Imagination Library Book Club {free books for kids}

This has to be one of my favorite discoveries for the little miss: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which is a free book program for kids.  The program was started by the lovely Dolly Parton, who partners with different cities to sponsor a free book club for children under the age of 5.  The kids receive a free book every month!

Not all cities offer this program, but you can check on their site by clicking the register your child link.  The books are age-appropriate, though the first book that several of my friends and I all received was The Little Engine That Could (hard cover, not a board book).  Perhaps that’s Dolly’s fav?  It took a few months to get our first book, but now they come monthly and it’s so much fun to get them.  They’re great books – see the selection we’ve received so far, pictured above.  I know that the little miss will love getting her own mail as she gets older, and I love that we have a new book to add to the repertoire every month.  Did I mention that it’s FREE?  Read more about the program here.

Babycakes: Pancakes for Baby {recipe}

Finding finger foods that don’t make a gigantic mess for beginners is a challenge. So when I was making a weekend family pancake breakfast, I decided to make a short stack for my little lady. I used a gluten-free pancake mix and instead of adding the suggested mix-ins (egg, oil, etc.), I just mixed it with enough water to make a thick but pourable batter. I divided the batter in two and added frozen wild blueberries (which are smaller than their cultivated counterparts) to half of the batter and chopped banana to the other half.  Then I cooked the pancakes in a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, making them the size of a silver dollar.  I let them cool slightly before handing them over to the little miss for a taste test. The mini pancakes were the perfect size for her to hold and nibble small bites from. She especially loved that she was eating what looked like the same breakfast as the rest of the family  The leftover pancakes will keep in the fridge for 3 days, and are great for a quick weekday breakfast or snack.

Welcome to Hip Mommies!

Welcome to the hippest mommy blog around!  A blog dedicated to helping you be your best by sharing ideas, tips and the latest and greatest finds for mom and baby.  Whether it’s a healthy baby food recipe, party theme idea, fashion tip, healthy eating idea, new product, DIY project to do with your kids or family travel info – we’ll be covering all of it here.

Though there are times when we aren’t feeling so hip – with spit up (or worse!) on our shirts and baby food in our hair – we’re still hip mamas underneath.  We’ve all been there and have tips for keeping your cool, or at least faking it for a while.

Hope you’ll join us during your exhausting but wonderful journey through motherhood.  Check back soon for new posts and leave us a comment if you have any ideas of your own that you want to share.  Here’s to all the hip mamas out there!