Hi!!!!!!!! We are home from the beach, and I’m coming atcha with two days worth of recaps later this week. Before I do, however, I want to share the pics from our week before we left for vacation – the last week of school! I thought about skipping over these pics, but the haircut ones must be preserved in the KERF diary archives 😎
But First, Prime Day
Also, Happy Prime Day! If you’re looking for tech gadgety things, I have our favs in this Smart Home post : ) Also: Kindle For Kids is the #1 Amazon Product I recommend. Read my review here. Mazen still gets a lot of use out of it, especially connected to our library.
Question for you guys: We have an iPad that is generally Mazen’s and we love it. I love all things Apple. But the Amazon Fire Tablets are on sale for $69 today!!! Birch needs a tablet for car trips and waiting room situations to watch Peppa and Daniel Tiger. Anyone have a Fire Tablet and an opinion on one vs. another iPad down the road?
Breakfasts >>
Hot oatmeal meets cold berry parfait.
Almond Crunch Cheerios with strawberries
General Mills sends me their latest new cereals and this was one of my all-time favorites!
Daily Harvest Oat Bowl in an Almond Butter Jar
The Daily Harvest Oat Bowls are a fun alternative to the stovetop when I need something microwaved and quick. I loved the mulberries in this one! We used to have a mulberry tree at my neighbor’s house growing up, and I in my mind I can still taste the just-picked, warm-from-the-sun goodness.
Lunches >>
Brianna’s Blush Wine Vinaigrette + Parmesan Crisps
These two ingredients have been my favorite salad toppers lately! I am super picky about bottled dressings and this one is very good! Probably because it’s also very simple. And Parm Crisps – obsessed!
With greens, sweet potatoes, blue cheese, truffle almonds, and berries.
Splash Park Fun
While Mazen was finishing up the last few days of his 2nd grade year, Birch and I snuck away to the splash park! He had a blast.
Virtual Day
One of Mazen’s last days was virtual and brought back haunting memories of our virtual 2/3 of a year 😈 The school part went fine, but I am very happy to leave the asking-for-a-snack-every-30-minutes distractions in 2nd grade.
Birch sat in for morning announcements!
HAIRCUTS!
Did you notice the super shaggy hair from behind? I took both boys for haircuts before the beach. This was Birch’s first big boy haircut not by me!
He was NOT THRILLED.
But boy do I love a good cut on these handsome fellas!!
Neighborhood Food Truck Party
Our neighbor had the Farmacy Food Truck come to our block and we had an end-of-the-year bash. It was one of the first post-vax parties we’ve been to and it was weird and fun!
This epic quesadilla was filled with beans, cheese, and peppers.
Blue Apron Meals
Blue Apron is having a new promo of 10 meals for free and have just launched Butcher bundles and add-ons (apps, sides and desserts!!).
We loved this salmon dish with farro, roasted veggies, and special sauce (of course).
And this fig chicken is a repeat I choose anytime I see it! One of our favorites.
Family Pizza Night
Last-day-of-class celebration on the porch with homemade pizza and salad.
Mama Leah says
Cute pics! You may consider cropping or blurring the other children in their swimsuits unless they and their parents gave permission. I know it’s a public place, but swimsuit pictures are rather personal. I would feel violated if it were me or my daughter.
I had to chuckle about Birch “need”ing a tablet. What a world!
Thanks for gracefully hearing this feedback.
Kath Younger says
Fixed
Dawn says
I deeply admire your patience and fortitude.
Lauren says
Hi Kath! We have both an iPad (my husband’s) and an Amazon Fire (which we got for the kids over the holidays). The iPad is definitely faster and smoother. The Fire can be a bit buggy and slow, but not terrible. It comes with a ton of games, as well as books and other educational material (which, of course, my kids have limited interest in), plus you can use it to stream Amazon and Netflix programming. I think for the price, it’s a great choice for young kids. Mine love it.
Kath Younger says
Thanks for sharing this!
Erin says
We got my daughter one for Christmas a few years ago and it has suited our (her) needs. She streams shows on her own Netflix profile and has played a handful of games. She plugs in her own headphones while she watches in the car and it has enough space to download shows and movies for long car rides. It is NOT user friendly if you are an Apple user but for the price it has worked just fine.
Renee says
Both of my kids (6.5 & 5) have had the Fire tablets for years. Lots of Daniel Tiger and Peppa Pig action over the years! We recently upgraded to the newer versions. I honestly love these tablets. Super durable, excellent parental controls, tons of shows and educational apps are pre-loaded based on age, but still have the option to download other apps if you choose. Can’t forget the awesome replacement policy in the event life happens (which it will! ?)!
Kath Younger says
Replacement policy is a good one!
Lauri Doody says
My 6 year old has the Kindle Fire for kids tablet, she got it for Christmas when she was 4 – for road trips, etc. What I like about it is that it does have a TON of picture books and shows that are already loaded onto it. It also has a lot of games. You can put Netflix and Disney Plus on there. The main issue is that all she wants to watch is YouTube kids, which it does not have. And you can’t get to youtube unless you sign out as the kid and in as the adult profile. We really wanted to like it but honestly we use our ipads for her a lot more. She loses interest in the Fire too quickly. But for the price, it may be worth grabbing it for the purposes I mentioned above. Also, I think we are just apple people and it wasn’t as user friendly. Or maybe just not what we were used to!
Kath Younger says
Oh that’s a bummer! These are all the reasons I think I didn’t get it last time around.
Renee says
Could you allow internet access on the kid profile in order to use YouTube via web browser instead of through the app? Just a thought as I have not tried it myself!
Angie says
We use all Apple products in our house from Apple TV, watches, iPads, homepods. That way everything is synced up and easy to do. I would do all Apple products if you can because everything is synced up, but that’s just us!
Kath Younger says
We are the same. If only iPads weren’t so expensive!! We had an older Android tablet before we bought the iPad about 5 years ago, and it was awful! No storage and so buggy.
Stacey says
We are despising our Fire these days – It’s not user friendly and having to switch back and forth from kid to adult is just frustrating for everyone. It also only allows you to download a certain amount of shows at a time (regardless of size, it’s a # limit) and that we can’t stand either. THEN once you have the shows downloaded, they are only available to watch for a 48-hour period (once activated) and then you have to connect to the internet again to revive them! Totally seems to negate the positive of a download to me… basically every time we plan to leave the house with the tablet we need to turn it on and ask everyone what they want to watch, then make sure the watch-period is ready to go. We about went over the edge during our last vacation to Florida — hours in a plane… you really can’t prep enough and you never seem to guess what they’re going to want ahead of time. It would be nice if everything you purchased and downloaded was YOURS to watch when you WANTED!!
Kath Younger says
Ugh – this is exactly why I asked! We are def not getting a Fire now!
Kathryn says
Love the new haircuts…..especially Birchs and bringing a food truck to the neighborhood, what a grand idea!
K~
wisco says
We have Fires for both of our kids (ages 4 and 7) and we love them – our last one was purchased when our littlest was under two and he has really enjoyed it (and you should not feel judged for buying Birch one – our kids are living in a world of technology and need to get comfortable with it, plus so much of what’s on there is educational!). I will say that you get what you pay for when deciding between the ipad and the Fire.. With heavy use the Fires tend to have issues after a few years…the charging port wears out, or the device just stops working well. For $70, at that point, I have no problem replacing them. It is hard to go back and forth between Apple and the fire. My kids mastered the Fire quickly but it took me longer (I have an ipad). My hesitation with buying my kids ipads is that they would break it by mistake, especially my littlest guy, and they are significantly more expensive. Good luck deciding! Also, adorable haircut pics:)
Teas says
Seriously, you are hoping to get a free iPad out of this? Your toddler doesn’t need it, you just want it because you are a lazy parent. And apparently cheap too. Please stop blogging.
Kath Younger says
If you think that I think that Apple is reading my blog and that’s why I crowdsourced this question then you are very mistaken 😆
Jill says
I can’t agree more with the folks that talked about the clunkiness of the Fire. Our old iPad (with a non-functioning home button!) is SIGNIFICANTLY better/faster/more user friendly than the Fire. We have had the Fire for 2 months and I’m seriously considering returning it. My biggest hesitation is the cost of an iPad (even a refurbished one). Please keep us posted what you decide to get.
Kath Younger says
These comments have all convinced me to go iPad. But I prob. won’t get one right away. Our old one is 5 years running and going strong so I do believe they last long (especially in a lifeproof case!)
Kerri says
iPads are definitely the better product, but for the price, you really can’t go wrong with the Fire. It does what it needs to do. The only reason I would have preferred an iPad is so the kids could have message their friends, but now there are so many messaging apps, it doesn’t matter. Buy a fire, get an iPad in a year or two if it doesn’t work.
Dale Phillips says
I would also advise an iPad if you can swing it! We got our three kids the fires last summer and they’ve been SUCH a pain in the butt. Not at all easy or smooth to operate. I also hate that you can’t choose which shows/apps/books to allow on the tablet – it’s all or nothing, unless you want to go through and individually block thousands of things. I think parents should be in control of what’s available to their kids, not just whatever Amazon decides is appropriate! We ended up not using the Kids+ thing at all and just loading our own books and apps onto them. I really regret not just saving up to buy them used iPads or something.
Libby says
We bought Fire for our kids a few years ago just for road trips and they love them. I am also an Apple person and I find the Fires are not user friendly (for me). We’ve had ours a few years and I still have to watch YouTube videos every time I want to delete or add movies to their library. ?
Jenny says
We got fires for our kids years ago but they soon thereafter both inherited old iPads and the fires were never picked up again. Soon they will want FaceTime and texting and starting g now with the iPad will make it all seamless as they grow and need more stuff.