image via EveryMotherCounts.org

Mother’s Day is almost upon us.  A day many of us believe to be created by Hallmark and the like.  Actually, people have been honoring their mothers with a day of celebration for thousands of years.  In Europe Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday during Lent has been celebrated for hundreds of years.  In the late 1800′s the modern, U.S. version of Mother’s Day emerged by women who felt it important to unite the family after the Civil War.

We’re never ones for the super mushy cards produced, but we do like the idea of spending the day with our Moms and our children.  This year, we’d like to remind you to simply, be thankful that you are a Mom.  It is an amazing thought when you really think about it.  Christy Turlington’s foundation Every Mother Counts works to highlight and prevent the many pregnancy related deaths that happen each year internationally.  The organization has a campaign to forgo Mother’s Day (don’t accept calls, emails) as a way of solidarity for the issues.  There is a video here featuring prominent Moms who support the cause.

Celebrate how you see fit.  Motherhood is wonderful and joyous and deserves the day of honor.  We agree and support the work that Every Mother Counts is doing and that is why we are helping to spread their message.

For us, THANKFUL is the word in so many ways.  We will be celebrating with our kids and thinking of others too.

Enjoy your day Moms.  We are united by something very special.

image via US Magazine

Yay for Jessica Simpson who had a May Day, baby girl.  The gossip press is calling it the longest pregnancy.  Hmm, if you’ve ever been pregnant, you know they are all long.  By the end of pregnancy, it feels like forever for the Mom too!

We love that Jessica named her daughter Maxwell.  A hip, yet normal, name for a celebrity tot.  Can’t wait to see the pics on the cover of People Magazine.  She should get next weeks cover all to herself as there weren’t any major celebrity shake-ups this week.  But now the question is, will she sell the images to the weeklies or go a little higher end? People get really uptight about this question.  Let her cash in again, she’s going to need it to outfit that little one in the sweetest clothes.  We’ll be on the lookout for all the pics.

Keep up your Spring Cleaning attitude by stopping the junk mail from piling up.  Digitwirl has an awesome find of an App that keeps the mail you don’t want from being delivered to you.  It’s called PaperKarma.  All you have to do is snap a pic with your phone and PaperKarma contacts the company on your behalf to halt all future mailings!  Digitwirl’s video shows you how.

One less thing for you to go through the hassle do and a lot less unwanted “noise” for you to sort.

Getting the mail just got more Zen.

image via Vital Juice

You’ve been Spring cleaning the house, opening the windows, and clearing out the junk.  Don’t forget to do the same for your body.  After another baby and all the chocolate ingestion that went along with it, I am giving myself a little detox to right my eating, curb my sugar cravings, and feel good overall.  I did a week of whole foods and raw foods.  Things like salads with quinoa, asparagus roasted with rosemary, and raw snacks like almonds, pumpkin seeds, and these amazing kale chips.

The first few days are always the roughest.  Getting over the need for sugar is a tough one for me, but using teas help out and I allow raw agave nectar to sweeten things.  The feeling after a  week of super healthful eating is wonderful!  Now I will move onto the juice portion of my Spring body cleansing, drinking juices and teas for three days.  All of this may seem a bit intense, maybe you haven’t been eating m&m’s by the bagful or having chocolate chip cookies at 5am when your kids wake up, so here’s a great listing of some in season fruits and veggies that have Spring detox effects.  Our favorites from the list, asparagus, we’ve been eating a ton of it at my house and are happy to find its a natural detoxifier and we are suckers for a good baby artichoke.

Get to your Spring body cleaning and use your Spring house cleaning as exercise!

We are loving celebrating our 3rd birthday with you and are keeping the party going until Monday April 16th at midnight.

Continue to join us in shopping for funky pajamas from Rowdy Sprout, the cutest girls bathing suits from Ferd, and other cool Summer styles.  Keep using code “ThreeYear23″ for the 23% discount.  Can’t wait to see what you bought!

image via Cribsie Awards

We gave you a heads up on the nominations and voting, and now the results are in.  Check out the Cribsie Awards to see what products over 81,00 fellow Moms think are the “Best for Baby, and Tops for Tots”.

We like that the categories have shifted a bit from last year allowing for new brands to fit in, apps weren’t included then, for instance.  So for finding The Safest Sunblock for Precious Skin to the Most Trustworthy Toddler Car Seat Maker and The App Most Likely To Teach Your Kid Something, the Cribsie Awards give you a heads up on recommendations from other Moms across the country.

Us, we’re loyal to our brands, but we love being turned onto new brands that fit our lifestyle.  And with so many kids products on the market, a good review from other Moms is worth it’s weight in gold!

It’s our 3rd Birthday!  Oh how time flies when you are having fun!  We are so grateful for all of the success we have had over the past three years and we want to spread the happiness.  To show our appreciation, we are offering the entire website at 23% off for the next 3 days!  Use code “THREEYEAR23″ to take advantage of this great offer for the next three days.

Gear up for Summer with awesome t-shirts from Appaman, great plaid shorts by Scotch & Soda Shrunk, or sophisticated tunic and legging sets from Little Ella.

Thank you all for your support, we are truly grateful, and will be bringing more special styles in the months to come!

image via Apartment Therapy

Its great for a rainy day, great for a sunny day, great for the car, great for waiting at the doctors office or at a restaurant.  It’s also just a super cool, artistic hobby that doesn’t require being plugged-in or charged up, it’s coloring.  Nothing beats it for creatively passing the time with minimal mess.

Apartment Therapy did a great job of gathering up some of the coolest coloring books around.  Good-bye Thomas and Disney, hello Rock-N-Roll!

image via CBS News

The jackpot has never been so high for Friday nights, multi-state Mega Millions Lotto drawing.  Currently at $500 million, experts are saying the kitty will reach $600 million by drawing time.  For those of you who would take the lump sum, that is $389 million.  Talk about life changing!!!

In the spirit of things we thought we’d share a few links to help you with your number plotting and winnings.

Mega Millions: What To Do When You Win “Before anything else, sign the back of your ticket.”

How To Win Tomorrow’s Mega Millions Jackpot, According To A 7-Time Winner Amongst his advice, “Pick a combination of numbers that hasn’t won before.” and “Buy at least 10 tickets at a time to guarantee that you’ll win.”  Hmmm…

What would you do with all those winnings, besides buy your little one tons of clothes?  Get a ticket and enjoy your daydreamin’.

Good Luck!

Books are big in our house.  I love when I look over and see my son sitting on the floor and flipping through the pages.  Even though he’s just two, he gets the stories and understands the emotions on the characters faces.  It’s amazing what he seems to pick up.  So we like to have books in every room of our home for the kids to troll through or for an impromptu reading session. Daily Candy came up with  great list of their “All Time Favorite Kids Books”.  They’ve got 83 books on their list which includes classics like Olivia and books by Richard Scarry, as well as some newbies to the scene like Dear Zoo.

We all have our favorites that can be added, Little Blue Truck is one of mine, but this list is a solid start to building a library for your little one and an awesome reference for when you need to buy a gift.