Last week I wrote a post for Simply Designing about a fun summer paint party with my little ladies. I basically put the girls in (old) bathing suits, threw down a sheet, put out a bunch of paint supplies and let them go crazy. I made sure to stress that it was a “party” so that they wouldn’t think this little fun fest was going to turn into an every day thing. And let me tell you, they had a blast.

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, I thought it would be pretty fitting to sit down with Sam to see what she thinks about mothers and Mother’s Day.

She was very serious and official and seemed to be prepping for a beauty pageant and/or for a career as a politician. In my opinion, she’d be fantastic at both.

Why do we celebrate Mother’s Day?

To celebrate how much we love mothers. We love them because they take care of us just right and they’re so nice to us. On Mother’s Day we give mothers presents. We give them breakfast in bed.

Is it just me or is March going by in a blur? I realized this weekend that next week is spring break for my girl. That teensy tiny realization has me scrambling for ideas.

As I’ve mentioned once or twice (or possibly a million times), my big little lady gets bored easily. While the little one can get lost playing with her little people for hours, Sam needs more.

I’ve found that the best way to deal with her boredom is by being totally prepared. More often than not I am not prepared. But now that I’m an old thirty-year-old lady, I thought I should get myself together. 😉

Now, the problem with spring break in the northeast is that you really can’t predict the weather. We could have awesome, playground-worthy weather or the snow could just keep coming.

In case of less than stellar weather, I went hunting for kids crafts and a couple of experiments (she loves experiments!) and this is what I came up with:

When you find out you’re preggers for the first time, the whole registering for baby essentials thing can be a little intimidating. OK, it can be paralyzingly intimidating.

When I (unexpectedly) got pregnant with Samantha, I launched into full-on control freak mode. It was slightly alarming at the time because I don’t think that had ever really been part of my personality (but it is now, friends! It’s here to stay!).

I started picking up books and magazines on baby products and I would highlight and take notes and make extensive lists about safety ratings and price comparisons. I was straight up obsessed.

But what the books and magazines never told me is that you’re way better off with one magical product that does a few things than a million different highly coveted items–especially when you have more than one kid and are like a traveling circus whenever you leave the house anyway.

I thought I’d put a list together of a few of my favorite multi-purpose momma products. This list is by no means extensive. It’s tiny, but it’s a start…

I was a total delinquent on the holiday cards front this year. I came out of Thanksgiving all gung ho and with a pretty stinking adorable holiday photo idea. Then I got lazy. Then, as the boxes started pouring in, I got cheap. I decided I’d email a “card” to our friends and family, but I didn’t even make it that far. A Christmas morning Instagram shot that I also posted on Facebook was as good as it got.

But it did not come easily. Oh no.

In my experience, there are a few necessary ingredients to a holiday photo–and not all of them are easy to work with. Here’s what you’ll need next year for the perfect Christmas morning photo:

• A pretty, twinkling tree and an abundance of (unopened) presents
• Coordinating pajamas
• An ornery toddler who wants nothing to do with you
• An overflowing stocking with things much more interesting than you and your stinkin camera (even if that something is a cup)
• bright eyed and bushy-tailed Christmas morning patience

Here’s a peek at what your process will look like as you struggle to get all of the ingredients to work together (in case you need proof, this year’s struggle looks an awful lot like last year’s holiday photo struggle):

“My drink and new cup are way cooler than anything you could be trying to do.”

“I’m ignoring you. I’m ignoring you. I’m ignoring you.”

“My little sister is so cute and silly.”

“PRESENTS! Presents, presents, preseeeeents!”“This baby is cuckoooo!”

“Are we done yet?!”

“Fine. I’ll give you my cheese face if it means I can tear some paper.”