Randomness

I love Munchkin baby products. They have the best sippy cups, with characters on them my kids adore (Spongebob, Dora, and Diego, natch.) If you have toddlers, their little snack catcher holder thingy is great, because you can let your kids walk around with a cupful of Goldfish and not worry about them dumping it out on the carpet. And their bath toys are some of the best quality I’ve seen, and I’ve tried out lots of different brands. As much time as my kids spend in the tub, we go through a lot of bath toys, because they get gross really fast. I’ve been pleased with the bath goodies from Munchkin, though – so far, we haven’t had to pitch any! And here is the crowd favorite: The foam letters!

We had a set of these already, in the Spongebob design, and my kids love them. This set is even better though, because it contains two full sets of the alphabet, a set of numbers, and a whole set of sealife creature shapes, like octopuses and jellyfish and sharks and stuff. So much fun! You can see how much my children enjoyed these:

Compared to other brands we’ve tried, these foam letters and shapes are really durable, sturdy, and look nicer too, since the letters and numbers are printed with cute little patterns. Mallory tried to score all the “purple flower letters”, but the other girls weren’t having that at all. Eventually, they all worked together to create a big collage on the bathtub wall of all the letters – and man, there are a ton of them! Of course, in our house, more is always better. What’s that saying? Less is more? Screw that! More is more! More is more!

I’m not sure what styles of these foam letters are available in stores, since I basically run through the store as fast as I can without stopping to browse the bath toys, hoping we can buy groceries without anyone asking me, “Twins? Oh, double trouble! Bet you’ve got your hands full!” and without any of my children having a tantrum. However, you can see the entire selection on the Munchkin website right here. Oh! And while you’re there, enter the contest to win a Munchkin gift basket, full of cool stuff!

Hmmm…as I check out that page, I’m suddenly really coveting the Spongebob and Dora bath squirters. Oh, would my children have fun with these! They’re right at the age where they love attacking each other with water.

So, looking at those pictures, can you believe I still bathe all my children together? I’ve got to be efficient, you know! Does it make you think of that Shel Silverstein poem?

There’s too many kids in this tub.
There’s too many elbows to scrub.
I just washed a behind
That I’m sure wasn’t mine,
There’s too many kids in this tub.

At least I have pictures like these to torture them with later in life.

I’m one of those people with a fancy DSLR camera but no clue how to use it. I should have a clue, as I attended a little workshop with Me Rah Koh and got lots of great advice and tips, but you know how it is when you’re a mommy – in one ear and out the other! Hence, the amazing pictures I do get are only lucky shots, because I always shoot in auto! I just took a great picture of myself and Kayley last night – I love it. You can see it in my Flickr pictures if you want to.

Today, I was at a playdate with a bunch of my mommy friends, and two of them who happen to be photographers were discussing various photo forums and the lame people who frequent them. I overheard their conversation but didn’t have much to add to it, since I don’t know an f-stop from a shortstop, but I got the very clear idea that most forums are full of people quick to criticize without offering up much support. See, I would hate that. I would hate it if I went to a forum, trying to figure something out about my camera as a total noob, and had people giving me grief. Ugh!

Here’s a site more up my alley: No Bs Photo Success Photography Forums – a Digital Photography Forum dedicated to, what else: No B.S. I don’t know how helpful they are to people who don’t know what they’re doing, but the fact that they have a picture of the site founders in their boxer shorts makes me want to check them out. I’m just weird like that.

The testimonials are pretty convincing as well. And! They have a bunch of Photoshop tutorials. I thought it was a little weird that the last newsletter posted was from January of this year (hey guys! It’s June!) but hey. Everyone gets busy.

Wall Flower, originally uploaded by vanessaschrotenboer.

I just got a postcard in the mail for Bath & Body Works Summer Clearance Sale. It’s going on until June 15th, in stores and online. I don’t know about you, but this is the ONLY time I ever buy Wallflowers – these little plug-in fragrance thingies. They’re $5 right now, so stock up!

We do the whole Supernanny rules-posted-on-the-wall thing at our house – it’s been a big help as far as getting the kids to comprehend what is and isn’t okay in this household. They’re just about to the age now where they’re ready for chore charts too, and I was just checking out some at ChoreCharts.com. They have a bunch of cute designs, ready to be printed out and hung on the wall. Check out the different designs of chore charts on the gallery page there – they are so cute! We like the Kitty Chart best, but there are lots of designs there – they aren’t all as girlie as that one! Isn’t it adorable, though?