**I received the below mentioned product through Mom Select with Beech-Nut.  I will also receive compensation for this post. 
Any opinions expressed are my own**

After having 4 kids, I’ve read a lot of info.  Of course, over the years, info changes.  We have more research, different research, more options. One thing that’s for sure is that you want to feed your baby the best food you know.  With my daughter, I tried making my own baby food.  It worked out fine but with our busy schedule I didn’t always have time to make all the food I wanted to make.  Sometimes I find it more convenient to pick up a few jars of store bought baby food.

Beech-Nut makes that choice just a little easier for me.  They are now offering a new line of real food for babies.  100%  natural.  They have yummy and creative flavors, 40 new flavors to be exact.

I received 4 flavors to try with my daughter: Just Carrots, Just Honeycrisp Apples, Just spinach, zucchini, and peas, and Just beets, pear, and pomegranate.  One thing I liked about this right off the bat was when you look at the ingredients label.  Only a few ingredients listed, I know what everything is.  There’s no crazy ingredients, not artificial preservatives.  So when I don’t have time to make homemade baby food, this is a great option for me.

My daughter tried all of the flavors we received.  This is a picture of her eating the Beets, pear, and pomegranate.

You can see the deep color of the beets and pomegranate in this food. You can smell each ingredient in this baby food too.  She honestly loved this on, good to the last drop!

The only flavor my daughter didn’t seem to care for was the spinach, zucchini and peas flavor.  I kinda knew that before we even tried it.  She just doesn’t seem to like the zucchini baby foods either homemade or store bought.  She doesn’t much care for peas either.  I appreciate the flavor and I know it has a lot of vitamins in it for baby but it’s just not something my daughter will eat.

I’m glad to see companies, especially baby companies, offering more natural products for consumers.  They have lots of other great flavors like Just pear, Raspberry and Asparagus, and many more to explore with your little one.  This new line of Beech-Nut baby food is making it’s way into stores near you.  I’m still anxiously awaiting to see it come to my small town.  If you visit the Beech-Nut facebook page: facebook.com/BeechNut you’ll see people commenting that it’s already hit their stores.

Have you seen the new Beech-nut 100% natural line in a store near you yet?

**Product received for review purposes**

**I received the below mentioned items in order to complete an honest review.  
No other compensation has been received. Any opinions expressed are my own**

The 1st birthday party is always a big deal in our family . We invite extended family, have a cute little outfit for the baby, and so on.  My daughter turned one on March 26.  We had her party on the 25th so daddy could be there (My hubby works 2nd shift).  Being my only girl, I was ready to girl this party up.  One of my fave places to shop for party supplies is Oriental Trading.  They had lots of cute party themes for a 1st birthday.

I searched all the 1st birthday themes.  I had a hard time deciding but finally went with the “1st Birthday Cupcake Party Supplies“.  I got so much stuff for the party and didn’t even hit my budget limit.  The Basic Party Pack was great because it had all the paper products we needed and then some.  Here is the list of what came with the party pack I ordered:

• 8 invitations
• 8 – 9″ party plates
• 8 – 3 1/2″ 9 oz. cups
• 16 luncheon napkins
• 16 pc. light pink cutlery set
• 1 purple plastic table cover
• 2 rolls of streamers, 1 light pink and 1 purple
• 12 each of light pink and purple balloons
• 2 pkgs. of confetti, 1 light pink and 1 hot pink

That was only $18 and is good for 8 guests.  I actually ordered 2 sets to make sure I had enough.  Since it was a cupcake theme, I of course made cupcakes for the party . Oriental Trading also has a selection of cupcake towers.  I chose a plain white styrofoam cupcake tower.  I plan on reusing it for future parties.  This can easily be decorated if you like.  I took some of the confetti I received and sprinkled it over the tower before placing the cupcakes on it.

I also got the cupcake wrappers and flags you see in the pictures from Oriental Trading.  They had them to match the party pack I chose.   I love how everything came together for the party.

I had made some simple food since it was on a week night.  It’s hard sometimes to line up our schedules.  I work mornings outside my home, my hubby works 2nd shift, the kids are involved in just about every sport they bring home papers for.  Our schedule is crazy but we always seem to work it out.    I’m sure a lot of you can relate.  I knew I had to work in the morning the day of the party so I had been cleaning a few days before. I baked the cupcakes the day before and iced them the day of.  I decided on a sandwich and veggie platter.  I chopped and washed the veggies the day before and made up the dip too.  So really the only thing I had to do food wise was to put together the sandwich platter the day of and set the drinks out. This was after most people had put their plate together.  The punch bowl had pink lemonade in it for those that didn’t want anything carbonated.  I also wanted pink drink for the party.

Of course one of the best things, (in my opinion) of the 1st birthday party is watching the birthday girl dig into her 1st birthday cake.  I’ve done smash cakes in the past.  Since it was a cupcake theme though, she got her own cupcake to do with as she pleased.  Oriental trading had cute 1st birthday high chair set.  I loved this because the set I got included a little banner to go around the chair and a mat to put on the floor, which is a wonderful idea.  We don’t have a regular high chair, we have a booster with a tray.  The banner didn’t work well on the small tray but fit great along the bottom of the chair.  Honestly, I think it worked out better there because then she wasn’t tearing at it.

This is one of my fave pictures of the night.  My daughter mostly enjoyed the icing on her cupcake.  She smeared it all over her clothes, in her hair, on the tray, all over. She enjoyed herself though and that’s what matters.  Everyone got a kick out of her enjoying her cupcakes.

I think everyone had a good time including the birthday girl.  I think just about everyone invited showed up, she got some great gifts, and I don’t think anyone left hungry.  I have a short video of my daughter enjoying some of her cupcake.  By this point she was getting tired.  It was a very busy day for both her and mommy but it will be a great memory to have.

and a few pics of our guests and her opening her gifts:

OrientalTrading.com has tons of party supplies for just about any theme or age.  I’ve ordered supplies for Halloween parties, baby showers, wedding showers, my boys birthdays, and plenty of other occasions from their site.  I can always find things I need for the budget I’m on.  I was quite happy with all the 1st birthday party supplies we received.  There was plenty for everyone.

**Items received for review**

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

I started my spring cleaning.  It’s a slow progress because the majority I do myself.  I try to hit all the areas that are generally missed throughout the year and deep cleaning.  I decided to move my desk out  from the wall and give the good wall a wipe down, give the floor a  good sweep and mop, and figure out what the heck I can do about this mess:

I’ll be honest, it didn’t bother me until I saw it.  I mean as long as my computer and everything was working, then I didn’t care.  BUT, when I tried to clean everything up and figure out what was going where, well I decided something had to be done.  This is where Nite Ize Gear Ties came in.  These handy dandy little things could quite possibly have a hundred uses. They come in different sizes, colors, and and super bendy.

You can bend them just about anyway you want. I used some to tie up the slack on some of the cords coming from my desk

You can use the smaller ones to organize and store all those extra USB cables, chargers, etc. Use them to bind together loose items to organize. You can bend and rebend, use them over and over again.  They have a tough rubber outside with a wire inside.  The rubber coating is great because it keeps them from slipping too much.

You could use them like twist ties for bags, use them as a temporary hook for towels, I’m sure if you thought about it, you can think of a few ideas yourself.  You can find these and many other products on niteize.com

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.