Minnie Mama's Blog

I am always searching for fun & cute accessories to put in my mini Minnie Mama’s hair so when the founders of Ladybugs ‘N Butterflies contacted me to do a review on their hair products I of course said yes.

Laybugs ’N Butterflies is a fabulous company that has created boutique children’s hair accessories since 2004. And for me, one of their selling points is that all of their pieces are made by hand in the USA, but they are so popular that their hair accessories are sold worldwide! And they offer a four different types of hair clips so no matter how much or how little hair your princess has she’s sure to find the perfect hair bow — they even make headbands if you have a beautiful bald-headed baby!

I received the Gabriella Grace  which is a very pretty sparkly flower clip which is available in five different styles so there’s one for almost every little girl’s hair type. This bow is seriously so pretty and will be perfect for Isabella to wear in the summer as it’s a beautiful accent to a sun dress. Or maybe we will wear it with her Easter dress!

I also received the Felicity clip  which is s a 3 1/4″ x 2″ bow with an attached decor available on an alligator pinch clip, French Barrett, or big girl pony O. I received the French Barrett which works great as I like to put Isabella’s hair in the 1/2 up 1/2 down. I always keep my reviews 110% honest even if it doesn’t necessarily compliment the vendor (sorry, but I do!) so I must tell you that I was told I could pick out any bows to review so asked for the Felicity bow with the kitty cat as Isabella loves her kitties, but when I received my package there was actually two totally different bows than I had requested. While I was honestly a little disappointed not to have received the kitty cat bow I did receive a pink cupcake bow instead which actually worked out perfect as Isabella has a cupcake outfit so this is the icing on the cake or in this case the icing on the cupcake!  But if you’re little sweetie isn’t too keen on having a cupcake on her head then fear not — there’s plenty of other decorations to choose such as a poodle, kitty cat, ballerina, etc.

Isabella has been wearing these bows for about a month now with the cupcake bow being worn at least twice a week as it’s my new favorite and they’re holding up excellent! There’s a lot of wear & tear to bows in our house as my active toddler enjoys doing her own hair along with her dolls hair, mama’s hair, her friends’ hair, the cats’ hair – you get the idea – the bows are constantly being ripped out of her head and then ‘clipped’ on her next victim. But these bows still look beautiful and are in great condition! 

Thank you Ladybugs ‘N Butterflies for the special opportunity to review your hair bows! And Minnie Mama readers if you’re looking for a special bow for your little girl check out their site — there’s literally hair accessories for all occasions! 

I also want to give a special thank you to my friend, Jamie, from Blonde Mom Blog  and Savvy Housewife for putting this company in touch with me!    Jamie is an amazing writer so if you’re not familiar with her blogs go check them out – they’re awesome!

Important Disclosure: I was not given any monetary compensation for writing this review, but I was given two hair bows to test and review. This post is based on my experience and  honest opinion of these products.

My mom is known for her amazing baking skills and all the delicious sweet treats she makes, especially banana bread. Growing up she’d always make the yummiest banana bread all from scratch. But I will admit that I am not the best chef nor do I have the time to prepare homemade meals all the time.

However, in the efforts to save money I’ve looked around my kitchen to see what foods my family waste every week and how we can be more creative with our leftovers. And that’s when I saw them. Rotting brown bananas. Typically I would just dump them down the disposal and not even think about it, but the inner Betty Crocker / Frugal Food Saver took over me and before I knew it I was grabbing my cookbook out of the cabinet and whipping up a batch of homemade banana bread. I didn’t even think twice about if I could do it or if it would taste like Mom’s. I just followed the directions and made it.

The banana bread was absolutely delicious and I will definitely be making more again very soon. It was a huge hit w/ Isabella and even my picky hubby! 

Every day Isabella and her Daddy fight over the chair. It’s this comfy oversized chair that they’ve both decided is their chair and it’s become a total game to Isabella. No matter what Isabella is doing if she hears her Daddy anywhere near the living room she will get up and run as fast as her little legs will take her to the chair. She climbs up into that chair in a matter of seconds and proudly proclaims its MY chair Daddy and then waits anxiously for him to say NO its MY chair Isabella to which she then squeals with delight over this new little game. It’s seriously the cutest thing ever!

But I do want to set the record straight right now to both of them — it’s actually MY chair! I am the one who stayed up night after night nursing Isabella in that chair for months and who slept in that chair when our old apartment had a leaky bedroom roof and no heat! Yes, it’s a fun game for them to play, but it’s actually Minnie Mama’s chair.  

One of my goals for 2010 is to save money and so in the efforts of  saving money I have re-evaluated how my family spends money and where it all goes.

I have always been a big coupon clipper and thought I was doing a great job by using my coupons, but I never realized just how much money you can actually save by using coupons and waiting till the time is just right for them. For example, I have learned that just because you have a coupon or an item is on sale does not mean you should buy it. Instead you should wait till the item is on sale for an incredibly low price and you have coupons so you can combine the two for a great savings hopefully making the item free or nearly close to free.

I have read lots of fabulous blogs online purely devoted to saving money & clipping coupons and I have learned so much thanks to them!     Now since Minnie Mama’s blog is not dedicated to saving money & coupons, I will not go into all the details of how this process works, but I will tell you that I have been ’stockpiling’ which is saving my family TONS of money every month & our grocery bill has literally been slashed from $100 – $130 every week to no more than $60 per a week max. It’s truly amazing!

And now on to my bragging as I am just so proud of my newfound frugal-ness and hobby. Check out this picture from my last grocery run. I only spent $21 plus change after the sales and coupons — my total before the savings was $94 plus change. I did awesome! 

If you are interested in trying to save your family money rather it be on groceries or personal hygiene needs or really anything then please let me know as I’d love to offer my tips.

Since becoming a mom I’ve learned to become a jack of all trades. I can talk like Goofy, sing made up songs on a whim, kiss the boo boos away, find a missing toy in a matter of seconds, make magical airplane macaroni, etc. But I never expected to be faced with performing a crucial surgery. A surgery that was literally a matter of life or death!

That surgery was performed the other night on our dear beloved friend, Goofy! Goofy, the little doll that we need to take everywhere with us. The Goofy that we definitely need to hold to fall asleep with. This doll is truly our BFF and his well-being is a matter of life or death for not only Mini Minnie Mama, but also Minnie Mama’s sanity as the crying would never stop without him.

And so when Minnie Mama heard this:

Uh oh Mama! Goofy’s ear came off! Mama fix, please!! 

I knew we were faced with a serious crisis. It was a Wednesday night just before bedtime and we would definitely not be seeing Grammie for at least 4 more nights. Grammie is the one who always sews our buttons, hems our pants, fixes everything for us. Ooooh, if only Minnie Mama actually paid more attention to Grammie’s sewing lessons!

But then Minnie Mama remembered that Grammie actually left a little sewing kit at the house for emergencies despite Minnie Mama’s persistence for her to take it as she hates clutter and wouldn’t ever use it. I mean, why try to sew when Grammie can just fix it for us, right?! Wrong! We couldn’t possibly wait for Grammie to fix Goofy and since Grammie lives over 1 hour away the option to get in our car at 9pm and driver over there was out of the question. Although, I cannot lie — the thought did cross my mind!

And so with much determination, Dr. Minnie Mama performed the life saving surgery of sewing Goofy’s ear back on with a bare needle and black thread. Nurse Mini Minnie Mama anxiously stood in the surgery room watching her beloved companion laying there helplessly on the operating table as Dr. Minnie Mama worked for what seemed like an eternity to save the patient. After several breath holding moments filled with sheer suspense and fear, Goofy’s ear was successfully re-attached. Okay so maybe his ear didn’t look perfect, but it was attached to his head and that’s all that matters to a toddler.

Let me start this post by saying that I have been a loyal Toyota customer forever. I’ve only owned three cars in my life and literally they have all been Toyota! I loved Toyota and thought they were one of the safest and most reliable brands on the market. Boy was I wrong!

In the past few months Toyota has announced two MAJOR safety recalls affecting many different types of Toyota — both of them affect my 2009 Camry!

The first recall was for “floor mat entrapment” which basically meant the floor mat could interfere with your gas pedal causing it to stick so you can’t stop accelerating. Oh that’s real nice, Toyota! I heard about this recall on the news and followed exactly what the report said to do remove your driver floor mat from your car. Okay so I did this and now have a very dirty carpet, but whatever as long as it keeps me safe, right?! WRONG!

There is now a second recall for the “pedal” because gas pedals are getting stuck in the downward accelerating position which in basic terms mean you’re screwed and will crash as you can’t unstick the gas! Oh this is nice…

And the news report also stated that Toyota has halted the sales and production of all new Toyotas until this problem has been resolved. Okay that makes perfect sense, but here is the kicker — they will be working on resolving this issue in the cars in the factories and the dealerships BEFORE they fix the cars already on the road! Are you freakin’ kidding me?! Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to fix cars that no one is driving versus the cars that people need to use everyday of their lives. So now we are all at risk of killing ourselves or others thanks to this recall, but Toyota would rather fix the unsold cars first because they don’t want to lose any money from sales. And did I mention that people have already DIED from driving these recalled cars?! Died.

So now where do I hear about these recalls? From my local dealership? No. Directly from Toyota with a phone call or notice sent in the mail? No. I hear all about this through the news! Now, that’s great the news is reporting it, but what if my hubby didn’t watch the news? Would we even know about this?! You see, I don’t watch the news as it’s just too depressing so honestly I would probably not know about this! And you would think with such a major issue Toyota would be reaching out to ALL of their customers to alert them of this issue, but no they are not. However, they have no problem reaching out to me every month to send me a leasing bill!

Okay so back to this recall issue — I honestly do not feel safe driving my car. The car that my baby rides in everyday. The car that could potentially at any moment not stop accelerating. The same type of car that people have died in thanks to this issue. I have contacted Toyota in the hopes of getting out of my lease (I only have 14 more months), but they refuse to break my lease or even give me another car until they can remedy this issue. I begged, I pleaded, I cried — no luck. They told me they expect to be shipping parts out to the local dealers soon and in the meantime if my car gets stuck “just put it in neutral and ease over to the side”. Okay sure, it will be that easy to ease over to the side on the highway going 65mph with a toddler in the back seat. Thanks for nothing Toyota!

I also called several local Toyota dealers to see if I could put my name on a waiting list for these repairs once they get the new parts, but the service department knew nothing about even getting new parts. I spoke with the dealership owners directly (I wasn’t messing around anymore!) and received the runaround from them too. The bottom line is that Toyota is screwed and they know it, but have no clue how or when this issue will be resolved. I bet the big shots at Toyota made damn sure their children are no longer riding in these death traps!

Honestly, I do understand that recalls happen, but something this major is unacceptable. And the way this matter is being handled is even more unacceptable! I was planning to buy a Toyota SUV once my current lease is up, but those are affected by this recall too and I will never buy another Toyota again!

Do you have a Toyota affected by this recall? Or are you unsure if your Toyota is one of them? If so please call Toyota Customer Service at (800) 331-4331 to speak with a helpful customer service rep. And if anyone out there owns a dealership or works for Toyota and wants to help me get out of this lease then please contact me.

You know that expression out of the mouths of babes?! Well, I never really thought much about it until Isabella started talking and OMG you would not believe some of the things she comes up with.

This happened the other night and it’s is one of my favorites so far:

We’re sitting at the dinner table and as usual she’s being her picky little toddler self and not wanting to eat.

Me: Isabella honey you really need to put something in your tummy for Mama.

She smiles at me and starts picking up her food. Awesome, she’s gonna eat! Oh wait, she’s literally putting food down her shirt. Like not just a little food, she’s dumping forkfuls of it down into her shirt! 

Me: Isabella what are you doing?

Isabella: Mama say put food in my tummy. I put food in my tummy! And she says this so proudly and with a huge smile because to her she’s doing a great job following my directions.

Ahhh, how could I get mad over this. I mean, I did tell her to put something in her belly! LOL 

• Ready-to-eat cereals, including pre-sweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children’s diets.
•  Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.
• More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

Wow! All of these statistics are absolutely amazing to me! When I was a little girl, my mom was a homemaker so she’d make us a big homemade breakfast every morning before school as she refused to buy cereal because she didn’t want us to eat “a bowl of sugar” as she not so lovingly referred to our favorite cereals, but times have definitely changed since then. For most of us Moms we no longer have the option or luxury of time to make a big breakfast every morning as we’re frantically rushing out the door to drop the kids off at school / daycare and make it to work on time only to realize that we still need to find something nutritious and filling to feed our little ones and no time to cook. Please tell me I am not the only one w/ mornings like these? Okay so truthfully it’s every morning like this, but again I will stay on topic…

General Mills has been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain. Cereal also delivers  important vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients, making it a top source of key nutrients in childrens diets.  Now thanks to General Mills and their committment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids, us Moms can comfortably give our kids cereal in the morning rather it be a quick breakfast at the kitchen table or even in the backseat of our cars.

Are you still not sure about giving your kids cereal in the morning because you hear your own mother’s voice in your head calling it “a bowl of sugar”? Well, a 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office. How can you argue with that?!

So tell me, what’s your favorite cereal? Do you like it dry or with milk? Either way, please click here to access a special coupon for all of Minnie Mama’s readers to receive $1.00 off one of four General Mills cereals.

Important Disclosure: I was generously given four complimentary coupons to try General Mills cereals thanks to My Blog Spark and General Mills. However, I did not receive any monetary compensation and the above review is based completely on my own thoughts and opinions.

As many of you already know Minnie Mama is absolutely in love with Walt Disney World and has literally been to the parks over 100 times as we literally visit WDW at least 2x per a year. You may call it an obsession, but I prefer to think of it as my home away from home.

Now reading that I’ve visited the parks over 100 times probably leads you to the assumption that we are wealthy which trust me we definitely not. We are just a regular hard-working middle-class family trying to make ends meet just like you — my hubby works 2 FT jobs and I work FT outside of the home, plus we have a little Mini Minnie Mama who’s daycare bill costs as much as our mortgage. Ouch!

We lead really hectic lives and don’t always get a chance to connect as a family as often as we’d like. However, we do realize how important it is to take family vacations so we literally visit WDW at least 2x per a year as it’s the ”happiest place on Earth”! And when we visit our happy place, we don’t have to stay in the budget hotels such as Pop Century or even at a hotel off of Disney property. No, we don’t. We literally stay at the BEST resorts that Disney has to offer. This past trip we stayed at the phenomenal Animal Kingdom Villas which was gorgeous and so high-end. I mean, seriously I wish I could’ve just moved in to this place! We had a one bedroom Villa which featured all stainless steel appliances, marble floors, jacuzzi tub, balcony, etc — it was AMAZING!!!! Now for the average family this would have easily cost $500.00+ per a night, but for us it was sooooo much less and we didn’t have to fork over a single dollar towards this stay.

Okay so now you may be wondering how with all of our bills and typical expenses we’re able to afford such an extravagant property. Well, I will tell you that its Disney’s Best Kept Secret! We are members of the Disney Vacation Club! Yes, yes, it’s technically a time share so I know what you’re thinking, but trust me its soooo different and sooo flexible. We can go there anytime of the year that we want and stay at any of the properties — it really gives us opportunities that we never would have been able to take advantage of otherwise. And did I tell you that we have this for the next 50 something years? Yup, even our grandchildren will be able to visit Disney thanks to us! And c’mon, people we know Disney is not going anywhere so this is definitely a good investment!

Alright, now enough with the praise about the Disney Vacation Club because I am truly not trying to sell any of my readers this time share or anything else for that matter, I really just intended to tell you about an awesome promotion to give you a $25.00 GC for FREE and let’s be honest — I will get one too. LOL

Okay so now the DVC is offering a special promo that I can extend to all of my friends and family. Just by contacting DVC and letting them know you’re calling as my friend and listening to their short spiel about the DVC then you will receive a FREE $25.00 GC. You will not have to give them any of your personal information with the exception of where to send your GC and I promise it will only take a few minutes and they will not call you ever. I already had my mom call so I KNOW it only takes a couple minutes and then they will immediately send us both out GC’s. You win, I win. 

If you’re interested in this special promotion then please feel free to email me directly at minniemama@ymail.com for the details.

P.S.
We’re planning an upcoming trip to WDW this Spring so we could honestly use the help — Isabella’s at the age where she ‘needs’ everything and since she’s inherited my Disney obsession I know we’ll be buying lots of souvenirs!