The Brumwell Chronicles

Summer Vacation is here and in full swing! Literally week one I thought I was going to go crazy! I quickly realized that excited new stay at home mom Summer and 1 year of being a stay at home mom Summer are two different people and I'm somehow way less prepared for summer vacation this year. A friend of mine told me that she's making her son a summer bucket list so of course we started working on one ourselves and thought we'd share.  Since we have three kiddos one thing that I thought was important to have on each kids bucket list was to have a special date with just them and mom and dad separately and then a special date with just them and the two of us together. We do try to have daddy daughter dates once a month either way but this would be an additional date for them. Maddison really loves the daddy daughter dates and comes home and tells me all about it. It can get so busy and crazy in the house sometimes, and she often gets the short end of the stick when it comes ...

I love holidays. Like all holidays! I love getting together with friends and family and just having fun. If there is food involved, especially chocolate then that makes it all even better. I swear that every year I say I'm not going to buy that much junk to put in the kids Easter Baskets and every year... I buy to much junk. Like, literally junk that I just end up throwing away within 2 weeks, so next year I vow to not buy a bunch of junk! Either way we had a lot of fun this Easter and did a few different egg hunts and it was so much fun to be able to watch all three of the kids run around and find eggs. I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday afternoon so I missed Maddison's school egg hunt but lucky for me, I was blessed with an awesome mom, one of Maddison's classmates mom always takes pictures of her and sends them to me when I am unable to attend an event that they have. It is the little things that make me feel so blessed by the people that we've met in our to...

Everyone knows that being a mom is a full time job, well like 40 different full time jobs. I thought that being a stay at home mom would be a lot easier then being a working mom but man I miss being able to get a break from the kids and talk to other adults about something other than my kids. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a stay at home mom and spending more time with my kids but y'all... it is not easy! Which is why I live for Moms night out each month! First of all, lets throw this bad boy out there because, MNO is one of the very few times a month that I not only put on jeans, but do my hair and make-up. It feels nice to feel like a real human again for one night a month. You can't have a real night out without going out to dinner beforehand! Had way too much laughing with these women and trying to watch the Penguins hockey game... come on, it was the second game of the playoffs for the Stanley cup and we had already lost one game..let's not even get in...

We are so excited to finally be getting some nicer weather, even if it is accompanied by rain. The downside to that is my backyard has a slight slope and part of our yard stays pretty wet after it rains. Which means if my kids go running around, they will find mud, and if they find mud... they will play in it and make it worse. So much worse... Yep... my kids found a small muddy patch in the yard and stomped around in it until it grew and then they rubbed it all over their bodies and then they threw it at my fence... Luckily they did strip down to their birthday suits before becoming completely covered in mud. Oddly enough not all of my kids were in the mud. Just the two that were old enough to know better. I still have one sweet kid who was just playing nicely outside, not in the mud.  Good ole Olliepop was just playing on the dump truck, riding around the back yard and minding his own business while the older two turd children were making a mess. Thank you Oliver!...

4 crazy moms, 9 wild kids, 1,156 miles in a car, and the ocean sounds like a recipe for disaster! Welcome to Spring Break 2019! One day in our group chat someone says something about we should go to the beach, and then we actually started planning a beach trip. Which I know my husband didn't think we would actually follow through on or that at the very least someone wouldn't come back friends. Good news, we made it, and we all came back friends! The kids had a great time and the moms had a even better time. We spent lots of time applying sunscreen, playing games, and laughing. We came back with lots of great memories and even more seashells. If anyone wants some seashells, just let me know! We rented a beautiful AirB&B a road back from the beach so we had to walk through one little sand dune area and boy you don't know how much stuff you are dragging down to the beach until you're dragging it and a bunch of kids through the sand! We got smart pretty quic...

There are lots of great ways to earn extra money from home that you can do in your spare time and now is a great time to get started. Here are a few fun and easy ways to make some extra cash for the holidays this year from the comfort of your house.  Apps! There are so many free apps that you can download on your phone to help earn you money. While you are sitting there watching Netflix you can just have different apps playing short videos to earn points/cash. When you have 5 minutes to kill during a commercial break on TV instead of stalking your ex, do a quick survey for cash! Those little moments can add up to some nice cash over time. Here are a few of my favorite apps:   ibotta  this is my favorite cash back app. Okay so technically for some of this you might need to leave your home but there are also plenty of online options within this app. I do tend to use it most for in store purchases however. You can go through and select a store and find cash back f...