Now that the weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer, it’s the perfect time to start with some great outdoor activities that you can do with your kids during the evenings or on the weekends.  Here are some ideas for fun outdoor activities your kids will love.

1.  Build a fort.  All kids (and even some adults) love forts andthey’re so easy to make it’s impossible not to play with one.  It’s as easy as grabbing supplies from Tarp Surplus and setting up a tent or fort in your backyard.  Furnish it with a few pieces of furniture or toys and you and your kids can play for hours.

2.  If you’re already building a fort, why not go camping in your own backyard?  You and your kids get to enjoy the outdoors and you get the comforts of not having to leave for anywhere and food and basic amenities are right there in the house. If you have a fire pit, you could even roast marshmallows and pretend that you’re out in the woods by telling stories around the fire.

3.  Grab some sidewalk chalk and have fun.  Most kids love to draw and sidewalk chalk allows them to make miniature murals right on the driveway.  The best part about this is they’ll have a lot of fun and it will all wash away the next time it rains, which means they’ll be able to create an infinite amount of masterpieces.

4.  Another artistic endeavor is – when the days are warm enough – melting crayons.  Putting the different colored crayons on paper (or even small tarps) can create some pretty beautiful paintings as the sun starts to melt them and they drip and  collide with one another.  If you’re putting them on paper, you’ll be able to save them and your kids will have a piece of art they personally created.

5.  Let your kids help out in the garden.  Kids love playing and most younger kids love dirt, so it’s an easy combination.  Whether they’re digging holes or planting flowers, it should keep them occupied for a long while and you’ll both have something to show for it after the flowers have bloomed and the garden is full of color.

6.  A lot of kids like scavenger hunts, so have them hunt for something in the backyard.  You can bury different pieces of treasure or have them search for the bones of some ancient dinosaurs.  This is a lot of fun if you get another kid (or adult) in the mix and have them see who can find the most treasure or bones the quickest. A bonus perk of having them hunt for dinosaur bones is that you can turn it into a lesson while you do it.  Every time they find a bone, talk with them about what dinosaur it belongs to.

7.  During the summer months, let your kids help wash the car. Every kid loves to play in water, especially when it gets warmer out and they’re definitely not going to say no to playing with the hose for a few hours.

There are tons of fun outdoor activities that you can do with your kids to keep you both having a lot of fun this season.  The best part is that most of them don’t require a lot of work, meaning you can get started right now and enjoy the warmer weather.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Easter with their families!!!

Ok, so how many of you will be looking for clearance Peeps and Cadbury Eggs tomorrow??? This Girl!!!

It’s spring time and it’s not just time for house cleaning, but also cleaning and decluttering your digital files as well. Most of us have inboxes that are overflowing with subscriptions and hard drives overflowing with pictures and videos. Today, I wanted to share with you two ways that I organize some of my digital clutter from photos to my calendar. In future articles, we’ll go over other ways to get organized, but for today, we’ll hone in on just emails and photos:)

www.smugmug.com

I love using Smug Mug for all my digital photos and videos. I lost all of my pictures when my computer and my backup hard drive crashed within 1 week of each other. It was devastating. Now I have my pictures backed up on a portable drive (for easy access) and also online through Smug Mug. I can allow family and friends to access and I also can have prints made from the pictures that I have hard copies. I can tag, sort into albums and with a third party app I installed on my desktop, I can drag and drop and upload multiple files at once with ease. It’s less than $25 per year and I can download any of the pictures back into my desktop if I can’t get to my portable hard drive. I also downloaded the App for my tablet and smart phone so I can view pics on the go and easily upload pictures I take with my camera into my photo albums. ** TIP** If you look, there are Drag and Drop Apps you can install on your desktop so that you can upload multiple files at once.

Whether you use Smug Mug or a software like photoshop, get into the habit of dealing with the photos right away. Label, tag, and rename files immediately. If you want to organize them on your desktop, split into folders. I have a folder for Personal and one for Business. I then have a subfolder with the year and then into catagories. For Family Pics, I will then separate by month and each seperate event has it’s folder. Do whatever system works for you, but my advice is not to let them set in your “My Pictures” folder for a rainy day to be organized later. After you organize them, upload or back them up right away.

www.unroll.me

Unroll.me is a great tool to either unsubscribe or organize into one email all of those daily emails that clutter up your email box. I signed up with my blog email and also my personal email. I chose to get one daily email with all my subscriptions. It cut down my emails by half. There are still a few that peek through, however, now I’m not in danger of losing important emails by wading through hundreds of emails per day.

www.cozi.com

I love and can not live without Cozi. It organizes our families schedules, keeps my task lists organized, I can even send via text a Honey-Do list or grocery list for my husband… Now he can never say – “you didn’t tell me you needed that”. I love the ease and simplicity. I can even plan meals with it. It makes my life so much easier. I also love the journal option, too. Keep track of your kids milestones here or just keep track of your day to day life. Most of the options are free, however for $30 a year you can access all of the features and it’s well worth it.

These are just two of my favorites. Do you have any tools that you use to keep your digital photos and emails in check! Leave a comment below:)

P.S. This post is brought to you by one of our sponsors this month, Vick Strizheus Big Idea Mastermind, and online system to make money:) Thanks for being our sponsor this month and supporting The Naptime Warrior

Ditch the chemicals and head to the baking aisle at the grocery store. Pick up some Vinegar and Baking Soda. That’s all you need to make sure that your house is sparkling fresh this year. It’s safe for babies and pets who are crawling/walking on the floors and it’s just as easy to use as your regular cleaners. Plus it’s cheap. You can go to the store and buy those fancy “green” cleaning products from the organic section at your grocery store, but once you buy a glass cleaner, toilet cleaner, floor cleaner, carpet cleaner, and multipurpose cleaner, you will be out about $30. Vinegar and Baking soda will cost you just a few dollars and will last for a while!

Here are some ideas for DIY Natural Cleaners:

Vinegar and Water (usually hot) can replace your dishwasher cleaner, coffee cleaner, Drain Cleaner, Soap Scum/Bathroom Cleaner, Glass/Window Cleaner, and Iron Cleaner. Read this article at Real Simple for instructions on how to do all of the above.

Baking Soda can replace your deoderizers, floor cleaner, pan scrubbers, multipurpose cleaners, floor cleaners, toy cleaners, stain treatment for the laundry. Check out The New Homemakers Article on 27 Ways to Clean with Baking Soda for ideas and instructions on how to use Baking Soda.

I love the Oscars. I love fashion and glamour and Hollywood. There is something magical about the night. Some of you may agree with me and some may not, but once a year I sit from pre-red carpet until the the show close and just take it all in.

I usually watch the E! Red Carpet, but I will have to say that I was a little disappointed in it this year. Were they even invited? I thought that Ryan Seacrest should have been in the skybox down the street instead of Guiliana and if I saw him air kiss one more celebrity I was going to freak out.  I was wishing that Kelly and G would just rebel and bust onto the red carpet and steal the microphone away ala Wedding Crashers.

So now I have to share my favorites:

Jessica Chastain

I love that she is the definition of old Hollywood glamour. From the beaded vintage looking dress to the long wavy hair. She was perfect! I also love that she seems like one of those girls you would love to hang out with.

Jane Fonda

 I love that she went with a bright yellow color that noone else dared to do and at 75 I think she looks FABULOUS! I’m so breaking into my yoga videos and Jane Fonda Workout VHS tapes.

Jenna Tatum

The most fabulous pregnant woman EVER. Not only is she married to Channing Tatum who is the hottest guy in Hollywood (Sorry George!), she embraced the bump.

Honorable Mentions:

Bradley Coopers Mom – She is adorable and a Philly girl, so I love how she busted out the feathers and did something different.

Salma Hyak – She often flaunts her boobs, but this time she kept them in check and showed off her awesome body instead.  

My Worst:

There really wasn’t anything that stood out to me as a “No”. No Swans or Seedy See Through outfits. I think there was a definite concious decision to keep it clean, but that was also a little boring. But one did stand out to me:

Brandi Glanville

She looked like she belonged on Suset Strip instead of at the Oscars. Call me old fashion, but I really think that there is a respectable amount of cleavage that’s acceptable at Hollywoods biggest night and she was well beyond the legal limit. OK, we all know you have a great body, you were screwed over by your ex husband, and you are on the prowl, but there is much to be said for a little modesty. She is a beautiful woman and doesn’t need to dress trashy to prove that she has it going on.

And the ceremony itself? I liked it for the most part. Seth Macfarlane is charasmatic, sarcastic and actually extremely talented, so it was easy to watch him with his song and dance numbers. There were a few strange parts, like William Shatners appearance, and a few controversial parts like the “I saw your boobs” song. OK, I’ll admit I did chuckle. I know it probably took us back a few decades but hey, if you are an actress and show your goods for a part, you have to realize that somewhere down the road you may have to be called out on it, maybe not in a tacky song at the Oscars, but maybe it’s your kids fifth grade class member who saw the movie in his parents stash. I loved the musical portion. Catherine Zeta Jones has obviously made a deal with the devil, because she looks like time has stood still for the last 10 years from when she originally performed that number in Chicago. Jennifer Hudson was AMAZING. Amazing. I had to say it twice. That girl has a god given talent and she can transform you to a different place with her voice.

Who was your best dressed celebrity? What’s your take on this years Oscar’s? Did you love it or hate it?

Trying to lose weight is hard. I have been trying on and off for years to get the weight that PCOS has put on me off. I was doing pretty well last year and even started to train for a 5K and then my back went out. Which has been pretty much been the story of my life for the last 7 years since I started having back problems. I have fallen into this cycle of doing really well until my back hurts and then I retreat. I don’t want to push because I when I pushed myself when Chase was little, I ended up hospitalized and in months of therapy and pretty much helpless in my ability to take care of my family and as a stay at home mom, that’s not really an option. I try to walk that thin line of keeping going and keeping myself healthy, but have fallen into this Catch 22. I have to work out harder because if you are familiar with PCOS and insulin resistance, you have to work harder. It’s more difficult to keep the weight off and easy to put on. But if I push myself hard enough where I need to be, it’s excrutiating on my back. But if I can get the weight off, the less I weigh, the easier it will be for my back. So where does that leave me? I’ll tell you where… Sitting on the couch Monday night watching The Biggest Loser with a tray of cookies. I have officially fallen off of the wagon.

So what do you do to get yourself re-motivated? I’d love to hear your stories! Personally, I think I need Jillian Michaels as a trainer. I need someone to yell at me and get me going…Wish me luck:)

I have been selling items on Ebay for a few months now. We had so many things when we moved from Allentown to Raleigh. We downsized by half to live in this apartment and I realized that we had so much “stuff”. Some of it had been crunched in my closet and packed in boxes where no one could really appreciate it, so I decided to use Ebay as my own personal yard sale. I sold some designer pieces and home furnishings that have been sitting around as well as some other things I found in the move. The result – over $1500 in sales since January 1… There are thousands and thousands of people like me that are selling their gently used pieces on ebay, so why not check there to save money on your spring wardrobe. I see a lot of beautiful clothes at amazing prices! Especially if you are a fan of Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, and other store brands.

My tips for buying on Ebay

• Read the Sellers Feedback – especially if you are buying designer merchandise to make sure there are no red flags.
• Make sure that you read the description in full and there are no issues with the piece. Also, if you never wore that particular brand that you check out the size chart or request the buyer to send you “flat measurements” so that you can compare to another piece.
• Shop with the same buyer and ask if they can combine shipping. You may be able to save this way!
• Check out www.bargainchecker.com where you can type in your search term or brand you are looking for. They look for typos and misspellings and this may lead you to dirt cheap auctions. I found a Diane Von Furstenberg Sundress and bought it for less than $20 because of this tool:)
• Look for “lots” where someone is getting rid of clothing in a specific size. I have seen Ann Taylor lots of 10+ clothes go for $20-$30. You know that they spent hundreds on that clothing!

So will you try it out?

Shameless Plug:  I have a few spring items up on my Ebay store, so if you want to check them out – I sell Ann Taylor, LOFT, Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic plus some other brands and a whole lot of other things, too:) You can go HERE

Last year I made these and wanted to re-share these with you!

Digital Scrapbooking Element – XOXO and Valentines Day Ribbons

Digital Paper – Red and Blue Hearts

Hope that you all enjoy:) I haven’t had much time to design and craft for this year as I have been crazy busy, however, I have curated a board of Valentines Day Crafts to give you inspiration. Just check them out HERE… what V-day crafts are you making this year???