Posts Tagged: "parents"

Couple’s Photo Shoot | One-Size-Fits-All Gift

Most of my friends and I have adult children. The question each year is “What do we give them for Christmas?”

couples-photo-shoot-one-size-fits-all-thoughtful-gift-ideaIt was so much easier to pick out Christmas gifts  when they were small, but as adults it’s difficult to surprise them.

My friend shared her “stroke of genius” idea and came up with a Couple’s Photo Shoot for her grown adult children’s Christmas gift.

We have lots of pictures of our children but not professional grown-up photos of our kids and their spouses other than the wedding photos taken years before.

Even her adult granddaughter and boyfriend will receive a photo session. They will be so surprised!

Moto Photo packages for couples are reasonably priced starting at $55 for a one pose package.

The package consists of an 8×10, two 5×7 and 8 wallets. Gift certificates are also available to give any dollar amount you would like.

JCPenney Portraits and Portrait Innovations are also offering holiday specials.

Continue Reading

Funny Books for Parents With a Sense of Humor

I’m a parent with a twisted sense of humor, and I’m not the only one.

I think it’s actually healthy because I’m able to laugh at things that normally would drive someone crazy!

A sense of humor (twisted or not) will get you through the highlights and pitfalls of parenthood. For example, I have a child in diapers so every day is full of shits and giggles. Literally.

My friend Beth and I bond over our twisted sense of humor. I’m so excited she’s pregnant with her first baby!

When it came time to pick out her baby shower gifts, I knew what book I just had to give her!

Hilarious Books for Parents

It’s called Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés.

Sleep deprivation was one of the hardest things I dealt with as a new mom. When your baby just won’t go to bed, you do start to think, “For the love of God, go the f**k to sleep!”

Continue Reading

KinderPerfect | Cards Against Humanity for Parents

Parenting is tough sometimes but it’s also hilarious, especially if you throw in some sarcasm and political incorrectness. KinderPerfect is a card game for adults who enjoy laugh-out-loud humor about the challenges of raising kids.

The game is simple. Each round, one player lays down a red question card and every other player lays down their funniest white answer card.

The person with the funniest answer card wins and gets to keep the red question card. The person who collects the most red cards wins the game!

kinderperfect-cards-against-humanity-parents

KinderPerfect Card Game Examples:

Question Card: Before kids, I never thought about _____.
Potential Answer Card: A freezer full of breast milk

Question Card: All I want for Christmas is a day without _____.
Potential Answer Cards: Toddler erections

Question Card: _____ is why I am a failure as a parent.
Potential Answer Cards: Giving him the middle finger behind his back

Totally hilarious, right?!

The card game is similar to Apples to Apples  (kid and family friendly) and Cards Against Humanity (sexual and raunchy). KinderPerfect‘s humor is in between so you can play it with adult friends and family and not worry if someone’s going to get offended.

Continue Reading

One Day Staycation

Couples who are also parents often don’t have much alone time together, especially during the day.

one-day-staycation-experience

Recently, I talked my husband into a one-day staycation. We both took off from work on a Wednesday so we could hang out all day while our kids were at day care. Our own version of a play date!

Finally, we could do the fun things we’d been wishing to do but could never find the time with our busy schedules as working parents of a baby and a toddler.

As we planned what we’d do that day, we felt that long lost feeling of freedom slowly come back. We can do what we want, when we want! Woo hoo!

Our daytime date definitely had a different vibe compared to our evening dates. For one thing, we had a lot more choices about what to do. Forget about the usual dinner and a movie date.

Continue Reading

Graduation Gift for Your Parents

Graduation is all about the graduate. The celebrations, gifts and parties. Yet, we all know the graduate didn’t arrive at graduation without lots of support.

graduate-appreciation-letter-for-parents-thoughtful-gifit-idea

Click to enlarge

Graduates, this post is for you.

You will receive accolades, compliments, praise, and many gifts. But have you thought about gifts for the people who helped you along the way?

This is the time to “pay back” those who have seen you through to your graduation such as your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and teachers.

Want to know what is the best graduation gift that is so simple and will forever be a keepsake? A heartfelt letter of appreciation.

To present your handwritten letter of appreciation as a gift, place it in a picture frame where it can easily be seen. Continue Reading

Old Family Photos Made New on T-Shirts

What to do with old family photos? Since my grandparents and parents have passed, I have become the keeper of old photos. I have thousands of photos in albums, boxes and drawers. Some are even dated back to the 1800s.

old-photos-mom-dad-3-kids-thoughtful-gift-ideaI wanted to create something new from old family photos for my two brothers and myself as a Christmas present. I found a wonderful photo of our parents in their early years of marriage and chose a cute picture of the three of us as young kids.

Picking the photo was no easy task since my mother took hundreds of pictures of her three children. She wanted to capture every moment of us growing up.

I used a local t-shirt screen printing business that transferred the pictures onto t-shirts. Since I gave at Christmas time, I chose long-sleeve t-shirts.

Continue Reading

Dropping Off Meals for New Parents | Easy Chicken Tacos Recipe

After having my first child, I felt so thankful to friends and family who came and visited bearing gifts of prepared meals. Between breastfeeding and let’s see… more breastfeeding, there was no time for anything else!

easy-chicken-tacos-recipe-meal

Drop off this ready-to-eat meal for family and friends with new babies. It’s easy to make and it will provide them with several hot meals!

Just by popping the food dishes we received straight into the oven or microwave, my husband and I could eat lots of hot meals with very little work.  It was a blessing I tell you!

Our favorite dish came from one of our family members, Terri, who dropped off shredded chicken tacos and everything we needed to go with it.

Not only was it delicious, but we were able to get two dinners and two lunches out of it which was awesome because those were four meals we didn’t have to worry about at all.

I asked Terri for her chicken tacos recipe, and she happily shared it with me. Thanks Terri!

EASY PEASY CHICKEN TACOS

Continue Reading

Gift of Warmth | Towel Warmer

The gift of warmth comes in all kinds of presents. Coats, hats, scarves, gloves, boots, insulated underwear, wool socks, electric blankets and on and on.

owel-warmer-sunburst-gifts-thoughtful-gift-idea

Gift of Warmth a towel warmer.

How about a unique kind of warmth? A towel warmer.

I instantly thought of my niece when I saw the towel warmer from Brookstone. She is 23 years old and is 100% disabled. Whitney is unable to walk without the help of her mother, Nancy. My niece is also legally blind, has diminished hearing, and communicates only through her actions and touch.

Nancy has taught me that instead of focusing on what she cannot do to find things that she can enjoy.

She definitely possesses her sense of touch and what better way when you get out of the shower but to have a warm towel wrapped around you. Ahhhh… the immediate gift of warmth! Continue Reading

Hands of Love | Photo Gift Idea

httpvh://youtu.be/wukqoBeDhag

Hands are a beautiful thing because of all of the different ways they express love.

The hands of your parents and grandparents are the ones that held you for hours as a baby, wiped your tears when you cried, placed the Band-Aid on your skinned knees, threw the ball to teach you “catch,” held your bike up as you learned to ride it, showed you how to measure ingredients when baking cookies, and reached in their wallets to give you a few extra dollars to go out with your friends.

Their hands also taught you how to write your name, work math problems and start a lawn-mower. I’m sure you can think of a zillion more things their loving hands have helped you with throughout your life.

My son and I thought it would be a meaningful gift to capture pictures of both of his grandparents’ hands and give them to family member for Christmas. Dustin came up with the idea to take pictures of the things they enjoy doing now.

Hands of Love Photos Gift Idea

Continue Reading

Like Father Like Son | Rain Gauge for Birthday Gift

Why would anyone want a rain gauge? You can Google the rain fall in your area to find out. Do you want to know the answer? It’s because we become our parents.

My husband, Randy, is just like his dad. He talks, walks, thinks and laughs just like him. So it is no wonder he likes the same things as his dad. I just didn’t see it coming!

rain-gauge-birthday-gift-idea-sunburst-gifts

Click to enlarge

When we first started dating, Randy’s great sense of humor attracted me! His mother is funny too so I thought he got his sense of humor from her but through the years I saw glimpses of my father-in-law’s humor. Looks like Randy got it from both of his parents!

Randy’s dad was a “thinker.” He would mull around on a problem for as long as it takes and when he figured it out in his mind, he would fix the problem. Once! That’s it – no do overs.

When we were younger, it would drive the entire family crazy because some of his projects took so long to complete but in the end it was done perfectly. These are the things I see in Randy. He’s a thinker too.

Randy’s dad became our family’s weatherman since he followed the weather and would tell us how much it had rained by using his E-Z Read Jumbo Rain-Gauge
. Continue Reading