Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Gutzy's Cool for Back To School





Gutzy Gear is one of the hottest new trends for back to school! Haven't heard of it? Gutzy Gear is a cool way for kids to express themselves by customizing their backpacks! Gutzy Straps secure around the straps of a child's backpack with velcro, Gutzy patches then go on the Gutzy Straps. There are currently 56 Gutzies in a series, with new patches being added constantly, including licensed characters such as Spiderman, SpongeBob, The Avengers, Sonic and Monster High. You can never have too many Gutzies...they're so much fun to collect and trade!

Gutzy Gear is available online and now at nationwide retailers such as Toys R' Us, Walmart, K-mart and Office Depot. 

Thanks to the good folks at Gutzy Gear, we were able to share the Gutzy love with 15 of our friends at our Back To School Bash Playdate today. The kids were so excited!


Be sure to LIKE Gutzy Gear on Facebook!


**In full disclosure, we were sent Gutzy Gear Straps and Patches in exchange for our honest review....and honestly, they're awesome!**

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Creativity for Kids Playdate


We host a playdate in our backyard every Wednesday with each gathering having a different theme. Our theme today was Creativity for Kids. The wonderful folks at Faber-Castell's Creativity for Kids sent us two huge boxes chock full of fun craft kits for our girls to use for our playdate.

We had kits to make Fashion Headbands, Fashion Bracelets, Stuck-On Fashion Totes and Pop-Art Necklaces.




We started with the Stuck-On Fashion Totes. They were a huge hit and great for all ages and ability levels. Each girl was able to decorate a super cute pink and white zebra striped tote bag with peel and press stickers.


The Fashion Headbands and Bracelets were a lot of fun. Each kit came complete with everything we needed to design and make our own unique accessories, including scissors, glue and an assortment of ribbons, rhinestones, flowers, feathers and more.

 Nana and Isabelle making a headband...

Our friend Nellie showing off the bracelet she made.

The Pop-Art Necklaces were really simple, all the girls loved them...and so did the boys. We started with a plastic bottle cap, the kids could choose a sticker to place inside of it or color their own, pop in a plastic dome, then string it on a cord and add some beads. 

Making Pop-Art Necklaces...

Both the Moms and the kids were thrilled with our experience with Creativity for Kids crafts. We loved that the kids were able to use their creativity to make their own unique pieces, we loved that the kits included absolutely everything we needed to complete our projects and we were impressed with the quality of all the products. Thumbs up all the way around!

Check out the website to view all of the products Creativity for Kids has to offer, you can also sign up for the Creativity Club. It's free to join, you'll receive activity downloads and special promotions. 

Be sure to like Creativity for Kids on Facebook too!  

Some of our Creativity for Kids Girls...


**In full disclosure: We were sent these craft kits in order for us to host a playdate and share our experience here. No monetary exchange took place. All opinions expressed are my own. We had an awesome time and the kits were so much fun!**

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Balsamic Chicken & Onions

I took out a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts to thaw this morning, around came dinner time and I still had no idea what I was doing with it. I've mentioned my love of balsamic vinegar before, here's yet another delicious recipe using it: Balsamic Chicken & Onions!

Here's what you need:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (In hindsight, I feel like 1/4 cup each of oil and balsamic might have been enough.)

Salt and pepper, to taste (I used course ground sea salt and fresh ground black pepper)

(1) onion, sliced

Here's what you do:

1) Preheat oven to 400. Wash chicken, pat dry. Remove excess fat and funk. Season with salt and pepper as to your liking. Place chicken in a gallon size plastic bag.

2) Pour oil and vinegar into bag. Seal bag. Shake like crazy to mix and coat. Use tongs to remove chicken from bag, place chicken in a baking dish.

3) Scatter onion slices on top of chicken. Pour oil/vinegar mixture over top of chicken.

4) Bake for 20-60 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken.

Doesn't it look yumbly?

Pour a little extra juice on each piece of chicken as you serve it. :)

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Fun & Functional - Make Yourself Some New Magnets from your Craft Stash

We need some crafting up in here! This is a quick and easy project that you can do even if you think there's no crafty blood running through your veins.

I have a huge collection of assorted crafty crap includes a bunch of old, gaudy costume jewelry and buttons. I have big, cool plans for them, but have never gotten around to making them a reality. While I had the glue gun out for something else, I decided to turn some of them into fun and functional magnets for the fridge.


You'll need:
  • Old and preferably fairly ugly costume jewelry, big buttons or really anything lying around you'd like to make into a magnet
  • A hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • Magnets 

Simply squirt a little hot glue onto your magnet-to-be and stick a magnet in the glue.




See that? You ARE crafty!

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Missed me, missed me, now you gotta' kiss me!

You did miss me, right? 

It's been two months to the date since my last post. It's been a busy, busy, busy 8 weeks. I knew I'd be fairly absent from my little slice of the world wide web this summer, but I had planned to post AT LEAST once a week. As you can see, that didn't happen. We've been busy learning about birds and bugs and science and so many other fun things. There's just a few short weeks of summer left and so many things left on the Summer 2012 Bucket List that we haven't been able to cross off yet. 

Are you ready to ship your kids back off to school? Or are you crazy like me and wish you could keep them at home forever? I hope your summer's been eventful, happy and healthy so far. xx