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Holiday Brunch Lemon Mimosas with Discount Drug Mart

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This post is sponsored by Discount Drug Mart but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

I can’t believe we’re rounding out the last part of 2018. I mean, I look back at all that has happened in this last year and I’m truly amazed at how quickly 2018 flew by. But I’m beyond excited to begin celebrating and reflecting on all that 2018 has brought to our family and friends.

There have been new jobs, new homes, big contracts, and new babies in our family this year — so there is much to celebrate!

To kick off the holiday celebrations, we hosted a pre-Thanksgiving brunch with my Mom and Dad, who just happen to be celebrating the purchase of their new home!

I picked up all of the fixings for amazing brunch cocktails at our local Discount Drug Mart. They offer a wide selection of beer and wine at state minimum pricing, which is great for ease of convenience and my budget!

For this special occasion, I picked up Truly Spiked & Sparkling Water, White Claw Hard Seltzer, Cook’s Brut, and Martini & Rossi Asti — a little bit of something for everyone’s taste! In addition to these items, I picked up what I needed for our brunch menu. Discount Drug Mart really does save you the runaround!

The real showstopper of our brunch was the featured cocktail — what I like to call Mint Lem-mosas.

Here’s what you need to make them:

1 bottle of Martini & Rossi’s Asti
12 ounces of lemonade concentrate, frozen
1/2 cup of vodka
a handful of fresh ground mint leaves
Optional: sugar rim garnish

Mix liquid ingredients in a pitcher. Pour into individual flutes. Add ground mint leaves.

These delectable cocktails will truly make any holiday brunch or dinner party!

We laughed, we sipped, and we celebrated the beginning of what is certain to be a delightful holiday season — one filled with laughs, smiles, friends, and family.

I’ll admit it — we had been slacking on hosting much of anything since we started having babies. There was always something keeping us from hosting, but if these last few hard years have taught us anything, it’s that time waits for no one, so celebrate every day now.

For great deals on all the mentioned items at Discount Drug Mart, click HERE to find a store location near you!

#holidayparty #entertaining #entertainingathome #hardseltzer #champagnecocktail #DiscountDrugMart


 

Life Lately // a Balancing Act as a Mom of 3

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Oh, hi! I promise I’m not just over here having babies and leaving you high and dry. I’m also living a relatively normal life — or at least trying to!

Here’s what we’ve been up to recently:

Bottoms Up Yoga at Sibling Revelry Brewing. 

I jumped at the opportunity to meet up with some fellow Cleveland bloggers for an afternoon of yoga, beers, and laughs, courtesy of Bottoms Up Yoga at Sibling Revelry Brewing!

I brought my mom, Mimi, with me so that she could hang with the big kids while I brought Mila in with me. I mean, she’s a newborn and sleeps most of the time anyway — and this was a class with a bunch of gals I know really well anyway!

Well, she started making those newborn grunts while sleeping in her car seat. I spent most of the time rocking her car seat in between downward dogs before I just gave up halfway through our flow and stepped out.

I ended up ordering some food and sitting down with a flight of IPAs to wait for the class to finish and for Mimi to arrive back with the big kids, so it all worked out in the end.

Sometimes you've just gotta put yourself out there and try to do something fun, even if the end result looks different from what you planned Click To Tweet

Sometimes you’ve just gotta put yourself out there and try to do something fun, even if the end result looks different from what you planned, right?!

The Cleveland Flea.

I’m not a big shopper. I’m just not. But one of the events I most look forward to each month is the Cleveland Flea. Perhaps because it combines my love of Northeast Ohio with my love of finding unique items and food? Yep, that’s probably it!

Well, the last Flea I brought both of the girls with me on a little girls day out. We ate donuts from The Vegan Doughnut Company and walked around for a bit before we settled into a cozy spot for some relaxation and people watching.

Remy is such a social child and she really loves to be given a little space to explore, so I let her do her thing for a bit while I fed Mila.

Work.

I’ve been back to work for weeks now and it’s not all that bad. Mila is with me at all times and the bigger kids have the chance to play and get some energy out for a bit in a different environment. I start teaching cycling again in just a few weeks so our schedule will get even busier, but I’m anxious to get back into the swing of teaching again!

Prepping for Kindergarten.

Ari starts Kindergarten in a week. I’m so excited for him and anxious at the same time. Our school shopping is nearly complete and I have his teacher and room assignment! The only thing we have left to do is attend orientation!

It’s safe to say I’m going to be a complete wreck those first few days. I don’t know if I’ll actually cry, or if my anxiety will just go into overdrive. I know for certain he is ready. He’s so excited and hasn’t even muttered a word about being nervous.

Food Fridays al Fresco at Cascade Plaza.

So many amazing things have been happening in my city over this last year. There are so many events happening on a daily basis (oftentimes at the same time), I’m bummed I’m not able to make them all. Such is life with three kids, I suppose!

But one of the events I knew we had to make it to was Food Fridays al Fresco, which happens every Friday during lunch in Cascade Plaza in downtown Akron. Basically, a bunch of food trucks, backyard games, and live music smack dab in the middle of a weekday!

I was adventurous enough to take all three kids out to this while solo-parenting. It was an adventure, but they had fun running around the big, grassy, plaza.

Edgewater Beach, Cleveland.

While searching for new places to take the kids, a friend suggested going to Edgewater Park and walking along the beach. It was a gorgeous day so I thought, why not?

The water was closed due to rough current, but the kids only really cared about the sand anyway. We walked and explored and played before giving in to the heat and heading back home.

Northeast Ohioans are lucky to have so many adventurous places to explore. This was just the tip of the iceberg for us and I cannot wait to continue taking my kids on these little adventures.

 

In reflecting on all that we’ve been up to lately, I can confidently say that adding a third baby changed everything and yet changed nothing. We’re still doing our thing. We’re still living our lives. We’re still having fun, and working, and playing. It just looks a little different.

In what fun ways

have you been

exploring lately?

 

Prenatal Self-Care with Make-Ahead Scrambled Egg Muffins

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NatureMadePrenatalDHA #CollectiveBias

As a new mom, one of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was the following:

Plan, prepare, and adjust your expectations as you go.

Pregnancy and adding a family member are, at best, an adjustment. And, at their toughest, they are a battle. I consider myself in the lucky category regarding pregnancy. We never had any trouble trying to conceive. I began taking my prenatal vitamins the moment we decided to try for our most recent baby and, though convinced it surely could not be as easy to get pregnant as the previous times, we became pregnant almost immediately.

But all of my pregnancies were very different. The first time around I felt invincible — I ate what I wanted, failed to exercise, and still felt relatively great. But that was not a healthy pregnancy. I struggled to recover and get back my health postpartum. Eventually I did, but it was harder than it should have been. The second time around I was too sick with hyperemesis gravidarum to maintain any bit of health. But the third time around I made a vow to myself and my family to be a healthier, better version, of pregnant me.

Using a 5 month supply Nature Made® Prenatal Multi + DHA from Sam’s Club.

The easiest way for me to stay on top of my health during pregnancy was making sure to attend regular OB checks and purchasing a 5 month supply of Nature Made® Prenatal Multi + DHA from Sam’s Club. I knew that I was doing everything in my power to provide the essential vitamins and minerals needed to properly develop my baby’s nervous system.†

Having the 5 month supply means that I can focus less on running out and more on keeping myself healthy and at my best.


Remaining active.

I also maintained my exercise regimen — which is something I had failed to do previously. I continued teaching cycling classes and coaching gymnastics, all while also participating in group exercise classes such as Zumba and kickboxing. Sure, my stamina and level of physical exertion certainly changed, I stayed active and did my best to maintain a physical lifestyle.

And I have to say, it made a huge impact in how I felt. I was able to keep up with my kids and give my energy a boost when I was feeling sluggish. As a bonus, the exercise made my pregnant body sleep so well!

Stocking up on healthy foods. 

As a busy mom of two already, I needed to fuel my body with foods that would help me keep up with chasing them around. One of my favorite ways to keep us all from starving is to buy the pre-washed and pre-cut fruits and veggies from Sam’s Club. This way when a tiny toddler comes screaming for “snaaaaacks!” I can just open the fridge and hand her a carrot! It also helps that I love raw veggies and that they are an excellent way to keep me from eating the unhealthy foods neither I, nor my baby, needed!


Make, bake, and freeze. 

With previous pregnancies I gave in to every craving under the sun. I am honestly fairly certain I lived off of ice cream and Philly cheesesteaks my entire first pregnancy. But it turns out you shouldn’t feed your family ice cream and cheesesteaks every day, so something had to give with this third pregnancy.

Enter meal prep. My nemesis and my saving grace. See, I’m not a huge fan of cooking. I like to get it all done so that when I’m hungry I can just eat — no waiting. So the saving grace is that I can prep meals ahead, make them, bake them (or cook them), and freeze them in smaller amounts for later.

And what better way to freeze items than in cute, bite-sizes, so that my kids think it’s ‘fun‘ to eat! Did you realize you can put basically anything in a muffin tin and it suddenly changes the way that kids see meals!? All jokes aside, this really and truly works!

That’s why I’m sharing one of my favorite healthy meals that can be made ahead and put in the freezer to grab and go — Easy Scrambled Egg Muffins!

Easy Scrambled Egg Muffins

I grabbed all of the items from Sam’s Club so that I could make a big batch to freeze and have handy.

Ingredients:

  • 18 eggs
  • 1 C chopped spinach
  • 2/3 C whole milk (or 2% milk)
  • 2/3 C flour
  • 2/3 C grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1 Tbsp basil
  • 2 small tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 tsp. baking soda


Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
  2. Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Slowly mix in milk.
  3. Stir in black pepper, sea salt, and basil.
  4. Fold in spinach, tomatoes, and cheese.
  5. Add flour and baking soda until thoroughly mixed.
  6. Use 1/4 measuring cup to scoop into muffin tin.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let stand to cool. Enjoy and freeze extras!

Good for you, delicious, and easy peasy!

† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

 

Family & Budget Friendly Ways to Have Fun this Summer!

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #GiantEagleSlashedPrices #CollectiveBias

It’s no secret that our lives will be turned upside this Summer. Between welcoming baby number 3 in June, and prepping Ari for kindergarten this Fall, I’m trying to keep our lives as sane as possible. Oh, and did I mention that I’ll be taking unpaid leave from my job, too? Yeah, so sanity-, and budget-friendly activities are a must for this family of (almost) five!

Here’s how we plan to stay on budget and STILL make the most of our Summer!

1. Find community sponsored events for kids.

I did a simple google search of events going on in our area this Summer and the results were amazing. Not only does the city of Cuyahoga Falls offer Tot Time in the Park every day of the week (hellooooo, free arts, crafts, and playtime!); but there’s also a free Touch a Truck event in July that my kids will simply EAT UP.

We’ll also be taking full advantage of the Regal Cinemas Dollar Movies all Summer long (more here). Because the best way to try and see if a kid is ready to sit through a movie is to only spend a single dollar on that movie! 😛

2. Research free admission days.

Our local art museum, the Akron Art Museum, does free admission on every single Thursday — which is an awesome way to introduce children to art! There are always some hands-on exhibits, which the kids obviously love; but I’m forever amazed at how much they actually like to walk through the galleries!

Other museums, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, are always free of admission! How cool is that!? I love knowing that any day of the week I can just load the kids up and head to see world renowned art — at zero cost!

Additionally, the Akron Zoo offers several free admission days throughout the Summer. The first of which is on June 17th! In honor of Father’s Day, all dads and grandpas will receive free admission!

Many of the big-box hardware and craft stores also do free build and crafting events on the weekends, so be sure to check those out (and sign up!), too! We’re already on the schedule for a build workshop and a LEGO workshop in the month of May!

3. Keeping our groceries on-budget with Giant Eagle’s slashed prices.

We have been keeping our family grocery budget in check with the competitive NON-sale, slashed pricing, at Giant Eagle! For us, this means we can still get all of the good stuff — the fruits, the veggies, and the meat — without breaking the bank. Even frozen goods and dairy have seen slashed pricing!

Giant Eagle stores across Akron, Canton, and the Cleveland area have slashed prices on over 5,000 items. Considering how frequently we grocery shop at Giant Eagle (I’m notorious for poorly meal-planning so we shop about 2-3 times a week), I’m happy to know that these items are not on sale and are permanent price reductions.

I’m able to fill up my cart without breaking the bank — and get more of the cereal and snacks my children always beg for! Also, the convenience of having frozen and dairy items along with cuts to produce means that I can spend less time cutting coupons for items and spend even more time with my family this Summer!*

4. Expect the unexpected. 

I had visions of how life would be as a mom. I thought “Oh, for sure if I plan this extravagant party my son will adore me forever.” Friends I’m here to tell you that this is not the case. Often times it seems that the more time and energy that goes into something, the more lackluster the response I will get from my children (insert eyeroll).

So instead of thinking of ‘amazing,’ pinterest-worthy ways I will keep my children occupied this Summer, I’m going the realistic route.

I’m keeping a heaping amount of chalk and bubbles in our shed. That’s right. When in doubt, chalk and bubbles come out. Why are these two simple items both the bane of my existence and the highlight of my childrens lives? One may never know. But I keep them in excess for when I’m mommy’d out. And they don’t even seem to notice that it’s me taking the easy way out because, guess what!?, they are enjoying every second of it.

So do yourself a favor this Summer — keep it simple. Keep the planning simple; Keep the playing simple; and keep your grocery budget simple with slashed prices at Giant Eagle.

 

What’s your favorite budget-friendly activity for Summer??
And how are you taking advantage of price cuts at Giant Eagle?!

*Price cuts available at select locations. Check with your local Giant Eagle for more details!

1st Annual Cleveland Comedy Awards

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I know we don’t tend to get out a lot these days (hellooooo, pregnancy!), but last week Chad and I were lucky enough to get out for dinner and an event! That’s right — we had the honor of attending the inaugural Cleveland Comedy Awards at Hilarities on East 4th.

Some background: I am not a comedian in any way. But comedy has always played a huge role in mine and my husbands lives. It’s something that brought us together when we first started dating and something that continued to bring us together long into our relationship. We’ve seen various comics perform over the years and shared a love of laughter through television shows like Last Comic Standing.

So when my friend Sarah invited me to attend this event, I was overjoyed! Not only did we get to laugh, but we got a date night, too! Win, win!

Our pre-event dinner was at Barrio in the Gateway District.

I’ve been craving Barrio tacos and guac for a while. And, even though there was a wait and even though we were in a bit of a hurry, I convinced Chad to sit at the bar so we could still enjoy some pre-show tacos.

Sidenote: Here is where I say that my husband was right and I should listen to him more often. I told him my plans of getting two tacos and also guac. He laughed and said that there was no way I would be able to finish that much food. I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about and I can totally eat two tacos AND guac.

I was wrong. So wrong. I absolutely want to be one of those people who can eat a normal amount of food, but it seems like I can barely finish two tacos! Sad face. He was right.

From there we walked down to Pickwick and Frolic to meet my friend Sarah on the red carpet!

Y’all this event was amazing! Because Sarah was a presenter, our seats were right up against the stage. That’s front row… at a comedy event… while 7 months pregnant. Eek. I was nervous!

See what I mean?! I really didn’t want to be called out by these guys. Ha! Luckily, they decided to pick on Sarah’s husband instead of me (phew!).

The event was presented by Comedic CLE and hosted by Rob Ward, whom we’ve seen perform before — and someone I happen to think this hilarious.

My husband happened to think that many of the jokes were, indeed, inside jokes between the comics; but for whatever reason (perhaps it’s because I listen to a lot of these guys on the radio so I happen to know their backstories); so I thought it was fabulous.

Some of my favorites from the night include Jasmyn Carter’s performance and Brian Kenny’s long-form joke performance. They had me dying of laughter!

I was sad to see that Mike Polk Jr. and Mary Santora weren’t present to accept their awards, but totally saw that coming. They are rockstars of Cleveland comedy and so busy travelling! Props to Bill Squire for filling in for both Mike and Mary! It was great!

The night ended with a truly amazing performance from Ramon Rivas, who can be found on Comedy Central and shows like Vicelan and Broad City.

Thank you so much to Comedic Cle, Hilarities, and specifically Sarah for the invite. It was a pretty awesome night, even if that means I didn’t get much sleep nor did I get to put my babies to bed — it was still worth it.

Check out the full list of 2018 winners here. And be sure to check out all of the above mentioned comics — I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

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I’ve mentioned several times over the last 8 years that I am a novice cook, at best. My abilities have always been hindered because of my fear of making something that tastes awful. So, for years, I just avoided cooking. I mean, Chad has always loved to cook — and he’s great at it! So I took a backseat.

But 3 years ago Chad bought me an Instant Pot and I started to dabble in making meals for our family. It’s still been something I’m not ultimately comfortable with; but the Instant Pot is an amazing invention. And the growth of its popularity has given me more and more courage to branch out and try new recipes — and adapt old ones!

My most recent Dinner Conquest was a Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, adapted from this recipe.

[gmc_recipe 12514]

I am IN LOVE with comfort food this pregnancy — and this? paired with some rolls or a piece of toasted bread? Perfection! It’s just what this baby ordered! I’m in love with how creamy and hearty it is — which is perfect for a cold Winter’s afternoon!

We’re definitely adding it to our weeknight dinner rotation! 😉 The kids loved it — and so did I (and so did this baby in my tummy)!