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Top 8 Newborn Sleep Tips- An Excerpt from BEDTIME, THE ULTIMATE BATTLE

Top 8 Newborn Sleep Tips- An Excerpt from BEDTIME, THE ULTIMATE BATTLE

          Are you tired AF?

  Yeah, me too. You’re probably here because you are a desperate new parent in need of sleep. Whether you have a newborn or a toddler they are going to fight sleep at some point and its going to make you want to tear your eyes out.

I decided to write a little book for parents like me about a year ago. The reason? Well, I was struggling hardcore, with two babies, under…

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5 Best Resources For Adoptive Parents and Adoptees

5 Best Resources For Adoptive Parents and Adoptees

The adoption world is often inundated by articles, videos, and resources by adoptive parents. If you really want some insight and support on adoption look towards the other parts of the adoption triad- adoptees and birth mothers. Their voices are often overlooked and simply seen as unimportant or negative because they often don’t fit the cookie cutter mold that makes it easy for adoptive parents…

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5 Last Minute Mothers Day Presents That Moms Will Hate

5 Last Minute Mothers Day Presents That Moms Will Hate

If you are married and your spouse is called Mom you should have already bought a gift. If you are running a little late to the game, here are a few things that you might think she wants but definitely does NOT. You may be on the right track, but don’t screw it up with these rooky mistakes.

  5 Mother’s Day Presents Moms Hate

    1. Random Stuffed Animals That Will Only Collect Dust

  I know…

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When it comes to family outings, nothing is more traditional and fun than a family trip to the Drive-In, especially to Four Brothers Drive-In Theatre. When my husband and I discovered this secret gem in the Hudson Valley we had just graduated from college and were living with my parents. We quickly fell in love with the feel-good atmosphere full of lively music and good food. Each time we would arrive there would be dozens of families present, ready with blankets, and even frisbees- ready to have a great night with family and friends.

    The worst part was when we moved to Pennsylvania and Four Brothers Drive-In was now a two-hour drive from home.  The first year we tried a couple of other Drive-Ins that were closer, but they just didn’t make the cut. Four Brothers had car-hop service which meant that we literally could order food to our cars as we watched the movie from their Shake Shack. Their BLTs were top of the line, as well as their burgers, but the real piece de resistance was their wine milkshakes. Now, I know it sounds pretty weird, but for some reason, it works. But, honestly, the best part was just the family-friendly environment that other Drive-Ins couldn’t compare too.

    Now, we would have loved to keep making the trip every summer but when you have a baby that hates long car rides, it makes the trip a little tricky. So, when we heard about the Hotel Caravana at Four Brothers Drive-In in Amenia, NY, I was more than a little excited to celebrate Mother’s Day a little early.

  This is a sponsored post, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Check out my disclosure policy for more information.

  What does Hotel Caravana have to offer?

    Mini Bar and Food for purchase

Heat and A/C

Wifi

Room service from 3-9:30 PM

A kitchenette

Sound System

EV Charger

4 Bikes

Lawn games

Bathroom with hot/cold water and a shower

A Hammock

A Firepit

  Four Brothers Drive-In and Hotel Caravana- A Mother’s Review

  I had told my husband that I wanted to get away for Mothers Day, and due to our schedules, anything more than a night or two wouldn’t have worked. It also meant that we needed somewhere that was family friendly… which honestly limited our options of what would actually be a good time. Let’s be honest here, toddlers get restless.

  The Hotel Caravana is an airstream, which means it is a trailer that has been revamped into a beautiful 1967-themed hotel. It had all the perks of a fancy hotel but had the ease of being right near the open air. We didn’t have to worry about needing to run down elevators to get the kids outside to burn out their extra energy.

    When you first walk in the door to the Hotel Caravana at Four Brothers Drive-In, you will notice two things. One, there seems to be more space than you thought… and two, the decor is gorgeous.

    One of the most important rules of the Caravana is that you must take off your shoes before entering. Since the Hotel Caravana is such a cozy place, taking off your shoes helps ensure that the inside stays as clean as possible.

    The Caravana at Four Brothers Drive-In can sleep four to six people. We were two adults and two toddlers, but we could have easily fit my parents if they had the night off.

  It’s also located in the Hudson Valley, New York, so it is in a convenient location to other attractions. You could take a weekend trip down to Four Brothers and even stop at Splash DownBeach in Fishkill, NY all in one weekend. My parents live in the heart of Hudson Valley, so I know that is in the cards for this summer.

    Check-in is at 3 PM and check-out is at 11 AM. We arrived around 5 PM due to the chaos of leaving the house with two toddlers. I do wish we arrived a little earlier so we could have taken a walk in town, but it was a pretty chilly day so it all worked out anyway.

    Fun fact, the motto of the Hotel Caravana is “A Boutique concept bringing you freedom, happiness, and the good life- come experience us.”

    We definitely felt free as our kids had a dance party eating pizza under the stars while we waited for the movie to start. The deck right outside of the Hotel Caravana was definitely a lovely touch that I didn’t expect to love as much as I did…it made Four Brothers feel like home.

    Even though the weather was foggy our two toddlers enjoyed the playground.

    This was our first official trip with two toddlers, and it went better than expected.

    Did Our Toddlers to Sleep at the Drive-In and Hotel Caravana?

  My husband did try to sneak off with the kids on a quick ride in the car before the movie started to try and get them to sleep- they did not agree with that plan. Because of that I just hopped in the car and my husband and I watched Avengers while our boys watched Baby Shark on youtube until they fell asleep for the night. We had changed them into their PJs so they were all cozy and in new diapers, ready for bed.

    We both thoroughly enjoyed the Avengers and Penguins movies despite it being way past our bedtime. The Avengers combined with a warm blanket in our car made us a little too cozy and we forgot to take advantage of the car-hop service! So don’t do what we did and make sure to order before they close. Luckily, we had ordered a large BBQ chicken special pizza and had plenty left over to snack on during the Penguin movie. (Yes, it was delicious cold.)

    After the movie, when it was time to move over to the Hotel Caravana for the night I was a little worried about how well my youngest would sleep. K.W. loves his crib and doesn’t do well sleeping in other places. I knew this would be a challenge, however, so I made sure to bring our DockATot to help with the transition. He slept half the night in his cosleeper on top of one of the beds in the Caravana, and just crawled into bed with me when he woke up in the middle of the night.

  Other than that small challenge, we all slept perfectly. My three year old even slept until 6:30 AM- which for him is sleeping in! My husband and I were perfectly comfortable in the beds and my only complaint was that I was a tad cold. The Hotel Caravana does have heat and a separate space heater, but I was too paranoid to leave it on while we were sleeping in case the boys snuck out of bed without us realizing.

    Overall- I had an amazing time, and saying goodbye to the Four Brothers Drive-In the next morning was actually a little sad. Our kids loved the freedom of being able to run around and we loved the family environment at the Hotel Caravana. It was also refreshing to be able to enjoy a Blockbuster movie with two toddlers without having to get a sitter for the night. The ease and availability of all of our needs of a family definitely made this an early Mother’s Day win in my book and we will be back again.

Go to Four Brothers Drive-In

  If you ever have been hesitant to take your family on vacation, this is the place to start out. It’s the best of both worlds. You get to feel at home while watching the latest movies while getting room service and a vacation experience.

  Have you ever taken a mini family vacation? How did it go? Either way, you should definitely add Four Brothers Drive-In to your 2019 travel bucket list!

  I’ll link their website, social media, and their address below. Make sure to follow them to stay up to date with what movies they are showing and any new things they have got going on!

Love,

Spoonie-Mama

  Four Brothers Drive-In and Hotel Caravana Contact Information

  You can find Four Brothers at 4957 Rt. 22, Amenia, N.Y. 12501. Check out their website and social media for more information!

Four Brothers Website

Hotel Caravana

Menu

Facebook

Instagram

        Protected: Mother’s Day at Four Brothers Drive-In and Hotel Caravana

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Honoring Birth Culture- Helping Your Adopted Child Connect to their Biological Roots

Honoring Birth Culture- Helping Your Adopted Child Connect to their Biological Roots

I was asked a few weeks ago to create a post discussing how adoptive families can incorporate a child’s birth culture into their daily life, in the comments of my other blog post discussing how I was perceived as an ‘ungrateful’ adoptee.

I’m glad that a lot of you seem to understand that I am speaking out to help advocate for children and others who don’t have a platform to do so. So many…

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Why My Toddler Loves His Dockatot- And How It Gets Mom More Sleep

Why My Toddler Loves His Dockatot- And How It Gets Mom More Sleep

Every morning my 3-year-old wakes up with the sun. It started with the time change months ago and got a little better over time after I tried every sleep tip I had in my arsenal.

After switching bedtimes to later, to earlier I’ve come to terms with the fact that I have an early riser. But, I haven’t quite adjusted to that either and neither has his younger brother that he shares a room with!

Sinc…

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An 'Ungrateful' Adoptee's Thoughts About Adoption

An ‘Ungrateful’ Adoptee’s Thoughts About Adoption

Today I was accused of being an ungrateful adoptee.

  Yes, me. A twenty-six-year-old late discovery adoptee because I speak out publicly on social media about all sides of adoption. Well, I’ll be honest. Mostly I talk about how adoption isn’t always rainbows and butterflies.

  Now, before you come at me with your pitchforks lets all take a collective deep breath. No, I’m Not Anti- Adoption, But I…

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  My eldest son recently turned three and a tiny part of my soul was crushed because he is no longer a baby. Which meant that one we really needed to potty train him (we finally did) and two, he got a big boy birthday party at his favorite play place- Bloom Waldessori.

      Bloom Waldessori Play Space

  Sandra Kusek Wranovics decided to opened Bloom Waldessori last May, and combine the Waldorf and Waldessori Method into a wonderful play space for children in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Wranovics has a background in the Montessori Methods she implements in the play elements of the space and her daughter goes to a Montessori school, which clearly shows how passionate she is about these methods of learning and play.

  What Are the Waldorf and Montessori Methods?

The Waldorf philosophy suggests that the child learns through the plan and is the work. Teachers will incorporate storytelling and fantasy into their lessons and the children can use the materials whichever way they want.

The Montessori Method uses fantasy as well, but children are introduced to the real world experiences early on. So they are taught about cleaning, cooking, and laundry as work rather than using the term play.

    What Bloom Waldessori Has To Offer

  For starters, Bloom Waldessori in Stroudsburg, PA is one of the cleanest and safest play places in the Stroudsburg area. It can be hard to find an affordable place to bring your children that vary in age, particularly from ages 1-6. The free play set up of all the wooden toys, wide open space, quiet reading nooks, and a climbing area.

In Bloom, there is a small Cafe available with snacks for parents and children. Another perk along with the WiFi is that you are also allowed to bring in your own snacks as long as you eat in the designated area.

      The reading nook was my youngest’s sons favorite place to sneak away during his brother’s birthday party!

    But, he made sure to make his way through all the amazing spaces Bloom had to offer. You can’t miss him in his Gecko costume, from PJ Masks!

        One of my favorite parts about Bloom is that there is a sibling discount, and of course, there are membership prices as well that you should ask about.

    If you have smaller babies as well as older, have no fear, there is a designated infant area that you can put your infant down within eyeshot while you play with your older children.

    Waldessori also offers a summer camp, themed activities that change weekly, and a full list of classes you can find here. Additionally, Bloom Waldessori also hosts parties ranging from a simple party area where you provide everything from the food to the decorations, or they can go all out. Some of the services they offer are a creative activity party of your choice (painting, game), an active fun party with a class (yoga, dance) or even additional add-ons like face-painting or a sundae bar.

Check out the full brochure here.

  My Son’s PJ Mask Party At Bloom Waldessori

  Since my eldest, Carlito was only turning three we decided to keep his birthday party with his friends relatively low-key. Which is kind of amusing, because at this point this was his fourth birthday celebration due to family living far away. For Carlito, this was a continuation of the best two weeks of his life and the most hectic of mine!

The Creative Fun Party package included a two-hour party where we provided the decorations and food, but Sandra provided the craft. My husband and I had made a big batch of veggie muffins from a previous play date so we didn’t have to go crazy with the food either. A week before the party, Sandra had asked me a couple of questions about what craft we would like to do and well… we had chosen to make PJ Masks, masks.

What can I say, my kids are obsessed!

        Ours didn’t come out that great, but they were pretty good considering our artists gave up about 10 minutes into the activity. My normally obsessed with painting three years old decided he was done and went back to playing with the pirate ship along with most of his guests. And one by one, we were a table of parents leaning over tiny chairs trying to make our masks look perfect.

      If we had to do it over again I would pick a less intense activity or just not do one with toddlers that age. Most of our guests ranged from 2-3 and the lure of the toys in Bloom was just too much for any toddler to sit still for more than just a quick snack.

      What I did love about the party was that there was no extra fee for bringing our food, decorations, and giant balloons. We were given a large, clean, space to decorate for the duration of our party and everyone who comes to the party gets to enjoy Bloom for the rest of the day as well.

      All of our guests had a great time, and I know that my kids can’t wait until we go back again. If you live in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania or are visiting the Poconos and need an activity to do on a rainy day with your kids during your stay here, make sure to check out Bloom Waldessori Play Space at 106 Renastar Road, Stroudsburg, PA, 18360. 

    I know this is one of our favorite birthday parties, let me know yours in the comments! 🙂

Love,

Spoonie-Mama

        This post is sponsored by Bloom Waldessori, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Check out my disclosure policy for more information.

              Bloom Waldessori Play Space- for Birthday Parties and More My eldest son recently turned three and a tiny part of my soul was crushed because he is no longer a baby.

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10 Newborn Must Haves- For Your Registry

10 Newborn Must Haves- For Your Registry

This may be your first pregnancy or your fourth and you are trying desperately to remember what you need. Since my last little babe is just over the 1.5-year mark I’ve decided to make this must-have list in case my husband and I ever decide to have a third.

10 Baby Must Have Items

(This post contains affiliate links, please read my disclosure policy for more information.)

1. Diaper Supplies:

Di…

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Muggles Mug Coffee Shop: A Harry Potter Fan's Review

Muggles Mug Coffee Shop: A Harry Potter Fan’s Review

  If you haven’t heard by now, Muggles Mug Coffee Shop is a cute little Harry Potter themed cafe on 79 Broadway, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, 18229. When I heard about the themed coffee paradise of a Harry Potter fan’s dreams a few weeks ago, I knew that I had to go one day. As luck would have it, it was only an hour an a half drive from my house and my birthday was right around the corner.

    The…

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How I Trick My Kids Into Eating Veggies- Beech-Nut® Naturals™ Review

How I Trick My Kids Into Eating Veggies- Beech-Nut® Naturals™ Review

Thanks to Beech-Nut® Naturals™ gifting my family a wonderful party kit including various jars of their Real Food For Babies™ I was able to host a play-date for my 1.5-year-old son for some of his friends. The best part was… I was able to get my two picky toddlers and his friends to eat veggies without even noticing by using their purees in a delicious muffin recipe!

(This is a sponsored post, but…

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Starting A Family- Smile Reader Ovulation Test Kit and App Review

Starting A Family- Smile Reader Ovulation Test Kit and App Review

When it comes to starting a family, the media makes it appear as if getting pregnant is the most simple process in the world. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 6.1 million women have trouble getting pregnant or staying pregnant. On average, for a healthy woman with no fertility issues, there is approximately a 25-30 percent chance of becoming pregnant per…

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The KonMari Method- Why I Actually Like Marie's Method To Tidying

The KonMari Method- Why I Actually Like Marie’s Method To Tidying

The KonMari Method

The KonMari Method was based on the book that Marie Kondo wrote- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It explains her radical method of decluttering your home. Some of her basic ideas are as follows…

Get rid of the things that don’t spark joy.

Get in the mindset so that it lasts forever, and things stay clean.

Tidy your whole…

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Cholestasis of Pregnancy: The Dangerous Itch That Shouldn't Be Ignored

Cholestasis of Pregnancy: The Dangerous Itch That Shouldn’t Be Ignored

*DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a doctor or medical professional. IF you feel like you have any of these symptoms talk to your doctor as SOON as possible. Spoonie-Mama or Melissa Guida-Richards is not offering medical advice but simply giving sharing her experience with ICP.*

What is Cholestasis of Pregnancy?

Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy or ICP is a pregnancy-specific liver disorder characterized…

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How to Make Babies Love Bathtime: 10 Tips to Make Bathtime Easy

How to Make Babies Love Bathtime: 10 Tips to Make Bathtime Easy

Some baby’s love bathtime and some…well let’s just say lava is more appealing.

My eldest acted like he was being tortured by the mear existence of the tub for the first six months of his life and my second child loved the water from the moment he was cleared to take a bath after his umbilical cord stump fell off.

via GIPHY

  Every baby is different.

Which is why I thought I should create this…

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How To Raise Responsible Children

How To Raise Responsible Children

How To Raise Responsible Children?

“Have I taught my son/daughter to be responsible enough?” If you have children its a question that I know has crossed your mind several times. In a world where online bullying, catfishing, and cruel memes can get out of hand it is more important than ever to teach kids to be responsible as soon as you can. Especially when most two-year-olds can operate a cell…

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Postpartum Depression- The Signs

You may be sitting up late during a three AM midnight feed of your two-month-old baby and googling 'the signs of postpartum depression' just out of curiosity, so I've created a list based off of research and my personal experience.

If you ever had a baby or your thinking about having a baby, you’ve probably heard a little something about postpartum depression. You may be sitting up late during a three AM midnight feed of your two-month-old baby and googling ‘the signs of postpartum depression’ just out of curiosity, so I’ve created a list based off of research and my personal experience.

Hell, it may not even be about you.…