Category: Tired Mommy’s Tales

Happy S’mores Day

Happy S’mores Day

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

I just love that someone arbitrarily created National Days to celebrate just about everything on the planet. And today might just be my favorite!!

National S’mores Day!!!

If you’re a Pinterest follower of mine, you may have noticed I have an entire board devoted to the sweet marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. In cupcake form, as a dip or on a stick, if tastes like a s’more I’ve pinned it.

Although many of the yummy recipes and brilliant ideas I’ve pinned have been more show than execution, I actually made this recipe for a Memorial Day party at Keith’s boss’ house. Everyone LURVED them and they were pretty easy. My friend Aramelle made this S’mores Dip that looks so good it should probably be illegal.

So you’re also probably not surprised that I was all over this National S’mores Day stuff. We don’t have a fire pit or anything so we made do with our grill. And we modified our s’mores with a little peanut butter cup action in lieu of chocolate bars.

Brooke took one bite of a s’more and was done with that. However, she still enjoyed toasting up the marshmallows. I don’t think she ate of those either now that I think about it. Weird girl…oh well, more for me!!

Did you get toasted (I mean, marshmallows!) today? Any s’mores recipes to share so I can keep building my “I Want S’more” board?

Too Much and Not Enough

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

Last week was an exhausting week for me. I had a big project due at school on top of other work for another class. We registered Brooke for gymnastics and stayed afterwards to take advantage of open gym on Monday. Tuesday we had long standing dinner plans to be there for opening night of Chuy’s. The 45 minutes we waited outside was worth it…the food was a amazeballs. I also went to the gym two of those nights and met a blog deadline.

By the time 11:55 Friday night, the moment my assignments and homework were due, rolled around I was exhausted.

And I missed my family. Yeah, I saw them every night…for awhile. But no sooner had the dinner dishes been taken to the kitchen, to be cleaned by my saint of a husband, I’d be off. On the nights I wasn’t stationed at the dining room table with a textbook, I was at the gym working on my Couch to 5K training. I felt like I was constantly rushing Brooke around and pushing her away and by the end of the week, her behavior reflected it.

I began to wonder if it was worth it. Yes, getting this degree in Early Ed is the first step to working in a field I am actually passionate about. Yes, for my health and sanity, I needed to get physically active.

Everyone says to moms, “You have to do something for yourself”.

“Make sure you get Me Time.”

“Get out of the house once in awhile”

I always thought that maybe I was doing it wrong by not spending more time doing things like girl’s night outs and days at the spa. But one week of doing things for me and I’m exhausted.

I’m hoping it will get easier. I think it will. My class load this fall will be smaller so there won’t be as much schoolwork to juggle. I’ve recommitted myself to menu planning so the period between me walking in the door after work and out the door to the gym doesn’t have to so hectic. Brooke will get used to Daddy putting her to bed by himself sometimes and I’ll get used to missing a bedtime here and there.

And I’ll have to remember in the long run…it will be worth it.

Tired Mommy Approved – Pony Royale

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

This post is sponsored by Pony Royale. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Excited to start playing!!

The weekend before the Princess Ponies arrived at our house, Brooke had been taken on her very first horseback ride by her Grandpa & Grandma Marshall. Suffice it to say, she had horses on the brain. So when I let her open up the box without giving her any idea what was inside, she was stoked to see that inside were TWO pretty ponies to play with.

Brooke loves her Princess Ponies!

Once we got the horses out of the packages (oh the packaging!), Brooke was totally in love with them. There were so many different ways to dress them up! Each pony comes with two manes and two tails and their saddles, tiaras & mane decoration (there is probably a technical term for that) that you can mix and match. When you add in more ponies, the options grow.

There are 12 Princess Ponies in the collection and each has its own birthstone and comes from a different Kingdom in the land of Pony Royale: Air, Earth, Fire or Water. The ponies we were sent were Harmony, an Earth pony and Sky, and Air pony. Brooke thought it was really cool that one of the ponies from the Water Kingdom was named Brooke too!

For more of the story behind the Princess Ponies of the Land of Pony Royale, check out this video.

At first, Brooke had a little trouble getting the manes on but after she took her time and let me show her, she was having no problem at all. She and I sat for a long time swapping pieces back and forth and seeing the different combinations we could make.

For as independent as Brooke is, playing alone is not one of her strong suits. But if I suggested playing with her new ponies, she’d be off and running and soon I could hear her hilarious dialogue and pretend play between the two ponies. She even had a dance party with them one afternoon!

Which Princess Pony would you like to play with? I think Rosie is my favorite!

Visit the Pony Royale website for more information. The Pony Royale collection will be available at Toys R Us in late July and in select Target stores in August. Meanwhile, be sure to check out Pony Royale’s Facebook page and follow them on Twitter!