Win Legoland Discovery (Grapevine, TX) tickets (4 pack) ends 7/31/11

Plum District Dallas is sponsoring a giveaway at Dallas Single Mom to bring Dallas/DFW families a family 4-pack ticket to Legoland Discovery Ctr in DFW (Grapevine, TX)! It's so easy to enter, so head on over there and win your family the tickets! With over 100-degrees in the Dallas area for almost a month, you're probably running out of new places to bring the kids to cool down. 

Hurry, the contest ends on 7/31/11.

Plum District

Plum District's new logo! 

Kids Play Fore Kids North Dallas Charity Event Aug 2011

Date: Friday, August 5th, 2011

Location: Firewheel Golf Park (Old/Lakes Courses) 

600 W Campbell Road

Garland, Texas 75044 (map)

This is a charity event benefiting the Northern Texas PGA Jr Golf Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas. Kids ages 6 -18 play a 9-hole scramble in teams of 4. Kids can sign up as an individual or as a team. All kids are asked to set a goal of raising at least $100 and kids win prizes on the amount of money they raise.

My 6-year old son has never played golf but is always up for fun. I am trying to get a team together just because it's fun to do this with friends. I have spoken to the coordinator for the event and was told that they will provide golf clubs if needed. She also said that they will have plenty of assistance for the younger players, and if they just end up throwing the ball that's alright too. The goal is to have fun and help a cause.

If your kids, or your kids' friends are playing for this great cause, contact me at izzy4300(at)gmail(dot)com OR leave a comment here leaving me your contact info and I can get Plum District - Dallas help you out in your efforts of raising funds!

non-toxic nail polish for kids

My 4 year old twins have been asking for their nails to be painted lately. Several months ago, after having been in their current preschool for a year, I found out that their teachers have been telling them apart based on their hairstyle. J has always loved two ponytails and K with only one. But the system stopped working when K decided she wanted her hair to be just like J. The preschool teachers said they could tell them apart, but not when their backs are turned.  Fair enough.  But this got me thinking of ways to differentiate my girls more, so I bought a purple and pink nail polish. The problem is, they're not safe, and they stink.

Today I decided to search online and discovered Piggy Paint, a non-toxic, hypoallergenic, water-based nail polish for kids. I ordered several so now all I have to do is wait. I will post my review in the coming weeks.

Plum District Deals

I am the new Community Relations Consultant for Plum District Dallas! Have you heard of Plum District? It is a deals website BY women for savvy moms out there. When you sign up, you pick your region and you will get alerted to deals in your surrounding area. If you like the deal, you go buy it!

Sign up now through this link Get Your Plum District Deals here and get started.

Plum District will reveal it's new website on Friday, and so to celebrate you can 

get 20% OFF one purchase  by using the code  buhbye at check out. So simple!

attempting the scary

This week I am going to take my 4-year old twins and my 15-month old to the pool to join a group of moms. I've been to this pool so I know the layout and I know how the kids handle it. K was comfortable swimming on her own while wearing a vest, J was clingy and had to grab onto an adult at all times, and then there's Little M who is just a happy go lucky toddler that I must hold onto the entire time. I figure I'll get J on my back and Little M on the front and just hope the God that K don't go too far away. Sounds good. All set. 

There is a matter of the potty break that is also scary when I have all three. But I think we'll stick to a strict schedule. Potty before going in, and potty an hour and a half later. 

I got it all planned out. It's do or die.

How to Tandem Breastfeed Twins

Breastfeeding isn't easy to begin with and when you're breastfeeding twins, it's exponentially harder. Thankfully for me, I was a seasoned pro by the time my twins came. After breastfeeding my first born for 12 months, the act didn't scare me I just had to work on the logistics for my girls.

My girls spent 10 days in the NICU so I didn't have to breastfeed in the hospital. But once they came home, we ditched the bottle. Armed with my EZ-2-Nurse Twins pillow, I felt at ease. The problem was, how do I get them on? On my king sized bed, I placed my little girls in between my outstretched legs. I then took my EZ-2-Nurse pillow and buckled it around me. After tightening it, I reached for one baby and placed her gently down in position. But as I reached for my other baby, the first baby started sliding down. Afterall, the middle part of the pillow was above my legs but the edges hung down. They were small at that time so I just clumped down my arm on my first baby and reached for the other quickly. When they were in place, I scooped up their heads with each of my hand and latched the on. Success! For a week or 2 I only breastfed in my big bed. But I couldn't keep doing it since my bedroom at the time was in the second floor. So I had to try the sofa.

The sofa set-up started with placing my babies in their bouncy cradle very close on either side of my legs (I learned this to make the dismount easier). I then placed them on the ends of the sofa on either side of me one at a time. I buckled my nursing pillow and reached for them. Again the first one started slipping down as I reached for the second (I learned to use the sofa pillows and placed one on either side of me under the nursing pillow to make it level). For the dismount, I had to reach for the bouncy sit to put first baby down and then the second. TA-DA!

I am proud to say that I breastfed my twins for 14 months.

Tom Muehlenbeck Pool - Review

(Photo from planotx.org)

The entry fee for the Tom Muehlenbeck pool is $3 for ages 3-16 and $6 for 17 years old and up. It's a big facility that is appropriate for all ages. For the very little ones, there is a water play structure with a slides and spray. 

Right next to it is a circular area (see the picture above) with a fountain in the middle and spray waters surrounding it. The kids can walk in the circular area. The water between that and the fountain in the middle is 3.5 ft deep with a sitting area on either side. My adventurous 4-year old daughter would jump from the spray area into the water over and over (wearing a vest that is provided by the facility). My 15-month old enjoyed walking on the sitting area around the middle fountain. I just followed him around. Out of this circular area is the rest of the pool. The entire pool is 3.5 ft deep. There are steps that gradually go down into the pool. 

For the older kids (minimum of 48 inches tall) there are a couple of slides. The slides end on a landing pad and not into a pool. The lifeguards were strict about the height. My 6-year old is 48 inches tall with shoes, but of course he was barefoot when we were there and was refused entry to the slides. Bummer. 

Though I never made it to the indoor pool, my husband said there is also a small water structure for the little ones and a slide that drops into the 3.5 ft deep pool. There are tables and beach chairs but it's best to come early if you want a good spot. For a fee of $5 a cooler is allowed. 

Jack Carter Pool

(Photo from planotx.org)

This is only our second summer here and I am now only learning of the many pools Plano has to offer. If not for the wonderful mommy groups that I've joined, I wouldn't have known these pools exist.

For $3 each my twins and I enjoyed Jack Carter for a couple of hours. We were there from 10 - 12:30 on a weekday. We were the only few there at 10, but by 11:30 the place was filling up. By the time we left there were no more tables available. The tables were under a canopy and surrounds half of the pool. The playground is enclosed by a metal fence, which makes it great for families with little ones. It makes it possible for some mommies to enjoy conversation with others because you don't need to follow your little ones so closely. You would just want to keep an eye of where they are. But there were 2 lifeguards on duty when we were there.

The restroom facility was a short walk in the same area as the entrance. The restroom looked well kept.

Some kids had their own buckets, cups, little inflatable toys that others just pick up when left laying around. It's important to clearly label everything. If the kiddos have swim shoes, it's best to wear them here. My girls had blisters on their toes after an hour of playing.

There is a big pool beside the kid area, but as I mentioned, there is fence. Overall I loved this pool. I only had my 4-year old twins with me when we went but it is small enough that I want to take the whole family the next time (including my 6-year old and 15-month old sons, and of course hubby). We are mindful of where we take all the kids because the adults being outnumbered, but this is one place we can handle without stress.

I would say Jack Carter pool is appropriate for 0 to about 7 years old. And it is OK to bring strollers in for the little tiny ones.