Clever products that solve everyday problems for young families are terrific!  These families are busy, sometimes overwhelmed and often outnumbered by their kids!  Here are some inventive items that may just offer that extra needed help!

Baby MedBasics Travel Pack

This mini-book, in a colorful canvas pouch, offers on the spot instructions for parents experiencing a medical emergency.  The clip on guide goes anywhere that your baby goes and features simple step-by-step instructions for CPR, choking, poisoning and more.  (Baby MedBasics Travel Pack, $25)

Mother Child Tote Bag

When your hands are full with groceries or whatever you’re trying to carry at one time, this bag features an extra handle near the bottom of the tote – designed just for little hands to grab onto!  This is the perfect way to keep tabs on your little ones while out and about!  Crafted from tear-proof fabric, the tote is available in four colors and features a fun graphic! (Mother Child Tote Bag, $19.99)

Dr. Bloom’s Chewable Jewels

These are the original teething jewelry designed by a loving mom, who also happened to be a dentist!  Necklaces, bracelets and accessories are all stylish and colorful, as well as lead and latex free.  With Chewable Jewels, you can took great and keep your baby happy at the same time! (Dr. Bloom’s Chewable Jewels, $18.95)

Strawlution Straws

Parents everywhere can identify with the messy spills that happen when the straw slips out of your child’s juice box!  You’ll be sticky no more with Strawlution Straws which are specially designed to stay put once inserted.  The straws are BPA-free, reusable and dishwasher safe! (Strawlution Straws, 12 for $4.99)

These  problems solvers would make great baby shower gifts or just make your own day run a little smoother!

• Clever Ideas for the First Day of School
• Refresh Your Kitchen
• Organize Your Electronic Chargers
• Set Up a Children’s Buffet
  
• 
  

Tip of the Week -  Discover Glamping!

Does the thought of camping send you running for the nearest spa?  Well, fear no more – “glamping” is the newest way to enjoy the great outdoors in comfort and style.  Combining two words that aren’t often heard together, glamour and camping, this new trend in vacationing offers the best of both worlds:  luxury and nature.

According to Glamping Girl, the origins of glamping date back to the early 1900’s when wealthy travelers sought the excitement of African safaris without sacrificing their creature comforts!  Today, glamping locations can be found across the globe and in all sorts of outdoor settings like forests, beaches and deserts!

Four Star Camping Accomodations

Even if you aren’t planning to jump on this trend, you just have to look at the photos of the amazing four star tents, huts and cabanas that are available for glamping!

Here are some great resources:

• Glamping Girl
• Go Glamping

Two of My Favorites:

• The Martyn House, Georgia
• The Resort at Paws Up, Montana

Anyone up for joining me on a glamping trip?

Fun Ways to Get Ready for the First Day of School!

The word “fun” combined with “back to school” may not make sense to your children, but you just might change their minds with some of these clever ideas adapted from the pages of Family Fun Magazine!

Wake Up Early Parties!

These parties are designed to get kids and parents accustomed to the school year’s early morning wake up call!  Find three or four other families and rotate homes for a 7:00 a.m. breakfast each day of the week before the first day of school.  The breakfasts offer a fun incentive for kids to rise and shine and allow the moms to catch up with each other!

New Classmate Party

Schedule this party for the day before school starts and invite your child’s new classmates and teacher to join you for a festive celebration!  The party will not only be a great time, but will go a long way to reducing first day jitters and uncertainty about the “new” teacher.  You can serve a simple meal of pizza or hotdogs and hamburgers, make your own sundaes, or whatever your child enjoys most!

It’s a Wrap Party

Celebrate the end of the first day with an after school party!  If there’s a bus stop in your neighborhood, that’s the perfect place to set up the celebration and have everything ready as the kids exit the bus! But if your child walks to school or lives in a more remote location, just invite some friends to your home!

This is a great chance for the kids to decompress and share the buzz from their new classrooms.  Offer cold drinks and some easy to eat treats like brownies or cookies and don’t linger too long!  It’s time to get back into the homework, dinner and early to bed routine!

How will you mark this big milestone?  We’d love to know!

You may also enjoy:

I found this terrific idea for kids at Fun Finds for Mom, a great blog that shares all sorts of creative ideas and clever products for families!   With a little bit of time and effort, we turned a large, plastic tub and some small trinkets into an afternoon’s worth of excavating fun!  If you’d like to do this at your house, here’s what you need:

Frozen Treasure Chest Supplies

• Large plastic tub that will fit into your freezer (I used the large freezer that’s kept in my garage!)
• Small, waterproof toys - think super balls, toy animals, plastic bracelets and silly bandz!
• Excavation tools – tooth brushes, toy hammers, rock salt, etc.

Instructions

• Toss a few of the toys into the bottom of the container.  Add water to fill 1/3 and freeze overnight.
• Add more trinkets and fill with water to 2/3 full.  Freeze overnight.
• Finally, one last layer of toys and water to the top and another overnight freeze!
• When it’s party time, dump the ice block out and then provide the kids with their tools and let them go to town!

Try this terrific summertime project and be pleasantly surprised at how excited the children are and how long it will keep them occupied!  If you don’t have a freezer that can accommodate a large container, I think that it would be just as much fun to freeze multiple, individual ice treasure chests in small plastic containers!

Here’s to a new twist on summer fun and busy kids!

You may also enjoy:

• 10 Things to Do Before the End of Summer
• Summer Reading for Kids
• Lunch Box Round Up
• Backpack Bonanza
  

Summer days fly by much too quickly and if you’re not careful, you’ll be buying backpacks before you’ve eaten one ice cream cone or a single slice of watermelon!  Here’s my list of must dos before Labor Day arrives:

1. EAT:  not just one food item but many!  Don’t miss out on watermelon, ice cream cones, corn on the cob, tomatoes garnished only with a dash of salt, s’mores and fudge or salt water taffy.
2. SAND:  bury your feet in warm sand, whether it’s by an ocean, lake or sand box!
3. COOK:  an entire meal with what you’re able to buy from a local farm stand!
4. SLEEP:  declare a day when everyone in your family gets to sleep in – no camps, appointments or scheduled activities!
5. READ:  a fabulous, can’t put it down, (maybe even trashy?) pager turner novel!
6. RELAX:  spend a quiet afternoon in a hammock, raft, chaise lounge or beach chair.
7. BREATHE IN:  the scent of sunscreen as you apply it to yourself and your children!  This is a scent that truly belongs to summertime!
8. CATCH:  fireflies!
9. COFFEE:  enjoy your morning’s first cup of coffee outside – on your porch, deck, balcony, patio or front steps!
10. ENJOY:  an outdoor concert, movie or play!  Pack a picnic dinner and make it a night!

What would you add to this list?  I’d love to know!