Embarking on a new Journey...

I've decided to embark on a new Journey...

...And that journey is, I'm going to go back to school! Am I crazy or am I crazy? I know what you're probably thinking, why would it be crazy for me to go back to school? Well, being a stay at home mom to 2 girls who are under the age of 2 and only 13 months apart, babysitting another 5 month old girl Monday thru Friday with an occasional extra kid or two, blogging, doing my wifely duties, taking care of 2 dogs, tutoring...etc. where am I going to find the time to STUDY? I like a challenge, so I decided to manage all of the above and adding school to the mix.

Even though, I'm a little nervous of juggling everything at once, I'm actually really excited and can't wait! My hubby works at Manor College, so that is where I will be going. It's a great 2 year college and plus, I get to go for FREE! Can't beat that. It might be a little weird at times because I have become friends with some of the teachers there and now I will be probably be their student...

I've decided to go for my Bachelor's Degree in Radiologic Sciences. I want to specialize in ultrasounds during pregnancies. Since being pregnant, twice, I was always amazed at every ultrasound session that I had. I couldn't believe that while I was looking at a black and white blob on screen, the ultrasound technician was taking a look at my baby's brain. It was incredible!

Due to lack of time, I will be going part time. I'm trying to make up for loss time by going through the summer. Right now, I'm signed up for 2 online classes, Enlgish and Math. Ahh! I'm so not worried about Enlgish, but Math? I'm horrible at it and don't get it at all, so I will be calling for help very SOON! Summer classes are only 5 weeks long, but tend to be a little more stressful because they try to cram in 15 weeks worth of work into 5! But the good thing is, it'll pass on by quickly. It might take forever for me to complete my degree because I'm going part time, but I don't care as long as I finish, even if that means going to school in my 30's. I figure I get a head start now while I'm still only 24 and my mind is still semi-functional then to start later on and waste all this time. Hopefully, by the time that our girls are in school full time, I will be finishing up school and starting my career!

So here's to me taking a step to better my future and better my family's future. My girls and my husband are my motivation! And here's to a much more busier schedule including dirty diapers, bottles, back to back episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba, outside Summer fun and now online, night and possible Saturday classes!

Wish me luck! I'll keep you updated on my new Journey to the future!

-Natalie aka. Manor Student

Celebrate Mother's Day at Michaels All Week Long

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Come celebrate Moms and Grandmothers alike all week long with workshops and goodies just for her!

Michaels is offering week long in store events for you to make gifts for Mother's Day. Here is the calendar of events:

Saturday, May 1st from 1pm-3pm: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day Bead Event" (FREE)

Learn to make gorgeous jewelry for Mother's Day. Create elegant pieces for Mom, or bring her along and create art together. (Gem earrings 1pm-2pm, Glass bead bracelet 2pm-3pm)

Sunday, May 2nd from 1pm-3pm: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day Mug Event" (With the purchase of mug with markers)

Turn an ordinary mug into a work of art. Join them to make a personalized mug for Mom.

Monday, May 3rd from 6pm-8pm: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day Corsage Event" (With the purchase of flower of choice)

Decorate Mom's day with flowers. Create a corsage for Mom that she will cherish forever.

Tuesday, May 4th from 6pm-8pm: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day Spa Clay Pot Event" (FREE while supplies last, clay and pot provided. Products in the clay pot not included)

Honor motherhood with luxury and comfort. Give Mom the gift of relaxation with a crafted Spa Clay Pot.

Thursday, May 6th from 6pm-8pm: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day T-Shirt Event" (With the purchase of T-shirt choice)

Say Happy Mother's Day with one-of-a-kind, wearable designs. Give Mom the gift of your creativity with a handcrafted T-shirt made by you with handfuls of love.

Friday, May 7th from 6pm-8pm: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day Picture Frame Event" (With the purchase of frame)

Frame yourself for Mother's Day. Wish Mom an oh-so-joyous with a thoughtful handmade picture frame and her favorite picture of you.

Saturday, May 8th from 10am-Noon: "Make-It Take-It Mother's Day Card Event" (FREE)

Make Mom a gift that she will treasure forever. Thank her with a heart felt handcrafted card.

Sunday, May 9th from Noon-1pm: "Mother's Day Wilton Cookie Event" (FREE)

Express your love delectable delights for Mother's Day. Join them for a free Wilton cookie event. Decorate a special treat for Mom or Grandma, or invite them along to join in the fun! (While supplies last.)

For more information on Michaels Mother's Day Events or to find a Michaels store near you, click HERE.

Thanks to Bucks County Family Fun Events! for the wonderful head up.

Enjoy and be creative!

-Natalie

Baskin-Robbins 31¢ Scoop Night

Come out and help Baskin-Robbins honor America's firefighters by participating in their 31¢ Scoop Night!

Join them tonight (April 28th) between 5pm-10pm!

The Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation is donating $100,000 to the National Falled Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). At participating locations, you may also have a chance to make a donation to your local fire charities.

My father-in-law is a retired Philadelphia Firefighter Lieutenant and both Lyla and Kalina LOVE ice cream, so you know where we'll be tonight!

Click here to find a store near you!

Everyone is invited!

-Natalie

*CLOSED* Cute Kid Photo Contest- WIN $100 Toys R Us Gift Card- Congratulations to Lucas & Gabriel!

Enter your cutie today and have a chance to win a gift card to Toys R Us in the amount of $100!

As you can see, I've posted pictures of my little cuties! Kalina is on the left and Lyla is on the right.

I'm so not modest when it comes to how beautiful I think my girls are, just like any other parent would think of their kids. So I decided to host a giveaway based on how cute your little one is!

Find a Toys R Us near you on here.

Here is how you enter:

• Become a follower of my *MOM*ments Blog
• Become a fan of my *MOM*ents on Facebook or Twitter
• Become a fan of Toys R Us on Twitter
• Send a cute photo of your child(ren) with caption of their names & ages to my.moments@hotmail.com
• Leave a comment on here saying you entered the contest

Terms:

**Ages of children must be between 0-14 years**

You may submit more than one photo if you have more than one child but only one will be the winner.

If you submit a photo with more than one child in it, you would still only receive one gift card in the amount of $100.

Please keep in mind that all photos submitted will be posted on this website.

By entering this contest, you agree with all terms.

Contest will end on Sunday, May 2nd at 11:59pm(est). I will announce the winner on Monday, May 3rd!

Disclosure: I purchased giveaway item.

Good luck to everyone and I can't wait to see some cute pictures!

-Natalie

Cute Kids Contestants:

Caitlyn - 18 months

Alexa - 1 year

Andrew - 3 1/2 years

Alyssa - 19 months

Emily - 3 years

Alex - 2 years

Larissa - 4 years

Preston - 5 years

Serenity - 1 year

Brianna - 10 years

Lucas and Gabriel - 5 years

Anthony - 4 years

Benjamin - 12 months

Devastation in Rio (Brazil)

By now, you may or may not have heard of the devastation in Rio and Niteroi (across the bay from Rio). On Monday, April 5th, late afternoon, the city of Brazil received 11.3 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. It was the heaviest in 48 years. The results, as you can see from the pictures, were devastating.

Well over 100 were dead before the next day and that was before more mudslides in the area buried hundreds more alive. Niteroi declared a state of emergency while Rio declared 3 days of mourning.

About 4,000 families have been made homeless and 10,000 houses remains at risk.

Health workers will distribute 70,000 aid packages to the victims of the flood. The kits will contain food, clothes and medical supplies.

As you all know, I'm from Brazil, so this story hits close to home, literally. I have family who resides in Rio. Right now my family and I are doing everything we can to help out our country. So far, we have packed 2 huge boxes of clothes and toys to ship over there. We contacted a local church in Rio who are very excited to receive these donations and distribute them to those in need. I'm in the works of teaming up with a moving company to see if we can get any kind of discounts on the shipment. The boxes will costly approximately $230 each to have them shipped to Rio. I will be putting up a huge part of this cost out of my own pocket. My goal is to have at least enough donations to pay for the two boxes, total cost = $460. My ultimate goal is to receive a lot more so we can put together more boxes of clothes and toys to ship to those families who are now homeless and orphans. They literally are left with nothing but the awful memories of what happened.

Please, let's try our best to help those in need out. I couldn't imagine going through a third of what they went through and now still have to worry about where are they going to live, are their families still alive, and so much more!

If you would like to help by contributing in any way, please do so. I will be accepting donations through Paypal. All money donations will be put towards the shipment of the boxes. Any amount counts! Please click the "Donate" button to make a donation. If you would like to make a donation another way, please contact me via-email. After you have made a donation, please leave me a comment with your name and contact information. All donation amounts will be confidential.

I will keep you updated on any additional information. Please pass the word along!

Thank you so much in advance,

Natalie

Earth Day

So today being "Earth Day", I have thought up of some activities to do with Lyla (because Kalina is too young) to teach her some things about the Earth and how to RECYCLE & REUSE.

I got some great ideas from Target at their "Dollar Spot". They have little pots that comes with the flower seeds already. They're very tiny and cute! They also have bigger pots with different seeds that you can purchase separately. You can make it an Earth Day activity, to plant flowers. It also gives your child(ren) a sense of responsibility to water them routinely. I also purchased gardening tools for Lyla. She is such an outdoor girl and loves to play outside. I noticed her interest in helping my parents out in their garden and how much she wanted to play with their, sharp tools, so I got her very own plastic and child-friendly set!

To celebrate Earth Day today, I plan to not use my car today! Instead, I will take the girls for a nice walk. I'm going to bring a trash bag with me and some plastic gloves and have Lyla help me pick up trash along the way. To help save some energy, I'm going to have less Tv and computer time. Although, this may seem like a challenge, I have picked out different Earth Day activities to do with her. Here are 2 that I plan to do today:

Home-Made Binoculars and Greeting Card Storage Box

Thanks to About.com: Family Crafts for the great ideas! Check them out for a complete list of different arts & crafts that you can do. I plan to use our Home-Made Binoculars on our nature walk today. I can't wait to make my Greeting Card Storage Box because I always feel bad throwing away cards that we receive and they just keep piling up, so this will be a great thing to do!

There are many things that we can all do as a community to help our Earth. Although, this is one day out of the year that we really take focus on it, please try to make everyday Earth Day and let's try to make the grass a little greener on both sides!!

-Natalie

The Fresh Beat Band Live in Concert at Sesame Place!

You just can't imagine our excitement when I found out that The Fresh Beat Band are going to be performing at Sesame Place! Combine one of her favorite places, Sesame Place, and one of her favorite shows, The Fresh Beat Band, and we will have a very happy toddler!

The Fresh Beat Band will be performing on Saturday, June 19th to Sunday, June 20th (10 AM - 8 PM). Concerts will be held at Monster Rock Theater at 12:30pm, 3:30pm and 4:45pm on Saturday and 10:45am, 12:00pm and 1:15pm on Sunday.*

*Reservations Required- Click HERE to make yours today! They are filling up fast. I just reserved ours for Sunday at 1:15pm (insert BIG SMILE here).

Sesame Place has a TON of great concerts this year! Concerts and Fireworks are free with your paid admission. Visit the Sesame Place website under EVENTS for a complete listing.

Don't forget to follow Sesame Place and my *MOM*ments on Twitter!

-Natalie

*CLOSED* FREE Giveaway: 4 Tickets to Sesame Place! CONGRATS to David Larson!

In honor of my new blog and Sesame Place celebrating its 3oth Birthday, we have teamed up to give you an opportunity to win 4 FREE tickets to Sesame Place!

Don't forget to mark your calendars, The 30th Birthday Celebration season begins opening day, May 1, 2010. (Don't worry, you will get your tickets in time for the opening day.)

The all-new, hilarious musical show, Elmo Rocks! Starring Elmo with Zoe, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, will captivate the audience as they see the Sesame cast transformed into "The Rockin' Elmo Band!" Children and their families will love dancing and singing along with this high energy rock n' roll show.

You can also have an Ultimate Birthday Party with Elmo & Friends!

What began as a 3-acre theme park 30 years ago has grown to 14 acres with more than three-dozen interactive activities, including water attractions, whirling rides, an action-packed roller coaster, choreographed live stage shows, furry friends and a musical parade. Sesame Place is located near Philadelphia, in Langhorne, PA.

Visit Sesame Place to learn more about Sesame Place's varied season passports, dining with the characters for breakfast, lunch or dinner and the line-up of special events and general park information.

Here is how you Enter:

- Become a follower of my *MOM*ents. If you're not registered with Blogger already, you must Register, then go back to my page and click "Follow". (FYI: You're not a Follower by leaving a comment)

- Become a fan of my *MOM*ents AND Sesame Place on Facebook or follow us both on Twitter @ my *MOM*ents and Sesame Place

-Leave me a comment HERE on why you think I should choose you! (Please keep it short & simple) Please include your Name & Contact Info.

*The Giveaway Contest will end on Sunday, April 25th at 11:59pm. I will randomly select a winner Monday (April 26th) morning. *

Good luck to everyone!!

-Natalie

Lyla's Cool Trick

On Sunday, the family and I finished off our day at the Cheesecake Factory. My mouth is still watering just thinking about the food and dessert that we had there. Anyway, I don't how familiar any of you are with the show Yo Gabba Gabba, but Lyla absolutely LOVES it! There is a segment on there called "Cool Tricks" where different people, including kids, will go to debut their special talent aka. Cool Trick. In one episode, a little boy's cool trick is to hang a spoon off his nose. Lyla finds his trick really funny. While we were sitting at our table yesterday waiting for our food to arrive, Lyla grabs a spoon and hangs off her nose and turns to John and I and said, "Cool Trick, Cool Trick". We burst out laughing. I don't know any 20 month old that can do this! Haha. Good thing I had my camera with me and was able to capture it on film and in pictures.

Below you will find the video of Lyla doing her Cool Trick!

Let me know what you think of it...

Have a good laugh,

Natalie

GO GREEN with Target

Go Green with Target all week long! Get a FREE reusable bag starting April 18th. Target has teamed up with Tide, GE and Coca Cola to give away 1.5 million reusable bags with purchase on April 18th which was the first day of Earth Week.

The exclusive Target reusable bags are made from recycled plastic bottles.

Quantities limited; no rain checks. Limit one per guest.

This is a great deal with an awesome purpose. I got mine yesterday!

Head over to your local Target store to get yours or visit their website at: http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/page.jsp?title=earth

Don't forget to GO GREEN all year long!

-Natalie