reservation changes, and for baggage. If you miss a flight or lose your luggage while traveling, it can save a lot of time and hassle to have each of these numbers at your finger tips {otherwise you may find yourself on hold and being passed around endlessly – trust me on this one!}
• CREDIT CARDS: If your wallet were lost or stolen, you would need to have all of the numbers on hand to quickly call and report it / cancel cards. All of the relevant numbers are listed on the back of your cards, but that doesn’t do any good if you don’t have your cards, so save the hassle by adding these numbers to you phone list. 
• In order to report your cards stolen, you may also need to know your account numbers, therefore it’s a good idea to make a copy of each card that you are traveling with and leave the copies with a family member. I don’t recommend putting these copies in your binder, or emailing them to yourself, since this risks the info getting into the wrong hands.
• Also be sure to inform your banks and credit card companies of your travel plans before you leave. Failing to inform banks/credit card companies of planned use abroad can result in fraud concerns, and if the bank cannot immediately reach you, they may freeze your account, rendering your card unusable for a period of time.
• Check with your financial institutions regarding foreign transaction fees. The fees can vary widely, so make an educated determination of which cards you want to use abroad so that you won’t be surprised by the fees when you return
• FAMILY / WORK / SCHOOL: It’s always good to list numbers for all of the people you might need to reach if you were to be delayed or in case of an emergency. Don’t rely on having these numbers programmed into your phone, because phones can be very unreliable when traveling abroad. Include even those numbers you have memorized, as it’s easy to forget a number when a stressful situation arises, or someone else back home might need to call for you if you get stuck somewhere.

GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS

• This is a good place in the binder to put any general info that you might want to reference quickly while traveling, such as: 
• Instructions from your cell phone carrier about how to get your phone working when you arrive {this may require international codes; etc}. If you arrive and your phone isn’t working, finding this info online won’t be an option.
• Tipping customs {who to tip, when, and how much} 
• A conversion cheat sheet {I make my own based on the exchange rate at the time}
• Basic questions/phrases if you are traveling to a place where you don’t speak the language
• Guidelines for appropriate attire {important if you’ll be visiting small villages or religious sites}

FINANCIAL

I typically don’t include a separate Financial section in my binder – instead I usually just put tipping and conversion info in with GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS section. However, there are times when having this separate section can be helpful. This was the case on our trip to South Africa two years ago.

Some countries {South Africa, China, and many in the EU, to name just a few} levy a VAT – or Value Added Tax – on many transactions, but offer a refund on of this tax amount to tourists.

• In order to receive your VAT refund, you typically have to identify yourself as a tourist when paying for goods and request a special tax invoice from shop owners. You then fill out a form at the airport and provide your tax invoices prior to departure. 
• The amount of your potential refund can add up quickly when you are traveling and purchasing goods and gifts, so you don’t want to miss out by failing to keep receipts organized! This is why, for our trip to South Africa, I included a dedicated financial section with information about which purchases qualified for refund, and pocket to keep all of the eligible receipts/tax invoices in one place. This made it very fast and easy to fill out the form and have our refund processed at the airport before flying home to the US. 

DESTINATION SPECIFIC TABS

Finally, I include a tab in the binder for each city or town where we’ll be staying.

• I put document copies relevant to each location behind these tabs, such as hotel confirmations, documentation for rental cars being picked up in this location, tour bookings, etc.

• Maps & Driving Directions: 
• When we travel, we love to explore at our own pace, so we often end up renting a car to drive from town to town. Any time we will be driving abroad, we always rent a GPS for that country {either from the rental car company, or from a third party if necessary}. But while a GPS makes driving in an unfamiliar country much less stressful, it’s also not fool proof. Like all other technology, GPS isn’t reliable all the time, and the last thing you want is to be lost between destinations in a country where you don’t speak the language enough to get directions.
• I always put an overview map from each Point A to Point B in my travel binder. Having this map provides a good check against the GPS. Before setting out to drive to a new town, we always zoom out on the GPS and ensure that the route looks somewhat similar to our printed map to make sure we are headed in the right direction. 
• We’ve discovered that often the American spellings for towns are different than the local spellings {Fira vs. Thira for the main town on the island of Santorini, Greece, for example}. There are often also towns with similar spellings. This can cause confusion when you are inputting the destination into your GPS, so checking against a printed map makes sure you don’t waste time driving in the wrong direction {this is another “trust me” moment”}.

• I also like to print out the turn by turn directions from Google maps, and include those in the binder as well. I only reference these directions if we run into trouble getting where we need to go via GPS, but it seems that at least once a trip I need to refer to these directions, and when I do, having them is a life saver!

• DESTINATION TRAVEL TIPS: 
• We like to visit a lot of small towns when we travel {to get more of a local feel}, and I often end up consulting more than one travel guide in order to find complete info on each place we are visiting. Rather than having to carry multiple bulky books with me, I simply make copies of the few relevant pages and put them in the binder behind the tabs for those destinations.
• I do the same with destination specific travel tips that I’ve found from online review sites or recommendations from friends. I copy and paste the info into a single document and put it in the binder behind the tab for the city/town.

• INFO TO BRING HOME: In addition to filling your binder with all of the info you may need while traveling, you’ll also want to be able to easily add to the binder throughout the trip. The easiest way to do this is to put a bunch of clear plastic sleeves at the back of the binder, and then move the sleeves to the appropriate sections as you fill them up.
• Invoices & Receipts: Make sure to hold on to the invoices and receipts from hotels, rental cars, tours, etc., so that you can compare them to your credit card statement after you return home. More than once we have discovered that we were overcharged {or double charged}, and it’s much easier to resolve this if you have the documents on hand.
• I always like to pick up brochures and post cards from each place we visit. They help me remember the trip, come in handy to recall names of places if you decide create a photo book, and make it easier to give recommendations to friends later on. Putting all of the brochures from each destination in a clear plastic sleeve in the binder keeps them from cluttering up your purse or luggage, and makes it easier to find them again when you need them {even if it’s years later}.

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY – DOWNLOAD THE FREE PRINTABLE PLANNING PAGES! Make sure to also pin the image below so that you can easily find your way back to this post for all of these tips when you’re ready to put together your organized travel binder!

Be sure to pin the image below so you can find your way back to these tips when planning your next adventure!

The post Create an Organized Travel Binder + Free Printable Planning Pages appeared first on Blue i Style.

While we enjoy having games that we can play with the kids, there are also times when it’s nice to let the kids entertain themselves so that the adults can chat.

We don’t know what we would do without our restaurant kit! It makes eating out so much less stressful and more enjoyable, for us and the kids alike! Need one for your family? Or know someone who does? Be sure to pin the image below so that you can find this list of suggested contents again when the time is right!

I’m sure we’ll be rethinking the contents again in a couple of years as the kids get older, and I’ll updated you again when that time comes.

The post Restaurant Kit Update: Dining Out with Kids appeared first on Blue i Style.

When the babysitter arrived, we left the house with no clear destination. It had been too late to get a dinner reservation, we thought about going to the theater but couldn’t get seats together, and there weren’t any movies showing that sounded that good to us. Instead, we started driving aimlessly while discussing what we should do.

For a while now, Scott’s been talking about the possibility of trading his car in for something more like mine – he just hasn’t been that happy with his car and wants something that’s a better fit for our family. With nothing else to do, we decided we might as well go an test drive one of the cars he was interested in, just to see if he liked it. After a quick test drive, we planned to go find somewhere to eat dinner.

Instead, nearly five hours and a lot of negotiation later, we ended up leaving the dealership with a new {to us} vehicle that is much nicer than our trade-in but with a lower monthly payment. #Winning!
Here we are spending our Valentine’s evening with John Elway, or at least his cardboard likeness at his dealership…

There’s something to be said for going to a car dealership late on a holiday…it’s amazing what they’ll offer to stop you from walking out the door when you are the only customer. So there’s your car buying tip for the day, but that really isn’t what this post is about!

Finally, at about 10:30, we left the dealership – in two cars, rather than one – in search of a late night dinner. Mexican food and margaritas are always good choice! And, although a new car seems like a pretty good Valentine’s present, we still had other gifts to exchange.

Scott got me a gorgeous color wheel necklace from ModCloth, which you may have already seen if you are following me on Instagram or Facebook.

Ok, so now we are getting to the actually point of this post…about time, right?!

Scott’s gift was something you probably only receive for Valentine’s Day if you are married to a blogger or an interior designer… a mood board!

Last summer, Scott started a new job {if you are interested, you can read this post about why his new job makes him Super Dad} and ever since, he’s been telling me that he’d like me to decorate his office. Every time I ask for his input, he says he just wants me to design it and show him the plans. So for Valentine’s Day that’s just what I did… I created a Photoshop rendering of my plans for the wall across from his desk, as well as a few ideas for the rest of the space.

Scott’s favorite color is blue, and he loves Denver – so those two things will come together to create a gallery wall for his office with black and white photos of the city, each paired with a different shade of blue mat. Best of all, these are all Denver photos that we’ve taken ourselves, adding a personal element.

I’ve been in his office many times, but when I sat down to draw up my plans, I was having trouble visualizing all of the available wall space. So I called Scott on Thursday to let him know that he’d have a cute visitor after lunch. While Beckett kept him occupied, I covertly snapped some photos of his office.

Here’s the wall across from his desk as it is now – and as I envision it.

He also needs some comfy and stylish chairs for co-works to sit in when working in his office, so we’ll get him two new chairs to replace the one he has now. I am thinking these sleek blue Ekero chairs from Ikea might be perfect. I’d also like to update that file cabinet in the corner, but I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be able to {since it doesn’t belong to him}. Either way, we’ll make it look nicer by adding something decorative on top and I may also do a painting to hang above it on the wall to the right.

The wall behind is desk is filled by two giant maps that need to stay… but I’m hoping to find a way to frame each out in blue without spending a fortune. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll do it yet, but it might entail painting two large pieces of unstretched canvas.

Next to the desk is another blank wall that will be perfect for displaying his undergrad and MBA diplomas, as well as a few family photos.

Lastly, there is a bookshelf on another small wall, which currently holds a number of framed photos. The bookshelf and the photos will stay, but we’ll make it all look a bit nicer by moving the photos and books around for better balance.

We have some lamps from our prior home that we’ll bring in to Scott’s office, and I’ll get him some new office organization supplies to pull it all together. Long term plans may include replacing the desk and bookshelf with something more his style, but that’s not in the budget for this quick refresh.

So what do you think of my plans for Scott’s office? Did any one else give their spouse design plans for Valentine’s Day?!

The post What You Get for Valentine’s Day When You’re Married to a Blogger… appeared first on Blue i Style.

Last spring, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take a hard hat tour of Denver’s Union Station mid-renovation {and, of course, I blogged all about it}. Ever since that time, I have been eager to take another tour as soon as the renovations were complete. The official grand opening of the new and improved Union Station is tomorrow, but I spent some time there last weekend, so I’m excited to give you a glimpse inside!

Denver’s Union Station originally opened in 1881, but was rebuilt in 1894 follow a devastating fire. Union Station was in its prime during the 1920s and ’30s, but as train travel declined in the second half of the 20th century, so did Union Station. Beginning in the late 1980’s, the City and County of Denver and the Regional Transportation District (RTD) began making improvements to the Union Station site to accommodate bus lanes and light rail transit. Read my original post about the Union Station redevelopment plans to learn more history and see some historical photos.

Then in the early 2000s, numerous entities began working together to plan for the future of Union Station. The plans included major renovations to the historic train station, as well as converting the surrounding 19.5 acres into a transportation hub to accommodate pedestrian traffic, bicycles, taxis, pedicabs, motor vehicles, the 16th Street Shuttle, the 18th Street Circulator, RTD regional buses, intercity buses, light rail, commuter rail, and heavy rail. Read my prior post to see illustrations and renderings of the Union Station site plans.

…but on the other side of the station it’s an entirely different story!

A new open-air train hall with a canopy that rises to 70 feet on the ends, and dips to 22 feet in the middle, provides shelter for passengers while preserving views of the historic station.

This is what it looked like when I visited last March when the structure was in place, but the canopy not yet on.

I always love the contrast of modern construction alongside historic architecture, so I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of the juxtaposition of Union Station and the canopy structure.

I am excited about the transportation aspects of this project and what they mean for the future of the city and surrounding region, but I am equally excited about the changes that have happened inside the station! Union Station’s Great Hall, which has always served as a waiting area for train passengers, is now stunningly beautiful. The before and after photos are a real testament to the power of white paint and the importance of great lighting!

Here’s the before picture from my hard hat tour in March of 2013, and the after from last weekend…

The developers envisioned the Great Hall becoming Denver’s living room, and from what I observed last Saturday evening, this description is right on. Couples and small groups of friends were stopping to mingle and take it all in on their way to dinner, and a bit later crowds of people were passing through as they arrived via lightrail for a night on the town. And all of this on a night when the Terminal Bar, the central feature of the Great Hall, was not even open yet, and the seating in the center of the hall was roped off due to to protect the Terminal Bar’s recently sealed floors.

I just love the furniture choices throughout the space, and the details that nod to the glory days of train travel really make the renovation feel special. At the Terminal Bar, for example, the old ticket windows have been preserved, and throughout the hall, the signage resembles those would have once included train schedules.

Every detail of the renovated station is just gorgeous! The carved trim was previously painted a dark color, making the intricate details of the columbines barely noticeable, but now that the trim is painted white, these details have become focal points.

I can’t get over the new chandeliers! I could have taken pictures of them all day long {and I kinda did}!

The old benches that previously occupied the Great Hall could not be salvaged because they contained asbestos {a discovery that had been made only days before I took my hard hat tour last spring}. While I know many are disappointed that the old benches could not be reused, from the history I have read, those benches did not actually date back very far in the history of the station. I think the darker wood color of the new benches provides a great contrast to soft white paint, and they are quite comfortable!

In addition to the improvements in the Great Hall, the remainder of the building is also now being put to good use!

On the first floor, the north and south facing wings house a number of new restaurants and casual dining options {the Kitchen Next Door, Stoic & Genuine, and Snooze, to name a few}, as well as a coffee shop, an ice cream shop, and retails shops {including the Tattered Cover, Bloom, and Five Green Boxes}. Some of these restaurants and shops were open when I visited last week, while others will open this weekend or shortly thereafter.

We ate dinner at the Kitchen Next Door, and it was so exciting to see the beams that I had photographed during my hard hat tour last year still exposed in the transformed space!

We also took a peek into Stoic & Genuine, where I spotted more beams I recognized. I think the hostess thought I was crazy snapping pictures and muttering about having seen those beam last year!

The second, third and fourth floors of Union Station’s north and south wings now house the 112-room Crawford Hotel.

The hotel opened on July 12th, and last weekend Scott and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary with a little staycation at the Crawford. We didn’t splurge for one of the more expensive loft rooms on the top level, but our third floor “Superior Classic” room did not disappoint. The room was a nice size, but felt even larger because of the 14 foot ceilings and the floor to ceiling windows.

My favorite element of the room was definitely the orange tufted headboard with the aged mirrored trim!

Another favorite feature was the wood detail overlaid on the frosted sliding door separating the bathroom from the bedroom.

Our room overlooked the front of the station with views of downtown.

The views from our room were lovely, but even more impressive were the views down into the Union Station Great Hall from each floor of the hotel.

On the mezzanine level of the hotel is the Cooper Lounge, which overlooks the Great Hall and sits below soaring arched windows with views of the city.

When we were there, the lounge was only accessible to hotel guests, but I understand that after the grand opening of the Great Hall, the Cooper Lounge will be open to hotel guest during the day and to the public in the evenings.

The Cooper Lounge is furnished impeccably with a wide variety of light-colored upholstered chairs and couches. Fitting to its train station location, numerous vintage trunks and suitcases are mixed in amongst the seating.

We had a lovely time staying at the Crawford, and it was fun to have the opportunity to be among the very first to experience this brand new hotel and to explore Union Station even before its grand opening!

Now I can’t wait to bring our boys down to play in the new fountains in front of Union Station some weekend soon!

I hope you enjoyed the tour! If you live in the Denver area, make sure you get down to Union Station to check out the renovated station and all of the transportation improvements. And for everyone else, come visit!

The post The New and Improved Denver Union Station and the Crawford Hotel appeared first on Blue i Style.

But let’s start at the beginning of this sad story. You see, I had this great idea to rent the multi-purpose room at our local rec center for Beckett’s birthday party this year. Beckett’s three favorite things at preschool are story time, music, and art, so I wanted to combine all three for his party. We wanted to invite all of his friends from school, but since Beckett was in the process of transitioning from one class to another at school, this meant that we needed to invite all of the kids from the class he was moving out of as well as the class he just moved up to.  Add to that the children of our close friends, who we also wanted to include, and it was going to be a BIG group.

Rather than trying to fit everyone into our house, I thought it would be so much easier to have one big open room at the rec center where we could set up tables for arts and crafts, and still have space available for all the kids to sit on the floor for a story time.  We made arrangements with Beckett’s favorite preschool teacher to read books to the kids and sing songs with them, and I spent a lot of time putting together a fun craft project. I made a some great Sesame Street decorations, and even created a bean bag toss game. We had RSVPs from about 30 kids, and we were ready to party!

I was so proud of myself because, after a week of preparing, I – for once – finished everything the night before and was not scrambling to get things done at the last minute! I wanted to make the set up at the rec center as quick and easy as possible, so I removed all of the plates, cups and napkins from their wrappers; I put together a kit of necessities including Command strips, tape, scissors, string, and everything else I might need to putting up the decorations; and I neatly packed everything into three bags – one with the food, one with the paper products, and one with the arts and craft supplies.

The boys spent the night with my parents so that Scott and I could pick up the cupcakes and balloons and arrive early at the rec center to get everything ready. The rec center closes at 1 pm on Saturdays, but we wanted to do the party after nap time, so I had signed a contract for an after-hours rental from 2-5 pm, with the party starting at 3 o’clock. As we were driving to the rec center, I suddenly had this feeling of panic. What would I do if the person working the after-hours shift at the rec center didn’t show up and we couldn’t get it?  I said this out loud, and Scott reassured me that I was just a worrier and that this would never happen.

We pulled in to the parking lot about 5 minutes early and sat in the car until 2 pm. I then approached the front doors trying to kick the bad feeling I had, reached for the handle and pulled. The door was locked. But of course the door would be locked – the rec center was technically closed and they wouldn’t want just anyone to be able to come in.  So we knocked, we called, we waited… We knocked and called some more. We stood in the snow and freezing temperatures reassuring each other that the rec center employee was just running late because of the snow.  Then I peaked through the window of the multi-purpose room – the room that was supposed to already be set up for us with tables and chairs – and saw that the room was totally empty. That’s when I started to cry!

By about ten minutes past 2, Scott and I were both in take action mode. The bulletin board outside of the rec center had the phone numbers of all of the other Denver public rec centers, so we started calling them all in hopes that the manager of one of them might have contact info for the manager of the rec center we were locked out of – a cell number or a home number, or anything other than the phone number for the vacant front desk that we could see through the glass doors. Everyone was sympathetic, but no one could help us. I called the administrator of the Denver Parks and Recreation department, but of course she wouldn’t be in the office – it was a Saturday afternoon.

I called my parents to warn them that things weren’t looking good and asked them to please not mention the party to Beckett as they were bringing him to the rec center in case we had to cancel. Cancel?!

As 2:30 neared I started to hope that I had simply been mistaken and that I had told them I wanted the rental to start at 2:30 instead of 2.  Surely that must have been what happened.  Someone would pull into the parking lot any minute to unlock the doors and wonder why we’d been standing around in the snow early. But 2:30 came and went and reality set in.  No one was coming and the party was not going to happen.

Worst of all, we didn’t have phone numbers to reach most of the guests. We had handed out invitations at Beckett’s preschool, but I didn’t have phone numbers for the parents of his classmates. I started to call a few of my friends who would be on the way with their kids, but I was only able to get through a couple of calls before cars started to pull into the parking lot, including my parents with Beckett in the back seat.  Scott and I walked around from car to car apologizing and letting them know that the party was cancelled. Despite the freezing weather, a few people got their kids out of the car and took them over to Beckett’s window to say hi and to give him cards and balloons. I felt awful sending everyone away after they had driven through a snowstorm to get there, but everyone was so kind and empathized with our situation.

A few minutes after 3 pm, Scott’s phone rang. It was the manager of the rec center. Scott talked to him briefly and then handed the phone over to me since I was the one who had made all the arrangements with him. He explained that the person who was supposed to be working during our party had called in sick, and that the replacement had not shown up (obviously). He had been unaware of the situation until someone tracked him down on his cell phone (I’m not sure who finally got in touch with him, but one of the nice people we had spoken to at another rec center must have continued to work on our behalf and found a way to reach him). He said he was sorry and that no kid should have their party canceled, but he sounded quite matter of fact and not sound nearly as apologetic as I wanted to hear! He said that he could come over to let us in to the rec center, but with weather, it would take him at least half an hour, if not longer.  At that point we had already turned away most of the guests, and I told him that, sadly, it was just too late!

The silver-lining in all of this is that Beckett is not quite old enough to understand, and therefore this wasn’t nearly as upsetting to him as it was to me. I had been talking to him about his party and telling him that all of his friends would be coming to see him, but he doesn’t yet have much sense of time, and I don’t think he realized that his party was supposed to be that afternoon.  A year from now I think he would have been much more aware, and would have been devastated to see us sending all of his friends away.

I have since talked to the rec center manager again and we are going to take him up on his offer to reschedule the party to next Saturday, with the rental fee waived, of course. Fortunately, I spent the majority of my hours of party preparation on the decor and crafts and things that can just as easily be used a week later. I had wanted to decorate some awesome Sesame Street cupcakes, but ran short on time and ended up ordering simple cupcakes from the grocery store – now I am so glad about that as we’ll only be out the cost of repurchasing cupcakes and not hours and hours of time. Now we just have to re-invite everyone and hope that a lot of the guests will be able to attend next weekend!

Fingers crossed that next Monday I will be able to share photos of a fantastic birthday celebration!  In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and show you some of the party details later this week, including the craft project I put together, and the DIY bean bag toss game that I created.  We’ll just consider these the sneak peeks. That’s the way to put a positive spin on it, right?!

Are you looking for kids’ party ideas? You might be interested in these posts!

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