What make my own baby food?

While thinking of all of the ways I needed to save money when I left my full time job. One of the first things that came to my mind was how expensive jarred baby food is. I asked around on what other mothers were doing and then a friend suggested to me that I make my own baby food. With my 1st son I was working full time and I was all about convenience no matter what the cost. I bought the organic brand and never even thought of making his food at home, who has the time? My mother-in-law suggested it once years ago telling me it was easy and I wondered where she thought I would get the time. It just seemed so time consuming and coming up with a variety seemed like a daunting task. Now here I am 3 years later and I am making my my 2nd sons baby food. It is awesome! Not only is it quick, easy and cheaper I exactly what is going in his food. I make up a blender full of whatever fruit or veggie we have, fill up 2-3 ice cube trays and voila dinner is served! I totally recommend you give it a try.

*darn it! my mother-in-law was right*

Build a Dream Playhouses Review and Giveaway

We recently got the chance to review an item from Build a Dream Playhouses. They sell structures made out of cardboard that once you color them and put them together (easy) you get things like a snack shack, castle, spaceship, or a kitchen! I went on the website and showed my son the items they had and at first glance he wanted them all of coarse. There were so many different and cute ideas but he ended up going with the ice cream truck. I thought that he would have picked the castle but he said that he definitely wanted the ice cream truck and I told him to pick. All I heard about was how he was going to make "special deliveries" in his ice cream truck for a few days until the truck came to us in the mail. 

As soon as it was delivered we just had to open it! All of the pieces of cardboard came without any color on them; it was our job to create our own masterpiece. The cardboard pieces have lines on them like a coloring book so you know where to color and what. At first the project seemed a little overwhelming with just the two of us to work on it, my husband was still at work and my son was ready to drive off to make his deliveries the second he saw it. I called up my little sister to come over to help; we laid out all of the pieces and got to work. It was fun to see what colors my son chose for what and I have to admit I enjoyed coloring as well. I also thought a good way to cover larger surfaces would be to cut objects out of magazines and gluing them on, that my son thought was cool. He loved that idea and I let him use the glue stick so he was in heaven. That way we it felt like we had personalized it even more. 

When we were satisfied with our results we started to put it together, by this time my husband was home so he took over the job. It was very easy to do (according to him) everything was labeled by letters so even children could do it. It looked awesome and my son was ecstatic! The back doors open so that you can get in it was huge inside. The little ice cream decorations on top are so cute, but you also have the option to take those off and make it look like a regular delivery truck too. The truck is very sturdy and we were even able to color on it some more while it was "standing up" so we did not need to hurry like I thought we did. The nice thing about the product is that it is sturdy but also light weight. My son can easily pick it up and move it around so he can "drive" around and pretend to take orders for ice cream. 

We have been making "special deliveries" all week and having so much fun!

 The nice thing about Buildadreamplayhouses.com products is that they are 100% recyclable after you are finished and your child has torn it all up in time, which I know my son will do someday. It is made of cardboard and will not last forever so when it is ready to be retired you won't have any guilt about your carbon footprint. This was a great project for our family and would be great for a birthday party or special event. It would be fun to have a party and have several different items like the castle, space shuttle and the ice cream truck and let the kids use their imagination to go wild. After they are finished they can bounce around from each creation!

GIVEAWAY:

For our Moms Leaving the Workforce event Build a Dream Playhouses has generously offered one of our lucky readers the chance to win their very own Ice Cream Truck Playhouse.

To Enter This Giveaway:
Mandatory entry is to Follow Build a Dream Playhouse on Twitter
*Leave a comment telling me your twitter name and be sure to leave your email address*

Extra Entries can be done after you leave a comment for the mandatory entry:
If the extra entry says 1 extra entry leave 1 comment and 2 extra entries leave me 2 comments and so on.

-Visit the Build A Dream Playhouses site and leave a comment about another playhouse you like. +2

-Like Build A Dream Playhouses on Facebook +2

-Follow The Coupon Queen Bee on Twitter +1
-Like The Coupon Queen Bee on Facebook +1
-Enter any of the  giveaways during the Moms Leaving the Workforce event +2 for each you have entered.
-Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link to the post +5

*Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts March 16 , 2011 and ends on March 31, 2011 at midnight PST.  Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post.I was provided one Build A Dream Playhouse for free for this review.

Juvenile Solutions Baby Top Booster Seat

I have been looking for a way to be able to take my son to restaurants and to friends houses and not have to worry about him needing a place to eat or sit. I did not want something big and bulky to have to lug around from the house to the car. I searched the Juvenile Solutions website for a solution to my needs.When I found the Baby Top Booster Seat it was a good find. It attaches to a chair in many different combination so it can accommodate different types of chairs. It also can be used without a chair as its own little toddler chair. It is very light weight and folds compact to travel with.

My boy loves Happy Baby Puffs!

 My son fit in it well and enjoyed the cute face on the food tray. The only improvement I could see was that when in the free standing position as the chair the legs did not lock enough for my wild one. Maybe there needs to be a stabilizer bar or something to make it lock better.  He would rock a bit in the chair and the legs would fold. As a solution I just had him sit in the chair with the legs tucked under. He loves sitting in it when he holds hit favorite cat or watches his shows. He thinks he is a big boy when he is in it. He looks cute! The chair also came with a plastic bib that has a little food catching part on the bottom. My son will not let me put bibs on him but this one he thought was funny so he wore it. I called it his elf bib, he just liked putting snacks into it and eating out of the food catch. He cracks me up!

Alternative arrangement of seat

Folds up compact for travel

The compact fold and light weight design would make this a good second chair to have for traveling or for little guest that come over. Last time my husbands cousin brought his little one over there was no place other than a bouncy chair for him to sit. An extra feeding chair would have been great for his baby to sit in.
Juvenile Solutions carries many products on their site. I liked the Aqua Baby Bath Ring and the Dipe and Go. The Dipe and Go is now available at Babies R Us.

To find out more about Juvenile Solutions and their products you can follow the on twitter and facebook. They often have sales info and discounts listed there.

** I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for free the item in this post for review purposes.

We need a play date and fast...

Now that I have left the work place I am finding that the social interaction that I love and crave is getting harder and harder to find. I am also learning that not only am I craving it but so is my 4 year old. I am in the process of finding him a preschool that he can attend 1-2 days a week for a few hours so that he can get that fulfillment that he used to have being in daycare. I do believe that when your child has never been to daycare or preschool they may not know what is out there and are content with their lives but once they have seen what is out there they know...haha Well my son was in childcare for almost 2 years (he started at 2 years old) and he asks me about his school and friends all the time, he love to socialize.

Now that I am only working 1 day a week not only can we not afford to put him full time care but I didn't "quit" my job for him to be watched by someone else all day. Ok back to finding the preschool, we are working on it and I have seen a few places but they are expensive or just not what we are looking for. So in the mean time I have been finding fun and creative ways to spice up the day on a low budget. I have this one girlfriend and she is the main gal that I go to for play dates. Not only do we laugh and get each other and talking to her is awesome, but we have the same parenting philosophies (that is so important) and I adore her children. It seems like no matter what we do with the children we ALL have fun! Sure I do things with the kids that I may not enjoy as much as they do, it is part of being a Mom. But I love it when the kids are having fun and so are the Mom's.

I am new to the SAHM gig and my girlfriend just moved back to the area (they are military) so we are finding fun and inexpensive things to together. It is nice to go out and "do" something and meet somewhere but we also love just hanging out at each others houses. The children can play, be loud, eat and are happy just to be together. My girlfriend and I can chat and laugh without as much stress that is involved in a planned activity. We know that they are safe and happy in the house. Also I live in Seattle where the weather is not always outdoor ready so we have to try to find indoor games a lot of the time. But when we do "get out" some of my favorite free and or cheap things to do are go to the play place at the mall, go to story time at the local library, walk around the park or go to the McDonald's play place.

We are also finding there are many ways on line to find cheap and local things to do on a budget. My girlfriend did a little research online and tomorrow we are off to a new place that offers an indoor play place and activities for the children as well as lattes and a little sitting area for the Mom's. They boast you can see the children play while you can sit at the little pub area enjoying your favorite coffee or beverage of choice. It is only $7 per child and $4.50 for each additional child. Under 1 is free and so are the adults. My littlest is 8 months old so we are all over a fun day for only $7 (plus a vanilla latte for me)! There are free, cheap and fun things to do out there but it takes some research.

Hug A Monkey Baby Sling Giveaway

HugaMonkey Baby Slings

For most moms having a baby sling can be more than just a convenience its a must have! Especially when you have more than 1 little one a good carrier can allow you to safely keep the smallest of your children close to you while you tend to the other ones. Even for me with only one child this would have came in handy so many times when he wanted to be held but I still needed free hands to do something.

The Hug A Monkey baby sling was founded by parents who understand the need for a carrier. They designed it to be easy to use, comfy for you and your baby and simple enough to take anywhere.  I laughed when I read that one of their sons gets mistaken for a girl, it happens to my son at least once a day!

Picture from the Hug A Monkey website

 Their slings are cute and very affordable. You can get one for yourself for only $29.99! These would be great for mom to have and affordable to get one for a gift too. The baby slings come in Brown (my favorite color), Stone, Aqua, Black and Organic. The Organic sling is unbleached 100% certified organic cotton.

The website is full of useful information on how to use their carrier and care instructions for your baby carrier.
In addition to the Hug A Monkey baby sling the site carries great items from other manufacturers for baby gear and baby apparel. 

GIVEAWAY:

For our Moms Leaving the Workforce event Hug A Monkey has generously offered one of our lucky readers the chance to win a stylish and durable baby sling.

To Enter This Giveaway:
Mandatory entry is to visit the Hug A Monkey site and tell me what color you would pick if you won.
*Leave a comment telling me your color choice and be sure to leave your email address*

Extra Entries can be done after you leave a comment for the mandatory entry:
If the extra entry says 1 extra entry leave 1 comment and 2 extra entries leave me 2 comments and so on.

-Visit the Hug A Monkey site and leave a comment about another item you would like to have. +1
-Follow Hug A Monkey on Twitter +1
-Like Hug A Monkey on Facebook +1
-Follow The Coupon Queen Bee on Twitter +1
-Like The Coupon Queen Bee on Facebook +1
-Leave a comment on my The First Years Brand Car Seat review +2
-Enter any of the  giveaways during the Moms Leaving the Workforce event +2 for each you have entered.
-Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link to the post +5

*Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts March 15 , 2011 and ends on March 31, 2011 at midnight PST.  Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. Hug A Monkey will provide one baby sling to the winner.