This guest blog arrived in my email box last night and I am so grateful it did because I did not have a post ready for today!  Emma got hit with a bad respiratory virus early this week, then baby Morgan got it a few days later.  Awful! The only thing worse than one sick kid is two sick kids!  So thank you Katie from OC Mom’s Activity Guide for saving my day and giving me a fabulous guest post!

OC Mom’s Activity Guide is a fabulous local blog dedicated to {you guessed it!} fun activities and favorite finds for OC moms and their families.  Katie wrote some great tips on taking your kids tide pooling in Orange County.

Here is what Katie writes…

“The beach has always been a destination for our family.  To be honest my oldest sons’ first trip to the beach was when he was less than a week old, ok… so he never left the Baby Bjorn, but still he was at the beach.

Once the boys were steady on their feet and able to explore a bit, we found ourselves venturing in to the world of tide pooling.  We absolutely love checking out the tide pools to see what kind of sea creatures we can find, whether it is a sea anemone, a crab or some other fish, there is always something fun to find and the boys never get tired of it.

We have fabulous beaches to explore here in Southern California, places like Aliso Creek Beach, Crystal Cove (on the border of Newport and Laguna), Montage Beach and more.

The biggest piece of advice I have is to be sure to check when low tide is (you can do this on any weather website or weather App for your phone), it will make or break your adventure.  If you can time it just right to hit the beach at low tide, you will have the best opportunity to scope out the best tide pools.

Items I recommend you bring…

*  Sunscreen (even on cloudy days)

*  Water sandals or flip flops for those with sensitive feet

*  Towels, swimsuits, etc. in case you get caught off guard by a wave

*  I also recommend a life vest for the little ones if you are taking more than one kid.  It will give you peace of mind; this is from first-hand experience!

This picture above is from our recent trek to Crystal Cove Beach.  It’s quite a walk down (and parking costs $15), but even in the peak summer months, it isn’t super crowded.   At low tide there are TONS of exposed tide pools that the kids love exploring.”

Thanks again Katie!!!  We actually just visited Crystal Cove by the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages for a beach day last weekend. See Wednesday’s post with our adventures at the beach with a one-year-old! I also did a post eons ago about this beach…One of our favorite kid beaches in OC!  Next time we will have to check out the tide pooling with your great tips!

Where’s YOUR favorite beach in OC?

Katie is a full time working wife and mother of two active boys. When they aren’t riding the roller coasters at Disneyland or exploring the beaches, you can find Katie writing over at OCMomActivities. Find her on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

This post is LONG overdue!   But I figure better late than never!

Back in May at my Tiny Oranges Dream Dinners event I met so many amazing moms. It was so fun to meet some Tiny Oranges readers in person.   One of the moms mentioned that sometimes she forgets to check my site so she misses some posts.

I told her she could sign up to subscribe and receive emails when I do new posts and she told me she didn’t know that.  So I wanted to do a post on how YOU can subscribe if you didn’t know this too.   And for those of you reading this because you already do…thank you, thank you, thank you!

This is a simple “how to” on how blog email subscriptions work. I subscribe myself to some of my favorite blogs & I love it when I see updates in my inbox because it’s always fun to open the email and see what the latest topic is!

Want to be a Tiny Oranges subscriber? Here’s how…

Step 1

Enter your email address into the box in the top right hand column of my site that looks like this {below}.  Note, this is not the actual box below, I am just showing it as an example.  The REAL box is in the top right hand column. Do you see it? Yea, up there! To the right of The Juiciest graphic. Yep, that one!

Step 2

After your enter your email address, you will click on the little heart to the right.   When you click on that, it will bring up a screen like this:

This is to prevent spam, so what you will do is enter in the letters you see in green, then click “complete subscription request.”

Step 3 – Most important step!

Then go immediately to your email inbox and you should have an email from “FeedBurner Email Subscriptions.” Open that email, and then click on the link included. This is to confirm you wanted to subscribe. Once you click the link, it should give you a message like you have successfully subscribed. Voila! Just make sure to do this right away otherwise it risks getting lost in your email box.

Step 4

Done!

Once you sign up, anytime there is a new post on Tiny Oranges, you will get an email (usually around 7:30am) in the morning with the subject “Tiny Oranges New Post!“

When you open the email you will see the title of the post with the graphic and a little excerpt.    You can click on the title of the post or the “click here to read more” link (both in blue) and it will take you over to my blog to read the post in it’s entirety or comment.   Please always click over if you have a minute! It helps me and supports the wonderful companies that sponsor my blog.

The email looks like this…

Note: I NEVER sell email addresses or anything like that, so they are SOLELY used for communication purposes with my readers.

If you get annoyed with getting an email a day from Tiny Oranges, you can easily click “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of one of the emails and get taken off the list.  Super easy.  I hope you don’t, but you can, so it doesn’t hurt to try it out and see if you like gettin my little emails!

Thanks for listening and reading and SUBSCRIBING!  Take 1 minute and do it now – I would love to have you in the loop every time there is a new post.  Plus, it makes sure you don’t miss a post on a great giveaway or upcoming event! And, for all my giveaways, you can leave an extra comment that you are a subscriber and you get an extra entry!

I am excited to see how many new subscribers I can get today.  Will you be one?

Happy Thursday!

xo Jen

This is what happens when you take a newly one-year-old to the beach.  Beach trip+ one year old = not so easy!

Sand e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.

Even though we tried our best to keep her from putting it on her face and in her mouth, this was the result of even our best efforts.

Finally I had to give up and snap a picture.  Husband said “maybe sand is high fiber?”

And this is her sand goatee.  Nice look, huh?

For more Wordless Wednesday pics head over to Angry Julie Monday!

A few months back I stumbled upon a baby lotion at Target called Yes to Baby Carrots that had me shouting it’s praises from the rooftops.  Light, all natural and affordable. I have used lots of baby care products over the past few years and I have to say this one was the best.

Since I loved this moisturizer so much I went to the Yes to Carrots website to see if there were more “Yes to Carrots” products and found there was MUCH more to the “Yest to” brand than met the eye on the shelf at Target!

I connected with @YesToCarrots on Twitter and they ended up sending me some additional products to try for baby and me too!    I was curious if my passion would equaled. It was a lot to live up to. But after trying them all for about a month, I am now a loyal “Yes to” consumer for life and consider myself a YES WOMAN!

Here are a few of my absolute favorite products for ME!  I will do another one on the baby products.  All equally fabulous. But first, some important notes on the company…

There are four different collections…

Yes to Carrots, Yes to Cucumbers, Yes to Tomatoes and Yes to Baby Carrots are designed to meet different, specific skin types & needs.  You can even go on their website to find your own unique recipe!   And “Yes to” uses high quality organic fruit and veggie ingredients with a natural elixir from the Dead Sea to hydrate NATURALLY!

“Yes to” gives back….

A portion of the profits goes to the Yes to Seed Fund, a non-profit organization that provides grants to schools and communities to help them build gardens and promote a healthy lifestyle.  Um, like I needed yet ANOTHER reason to buy their products, but this one gives me a certain warm fuzzy!

“Yes to” is affordable…

For the quality and fact that these products are all natural and paraben-free, they are extremely affordable. And, all orders online over $50 comes with free shipping!

So these are some of my top picks!

Yes to Cucumbers Completely Cooling Body Butter

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love. First off, I am probably one of the few adults that cannot actually stand cucumbers.  Weird, huh?  I don’t like the taste, even in those “spa waters!”    So I was a little hesitant to spread cucumber lotion on my body. What I found was that it doesn’t smell like cucumber, but the cucumber ingredients {along with green tea and aloe vera} make it an absolutely luscious moisturizer!  I love the fresh scent (so does my hubby.) It is extremely moisturizing and didn’t irritate my sensitive skin.  My new personal favorite lotion.

Best part: it’s paraben, petroleum & SLS-free & $12.99.

Yes to Carrots Carrot Rich Moisturizing Body Scrub

I have used body scrubs in the past, but many times have been turned off by how harsh they are for my skin.   This is the first exfoliating scrub I have used for my body that has been gentle enough for me.

Used in the shower, the exfoliating grains are tiny, not rough, but enough so that you can feel it working.

It deeply cleanses, then exfoliates and moisturizes leaving your skin silky smooth and ready for your Yes to Cucumbers Body Butter!

Key ingredients include Dead Sea Minerals, Ginko & Green Tea.  And all “Yes to” products contain a full list of ingredients you can check to see what you are putting on your body.

Again: Free of the above chemicals, and are you ready? Only $9.99.

Yes to Tomatoes Tender Touch Hand Cream

This moisturizing hand cream uses avocado & lycopene from organic tomatoes to make your hands feel like baby-soft skin!

I don’t know if this is just me, but all of a sudden when I turned 35 I felt like my hands were really showing my age! Fine lines and just a little wrinkly.

This hand cream is LIGHT. Not heavy or greasy (AT ALL) and I use it right before bedtime.  Goes on smoothly and has a nice light scent.

It doesn’t take away my hand’s 35 years, but it sure makes my paws feel more pampered!

Again: paraben, petroleum and SLS-free & $9.99!

Yes to Carrots Pomegranate Lip Butter with SPF 15

So I am a little bit of a SPF freak with the amount of time I spend outdoors with my kids in the summer.

Not just in summer but really year round, as we know from living in OC, we are lucky enough to get to spend a LOT of time in the So Cal sun.

This lip butter is very moisturizing, light and fragrance-free.  I use it on my kids too, especially for beach or pool outings.

Best part: AGAIN, 100% natural & $3.49!

So there began my love affair with the “Yes to” brand.  I think you will love it too.  If you have some time it’s interesting to Google about parabens and skin care products.  There is some thought-provoking information out there.

It makes me FEEL good to know that I am putting products like this on my body that are made from natural ingredients.

So want to be a “yes woman” too? Click here to shop online or find a store!

{Disclosure: The products in this post were provided free of charge by Yes to Carrots, but these opinions are my honest ones and it all started with a product I purchased myself!}

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend!  I am kicking off this week with a fun giveaway! One lucky winner will receive two tickets to see Julianne Hough (of “Dancing with the Stars”) live at the Pacific Amphitheatre and two tickets for the same day offering free admission to the OC Fair!

The concert is on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 8:15pm.

They have a ton of great shows in the OC Fair Summer Concert Series at the Pacific Amp in the next few weeks. BIG names! Click HERE to see the schedule.

This contest will run through 5pm PST on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010.  I will tweet the winner and post on my facebook page on Friday AM.   Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  Entry options are:

1. Simply leave a comment! – 1 ENTRY

2. Follow @PacAmp on Twitter – 1 ENTRY

3. Follow @TinyOrangesOC on Twitter – 1 ENTRY

4. {Like} Pacific Amphitheatre on Facebook – 1 ENTRY

5. {Like} Tiny Oranges on Facebook – 1 ENTRY

6. Subscribe to Tiny Oranges New Post! updates (top right column) – 1 ENTRY

GOOD LUCK!