Tiny Oranges – Fresh, fun blog for OC moms

Granola Babies in Costa Mesa has great upcoming events and workshops for new moms and I wanted to share the dates and details!

New Baby Care Class
Sunday, May 20th, 2 – 4:30pm

Learn how to care for your newborn baby in this comprehensive 2 1/2 hour class for pregnant or new parents, as well as their caregivers.

Topics include: umbilicord care, newborn appearance, bathing, diapering, swaddling, traveling, newborn sleep, calming baby, feeding, carrying and other resources for parents.  Each family will receive a “Gentle Baby Bath and Body” gift set.

$40/family; registration required. Click here to sign up.

Sleep: Getting Better Sleep for Your Baby
Saturday, May 26th at 3:00 – 4:00pm

Learn how a baby sleeps, how many hours your child should be sleeping, how to set up routines, the importance of sleep associations and creating a sleep environment that fits with your family. Class is geared to parents of young babies.

Free to attend; registration required. Click here to sign up.

Pregnancy Support Group
Saturday, June 2nd, 3:00 – 4:30pm

Be inspired, receive support and learn how to make your birth a happy, healthy and inspiring experience. Learn tips and ways to have a natural birth in a hospital setting.

Topics include: creating a birth plan for a hospital birth, overview of Bradley Childbirth Education by The Birth School, pros and cons of having a doula, what you can and can’t ask for in a hospital big, questions to ask your birth care provider, what happens after birth in a hospital and more.

Free to attend; registration required. Click here to sign up.

Prenatal Radiance Yoga
Sunday, June 3rd, 2:30pm

Pregnant moms can come and share in this replenishing, supportive gathering through gentle prenatal yoga and meditation. Each Prenatal Radiance gathering is designed to connect the growing mom with important effective practices of self-care and well being as you prepare your body and mind for enjoying coming adventure.

$15/per person and includes gentle prenatal yoga instructional guide with audio meditation. Registration required; click here to sign up.

Conceiving Naturally
Tuesday, June 5th at 11am

This 1 1/2 hour workshop is designed for women who are struggling with fertility or who are wanting to prepare their bodies before conception for a healthier pregnancy.

Topics include: information on how to conceive naturally, how to work with your cycles and have your hormones be your allies, information on holistic therapies for conception, how to increase your chances of conceiving.

Taught by Joanne Cohen, a Health and Transformational Coach, who will share her 5 step process for conceiving consciously and holistically.

$15/per person; registration required. Click here to sign up.

All events and classes take place at Granola Babies, 3315 Hyland Avenue, Suite B in Costa Mesa.
714.445.4958

Granola Babies also carries pregnancy and baby products such as Medela breast pumps and rentals,  breastfeeding pillows, pregnancy and parenting books, diaper bags, eco teethers, strollers and more.

Click here for the entire class calendar.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

[Disclosure: Granola Babies is a Tiny Oranges Sponsor.]

Summer sneaks up on you fast, doesn’t it? And now that I have a grade schooler, I didn’t realize it, but you really have to start planning your summer activities and camp schedule like now!

This post is not to stress you out, but to let you know you can plan for summer with the help of SeekingSitters OC if you anticipate needing assistance when the kids are out of school.

I know a lot of moms work out of the house part time, so when summer rolls around  it can be problematic!  With SeekingSitters OC, you can set up a regular babysitting schedule and know you dedicated, uninterrupted time to work while your kids are having a blast playing with their sitter.

Maybe you don’t have a part time job but prefer not go crazy this summer? Come on, I am not the ONLY one that feels like that, am I?!

With SeekingSitters, you can plan a weekly (or more!) block of time where you can be assured you get at least 4 hours to yourself to run errands, make appointments, take care of yourself, and keep your sanity. Tell your hubby this alone is priceless!

The sitters are all independent contractors, so just as if you were booking a sitter one on one, if you feel comfortable, the sitters are able to take your kids to camp and drive them places if that is what you need help with over the summer months.

Their sitters are AMAZING.  

I wrote about my personal experience using SeekingSitters here. Completely stress-free, no hassle, and our sitter was like a modern day Mary Poppins. She arrived with her own bag of activities geared to my girls’ ages and they were in heaven.

All the sitters are committed to keeping your kids entertained (and off of video games and TV) for the duration of the job. I LOVE this aspect, because I know I am not going to have a babysitter sitting on the couch texting while my kids just watch TV.

A few main points on what makes their service so incredible for families:

* They do all the work for you! No interviews, no calls back and forth, no reference checks, they do all the legwork so you simply put in your dates / requests and they book a sitter for you.

* Safety! All their sitters are prescreened, background checked and have CPR and First Aid training.

* Easy Payments! Payments are made via credit card online so you never have to stress about having cash or going to the bank.

* Personalized Service! Kim Kane, the OC owner will work with you to make sure you get the very best sitter for your individual needs.

* Quality of sitters! Kim does all of the hiring herself, and as a mom of two young boys, knows exactly how high the standards are for a fabulous sitter.  Her sitters are professional, engaging, entertaining and show up on time ready to play with your kids. And when they leave, your house will be picked up in the same if not better condition then it was when they arrived. Important!

Kim recommends working with them now to plan for your summer so she can get you on their schedule.  Many sitters book up due to demand, so the farther she knows in advance, the better.  This is not to say that they can’t accept last minute requests! It is just easier for everyone to plan now if applicable.

I can’t more highly recommend this service.

For more information visit, www.SeekingSitters.com.  You can also visit SeekingSittersOC on Facebook and follow @OCSitters on Twitter.

Kim Kane, Owner, SeekingSitters OC Coastal, Central & South
949.294.1003
kimkane @ seekingsitters.com

[Disclosure: SeekingSitters OC is a Tiny Oranges Sponsor.]

I am in full party planning mode for my daughter’s upcoming 6th birthday. Since she is in love with all of the I Can Read Fancy Nancy books, we decided to host a Fancy Nancy theme birthday party for her this year. It is going to be one posh party and I can’t wait!

My friend told me that she saw cute Fancy Nancy invitations on Etsy, so I headed over and checked them out.

Oh la la! The perfect invite was found by Party Invites, designer printable event decor & more.

How it is possible I have not used Etsy before for party planning, I am not sure. The options are amazing!

When I ordered it, I was sent two files by the seller, a .JPG and PDF to download with our invitation for printing.

I had never printed my own before so I put it out there on Facebook to see what you party savvy mamas have done for printing, and the response was so helpful, I thought I should do a post on it.

By the way, if you don’t already “Like” TO on Facebook, you really should. My mommy readers are soooo helpful!

Here is how you print your own DIY invitations:

1. At Home – Several mamas suggested printing on matte photo paper or card stock at home, with your printer set to the highest quality setting.  Another said she printed on card stock, and mounted on another card stock. C’est chic!

2. Costco – One mom mentioned that they give free envelopes with invitations, worth inquiring.

3. Target – Another person mentioned the same thing about free envelopes. But I found out they only print on photo paper. Just FYI.

4. Zazzle.com – You can order on matte paper if you order through Zazzle.

5. Snapfish.com

6. Staples – But one mom warned when printing in store, they did not come cut and there was not a cutting option. Hmmm…

7. FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) – We have one of these super close to us, so I chose this route. I called the store and they gave me an email to send it to. I emailed the PDF, which was 2 per page, and they turned out to be super reasonable. But I did spring the $10 they charged me to cut them. Worth it!

Anyone have any other DIY invites tips?  Do share!

For anyone doing any sort of home improvement project, home design project, or if you are just someone who loves looking at photos of homes to get ideas, you will go CRAZY over this website, www.houzz.com.

The Houzz site is home to thousands of articles and interior and exterior photos that design professionals are able upload to showcase their portfolios. It is the largest database of design and decorating ideas.

You can create your own “Ideabook” by category, so whenever you see a photo that catches your eye, you can make a comment and save to  reference later. What I love the most is that you can sort and filter to find exactly what you are looking for.

For example, my husband and I are thinking about putting in new patio flooring, so I can search on Houzz by “Patio” and then also filter by style, “Contemporary.”

Then I add patios I like to my “Patio Ideas” Ideabook and he is able to do the same.  It is helpful to then be able to go back to look at all the ones you saved to notice what you like about them and see patterns emerge. Sometimes home projects can be overwhelming, and this makes it easier (and FUN!)

There is even more you can do with it…sharing, discussions, finding professionals in your area, etc…that I haven’t even explored yet!

I also recommend downloading the Houzz App if you are on an iPad or iPhone.  They even have a Houzz Kids’ Rooms App.

One of my favorite weekend activities is to steal away while hubby is with the kids to sit in bed with a cup of coffee to drool over gorgeous home photos.

Enjoy!

www.Houzz.com 

Susanne and I flipped when we clicked on this website. You will too, guarantee it. Plan a Day Out [www.PlanADayOut.com] is a FREE resource for families filled with a gazillion OC outing ideas and activities for kids.

On the site, you can easily find tons of fun things to do with kids in Orange County based on distance from your address and other parameters you can enter into your search.

I played around on the site recently to find ideas for my family and was floored at the result. I entered the date (Sunday) and a willingness to drive 20 miles from my home and was given a list of 109 activities that we could do that day. Yes, 109.

Once the search results appear, you can then narrow down your search by the following filters in the left column:

* Category: Museums, arts and crafts, inflatable fun? There is a long list of activity categories to choose from.

* Total Cost of Admission: On a budget? You can filter to show completely free activities (there are over 100!) or put in a max total cost you want to spend for your group, and the results will show only those activities in your budget. Please note the total cost of admission will actually be calculated for you in the results!

* Ages: Filter to show those activities suitable for your youngest, oldest or for the whole family.

* Time of Day:  Are you a stay-at-home mom looking for a fun Tuesday morning outing or a working mom looking for something to do with your kids after work now that daylight savings time is here? Plan a Day Out has you covered because you can filter results to show daytime activities, after-school activities (after 3pm), and evening activities (after 5pm).

* Weather:  Need a rainy day outing or something to do on a gorgeous OC day? Filter your results to show only indoor or outdoor activities.

Once you have your options narrowed down, you can click on the activities and it will display more details like hours of operation, address including a link you can click for driving directions, admission cost per person, contact info and any other events coming up at that location.

It is AMAZING!!!!!

The site is one of the coolest discoveries of my life as a OC mom thus far! I especially love that it is the brainchild of a fellow OC mom in search of an easy place to search for activities for her family. I love moms, they truly have the BEST ideas. Please share this one with your mommy friends. They will thank you!

www.PlanADayOut.com * Follow on Facebook

[Disclosure: Plan a Day Out is a Tiny Oranges Sponsor. Check out their cute purple tile (lower right column) anytime you need an activity idea! We are thrilled to be working with them to help spread the word about their awesome company!]