Back to the Future, with the Balinos, FAM-O-WEEN/ Halloween 2021It’s 2021 and, well… not much has changed as far as the worries and uncertainties of 2020. Yes, we have since been fortunate to be offered vaccines and hope for a new day – but life has yet to be back to how it once was, […]
Family Halloween Compilation 2021 :: FAM-O-WEEN
George and I have never been much into the costume world ourselves, but ever since Smallie, Smallie 2.0 (and the furry smallie siblings that preceded them) came into our lives, we can’t imagine a Halloween without fully immersing ourselves… as a family. Or what has eventually evolved into what we like to call, Fam-o-ween. Along the […]
The Addams Family FAM-O-WEEN with the Balinos
Happy FAM-O-WEEN from The Addams Family … errr…. I mean, THE BALINO FAMILY! Anyone who has followed our Fam-O-Ween themes since 2011 knows that we try to find a family Halloween Costume theme that reflects how our year is going. Well.. let’s talk about the year in question… 2020. (Need I say more? Sigh.) What a weird […]
Pretend Play with the Coco Village Mini Market
Disclaimer :: We received the Coco Village Wooden Mini Market pretend play set for review. All opinions are our own. Our little ones haven’t spent much time at the supermarket lately for obvious reasons, so we decided we’d give them a little dose of market life in the comfort of their own home. A Wooden Mini […]
Santa Claus Theme Treats for Christmas :: The Gift of Giving
Santa Claus theme treats, Balino-style… in full effect! 2018 had proven to be a year of abundant gifts and blessings for our family. If you’ve been following our journey – you will have already been informed one way or another, that after 5 long and painful years, we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy. On […]
Peter Pan and The Lost Balinos :: FAM-O-WEEN 2019
Peter Pan and The Lost Balinos :: Fam-O-Ween 2019 Lately, I’ve been looking at my kids who are growing at lightening speed and thinking to myself… SLOW DOWN! Stop growing so fast! It’s mind boggling that Little Mama is now an energetic, lover of all things embarrassing, hilarious little 8 year old, and my Little […]
A First Birthday Luau for our Rainbow Baby
It all began with this shirt… When our faves from Knuckleheads gifted Little Man his very own button down Hawaiian shirt, we were excited for him to grow into it. But for some reason, we just couldn’t figure out on what occasion he could wear it, in spite of the fact he is in every […]
Our Little Rainbow’s First Birthday :: Macaron Smash
Our little Rainbow’s first birthday is today, and we cannot believe it’s been over a year since *this happened…. But before that, this happened… And then THIS happened… It had just been revealed – we’re having a baby boy! My Little Mama has been waiting (im)patiently for her tea party partner to come join her at the enchanted […]
The 16 Essentials for throwing a Kid’s Rockstar Party :: Thanks to Cricut
Throwing a kid’s rockstar party is no joke. It takes a lot of little details to fine “tune” such an undertaking. Especially when the rockstar is your 8-year-old-rock-lovin’-heavy-metallin’-daughter. One who loves powdered pink, no less. There are some fun essentials every Mama or party planning parent of a rockstar kiddo needs to get the party […]
Spring Declutter :: To Purge or Not to Purge
Sorry I’ve been a little behind on my posts lately…. It’s Spring! Declutter season! That means revisiting every room, every closet, every cabinet, every nook, every cranny, and finding what (and what does not) spark joy. Not surprising, spring clean up also inevitably means the blog has been put on the back burner for the […]
Minnie Mouse Birthday Party – Bows and Bow Ties
“If you can dream it, you can do it” Walt Disney And dream of a Minnie Mouse birthday party, she did. Earlier this week, our fave mouse (and truth be told, the only mouse that doesn’t leave me screaming and running for the hills – other than Minnie Mouse, of course), celebrated his 90th anniversary. While […]
Vegas, Baby :: FAM-O-WEEN 2018
This year has been a year of all the good stuff – Good luck, great fortune, and even grander blessings. Despite the odds, we took inconceivable risks (pun, intended) to build our family, and with every step taken on this journey, we had no choice but to close our eyes, roll the dice of life, and hope for a […]
DIY Kids Cleopatra and King Tut Halloween Costumes :: Encouraging Kids to Create
“Mommy, we wanna be Cleopatra and King Tut for Halloween”. Sigh. I wasn’t completely convinced that my 7 year old and <gasp> my 4.5 month old understood what this actually entailed. Ever since our local museum featured the beautiful and everso ornate and interactive Egypt: The Time of the Pharoahs display, my Little Mama has been […]
The Balinos aka The Beatles :: FAM-O-WEEN 2017
Oh the Balinos. What will they think of next? This year was one of those last minute scrambles, once again. Every October 30th of virtually every year, since we started our FAM-O-Ween tradition, we promise ourselves “Selves, next year will be better. We will NOT leave our creative brainstorming to the very last minute”. And […]
How to throw A Ninja Girl Birthday Party Celebration
It’s a ninja girl birthday party and it’s all about fancy kicks, and turning six! Our Little Mama has transformed herself into little ninja status and we couldn’t have been more excited to make this a fun celebration for her and 30 of her little friends. Yup. I said 3o. (6 are missing from this shot… […]
How to Prepare a DIY Ninja Birthday Party on a Budget
It’s a SIX & KICKS DIY ninja birthday party for Little Mama this year! Where did the last 6 years go? Didn’t we throw her a Toy Story Jessie Party for her 5th birthday just the other day? I literally blinked, and out of nowhere, a 6 year old appeared! A cake-loving, wish-making, excited little 6 year […]
