Tomorrow will be a day of great sadness. For tomorrow is the day they take my Toyota 4Runner away.

As I mentioned last week, I have had a loaner 4Runner to drive for the week. We took it on a road trip as a family. And frankly I considered just getting in it and driving far away hoping that they wouldn’t be able to fine me. I love this car.

To be honest, the car isn’t really practical for our family. While it has a 3 row of seating, we lost all trunk when we used that row. And as hard as I tried I couldn’t get 3 car seats in the middle seat. So we road tripped with the 3rd row half up and half down. Which actually worked, but it isn’t ideal. But for a family of 4, this car would be perfect.

Slight cramped spaces aside, the car was a big hit. First of all, I am not really a car person. I am not a person who gets all geeked out by cars, thinking they are beautiful and being enamored with what they offer. For me, a car is a way to get from point a to point b.

But this car is really stunning. I loved the look of it both inside and out. And the technology??? Sigh. Today I got in my swagger wagon, which a mere week ago was totally adequate and felt like I was slumming it listening to regular radio and missing out on my apps.

Toyota Entune connects your smartphone to your car and allows you to access popular apps that make your life a lot easier. My personal favorite was Pandora. I listen to a ton of Pandora (in fact one of my most read posts is about my favorite Pandora stations). On a road trip what is better than having the choice between FM, Satellite radio, iPod streaming and my Adele Pandora station. We never wanted for good music. Nothing like a good sing along on a long road trip.

We of course had navigation, but also Bing at our fingertips to find the nearest Chick Fil A (not going there with the controversy, but we don’t have it up here and this mama needs her chicken and waffle fries). Etune also gives access to Open Table, MovieTickets.com, stocks, weather and more. And with Bluetooth technology I was also able to make and receive phone calls without ever touching my phone.

Let’s get to the thing my kids fell in love with and will forever beg for. It is well documented on that blog that my poor children suffer through road trips without a DVD player. Well this car not only had a built in DVD player, it had dual DVD players on the back of both the driver and passenger seats. So the kids could either watch separate movies or we could put a movie in one player and it broadcast to each screen. Needless to say the kids were excited.

Today, with my dad’s help, I got my Sienna all cleaned up. Even shampooed the carpet. It looks pretty. It has a brand new antenna so I at least get FM radio again without static. But I miss my satellite radio. And I know my kids miss their constant entertainment. I mean talking to each other is so 2006. At least we will have our memories.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota.

Usually for us summer means lots of family road trips. And while this summer is no different Ryan and I have taken some trips apart from each other. Mine are all blog related. His are mostly work related although last weekend he took a trip to DC with his dad.

I was actually one of the biggest champions and encouragers of this trip, but it was 3 1/2 days and with all the other travel we have been doing, the kids were just missing their dad. Bedtimes were a mess and all day long I had to answer “how long until daddy comes home??!!!” Being gone during a work week is one thing but when daddy is gone on a weekend when he is supposed to be home the kids go a little nutso.

Enter Skype. Whether I am gone or Ryan is gone we use Skype to connect. Usually when we wake up and before we go to bed. It doesn’t eliminate the tears, but it helps. At least I think it helps……

It is funny. I know a lot of people use Skype to connect with family all over the globe. We mainly use it to connect with each other. I just love knowing that no matter where we are as a family we can still see each other’s faces and tell each other we love each other every day. Yes we could do that over the phone but let’s be honest, it just isn’t the same.

My kids love to IM emoticons (they come by their emoticon obsession naturally), kiss the camera and fight over who gets to talk next. Ok so that part isn’t so fun but the kisses are adorable. We also have silly face contests and take screen shots (hopefully to embarrass the kids when they are in high school).

All in all Skype makes the time go by more quickly and it makes life more bearable for the parent stuck (I mean blessed to be) at home. And makes the parent who is away feel much less guilty about missing bedtime. Win- win for everyone.

How do you stay connected with your kids when you are away?

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Skype. I received Skype credits to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Rather than write a mundane post about my day I thought I would let social media write my post for me. Lazy is our friend people.

My day started with some whining (this is sadly not atypical)

For the record I tried a new class and I felt awesome after. Plus my kids were in someone else’s care for an hour and a half……

Perhaps you heard it was hot out today. I am going to assume it was hot where you are too because it seems to be all people were talking about online today.

Unless they were talking about this:

I have some thoughts. On some things. But although I learned at Type A Conference that one of the best ways to get a post to go viral is to discuss current controversy I think I will just keep my thoughts to myself. Cause if you can’t say anything nice……..

I took an afternoon nap. This was not documented by updates or pictures of any kind.

I ended up cooking chicken on the stove. With a side of kohlrabi. If you haven’t ever tried kohlrabi get thee to the farmer’s market and get some. (also you should check out my CSA Pinterest board. I use it nearly every night)

Then I cleaned a little. I planned on cleaning more than a little, but Silas kept asking me to play with him in the sweetest voice and I decided that sounded better than cleaning toilets. It doesn’t take a whole lot to get me to procrastinate on the housework…….

I ended the day at a backyard concert. Don’t you go see bands in other people’s backyards? I was lucky enough to get to hear Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe. “The Freshman” was the song that defined my sophomore year in college (ironically). I have seen him live several times. It just doesn’t disappoint. And despite the day starting off sweltering it was actually quite lovely in the evening.

I pretty much love my life.

I flew home from Type A Con today. Practically skipped down the terminal into the squealing hugs of three kids and bear hug from a weary hubby. Dude. Dorothy was so very right.

I was so worn out from the conference. I learned a lot. And got refilled and re-energized for my blog. And I got to laugh and hug and dance (oh yes, I danced) with some of my favorite people in the world. But I have been traveling too much for my taste lately and I just miss my family. So today I had no patience for airports and security and tiny squished seats.

But I think God decided to give me a little treat today. I sat down on the first flight and the pilot got on to do his introduction. Except his routine was more of a comedy routine/ jazz performance. Jokes, impersonations and even a little harmonica. Harmonica. From an airline pilot.

I landed on my first flight with a two hour layover. Any smile that pilot brought to my face was quickly replaced by a weary face who knew it was still another four hours until I got to hug my four favorite people on the planet. If only I had my heels to click.

I boarded my last plane of the day hoping time would go quickly. And who comes over the intercom? My harmonica playing/ stand up comedian pilot. Yeah, I had hear the whole routine before, but I smiled just the same.

In a world where customer service typically means a roll of an eye while they begrudgingly help you with what you want, it was the perfect day to come across a man who not only loves his job but has decided to spread that joy. It was the perfect way to end a trip. And the perfect joy to pass on to my waiting family’s arms.

Aside from having no idea what a “shawty” is, today I am going to take 50 Cent’s advice (or Fiddy Cent as his friends like to call him) and party like it’s my birthday.

That is because IT IS MY BIRTHDAY!! Happy Birthday to me. Can you believe I am 29 again?

Ok so I recently confessed that I am 37. But I still feel 29 (like seriously, who let me leave the hospital with all these kids?). It can’t really be possible that I am this close to 40. When did I become such a…… grownup?

Anyway, you all KNOW what the best present is for a blogger. COMMENTS!! Especially the ones telling a blogger how awesome they are. We are a narcissistic little bunch.

Fine, that IS a bit obnoxious. How about tell me what your greatest birthday wish is. I need me some birthday ideas. Ready, set, GO!

The cool thing about having kids is how they make you better. I mean sometimes they definitely DEFINITELY make you worse. But sometimes, if you pay attention, they can really make you a better person.

Lily is incredibly generous. She absolutely loves giving people presents and will spend her own money to do so. If you know how little money an eight year old possesses you know this is a pretty big deal. Sometimes she hits up the dollar store, but often times she shops for something she has seen at Target that she knows the recipient will love.

A few years back Lily got an American Girl doll for Christmas from her Mimi. It was one that was made to look like her so it was a pretty special gift. Because I refuse to buy into the whole American Girl dogma, we never made a huge deal out of the doll, but it was still a special gift to her.

Hannah has always been a doll person while Lily has never much played with dolls. So often times Hannah would end up playing dress up with the American Girl doll which was cool as long as she asked Lily.

So for Hannah’s birthday this year, Lily got a gleam in her eye when she told us she wanted to wrap up her doll and give it to Hannah. We kind of tried to discourage her because it is her special doll and all, but she really wanted to give it to her.

Lily wrapped the doll herself. She could hardly contain her excitement at Hannah’s party patiently waiting while all of Hannah’s little friends jockeyed for position to have Hannah open their present. Then she handed it to the birthday girl beaming as Hannah opened it.

It was in the moment that I saw with my own eyes. It is truly better to give than to receive.

Last post about Hannah’s birthday. I promise. Seriously, just like this blog keeps talking about it we seemed to celebrate her birthday forever. In fact I am bringing treats to school tomorrow in honor of her birthday and then this thing needs to end so we can start focusing on the most important day of the year. MY birthday.

I am not really a “go all Pinterest crazy” birthday party kind of person. Our parties usually have a theme and I make a cake somewhat resembling that theme, we throw up a few balloons and call it a day. Shockingly, my kids think their parties are awesome. I know. It is hard to fathom.

But the hubby and I have a thing for silent auctions. So when we saw a silent auction for a party thrown at our kid’s favorite place on earth, the local library, we bid. And then guarded our bid for the rest of the event )threw a few evil eyes around. and occasional elbow). And we won.

This was like the score of the century. The library did the theme (with some input from me), the decorations, the food, the games, the crafts and the goody bags. It is like a lazy party planner’s DREAM! So I thought I would give you a little peak into what they came up with because I thought it was fabulous.

One of Hannah’s favorite books is Pinkalicious (and Purplicious and Silverlicious and Goldilicious ). So we landed on a Pinkalicious party. The decorations ran along the pink, fancy, cupcake, and did I mention pink theme.

Gift bags and “guess how many jellybeans” in the jar game

table with crayons to color during the pizza and pink lemonade lunch

librarian “Miss Holly” reading Pinkalicious to a gaggle of little girls dressed in pink. oh and Silas.

decorate your own princess crown. the girls also decorated a tooth fairy pillow

decorate your own cupcake. there seemed to be no rules about how many things to put on your cupcake

if you give a grandma a hula hoop…..

As you can see fun was had by all. And I mean all.

Glad challenged a few bloggers to throw a party with as little waste as possible. Since that is something I am already committed to, we attempted to take the “One Bag Challenge” for Hannah’s birthday party. To see if we could have a party with only one garbage bag full of trash. I say, bring it.

Here are a few of my personal tips to have less waste at your parties:

• Save any gift bags and tissue paper and reuse for future gifts. I truly haven’t bought a gift bag in years. I have quite the stash going and every few years I throw them out at a garage sale and mark it for free.
• Many recycling centers will let your recycle wrapping paper. So avoid throwing it in the trash.
• I realize everyone feels as though they need to stuff a goody bag full of stuff for every kid to take home. But as a parent I hate the ones filled with all sorts of trinkets that will inevitably end up in the trash. The library provided goody bags but I was thrilled they contained a ring pop, bubbles and a tiny wand.
• Make sure to recycle all the ridiculous packaging toys come in. I find almost everything can usually be recycled.

At the end of the party we had a tiny bit of garbage from some scraps of paper, a tiny bit of food (although with pizza and cupcakes on the menu, not a whole lot was left) and a few craft supplies that didn’t get used. I put everything to recycle in a gift bag and brought that all home.

Glad is committed to helping people

recycle more and accumulate less trash

. They also have developed a trash bag that uses less plastic, a bag made out of 65% recycled plastic and a bag for compostables. We try and not accumulate much trash around here, but I am happy to know when we do there are options to reduce its impact on the environment.

Do you have a summer party coming up that you could commit to the “One Bag Challenge”? Glad wants to send you a party pack including their trash bags and some biodegradable tableware (which I used Memorial Day weekend at a BBQ and loved). To enter, simply leave a comment letting me know what you do to reduce waste at your house. You can get an additional entry by leaving a comment letting me know you subscribe by email or RSS feed. (what are you waiting for?)

Contest ends Tuesday June 5th when the winner will be chosen at random. Best of luck!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Glad and received a One Bag kit to facilitate my review, a kit to give away, and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

You could hardly contain yourself tonight at bedtime knowing that you would turn six tomorrow. I remember when Lily turned six and she seemed so old to me. Somehow you still seem like my little girl. Probably because there is such an innocent joy about you that I pray you never grow out of.

You love people. You love music. You love laughing. You love your friends and your school. And you love your family. You just love life.

I think the sixth year of life will bring a lot of firsts. First lost tooth. First bike ride without training wheels (although you really can do that already if you would just go for it). First year of school where you will be there every day.

You are an amazing girl. The true middle child who goes with the flow and gets along with everyone. You can talk the ear off anyone who will listen to you about any topic that you find interesting. I am not sure where that comes from…..

You and your sister love all things girly. Jewelry, nail polish, twirly dresses, mom’s high heeled shoes. You can be the best of friends or…..well not the best of friends. But the nice thing about being the middle child is you quickly switch over to being best buddies with your little brother who believes the sun rises and sets with his big sisters.

Of course it isn’t all roses and rainbows. You are sometimes a little too fluent in the language of whine. And I am pretty sure, dear middle child of mine, that you have masterfully figured out how to work the system so that the blame shifts to the oldest or the youngest while you get off scott free. But I am onto you. Well kind of.

It is a joy and delight for your daddy and I to be your parents. In all honesty sometimes you may get a little lost in the shuffle, but you never seem to mind. You are always there with a smile on your face. Thanks for teaching us what true joy is. Can’t wait to see what God has in store for you!