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I’m happy to be swapping posts today with the very sweet and wise Jenny from Express Bus Mama! Jenny is a working Mom of two Bug (7) and her doggy Daisy (5). She raises her kids with her husband in Connecticut and shares all things Mom; whether it’s raising her son, making a great cocktail or getting stains out! She’s a wealth of knowledge, but better yet, is extremely personable and a great friend to have in the blogging world (and I’m sure the real world.) 😉 Let’s here what Jenny has to say!

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As busy moms, it seems we never have enough time with our kids. Most days it’s cooking, laundry, errands and cleaning. While all these chores are important and necessary, they don’t exactly equal hours of carefree fun. A couple of years ago I realized that if I wanted to have regular, one-on-one time with my son, I would have to make it a part of our weekly schedule.

Enter Saturdays With Mom, which have become something of a tradition in my household. We both look forward to our little “dates” and I do my best to make sure they happen on a weekly basis. Saturdays are the ideal day for us because we don’t have to worry about weekday stresses getting in the way of having a great time together. Also, my husband usually works on Saturdays, so it really is perfect timing.

Looking for some Saturday mom and kid date ideas? Here are a few to get you started.
1. Fun Breakfast. It’s always a special treat to go out for breakfast and Saturday is the perfect morning to let someone else do the cooking. When we go out I let my son pick the place. Somehow we always end up going to the same restaurant! Other Saturdays we stay home and eat in our pajamas. That’s when we take the time to make a meal we wouldn’t get to enjoy during the week. Either way, laughing over chocolate chip waffles and scrambled eggs does wonders to melt away the week’s stress.

2. Parking It. It’s no secret that parks are a wonderland for children and parents alike. On Saturdays it’s nice to venture out of neighborhood. Most of us live within twenty minutes of a dozen parks and playgrounds that are just waiting to be explored. I love breaking out a game from my childhood to play with my son; it gives him an opportunity to see me as more than just mom. Also, driving to an unfamiliar park is a great time to teach your children a little local geography. Let them know a little about each town you pass through and quiz them on the way back. The car ride will be a little bit more enjoyable for everyone!

3. Museums for Free. There are at least half a dozen museums in my area that offer free admission on Saturday mornings. Do some quick research and take advantage of any offers in your area. Since taking in an entire art collection can be a little overwhelming for a child, I like to focus on one area or gallery. We each select a couple of pieces to share and discuss. Afterwards, we head home and try our hand at recreating our favorite pieces. The results are always interesting!

4. Visiting Hours. If you’re like me, you’ve got lots of family that you don’t get to see as often as you would like. I like to use one Saturday morning a month to catch up with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or friends. We typically bake something or pickup flowers to bring with us. My son enjoys sharing about his latest adventures and usually leaves these visits with a little token from his relatives. To me these Saturdays are about showing my son the importance of good manners and respecting his elders. Believe it or not, these are some of his favorite outings.
This is just a short list of how we like to spend our Saturdays With Mom. There are fifty-two Saturdays a year; be sure to make the most out of every single one!

I loved Jenny’s use of Saturdays as play dates with her son! Sometimes you have to schedule fun and that’s totally understandable and worth it! I also loved her post to her sister entitled ‘To My Sister, On the Eve of Motherhood.’ I couldn’t agree more with her encouragements for her sister! Go check out Jenny’s site for more awesome posts and see the sweet crayon holder I DiY’d for the little ones in your life!

Happy Memorial Day friends! I hope you all had a fun filled weekend with friends or family. Mine was busy! We had a family photo shoot, celebrated Mother’s Day with my Mom (finally), had a Sprinkle for my sister and BiL, went to the Indy 500 and wrapped up today with a cookout and games out on the deck with friends. We had lots of fun watching Sophie interact with everybody and show off her new crawling skills. 🙂 I also got to use some of my awesome presents I got from Chloe from the Favorite Color Swap!

Chloe did an awesome job picking out items that were teal and had my name written all over them!

Who doesn’t love getting mail?! Even better when the contents are fun, girly and TEAL (my favorite color!) I recieved a sweat free, BPA free mason jar with straw that I LOVED having my strawberry lemonade in today! I also got two teal nail polishes, a pot with Aster seeds for my front yard, gloves to use to plant them and a cute barrette to help me feel girly when I get mad about my short hair!

Thank you to Chloe for the awesome swap and cheers to our soldiers. Home of the free because of the brave.

Also, if you’re interested in a tasty Nutella Parfait recipe, go check out the recipe I failed learned from over at This Silly Girl’s Life. I didn’t really fail, it is an amazing dessert….I just don’t know how to follow directions so it turned out differently than was originally planned. 😉

I LOVE friendship bracelets! I hate lamp cords. I haven’t put up many wall-lamps because I really don’t like the look of their cords hanging down the wall. I decided to do something about the clearance IKEA lamp I’d found for my desk and make her a friendship cord cover!

 This was an extremely simple spruce up job that took very little cost. I already had the embroidery thread on hand, so it was free in my case.

I started off by tying a half knot around the cord and taping the short string to the cord. This cord had a groove down the middle so the excess thread was seamless once wrapped. I wrapped the thread, making sure to bunch it together if I saw any gaps. When it came time to switch threads, I taped down the first thread, trimmed it at the tape and started the process over again (picture 3.)

It was the most tedious, back aching project I’ve ever done for such a small ‘wow factor’ but it was totally worth it to me! I love looking over and seeing those happy stripes rather than a stark white cord.

What do you think? Not a big ‘wow factor’ but when something really bugs you and there’s a simple/cheap solution, why not?! Anyone else specifically only do overhead lighting because they hate lamp cords? Did this remind you of being in 4th grade, making friendship bracelets in your back yard? Let me know what you do to hide yo cords!