A Day at Busch Gardens With Toddlers

Hi guys! Today you can find us guest posting over at Tampa Bay Moms Blog! We are talking about venturing out to Busch Gardens with the kiddos! 

Happy Reading!!

Bathroom Must-Haves For Your Baby

 

 

via      This morning we were invited to do a segment on our local news station FOX 13's morning show, Good Day Tampa Bay. The segment focused on some of our favorite must-haves for babies that you'll find in the bathroom.   Click here to see what we had to say :)    

Beauty Box Bandwagon

Some of you may have noticed that I jazzed up the blog a little and added some fun new labels to my sidebar. Life with les deux can really be overwhelming and sometimes I just need a bit of space so I added a mommy time section that focuses on everything for moi!
Anywho, the other night I was amazed by a celebrity's makeup and was lead to a YouTube beauty tutorial. Now this was my first time EVER watching a video beauty tutorial and...I was amazed! I couldn't stop watching and was in awe at how beautiful the makeup artist looked after ten minutes of makeup application! What really amazed me was how behind in the beauty game I am! Highlighter isn't just for brushing on your cheekbones anymore people!! Sure I would be able to mimic the application, but I don't own a quarter of the products she used in the video and if I purchased half of them I probably wouldn't be allowed home ;-)
So I found myself looking at beauty subscription services again. I've glanced at the box craze before, but didn't think I needed it. Now I am starting to realize it may be helpful for me to step up my game in the makeup world. Let's be honest, I have two toddlers (yes I said it....not babies...toddlers) that keep me incredibly busy and I don't have a lot of time to spend researching the latest beauty trends.
Sooooooo...I've gone ahead and compiled a couple of beauty box subscriptions that appeal to me:

1. Birchbox: This is one of the first beauty boxes that hit the scene. Every month you will get a selection of samples from different beauty brands. Boxes for women run $10/month.

2. Glossybox: This box is taking the lead so far because every month you receive 5-6 luxury-sized products. The bigger sizes are nice, but it's a little pricier at $21/month.
3. Ipsy: This subscription is neat because every month you'll get a makeup bag filled with personalized products. The products seem to be more of a full size as well and this bag runs $10/month. 
4. NewBeauty Test Tube: This tube is another fun option! For $26.95 you will receive a test tube full of beauty products and samples six times a year as well as a subscription to their magazine which you will receive quarterly.
Decisions...decisions...
Have you jumped on the beauty box bandwagon and if so which one did you choose?

Little Bookworms

Lately the kids having been loving going to the library. I have been making an effort to take them to story time every week since my local library offers a lot of different day and time options! After story time we take some time to read or checkout books and of course chase the kiddos down the aisles...
It really makes me happy how excited Sienna gets when we are going or when it's time to read our library books! There's nothing better than hearing her say, "Mommy get the library book bag and let's go!"

This week we checked out the perfect book for Father's Day called I Love My Daddy  by Sebastien Braun. Sienna picked it and loves it since she is such a daddy's girls.   

Have you checked out the reading programs for children at your library?

Father's Day Gift Guide

Father's day is right around the corner and if you are a busy, procrastinating mom like me you probably haven't picked up a gift for the father in your life. I've been scouring the web and came across some gifts that  would make a popular gift for every dad...

(Clockwise from the top)

1. Chillsner Beer Chilling Set-This is one of my favorite gifts from the guide! These frozen chillers fit perfectly inside your beer bottle and allow to you drink the beer while it stays ICY cold the entire time! I may just order these once I'm done with this post and hope it gets here in time...I would Danny would love these ;-)

2. Classic Checkered Skinny Tie- Every man needs a skinny tie in their wardrobe. My dad nor Danny own one so now may be the time to help them with their dad swag!

3. Nike Men's Heritage Golf Shoe- Do you have a dad in your life that just golfs occasionally? This shoe seems perfect! I'm sure there are plenty of golf shoes with a heftier price tag, but these seem great to wear out to the driving range.

4. Field Trip All Natural Beef Jerky- What guy doesn't love beef jerky? This jerky is low fat and all natural, leaving out all those pesky preservatives and additives. I'm sure any dad would just dive right in!

5.  The Big Green Egg-If you have a dad or a husband who loves to smoke their food and barbecue, chances are you've heard them talk about the Big Green Egg smoker or they already own it. If you want to be considered daughter/son/wife of the year...this gift will buy you that title ;-)

Happy Shopping!

We Heart Hotel Tonight

About a year ago I stumbled across an app called Hotel Tonight, downloaded it, then paid it no attention until about six months later. Little did I know what a gem of an app it was! Here's the skinny on it: Every day at noon the app populates all of the current hotels that are available to book for that same night at an exceptional rate. The catch is you have to book it for the same night, hence the name, Hotel Tonight. There are certain hotels that allow you to book multiple nights if you would like to stay somewhere for a longer period of time. The hotels also change daily so you can't really plan to book a hotel that was on the app the day before because it's a mystery if it's going to be there the next day. 

Basically this app is for someone who loves to live a little on the wild side. Perfect for a family with two babies two and under, right? Right! We have used this app close to ten times since we discovered it and love every minute of it. We usually use the app to book a room at the beach so it's like a mini vacation. We've also used it in Orlando where Danny had a work conference and we switched hotels the second night to be closer to Downtown Disney. 

This past week we booked a stay at the Tradewinds Guy Harvey Outpost (our favorite local getaway)  through Hotel Tonight:

Traveling spontaneously with the littles really can be fun and all of this Hotel Tonighting has prepped us for all our big travel plans :) 

Click here to see some more photos from our stay.

Pick Me! Pick Me!

During an aimless Instagram blog-stalk session recently, I stumbled across this site called Top Baby Blogs. Usually I think these type of voting sites could be borderline cheesy, but I actually found some great blogs on  it! So I figured why not, let me just add myself too!!
Now anytime while you're reading Life With Les Deux and feel the need to scream at the top of your lungs that this is the BEST BABY BLOG EVER, just go ahead and click on the handy little button on my side bar that looks like this...

Go ahead, click it...it works! Help make Life With Les Deux reach the top of the list! We are at 185 so let's see how far we can get :) You can vote daily too!
Oh and we are super excited that we just launched a Facebook page for the blog!! I don't have a button yet, so click here to like us.
Yay! I heart blogging :)

Please Don't Grow...

Danny happened to get two consecutive days off this week so we did what any Floridian would do and went to the beach! It's days like these that we are so grateful to have the beach as our backyard :) Before dinner we let the kids run around in a grassy area and I of course went picture happy.

They are so flippin' cute at this age and I am really trying to soak in every.single.moment. Sienna is already a little person and every day I'm amazed at what comes out of her mouth. Daniel is still a little baby and is quickly turning into a little man. Every day I squeeze him because I know it's the last day he will be that small...

Days like these make me want to have more babies (because I literally go back and forth every day of my life)...then we took them to a late dinner and had a double baby meltdown and had to take both of our dinners to go. I mean what were we really thinking letting them run around and wear themselves out before dinner?

Here are some special moments I captured...

 

Dont ask me what she's doing...^^

And but of course...how could we not try for the self timer shot?  I think we are starting to get the hang of it compared to this one.  Love our life with les deux :) Daniel: Shirt and shoes are from H&M//Shorts from Target Sienna: Shirt from H&M//Salt Water Sandals//Skirt: Unknown-was a gift

Raspberry Creamsicles Recipe

All Things Popsicle Week has been so exciting! I think it's the nostalgia in eating popsicles that makes me feel like a kid all over again! I've had popsicle molds sitting in the back of my pantry for years and finally I found a reason to wash the dust off of them. And let's just say...I'm obsessed :)

So today I'm bringing you my new favorite popsicle recipe (even though fudgesicles are pretty close), Raspberry Creamsicles! I adapted this recipe that I saw the other day! We have been on a berry kick in this house the last couple of months so I brought home four raspberry containers the other day. This recipe is super easy and it's such a yummy treat! 

Here's what you'll need:

25-30 raspberries or 1/2 cup of raspberry purée 

1 1/4 cup of vanilla ice cream 

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

1. Start off by puréeing the rasberries in the food processor or blender until smooth. 

2. Then I poured the purée through a strainer into a measuring cup to remove the seeds. This is optional, but Sienna is such a texture person I thought it would be best to leave them out. It should amount to 1/2 cup. If not just purée more raspberries. (Feel free to add in juice or water to liquify it a bit- I added a splash of Cran-raspberry juice.

3. Next mix the purée with 1 1/4 cups of vanilla ice cream until smooth. Pour or scoop this mixture into the molds  leaving space at the top for the cream.

4. In a separate bowl pour in 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and whisk by hand or with your whisk attachment of your mixer until soft peaks forms. Top off each popsicle mold with the cream and freeze for 6 hours or so!

This recipe filled six small popsicle molds! Feel free to double or manipulate this recipe as needed!

These pops are DE-licious! The perfect summer treat! If you are eating healthy you could even sub in some frozen yogurt for the icecream and I'm sure they'd be great!

What's your favorite popsicle recipe I can add to my lineup?

Thanks for following along for All Things Popsicle Week, we had such a great time! You can click here, here, and here to catch up on all the festivities you may have missed!!

* This recipe was adapted from A Beautiful Mess

Wearing Your Popsicle

Today we gave the phrase 'wearing your popsicle' a whole new meaning...Usually with a one and two year old you can bet that when they are done eating their popsicle, they are wearing it, but today we did things a little differently...
Since it's All Things Popsicle Week I thought we'd break out the latest popsicle threads for the littles. Sienna is going through her 'I don't want anything in my hair' phase, but Daniel was a good sport and rocked the popsicle bow tie we made. While browsing through H&M the other day we found an adorable popsicle and ice cream dress! It will be the perfect summer dress to wear to any outing in this Florida heat. 

Stay tuned tomorrow because we have some frozen treats to share as All Things Popsicle Week comes to an end...
Sienna's dress is from H&M and she is wearing Salt Water Sandals in gold. Daniel's shoes and shorts with suspenders are from H&M and his Gingham button-down is from Gap Kids. Click here to view the bow tie tutorial.