Congrats to Annie from Well, That Would Be Telling!  Please email me at julie@Coolmomguide.com with your delivery info!

Welcome to my weekend flashback series where I go back a decade and change and take a look at some of the Newspaper articles I wrote for the Syracuse Herald Journal when I was a teen.

Just Playing Around

I consider myself a deprived child.

All through my elementary years , the only place I could hang out, besides my own back yard, was Lakeland Park.  It consisted of a swing set, a slide and some wooden thing I believe was used to play house.

Other than that, there was Lakeland Elementary.  Oh, yeah, THAT WAS ENTERTAINING!

In my day, we had a slide, a swing set and yet ANOTHER wooden contraption, but this one had a steering wheel.  Oh, let’s not forget the tires to run through, and these metal bars, that looked like a bike rack without the little bars running through it.  There was used to do flips (more on that later).

So obviously, in those days, the only thing I had to amuse myself was my friend Stef, who helped devise mischievous schemes for us.  For instance, we used to believe the Special Olympics was for really great people.  So, of course, we made it a point to tell people we were tennis champions in the Special Olympics.

It’s because of those days that I began searching for the ideal playground.  As far back as four years ago, I remember asking my ex-boyfriend to take me somewhere cool.  He did.  I must say, it was pretty special.  I take my current boyfriend there now.

I like to call it the “playground from hell,” named by the one who first introduced it to me.  It’s at the elementary next to Baker High.  It’s this huge wooden contraption with bridges and crawl spaces, pulleys and swings. (It gets better. Click to continue reading…)

Ever put your baby in the stroller for a little mall walking and have to show the diaper bag under the seat in the basket?  The next thing you know, you have loads of other things in there and the baby needs a diaper change.  With the  Andromeda’s Attic hand made stroller bags, there’s no digging necessary!

Andromeda’s Attic hand made stroller bagsre designed to hang from the handle of your stroller and hold your baby’s things as well as yours.  There are three types of stroller bags available (from the site)-

Small/Umbrella:

This is designed to fit on any standard sized umbrella stroller as well as any larger stroller that has one handle bar straight across.  It has one main pocket and 2 smaller ones.(Measurements tk)

Large/Double:

This bag is longer, has 3 main pockets and three smaller ones.  It is designed to fit a side by side stroller with one handle bar straight across. (Measurements tk)

Custom:

This option is available if the measurements of the above two bags will not accommodate your stroller.  I will guide you through what measurements I need and will custom fit the bag to your particular stroller.

Each bag has one large pocket to hold any diapers or snacks and built in are two smaller compartments to hold smaller things like keys or phones.  The bags are collapsable, so they fold up with your stroller so once it’s on you don’t have the hassle of taking it off!

The Wii Mommies Cool Mom Guide to Fitness are giving one of these great bags away TOMORROW!  You can head on over to the Wii Mommies Forum at www.CoolMomGuide.com/Forums and take part in our all day competition to win up to 18 great prizes from various sponsors, including Andromeda’s Attic.  For more details on the competition, head on over to the Wii Mommies Blog and read the Olympics post!

It’s about that time again, time to announce the Wii Mommies March Twitter Party for the Cool Mom Guide to Fitness!  You can get lucky with #wiimoms at our Blog Swap and Twitter Party!  Here are some details-

Here’s how it works:

• You sign up at the Blog Swing Post found at Sarah’s Real Life Blog. “Drop your blog in the bucket” if you will.
• Then, we randomly assign each participant a Guest Blogger for their own blog!
• The Guest Blogger must submit a post on any fitness and health related topic to their host via Twitter Direct Message so be sure you follow each other! The host will have editorial discretion, of course, as to their own blog’s content.
• On March 13 (yes, just before St Patty’s Day), you would publish your guests post and sign the linky on the Wii Mommies blog for Fitness Friday.  Your linky would look like this-

Name: @YourGuestTwitterName on Your Blog
Link: http://your blog link with the guest post.com/

For more details on the Blog Swing, read Sarah’s post about it on the Real Life Blog.

The Wii Mommies are going to post the contest links on Sunday for everyone to enter to win the 5 great prize packages on each of the Wii Mommies websites and the Grand Prize on the Wii Mommies blog.  We’re waiting until the Olympics are over to put the entry posts up, but you can register to be a part of the swing starting today! (It gets better. Click to continue reading…)

One evening I was strapping my daughter into her car seat. With a toy in her hand I attempted to seamlessly get her arms through the straps by quickly moving the prized possession from one hand to the other. Apparently this was not a hit as she scowled at me and said in perfect contest, ‘You’re really starting to piss me off.’” (Mother of the Year: Heidi)

Some of you may have noticed the killer ad in the sidebar of the Cool Mom Guide Blog for the book “Mother of the Year, The Adventures & Misadventures of Parenthood“. I recently also got a copy of this book to read for myself and immediately got excited about writing this review.

Mother of the Year is an entertaining collection of 76 humorous stories from mothers, fathers, and grandparents who’ve survived embarrassing potty moments, road trips gone bad, school mishaps, bedroom blunders, and other parenting situations.

It’s a quick, simple read because it’s not long stories.  If you’re having a particularly rough day or just allowed your toddler to eat the dog food you know is in his mouth you can feel better knowing you’re not alone.  Mother of the Year is there for you to reassure you that yes, there is chaos and disorder in this wonderful world of parenting, but when you look back on them, you’ve just gotta laugh. (It gets better. Click to continue reading…)