The Wydown Hotel in St. Helena

A couple of weeks ago my husband, Mike, took part in the Vineman 70.3 race up in Sonoma County.  He spent so much time training & prepping for this race over the last 6 months we decided the girls and I had to be there to cheer him cross the finish line.  He finished strong and we were SO proud!  As a treat, after the race we extended our stay and ventured over to the Wydown Hotel in St. Helena for a few days of R&R.

When Mike signed up for this race he called our friend Mark from college to see if we could come stay at his newly remodeled boutique hotel called The Wydown.  The Wydown is located in historic downtown St. Helena in the breathtaking Napa Valley.

Click here to read more about Susanne’s trip…

Kindergarten Redshirting: What’s a Parent to Do?

My oldest daughter, Emma, was born on June 11th. Back in my day, most kids with a June 11th birthday would enter Kindergarten at 5 years old, so in my head I had always assumed she would go to Kindergarten the Fall that she turned five.  Am I right?

But then during her second year of preschool, I started to listen to chattering amongst preschool moms on the subject of Kindergarten, and I learned that many of them were opting to delay starting their kids with summer birthdays in Kindergarten until they had turned 6, a choice known as “redshirting.”

I thought this was typically something only parents of fall birthday babies were doing…

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Dohm Sleep Conditioner

For anyone looking for the best white noise machine for babies and kids, I wanted to share with you a favorite recent find called the Dohm Sleep Conditioner.

I have used white noise machines with both my kids since birth.  I am a big believer in sound conditioning for sleep, and that sort of Pavlov-dog type of association with a certain noise and sleepy time.

The Dohm is made by…

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SAS Blow Dry & Makeup Bar [Giveaway]

I had my 20-year high school reunion last month. So weird, because it really seems like 1992 was not that long ago. Seeing that many people hadn’t seen me in about, oh, 20 years, I wanted to try to do what I could to improve upon the last image they might of had of me, and that was one of a very big spiral perm so I made an appointment at a new blow dry bar in OC called SAS to see what they could do to SAS me up before the big event!

SAS, which stands for “Shampoo & Style” is a full service blow dry and makeup bar, so I was thrilled to not only be getting my hair done, but my makeup too!

Click here to read more & enter to win a SAS blowout!

Fancy Nancy Birthday Party Ideas

So Fancy Emma turned six in June and seeing that her absolute favorite books are the Fancy Nancy series, we decided to throw our girly-girl a Fancy Nancy birthday party and I wanted to share some of the ideas I found in case anyone out there might want to consider a Fancy Nancy theme!

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