BubbleBum Review & BIG car accessory giveaway

When I was pregnant with K3, Keith and I knew we would both need new cars to accommodate our growing family.  We looked at EVERY make and climbed into the back of EVERY model to assess how the car seat situation was going to work.  We settled on the Honda Odyssey for me, and that is the vehicle we do almost all our family travel in.  

One giant vehicle was enough, so Keith decided against a super-sized SUV with a third row and got a Jeep Grand Cherokee.  He keeps an infant base and a high-back booster latched in the backseat, but BubbleBum is what makes it possible for him to fit all three kids safely if he needs to. 

All 3 in the backseat!

BubbleBum is an inflatable booster seat for kids ages 4-11 and weighing 40-100 pounds.

With Little League season starting up, and two of our kids on two different teams, I see carpooling in our future.  I can send James with this if someone offers a ride, or keep it in the minivan for any extra kids we accumulate.  Deflated, it's also small enough to throw in my diaper bag for taxi rides in the city.  And because I'm always worried about car safety, I checked out its rating: the IIHS (Insurance Institute of Highway Safety) named it their “Best Bet” in their booster seat evaluation report.

I'll be posting car-related posts all week, ending with one big giveaway of all the items, including a BubbleBum inflatable seat!  Enter below and keep checking back all week for more posts & chances to win.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Disclosure: BubbleBum sent me a free product to review.  All opinions are my own.

November Update

Apparently it's November.  Mid November.  And we packed so much in the past two months, that including it all in one post will be a challenge.  

We celebrated K3's baptism.  It was the first time we had all our friends and family over to the house, and thankfully we had some great help with set up and food!

We went to Disney and Great Wolf Lodge.  Traveling with an infant is a lot easier than it looks, and K3 was certainly the easiest to please no matter where we went.

O turned 4!  We celebrated by going to the aquarium with our family and then hosting a scientist party for his classmates and friends.

I had a tough time handling my emotions when my baby turned three, but four has been pretty awesome.  He's grown into such a thoughtful, sweet, and silly big brother, and so far I'm loving this age.

We enjoyed Halloween. I bought their costumes as soon as Party City put them out in August to make sure they had their favorite turtle in their size.  I should have bought out all the Elsa costumes they had at the time and sold them on ebay. 

This baby is growing and growing and growing.  He started rolling over the day of his 2 month well visit and hasn't stopped.  He is constantly trying to roll, no matter where we put him or how he is restrained.

And the biggest time suck of all is that I've been dealing with some health stuff and had open abdominal surgery last week, which required fitting in lots of doctor appointments and scheduling help with the kids.  
After birthing three kids and thinking that I'm pretty much a super hero, I vastly overestimated my pain threshold and underestimated the seriousness of the procedure.  I still cannot wrap my brain around how much my incision hurts.  We planned to bottle feed K3 during and after the procedure until anesthesia was out of my system and I could switch to safe-for-breastfeeding pain meds.  It seemed like a sensible plan- for someone who didn't understand exactly what I would be feeling like after surgery.  I didn't know how hard it would be to sit up, (I HAD to pump. WHY can't the pump do it's job while I'm lying down?) and the okay-while-breastfeeding pain meds made me woozy and the baby drowsy.  So I chose stabbing pain over nausea and guilt. The mom guilt never ends.
I'm still technically not supposed to be lifting more than 10 pounds, but with a 14 pound baby, that isn't realistic.  I'm very thankful for the awesomeness of my mom and Keith for keeping everyone alive and entertained and clean, and hopefully I'll be walking upright by my return to work this month.
There will be a lot written about this return to work, but that's it for now.

LEGOLAND Day Trip

I love finding new places to take the kids that are within driving distance, and especially now that I'm home for a few more months, LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Westchester is in our rotation of fun, close-to-home activities.

I went into it expecting lots of Lego play, but we were surprised to see the center also included fun rides, exhibits, and 4D cinema in addition to many opportunities to play with Legos.  We spent a few hours there and didn't even put the kids in the huge Fire Academy- themed jungle gym play area.  (JD continues to remind us that next time we "NEED to bring socks". Don't tell him we could have purchased them there!)

This ride was by far our favorite!

The NYC exhibit is amazing.

They enjoyed waiting for the subway to go by way too much. I finally had to tell them to move along.

At this table, they practiced building earthquake-resistant buildings.

The boys were hard at work building race cars.

Did this a couple dozen times.

But my car was the champion!

Biggest legos EVER

The Ridge Hill Mall, where LEGOLAND is located, is gorgeous and full of fun places to eat and shop.  You can easily make a full day out of your visit!  The organic, free-range, grass-fed beef burgers and milkshakes we had at Elevation Burger were a nice surprise, and there was plenty of room inside for the boys to begin building their LEGO masterpieces.

They are wishing for us to take them back again soon! With events like "Brick or Treat" coming up in October, I'm sure it won't be long.

Disclosure: LEGOLAND provided our family with passes for the day.  All opinions are my own, and we will be returning often on my own dime :)

Wordless Wednesday: Camping Edition

Wordless Wednesday: More Sesame Place

I've already given you my tips, and Suzanne did a great recap of our trip, so here are some wordless pics of our trip to Sesame Place!

she's adorable even when she's miserable

typical: big boys up to no good, O trying to get his straw up his nose & Caroline snuggling

Squeezing the Last Drops Out of Summer

Tomorrow I report back to work for the first time since June 2009.  One week from today, I will start teaching again.  I've known these days were coming, but I'm still left scrambling to fit it all in.  We've spent the past couple weeks doing all our favorite summer things, and I can't wait to share our adventures.  (You can get a sneak peek at a future post over at Suzanne's blog today.)

My parents have a camper that they park at the beach just about every other week in the summer, so we get a lot of mini beach "vacations" throughout the summer.  I've already shared tips for camping with babies, so now I'll just dump pics of all the fun we had.

collecting

A ton of (live) clams washed up on shore.  It was sad and stinky.  O helped some other kids who were determined to save them by throwing them back.

Ava wanted to be friends.

Grandpa Bob is the best at burying toddlers in the sand.  They love it!

The water is pretty calm compared to other ocean beaches, and they have no fear!

We're hoping to spend at least one more solid beach day there this year- I need something to look forward to!

The Best

I have less than one month left of being a SAHM, and I am determined to make the best of it.  And this past weekend, the BEST was visiting Suzanne and her family at her home in CT.  I thought it may be a little awkward to actually be inside a home I have been peering into through my computer for the past three years, but it wasn't at all.  Suzanne, her bebehs, and E are even more awesome than you see in her posts, and we had such a great time that we planned another trip together for a little later this month!

Our visit was the perfect blend of relaxing/getting-to-know-you-better play time and a fun-filled trip to the Roger Williams Park Zoo. 

And to ensure that we don't miss a single moment of fun this month and are ready for a healthy & happy back-to-school season, I'm prepping my kids' defense systems with Culturelle probiotic packets.  Not only does it support their natural defenses, but it also alleviates occasional digestive distress that can go along with traveling.

Just thinking about animal crackers dipped in ketchup gives me digestive distress.  Caroline didn't buy it either.

Disclaimer:  I was compensated for this post and provided with Culturelle samples.  All opinions provided are my own. I really DO love gingers.

Have I Told You Lately That I Love... Our Children's Museum?

Over a year ago, I wrote about how awesome our local children's museum is.  (Go check it out. JD is a cute, little chubby thing!)  We've totally loved our membership to the Long Island Children's Museum, and we enjoyed an especially awesome day there last Friday with a couple good friends.  There is so much going on there that we hadn't taken advantage of yet!


Long Island Parent Source sent me to the LICM to review the museum's early childhood music program, and we very happily accepted the passes to see one of our favorite local musicians, Darlene Graham.  

wooohooo!

O was shouting "UP" and "DOWN".

We left the museum after exploring the first floor exhibits to grab some lunch at the Student Center of my alma mater, Hofstra.  Our friend Sonia's daddy is an alumnus also, so the kids thought this was so cool.

Thank goodness I have 15 years before I actually have to worry about him going to college.

Then it was back to the museum for a puppet show performance of Goldilocks & the Three Bears.  One of the puppeteers is a former student of mine and my friend, Heather, and it was so fun to see him perform!

O demanded to sit behind us all by himself.

JD giggled throughout the entire show.  Best sound in the world! 

After the show, we explored the new art exhibit.

The kids stepped into some famous works.

O's favorite animal lately is PIGS!

Upstairs, we spent a lot of time in the Feasts for Beasts gallery where we saw turtles, snakes, rats, and a beehive up close & personal.

This hive had an opening through the window, so we could watch them come and go from the museum.

Maybe they'll build me a patio someday.

We finished up the day with a walk over to Nunley's Carousel- a beautiful restored wooden carousel originally built in 1912.

I definitely need to get better at checking the events calendar for the museum so we don't miss more awesome days like this!