Nanny to Mommy

My daughter just graduated Kindergarten and I have been stressing this summer making sure she doesn't forget anything she learns last year. The thing is, I don't want her to stress about it. I still want her to have fun and enjoy her summer break. I was recently sent this fun game from PlaSmart called Catch and Learn. It's "the educational game where you fish for answers".

This past week we were at Target and decided to randomly go camping. I know it's crazy. But we had been thinking about buying camping equipment for a while. Target had some great deals that day and so we thought we would have a spontaneous camping trip. We had trouble finding a place to camp at first because we were adamant about camping that day, but as luck would have it we had to wait until the next day and decided to go camping and hiking at Cloudland Canyon State Park. We had been hiking there before and figured it would be cooler at night since it was in the mountains, plus the fact that there was no rain in the forecast won us over.

So here is what we discovered were our family's camping essentials:

This is a sponsored conversation for SheSpeaks on behalf of Prudential. All opinions are my own.

The number one thing I have noticed about becoming a parent - kids aren't cheap. Even before we started to plan our family, we considered the expenses. Would I be able to stay home? Would we have to pay for day care? How much debt did we need to pay off? Then they are babies and they need a lot of stuff! Diapers, bottles, blankets, cribs, pacifiers, and the list is a mile long. When they get a little older you think that the expenses will slow down, but you have to pay for school, extracurricular activities, and shoes every month because they just keep growing.

Financial Planning for a Family

Even if your child is like mine and goes to public school, there are expenses every week that you need to pay for. What about when they get older - a safe car, cell phone, college, weddings... I am all for making my children get a job and help with their own finances, but there is only so much that a minimum job can pay for.

This past week my husband was on vacation from work so we decided very last minute to head to Cloudland Canyon State Park and go camping/hiking. It was a lot of fun that will get into more later, but it is a three hour drive up there. On the way home, we almost didn't give ourselves enough time to take my daughter to her dentist appointment where she had to get sealants on her back teeth. One of her front teeth had already been injured and then a boy at school accidentally knocked it loose so I wanted to get it checked out as well. Both top teeth were VERY loose, so they asked her if she wanted them to take the teeth out...

We live a very busy on-the-go lifestyle, so sometimes finding recipes and gathering ingredients from the grocery store to make a healthy meal just doesn't happen. That's part of the reason I was so intrigued by Home Chef. It was one of the first meal subscription services that I had ever heard of and have been wanting to give it a try.

Home Chef delivers perfectly portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes directly to your door, so whether you're an amateur cook, or more seasoned in the kitchen, cooking with Home Chef is easy and enjoyable.

If you follow me on Instagram then you know that last week, my family and I were invited to a media day at Six Flags Over Georgia to celebrate the opening of "JUSTICE LEAGUE: Battle for Metropolis". It is the only ride of its kind in the Southeast. It's an indoor, interactive, action thrill ride with 4D effects for the entire family to experience together and features iconic DC Comics Super Heroes and Super Villains like Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Joker. It was also voted one of the most anticipated theme park rides for 2017!

I can't even describe how excited we were for this event.