Plane Preparations

Next week, we're embarking on our very first plane ride with Avery.  And not a short plane ride, let me tell you.  Our first flight (which happens to be at 6 in the morning), is three hours long.  Our second flight is over five hours.  And this momma is nervous as heck about it. 

My toddler has an attention span that's less than a fourth of a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode (for you non-toddler moms, that's like 5 minutes long).  That's a looooooong time to have to entertain, console and keep quiet one very active toddler.

I plan on implementing several different tactics to make this plane flight easier....new coloring books and crayons, suckers for take-off, new movies that I'm planning to rent on the iPad.  None of which I can guarantee are going to work.  All I can do is pray that she stays fairly calm and that we're blessed with understanding and patient plane friends.

I can plan activities and distractions all day long, but honestly, the thing that keeps my kid quiet more than anything:  food.  It's our go-to strategy when we have to take her anywhere that she has to be quiet for an extended period of time.  Going to church?  Pack a giant bag of cereal.  Going to a wedding?  Throw multiple bags of fruit chews in my purse.  So why wouldn't this work on a plane?

I knew I was going to have to be more organized than just throwing a couple of packets of fruit chews and some Cheerios in a Ziploc bag.  To Walmart I went! 

I found these, which I found completely awesome:

Lunchables Jr., or basically Toddler Lunchables.  Each contains three different snacks in one container.  I started to grab them, but at almost $2 apiece, I really thought I could do better.  So I started getting creative to make my own Toddler Lunchables.

Since we're going to be on these flights for both breakfast and lunch, I made a breakfast, lunch and snack lunchable of my own.

I first headed over to the Tupperware container/lunch container section.  I picked up some double divided containers for $2.88.

Breakfast:

In one container, I packed "breakfast-y" type items.  PopTarts, fruit chews, dried apples, dried cranberries and fruit loops.  Obviously I know that my kid isn't going to eat all this by herself for one meal.  I'm over-preparing.  If she doesn't feel like PopTarts that morning, there's fruit.  If she doesn't want fruit, there's cereal.  Better to be prepared than have a screaming kid.

Lunch:



Lunch items include:  Uncrustable pb&j sandwiches, fruit chews, Teddy Grahams, Jif To Go packs and Ritz Bits.

Snacks:



Snack items:  Dried cranberries, goldfish, Pringles Stix, dried apples, Teddy Grahams and Jif To Go.

Can I get a shout out from all the moms that LOVE these things??  Technically, it's baby food in a pouch.  But my two year old still loves these things.  So, for 88 cents apiece, we still pick them out.





So, that's my food plan.  Wish us luck!! 

Long Hair Do Care.

I got my hair cut today.  Actually, I got my hair chopped off today.

I wanted something different.  It's been 3 years since I've had a different hairstyle.  I'm ridiculously afraid of change.  I don't know what I'm going to do when I start going grey and need to dye my hair.  It took 48 hours of opinions, pep talks and reassuring myself for me to even get my hair cut today.  What can I say?  I'm a makeover chicken.

Here's the inspiration:

Chelsea Kane!  Her hair is fabulous.  Just fabulous.  Particularly the picture at the bottom right.

Pictures!  (side note:  You should know this.  Posting selfies is really, really, reaaaaally putting myself out there.  I have horrible self-esteem and hate looking at pictures of myself.  I almost can't believe I'm even putting them up willingly for other people to see.)

Before!

Long hair do care.  

During!

I'm convinced my hair could have made a small wig.  Hair. Was. Everywhere.  

After!

I'm hyperventilating right now.  Seeing the before and afters together honestly makes me throw up a little bit.  And I'll be honest, the before picture looks a lot better than the after.  But in person, this new hair is AWESOME.  It literally looks just like Chelsea Kane's hair that I took for inspiration...just brown instead of blonde. :)  I think I lost 5 pounds by losing all that hair!  I'm really, really loving it.  Although I keep running my hands through it and then freak out because I have no hair anymore.  I guess sometimes it does pay off to just put on my big girl panties and deal with it.  

Rug Recommendations?

I'm not sure what my deal is with rugs.  Everyone else seems to be able to find a good deal on a cute rug around here.  I keep striking out.

You may remember my dilemma about finding a rug for our living room. After extensive searching, I finally found the perfect rug on Target's website.

Now I'm having the same issue, just in the master bedroom now.

I'm in love with my comforter and sheet set.  It's grey and yellow and I want to bring in some mint green accents around the room.  This is what you should know about me.  I'm not a matchy-matchy kind of person.  I really want to be able to mix and match patterns seamlessly and make everything look like it was just meant to go together.  I haven't mastered it yet.  So I thought that a rug would be the perfect opportunity to bring in some color and some pattern and make it look like it all went together.  But, since I'm super dependent on other people's opinions (it's a flaw, I know), I need to know what you guys think.

Options!

Let's break these down.

The picture on the left, obviously, is my bedding.

1.  From zulily.com
Pros:  It's yellow houndstooth.  I'm obsessed with houndstooth.
Cons:  It's a 3.5'x5.6' rug.  I'm really hoping for a 5'x7'.  And it's $99.99.

2.  Currently in my Target store.
Pros:  It's gorgeous in person.  I really like the idea of doing a completely different rug pattern and bringing in the different colors.
Cons:  It's $152.99--that's the sale price.  Not really the ideal pricetag I'm looking for.

3.  From Urban Outfitters.
Pros:  I'm obsessed with chevron right now and it's mint green and it's only $89 for a 5'x7'.
Cons:  Is it too different?

4.  Same rug as #3, also from Urban Outfitters, just in yellow.
Pros:  Again, I love chevron.
Cons:  I'm nervous that it's too much yellow.  And I'm afraid that it's going to come in the mail and it's going to be a different color yellow that's on my bedding and it's going to clash.  Ugh.

Opinions?!?!