Tylenol Operations Smile Donation

A first tooth is such a milestone! Make sure you make it memorable!

Parents can take pictures of their baby’s first tooth and create personalized e-cards on http://bit.ly/2aJq7rk. 

For each share of the e-card, Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 to Operation Smile, an international medical charity that has provides free surgeries for children in developing countries who are born with cleft lip, cleft palate or other facial deformities.

What a great way to mark your baby's milestone AND give back to others! You can share your creation to Facebook or Twitter easily from the card making application!

Mama break received a first too pack in exchange for posting about this campaign. We did not receive any other type of compensation, and believe in this campaign of giving back!

Wordless Wednesday: School Has Almost Started

Travel Tuesday: San Antonio

I LOVE to travel, and my husband and I take a trip each year for our anniversary. Last year, it was delayed until December . . . and we traveled to San Antonio.

Of course, the top place to see in San Antonio has to be The Alamo. 

We had a fantastic time, but as you can see it was raining, so we did not spend much time in the park surrounding The Alamo. 

You also have to check out the restaurants in San Antonio! We went to Biga on the Banks, which had the perfect ambience for a romantic dinner. The food was mouthwatering delicious, and the service was AMAZING!!! 

A fun place to stop is SeaWorld. There is not as much happening in the winter, but there is still plenty to see and do when you visit, and there isn't a crowd since it is not the prime season to go! We still had a blast! 

The RiverWalk Boat tour will give you a great view of the city on the Riverwalk. I recommend walking around as well. In December, the Riverwalk is a beautiful site all lit up! 

We also took a trolley tour that took us all around San Antonio. I highly recommend it, as it provided a huge amount of history! 

If you have never visited a Texas de Brazil Brazilian Steakhouse, make sure to check it out. They have "wine angels," which are acrobats who do stunts in the wine room (while retrieving wine). A very neat experience! 

Things I wish I would have known:

1. It is cold and rainy in San Antonio in December. Bring an umbrella and a winter coat.

2. This is a place to rent a car. The cab service was HORRIBLE. 

3. Do not plan your trip during a major sporting event. We were there during a major college game and everything was CRAZY! 

4. Bring comfortable shoes. You will be walking a lot. 

#Caturday Saturday: How I Feel About Monday

Wordless Wednesday: Choosing School Shoes is TOUGH WORK

TV Thursday: Stranger Things

I don't even know how I can express my love for this show! It was so amazing!
As I told my husband, I feel like it is a cross between The Goonies and the X-Files. Maybe someone else can make a better comparison, but that is what it reminded me of. This show is good, it is fun, and has a fantastic 80s feel. If you are a child of the 80s, or just a fan of the 80s or 80s TV, this show is a perfect fit!

I would say the show is suitable for kids ages 13 and up (it is rated TV-14, and I think that is a fairly accurate rating). It does have some fairly scary parts (creepy monsters, mostly) that younger kids may be sensitive to. There is also some death (again, creepy monster and evil government), so this show is not suitable for someone sensitive to violence or death.

The show is only available on Netflix. Be prepared to bing watch the entire season at once!

Travel Tuesday: Grenada

July 2016 marked my 14th wedding anniversary. My husband and I try to take a trip during our anniversary month WITHOUT the kids. I usually need a break after being home alone with them all summer, he needs a break, and it is a nice time to get away.
We hadn't really planned to go to Grenada. We had some good experience with Sandal's and they were having a sale, so I thought-- why not. We ended up going to Grenada because it was one of the only places we could fly without a red-eye flight (which I hate).


It was stunningly beautiful! Just amazing. This was our view from the hotel room. There was an ocean AND mountain/ hill view.
 

The beach was well maintained, clean, and you could do many activities right from the resort.


We ended up snorkeling one day, sitting by the beach a ton, and just relaxing. They had many, many options though!
 

And Sandal's went the extra mile when it came to finding ways to surprise us. From a candlelight dinner on our balcony to welcome us when we arrived to a bubble bath complete prepared with flowers and candlelight when we returned from our massages!



Things were really wonderful, but I do have a few tips of things to know if you ever visit:

1. Book a butler suite. This really made our stay at Sandal's MUCH, MUCH better! However, not ALL of the butlers are stellar. We had one who was fantastic. The other two were just ok.

2. If you get the candlelight dinner (which is an added option-- one you pay for) DO NOT choose the beach location. It has TONS of bugs. TONS! And you WILL get bit. A LOT. And there is Zika virus in Grenada. We had the unfortunate experience, and would not want to do it again.

3. Bring a snorkel with you. You can take a boat out snorkeling (which I highly recommend-- tons of fun), but you can also snorkel right from the beach-- tons of fish! But to snorkel on the beach, you have to purchase the snorkels there which were crazy expensive.

4. DO NOT. I repeat DO NOT purchase your next Sandal's vacation from the resort while you are there. They will tell you it is the BEST deal. IT. IS. NOT. The gentleman in the booking area tried to tell me I would not find a better deal. The BEST deal is always to book during your stay. But my trip THERE was cheaper than what he was offering. He tried to claim it was because we had cheaper flights, which I showed him we did not. He could not offer the same deal/ discounts that we got during our trip there. Wait for Sandal's to have a super deal online and book then.

5. AVOID the French restaurant. It was not good. The service was slow and the food was not great. Lots of others places to choose from that are far better!

Why Mama Needed a Break

We're BACK!!!!
Well, we are never really gone, if you follow us on Social Media. But we have not blogged for a while. I thank all of our readers who sent notes asking how we were doing!

In the past few years, we have been through a TON. I will be updating on individual pieces throughout the coming weeks, and telling you all about it, but these are the major events . . .

Tears:

• Lost my father
• Lost my grandmother
• Lost my aunt
• Lost our cat of 19 years
• Lost my childhood best friend
• Lost two cousins
• Many other deaths not directly related to me-- friends' parents, friends' children . . . I have been to a lot of funerals
• Removed my son from his private school after dealing with YEARS of bullying (and after a call to the police) and placed him in the public school
• Getting sick. Very, very sick. And having the doctor telling me time and again that "everything was fine." Only to lead to more sickness and finally a diagnosis, surgery, and starting to feel human again

Joys and smiles:

• Refinancing our home to make major home improvements like new central air, a new master bedroom, and hopefully a new master bathroom-- pics to come!!!!! 
• One of my best friend's wedding (in JAMAICA!!!!)
• A much needed vacation to Grenada (pics to come!!!)
• A promotion (I don't know if I should put this under joys or tears)-- but it brought on TONS of work. I have since stepped down from the promotion-- yay more blogging time!!!! 
• Adopting the three best rescue cats
• Traveling to Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and many other places in the states
• Losing 16 pounds so far (MUCH MORE TO COME) 
• And much, much more!!!!!

We promise to bring you awesome giveaways, tons of reviews, great ways to save money, and most importantly-- ways to find "breaks" throughout the day! 

We're so excited to be posting daily again!