Perfect for Sleepaway Camp: Kids Stationery and Journals from Minted

Thanks very much to Minted for providing me with this opportunity to review heir fantastic designs. If you don't already know Minted, they are a site specializing in indie designs for everything from personalized greeting cards to wedding invitations. Also: I want one of everything on the site.

In just a couple of weeks, my kids are heading off to camp. With the biggest event being that my oldest, Magpie, is heading off to her first summer at sleepaway camp.

I am so excited on her behalf, but as the mom of a kid heading off to her first summer at sleepaway camp, I had no idea I was in for so much planning, prepping and packing.

Also, as it's her first summer at sleepaway camp I want everything to go as well as possible, which means I'm making sure she has everything perfectly checked-off on the packing list sent by the camp, and of course I want to make sure to hear from her while she's away.

Which means she needs just the right stationery, not only to write me her dear ol mom but also her friends.

We picked out stationery that Magpie loved from Minted.com, which has an entire section of children's stationery, most which can be personalized with name and a photo.

Magpie choose this design:

 

but instead of adding a photo of her cute self, Magpie being Magpie, decided to personalize it with this photo of her holding not just one but five cicadas.

And of course, cicada stationery pairs perfectly with a cicada journal.

Because why choose a cute head shot for the cover of your journal.

when you can be a cicada whisperer.

 

 

Journal pictured here is $16 and can be customized with lined, graph, or blank interior pages. Cicada photo is of course entirely optional. To see all the journals for kids, click here.

 

Thanks again to Minted for giving me the opportunity to create one-of-a-kind items that perfectly reflect my daughter's unique style.

Seasoned parents of campers who have gone to sleepaway camp - please tell me, what do I need to know?

Instructions for my Husband: The pool and the bath are not one in the same

A big thank you to Nicole Yontz for being a guest instructor here today and explaining to her husband the finer points of distinguishing a trip to the pool from actually giving a child a bath.

Nicole is a stay at home mom in Arizona and a contributing parenting writer for WhatToExpect.com. She writes a personal blog at TheBetterHalfBlogs.com, and you can also find Nicole on Facebook and on Twitter so go say hi!

Dear Sweet Husband,

You’re a wonderful man that I love dearly with all my little heart. But. Yes, but. There are a few things we need to clarify here: one of them being the bathing habits of our child. You might want to have a seat because I’m about to throw some knowledge on you…

Swimming in the pool is not the same as swimming in the bath.

The other day when I asked you to bathe our offspring and then you didn’t, rationalizing that she was clean enough after having been in the pool for hours and hours, was the day that I realized we had a problem. You see there are serious fundamental differences between these two bodies of water that I will now outline for you.

POOL:
• Is filled with water
• Makes hands and feet pruney
• Contains chlorine

BATH:
• Is filled with water
• Makes hands and feet pruney
• CONTAINS SOAP

As you can see from my bullet points, yes, both the pool and the bath contain water and they both make little hands and feet pruney. I can see how you could get confused, I really can. However, the last point is the most important; the pool contains chlorine and the bath has this amazing stuff called soap. Chlorine is meant to clean germs and bugs out of the pool; it, however, does not clean toddlers.

So I hope I cleared up any misconceptions you may have had previously and I look forward to a clean and good smelling toddler in the future.

Love,
Your Adoring Wife

PS: If you need some tips for making bath time fun, check out WhatToExpect.com.

Thanks again Nicole for adding this important instruction to our growing list!

To read all the instructions for husbands, click here.

I may lack Internet, but I have spa night and cicadas

My Internet has been down since Thursday.

It's been terrible for my deadlines, but otherwise I'm doing OK with this sudden break from my constant and beloved companion.

And it's given me time to have Spa Night with my daughters:

and to help the kids build a cicada zoo, a cicada circus, and my favorite: the cicada farm.

Note: by "help" I mean telling them, "Do not come near me with those things!"

We've also had the usual 873 end-of-year school activities, here's my fourth-grader on her way to the chorus performance:

What have you been doing? And more importantly, what have I missed online?!