Birthday cake tends to be the “finishing touch” on a party, something that all the guests tend to look forward to and in our case the rainbow themed “4″ cake by Got What it Cakes was no different. Owner Mandie Miller takes great care to produce an amazing product that looks great, and receives rave reviews in the taste department as well. It’s no wonder that Mandie and her cakes received a Best of the Best Award by Charlotte Magazine.

Mandie is an amazing baker who comes up with mouth-watering flavors like strawberry fluff, and peanutbutter cream, and is also, “mom” to two little girls as well! She’s amazing at what she does and I would highly recommend Got What it Cakes not only from my personal opinion, but also the many rave reviews I received when our party guests saw and tasted her cake.

Here are some pictures {compliments of Barbara Payne Photography} of the amazing rainbow cake she made for Little Miss A’s 4th birthday:

{Miss A making her birthday wish, which I am sure was to eat the entire cake by herself, she begged me a million times to eat it on the drive home the day before}

{And finally the BIG reveal…rainbow cake outside AND inside!!!}

That’s impressive right? If you like this cake, you’ll definitely want to check out Mandie’s other great creations at: http://www.gotwhatitcakes.com I would definitely use Got What it Cakes again in the future.  If you hire Got What it Cakes for your event, be sure to book for your party early because she does book up quickly…for the obvious reasons.

Head on over and follow Got What it Cakes on Facebook, feel free to tell her MommyB Knows Best sent you.

What cake designs have you seen that you absolutely love? Have any fun or extraordinary birthday cake plans coming up?

I received a sample of Got What it Cakes product in order to complete an honest review of her products. This in no way changes the opinions expressed in this post. The opinions in this post are mine and mine alone. Your opinions may vary.

So whether you live in Charlotte, North Carolina or not please check out this great interview for more information on the 60 Days of Hydration Challenge, it’s never to late to start hydrating!

How did you come up with 60 Days of Hydration idea?

Body is more than 60% water. 60 ounces is a good total for a lot of people – not too difficult for beginners, very attainable for all, and also a good enough total for people to see real health benefits after completing the challenge. Also, 60 days is a long time – we wanted people to build in habits that will last longer than just the challenge, so that drinking water and keeping yourself hydrated almost becomes second nature.

In your words, what is 60 Days of Hydration about?

It’s about health. It’s about empowering yourself to think about your health, your hydration, and your activity and energy levels. It’s about taking a stand against putting dangerous chemicals into your body, your children’s body and more. It’s also about learning the importance of drinking water, and avoiding beverages like soda. It’s also about the community coming together and rallying each other for better health, and exposing your friends and family to a simple way to get yourself a little bit healthier at no cost.

What’s your role as co-founder?

Bobby and I do pretty much everything together! We are a good team. He and I create sponsorship packages, plan fundraising events, interact daily with our challenge participants, PR, research new studies on hydration, soda, and health in general to educate the community, etc. I am specifically responsible for creating all of our lesson plans and outreach programs.

What are the biggest benefits to joining something like the 60 Day Challenge?

The health benefits are huge – weight loss/maintenance, higher energy levels, less headaches and fatigue, less sluggishness, better concentration, etc. For those who are struggling to keep up with the challenge and need extra support, the community benefits are also huge. They are able to discuss with others through our Facebook and twitter pages about drinking water, avoiding soda, tips for hydration, and more. The support and encouragement that we and other participants provide via facebook, twitter, the NoFizz website and our water blog is awesome! You are not alone!

Begin a wife and mother, how does hydrating come into play in your day-to-day? (and) How do you find ways hydrate your family?

This is one of the most important things a mother can do! First and foremost, I do not buy soda period. If it’s in the house, this teaches your family that it’s ok to drink soda whenever you want. It’s ok to offer soda as a treat every now and then when out to eat dinner, birthday party, etc. and I will do this, but I will never keep it in the house. I only buy 100% juice with NO sugar added. If you start early and don’t have the sugary drinks within their reach, they won’t grow up wanting it. My husband and I drink water at every meal and always have our stainless steel water bottles with us when we leave the house. It’s all about setting a good example. I give my 7 month old water in her sippy cup. She usually just plays with the cup now, but the point is I am not introducing the sweet taste of sugary juices to her diet. Again, when I do it will be 100% juice with no sugar added. Next summer when my daughter is older, we will have fun making our own popsicles with milk, water with fresh fruit, 100% fruit juice, etc. If you get your kids started early, they will pick up on the healthy habits like it’s second nature.

Do you have any tips or tricks for people on switching to water instead of turning to the alternatives?

Start slowly and refine your goals. If you’ve never been a big water drinker, don’t start at 60 oz – start at 40, and when you conquer that goal, move up. Remember that this isn’t about perfection – this is about building healthy habits for a lifetime and empowering yourself to take control of your health. Also, split intake up throughout the day. Don’t try to drink all 60 ounces with breakfast. Drink 10 ounces every hour for six hours -and you’re there! Add things like cucumbers, lemons, apples, oranges and more fruits to your water to liven up the flavor while avoiding dangerous artificial ingredients. For those who need that carbonated fix, try the IZZE sparkling fruit juice instead of a soda. This is 70% all natural fruit juice with carbonated water. You will get the carbonation you need without the refined sugars, high fructose corn syrup, caffeine, and preservatives. It’s really good! And remember that this is a fun community oriented event! If you miss one day, it’s not the end of the world – it’s an opportunity to do even better the next day and get a little bit healthier!

If you could tell my readers one thing about NoFizz Charlotte and the 60 Day Challenge what would it be?

Interact with us! If you want to take the challenge, follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/NoFizzCLT) or fan us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/NoFizzCLT) – we love interacting with participants and we love hearing your stories of success and answering all of your questions. We have a great community of participants who love helping each other get healthy throughout the Carolinas (and beyond!). This is a fun community event, and we want to hear how you are doing with it! We’d love for you to join the challenge that almost 1,000 people have already taken!

Here’s a story about  how we started attending The Little Gym, (maybe you can relate): It was a dark and stormy night, wait, that’s not the right story. Let me try again, once upon a time…in a land filled with toys, there was a desperate mother who loved her children, and knew a very big event was upon her. She feared that the toys would over-run her entire house as Princess A’s third birthday was drawing near. So what did this poor mother do, you ask?? She pondered her options, analyzed the Princess’ favorite activities, and then realized that it would be wise to ask the royal grandparents for birthday money towards programs at The Little Gym of Lake Norman/Huntersville instead. What a smart mother!!

The Little Gym membership was one of the best gifts we could have received for Miss A. She attends one of the many programs that The Little Gym has to offer, but I’m not sure who loves The Little Gym more between the two of us.

Reasons MommyB loves The Little Gym:

1. It gives A the structure and a classroom-like setting

2. It gives her an outlet for her energy and teaches her that regular exercise is important

3. She’s learning even more great social skills, having to wait her turn, and enhances her three-year old listening skills

4. Most importantly I get to watch A excel and have fun and have met some great mommies and kids along the way.

Reasons Little Miss A loves The Little Gym:

1. She gets to be girly and wear leotards, tutus and dance shoes.

2. She loves looking at herself in the mirror, doing flips, and showing off in general.

3. By the look on her face you can tell she’s proud of the accomplishments she makes and has a blast doing it.

4. After every class she gets ink stamps on her hands AND feet.

If you’re looking for a welcoming, flexible activity for your child from ages 4 months to 144 months (12 years old if you’re counting), Little Gym of Huntersville/Lake Norman welcomes them all! They have classes for both boys and girls, and are enrolling for the Fall Semester as I type this post. Classes are filling up quickly so be sure to reserve yours! If you’d like to learn more about classes, sign up on their website or call to enjoy a trial class. Be sure to tell them MommyB sent you

Check out The Little Gym’s full list of classes, options for birthday parties, or even look into the Parents’ Survival Nights where you can drop off your fully potty trained child and enjoy a few hours to yourself. Visit http://www.thelittlegym.com/huntersvillelakenormannc for more information.

What The Little Gym class would your child enjoy??

There are any number of things that can put a damper on your vacation: lost luggage, high-priced restaurants, overcrowding at attractions and bad weather are some common culprits. But illness is probably the worst; getting sick during a fun time can be a serious roadblock for all your plans, and dishearten the most optimistic of tourists.

If you get sick, all the time, money, and preparation you put into your trip may have been for nothing, and there will be nothing to do but hole yourself up in a hotel room and try to get better before the flight home.

But it doesn’t have to be like that! There are a few quick, simple things you can do to stay away from sickness during your vacation.

Most Common Sources of Viruses on Vacation

Unsurprisingly, the two biggest sources of vacation virus are airplanes and hotel rooms, so it’s important to take extra precautions when flying and when settling into your room.

In a plane, all of the air in the cabin is continuously re-circulated. This means that any germs that other passengers may have brought on board stick around, and gradually spread through the cabin as the flight progresses.

As you can probably guess, longer flights present the greatest risk of germ exposure; the longer flight gives germs more time to spread, permeating all the corners of the cabin, and to infect passengers.

When flying, remember to wash your hands frequently, and try as best as you can to keep them away from your eyes, nose, and mouth. Frequent hand-washing is hard on airplanes, so bring some alcohol-based hand sanitizer in your carry-on, and use it every hour.

Stay hydrated during travel, which means drinking plenty of water and avoiding caffeine and alcohol. These substances contribute to dehydration, which is bad for your immune system.

On a normal day, at home, you should be aiming for drinking 60% of your body weight in ounces of water – in other words, if you weigh 100 pounds, drink about 60 ounces of water every single day. But, while traveling, your body tends to get dehydrated much quicker due to stress and activity – aim for drinking 70% of your body weight in ounces of water during trips!

Viruses can linger for up to 18 hours, which means that if a sick person has recently stayed in your hotel room, there may still be virus in the room when you check in, particularly on faucet handles, remote controls, light switches, telephones, and doorknobs. If the hotel staff doesn’t do a good enough job of cleaning up your room, there’s not much you can do.

What you can do is wash your hands frequently. Also, it’s a good idea to leave your room for a few hours immediately after checking in. Leave a window open. Hopefully, by the time you return, the room will be virus free.

Avoiding Other Illnesses

Motion sickness is a problem for many first-time cruise passengers. For some, it lasts only a couple of hours, while for others it doesn’t go away until they get back on solid ground. Most cruise ships have doctors who can give you motion sickness medication, and you can also use anti-histamines or motion sickness disks. Also, some sufferers of motion sickness say that green tea and ginger can be helpful.

E. coli, or traveler’s diarrhea is no fun, but fortunately it usually passes within a day or two. If you want to avoid it, only eat food that is thoroughly cooked, drink bottled water, and – stay away from ice cubes.

If you’ve ever had a severe sunburn on vacation, you already know how crippling it can be. The key is prevention: Any time you’re going to be out in the sun, slather on as much sunblock (SPF 30 at least) as you possibly can. Repeat application regularly throughout the day, and if you do get burned, drink plenty of water and use aloe lotion until the pain passes.

About The Author: Bobby DeMuro is the Founder of FusionSouth, a personal training/sports conditioning firm in Charlotte, NC. He is also the Executive Director of NoFizz Charlotte, a non-profit dedicated to bringing awareness on the importance of proper hydration. He resides on Lake Norman with his 2-year old boxer, Dakota.

Now in a perfect world I’d get up at 10:30 and the whole family would be ready to head out the door by 11:00 right? Not with us, not only did I need to get myself around, I needed to feed Baby C, get her dressed, dress Little Miss A, and then, dum…dum…dum…Mis A’s hair….this is an entity in itself. Often times I find myself wondering why I prayed for daughters with curly hair, and I love the look when it’s all pretty and done up, but it sure does take some energy, time, and product! After all of us getting ready plus 30 minutes for two puffy piggies, we were finally out the door…at lunchtime?!?!

What were we, as parents thinking…we ended up giving Miss A a snack to tide her over. Once we got to the Farmer’s Market we were excited to check out all of the goodies we were going to score. There were a few different areas to shop around, we saw trees and plants, crafts and wood carvings, a fruits and veggies (with preserves,) and a flower area. If I could give anyone advice, when going to your first farmers market you may want to choose something a little to start off with. I for one was a little overwhelmed with all of the sellers choices, so many people had the same items and we had to stroll up and down the aisles looking for the freshest, best priced items.

Overall though we had a really great time, I learned a few things about produce, we got a chance to discuss healthy options with Little Miss A, and got some exercise, although it was pretty warm. Luckily, I have a little hand-held fan that Miss A used to keep the sweat from dripping down her face. We spent about $30 but got a great amount of food, and here it is, our bountiful harvest, $30 later, we filled our fridge with God’s Goodness!

There were some ideas of tips that came to my head while we were shopping.  Now that I’m well seasoned after just one farmer’s market *insert eye roll here.* I would go back and tell myself, being a first-timer.

1. Get there early, but not too early, you’ll miss the crowds but not the late arriving sellers.

2. Bring your own reusable bags, to save from using plastic AND it’s easier to carry than flimsy plastic handles.

3. If you have children strollers are a MUST, there are a lot of adults and many opportunities for your little one to wander off, it’s a great place for your child to rest from all of the walking, plus it gives you a good place to store your finds. – Just make sure your goodies don’t outweigh your child…or everything will be on the ground (no this did not happen to us,but that would have been funny, er horrifying  )

4. Haggle, haggle, haggle. Daddy B begs to differ with me, but I told him most things in the world you can bargain down, plus it can’t hurt to ask right???

5. In the Summer be sure to bring drinks and hats to keep cool.

6. See what is in season, and remember supply and demand when it comes to prices. Check this list to see what’s in season in NC: http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/chart.htm, if you’re not in NC check out google for the fresh finds near you.

7. Bring snacks for you and the kiddos, the fruit and veggies have not been washed, if you’re like me I’m not a believer in the “a little dirt never hurt,” saying, that’s the overprotective mommy-type A in me.

Here are a couple of pictures of the rows of preserves we had to choose from, Daddy B got us Strawberry Rhubarb, because apparently they don’t sell just Strawberry preserves…is that weird or just me?

And some yummy berries, we ended up getting 2 pints of the organic, homegrown, insecticide-free blue berries and they are tasty. That’ll be another post

So back to how we ended up at McDonalds…well we were all starving, and in a hurry, Miss A was upon rest time, with the heat we weren’t sure leaving our new goodies in the 100 plus degree car would be a good idea, Baby C needed to nurse and we were hot and tired. So, we opted to go to McDonald’s which for some reason keeps drawing us back. At least next time we’ll be a little more prepared. Lesson learned.

Until next time, happy and healthy eating!!

The Prenatal Picture allowed me and my family, DaddyB, and Little Miss A, the opportunity to take a peak at Baby Girl C and we were in awe. We confirmed that Baby Girl is indeed a baby and a girl, but even more than that we got to see her yawn, open her eyes, and mostly hide from us using her hands AND her feet.

Even with our little stubborn girl we got some really clear pictures and a video that we were able to share with our family. My favorite part of The Prenatal Picture’s services is their Sonolive capabilities. Sonolive, basically, is a live webfeed for family or friends to be able to view and share the experience of the ultrasound while the ultrasound is being conducted. I love that even people overseas can share in this joy even when sometimes they can’t be within arms reach. My mom and sister were able to watch along and felt very privileged to be able to watch along with us.

Check out a couple pictures from The Prenatal Picture including one of our little darling.

Because of the ultrasound we have bonded in a new way with our little one and are even more excited to meet her. We found out she has a lot of her grandfather’s traits, just like her big sister and yet again I think the gene fairy decided not to give me any credit. At least I have the blessing of being able to give life to these little girls.

Mary, owner and operator at The Prenatal Picture was very patient and sweet, even calling our baby by her name to get her to move around. I loved that the appointment did not feel clinical at all and even though Mary has probably seen thousands of babies via the 3d/4d ultrasound technology she made it special for us.

The Prenatal Picture’s website suggests coming in for your elective ultrasound anywhere from your 26th to your 34th week for the best images. Make sure you drink lots and lots of water starting a couple of days before your appointment

The Prenatal Picture facilities are beautiful and serene with dim lighting and a waterfall, very spa-like. I enjoyed that there was a viewing section in the ultrasound room where several friends and family could sit and watch as well. A lot of doctor’s offices and ultrasound facilities only have room for the mom and dad-to-be. Unfortunately Miss A was running all around the room, but at least she wasn’t confined to an 7×7 space.

If you are looking to book your ultrasound in the Charlotte or surrounding areas The Prenatal Picture is the place to go. I actually found out about this location through several positive mom-mendations (mom recommendations,) and highly recommend it myself.

There are several very reasonably priced packages for your choosing. Each package includes printed photos, a dvd set to music, a cd of images to email, an exclusive mommy pack filled with goodies and so much more. That’s a whole lot of value for your money. Definitely something to consider in this economy! Don’t forget the price match and military discounts (see website for availability.) Check out The Prenatal Picture’s website here: http://theprenatalpicture.com/index.html to learn more and schedule your appointment.