Back to School Clothes Haul & a Contest!

I loved back to school shopping when I was younger! It was an opportunity to go out and get some new things and usually to have a mommy daughter date in the process. This year I spent some time with each of my daughters, looking for clothes for the Fall.  We're still on the hunt for some things, but with a special contest going on, I wanted to share with you what we found at Carter's | OshKosh. They've got a lot of cute, colourful clothes right now and we've always been happy with their quality and durability so they're a favourite place to shop! Make sure you read to the end of the post because you don't want to miss the contest!

Talia is headed straight into those tween years and her tastes are changing. I was quite happy to be able to find cute shirts with sayings on them that she liked and I found appropriate.  The "Best Day Ever" shirt in the photo above was one of her picks along with this "Free Spirit" shirt with gold accents.  She styled it with her own jean jacket, some new moccasins, and a pair of Osh Kosh Moto Jeggings.

Pastel Pink, Purple, and Turquoise Toddler Bedroom with House Bed!

A couple of years ago I shared my niece's pink and gray nursery with you. Since then, my brother-in-law built the coolest toddler bed for her and her nursery transformed into a pastel pink, lilac, and turquoise toddler girl's room! My sister is expecting their second baby now so this bedroom will become a nursery once again. I went over to her house to document Tori's toddler room before that happened and because there are so many cute DIY projects and inspirational ideas within this room, I knew I would want to share it with you along with a bit about how she created some of the pieces in the room (or where she found them).

Lamp: Rona
House Toddler Bed: Homemade by my brother-in-law
(He used Restoration Hardware's Cabin Bed for inspiration)
Rug: Homesense
Chandelier: Details in the Nursery blog post
Tassel Banner: Handmade by my sister with tissue paper

Staying Safe in the Sun with Cabana Life

There have been summers when I have avoided the heat. I have stayed inside, out of the sun probably too much. This summer was not like that. As I look back on our summer vacation from school, I feel that we made the most of the beautiful weather. We went to the beach several times, swam in pools, threw water balloons, jumped in bounce houses and puddles and danced in the rain.

Most of this happened outside, in full sun. We are a fair skinned family and burn easily so sun protection is important to us! We have had some ups and downs this summer thanks to the sun and today I'm going to share some photos and little stories with you about it all.

September 2016 Sharing Time

Happy September! In all of the excitement/craziness of back-to-school and summer vacation ending, I forgot to post this month's sharing time at the start of this week!  Hopefully you'll find it now even if you came looking for it over the weekend!  Hope you're all having a great start to your school year!

Welcome to the September Link Party!

See below for the Link Party and add your best posts, and check out the ones that are shared!

The Dyson Cool Fan Competes in the Fan Olympics!

We live in a home without central air conditioning, so we have to get by during the hot days of summer with just two window air conditioners and some strategically placed fans. We often worry about our kids being cool enough in their bedroom on hot nights! Until recently, we had been making due with a couple of (very awkward) standing fans and a table-top fan. They are SO in the way and I'm always stubbing my toes on them or trying to move them, only to have the top come off of the base. I was getting SO tired of the situation!  This summer we had the opportunity to compare a Dyson Cool Fan with our regular blade fans and it couldn't have come at a better time! We decided to make the comparison process into a fun event...

Fan Olympics

We're in the Olympic zone at our house right now, so we did some "Fan Olympics", putting our regular blade fan into competition with the 12" Dyson Cool Fan.

How to Manage Summer Break Screen Time

I've been hanging out on Instagram a lot this summer and I mentioned something in a post over there about how we've been managing screen time this summer. I've had several requests to share this in more detail, so here you are!

I was inspired by an idea that someone shared on facebook where they created a list of things that their kids needed to accomplish before they would be allowed to watch any T.V. or movies or play on a computer/tablet/phone... any "screen time".

I made our own list, similar to the one that was shared (I wish I knew who to credit for the original idea). I changed a few things, and added some things and here's what our list looked like in the end: