Alot .Of. Tola

Once your kids get to an age where they start to understand what is going on and also get the concept of birthdays and birthday parties, then you have to put a little more thought into planning those birthday parties. But as much as you would love to give them the entire world and go all out for those birthday parties, you also have to be realistic and keep it within budget. So I thought I would share some ways to make it a fun and memorable party, but keep it easy on your wallet as well.

• Keep it very low maintenance, something as simple as a backyard party or if you don't own a home doing it at the pool in your apartment or club house. This saves you money from having to plan an extravagant party, or having to worry about paying for a hall space or purchasing a party package from you local party locations. 
• Seek out cheaper options, the dollar store and even the dollar spot at Target are always life savers, you can get so many good items either to entertain the guest or for your goodies gift bags. 
• Stick to non-traditional themes, so instead of doing a popular Disney movie theme, mix it up and do something more in line with colors. Or instead of my little pony theme, do a unicorn theme birthday party. You can check out the site basic invite to get amazing different birthday party invitation that not only affordable, but give you variety of options to stay on theme for whatever theme you decide to with. They offer a custom party invitations at the fraction of the cost which is amazing for the mama that wants to have a party that looks and feels like she spent a fortune, but her wallet doesn't feel it. 

• Buy store bought cakes rather than doing a custom order. Stores like whole foods or Sam's club have beautiful inexpensive cake options that are also delicious
• Keep it low key, sometimes we get overly excited to do it up for our kids. But honestly when they are young, they could careless they just want their parents there and the people that matter the most. So keep it low key and make it close family and friends, less people means less foods and less spending. 

After you get out of holiday mode and start to get back into life as you know it, that can also mean getting yourself and your family out of holiday habits and routines. I don't know about your guys but, honestly from thanksgiving till after the new year I tend to find myself in this phase of constant snacking and just eating everything within sight. So now I am trying to transition us back to healthier new year habits, by making very minor but much needed changes

• More outdoor activities, during the holidays and the two weeks that the girls were out of school, we ended up being indoors a lot more than I would have liked to be so for the new year I plan to try more outdoor activities to take us out of the house and away from our screens. More park days, taking a walk around the neighborhood, and some good ole running around outside
• Meal Planning, it is so easy to want to order pizza or just have the entire family go out to dinner because you got too lazy to prepare dinner. Or you get back from work and the last thing you want to do is stand in a kitchen and prepare a meal. But if you stay ahead of it, by preparing the entire line up of food over the weekend for either the week ahead  or even in some cases I have heard people prepare their meals for a month ahead, its a chance to prepare healthier meal options and also you are saving money so win win situation! 

• Staying active, I never quite understood why moms had their kids in so many sport activities but being a mom now I get it. Especially in a world where kids end up spending so much time indoors and behind screens. Putting them in some type of physical activity, where they get to burn energy and also it keeps me accountable for my own fitness journey
• Incorporate more fruits and veggies, especially when you have young kids. It can be so easy to incorporate more fruits and veggies, be the example of for them if they see you eating and enjoying it then they are more willing to want to enjoy it. 
• Switch out juices for more water, I recently got into sparkling waters and so I have been using that as the perfect substitute for juice and soda

After the holidays it almost feels like my body and mind just seems to still be stuck on holiday mode and can't quite snap out of it. By the time the new year rolls around, I am having to pep talk myself back into the swing of things, and make sure I can get going on all the goals and various things I have set out to accomplish for the year. So this year to get ahead of things and not allow my January to run away from me before I know it, I am implementing some minor ways to mentally reset after the holidays.

• Clear out my Christmas decor within the first few days of the year. This one can be hard, because the decorations tend to keep the spirit of Christmas alive and I mean who can look at Christmas lights and not instantly get into a good mood. But, that also gets us stuck in Christmas mode. So this year, we actually took down the Christmas decoration on new year day. I saw it as a great way to start the new year, everything fresh and cleaned up. 
• Purge out your refrigerator, all those holiday left overs that have been seating in your refrigerator. The Christmas desserts that you packed away that you probably have no real plans to eat except as a late night snack, just go ahead and toss it out. Creating space for fresh new meals that you will be making in the new year, fresh and healthy!

• Get back into schedule/routine, during the holiday especially with everyone being on break routines everything slowly makes it to the back burner. But in other to shake off that holiday and vacation lifestyle, you are gonna need to get back to your routines. Get back to going to bed when you usually do, waking up with your alarm rather than just hitting the snooze button. 
• Plan ahead, take some time to plan out your year. For me I actually purchased a calendar and went through the entire year and plugged in important dates like birthdays, vacation, no school days, appointments and so on. By doing this, it clears it out of my head and it gives me a chance to see what is to come and plan ahead. 
• Write down your goals, this year I am very intentional about writing down my goals and having visual representation of everything I am setting my sight on for 2020. By writing it down and having it where its constantly in my face and I am always reminded of it. This keeps me motivated to get my stuff together and achieve what I need to. 

New Year's Eve celebrations start to look a lot different once you have kids, gone are the days of turning up all night long. But that doesn't mean it can't still be a fun night even with your kids, so here are some ways the entire family can ring in the new year!

• Enjoy a family house party, some times we are more worried about celebrating some big and grand way with a big group but honestly you can invite other friends who also have kids and just have your own in house party and countdown. Its more personal, fun and safer
• Find Midday New Year's Eve celebrations, so many local museums and amusement parks host day time celebrations so the entire family can go and celebrate. Places like Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark which will be hosting a roaring new year's eve celebration from Dec 31st at 10 am to Jan 1st at 1 am, so you get to pick the time that works best for your family and celebrate until you are tired. 

• Make it a Netflix and New Year Eve, your children might not be able to hang into midnight but you can still make it a movie night. Everyone gets to snuggle up with blankets and their pjs, enjoying as much movies as the kiddos can take till they fall asleep. 
• Buy all the fun new year's party supplies, like party hats, blow horns and those cool year glasses and have everyone ring in and count down into the new year. And sometimes if the kids can't make it into the actual new year, I know so many of those new years eve count downs on TV will count down to new year on the east coast and sometimes even other countries. So you can get excited for that and get the kids all happy for the new year. 
• Make it a fun family game night with all sorts of new years activities to keep the kids busy or just tire them out lol. 

Holiday season can be quite hectic and if you are also privileged to have a big family or have family members who you can spend the holidays with, it can get a little hard trying to figure out how to spend time with everyone. When you marry someone you pretty much marry them and their entire family, and so when the holidays come around there is this need to share the love equally. Which honestly is just unrealistic, but I think the most important part is being as fair as you humanly can be and do what works most importantly for yourself and your family.

• Communicate with you partner way ahead of time on how you all want to handle the holidays, I think we all sometimes just assume but rather than assuming everyone is on the same page have set out plan on how you want to spend the holiday. Especially those first years try to understand what each other's traditions are around the holiday and try to build your own traditions based off of that. But having a set plan of where and what family you will spend each and every holiday with, will make it all easier. 

• Be fair and try to shuffle things around, some years you might choose to spend thanksgiving with one family and the next year you choose to spend Christmas with them. Trying to give everyone a fair amount of family time is so important. I recently spoke with a co-worker who was explaining how her brother recently got married, and the whole time him and his now wife were dating they had always done Christmas with his family. Now that they are married, they have completely switched it up and do all holidays with her family which is something her mom is very disappointed and hurt by. So I think just trying to be fair and know which holidays you will do with each family, or if you even want to do both holidays with both families be sure to break up times so everyone feels the love. 
• Sometimes you can make the decision to not do the holidays with either family and just do it on your own, and then your families can decide if they would like to come to you. A friend of mine told me once she and her husband started having kids, they made the decision they would not be traveling to see families for the holidays. Instead they host their own small family holiday dinner, and extended family decide if they can make it down or not. By doing this, it makes it easier on her and her husband not having to figure out which family they would be spending what holiday with. 

Lets be real shopping for anyone for the holidays can be quite complicated and if you are anything like me can feel a lot more stressful than it need be. But when you have a pregnant wife or friend that you need to shop for it's twice as complicated, this is because you are stuck in between do I buy something for you, or do I buy something for the baby lol (talk about stress level on high lol) But the only gift you really need to be getting them is a subscription to bump box. Its the perfect balance of gifts this mommy to be needs, and stuff she can use for both herself and baby after baby arrives. Finding out about bump box recently just made me think about how much life would have been a lot easier when I was pregnant it I had this service.

• For one its everything picked and sorted out for you right at her front door. With a monthly subscription with bump box, she will get at least 5 products hand picked for every month of her pregnancy. So instead of trying to give out what she needs or wants, bump box does the work for you! (Win- Win!!!)
• Bump box picks products that a pregnant woman actually needs, like I said earlier when shopping for pregnant women you can sometimes feel you need to focus on buying for the baby rather than the woman, but honestly having been there before I totally feel like we all tend to forget the mom when she is pregnant and she needs some care too which is why this is a perfect concept. 
• The box is separated into each stage of her pregnancy, so you can properly gift her something that matches what trimester she is in. 
• Its a one stop shop, nothing more annoying and stressful like having to crack your brain on what to get having to enter various stores or locations looking for the perfect gift. This subscription box makes it extremely easy and you don't even have to lift a finger! 

Being a mom, your life can sometimes feel like it revolves around your kids and even your fashion game slowly starts to slip because you are spending all our extra coins buying clothes for them to look cute. With holiday season officially here that also means holiday work parties, as a working mom I know the struggle too well. Trying to dig through your closet to find something that is fabulous, stylish and still work appropriate. I thought I would be sharing some tips as well as some budget friendly outfits you can get right now! Here are some simple ways you can be stylish for your holiday party while still staying within budget.

• You don't have to always buy new clothes, pull out old pieces you have in your closet and mix and match them for a whole new outfit. You can never go wrong with a simple yet elegant dress like this one and pair it with a nice fun blazer to give it all the holiday feel 
• You can also do work style but make it chic, suits have been all the rave this year so you can totally take one of your work suits in a fun color and or even a black power suit paired with a fun top put it with some nice pumps and then we got boss mama serving! 
• A good jumpsuit is always elegant and will always be work appropriate. 
• Don't go overboard, keep things simple by picking one key fashionable piece. 
• You don't always have to go high end, honestly places like Target, Walmart and even your local thrift will have you looking fly at the fraction of the price.